A Summary of the Research Notes on the Donaldson and ...



A Summary of the Research Notes on the Donaldson and Gallman and Geiger Families

Genealogy and Family History by Elizabeth Reed of

Lucerne Valley, CA and Sally Emerson of La Canada, CA

Military History and Local History with some Genealogy,

by Nancy Poquette of Monterey, CA

The genealogy background of Elizabeth Reed and Sally Emerson:

Betty Reed’s husband, Troy Reed is a past president of the Southern California Genealogy Society. Both Troy and Betty have spent a few years on the Board of Directors of the same organization, and she has been a volunteer librarian at the same for several years. She has spent 40 years researching our many families, which were in the colonies by the time of the American Revolution.

Sally Emerson, her sister (and both of them my aunts) has a library technician degree from Pasadena City College. She has been a volunteer librarian at the Southern California Genealogy Society for 9 years, as of this summary (October 2004), and serving on the Board of Directors as well. Although she says it isn’t relevant to genealogy research, I want to add that she is a past regent of the Don Jose Verdugo chapter of the DAR.

I am a recent newcomer (5 years as of October 2004) to genealogy, and have had one book published by the Iowa County Historical Society of Wisconsin, The Goodale-Tyrer Families in North America. I am a graduate of the University of Southern California, 1970-1974, and performed 2 years of graduate study at Texas A & M University, 1975-1976.

Sally Emerson may be reached by email at sme@ and Elizabeth Reed may be reached at reedtb@.

Compiled by Nancy Poquette

433 Casa Verde Way, Apt. 110

Monterey, CA 93940

npoq@

Updated Oct. 15, 2007

TABLE OF CONTENTS

HANS JACOB GALLMAN and VERENA STAHELI - - - 4

HERMAN GEIGER and ELSBETH HABLUZEL - - - - 12

Indian Affairs and the Saxegotha colonists - - - - - 30

HEINRICH GALLMAN in the French and Indian Wars - - - 56

The Cherokee War - - - - - - - - 76

HEINRICH [HENRY] GALLMAN and ELSBETH GEIGER - - 102

The American Revolution and the Gallman, Sellers, Donaldson Families - 118

The Legend of Emily Geiger - - - - - - - 208

GASPAR GALLMAN and JEMINA SELLARS GALLMAN - - 211

DAVID DONALDSON and ELIZABETH GALLMAN - - - 214

JOSEPH DONALDSON ands NANCY BEARD - - - - 230

SARAH SALLIE DONALDSON - - - - - - 281

Appendix-Family of HANS JACOB GALLMAN - - - -

Appendix-Family of HANS JACOB GEIGER - - - -

Appendix-Family of HERMAN GEIGER - - - - -

Appendix-Family of HEINRICH GALLMAN - - - -

Appendix-Family of GASPAR GALLMAN - - - - -

Appendix-Donaldsons - - - - - - - -

Appendix-Family of DAVID DONALDSON, Sr - - - -

Appendix-Family of SOVEREIGN DONALDSON - - - -

Appendix-Family of JOSEPH SEPHUS DONALDSON - - -

Appendix-Family of SARAH SALLIE DONALDSON - - -

Appendix-John Donaldson - - - - - - -

Appendix-Pension Applications-Howell Sellars - - - -

Appendix-The Alabama 33rd Infantry, Company A - - - - 349

A Summary of the Research Notes on the Donaldson and Gallman Families

Preface

This report has been formatted to address the interests of two sets of descendants of the DONALDSON, GEIGER and GALLMAN families. The first group includes those who are mildly interested in their family history, and only want to read the story, without being bothered by the proofs and documentation, which admittedly distract the casual reader. The second group of readers are those with a more scholarly interest who want the proofs and documentation, with every source cited back to the original sources, to prove to themselves that this story is valid. The manner in which this researcher shall attempt to do this is to present the story in the body of this text, and then use large appendices to provide the documentation and proofs, or sources that were found. As of this writing, only the material which pertains to our narrow branch of the family will be presented, without trying to build the case for the entire genealogy of the DONALDSON, GEIGER and GALLMAN families.

This researcher acknowledges the flawed format and presentation of the material. It is not the intent to present this as a completed work, however, having received enough piecemeal requests for data on this branch, or a detail on that person, it seemed reasonable to turn the notes into a somewhat presentable form, encompassing everything so far learned about these families, so that every inquiry could be satisfied with the fullest story.

These are only this researcher’s notes collated together in chronological order, and are not ready to publish for the general public. Most genealogies are too dry for this researcher’s taste, containing only the ‘begats.’ (For the younger generations: this phrase is borrowed from the Bible: “and Adam begat Cain and Able…”). The reader should benefit from this exploration of the hard-to-find and rare sources, and also from the most recent researcher/writers’ works, to give our family a true sense of the history our ancestors experienced in their own lives.

In most of the early genealogies, the writers would skip forward and backward in the chronology of events, making it more difficult for the reader to maintain the train of thought relating to a line of descent. It is already a demanding task trying to separate the generations when it was the custom of the time to name the one’s offspring after oneself and one’s parents, without also finding the story jumping back to cover a previous decade or century. Of course, the goal of writing it all in chronological order is much easier to implement when writing the text on a computer word program. The writer can insert newly uncovered data in the correct order with ease.

These notes make heavy use of verbatim quotation of the original source material, whenever it is available. It should also be emphasized to the reader that when quotation marks are used, this researcher’s own thoughts are not being offered, but another writer’s thoughts are. In sharing this document with others, this researcher has sometimes been complimented on how well the historical texts are written, and am concerned that the original source be credited with that compliment. Primary and secondary quotations are always introduced first with the source from which they are quoted followed by enclosing in quotation marks to constantly remind that this material is not this researcher’s original writing. When the standard type switches to italics (or vice versa), it because this researcher is switching from the voice of the source, to her own thoughts expressed. As much as is possible, it is preferable to allow the reader to become acquainted with the primary and secondary source materials. If ever this researcher writes this family’s story for a more general audience, then this document can be the source to refer all inquiries for proofs.

In a previous presentation, this researcher attempted to retain the original spelling from the original documents. This will not be done here. The original spelling is usually not that of the speaker, but of the court clerk taking dictation. When a person speaks, he does not think about how his words are spelled as he speaks them. Readers today are accustomed to standardized spelling, and trying to understand the thoughts presented is difficult enough simply from the old-fashioned phraseology, without further hampering understanding with the erratic spelling.

There are so many more documents to be explored before a so-called ‘final’ version can be written, and this researcher is not yet ready to write the ‘final’ version. The problem with this is that far too many genealogists use this as the excuse for never writing up their data at all, and the years of gathering material are essentially lost to future generations, who must cover the same ground, plowing the same furrow, instead of building upon the previous foundations, and without signposts to direct the line of inquiry to new sources.

Because this is a working document, and for the benefit of other researchers ‘signposts’ have been included, directing the attention to worthwhile lines of inquiry and new sources to explore. For example, _______________________________________.

Without pursuing this line of inquiry, it will be impossible to know whether this speculation is right or wrong. Those pursuing this line of inquiry will need to investigate ________________________ However, it is important for the reader to remember, that these are only advanced as speculations, and they should not be quoted as facts in the reader/researcher’s own writings.

I have no doubt that the reader will be able to spot errors. Sometimes it is necessary to work from sources that are secondary because the primary sources are not available. For example, _________________________________________________ This researcher has also used data from the Internet, but mostly concerning branches that she would otherwise not have access to. At least this does give the descendants of those branches a starting point to work from, and if they are wrong, it will give a sense of satisfaction to those who can prove me wrong!, and I do expect to be proven wrong without too much ego or pride, I hope. That is the nature of research.

If you are more than just a casual reader, and would like to be a researcher as well, please allow me to make a suggestion. From the very beginning, type up your notes, and insert your new bits and pieces in the proper chronological order. Add notes to yourself, when you find that you have a loose end that you would like to follow up on. When you are ready to go on a research outing, print your text for yourself to take along, and have it bound with a coil binding, or any binding. Highlight the portions of your text, with a highlighter, the notes that you intended to follow-up on. This seemingly irrelevant procedure will allow you to travel lightly, without all of your binders of photocopies of original documents. If you typed it in, you know you have the ‘original’ copy at home.

Having this printed copy with you also impresses the libraries that you visit, that your work is special, that you are a dedicated worker, and not just ‘all talk’ They are even likely to ask you for photocopies before you leave. “The-bird-in-the-hand-is-worth-two-in-the-bush” as the saying goes!

Well, it is time to allow the reader to “get on with it!” I hope you find this work worthwhile.

Nancy Poquette

[In our family, DAVID DONALDSON married ELIZABETH GALLMAN, who was the daughter of American Revolution patriot GASPAR GALLMAN, who was the son of HEINRICH GALLMAN, mentioned in the letter below, and whose father HANS JACOB GALLMAN, was the writer of the letter. From DAVID DONALDSON, we are descended by his son, SOVRIGN DONALDSON, his son, JOSEPH SEPHUS DONALDSON, his daughter, SARAH SALLIE DONALDSON and then to MELVIN CLARENCE DONALDSON.

This letter was provided to me by my aunts, Elizabeth Reed of Lucerne Valley, CA and Sally Emerson of La Canada:

HANS JACOB GALLMAN and VERENA STEHELI

From Palmetto Connections, JACOB GALLMAN FAMILY-Contributed by Harriet Imrey:

Jakob Gallmann was christened on 23 August 1674 in Mettmenstetten, Zürich.  He was the son of schoolmaster Hans Gallmann (1651-1725) and Elsbetha Dubbs (1648-1709).  On 28 October 1696, he married Verena Staheli (Stähli) in Mettmenstetten, where all their children were born.  He died in Saxegotha SC on 20 October 1738. [Source-Records from Mettmenstetten parish collected by Thurman and Tom Gallman; dates confirmed or corrected from Schelbert, op. cit.]

From: Hinke, William John.  A History of the Goshenhoppen Reformed Charge, Montgomery County, Pennsylvania (1727-1818).  Part XXIX of a Narrative and Critical History Prepared at the Request of the Pennsylvania-German Society.  Lancaster PA: 1920.  Chapter III, pp. 96-111. 



“The family of immigrant Jacob Gallman lived in Mettmenstetten, canton Zürich, Switzerland. In 1734, they joined a large emigration-party led by de-frocked pastor Moritz Göttschi, with the intent of settling in Carolina. Despite the disapproval of local authorities, and highly-negative press coverage, the group left Zürich on 4 October 1734; they soon discovered that Göttschi had not arranged for the boats to carry them down the Rhine from Basel. A group of 31, including the Gallman family, left the main group to go overland across France and make their own arrangements for getting to Carolina. The group that remained with Göttschi suffered further delays and unexpected expenses, finally arrived at Philadelphia, not Charleston, on 28 May 1735. Pastor Göttschi died on the day of arrival.”

“Most of the breakaway group reached their intended destination of Carolina.  They arrived on the ship ‘William’ on 7 February 1735, per Jacob Gallman’s letter of 1738 describing the trip. Like most Swiss, he used the new Gregorian calendar. The equivalent English date, under the old Julian calendar, was 28 January 1734. The journal of the Upper House of Assembly of the Province of Carolina records a resolution on 6 February 1734 to pay the passage of those new arrivals who could not afford the fare, and had not traveled as indentured servants. On the next day, the journal listed the 19 Swissers whose fares were to be covered, including the 10 members of the Gallman party. The immigrants were sent to settle the newly-opened interior country at Saxegotha (modern Lexington County, SC), location of an Indian trading-post and a small fort to protect the trade goods.”

[pic]”Some individual traders had established residence in the back-country before 1735, but this group of Swiss families was the first official colony of settlers in Orangeburgh District. A plat of 350 acres was surveyed for Jacob Colerman [sic], his wife, and the five youngest children on 2 February 1735/6, granted on 17 September 1736. Eldest son Hans Heinrich also had a separate 50-acre tract surveyed on 7 February 1735/6 for “John Coleman”, granted on 16 September 1738. [The most convenient source for verifying dates of plats and grants is through the search engine of the South Carolina Department of Archives and History, at archivesindex.]”

  “The other members of Jacob Gallman’s party were daughter Anna and her husband Heinrich Buchman. Both became ill of a fever and died in September 1735, before there was time to survey any land for them. [Schelbert, Leo. America Experienced: Eighteenth and Nineteenth Century Accounts of Swiss Immigrants to the United States.  Camden ME: Picton Press, 1996.  Pp. 58-9, 64-70.]”

“I. Rudolf Gallman, born 28 October 1698.  He was a soldier in France when the family emigrated.  He visited Saxegotha in 1769, when attempting to claim his father’s inheritance as eldest son.  He may be the Hans Rudolph Gallman who arrived in Philadelphia on 11 September 1749 on the ship Priscilla.”

“II. Vroni [Verena] Gallman, born 21 April 1700.  She married a Gallman, remained in Switzerland.”

“III. Anneli [Anna] Gallman, born 22 April 1701, married Hans Ulrich Einiger, remained in Switzerland.”

“IV. Anna [a second Anna] Gallman, born 31 August 1704, died September 1735 in Saxegotha; married Heinrich Buchman of Dachlesen, Mettmenstetten, Zürich, who also died September 1735 in Saxegotha.”

“V. Hans Heinrich [called Heini] Gallman, born 7 March 1705/6, married an immigrant from the Rheintal in 1737, sister to his brother Heinrich’s wife.  The sisters are necessarily daughters of Hans Jacob Geiger, because all of the Rheintaler immigrants of 1737 arrived in a single party, and their identities are known from correspondence about the voyage of the ‘Prince of Wales’ and from 1737 land records.  Hans Jacob Geiger was the only person who had two or more unmarried daughters of marriageable age who cannot be proven to have married other people. [At a time of no vital records, few surviving parish books, and rare mentions of female names on legal transactions, it is usually not feasible to locate primary-source documentation of early marriages.  A surviving spouse named on a will is often not the first wife, or the mother of all—or any—of the children.  In those cases, the advice of Sherlock Holmes in The Sign of the Four becomes relevant: “Eliminate all other factors, and the one which remains must be the truth.]”

  “In addition, the Gallmans and Geigers lived next door to one another, witnessed each other’s deeds and wills…and even loaned one another money.  Candidates for the wife (assuming he married the older one) are Anna Catharina (christened 17 November 1711) and Maria Barbara (christened 25 February 1715). [Parish records from Diepoldsau, Au (currently in Unterreinthal district of St. Gall canton) collected by Anne Connell.]”

“Hans Heinrich died between 1740, when he signed a petition, and 1750, by which time his younger brother Heinrich was the oldest son and heir to the Jacob Gallman estate.”

“VI. Heinrich [a second Hans Heinrich, called Heiri, Harry and Henry] Gallman, born 24 November 1709, died 1767 in Saxegotha (will signed 25 December 1765, proved 19 February 1768).  He married a Rheintaler immigrant in 1737—presumably a daughter of Hans Jacob Geiger (either Maria Barbara, christened 25 February 1715, or Wybehrt, christened 25 September 1718).  They had a son by September 1738.  He had a total of 7 living children by November 1749, when he petitioned for a land grant based on his family-right. [The text of petitions is available from records of the Council Journals at SCDAH.  A more useable source is Holcomb, Brent H.  Petitions for Land from the South Carolina Council Journals, Volumes I-VII (1734/5-1774).  Columbia SC: SCMAR: 1996-1999.] The youngest child, Gasper [Caspar], was born in 1749, per his Revolutionary War records.”

  

“VII. Elssbeth Gallman, born 3 April 1711, married Jacob Spuhel/Spuchel (born ~1780, died aft. 1752) from Thurgau, Switzerland.  The Spuhel family had three living children as of November 1744.  The last date at which Jacob Spuhel is known to be living is March 1752, when Henry Gallman presented a petition for reimbursement on behalf of Jacob Spell, “near 70 years of age”.  Surviving children, if any, are not documented.  In 1770, a lawsuit was filed against Jacob Spaul and Harman Gallman (3rd son of Henry Gallman), among other defendants.  A Jacob Spiel submitted a claim for service to the Revolutionary War.”

“VIII. Hanss/John Gallman, born 1 March 1716, will signed 22 April 1758 in Saxegotha (no probate date, taxes on estate paid in 1761), married 1) a sister of Herman Geiger.  This may have been the youngest daughter of Hans Jacob Geiger, Margretha (christened 26 April 1724), but her name was not recorded.  The 1751 will of Herman Geiger (oldest son of Hans Jacob Geiger) identified his executor John Gallman as his brother-in-law.  He married 2) the widow of Herman Geiger, Elizabeth Habluzel.  She is identified as his wife as of 1752, per a deed recorded in Book S-5, pp. 23-26, re: a property transaction on 17 & 18 April 1774.  He married 3) Margaret ___, named as the widow on his will.  Widow Margretha Gallman married Jacob Faust, son of Henry Faust.  John Gallman was working as a tanner in 1738, and was the only child of Jacob Gallman who had not married by the time of his letter to Switzerland.  By January 1747/8, John had 4 children, per his petition for land (indexed under “John Gowman”, but identifiable as John Gallman per acreage, length-of-residence in province, and same location/neighbors as the land described in his will).  In April 1758, John had two living sons and an unspecified number of daughters.  His residence on 100 acres of his father’s land-grant, SW of the Congaree River, was left to oldest son John.  The 300 acres across the Congaree was left to second-son Jacob, but to be shared with the child Margaret was expecting in 1758 ‘Should the child be a boy’.  The child was a boy (Henry), and he received his share of the estate.”

Children:

“John Gallman, died childless before 1771 (Jacob inherited the property).

John Jacob Gallman, on 1778-79 Jury List for Saxegotha; 1790 census lists 2 free

white males aged 16+, 1 male ................
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