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M Peter Scratch

Parents

Spouses and children

Siblings

Notes

Individual Note

1861 personal census, Gosfield Twp, Essex Co., ON, 3-11:
Scratch Peter, M, Married, 75, born U Canada, Unitarian, Miller;
Mary, F, 67, born U Canada, Methodist W;
Cyrenus, M, Single, 22, born U Canada, Methodist W;
Loveless Amana, F, Single, 13, born U Canada, Methodist W;
Scratch Samuel, M, Single, 18, born U Canada, Methodist W.

Commemorative Biographical Record of the County of Essex, J. H. Beers, Toronto, 1905, p. 85-87:
Rev. Alexander Scratch (Kratz), a retired minister of the Methodist Church, a direct descendant of one of the pioneer families of Essex County, and one of the most highly revered citizens of Leamington, was born in Gosfield township, Essex, July 18, 1826, son of Henry and Isabella (Wilkinson) Scratch.
     The name of Scratch is a corruption of Kratz, the change being of comparatively recent date...
     On Feb. 14, 1756, at Teutonhoofer, was born Leonhard Kratz... in 1776, at the age of twenty, he was a soldier in an army that came to America from Germany to help England quell the rebellion of her Colonies... Under Gen. Burgoyne they participated in that General's historic invasion, which ended in his surrender of his whole army... The German (or Hessian) contingent of the surrendered army was marched into the colony of Virginia, and there held prisoners of war two years... They were offered free passage home, or the privilege of sharing with loyal subjects of King George in grants of land. This was in 1779...he determined to avail himself of the guaranteed land grants.
     In 1779-80, many colonists left Virginia for Kentucky, and among the numerous bands was one in which traveled the Munger and Toffelmeyer families and Leonard Kratz... In the Munger family was a daughter Mary, between whom and the young guide sprang up a lasting affection...their marriage ceremony was performed, in the open air, by the side of the wagons holding all their earthly possessions. The party then proceeded to the fertile valley of the Licking in Kentucky. Ruddell's, a station for protection against the Indians, was built...In the spring of 1780, after their corn was in, came the terrible raid of six hundred Indians and Canadians, the former under the notorious Simon Girty... The settlers became the prey of the Indians, the young wife of Leonhard Kratz giving birth to her first child during the excitement...the women and children were placed in boats and carried down the river. A few evenings later...the poor baby's head struck the tree, causing instant death...The men prisoners were taken to Detroit, and purchased from the Indians by Gen. McCoombs...Mr. Kratz had no knowledge of his wife, but he kept constant watch of the boats arriving with prisoners from all over the country. At last she came...
     In 1781 Leonhard Kratz and his wife located on Hog Island, and once again began life together, and in time a son, Peter, was born to them. ..Mr. Kratz had never been discharged from the army... It necessitated a trip to Germany, which he made in 1782, securing his honorable discharge... At the end of eighteen months he returned home to find his son Peter had died in his absence. About 1785 they moved to Trenton, Michigan, and in 1787 became tenants of Gen. McCoombs, on Grosse Ile. In 1792, the Governor of Canada having offered grants of land to the U. E. Loyalists and other who had assisted Great Britain in the war, Leonhard Kratz and his family again became subject to the British King. The lot given him was No. 9, in Gosfield township, County of Essex, Ont., containing 200 acres, and this he exchanged with an old German for Lot No. 2, later purchasing No. 9, thus becoming the owner of 400 acres...
     ...Through the influence of the first schoolmaster in Gosfield, McMurray by name, who insisted that the name Kratz was, in reality, Scratch, and ought to be so spelled, the change was made, Leonhard, himself, finally submitting to it. He died at Gosfield Aug. 12, 1829. His wife died in 1840.
     To Leonhard and Mary (Munger) Kratz were born the following children, eleven in all: The first died as above stated; Peter died while his father was in Germany; Susanna, born on Hog Island, July 23, 1785, married, Feb. 9, 1802, John Wigle, and died Jan. 29, 1860; Peter (2), born at Trenton, Michigan, Nov. 29, 1785, married in Colchester, May 3, 1808, Mary Wigle, and died March 14, 1871; Isabella, born on Grosse Ile, May 18, 1788, married, at Mt. Pleasant, Feb. 12, 1805, Wendel Wigle, and died May 21, 1881; Katie, born on Grosse Ile, in 1789, married George Friend, and died in 1812; Mary, born on Grosse Ile, July 26, 1791, married at Gosfield, Dec. 16, 1813, and died at Jeffersonville, Indiana, April 6, 1870; Elizabeth, born at Gosfield, July 25, 1793, married in Gosfield, May 31, 1809, Charles Howard Friend, and died in Lockland, Ohio, July 7, 1853; Leonard, born in Gosfield in 1795, married --Sellars, had one daughter, and died in Ohio; Henry, born in Gosfield, April 5, 1797, is mentioned below; John, born in Gosfield, July 24, 1801, married in November, 1818, Sarah Malotte.
...

Commemorative Biographical Record of the County of Essex, J. H. Beers & Co., Toronto, 1905,p. 61-64:
Wigle. The prominent and numerous family of this name in the County of Essex, Ont., is descended from John Wendel Wigle, who was born in Germany in the year 1763...
     At the age of twenty-one years John Wendel Wigle made his home at York, Pennsylvania, where in 1776 he was married to Julianna Rommer... about 1792, when government grants were thrown open to settlers, John W. Wigle and his family settled in Gosfield township, County of Essex, on Lot 6, Eastern Division...
     We have the following record of the eleven children born to this pioneer couple: ... Mary, born in Gosfield June 29, 1793, married Peter Scratch, and died June 3, 1872...

Commemorative Biographical Record of the County of Essex, J. H. Beers, Toronto, 1905, p. 299-300:
Frederick A. Scratch, of Gosfield South, County Essex, is one of the well-known members of the old and honorable pioneer family of that name, and is a son of Henry Ryan Scratch and grandson of Peter Scratch.
      Peter Scratch was born Nov. 29, 1786, in Trenton, Michigan, and was a child when the family settled on the lake shore in Gosfield. At maturity he began farming on Lot 4, Eastern Division, where he erected a log house, and later built a two-story and a half brick residence. In the course of time he became the possessor of 600 acres of land, all in one tract, and in addition owned farms in Mersea township. Although he was an extensive landholder and farmed extensively, he was not intended by nature to be an agriculturist, his inclinations and talents tending toward mechanical work. He was, in fact, a genius, and when it is remembered how few and crude were the tools of that day his manufacture of guns, ... wind and power mills was certainly very ...able. He delighted to puzzle out some ... machine, and usually succeeded in putting it into working order. During the military occupation of Windsor, during the war of 1812-14, he kept the soldiers' guns in repair. Mr. Scratch laid the brick for the first brick house ever built in this section of the country. In 1831 he received his commission as postmaster of Gosfield and continued in office for a number of years, dying March 14, 1871. On May 3, 1808, he married Mary Wigle, born June 19, 1793, in Gosfield, who died June 3, 1872, and they had children as follows: John, born Nov. 14, 1810, married Sarah Saintsatin; Leonard, born Feb. 14, 1813, married (first) Elizabeth Cole, and (second) Sophia Agla; Judith, born May 25, 1815, married Oliver Kellogg; Henry Ryan, born Oct. 6, 1817, is mentioned below; Mary, born March 12, 1820, married Samuel Bentley; Joseph Benson, born Dec. 11, 1823, married Mary Black; Alpheus, born Aug. 25, 1826, married Nancy Palmer; William Ryerson, born Jan. 4, 1829, married Elizabeth Crow, and they live retired on a part of the homestead farm; Archimedes, born March 25, 1831, (deceased), married Deborah Palmer; Oliver Kellogg, born March 30, 1833, married Jane Fulmer, and lives retired in Leamington; Cyrenus Lyman, born Dec. 20, 1838,married Emma Barnett, and lives at Shelbina, Shelby County, Missouri.
      Henry Ryan Scratch was born Oct. 6, 1817, on Lot 4, East Division, Gosfield township, and received his educational training in the Master McMurray school. When he started farming he bought thirty acres in Lot 4, which is now the G. W. Coatsworth farm. This property had been but little improved, and he immediately set to work clearing the land and erecting buildings, continuing there until 1858, when he had an excellent opportunity to trade this farm for one of 100 acres in Lot 6, Concession 2. Here he built a log house of such a substantial nature that it stood the storms of years, being demolished by our subject in 1872, its site being occupied by his present handsome residence. To his disappointment, Mr. Scratch found, after settling on this farm, that but two or three acres could be cultivated, the greater part of the tract being under water. In the following summer he organized what was called a logging bee, and our subject, then but a boy, recalls that these neighbours were present: Michael J. Wigle, Adam R. Wigle, Dr. Andrew Wigle, John D. Wigle, Al.. Scratch, Digney Rodgers, Joseph and John Scratch. This gathering of men resulted in the piling up of all the logs lying around, with the exception of those too deeply imbedded in mud and water. Later in the season the father cleared up the wettest place, at which time he left standing a small hickory twig, saying to our subject that he would leave it so that his grandchildren could gather nuts there. It is still standing, long surviving the kind man who was thus thoughtful for his posterity, and is well cared for by Mr. Scratch. The land was finally all cleared and drained by its owner, but the last years of his life were passed on a small place he bought just east of Kingsville, his death occurring Jan 31, 1901.
      Henry Ryan Scratch married Elizabeth Black, who was born Oct. 10, 1823, in Ireland, and died March 21, 1851, and to them were born children as follows: Alpheus married Lucinda Augustine, and had three children, Henry, Ada and Maggie; Thaddeus married Harriet Malott, and had four children, Nellie, Cyrenus, Carl and Zadah; Louis married Clarissa Augustine, and had Amos, Hardy, Hardy (2), Leslie and Arthur. The second marriage of Mr. Scratch was to Mary Ann Fulmer, born Dec. 8, 1834, who survived her husband. They had children: Jerome, deceased; Frederick Adolphus; Caroline, who married Robert Augustine; Mary Adeline and Margaret, residing with the mother; and Lucinda, who married A. E. Montgomery, of Toronto.
      Frederick Adolphus Scratch was born March 17, 1854, on Lot 4, and was four years old when the family removed to the 2nd Concession. Although a mere child, he remembers the prevailing conditions during the first years of their residence there. His school advantages were necessarily limited, but he recalls one teacher with affection, a Miss Coatsworth, who now resides at Leamington. In time he came into possession of seventy acres in Lot 6, which he has continued to improve and make more and more valuable with substantial buildings, etc. It is almost impossible to realize that the present well cultivated, productive farm was, until 1858, a wilderness. With the exception of two years, when he was engaged in the grocery business at Ruthven, Mr. Scratch has always followed farming and is justly regarded as one of the leading agriculturists of his locality. His interests have been too closely centered in his vocation to admit to any very active work in politics, on which he entertains liberal views. He is thoroughly interested in the advancement of education and served for six years as trustee of School Section No. 3. For many years he has been a faithful worker in the Methodist Church at Ruthven, and for the past twelve years has been assistant of the Sunday-school.
      On March 2, 1881, Mr. Scratch married Annabelle Odell, of Detroit, Michigan, who was born there May 28, 1859, daughter of James and Roxie (Palmer) Odell, of Quebec and the County of Essex, respectively. The former was a mechanic in Detroit. Mr. and Mrs. Scratch have three children: Arthur Harrison, born Aug. 18, 1888, who was until some two months ago holding a responsible position at Windsor, when, without any warning, he suffered from a stroke of paralysis, which all of his many friends trust will not be of long duration; Ada Roxie, born March 2, 1895; and Florence Barbara, born Juy 18, 1899.

Preview Family Tree

    Johann Wilhelm Munger 1720-1788   Susannah Brodbeck 1720-
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Leonhard Scratch 1756-1829   Maria (Mary Ann) Munger ca 1758-1840
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Peter Scratch 1785-1871