BLOCK 5
LOT : 35
ROW : 3
COLUMN : 9
SUB. R/C : ?
GRAVE # ?
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Mary Magdaline (nee-Guitner/Gudtner) Dennis
b. November 2, 1792
Franklin County, Pennsylvania
d. July 21, 1868
Decatur, Macon County, Illinois
buried: July 1868
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FATHER
Johan Samuel Guitner/Gudtner
(1745-1837)
MOTHER
Catharine Drehar
(1756-1835)
MARRIED
John Dennis
(1793-1867)
1815
Cuyahoga County, Ohio
buried in Fairfield County, Ohio
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CHILDREN
with John
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NOTE:
Mary's father,
Johan Samuel Guitner/Gudtner,
fought in the
REVOLUTIONARY WAR
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The Guitner (Gudtner) Family
Compiled by Miss Ada J Guitner - 1930
(Ada J Guitner, b. ca 1853,
d. Jan 1934, was a great granddaughter of John Samuel Gudtner;
granddaughter of Jacob Guitner
1781-1843; daughter of Peter E Guitner 1813-1880.
Ada was a DAR member, #141836, Chapter #635,
Washington, DC.
She was historian for her DAR chapter for quite awhile.) John Samuel Gudtner,
progenitor of the family in this country (USA), was born in Lubeck, Germany in 1745 (1), the son of
Samuel Frederick Gudtner, a man of great wealth, who had been educated for ministry, but abandoned
the profession, preferring a commercial life. John Samuel was one of seven children, four girls and
three boys[four boys(1)]. He was placed like other German boys in a rigid school where he became a
finished scholar in science and in languages, including Latin and Greek, becoming very proficient in
the latter. At the age of twenty, filled with the spirit of adventure, he set out with a friend to
see the world, and for two years they traveled continuously, visiting every city of the continent
and of the Eastern world. Upon his return, he found his home life uncongenial as there was a
stepmother in the home, and his father had passed away. Family differences arose which prayed upon
his feelings, and he left family and home forever, taking with him only the little money that he had
in his possession that day to make his start in a new world. He arrived in the United States on
October 26, 1768, from Lubeck, Germany, on the ship Crawford, from Rotterdam, last from Cowes(2).
The first home of our ancestor on his arrival in 1768 was in Baltimore, Maryland, where he engaged
in business for several years. From there he went to Carlisle, Pennsylvania, where he married
Catherine Treher/Dreher of Switzerland, and later removed to Cumberland (now Franklin) county,
Pennsylvania. In 1778, he enlisted in the Cumberland county State Militia, First Battalion, and
gave loyal service to the country of his adoption. After his discharge from the service, he
returned to his former home near Greencastle, Pennsylvania, where he spent the remainder of his
life, rearing a family of seven children(3) and finding much pleasure in the last years of his life
in his many grandchildren, all of whom were devoted to him and would sit about him for hours at a
time listening eagerly to tales of adventure and the more intimate details of his home life across
the seas. He never saw home or friends again, and the depth of the breach was manifested by the
fact that he never communicated with his family. To the end of his life he regretted having left
home in the manner in which he did, thus cutting himself off from the love and interest of his
family and losing to his children their share in the estate which rightfully belonged to them.
Being a man of broad learning and scholarly habits, he was interested in the educational welfare of
the community in which he lived, and after the smoke of battle had cleared away and the country had
returned to its wanted pursuits, he gave the land and had built a schoolhouse(4) which was the
humble seat of learning in that community for several generations. It was there that his own
children, with others of the countryside, became proficient in the three R's, the school enlarging
its scope as the years went by, and new needs and new ideas developed. At that schoolhouse, the
young people gathered for spelling bees and singing school and other simple diversions of the day.
When the original schoolhouse decayed, it was replaced by another and another, and a schoolhouse
still stands there, a monument to and bearing the name of the one who gave it to encourage the cause
of learning, and today a sign board lifts its arm at the parting of the ways and says "This way to
the Guitner schoolhouse".(5) In character, our ancestor was moral and upright and impressed himself
upon the community by his sterling qualities. Being a man of abstemious habits, he retained both
mental and physical vigor to the end of his life. April 15, 1837, he took a walk of two miles to
see one of his children, feeling no fatigue from it, but the following day he "fell upon sleep"
quietly and painlessly at the age of ninety two years.(6)
(1) According to Carl-Gunther Lohf, Utechter Weg 16, 2400 Lubeck, Germany, Researcher, Johann Samuel
Gudtner was baptised 4 Aug 1746; his father was Johann Hermann Gudtner, mother Anna Elisabeth
Hoffmann and they had 8 children: Johann Hermann bapt 3 Sep 1741, Frantz August bapt 23 Dec 1743,
Johan Samuel; Anna Elisabeth bapt 23 Jan 1749, Anna Catharina bapt 7 Mar 1751, Maria Elisabeth bapt
4 Mar 1752, Johann Hermann Gottlieb bapt 7 Jun 1756 and Jacob Hinrich bapt 8 Oct 1758. Johann
Samuel's grandparents were Johann Christoph Gudtner & Anna Elsabe Dannecker.
(2) This information is from the Rupp Collection of 30,000 names in Pennsylvania, page 385.
(3) Original copy of Last Will of John Samuel Gudtner lists children as: Frederick, Mary, Jacob,
Elizabeth, John and Martha; also grandchildren: Caleb & John Etherton (children of Catherine
{another daughter} who was married to Thomas Etherton.
(4) Copy of Deed dated August 7, 1815, Deed Bk 10, pg 441, granted by Johan Samuel Gudtner & wife
Catharine to the town with the condition that a schoolhouse be built on the land.
(5) [List 272 C] at the office of Thomas Willing, Esq 26 Oct 1768, pg 722; Pennsylvania German
Pioneers in 2 volumes by Ralph Beaver Strassburger, LL.D., Vol II 1785-1808 indexes - Gudtner, Johan
Samuel in Vol I, pg 723; Pennsylvania German Pioneers, by Ralph Beaver Strassburger LL.D, in 3
volumes (974.8 STR), pg 833, shows original signature of Johan Samuel Gudtner; Passenger &
Immigration Lists Index, 1st Edition, Vol 1, A-G by Felby/Meyer, lists Gudtner, Johan Samuel, pgs
778, 1152.
(6) Last Will was dated ___ day of April 1837. Date of death 16 Apr 1837 in Greencastle, Cumberland
County, PA; baptised 4 Aug 1746, which would make John Samuel 90 yrs, 8 mos and a few days when he
died.
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