My Good Ancestor

My great-grandmother was a Powl. Her father, Josiah/Josias, was as far back and I could trace that line. I was not the only one who had tried to find Josiah's father without success. Then one day the truth came to light. His father was not a Powl but Abraham Good. His parents were not married and their children used their mother's surname but changed the spelling from Powell to Powl. That puzzle was solved but a new one took its place. Who was this Abraham? 

We had a family Bible record that confirmed Abraham was the son of Henry and Magdalena (Myer) Good. Who was Henry's father? Another brick wall. Steve Garver, who is also a descendant of Henry and Magdalena wanted to know, too. We started working together. We had a published genealogy that said Henry was the son of a Jacob Good but that was only a guess and there was absolutely nothing to support it.

After digging through lots of wills, deeds, and other documents, the evidence pointed to an earlier Henry Good who immigrated in 1730 with the German form of the name, Hendrich Gutt/Guth. He bought a tract of land in what is now West Cocalico Township, Lancaster County, Pennsylvania. In 1742 he sold this land and presumably moved to Ephrata at that time as he and his family were members of the Ephrata Cloister. 

Henry's 1754 will identified him as "an inhabitant of Ephrata." He named only his wife, Catherine, and "eldest daughter Anna Maria," but indicated he had other children. How many children Henry and Catherine had is not known, but from the evidence they appear to have had at least three sons—Daniel, Henry, and Christian. Salome and Rosina Good were single sisters at the Cloister in 1770 and may also have been Henry’s daughters.

Daniel Good

On June 17, 1766, Daniel Good accepted the warrant for a seventy-acre tract of land in Cocalico (now Ephrata) Township that had originally been warranted to Jacob Groff. It is southeast of the Mohler Church of the Brethren and just west of the East Cocalico Township line. Daniel died intestate on November 13, 1771. His oldest son, Henry, petitioned the court on December 7, 1786, to receive Daniel's land. The petition states that Daniel left a widow and five children, two of whom were still minors in 1786.

The name of the widow and some of the children were unknown until an unrecorded deed was discovered in May 2015 in which Daniel Good Jr. and his wife, Elizabeth, sold some of this land in 1793. In reciting the history of the property, the deed states that Daniel Good Sr. died intestate leaving a widow, Christina, and five children: Henry, Sarah, Elizabeth, Daniel, and Christian. The records of the Cloister show that both Daniel Sr. and Jr. and their wives were householder members of the Cloister. (Householders worshiped at the Cloister but lived off the Cloister grounds on their own properties and were not required to be celibate like those who lived inside the Cloister.)

This is the original deed which I bought on Ebay and donated to the Historical Society of the Cocalico Valley for safe keeping.

Henry Good Jr.

In the family record Henry wrote in his Bible, he stated that his birth year was 1738. He also recorded the names and birth dates of his wife, Barbara Myer, and their children. The Bible appears to have been passed on to Henry’s oldest son, Jacob, whose children’s names are also written in it.

Born in 1739, Barbara Myer was the daughter of John Myer Jr. (d. 1787) and Anna of West Earl Township. The Myers were originally Mennonite but joined the Conestoga Brethren congregation at Leola, which was established in 1724 and divided in 1728, when Conrad Beissel withdrew and founded the Cloister. There is no indication that Henry and Barbara were ever associated with the Cloister but rather stayed with the Myer family at the Brethren church.

Henry and Barbara lived in Earl Township, probably near her parents in the part of Earl that is now West Earl Township. Because no deeds were recorded for him, he may have always rented. They had six children: Jacob, Michael, Anna, Abraham, Magdalena, and Henry.

Henry died intestate sometime in 1791 as Marcus Grove, Christian Myer, and Michael Good were appointed as guardians for his three youngest children who were minors. Barbara died before January 26, 1792, and her children received her share of her father’s estate.

Part of the family record in Henry's Bible, written in German.
Henrich Guth, ca. 1705-1754; wp. June 17, 1757; Sept. 15, 1730, immigrant
m. Feb. 7, 1730, Hassloch Reformed, Germany, Maria
Catharina Kauffman, dau. of the late Conradt Kauffman

Henry Good, 1738-1791
m. 1766 Barbara Myer, May 1, 1739-d. bef. Jan. 26, 1792
Abraham Good, Feb. 26, 1773-Sept. 9,1854; bu. Zeltenreich Cem.
m. May 28, 1793, Magdalena Meyer, ca. 1775-aft.1821
had at least 5 children with Margaret Powell
Josias Good Powl, July 15, 1816-June 2, 1878
m. Barbara Gerber, Oct. 15, 1816-Apr. 20, 1888; bu. Zeltenreich Cem.

Christian Good

Christian Good was born in 1744 and was a minor when his father died in 1754. He married Christina Becker, daughter of Peter Becker and granddaughter of immigrant Valentine Becker. 

In January 1788, Christian bought four tracts of land in Cocalico Township (now West Cocalico) from the heirs of Michael Miller, who was also a member of the Cloister. Later in the year, Christian and Christina sold some of this land. The deed for this sale identifies him as a millstone maker. In 1800, he and Christina sold more of the land and bought 221 acres from Emanuel Carpenter in what is now West Earl Township. This land was in the Brownstown/Talmage area and bordered the Conestoga Creek.

Christian and Christina were householder members of the Ephrata Cloister. He died in 1808 at the age of sixty-four and was buried in the Cloister cemetery. His will names his wife and five children: David, Samuel, Mary, Susanna and Christina. Three of them, David, Samuel, and Christina, remained in the Brownstown/Talmage area. They and many of their descendants are buried in the cemetery at Carpenters Church. Christian’s wife, Christina, died in November 1820 and was also buried in the Cloister cemetery, as was her daughter Susanna.

Steve Garver and I worked together to produce an article on Henry Good which appears in the January 2018 issue of the Pennsylvania Mennonite Heritage magazine published by the Lancaster Mennonite Historical Society. This blog is only a summary of the article which includes many footnotes identifying the sources of the information. 

Last summer Steve and I toured the Cloister with Gary Good who is another descendant of Henry. I grew up near the Cloister and was always fascinated with the place. I've been there many times but it was different this time knowing I was a descendant of immigrant Henry and his wife who were members of the Cloister.

While reading more about the Cloister, their beliefs, and what went on inside those walls, I was reminded those people were not as saintly as it appeared. They sang beautifully and wore white robes but they were not angels. They were infected with the same sinful human nature as the rest of us and secluding themselves did not change that. A lot of power struggles went on and other sins were committed within those walls. 

As James E. Ernst says in his book, Ephrata, A History, "Cloisters, away from the world, contain much unholiness and meanness. Selfishness, ambition and weakness of the flesh exist within the convent as without . . . The world is in man's heart!"