About Joshua

Joshua was born November 20,1770.  He married Barbary Timble, a woman herself with an interesting and difficult to trace genealogy.  Her father was arrested as a Hessian mercinary near the start of the Revolutionary War.

We first find Joshua in the 1793 tax rolls of Germany twp, PA.  He was working for John Parr who sadly died in 1794/5 as it has been recorded in history books he learned his mill trade at "widow Parr's mill".  Supposedly Joshua was originally a Quaker, in the Society of Friends.  If true, I have never found proof.  In any case, Joshua and his family would convert to Catholicism, following Prince Demetrius Gallitzin (a Russian nobleman turned Catholic Priest) into the wilds of early Cambria and Bedford counties in PA where he would build his own mill.  He is listed in "Catholic Trails West" as having converted about 1800 from "The Society of Friends".

Joshua was well respected in his community.  He served in the Bedford County militia where he was elected lieutenant in 1797.  I also have that he was elected lieutentant in the Huntingdon County militia October 14, 1791.  That one I have not seen for myself.  Later on, he served as a tax collector in 1811 in Greenfield Twp, Bedford, PA.

Also in 1811, Joshua and his son John received communion from Prince Galltizin at Easter.  This is another reason why I believe John is likely Joshua's eldest son.

Joshua stayed active in church life until his death on October 6th, 1840, the same year Prince Gallitzin would die.  Coincidentally, they were also both born in 1770.

Although much of his life has been recorded, his true parentage does not appear to have been.  For example, in one history book alone, they give two differing accounts.  One claims he was born in England, while another entry states he was born in the Conewago Settlement in Pennsylvania.  The truth is, one might be true or possibly neither is true.  No one knows for sure.  Another theory is he was born in Maryland, yet another in Virginia.