BOESHORE (BESHORE) FAMILY HISTORY
Presented here is a brief history of the Boeshore
family, which will be of interest to all descendants of Matthias Frantz and his wife,
Elizabeth Boeshore.
The original name of Le Baisseur is of French origin. It
literally means "one who kisses". Whether this family trait persists in the
present generation can best be asked and answered by each one who reads. The name has
changed through the years by contact with English and German speaking peoples and has
variously been written as Le Baisseur, Baisseur, Besor, Bashair, Beashore, Basehore and
Boeshore.
One Jaques Milne Le Baisseur, a French Huguenot, fled from his
home in Guyenne (an area and former province in southwest France) to England about 1610.
This was after the horrible massacre of St. Bartholomew which started in Paris in 1572,
and which caused intense persecutions of all the French Protestants. In 1614, he was
enrolled as a member of the French Huguenot Church in Norwich, England. From here, about a
century later, some of the descendants of Jacques, in 1708, left for New York State,
arriving in Schoharie Valley, along the Hudson River.
This was the period when Queen Anne of England
encouraged the French Huguenots and Palatines to go to New York State instead of to
Pennsylvania. Her plan was to populate the Hudson Valley so as to provide a better defense
against the marauding French and Indians, in what is know as Queen Anne's French and
Indian War. This war was really an extension of the War of the Spanish Succession then
going on in Europe(Stapleton).
About the same time this Boeshore family met with
Conrad Weiser and other Palatines and Huguenots in New York State in 1720 and joined the
Scholorie immigration to the Tulpehocken country of Berks county in Pennsylvania. This
route followed from Lake Oswego in New York State, thence down the Susquehanna river to
the mouth of the Swatara and thence up the Swatara to the Tulpehocken section. One of the
Boeshores who was active in this group was Mathias Basehore, born about 1700. The
historian, Rupp, to whom we are indebted for much of our information on the Palatine and
Huguenot immigrants, is descended from this Mathias Basehore. Rupp later became a famous
Indian fighter in the following French and Indian Wars. (Rupp)
Another branch of the Le Baisser family in Norwich returned to
the Alsace and Bas Rhine sections about 1700. This entire section, comprising two
provinces, was now in France, and was more or less protected from the severity of
religious persecution. This area was predominantly German-speaking and had belonged to the
Hapsburgs. But the treaty of Westphalia of 1684, which ended the thirty year war in
Europe, separated these German provinces west of the Rhine and gave them to France. This
treaty guaranteed the Edict of Nantes and when this Edict was revoked by the French
Government, the revocation did no apply to this area -- hence, the many Huguenots in these
provinces.
Among this group to settle in the Bas Rhine and Alsace was
Jacob Boeshaar (Baisseur), a cooper by trade. He settled in the town of Deux Ponts (Two
Bridges) in France in 1720. The town of Deux Ponts in now Zweibrucken in the Saar in
Germany. A son John George Boeshore or later spelled Bashair, born 1717, emigrated to
America about 1735, settling in Tulpehocken Twp. In 1738 he married Catherine Stump. John
George was the ancestor of the Schuylkill County and Tulpehocken Boeshores while the
Mathias referred to above was the ancestor of the Lebanon and Dauphin County group (Rupp).
These two branches of the same (Le Baisseur) family set out from the ancestral home in
Guyenne, France about 1610 and by different paths arrived at the same place in the
Tulpehocken country in Pennsylvania, thousands of miles away, across an ocean, and a
century later, about 1732.
August 30, 1738, John George Bashir was granted a Proprietary
Patent by Thomas Penn for 208 acres in Bethel Township, adjoining Tulpehocken, and
situated along Little Swatara Creek (Pennsylvania Archives). In 1745, along with the
families of Christian Frantz II, John Frantz and Michael Frantz, John George Bashair
helped to organize the Church of the Brethren (then German Baptist Brethren, or Dunkers)
in Tulpehocken, along the Little Swatara (Brumbaugh). He paid taxes on the property
mentioned above from 1754 to 1781 (Pennsylvania Archives) and died in 1786, his will being
recorded in February 1787 in the Berks County Courthouse. John George Bashair and his
wife, Maria, had the following children: Michael, Maria, Catherine, George, Jacob, Daniel,
Marie, Elizabeth and John.
Jacob Boeshore (II), the son of John George, was born in Berks
County about 1740. In 1770, he was an active member of the Little Swatara Congregation of
the Church of the Brethren, became a minister before 1790 and a Elder in the active charge
of the Church before 1800. He was taxable on his father's land in Bethel, 1782-1790. In
1780 and 1781, he served as a private in Captain Wolf's Company of Berk's County Militia
during the Revolutionary War (Pennsylvania Archives).
Jacob Boeshore married Christina Alderfer, the daughter of
Frederick Alderfer who came to the country in the Ship Samuel, landing in Philadelphia,
august 11, 1732. This is the same ship which brought our Christian Frantz I and his
family, and also John George Bahair the father of Jacob. On June 4, 1776, he obtained a
Proprietary Patent for a tract of land in Pine Grove Township (now Schuylkill county)
across the Blue Mountain from Millersburg (now Bethel), which he named on this property
1775-1785 (Pennsylvania Archives). The U.S. Census of 1790 listed him as resident of
Berkes County (Schuylkill county not being formed until 1811) with a family of four sons
and five daughters. He died in 1815 and his will was recorded on September 27,1815, in the
Berkes County Court House. Jacob and his wife, Christina, had the following children: Anna
Maria, Christina, Elizabeth, Lydia, George, Benjamin, Michael, Jacob, Catharine.
Elizabeth Boeshore, daughter of Jacob, was born, in Guienne in
Pine Grove Township, then Berks County, on July 31, 1771, and Matthias (IV) Frantz. It is
further interest that on April 18, 1791 Matthias purchased Guienne, the plantation and
birthplace of Elizabeth. Guienne remained in the possession of the Frantz family for some
time. (Berkes County Courthouse, and Publications of the Huguenot Society of Pennsylvania
at Philadelphia).
FROM HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL ANNALS OF BERKS
COUNTY PENNSYLVANIA, MORTON L. MONTGOMERY, JOHN BEERS AND CO, 1909
Jonathan K. Bashore, a practical agriculturist of Bethel
township, Berks Co., Pa., whose fine farm, the old Beshore homestead, was originally a
grant from the Penns, was born Nov 11, 1852, in Bethel township, son of Michael and Sallie
(Kline) Bashore.
George Bashore, the great-grandfather of Jonathan K, received a
grant of land in Bethel township, from the sons of Penn in 1747, where he spent the
remainder of his life. He married and had children: Isaac, Jacob, John, and Michael.
Michael Bashore, grandfather of Jonathan K. was born on this
grant of land, and followed farming all of his life there, dying at the age of eighty-five
years. He married Miss Royer, who bore him seven children as follows (1) George, a farmer
and shoemaker, lived in Bethel township for some time and died at the age of eighty-three
years, the father of children as follows: William, John, Daniel, Carolina, Sarah and Mrs.
Rigel, (2) Benjamin, a farmer of Ohio, had five children, (3) Jonathan, who resided in
Bethel, married and had children: Levi, Amanda, Leah, Benjamin, Fianna, Henry, Emma and
Wilson. (4) Daniel, also a resident of Bethel and for many years a very prominent landlord
on the road leading across the Blue Mountains to Pinegrove, Schuylkill county, died at the
age of seventy-three years. He married a Miss Lesher, and they had five children: Peter,
Hannan, Saran, Lovina and Eliza. (5) John died unmarried aged about sixty five years. (6)
Michael. (7) Hannah, who married John Keeny, died in 1905, aged eighty years, the mother
of Tyrus, Michael, Fyetta, Hannah and Maria.
Michael Bashore, father of Jonathan K. was born 1816, on the old
homestead in Bethel township and there he engaged in agricultural pursuits all of his
life. He married Miss Sallie Kline, who still survives him and resides with her son,
Jonathan K., being ninety years of age and enjoying very good health. She was born Nov. 3,
1817, daughter of Benjamin and Lizzie (Streiphauer) Kline. To Michael and Sallie (Kline)
Bashore were born besides Jonathan K., the following children: Elias, who resided on his
farm near Fredericksburg, died aged sixty-two years, the father of ten children; Eliza, M.
William Murkey and died young, leaving two children (her husband died in Virginia); Sarah,
m> John Kline, and also died young, leaving two children, one of whom is living;
Rebecca, m. Benjamin Moyer, resides in Kansas, and has four children, Frank, Milton,
Charles and Rebecca; Israel (David G. Beshore's Great Grandfather) resides in Missouri and
has a family; and Emma died young.
Jonathan K. Bashore was educated in the public schools and
assisted his father on the home farm, where he was married, and where he has always lived.
His wife was Mary Royer, daughter of Daniel and Anna (Royer) Royer, and to them there have
been born the following children: (1) Calvin, a resident on one of the farms near his
father's, was for some time engaged in school teaching. He then went to Huntington to
finish his studies and enter a profession, but failing health compelled him to remove to
the farm, where he now is. He m. Miss Mary Reedy and has three children -- Ralph, Earl,
and Myrtle. (2) Cora m Ira Gibble, of near Freystown, and has five children -- Naom, Mary,
Elmer, Paul, and Stella. (3) Elmer who resides at home, m> Emma Moyer, and has four
children -- Harvey, Herbert, Paul and Elmer. (4) Miles m. Miss Lizzie Price and has four
children -- Edna, Stella, Verna and Lester. (5) Miss Mable lives at home. Harvey Ella nad
Pamilla died young.
Mr. Bashore is a Republican in politics, and has been a delegate
to county conventions and a school director, although the district is strongly Democratic.
Like his father and grandfather he belongs to the Church of the Brethren.
For fruther information on the Beshore's see Daves Family Tree.
For further information on Huguenots see Link to Cyndi's List
http://www.oz.net/~cyndihow/huguenot.htm
