David Benjamin Updegraff

David Updegraff (January 24, 1789 – December 20, 1864) was an American Quaker minister, abolitionist and conductor of a station of the Underground Railroad from Ohio.

He descended from a long line of ministers and elders of the Quaker church,[1] which belong to the Op den Graeffs, a German family of Dutch origin.

[2] He was a direct descendant of Herman op den Graeff, Mennonite leader of Krefeld, and his grandson Abraham op den Graeff, one of the founders of Germantown and who in 1688, was a signer of the first protest against slavery in colonial America.

David growing up in Winchester, Virginia, but in 1802[3] he moved with his family to Mount Pleasant, Jefferson, Ohio.

[3] David Benjamin and Rebecca Taylor Updegraff had eight children:[3] There is a reference about the Op den Graeff glass paintings of Krefeld with a description of Herman op den Graeffs possible, but not proven coat of Arms was found in the estate of W. Niepoth (op den Graeff folder) in the archives of the city of Krefeld, who noted a letter dated November 17, 1935 from Richard Wolfferts to Dr Risler: Saw the Coat of Arms glass pane in the old museum: 'Herman op den Graeff und Grietgen syn housfrau' or the like.

David Benjamin Updegraff
Rebecca Taylor Updegraff
Possible, but not proven, coat of arms Op den Graeff as descendants of Herman op den Graeff (Heraldic representation by Matthias Laurenz Gräff based on the Krefeld Op den Graeff stained glass window from 1630, which may depict the “Lohengrin swan” of the Kleve coat of arms in one window)