Henry Lauffer Sr.

  General Notes:

From Tohickon Reformed Church records, the sponsors to Henry's baptism were Henry Beck and wife.

Henry Lauffer, Sr., was a farmer and lived all his life on the old Lauffer place, near Pleasant Unity, the farm on which Simon Trice also lived. Henry Lauffer, Sr., was laid to rest in the Old Bash Cemetery in February, 1821, aged 67 years, 5 months and 19 days. By his side rests Barbara, his wife, whose maiden name was Alliman. She died May 14, 1846, aged 75 years and 26 days. This old cemetery is on the Somer's farm of the present day, near the Thomas school house, in Unity township, Westmoreland County. It was a two acre lot, willed in perpetuity for cemetery purposes. This is the same cemetery in which his father Christian Lauffer, our common ancestor, lies buried.

In Pennsylvania Archives, Volume 23, Page 226, Third Series, we find that Henry Lauffer is enrolled among "Rangers of the Frontiers 1778 to 1783" for Westmoreland county.

Until the death of Henry, Sr., his son Henry lived with him on the old homestead. He kept a wayside tavern for some twenty years before his death in 1821. He was a farmer but the stage coaches passed his house, and the passengers wanted "pieces" and meals, and there were many weary travelers to be kept over night. All the grocery stores sold whiskey in those days, it was as necessary as molasses and coffee in that age, and of course, it could be found at that hospitable farmhouse.

Henry, Sr., died prematurely from an injury to his foot that became infected. He was still a young man at 67. Barbara, his wife, lived 25 years after his death, which years she spent in the home of Henry Jr., and later with her daughter Polly, the wife of Jacob Gress, Sr., who lived along Pine Run, near North Washington, Westmoreland County. Jacob Gress, Sr., purchased a farm just south of Pleasant Unity and removed there in 1837, from which place Barbara was laid to rest by the side of her husband, as before stated.

It was very amusing to the writer, listening to Jacob Gress and Henry Gress, of Pleasant Unity, as they related reminiscences of their grandmother.

"Grandmother was real strict. She often whipped us. When mother wished us to do anything, we were in no hurry, but when grandmother asked us, we obeyed promptly. When she said anything, she meant it."

Henry married Barbara Alliman, daughter of Johan Nicholas Allemong and Mary Magdalena Schneider, in 1787 in Pennsylvania. (Barbara Alliman was born on 18 Apr 1771 in Pleasant Unity, Westmoreland County, Pennsylvania, died on 14 May 1846 in Pleasant Unity, Westmoreland County, Pennsylvania and was buried in Old Bash Cemetery, Pleasant Unity, Westmoreland Co. PA..)