200 Years After Sailing to America, Families Unite

Mr & Mrs James Armstrong
(Cristoph Embich & George Greiss decendants)

Christoph Embich and George Greiss sailed to the port of Philadelphia on the Nancy in September of 1752. Christoph Adam Embich was 27 when he left Germany to stake his claim in America, is my 5^th great grandpa from my dad’s father’s line. Geoge Greiss (Grass) as a 12 year old refugee came to America from Switzerland. He is my 4^th great grandpa from my dad’s mom’s line. Presumably during the long voyage and cramped living conditions they probably met, but once arriving in Philadelphia it seems they or their families paths did not cross again my grandparents James Armstrong and Madeline Campbell met and married shortly after high school in 1929.

Christoph Embich a carpenter by trade, Lutheran by faith, settled in Lancaster where he married and had 10 children with Mary Elizabeth Kriter. Christoph fought as a Patriot in the Revolutionary War. His descendants followed in his footsteps as carpenters and farmers, patriots serving their country in times of war in Pennsylvania for many generations.

George Greiss’s path is much less defined until he appears on the 1800 census in Cambria County with his wife and 9 children. Cambria County in the early 1800s was an untamed wilderness that the Greiss/Krise family set out tame. Active members in the Catholic Church, they participated in establishing the religion in Cambria County including building St Augustine Church.

Below is an excerpt from the "Pennsylvania Germans Pioneers” listing the men on the Nancy:

[List 186 C] At the Court House in Philadelphia, Wednesday, ye 27 September, 1752.

Present: Joshua Maddox, Esquire. The Foreigners whose Names are underwritten, Imported in the Ship Nancy, Captain John Ewing, from Rotterdam and last from Cowes, did this day take and subscribe the usual Qualifications. No. 83.

Jacob Schweude	Michael Eyroh	Jacob Schmidt
Joseph Steüdel	Jonas (X) Bastian	Johan Ludwig Seiler
Jerg Hauher	Christian Homberg	Jacob Friederik (X) Danninger
George (X) Grass	Jacob Mussgenug	Jacob Dietrich
Carl Frich Siebert	Joseph (X) Bernhart	Philipp Jacob Wunder
Joseph (X) Bernhart, Junior	David Xander	Hans (N) Kintz
Johann Michale Haas	Joseph ( ) Kintz, on board	Samuel Musse
Johannes (HIM) Herman	Johan Philipp Bietighoffer	Johanis (X) Shwitzer
Philipp Mall	Jacob Junchfer [?]	Konradt Weiss
Hans Georg Kautz	Andres Bastian	Jacob Kautz
Adam Friederich Weiss	Hans Jacob Lersch	Johann Georg Friderich Bayer
Jaque Peirot	George (+) Wenig	Jaque Molac
Jacob Bauerschmid	Frantz (X) Saltzman	Jacob Bauerschmidt
Lutwig Thüringer	Gerg Friderich Jauss	Peter (X) Heatteman
Christoph Rothbaust	Johann Martin Doser	Matheas (X) Dywel
Michael Doser	Friderich Baisch	Balthas Bauman
Jacob ( ) Basich, on board	Christoph Embich	Johan Andereas (X) Rothe
Christian Mühlheim	Christoff Kreiser	Israel Eberlin
Johann Friderich Uhlandt	Fillib Follen	Jacob (X) Armbruster
Joh. Jacob Ernst	George Michael (X) Spatz	Hans Jacob Neusterdt
Johannes Butz	Vallendin Hagner	Jacob Stützmann
Hans Jerg Heudekel [?]	Ludwig Neitz	Christoph ( ) Mast, on board
Jerg Balthas Ernst	Paul Waag	Casper Underweg
Hans Georg ( ) Krebs, on board	Mardin Fromm	Hans Paul Henrich
Andreas Jäger	Rudolph (+) Klarr	Johan Max Klopfer
Hans Stös	Johann Martin Rädelmeyer	Hans Michael (X) Weller
Abraham Birkenber[g]	Johann Georg Braun	Henry (+) Shleghter
Johannes Griess	Herman (+) Matsh	Jacob (HK) Kautz, Junior
Georg Friederich Schwartz

                 

Mailbox  Beth Bostian ©1997 Beth Bostian

Source: Strassburger & Hinke,"Pennsylvania German Pioneers", Genealogical Publishing Co., Inc., 1980, Baltimore, Volume I, p.491.

The Krise Brothers and the Battle of Gaines’ Mill

In the heat of battle, heroes emerge, sometimes from the most unlikely of sources.

~ Brian Herbert & Kevin J. Anderson

Historyof Pennsylvania Volunteers: 1861-1865 v2, part 2 by Samuel Bates

Cambria County was and is a rural farming area in western Pennsylvania where my paternal grandmother’s family comes from. Her grand-uncles Daniel and Henry Krise were coopers on a local farm before the War Between the States.  Young and idealistic the brother’s joined the Union Army weeks after the firing on Fort Sumter in April of 1861. As members of the Pennsylvania Reserves Infantry they went to Virginia to fight in the Peninsular Campaign.

The Peninsular Campaign was led by Gen. George McClellan its purpose; to capture the Confederate capitol of Richmond. The largest of the Seven Day Battles, Gaines’ Mill was one of the most vicious of the war and the only obvious victory by the Confederates during the peninsula campaign. The battle began midday on June 27^, 1862. At the start of the battle General Stonewall Jackson was to bring his men to back up General Lee in the battle. When Jackson didn’t arrive on time the confederates were forced to delay their assault. The tide of battle turned when General Jackson’s troops arrived. Disjointed, disorganized, and companies crushed, the battle became a desperate struggle for the Union forces. By sunset the battle raged so fierce the smoke enveloped the Colonel Gallagher’s Pennsylvania 11^th Reserves and Colonel Simpson’s New Jersey 4^th obliterating their view of the Union pullback until they were surrounded by the Confederates. From the report of General McCall “The situation of these two brave regiments , which so nobly maintained their ground after all had retired, was now hopeless; their retreat was entirely cut off by the increasing force of the enemy, who were still advancing, and they were forced to surrender.”  Over 600 soldiers in the Pennsylvania 11^th Reserves captured among them were the Krise brother’s Henry and Daniel.

The non-commissioned soldiers captured during the Peninsular Campaign including those at Gaines Mill were sent to Belle Isle at the end of June. Like the notorious Andersonville prison, conditions were deplorable. By mid-July Belle Isle held over 10,000 prisoners of war, the prison was only meant to hold 3,000. Prisoners including Henry and Daniel were filthy, covered in vermin and starved. Gratefully for their incarceration was brief. Henry & Daniel were amongst the first wave of prisoners exchanged in August of 1862. Both continued the fight for the preservation of the Union. Daniel re-enlisted joining and died during the war in 1864. He is buried in Alexandria Cemetery. Henry was shot in the face at South Mountain and discharged. It’s believed Henry died of his wounds at home in 1867.   

Source:  History ofPennsylvania Volunteers: 1861-1865 v2, part 2 by Samuel Bates pg 222-245