Conrad Shindler House - Conrad Shindler

Conrad Shindler

Conrad Shindler was born in 1778, the son of Georg Conrad Shindler Sr. of York, Pennsylvania who was a Revolutionary War veteran of the York County Militia. His father made the trip from York County to Berkeley County, Virginia in the early part of the 19th century to settle in the region. Less than a decade later, Conrad Jr. purchased property in Shepherdstown on April 27, 1801, identified as Lot 3.

Shindler was a coppersmith, working at a yet undocumented forge in the rear of Lot 17. An original Shindler copper kettle is on display at the Historic Shepherdstown Museum in the Entler Hotel.

From the 1815 Jefferson County Personal Property Tax lists it is evident that Shindler owned slaves from the outset of his stay at Lot 17. By 1835 these tax records show Shindler owning three slaves of unmentioned value or sex. By his death in 1852, a full assessment of his personal property was performed in accordance with his last will and testament. The assessment shows that Shindler owned seven slaves of varying ages and sex. Whether or not these slaves occupied the building at Lot 17 is not known; Shindler also owned two tracts of farming land outside town where they may have lived and worked.

After Shindler died, his property passed to his wife, Elizabeth Shindler, who is recorded in the 1869 Census as a 78-year-old woman living with her eldest son, John. When Mrs. Shindler died in 1869 her property passed to Conrad Shindler's heirs: John C. Shindler, George L. Shindler, Mary E. Bragonier, R.D. and Mary Shindler (of Nacogdoches, Texas), N.F. Hebb, and Eliza Hebb (of Sharpsburg, Maryland). These heirs sold their ownership of the property on October 28, 1869 to the “Trustees of the Reformed Church of Shepherdstown.” This transaction and sale was never advertised in any local newspaper, and it is assumed that since Shindler’s heir Mary E. Bragonier was married to the minister of this church this deal was in the works before Mrs. Shindler's death.