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Chapter 1 would be handed down to prosterity as the most learned man
of his day
MY PROGENITORS
Thus he passed many of the best years of life, pursuing an
I know little in regard to my origin, and this, more than any attractive, and to him irresistible chimera, paying no attention
other cause, has prompted me to record what little knowledge to his worldly a airs until his waning fortunes admonished
I have been able to ascertain of my progenitors. There is him to desist in his vain and unpracticable purpose. He
everything to commend and nothing to condemn in the desire succumbed to cruel fortune, but never lost faith in his belief
to know who you are and from whence you sprung and to that the Philosopher’s Stone was a reality and that sooner or
be able to trace your genealogy back to remote generations. later its discovery would gladden the vision of someone more
It evinces a pride of birth and reverence for ancestors fortunate than himself.
which carry with them a conviction of respectable lineage.
Many of his friends and acquaintances derided his folly and
A man whose family escutcheon has been tainted seemed to rejoice in his failure - a failure that withered his
with crime nds little pleasure in the investigation, spirit and of ambition and forever blasted his hope of earthly
while he who is conscious that the good name of fame. No longer desiring to remain among a people who
his family has never been tarnished by dishonorable would not appreciate his labors to make them rich in gold,
deeds nds true happiness in searching the records for he determined to abandon forever his scienti c researches,
information which will elevate him in his own opinion. and emigrated to America, and there endeavor to forget his
disappointments and retrieve his wasted fortune.
As regards my own progenitors, I can only say that I know
of none who were regarded for great talents or whose exalted His family consisted of a wife and four sons, with them he
virtues elevated them above their fellow man. Yet they have all set sail from his native shore, in due time arriving in the
been esteemed honest and upright, and what speaks volumes New World, and soon after took up his abode in the rich and
in their favor, were loved and respected by their friends beautiful valley of the Susquehanna River, in the County of
and neighbors as honorable and useful members of society. Lancaster and State of Pennsylvania. There he purchased a
large tract of land and divided it among his four sons - my
Von Pfautz grandfather, George being the youngest.
My great-grandfather was a native of the Duchy of Saxe-
Cobourg and was reared and passed the pride of his manhood I have no knowledge that he ever resumed his attempt to
in the vicinity of the enchanted Hartz Mountains. He was resolve the great discovery of turning all matter into gold after
a scion of nobility - his father being a baron of great wealth he came to America. I know that his sons entered earnestly
and possessing broad domains. He maintained his aristocratic upon the task of improving their lands and rendering them
pride until death closed his earthly career, and subscribed productive. I never learned how long he lived after he came
himself “Von Pfautz,” the original German family name. to this country, and only know that “life’s tful fever o’er,” he
was laid to rest in the quiet valley of the Susquehanna.
He received an education becoming one in his station
in life, and early turned his attention to the study of It is proper to say here that my great-grandfather continued
chemistry and more abstruse sciences. Like other men till the end of his days to write his name “von Pfautz,” His
of great learning in that age, he spent many of the best elder sons, however, at the commencement of the war of the
years of his life in searching for the “Philosopher’s American Revolution, were strongly imbued with a love of
Stone.” He passed months and years in pursuing old and freedom and democratic institutions, and felt contempt for
musty manuscripts and experimenting in the laboratory. the pre x to their name which denoted their descent from
a titled family, and therefore through over-wrought zeal in
The possibility of converting the baser metals in bright, the patriotic cause, and from rather ludicrous motives, they
shining gold was ever in his thoughts. He passed day after subscribed the name “Pfautz,” discarding the “von” as savoring
day in toil and study in search of the “great discovery” and too much of aristocracy. In the course of time, when my
retired at night to dream of the fruition of his fondest hopes. grandfather arrived at man’s estate, he changed the spelling
to “Pfoutz,” and my father still to further Anglicize the name
At all hours of the day and night he might be seen pouring over wrote it “Pfouts,” and thus his children have accepted and
some old volume, then nearly forgotten or scarcely ever known, retained it.
or sweltering in heat by the side of a blazing furnace watching George Pfoutz, Senior
his various compounds consumed by re, as each new theory I can give no particulars of the early life of my grandfather,
and experiment in its turn proved fallacious and unavailing. George Pfouts Sr. He lived for many years on his farm in
the Susquehanna Valley in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania,
I have no doubt this was the most happy period in his where he twice married.
existence. His mind was fully occupied and employed, and
he felt a happy consolation in each successive failure, for By his rst wife, he had ve children, named respectively
the more di cult to solve the problem proved the greater Simeon, David, Rebecca, Reuben, and Sarah. After the death
would be his triumph in the end, as he doubted not that of his rst wife, he married Anne Agler, by whom he had once
success would at last crown his e orts and that his name. son, my father, George Pfouts Jr.
Montana Freemason Page 33 July 2019 Volume 95 No. 5