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THE SIXTH GENERATION
Part F (245 - 249)

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Nicholas Rosenkrans (102)

Allen Rosenkrans (From an old picture, 1853)

245.   ALLEN ROSENKRANS, compiler of this genealogy, son of Nicholas (102), was born in a log house in Walpack, Sussex County, New Jersey, on his mother’s birthday, Friday, February 5, 1830. He was named for a Presbyterian clergyman, Reverend Edward Allen, and lived with his father on the farm till fifteen years of age, when he went to clerk in a store for his uncle John B. Layton, at Layton, three miles up Flatbrook. In the spring of 1847, his uncle sold his store to his brother William, and the writer continued with him until his death the same year. He then in company with his grandfather, John Layton, Esq., purchased the store goods and conducted a mercantile business till the spring of 1849, when they were obliged to relinquish the business on account of the possession of the store property being demanded by the owner. During 1849 he attended school at Deckertown Academy six months, and on account of its discontinuance, finished the years attendance at the Mount Retirement Seminary in Wantage. The writer loves study, and as he paid his own schooling, applied his time well to his studies, which during the year consisted of Arithmetic, Parsing in Milton, Algebra, Geometry, Surveying, Philosophy and Chemistry. During the year 1850 I was employed by Clark & Judson, Commission Merchants of New York to receive farmer’s produce at Port Jervis and forward to them in the city and in a short time was taken in the store as bookkeeper at 183 Reade Street. December, 1850, my father died, and I returned home at the close of the year, but soon engaged for the following year with another commission firm of that city, Bevans & Blizzard, and continued at Port Jervis, clerking in the meantime in the store of VanFleet & Godfrey. Near the close of the year the writer was compelled to return home for a time, and there, like Simon Peter’s wife, "Jay sick of a fever." During this time, my employers relinquished the business. I then took the Peter’s Valley district school, where most of my school days had been spent, being the first native teacher there, and taught two winters, then, at Centerville, now called Layton. During the year 1852, the writer in company with Sylvester Layton, attended a great political gathering at Niagara Falls, in the interest of General Scott as a Presidential candidate, late from the Mexican War, and there heard the great editor Greeley make a political speech. The following morning the writer crossed the suspension bridge into Canada, then a curiosity in this country, and took breakfast at a hotel in the dominion of Queen Victoria. On my way home, visited relatives in Steuben County in Hammondsport and, in company with others, chaperoned by Miss Ann Eliza Rosenkrans, of Hammondsport, now Mrs. White (196), visited the neighboring glen and glided upon the lake. While at Centerville, engaged in the mercantile business, the writer served for three years as town Superintendent of Public Schools, prior to the appointment of a County Superintendent. In 1863 in company with my brother, A.P., purchased the store goods and went into the mercantile business at the Layton store. In 1854, I was married to Charlotte Tuttle, of Tuttle’s corner, born May 16, 1833, daughter of Benjamin Tuttle, from Orange County, New York, who married Lucy Smith, of Wantage. His likeness and biography are to be found in Everett & Peck’s History of Sussex County. In 1855 purchased my brother’s interest in the store and two years later was again obliged to give possession of the store property and to sell the goods at a sacrifice. 

Mrs. Charlotte Rosenkrans

During 1857, with my little family of wife and one child, I moved to New York City, landing at the old Chamberlain Hotel, on West Street, the evening the Crystal Palace was burned. In company with my brother-in-law, John Jackson, and Jack of all trades, fitted up an ambrotype gallery on Grand Street, and about 1859 opened a grocery store on the East Corner of Broadway and 32nd Street. The building which I occupied in part was newly built and owned by one Mr. Codling, who collected his rent quarterly in advance through an agent named Lawrence, and failed to pay his humble tenant his last grocery bill. When the writer lived in New York, 1850, there were but few dwellings above 30th Street, and they mainly Irish shanties around which goats could be seen grazing, and climbing the rocks which abounded there. The Battery was yet standing at Castle Garden, and contained the principal hall of the city for large public gatherings, and there Jenny Lind sang after her arrival one Sunday morning 1850, when Gennin, the hatter, became famous and added to his fortune by purchasing the first seat for the concert at an enormous premium. In 1857 there were but few buildings above the Crystal Palace grounds at 49th Street, except on the main road to Harlem, then a small suburb of the city, The tallest building in the city was Stewart’s sugar refinery on Greenwich Street, ten stories high. Now the Park building, opposite the Post Office, is thirty-two stories high, and others near it are so high that they are called sky scrapers, probably twice as high as Nimrod, the mighty hunter and the first king purposed to build his tower for a protection against the floods. The store property mentioned on Broadway and 32nd Street, in 1860, was valued at $30,000, and is now worth $200,000. In the fall of 1861 the writer exchanged his store business in New York for a country store at Newport, near Pine Island, New York, and in the Spring of 1862, came to Newton and engaged in the clothing business, sold out at the close of the war, and for the second time entered into the mercantile business in company with his brother A.P. In 1868 sold to brother Lorenzo D. and purchased lot No. 12, Lackawanna Avenue, Scranton, Pennsylvania, and there engaged in the bottling business. In 1869, the building and contents occupied and owned by the writer were consumed by fire in the night, when his wife, long an invalid and blind from the effects of pain in the head, was carried from a bed of sickness to escape fire for the second time, the first having been in New York, 1860, when her second child was but three days old. In 1870 I purchased a farm of forty acres on the Delaware in Sussex County, New Jersey, six miles below Port Jervis, and moved there on account of my wife’s ill health, but she died March 11, 1870, and was buried in Newton cemetery. March 20, 1871, was married to Mary Catharine Wintermute, born in Stillwater township November 13, 1840, daughter of Jeptha A., son of Peter, son of George, son of George Wintermute, the emigrant, born in Germany 1711; came to Philadelphia 1736, married Margaret Elizabeth Burnhart, 1739, died and was buried in Stillwater cemetery 1782, where his grave stone still presents the foregoing items concerning him. Having kept the business going in Scranton through the foreman, who was made a partner when I moved to New Jersey, and having erected a new building on the ruins of the former one, returned to Scranton 1872, and continued the business there till 1884, dealing some in real estate. In 1879 my partner died, when the business again came fully into my possession. In 1885 our daughter Minnie died in Scranton, on Vine Street, and was buried at Newton, New Jersey, where we moved November 4th of the same year, purchased about six and one-half acres on High Street, in the suburb of Newton; erected buildings and moved there in October, 1886. My present occupation is mainly growing berries, while my sons have been going to school, or engaged in other occupations. We are members of the Presbyterian church, but not a sectarian or confined to a church creed, believing that the bible teaches more truths than is contained in either one or all the creeds, I believe in the Divine inspiration of the Scriptures and of all the books of the Bible (King James Version); in the literal as well as figurative interpretation of the Scriptures, as having a double meaning and application, temporal and spiritual, teaching what their words declare. Am a Republican in politics, though not a politician, and have been such since the day of Lincoln, firmly believing in the McKinley foreign policy of expansion and control of the Philippine Islands, believing that the Spanish war, giving us possession of those islands, was clearly Providential, for the temporal and Spiritual welfare of the islanders and for the good of the world, and that it is our duty as an enlightened, rich and powerful people, to govern and Christianize and enlighten them till they are capable of governing themselves. I am in favor also of Temperance and all moral reforms, realizing the fact that God is now doing an especial work among the nations in preparing them and the world for the reception of the Gospel and the Kingdom of Christ, and that it is our duty, as far as possible to cooperate with Him in this work by educating, Christianizing and civilizing the oppressed islanders entrusted to our care.

Allen Rosenkrans 1883

According to prophecy and the signs of the times, we are apparently in the last of the "seventy weeks (of seven years) determined upon Daniel’s people" regarding their restoration, beginning in 1895; during which period great events were to take place, including the destruction of the Mohammedan persecuting power of "1290 days" and near the close of this period we took for the more literal smiting of "the Image upon his feet" by the "Stone," thus destroying the five kingdoms which the "great Image" represents after which the Stone is to become a "great mountain and "fill the whole earth." These kingdoms are to "become the kingdoms of our Lord and of His Christ." 

The writer’s life has been somewhat eventful in things seen and "things not seen," he having been Providentially led hither and thither like the Israelites in the wilderness, sometimes "into green pastures and beside the still waters" and then encountering giant obstacles in the way of progress, drinking of the bitter waters of family affliction and disappointment and sorrow.

Mrs. Mary Catharine Rosenkrans

But the writer is well assured that all these are for our spiritual good, "working out" for those who trust in the Lord "a far exceeding and eternal weight of glory." The inspired Job said in the midst of his afflictions, "Shall we receive good at the hand of God and shall we not receive evil?" Job’s afflictions were not for the sake of pleasing the Devil, who was permitted to afflict him, nor in punishment for his sins, for he was a servant of the Lord, there being "none like him in the earth, a perfect and upright man, one that feared God and eschewed evil," but for the purpose of giving to the world for imitation an example of patiently enduring suffering, and of faithfulness and trust in God under afflictions, which would result in eternal blessings to him.

The inspired Psalmist says "Blessed is the man whom the Lord chasteneth." He chasteneth not for his pleasure, but "for our profit that we may partake of His holiness." It is well said,

Since marriage in 1854 the writer has lived in three different states and at seven separate periods having moved from one state to another six times — has owned thirteen different properties in the three states and moved twenty-one times.

Residence of Allen Rosenkrans, Newton, N.J.

I have suffered painful afflictions intermittently since childhood, my first wife was afflicted thirteen years, suffering pain which brought blindness and eventually ended in death; and my second wife is now suffering the pains of a malady of three years duration which is constantly growing more malignant and threatening. With Jacob I might say "Few and evil have the days of the years of my life been" — yet my life has been comparatively happy, with more pleasure than pain, more joy than sorrow, never despondent but ever hopeful and thankful for the blessings enjoyed, having faith in God and his promises for the future, knowing that "He doeth all things well," and "looking for a city which hath foundations, whose Builder and Maker is God." My children by my first wife are Carrie and Lucy T. By my second wife Allen E., Layton W., Minnie (departed) and Luke D. 

246.  EMILY ROSENKRANS, daughter of Nicholas (102), was born in Walpack, New Jersey, May 31, 1832, and died July 5, 1834. She like her sister Caroline, was buried at the Shappanack burying ground, near the Delaware.

247.  LORENZO D. ROSENKRANS, youngest child of Nicholas (102) by his first wife, was born in the newly erected dwelling of his father in Walpack, New Jersey, October 17, 1834. He was sixteen years of age when his father died, and as the farm was sold and the family scattered and yet unmarried, he was left without a home like the rest of us till one was established by himself. After leaving the district school he went to Mt. Retirement Seminary, in Wantage, kept by Professor Stiles, and afterward taught school at Tuttle’s schoolhouse in Sandyston. He clerked in a store and then conducted a store in Walpack, and subsequently bought the store property at Centreville, remaining there several years. About 1860 he married Amelia Retalic, a school teacher, daughter of John Retalic, of Pike County, Pennsylvania. In 1866 he purchased a property on Spring Street, and kept store there, which he enlarged in 1868 by the purchase of the store and store property adjoining occupied by the writer and his brother. On a part of that property now stands the Rosenkrans building occupied by M.P. Tully and the Newton Club. L.D. Rosenkrans purchased several real estates in Newton, on which he erected buildings and thus improved the town. He erected a dwelling for himself on Madison Street, where he started a livery stable in connection with his store, and which he finally located near Spring Street, now kept by his son Frank H. Rosenkrans. Among the dwellings built by him is the one on Halstead Street, where his family now reside, and another just below the post office, still owned by the family. He and his wife were both members of the Presbyterian church. He died October 18, 1884. His children are: Frank H., Charles Irving, departed, and M. Victor.

248.  HENRY OSCAR ROSENKRANS, son of Nicholas (102), by his third wife Mary Smith, was born on the Walpack farm, Sussex County, New Jersey, January 18, 1847, being but three years of age at his fathers death. He was brought up by his mother on the Smith farm in Sandyston, where she was raised. On leaving school at an early age, Henry Oscar lived for some time with his brother Lorenzo D., assisting him in the store, but while young engaged in the bottling business in Port Jervis, which he eventually sold out and went to Elmira, New York, then to Owego, and finally to Jersey City, where he conducted the bottling business, which he exchanged for the Erie Coal yard. He there conducted the coal business with success for several years, but on account of the failing health of his wife injuriously affected by the sea breeze, he returned to Port Jervis, and entered into the coal and lumber business in company with a Mr. Conrad. While living in Port Jervis the first time, Henry Oscar was married December 16, 1868 to Fannie Starkweather, born in Waymart, Pennsylvania, May 24, 1849. He eventually withdrew from the firm at Port Jervis for the purpose of constructing some buildings in Jersey City, and afterwards purchased and opened another coal and lumber yard in Port Jervis, which he recently sold but still conducts the business there. His wife was long an invalid and died at Port Jervis, 1899. His daughter, Mrs. Nettie Thorpe, and husband occupy his house and he lives with them. The following is a part of the obituary of his wife, which appeared in the Port Jervis Gazette, edited by Mr. W.H. Nearpass, the family historian. His children are Mary, Florence and Nettie: "Mrs. Fannie M. Starkweather, wife of Mr. H.O. Rosenkrans, died at 4 o’clock, this morning at her home, No. 154 East Main street, from bronchial asthma and other complications from which she had been a sufferer for the past five years. Mrs. Rosenkrans was the daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Charles L. Starkweather and was born at Waymart, Pennsylvania, on the 24th of May, 1849, Queen Victoria’s birthday, and consequently, was 50 years of age on the 24th of the present month. Her people removed to Port Jervis during Miss Fannie’s girlhood days and her education was completed in the public schools of Port Jervis. Following her marriage to Mr. Rosenkrans, December 16th, 1868, they removed to Jersey City where her husband was engaged in an extensive coal and lumber business. The sea air proving injurious to Mrs. Rosenkrans’ health they removed to Port Jervis in the elegant and luxurious home on east Main street that her fond husband had prepared for her reception.

In early girlhood Mrs. Rosenkrans developed a fervent Christian spirit and was always much interested in church work and acts of charity and in the year 1869, under the pastorate of Reverend T.J.B. House, she united with the Baptist church of this village.

Mrs. Rosenkrans was the possessor of a cheerful, happy, loving spirit. She was a devoted wife and mother; enjoyed social life and was never happier than when surrounded by friends for whom she was endeavoring to make life happier.

Mrs. Rosenkrans leaves in her immediate family her husband, Henry Oscar Rosenkrans, and two daughters, Florence, Mrs. Lawrence Walters, Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania; and Nettie M., Mrs. R. Grant Thorpe, Port Jervis."

249.  MYRON S. ROSENKRANS, son of Nicholas (102); was born in Walpack, Sussex County, New Jersey, February 27, 1851, two months subsequent to his father’s death. When his brother Oscar went into the bottling business, in Port Jervis, about 1867 he went and assisted him, and also in Elmira, Owego and Jersey City. He was married November 1, 1871, to Alice Marvin, of Port Jervis, New York, born September 10, 1832. He engaged in the boot and shoe business in Jersey City, but leaving it was subsequently bookkeeper in that city, and still later waymaster for the New York & Erie R.R. Company, in New York. His health is not good and he is unable at present to do much labor. He has one son: Harry Howard.

This page was last updated on February 26, 2007 .
Copyright © 199 - 2002 by James P. Rosenkrans, IV.  All rights reserved.