BIOS: SCHELL Family, Part 1, 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. 34-38 [Part1 of 2] SCHELL Family. In every community there are always rare family names bearing with them more prominence than others by reason of the fact that among it members there have been men and women, too, whose activities have touched almost every avenue of trade, every circle of society and all great strides toward development of the locations in which their lot has been cast. This is true in a large measure with the Schell family, to which belongs Paul Ankeny Schell, or [sic] Somerset, whose line in genealogy is: (I) Michael Schell, born in 1675, and his wife, Veronica, left the Palatinate, Germany, and settled in Upper Hanover township, then Philadelphia, now Montgomery county, Pennsylvania, about 1732. He died in 1770, and his will was probated February 19, 1770. At the time of making his will, he declared himself to be of advanced age, twice married and no children by his second wife, Magdalina. He was possessed of considerable property and confirmed the deed of gift for one hundred and forty acres of land in Upper Hanover township to his youngest son, John. His children were: Jacob, Michael, Jr., Mary, Julia and John. (II) John Schell was born, presumably in the Palatinate, January 22, 1729, and died May 2, 1777. He married Veronica Maurer, daughter of Jacob and Sophia Maurer, in 1753. Her father was a wealthy and influential yeoman. John Schell died early in manhood, leaving an issue but no will. He was a man of much local prominence, a representative merchant and a member of the Reformed church. The inventory filed May 10, 1782, of his estate valued it at 1261 pounds and 16 shillings, for his real estate and personal property at 1404 pounds, 19 shillings. His children were: John, Jacob, a musician of Colonel Proctor's regiment of artillery; Abraham, Anna, Maria, Veronica and Susannah. (III) John Schell, eldest son of John (2) and Veronica Schell, born on the old homestead, near East Greenville, Montgomery county, Pennsylvania, November 30, 1754, died March 30, 1825. He married Elizabeth Hillegass, originally Hill de Gaze, born October 17, 1763. She was the daughter of George Peter Hillegass and granddaughter of John Frederick Hillegass, and first cousin of Michael Hillegass, the first to hold the office of United States treasurer. Like his father before him, John Schell was a merchant. Both he and his wife had a handsome property. They were devout members of the Reformed church. As had been the case with his forefathers, he, too, was possessed with the desire to become a large land owner and in the latter years of the eighteenth century -- 1798 or 1799 -- he purchsed fifteen hundred acrees of land at a cost of ten thousand pounds sterling. The land was located in that portion of Bedford now known as Shaw, near Cabin creek settlement. Here, in 1808, he laid out the town of Schellsburg. In 1807 he gave the Lutheran and Reformed congregations six acres for church and school purposes, and later each a town lot. He was a prime mover in the building of the Bedford and Stoystown pike. His daughter's husband, Michael Reed, was chief engineer. The children of John and Elizabeth (Hillegass) Schell were: John, Peter, Abraham, Jacob, George, Michael, Elizabeth, Henry, Joseph, Cathatine, Maria and Eve. (IV) Henry Schell, seventh child of John (3) and Elizabeth (Hillegass) Schell, was born March 22, 1797, on his father's farm at Schellsburg, Pennsylvania. When not in school, Henry was engaged in a woolen factory and grist mill. He learned to make cloth. He was a man of great independence, of spirited purpose. He married, January, 1820, Maria Louisa Schneider, daughter of Jacob and Susan (Hyple) Schneider, and who with his brother Adam settled in Somerset county, Pennsylvania. Before the marriage of Henry Schell, he bought from his father for seven thousand dollars the farm on which the woolen mill stood. To him seems to be the honor of first breaking away from the old time customs of treating harvest hands to liquor. With a firmness only found in such characters, he would not yield, but gave them higher wages than the other farmers. To Henry Schell and his wife were born ten children: John, Jacob, Henry Ferdinand, Amanda Mary, Andrew Jackson, Alexander Joseph, Charles Sander, Emily Julia, Maria Louisa, Young Hanson, William Harrison. In 1852, Henry Schell, wife, and sons, Jacob and Henry, because identified with a religious movement known as the Disciples of Christ and owing to church prejudices and feeling, Mr. Schell sold his home farm and mill for thirteen thousand dollars, and removed from Bedford to Somerset county, where the church of his new choice had already made much progress. At the borough of Somerset he erected a large brick building--store and dwelling--on the corner where now stands the Hotel Vanear. Here he conducted a large general store. Later the building was converted into a hotel, but was finally destroyed in the great fire of 1872. Mr. Schell gave the Disciple church the lot on which stands their church edifice. Two other large houses he built in Somerset were lost by the 1872 conflagration. At the time of Henry Schell's death, April 29, 1857, he left behind him a large estate in houses and lands, which fell to dutiful children. Of them were: (V) John Jacob Schell, son of Henry Schell (4), born in 1820, was educated at Franklin College, Pennsylvania, and became a merchant and banker. He married Rose Bonnette, daughter of Isaac and Eleanor (Parker) Ankeny, by whom were born seven children, only one of whom, Paul Ankeny Schell, a merchant, now resides in Somerset...