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Peter and Mary Magdalena Castner were among the courageous pioneers who trekked from the relative comfort of eastern Pennsylvania to the First Frontier of America west of the Allegheny Mountains just after the 1768 Fort Stanwix Treaty and First Purchase by the Proprietary government. They departed Heidelberg Township in old Bucks County, now Lehigh, after the birth and baptism of their eldest child, Joh. Michael, in November 1769, and set out across the mountains on the Forbes Road, to a tiny frontier community known as the Sewickley Creek settlement in Hempfield Township in old Cumberland County, now Westmoreland, the present site of Greensburg. In Hempfield Township, Peter purchased a land grant known as Urania, which today forms the south side of the city of Greensburg, along either side of US 119, and is the name source of Urania Avenue in that city. Baltzer Meyer baptized the second child of Peter and Magdalena in August 1772, the fourth in a series of 400 baptisms performed by Meyer in the Sewickley Creek settlement. Peter and other Sewickley Creek land holders in 1774 signed a petition to Gov. John Penn, requesting military protection from Indian attacks precipitated by Dunsmore's War. Peter and Mary Magdalena sold their Hempfield Township land in April 1779 to William Jack and moved his family west to the fertile Monongahela River bottom land in Fallowfield Township, now Carroll Township, Washington County. After resolution of claims to western Pennsylvania by the Commonwealth of Virginia, Peter received, in 1794, a Commonwealth land patent for his land, known as Walnut Bottom. A son, Johannes and his wife, Elizabeth Dull, continued to farm the bottom land, along with brothers-in-law Isaac Teeple, John Grant and John and Thomas Heslep. A grandson of Johannes and a Heslep descendant sold their family lands in 1899 to R.B. Mellon, upon which the American Steel and Wire Company built a steel mill. A son of Johannes and Elizabeth, also named Peter, migrated to Indiana, where he purchased lands through US government land grants in Hancock County in 1835 and Ripley County in 1843. Peter and his wife, Delila Young, settled in the community of New Marion. Their son, James Rosselas Castner fought with the 6th Indiana Infantry in the Civil War and suffered five wounds in battle.
Descendants of Peter and Mary Magdalena Castner are today in Indiana, Illinois, Iowa, Montana, Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, Wyoming and other states.
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GEDCOM file (86952 bytes)
Prepared by:
Stephen L. Castner
8707 Kaehler's Mill Road
Cedarburg
Wisconsin 53012
United States
Tel: 262-377-9377
Send e-mail to: slcastner@ameritech.net
I will appreciate your comments, questions and suggestions.
Thank you.