Person:Henry Funk (8)

Early Land Acquisition in Virginia

Acquisition of Land from Virginia Northern Neck Land Grants:

• P-40: Henry Funk of Frederick County, 73 acres in mouth of Powell's Fort on North River of Shannandoah in said Co. Surv. Peter Stephens. Adj. Fort Mt., James Catlet. 11 May 1771. [Virginia Northern Neck Land Grants, 1742-1775, Vol. 2, Gertrude E. Gray, pg. 211].

• P-221: Henry Funk of Dunmore Co., has four tracts on Passage Creek in said Co., 200 acres. He bought of James Catlett, 227 acres granted said Funk, another for 73 acres, and 127 acres he bought of James Wilson, in all 627 acres. Tracts are Contiguous and there is waste adj. Surv. Richard Rigg. 1,145 acres (518 acres adj.) to said Funk. Near Middle Mt. and Powell's Fort Road, adj. Jacob Danacre, Passage Creek, Joseph Baker, Michael Clip, William Johnson, Thomas Buck, William Morgan, Baylis Earle, Andrew Copeman. 30 Aug. 1773. [Virginia Northern Neck Land Grants, 1742-1775, Vol. 2, Gertrude E. Gray, pg. 222].

1.   Bly, Daniel W. From the Rhine to the Shenandoah: Eighteenth Century Swiss and German pioneer families in the central Shenandoah Valley of Virginia and their European origins. (Baltimore [Maryland]: Gateway Press, c1993)
   pg. 71-72.

   HENRY FUNK
   
   Henry was about ten years old when his family settled near the present-day site of Strasburg, Virginia, at time an uninhabited wilderness. In 1745 he was deeded 100 acres of land by his father and he proceeded to build a mill on the creek that flowed through his land.
   
   Henry apparently remained a Mennonite, even though many of his relatives were attracted to the Sabbatarian and Dunker sects. He held regular worship meetings in his home and hosted visiting clergymen. Ezekiel Sangmeisterand Henry's cousin, Jacob Funk ('Brother Kenan') considered him obstinate for not embracing their pietism, but he nevertheless welcomed them to his home and gave them shelter when they first arrived in Virginia. 'Brother Kenan' lived and worked for Funk in the late 1740s and in the Fall of 1752 Sangmeister came from Ephrata. Henry Funk sold him a plot and tools he needed (Sangmeister, Part 3, pp. 13-4). In 1772 Henry was among the signers of a Mennonite petition objecting to fines levied for not participating in militia musters (Journal of the House of Burgesses 1770-72, pp. 266, 280).
   
   Henry Funk went to Frederick County, Maryland in the Fall of 1754 and purchased land from his brother, Jacob on Antietam Creek at the same time he sold him his tract on the Shenandoah (Frederick County, Va. Deed Book '3',p. 421 and Frederick County, Md. Deed Book 'E', p. 627). By the Spring of 1755 he had sold his land in Maryland back to Jacob and returned to Virginia where he bought back his old tract where the 'Town Run' joins the Shenandoah (Ibid. Md. Book 'E', p. 804 and Va. Book '5', p. 13). Sangmeister records that in the winter of 1755-6 he was called upon to teach Henry Funk's son, 'a boy the age of eight' to read and write and to minister medication to his wife, who was suffering a painful illness. She had a small child still nursing (Sangmeister, Part 3, pp. 39-40). Henry Funk began acquiring property on Passage Creek several miles east of Strasburg in the 1760s and eventually had 1145 acres there. He moved there, built another mill and had a saw mill and a still house (mentioned in the sale of the property after his death, Shenandoah County Will Book 'E' p.126). In his will, Henry also referred to land he had acquired in 'Suffrings Valley in the west," apparently meaning the Severns Valley in Hardin County, Kentucky. Henry wrote his will 20 October 1789 and it was probated 25 February 1790.(Shen. Co. Will Book "C," p. 115. The names of his sons-in-law-are found in the settlement of his estate.