John Redifer Sr. is the patriarch of a family group of four sections arrayed as a four-square block in this cemetery -- two sections backing to two. The other blocks were the families of his sons Simon, Andrew and John Jackson Redifer. (Son George W. shares his father's plot; sons Joseph, Andrew, Levi and Charles are in different cemeteries. Daughter Margaret shares her father's plot, her sister Eliza is elsewhere.)

This John Sr. was originally buried in old Odd Fellows Cemetery and then re-interred into Mount Peace when his wife died, ten years later., in 1870.

Similarly, his brothers William and Jacob also were first in old Odd Fellows and then reinterred, William to Lawnview (# 95826841) and Jacob to West Laurel Hills (# 91225383).

Reconstruction of the family story has been assisted by genealogy notes left by John's granddaughter Anna E. Redifer, in son Simon's plot here.

Anna reported that her grandfather's father had immigrated from Germany, but she did not name him. That plus much other work led to understanding that John's father was Andrew Rothenhofer/Redheifer/Redheffer Jr. who immigrated in 1738 with his parents, Andreas/Andrew Sr. and Margaretha Binder Rothenhofer/Redheifer/Redheiffer.

Anna wrote that her grandfather John Redifer Sr. had a niece (and her father a cousin) Mary who had married a Samuel West. Andrew Redheffer (etc.) Jr., indeed, did have a son Charles Redheffer whose daughter Mary had married a Samuel West.

Both John and his wife had Mennonite ancestors and associations. John's paternal grandmother came from Mennonite Rittenhouses. Both John and his wife's ancestors and descendants intermingled, even intermarried, a lot with the Engards, who shared that Mennonite trait and Germantown/Whitemarsh focus. This John's son John Jackson Redifer married a wife from that Engard group, buried in the plot behind this John.

John and wife Margaret Cupp married at Whitpain Reformed Church (Boehm Church) 14 June 1812. We don't yet know whether their children were baptised there, too, or anywhere. But we hope that pursuing that question will lead us to Margaret's parents and to clarity about whether her surname was really Cupp or Kupp, Culp or Kolb. The descendant family understood it to be "Cupp," but the DeWees genealogy book reported it as "Culp," when writing, very briefly, to include Margaret's sister who had married a Dewees.

The religious diversity of the "downstream" descendants in this family has obscured the original story of the upstream ancestors. But, newly accessible burial records for St. Thomas Episcopal from the 1800s, rather than just 1700s, show that this extended family was there through the early years of their children's adult lives, including burials of some of this couple's grandchildren there -- including note-writer Anna's older sister., and her uncle Joseph Cupp Redifer. So these revelations show this John's parental connection ; his grandchildren are in the same place as their great-grandparents. It also explains why this John's two daughters were baptized as adults into another Episcopal church -- more as membership move than denominational or devotional shift.

But it doesn't answer the questions about Margaret's parents, or how many kinds of churches this family attended. We do know that after John died, his wife Margaret and daughter Margaret and daughter Elizabeth were baptized into Grace Episcopal (now Grace Epiphany) in Philadelphia. But it wasn't clear which church that trio had come away FROM at that 1855 time. Another Episcopal, such as St. Thomas, or something more Reformed?

Adding further questions: John Sr. and his wife Margaret Cupp were married by the Rev. George Wack who pastored both Boehm and Wentz Reformed churches. The The list of Wack's marriages includes John's brother Jacob Redifer to his first wife, Susannah Engard (but whose children are buried at St. Thomas Episcopal), and also Margaret's sister Elizabeth Cupp Dager Fosbenner (Lawnview # 138975899). Her first husband was Jacob Dager, who is buried in a church associated with St. Michael and Zion church that was a daughter church from St. Michael in Philadelphia. So it's hard to track exactly where this family marked its religious milestones. Or, to know why they moved from church to church.

Numerous members of John's extended family shared Philadelphia's Odd Fellows cemetery, which was bulldozed and its removed graves scattered. The two people whose data matches Anna's reports of her father's brothers William and Jacob both started out in Odd Fellows, as did this John, and as did Margaret's sister Elizabeth "Betsy" Cupp Dager Fossbenner. Brothers John and Jacob were removed to their second final resting places by family (Mount Peace here for John, West Laurel Hills for Jacob), but William Redifer and Kitty Cupp were default removals to Lawnview after being unclaimed by any family back then.

Anna's notes did not report any of the burial locations of these relatives; that pattern had to emerge independently from separate corroborations, as more sources became more readily available.

This John was a contemporary -- not the same person -- as the John Redifer who married Catherine Favringer at St. James church around the same time in the same Montgomery County, but more west than this Redifer line was. That Catherine is buried in Augustus Trappe Lutheran. This John clearly was not married to that Catherine. There were only two John Redifers in the census, that one at Norristown, this one at Germantown. The father of the Norristown one is yet unclear but MIGHT have been this John's uncle Jacob who left many (anonymous) children when he died in a quarry accident. (Distinguishing the Johns of his generation, and the Georges of the next generation, has been a challenge. But clearly, all are relatives to each other.)

At Mount Peace, this John's stone is the white one leaning forward between the two tall back-to-back white stones and the black stone of his son George.

In all, this couple had nine children:

This John Redifer, however, did not operate a shoe last business (contrary to the published Reed history that equated father and son John Redifers who both are in Mount Peace. It was the son who was the lastmaker.).

This John Sr. was reported in the 1850 census to be a cleaner. Amongst this John's sons, nephews and grandsons, however, many were lastmakers. Two of this John's sons -- Simon and John Jackson Redifer -- operated shoe last manufacturing companies near each other. It's not yet clear which younger relatives worked for which Redifer brother, as most records simply identify a next-generation Redifer as being a "lastmaker," without citing the name of the employer exactly. But Simon's children worked for him, and John J.'s children worked for him, but some other cousin lastmakers are still hard to know how to assign.

John's son Simon was a lastmaker exhibitor at the Centennial Exhibition in Fairmount Park. His great-granddaughter still has his large display cabinet and his exhibitor's medal from the Centennial show.