Editor's Note: Several members have asked about the connection between the HARNESS and WESTFALL families in Hardy County. The following is an excerpt of a letter written by Bill Rice in January of 1983 that effectively answers and proves the connection between the Harness and Westfall families. Mr. Rice has agreed to the publication of this letter in ARA, and hopefully the following will answer the questions about the Michael Harness / Westfall marriage.
I will begin by pointing out that one of the most important sources for the wife of Michael Harness being Elizabeth Westfall is in Augusta County, Virginia on 22 March 1752, the record of bond posted for Michael Harness to serve as administrator of Euric or Jurian Westfall, his father in law. He is also the administrator on 21 November 1753 of the estate of Blandina Westfall, widow of Jurian. Referring to the church records of Kingston, New York we find that marriage number 417 is Jury Westfall to Blandina DeWitt on 24 October 1719. Both of these people were born at Rochester. But then the eldest daughter of Michael Harness Sr. and wife Elizabeth was born in 1727. So Elizabeth could not feasibly be the daughter of Blandina. So we must assume that Blandina was Jurian's second wife so we look earlier in the church records of Kingston. Marriage #356 from the minister's handwritten record is dated 20 August 1716 and reads "Jurian Westfall, widower of Styntjen Van Kuykendall, is married to Marytjen Koddebek." So we say, he must have been married three times. But closer examination of the record reveals that Jurian was born at Kingston while the one that married Blandina DeWitt was born in Rochester. Maybe the minister made a mistake. But wait. Another problem. In December of 1731 Jacob Kuykendall of Minisink County of Hunterdon, Western Division of he Province of New Jersey, records a statement regarding a 500 acre tract of land that he purchased jointly with Jurian Westfall. In the statement he refers to "Maryka Westfall, relic and widow of said Jurian Westfall" and that the remainder of the 500 acre tract above should be divided after her decease to the 7 children of Jurian Westfall: Johannes, Jacobus, Jacob, Benjamin, Daniel, Maryke, and Margarya. But there is no Elizabeth. Conveniently, all seven of the have children have their christening records in the records of the Kingston Church in addition to 6 children of Jurian Westfall and wife Blandina. But from the deed above we have learned that the Jurian who married Maryka had died before December 1731. Therefore, this is not the Jurian whose estate was administered by Michael Harness in 1753 in Augusta. So the August record must refer to the one that married Blandina. In agreement with the (DeWitt) marriage record there is a Jurian baptized in Rochester, only one. But the date is 27 September 1696. It would be almost impossible for him to have fathered Michael Harness Sr.'s wife since here eldest child was born in 1727. Then we ask "how could Michael Harness have been the son-in-law of Jurian Westfall?" (as the above cited record says). Looking closer at the sixe children of Jurian and Blandina we have: Symen (born 1721), Lidia (born 1724), Jan (born 1726), Catrina (born 1726), Marie (born 1733), and Annetje (born 1737). Records show , however, that Lidia married Jacob Westbrook in 1746 and Marie married Peter Cutright in 1754. And Annetje is almost too young to have married before her father's death. So the only daughter left that could qualify Michael Harness as the son-in-law of Jurian Westfall and Blandina is Catrina or Catherine, baptised 17 November 1728. In order for the Augusta County record to have been correct, Michael Harness had to be married to this daughter (precluding unknown missing information). So there must be a Catherine Harness living in this area during the 1750-1770 period somewhere. The value of my cross referencing large amounts of information suddenly becomes awesome. The only one in the file is reconstructed from the will of Abraham Kuykendall dated 20 February 1777 and recorded in Hampshire County. He had two step children by his wife Catherine named Isaac and Sarah Harness. Following through on the wife of Abraham Kuykendall, deceased, we find that in Will book 2 in Hampshire County on page 32 dated 8 January 1782 se is administering the estate of Michael Harness deceased. So she is involved with Michael Harness. But wait a minute. Michael Harness Sr., is still living on 8 January 1782. So who is Michael Harness deceased? Sure enough my cross reference comes through again. Referring to page 95 of the Williamsburg Dispatcher newspaper dated 16 September 1763 is an article describing how on 20 August 1763 Indians had killed one Michael Harness in Welton's meadow on Lunice Creek. This is Michael Harness, Jr. born 1728, the son of Michael Harness Sr. and wife Elizabeth, husband of Catherine Westfall, daughter of Jurian and Blandina Westfall, and father of Abraham Kuykendall's step children Isaac and Sarah Harness.
So if Michael Harness Sr.'s wife Elizabeth is not the daughter of Jurian Westfall, who is she? Now we refer to the Hardy County Public Library in Moorefield, WV, where the efforts of Mrs. Marjorie Zirk, their commendable librarian, recently paid off when she procured the "ORIGINAL" "Helen Black" letter dated 30 May 1873, Hone Grove, Fannin County, Texas. This letter has long been considered on of the foremost and credible sources regarding the family of Michael Harness, Sr. and wife Elizabeth. But until recently I've only seen numerous of the multitude of copies that have been circulated from it during the past 110 years. I know the letter is authentic because it is written on the same stationary used by her brothers Adam stump Yoakum and Christopher Columbus Yoakum (with whom she was living in 1873) when the corresponded with my great-great grandfather, William Baldwin Stump of Romney, W. Va. Al collection of his correspondence and his father's and grandfather's is still extant and had been extremely helpful in my research. Nevertheless, with the original Helen Black letter in hand a close examination of it quickly reveals many things. First of all none of the copies I've ever seen have copied it reliably and I recommend that anyone who has ever depended upon the copies check the original for some surprises. I cannot over-emphasize the fact that Helen Black knew what she was talking about when she wrote that letter. Heretofore I've only been able to disprove on thing in the letter she wrote that day. That pertains to her statement that Solomon Harness, son of John Harness, married Catherine SAPS. This is quite clear in the original as well. In fact, however, Solomon Harness married only once and that was in hardy County on 15 March 1796 to Catherine Stump. They moved to Wood County, W. VA and remained there the rest of their lives.
Beyond that one discrepancy in Helen Black's letter of 30 May 1873, only one other name has for all practical purposes been ignored by family historians. The letter is a long one, three full pages, written by a woman who obviously was well educated and did not make spelling or grammatical errors. So lets look at that sentence that has for long been ignored, that sentence, which, is not only important, but is the first sentence in the letter:
"Michael Harness was married to Elizabeth TEPHEBY, in Pennsylvania, both born there. What her mother's maiden name was I have forgotten.:
Notice that she said she didn't know Elizabeth's mother's name but she does not indicate any doubt about what Elizabeth's maiden name was - Tepheby. But no one has ever heard of that surname, or have they? There is only one in my cross reference and it appears in the will of Daniel Tevebaugh in his will recorded in Hardy County 9 September 1828. We, so she meant Tevebaugh. Tha't no a common name in early Hardy County. In the index of early Hampshire County Records he only appears a few times: in the will of William Shepler, in the will of Michael Wease, and what's this, he posts the security bond for the administrator of Michael Harness Sr.! I wonder who this Daniel Tevebaugh is anyway. Helen Black says that Michael Harness and his wife Elizabeth were born in Pennsylvania. One Conrad Tiffebach shows up there. Where was he from? Tulpehocken Creek 1727 list of tithables. That's interesting, that's were Michael See was born, the one who married Barbara Rebecca Harness, daughter of Michael Harness Sr. Looking at Lindemuth's map of the Tulpehocken Creek settlement, Tiffenbach has become Diffenbach. But look who their neighbor is. Michael Ernst! That sure looks familiar. That's the name (signed in German) on the original will of Michael Harness Sr. of Hampshire County. Suddenly it all makes sense. Michael Ernst and Michael Harness are the same man. Try to say their names in a (German) dialect. Michael Ernst married Elizabeth Tevebaugh, most likely Conrad Tevebaugh's daughter (and Tevebaugh was) most like Conrad Harness' namesake. Michael Harness and his wife migrated to the South Branch Valley about 1738 along with the Reed, Fisher, Neff, Simon, Tevebaugh, See, Stump, Thorn and other families of Tulpehocken Creek.
Editor's Note: The "cross reference" that is referred to is a card index of early records prepared by Bill Rice at the expense of thousands of hours. He has tried to card and alphabetically file every reference to anyone he has found before a certain date, whether a relative of his or not. We are fortunate to have access to the results of this work as produced above.
Since the above was written some other items have surfaced that further prove that the thesis of the above article is correct. The will of Conrad Diffenbaugh in Pennsylvania in fact names a daughter Elizabeth Ernst, and Stoever in one of his missionary trips to the South Branch in 1741 baptised a child for "Johan Michael Ernst Hoerner". Those two items with the article above should show that it was Michael Harness JR who married Jurian Westfall's daughter and that Michael Harness SR married Elizabeth Deffinbaugh.
The Allegheny Regional Family History Society