Christophel Wimer Biography from The Wimer Family
These notes extracted from The Wimer Family by Paul W. Myers, self-published manuscript, <1985.
Christophel Wimer was born 4 Dec. 1770, probably in southeastern PA, of German ancestry. His name appars in documents as Christopher or the earlier Christophel, surname as Wimer, Weimer, and Weimert. He went by "Stophel". He was early apprenticed to learn the blacksmith trade. He married Mary Sophia Snyder (born 22 Jan. 1769) and by 1793 they lived in Earl Township, Lancaster Co. PA. For two years after Oct. 1793 the lived in Codorus Twp., York Co. They are said to have arrived in Butler County in 1798 from Adams County; however 1800 census records them still residing in hamiltonban Twp., Adams Co. In Butler Co. they settled north of present day Jacksville, and appear there in the Slippery Rock Twp. tax rolls of 1805, Christophel working as a blacksmith.
They erected a log cabin, log barn and outbuildings, and set about improving their wilderness tract. They raised a family of 7 children, all but the oldest son, Samuel, receiving an education in the early school established on either the Wimer or the Pisor farm. In addition to blacksmithing, the family engaged in farming, raised stock, and hunted wild game. It is recalled that they grew flax to combine with wool from their sheep to produce the "linsey-woolsey" clothes for the family. Sophia spun the fibers and wove the fabric on spinning wheel and loom, in addition to constructing the garments.
Their neighbors in the community were predominately Scots-Irish, and the Wimers appear to have had good relationships with them. Their children intermarried with neighbor families, and worked with William Elliot, a surveyor and land agent, in acquiring real estate. The Wimers were mebers of the Seceder Congretation, organized in 1808 as the "Mouth of Wolf Creek Church", meeting in homes or outdoors until 1811 when the first structure was erected near the present day site of Wolf Creek U. P. Church. Christophel, Sophia, and six of their seven children are buried in the Wolf Creek Cemetery.
Both Christophel and Sophia died in the spring of 1842 of an illness, attended by Dr. John Cowden. Stophel died six days after Sophia, intestate. The children worked with Benjamin F. Elliot, a son of William Elliot, to settle the remaining real estate issues, conveying the Wimer Homestead by deed to the Wimer heirs on 7 June, 1842. Because the youngest son, Isaac, had yet to recieve a share of property, the other heirs quit-claimed the homestead to him on 14 July, 1842. The property eventually became, by the 1980's, a part of the Russell Brandon Farm, located on Brandon Road in Worth Twp., Butler County.
