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Descendants of Somerset County, Pennsylvania Pioneers were Pioneers in Kansas

by Charles B. Garlet, Jr.

In September, 1876 Rebecca Garlitz died in Salina, Kansas. She was the wife of Solomon Garlitz who had died in Maryland 30 years earlier. She is buried east of town in Mount Calvary, a Catholic, cemetery. His burial place is unknown.

Rebecca and her second son, Simeon, are among the earliest settlers of Salina, arriving in the spring of 1859. The town was founded in 1858. The remaining eight children in this pioneering family, at one time or another, later became residents of Salina. Some stayed, some didn't, but the name is still well known there (as Garlet). Descendants of the family live near or in Salina today with the names Baird, Brotton, Crawford, Hagler, James, Johannes, Light, Mattison, and Quinley. The last “Garlet” left during World War II.

Why this widow and her children settled in Kansas is not known. But it is a crucial time in history. The Civil War is about to begin. Incidents in and around Salina before and during the Civil War are recorded in "City on the Move" by Ruby Phillips Bramwell, 1969, Survey Press, Salina, KS., 67401. Three of Rebecca's sons and at least one of her sons-in-law were soldiers on the Union side.

Solomon and Rebecca appear to have been residents, at various times, of Greenville Township, Somerset County, Pennsylvania and of Allegany County, Maryland. In 1837, they sold some land near Avilton, Maryland, which is now in Garrett County a short distance west of Cumberland. Garrett County was formed in 1872. The National Road which started at Cumberland and traversed the northern part of Garrett County was already well traveled during the Garlitz residence there. It extended west into Illinois and may have been used by Rebecca and her family when they went to Kansas. The history of the road is described in detail in "The Old Pike" by Thomas B. Searight which was first published in 1894 and republished by Heritage Books, Inc., Bowie, MD 20716.

According to the “History of St. Stephen’s and St. Ann’s Mission, Garrett County, MD” written by the Rev. Father Aloysius, (Enterprise Printing Co., Cumberland, MD, 1920), the district in which Solomon Garlitz owned property was originally known as the “McKenzie Settlement”. In the Allegany County Courthouse under Liber -0, Folio -472, is a deed which shows that Solomon had purchased 186 acres there on 30 April 1829. This was the year, according to family records, before he and Rebecca were married, and while he was still a young man in his twenties. He paid $126 for it. According to the deed, Solomon was then living in Greenville Township, Somerset County, Pennsylvania.

The records, again in Allegany Courthouse, show that the 186 acres involved were sold in 1837; 57 to Samuel F. McKinzie and the remaining 129 acres to Christopher Garlitz.

Christopher or Christian was well known in the area and is buried in the cemetery at St. Ann’s Catholic Church. He is a son of Henry and Magdalena Garlitz, pioneer settlers in Greenville Township, Somerset County, Pennsylvania. If evidence so far accumulated is acceptable, so is Solomon; thus, the two are brothers. Christian’s descendants still live on the property at Avilton.

Although clear proof is not available, it appears reasonably certain that Solomon is the last son of Henry, the last child in fact. A Solomon is mentioned in the baptismal records found at St. John’s United Church of Christ at Salisbury, Pennsylvania. Although, the date recorded there, 27 November 1806, is two years earlier than family records show, in the absence of information on any other Solomon in the area at that time and the very clear evidence from other sources that our Solomon was an early resident of Greenville, it seems for the moment acceptable. The family records referred to were published in the National Genealogical Society Quarterly, 63/1 (March 1975): 57.

Rebecca, from census data, was born in Maryland, though no birth records for her have been found. Neither has a record of the marriage of Solomon and Rebecca nor the birth record of the second child, Simeon, been found. A baptismal record for the last child, Solomon Gregory, was discovered at St. Patrick’s Church, Mt. Savage, Maryland. Births and baptisms of the other children are recorded at St. Patrick's Catholic Church, in Cumberland, MD.
This family may have lived for a while on the land near Avilton, since both the first and the second child were born in Maryland as is indicated by the 1850 census and other information. Samuel, the third child, was born in Pennsylvania in 1836, a year before his parents sold their property at Avilton. The following three children were also born in Pennsylvania. Then the family moved back to Maryland where the last three children were born and Solomon died in 1846.
Solomon's estate was settled in Allegany County, Maryland in 1848. At some point in the next decade, Rebecca and several children went west. Here is a preliminary genealogy of the Solomon and Rebecca Garlitz family.

Solomon GARLITZ was born 27 November 1806 in Greenville Township, Somerset County, Pennsylvania. His parents were Henry and Magdalena. Family records mentioned earlier say that Solomon and Rebecca were married on 5 May 1830. Rebecca’s maiden name is unknown, but she was born according to the same records on 28 March 1812 in Maryland. There is reason to believe that she is probably a McKenzie. Solomon died 27 June 1846. His estate was settled in Allegany County, Maryland on 11 October 1848, and is recorded in the courthouse at Cumberland. John Blocher acting as Administrator. Solomon's burial site is unknown although his last child, as mentioned earlier, born two months after his death, was baptised at Mt. Savage, Maryland. Rebecca died on 6 September 1876 at Salina, Kansas and is buried in Mount Calvary Cemetery there. Children of Solomon and Rebecca are:

1. Jeremiah Joseph, b. 15 March 1832, in Maryland. He received his portion of his father’s estate in 1848; may be in the 1860 census for Elklick Township, with the Hiram Finley(?) family as a “Day Laborer”; and is certainly found on a list of personnel attached to Company G, 15th Kansas State Militia in 1864. This list is available from the Smoky Valley Genealogical Society at Salina, KS. Jeremiah Joseph apparently did not go with the rest of the family when they first went west. He is the only child not mentioned in Rebecca’s will of 1876, so is presumed to have died before that.

2. Simeon Christopher. b. 19 March 1834, in Maryland. He married Lucy Haskett 16 January 1876 and died in 1923. Simeon is buried in the cemetery at Caldwell, Sumner County, Kansas. Lucy was born about 1850 and died 29 March 1946. She is buried beside Simeon in the Caldwell cemetery. Simeon was voted Constable at the first election in Salina, Kansas. He arrived there in May 1859 with his mother and perhaps others of the children.

The oldest building in Salina today was built by Simeon in 1860. He used it as a carpenter shop. A podium he built and some of his tools are on display in the Smoky Hill Historical Museum at Salina. The shop served many purposes through the years, even acting as the first meeting house for the Methodists before they built their own church. It stands quietly on a side street near the Smoky Hill river, having been moved from its original location.

A number of Simeon’s exploits while hunting have been described in diaries and appear in newspaper articles including the following from the writings of an early settler, Hugh Morrison. They are, also, recorded in the book mentioned earlier by Ruby Phillips Bramwell.

“In the afternoon of May 17, 1864, I took my oxen and wagon and was returning to my claim south of town when I met Simeon Garlet who came riding his horse on the gallop, from the west, waving his hat and shouting at the top of his voice, ‘Get your gun! The Injuns are coming.” ... A general alarm was given and the few settlers hurried to town and corralled their wagons in a circle in the street ... and for several days our town was greatly excited ...”

Roscoe R. Hudson recently wrote to this writer about his recollections of Simeon. “he carried a large Shiny, Brass Bolstered hunting knife in a belt sheath. ... he always laid it on the table to the right of his plate and he used it when eating instead of the table wear that the family used daily.”

Hudson’s sister remembered that “he never drank coffee with his food. Just HOT water in which he put 1 spoonful of sugar.” Hudson, also, reports that Simeon “always rode a good horse and ... was dressed as a typical western plains man. (He) wore a medium sized hat with high topped boots, Leather coat with fringe on bottom.”

Simeon and Lucy had one child:
     i. Minnie. b. about 1878; d. 1881.

3. Samuel. b. 14 April 1836 in Pennsylvania. He married Elizabeth Durst in 1859 in Somerset County, Pennsylvania.

Samuel served as a Private with Company K, 171st Pennsylvania Regiment from 24 October 1862 until 6 August 1863. He died 11 December 1913 at Wichita, Kansas. Elizabeth was born 17 October 1838; d. 29 Jan 1881. Parents are Solomon Durst, b. 15 April 1797, d. 28 October 1857 and either Lydia Sterner, his first wife or Mary (Harbaugh) Schrock his second. Though they lived and owned land near Salina for some years, the family later moved to Sumner County. Both Samuel and Elizabeth are buried in the Caldwell, Kansas cemetery.

On May 1898, Samuel, at the request of the Bureau of Pensions, said that he and Elizabeth had the following “living” children:

     i. Dennis. b. 5 October 1862.
     ii. Jacob. b. 17 December 1864.
     iii. Edward, b. 10 December 1866.
     iv. Solomon. b. 11 January 1868.
     v. Samuel. b. 9 April 1870.
     vi. Emma. b. 11 July 1873.
     vii. Will. b. 9 January 1875.

Other Garlitz’s buried on Lot 158 in the Caldwell cemetery are Orpha, d. 1880; (she appears in the 1880 census as a 2 year old daughter); Howard, d. 1883; William Allen, (perhaps the Will mentioned above), d. 25 April 1964; and Nora, b. 11 December 1880, d. 25 November 1969. Some of these are and all may be children of Samuel and Elizabeth.

4. Mary Elizabeth. b. 10 March 1838 in Pennsylvania. She married 30 April 1863, Henry Peterman at Salina, Kansas. Henry was born about 1833 in Ohio. Mary died July 1921; Henry in 1902. Both are buried at Ames, Oklahoma. Henry Peterman, along with Joseph Garletz, appears on a September 12, 1863 list for "a Cavalry Company 1863" at Salina, KS. The Cavalry Company is not otherwise identified. That list is, also, available from the Smoky Valley Genealogical Society.The U.S. Census of 1880 for Greely Township, Saline County, Kansas gives these children for Henry and Mary Elizabeth. All were born in Kansas:

      i. Solomon. age 15.
     ii. Rebecca. age 12.
     iii. Samuel. age 10.
     iv. Mary. age 7.
     v. Edgar. age 4
     vi. Verneca. age 2.
     vii. Louis. age 9 months.

According to a Peterman descendant three additional children should be added. Charles, b. 1870. (Since he's not in the 1880 census he must have died as a child.) Berniece, b. 1881 and Eleomoram, b. 1887. This data is recorded at (http://worldconnect.rootsweb.com/cgi-bin/igm.cgi?op=GET&db=crodrigues&id=1028).

5. Rebecca Jane. b. 2 March 1839 in Pennsylvania. She married first, Henry Albright; birth unknown, who died 13 February 1874 at Salina, Kansas. Her second husband was Robert Turner. They were married 22 June 1876. He was born about 1859, date of death unknown. Rebecca died at Salina, Kansas on 18 June 1920 and is buried with her mother in Mount Calvary cemetery. There is no record of children from either marriage.

6.Sarahan. b. 13 January 1841 in Pennsylvania. The only information on Sarah is from the will of her mother in which it is stated that she is the wife of Peter Long. Little research has been done so that it remains possible that Sarah did not go west with the rest of the family and in fact married one of the pioneer Longs in the neighborhood of Salisbury, Pennsylvania.

7. Dennis Levy. b. 18 August 1844 in Maryland. When Dennis signed for his share of his mother’s estate in 1876, he listed as his residence Keota, Iowa. No other information is known.

8. Druzy Emily. b. 28 September 1845 in Maryland. She died 5 January 1886 and is buried at Bridgeport, Kansas. On 13 April 1868 she married Charles Edgar Lampkin at Bridgeport. “Ed” Lampkin was born 18 January 1841 and died 5 July 1910. He is buried in the Gypsum Hill cemetery at Salina.

Edgar was with Company K, 2nd Regiment, Iowa Cavalry during most of the Civil War attaining the rank of Company Sergeant. In 1889 he was elected Probate Judge of Saline County which office he served for one year. He was then elected Justice of the Peace and served for six years. The last four years of his life he was Commissioner of Oakdale Park in Salina. Children of Charles Edgar and Druzy Emily are:

      i. Emma. b. 9 August 1873.
     ii. Ida Rebecca. b. 9 March 1875.
     iii. Lucy Irene. b. 22 April 1876.
     iv. Edgar N. b. 13 October 1879; died 7 September 1955 at Coldwater, Kansas.

9. Solomon Gregory. b. 25 August 1846 at Mount Savage, Maryland. He died 14 August 1908 and is buried with his mother and sister Rebecca Jane in Mount Calvary cemetery at Salina. He married first Caroline Laird on 30 December 1868. Caroline was born about 1850 and died April 1873. She is buried in the Gypsum Hill cemetery at Salina.

Solomon’s second wife was Effie Jane Hakes who was born 11 August 1859 in Fairview Jones County, Iowa. She died on 18 March 1919. They were married on 31 July 1878. Effie is buried in Fairmount cemetery at Denver, Colorado. She has Revolutionary War and earlier ancestry. See The Hakes Family, by Harry Hakes; Wilkes-Baur & Son, 1889.

Solomon participated in the opening of the Cherokee Strip in 1893 as is detailed in
The Laurel Messenger of May 1967. Apparently, his brother-in-law, Henry Peterman, did,
also, since the two of them homesteaded as neighbors near Ames, OK.

Children of Solomon and Caroline are:

     i. Honorah. b. 2 November 1870; died 13 September 1912.
     ii. Anna Rebecca. b. 24 March 1872; died 11 March 1941.

Children of Solomon and Effie Jane are:

      iii. Grace Vanet. b. 9 April 1877;
           This date is computed from census records. She died 16 October 1944.
     iv. Lymon Leroy. b. 19 November 1881; died March 1887.
     v. James Harvey. b. 7 August 1884; died 11 March 1944.
     vi. Effie Gertrude. b. 13 October 1886; died September 1888.
     vii. Charles Bernard. b. 22 December 1888; died 16 November 1956.
     viii. Lettie Genevieve. b. 20 August 1891; died 10 July 1962.
     ix. Clarence Gregory. b. 23 May 1894; died 18 November 1943.
     x. Eugene Marion. b. 18 October 1898; died 20 February 1989.
     xi. Effie Sequinna. b. 1 January 1901; died 10 March 1960.

CBG January 2002

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