[Last updated: 12 January 2007]

Johan Frietrich Stembel

Frederick Stembel

Elizabeth Stembel

ELIZABETH STEMBEL (1782 - 1837)

A. Mary Ann. Mary Ann was born January 19, 1806, in Middletown. On September 11, 1824, she married Jacob T.C. Miller at the age of 18. I'm not sure how Jacob Miller made his living. Evidently he was well educated and was a skilled writer, for on July 24, 1841, Jacob began publishing Middletown's first newspaper, a weekly called the Catoctin Enterprise⁽¹⁾. This venture may have been made possible by the money Mary Ann inherited from her father in 1841.

Mary Ann and Jacob had eleven children, as far as I can determine.⁽²⁾. Many of their descendants still live in Frederick County.

Jacob died April 22, 1870. Mary Ann May 8, 1877, at the home of her daughter, Sara Ann Baker in Xenia, Ohio.

Mary Ann and Jacob Miller's children:

1. Rufus Theodore. Rufus was born June 19, 1825. This is all I know about him. He is not present in the 1840 census, nor the 1850 census. He most likely died as a child.
2. Ann Rebecca. Ann was born in 1830, in Middletown. On October 23, 1851, she married Rezin (or Risin) Hezekiah Magruder. According to the 1850 census, Rezin was single, living in a Middletown hotel, and was a saddler. Rezin and Ann had three known children, William, Rufus, and Edward.
Early in their marriage, Rezin operated Middletown's Cross Hotel, for the local newspaper, the Valley Register, reported in their November 5, 1858 edition that a Mr. S. D. Riddlemoser leased the Cross Hotel "from the present proprietor, R. H. Magruder, Esq., and will take possession on the Monday next."⁽³⁾ Six weeks later, tragedy struck. On December 23, while hunting partridge presumably for Christmas dinner, Rezin accidently shot and killed his hunting companion, Henry Fraley ⁽⁴⁾.
The Magruders soon moved to the nearby town of Frederick, for that is where they were living at the time of the 1860 federal census. Besides Rezin and Ann, the census also lists two of their three children, William and Edward. The third, Rufus, was not present and doesn't appear in any subsequent censuses, so I assume he died sometime before 1860.
In the census, Rezin's occupation was Saddler. Boarding with the Magruders were Charles and Mary Baton and their six children, for a total of 12 people in the household. Charles and his two oldest sons were Laborers. Somewhat unusual was the fact that the Batons were African-Americans.
Ten years later, according to the 1870 census, Ann Rebecca was living with sons William and Edward. Rezin was not present. Also living with Ann Rebecca was her recently widowed mother, Mary Ann Miller, her youngest brother, Alburtis, and three borders, Alice, Charles, and Mary Hammer, aged 16, 10, and 7.
In 1880, Ann was still living in Frederick. According to the census, she was a widow. Living with Ann was her son William, age 27, and a cigar maker. Also living with Ann was a young daughter, Anna, age 6, and son, Robert, age 4. I believe these two entries are a mistake on the part of the census taker. If Anna was Ann and Rezin’s daughter, it would mean they had three children early in their marriage, then no more for 16 years, then two more children in three years. Also, Ann would have been 46 when Robert was born. The likely explanation is that Anna and Robert were William’s children, for his marital status in the census was given as married (even though his wife is not living with him at the time of the census). Furthermore, Ann may have been a widow ten years earlier, at the time of the 1870 census, for Rezin was not present in that census. In 1870, marital status was not one of the census questions.
Also living with Ann according to the 1880 census, was her sister, Jennie (Virginia Ann Rebecca), along with Jennie's husband and their five children (see below).
I have no record of Ann’s death. She died sometime after the 1880 census.
3. Francis. The only information I have about Francis comes from the 1850 federal census. At the time of the census, she was 17 years old, so she was born about 1833. She was not present in the 1860 census, probably having married in the interval.
4. Mary Emily. Mary was born April 27, 1836, and died on April 10, 1839.
5. Susan Ann Elizabeth. Susan was born April 10, 1838, probably in Middletown. On July 14, 1853, she married John S. Quinn (or Quyun). Susan was 15. John was 20.⁽⁵⁾. According to the research of a family member, John operated the South Mountain House, an inn on the National Road west of Middletown (which is still operating as a restaurant as of this writing). Susan and John had at least 14 children. At the time of the 1870 federal census they were living in Middletown with seven of their children, ages 13 to 6 months. John's mother and father were also living with them. In the 1880 census they were still living in Middletown with nine children, ages 1 through 21. John's occupation was given as "Huckster" (salesman). Their 20 year old son, Thomas, was a butcher.

A note to researchers: The Quinn's last name was often spelled Quyun and even Quynn in census documents. My gut feeling is that "Quyun" was the spelling the family used.

John died September 25, 1905. Susan died November 22, 1907.
6. Columbia V. Ann. Columbia was born in 1840. On October 20, 1859, she married Levi F. Miller. By 1880, they were living in Woodsboro, Maryland where Levi was a farmer. The census shows seven children living with them. I don't know when or where Columbia and Levi died.
7. Ann Eliza Jane. Ann was born May 13, 1842. She was only five years old when she died, March 26, 1848.
8. Virginia Ann Rebecca. Virginia was born October 27, 1844 in Middletown. On November 2, 1862, she married William H. Jones. They lived in Frederick where William was a train engineer. Their first child, a daughter, was born in 1867, five years after their marriage. Their second child, a son, was born in 1870. They had eight children altogether. According to the 1900 census, three of those children had died (The 1900 census asked mothers how many children they had in their lifetime, and how many were still living). Two of their sons were still living at home in according to the 1900 census, Elmor and William. Also living with them was a grandson, James Bargis, age 17. We don't know which of Virginia and Williams daughters was the mother of James Bargis, but Emma seems the most likely, since she was born around 1867, thus she would have been about 16 when James was born in 1883. The next older sister, Anna, wasn't born until around 1874. She would have been just 9 when James was born

I have no record of Virginia and William's deaths.

9. Sarah Ann Isabella. While my records show Sarah was born on September 18, 1846, the 1850 federal census gives her age as 2 years old, and in the 1860 census she was 13 years old. Sometime between 1860 and 1870 Sarah married Abraham Baker and moved to Xenia, Ohio. Sometime after the death of her father, Sarah's mother, Mary Ann came to live with her, for her mother died in her home in 1877. Sara and Abraham were still living in Xenia at the time of the 1880 federal census (Sarah may have gone by the name 'Sallie' for that is the name shown for her in the 1870 and 1880 federal censuses. I have no record of Sarah or Abraham's death.
10. Charlotte Ann. My records show Charlotte was born January 13, 1850, but she is not present in the 1850 census which was taken just six months after her birth. She is not present in the 1860 census as well. I assume she died soon after birth.
11. Alburtis A. Alburtis was born about 1851. At the time of the 1870 federal census, he was the only one of Jacob and Mary Ann's 11 children still living at home. He was a cigar maker.⁽⁶⁾


B. Ann Rebecca. Ann Rebecca was born September 7, 1807.⁽⁷⁾ She married Lewis Hammond on February 21, 1824. They had two known children. The first was born in 1825, and the second in 1831.
Lewis died sometime before 1840, because that's the year Ann bought Lot #7 in Middletown from her grandfather's estate (Frederick Stembel) for $2,305.⁽⁸⁾If Lewis had still been alive, the purchase would have been in his name, not Ann's. Ann sold this lot four years later.⁽⁹⁾ In 1844, she married an Englishman named Thomas Davis. Thomas was a plasterer according to the 1850 census. Evidently Thomas died sometime before 1880, for at the time of the 1880 federal census, Ann was living with her daughter, Sarah, and her marital status was shown as widowed. Ann died in 1888, and was buried in Middletown's Zion Lutheran Church Cemetery.

Rebecca and Lewis Hammond's children:
Elizabeth Ann Catherine. Elizabeth was born November 11, 1825, probably in Middletown. On May 18, 1848, she married George Ingram, a tailor. In the 1850 federal census, they were recorded next to Elizabeth's parents. At the time of the 1850 census, they had a baby daughter, Ann R., who had been born the previous May. In the 1860 federal census, they were still living in Middletown. They had two more children: Sarah, age 9, and George, 9 months old. In the 1870 census they had a fifth child: Jacob, age 7.
Elizabeth died March 4, 1879, and was buried in Middletown's Zion Lutheran Church Cemetery. At the time of the 1880 federal census, George was still living in Middletown, with three of his children, Sarah, George, and Jacob.
By the 1900 census, there were no Ingrams living in Middletown.
2. Sarah A.E.. Sarah was born about 1831. Sometime after the 1850 census she married Jonas Young. I don't know if they had any children. They were still living in Middletown, Maryland, at the time of the 1880 census. I don't know when or where Sarah and Jonas died.


C, Sarah Ann, Sarah was born about 1809, in Middletown. Family records show she married George Wright of Virginia, probably about 1831. George was the same age as Sarah. Evidently they moved to Xenia, Ohio, soon after they married. At the time of the 1850 federal census, they had eight children, the youngest born in 1849. The census gives George's occupation as farmer. They were actually living in Bath Township, Greene County, Ohio. George's farm was valued at $6,100. This is the last record I have of the Wrights.

D. Ann C. Ann was discovered in court records that listed all of Jonathan and Elizabeth's children. No other family records show her, thus it's possible Ann died before reaching adulthood.

E. Perry Jonathan. Perry Jonathan was born about 1813 in Middletown, in the family home on lot #10.⁽¹⁰⁾ As a teenager, Perry clerked in a store in Middletown. In 1832, at the age of 19, Perry moved to Xenia, Ohio. He may have accompanied his sister , Sarah, and her husbund who moved to Xenia at about this time. Ten years later (c. 1842), Perry returned to Maryland where he clerked in a store in Wolfsville, not far from Middletown. In 1843 he moved back to Middletown and married Elizabeth Swearingen, the 23 year-old daughter of Van Swearingen (the Swearingens were close friends of the Stembels). Perry was 30, Elizabeth was 23. They had two children.
Soon after marrying Elizabeth, Perry and a partner opened a store called Culler and Levy. The store thrived until it was sacked by Confederate troops in 1862. Three years later, Perry opened another store in partnership with his brother-in-law, Van B. Sweringen. This store was located on lot #26 in Middletown. They operated this store until 1879 when they shut it down.⁽¹¹⁾
Elizabeth died December 23, 1890. Perry died September 15, 1897. At the time of his death, he owned the east half of lot #23, Frederick Stembel's old home on lot #7, the old tannery property on W. Main Street (which Frederick, Jr. once owned, I believe). According to the history of early Middletown, Perry's estate was described as "considerable."⁽¹²⁾

Jonathan and Elizabeth's two children:
1. Charles Van Swearingen. Charles was born January 7, 1844, in Middletown. On January 5, 1871, he married Mary Grace Strobel. Charles was an attorney, and in fact became the City Attorney for Frederick, Maryland. He later became a director of the First National Bank of that city.
Charles died on December 8, 1895. Mary died November 22, 1899. Both were buried in Frederick's Mt. Olivet Cemetery.
Many of Charles' descendants still live in Frederick County. His granddaughter, Mary Grace Helfenstein, sponsored the launching of the USS Stembel in 1943.⁽¹³⁾
2. Margaret Antoinette. "Nettie," as she was known, was born March 1, 1847, in Middletown. She never married.⁽¹⁴⁾ She lived with her parents all her life and after their deaths, continued to live in the family home until her own death in 1919.⁽¹⁵⁾


F. Elizabeth Ann Christiana. Elizabeth was born August 25, 1815, in Middletown. On November 3, 1834, she married John Weaver. John's occupation in the 1850 census was a carpenter according to the 1850 federal census. The Weavers had seven known children, possibly more. John and Elizabeth purchased Middletown's Lot #10 from Frederick Stembel's estate in 1840 for $510. The property had a log cabin on it where the Weavers presumably lived. Thirteen years later they sold the property to the Methodist Episcopal Church for $1,200.⁽¹⁶⁾
According to family records, Elizabeth died in 1875, however, a descendant reports that she died in Xenia, Ohio, in 1891.⁽¹⁷⁾ This confusion might have come about because John Weaver did move to Xenia sometime before 1880, for that's where he was living at the time the 1880 census was taken. Evidently, he had remarried, for his wife's name according to the census, was Mary, not Elizabeth (however, Mary was the same age as Elizabeth). It is my assumption that Elizabeth died in 1875. After his wife's death, John moved to Xenia and remarried, and it is this wife that died in 1891.

The 1880 census shows John had four of his children living with him in Xenia: John, Sarah, Alice, and Martha. All were single. I don't have any further records of any of the Weavers after 1880.


Elizabeth and John's seven children:
1. Ann Rebecca. Ann was born March 31, 1836. She did not appear in the 1850 census, so she may have died in childhood.
2.Perry Alexander. Perry was born February 16, 1838, in Middletown. At the time of the 1880 federal census, he was living in Springfield, Illinois, and married to a woman named Christina, who was 31 years-old. They had two children living with them: Maria (age 11) and Emma (age 8). Research by other family members suggest Perry had a total of six children. More research is needed on this line.
3. Mary A. Mary was present in the 1850 census; her age was given as 10, so she was born around 1840. Nothing more is known about her.
4. John C. At the time of the 1850 federal census, John was 7 years old, so he must have been born about 1843. At the time of the 1880 census, he was single, 38 years old, and living with his father and mother in Xenia, Ohio. He was a cooper.
5. Sarah C. At the time of the 1850 fedral census, Sarah was 5 years old, so she must have been born about 1845. At the time of the 1880 census, she was single and living with her father and mother in Xenia. Sarah was a seamstress.
6. Alice. Alice was born about 1847. In 1880 she was single and living with her father and step-mother in Xenia. This is all I know about Alice. 7. Martha. Martha was 1 at the time of the 1850 federal census, so she was born sometime between June 2, 1848, and June 1, 1849.⁽¹⁸⁾ In 1880, she was single and living with her parents in Xenia. She was a seamstress.
[More children may have been born Elizabeth and John after the 1850 census.]