My Genealogy Hound

GEORGE F. P. WANGER, who is borough surveyor of Pottstown, has been for some years engaged in surveying and conveyancing. He is a native of Chester county, having been born in North Coventry township, May 1, 1863. He is the son of George (deceased) and Rebecca Price Wanger, of whom the father was a native of Berks county and the mother of Chester county. The couple had six children, five sons and one daughter, of whom four are now living: Hon. Irving P. Wanger, congressman from the seventh Pennsylvania district; Newton Wanger; George F. P. Wanger and Joseph P. Wanger.

George Wanger (father) was a farmer. He grew to manhood in Berks county, and then removed with his parents to Chester county, where he resided until his death, December 30, 1876, aged fifty-six years. His wife survives and resides with Congressman Wanger in Norristown. Mr. Wanger was of Mennonite descent, but for a number of years was on the official board of St. James’s Methodist Episcopal church, Cedarville, the site of which church he had presented to the congregation. His wife was originally identified with the German Baptist Brethren, but is now a member of the Haws Avenue Methodist church on Marshall street, Norristown. Mr. Wanger was a soldier in the war, enlisting first in the Keystone Guards, Company E, Nineteenth Regiment, for state defense. The regiment was in service for a short time only. Later he served two months in Company D, Forty-second Regiment Pennsylvania Volunteer Militia, which went to Chambersburg. He was a private.

Politically Mr. Wanger was a Whig, Republican, and Prohibitionist. He cast his first presidential vote for Henry Clay. He held the position of member of the school board of North Coventry. He was foremost in temperance and anti-slavery movements, a station of the “underground railway” being at his home, where many slaves were assisted to freedom.

Abraham Wanger (grandfather) was a native of Berks county, and was born December 11, 1787. By occupation he was a farmer. He married Mary, daughter of Abraham and Susanna (Shantz) Berge. They had a family of ten children, five of whom grew to manhood and womanhood. He was a member of the school board. He died April 23, 1861.

Abraham Wanger (great-grandfather) was also a native of Berks county. He was born December 15, 1761, and died March 18, 1793. His wife was Susanna, daughter of Jacob and Magdalena Shantz, who after his death married Henry Aker.

John Wanger (great-great-grandfather) was a native of Philadelphia afterwards Montgomery county, where he was born December 10, 1726. In 1754 he purchased the land which belonged to his father, where he resided until 1762, when he removed to Union township, Berks county, and bought 293 acres of land of Thomas Banfield for 860 pounds. December 15, 1788, he sold this property to his son Abraham, reserving a part for a home for himself and wife, for which he agreed to pay the “yearly rent of one grain of Indian corn, if demanded.” He died January 5, 1803. He was “Court Martial Man” in First Company, Fifth Battalion, Berks County Militia in 1777.

Henry Wanger (or Wenger, as the name appears to have been spelled ) (great-great-great-grandfather), the founder of the Wanger family in this country, came from Switzerland with other Mennonites in 1717, and located on one hundred acres of land which is now within the borough of Pottstown, purchasing it September 15, 1718. He was a farmer by occupation, and added other land to his original purchase. His wife’s name was Elizabeth. He died in 1753, and his remains are supposed to have been interred in the Mennonite burying ground in East Coventry township, Chester county.

Rev. John Price (maternal grandfather) was a native of Montgomery county. He was a farmer and a preacher in the denomination known as German Baptist Brethren from early manhood. His wife was Mary, daughter of John and Hannah (Price) Rinehart, who was born May 17, 1783, and died April 23, 1863. He was born August 6, 1782, and died April 12, 1850. He had twelve children, ten of whom lived to have families. Three sons and one son-in-law were also preachers in the German Baptist Brethren church.

Rev. George Price (maternal great-grandfather) was also a preacher among the German Baptist Brethren. He was born in Montgomery county, November 1, 1753. In 1774 he settled on land in East Nantmeal township, Chester county, where he resided until 1794, when he removed to Coventry township. Here he became an exhorter and leader in the Coventry church, which had been organized November 7, 1724, and in 1797 he was ordained to the office of bishop. His wife was Sarah, daughter of Rudolph and Mary (Becker) Harley. He died September 25, 1823, leaving several sons and daughters.

Rev. Daniel Price (maternal great-great-grandfather) was born in Montgomery county, December 11, 1723. On May 22, 1746, he married Hannah Weickerd, who was born October 14, 1726, and died July 6, 1796. He secured a patent for the land formerly owned by his grandfather, 200 acres, December 10, 1742. He was one of the auditors of the township, 1761, 1767, 1774 and 1775, supervisor of the township, 1783 and 1784. He died February 11, 1804. They had thirteen children, of whom seven married and had families.

Rev. John Price (maternal great-great-great-grandfather), a poet and a preacher, was born in Prussia, and had just entered his seventeenth year when he came to America with his father in 1719. His wife was an Indian girl. Their descendants, therefore, have a mixture of German and Indian blood. They had two sons, John and Daniel, the latter born after his father’s death. His son John was also a minister, and settled in Franklin county, Pennsylvania, leaving many descendants. Rev. John Price was a personal friend of that noted printer, Christopher Saur, and occasionally wrote for his paper. In 1753 Saur published the following collection of poetry: “Der wandehare bassfertige Beichtrater oder Seelsorger, wills zur Erkentniss seiner Trinden gekomen ist a sie besenest hat. (Appx.) Geist liche is andachtige Seider autgesetzt von Br. Johannes Preiss.” He was one of the founders of the mother church at Germantown, which was organized December 25, 1723.

Rev. Jacob Price, or Preisz, as the name was originally spelled (maternal great-great-great-great-grandfather) was a native of Witzenstein, Prussia, where he owned nine acres of land. He was the founder of the family in this country. He united with the church soon after its establishment in Schwarzenau in 1708, and early became a preacher and missionary in Prussia. He was driven by religious persecution to Servestervin, Friesland, and came over with the first party of German Baptist Brethren in 1719. He settled on Indian Creek, in Montgomery county, in 1721, having bought 200 acres of land from Dirk Jansen in June, 1720. He is said to have been the second settler in this neighborhood.

George F. P. Wanger spent his boyhood days on the farm in North Coventry township, Chester county, and attended the public schools there. Later he attended the Pottstown high school, and was a teacher in the public schools of Pottsgrove township one year. He studied surveying, and in 1886 took a position in an engineering corps on the Pennsylvania Railroad, and was employed in that capacity over a year. He then went into the office of the chief engineer of the Wilmington & Northern Railroad, and was thus engaged about four months, when he became attached to an engineering corps of the Cornwall & Lebanon Railroad. Returning to the Wilmington & Northern, he remained with that company nearly three years, after which he joined the construction corps of the Pennsylvania Railroad Company, being thus occupied for a year and a half. He then engaged in the real estate and insurance business in Pottstown, the firm being Weber & Wanger, which continued until 1898. While in that firm and from 1896 to 1902, Mr. Wanger was chief engineer, and had charge of construction of the Wilmington & Newcastle Railway, the Olean Street Railway, the Schuylkill-Haven Railway, the Montgomery & Chester Electric Railway, the Rapid Transit Railway between Dayton and Xenia, Ohio, the Merchants’ Light, Heat and Power Company’s plant at Youngstown, Ohio, and the Frostburg & Cumberland Electric Railroad, Maryland. In March, 1902, he opened an office in Pottstown, which he still continues. While living in North Coventry township he served on the school board, and was also justice of the peace.

December 25, 1886, Mr. Wanger married Miss Ada Grubb, daughter of Henry and Kate (Pennypacker) Grubb. They have had seven children, three sons and four daughters, namely: Helen G., John A., Isaac Price, Gertrude, Dorothy, Rebecca and Henry Lincoln. Mr. and Mrs. Wanger are members of the Baptist church, and he is the church clerk. He is a member of Stichter Lodge, No. 254, Free and Accepted Masons, of Eden Lodge, No. 34, Independent Order of Odd Fellows, of Wilmington, Delaware, and of Excelsior Encampment, No. 85, Independent Order of Odd Fellows, Pottstown. He is also a member of Mount Vernon Conclave of Heptasophs. In politics he is a Republican, and a member of the school board from the second ward of Pottstown. He is the borough engineer of Pottstown, and assistant postmaster.

Henry Grubb, the ancestor of Mrs. Ada (Grubb) Wanger, was a native of Switzerland, and emigrated in 1717. He bought 150 acres of land, September 27, 1718, from David Powell in Frederick township, now Montgomery county. He located on Society Run, and was married to Catherine Addis, daughter of Thomas Addis, who was a large property owner in that township. They had a family of six sons and one daughter, who married and had families of their own. Henry Grubb died February, 1726 or 1727. His wife later married Jacob Frick and died January 27, 1748.

Abraham Grubb (great-great-grandfather of Mrs. Wanger), a son of Henry Grubb, was born May 19, 1726. He was a cordwainer in Frederick township, but before 1753 became a resident of North Coventry township, Chester county, where he died July 27, 1808. His wife, Elizabeth Frea (or Frey) was born June 6, 1734, and was six years old when she came with her parents from the fatherland. She died October 2, 1823. Abraham Grubb had ten children. A son, Abraham, settled in Lincoln county, Ontario, and has a large number of descendants scattered over Ontario, the United States and the British northwest. Another son, Henry, removed to Virginia, where he founded a family.

David Grubb (great-grandfather of Mrs. Wanger) a third son of Abraham Grubb) was born July 19, 1768, and was a farmer in North Coventry. He married Mary, daughter of Rudolph and Barbara (Bach) Harley. His wife was born July 25, 1773, and died March 16, 1851. They had a large family. He died September 5, 1852

Moses Grubb (grandfather) was born December 18, 1807, and was a prominent farmer of North Coventry, and was married three times. His first wife was Hannah Rixtine, his second Catharine Hunsberger, and his third Ann Stubblebine, widow of Daniel Benner, who still survives. He had one son, Henry R., by his first wife. She died April 30, 1875.

Henry R. Grubb (father) was born August 17, 1841, and until a few years ago was farming in North Coventry. He married, December 3, 1863, Kate I., daughter of Arnold and Mary (Lubold) Pennypacker, who was born September 26, 1842. They are living at Pottstown.