James Anderson and Lucetta Gaugler were born eight months apart in the village of Port Trevorton, Pennsylvania, which lies on the west bank of the Susquehanna. In the year of their births, 1854, Chapman lay in Union County, but the part of this county in which they were born would be separated and renamed Snyder County the year after their birth.
Both of their families had deep roots in Union County, Pennsylvania: of their four parents, all but one was born in Union County. That parent, James’s mother, Catherine Bordner, had been born in neighboring Northumberland County right across the river.
Born in April of 1854, James was the seventh child of Elijah Anderson and Catherine Bordner Anderson. His older six siblings were Samuel Benjamin, Mary Pamela, Susan, Sarah Adeline, Josephine, and Emma Jane. After James came two sisters, Evaline Edith and Catherine.
Only eight months later on Christmas Day, Lucetta was born. She was named after her mother’s sister, Aunt Lucetta. Years later, Lucetta’s granddaughter Mamie Lucetta Anderson would, in turn, be named after her. Lucetta’s parents were Abraham Gaugler and Kesiah Kelly Gaugler. Like James, she was the seventh child of her family, but her family was even larger, comprised of fifteen children.
After bearing three sons and two daughters, Kesiah Gaugler went on to give birth to ten daughters in a row. Preceding Lucetta were John, Adeline, George, Emaline, James, and Elizabeth Jane. After Lucetta came Isabelle, K. J., Sarah, Minerva, Alice, Caroline, and Ella.
The birth names of James’s and Lucetta’s parents suggest that both represented the various ethnic strains of early Pennsylvania—its early German population mixed with later waves of United Kingdom immigrants. The Andersons were from Scotland, and the Kellys from Ireland. But both James and Lucetta each also had a parent whose ancestors were part of Pennsylvania’s strong German heritage. Bordner, James’s mother’s maiden name is most likely a variant of the Middle Low German name “Bartner.” Gaugler, Lucetta’s father’s name, stems from South German or Swiss German, with a distant original meaning being “jester” or “entertainer.”… … (see ‘The Chronies’ for entire narrative)
American Pioneer Chronicles:
Colonial Narratives
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