Breidenthal

Henry Breidenthal & Elizabeth Dodson

Fewer than normal sources are cited here.  Much of the information on Henry is widespread on the web, but without documentation. If anyone can provide such needed documentation, please contact me at nancy@nancysdeadrelatives.com.

4 Oct 1784: Henry Breidenthal was born in Darmstadt, Germany.  Henry is often referred to as John Henry, but none of the records I've consulted verify that name.

8 Oct 1786: Elizabeth Dodson was born in Maryland.

The story of Henry's immigration to the United States was told by Mary Breidenthal, daughter of William Findley Breidenthal and granddaughter of John Henry Breidenthal:

I'll tell you about a little German boy.  Although but twelve years of age he was serving an apprenticeship as a weaver.  His master used him cruelly, beating him and forcing him to work until he nearly dropped dead from weariness.  During the long hours of labor and while his spirit smarted under the hardships imposed by his master, he planned to run away and take passage across the Atlantic Ocean to the new land of America, where he was told, everyone was free and wealth abounded, awaiting the taking by all who had the will to work.

Somehow the lad made his escape and eventually landed in America.  That boy was Henry Breidenthal.  He was my grandfather.  He was born in Darmstadt, Germany.  Unfortunately, I know nothing about his parents, therefore, my knowledge of my family history on my father's side does not extend beyond grandfather. 

Of his early adventures I know little except that he fought in the War of 1812.  His expectations of liberty and riches in America were pretty well realized because he was his own master and when he died he left each of his five sons a farm.

He not only acquired a considerable fortune in the land of his adoption but he was held in such high regard by his fellow citizens that they elected him to Congress . . . Grandfather Breidenthal married Margaret Dodson.[1]

For more about Henry's origins and immigration, see Origins: Mathias, Henry, and John Anthony.

According to his 1811 naturalization papers, Henry arrived in the United States on 24 Aug 1798, although one witness stated that Henry had lived in Bedford County from 18 Jun 1798 to 14 Apr 1802.  Mathias resided over the ridge in Franklin County.  Was Henry in Bedford County to complete his schooling?

1 Apr 1811: Henry became a naturalized citizen.

"During the War of 1812 "Captain Bridenthal" led a company of men recruited from "the cove"  all the way to Canada.  "The cove" referred to Morrison's Cove, a fertile valley that extends into present Blair and Centre Counties.  Woodberry and North Woodberry Townships and the towns of Woodberry and Martinsburg are located in the cove.

1820 Census, Woodbury Township, Bedford County, PA: Henry Breidenthal was listed with 3 males under 10, 1 10-16, 1 26-45; 3 females under 10, 1 26-45; 1 person engaged in commerce.[1a]

c. 1820: Town lots were laid out in Martinsburg, North Woodberry Township.  "Henry Bridenthal, a weaver, justice of the peace, and one of the first representatives of Blair County in the Pennsylvania Assembly, settled there."  That area was then Bedford County, but became Blair County in 1846.

2 Mar 1826: Along with [brother-in-law] John Hoe and John Fletcher, Henry was named co-executor of father Mathias' will.[1b]

1830 Census, Bedford County, PA (Woodbury Township): H. Bridenthall Esq. was enumerated with 1 male under 5, 2 10-15, 1 15-20, 1 20-30, 1 40-50; 3 females 15-20, 2 20-30, 1 40-50.

5 Dec 1834: H. Breidenthal was listed as one of the trustees for the Wesleyan School, Martinsburg.[2]

Between 1835 and 1845, Henry went into the iron business, building the "Breidenthal Foundry" in Martinsburg.  Son Matthew was also involved in the business from the age of 21.

1840 Census, Martinsburg Borough, Bedford County, PA: 1 male under 5, 1 20-30, 1 50-60; 1 female 15-20, 1 50-60.[3]

28 Aug 1850, Martinsburg Borough, Blair County, PA: Farmer Henry Bridenthal 65, born Germany, with real property valued at $12,951; Elizabeth 63, born MD; John E. Moore 13, born PA.[4]

12 Apr 1854: Elizabeth Dodson Breidenthal died and was buried in Fairview Cemetery in Martinsburg.

17 Jun 1855: Henry wrote to son Matthew who was preparing a home in Le Sueur County, MN for his family:

Dear Mathew,

Having an opportunity to send a letter by hand at least to St. Paul, I promised Henrietta [Matthew's wife] that I would write.  We were told in yours of the 25 [th] May that up to that time you had not rec'd one of our letters yet, although we had sent you upwards of twenty letters at least.  We all blamed ourselves very much for not sending letter to [husband of Elizabeth Breidenthal] John Elliot to take with him, but somehow there was not one of us that could think of the chance, and not knowing whether you will get this one, I do not intend to write a very long letter if I can avoid it.  Now in the first place I will tell you that I just came from your house having been there all night and can tell you that your little family all enjoy very good health so much that I think they never did enjoy better health.  Oh, it does one good to see the little ones run and jump about as they do, and Henrietta seems quite well of her cough and I think with proper care might never be troubled with it anymore.  All the rest of our folks are all well and Harrison put out for Philadelphia on last Friday.  He is a bad boy.  Hezekiah attends to the draying and feeding the horses and is very attentive to the business in general.  Some time back the business had got quite slack, then they sent four of their horses out to pasture, but at the time of the rise of our rivers the business increased so they had to send for two of them, so that they can now keep eleven drays out at least for some good time.  We had such a tremendous rain last night that the river may get, say, 12 feet and it looks as if we would get more yet today.  The car team is doing fine, the horses fat.  I received a letter last week David last week [sic].  He says that since our late rains everything is beginning to look, that  Henry's [Junior]  grain all looks very well and that he would like to see John down there about the middle of July, but I do not see how that can be done, especially if you should not come home by that time.  Henrietta rec'd a letter from Henry in which he says a great many things, but the most is about their children all having the hooping [sic] cough and that very bad too, and that their youngest little girl Susan Martha died, but that the rest of them appeared to be getting better again.  He invites you and family very urgently to come down there during harvest, that there are abundance of cherries and fruit of all kinds, and that there is a farm adjoining his which, if you would come down, you could buy it outright.  He laments of having both places to attend to, meaning in the cove and at home.  But the worst about Henry I have to tell yet.  From the letter he sent Henrietta in which he lamented so much about the health of his little baby, I had got to think that it would perhaps do him some good and keep him from drinking whiskey, but since I am told that he was in the Town of Woodberry on a real tare, as they called it, and he let Wilkerson put a mare on him that will not work at all and gave his note of seventy five dollars for the mare.  Now just think of it, him looking and expecting help from you to help him pay for his farm.  This mare, if she will not work, he will no doubt some day, when he gets in a spree, swap away for some old watch or something else that's of no value.

Well now, I must say a little more about the business of draying, and the R.R. Co. have bought out Leech Penn and Ohio Line, so that they have to clear the canal of all their boats, and as a matter of course the R.R. Co. will get more goods to carry on the R.R. than heretofore, but whether our boys will get any part of it to dray, John says that he does not know anything about it as yet, but he thinks that maybe they will get some of it.  The R.R. iron is a first rate job for the boys as they can always be at that when they have nothing else to do.  [Obviously, Henry was still involved in the foundry.] If you are not coming home soon yourself, I do hope that you will write and let us know all about your doing and high living and all about your ploughing, planting, sowing, and making hay fences.  You ought to write every week.  Don't forget to tell us about John Elliot and whether you have rec'd any or all of our letters yet.  Is your Postmasters out in your country all Mickeys?  I will now close by merely telling you that the man that's to take this letter is a brother to Wm Philips that keeps the shoe store at the depot.

From your affectionate Father

Henry Breidenthal

Henry moved to Minnesota, joining the families of sons Matthew and John and son-in-law and daughter John and Elizabeth Elliot.  On 16 Aug 1859, he wrote to son David in Bedford County, Pennsylvania:

Dear David,

I wrote a letter to be sent to you as much as two weeks ago, but through forget and other circumstances, it was never in the Post Office & I am therefore obliged to write again on the same subject, and that is money.  For all I know you may have already sent or taken it to Wm. [Bingham, Henry's son-in-law] as I requested you to do in my last letter, as I had to leave the note with him.  Now if you have not already taken or sent the money, I do hope and trust that you will attend to this matter immediately for I do think that between Burgert and yourself, Matthew has been treated very bad, and myself along with Math. On account of your not paying up, Math. was obliged to give interest at the rate of 31 per cent & in order to save him from such extortion I had to send Math. of my money that I had in a bank & could have taken it out at any moment that I needed it, and now I have bought a house and lot and other items for $383 which I promised to pay at the farthest on the 15th of next month, and in case that I do not comply for the want of this money, I will be obliged to try to get the money out of the Bank of St. Peter & pay interest at the rate of 33 per cent.

Now you see the situation I am in, and this is all because you did not pay your note when due.  Now I say as before, if not already paid, to at it in [sic]  pay your note when due.  Now I say as before if not already paid, to at it in good earnest & don't be put off by Burgert merely saying that he has not got it and that he cannot borrow it & tell him that you must have it.  I know that if he only has the will he can get it.  I have written to Wm. Findley [another of Henry's sons] that if you have not paid it yet, that he should advance the amount and send it to me and keep it out of Math's money after you have paid it, but whether or not he will I cannot pretend to say.  But one thing I do know, that is if I am not helped out of this scrape, I will feel as if I could curse Father, Mother Son, and all who had any hand in disappointing me, for I have ever and upon all occasions helped and obliged any and every one of my children that stood in need for help if it was in my power to do so, and now I have got old and poor, after giving all I had to my children, there appears to be such a poor niggardly disposition among my children to even give me my own, not to say anything about not giving me that which is not owing me.

I am now in Minnesota, in a country where one cannot borrow a few dollars of money but of a Sharper, and if he lent you but a few dollars of money, they will have you to give a mortgage of 80 acres of land at 33% or 40%.  In a short time, paying such heavy interest, the owner of the land will lose his land, and in this way there are any amount of men who have lost their land by giving such mortgages.

These forfeited pieces of land in a general lay ideal, ready to be sold to the first man that wants to buy land.  There are two 80 acre lots lying adjoining John's farm, each one of these could be bought for about $400 a piece.  They are about half fenced and farmed, as good land as in the state, and as level as a floor.  I am certain if you had one of these lots you could make a better living on it than if you had all you can raise on your farm, and these 80 acres could be farmed every year without any intermission.  This is the handsomest country I have ever seen.

There is not a farm in Morrison's Cove as handsome as John's.  He has about 18 hundred shocks of wheat, rye, and oats and 10 acres of Hungarian grass as tall as any wheat and as thick on the ground as it can stand, and it will turn out about 3 or 4 tons per acres.  The seed of it will sell well.  It was sold when scarce for three dollars per bushel, and they tell me that it is better for horses or cattle than any other hay, especially if it is fed with the seed on it.  He has 23 acres of corn, part of it was broken with two horses.  The corn dropped after the plow and covered with the next furrow, and never having the least done to it, and it's as good as that farmed in the usual way of farming, such as going through it with the cultivator, hoeing, etc.  There is not a stone to be seen anywhere.  The roads are level.  the horses run and work all summer without a shoe on their feet.  There is no end to pasture.  A thousand head of cattle could find plenty of pasture, where is but one now to use it.  A man can make as much hay as he pleases to make.

The property I bought is in Ottawa, a new town two miles from John's farm.  It is a good frame house with five rooms in it, three below and two above, a good stable and a first rate fence around it, an excellent cellar under it.  There is preaching in the town every Sunday and Sabbath school, a pretty society of Methodist, but no tavern.  I am to get the possession of the property as soon as the land money is paid.

All our friends here have received their step-grandmother very friendly and seem as if they could not use her kind enough, and especially by some that talked and said the most against her, although I would have been afraid to bring her to the Cove, and as we are now in Minnesota, I suppose none of you will ever be allowed to see her or me in this world, unless you come out here to see us.  [His new wife is presumed to be the Ann Breidenthal, enumerated with him in 1860.  Perhaps she was not deemed acceptable by some, as the census taker listed her as illiterate.]

Henry's Keturah [Henry's granddaughter] is here with her uncle John, and I think is doing very well.  She says she could not think of going back to Bedford County, Pa. to stay there.    The weather has been very warm here ever since we came out here, first rate weather for the corn.  This is a great country for raising corn.  Should the frosts stay away till the last of Sept. there will be oceans of corn and pork will be perhaps 3 cents per pound.

Our folks here are all well, my own included.  I hope these few lines will find you all enjoying good health.  Oh, how I would like to see you all, especially the little ones.

I wish you would write to me soon and tell me what the receipts were given for that you hold against me, about Math's money.  I will conclude for this time with my best wishes and respects for you all from your affectionate father.

Henry Breidenthal

P.S. Direct your letter to Lesuer County Ottawa Post Office, Minnesota.  Let Findley see this letter; that will answer the same as if it had been written to him.

1860 Census, Le Sueur County, MN: Farmer Henry Breidenthal 76, born Germany, with $350 and $150 in real and personal property; Ann 46, born VA, can't read or write; Jeremiah Jeffries 11, born OH.[5]  Was Jeremiah Ann's child from a previous marriage?

Pittsburgh Gazette, 10 Nov 1868,: "Breidenthal, Henry, died on Nov. 8, 1868, aged 84 years, at the home of his son-in-law William Bingham, Esq.  Remains will be taken to Martinsburg, Pa. for interment."   Other sources, however, give a death date of 21 Sep 1868.

In an obituary transcribed by Oren Breidenthal, but not identified - and hopefully without editing:

We are called upon to announce the death of another old and highly esteemed citizen, Mr. Henry Breidenthal, who died last evening at the residence of his son-in-law, William Bingham of this city.  He had resided in this vicinity for a long term of years, and had a large circle of friends and relatives.  He was a soldier during the entire war of 1812.  At one time he was a member of the State legislature from Martinsburg, PA, where he formerly lived in Blair County.  He had reached the advance age of 84, but retaining his age he continued to feel a deep interest in the political affairs of the country . . . He leaves a number of friends and relatives behind him who will learn of his death with sincere sorrow.[6]

Henry is buried in Fairview Cemetery. 

Henry must have left a will.  Where is it? 

 Children of Henry and Elizabeth Dodson Breidenthal:

John Breidenthal (10 Apr 1809 - 6 May 1886; m. 1st Rachel Woodcock, m. 2nd Ellen Beeler)

Nancy Anna Breidenthal (5 Jan 1811 - 17 Jun 1891; m. William Bingham 25 May 1830)

Elizabeth  Breidenthal (19 Nov 1812 -     ; m. John Elliot)

8 Jun 1860 Census, Henderson, Sibley County, MN: Farmer John Elliot, born PA; with personal property valued at $500; Eliza A. 47, born PA; Henrietta 18; Margaret A. 16; Caroline J. 14; Eliza E. 11; Nancy C. 8.[7]  They were listed next to the family of [brother] "Martin Brightenthau".

Margaret Ann Breidenthal (27 Jul 1814 - 1838; m. James Moore)

Henry B. Breidenthal (17 Mar 1815 - 7 Jun 1891; m. Susan Smith 13 Apr 1841)

William Findley Breidenthal (12 Feb 1818 - 15 Jul 1885; m. Elizabeth Sensenbaugh)

Matthew B. Breidenthal (11 Nov 1819 - 5 Apr 1884; Henrietta Eleanor Young 14 Dec 1841)

David Steel Breidenthal (1 Mar 1822 - 25 Feb 1897; m. Esther Jane Rhodes 9 Oct 1845, Bedford Co, PA) 

Catherine Breidenthal (23 Dec 1823 -     )

If you have material about or photos of any individuals included in Nancy's Dead Relatives, can add well-documented family lines, have corrections and/or comments, or wish to establish a link to or from this site, please contact me at nancy@nancysdeadrelatives.com.  However, the decision whether or not to include any submitted material is the webmaster's (mine) alone. 

Nancy Denty Breidenthal

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