BIOGRAPHICAL NOTES
Conrad Stuntz and Margaret Anna Briefling
Conrad Stuntz was born in 1738 in Würtenburg, Germany. He served a seven-year apprenticeship to become a weaver and later served in the army under King Frederick the Great. The story goes that, while in the army, he "appropriated" an overcoat on a cold night and then learned, by reading over an orderly's shoulder, that he was to be shot for his misdeed. He made a hasty escape from that army and came to America with Hessian troops hired by King George III to fight in the Revolutionary War. After arriving in America, he switched sides and joined the American army. He was slightly wounded in the Battle of White Plains and was with Washington's army at the crossing of the Delaware.
Born in 1760, Margaret Anna Briefling's passage from Rotterdam to America was paid for by a man named Martin Miller for whom she was obligated to work as an indentured servant for four and a half years
Conrad, about 40 years old, and Margaret, about 18, were married in 1778 and made their home about two miles from Fort Frederick, Maryland on Back Creek in Berkley County, Virginia (part of present-day West Virginia). They had seven children:
Katherine died during an outbreak of smallpox.
Following a trip by the two oldest sons to Lake Erie, the family moved to western Pennsylvania, arriving in Crawford County in the fall of 1801.
Conrad died in Crawford County in 1810 and family records indicate that the tombstone was erected 43 years later, in 1853. The grave stands alone, yet its location is marked "Cem" on detailed maps of the area and "Stuntz Cemetery" is recorded as a veterans cemetery.
Conrad's will leaves one dollar to many of his sons and one cow to many of his daughters. In the document, Margaret is referred to as "Peggy."
Margaret outlived her husband by twenty years, dying in 1830.
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