The Hans Jacob Wertz Homestead
at Quincy A Franklin County, PA
Underground Railroad Stop
Hans Jacob Wuertz, 1705-1775, first settled on this land near Quincy, Franklin County, PA about 1747. Jacob and his wife, Anna Barbara Hoff Wertz, and their five children probably built a temporary shelter, and then perhaps a log house. That was the custom in those days.
Their family records tell us that the first part of this large frame and brick house pictured above was built about 1756, and remodeled and added onto in 1826. By 1756, Hans Jacob was 51 years of age, and his sons were ages 21, 13, and 11. No doubt the boys worked along side their father to help build this fine house.
When Hans Jacob Wertz died in 1775, all of their children were married, except youngest son, Johann George Wertz, who married a few years later in 1778. No doubt young George and his wife, Catherine Stoner, began their married life here on this farm. And they probably shared this house with his mother, until she died in 1788. All of their children were born and raised here, and when J. George died in 1798, the property passed to his son David, who had been born there in 1789; and when David died in 1866, his son, Hiram Emerick Wertz, 1829-1918 became the owner of the homestead farm and house.
During the 1850's and until the end of the Civil War, David Wertz, and his son Hiram, were active supporters of the Underground Railroad and maintained a "station" at this home in Quincy. Many years later, Hiram E. Wertz also served as a director of Estelle Ryan Snyder's Wertz Family Association. The booklet of that association contains both the above picture of the homestead house, and a photo of Hiram Emerick Wertz (see below).
