About Frankenfield

I started this project, as a lame attempt, for a high school history class in 1977. I sat with my grandmothers and wrote down what they knew about their families. Though it was vague, it's the basis or my research. I remember my one grandmothers saying "Bill's grandfather was a Civil War Vet"; "my mother died when I was ten." and the other, "John's great grandmother was an American Indian, his great-great grandfather came home to find his family scalped".

My sister rekindled my interest when she wanted to know what happened to my project. It’s probably sitting in a closet in the attic of my mom’s house.

She was trying to find out family tales about the Frankenfields from Williams Township weren't related to other Frankenfields in Pennsylvania and New Jersey were true. There was a story that they were horse thieves from Ohio and escaped to Pennsylvania! With a little more research, my great-great-grandfather, Nathan Frankenfield moved to Ohio with his sisters family (Sloyers). He returned, they didn't.

In fact my great-grandfather's brother William Forrest Frankenfield was born in Ohio, and is the one who told the story to my uncles. William was known as "Uncle" in William Township, he married late in his life, after his step sister, Lilly, and mother passed on. He and his sister, Lilly, inherited the farm on Old Well Road in Williams Townshp after their mother passed away. He sold the farm after his sister passed away and moved to an old stage coach hotel on Morgan Hill Road. My cousin Wanda recalls playing in the vacant rooms of the old hotel as a child.

The Old Well Road farm was previous owned by the Crick's who married into the Brotzman family contained in this site. The farm has passed through several families since. The old hotel is still standing and used as a residence today.

Researching more of Williams Townshp and I realized that Nathan Frankenfield didn't live far from his Aunt, Catherine Moser, his mother's sister. While Nathan lived on Old Well Road, his aunt lived on Morgan Hill Road, just a few hundred feet from where my grandparents built their house(The corner of Old Well Road and Morgan Hill Road, across the street from the Old Glendon Iron Works Office).

William sold a track land to my grandparents for $1 and they build the house at the top of Old Well Road. The used rafters from an old barn that burned, they hand dug the basement. Tthere is a crawl space under part of the house because of an old foundation of a hotel. In the crawl space is a hole that may have lead to a cave or was used for cover during indian raids. It could have also been a mine shaft since they mined iron ore in the area. During the years, my grandparents sold off parts of the land, my uncles and cousins have built there residents on what was part of the original farm.

Across the street from my grandparents house, was the old office of the Glendon Iron Mines. My great-grandfather, Charles H. Frankenfield lived there with his second wife, Meda Longenbach, and their children, Lilly, Edith and Helena. This was also the mining company that my great-great grandfather, Nathan Frankenfield, worked.

As I stated above the property of my grandparents, at one time, contained a hotel and sat on one of the main roads that went from Easton to Philadelphia. It was know as Old Philadelphia Road and was later renamed Morgan Hill Road after Mammy Morgan (a revolutionary war figure who resided in Williams Township and she is buried in one of the few graves remaining at the Easton Library). Old Well road was named after the hand dugged well that belong to the hotel, the hotel no longer remains, but the old well is still in existance though taken out of service in 1976. The township has erected a cement retaining wall around the well. This was done to protect the well as they widened Old Well road for through traffic. It can seen next the stop sign at the top of Old Well Road.

When my father was 12 he recalls Benjamin Raub telling him about the hotel that use to stand at the corner of Morgan Hill Road and Old Well Road. He stated Benjamin was quite old at the time and with a little research, Benjamin had to be in his 90's. My dad said he passed away a few years later at the age of 98.

My grandfather Forrest Frankenfield was also known as Bill. Bill was a carpenter and a farmer, and had a vegetable stand on the Circle in Easton. When Bill passed away, my grandmother sold the house to my father and mother. My mother currently lives in the house that my grandfather had built. My one uncle and my father were born in that house in the 1930's and my grandfather had passed way on the night after Christmas 1958. It was a result of a heart attack from an accident that happened in front of the house on Christmas Eve. When two men were driving home and one put his foot on the gas petal to see how fast they could go around the curve. The car ran off the road and into a tree, one of the men in the car didn't survive.

As I stated early about the tale that we are from Ohio; my branch did move to Ohio and then moved back! My great great grandfather's baptism and birth record (1877) can be found in Northampton County. His brother's birth certificate (1880) ,which is in the pocession of my uncle, states he was born in Ohio. As I'm researching the project, I'm discovering that we are related to more then first lead to believe. The good, the bad, the ugly and the famous…

I actually started this web site on my personal site; it was going to include my direct ancestors. Today it has grown and I created a separate site, www.frankenfield-beam.com and www.frankenfield-beam.net.. I moved the site to a web server in Northampton County, PA. I wanted to keep the information there. I have over 80,000 names in my database and only a small portion on this site. I wanted something from the areas I've been researching; mainly Bucks, Northampton County and Warren County, NJ. Warren County was part of Sussex County, NJ.

I've spent many hours in the Marx room at the Easton Library, going through the various church records, obituaries, cemetery records. I also find the librarians in the Marx Room very helpful.

When I started researching the Frankenfield's most of the research was done, thanks to a great book by Alfred Patton Davidson, I realized I didn't know much about my mother's side of the family. She didn't know much either. Her mother divorced her abusive father in the late 40's, which wasn't common at that time period. She didn't know her father's side of the family that well. I started piecing parts together. I do remember my grandmother talk about "his" side of the family once. Stating that his great grand mother was American Indian and someone getting scalped.

After I research this family, I realized why no one talked about them. I descendend from the black sheep of this family. The wills are very interesting reading, my great great great grandfather leaves $5 for my Great Great Grandfather. My great Great grandfather leaves $1 for my Great Grand father. My grandfather (an alcoholic) was dead by the time my great grand father passed away.

I was told of stories of relatives showing up drunk at funerals or late to funeral. One story I heard was when one of my great grandfather's brother was being buried in Greenwich Cemetery, another of the brother's showed up late, they were lower the coffin into the grave when he showed up. He stumbled across the cemetery and demanded they open the coffin so he could see his brother. I was told they opened his coffin in the noon sun and what a ghastly site.

Another story I heard was when my great grandfather died, his sibling showed up drinking whiskey from a cough medicine bottle during the service and to the grave site.

I started piecing together the Beam and Walter families. I talked with aunts and uncles and they said the family wasn't discussed much. I would hear certain buzz word from my mom, such as Uncle John, Aunt Sue, and the one I still haven't found, Cousin Lizzie. My great grand father would talk about the Woodrings and the Flory’s but I had no idea who they were.

When I was in elementary school, we had a new kid in our class, Joe Rowe. I told my mom about him. One day she asked if his parents were such and such and if his father moved to Florida. I asked him, he told me yes. I went home and told my mom and she said we are related. Somehow I was a third cousin to Joe Rowe and his sister.

What I consider my Beam side is actually my maternal side, the Beams, Nixons, Walters, and Browns. I was fortunate enough to know my maternal great-grand parents, John and Lizzie (Brown) Walter. They lived a few hundred feet from the Trinity Union Church in Hecktown also known as the Dryland Church. I can remember the old Dryland Cemetery before they removed the tombstones. We used to go visit them every other Sunday. Every time we visited we would get a nickel from my great grand mother. Each time we would visit, my great grandmother would go to the cupboard and give us nickel. This use to scare me because she was old, and blind and felt her way around the house. My great grand mother passed away first. It was the first viewing I ever attended. After her death, my great grand father lived by himself well into his 90's and then moved in with my grandmother for the final years of his life. He passed away in his sleep at the age of 98. We found out just before he died 1989 that he was the youngest of thirteen children.

His father, Zebulon Walters was born in 1824 and was 68 years old when my great grandfather was born. The two Generations expanded over a 167 year time period.

We also had special names for family members, Pop was always know as my great grand father, John Walters, and Mom (Pronouced Mum) was always his wife, great grand mother Lizzie Brown. Mother was always referred to my grandmother Martha Walters Beam.

Martha was well known at Easton Hospital. She worked in the cafeteria. She also was a waitress in several diners in Easton. A few of my friends who worked at the hospital would say, Martha is your grand mother and would be very surprised! She was always lending a helping hand. Martha was the first person at Easton Hospital to have heart Surgery in the 1960’s, she was only to live 15 more years, but she lived at least another 30. She said during the operation she saw a bright light and several people who had passed on at that time, she didn’t talk much about that experience.

I'll always remember my last visit with Grammy Beam (as I called her), I took my mom over to visit. We walked into the room and she was talking to the spirits that were surrounding her. She looked up at me and asked what I was doing there (her last words to me) and continued to talk to these spirits. My aunts,uncles and my cousins were coming to visit her that evening. It was the last time that we have been together with her when she was alive. That night she passed away, joining the spirits that were visiting her in the room. She passed away at the age of 84.

When I started researching the Beam side, I was in contact with my grandfather's two sisters, Ethel and Ruth. They also told me the storys above. Aunt Ethel gave a few generations of the Beam family of what she could remember. She also told me about the American Indian relative. She remembers visiting her when she was young. This American Indian relative was Margaret Inscho Strunk Winters. She said she use to smoke a corncob pipe. She also mentioned about relatives living at Jenny Jump State Park in Warren County, NJ.

What I find is that all the Inscho contacts I've been in touch have the same American Indian story. Were not sure just exactly where the American Indian fits into the family but Margaret Inscho's father Ebenezer was reportedly married to one. We believe he had three wives. Two are accounted for and the third was to be an Indian princess. Another Inscho researcher pointed out that this American Indian princess could well be Margaret Inscho's mother Eleanor Weller. Eleanor's death certificate indicates her parents are Philip Weller and Sarah. Sarah's death record indicates that she was born in PA, does not give a clue to her maiden name or her parents.

Another interesting fact with the Beam side is number of religious leaders in the family. Let's start with the oldest one first. On the Brown side there are two, John Betchel and Cornelius Weygandt. John Betchel is one of the founders of the Bethlehem Moravian Church. He came to Philadelphia and lived in Germantown and then moved to Bethlehem. John wrote several religious books that were published by Benjamin Franklin. They were in German and in English.

John Betchel's daughter, Agnes Maria, married Cornelius Weygandt. Cornelius lived beside Chief Tatamy. Cornelius later in life switch over to Moravian and help found the Shoeneck Moravian Church, just outside of Nazareth, Northampton County, PA. I'm a descendant of Two Moravian founders in the USA. I actually descend from two of Cornelius's children his daughter Hannah, who married Conrad Best, and his son Jacob who married Catherine Nolan (Nowlane). Her father John Nolan was a tavern owner. The tavern is still in service today and is know as the Newburg Inn.

Switching from Moravian, we will now go to the Baptist side of the family. I'm a descendant of Thomas R. Cole, founder of the Mansfield Baptist Church in Port Murray, Mansfield Township, Warren County, NJ. Thomas daughter, Joanne, married Andrew Beam and deserts him after he returns from the Civil War with his four children. Not much is known about Joanne and still needs research.

If you’re a descendant of Simon Frankenfield, then your related to William Clark Gable. Clark starred in a little known film called "Gone with the Wind". You may have heard of it.

My sister even stated I went to far, when I found that my parents who are divorced are related through the Miller's genealogy.

I had two grandfathers in the Civil War. Andrew Beam who fought for NJ and Isaac Fox who fought for PA. There is possibly another, William Strunk, the family legend has the he went to the Great War and never returned. I cannot find any record of him after 1862 nor can I find any records of him in the Civil War..