Recent information has been gathered and analyzed that leads
to the somewhat startling conclusion that George Anthony Mumma, the 1732 immigrant who
arrived in Philadelphia[1]
with his father, Leonard Mumma, had two wives. Many civil records about George's life were
recorded in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, where he lived, but none suggested that he had
a wife prior to Barbara Weber/Weaver.[2]
This discovery was initiated in 1999, when Robert A. Moomaw
engaged the services of Nancy Sorrells, a Virginia genealogist, to do research in the
records of Augusta County, Virginia, about a Christian Mummer who lived in that county.
She found several documents that included a George Mumma’s name. A careful
examination of these documents, coupled with other Lancaster documents, led to the
conclusion that George Anthony Mumma had a wife by the name of Alice (or Elsibed) prior to
his marriage to Barbara Weber/Weaver. From that union, George and Alice had a daughter
named Elizabeth.
Case of Hite vs.
Ready
Jost Hite had been involved in numerous land acquisitions and
subsequent lawsuits due to his failure to present valid titles to the lands he sold. In
Frederick County a very large lawsuit between Jost Hite and Lord Thomas Fairfax involving
40,000 acres.[3]
One case heard in Augusta County involved about 4,000 acres, including the 1,500 acres
which Hite sold to John Baughman in 1737. A
George Mumma(h) is mentioned in two quit claim deeds filed in this suit.
From an examination of the first quit claim deed[4]
filed in 1763, we learn that a John Baughman of Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, purchased
1,585 acres of land in Orange County, Virginia in 1737 from Jost Hite, but Hite never
conveyed title to Baughman. Created and signed in Lancaster County, the document conveyed
title of Baughman’s Virginia land to one of his daughters and her husband in the
settlement of John's estate. A careful search of Lancaster County deeds did not reveal
this deed. Another copy of this deed has also been discovered in the Virginia State
Library with the survey of his land.[5] The reasons for the various
court actions are not important, however, in determining the existence of George's first
wife.
John's six daughters are named in the document with their
husbands: Alice Baughman, deceased, who married George Mumma of Lancaster County; Barbara
Baughman, who married Benjamin Lehman of Frederick County, Virginia; Mary Baughman,
deceased, who married Nicholas Bower of Lancaster County; Ann Baughman, deceased, who
married Sebastain Weidman[6]
of Lancaster County; Elizabeth Baughman, who married Joseph Charle[7]
of Lancaster County; Christina Baughman, who married Nicholas Young of Lancaster County.
Barbara and her husband, Benjamin Lehman, took possession of this Virginia land as part of
the settlement of John Baughman’s estate. The other heirs gave them a "quit
claim" for £100 pounds. All of the heirs signed the document. George Mumma signed
his name with an "X".
I am only aware of one George Mumma living in Lancaster County
at this time period who would have been the correct age.
John Baughman died about 1757.[8] Assuming that this George married the eldest
daughter of John Baughman when George was a young adult, then George's birthdate would
have likely been before 1727. Thus, this George Mumma was either the well-known George
Anthony Mumma or a new, unidentified Mumma immigrant. But we knew that George Mumma
married Barbara Weber/Weaver, not an Alice Baughman.[9] I found a 1995 book about
Frederick County, Virginia, which discussed Northern Neck warrants and surveys.[10]
and identified a George Mumma as the husband of Alice Baughman.
The next quit claim document found in the Augusta County helps
identify the George Mumma mentioned in the other deeds. This document, dated August 13,
1770, was created and signed in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, by the heirs of John
Baughman.[11] It too was copied and filed in the Hite vs. Ready
case in Augusta County. Again, it was not found in Lancaster County. In this document we
find several differences from the previous document that was signed seven years earlier,
namely some spelling differences of names, probably due to the transcription of the
original document which was likely written in German. Nicholas and Marie (previously Mary)
Young had moved to York County in the intervening seven years. Benjamin and Barbara Lehman
were living in Frederick County, Virginia.
One heir was listed as "Elsibed Baughman, deceased, who
married George Mummah of Lancaster County." George's surname has a "h"
added to the end, a fairly common way of interpreting and spelling George Mumma's surname
on many early documents in Lancaster County. The spelling of his wife's name has also
changed from Alice to Elsibed. The name change of George’s wife initially concerned
me. However, after performing a search of the Internet regarding German-English name
associations, I discovered that Elsibed and Alice are both German nicknames for
“Elisabeth”.[12]
The most important fact in this document, however, is the
signature of George Mumma. He signs with the
mark, "IMA". As far as I know, George Anthony Mumma is the only person who used
these initials when signing. A number of documents, including his will,[13]
show these initials. These initials clearly prove that this George Mumma is indeed, George
Anthony Mumma of Hempfield Township, Lancaster County. He was the son of the immigrant
Leonard Mumma and he had a wife name Alice (Elsibed) Baughman.
Lancaster County
Records
A further examination of the Lancaster County records reveals
additional data about John Baughman, who died intestate about October 8, 1757 and other
persons related to George Anthony Mumma.
The bond[14] on the estate of John
Baughman shows that the letters of administration were issued to George Mumma and Nicholas
Bower, which clearly connects George Mumma and Nicholas Bower with John Baughman. From the
previous quit claim documents, we know that these two men had married daughters of John
Baughman. George and Nicholas are also shown as neighbors in Hempfield Township on the
original land warrants[15]
issued by the Penns. In addition, J. Ross Baughman wrote[16] that John Baughman was
closely associated with the Smith warrant which George Mumma purchased upon George Smith's
death.[17]
This further establishes that George Mumma and John Baughman had been neighbors.
However, another mystery now unfolds. Since John Baughman died
intestate, his heirs were determined by law. Only living descendants would share in John's
estate, namely his children or the spouses of any of his children who died, if there were
issue from these marriages. Since George is identified as an heir of John Baughman's
estate, then George and Alice Mumma must have had one or more children who were still
alive in 1757 when John died. Which of George's children were born from this marriage of
George Anthony Mumma and Alice Baughman?
By examining four documents I believe we have evidence that
points to at least one of his children listed in his will as being the product of this
first marriage to Alice Baughman:
1) Will of George Anthony Mumma:[18]
dated April 9, 1785; probated 29 July 1786.
George writes his will and identifies his ten children, as
well as the husbands of his married daughters. While the birth order is not listed, he
does list his daughters and sons separately in what we believe to be the birth order for
each group. The daughters were Elizabeth who married John Carle; Magdalena, who was the
widow of Jacob Strickler; Juliana, the wife of David Mellinger; then Maria and Barbara,
who are unmarried. The sons were Christian, George, Henry, David, and Jacob. Jacob was
known to be “not of age” when the will was written and presumed to be the
youngest child. George signs his will with his distinctive mark "IMA".
There are several unusual points about his will. He makes
bequests which are not evenly balanced between the children. The oldest son Christian
receives only £5 gold because he had “previously sufficiently provided him with
divers sums of money.” He also gives £50 gold or silver to his eldest daughter,
Elizabeth, the wife of John Carle. Then he makes very specific bequests of land to his
remaining sons. Lastly, he distributes the remainder of his estate to be divided equally
between nine named children. He specifically excludes the eldest son, Christian, from an
equal share of the estate, which suggests he felt that he had helped Christian
sufficiently as he stated or there may have been a strained relationship between them. He
gives his eldest daughter, Elizabeth, an extra £50 from his estate of £2,205. No
explanation for this imbalance is stated.
2) Will of Barbara Mumma:[19] dated October 24, 1788;
probated November 29, 1788.
The wife of George Anthony Mumma also carefully names all of
her children. In that intervening time of three years, the daughter Maria (Mary) married
Jacob Hertzler; the widow of Jacob Strickler, Magdalena, married again to an Abraham
Histand; and the daughter named Elizabeth, the wife of John Carle, is not mentioned.
Barbara signs with her mark, "B". The only unusual feature of her will is that
she provides the girls who remained at home helping their parents “over their
age”, additional sums of money for each year they stayed home. It has always been
assumed that Elizabeth (Mumma) Carle was missing from her mother's will because she had
died in the intervening three years.
3) Will of Jacob Hertzler:[20] dated April 22, 1793;
probated January 18 1794.
It is instructive to examine the will of Jacob Hertzler, the
husband of Maria Mumma, the daughter of George and Barbara. We discover that Maria died
between November 1788 (when her mother, Barbara, died) and April 1793 (when Jacob wrote
his will). It appears that no children came from Jacob's marriage to Maria because none
are mentioned in his will. After Maria's death, he married Ann Elizabeth who is living.
Maria's exact date of death is not known.
In his will, Jacob gives the money due his wife, Maria, from
her brother, Henry Mumma, to the children of two of her brothers, George Mumma, Jr., and
David Mumma. Henry was indebted to his siblings through his father's will. This George
Jr.'s children are well identified in Richard Huffman's book.[21]
However I am not aware that any of David's children have ever been identified or even that
David had a wife. It is not clear why Jacob gave money to just two of his wife's siblings
because additional nieces and nephews of Maria were living. Then we make a startling and
critical discovery. Jacob also gives £5 to the wife of John Carle. (From George Anthony
Mumma's will, we know that John Carle's wife was Elizabeth Mumma.) Therefore, from this
will we learn that Elizabeth Mumma was still alive when her mother, Barbara Mumma, wrote
her will and died in 1788. The reason for
this bequest to Elizabeth is also not stated.
4) Estate Administration of Jacob Hertzler:[22]
filed December 31, 1794.
Elizabeth (Mumma) Carle is listed again in the December 1794
distribution of Jacob Hertzler's estate as receiving her £5. This proves she was still
alive in Decembe 1794. This further supports the fact she couldn't have died between 1785
and 1788, the time between the writing of her father’s will and the writing of her
supposed mother's will. Therefore, why did her supposed mother, Barbara Mumma, not include
Elizabeth in her will? One obvious answer is that Elizabeth was not Barbara's daughter,
but the daughter of George's first marriage to Alice (Elsibed) Baughman. This was likely
why her father gave Elizabeth additional compensation of £50 when he wrote his will,
knowing that his second wife, Barbara, would probably not provide for Elizabeth in her
will. The additional gift of £50 to Elizabeth would have been considered to be a large
amount of money in that time period.
Conclusion
I believe that the evidence proves that George Anthony Mumma
(b. ca 1722) was first married to Alice (Elsibed) Baughman, the daughter of John Baughman
and she died prior to 1750[23]
when George's second wife, Barbara Weber, signs a property transfer deed. It should be
noted that George also signed this document with his unusual and distinctive mark,
"IMA". Also, George Anthony Mumma and Alice (Elsibed) Baughman had at least one
child named Elizabeth who married John Carle.
This research effort clearly demonstrates that finding
documentation and evidence may require searches in obscure archives in different locales
and that such evidence may be found hiding in the records of collateral lines.
Notes