Jacob and Rachel Phifer Family

My name is Lynn Phifer Keller, the Webmaster of this site.This site was created using MyHeritage.com.  This site only includes Immigrants and their descendants. I am hoping this site will provide a basis for organized and participatory family history.    My personal interests for research at this point are the sons and grandsons of Jacob who served in the Civil War and the descendants who are writers.    I am probably the best authority on the paternal ancestry of Rachel, which I shall share on this site.  However, I am stopped with her mother, Margarieta. I shall attach questions about her ancestry.  Jacob was the fifth Johan Jacob Phifer.  of various spellings.   I am very interested in ascertaining his father.  I believe his mother died before coming to America.  There is confusion about Jacob's history.  A descendant of MIchael had professional genealogy done, but the data doesn't fit historical data.  .  I have Revolutionary War records of Jacob and probable brothers   I believe the records of Jacob and his father were combined.   There are many  folklore stories about Jacob that should be investigated.  He did not come to America with LaFayette and probably did not serve in the French Revolution.   He may have served on the Isle of Dominique uprising and his father could have owned land there.  However, Stephen Girard was not involved in that uprising.  Who knows what he was doing in Philadelphia when he married Rachel.  I have a sense he went to meet the newly widowed Margarietta Kray DeGraff, but fell for her daughter instead.  They moved to Cayuga County NY, but lived in the southern part of the county where there are several Phifers who were probably his brothers.  Rachel's half-brothers lived in Auburn, in the northern part of the County, where there were numerous settlers who had lived in Conewago, where Rachel was born.  After years of research I have determined the ancestry of Rachel's mother, Margaret Krey DeGraff.  Her immigrant ancestors included Herman Op Den  Graff, who was on the Concord, the first boat with German Immigrants,  There were 13 families.   Another ancestor was Jacob Isaac Van Bebber, who was a patroon of the German Mennonite community.  Jan Krey, was in the second wave of Palatine immigrants and .Nicholas Haldima, from Switzerland, was a trustee in the lower Salford Mennonite Church.   Her ancestry is Pennsylvania Dutch to the senith.   Michael DeGraff, Rachel's father, had outstanding Huguenot ancestry.  Most interesting to me is that his grandfather, Michael, Parmentier, who came at age six was the leader in the Samders Hermanse Patent and bought the "filet" of the land.  He had a port in Poughkeepsie called Wareskeech where Fall Kil Creek  enters the Hudson.  I did the definitive initial research on this land which was just presented in the Hudson River Quadracennial.  I found the deeds from his estate to his son-in-law, Abraham DeGraff, who had operated the waterfront for many years.  His older brother had the property across the creek, so that was an easy match, once I did the real estate.   Jacob and Rachel were married in Taneytown Maryland, just over the border from York County PA, where Rachel's family was born. Perhaps her brother John Kray or her sister Maria lived there.  Jacob and Rachel lived in Philadelphia, where their first child, Michael, was born.  They next  lived in Sempronius, Cayuga County NY where their next eight children were born.  In 1818 they moved to Brown Township, Knox County Ohio.  They had a 400 acre farm and a stagecoach inn.  It was called Phyfers Crossroads.  Rachel ran the tavern, was the postmistress and had ten children.  Probably she ran the farm as well.  Jacob told stories.  I have posted a map showing "Phyfers Crossroads"  and a larger one of the state of Ohio.   Charles LIncoln Phifer, a descendant of Jacob and Rachel's eldest son, Michael, was a highly acclaimed writer.  One play was "Hamlet in Heaven."  Is that not the sequel to Shakespere in Love?   Let us study this family member.  Julia Truitt Phifer, the daughter of Jacob's son Silas, is a treasured family member.  She had the personal tragedy of having her beloved husband, Reverend James Truitt, murdered in front in their living room.  She became an accomplished writer.  I am in awe of her fortitude and her excellence as a writer.    I have many of her  stories to share.  Jim Hunt, descendant of Silas' daughter Sally, is transposing them.  There are books written about this murder and I have data on this site.    Thomas H Phifer, another son of Silas was killed in the Battle of Antietam.  I have his letters and he has my devotion.   I have exceptional work on his life.  including 27 of his letters.  Jacob and Rachel had numerous sons and grandsons in the Civil War:  Michael, their eldest son, had Josiah. William, his eldest son ran the Undeground RR in Knox County,  An "old" bachelor, he was often seen leading a riderless horse during the night.  Interestingly, in Knox County Ohio there were more marriages between blacks than whites during the war years, so William evidently took the escaping slaves to be married as their first step in freedom since they could not be married as slaves.    Son Cornelius, living in Illinois had three sons: Corporal George, John and Jacob.  Son John Jacob Jr. had sons John Jacob III, Melvin and James who died. Son James served as well as his sons Corporal Prindle and Leroy, who died. Daughter Anna had sons Thomas and First Corporal John Jacob, who died.  Silas fought for the Confederacy as did his son Thomas, who died.   Silas, the eighth son of Jacob and Rachel, was so like my father, it is core to my life experience.   When I was a student at Cornell University, I learned my beloved father died on the operating table.   A few minutes later, LEK showed up at my dorm to take me on a drive.  Mystically, we drove to Sempronius in Cayuga County where eight of Jacob and Rachels children were born.    As it has developed my grandfather, Dr John Newton Phifer, is the only male line from Silas.  My grandfather, LeRoy was the first of his sons to have children.  My; father was his first born and I am his first born.   This is the lineage that resonates in my inner heart.   I have never heard a story of Silas that my beloved father, LeRoy Jr, did not carry forth.  Silas had an original land grant in the Republic of Texas, moved to Mansfield LA, where he built buildings for Mansfield Female College, went off to the Gold Rush, fought in the Civil War.  He then moved to Illinois where he speculated in land, moved back to Texas and died after chasing the murderer of his beloved son-in-law, Rev James Truitt, husband of his daughter Julia, mentioned above.   After my marriage I moved to Dutchess County NY.  I bought a house with monies I inherited from my father's grandmother.  It was on FallKil Creek, which fed into the Hudson River, at the very point that was the original deed in the Sanders-Harmanse Patent for Poughkeepsie.  Rachel DeGraff Phifer's great grandfather, Michael Parmentier had the original deed to that site.  I knew it will in all my years living near Poughkeepsie.   A few years ago I gave a speech at an week long history program celebrating the role of Poughkeepsie on Constitutional History and Alexander Hamilton.  My speech was about the Sanders-Hermanse Patent and early history for our family.  Rachel's ancestors were notable Huguenots.   This is the Hudson River Quadracennial and my notes are being used as the foundation for the historical speeches in July.   Silas' wife, Harriet Barbour, was orphaned at  a ver young age.  Some descendants have mistaken her last name, but it is Barbour on her marriage certificate.   In the American Revolution we have Jacob who was  a Corporal.   He also served in the War of 1812.  Also in the Revolution we have James Grant, who was a Quaker, so he became a teamster.  He was disowned from the Quaker Meeting after the war.  The grandfather of WIlliam Owens served as well.  He may have been James Owens of New Jersey.  In the war of 1812 we have John Spake, ancestor of Sallie Owens, as well as Jacob..   For those who are descendants of John Newton Phifer, his wife, Sallie Owens has remarkable family history including many Quakers.  She shares  the same ancestry with President Nixon from Timothy Smith and Judith Williams.   Particularly interesting are John Bowne, who made the first stance for religious liberty in America, and his mother-in-law, Elizabeth Fones Winthrop Feake Hallet.   Do read That Winthrop Woman by Anya Seton.  In the memory of my beloved father, LeRoy Henry Phifer Jr, (Roy).   The direct line of ancestors is his.   "The universe is composed of stories, not atoms"  Poet Muriel Rukeyser. I hope we can find and share the stories and the data that define our common heritage. The picture is of Jacob's headstone in what was then Phyfers Crossroads, Knox County , Ohio  Among the files is a map showing his post office, then Phyphers Crossroads, in Knox County Ohioas well as a document for his land grant.   We also have a grant for Anthony Grant, son of the Rev War soldier, James Grant.    Please add data  to the tree and files. You can add information by clicking on the + below each name.   Everything can be downloaded as well.  However, if you find errors, please contact me directly first.   You will notice I uploaded some photos with names before I realized the great facial recognition aspect of this site.  Since these are family groups I have left them on the site as well.    Enjoy!!