Philip Garnhart (3)
March 1, 1779 - June 9, 1843

“Philip, the fourth of Heinrich’s children, was born March 1, 1779, in a dark period of the colonial struggle for Independence—though events of a few months later cheered up the disheartened patriots, as for instance, when a little more than four months later General Wayne stormed Stony Point and captured the garrison. When Heinrich purchased the Sinking Spring tract (1805), Philip was twenty-six years old. He was twice married, but who his first wife was, where she was born, whether she came with him from beyond the Blue Mountain, or whether he married her soon after he came to the valley of the Susquehanna, there appears to be no existing record to show, and no one now living knows. She died, as near as can be ascertained, about 1810. Her grave, like Heinrich’s and Rosine’s, is unmarked and forgotten, but is believed to be in the Old Delaware Run churchyard and in the same row with theirs. His second wife was Mary Magdalena Bieber, of Lycoming County, with whom he united in marriage about 1811, and had seven children. She was a daughter of Adam Bieber, an old soldier of the Revolution, who was one of the early settlers of Muncy Valley. Philip was a farmer, but also for some time along with farming kept a tavern, known in later years as Shipman’s Tavern, in Moreland Township, Lycoming County, and only about one hour’s drive from where his sister, Margaret Litchard, then lived. He died June 9, 1843, in his 65th year, having, after the family settlement in Northumberland County, never lived more than two or three hours’ drive from the Sinking Spring. Mary Magdaline died in Muncy July 30, 1851. Both are buried in Hill’s graveyard, where her parents repose, near the eastern border of Muncy Borough, in a beautiful spot on a bank, but in an old, overgrown and sadly neglected receptacle of the dead, which is now no longer used, and seems destined to vanish in ‘the swallowing gulf of dark oblivion’ ” (from Heinrich Gernhardt and His Descendants, pp. 139-140).

Philip’s children:

1. Catharine Garnhart (4), born January 13, 1806, died May 17, 1860;
2. Rosena Fetterman Garnhart (4), born about 1812. In 1849, Rosena and her husband John Mecum settled in Indiana in 1849, and she died a few years after. The exact date of her death is unknown;
3. David Garnhart (4), born July 2, 1813, died October 8, 1842;
4. Sarah Kelley Garnhart (4), born November 23, 1816, died April 14, 1890;
5. Andrew Garnhart (4), died in infancy;
6. Adam Garnhart (4), died in infancy;
7. Hannah Bieber Garnhart (4), born July 10, 1823, died August 19, 1895; and
8. Maria Williams Garnhart (4), born January 1, 1826.