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Col. Frederick A. Rohrer Birth/Baptismal Fraktur

This early Westmoreland County Birth and Baptism Certificate for Frederick Rohrer (born 17 July 1794) is a rare example of the early Western Pennsylvana German folk art known as "fraktur". It most likely made its way from Greensburg to New Lancaster, Ohio, with the blended Marshall-Rohrer family in late 1805; and then to Happy Retreat (northwestern Armstrong County) with the orphaned Rohrer siblings when their Aunt Hovey retrieved them from the Ohio frontier and brought them to her new home on the Allegheny River frontier, just north of present-day Parker, Armstrong County. The fraktur remained on the Hovey-Robinson lands until Charles S. L. Robinson mailed them to his son Sam Robinson in New England in about 1990. Our cousin Sam Robinson now is taking steps to preserve this important piece of family history, along with the similar fraktur for his own ancestor, Elizabeth Rohrer Robinson. This fraktur was created by early Westmoreland County schoolmaster Johann Karl Scheibeler. See similar items through mid-October 2007 at the outstanding exhibit entitled "MADE IN PENNSYLVANIA: A FOLK ART TRADITION" at the Westmoreland Museum of Art in Greensburg; see LINKS for more on the Museum.

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