My Genealogy Hound

REV. JONAS K. CRAMER, pastor Thirty-seventh Street Baptist Church, Pittsburgh, was born July 8, 1825, in Hagerstown, Md., a son of Peter and Elizabeth (Keller) Cramer, natives of Germany. Peter was a school teacher in early life, but later a farmer, and died in West Virginia at the age of seventy-one years; his wife died at the age of eighty years. Jonas K. attended school at Petersburg, Md., and the academy at Connellsville, Pa. His father moved to Preston county, W. Va., when our subject was a year old, and there the latter lived twenty-four years. In 1850 he went to Connellsville, resided five years, and then removed to Westmoreland county, Pa. He was licensed to preach by Big Crossing Church, in Maryland, and ordained at Connellsville, Pa., in May, 1853. His first charge was at what is now Fayette City, and later he went to Salem Church, Westmoreland county, where he spent twelve years. His next charge was at Elizabeth, this county, where he remained twelve and a half years; then he moved to Library, and was pastor of Peter’s Creek Church from February, 1879, till his recent appointment to the Thirty-seventh Street Baptist Church, Pittsburgh. Mr. Cramer married, Dec. 20, 1843, Susanna Hampstead, who was born Sept. 18, 1826, in Preston county, W. Va., a daughter of Jeremiah and Elizabeth (King) Hampstead, natives, respectively, of Pennsylvania and New Jersey. Twelve children have blessed this union: Amelia Elizabeth, married to Charles Oliver, in Elizabeth; Corbin Amos Gilbert, in Ohio; William King, in Kansas; Mary Ann, married to Hays Bell, in Finleyville; Francis Wayland, a Baptist minister at Mount Gilead, Ohio; Caroline A., who died Aug. 26, 1861; Sallie Marcle, married to Isaac Wall, living near Elizabeth, Pa.; Harry Elmer, married, and residing in Elizabeth; Emma Troth, wife of Thomas Battey, proprietor of Keystone House, Pittsburgh; Lorena Blanch, Linnie May and Ida Bell are at home. While at Library Mr. Cramer’s house was destroyed by fire, but fortunately all his effects were saved.