Meiser says this about William’s wife. “Two sources of undocumented information indicate that William married Harriet Hoover, born December 12, 1811, daughter of Jacob Hoover (10/28/1787-10/1/1848) and Sarah (Leiby?) (10/24/1788-10/26/1855).” He then allows that perhaps she was his first wife and Elizabeth Evert his second. This makes no sense. He married Elizabeth in 1814 when Harriet would have been three years old. So, if anything, she would have been the second wife, but then why was she not listed with him in the 1860 Census?

Notice in the Northumberland Republicaner of 5 Feb 1814. “Married, William Merz and Elizabeth Evert of Shamokin Twp.”

Elizabeth is on find-a-grave.

http://findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GRid=38408780

William Mertz is a mystery man. The earliest documented evidence of him was the 1820 Census, when he was 26-44 [born prior to 1794]. He then was 30-39 in 1830 [1790’s], 40-49 in 1840 [1790’s], 58 in 1850 [1792] and 67 in 1860 [1793]. So all indications are that he was born in the early 1790’s. His tombstone doesn’t help, it gives his date of death but not, apparently, his date of birth nor age at death.

Joseph A Meiser said that William was the son of David Martz and Magdalena Shissler as did Dorthy Amerman whose husband, she said, descended from William’s son Samuel. But there really is quite a big problem with this assertion that he was the son of David and Magdalena — her date of birth is given on her tombstone and it was 1778, she would only have been 14 or 15 years old (and David, by the way, 18 or 19) in 1792. It just doesn’t make sense.

Meiser, I think, was accepting the work of Dorothy Amerman as to William’s parentage but then realized the problem that Magdalena would have been too young to have a child in 1792, so he punted on the date, saying: “1794-1802, his exact birth date is unknown”. Meiser offers no evidence to support any date later than 1792 or 1793. Dorothy apparently never considered the issue of Magdalena’s age, as she had no problem with assigning a 1792 birth date to William.

I have considered all other possibilities that I could think of and in the end I have no better theory as to who William’s father was. He is designated P6a1. Over time I hope to better document William's life.

J L Floyd said this about William Mertz. "William Mertz was born in eastern Pennsylvania where his father, a native of Germany settled. He lived for a number of years at Snydertown where he farmed and followed the blacksmith trade. When about 60 years old he went to Illinois with his daughters Sarah, wife of Leonard Wagner, and Lydia, wife of John Kline, and there lived at Elmwood in Peoria County until his death when he was about 75. He married an Evert. He had six children: John, Kate married John Miller, Lydia, Sarah, Daniel (who lived and died at Sunbury and had children William J and Mary) and Jacob who settled in southern Missouri. Jacob's children were: Belle, Charles, Hattie, Fletcher, Maggie and Emma."

Meiser in Martz/Mertz also covers William. “William Martz son of David Martz Sr. and Magdalena Shissler, was born during the years 1794-1802. His exact birth date is unknown. He must have been the William Martz, a blacksmith and farmer who resided in Snydertown. He married Elizabeth Evert. Following her death, William moved to Illinois with his daughters Lydia Kline and Sarah Wagner. He resided in Elmwood, Peoria County, IL until his death about 1867.” Meiser shows the same six children as Floyd and adds Samuel, William, Maria and Louisa.

Clearly Meiser and Floyd have certain facts wrong. His daughter who married Leonard Wagner appears (from Census and her tombstone) to have been named Mary. And also, from Census, William was born in about 1792 or 1793.

The idea that he moved to Illinois is correct. Indeed, we also find Mary Wagner, died 1864, and Lydia Kline, died 1867, buried in Elmwood. But he moved in about 1861 when he was about 70 and died there very soon thereafter.

I don’t think either Meiser or Floyd figured out who his children really were.

In the 1810 Census, John Martz, son of David (who married Barbara Miller) became the first ever and at that time only Martz in Shamokin Township.

In 1820, John was no longer present but Widow Martz was and William Martz also now appeared in Shamokin Township. And he was also there in 1830 and 1840.

Because there is also some confusion as to the names of William’s children, I have tried to analyze the tick marks in 1840. He had one male 5-10 (William J), one female 10-15 (Mary), one male 15-20 (Daniel), one female 20-30 (Lydia), one male 20-30 (Jacob), one female 40-50 (Elizabeth) and himself also 40-50.

Then in 1850, William still lived in Shamokin Township with wife Elizabeth 55 and these apparent children, in this order: William 17, Louisa 9 and Maria 24. I think William was his son and Louisa his daughter but who was Maria and why was she listed last? Could she be a niece, or was Maria a widowed daughter-in-law, but who was her husband? I simply don’t know.

In 1860, William was head of a household in Shamokin Township that included Leonard Wagner 32 and wife Mary 31, and apparently five Wagner children under the age of 5. A neighbor was Solomon Evert. Elsewhere in Shamokin Township, we find John Kline 42 and wife Lydia 45. Lydia too was William’s daughter.

William owned several properties, some of which he acquired from John Evert Sr. In 1857, he sold one to John Martz, presumably his son of that name. In March 1861 he conveyed another to William H Klase, no known relationship. This latter date must mark his departure for Illinois. Then he died there in October of the same year.

It is clear that John, the first Martz in Shamokin Township, came there from Augusta Township, so it would seem likely that William came from there too. It was Jacob and his brother David who were the two Martz settlers in Augusta Township and so my assumption is that William therefore has to be a son or grandson of one of those two brothers.

Let’s start with the two brothers.

David (P2) can be immediately ruled out. His son David died in Montgomery County, OH and between his will and the distributions by his estate of the proceeds from the sale of his land, the names of all his brothers and sisters are clearly identified. There was no William among them.

Jacob (P6) certainly had plenty of sons in Census and I don’t know all of their names. There are more tick marks in Census that look like sons than there are known sons. Jacob had known children in almost every year 1774 to 1782 but I know of none later. That raises the question of who are the two males under 10 in 1800, couldn’t one be William? And how about the two age 16-26 with the widow Margaret in 1810? Couldn’t one of those be William? I think until I ever solve this puzzle, Jacob has to be left as a possibility.

That leaves only David (J2a). He was the oldest of the next generation.

So while Jacob might seem the better candidate, there just is no real evidence for me to contradict Joseph Meiser. Maybe he knew something I don’t. So I, for now, while keeping an open mind on this subject and being always on the lookout for more evidence one way or the other, am going with what Meiser says, William was the son of David (J2a).

A question worth asking is whether it is possible to cite any evidence in support of the idea that William was the son of David. Here are my thoughts:

In the 1800 Census, David was in the 16-25 age bracket (he was, in fact, 26). There was a female present in his household age 26-45, isn't it possible this was a first wife, not Magdalena, let’s say, age 26? And there was a young male, a son? William?, age 0-9.

David’s “confirmed” sons include Jacob born 1800 (but I don’t know if it was before or after the Census date), David 1802 and John 1810 (after the Census date). So, in 1810, the David Martz household, assuming I have the right one, reported two sons under the age of 10 and no others. Jacob and David Jr. would be the two sons under 10, where was William? We can always theorize, of course, that at age 18, he was off working on someone else’s farm -- but maybe’s aren’t evidence.

William ends up in Peoria County, IL, ostensibly because his daughters moved there. But that is also where John Mertz and Elizabeth Richstine moved and John was the son of the younger David, the one suggested as William’s father. Children of both of the Davids got tied up with the Richstines and some from both families eventually moved to Peoria.

So my scenario is as follows: William was the son of David by a first wife who died and then David married Magdalena Shissler. He was not living with his father in 1810, he was off working on someone’s farm, since he was not the son of David’s then wife and he was the step-brother of David and Magdalena’s children. He did move to Peoria in part because his brother was there, they are buried in the same cemetery.

William is on find-a-grave. Since his cemetery listing and his tombstone only give his date of death 21 Oct 1861, it is a fair question how it can be known it is William who came from Shamokin Township. The answer is that he is buried immediately next to Mary Wagner born 1828 wife of “L” and Lydia Ann Cline wife of John. They were his daughters.

Also, an estate record dated 30 Sep 1862 says letters were issued to Daniel Mertz for the estate of William Martz “late of” Northumberland County. The normal wording would for the estate of Willam Martz, deceased. While “late of” also implies deceased, my sense is it meant “formerly of”. The 1862 date in any event belies the Meiser suggestion he died in 1867.

A search of Northumberland County land records shows that in 1834-35, several persons sold land to the Danville Pottsville Railroad, Sunbury Branch generally for a small amount of money “and the benefit expected to be received”. (Implying I think they still owned land adjacent.)

One seller was William Martz. Another was Peter Martz, surviving Executor of David Martz (Barbara must have died by 9 Dec 1835). And of the others, the only names I recognized or thought relevant were John Evert and Michael Evert.

A check of a map shows that a railroad does run west into Sunbury a little south of the Snydertown Road and I have always believed that Lot #2 and Lot #3 in Pomfret Manor sold by the Penns to David and Jacob Martz, respectively, were along that road.

I am sure that Peter was indeed selling a piece of David’s Lot #2 and it raises the question in my mind whether William was selling a piece of Jacob’s Lot #3. (Note that William’s wife was Elizabeth Evert so it might originally have been Evert land.) But it makes me wonder whether this is evidence that William really was Jacob’s son. In any event, it is not enough evidence to make me decide to change the designation of William and his sons. For now, just food for thought.