About 1799 the Lantz family moved from Loudoun County, VA to the Crab Run area of Bergton, where they owned part of the Nicholas Weatherholtz place. Before moving, Jacob Lantz Sr. (1767-1850) and his wife Julia Ann Sonifrank (ca 1785-after 1850) had been active in New Jerusalem Lutheran Church at Lovettsville where at least two of their children were baptized and one is buried.
Julia’s widowed mother Agatha Sonifrank bought 154 acres on Germany River from Christian Caplinger about 1800. Julia’s sister Catherine married Christian Caplinger; sister Christina married Lorenzo Frederick Smith, and all lived in the Bergton and Criders area. Later Julia’s brothers Abraham, John, and George Sonifrank moved to the Valley.
Agatha Sonifrank died in 1814. In 1819, Jacob Lantz Sr. bought her land from the heirs and moved to the Germany River area where he established a grist mill located south of the intersection of present-day Bergton Road and German River Road, Criders. In 1825, he petitioned the county to make a new road from Doves [Bergton] to George Caplingers [Criders]. After it was built, it was known as the Keplinger Road.
Historian Lewis Yankey noted that Jacob Lantz Sr. brought the United Brethren (U.B.) faith with him. U.B. traveling evangelist Christian Newcomer held a camp meeting at Jacob Lantz’s in 1828 which was well-attended but not effective in changing many lives, Newcomer recorded in his journal.
In March 1850, Jacob Lantz Sr. died at 83 years of age after an illness of eight days. He and Julia had at least nine children, and their descendants still live in Rockingham County. Jacob Lantz Jr. (1794-1858) was the only son who remained in Rockingham. George Lantz moved to Hardy County, and John Lantz to Missouri. Daughter Catherine married Christian Caplinger II and moved to Grant County, WV. Other daughters remained in Brocks Gap after marriage: Mary Ann married Jacob Whetzel; Elizabeth married Jacob Caplinger, and Priscilla married George May.
In 1822, Jacob Lantz Jr. married Mary Magdaline Siever whose parents were from Loudoun County originally. Although Jacob Jr. owned & operated his father’s mill property, he gave his occupation as farmer in the 1850 census. Jacob Jr. died of dropsy July 19, 1858, at age 53. He had been born and baptized in Loudoun County.
Jacob Jr.’s sons Jacob III (1826-ca 1901) and Michael (1827-1912) remained in Brocks Gap and are the ancestors of many Lantz relatives. Jacob Jr. and Mary’s daughters married into the Crider, Dove, and Caplinger families.
The Lantz mill passed to Jacob Jr.’s son-in-law Jacob Caplinger (ca1807-after 1880). In 1870 it was a merchant mill and a saw mill, valued at $500. Water power ran an eight-horse power engine. With two burr and chop machines, one man could run it. It was seasonal, with the grist mill running six months and saw mill operating 3 months. Annually it ground $1,000 of wheat into two hundred barrels of flour, $1,400 of corn and rye into 1,000 bushels, and sawed 40,000 feet of lumber. The milling operation continued in the Lantz/Caplinger family until at least 1925.
The Civil War clobbered the Lantz family. Jacob Jr. lost two sons, both of whom left small children: John Lantz died of typhoid on March 15, 1862, near Dayton, VA, and George Lantz was killed at the Third Battle of Winchester, in Sept. 1864. In 1863, Jacob Lantz III was drafted at the age of 44 years; he was 5’ 10 ½” tall, with fair complexion, red hair, grey eyes. Jacob Jr.’s sons-in-law Isaac and Jackson Caplinger served in the 11th Virginia Cavalry.
Though he died at an early age, soldier John Lantz (1840-1862) has local descendants, including the editor of The Chimney Rock Chronicle; his grandchildren included Lillie Lantz Fulk, Julia Lantz Wallace, and Paul Jennings Lantz. Likewise, George Lantz (1824-1864) had two granddaughters, Rachel and Levinia Lantz of Fulks Run.
Jacob Jr.’s son Michael (1827-1912) lived in Hardy County, WV, but has numerous Rockingham County descendants. In 1897, Michael continued the Lantz connection with the U.B. church by donating land for a church on the Shenandoah Mountain. It was free for use by the Dunkards (Brethren) and Lutherans when not occupied by the U.B. church.
Other local Lantz families descend from Jacob Lantz IV (1861-1926) who married Susan Whetzel May. Their children were Benjamin E. Lantz (surveyor), Annie Lantz Stultz, Lora Ivan Lantz; Rev. Olen Lantz, Esten Lantz, Clarence Lantz, Charles D. Lantz (Lantz Construction), Joseph Lantz, Lena Lantz Bazzle, and Minnie Lantz Carr Nair.
Other Lantz families? Another Jacob Lantz was a Shenandoah County merchant in 1850 and established the Post Office of Lantz’s Mill, Virginia. This family pronounces the name “Lahnce.” Historians Lewis Yankey and Lonzo Dove speculated that this family came from a brother of Brocks Gap Jacob Lantz Sr.
