John F. Schrontz, p. 954

JOHN F. SCHRONTZ, a typical self-made business man, and a prominent agriculturist of Washington county, whose highly improved farm of 200 acres, in South Strabane township, is situated one mile from Washington borough, is a native of the county, having been born in Amwell township March 2, 1828. His grandfather, John Schrontz, a native of Wurtemberg, Germany, was a merchant tailor of considerable repute in the Fatherland. In 1804 he came to the United States with his family, and for a short time they had their residence in Harmony, a small town in Beaver county, Penn. From there they moved to Hamilton county, Ohio, where they remained one year, and then came to Washington county, where the grandparents passed the remainder of their days.

They had two children, John F., father of our sketch, being the elder. He was born in Wurtemberg, Germany, in the year 1781, and there learned the tailor's trade, which he followed in his native land until he was about twenty-one years of age, when he set sail for America, the voyage occupying about three months. Landing in Baltimore, Md., he sojourned but a few days, and then came to Washington county, Penn., where he remained a few days, and then proceeded to Harmony, Beaver county, soon after which he entered 160 acres of land in Hamilton county, Ohio. This property he soon afterward exchanged for a farm in West Bethlehem township, this county, which in a few years he sold, and in 1817 purchased a homestead in Amwell township, where he ended his days; he bought another farm in the same township, which he also retained. In 1811 Mr. Schrontz married Elizabeth, daughter of Jacob Schidler, and the children born to this union were Catherine (wife of Zebulon Ferrell), Regina (wife of Thomas Baldwin), George, Jacob (living in Ohio), Eliza (wife of John Featherland), Ann (wife of David Friend), and John F. The mother of this family dying in 1839, Mr. Schrontz married, in 1842, for his second wife, Sarah Titus, of Buffalo township, this county, who bore him one child, Frank T. The father was called from earth in 1863, aged eighty-two years, a member of the Disciple Church, of which society at Pleasant Valley he was one of the organizers, from which time he was an elder and one of its most zealous supporters. In politics he was a Whig, and was a leader and counselor in the party.

John F. Schrontz passed his boyhood at the home of his birth, receiving at the subscription schools of the locality a liberal education, which was greatly improved by after reading on his part. For several years he was engaged in farming. After leaving the place of his birth in 1864, Mr. Schrontz resided in Amwell township some years, and then moved to Union township, remaining there one and one-half years, and thence proceeded to Allegheny county, same State, where he was in business twelve years; then came to Somerset township, this county, thence to Middletown, remaining two years; thence to West Bethlehem township, and from there after a year's stay to Amwell township; here he remained one year, and then proceeded to Claysville, in which village he was in business four years, at the end of which time he came to his present place in South Strabane township. On February 12, 1861, Mr. Schrontz married Nancy, daughter of Samuel Blackmore, of Peters township, and the children born to this union are Frederick (living in Tully, N. Y.), Annie, Charles, Lizzie and Emma. The mother of this family dying in 1874, Mr. Schrontz married on May 11, 1875, Nancy Griffith, daughter of John Griffith, of East Finley township, this county, and their children are John F. and Clark. The family are all members of the Disciple Church, in which Mr. Schrontz has been an active worker; politically he has always been a zealous adherent of the Republican party.

Text taken from page 954 of:
Beers, J. H. and Co., Commemorative Biographical Record of Washington County, Pennsylvania (Chicago: J. H. Beers & Co., 1893).

Transcribed March 1997 by Neil and Marilyn Morton of Oswego, IL as part of the Beers Project.
Published March 1997 on the Washington County, PA USGenWeb pages at http://www.chartiers.com/.

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