MICHAEL STUMP SR AND CATHERINE NEFF
OF WEST VIRGINIA

Michael Stump Sr. was one of the earliest settlers in what is now Hardy County, West Virginia. He was there by the 1740s and today has thousands of descendants throughout the country. Some confusion exists as to the identity and the spouse of this pioneer settler, and part of this confusion is based on previously published accounts of the family. Hopefully the following notes on one such account will establish the error of it and clarify who the wife of West Virginia Michael Stump was.

All solid evidence points to the conclusion that Michael Stump Sr. of 1740s Hardy County, West Virginia was in fact the same Stump who married Catherine Neff in Pennsylvania on September 10, 1739 ⁽¹⁾. While this conclusion is the only one that can be supported by evidence, it seems the majority of Stump researchers believe that such is not the case. It is here that evaluation of the real evidence and of the published account becomes vital.

The published source which seems to be at the root of much of the confusion is the Stump family history written by Thurman Stump ⁽²⁾. I have no quarrel with Thurman, who actually wrote a very good book. He did a good deal of research and corresponded with a number of libraries in both the United States and Germany. During the course of this work he obtained a lot of valid and interesting information on German immigration and European history, and he collected a number of interesting maps and documents which he published in his book, making it an interesting source for any researcher interested in German immigration during the period. The notes Thurman provides on later generations of his family are also valid, and make the book a useful contribution to the genealogy of the Stump family of West Virginia.

It is, however, in dealing with the German immigrant Michael Stump that Thurman Stump makes a huge mistake. Thurman jumped to a number of conclusions based on his research, part of which led him to identify the WRONG Stump family in Germany and part of which disassociates the the West Virginia Stump and Neff families. Hopefully the notes below will show how these mistakes were made and help the reader evaluate the evidence which will follow to show that the Michael Stump in West Virginia IS in fact the one who married Catherine Neff in Pennsylvania.

Thurman Stump began in his search for his roots with some recollections provided by his own grandfather, Taylor Randolph Stump, the relevant points being that the Stump family originated in Germany near the Black Forest, were originally woodworkers and cabinet makers, and that the original spelling of the name was STUMPF. Although Taylor Stump was several generations removed from the original immigrant, and probably did not have access to anyone in the family with any first hand knowledge of the facts above, there is no reason to doubt that all of them could be the truth. Thurman made his biggest mistake in an attempt to "force fit" a Stumpf family in Germany into the family legend of his grandfather. But a closer look at Thurman's thesis will show that he only found a partial fit, and in fact there are more points to discount his conclusion than to support it.

Thurman Stump in his own words breached the possibility that his work was theory and that future researchers may turn up better evidence to discount it. In his book Thurman writes, "This is intended as an open-end writing, that is, subject to further clarification, correction, or additional...data." I will take that as an invitation from the author himself to provide the following critique of the major points of his thesis.

As was stated above, Thurman Stump wrote a number of letters to Germany and from these he received a number of responses, mostly in the negative, and he seems to have eliminated a number of German Stump families as the ancestors of West Virginia Michael Stump. But he received one letter from the Wurttemburg Region of Germany with information on a Stump family which he then "attaches" to West Virginia Michael Stump and this attachment is in error.

The letter from Germany informed Thurman of a Stumpf family at Eberbach, Germany, which had a Hans Michael Stumpf born in 1709. The letter goes on to report that this Michael Stumpf seems to have no further record in that town, no marriage, no death, and implies that this Michael Stumpf had went somewhere. Thurman convinced himself (why is not clear) that this Michael left the village of Eberbach in 1743, boarded the ship "Phoenix", and arrived at Philadelphia on September 30, 1743. One has to wonder why, however, as the information that Thurman received from Germany shows tax list records at Eberbach in 1744 and 1745 showing the name of Michael Stumpf among the village's woodworkers ⁽³⁾.

It is clear that these tax records show that Eberbach Michael was still in Germany the year AFTER the Phoenix Michael arrived, but Thurman provides a convoluted (and invalid) explanation to the affect that there actually were two Michaels in Eberbach and that the second one apprenticed himself as a woodworker in the village to pay for the other's passage to the colonies. While the tax records DO show that the 1744 Michael was "the younger" and the 1745 Michael was "the elder", both of these listings are "bed tax" listings and BOTH are AFTER the "Phoenix" Michael was long gone and in America.

Anyone with even a rudimentary knowledge of German immigration of the period would conclude that the immigrant would not be taxed for a bed in the village when he was not there, and that the family member who remained in Germany would not be apprenticed there to pay for the ship ticket of another. Indeed the apprenticeships for these immigrants took place AFTER arrival in the Colonies, many being apprenticed in factories or iron works in New Jersey and places adjacent.

Part of Thurman's conclusion that the Eberbach Michael Stumpf was the "Phoenix" Michael Stumpf was obviously based on the fact that his grandfather told him that the family had been woodworkers, and this tax record in Eberbach does fit that profile. And another similarity between the Eberbach family and the American family legend is the fact that the Eberbach area is in fact "near the Black Forest". But surely there must be numerous Stump families in Germany with woodworkers among their members, and thousands of Germans then and today live "near the Black Forest". It should be remembered when we consider this Eberbach family that while we do seem to have an occupation and geographical location that matches a family legend in the American family, we have few given names with any similarity to those in the West Virginia Stumpf family, we cannot identify any of the Eberbach family with any of the West Virginia family through their ages, and indeed the Eberbach Michael can be shown to still be over there AFTER West Virginia Michael is in Hardy County! So it MUST be concluded from the evidence that Thurman Stump made a mistake when he connected Eberbach Michael Stump with West Virginia Michael Stump.

It can also be shown that Thurman Stump was mistaken when he identified the Michael Stumpf on the "Phoenix" in 1743 with the Michael Stump Sr. of Hardy County. The signatures will clearly disassociate the two. Thurman says that the signature on the passenger list is in "Gothic Script", when in fact it is in GERMAN script, the handwriting of the people of First Reich Germany, the alphabet of which is different from the alphabet of English writing of the period, even when spelling out the same words. The signature on the will of Hardy County Michael Stump is CLEARLY in English script, and is evidence of the fact that he was educated in America rather than in Germany, and in fact was probably not even an immigrant at all. The signatures of the Phoenix Michael and West Virginia Michael will show that they are NOT the same person ⁽⁴⁾.

In as much as Thurman Stump was mistaken in a number of his identifications of Stumps in Germany, he also jumped to some conclusions in his dealings with Stumps in America. He deals with the marriage in 1739 between Michael Stump and Catherine Neff by identifying this Michael as the son Michael named in the will of Christopher Stump in Pennsylvania in 1779. This identification can be proven wrong beyond ANY doubt.

Christopher Stump had two wives. The first was Susannah, daughter of Adam Schutz of the Tulpehocken region. The second was named Anna Margaretha. Berks County Land Record Book HH, 13F, page 245-246 carries documentation in regards to the Schutz estate, which deals with the marriage of Stump to Susannah Schutz ⁽⁵⁾, naming the children that Christopher Stump had by Susannah Schutz. Among these is Frederick, shown in the document (December 1757) as a minor. This will show that Frederick was born about 1737 or after, and was the youngest of Christopher Stump's children by his first wife. So all of the children of Christopher's second wife HAD to be born after 1737. Michael Stump son of Christopher is NOT shown as one of the children of Christopher by Schutz, so Michael MUST have been a child of Christopher by the SECOND wife Anna Margaretha. It then follows that since the children of Christopher's second wife were born AFTER 1737, the son Michael of that marriage CANNOT be the one married to Catherine Neff in 1739!

Thurman Stump says on page 13 of his Stump history: "It is readily apparent from the northern Lancaster County, Pennsylvania location of Tulpehocken Township that this Michael Stump (who married Catherine Neff) is the 15th child born to Margaetha and Christopher Stump." This statement was fundamental to Thurman's further identifications in his book, and is also a major reason why many today refuse to believe that the Michael Stump in Hardy County was the one who married Catherine Neff. However, the material in the preceding paragraph will PROVE that the Michael who married Catherine Neff was NOT the son of Christopher and therefor we must look for the Michael who married Catherine Neff somewhere other than in the family of Christopher Stump.

In conclusion it might be beneficial to reiterate that we should bear no malice toward Thurman Stump. He wrote a well meaning book that as I stated has a good deal to offer in spite of some mistakes. However, his identifications of the family both in Germany and in America are in error and have led to a good deal of confusion among interested researchers to the present day. Having evaluated the Germany and Pennsylvania problems in Thurman's book, it remains to provide the hard evidence to prove that the Michael Stump and Catherine Neff who married in Pennsylvania in 1739 ARE IN FACT the Michael and Catherine Stump who show up in Hardy County in the 1740s.

Michael Stump Sr. shows up in West Virginia by the 1740s. There is a good deal of documentation laying around about this Michael Stump, but it does not take a complete evaluation of all of this to show who he was. All that really needs remembered is that he lived on the South Fork River and that his wife's name was Catherine. But was she Catherine Neff?

The Catherine Neff who married Michael Stump in 1739 was born November 27, 1716 at Michelfeld, Germany, the first daughter and third child of Michael Neff and Anna Dorothea Saur. This couple stayed in Michelfeld for several years after Catherine's birth and had several other children, among these Hans Leonard Neff, born March 8, 1795 at Michelfeld. The family subsequently emigrated and arrived at Philadelphia on the ship "James Goodwill" on September 11, 1728 ⁽⁶⁾. Among some of the other passengers on this same ship were Johann Casper Stoever, the minister who recorded the Neff - Stump marriage in Pennsylvania in 1739! This shows that the Catherine Neff who married Michael Stump in Pennsylvania had a brother named Leonard who came to America with her.

The Fairfax Lots on the South Fork River in present day Hardy County were surveyed in the 1740s. Among the lots surveyed for Michael Stump were lots 2, 3 and 12. Lots 2 and 3 were at the south end near what is now Brake, West Virginia, and Peter Reed was a neighbor, having the survey for lot 1. So who had the tract that adjoined Michael Stump's lot 12? Lot 11 was surveyed for none other than Leonard Neff! So there is a 1739 marriage in Pennsylvania between a Michael Stump and a Catherine Neff, which Catherine has a brother Leonard. Then nine years later, on April 2, 1748, two adjoining lots are surveyed on the South Fork River in West Virginia, one for a Michael Stump (whose wife was a Catherine) and one for a Leonard Neff ⁽⁷⁾! In addition, Leonard Neff (signing in German script) was a witness to the will of Hardy County Michael Stump!

This would be enough to convince anyone that the connection between the 1739 Pennsylvania marriage and the West Virginia Stump family is valid, were it not for the errors in the previously published sources. Once something is in print it is difficult to refute, and once some researchers believe that a statement is fact, they often do not want to change. But the above step by step refutation of Thurman Stump's identification of Michael Stump and of his attempt at refutation of the Neff - Stump connection will show that there is no basis to refute this connection, and no basis for identifying West Virginia Michael Stump with anyone other than the Michael who married Catherine Neff!

1. EARLY LUTHERAN BAPTISMS AND MARRIAGES IN SOUTHEASTERN PENNSYLVANIA - THE RECORDS OF REV. JOHN CASPER STOEVER FROM 1730 TO 1779, Baltimore, Genealogical Publishing Company, Inc., 1988
2. Stump, Thurman, MICHAEL STUMP SR OF VIRGINIA, 1709-1768, A TREATISE ON THE ORIGIN AND ANCESTRY WITH SURNAME ARMORIALS, Parsons, McClain Printing Company, 1975
3. Stump, ibid., page 152. The letter from Germany quoted a German published source called "Old Families of Eberbach" by Otto Kilian, which may yet turn out to be helpful in identifying the backgrounds of families there with American relatives, if a copy can be found and used in America.
4. I know of no better example to bear this out than Michael Isner of Randolph County. He stepped off of the boat at Philadelphia in 1753 and signed the passenger list in his own hand. He then drops out of sight for a couple of decades, but turns up in the Tygart Valley in the 1770s and signs a petition in which his signature is a PERFECT match with the one on the ship list twenty years earlier. Hopefully this will answer any interested reader tempted to suggest that the 1743 "Phoenix" Michael learned the English alphabet after immigration and signed the will in English after removal to West Virginia.
5. There is one error in this document - it deals with Susannah, wife of Christopher Stump as the daughter of Schutz by his wife Susannah, who later married Jacob Seybert. However, Susannah Seybert's later baptism of children in the region will show that she was too YOUNG to be Susannah Stump's mother, and that there must have been an unknown first wife of Schutz who was Susannah Stump's mother. After a good deal of pondering (for which read agonizing) over this problem it is clear to me that this is the only possible way to account for the seeming discrepancy in the document in question.
6. A reading of the church record of Michelfeld will bear all of this out, but an easier verification can be found in Burgert, Annette K., 18TH CENTURY EMIGRANTS FROM GERMAN-SPEAKING LANDS TO NORTH AMERICA VOL I: THE NORTHERN KRAICHGAU
7. Virginia State Land Office, Northern Neck Grants G, 1747-1751

(Note: The above was intended to be a lot longer but in 17 months I have not had time to finish it, and I may never. I offer what is given to interested persons and hope it will be of some help. 24 Feb 1997)