Catharine Gernhardt Fogelman (3)
February 18, 1783 - September 3, 1840

“Catharine and her twin sister, Margaret Litchard, were born February 18, 1783, and were therefore but twelve years old when Heinrich, in 1795, sold the Northampton County home, and were aged twenty-two when he, in 1805, bought the Sinking Spring property. She married Peter Fogelman in 1805, and some time afterward settled with him on a fertile and pleasantly located farm on the bank of the Susquehanna River, about two and one-half miles west of the Springs. The Fogelman family had migrated from the same eastern section of the state a little earlier, and it is believed they and Heinrich’s family had been acquaintances, possibly neighbors before migrating to the Susquehanna Valley. Peter, in 1820, acquired the title to the land on which he had settled. The place is now owned by two of his grandsons, Thomas and Simon (5), sons of John (4) both of whom were born years after their grandparents died, and have no personal recollections of them and their day.

“"The house in which Catharine and Peter lived all the rest of their days, and where all their children were born, stood a number of rods from the bank of the river, and after standing there securely for more than a generation, although for several years not any longer occupied as a dwelling, was swept away, and also, the barn and all the outbuildings, by the great flood of March, 1865—the greatest and most destructive inundation to that time known to the inhabitants of the West Branch Valley of the Susquehanna. It is known as ‘Saint Patrick’s Day Flood,’ because it occurred on that saint’s day. For several days the weather had been quite warm, melting the large quantity of snow rapidly, and then came a very heavy rain, which suddenly converted the numerous tributary streams into torrents, and the river into a devastating and terrifying deluge. Such a furious flood having never been known, the inhabitants along the river could not realize their danger until it was too late, or much more of their personal effects might have been saved. The highest known of the previous floods was the freshet of 1847, which was a number of feet lower. The large brick house now on the farm was built in 1860 by John Fogelman (4), and was also, therefore, in the track of the great inundation of ’65, but of this more by and by.

“Catharine Fogelman died September 3, 1840, and Peter followed and was laid beside her in the Delaware Run churchyard, October 31, 1848. In the accompanying illustration of the church and yard, the tallest rounded-top headstone near the horse shed marks his grave, and the first or next low stone between him and the church indicates the resting place of Catharine. Here they rest in undisturbed repose, neither rejoicing nor grieving with their posterity and kindred in their life—struggles, while waiting for that summons which the Prophet declares all in their graves shall hear, and then shall come forth. They had five children. The children have in turn become the heads of numerous families, many of whom still live near, or within a day’s drive of the old Heinrich and Fogelman homes. Though not the largest branch of the Gernhardt Family, yet one of Catharine’s descendants, writing from Iowa, said: ‘Gernerd, if you succeed in getting the names and records of all the Fogelman’s, you will have a big book.’ The following record of the Fogelman subdivision probably includes nearly all—some late additions may not be reported—and comprises 5 children, 41 grandchildren, 126 great-grandchildren, 59 great-great-grandchildren, and 8 great-great-great-grandchildren, making a grand total of 239 souls—to which the consorts of the married are, of course, yet to be added” (from Heinrich Gernhardt and His Descendants, pp. 201-203).

The children of Catharine and Peter were:

1. Mary Fogelman, born April 8, 1806, died April 3, 1852;
2. John Fogleman, born July 4, 1809, died March 7, 1867;
3. Elizabeth Fogleman, born October 20, 1810, died June 5, 1878;
4. Catharine Fogleman, born November 8, 1814, died March 14, 1882; and
5. Peter Fogleman, born July 11, 1820, died October 1, 1881.