Researched and written by P. A. White, JD
2015-2024 for @NewWorldAncestry – All Rights Reserved
Subject's relation to author: 1st cousin 3x removed
See also https://www.familysearch.org/tree/person/details/LCPD-X62

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Christian Emmert was born on or about August 15, 1829 in Washington County, Maryland, to Joseph B. Emmert and Elizabeth (Hershey) Emmert. We think he was the second of 11 children born between 1826 and 1849, all of whom lived to adulthood.

THE EMMERTS OF MARYLAND

Christian's branch of the Emmert family came to America from Bavaria in 1732 when Johann Jorg Friedrich "George" Emmert (1718-1796) stepped off a small ship named 'Loyal Judith' in colonial Philadelphia. George and his wife, Eve Maria Graff, became naturalized British subjects in 1751, but then disavowed the king in 1778 when George pledged allegiance to the State of Pennsylvania before Judge Peter Spycker in Berks County.

George Emmert's son was Leonard Emmert, the beloved "Old Pathfinder" of the Brethren church. Leonard was born to George and Eve Maria in Bethel Township, Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, British Colonial America in about 1745. He served as a militiaman in the Revolutionary War before turning away from Lutheranism and in 1798 moving his family to Washington County, Maryland to join many other followers of Alexander Mack who were settling there. Leonard Emmert's impact on the growth of the Church of the Brethren would reverberate down through the generations, and would reach into Illinois, Wisconsin, and even overseas to India and Denmark.

A LIFE LIVED

Christian's grandfather was the Brethren Pastor John Emmert. John was born in 1778 in Bethel Township, Berks County, Pennsylvania, and he emigrated to Maryland in about 1798 with his family. John was elected to preach at a young age, had nine children with Nancy Avey Emmert, then died suddenly in 1820 when he was just 42.

Christian never would have met his grandfather, but Pastor John cast a long shadow in the Emmert family. Several of Christian's uncles and cousins became preachers in the Church of the Brethren, and Christian's younger brother, John, became a church elder in Illinois.

All this religiosity notwithstanding, Christian's father focused on farming the family's lands on the plantation between Hagerstown and Sharpsburg they called Delemere. Although Joseph seemed to be following Brethren anti-slavery doctrine when in1839 he issued a Deed of Manumission granting freedom to an enslaved man named Charles Barnes who Joseph's wife had inherited from her father.

We do not know why they so chose, but Christian's family emigrated to Carroll County, Illinois before 1846. Although we do know that many of their kith and kin from Washington County were also going to Illinois in the 1840s.

Christian's family acquired land in Freedom Township near the quickly growing Brethren church at Arnold's Grove. Christian's Uncle David Emmert (1804-1857) had been especially successful, having founded the new town of Mount Carroll when he and his business partners built the area's first flouring mill on Waukarusa Creek in 1842.

MARRIAGE

Christian grew to manhood, then married Miss Mary E. Long on December 15, 1853 when he was 24 and Mary was 18. The plain Brethren ceremony was probably conducted in the nearby Arnold's Grove church where both families worshipped.

Mary Long was the eldest daughter of Brethren Elder Christian Long (1813–1895) and Susannah (Hershey) Long (1815–1890) of Shirley Township, Huntingdon County, Pennsylvania. Mary was probably born on or about July 18, 1835. In the spring of 1852 Mary emigrated to northwest Illinois with her parents when she was 17. Her father immediately began preaching at the Arnold's Grove Brethren Church.

Christian and Mary had five children, all probably born in Carroll County, Illinois: Abraham in 1855, George Melvin in 1856, Anna Laura "Laurie" in 1859, Albert in 1862, and Samuel in 1867. All save for Abraham lived long and fruitful lives.

The 1860 federal census found the family living and farming in Freedom Township. Christian's parents lived nearby. Mary's parents lived at least six miles away on a farm in Mount Carroll Township.

DEATH

The where and when of Christian's end are unknown.

He was registered for the Civil War draft in 1863, was taxed $14.55 by the federal government in January 1866 in Illinois as a "Second Class (or Glass) Peddler." Then he simply disappears from the record books.

His wife, Mary, and their kids appear in the 1870 census in Dallas County, Iowa, in Mary's parents' household. Mary also appears as head of household in the 1880 census for Dallas County, Iowa, and she evidently told the enumerator that she was still married (i.e., not divorced or widowed).

The author (who is Christian's 1st cousin 3x removed) has a pet theory though. Like many of my Emmert relatives, did Christian catch the gold bug, and go off to Montana to join the influx of miners in camps like Granite, Elkhorn, or Confederate Gulch. And did meet his end there, either naturally or at the hands of some villain?

George Melvin Emmert (1856-1941), the son of Christian and Mary, went off to Montana before 1910, then spent his life there. Maybe George was, at least initially, trying to solve the mystery of his dad's disappearance? But we'll probably never know for sure, mortality and burial recordkeeping not being a high priority in the Wild West of pre-statehood Montana.