Abraham Shafer

Notes:

Came from Europe on the "Queen Elizabeth"

arrival date: 16 SEP 1738

Port: Philadelphia, PA

Place of origin: Unknown

Source: "Memoirs and Reminiscences...of Sussex County, NJ",

Rev. C. Schaeffer, MD 1907 p.26

Notes:

Casper Schaeffer was one of the founders of Stillwater, Sussex County, NJ. The name Schaeffer has been spelled in a variety of ways - Schaeffer, Schaffer, Shaffer, Shaffar, Shaver, and Shafer. Casper Schaeffer was a delegate from Sussex
County to New Jerseys Provisional Congress of 1776.

Casper married Maria Catherina Bernhardt. Maria (daughter of John Peter Bernhardt) was born about 1721 in Kezenheim in the Grafschaft Bolander Europa (Rhenish Bavaria; died on 1 Dec 1794; was buried in Stilwater Cemetery. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Notes:

He was the first person buried in the Stillwater cemetery, where the old German Church was years after erected. The inscription reads as follows:



" Here Rests

The John Peter Bernhardt who was born in the Kezenheim in the Grafschaft Bolander Europa (Rhenish Bavaria). Came with his frau and children to America in the year 1731 and died December 28, 1748."





From the history of Sussex county we are told that John Peter Bernhardt first settled in Philadelphia in 1730, and in 1742 located in the wilderness where the village of Stillwater now stands. (The above dates are evidently wrong, as the
inscription on the tombstone of Bernhardt and his daughter, Margaret Elizabeth, who married John George Windemuth, both say they emigrated in 1731, and it seems to be as evident that he made his settlement at Stillwater at an earlier date than
that given, we think not later than 1736.) Sussex history also says that Peter Windemuth came about the same time, an inexcusable error, as there was no Emigrator by the name of Peter.





Johan Peter Bernhart

Date of arrival: 26 Sept 1741

Ship: St. Mark

Port of destination: Philadelphia