Bury Stover Family Tree
Compiled and written by Phillip Hazelton, c. 1970
Our Stover ancestors originated in Switzerland. They belonged to the religious sect known as Mennonites. The name was originally STAUFFER, but seems to have been changed to STOVER very early. John Stover (Hans Stauffer) came to Pennsylvania in 1710 and settled in Berks County, where he lived the rest of his life. This first John Stover had a brother, Jacob, who became well known as the "Swiss land agent of the Shenandoah." He apparently obtained grants of land, or acted as agent of those who had obtained grants of unsettled land west of the Blue Ridge mountains of Virginia. He made it his business to induce settlers to go there.
As a result, Swiss Mennonites from Pennsylvania were the first settlers in the Shenandoah Valley. Some were there before 1730. They settled 2 or 3 miles west of the present town of Luray, Virginia, near the Massanutten Mountain.
Daniel Stover, son of the first John, came from Pennsylvania to the Massanutten settlement about 1746. He is mentioned frequently in the county and militia records, being fined for non-attendance at musters during the French and Indian wars. These Mennonites were non-resisters, or as we would say conscientious objectors.
Daniel, or his oldest son Samuel, established a grist mill at the junction of Hawksbill Creek and Shenandoah River. In a book of local history compiled by a Luray Attorney named Strickler, and entitled "Massanutten", is a picture of the Stover Homestead, stone with fort cellar, built about 1760, located on the Shenandoah River a mile below the mouth of Hawksbill Creek.
The miller Samuel had five sons. The third son, born in 1770, was named Samuel. This Samuel (Jr.) migrated to Fairfield County, Ohio, probably around 1814. (You might be able to find out when he first owned land in the county by checking at the county registry of deeds.) He died near Basil, Ohio.
Samuel Jr. and his wife, who was Susanna Brumback, had six sons and seven daughters. Their oldest son, John, was born near Luray, Virginia, November 16, 1804. He married in Ohio, Catharina Roads who was born near Luray, Virginia, August 5, 1811, and brought to Ohio in 1814. John and Catharina Stover had 2 sons and 3 daughters who lived to grow up. One of the sons died in the Civil War. The other son was Theophilus Stover. One of the daughters was named Susanna. Another daughter was Rebecca, born in 1844, who married Arthur Hazelton in 1870.
Catharina Roads Stover died October 22, 1853. Some time after that John Stover moved from Basil and settled on a farm in Jersey Township, Licking County. He died October 31, 1880.
Here is a brief outline of the ancestry of Catharina Roads Stover. The name was originally ROTH, was modified to ROOD soon after they came to this country, and later to Roads.
John Rood (Hans Roth) was born in Zurich, Switzerland. He came to Pennsylvania in 1728, and moved on to the Shenandoah Valley of Virginia in 1730. He was a Mennonite preacher. In 1764 John Rood, his wife, 3 of his sons and 2 daughters were massacred by the Indians in a sudden raid in their home in the Massanutten settlement. One or more of the children were caught by the Inidans as they tried to cross the river near their home. It is still known as the "Bloody Ford."
The oldest son of John Rood was named Joseph. He was living elsewhere at the time of the massacre. However, he inherited his father’s place and built the old Roads homestead which still stands there.
John Roads, son of Joseph, was born January 24, 1761. He visited Licking County, Ohio in 1807, and moved there in 1814. He owned a great deal of land in southern Licking County. He died near Hebron, Ohio, February 24, 1825.
Abraham Roads, son of John above, was born in Virginia in 1787, and died in Ohio. He was the father of Catharina Roads.