Daniel D. Brenneman (wheel chair) ca 1918, widower, is seated between daughter Mary & Peter Opel surrounded by their eight children and spouses (if married)
by
Larry Pearce
12/11/25
I look forward to the first week of each new quarter of the year when my membership in the Casselman River Area Amish and Mennonite Historians entitles me to two enlightening periodicals: The Mennonite Family History and The Historian. Susan and I are certainly not Mennonite but her Grandmother Annie Lee Krause was Somerset County, PA, Amish. I’ve had several general family history articles published in the first magazine, but none so far in the second. This publication concentrates on the history and practices of area families. The purpose of this piece is to pass on information from her 19th century Brenneman ancestors.
At the annual meeting of the Casselman Historians, September 2025, researcher David I. Miller took his audience into the homes of eleven Amish families in a talk entitled “Where to go to Church.” We were invited to “enter the stories of real people who knew about struggle, pain and sorrow, along with victory, pleasure, and joy.” While David didn’t speak directly about Susan’s Great-great grandparents Elizabeth and Tommy Lee or succeeding generations, we learned enough to make the connection.
Uncle Daniel D. Brenneman (1824-1918), son of Daniel, Sr. (1762-1842), born in Germany, married Susanna Beachy (1827-1899) in 1846. Daniel, Sr. was age 38 when Daniel D., his 10th child was born. Unfortunately he died before the wedding of that 1oth child, at age 80. But Daniel D. and his new bride built their family and farming business on Beachy Road. A descendant, Richard Brenneman, still farms there. Outdoing his parents, Daniel and Susanna had twelve children. The couple were in their late teens and early twenties when they tied the knot. Apparently two babies had died as infants, not unlike couples in those days. David says that by 1877, their 31st year of marriage, four off-spring had married and moved out to have families of their own. Perhaps five remained in the Beachy Road farmhouse, ranging in age from 20 down to 8.
Typical Amish farm in Somerset Co. winter, not far from Brenneman’s
David’s talk included the interesting reports of how these Amish, before the advent of 20th century church buildings, worshipped in each other’s homes. But not all stayed with the plain folk’s heritage after the church split in 1895. Of the six young couples closest to home then, three considered themselves “Old Order” and three “Conservative” down in a Maryland congregation.
Flag Run Amish Cemetery, Niverton, PA, where many of Susan’s relatives are buried
We invite you to read further about my wife’s Amish roots by following Uncle Daniel’s sister, Susan’s Grandma Annie Lee and imagining what life must have been like centuries ago along the Casselman River basin between the Laurel and Allegheny Mountains: Dirt roads, horse and buggies, wood-fired stoves, etc. I think we could say that Daniel D. and Susanna lived long and productive lives. Daniel was 94 when he passed, and Susanna 72. They rest in the Cherry Glade Cemetery, just south of the Mason-Dixon line near Accident, MD, not far from the Niverton Cemetery pictured above. I look forward to sharing more stories from the Casselman Historians in the months to come. Check back!
Sources:
Miller, David I. “Where to go for Church (Part 2).” The Historian. October 2025, Vol. 37, No. 4, P. 6.
Last revised 1/5/26