Jacob Shoenfelt II was born 9 Sep 1792, near Hagerstown, Maryland
and died in his 91st year on 14 Apr 1884. His parents, Jacob the 1st
and Elizabeth Baker Shoenfelt settled on land given them by Jacob I’s father
William Shanefelt, near Woodberry, Bedford County in the spring of 1796. According
to a 1946 Altoona Mirror article, the land William purchased has remained in
family hands for 166 years. Jacob I with
the help of Jacob II built the family home there (now known as Taylor Twp,
Blair County) in 1812. The family of eight were of the German Reformed faith and
although Jacob I became a Dunkard preacher later in life, Jacob II remained
with the German Reformed. Of hardy German stock, Jacob II did not learn to read
or speak English until he was an adult.
Jacob and Elizabeth Marks celebrated the arrival of daughter
Elizabeth in 1802. Betsy grew up in Huntingdon Boro. She married Jacob II at an
early age. They raised their family of thirteen (Henry, Joseph, Elizabeth,
George, Sarah, Jacob, Andrew, Isaac, Mary, Susan, John, Harriet and James) on
the Plum Creek farm. The family resided in Woodbury in 1846 when Blair county was formed and in 1856 when their section of Woodbury became Taylor Twp. Jacob II out lived his wife Elizabeth and his
children: daughters Elizabeth, Sarah, Harriet and sons Issac and James.
While Jacob was primarily a farmer in his later years. As a
young man he was a wagoner transporting pig iron from Maria Forge to Pittsburgh
before the construction of highways.
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| Jacob Shoenfelt voted for our 4th President James Madison thru the 20th President James Garfield |
In the last few years of his life he became a favorite
subject of the Altoona Tribune. In a profile celebrating his 90th
birthday, the interviewer reports that Jacob II “voted for James Madison for
President and voted at every presidential election since casting his vote for
General Garfield for president in 1880. He only missed voting at two elections
ever since he voted. He was a Federalist, Whig, American and Republican, always
true to his party. He is a hale old man, and bids fair to be a centenarian. The
lustre of his eyes is not bedimmed and he reads and writes without the use of
glasses. He never used a pair of spectacles in his life. His memory is
remarkably good and it is pleasing to hear him relate incidents and occurrences
of long ago, speaking of the kind and charitable disposition of some of the
early settlers of the Cove.” The Shoenfelts are purportedly buried in the Snowberger
Cemetery in East Sharpsburg, PA.
Privy to the Dead by Sheila Connolly
