Janet and Robert Wolfe Genealogy --- Go to Genealogy Page for William Benjamin Meals --- Go to Genealogy Page for Maria Scheaffer

Notes for William Benjamin Meals and Maria Scheaffer

1834 Maria Scheaffer, daughter of David Scheaffer and Elizabeth Roth, was born on December 12 in York County, Pennsylvania. [1]

1850 Gabriel Meals (age 56), Nancy (age 53), Henry (age 26, stone cutter), William (age 24), Frederick (age 16), Joseph (age 15), George (age 10), Lydia (age 7) Meals and Elizabeth Baughman (age 84, born Germany) lived in Gettysburg, Adams County, Pennsylvania. [2]

1860 William B Meals (age 36, born in Pennsylvania, marble cutter) lived in Gettysburg, Adams County, Pennsylvania, in a household with Marie Meals (age 26). [3] [4]

1862 Nancy Elizabeth Meals, daughter of William B and Maria Meals, was born on September 7. She was baptized on January 1, 1863, at Saint James Evangelical Lutheran Church in Gettysburg, Adams County, Pennsylvania. [5]

1863 William B Meals, of Gettysburg Twp, age 39, marble cutter, born in Pennsylvania, was subject to do military duty in June. [6] [7] He was listed as in service [8]

1864-65 William B Meals was a sergeant in company G in Regiment 209 of the Pennsylvania Infantry. [9]

1865 William Washington Grant Meals, son of William B and Maria Meals, was born on February 22. He was baptized in September, at Saint James Evangelical Lutheran Church in Gettysburg, Adams County, Pennsylvania. [10]

1867 The birth and death of son David Luther was recorded. [11]

1868 Gabriel Franklin Meals, son of William B and Maria Meals, was born on September 24. he was baptized on December 16, at Saint James Evangelical Lutheran Church in Gettysburg, Adams County, Pennsylvania. [12]

1870 Wm B Meals (age 46, born in Pennsylvania) lived in Gettysburg, Adams County, Pennsylvania, in a household with Maria Meals (age 36), L M S Meals (age 8), Nancy E Meals (age 6), W W Grant Meals (age 4), Gabriel ? Meals (age 1), and Lizzie Crawford (age 35). [13]

1871-72 The birth and death of daughter Minnie May was recorded. [14]

1880 W B Meals & Co., Baltimore St was listed among Marble and Stone Cutters in a directory of Adams County. [15]

1880 Wm B Meals, perhaps this one, wrote a historical summary of St James Evangelical Church. [16]

1880 Will B Meals (age 57), marble cutter, and Marie Meals (age 45) lived in Cumberland Twp, Adams County, Pennsylvania with Lewis H (age 19), Nannie E (age 17), William G ( age 15), and Frank G (age 12). [17]

1890 William B Meals received his pension for serving in the Civil War. [18]

1892 William B Meals died on March 5, 1892 and letters of administration were granted to Maria Meals and Lewis H Meals. [19][Adams County, Pennsylvania Will J-453]

1892 William B. Meals was buried at Evergreen Cemetery, Gettysburg, Pennsylvania. [20] [21]

A biosketch reports [22]:

William B. Meals, marble cutter and proprietor of the Gettysburg Marble Works, was born in Adams County, Penn., September 27, 1822 or 1823, a descendant of the fourth generation of those his ancestors, who first settled in this country, some time prior to 1732, of German and Scotch descent. He is a son of Gabriel Meals and Nancy A. (Baughman) Meals, of whose ten children (seven boys and three girls), he is the third. He received part of his schooling in the common schools of Adams County and his higher branches, under private tutors. He is a man of culture, and is considered a ready speaker. With his attention to reading, he is generally posted in the current news of the day. He has prosecuted his business since a young man, and succeeded. In 1860 he was married to Miss Maria Schaeffer, daughter of D. S. Schaeffer (veterinary surgeon), of German descent, and a native of Pennsylvania, and to them children were born, viz.: Louis Henry, the eldest, also a marble cutter, of superior skill, a partner with his father in the Gettysburg Marble Works; Nannie E.; William Washington Grant (a telegrapher), and Gabriel Franklin (the latter being young has not yet chosen a profession); Mr. and Mrs. Meals and family are members of the Lutheran Church, and Mr. Meals has been an office bearer in the same for thirty odd years. In politics he is a Republican; he has served as assessor, school director, as a member of the town council, burgess and justice of the peace in the borough of Gettysburg, where he lived, and was at home during the battle in 1863. September 4, 1864, he enlisted in the army of the Union, was attached to Company G, Two Hundred and Ninth Regiment Pennsylvania Volunteers, and was discharged at the close of the war as commissary sergeant, May 9, 1865, he having participated in two battles: Fort Steadman and in front of Petersburg, Va., when Gen. Lee surrendered to Gen. Grant.

1900 Maria Meals (born in Pennsylvania, widowed) lived in Gettysburg borough Ward 1, Adams County, Pennsylvania, in a household with son G. Frank Meals (age 31). Maria Meals's parents were both born in Pennsylvania. Maria Meals had had 6 children. [23]

1915 Maria Meals, daughter of David Scheaffer and Elizabeth Roth, died, at age 80, on August 12, 1915, in Gettysburg, Adams County, Pennsylvania. Maria Meals was born on December 12, 1834, in York County. (Death certificate: 74980). [24]

1927 Louis Henry Meals, son of William B Meals and Maria Sheaffer, spouse of L Kate Gallagher, died, at age 66 on August 22, 1927, in Cumberland Twp, Adams County, Pennsylvania. Louis Henry Meals was born on November 30, 1860, in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania. (Death certificate: 77501). [25]

Research Notes:

Late William Meals, marble cutter and union veteran, was named as father of Nannie E Meals, wife of Rev Ira Brame. [26]


Footnotes:

[1] Pennsylvania Death Certificates, Certificate 74980, [AncestryRecord], [AncestryImage].

[2] United States Federal Census, 1850, [AncestryImage], [AncestryRecord].

[3] United States Federal Census, 1860, [AncestryImage], [AncestryRecord].

[4] United States Federal Census, 1860, [FamilySearchImage], [FamilySearchRecord].

[5] Pennsylvania Marriages, 1709-1940, [FamilySearchRecord].

[6] National Archives and Records Administration, Civil War Draft Registration Records (Consolidated Enrollment Lists, 1863-1865) (Washington, D.C.), [AncestryRecord], [AncestryImage].

[7] National Archives and Records Administration, Civil War Draft Registration Records (Consolidated Enrollment Lists, 1863-1865) (Washington, D.C.), [AncestryRecord], [AncestryImage].

[8] National Archives and Records Administration, Civil War Draft Registration Records (Consolidated Enrollment Lists, 1863-1865) (Washington, D.C.), [AncestryRecord], [AncestryImage].

[9] United States War of 1812 Index to Pension Application Files, [FamilySearchImage], [FamilySearchRecord].

[10] Pennsylvania Births and Christenings, 1709-1950, [FamilySearchRecord].

[11] Pennsylvania Births and Christenings, 1709-1950, [FamilySearchRecord].

[12] Pennsylvania Births and Christenings, 1709-1950, [FamilySearchRecord].

[13] United States Federal Census, 1870, [FamilySearchImage], [FamilySearchRecord].

[14] Pennsylvania Births and Christenings, 1709-1950, [FamilySearchRecord].

[15] John Timon Reily, History and Directory of the Boroughs of Gettysburg, Oxford, Littlestown, York Springs, Berwick, and East Berlin, Adams County, PA (Gettysburg: J. E. Wible Printer, 1880), 42, [GoogleBooks].

[16] John Timon Reily, History and Directory of the Boroughs of Gettysburg, Oxford, Littlestown, York Springs, Berwick, and East Berlin, Adams County, PA (Gettysburg: J. E. Wible Printer, 1880), 34, [GoogleBooks].

[17] United States Federal Census, 1880, [FamilySearchImage], [FamilySearchRecord].

[18] United States Civil War and Later Pension Index, 1861-1917, [FamilySearchRecord].

[19] Pennsylvania Probate Records, 1683-1994, Adams, Decedent Record Index 1864-1937, image 223, [FamilySearchImage].

[20] Pennsylvania, Veterans Burial Cards, 1777-2012, [AncestryRecord], [AncestryImage].

[21] Find A Grave Memorial 14827785, [FindAGrave].

[22] H. C. Bradsby, Aaron Sheely, M. A. Leeson, History of Cumberland and Adams Counties, Pennsylvania [Adams] (Warner, Beers:1886), 366, [GoogleBooks].

[23] United States Federal Census, 1900, [FamilySearchImage], [FamilySearchRecord].

[24] Pennsylvania Death Certificates, Certificate 74980, [AncestryRecord], [AncestryImage].

[25] Pennsylvania Death Certificates, Certificate 77501, [AncestryRecord], [AncestryImage].

[26] Samuel T. Wiley, Biographical and Portrait Cyclopedia of the Nineteenth Congressional District (1897), 347, [InternetArchive].