Inscription on headstone. "Gone Home" One more little something on Catherine Shaffer Reasinger! ----- Original Message ----- From: "JOHN HERMAN" <SUJON@peoplepc.com> To: <PAINDIAN-L@rootsweb.com> Sent: Saturday, May 22, 2004 10:46 PM Subject: [INDIANA] CATHERINE SHAFFER REASINGER > > Source; Indiana Gazette May 20,1929 > > DuBois Woman Celebrates Her One Hundredth Birthday > > Mrs. Catherine Reasinger, widow of the late Joseph Reasinger, mother of Mrs. Elizabeth WEAVER, and of Mrs. Rebecca BUSH, wife of John A, Bush, and familiarly known as "Aunt Katy" Reasinger, quietly and unostentatiously celebrated her one hundredth birthday anniversary on Friday, May 3, in the home of the farm near DuBois, Pa. where she and her husband located in a dense forest after their marriage, January 5, 1854, working hand and hand, removing the pine and hemlock trees, preparing and cultivating the soil, and building the home in which she has resided all of the years, 75 which have come and gone. > > Contented And Happy > > Contented and happy, smiling and joking with the family of her daughter, Mrs. Rebecca Bush, who share the home with her, living close to nature and enjoying life to the full, with her mind alert and keen, the loss of her eyesight and impairment of her hearing alone suggest that she has reached the century mark. > > Never Far From Home > > During the hundred years which have passed, she has never been farther from her home than one trip by carriage to Dayton, Pa., 40 miles distant, to visit her daughter, Mrs. Weaver, who lived there some years ago. and rode on a railway train but twice in her lifetime, which included two trips to Brockwayville some 20 years ago. She was never in the county seat, Clearfield, and never visited Reynoldsville or Brookville. > > Source; Indiana Gazette May 20,1929 > > DuBois Woman Celebrates Her One Hundredth Birthday > > Mrs. Catherine Reasinger, widow of the late Joseph Reasinger, mother of Mrs. Elizabeth WEAVER, and of Mrs. Rebecca BUSH, wife of John A, Bush, and familiarly known as "Aunt Katy" Reasinger, quietly and unostentatiously celebrated her one hundredth birthday anniversary on Friday, May 3, in the home of the farm near DuBois, Pa. where she and her husband located in a dense forest after their marriage, January 5, 1854, working hand and hand, removing the pine and hemlock trees, preparing and cultivating the soil, and building the home in which she has resided all of the years, 75 which have come and gone. > > Contented And Happy > > Contented and happy, smiling and joking with the family of her daughter, Mrs. Rebecca Bush, who share the home with her, living close to nature and enjoying life to the full, with her mind alert and keen, the loss of her eyesight and impairment of her hearing alone suggest that she has reached the century mark. > > Never Far From Home > > During the hundred years which have passed, she has never been farther from her home than one trip by carriage to Dayton, Pa., 40 miles distant, to visit her daughter, Mrs. Weaver, who lived there some years ago. and rode on a railway train but twice in her lifetime, which included two trips to Brockwayville some 20 years ago. She was never in the county seat, Clearfield, and never visited Reynoldsville or Brookville. > > Pioneer In Region > > Mrs. Reasinger was the daughter of the late GEORGE SHAFFER, who with his father GEORGE SHAFFER Sr., mother CATHERINE STROEBER SHAFFER and three brothers, JOHN, MICHAEL, and FREDERICK SHAFFER, came from Dauphin County, Pa. in search of lands inherited by CATHERINE STROeber SHAFFER from her father, JOHN CASPER STROEBER. They followed the trail of the Philadelphia and Erie Turnpike, then being used to transport soldiers and supplies during the War of 1812 to Lake Erie, and when May 12,1812, they reached the hills back of WEST LIBERTY and near the JOHN CLAYTON farm they saw smoke rising from the log cabin of JOAB ODGEN and family at what is now known as the STANLEY station five miles south of DuBois; the only settlement by white people within a radius of 20 miles save one bachelor, JAMES WOODSIDE, who lived nearby, they sought shelter and food and were welcomed. > > Followed Indian Trail > > The next day, May 13,1812, they followed the Indian trail which led them to the spring on the present site of the RUMBARGER house on North Main Street , First Ward, of DuBois, where they built a hut of limbs of the pine and hemlock trees, covered with bark, and decided to locate. > > John Shaffer and his wife returned to Dauphin County, Pa., while the other member of the family proceeded to fell the trees, build a log cabin and prepare the soil for cultivation. > > Soon Had A Home > > Within a short period they had built their log cabin and cleared two acres of land and finding that the land upon which they had settled was not that of the STROEBER estate, decided to arrange for its purchase and on April 5, 1838, by deed of ESTER REED and JAMES CHESTNUT for the consideration of $650, 300 acres of the tract known as "Jericho" situate in Brady Township, was conveyed to GEORGE SHAFFER,Jr. father of Mrs. Reasinger. > > The brothers and sisters of Mrs. Catherine Reasinger, all of whom lived in or near DuBois, and all of whom are deceased, are; JACOB SHAFFER, MICHAEL SHAFFER, GEORGE SHAFFER, BARBARA, wife of ANDREW KNARR, REBECCA, wife of ADAM KORB [ my gg grandparents]. HENRY SHAFFER, ELIZA REASINGER, wife of PETER REASINGER, TOBIAS SHAFFER, JOHN and ELIZABETH SHAFFER. > > Cabin Became First Tavern > > In this log cabin, afterward to be known as the RUMBARGER HOUSE, the first public tavern in this section, Catherine Reasinger was born May 3, 1829. The Shaffer endured all of the hardships incident to pioneer life. The mother and the daughters not only prepared the wool, and skins from which the clothing was fashioned by them for the entire family, but worked side by side with their father and brothers felling trees and cultivating the soil. It was the day before machinery, wagons, pens, railroads, steamships, telegraph, mails, and post offices, tin plate, kerosene oil and electricity; indeed it was strictly the day of home manufacture of everything in use. > > Wooden Pins For Nails > > Timbers were put together with wooden pins, there being no nails, and in this manner the furniture was made. Vessels for water were carved out of chunks of wood. The only light was the tallow dip and fires were lighted with flint, matches being unknown. Mrs. Reasinger walked to Luthersburg to attend Lutheran church and Sunday school in the old log Union Church, which stood in the rear of the western end of the Union Cemetery, the first church building to be erected in that section, where services were conducted in turn by the Methodists, Baptists, and Presbyterians. Later she united with St.. Paul`s Lutheran Church of DuBois. > > Congratulate Centenarian > > Among the visitors to the home of Mrs. Reasinger on the ocassion of her centenary celebration were; C.LUTHER LOWE, HERBERT A. MOORE, AND J. CHRISTOPHER LONG, of DuBois, who carried out a program befitting the day. Mr. Lowe sang the sacred song "I`m the child of a King". Mr. Moore spoke on the life of the pioneer, it`s importance to the community and nation, and felicitated Mrs. Reasinger, on her long and useful life, and Mr. Long read from the German Bible published in 1776 and which has been in Mrs. Reasinger`s family since, the fourteenth chapter of St. John, using the German tongue, which is that alone used by the centenarian during all of her lifetime. > > Important Event > > The centenary of this woman is an important milestone in the history of DuBois and its vicinity. The Shaffer's were the study and stalwart settlers who founded the community, and their descendants have remained worthy of the good name bequeathed to them. They were in every sense pioneers such as those of whom Walt Whitman, the poet wrote; > > We primeval forests felling, > > We the surface broad surveying, > > We the virgin soil unheaving, > > Pioneers! O pioneers. > > > > shhhhhh............. quiet. I am hunting forebears, > > Sue > > > ==== PAINDIAN Mailing List ==== > NEW - July 1, 2000 > The Indiana Co. Branch of the Church of Jesus > Christ of Latter-Day Saints now has a web presence. > http://www.rootsweb.com/~paifhc > >