Research Notes:
Christian is recorded as living in Grosshoechstetten working as a tenant dairy farmer. [1]
1754 Christian Gehman emigrated on 1 Oct 1754 and arrived in Philadelphia on the ship Phoenix [2] [3]. He came with 3 sons born to Anna Berger (who died in Europe): Christian, Daniel, and Benedict. Anna, his oldest daughter did not come with him. Among 25 Mennonite males above age 16 on the ship were John Gehman and the well-known Mennonites Joseph Wenger, Jost Schoenauer, Hans Burchalter, and Hans Moser. [4]
1758 Christian settled about 1 mile northeast of Adamstown (later known as Moore's Mill), PA [5] [6]. He is reported to have been a wheelwright. [7]
A tradition says that one member of Christian's family took a wedding present to John Gehman's family, who had settled to the southeast of Adamstown. While walking through a field where sheep were grazing, a buck encountered him and broke his pitcher; so he had only a handle left when he reached his destination. [8]
Christian remarried to Anna Schoenauer. Abraham was born to this marriage. [9] [10] Abraham cared for his parents in their old age.
1789 Christian died and is reported to be buried at the Gehman's Mennonite cemetery south of Adamstown. [11] [12]
Son Abraham sold the family property and moved to Paxton Twp with his mother Anna.
1793 Christian's second wife, Anna, died at the home of her son Abraham, in Dauphin County, where she spent her last years. Abraham and his mother are buried in the Gehman graveyard north and east of Shope's Mennonite Meetinghouse. [13]
[1] Isaac W. Gehman, The Descendants and Family History of Samuel Sensenig Gehman and Lydia Weaver Hurst (Bowmansville, Pennsylvania: self-published, 2001), 10.
[2] Isaac W. Gehman, The Descendants and Family History of Samuel Sensenig Gehman and Lydia Weaver Hurst (Bowmansville, Pennsylvania: self-published, 2001), 10.
[3] Anna M Gehman, Gehman-Gayman Family History (Apparently self-published. Mohnton, Route 1 - Pennsylvania, 1954), 6.
[4] Isaac W. Gehman, The Descendants and Family History of Samuel Sensenig Gehman and Lydia Weaver Hurst (Bowmansville, Pennsylvania: self-published, 2001), 9.
[5] Isaac W. Gehman, The Descendants and Family History of Samuel Sensenig Gehman and Lydia Weaver Hurst (Bowmansville, Pennsylvania: self-published, 2001), 10.
[6] Anna M Gehman, Gehman-Gayman Family History (Apparently self-published. Mohnton, Route 1 - Pennsylvania, 1954), 6.
[7] Anna M Gehman, Gehman-Gayman Family History (Apparently self-published. Mohnton, Route 1 - Pennsylvania, 1954), 7.
[8] Anna M Gehman, Gehman-Gayman Family History (Apparently self-published. Mohnton, Route 1 - Pennsylvania, 1954), 6.
[9] Isaac W. Gehman, The Descendants and Family History of Samuel Sensenig Gehman and Lydia Weaver Hurst (Bowmansville, Pennsylvania: self-published, 2001), 12.
[10] Anna M Gehman, Gehman-Gayman Family History (Apparently self-published. Mohnton, Route 1 - Pennsylvania, 1954), 7.
[11] Anna M Gehman, Gehman-Gayman Family History (Apparently self-published. Mohnton, Route 1 - Pennsylvania, 1954), 7, 1789.
[12] Isaac W. Gehman, The Descendants and Family History of Samuel Sensenig Gehman and Lydia Weaver Hurst (Bowmansville, Pennsylvania: self-published, 2001), 9, reports 1776.
[13] Anna M Gehman, Gehman-Gayman Family History (Apparently self-published. Mohnton, Route 1 - Pennsylvania, 1954), 7.