John SHAFFER was born on 14 June 1769 in Berks County, PA. In 1794 he married Eva Marea THOMAS in Stouchsburg, Marion Township, Berks county, PA. Eva Marea was born 9 June 1765 and died 20 Sept 1842 in Shaffersville, Morris Township, Huntingdon Co. John died on 23 Aug 1848 there and both are buried in the Lutheran Church Cemetery in Shaffersville.

John Shaffer was one of the early pioneers of Morris Twp. He came from Berks County and bought property there in 1803 from Edward BEATTY for eight hundred pounds lawful money. This is now known as the hamlet of Shaffersville. John and Eva Marea reared five sons in the area.

Shaffersville is barely a mile from the village of Water Street. That village is on the old Indian Trails Maps. It was on the Frankstown Path, east. Past Standing Stone (Huntingdon), and on past Hart's Log (Alexandria) is Water Street. It was so named because pack trains used the creek bed for passage through the narrrow, steep-sided gap in Tussey Mountain. Turning southwest at the village of Water Street, the path (now followed closely by U. S. 22) passed Yellow Spring to Canoe Mountain and Canoe Creek.

The sons of John and Eva Marea are: Jacob Shaffer, born 9 Jan 1795, married Elizabeth FETTERHOFF; John born 7 Feb 1797, married Margaret FETTERHOFF; Adam born 23 Nov 1800 married, Elizabeth LOWE; Peter born 1 June 1803, married Elizabeth KELLER; and William born 26 May 1806, married Catherine HILEMAN.

This family is loacted in Huntingdon and Blair Counties, Indiana County, and Jefferson and Armstrong Counties in Central and Western Pennsylvania.

If these families seem familiar to you, I would enjoy hearing from you.


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