Born February 26, 1815, at Walldorf, Baden, Deutschland (Germany), Barbara Catherine Zeitch came to America when she was twelve years old (1826). She married John George, June 21, 1836, in Daulpin, Pennsylvania. She lived in Pennsylvania, Missouri, and Nebraska. She was a housewife, midwife, and herb doctor.
John (Johan) George Knoll, Edith Stella’s grandfather, was born May 12 or August 12,1802 at Oberheim (possibly: Obrigheim) County, Alsace Loraine, France (French Republic in France). He left for America in 1833 and arrived on April 2, 1834 (New York, NY. He lived in Pennsylvania. He was a linen weaver of bedspreads.
John George (age 34) and Barbara (age 21) married on June 21, 1836, in Daulpin County, Pennsylvania. They had two sets of twins, both died in infancy. They had ten children in total, five of which died in infancy.
He was consumptive (pulmonary tuberculosis) in middle age and died at 43 years, 10 months, and 4 days on March 18, 1846 (Perry County, Pennsylvania). Barbara died September 16, 1905, in Cameron, Clinton County, Missouri.
Henry S. Knoll volunteered for a nine-month enlistment as a Private in Company E, 125th Pennsylvania Infantry Regiment on August 13, 1862. He was twenty-two years old at time of enlistment. President Abraham Lincoln had appealed nationally, on July 1, 1862, for 300,000 additional Union soldiers. In response, Pennsylvania Governor A.G. Curtin called for 21 new regiments from the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania with the enlistment period of nine months.
Less than six weeks after the regiment’s formation, it was rushed into the Battle at Antietam. The battle was fought on September 17, 1862, near Sharpsburg, Maryland and Antietam Creek as part of the Maryland Campaign. It was the first field, army-level engagement in the eastern theater of the Civil War to take place on Union soil and is the bloodiest single-day battle in American history, with a combined tally of 22,717 dead, wounded, or missing.
Henry Knoll’s unit later served at Loudon Heights, Virginia, near Harper’s Ferry. He was involved in what came to be known as the ‘Mud March’, an abortive offensive by Union Army Major General Ambrose Burnside during the Civil War. All participants in the Mud March moved very slowly or became stuck fast in the wet mud and Burnside’s aspirations for success at Fredericksburg expired with his command.
Two weeks before the end of his enlistment, Henry Knoll found himself occupying a defensive position during the battle for Chancellorsville. The battle was an embarrassing defeat for General Hooker and the Union army after Confederate General Stonewall Jackson attacked the rear of the Union defenses.
Henry Knoll mustered out of service on May 18, 1863, and his regiment was disbanded. He filed for his Civil War pension in 1888.
Note: Documentation of Henry Knoll’s role in the Civil War (125th Regiment of Pennsylvania Volunteers) is located in the epilogue of this series.
Notes by Orville Babcock about his father-in-law, Henry Knoll
Henry Sheffield Knoll, born April 26, 1840, at Harrisburg, Pennsylvania and Dauphin, Pennsylvania. Resided in Pennsylvania, Missouri, Tennessee, and Colorado. Came to Colorado in 1882. Carpenter and farmer. Had measles, Chickenpox, whooping cough. Rheumatism in later life. Nationality = part French and German. At age 76 he was 5 ft. 3 in. Weight 125 pounds. Hair black, eyes blue grey. Mental ability medium, music average, art poor. Eyes coal black. Sight excellent. Energy good. Calculation poor. Hearing excellent. Died April 26, 1922. Ambidextrous. No physical defect. - O.G.B.
The night Henry died; his children had carried out a birthday celebration for him. “He was fine at 9 pm and quietly slipped away at 11 pm.” He died on his actual birthday, April 26, 1922, at the age of 82. Mrs. Edith Woodcox of San Antonio is incorrect. The corrected name should read: Mrs. Edith Babcock of Sonora, Texas.
Edith Stella’s mother, Susannah (Bashor), was born Dec. 20, 1853, in Tennessee and moved to Missouri. Susannah married Henry Sheffield Knoll on 7 July 1878, in DeKalb, Missouri, United States. They settled in Colorado and were the parents of at least six sons and three daughters. In 1880 while living in Cooper, Gentry County, Missouri, Henry and Susannah took care of Mark Ashlock, age 8, (1872-1938) when Mark's father was in the county jail. Census records show he was "adopted".
Susannah with her five brothers
Top: Madison, Susannah, John, and Alpheus. Bottom: Sam and Henry
Susannah Bashor Knoll with siblings and spouses
Home of Uncle Sam Bashor in Hygiene, Colorado
Sam was Susannah Bashor Knoll’s brother and the uncle of Edith Knoll. Edith May said that he became very wealthy and when he died, he gave her mother (Edith Stella) $2000. This was during the depression era. “He was a very generous person,” reflected Edith May.
Family home of Henry and Susannah Knoll
Berthoud, Colorado
Henry and Susannah departing from their Berthoud home to attend church
Susannah Bashor Knoll
Notes by Orville G. Babcock on Susannah Bashor Knoll.
Just 5’1, she was a large woman weighing 250 pounds at the age of 62. Her hair was black, eyes dark brown. Her mental ability was excellent. She was average to good with her music ability. Good at art, mechanical skill, calculating and speech. She had a normal temperament, was sentimental and quite stubborn. She was right-handed. She had suffered from painful gallstones brought on by obesity and had them removed when she was almost 60. It was reported she had 600 gallstones taken out with the successful surgery. - O.G.B.
Susannah Knoll died on March 28,1925, one year before Edith Stella and Orville welcomed their third child, Edith May Babcock, into the world.
John and Elizabeth (Sherfy) Bashor
Parents of Susannah Bashor and grandparents of Edith Stella Knoll