George Caplinger
George Caplinger farmed on the South Branch of the Potomac in Pendleton County, Virginia. The family was German, and the name was written Keplinger, Coplinger and Caplinger in the county's early records. A history of Pendleton County printed in 1910 gives his birth year as 1745 and his wife's name as Elizabeth. A history of Randolph County printed in 1898 says he was believed to have been born in Germany about 1750. Both that history and the Pendleton one make him a son of the George Caplinger who died in Pendleton in 1773. A later Randolph history, of 1916, adds that he was excused from militia duty for a physical disability in 1792, and that he put in a claim for supplies he had furnished the American army in the Revolution.
He had two sons, George and Adam, and daughters. George, born in 1784, crossed the mountains to Randolph County about 1800 and founded the Caplinger settlement north of Beverly. Adam stayed in Pendleton, and the 1898 history says he later moved to Ohio. A daughter married Jacob Hammer of Pendleton County.
On 26 August 1828 George Caplinger made his will, "being sick & weak but of sound mind." He wrote that "it was always my intention that my children should receive one hundred pounds each out of my estate or more if I was able." Most of them had already received part of their shares, and he held a receipt from each. Those who had received less were to be made equal before anything more was divided, and the receipts were to be settled without interest. The plantation he lived on was to be sold within three months of his death. He named "my beloved & only sons George Caplinger & Adam Caplinger" as his executors. John Dice and Jefferson J. McCoy witnessed it.
He died that winter. The will was proved in the Pendleton County court on 4 February 1829, and the estate was appraised on 14 April and sold the next day. On 30 October 1829 the two executors, George Caplinger of Randolph County and Adam Caplinger of Pendleton, sold five tracts of his land on the South Branch, 203 and a half acres in all, to George Hammer for $1,615. He had bought those tracts over the years from Joseph Skidmore, Joseph Friend, George Hammer and others.
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Cite: Heirology, "George Caplinger (b. 1745)", https://heirology.com/ancestors/george-caplinger-1745-fe8637.