Adam von Runkle, the earliest known progenitor, emigrated to this country from either Holland or Germany, sometime between 1735, and 1745, according to author Fisher. Speculation is that because Adam was a younger son, he was not in line to inherit any of his wealthy father's extensive holdings. Therefore, he chose to run away from his home in Baden, in the Rhine Valley of Germany.

Family lore has it that Adam walked over two hundred miles from his home to the nearest port, and emigrated to the American colonies. The only inheritance Adam received from his father was the "von" in his name, and he discarded that upon reaching the shores of America, perhaps as a final farewell to his past. Adam changed the spelling of his surname from Runkel, to Runkle.

In his book, author Fisher offers other variations as to why Adam Runkle left Europe, which will not be discussed here. Fisher begins with 1749, the year in which Adam Runkle was already married to Mary Youngblood, and was settled at Old Amwell, New Jersey, near Flemington, in Hunterdon County. By 1761, Adam had moved his family to nearby Lebanon Township, also in Hunterdon County. Adam had bought 225 acres of land from Mahlon Kirkbride.

Little is known about Mary Youngblood except that her father's name was John Youngblood and that he died at Old Amwell around 1762. I'll return to this Youngblood family a bit later.

Mary (Youngblood) and Adam Runkle had eight children,according to Mr. Fisher. He enumerated them as: Mary, born about 1750; John born 1752; William, born 1755; Abraham, born 1757; Sarah, born 1761, Jacob born in 1763 or 1764; Margaret, born 1765; and Adam Runkle, born in 1766. The first four children were born at Amwell. Fisher does not record a place of birth for the others.

No date of death is available for Mary (Youngblood) or Adam Runkle. Fisher says that Adam was buried in Annandale, Hunterdon County, "on the hill to the northward and overlooking the home where he had lived...he is buried alongside his wife, Mary... Their grave is marked only by large, flat, field-stones, with no inscriptions."

In 1979, my cousin and his wife, Harriet (Cox) and Richard Everett Choyce, of Delanco, New Jersey, made a reconnoitering expedition to the old Runkle graveyard with directions obtained from Roxanne Carkhuff, Secretary of the Hunterdon County Historical Society. After some extensive physical discomfort, trying to penetrate a copse of thick overgrown grass, nettles, poison ivy, and wild berry bushes, they located the long-neglected and vandalized graveyard.

The graveyard was located right where author Fisher described it to be, but the wrought iron fencing, to which Fisher referred, was completely gone. The boundaries were marked with fieldstones. There were only a few gravestones left standing. Several were lying on the grass, broken. The stones were so overgrown with foliage that the names could not be deciphered. The great fieldstones which were said to have marked the graves of Mary and Adam Runkle were no where to be found.

Harriet and Richard left the graveyard pretty much as they found it. The only thing they took home, was a bad, lingering case of poison ivy for Harriet.

Richard later found out that the Runkle graveyard was in great danger of either complete destruction, or relocation, in order to accommodate a new highway which was planned to completely cover the land on which the graveyard stood. The plight of the graveyard was featured in the Newsletter for the Hunterdon County Historical Society, and later some descendants formed a Runkle Family Association, and hired a lawyer to plead for their cause. The result is that the graveyard is still standing and in greatly improved condition, thanks to the hard work of the family association members, and other volunteers.

In the August 1992 issue of the Runkle Family Association Newsletter, one member, Jacquelyn Williams of Moreno Valley, California, said that the following information she collected from the New Jersey Department of Defense records, and the Quartermaster Records of the Army, would be sufficient for an otherwise eligible descendant, to qualify for admission to the Daughters of the American Revolution, or the Sons of the American Revolution:

ADAM RUNKLE - PATRIOT - furnished wood to Captain Goslin, 11 Feb 1780, rec'd voucher from John Lesky, Quartermaster

MARY (YOUNGBLOOD) RUNKLE, OF NEW JERSEY

Mary Youngblood married Adam Runkle. Her heritage is a bit cloudy. Author James Snell, in his book, THE HISTORY OF HUNTERDON AND SOMERSET COUNTY, N.J.,(see Bibliography) identifies John Youngblood as the father of Mary Youngblood.