Going further back in our Kline history, we come to Barnhart Kline, Sr.
Barnhart had a history of militia service. In 1775, he was a private in Captain Abraham Miller's Company of the Northampton Militia. Later he was a Corporal in the 7th Company under Captain Felix Good.
(James, Maurice, Daniel, John Wesley, Michael, Solomon, Barnhart Sr.)
Barnhart was born in Upper Milford Township, Northhampton County, PA, on December 16, 1756. His parentage is in dispute among various researchers, but the consensus is that his parents were Lorentz (Laurentius) Kline and Catherine Elizabeth Mertz.
*The county lines in Pennsylvania at that time moved frequently. When Barnhart was born, Northampton County was part of British America, as it all was before the Revolution. According to a history, nine townships of the former Buck County created Northampton County in 1752. By 1774, the population of the county was 15,000 people, with 80% of German heritage and Lutherans outnumbered all religious groups. The Klines were in this majority.
It should be noted that the organization of Northampton County opened up more than 3 million acres for settlers and speculators. The French and Indian war, 1753 - 1763, crushed the land boom in Pennsylvania, and the war torched this frontier. In this county, 216 adults and children were killed and captured in the early years of the war. Land was cheap. Barnhart was there or close by, born in the midst of this war.
In 1765, the county rebelled against the British Stamp Act, and in June, 1774, the people of Northampton held a mass meeting at the courthouse in Easton and voted to side with the "radicals" in Philadelphia, calling for the Continental Congress to negotiate with Great Britain. But that was for naught because in April 1775, the Lexington and Concord battle began the Revolutionary War.
The Northampton Committee met and "ordered the inhabitants to mobilize for self-defense." More than 2300 men, most of the county's male population between 16 and 60, joined the township military associations and elected officers.
Congress offered bonuses to volunteers who would serve in the Continental Army and some men went, but not Barnhart. At 19, he chose to defend his home and county.
Anyone who refused to join the militia was ostracized and denounced as enemies of the country." Persons thought to be loyal to the British were jailed. "Frontier justice thrived in Northampton County."
It was 1777 before the Militia Act was passed, however, requiring white men from 18 - 53 to serve in the militia or pay heavy fines, and all white men over 18 were ordered to swear allegiance to the state in front of a justice of the peace or lose their rights as citizens. Many men paid the fines rather than serve. These men were farmers, not soldiers, and they resented their time away from their land and making a living for their families, and they had to provide their own weapons and ammunition.
On July 8, 1776, Northampton residents gathered in Easton to celebrate the Declaration of Independence and to choose delegates for the Pennsylvania Constitutional Convention.
On July 3, 1778, Tories and Indians massacred 200+ soldiers at Wyoming, Pennsylvania, 65 miles northwest of Easton. People headed to relative safety in the Lehigh Valley. Northampton was ordered to call out 300 militia to defend the frontier. On a May 14, 1778, muster list, Barnhart Kline was a Second Lieutenant under Captain Henry Bowman in the 3rd Company of the 4th Battalion of the Northampton County Militia. (That part of PA was still considered frontier.) Attacks continued into 1779. Soldiers were paid at first for taking prisoners or scalps, but soon the militia became too undisciplined and insubordinate and no money was available to pay them, so men had little interest in the task.
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| Barnhart Kline 2nd Lieutenant |
As listed in the Pennsylvania Archives, 5th Series, Volumes 4 and 8, Barnhart's last service was recorded on September 28, 1782, when Captain Peter Rhoads certified that Barnhart Kline served under him as a ranger on the frontier in March, 1782. When he was discharged, he was listed as a lieutenant.
*Information from a history of Northampton County, Pennsylvania, read online and paraphrased and quoted.
Here Lies Barnhart Klein - Buried Kratzerville, PA
Barnhart Kline died on August 3, 1837, and his wife, Margaret on December 20, 1850. They were buried at the Zion Lutheran Church cemetery, Kratzerville, Union County, Pennsylvania.
Next post - the family life of Barnhart Kline
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