Johannes Flinner
M, b. 10 June 1721, d. 24 September 1789
| Charts | Lauren/Nolan Pedigree Chart |
| Birth* | 10 June 1721 | Johannes Flinner was born on 10 June 1721 at Germany . |
| Marriage* | 1740 | He married Anna Minnick in 1740 at Germany. |
| Death* | 24 September 1789 | Johannes Flinner died on 24 September 1789 at Washington County, Virginia, at age 68. |
| Burial* | He was buried at Rich Valley, Washington County, Virginia. | |
| Anecdote* | The information about Johannes Flinner and his family's migration from Germany, as well as the information about his ancestors in Germany came from the Flinner Genealogical report on file at the John Hays Historical Center in Salem, Indiana which was donated by Mary Fleenor of Indianapolis, Indiana in March 1994. She gave the follow sources for the German data: "Wurttemburgisch Geschichtsquellen" (4. Band); "Urkundenbuch der Stadt Esslingen" (1. Band); "Wurttemburgisches Adel s-und Wappenbuch" by Otto of Alberti;" 'Oeler" schen Stam uch' (seihe Seite 56) Wurttemburg Landesmuseum in Stuttgart ; "Wappenbuch Burgerliche Geschlecter" (Band IV.5 Tafel 19 ) by Siebmacher; "Flyner-Fliner-Fleiner" by Else Rath-Hori ng and Karl Fleiner, 1961, Verlag Degener and Co., Inh Gerh ard Gessner, Neustadt a.d. Aisch Sonderdruck aus "Deutsches Famillienarchiv" (17.Band). The Flinner/Fleiner family emigrated aboard the English ship "John and Elizabeth" which was commanded by Captain Ham. It set sail from Amsterdam via Portsmouth, England with passengers from Hanau, Wurttemburg, and the Palatinate . The ship arrived in Philadelphia on November 7th, 1754 . The 124 heads of households were listed on the ships manifest included Johannes Flinner. Source: "A Collection of Upwards of Thirty Thousand Names of German, Swiss, Dutch , French and Other Immigrants in Pennsylvania from 1727 to 1776" 2nd edition, Philadelphia, 1876, pgs 346-347. Mary Fleenor's report states: Johannes Flinner and family first settled in Bucks Co., Pennsylvania and then moved into Lancaster Co., Pennsylvania, but no records have been found of them owning land in either place. The parish Register of Grace Evangelical Lutheran Church, formerly St. Peter's at Rocky Hill near Woodsboro, Frederick Count y, Maryland, shows that Johannes and Anna were there in 1767. This was the first year of the parish register. These records are now in the Historical Society Library at Baltimore. Johannes and his wife, Anna, died in Woodsboro, Frederick Co., Maryland after the 24th of September 1789 as this is the last time their names were mentioned. When their sons moved from Maryland to Virginia, they changed their name from Flinner to Fleenor and were in Washington County, Virginia as early as 1772 according to land grants in that county. Prode has been confirmed that the Johannes Flinner family of Woodsboro, Frederick Co., Maryland the sons spelling of the name Fleenor in Washington Co., Virginia were the same family. This came to light in the Redfearn Family Bible on two loose sheets of old tablet paper now in the possession of Vernon R. Goudie of Oakville, Iowa, who is a descendant of Michael and Sarah Linder Fleenor and has been verified by the National Siciety of the Daughters of the American Revolution...."Some researchers feel Johannes middle name was Jacob, but not proven so far - 2001. Facsimile of Johannes Flinner's signature as recorded in Pennsylvania German Pioneers volume 2, by Ralph Beaver Strassburger and Edited by William John Hinke; appearing first on the manifest of the ship "John and Elizabeth", page 75 5 entitled "Foreigners imported in the Ship "John and Elizabeth" Capt. Ham from Amsterdam Qual. 7th November 1754" and on his naturalization papers pg. 757 headed " At the Court House at Philadelphia Thursday the 7th November 1754. Present: the Worshipful Charles Willing, Esquire, Mayor of Philidelphia - The Foreigners whose names are underwritten , imported in the Ship "John and Elizabeth" from Amsterdam & Portsmouth, from Hanau, the Palatinate & Witemberg, Capt. Ham, did this day take the usual Oaths and Qualification s. 330 whole Freights, 11 Roman Catholics, 120 Protestants ". Johannes Fleenor (Flinner or Fleener) entered the United States November 7, 1754, at Philadelphia, Pa. from Flein, Wurttemberg, Germany on the ship "John and Elizabeth", headed by Captain Ham. (Copy of the passenger list in file.) It sailed from Amsterdam, then Portsmouth, England to Phila delphia, Pennsylvania Port. Inhabitants were from Hanau, Wurttemberg and the Palatinate. 11 were Roman Catholics, 12 0 were Protestants. The ship carried 330 passengers. Johannes and Anna had 7 or 8 children with them when they arrived. They lived in Bucks Co., Pennsylvania; then Lancaster Co., Pennsylvania; then to Frederick Co., Maryland, on Israel's Creek in 1768. Family records are found at the St. Peter's Rocky Hill Lutheran Parish in Woodsboro, where the family attended church. The church is now called Grace Evangelical Lutheran Church. The last date which mentions Johannes and Anna was probably the year of their 50th Wedding Anniversary. This could have been the occasion they gathered together at the church. Johannes Jacob Flinner and Anna Minnick are regarded as the beginning of our Fleenor line here in the United States, although there have been Fleners/Fleenors, etc. that have made their way here since 1754, when Johannes came. His children took the name Fleenor, while one took Fleener, and moved into the Tennessee and Kentucky areas where the root of the Fleners are located (Butler County) Most of the Fleenor children migrated to Virginia. The first being Casper in 1769, then Adam, Nicholas, John, Jacob, and Michael. Even the daughters went to Virginia. It is believed Margaretha remained in Maryland with her husband. There are other Feeeners in Ohio and Indiana. They all come from southern Germany, in an area known as Wurttemburg, which has traded hands over the centuries many times between the peoples of what are now France and Germany. According to Edgar Howard, Johannes and Anna had other children, Martha Bessie Flinner, born 1745 who was married to Abraham Cassell in Washington Co., VA and Joel Flinner, born in 1753. Horse Breeder No trace of the family has been found in Bucks or in Lancaster counties, Pa., so we conclude that they did not own property there. But ten miles east of Frederick, MD., there is the 'Grace Evangelical Lutheran Church,' formerly St. Peter's at Rocky Hill, near Woodsboro, which kept parish records from 1767 to 1889, which are now in the Historical Society Library in Baltimore. These records show that Johannes Flinner and his wife Anna, were active and faithful members between 1769 and 1775. There are records of confirmations, marriages, baptisms, and occasions of taking communion. According to Denise Spenik According to Wilma Smith, a Fleenor descendant, there were several Flinner families who emigrated from Germany. Our Johannes and Anna Flinner came to Philadelphia November 7, 1754. With them they had their children Adam, Elizabetha , Nicholas, Margaretha, Maria Katherina, and Kasper. Philadelphia and surrounding Bucks Co., were heavily populated with German Immigrants of various groups. Before 1776, 300,000 German Immigrants landed at Philadelphia alone. It was common for the new German immigrants to acclimate the mselves to America for a while by staying with this heavily German community. They may also have had to work off indenture contracts. Under this arrangement, if the immigrants could not pay their passages, they would sell themselves to the ship's captain and he would in turn sell them to work for periods averaging from six to fifteen years. Sometimes the indenture period was cut short if the immigrants had paid part of their passages. The next documented place of abode was Trappe, Montgomery County, Pennsylvania where there is a record of a March 29, 1761 confirmation of Margaretha Fleener, whose age was fifteen, and whose father was Johannes. Sometime during this Pennsylvania period of their lives, Jacob, John, and Michael were born to them. German peasants were widely considered to have been the farmers around. The large land owners of Maryland needed farmers, and they passed a law guaranteeing religious freedom to the Germans if they would come settle there. Johannes and Anna Flinner and their family moved to Rocky Hill, near Woodsboro, Frederick Co., Maryland, where they became members of the Grace Evangelical Lutheran Church. The first church record of them at this place is dated 1768, when Johannes and Anna were sponsors in an infant baptism. Another Johannes Flenner (Flender) and his wife Christina , who had come to Pennsylvania in 1741, also had moved to t his general part of Maryland, and are often confused with our Johannes and Anna. This has led some genealogists to add two of this couple's children, Rudolf and Charles, to the list of children of Johannes and Anna. The date of last entry into the Maryland Church records for anyone of this family is one listing Johannes and Anna as communicants as of September 24, 1789 (actually this author has the wrong date and the records state the date to be 1769 just before the family moved to Washington Co., Virginia.) This is the last known record of their whereabouts. It is presumed that they never left Maryland, as this date would have put them well into what would have been advanced old age for the time. Nevertheless, there is no record of their death or burial at this church. The Valley of Virginia as it runs through Washington County is subdivided into three valleys that lie between the Blue Ridge to the southeast, and Clinch Mountain - the first ridge of the Alleghenies - to the northwest. This land is drained by the Holston River into the Tennessee River to the southwest. The main Holston Valley lies to the southeast , and was settled predominantly by people of English and Scots-Irish descent in the 1760's. The North Fork of the Holston runs parallel to the main valley, but is, itself, divided into Rich and Poor Valleys. The North Fork twists and turns through the bottom lands of Poor Valley, and a set of parallel ridges divide it from Rich Valley, which lies between it and the main Holston Valley. This line of ridges between Rich and Poor Valleys is pierced by several creeks that carry Rich Valley's drainage into the North Fork. Walkers Mountain separates Rich and Poor Valleys, the land was largely vacant and was in the public domain of the Colony (State as of 1776) of Virginia. In the decade prior to the American Revolution, large numbers of Germans settlers took up land on Walkers Mountain Plateau and in Rich and Poor Valleys. These German immigrants were largely born in this country, usually in Pennsylvania or in Maryland. They were mostly still German in language and in culture. The younger ones, who had more ease with the English language and with American law and customs served as intermediaries between the "English" community and less acculturated members of the "German" community. They came in large extended family groups, and settled near each other. The process of land acquisition was either to go to Richmond and to buy a land warrant from the State, or to buy a warrant on the secondary market from someone else. This document entitled its owner to a grant of a specified acreage in the unpatented land of the State. The immigrant would then go to the western reaches of the Old Dominion and pick out land that he liked, settle on it, and then have it surveyed and the survey recorded with the State Land Office. often, years would pass between settlement and registration . This was especially true during the Revolution, as the State Land Office was closed from the beginning of the War till 1783. Sometimes the settlers did not have a warrant, but just squatted on the land. The law accommodated these people, and allowed them to register their farms under "Settlement Rights": At other times land speculators bought up thousands of acres for resale to later immigrants. The land speculators tended to the English speakers-either of English or Scots-Irish descent, or the more enterprising and younger English speaking members of the German community. The surname was never spelled "Flinner" after the children of Johannes and Anna moved to Washington Co., VA . The English speaking clerks of the county spelled it i n the court records in a variety of ways, but "Fleenor" and "Fleener" were the most common, and all of the family living in Virginia spell it "Fleenor". Accorcording to researcher Michael Meek, Johannes and Anna are buried in the Lutheran Cemetery, Silver Sprins, Howard Co., Maryland. First Survey Grantee Acres Location Date Settled Aug 27, 1781 Gasper Fleenor 259 Rich Valley 1769 May 04, 1782 Gasper Fleenor 160 Rich Valley 1775 Feb 10, 1783 Jacob Fleenor 400 Beaver Creek 1775 Aug 24, 1781 Jacob Fleenor 400 Meadow Creek 1775 Aug 16, 1781 Nicholas Fleenor 200 Meadow Creek 1 774 Apr 02, 1783 Adam Fleenor 200 Beaver Creek 1772 Nov 14, 1764 Adam Fleenor 145 Beaver Creek 1773 Oct 10, 1789 Nicholas Fleenor 140 Abrams Creek 1773 Oct 22, 1795 Nicholas Fleenor 124 Beaver Creek 1776 Jan 15, 1795 John Fleenor 50 Beaver Creek 1776 Sep 23, 1795 Nicholas Fleenor 200 Head Branch, Beaver Creek 1776 May 25, 1796 John Fleenor 100 South Side, Walkers Mtn. May 19, 1796 Nicholas Fleenor 250 Abram's Creek Walkers Mtn Apr 25, 1791 John Fleenor 210 Head of Beaver Creek In the "History of Southwest Virginia", Page 104, Lewis Preston Summers tells us that among the early settlers in Washington Co., were the Fleenor brothers, John, Michael, Gasper (Casper), Nicholas and Adam. Among the characteristics reported for the early Flinners, are light hair, blue eyes, above the average in height and weight. The place of origin of the Flinners in Germany has not yet been found, but there is strong evidence that it was in the province of Wurttemberg. The name Flyner, Fliner, or Fleiner denotes an inhabitat of the village of Flein on the Neckar River near Heilbronn. An ancient family of that name goes back to the 1200's. GRACE EVANGELICAL LUTHERAN / ST PETERS CHURCH Rocky Hill, Frederick Co., Maryland, U.S.A. 1767 - 1875 Flinner Christened: 8 April 1771, Born: 31 January 1771 , Johannes (s) 00083-6 Father: Nicholas Flinner Mother: Maria Catharina Flinner Flinner Christened: 25 March 1774, Born: 5 February 1774 , Adam (9s) 00144-0 Father: Casper Flinner Mother: Margaretha Flinner Flinner Born: 2 May 1774, Johannes Jacob (s) 00153-1 Father: Nicholas Flinner Mother: Maria Catharina Flinner GRACE EVANGELICAL LUTHERAN CHURCH Frederick, Frederick Co., Maryland, U.S.A. 1743-1811 Flinner Marriage: 24 November 1772, Casper Flinner/Margaretha Andtes 112-4 Lydia Fleenor, Born: 16 Jan 1810 Wash. Co., VA, Died: 22 Dec 1893, Wash Co., VA Casper Fleenor Died: 11 January 1825, Washington Co., VA Adam Fleenor Born: 5 February 1774, Washington Co., VA, Died: 1846 Father: Casper Fleenor Mother: Margaretha: Margaretha' s father: Wilhelm Andtes Michael Fleenor Born: 18 November 1760, Died: 3 August 18 37, Washington Co., VA, Father: Johannes Flinner Mother : Anna Flinner Casper Fleenor Marriage: 24 November 1772, Woodsboro, Fred erick C., Maryland, Father: Johannes Flinner Mother: Anna Flinner Margaretha Andtes Born: 5 March 1750, Frederick Co., Maryl and, Died: 10 June 1829, Father: Wihelm Andtes Mother : Elizabeth Margaretha Andtes Emigration: 1754, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania - taken from passenger and emigration lists index - Vol. 1 - First Edition (7820-pg. 247) Another source states he was born in Bonnigheim, Baden-Wurt emburg, Germany. One source, Michael Meek, states both Johannes and Anna are buried in the Lutheran Cemetery, in Frederick Co., Mar yland. Lutheran-Grace Evangelical Lutheran/St. Peters Church, Frederick Co., Maryland. Johann Jacob Flaner 18/Feb/1762. Father: Johann George Flaner Mother: Maria Catharina is listed in the records o f St. Michael's Lutheran Church, Philadelphia, PA.Johannes Flinner and wife Anna embarked at Amsterdam on the ship "John and Elizabeth" carrying passengers from Hanover, Wurttemberg, and the Palatinate. It stopped at Portsmouth, England and crossing the Atlantic, arrived at Philadelphia, Pennsylvania on November 7, 1754. From there it is likely that they settled in the eastern part of Pennsylvania around Bucks Co., where their children were born. They then moved to Lancaster Co., Pennsylvania, later moving to Frederick Co., Maryland. Their children moved to Washington Co., VA where they settled. Fleenor is one of the most prominent names in that Co., today as it was in the late 1700's. From this location the Fleenor family began traveling at the beginning of the 1800's and today you can find them in about every state in the Union. |
Family | Anna Minnick b. 1722, d. 1766 | |
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