SMULL: Henry Smull of Brush Valley

 I'm just now getting around to sorting through photos from my big trip to Pennsylvania, to hunt the trail of the Brothers Smull. My first post on my trip is here. I had such a great time with Evonne Henninger who runs the Facebook page Penns Valley Past and Present. Four Smull brothers arrived in Brush Valley to build the Lutheran church in Rebersburg: Jacob, Peter, Henry, and Jesse. Once building was complete, Jesse returned to the family while the three, Jacob, Peter and Henry, remained to build lives in the beautiful newly settled countryside on the other side of the Ridge and Valley Provice of the Appalachian Mountains, sitting between Nittany Mountain to the north and Brush Mountain/Shriner Mountain to the south. Peter was my third great grandfather. Jacob died relatively young but his home still stands on the main street in Rebersburg. Henry and his large family from his two wives, became part of the fabric of the area.

Henry's first wife was Elizabeth Royer, daughter of Johannes Christopher Royer and Magdalene Gross. The couple had seven children. Elizabeth died in 1834 at the age of 37, two weeks after she gave birth to their last child, Thomas Jefferson Smull. Henry then married the daughter of one of the prominent farmers Daniel Kreamer and Anna Kern) in the region, widow Catherine Kreamer Hosterman. They had an additional five children to add to the four children she had during her marriage to George Hosterman. George had died the same year Elizabeth Royer Smull died.  

I had not seen a photo of any of the Brothers Smull until I made my trip to Brush Valley. This is a photo of Henry, born in the 18th century, and his second wife, Catherine. This alone made the trip worthwhile.

Henry Smull and Catherine Kreamer Hosterman Smull c. 1860

Genealogy Trail: Brush Valley - Home of the Brothers Smull

Last week I made the long-awaited trip to Brush Valley in Pennsylvania. This includes towns like Centre Hall, Rebersburg, Aaronsburg, Smullton, and other villages within Centre County at its east end. I had the immense pleasure of having a tour guide, Evonne Henninger, who is the greatest historian of the area for whom I could wish. We spent the morning traveling around the valley and spent a bit more time in Rebersburg, the place my family had settled. I learned more in two days there than in years of studying from afar.

As a refresher, Johann Peter Schmoll and Julianna Sarah Mueller lived in Montgomery County,
Pennsylvania. They had ten children. Four of these went to Centre County to help build the Union Church in Rebersburg. Jacob, the oldest of the four, Peter, Henry, and the much younger Jesse. Jesse later returned to Montgomery County, but the others did not. The church was used from 1823-1876  by the Lutheran and Reformed denominations. According to Evonne, the bricks for the church were made along Elk Creek in Smullton (formerly Kreamersville) in the area of the Raymond Bair farm. Evonne drove me past this location. They razed this church after a Lutheran and a Reformed Church were built next to each other in 1876. The Amish recently purchased one of these, but neither is being used as a church at this time.

Jacob Smull's 1825
Georgian Style Home

After the building of the church, Jacob, Peter and Henry (1799) stayed on and became a big part of the community. Jacob ended up a building a German-influenced Georgian style house on E Main St in 1825 which still stands. He ended up dying in 1830. The two daughters of his marriage who survived to adulthood moved on to Lock Haven in adult life.

Peter, who is extensively written about here on the blog, left in 1847 for Stephenson County, Illinois. His entire family eventually joined him in that area.

That left Henry. Henry farmed and did whatever else he could to make a living. His first wife, daughter of one of the town's earliest residents, Elizabeth Royer, had seven kids. She died in 1834. Henry married immediately the former Catherine Kreamer, who was the widow of George Hosterman, who also died in 1834.  They combined their families and continued with life in Rebersburg. The couple had an additional five children.

One of the cool things he did was operate a toll house on Rockville Rd near Hwy 192. Toll houses existed on many roads in Pennsylvania. The tolls paid for maintenance and operation of the road since the government was not then involved. Henry Smull, in addition to his farm, had a toll house in Rebersburg. The toll house is on the right. Operators of such toll houses could earn a chunk of change each month as well. Tolls at one toll house were:

Henry Smull's Toll House on Right

Toll Gate Charges –

A score of sheep – 4¢ (score = 20)

A score of hogs – 6¢

A horse with his rider – 3¢

A score of cattle – 12¢

A sulkey with 1 horse and 2 wheels – 6¢

2 wheels & 2 horses – 9¢

4 wheels & 2 horses – 12¢

4 wheels & 4 horses – 20¢

Henry also had an opportunity to go to other parts of Pennsylvania and picked up ideas along the way. He

remodeled his toll house with unique diagonal design. During his time in Rebersburg, he also farmed. We went to the farm he ran between what was originally Kreamerville and Rebersburg. Today, the farm is in the hands of the Amish and a new homestead has been built.

Here is Henry's toll house with its unique design:

And here is the Henry Smull barn (later the C H Smull barn and now an Amish barn). This is an example of a L-shaped Pennsylvania barn.

There was so much more to learn about Henry and his kids on this trip. What I loved most is that I could feel the place and see the mountains and see how the villages connected to the mountains. It allowed me to gain perspective that no book or Internet record could provide. And, having a tour guide like Evonne was priceless. More to come.

B&W photos courtesy of Evonne Henninger of Penn's Valley, Past & Present

Henry Smull Family: Thomas Jefferson Smull

HENRY SMULL m Elizabeth Royer (1) > THOMAS JEFFERSON SMULL

Click image to enlarge

Henry Smull was one of the four brothers Smull of Centre County, Pennsylvania. He was married twice. His second wife was Catherine Kreamer. They had five children after their marriage. His first wife was Elizabeth Royer, whom he married 11 Dec 1834. They had seven children. Elizabeth died on 26 May 1834 of complications of the birth of her seventh child, Thomas Jefferson Smull, the subject of this article. Thomas had been born 24 May 1834.

When he was a few days old he was sent to his grandfather Christopher Royer to be raised. He
attended public school. At age 15, after the death of his grandfather, he lived with his cousin Samuel Royer in Nittany Valley. It was during this time, he learned to speak English. Rebersburg was a German community. He continued his education while there and after he completed that, he taught for eleven terms in various schools in the area.

I have a feeling this is the location of the second
Smull store in Mackeyville

In 1857 he went for a brief few months to Valley Falls, Kansas and in 1859 he went to Illinois for a year, where he taught one year in Stephenson County. Many Smull relatives lived in Stephenson county during this time. On the way back to Pennsylvania, he stopped in Ohio and Philadelphia, where discovered a "desire to enter mercantile life." He took a clerk job in Lamar Township in Clinton County near Porter Township.

The Civil War interrupted his life in mercantile and he served briefly as a private in the 28th Pennsylvania Volunteers and was honorably discharged.

In 1866, he formed a mercantile partnership of Beck, Smull & Co. in Hamburg (which became Mackeyville) for a year. That business did not succeed. Smull had started another venture the same year with F E Hays, which continued to 1870 when Smull bought Hays out. Being successful, Smull built a new store house to handle the volume of business in 1874.

Thomas Jefferson "Jeff" Smull  married Harriet Transue on 01 Feb 1873 in Hublersburg, Pennsylvania, daughter of Peter Transue, a prominent farmer and his wife Elizabeth Best.

In 1889, his store was destroyed by a flood, costing $6,000 in complete loss. Interestingly, the safe was found two years later below Mackeyville. Though he had no debt, this left him nearly penniless.
Smull's reputation for good character allowed him to meet up with a Mr McDowell, who allowed Smull to buy a piece of property on the opposite end of town from his previous location and had good enough credit to rebuild.

Their final years were spent in Clinton County. Jeff died 10 May 1926 in Porter and Harriet died 24 Dec 1916.

They had four children; one died as an infant and another at 18 months. The two surviving children were:

Dr. Thomas Jefferson Smull, Jr., was born 22 Sep 1875 in Mackeyville. He married Cora Anita Kemp, daughter of David and Laura Kemp on 28 Mar 1894. She was born 28 Dec 1879. They also had two children: Miriam May and Thomas LK Smull. Dr. Smull died 15 Feb 1962 in Lima, Allen County, Ohio. Cora died 12 May 1946 in Ada, Hardin County, Ohio. I'll be writing more about Dr. Smull.

James Leroy "Roy" Smull, was born 07 Jun 1879 in Mackeyville. He married Hope Bower, born in 1882 in Pennsylvania. Roy clerked in his dad's store and later ran the Smull General Store and post office previously owned by his father. In 1933, he was named as a state Fish Board Commissioner. In 1946, Roy sold the store to Fred Kyle, who abruptly changed his plans and sold the store to Mr & Mrs Richard Edler. Smull was still acting as postmaster. Once the Edlers took possession in August of that year, the Smulls moved to live with their daughter in Schenectady. They had one child, Harriet A. Smull. Roy died 21 Dec 1963 in Williamsport, Lycoming, Pennsylvania and Harriet died 03 Apr 1952 in Schenectady, New York.