Gambold Family
Gambold Family
In 1801 Joseph married the widow Anna Rosina Beroth Wagemann. This marriage seems to have been arranged by the community for business reasons: someone was needed to take charge of the paper mill, and Joseph Gambold was tapped for the job. Anna Rosina's husband had been managing the mill before his death, and she had continued to do the housekeeping there. Joseph thus took on both roles, marrying Anna Rosina and taking over the mill with her. The marriage was apparently not a success, as it is reported that on October 7, 1806, Rosina left him, "taking all that she brought with her at marriage, and a third of the grain".
As pastor of the congregation, John Gambold himself kept the congregational diary, and recorded in September 1804 that both he and his wife became sick with a high fever, "the worst of it was that just then no one came in, and we were hardly able to give each other a drink of water." He recovered, but Catharina continued to suffer and became increasingly ill until she died on October 30th. He continued to serve as the Friedberg pastor until the following March, at which time he accepted a call to go to the Cherokee mission in northern Georgia. This post required a married brother, and he returned to Bethlehem to marry Anna Rosina Kliest in May 1805, before going back to NC and then leaving for the Spring Place mission in September. In 1820 a new mission was started at Oochgeeology, and John and Anna Rosina Gambold were intended to take this post and to begin a school for Indian girls there, but Anna Rosina died in 1821, which delayed starting the school. Although John Gambold by this time was 61, it was thought desirable that he remarry in order to continue with this work, and he returned to Wachovia for this purpose. In April 1823 he married Anna Maria Grabs, the widow of Christian Gottfried Schulz, and they departed again for Spring Place. He died there in November 1827. Anna Maria stayed on at the Cherokee Mission until it was forced to close in 1831, then returned to Salem where she lived on until 1854. John Gambold had no children from any of his marriages.
Children of Joseph Gambold and Anna Rosina Beroth
Ephraim Gambold (1802-1803)
Wilhelm H. Gambold (b. & d. 1805)
Sophia Elizabeth Gambold, called Betsy, had a son, John Christian Gambold, when she was 16. He was brought up by a couple named Kroehn, whom we have tentatively identified as Philip and Elizabeth (Kunzel) Kroehn of Friedland. Can anyone confirm this?
Maria Rosina or Polly Gambold came with her widowed father to Salem in 1800. She was a Single Sister living in Salem in 1826, when she asked permission to go to the Cherokee Mission to visit her father, who by that time was living there with his brother John Gambold, the minister. Permission was gladly granted, as a teacher was needed for the Indian girls and she could fill this role. In 1828 however she asked to marry a man there, Alexander Copeland, who had been looking after the field work for the mission congregation. There seems to have been some objection to this marriage by the Moravian authorities, but it took place nonetheless, and the young couple settled into a home at some distance from the mission. When John Vogler and Vanniman Zevely made a trip to the mission in 1829, they recorded, "Got over [a flooded river] safe & about noon passed Little Tennessee & steered for our old friend Henry Clayton, where we arrived about 2 o'clock. They were much suprised to see us here & soon had dinner prepared for us & in the evening, accompanied by friend Clayton, we rode over to Mr. Copeland's 7 miles distance. Arrived here about sunset to the much astonishment of our former Polly Gambold. Nothing was spared to give us good supper, lodging and breakfast, after which we made a final start." [Records of the Moravians in North Carolina 8:3909]. There is a final note in the church diaries in 1831, that Alexander and Polly Gambold Copeland had moved to Indiana.
In my first version of this page, I posted the following note:
I first became interested in the Gambold family because two of John Gambold's wives, Catharina Lanius and Anna Maria Grabs, were sisters of ancestors of mine. Now however I am intrigued by the whole family, largely because of the wealth of detail available in the Moravian records, and I want to know more yet. I particularly like Polly Gambold Copeland, the young woman astonished by her surprise visitors, and would like to follow her trail to Indiana. Where did they settle? Did they have children?
Thanks to a correspondent who has modestly declined a credit line (and to whom I am most grateful for all the new information incorporated in this revision of the page!), I now have the answer. Polly and Alexander Copeland and their oldest child, John J. Copeland (1830-1849), settled in Bartholomew Co. Indiana in 1831. Three more children were born there, James (1831-1848), Joseph (1834-1849), and Nancy (1834-1879). All three boys died young, and Nancy never married, so there are no descendants of this couple. In 1846 they sold their original farm and moved slightly north to the Flat Rock River, in Shelby Co. IN, where they purchased land on both sides of the river. With the help of John Christian Gambold, Polly's nephew, they dammed the river and built a saw mill on the north bank and a grist mill on the south bank. Polly died in a typhoid fever epidemic in 1848 at the age of 55, and is buried as Mary R. Copeland in a small cemetery in Shelby Co. IN. Her widower Alexander married Fanny Dunn in 1849, and had four daughters with her, two of whom died in infancy. The other two, Emily and Amanda Copeland, married brothers, Edward and Romulus Charles. (for further correspondence, contact me, Elizabeth Harris)
John Christian and Anna Gambold were married in 1828 and moved to Indiana in 1834. In 1856 they left there to move to Minnesota, but Anna died on the way, in Iowa. In 1859 he returned to Indiana. They had 10 children altogether.
Sophia Elizabeth Gambold eventually married Friedrich Hertel, and had six more children with him
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Children of Frederick Gambold and Phebe Clauss
Rebecca Gambold (1820-1889) m. Daniel Ziegler, son of Daniel Ziegler and Anna Maria Rominger
Joseph Gambold (1822-?) m. Elizabeth ?, moved to MN
Philip Gambold (1824-1906) m. Marianna Ziegler (1826-1897), sister of Daniel, lived in Indiana
Sophia Gambold (1826-1879), did not marry
Eli Gambold (1830-1836)
Thomas E. Gambold (ca. 1832-?) m. Frances Higgins
John Gambold (ca. 1834-1900) m. Ellen A. Holder (1836-) of Indiana
Philipina Eliza Gambold (1837-1907) m. 1) Augustine Burcham, 2) John Martin Bruner (1825-1907), s/o John Martin Brunner Sr. and Anna Catharina Rominger
Lydia C. Gambold (1840-1912) m. Charles Neligh, lived Indiana
Frederick and Phebe moved to Hope, Indiana, around 1838. After her death in 1843, he married Elizabeth Peddicord, who gave birth to twins who died in infancy. Elizabeth died in 1848 and is buried at the Moravian graveyard in Hope IN, as is Frederick, who died in 1872.
Moravian graveyard records, Bethlehem PA
Correspondence with Gambold family researchers
This page was revised on February 1, 2004.
©, 2001-2007 Faye Jarvis Moran and Elizabeth Harris
faye@fmoran.com, ncgen@mindspring.com
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