OCR Text |
Show FORTY-ONE CHILDREN. John Hepner, of Reading, Penn. (Pennsylvania), was born in Germany in 1815. In 1840 he married. His wife lived eight years, and bore him seventeen children. She presented him with twins the first year of their marriage. The next year another pair of twins was born. Every year for four years thereafter Mrs. Hepner gave birth to triplets. The seventh year was signalized by the birth of only one child to the couple. Mrs. Hepner's seventeen children, the oldest only seven years of age, was taken in charge three months after Mrs. Hepner's death by a young German lady who became the second Mrs. Hepner. The first Mrs. Hepner died in February 1818. In February, 1819, her successor presented Mr. Hepner with a boy. On Christmas day of the same year the nineteenth child was added to the Hepner flock. Once a year for five years afterward the family was increased by twins and for three years after that one child was born to Mr. Hepner. The last three were born in this country, Mr. Hepner having emigrated from Germany in 1854. In 1857 his wife died, having been married nine years. Of the thirty-two children that had been born to Hepner, twelve had died. In 1858 he married a widow with one child. The third wife bore him nine children in ten years by single birth. Mr. Hepner and his last wife are still living. None of the first set of seventeen children survive. Two of the second wife's fifteen are alive and three of the third wife's nine. With the step-child of the last marriage added to the list, forty-two children have called John Hepner father. |