Genealogy

Three Rivers
Hudson~Mohawk~Schoharie
History From America's Most Famous Valleys

59 (no idea if this is a page number, ajb)
No idea where the information came from, it is typed on a single sheet of paper.

JOHN NEAR

Jn1. JOHN NEAR, probably son of Casper and Margretha (______) Neher

b. ca. 1764 (death record on headstone)
d. 8 Jan. 1832 age 68 (Brewster Cem., Twn. of Ellisburgh, Jefferson Co., NY)
m. Elisabet Wormuth (Wormoedt in church record which names her as mother of Georg, bp 1796, forward)
b.
d. "Biographical Review-the Leading citizens of Madison Co., NY" published in Boston in 1894, pp. 21-23 states he was born in 1746 (no doubt a misprint with the 6 and 4 reversed) and died about 1831 at Ellisburgh, Jefferson Co., NY. The article continues: "John Near was a revolutionary soldier. It is said that upon one occasion he was ambushed by Indians and as he fled a thrown tomahawk cut off three of his ribs near he backbone, but he escaped. He had four sons and four daughters. Jasper, born at Mohawk Flatts, NY in 1791 was one of the first born children, etc."

Mohawk Flatts is a term applied to the lowlands on the Mohawk River, both above and below the present city of Amsterdam, Montgomery Co., NY (W. Max Reid: "The Mohawk Valley" pub. 1901, p. 155)

Since John was born in 1764, or possibly in 1763 (aged 68 in Jan. when he died) he was therefore 19 or 20 year of age at the close of the war. It is almost certain he was the son of Casper and wife Margretha Neher who had a daughter baptized at the Dutch Reformed Church of Stone Arabia, Town of Palatine, Montgomery Co., NY in 1769. Her name too was margretha and it may have been she and husband John H. Waffle who sponsored at the baptism of John's daughter polly in 1814. The most conclusive argument as to John's parentage is that his first son was named Casper, later called Jasper in Madison Co. (above). Webster's Collegiate Dictionary shows Jasper and Casper as equivalent.

It is not know when Casper or antecedents came to America. It is possible that he was a brother of Jacob Neher's father who arrived in 1763. (See Jacob Neahr, p.2) According to tradition in the conrad Near line, Jasper and Conrad (Sr.) were brothers who arrived here together from Germany. (See p. 75)
1830 census, Twn. of Ellisburg, Jeff. Co., NY p. 25:
4th line: John Near: Males, 1 70-80; 1 30-40
Females, 1 60-70; 1 20-30
Age bracket incorrect for John, but no doubt it is he.

The information ends here.