3a. Maria Sophia Apgar

b. about 1741 in Cokesbury, Hunterdon County, NJ, d. after 1814 in Bedford (now Fulton) County, PA.

m. (1) about 1760 in Hunterdon County, NJ, Johann Adam Wagner, b. about 1744, d. about 1779 in Frederick County, MD, son of Johann Adam and Anna Maria Wagner.

m. (2) 6 February 1781 in Thurmont MD, Christian "Stoffel" Nead, d. after 1814 in Bedford (now Fulton) Co, PA.

Children by first marriage:
3a.1. William Wagoner, b. circa 1761, d. circa 1834, m. Mary Nied
3a.2. Christian Wagoner, b. 1763, d. 1856, m. Anna Catherine Valentine

A baptismal entry dated July 11, 1763, in the records of the German Reformed Church at Mount Pleasant, Hunterdon County, NJ, for "Christ’n (or Christ’r) Wagner", born June 10, 1763, lists his parents as Ad’m (or Jo’n) Wagner and Maria Soph’ Apgar (or Apger). This intriguing record, one of the earliest preserved from the Alexandria (log) Church, came to the attention of Helen S. Apgar in 1984. Helen hypothesized that Maria Sophia Apgar must have been a member of the first American-born Apgar generation, an otherwise unmentioned and previously unknown daughter of Johannes Peter Apgard. It was that she must have either died or moved with her family from Hunterdon County, perhaps to Pennsylvania. Additional information gathered since then suggests that the second guess may have been correct!

Christian Waggoner (a variant spelling of Wagner) did live most of his life in Pennsylvania. His tombstone, in his family cemetery (now referred to as "Englert Farm") near the present town of Knobsville, records his death on January 13, 1856, at the age 92 years, 7 months, 5 (or possibly 3) days. This would make his birth date June 8 (or 10), 1763.

Numerous pieces of evidence brought to light in 2000 fill in the story of the infant baptized in western New Jersey during the last war of the French & Indian War, who died nearly a century later on the eve of the Civil War in southern Pennsylvania. Christian’s father Johannes Adam Wagner was probably the son of Johann Adam Wagner and Anna Maria (Unknown), from the town of Raubach, province of Hessen-Nassau, in what would later become Germany. They arrived in Philadelphia with 7-year old daughter Anna Eva on October 8, 1744 in the ship Aurora from Rotterdam by way of Cowes. Anna Maria was probably in an advanced state of pregnancy when their ship docked in Philadelphia.

Johannes Adam Wagner, known simply as "Adam" and Maria Sophia Apgar, called "Sophia", both grew up in Hunterdon County, NJ. Anna Eva Wagner married Johannes Peter Blum (Bloom), both of whom were congregants of the Alexandria Church. Both are buried in the church cemetery. Adam and Sophia were married about 1760, probably in the Alexandria Church, although the earliest surviving church records date from 3 years later (1763).

Adam and Sophia Wagner’s first child, Wilhelm (William) Wagner, was born in about 1761 (too early for the baptismal record to have been preserved in the surviving church records). Catherine Apgar, Sophia’s only known sister, was married in 1760 and her first child was born in 1761. Thus, Sophia must have been born at about the same time as Catherine (born 1743). They may have been twins or Sophia may have been a twin of Johannes Adam (born about 1731). Adam and Sophia’s second child, Christ (Christian or Christopher), was born on June 10, 1763 and his baptism a month later was preserved in the records of the Alexandria Church.

In the decade after the French & Indian War many "Palatine" German settlers headed westward from Philadelphia (where the vast majority landed). They tended to stick together with other relatives and friends for company, mutual help, and protection against Indians and others of alien language, religion and culture.

The young Wagner family probably left Hunterdon County during or soon after 1764, the last year that Adam Wagner’s name appears in the records of the Alexandria Church. They probably traveled down the Delaware River to Philadelphia, where Sophia’s brother Heinrich was, or soon would be, tending a hotel. Then they rumbled out the Forbes Road to York, PA, an area where perhaps relatives and certainly some former neighbors and friends from Germany, were living. After a relatively short period, although perhaps as much as a few years, they continued down the "Monocacy Trail" to the town at the foot of the Catoctin Mountains, now called Thurmont ("door to the mountains"), in Frederick County, MD. There they settled and became members of the congregation of the German Reformed "Apples Church". (This is the English form of Appel, the name of the man who donated the land the church was built on).

Adam and Sophia (Apgar) Wagner, and their children, may have been accompanied by other German families from Hunterdon County during all or part of their migration to MD. At any rate, several names appear in the old records of both the Alexandria Church and Apples Church, including Aller (Oller/Ollar), Matthews (Mathews/Matthias), and Nagel (Nawgel/Naugle/Noggel). Over time, these families would intermarry with Adam and Sophia’s descendants.

In the early years of the Revolutionary War, probably beginning in 1776, Adam Waggoner and many of the other able-bodied male pioneers around Thurmont served with the American military forces, usually the local militia units. However, family obligations and other circumstances (such as the proximity of enemy forces) prevented many of these men from continuing in the military throughout the entire conflict.

The record of Adam Waggoner’s will in the Adm. Act’s Rec. in Frederick County Courthouse (MD) indicates that it was written in October 27, 1779 and marked with an "X". (Apparently Adam was illiterate, so changes in the spelling of his name and those of his children were at the whim of the scribe of the occasion.). The will names as beneficiaries: "Sophia Wagonner my dearly beloved Wife…my dearly beloved son William Waggoner…my second and well beloved Son Christopher Waggoner (and)…my Brother’s Daughter Catherine Wagonner". The latter was included, contingent on her staying with widowed Sophia "until her full age". Both sons were admonished to live with and help their mother at least until they married. This will was recorded in the courthouse on December 4, 1779 (apparently after Adam’s death). Sophia, his widow, acted as administrator. Adam’s estate was finally settled, including 45 pounds received from Mathias DiShong, on December 9, 1780.

Sophia (Apgar) Wagner re-married, in Frederick County, MD on February 6, 1781, to Christopher "Stoffel" Nead, a widowed Revolutionary War veteran and member of the same church. Christian Waggoner was married in 1782 to a girl (probably local) named Anna Catherine. The following year, Christian took out papers for land in Pennsylvania. He and Anna Catherine left their homes in Frederick County. They may have traveled in the company of fellow Thurmont neighbors and church members, including Mathias DiShong and Philip Mathews, who purchased acreage nearby. Singly or together, they moved up the old Braddock Trail (built from Baltimore to Fort Pitt during the French & Indian War) across the Mason-Dixon Line into southern Pennsylvania. They probably crossed the mountains, when westward on the old Forbes Road, and finally passed through "The Narrows" into McConnell’s Cove as the area was then called. The upper portion of the valley on the slope of Cove Mountain became known as Knobsville. Philip Mathews, (Jr?) (1778-1849) later married Christian Waggoner’s daughter Sophia Wagoner. Mathias DeShong (Jr?) (1785-1874) was buried in the Waggoner family cemetery near Knobsville.

According to Catherine’s tombstone, next to Christian’s in the Englert Farm Cemetery, they raised two sons and two daughters: Margaret (1783-1853), George Wagoner (1785-1855) and Sophia (1790- ? ).

Older brother William settled further north in Springfield Township, Huntingdon County, PA (near the Park and Lane families who intermarried with descendants of Herbert Apgar). Later, some of these offspring would intermarry with descendants of Christian Waggoner in what is now Fulton County! He had at least one child, named Christian Wagoner, born in 1796. William died in about 1832. His son Christian married Mary Jefferies and had at least one child, Mary, born in 1821, who married Henry Mathias (Mathews).

It is uncertain whether Christian’s mother moved to Pennsylvania when he did. However, in the 1810 Pennsylvania Census, Christopher Nead and one female (both over 45 years old) was reportedly living only two doors from Christian Waggoner, right next to Christian’s son George, in Dublin Township, Fulton County. Christopher’s unnamed housemate must have been his wife Sophia (Maria Sophia Apgar Wagner Nead)! Neither Christopher nor Sophia Nead appear in the 1820 Census, by which time Sophia would have been well into her 70s. It is likely that they had both died by that time.

Christian’s oldest daughter Margaret married Peter Aller/Oller (1744-1839). Peter Aller was probably also from Hunterdon County, NJ. He may have been the oldest son and namesake of Peter Aller (Sr). This Peter Aller was either emigrated from Germany and settled in Amwell Township, or emigrated from Germany and settled in Lebanon.

The former, elder Peter Aller, married Elizabeth (Unknown). His will, which was probated on May 17, 1773, names three sons and seven daughters. The oldest son, Peter, married Anna (Unknown) and reportedly had at least four children in Hunterdon County. Their youngest child, Anna, a/k/a Sarah Ann, born August 18, 1777 married Frederick Apgar (7.4.), son of Peter Apgar. Frederick and Anna (Aller) Apgar had twelve children of their own and were buried in the old cemetery of the Reformed Church in Lebanon, Hunterdon County, NJ—but that’s another story.

Peter Aller who settled in Dublin Township, Fulton (then Bedford) County, PA had been previously married with a family, including at least six children in Hunterdon County. He served in New Jersey Militia during the Revolutionary War (1776-1780), rising from private to captain. At any rate, Peter Aller, once settled amidst (probably) childhood friends and/or relatives, married a girl nearly 40 years his junior, Christian Waggoner’s daughter Margaret (1783-1853). Peter was apparently healthy into his later years, fathering at least four children with Margaret, and serving as the township supervisor in about 1822 (when he would have been 78 years old).

In 1850 Christian Waggoner (90) and Margaret Oller (67) were living in Todd Township with Philip Oller (37), a farmer. Philip Oller was a son of Margaret and a grandson of Christian Waggoner.

References:
1850 Pennsylvania Census. Microfilm records, digital image, Family Tree Maker’s Family Archives CD #305.
Chambers, Theodore Frelinghuysen, The Early Germans of New Jersey; Their History, Churches and Genealogies, (Dover, NJ: Dover Printing Company, 1895)
Corrie, Peggy Smith (2001) Personal correspondence with Michael A. Apgar.
Daniels, Amanda (2002) Personal correspondence with Michael A. Apgar.
Keebaugh, Kenneth W. (1988) Personal correspondence to Peggy Smith Corrie.
Keebaugh, Kenneth W. (2001-2002) Personal correspondence with Michael A. Apgar.
Ollar, Betty (2002) Personal correspondence with Michael A. Apgar
Rose, Ron (2002) Personal correspondence with Michael A. Apgar.