Family Speculation:887 "Just this past weekend, a VanGundy man was here from California. We think that this man (Seymour VanGundy) may very well be descended from a brother of Margaret VanGundy Agler. That possible brother was one Christian Van Gundy who was operating a mill prior to about 1802, in now Ross County, before Ohio was a state. Before there was a Ross County."

Genealogical Research (1974):240 "An alleged daughter of Joseph [Van Gundy], Margaret married Frederick Agler and died in Franklin County, Ohio, 10 December 1843, ae. 80 years. Margaret was therefore born sometime in the 12 month period prior to 10 December 1764. If this Margaret was actually the daughter of Joseph (and there is grave doubt she is), she could not have been the daughter of Magdalena as the latter was still married to her first husband at the time Margaret was born. She would therefore have to have been born to a previous wife.

We have said that Margaret was an alleged daughter of Joseph. We have no proof that such is a fact, only information that seems to have come down through the family through the years. There is good reason to doubt the accuracy of the age/date on Margaret's gravestone. If the inscription is accurate, she would have been about 26 or 27 years of age at the time of her marriage and about six years older than her husband; she would have been age 52 at the birth of her youngest daughter and even older at the birth of her youngest son.

None of these things is impossible; but it was not commonplace in those times — nor indeed in our own time — for a man of age 21 to marry a woman six or seven years his senior. As a matter of fact, at that time a woman 26 years of age was considered a confirmed spinster and had very little chance of marrying unless to a much older man with a large family that needed care.

We do find a record of a Maria Margaret, daughter of Joseph and Magdalena County, born 2 September 1770, baptised at the Tabor First Reformed Church, Lebanon, Pennsylvania, 4 January 1771. In view of this, we must conclude that Margaret (Van Gundy) Agler who died in Franklin County, Ohio, was not the daughter of [this] Joseph Van Gundy."

Genealogical Research (1985):69, p. 81-82. "The wife of Frederick Agler was named Margaret, but there is doubt about how she acquired the name Van Gundy. In a newspaper item about the Agler family reunion, relatives were quoted as saying her maiden name was ‘Van Gundy.’

I was unable to locate the source of this item. It had to have been written prior to 1921, since I know that Flora Kissinger, a sister of Susan Agler died in that year. There is at least one error in the item. Mary was the wife of Henry Baughman, not William. . . . Meyers doubts that Frederick Agler’s wife was a daughter of Joseph Van Gundy as others had claimed. Based on her research she wrote:

'An alleged daughter of Joseph (Van Gundy), Margaret married Frederick Agler and died in Franklin County, Ohio, 10 December 1843 ae 80 years. If this inscription is accurate she would have been 26 or 27 years of age at the time of her marriage and about 6 years older than her husband. . . . This wife of Frederick was not the daughter of Joseph Van Gundy.’240, p. 113.

Is it possible that Margaret’s marriage to Frederick Agler was her second marriage, and that Van Gundy was her first husband’s name? In other words, perhaps she was a Van Gundy by marriage rather than by birth. Or was her father a Van Gundy other than Joseph? This is a point needing further research.

Margaret is buried by her husband Frederick Agler in the Riverside Cemetery in Mifflin township. The inscription on her tombstone reads, ‘In memory of Margaret, wife of Frederick Agler, Died September 10, 1843, age 80 years’. If the inscription on the tombstone is correct, then Margaret was born in 1763. In addition the following poem is engraved on the stone:

My loving friend oh do not weep
I am not dead, but am asleep
And here my body must remain
Till Christ shall bring me home again"

1843 Tombstone:69, p. 81.,1876 "Margaret is buried by her husband Frederick Agler in the Riverside Cemetery in Mifflin township. The inscription on her tombstone reads, ‘In memory of Margaret, wife of Frederick Agler, Died September 10, 1843, age 80 years’. If the inscription on the tombstone is correct, then Margaret was born in 1763. In addition the following poem is engraved on the stone:
My loving friends, O do not weep
I am not dead, but am asleep
And here my body must remain
Till Christ shall bring it forth again"