Albert Ramsburg was born in Frederick County in 1835, the youngest son of Frederick and Lydia Ann (Snook) Ramsburg, and the great grandson of German immigrants who came to this country in the early 1700’s as some of the earliest settlers of Frederick County. The farm where Albert was born was located near the small farming community of Charlesville, about 4 miles north of Frederick in the Tuscarora District, on present-day Sunday’s Lane.
Albert’s future wife Mary was born 2 years later to Michael and Christiana Elizabeth (Staley) Zimmerman. Her great grandparents had also immigrated from Germany in the early 1700’s and had purchased land near the Ramsburgs.
An important bond that these two families shared was their membership in the German Reformed Church, which they were instrumental in establishing in Frederick County.
When Albert was 2 years old, his father died. The 1850 census shows his widowed mother still caring for 14-year old Albert and his 4 older siblings, ages 16-22.
Albert and Mary were married on March 2, 1858. He was 22, and she was 20. Their first child Florence (later known as Villa Bell) was born in 1859. The 1860 census indicates that Albert was farming, and his mother was still living in the same household.
During the next two decades, 7 more children were born in the family. Albert’s mother, who continued to live with them, died in 1870.
In the 1880 census, Albert and Mary are still farming in Frederick County. They now have 7 children at home, ages 1-18. Their oldest daughter Villa Bell was married in 1880, and is no longer at home.
Mary died in 1894, age 57, and was buried in Mt. Olivet Cemetery in Frederick. By 1900, Albert, now 65 years old and retired, is living with his daughter Lillie M. and her husband George C. House, who is farming in Burkittsville.
He later moved in with another daughter Mary Alberta (wife of Albertus W. Neikirk, a teacher) north of Middletown, where he died on 15 Oct 1909. He was 74 years old. He is buried beside his wife in Mt. Olivet.
Descendants of Albert and Mary Ramsburg: All eight of their children lived in Frederick County as adults. They had 24 grandchildren and lots of great- and great-great-grandchildren who live all over the U.S. While Albert and Mary never lived in the immediate Brunswick area and may never have attended the Reformed Church there, they were members of that faith, and the stained glass window was probably dedicated to their memory by their daughters Hester America Ramsburg Orrison and Adria Gertrude Ramsburg Plush, both of whom married men from Brunswick and were living there in 1910 when the church was dedicated. - 21 -
