Some unpublished family connections that may be of interest.
George Kleppinger of Pfungstadt, Hesse emigrated to Philadelphia on the same vessel as gunsmith Peter Newhard’s father in 1737, and gunsmith David Kuntz’s father of nearby Alsace followed with his family a year later. In Germany the three families had lived within an 80-mile circle and they eventually settled together in Old Northampton County: Newhard at Laury’s, Kuntz at Cherryville and Kleppinger at Kreidersville, within just a few miles of each other. They were of the same German Pietist culture, attended the same churches, their children soon began to intermarry and they formed close, insular relationships.
Anthony Kleppinger, the youngest child of the second generation, moved his family to the Shippensburg area after buying land there in 1796, and gunsmith Joseph Clippinger was the first child born there. However, Joseph’s parents died prematurely while he was still a boy, and Joseph was likely sent to live with relatives. Apparently unaware of the relationship with the Kuntz gunmakers, Clippinger family histories believe he was sent to the Waynesboro area to live with an older brother, and that a local gunsmith there named John Noll (1780-1852) was probably his teacher. The Kuntz-Newhard-Moll connection offers another strong possibility, as there were many more family members remaining in Kreidersville than in the area Anthony had migrated to, and those families were more settled and more prosperous.
Further, priority for apprenticeships was always to family members, and during Joseph’s apprentice years (roughly 1812-1820) there were at least six active and prosperous gunmakers in his extended family, not including the largest gunmaking operation of all, his in-law John Moll II in Allentown. From relatively poor beginnings, Joseph achieved professional competence and prosperity quickly, as at age 24 as a “gunsmith”, he bought a house in Waynesboro for $300 for his new bride, further indicating timely and generous family assistance.
References:
Clippinger, Amanda. Joseph Clippinger, Maker of Guns in Pennsylvania and Ohio. Association of Ohio Longrifle Collectors Journal. March, 1985. P11-16.
http://www.aolrc.org/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2009/03/vol-vii-no-1-march-1985.pdfClippinger, Jane. Joseph Clippinger Gunsmith. Association of Ohio Longrifle Collectors Journal. September, 1985. P2-4.
http://www.aolrc.org/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2009/03/vol-vii-no-2-sept-1985.pdf
