Abraham HUNSBERGER

13 Kinder

Abraham Hunsberger, husband of Catherine Nash Tyson, father of Alice, Anna, Isaac, Abraham, Catharine, Magdalena, William, Elizabeth, Mary, Susanna, Sarah, Hannah, and Martin. Farmer who sold produce in Philadelphia during the Revolution; sang praises to God early in the morning while he worked. Resided in Perkiomen, Skippack, and Limerick, PA. Buried Herstein (Herstine) Mennonite Church Cemetery, Neiffer Road, Limerick, PA

This is taken from Rev. N.B. Grubb's A Genealogical History of the Gottshall Family, pub 1924

page 111-12

"Abraham Hunsberger was a great singer. During the Revolutionary War, while the British under General Howe were in possession of Philadelphia, they tried to prevent the farmers from bringing their produce to market in order to starve the Americans who sympathized with the struggle for American liberty or else to compel them to surrender. Yet the farmers needed the market, and so many watched their opportunity to sneak into the city and supply their customers with the usual amount of thenecessaries of life. It was at a great risk that this was done and sometimes the farmers were caught and imprisoned.

Thus it was that Abraham Hunsberger, the father of Magdalena, wife of William Z. Gottshall, undertook to supply his customers when he was caught by the British and was locked up. His prospects were anything but bright for freedom. He was a sweetsinger, and gifted with musical talent and had a "faith that would not shrink on the brink of any woe, tho pressed by evrey foe."He was of cheerful spirit, and instead of showing fear and discouragement he sang all through the night and so charmed and entertained his guards with the sweet strains of music. They wereso delighted with his jovial disposition that the next morning they left him go on his way rejoicing. This appropriate weapon was so forcefully used by this non-resistant Mennonite, and was more effective in conquering the British than the American musket. Truly, music has charms.

The compiler of this work has a copy of a manuscript music book of which Abraham Hunsberger was the author and bears his signature under date of August 31, 1815. The contents are written in German.

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