#52Ancestors Week 11: Christopher Wolfe

It's Week 11!

This week I'm writing about my 4th great-grandfather, Christopher Wolfe.  He was probably born in Morris County, NJ in about 1767 and moved to southwest Pennsylvania in about 1800.  I haven't researched his ancestry myself, but when planning this blog entry, I remembered an email that was sent to me way back in the year 2000 that mentioned that his father was probably George WOLF (b.10 Aug 1737 d.16 Sep 1789) whose father was Johaan Augustus WOLF (b.Abt 1712 d.Aft 1759).  More info is available at: Wolf family of NJ which was copied directly from the email I was sent.  I'm not sure what all the abbreviations for the locations meant, but if you have questions, I'd be happy to make a guess. 

Christopher Wolfe died sometime in  April 1847 and he was buried in the Upper Ten Mile Presbyterian Church Cemetery.  Luckily, his gravestone had been transcribed at sometime in the past because, as you can see, his marker is disintegrating.  One cemetery transcription can be found at: Upper Ten Mile Cemetery Prosperity, Washington County, Pennsylvania.  Clicking on the photo to the left will take you to his memorial on FindaGrave.com.  You may also notice the military flag next to his grave.  I have seen information that Christopher Wolfe fought in the American Revolution.  He would have been about 16 years old when it ended in 1783 and I have not researched whether that might be likely or not.  I have searched the DAR records and they do not list any men named Christopher Wolfe in their database.

Christopher Wolfe was married twice.  His first wife was a woman named Phebe whose last name is unknown to me, although I have seen her listed in some trees on the Internet as Phoebe Douglas.  She was my ancestor, the mother of my 3rd great grandfather, Luther Wolfe.  After she died in 1813, Christopher married again, this time to a woman named Elizabeth Smith.  It seems to have been a rocky marriage, at least at the beginning.  My evidence for that is the following notice which I found transcribed on page 47, in Abstracts of the Washington Reporter; January 1, 1817 to February 6, 1820. 

From the Washington Reporter, Monday, Sept 22, 1817

Caution.  The subscriber is under the painful necessity of cautioning the public against trusting his wife Elizabeth Wolfe, late Elizabeth Smith, of Morris Township.  She had previous to this time absented herself and threatened to involve me in debt and to get as much on my credit as possible, whether she stood in need of it or not.  Notwithstanding her improper conduct I looked over it and restored her to my house and protection - but now finding that nothing else will do, I am compelled to publish to the world that I shall refuse to pay any debts she may contract in future unless compelled by law, especially while she continues in her present unlawful and unbecoming course. /s/ Christopher Wolfe, Morris township.

As far as I know, Christopher and Elizabeth Wolfe were together until he died.  In his will, he mentioned her with the sentence:  

I will that my wife Elisabeth have a comfortable support at the Expense of my Estate as long as she remains my widow with liberty of remaining in the house where I now live.