Hannah (Booker) Bigler (1760 - 1853)

Born 1760 in Harrison County, West Virginia

Wife of Jacob Bigler — married 29 Mar 1779 in Harrison County, West Virginia

Descendants

Died 18 Jul 1853 at about age 93 in Saltwell, Harrison, West Virginia, United States

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Biography

Hannah, daughter of Henry Bucher & Hannah, was born in 1760 and baptised in 1760 at East Vincent Church, East Vincent Township, Chester, Pennsylvania, United States.^[1]Hannah married Jacob Bigler.^[2]

Hannah died (age 93) on 17 July 1853 in Harrison, West Virginia.^[3][4]Hannah was buried in Saltwell, Harrison, West Virginia, United States.^[5]

Jacob BIGLER & Hannah Booher

Revolutionary War Soldier & Patriot

Prepared by Julie Robinson Smith 2008

Jacob BIGLER was born in Bucks County, Pennsylvania in 1752 or 1753. He was the 10th child of Marcus and Mary Catharine BIGLER. Marcus had immigrated to America in 1733 as a single man at age 28, born to refugees fleeing religious persecution in Switzerland where his ancestors had farmed Berne for over a thousand years.

Jacob served for some time as a private soldier during the Revolutionary War, in one of the eight German Battalions raised in Pennsylvania and Maryland under resolution of Congress on 25 May and 27 June 1776. He enlisted as a Private on 28 July 1776 in the Sixth Company of the German Regiment on Foot, commanded by Colonel Baron Arendt (sometimes referred to as Captain George P. Keeport’s First German Battalion of Continental Troops of Maryland). He is reported as having left the company on 1 Oct. 1776, but his name appears again on the Company muster rolls of 22 May 1777 and 18 July 1777.^[6]

He married Hannah Booher (or Booker, Bucher) in 1780 and moved to Somerset County, Virginia where their first daughter Sarah was born whom they called Sally. In 1782 they moved to Harrison County, Virginia and built a log house on the West Fork River about one mile above Enterprise (on the opposite side of the river from State Road #19). In 1785, Jacob was listed as the Head of a family in a “list of tithables” for the area from the mouth of the West Fork River up to Simpson’s Creek, including the Valley River. Harrison County was new and as can be imagined, sparsely populated. Only twenty-eight other names are listed with Jacob’s as being tithable persons living in this area. The Indians were troublesome, frequently making raids on the settlements, killing and scalping or taking captives. Jacob’s grandson wrote in his journal: “I remember hearing grandfather say he had worked on his farm having his gun near at hand and when plowing had it attached to the beam of the plow, not knowing what moment he would want to use it to save his scalp!” This same grandson said his grandfather sometimes worked at the coopering business. “It was said he (Grandfather Jacob) was industrious, jovial, and fond of a dram, but never quarrelsome.” Also, that “He was a quiet man, short and heavy set, handsome …”

Hannah Booher (Baptism documents show last name as Bucher) was born about 1760 near Philadelphia.

“My Grandmother Bigler was a mixture of Dutch and Welch and is described as being tall and slender, hair red and tolerable handsome, intelligent, industrious, and enterprising. I remember hearing her say that the first time she saw grandfather was at a house rising where she was assistant cook. He (Grandfather Jacob) had on a red coat and was one of the corner men with ax in hand, and as soon as she (Grandmother Hannah) saw him, she knew he was to be her husband! She said that when she was a young woman that the women went out into the harvest field and helped to reap the grain; that she had reaped many a days; that the farmers, men and women, met together beginning with the wheat most forward and worked continuously until the grain was in the shock, each young woman choosing her partner to reap by her side. In those early days it was the sickle and reaphook. Cradles and reaping machines were not known”.^[7]

Hannah Booher and Jacob Bigler had a family of three sons and seven daughters. . All their children: Hannah, Mark, Ruth, Nancy, Jacob, Henry, Bathsheba, Mariah, and Rebecca (who was born with a cleft lip & open palate, and died in infancy) were born in Harrison County, Virginia. (As noted above, Sarah, the eldest, was born in Summerset or Somerset County, Pennsylvania.)

Jacob died in December, 1829 at his home in Shinnston, Harrison County, Virginia (now West Virginia). His death, at the age of 76, was recorded as being caused by canker in the mouth. He was buried in his apple orchard. Hannah died 18 July 1853, a little over 93 years of age.^[8] Hannah is buried at the Righter Graveyard near Saltwell.^[9]

Burial

Burial:

Place: Righter Cemetery, Saltwell, Harrison County, West Virginia, USA^[10]

Sources

1. ↑ Baptism: "Pennsylvania Births and Christenings, 1709-1950"
   FamilySearch Record: V2VV-SS8 (accessed 23 January 2024)
   Hannah Bucher baptism in 1760 (born 1760), daughter of Henry Bucher & Hannah, at East Vincent Church, East Vincent Township, Chester, Pennsylvania, United States.
2. ↑ Marriage: "U.S. and International Marriage Records, 1560-1900"
   Source number: 7441.000; Source type: Electronic Database; Number of Pages: 1; Submitter Code: JJ2
   Ancestry Record 7836 #123830 (accessed 23 January 2024)
   Hannah Booker marriage to Jacob Bigler.
3. ↑ Death: "West Virginia, U.S., Deaths Index, 1853-1973"
   FHL Film Number: 847170
   Ancestry Record 2568 #1972693 (accessed 23 January 2024)
   Hannah Bigler death 17 Jul 1853 (age 93) in Harrison, West Virginia.
4. ↑ Death: "West Virginia Deaths and Burials, 1854-1932"
   citing Digital film/folder number: 7578502; FHL microfilm: 250016; Record number: 1; Packet letter: A
   FamilySearch Record: XRWV-MZC (accessed 23 January 2024)
   Hannah Bigler death 17 Jun 1853 (age 93), wife of Jacob Bigler, in Harrison, Virginia, United States.
5. ↑ Burial: "Find A Grave Index"
   citing record ID , Find a Grave, http://www.findagrave.com
   FamilySearch Record: QVVH-T6M2 (accessed 23 January 2024)
   Find A Grave: Memorial #5714468
   Hannah Booher Bigler burial (died on 18 Jul 1853) in 1853 in Saltwell, Harrison, West Virginia, United States of America. Born in 1760.
6. ↑ 1.National Archives, Washington, card number 37063025 - 3179 - 191970. Also Archives of Maryland 18: 263.
7. ↑ 2.Journal of Henry W Bigler
8. ↑ Franklin Keith Brough, Freely, I Gave, Grit Printing Co. Wichita, Kansas 1958 p. 2-5.
9. ↑ Norman Burns, The Bigler Family: Descendants of Mark Bigler who immigrated to America in 1733 1960 p. 21
10. ↑ Find a Grave, database and images (accessed 9 December 2021), memorial page for Hannah Booher Bigler (1760–18 Jul 1853), Find A Grave: Memorial #5714468, citing Righter Cemetery, Saltwell, Harrison County, West Virginia, USA ; Maintained by Beeswax (K Whittington) (contributor 9432652) .

• Family History or Pedigree: "U.S., Sons of the American Revolution Membership Applications, 1889-1970"
  Volume: 225
  Ancestry Sharing Link - Ancestry Record 2204 #548064 (accessed 23 January 2024)
  Name: Hannah Booher; Birth Date: 1760; Death Date: 18 Jul 1853; SAR Membership: 44922; Role: Ancestor; Spouse: Jacob Bigler; Children: Sarah Bigler.
• Birth: "American Genealogical-Biographical Index (AGBI)"
  Godfrey Memorial Library; Middletown, Connecticut; American Genealogical Biographical Index; Volume Number: 13; Page number: 458
  Ancestry Record 3599 #942114 (accessed 23 January 2024)
  Hannah Bigler born in 1760 in Pennsylvania, USA.