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New Baltimore before the turnpike.
The first links of the Toppers to the town of New Baltimore, in Allegheny Township, Somerset County comes by way of two stepbrothers who at the time were living in the adjoining county, of Bedford. The stepbrothers lived in the town of Schellsburg. The stepbrothers had the same father, Andrew Topper (1747 - 1830) but different mothers.
Henry Topper1 (18 May 1777 - 24 July 1839) was the son of Anna Maria Riffle. He was essentially a middle child. He is elsewhere described as the impoverished and well traveled gunsmith. He early had a shop in Gettysburg, Adams County, and later settled in Hampshire County, Virginia, before returning to Pennsylvania, where he had a shop in Schellsburg, and later in Youngstown, Westmoreland, County, PA.
George Topper (29 January 1790 - 6 August 1858) was the first born son of Andrew Topper and his second wife, Margaret Brown. He was a farmer, who later moved onto Ohio in an attempt to find a better life. He died there in 1858.
The nearest Roman Catholic Church to their residence in Bedford was right over the County line, in Somerset County, St. John The Baptist Church in New Baltimore.
The links to the church in New Baltimore involve the baptisms and marriages of their children.2
Peter Topper is the son of George Topper; Samuel Topper is the son of Henry Topper, who relocated to Hampshire County, VA with the rest of the Spicer family.
But the earliest Topper resident of New Baltimore was Peter Andrew Topper who wed Mary A. Lucken, on the 19 of April 1836 in a ceremony at St. John The Baptist RC Church.3 Peter was the first born son of George Topper. When George moved onto Ohio with his other children, Peter stayed in New Baltimore. Peter’s wife Mary A. Lucken was the eldest daughter of Anthony Lucken and his wife, Anna Black Lucken. Anthony Lucken was one of three men designated by Michael Riddlemoser as a trustee for the land to be known as New Baltimore.4
Michael Riddlemoser, a German Catholic from Baltimore inspired by the success of the Catholic settlement in Loretto, Cambria County, Pennsylvania, founded by the Reverend Demetrius Gallitzin, a Russian nobleman and convert to the Catholic faith, hoped to found a similar settlement in an area known as Harmon’s Bottom in Somerset County. The town, on the eastern edge of the Allegheny Mountains, initially was called “Moserburg,” after its founder. Riddlemoser returned to Baltimore and recruited the German and Irish immigrants disembarking at the port of Baltimore.
“Main Street,” New Baltimore
Riddlemoser selected the site for the church and plotted the town surrounding the church property. He also surveyed and plotted site locations for a college and convent Riddlemoser thought that he had located an excellent location for a Catholic settlement and college. The land was covered with virgin forests. Wolves, deer, panthers, bears abounded. The streams teemed with fish, particularly brook trout.
Riddlemoser promised Irish and German immigrants nominal costs for land and a Catholic church to be built as soon as there were enough settlers to warrant the expenditure. On October 4, 1823, Riddlemoser gave 190 plots of land to the congregation for the consideration of one dollar, he also conveyed 2,640 acres of land for use as a Roman Catholic school and college. Work was started on a 25 by 30 feet stone church and a log rectory. Within four years, the church was completed.
Saint John’s Roman Catholic Church
New Baltimore, as the town had become known, became almost entirely self-sufficient. In 1820, John O’Neil opened New Batimore’s first grocery. Eventually there were within the parish sawmills, distilleries, wagon and blacksmith shops, an apple butter factory and cider press, a tannery, and cooper’s shop. And for the building of St. John the Baptist RC Church, the pastor, Rev. Mark Begley has said: “There is a great history to this place. Every brick was fired, every piece of wood was crafted right here in New Baltimore.” Engbert’s furniture and altar building establishment supplied all woodwork, altars and pews.
In 1850, the Rev. Joseph Gozowsky arrived in the village of New Baltimore as the first resident pastor of St. John’s, which over the years has expanded and remodeled.
Peter Andrew Topper wed Mary A. Lucken on April 19, 1836. They had ten children who lived. The names of the spouses of those children in some ways reads as a listing of early settlers of New Baltimore and environs: Weber, Suhre, Bittlebrun, Maybuscher, Miller, Wolfhope, Mattingly, and Straub. Peter’s farmland adjoined the land of the Church.
It is interesting to note the importance that Peter Andrew placed on education. Most of his children went through a period of time teaching. Sylvester and John Michael both were teachers as young men. Francis was a teacher for most of his life. Rosalia was a teacher before her marriage. Joseph M. also was a teacher as a young man.
[I would urge you to consult the index to find out more details about the children of Peter Andrew and Mary A. Lucken Topper. Consult the index also to find out more about their children, many of whom settled in New Baltimore.]