To fully understand the life and movement of Henry Brinker and his descendants, we must first understand some of the history of Frederick County, Virginia and the Shenandoah Valley. Henry was one of the first to settle in this area and played a tremendous roll in its development.

He is known to most genealogists as Henry Brinker the Pioneer.

Frederick County Virginia

Frederick County was created from Orange County by an Act of the Virginia Burgesses in November, 1738. It was named for Frederick Louis, Prince of Wales, the eldest son of George II.  Because the new County lacked sufficient monetary means to support itself, the Governor and Council did not authorize the formal establishment of Frederick County until a Court Session in November 1743. During this period of time, the first significant group of new settlers had arrived from Pennsylvania; Maryland; and other states north of Virginia, followed by many from the Piedmont and Tidewater areas of Virginia. They followed a well-worn Indian trail along the Opequon Valley which later became part of the "Great Valley Road" one of the most historic roads in America. European settlers seeking new lands and opportunities followed this route, first used by Native Americans, to travel from southeastern Pennsylvania through the Shenandoah Valley and Cumberland Gap into frontier regions of Kentucky and beyond. During the Nineteenth Century, the Valley Road was rebuilt as the Valley Turnpike. By this time the road was vital, not only to the Shenandoah Valley, but also as a link to commercial and cultural centers in Virginia; Maryland; Pennsylvania; and cities to the north. The Valley Road also played a prominent roll in Civil War history. The Valley Road remains important today as a beautiful National Highway (Route 11) and in its contemporary manifestation as the intensively used Interstate 81.

In its original configuration, "Old" Frederick County encompassed the present counties of:  Frederick; Clarke; Berkeley (West Virginia); Jefferson (WV); Morgan (WV); and portions of Warren, Hampshire (WV); and Hardy (WV). Frederick grew in size in 1754 when all of Augusta County's land within the boundaries of the Northern Neck was added to it. This brought most of Shenandoah and part of Page County within its jurisdiction. That same year Hampshire County was divided from Frederick. In 1772 Berkeley and Dunmore (later Shenandoah) Counties were separated from Frederick. The final division of Frederick's lands came in 1836 with the creation of Clarke and Warren counties. This left Frederick in its present configuration (nine square miles of Frederick's land was annexed to the city of Winchester in 1970).

 After he died in 1689, his daughter married Thomas V, Lord Fairfax, and later, their son Thomas VI, Lord Fairfax, inherited the whole land grant.

In 1716, Virginia Governor Alexander Spotswood and his fifty "Knights of the Golden Horseshoe" crossed into the Shenandoah Valley through Swift Run Gap and returned with glowing accounts. Englishmen soon settled the piedmont, then pushed west by foot and horse through passes in the Blue Ridge Mountains, and many more German and Scotch-Irish settlers came down the valleys from Philadelphia and Lancaster, Pennsylvania. (Source: The History of Frederick Co.)

Some of the earliest settlers were Quakers who built the Hopewell Friends Meeting House which still stands near Clearbrook (7 mile NE of present day Winchester, Virginia.).

Hopewell Meeting (now called Hopewell Centre Meeting) of the Religious Society of Friends (Quakers) was established in 1734 on land that was granted to Alexander Ross (an Irish Quaker) and Morgan Bryan (an Irish Presbyterian) in 1730 and 1732 by Lt. Govenor William Gooch of Virginia. This grant was for 100,000 acres, located about 6 miles north of present day Winchester, Frederick County, Virginia

Ross and Bryan had brought about 70 families to the Shenandoah Valley of Virginia from Pennsylvania where they hoped to establish a new Quaker community. The Meeting Hall is the oldest surviving place of worship in the area and has been in continuous use since it was built. It is located on Hopewell Road (formerly State Route 672) one mile west of Clearbrook in Frederick County, Virginia. It was established nine years prior to the creation of Frederick County, in the section that was originally Orange Co. 

Following the custom of Friends, records were faithfully kept from the time of the establishment of the Meeting. All of these records have been preserved with the exception of the first twenty-five years. The records for the years 1734 to 1759 were lost in a fire that destroyed the house of William Jolliffe in 1759. (Source: Society of Friends, History of our meetings)

Looking at the time line 1734-1759 we have many verified records of two major parts of the Brinker family, Henry and Conrad, living within a six mile radius of this Meeting House. We also have many verified records of later members of the Brinker family that are property of the Society of Friends, thus we know for sure that they did have a part in this group and it will be seen later that these records may have contained many of the first Brinker Family vital records.

The Government of Colonial Virginia wanted this wilderness settled as quickly as possible, as a buffer against the Indian attacks; but Robert "King" Carter, Lord Fairfax's agent, was settling Fairfax's land slowly in large plantations. The government of Virginia had chartered counties within Fairfax’s land grant as settlements spread up the Northern Neck and west through his land grant.

Virginia began to argue that Fairfax's land grant ended at the Blue Ridge, and began granting up to 1,000 acres each to settler families west of the Blue Ridge. Virginia gave particular developers the right to recruit settlers and sell them up to 1,000 acres per family within a general "grant" area. Each parcel would revert back to the state of Virginia unless settled with a house and orchard within two years. One of these developers was the Van Meter Brothers.

Governor William Gooch of Virginia was concerned to protect his colony from any possible French or Indian incursions by planting settlements west of the Blue Ridge Mountains in the Shenandoah Valley.  Thus he responded favorably to a request in 1730 by two brothers, John and Isaac Van Meter, for lands beyond the Blue Ridge where they could settle with their families and friends from New York and New Jersey.  In all, the Van Meters received three grants, one of 10,000 acres in the forks of the Shenandoah and Cedar Creek, another of 20,000 acres bounded by the Potomac, the Shenandoah, and Opequon Creek, and a third of 10,000 acres between the Shenandoah and Opequon. These grants were in present Berkeley, Frederick and Shenandoah counties.  In return, they agreed to settle one family for every 1,000 acres within two years.

(Source: "Ulster-Scots in Virginia" by Richard MacMaster) and (The court records of the Fairfax vs Jost Hite trail).

All of this land was already claimed by the Fairfax family as part of that vast territory granted by King Charles II as the Proprietary of the Northern Neck, so to avoid possible litigation the Van Meters sold everything in August 1731 to Joist Hite (Heydt), a remarkable man who came to America in 1710 as a penniless emigrant shipped to New York under a charitable scheme. 

Hite prospered well, as a grain miller in Pennsylvania, then sold all his property in eastern Pennsylvania and used the proceeds to buy out the Van Meter brothers. He settled his family on the Opequon and went to Williamsburg, Virginia to negotiate this new grant of 100,000 acres with three men with Ulster connections, Robert McKay, a Quaker, and William Duff and his nephew Robert Green of Spotsylvania County, Virginia. Hite set to work at once to recruit settlers in Pennsylvania. By Christmas 1735 at least 67 families were settled on lands sold them by Hite and his partners.

In 1732, Jost Hite settled 16 families on 5,000 acres of his "grant" and built Hite's Fort at Bartonsville, then, Orange Co. Va. (About 5 miles SW of present day Winchester).

Frederick County was created from western Orange County by the House of Burgesses on December 21, 1738. (Source: Frederick Co. History).

James Wood, County Surveyor for Orange County, platted a town at the Orange County seat, which he named Winchester, after his birthplace. It consisted of 26 half-acre lots and three streets within 1300 acres, which he claimed as wilderness land owned by the state of Virginia, those streets are now Loudoun, Boscawen and Cameron, but he was unable to establish ownership.

County government in Virginia was originally by self-perpetuating courts. Frederick County's Court was proclaimed and organized in 1743, and its officials took their oaths of office on November 11, 1743. It first met at the surveying office of its clerk, James Wood, at the site on which he later built his estate, called Glen Burnie (Now a museum about 3 miles west of Winchester).

By late 1743, the Frederick County Court admitted that Lord Fairfax's land included their County.

At the age of 16, George Washington was a member of a surveying party that came to Frederick County for Lord Fairfax in 1748. In 1749, Lord Fairfax moved to Frederick County and built his home, (Greenway Court, at White Post, in present-day Clarke County). He accepted Wood's 1,300 acre claim and other additional lots and Winchester (then called Fredericktown) was legally established, within Frederick Co. (Source: History of Frederick Co.)

Frederick Co. records began in 1744 while Winchester's began in 1790 and they are much smaller in volume as the town size did not change from 1754 until 1905.

Land and probate records for Winchester begin 1790, Marriage bonds for Winchester in 1790 and some marriage licenses for period 1843-1855. There are also a few birth and death records from 1855 to 1870. Unlike Frederick records, many of these records for Winchester were destroyed during the Civil War.

Hans Hendrick Brungger was born July 10, 1722 in Elsau Parish, Canton, Zurich, Switzerland. He was the oldest son of Andreas Brungger and Regula Herter. Source:UID: 93E1201F1DBFF149B396350328C46DAF52B2

On November 4, 1734 at the age of 11, Henry and his family left their home in a tiny village in the foot hills of the Swiss Alps on the banks of the Rhine River, in route to America.  (Source: Letter to Barbara J. Brinker of San Francisco, CA from Swiss Archives, dated 1986)

No doubt, at the age of eleven Henry knew of the oppression being put on his father and realized that their home was being taken away from them but, as we read the story of his father's hardships, we can only imagine what it was like for a boy eleven years old, traveling 375 miles to a huge bustling city, were the people treated him like common cargo or live stock. Then being loaded on a ship with very little room to move around, over looking nothing but the waters of the Atlantic Ocean for 8-10 weeks and watching his four year old sister, Maria Elizabeth, die and be thrown over board. 

With 41 passengers, 8-10 crew members, all of their baggage and enough food and supplies to last the 8-10 week voyage on board that 88 foot boat, imagine what Henry felt as he stepped out on solid ground and began to walk, with his family, two blocks up the street to the courthouse, where his father was required to take the oath of allegiance to the state of Pennsylvania. 

The State of Pennsylvania required all male immigrants over the age of sixteen to take this oath immediately, upon arrival. This being two weeks before his twelfth birthday, Henry did not have to take the oath. 

A whole new world,

Wow!! what a birthday present        

It was at this point that his name was changed to the English translation “Henry Brinker”. In the German language the name Hans for many generations was short for Johannes, but later became a legal name in its self, thus Hans Hendrick. The Brinker surname was spilled Brungger in the German dialog and Braucker in the Swiss dialog.

Along with his father and brothers Henry may have been one of the first Brinkers recorded in the United States.

The exact date is unknown but, in the early part of 1744, some time before June 15, at the age of 21 Henry left home and headed southwest. We find record of him again in Stouchsberg, Berks Co. Pa, about 71 miles west of his father’s home, about a one or two day journey by horse. 

His reason for leaving home is only a speculation of this author but, in studying his movement we find that Jost Hite had acquired several thousand acres of land in Frederick Co. Virginia and according to his contract he had to settle one family for every thousand acres with-in a given time. At the time of Henry’s journey Jost Hite was persuading many German families in Pennsylvania to move to Frederick Co. Virginia. It is also known that Henry and his brother Conrad both left home in the same year. It is unknown whether they left together or not but, they both settled in Virginia with-in that same year.

By stopping in Stouchsburg they give a good indication that they were on the road to Virginia, because Strouchsburg is on modern day U.S. Hwy 22, a direct route from Bucks Co. Penn. to Frederick Co. Va.  

We can verify this stop by a record showing that on June 15, 1744 Henry Brinker (Sadler) married Anna Catherine Kreutzberger at Christ Lutheran Church in Stouchsburg, Berks Co. Pennsylvania.

(Source: "Berks Co. PA Marriages, 1730-1800, Vol. 2", 1987, Edited by Frederick Paul & Jeffrey J. Howell. Page 1, Henry Brenker, sadler, and Anna Catharina Kreutzberger. Marr. 15 June 1744, Christ Luth. Ch., Stouchsburg in Marion Twp., Berks Co., PA)

The above illustration is the authors’ attempt to show the information found on an early map of Winchester Village, or at that time called Frederick Town, which can not be legally copied. According to Cartmill’s statement this is where Henry and Catherine lived in their earlier years in Frederick County.

This area of Frederick County was first known as Opequon or Shawneetown because of an earlier Shawnee Indian camp on the site, then as Frederick's Town. Winchester was finally named Winchester by James Wood, first Clerk of Frederick County and according to tradition, it was named after Wood's English birthplace.

The first 26 lots for the town were laid out by James Wood in 1743, the same year that Frederick county began to function as a new county, but it was not until eight years later, in 1752, that the town of Winchester was chartered by the Virginia General Assembly.

Author's Notes:

This is just a few months before Henry left his fathers home and during the period that Jost Hite was recruiting settlers from Pennsylvania. This is why this author speculates that Jost Hite persuaded Henry and Conrad to leave home.

This is a model displayed in the Fort Loudon museum of Frederick Town, when George Washington built Ft Loudon in 1756. According to Cartmill’s description and Henry’s purchase of lot #7 in Frederick Town, Henry’s house would be at the very top of this picture on the right side of the center road.

Just a fun note: The center road in this picture is today's Hwy 11 and part of Interstate 81.  

It was here in Frederick Town, Frederick Co. Va. on ____, 1745 that Henry and Catherine’s first child Mildred Brinker was born. Her birth records would have been filed in Frederick Co. because their record keeping started two years before this date.

In a paper given to the Frederick County, Maryland Historical Society on Jan. 17, 1896, we read where Henry meets with George Washington warning him of the approaching Indian attacks. The following is a quote from that paper:

"In 1752 the Lutherans at Frederick, Md. commenced the building of a stone church upon a lot of ground deeded to the congregation for a nominal consideration by Daniel Dulaney. The foundation was dug and the walls reared to the height of five or six feet when the regular pursuits of the town were thrown into confusion by the French and Indian war, which now broke out in great fury. The formerly well disposed Indians, instigated by French money and influence, set the midnight torch to the homes and barns of the peaceful settlers of Frederick county. The women and children, as a protection from the tomahawk and scalping knife of the infuriated savages, were removed to places of security, and instead of the plough, the men took guns and swords into their hands. Many of the more timid abandoned their homes and barns and sought safety by flight to distant points. So great was the desertion on the frontier that Washington wrote in August, 1756: "The whole settlement of Conogocheague has fled and there remains now only two families from there to Frederick Town. That the Maryland settlements are abandoned is certainly a fact, as I had the accounts transmitted to me by several hands and confirmed yesterday, 28th, by Henry Brinker, who left Monocacy the day before, and who affirms that 350 wagons had passed \\\dX place within the space of three days."

(Source: First settlements of Germans in Maryland. A paper read by Edward T. Schultz before the Frederick County Historical Society, January 17th, 1896)

Author's Notes:

I have not yet found why Henry was at Monocacy that day but, Monocacy is the river that divids Virginia and Maryland about 50 miles or, a days journey by horse, east of Winchester. Many major trading post were along the river; most likely he was buying supplys for his tavern.

According to the church's records the congregation had been meeting for many years before this but shared buildings with the Lutheran and Quaker congregations.

(Source: Shenandoah Valley pioneers and their descendants : a history of Frederick County, Virginia, Chapter 37, pg 195) (The story of Winchester in Virginia, the oldest town in the Shenandoah Valley Pg 49)

"Receivd Letters from Winchester informing me that the Small Pox had got among my Quarter's in Frederick; determind therefore to leave Town as soon as possible and proceed up to them." (Source: The diaries of George Washington Vol 1 pg 273)

Because of the smallpox epidemic in Frederick County, the county court was moved, by order of the governor 3 July 1759, to Stephensburg, "during the time the small pox rageth in the town of Winchester." Stephensburg (later Newton, later Stephens City), founded by Lewis Stephens in 1758, was competing with Winchester to become the seat for Frederick County. By Oct. 1759 the smallpox, according to a petition of the inhabitants of Winchester, "was raging at Stephensburg," and the court did not meet at all until Feb. 1760 (NORRIS [1], 121--22). GW is here noting the court's move back to its regular seat.

August 7, 1756 Orders from Col. George Washington. 

As every method hitherto practiced has been found ineffectual to restrain the paltry tippling houses and Ginn-shops in this town [Winchester, Virginia], from selling liquor, contrary to orders, to the Soldiers, to the Detriment of His Majesty’s Service, and irreparable loss of their own Health.

It is hereby expressly ordered, that as many men as the Tents will contain, do immediately encamp; and all the rest, except those in the Hospital be on Monday, new quartered upon Brinker, Heath and Lemon; who are charged not to sell more than a reasonable quantity of liquor, and at reasonable rates to each man per day; as they will answer the contrary.

And any Soldier or Draught who is found drinking in any of the other houses, or who is known to purchase, by direct or indirect means, any liquor from other places; or who shall be found ever going into, or sitting down in any of the other houses, without giving a sufficient excuse why he did so; shall immediately receive 50 lashes, without the benefit of a Court Martial.

And all the Officers are strictly required to see all these Orders strictly complied with…(Source: George Washington Orders, 8/7/1756, The Writings of George Washington, 1:440)

On July 21, 1764, at the age of 17 years, 9 months, and 14 days.  Henry signed an indenture bounding his oldest son George to Adam Haymaker until his 21st birthday. Adam Haymaker was the inventer of the famous Haymaker Rifle, George was bound to the gun shop on Cameron St. in Winchester, Va. In this bound George was not allowed to sell any personal idems, go to any taverns, nor play cards or throw dice, nor go to race tracks, nor absent himself, nor commit fornication, without his masters permission. Source: Frederick Co. deeds book 10 1764-1765 pg 378