Preface

The publication of the “Genealogical Record of The Schwenkfelders” in 1879 was a pioneer work. The question has often been asked—What were the motives that led the Schwenkfelders to undertake such a unique piece of work?—for it is not known that the descendants of any other group of religious refugees who migrated to Pennsylvania undertook a similar task. It is difficult to describe the motives that led the Schwenkfelders of fifty years ago to engage in such an undertaking. The fact that there have always been among the Schwenkfelders a few men and women who had the foresight to put on paper, either in the form of diaries or in chronological records, the main facts pertaining to the history of this unique group of people, is worthy of notice. Not only were diaries kept, as is explained in the pages of this book, but birth, marriage and death records of the adherents of the denomination were faithfully recorded by one or more of the emigrants. Had it not been for these faithful diarists and chroniclers, the complete accounts of the various phases of the early Schwenkfelder activities found in this book, would not have been possible.

From the minutes of the “Schwenkfelder Society,” we learn that at various times after the organization of the body in 1782, a proposal to publish a more complete list of the writings of Caspar von Schwenckfeld, together with the main facts of the history of the body of people called “Schwenkfelders” than had yet appeared, had been under consideration.

Prior to this time the only publication of any prominence regarding the Schwenkfelders was the “Erläuterung für Herrn Caspar Schwenckfeld und die zugethanen seiner Lehre,” written by Rev. Christopher Schultz in 1771, which is a vindication of Schwenckfeld and his adherents, with a brief history of their wanderings up to 1740, together with a summary of their confession of faith.

A short time prior to 1768, several copies of the “Preussische Helden Staats und lebens Geschichte Friedrich II,” printed in Tübingen in 1760, had come into the hands of the Schwenkfelders in Pennsylvania. This publication reminded them of the royal invitation given them in 1742 by Frederick the Great to return to their estates in Silesia and to enjoy religious liberty. A meeting was therefore called in “Shippach” (Salford, Montgomery County, Pennsylvania), and the “Fathers” decided to acquaint the world with the truth concerning their doctrine and history, the result of which was the publication of the “Erläuterung.” (See The Schwenkfeldian, Vol. V, p. 5.)

At the fall Conference of the “Schwenkfelder Society” in Worcester, Montgomery County, Pennsylvania, held on October 30, 1875, letters were read from Robert Barclay of England, and Christopher Heydrick of Venango County, Pennsylvania, asking for information regarding the doctrines of Schwenckfeld, and the religious principles and practices of the congregation in America as well as historical accounts of the Schwenkfelders.

A committee consisting of Rev. Joshua Schultz, Daniel S. Schultz, and Rev. William Schultz of the Upper District; Samuel Anders, Rev. William S. Anders, and William A. Yeakle of the Lower District was appointed to answer these requests. The labors of this committee naturally turned the attention of their constituents to the subject of genealogy, and the result was the publication in 1879 of the pioneer work, “The Genealogical Record of the Schwenkfelders.”

This printing of the material collected by the various chroniclers of the Schwenkfelders must have aroused and awakened a desire for further investigation and study, as ten years afterwards in 1889, at the fall conference of the Church, held in Towamencin, Montgomery County, Pennsylvania, a resolution was passed to the effect that a “Family Register” of the members of the Society and their descendants should be made, or be continued from the date where the Genealogical Record “(which we have in our possession)” ends. It was also decided that suitable persons should be appointed to keep and continue such a record.

As a result of this action Registrars were appointed in each District to keep records of births, marriages and deaths of members of the congregation. But there was a strong desire among many of the members to have these records published, and at various times movements were started and committees appointed to devise ways and means to bring about the revision of the first Record.

At the Kriebel Family Reunion in 1905, a resolution was adopted that a Committee be appointed to prepare a new edition of the “Genealogical Record of the Schwenkfelders,” and in 1906 the Executive Committee sent out circulars giving reasons for the publication of a new edition. The committee appointed comprised the following: Howard W. Kriebel, Elmer K. Schultz, Jesse H. Snyder, Jr.,

George K. Brecht, Wesley B. Beyer, Rev. William S. Anders, and Frank A. Hartranft. But due to a lack of sufficient encouragement in response to the circulars sent out, nothing came of the movement.

On February 22, 1912, a self-appointed committee met in Norristown, Pennsylvania, and likewise discussed plans for collecting statistics to be used in the publication of a revised edition of “The Genealogical Record of the Schwenkfelders.” A circular asking for genealogical information was sent to various heads of families, but no provision was made for financing the project nor for editing the material gathered.

The late Judge Christopher Heydrick of Franklin, Pennsylvania, one of the three original promoters of the “Genealogical Record of the Schwenkfelders” of 1879 (the other two being the late Gen. John F. Hartranft and the late Senator William A. Yeakle) maintained his interest in the genealogy of the Schwenkfelders up to the time of his death in 1914. In his conversation with the members of the Schwenkfelder Church he repeatedly urged the compilation of a new Genealogy of this people. Originally the promoters of the first Genealogical Record contemplated the translation and publication of valuable historical documents as part of the general program of the Record, but the plan was abandoned; hence Judge Heydrick was exceedingly anxious that the new edition should contain as full an account of the history of the Schwenkfelders as it was possible to obtain.

In a letter written by Judge Heydrick just four days before his death, to a prominent Schwenkfelder he again made the statement that he was so fond of quoting, “I shall never forget that the late Senator Yeakle told me that in his researches preparatory to the publication of the Genealogical Record of the Schwenkfelders he had not heard of a single descendant of the immigrant Schwenkfelders of 1734 who had been convicted or even suspected of an immoral act. Can not something now be done to get the largest practical number of the now living descendants of the immigrant Schwenkfelders acquainted with one another and with the history of their ancestors? I beg leave to suggest that the proposed revision of the Genealogical Record of the Schwenkfelders be made more historical than was heretofore thought of.” Furthermore one of the last requests made by Judge Heydrick of his family was to urge the Schwenkfelders to revise the “Genealogical Record.”

As a direct result of this request, the General Conference of the Schwenkfelder Church held at Palm, Pennsylvania, October 17, 1914, passed a resolution that “the matter of revising the Genealogical Record of the Schwenkfelders be referred to the Board of Publication with power to act.” At the next meeting of the Conference another resolution was adopted authorizing the Board of Publication to devise means for publishing such a revised edition “without interfering with the financing of the ‘Corpus Schwenckfeldianorum’.”

Acting on this resolution the Board of Publication referred the matter to the Committee on Publication which was to have sole charge of formulating plans to comply with the resolutions passed by the General Conference. In order to defray the cost of the project, the Committee decided to secure a sufficient number of guarantors to underwrite the cost of collecting and editing the family records. By June, 1917, pledges to the amount of $2,500 were secured, whereupon the project was deputized to a sub-committee composed of representatives of the guarantors to be known as the “Publishing Committee” which was to have sole charge of collecting the family data, the editing of the same, and the distribution of the books when the work was completed.

At a joint meeting of the guarantors and the Board of Publication held in Norristown, Pennsylvania, the following were selected as the “Publishing Committee:” Elmer K. Schultz, Wayne C. Meschter, and Samuel K. Brecht. This committee met in Philadelphia soon after and organized with Elmer K. Schultz, as chairman; Samuel K. Brecht, as Secretary and Editor; and Wayne C. Meschter, Treasurer. One of the first acts of the Committee was to increase the guaranty fund to $3,000. Samuel Yeakle and Dr. J. E. B. Buckenham were later added to the membership of the Committee.

The Editor immediately started assembling family records, taking over those already collected by the self-appointed committee mentioned above. The launching of such a project soon after the United States entered upon the World War was a bold undertaking as later events proved.

The Editor had not been engaged in his work many months before it was seen that the cost of assembling and editing the family data would exceed the $3,000 pledged, if the various clues of family relationships were to be carried out to their fullest extent. The Publishing Committee instructed him to proceed along the lines already outlined and to complete the book as soon as possible, with the assurance that the necessary funds for defraying the cost would be provided.

The ravages of the World War and the consequent unsettled conditions interfered very seriously with the collection of family records, and also vastly increased the cost of compiling the data so that the sum of $10,000 was spent in compiling and editing the material before it was ready for the printer.

It might be well to state that this sum does not include the cost of the paper, printing, distribution of the books, nor any editorial compensation. The data in connection with the families has been compiled from the most reliable sources. Careful searches were made in records, cemeteries, family Bibles, church records and other historical documents, while personal interviews were had whenever possible. In general the data was recorded as given, and when conflicting information was obtained from different individuals, an effort was made to secure corroborative data before it was inserted. The reader will find statements in the various families indicating that the records were not verified, or that complete information was unobtainable. In general when no other statement is made, the data was obtained from some immediate member of the family, or it was taken from the “Genealogical Record” of 1879.

An effort was made to revise the data to July, 1917, in those families whose records were obtained before that time, and in all other cases the information was recorded as of the time received by the Editor. However, many families took pains to keep the Editor informed of any changes in their records, and these facts have been inserted, in some cases up to December, 1922.

The many variations in the spelling of the family name by members of the same family have been a cause of much trouble to the Editor. He has been obliged to accept the spelling given on the family record blanks, and the reader will notice many cases where the spelling of the family name was changed by the children, or by brothers and sisters. In some instances parents and children do not agree as to dates of birth, death, and marriage of members of their own family. Likewise the examination of tombstones and family Bibles also occasionally produces conflicting data.

Special attention is called to the illustrations appearing in the book, many of which were taken especially for this publication. With the kind assistance of Dr. E. E. S. Johnson, it has been possible to include many European views illustrating typical scenes in the countries from which the immigrant Schwenkfelders fled. These were fortunately secured before the outbreak of the World War.

The Publishing Committee decided that with the exception of the ministry or groups of individuals illustrating certain phases of Schwenkfelder activities, photographs of living individuals should not be included in this publication. This will account for the omission of many portraits that otherwise would have been included, and the extreme modesty that has characterized most of the Schwenkfelders and their descendants has made it difficult to secure photographs to illustrate the various family groups.

The Chapters on the “Homes and Burial Places,” and “The Migrations of the Schwenkfelders” were prepared in large part by Howard Wiegner Kriebel who searched the deed books and collected the data for the plates “A to H” showing the location of the homes of the immigrant Schwenkfelders. These plates were made from drawings to scale from the abstracts of the deeds made by Mr. Kriebel. Most of the field work necessary to secure the data was also done by Mr. Kriebel who visited many cemeteries and copied the tombstone inscriptions of Schwenkfelder descendants. Deed books, wills, and administration books were carefully searched in order to establish connections between various families.

For more than thirty years Mr. Kriebel had been gathering material pertaining to the history of the Schwenkfelders and their descendants. He also made an intensive study of the immigrant lists to establish family connections, and all this material was placed at the disposal of the Editor, for which Mr. Kriebel deserves the gratitude of the Editor as well as of the readers. Without Mr. Kriebel’s co-operation it would not have been possible to secure much of the information included in this book.

The system of numbering the immigrants and the various families was also devised by Mr. Kriebel, and only slight modification was necessary to make the plan sufficiently flexible to adapt it to the manner in which it is used. [See “Explanations and Abbreviations.”] A study of the system of family numbering together with the scheme of cross references will appeal to the reader who is desirous of tracing his family connections.

It is impossible to list separately the many kind correspondents who furnished data for this book. Where no source is given, it may generally be credited to some member of the family interested.

In addition to those mentioned in the body of the book as having furnished data, the following must also be mentioned:

John Miller Rinewalt, Mount Carroll, Ill.; Daniel Urffer, Pottstown, Pa.; Charles Jones, Germantown, Pa.; George Sheppard, Penn Yan, N. Y.; Wesley K. Schultz, Hereford, Pa.; Charles Kriebel, Detroit, Mich.; Gaius M. Brumbaugh, M.D., Washington, D. C.; G. Lester Hartranft, Montgomery, Pa.; William H. Anders, Lansdale, Pa.; George S. Kratz, Lansdale, Pa., R. D.; and many others.

To Elmer Ellsworth S. Johnson, Ph. D., who searched the archives and church books of Silesia and Saxony with the assistance of Selina Gerhard Schultz, the Editor is indebted for a large amount of data concerning the Schwenkfelders before their migration to Pennsylvania. Dr. Johnson has collected a vast amount of information concerning the Schwenkfelders in Europe prior to their migration, which he contemplates publishing in book form in the near future. He has traced some family lines back to the 14th century. In view of this future publication the Editor made no effort to trace the ancestry prior to the migration.

Mr. Herbert Heebner Smith gave many valuable suggestions regarding the arrangement of title pages and illustrations.

To Prof. H. H. Shenk, custodian of the Public Records, Harrisburg, Pa., the Editor is indebted for many photostats of manuscripts that are preserved in the State Library.

Acknowledgment is also due Mr. Ernest Spofford, Assistant Librarian of the Historical Society of Pennsylvania, for many valuable suggestions, and for kindness shown the Editor and his associates while searching the Archives of the Historical Society.

The readers owe a debt of gratitude to Dr. James M. Anders who took sufficient time from his manifold duties to write the scholarly introduction to this book.

Credit is due Dr. O. S. Kriebel, Principal of Perkiomen School and Chairman of the Publication Committee of the Board of Publication of the Schwenkfelder Church for the actual undertaking of the publication of this book. His optimism and enthusiasm were the factors that led the Editor to assume the responsibility of editing the material in connection with his other duties.

The Editor wishes to express his gratitude to Miss Helen Shultz, who supervised the collection and codification of most of the family records and assisted in the editing of the same, and who read the proof of the entire book in addition to supervising the making of the Index.

In the final analysis the guarantors who advanced the funds for collecting the data and preparing it for the printer deserve the greatest credit for their faith in the enterprise and their funds that made this book possible.

In addition to the typographical errors that appear in the book, the Editor will be grateful to be informed of any errors of fact that are found on its pages.

SAMUEL K. BRECHT, Editor.

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The Publishing Committee sends this book out with the hope that all who advanced money to pay the expenses of compiling this Genealogy are well repaid by the rich content of hitherto unpublished, and in many cases unknown, documents. The printing of historical data as well as of family records for the benefit of posterity is the duty of every generation, but the publication of the genealogy of a group of religious refugees is unique, and the reader will learn that the Schwenkfelders were in many ways a unique people.

The Committee expresses its gratitude to all advance subscribers for the book whose deposits helped to pay the printer’s bills as they became due, and it is their hope that they will assist in a wide distribution of the book among the families whose records are included within its pages.

For the kind and continued co-operation of Rand McNally & Company, the printers of this Genealogical Record, the Committee is especially grateful. The making of a book of such large proportions embodying the various fonts of type required by the Editor, presented many difficulties which were all happily overcome, and the Editor and the other members of the Publishing Committee desire to record their appreciation of the many courtesies extended them by the printers.