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Rev. Michael Weyand Jr. |
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Brotherton Pike Cemetery |
Rev. Michael Weyand Jr. was born in 1829 in Somerset Township, PA. son of Michael and Mary Anne (Ream) Weyand Sr.
He is believed to have been baptized in the Reformed Church of his parents. As a boy, he attended the country schools and grew up in the ways of the Reformed Church.
Michael later joined the Evangelical Association, commonly known as the "Albrights." He earned a living in young manhood as a carpenter and farmer.
At the age of 20, in 1850, he was unmarried and lived at home in Somerset Township, working as a carpenter.
In 1857, at the age of 28, Michael was united in holy matrimony with 23-year-old Sarah Walker (1834- ? ), daughter of Elder Daniel P. Walker. Elder George Schrock officiated at the wedding.
The couple bore three children -- Mary E. Kimmel Johnson, Drucilla M. Weyand and Daniel M. Weyand.
A year after their marriage, he joined the Church of the Brethren and felt the Lord's call to the ministry in 1859. The federal census of 1860 shows the Weyands living near Benford's Store, Somerset Township, with Michael earning a living by farming. That year, 12-year-old Emeline Knepper was in the home.
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Son Daniel's grave, Brotherton Pike |
Following the death of his father, Michael received in 1870 a payment of $1,005.00 as an inheritance. That year, the federal census enumeration shows them living as farmers in Somerset Township, with his 81-year-old widowed mother in the household.
Grief cascaded over the family in January 1874 (?) when son Daniel passed away at the age of four years, six months and 23 days. The boy's tender remains were lowered into repose in the Brotherton Pike Cemetery. A marker was erected at the grave, and while portions are still legible, other texts are fading badly. Inscribed on the bottom was this poignant epitaph:
No more the pleasant child is seen To please the parents eye. The tender plant so fresh and fair Is in eternity. |
Michael was profiled in Jerome E. Blough's 1916 book, History of the Church of the Brethren of the Western District of Pennsylvania, which stated:
In 1886 he was ordained to the eldership of the Brothers Valley congregation. For about ten years he had charge of this large and flourishing congregation. Brother Weyand's health was not the best at any time in his life. Being of an unassuming nature he lived a quiet life. He did not travel extensively, but was faithful in filling the appointments in his home congregation. He was a supporter of Sunday schools, as well as of mission work as carried on in his day. He frequently attended the Annual Conferences.
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Michael's profile in the History of the Church of the Brethren of the Western District of Pennsylvania. Courtesy Google Books.
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Cemetery sign, 2019 |
Among the weddings Michael is known to have performed was the union of Samuel U. Shober to Sarah Ellen Kimmel on Sept. 27, 1872, as cited in the Church of the Brethren history. Another, as recorded in the gossip columns of the Somerset Herald, was the marriage of Jonathan J. Kimmel of Stoystown to Sarah Croner of Brothersvalley in January 1873.
He also co-officiated the funeral of Jacob Blough near Berlin in June 1886, with the service held in the Grove meeting house, and the sermon based on Revelation 14:13: "And I heard a voice from heaven saying unto me, Write, Blessed are the dead which die in the Lord from henceforth: Yea, saith the Spirit, that they may rest from their labours; and their works do follow them."
The 1880 federal census shows Michael and Sarah living on a farm in Somerset Township, with their daughter and son in law Mary and Jacob Kimmel living under their roof. The census-taker recorded that Sarah was suffering with neuralgia at the time.
Michael's church was located near the community of Listie with one building, known as the Trent Church, with 75 members. A history of the local Brethren Church said that "After a division of the German Baptists and the Progressive Brethren the church was purchased by the latter group, who used it until about 1892, when it was dismantled and the best of the lumber was used in the erection of the First Brethren church in Listie. The members remaining with the German Baptists aligned themselves once more with the Brothersvalley congregation, building a house of worship, which was called the Rayman church. The Somerset congregation of that era ceased to exist."
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The Trent Church and cemetery, where Michael Weyand Jr. was pastor. Two Centuries of the Church of the Brethren in Western Pennsylvania, 1751-1950.
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In February 1892, Michael authored his last will and testament, witnessed by P. Miller and J.J. Blanch. He stated that his widow Sarah was to "have the use of the house on the East side of the hall during her lifetime." She also was to have two cows, 10 chickens, 10 bushels each of wheat and corn, 15 bushels of oats and hay, pasture-lad for the cows, a cook stove, parlor stove, cupboard and three beds. As well, Sarah was to have use of the garden, wood and coal and a buggy. Financially, she was to receive $1,000 in cash and the interest on another $1,000 annually as long as she lived. Upon her demise, their married daughter and son-in-law were to have possession of the entire remainder of the estate.
In the will, Michael named son-in-law Kimmel and William H. Walker as co-executors, although Walker declined the post.
Michael died on May 25, 1900, at the age of 71. Burial was in the Pike Cemetery at Brotherton, Somerset County, with elder Silas Hoover preaching the funeral sermon.
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Michael's last will and testament - Will Book 8, page 321 - Estate #84 of 1900. Courtesy Register of Wills, County of Somerset, PA.
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Sarah lived for another four-plus years.
She moved into the home of her daugher and died there on Sept. 29, 1904. Funeral services were conducted at the Pike German Baptist Church in Brotherton, officiated by elders J.J. Shaffer and S.U. Shober. An obituary in the Somerset Daily American noted that "Mrs. Weyand's husband died about four years ago."
Posthumously, Michael was named in Henry R. Holsinger's book History of the Tunkers and the Brethren Church and the 1953 work, Two Centuries of the Church of the Brethren in Western Pennsylvania, 1751-1950.
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Jeremiah Sullivan Black, of Somerset, Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania and U.S. Secretary of State under President Buchanan, and his monument along Route 31, a short distance from Pike Cemetery at Brotherton.
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~ Daughter Mary E. (Weyand) Kimmel Johnson ~
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The Kimmels' grave, Brotherton Pike |
Daughter Mary E. Weyand (1859-1946) was born on Jan. 17, 1859.
In about 1878, when she was age 19, she was joined in wedlock with her first spouse, 25-year-old Jacob O. Kimmel (Jan. 4, 1853-1910), who was six years her senior. He was the son of Daniel and Emaline (Landis) Kimmel.
They bore one child, who sadly died in infancy and may not have been named.
The federal census of 1880 shows the newlywed couple living in the same farm household as her parents, with Jacob assisting with farming labor. Federal census records for 1900 show the couple on a farm in Somerset Township, with Mary's widowed mother under their roof. Their home was located near the village of Wills, four miles east of the county seat.
Sadly, burdened for two months with an abscess in his lungs, Jacob died at home at the age of 57 on April 30, 1910. A physician wrote: "Died without medical attention for 24 hours. His physician having died in the meantime. Death likely from abscess of the lungs." Funeral services were held in the Brotherton Church of the Brethren, led by Elder J.J. Shaffer, with interment was in the Brotherton Pike Cemetery. C.K. Shober of Somerset signed the death certificate.
An obituary in the Meyersdale Republican called him "a well known citizen..." and said that he had been "a faithful member of the Church of the Brethren the greater part of his life and held the office of deacon in his congregation for a period of thirty years." Another account of his death in the Republican said that "The widow (nee Mary Weyand) now stands alone, having neither father, mother, brother, sister nor child."
Two years later, on July 3, 1912, she married 54-year-old widower John L. Johnson ( ? - ? ), son of Nicholas P. and Elizabeth Johnson. Rev. D.H. Walker officiated, with the ceremony held in Mary's home. At the time, he was living in Colfax, Marion County, WV, where he was employed as superintendent of a brick works. News of their marriage license application was printed in the Republican.
John's first wife had died Sept. 25, 1909. His fate is not yet known.
Mary made her home on Hoffman Avenue in Scalp Level, Cambria County in the mid-1940s. While at the Old Folks Home in Windber, Somerset County, she fell and fractured her left femur. Added to senile psychosis and pneumonia, she was admitted to Somerset Community Hospital.
She stayed there for seven weeks until death at the age of 87 on Aug. 10, 1946. Her remains were placed into eternal rest in Brotherton Pike Cemetery. Orange Spaughey of Scalp Level signed her death certificate.
~ Daughter Drucilla M. Weyand ~
Daughter Drucilla M. Weyand (1869- ? ) was born in June 1869, likely in Somerset Township.
She is not listed in census records as living with her parents in 1880, when she otherwise would have been about 11 years of age.
Nothing more is known.
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