Genealogy Of Painters

Our forefathers were Germans. Their fatherland was Germany or Deutchland (doitchlandt), a country which occupies central Europe and is composed of numerous independent states united by a common league into the "German Confederation." Geographically the race is divided into two classes, the High and Low Germans.

The word "Dutch" means first a Hollander, as does the word "Boer," but it is also the English word applied to the German race in general. It more especially refers, though, to the people of the lowlands of North Germany, as relates to the small countries of Holland or Netherlands; Friesian, Flemish, Dutch and Old Saxon, to distinguish them from southern Germany, whose people and language are called High Dutch.

In his typical form the German best represents the Teutonic race; has blue eyes, light hair, florid complexion, strong frame, hard muscles, full, high forehead, lofty coronal region with much breadth of base, which gives him courage and energy. By organization the German is a scholar, a poet, inventor, investigator, experimenter, a critic, protestant and a doubter.

No mental task is too great or too profound for him to undertake; but while he discovers many new truths, he generally leaves it to others to make practical application of them. In music the German stands first among all nations. He has Handel, Haydn, Mozart, Beethoven, Mendelssohn; in other departments, Martin Luther, Melancthon, DeKalb, Goethe, Schiller, Humboldt and Emanuel Kant.

The national character of the German is honesty, faithfulness, valor, thoughtfulness, perseverance, industry; and in disposition is patient, conservative and inoffensive, hence he is easily misled by vain promises of deceivers.

Our grandfathers styled themselves "full-blooded Dutchmen," and as the Dutch settlement was quite extensive in America-in New York, New Jersey, Delaware and Maryland-it is possible that they were of Holland origin. Yet their prominent characteristics differ but little from the regular Germans.

The word "Painter" in the German language is spelled Bender, Banter, Bander, Baynder, owing to the non-related families. Ours comes from Bender, as the letter e is short, e; in pronunciation as ea combined. In Banter, with the others, a is pronounced ah, as in the word part. All in English are called and spelled Painter and Paynter.

When our forefathers came to America we can not tell. From what part of Germany, we do not know. It is conjectural to say they came from Bavaria, Wurtemburg or Hesse Cassel, yet the names Bender and Banter are common in those countries.

We do not know certainly that they fought in the Revolutionary War. We can only suspect that they did. Christian Painter is the oldest of whom we have any knowledge, and there is no doubt that his old homestead was near Timberville, Rockingham Co., Va., but his birthplace and the history of his earlier years are wholly unknown. There are two legends or traditions in the family, regarding this matter, but we are not able to vouch for the correctness of either.

One account states that he emigrated directly from Germany while young and settled in Virginia shortly before the Revolutionary War. The other account relates that he came from the Pennsylvania branch of the family and emigrated from that place and settled in Virginia during the Revolutionary War. Which, if either, story is correct we do not know. All that we can state with certainty is that he was married near the year 1773 to Mary Elizabeth Daily, of New Jersey, and that he died while all of his children were yet young, and that, according to custom, they were all bound out to service or apprenticed until of age.

To CHRISTIAN PAINTER, and to MARY ELIZABETH DAILY PAINTER, his wife, were born four sons and two daughters.

(1) ABRAHAM PAINTER.
(2) ALEXANDER PAINTER.
(3) CATHERINE PAINTER.
(4) PHILIP PAINTER.
(5) ABSALOM PAINTER.
(6) MARTHA PAINTER.

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