BIO:  Leah DIEHL, Oxford Township, Adams County, PA

Contributed for use in the USGenWeb Archives by Kathy Francis

Copyright 2005.  All rights reserved.
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History of Cumberland and Adams Counties, Pennsylvania
Chicago:  Warner, Beers & Co., 1886
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Part III, History of Adams County, Pages 492-493

MRS. LEAH DIEHL.  John Adam Diehl and wife emigrated to this country from 
Germany in the year 1731.  Their descendants to-day are numerous and are 
singularly prosperous, and are, with a few exceptions, stanch Lutherans.  They 
are always to be found on the moral side of all public questions.  The erection 
and maintenance of the Lutheran Church in New Oxford was and is due in a marked 
degree to the energy and liberality of that portion of the family residing in 
and around the village.

This original couple took up 360 acres of fertile land in what is now known as 
Spring Garden Township, York County, Penn., paying an English agent £12 ($60) 
for it.  To this pair were born four sons:  Peter, Daniel, George and Nicholas.  
Daniel settled in Seven Valleys, York County; George in Virginia, and Peter and 
Nicholas in Hellam Township, York County, having purchased the original tract 
from their heirs after the death of their father.

Peter, the grandfather of our subject’s husband, was born in Germany, and was 
probably three years old when his father, John Adam, came to this country.  He 
was married in 1748, and had a family of six children:  Peter, Nicholas, Jacob, 
Daniel, Elizabeth, married to Henry King, and Catharine, married to John 
Brillinger.

Peter, the father of our subject’s husband, was born in Hellam Township, York 
County, and had a family of three sons and four daughters:  Daniel (our 
subject’s husband), George, Jacob, Elizabeth Golden, Sarah Blair, Mary Albert 
and Susan Diller.  This family moved into Adams County, Penn., in all 
probability about the year 1801, settling in Oxford Township, having purchased a 
large tract of land lying along the Gettysburg Turnpike and reaching from the 
village of New Oxford to the banks of the Little Conowago, embracing several 
hundred acres of choice land.  Mr. Diehl paid half a bushel of silver for the 
tract, and brought the money from Hellam Township to New Oxford in saddle-bags, 
thrown across the back of his horse.  It is said the animal presented a sad 
sight, having been sorely blistered by the weight and friction of the coin.  
Daniel was born in the old mill near York, which (being rebuilt) is still in 
possession of the name, and was fifteen years old when the family moved into 
Adams County.  His birth occurred on the 20th of August, 1791.  His first 
marriage was with Elizabeth Carl, October 26, 1809, by whom he had fifteen 
children, seven of whom are yet living:  Amanda Baehr, Amelia Butt, Catharine 
Schaeffer, Deliah D. Feiser, Mary E. Wagner, Jesse (a practical farmer) and 
Carl, a professional teacher of high rank in the schools of Illinois.  These 
remaining seven children are all married and prospering.  Mrs. Diehl died 
September 19, 1833.  Mr. Diehl married again the 22d of February, 1883; this 
time Leah (Myers) Baugher, whose name heads this sketch.  Her parents, John and 
Margaret Myers, now deceased, were residents of Bucks County, Penn., and at an 
early day moved to York County, settling in Warrington Township.  Mr. Myers was 
an educated man, being able to converse in three different languages.  Two of 
his sons lost their lives in the war of 1812.  The original Myers stock came 
from Holland a century and a half ago.  From this union of Daniel Diehl with our 
subject six children were born:  Rebecca (now deceased); Joseph R., proprietor 
of the well-known “Diehl’s Mill,” on the banks of the Little Conowago; Elijah, a 
scientific farmer, and a newspaper correspondent of some note; Emma, wife of 
Henry Weikert, a successful farmer; Samuel A., a rising young minister in the 
Lutheran Church, who has already made for himself a name for usefulness, and 
Miriam, wife of Jacob Heltzel.