Author: James Edward Mitchell
John (1744-1808) and Andrew Gaar (1750-1811), brothers, were native born Virginians with proven Military Service in the War of the Revolution and separate, Virginia ‘Publick’ Claims (John) recorded Aug. 1781 for 375# beef and Nov. for 365# beef. Andrew’s claim appeared recorded during Dec. 1781 for 210 # beef; source, Virginia ‘Publick’ Claims Culpeper County printed by the Iberian Publ. Co., Athens, Georgia 30605-3408 compiled by Janice L. Abercrombie & Richard Slatten copied from original Revolutionary Claims in the Library of Virginia (VA) at Richmond. They were born at their family cabin style home and orchard mapped at (Beamers Head Road) Route 650 on Gaar Mountain, Madison, VA, to a union between their father, Lorenz (Larance) Gaar/Garr, b. 29 Nov 1716 [d. 1753, during an epidemic] and Dorothea (Dorothy) Blankenbaker (1729-1753), a dau. of Hans Nicholas Blankenbaker/Blankenbuehler, a 1717 Germanna, Second Colony Settler; see: Germanna News, Fall 2007, Vol. 13, No. 3, pg. 9, reference –John Blankenbaker, 50th Annual Reunion 2007 by Katherine L. Brown @ Germanna Colonies in Virginia, Inc., P O Box 279, Locust Grove, VA 22508-0279. John, age 9, and his brother, Andrew, age 3, were adored over after their parents’ death, following an area smallpox epidemic among Piedmont Germans, according to family accounts. [Virginia’s George Washington and his brother, Lawrence, during Nov 1751 departed Virginia colony to live temporarily in Barbados to avoid contacting “pox”. His journal recorded that he contracted the disease but recovered. The disease left him immune for life, Geo. Washington believed. During 1777, when the disease struck his Continental Army, Washington ordered his troops be inoculated; see, Colonial American History Stories – 1665-1753: Forgotten and Famous by Paul R. Wonning, Copyright 2017.] John Adam Gaar (1711-1793), Lorenz’s older brother, physically resided at the family’s main home and well-spring situated off, Pass Run on the 250 acre tract [now mapped headwaters of Mulatto Run] initially patented on 3 Oct 1734 as 1st Patent of Land in Madison County for Andreas (Andrew) Gaar (1685-1747), their father. John Adam and Lorenz’s sister, Elizabeth Barbara (b. 11 Feb 1730; see, The Garr Genealogy, 1894, publ. by John Calhoun Garr at Cincinnati, O.) had married Dorothy’s brother, Michael Blankenbaker prior to the epidemic. John and Andrew, were logically raised to early adulthood at Lorenz’s orchard and farm cabin within a direct line of sight from the main house and well-spring, 900 yards S/W of Lorenz’s orchard tract found down the hillside from present day Route 650, Madison, VA. When John and Andrew reached the ages of inheritance, they settled permanently at their parents Robinson River tract adjacent to their uncle, John Adam Gaar and his children: Michael Adam (1740-97), m. Elizabeth Wilhoit; Elizabeth (1740-1812) m. Adam Fischer, a son of Ludwig (Lewis) Fischer; Maria Magdalena, m. Stephen Albert Fischer; Ludwig (Lewis) Gaar (1744-1824) m. Catherine Weaver, a dau. of Hans Dieterich “Peter” Weaver; Benj. Gaar (1754-1821) m. Margaret Crigler (8 Mar 1759- _) a dau. of Nicholas Crigler/Krickler & w. Margaretha Kaifer/Kaffer/ Caffer; and, Rosannah (aka Rosina b. Culpeper, VA, 1755 d. 1798) m. Benj. Dicken/Dikons. The entire Hebron Church congregation and its Robinson River valley neighbors opposed British efforts in the prelude to the War of Independence. John and Andrew’s uncle, John Adam Gaar in Sep 1768, a Hebron Lutheran Church (est. 1740) elder from Culpeper (formed 1792 as Madison County) and Adam Wayland were recorded to write to the Lutheran Ministerium of Pennsylvania, [Pastor Henry M. Muhlenberg (b. Einbeck, GR., 1711 d. Trappe, PA., 1787)], our means prevent us (Hebron Lutheran Church) from giving this upright [parson, Johannes Schwarbach (1719-1800) a Pennsylvania catechist] commensurate pay because we contribute to the keep of English parish preacher…; source, The Virginia Germans by Klaus Wust, 1969, The University Press of VA, Charlottesville, Chapter Six, Revolutionary War, pgs 74-83, for rolls of “Culpeper (draft) Classes” yield 182 German surnames. After the Yorktown Campaign John and Andrew operated a horse drawn grist mill along the Run opposite their home site with Pear trees planted between the farm home and Run. During winter months, an old wagon path might be observed that parallels the west side of today’s Run directly to John Adam Gaar’s 1740 home with livestock pins and water pond. Although the brother’s uncle’s private family burial ground disappeared from plain sight following 1945-6, John and Andrew Gaar’s private burial ground remained very much visible adjacent to (Beamers Head Road) along Route 650 to Camp Varsity. On 22 Jun 2007, the writer conducted a field survey with assistance of a cousin, John Marvin Garr, Dec’d., 515 Wayland Road, Culpeper, VA 22701 and Gordon L. Saunders, Dec’d., a resident of Aylor Community, Madison, VA. John and Andrew Gaar’s private cemetery mapped along Beamers Head Road was located before reaching Ollie W. Kitchen’s U.S. Mail Box to a Georgian brick home named Lone Oak Hill Farm found near the road crossing with Mulatto Run. Only, Andrew Gaar’s wife, Christina Wilhoit’s (1750-1837) upright, broken headstone, marked the family burial ground at Latitude: 38.43394 and Longitude: -78.28902. We drove (Aylor Road) Route 651 one half mi. then, Gordon Saunders directed us to turn east off the paved road at U.S. Mail Box # 2325 crossing a cattle-guard. We proceeded up a winding, open, hilltop terrain reaching a white two-story, wood frame home once owned by Newton W. Gibbs. About 50 yards beyond the 2 story occupied house, just to the left of the gravel track, there appeared a telephone pole and post fence. In the level part of this ground (then 1940s) Gordon Saunders recalled that the larger of the two Gaar Graveyard(s) was situated at this site. Here Andreas (1685-1747) and w. Eve Seidelmann, Reformed Lutheran émigrés from Bavaria were buried at the family’s 1734, 250 acre Land Patent in Madison County. Plainly, visible a hundred yards down the hillside were several red painted, hand-hewn timbers, livestock pins. Some distance away, laid remains of the Gaar Family unattached kitchen and chimney near a huge, wellspring and/or spring-feed livestock pond, now at the headwaters of Mulatto Run. The original Gaar home had during the late 1960s, been sold privately by the Gibbs family for its twin, stone chimneys and valuable, axe hewn timbers for relocation to a wooded track near Charlottesville, VA at Free Union. On 4 May 2008, the writer was joined by Gordon L. Saunders and a brother-in-law, Donald Judy, to set separate U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs, Burial Branch Military headstones for Christina Wilhoit’s spouse, Andrew Gaar (1750-1811) and John Gaar (1744-1808), who married her sister, Margaret Wilhoit. On 11 May, Alonzo (Lon) Lacey, Jr., James Edward Mitchell, both direct-line Wilhoit family descendants with Dominic Lay and his brother, Charles Francis Lay, 1st VP, Culpeper Minute Men (CMM) Chapter, Sons of the American Revolution (SAR) organized a Gaar Cemetery clean-up hosted by Scoutmaster Colt Puryear with assistance from members of Boy Scouts of America (BSA) Troop 116, Stonewall Jackson Council, Madison County. On 17 May 2008, the CMM Chapter, Madison, VA held a dual grave marking ceremony led by Chapter Pres., J. Paul Bess, Jr. who dedicated separate, SAR (grave marking) Bronze Lugs to commemorate John and Andrew’s military service during the War of Independence. Uniformed in the traditional Virginia militia hunting shirt, bitches & knee socks -Lon Lacey, Jr. and James Mitchell performed a several volley musket salute! Troop 116, BSA Scout, Alfred Corbin played TAPS on his trumpet with the Hebron Lutheran Church Pastor, scouts, adult leaders, Gaar family allied kin that totaled 37 in attendance on a beautifully sunny day in the foothills of the eastern Blue Ridge Mountain range, a few miles west of Madison, VA.