An American Family History

Selections from Bell's History of Northumberland County, Pennsylvania

The present area of Turbut township is but a small fraction of the territory comprised within its limits more than a century ago. It was one of the original subdivisions of the county, and was erected on the 9th of April, 1772, at the first court of private sessions in Northumberland county. . .

These limits comprised all of Northumberland and Montour counties north of the Susquehanna, with a large part of Columbia.. . . At February sessions, 1775, a petition
was presented for the consideration of the county court of quarter sessions, setting forth that Turbut was

too extensive for the management of one constable, collector, or assistant assessor,

whereupon a division was ordered. . .

St. Joseph's Catholic Cemetery, two miles east of Milton, is the oldest consecrated burial ground in the valley of the West Branch. A small piece of ground was given by the Kieffer family for burial and parochial purposes at an early period in the history of this region, and, owing to the fact that the ground was afterwards consecrated, interments were made here from distant points throughout the central part of the State. . , It is impossible to state when the first burial occurred, but no doubt as early as 1787 . . .

The Follmer and Paradise Cemeteries are the last resting places of the German families of this part of the county through several generations. Many of the oldest graves are unmarked, and the earliest inscriptions are usually in German and scarcely legible.

Hawkins Boone erected the first mill in the township; it stood on Muddy run, and was built prior to the year 1779, when the proprietor lost his life in an attempt to relieve Fort Freeland with a company of rangers under his command, and his property was destroyed. . .

Follmer's Evangelical Lutheran Church derives the name by which it is popularly and generally known from the Follmer family, by whom it was founded. The following extract is taken from the will of Michael Follmer, dated October 7, 1793:

Fifteen pounds to the Dutch Lutheran church, and ten pounds toward the building of a school house, and ten pounds shall be disposed of toward the teaching of the poor children which may belong to the church above mentioned, which will be built in the township of Turbut.

That it was accordingly built is sufficiently evidenced by the following extract from a deed from Conrad Cook to John Follmer, dated April 13, 1799:

Conrad Cook and John Follmer by their article of agreement [1796], did agree that agreeably to the will of Michael Follmer, deceased, two acres of ground should be given for the use of the Lutheran congregation, whereon the Lutheran meeting house now stands, agreeably to marks and bounds made in the survey by William Davis.