SOME MARTINSBURG HISTORY.
(From the Martinsburg Herald.)
The first settlers of Martinsburg were John Brumbaugh and Daniel Camerer, both of German descent. The following dates in connection with their family history and time of coming to this place are taken from an old German Bible.
John Brumbaugh emigrated from Frederick, Md., to the Conococheague settlement in the year 1783. He did not come further at that time, for in those days it was dangerous to live far from the forts, on account of the Indians, and at that time the red men had possession of this territory. While Brumbaugh lived at Conococheague Daniel Camerer, who came from the city of Worms, near the river Rhine, and who, like Brumbaugh, had settled near the Mason and Dixon line, married Brumbaugh's oldest daughter, Margaret Brumbaugh, who was then twenty years of age and her husband a few years her senior, he having been born in 1760. ...
Some few years after John Brumbaugh came here, Daniel Camerer and wife and two children came to the cove. Having heard from his father-in-law, John Brumbaugh, they sold their house and farms, and with their stock and household goods emigrated to this place.
While Daniel Camerer and his wife lived at Conococheague creek near the Mason and Dixon line, he built a house there, and I am told by good authority, a man who was there and saw the house, that his name, “Kammerer,” for that was the German way of spelling the name, is cut on a large stone above the door. The house is still standing and anyone going there can see the stone bearing his name. While living in this house Mr. and Mrs. Camerer became the parents of two children, a daughter and son, Hannah Camerer born January 28, 1792, and David Camerer, born in July, 1794. When the Camerer family landed here they had a large amount of money and stock, and for years were regarded as among the wealthiest of the early settlers.
Daniel Camerer purchased 700 acres of land from his father-in-law, John Brumbaugh, thereby obtaining the present town site of Martinsburg. The deed for this land was made November 1. 1799, a little over one hundred and nine years ago. and can be seen at the home of the writer. A recorded copy of the deed can also be seen in Bedford, at the court house, book No. 19, page 62, this territory then being a part of Bedford county. Aside from the borough of Martinsburg, this 700 acres of land purchased by Daniel Camerer is divided into the following tracts, beginning at the north:
Daniel Camerer and wife were the parents of eleven children, nine of them being born after they emigrated from Concocheague to this place. Elisabeth, born 1796; John, born 1798; Louis, born 1800; Mary, born 1802: Margaret, born 1803; Samuel, born 1806; D. Camerer, born 1807, died in infancy; Daniel, born 1809; James, born 1812. These are all dead and all buried in Spring Hope cemetery, except two, Louis, buried at Steubenville, Ohio, and Mary, wife of Jesse Speelman, buried at Cherrytree, Indiana county, Pa. The latter inherited the Blake and Streasser tracts which they sold before locating at Cherrytree. I have no record of the death of John Brumbaugh and wife, but both are buried in Spring Hope cemetery. Daniel Camerer was aged seventy-three years when he died and his wife, Margaret, was aged sixty-nine years at her death.
