FAMILY HISTORY:  Stair, York County, PA

Contributed for use in the USGenWeb Archives by Abby Bowman

Copyright 2004.  All rights reserved.
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Early Families in York County,  Historical Society of York Co.
York Dispatch, November 25, 1933.
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STAIR

Christopher, son of John Mathias Stoehr and Joanna Catharine, his wife, was born 
in Grumstadt, Bavaria, on February 8, 1751.  At some time prior to the American 
Revolution he came to America and took up his residence in Yorktown, where he 
pursued the oldest of the arts, that of potter.  In May 1772, the father was 
naturalized at Philadelphia, but the son does not seem to have ever paid any 
allegiance to the English king.

Christopher Stoehr enlisted at the outbreak of the Revolution, and served first 
in the company of Captain Rudolph Spangler, as ensign; and later as first 
lieutenant of a company in the Third battalion.  This officer's sword is still 
in the Stair family, being owned by descendants in York.

After the Revolution, in 1787, the town of York was chartered as a borough by 
the State legislature, and the first borough officers, chosen from among the 
heroes of the Revolution, included Christopher Stoehr as high constable.  He 
married Maria Dorothea Dautel (Doudle), and died on July 22, 1824.  They had 
eight children:

(1) Anna Maria, wife of John Kuntz;
(2) Jacob married Elizabeth Wolf;
(3) Catharine, Mrs. Upp;
(4) George married Salome Ilgenfritz;
(5) Philip married Lydia Weaver;
(6) Michael married Rachel Davis;
(7) Daniel, a soldier of 1812, who married Anna Eva Felty;
(8) Barbara, wife of William Jordan.