Person:Elizabeth Dieffenbach (1)

Information on Elizabeth Dieffenbach

Maria Elizabetha Dieffenbach left Germany for America with her family on May 15, 1709, according to researcher John Tevebaugh. Elizabeth was born sometime before 1705 in Wiesloch, Baden Germany. She was one of three children. She and her mother and siblings were with her father for a few years after their arrival in America, living first in a Palatine settlement along the Scholarie river in New York, near present day Albany. About 1724 they made their way to the Tulpehocken Creek settlement in what was then Chester County, Pennsylvania. She and Michael Ernst must have married beween 1720 and 1725 either at the Scholarie river settlement, or more likely, at the Tulpehocken Creek Settlement in Pennsylvania, according to researcher John L.Tevebaugh.

A ‘Widow Harness” (apparently Elizabeth Dieffenbach) is listed in the 1785 tax list of Hampshire County (the year after Michael’s will was proved) as possessing 2 slaves, 4 horses and 19 head of cattle. In 1786 “Widow Harness” was taxed as owning 83 acres of land in what had now become Hardy County, WVA. That tax listing continued under the name ‘Elizabeth Harness” through 1796, according to researcher Tevebaugh.

Source: http://home.comcast.net/~harnessfamily/History/History4.htm