The George and Veronice Hain Family

portion of his ground for the erection and support of a house of worship – that house of worship which succeeding generations have designated “Hain’s Church” in his honor.

The following is a statement of the lands George Hain acquired from the Penns as proprietors and from William Allen:

Date of Title Number of acres

Nov. 25, 1735 of William Allen for 165 pounds -------------------------------------------------- 300

Nov. 27, 1735 of the proprietors -------------------------------------------------------------- 222

Nov. 1735 of the proprietors -------------------------------------------------------------- 400

Nov. 19, 1741 of the proprietors --------------------------------------------------------------- 198

Nov. 1741 of the proprietors -------------------------------------------------------------- 227

Sept. 2, 1742 of the proprietors --------------------------------------------------------------- 292

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1639

Land held by Peter Hain at his father’s death and paid for by the father -------------------------- 100

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1739

Subsequent to the date of the last of the above enumerated patents it was found after his death, according to receipts in his possession, that George had made payments towards other land as follows:

Nov. 5 1743 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 5£

Dec. 23, 1743 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 5£

March 30, 1743 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- 16£–19s–6d

June 22, 1743 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 15£

May 17, 1744 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ 26£–8s–6d

The land consisting of approximately seventeen hundred acres which George Hain acquired and bequeathed to his children lay on both sides of the present Benjamin Franklin highway, formerly the Berks and Dauphin Turnpike. On the south side of the highway, the westerly limit of his land was the present State Hospital road; on the north side of the highway, the western limit of George Hain’s extensive holdings was the farm now owned by J. Turner Moore, whence it extended in an easterly direction to a corner below the present Hain’s Church road near the easterly boundary of the borough of Wernersville. According to family tradition George Hain’s home was on the site of the beautiful stone residence erected in the early 1800s (probably in 1803) nearly a mile west of Wernersville on what was known for many years as the James S. Hill farm, and now belonging to J. Turner Moore.

George Hain died in 1746, and his wife Veronica about the latter part of 1756, both buried in the oldest part of the Hain’s Church graveyard. The very early gravestones were usually limestone and sandstone, both of which disintegrate rapidly when exposed to the elements. The limestone marking the graves of George and Veronica Hain having nearly crumbled to pieces, a new granite marker was erected in 1926 by Mr. and Mrs. Charles I. Hain, descendants. On January 22, 1757, her son Peter Hain and her son-in-law William Fisher were appointed administrators of the estate of Veronica Hain. Her family name is not known.

The will of George Hain, with his name spelled “Hen,” was probated April 8, 1746, is on file in the office of the Register of Wills, City Hall, Philadelphia.

2) JOHN HENRY HAIN (c.1729 - 1795) AND ANNA CHRISTINA HAIN (c.1727 - 1813)

Excerpt below taken from History of the Hain family: descendants of George and Veronica Hain. Reading Eagle Press (Reading, Pa) 1941.

Henry Hain was a stanch patriot and during the Revolutionary War was almost a fanatic in the cause of freedom. Upon hearing of Benedict Arnold's treason in the fall of 1780, he insisted that all his sons enlist. He went with them and endeavored to enlist also, but Colonel Broadhead persuaded him to return home saying, 'It is a shame to suffer so old a man to perform the arduous duties of a soldier.'"

3) FREDERICK HAIN (1750 - 1839) AND ANNA MARIA HAIN (nee ECKERT) (1753-1844)

Excerpt below taken from History of the Hain family: descendants of George and Veronica Hain. Reading Eagle Press (Reading, Pa) 1941.

Frederick Hain was a miller. Frederick Hain also ...served as a sergeant in the Revolutionary War. On August 5, 1834 at the age of 84 years, Frederick appeared before the Common Pleas Court of Berks County asking for a pension for his service during the war--stating that 'In December, 1776, he took a bounty of 50 shillings from Valentine Eckert and became enrolled in Captain Fisher's Company, First Regiment of Pennsylvania Line commanded by Colonel Broadhead. This Company remained only a few days in Reading and then marched to join the remaining part of the Regiment located in Philadelphia or nearby. From this point the Company was ordered to Trenton and that he was on the of the guards to conduct the Hessian prisoners from Trenton to Reading. Also is company with his brother Daniel, and Mathias Wenrich done recruiting throughout the County and in Reading.' Frederick in this petition also mentions that his servants and team of horses were constantly at the service of the government. The pension was not granted for the reason that his commission was lost while on a hunting excursion, and there was no one living who would be able to swear to his three years' service with the army.

In 1802 Frederick Hain built the beautiful and substantial stone house 30 1/2 by 68 feet, now the property of the Wernersville State Hospital.

4) GEORGE HAIN (1783 - ) AND CATHERINE HAIN (nee RIESER)

Excerpt below taken from History of the Hain family: descendants of George and Veronica Hain. Reading Eagle Press (Reading, Pa) 1941.

George Hain, like his father, was also a miller. For 30 years after his marriage George resided on the mill property of his father [Frederick]....From there he moved to Schuylkill County.

5) ERASTUS ALLEN HAIN (1823 - 1907) AND ALMA HAIN (nee SHAFFER) (1831 - 1920)

Erastus (aka Allen) and Alma (aka Alem) lived much of their life in Northumberland County (Upper Mahanoy township). Both died in Klingerstown, PA (Mahantongo Valley - Schuylkill County) and are buried at Salem's (Herb's) Lutheran and Reformed Church cemetery in Rough and Ready, PA. According to U.S. census records Erastus was a tanner (1860), a laborer (1870) and a farmer (1900).

6) JOHN WILSON HAIN (1871 - 1970) AND MARY CECILIA HAIN (nee BROWN) (1872 - 1953)

According to U.S. census records (1910, 1920 and 1930) John and Mary lived in Mifflin township (Dauphin County) and Lykens (Dauphin County). During this time John was a farmer. According to the memoirs of his son, Rev. Homer J. Hain, Adam and Sarah Bohner (John's sister and brother-in-law) were "Evangelical Congregational by church name." John "began attending the church with the Bohners and went to the alter and were converted at this church, in which they eventually became members too. The church is near Pillow, Pa. and was called the Hallelujah Box. They got shouting happy sometimes and...enjoyed being members." This became, therefore, the first generation not to be part of the Reformed branch of Christianity.

7) REV. HOMER JOHN HAIN (1908 - 2002) AND REV. GRACE BEATRICE HAIN (nee MILLER) (1909 - 1987)

Rev. Homer J. Hain was raised on a farm in Berrysburg, PA and was a delivery driver and pastor. Rev. Grace B. Hain was raised in Tower City, PA; attended Owosso Bible School in Owosso, MI; and was a musician, teacher and pastor. Homer maintained the spirit-filled worship style that came from his father's conversion experience and was part of the Pilgrim Holiness denomination. Homer, along with brother Marlin and his wife Grace, offered ministries as pastors in parishes and at tent revival meetings. Both Homer and Grace are buried at Sweitzers Memorial Cemetery in Berrysburg, PA.

8) REV. RUTH MARY ROMBERGER (nee HAIN) (1938 - present ) AND REV. ARLAND FRANKLIN ROMBERGER (1925 - 2007)

Rev. Ruth Romberger was also raised on a farm (in Herndon, PA) and, like her father, she is a Christian minister married to another Christian minister. Both Ruth, and her husband Arland, have spent the majority of their lives ministering within the United Methodist Church. Ruth was baptized at home and Arland was baptized in a Church of God church. Both were part of the Holiness denomination before becoming Evangelical United Brethren, and through the merger, United Methodist. In addition to serving as a Christian pastor Ruth has spent time serving as a preschool teacher, preschool director, census person and salesperson. She received her B.A. in Behavioral Sciences from Messiah College.

9) DUANE WESLEY ROMBERGER (1970 - present)

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The Hain Family:

Descendants of George and Veronica Hain

The journey of our branch of the Hain family began with two courageous souls from the Palatinate region of Germany: George Hain and Veronica Hain...

Click to see the Hain Family Tree

1) GEORGE HAIN ( -1746) AND VERONICA HAIN ( -1756)

Excerpt below taken from History of the Hain family: descendants of George and Veronica Hain. Reading Eagle Press (Reading, Pa) 1941.

More than passed two centuries passed since George and Veronica Hain, with thousands of courageous men and women from a principality in Germany- called the Palatinate, braved the perils of sea and forest to establish homes in a new land where they might enjoy freedom without persecution. On landing at New York they were sent to Nuttal’s, now Governor's Island, then the quarantine station, to be nursed and recruited for still further trials. In the autumn of 1710, about fifteen hundred were taken up the Hudson and settled oil lands purchased from Robert Livingston by the Provincial Council of New York. The story of this group of immigrants has often been told and forms an interesting chapter of the history of New York as well as of Pennsylvania. It must have been a heart-breaking blow for this harassed group of men and women to be deprived of their land and possessions, first by the continual civil and religious wars in Germany, and then in this country by the English in the New York colony to which they had been sent by Queen Anne. After the unfair treatment received in New York they believed they could find safety in Pennsylvania. Leaving Schoharie in 1723, thirty-three families (followed by others five years later) traveled in a southwesterly direction through the forests until they reached the Susquehanna River, where they made rafts, and floated down the river to the mouth of the Swatara Creek south of Harrisburg. Thence they worked their way up this stream to the beautiful Lebanon Valley and the region of the Tulpehocken, along which creek they formed settlements. Thus they became pioneers of portions of Berks and Lebanon counties. From a point in the Lebanon Valley probably northwest of Myerstown they moved eastward, some settling in the Womelsdorf community and others finding homes in the Cacoosing section. In Conrad Weiser’s diary we read that the early settlements were made without the consent of the Proprietary of Pennsylvania or his commissionaires, and against the consent of the Indians [sic]; also that for a considerable time they were absolutely without any law or government. The sons of George Hain during several years were far from well disposed towards Conrad Weiser but later became friends.

It is possible that George Hain, who belonged to the New York settlement, came to the Tulpehocken region after the first group had arrived there. His name first appears (as John George Höhn) in Ulster County, New York, where according to the magazine “Ye Old Ulster” there appears among the church records of the Kocherthal colony the following: "Baptized in Schoharie, June 6, 1716, Johann, born February 8, child of John George and Veronica Hohn. Sponsors, Johann Cast and Commissioner."

The homes of the first settlers were made of logs – these log structures were replaced by more permanent houses in some instances by the second generation but more often by the third generation. The preparations for the replacement of the log houses with the beautiful and substantial stone houses which dot the landscape of the fertile Lebanon Valley was the business of a number of years as stones had to be quarried, and lumber sawed and allowed to season. In such a log house George and Veronica Hain reared their family, and from their home went forth the second generation of the Hain family to establish homes as their father had before them. George Hain possessed the judgment and shrewdness which combined with industry, enable men to acquire and hold property, and in the course of years he became a prosperous and wealthy man for those days. Moreover he was not unmindful of the spiritual needs of his family as well as those of his immediate community. He wisely foresaw that the construction of a place to gather for religious services would result in the regular ministrations of a pastors rather than the irregular visits of a missionary. Such we believe was his purpose in dedicating in 1735 a

History of the Palatine Immigration to Pennsylvania