Index to Bittner family genealogy materials

Calvin's parents were Joseph 'Josiah Joe' Bittner and Drucilla (Beal) Bittner. Ida Ada's parents were Peter Frederick Petenbrink and his wife Flora (Kennel) Petenbrink. Flora's parents were Andrew Kennel and Lydia Boyer. According to the book "Pastors and People of Somerset Classis", Lydia Boyer was the daughter of Jonathan and Susan Boyer, was born March 21, 1833 at Kennels Mills PA, died March 15, 1921, was baptized and confirmed in the Lutheran Church and later supported the Gladden's Run Church, and married Frederick Hasselroth in 1862 and had a large family with him. (Flora Kennel was born out of wedlock.) Peter Petenbrink's parents were Christian Petenbrink and Anna Keilman/Coleman. Christian's father was Peter Peppenbrink.

Calvin Bittner worked one winter in the clay mines. During World War II, he hauled coal to Meyersdale (to the railroad) with his team of horses. Their home burned on December 19, 1943. For a number of years he bought cattle hogs and sheep and sold the meat on a Saturday route. He also owned a Huber tractor engine with a thresher, corn husker, and silo filler and a a sawmill and did custom work with them.

Page 8 of Roger and Mona Huffman's 2007 book "A Look At Southampton Township Pennsylvania", Volume II indicates that Calvin and Ada Petenbrink, from near White Oaks, raised a new barn on June 20, 1926. The information was credited to clippings collected by Charles Burkett and Stella (Emerick) Shroyer.

In 1993 Calvin & Ida Ada's daughter Mildred wrote the following to me:
"Thank you so much for the copy of the article from the Laurel Messenger on Reichards/White Oak Church. That is the church where my mother had her membership until she died. My dad was a member of St. John's Evangelical Church which became the United Methodist Church.
.....
My home burned December 19, 1943. Two years before, Clinton's home burned. (Dec. 17, 1941). His home had been made into two apartments and the people on the other side had an overheated flue. Dad's home, near Deal, burnt on a Sunday. They discovered it after we came back from church, around noon, and they carried the stoves out without gloves on their hands. It started in the attic some how but they never found out what started it. There was no electric in the house.

The Bible records of Owen Beal was really a classic article. My father talked of his uncle Andy Beal.
My parents, my uncles and aunts on my father's side, and my baby brother are all buried in the cemetery out behind the St. John United Methodist Church (known as the temple) at White Oak. Also grandparents are buried there on my dad's side."

I accompanied my grandmother Gladys (Bittner) Korns on several occasions when she went to visit her mother and father. Her father Calvin was known as "Pop" and her mother Ida was known as "Mom". Calvin and Ida were still living in the small cottage on their family farm at the time of my visits, although they were quite elderly. This home was not far from the White Oak Churches in Somerset County, Pa. Calvin and Ina evidently had some of the pioneer philosophy to the tune of "make do or do without" because I remember that one of the cabinets in their home had wooden thread spools substituting for drawer pulls.

The last time I visited the home of my Great-Grandparents I met their son Wilbur, who I believe lived his entire life with Calvin and Ida. My mother Estalene told me that Wilbur had fallen as a child when running across corn stubble, and the resulting injury destroyed his ability to speak. He was mute when I met him. He was at least 50 or 60 years old when I met him, and it was impossible to understand his attempts at communication. It turned out that he wanted to show me his rabbits, which he kept in hutches in the barn. He was very proud of them, and I had an interesting time getting to see them all.

According to Pattysue Murphy, "Wilbert had his own way of speaking...Grandma Bittner was the best at understanding him. I could catch some of what he said. When he was in the nursing home they found that he had the ability to speak normally, but wouldn't from years of speaking "his" way. Maybe the accident cause it in the beginning, but he kept it up. Maybe his way didn't hurt his throat. I was told it was a golden rod stem...stories!"

Wilbert is also buried at St. John's United Methodist Church at White Oak, Larimer Township, Somerset Co. PA and his tombstone reads "S. Wilbert Bittner 1911-1994".

I was also to the farm of Calvin and Ida's son Clinton Bittner as a child, and Clinton visited our house once in Mercer County. Clinton's farm was not far from that of his parents, but it was even closer to the farm of my Grandfather Irvin H. Dietle.

David Meese sent the following bit of information to me in 2014: "Calvin Wesley Bittner had a farm and sugar camp at Deal, PA. In the winter of 1950 the sugar camp roof collapsed. Calvin at age 69 decided to sell his modern evaporator and 600 metal keelers to my dad, John D. Meese and his partner/nephew D. Hubert Wright. They continued to use that equipment for years. Hubert Wright’s son, Paul Wright, now operates that same camp with state of the art equipment, but it all started with that Bittner equipment."

Please contact me by e-mail if you have Petenbrink or Bittner family materials that you would like to contribute to this website.
Lannie Dietle

Calvin & Ida (Petenbrink) Bittner family materials