Adam Zantzinger (d. 1799)

Although trained to the craft of house carpentry, Adam Zantzinger spent most of his life as a merchant. He was elected to The Carpenters' Company in 1772 and signed the Articles the following year, even though he was advertising his ironmongery store at the southwest corner of Market and 4th Streets that same year. His mercantile dealings were largely domestic as he provided and shipped goods from Philadelphia to stores in Pennsylvania’s frontier settlements.  His cashbook for the year 1796-1797 still exists.

Zantzinger also fought in the American Revolution after being elected to serve in Philadelphia’s famous cavalry unit, the First City Troop, in 1776. Holding the rank of a private, he participated in the Philadelphia campaigns of 1776-1777. His name was included on the 1778 roll of the Patriotic Association of Philadelphia, an organization promoting the revolutionaries’ cause and directed to investigate potential loyalists.

Zantzinger was most likely a German immigrant or descended from a German immigrant and in 1773 he married another Pennsylvania German, Susanna Kepple.

"Adam Zantzinger Cash Book, Philadelphia, 1796-1797." Cumberland County Historical Society, Carlisle, Pennsylvania.

History of the First Troop Philadelphia City Cavalry: From Its Organization, November 17th, 1774 to Its Centennial Anniversary, November 17th, 1874. Princeton: 1874. 

“Roll of Members of the Patriotic Association of Philadelphia, 1778.” The Pennsylvania Magazine of History and Biography, vol. 23, no. 3, 1899, pp. 356–359. JSTOR, JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/20085865.

Names of Persons for Whom Marriage Licenses Were Issued in the Province of Pennsylvania Previous to 1790. Baltimore: Genealogical Publishing Co., 1890. 141.