BIOS: The BAER Family, Somerset County, PA File contributed for use in USGenWeb Archives by: Candace Roth Copyright 2006. All rights reserved. http://www.usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm http://www.usgwarchives.net/pa/somerset/ ________________________________________________ History of Bedford and Somerset Counties, Pennsylvania; Bedford County by E. Howard Blackburn; Somerset County by William H. Welfley; v.3, Pub. The Lewis Publishing Company, New York/Chicago 1906, ppg. 26-29 The BAER Family. The Baer family of Pennsylvania is of German origin, and among its members have been many prominent characters in the business and professional world. (I) Christopher Baer, the American founder of the family, spelled the name B??r. He was born in Zweibrucken, Germany. The date of his birth is not now known to his descendants. He came to this country and effected a settlement in White Hall township (near present Unionville), Lehigh county, Pennsylvania. He died in 1786, when between eighty and ninety years of age. His will, dated November 16, 1784, probated August 15, 1786, is recorded at Easton, Pennsylvania, in will book No. 1, page 448. He married Catherine Wingert, of Brockweiler Zweibrucken, Germany. They came to this country in 1743 in the ship, Phoenix, from Rotterdam. He took the oath of allegiance September 30, 1743. He purchased some eight tracts of land, one for each of his children, who were married, as follows: Melchoir, John, Henry, Salome, Appolonica and Jacob. (II) Jacob B??r, the grandfather of the Somerset Baers, was the youngest son of Christopher and Catherine (Wingert) B??r, the first of the name in this country. He was born in White Hall township, Lehigh county, Pennsylvania, in 1761. Mr. married a Miss Findlay, by whom he had four children: John, Nicholas, Jacob and Daniel. The mother died prior to 1790. In 1791, Jacob, the father of these children, married Mary Elizabeth Hersch, by whom four children were born--Peter, Solomon, Adam and Dinah Baer. In 1800 Jacob B??r and family removed to Maryland, near Mount Savage, Allegheny county. (III) Solomon Baer, son of Jacob and Mary Elizabeth B??r, married Anna Maria Baker, in 1820, and to them were born the following named children: Margaret, born May 17, 1822; Elizabeth, April 2, 1824; William Jacob, January 20, 1826; Herman Ludwig, March 20, 1828; Ruffena, July 19, 1830; Henry Giesey, May 5, 1835; Mary Ann, April 25, 1840; George Frederick, September 16, 1842; Neven Solomon, April 25, 1845. Solomon Baer and family resided at Berlin, Somerset county, Pennsylvania. He was a house carpenter and cabinet maker. He served as constable for several years and was later a justice of the peace. He was elected to every office in the militia, from captain to brigade inspector. He died January 12, 1882, aged eighty-seven years, six months and twenty-nine days. Of the Baker family to which Anna Maria (Baker) Baer belonged, it may be stated that Geroge Baker settled in Germantown, Pennsylvania, and his children were: George, Frederick, Richard, Michael and Ludwig. The last named was Anna Maria's father, born in 1762, and settled at Berlin, Somerset county, Pennsylvania. He married Maria Margaret Glessner, born 1761 and died in 1839. He died in 1840. Their child was: Anna Maria, born February 2, 1797, died October 5, 1888. (IV) Herman Ludwig Baer, son of Solomon and Anna Maria (Baker) Baer, was born in Berlin, Somerset county, Pennsylvania., March 20, 1828. The subjoined is his autobiography: When I was about fourteen years of age my father left Berlin, and moved to a farm four miles from Somerset, where I now reside. I worked on the farm for seven years; the last two years I taught school in the winter. My father sold his farm and removed to another close to Somerset. The idea of going to college was frequently talked of and when it was finally decided that I should go I left the plough standing in the field where I had been ploughing on Saturday evening and left for Franklin and Marshall College, Mercersburg, Pennsylvania, in 1848. I entered the preparatory department, was there one session. The next session I entered college and continued to the junior year, then I remained at home and taught school one winter to raise some funds. I returned to college, stood the required examinations and was reinstated in my class and graduated in 1853. I returned to my home and within a few days thereafter received a call to take charge of Elmwood Institute in Norristown, Pennsylvania, which call I accepted and taught there two years, when I returned to Somerset and entered as a student of law in the office of my brother, William J. Baer, and was admitted to the Somerset bar in June, 1856, and entered into partnership with my brother under the name of Baer and Baer, which partnership continued until William J. Baer was elected judge of the sixteenth judicial district of Pennsylvania, I continuing the practice alone. In December 1856, I formed another partnership (my marriage) with Lucy E. Schall, of Norristown, Pennsylvania, daughter of General William Schall, an iron master and a military man of considerable note in the Pennsylvania militia. My parents and those of my wife were members of the German Reformed church, one of the churches of the Reformation now known as the Reformed church in the United States, and the children were of the same faith. I have always been a lover of the Sunday school and have been a superindendent for fifty years and an elder in the same church for the same time and still continue. I am a Jeffersonian Democrat and never was an aspirant for office, but could always give a reason for my faith religiously and politically. I have always tried to do my duty conscientiously. I have held the position of examiner of students at law for over thirty years and still continue. In 1881 my wife died. I kept house with my children for eight years thereafter, when I married my first wife's sister, Annie C. Schall. William Schall, died in infancy; Caroline Trexler, born April 1, 1859; Reuben Edward, born April 2, 1867; George Baker, born March 30, 1863; Hermanus Ludwig, born October 4, 1874. Carrie T. Baer (V) was married to George R. Scull, Esq., of Somerset, Pennsylvania, both an editor and lawyer; also at this time president of the First National Bank of Somerset, Pennsylvania, and president of the Somerset Trust Company. His wife was a graduate of the common school system and attended Greensburg high school. Four children were born to them: John I., Lucy B., Edward and Anna C. George B. Baer (V) graduated in the common schools of Somerset borough and then entered the printing office of the Herald and Whig, edited by Hon. Edward Scull. After finishing his trade as a printer, he attended the high school at Elders Ridge, Pennsylvania. On his reutrn home he concluded to go to California and finally located at Cloverdale, Sonoma county, California, purchasing the Cloverdale Reveille, which he edited for several years and then sold to his brother, Reuben Baer, he having been appointed postmaster at Cloverdale, which position he still holds. He is also superintendent of a quicksilver mine near the Geyser hot spring, eighteen miles distant from Cloverdale. He married a daughter of Dr. William Markell of the same place--Sarah Markell, by whom he had three children: Markell C., Lucy S. and Helen. Reuben E. Baer (V), born April 2, 1867, graduated in the common schools of Somerset, Pennsylvania, and entered the printing office of the Herald and Whig, and after mastering his trade there went to Tyrone, Pennsylvania, and afterwards to Johnstown, Pennsylvania, where he worked at his trade until the great flood of 1889, after which he went to California, where he worked for his brother. Later he purchased his brother's newspaper, which some years later he sold and purchased the Enterprise at Healdsburg, California. He married Helen Markell, daughter of Dr. William Markell, of Cloverdale, California, by whom he had three children--Christina, Elizabeth and Herman Ludwig. Hermanus Ludwig Baer (V) was born October 4, 1874. After attending and graduating from the common schools of Somerset county, Pennsylvania, he entered a drug store for a term of three years, after which he attended Bordentown college for one year and then entered the Jefferson School of Pharmacy in Philadelphia and graduated therefrom. The next two years to operated a drug store. Having concluded to become a physician, he went to Jefferson Medical College of Philadelphia and graduated. He then married Miss Mabel McKinley, daughter of Abner McKinley and wife. He then moved to New York city and engaged in the practice of medicine. He has recently been appointed a lecturer in Anatomy in the Post-Graduate Medical College and Hospital of New York city.