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P A R T
I
(transcribed by Ingeborg Brigitte Gastel Lloyd)
THE SWOPE FAMILY BOOK OF REMEMBRANCE
by EMILY SWOPE MORSE & WINIFRED MORSE MCLACHLAN
A History of the Origins of the First Schwab, Schwob, Swope
Families
in Early Lancaster County, Pennsylvania
and
Some of Their Descendants
The SWOPE FAMILY BOOK OF REMEMBRANCE was produced in 1972 in a limited
edition of 3OO copies and was issued in two volumes:
Volume One consisted of nine parts with a separate index and
covered the ancestry and descendants of Jakob SCHWOB, emigrant fro Bennwil,
Baselland, Switzerland to Lebanon Township, Lancaster, (now Lebanon) County,
Pennsylvania in 1749.
Part I : Jakob 1 SCHWOB.
Part II : Peter 2 (Jakob 1) SCHWOB of Washington
County, MD and his descendants.
Part III : Jacob 2 (Jakob 1) SCHWOB and his wife,
Elisabeth BRANDT of North Lebanon Township, Lebanon County, PA.
Part IV : The sons of Jacob 2 (Jakob 1) and Elisabeth
(BRANDT) SCHWOB.
Part V: The sons of Christian 3 (Jacob 2, Jakob 1)
SCHWOB and their descendants.
Part VI : The Sons of John 3 (Jacob 2, Jakob 1)
SCHWOB or SWOPE and their descendants.
Part VII: The sons of John 3 (Jacob 2, Jakob 1)
SCHWOB or SWOPE and their descendants.
Part VIII: The sons of Peter 3 (Jacob 2, Jakob 1)
SCHWOB or SWOPE and their descendants.
Part IX: Pedigree charts showing the Five Generations of Descendants of
Jakob SCHWOB, I.
Volume Two (attached) covers the Ancestry and some descendants of
Jost SCHWAB, Emigrant from Leimen, Baden, Germany to Leacock Township,
Chester (now Lancaster) County, Pennsylvania.
Full copies of the SWOPE FAMILY BOOK OF REMEMBRANCE were donated or
purchased by the following libraries:
The Cache County Historical Society, Logan, Utah
The Genealogical Library of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints,
Salt Lake City, Utah
The Library of Congress, Washington, D.C.
The National Historical Society, Washington, D.C.
The Tri-State Trader, Genealogical Book Notes, Indianapolis, Indiana
Heimatstelle Pfalz, Kaiserslautern, Germany
The Delaware County Historical Society, Chester, PA
The Public Library of Fort Wayne and Allen County, Indiana
The Historical Society of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA
The Historical Society of York County, York, PA
The Mennonite Historical Library, Bluffton College, Bluffton, Ohio
The New Jersey State Library, Trenton, New Jersey
The New York City Public Library, New York City, New York
The Virginia State Library, Richmond, Virginia
viii
VOLUME TWO
Ancestry and some Descendants of Jost Schwab, Emigrant from
Leimen, Baden, Germany to Leacock Township, Chester (now Lancaster) County,
Pennsylvania in 1720.
Introduction
1283
Chapter 1: Jost Schwab, the Emigrant 1288
Original
Record Evidenced
Family
Genealogical Sheets
Chapter 2: The Ancestry of Anna Catharina Wolfhardt, wife
of
Jost Schwab
1316
Family
Genealogical Sheets
Chapter 3: The Three George Schwabs, including Hans Georg Schwab,
Son
of Jost
1337
Chapter 5: Johannes 2 (Jost 1) Schwab of
Lancaster County, PA
1353
Family
Genealogical Charts
Chapter 6: Anna Barbara 3 (Johannes 2,
Jost 1) Schwab and her
husband,
Philip Gloninger 1367
Family
Genealogical Sheets
Chapter 7: The Funck and Wenger Families 1374
APPENDIX
1. Poem - Dutch Days at Hershey. By Rev. Pierce E. Swope 1382
2. Maps - (photos not shown due to poor quality)
The
area around Lancaster County, PA 1749 1384
The
area around Lancaster County, PA 1770 1385
Portion
of a Map of Lebanon County by Thomas Smith,
1818 1386
A Portion of Lebanon County, 1860 1388
North Lebanon Township, 1870 1390
xiii
ABOUT THE AUTHORS:
Emily Swope Morse has been actively interested in her living relatives
for many years, and in her Swope ancestry ever since she read in her youth
Gilbert E. Swope's History of the Swope Family and Their Connections,
1678-1896, and prepared a pedigree chart of her Swope descent. She
infected her daughter, Winifred Morse McLachlan, with an insatiable hunger
for more knowledge about her ancestors. After Winifred moved to Salt Lake
City in 1948, the home of the world-renowned Genealogical Library of the
Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day-Saints containing the largest collection
of genealogical records in the world, research on the Swope ancestry began
in earnest. After twenty-four years of active genealogical research in
the records of past generations in the library in Salt Lake City by Winifred
McLachlan, and correspondence with hundreds of Swope descendants by Emily
Morse, we present this book as an offering in remembrance of our deceased
ancestors, and our beloved relatives who are living. On the whole we found
them to be hard working people in their various fields of endeavor, dedicated
to their families, their country, and their God. With this we will let
the record speak for itself.
We have tried to eliminate errors so that we can present to you an accurate
and complete record, but because of our human imperfections, we know that
mistakes will be found. Please let us know what these are, so that they
might in some way be corrected.
We still have enough material on other Swope ancestors and descendants
to fill another volume, and hope to make this available in the future in
the form of a newsletter to those who seek for more information. Research
on the Schwab family of Baden-Wuerttemberg is continuing and we hope that
more data about the other Swope families of Pennsylvania and their relationship
to one another will be unearthed.
In general Emily Swope Morse gathered the records from the living, wrote
the biographies of the descendants except those written by themselves,
prepared the Family Genealogical Sheets of the descendants, and indexed
the entire Volume One. Winifred Morse McLachlan did the genealogical research
on the ancestry of the family in the archives and church records of Pennsylvania,
Maryland, Virginia, Kentucky, and in the records of Germany and Switzerland
at the Genealogical Library in Salt Lake City, and by correspondence with
the archives and genealogists in the United States, Baden-Wuerttemberg
in West Germany, and Baselland, Switzerland; wrote the history of our ancestors;
edited and arranged into book form the records collected by her mother
and herself; and cross-referenced the pages in the book.
xiv
PREFACE
In this book you will find that almost every Swope is a descendant of
either Jost Schwab, Jakob Schwob, or of both Jost Schwab and Jakob Schwob.
Because of a great similarity in the lives of these two emigrants to America
in the early half of the eighteenth century, we can draw this parallel.
They bear the same name only spelled differently in the countries from
which they emigrated: Jost Schwab was a native of Sinsheim, a village near
Heidelberg in the southwestern part of Germany, while Jakob Schwob I, who
gave his surname to most of the descendants in this book, was a native
of Bennwil, Amt Waldenberg in the northwestern part of Switzerland with
only the Rhine River separating the two countries. Both of these men were
tradesmen in their separate countries; Jost Schwab was a baker in Sinsheim,
Germany, and Jakob Schwob I was a tinsmith in Bennwil, Switzerland. Both
were familiar with oppression and persecution which led them to depart
from their native lands. Both suffered the hardship and sicknesses which
often accompanied such trips down the Rhine River with their families,
although nearly thirty years separated their departure from their Mother
countries. They braved the mighty ocean and set sail for a new land where
they hoped to find peace, freedom from oppression, and land to call their
own. Both arrived in America at the port of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania;
Jost Schwab in 1720 and Jakob Schwob in 1749. Both men purchased land from
the Provincial Government in Lancaster County; Jost Schwab in Upper Leacock
Township, and Jakob Schwob in North Lebanon Township, then Lancaster County,
now Lebanon County. Both men became tillers of the soil - farmers - not
tradesmen as they had been in Europe, and most of their children became
farmers after them, followed by many of their descendants.
During the seventeen and eighteen hundreds most of the Schwabs, Schwobs,
Swopes engaged in farming. Gradually the Swope male youth left their parents'
farm and entered the industrial world in the latter part of the nineteenth
and the beginning of the twentieth centuries. They were employed in the
manufacture of tobacco products: plug tobacco, cigars, and tobacco and
cigar boxes; on the railroads as firemen, brakemen, yardmen, conductors,
and engineers; in steel mills; and later in many other businesses. A gradual
change from the agricultural to the industrial life, from country living
to the small town and then to city living, took place.
In the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries ninety percent of the Swope
men were farmers, while ten percent were in the mercantile business or
other small businesses, or in the professions as doctors, lawyers, teachers,
and ministers, but today the percentage is reversed. Ten percent or less
are now employed as farmers and most of these are engaged in dairy farming,
while ninety percent are employed in industry and the professions. Two
great production revolutions figured in our history - the agricultural
revolution and the industrial revolution. In colonial America there was
a higher than ave age farm population since ninety percent of Americans
lived on farms. Today approximately ten percent of the American population
is engaged in farming. It is predicted that within a very short time only
five percent of the
xv
populatian will be engaged in farming. These national figures coincide
with the occupations of the Swopes and their relatives during the past
232 years that the Swope Family has been in America.
We are experiencing today the third great production revolution, called
by some the super-industrial revolution, while others call it the cybernation
or cybernetic revolution.. The term cybernation refers to the distinctive
techniques that are developing out of the impact of the computer and the
resulting ability to develop new production and organizational procedures,
which in the end will change our complete life style. One of the greatest
impacts resulting from the computer age will be the knowledge explosion.
In a matter of seconds, computers are able to work problems that only a
few years ago would have taken a team of scientists a lifetime to solve.
This cybernetic revolution or computer age has affected some of the occupations
of the Swopes and will play a large factor in their future lives.
It is my desire to thank Ute Swopes and their relation for the exceptional
cooperation they gave me in the compiling of the records of the Swope families,
and the confidence they placed in sending me their precious pictures of
their ancestors to have negatives and pictures made; allowing me to borrow
their old family Bibles to have copies made of the Bible records; lending
me their Swope deeds or indentures dated as far back as 1788; and searching
their attics for old scrapbooks, records, newspaper clippings, wills, and
other precious documents.
I particularly want to thank those who came to my aid in 1969 to form
the first Swope reunion, which was held on June 29th, 1969 at the Tulpehocken
Evangelical and Reformed United Church of Christ in Jackson Township, Lebanon
County, Pennsylvania, with an attendance of approximately 250 Swopes and
their relation present. They were John Adam Swope of Union Deposit, Hershey,
Pa., Herman Swope of Lebanon, Pa., Gerald Swope of Newmanstown, Pa., Edith
Swope Ziegler of Stouchsburg, Pa., Olive Swope Wenrich of Robesonia, Pa.,
N. Margaret Swope of Lebanon, Pa., and my daughter, Winifred Morse McLachlan
of Salt Lake City, Utah.
xvi
EXPLANATION OF FAMILY GENEALOGICAL SHEETS
1. In most instances the Family Genealogical Sheet is self-explanatory,
but a few items need clarification. The first items on the sheet are:
The name of the husband His Occupation
If a Swope Descendant, the page where he
appears as a child
Ex. SWOPE, Daniel (farmer) (No.
3, page 344)
The information about the wife follows the same order.
2. Children
When born - This column often includes two dates.
The top date is the date of birth; the bottom date is the date of christening.
Where born - For the older generations, the place of
birth is often unknown and can only be surmised. Since in earlier times
the only record of birthappears in the church record of the christening,
we list the name of the church and the place it was located under *where
born*. In these early days the child was usually born near the place of
christening. Where there are other records of birth, the place of birth
is listed instead of the place of christening.
Sex Children When
Born Where
Born
M List each child (whether Living or Day
Month Year Town County
F Dead) in order of birth
SURNAME (capitalized) GIVEN NAMES
6 May 1798 Trinity
Lutheran Lancaster
M SWOPE, James chr 10
July 1798 Church
Lancaster
3. When Died -
The death date of the child listed on the left, not of the person they
married. In this instance it would be the death date of James Swope. (James
Swope is not an actual person and is not in this book)
Date
of First Marriage When Died
State
or
Country To
Whom: Day Month Year
7
Mar 1820 10
Aug 1852
Pa.
Dow,
Jane
4. Sources of information -
Here are listed the records from which the information on the family genealogical
sheet was taken. This includes family histories, deeds, wills, church records,
and vital statistics. On contemporary records the term *Family Records
of -* and the name and address of the person who gave us the record is
given. *Family Records* are birth certificates, marriage certificates,
and death records in possession of the particular family.
5. Other marriages -
All marriages after the first one of the children listed are given here.
The number of the child in the family and his first name is given with
the number of his marriage, marriage date, and the name of the spouse.
Example #1: James md (2) 21 Mar 1920, JONES, Matilda.
xvii
ABBREVIATIONS
ch. or chap. = chapter
chr. = christening
F.G.S. - Family Generalogical Sheet
p. = page
par. reg. = parish register
rec. = records
vol. = volume
xviii
THE INTERMARRIAGE OF THE DESCENDANTS OF TWO SWOPE FAMILIES
OF EARLY LANCASTER COUNTY
Jost Schwab/Yost Swope md. Anna Katharina Wolfhardt
(1656-1727) | (1663-?)
Johannes Schwab/John Swope md. Anna Dorothea Lein
(1704-1780) | (ca
1708-1740)
Anna Barbara Schwab/Swope md. Philip Gloninger Jakob
Schwob/Swope md. Elisabeth
(1731-1810) | (1719-1796) (ca
1709-1788 | (ca
1725-1806)
John George Gloninger md. Maria Funck Jacob
Schwob/Swope md. Elisabeth Brandt
(1754-1831) | (ca
1763-?) (1767-1851
| (1773-1842)
Anna
Maria Gloninger md.
Christian Schwob/Swope
(1795-1828) | (1792-1877)
Page 1283 VOLUME TWO
ANCESTRY AND SOME DESCENDANTS OF JOST SCHWAB, EMIGRANT FROM LEIMEN,
BADEN, GERMANY TO LEACOCK TOWNSHIP, CHESTER (NOW LANCASTER) COUNTY,
PENNSYLVANIA IN 1720
Page 1284
INTRODUCTION TO THE HISTORY OF THE JOST SCHWAB FAMI LY
During the early part of the seventeenth century, Germany was devastated
by the horrors of the Thirty Years War (1618-1648). Actually this was a
series of wars which began as a civil war between the Protestants and the
Roman catholics in the German states. When it ended, most of Europe was
involved and the war had become a struggle for territory and political
power.
The Treaty of Augsburg (1555) recognized only Lutherans and Catholics;
not Calvinists or other Protestant sects. German Protestants and German
Catholics disagreed about their interpretation of this treaty; this disagreemant
was the underlying cause of the war.
Civil War began in Bohemia in 1618 after the Archbishop of Prague ordered
the destruction of a Protestant church. When the Emperor Matthias ignored
the protests of the Protestant people, they rose in revolt. The Protestant
rebels put into action an old Bohemian custom by throwing out of the window
two of their ruler's ministers. This action was called the Defenestration
of Prague (from the latin word fenestra meaning window) and the war spread
rapidly throughout Western Europe.
The Bohemian Protestants chose the Protestant elector of Palatine, Frederick,
to be their emperor, but the Catholic king, Ferdinand, whom the Protestants
had removed from the throne, was chosen Holy Roman Emperor by the German
Imperial Electorate which was controlled by the Hause of Hapsburg. This
gave Ferdinand great power. The Bohemians were defeated in 1620 by Ferdinand's
general, the Count of Tilly, at the Battle of the White Mountain. The Protestant
rebellion was stamped out, the Bohemians lost their independence, and Catholicism
again became the state religion.
In 1623 the Protestant king of Denmark, Christian IV, was aided by several
other countries in opposing Ferdinand's forces in Saxony. The emperor,
Ferdinand, with the assistance of the famous general Albrecht Eusebius
Wenzel von Wallenstein and his army of hired soldiers and adventurers,
together with the army of Count Tilly, defeated the Danish king, Christian
IV, again and again. After the Treaty of Luebeck (1629), Ferdinand issued
the Edict of Restitution which ordered all church possessions the Protestants
had acquired be restored to the Catholics. This caused more friction between
Protestants and Catholics.
Gustavus Adolphus, the Lion of the North, the devoted Protestant king
of Sweden who believed that if Emperor Ferdinand became too powerful Sweden
would be endangered, set sail from Sweden in 1630 with 13,000 men to relieve
the city of Magdeburg which Tilly was besieging.
page 1285
He arrived too late to save Magdeburg, but in 1631 Gustavus Adolphus
and the Swedish army defeated Tilly at the Battle of Breitenfeld. He continued
to defeat Tilly but in 1632, although the Swedes won at the Battle of Luetzen,
Gustavus Adalphus was killed in battle. The Swedes continued to win until
1634 when their army was destroyed at the Battle of Nordlingen.
In 1635 Cardinal Richelieu of France, although a Catholic, decided that
the Hapsburg emperor was becoming too powerful and sent a French army into
Germany to join a new Swedish army against Ferdinand and the Catholics.
Under the leadership of the French Vicomte de Turenne and Louis II, Prince
of Conde, they won a long series of victories. The Protestants now gained
new hope for peace and in 1644 the European countries sent representatives
to a peace conference in Westphalia. The Catholics met in one city; the
Protestants in another. It took four years of negotiation before the Peace
of Westphalia was finally signed in 1648. The terms of the treaty gave
Alsace and Lorraine to France, to Sweden control of the mouths of the Oder,
Elbe, and Weser rivers, and to Calvinism an equal footing with Catholicism
and Lutheranium. This treaty left Gernany nearly helpless, open to the
attack of tyrants at home and robber kings from abroad.
At the end of the Thirty Years War Germany was in ruins. More than half
of the German population had been killed. Some authorities estimate the
population of the German states prior to the Thirty Years War at between
sixteen and seventeen million and at not quite four million at the end
of the war. Two thirds of the property had been destroyed; whole cities,
villages, and farms had disappeared. The Rhineland continued to be plagued
by Louis XIV of France because he wanted more of this territory. Some areas
were left in vacant devastation for twenty years before people from more
populated areas of Germany and Europe began to migrate there to build new
homes. In the latter half of the seventeenth century, Huguenots persecuted
in France migrated into these areas in Southern Germany, Swiss from overpopulated
areas of Switzerland migrated to the Rhineland and Baden-Wuertemburg, and
Germans moved from their home villages to these less-populated areas. Many
of the paarish records, both Protestant and Catholic, which provide the
most information for the genealogist, were destroyed during this period,
and it is often very difficult, if not impossible, to trace a family back
beyond the middle of the seventeenth century Because of this destruction
and because of the movement of families from one place to another. Even
so, a great deal of research is being done by both Germans and Americans
in the German archives to learn more about this period of history and the
origins of the families who migrated to southern Germany in the late sixteen
hundreds.
During the Thirty Years War, Switzerland was almost untouched by its
horrors and thrived vith peace and prosperity. Foreigners, who came to
Switzerland to escape the horrors of the battlefields, brought with them
money and valuable property. Switzerland had a good market for her products.
When peace finally came to Germany in 1648, Switzerland suffered a severe
economic crash. Prices dropped and many persons were unemployed.
page 1286
Overpopulation was a problem in Switzerland. Germany bad been depopulated
in the mass killing during the war. Areas of Germany neighboring on Switzerland,
such as Baden, the Palatinate, and Alsace were completely desolate. Many
Swiss from the areas of Bern, Basel, and Zurich migrated into these areas
in Germany. A large number of those emigrating were Anabaptists (Mennonite
groups) who were persecuted severely in Switzerland, but many were Swiss
citizens who were members of the Reformed church and sought better economic
conditions in Germany now that Calvinists (Reformed) had obtained equal
rights with Lutherans and Catholics through the Peace of Westphalia.
The earliest information we have about Jost Schwab (Yost Swope) is his
marriage to Anna Katharina Wolfhardt in Duehren bei Sinsheim near Heidelberg,
27 May 1661 (17 May 1661 - see page 1288). George Schwab was the father
of Jost. He was a citizen and councilman in Sinsheim in 1681 which is another
village near Heidelberg. Jost Schwab's age was forty-six when he transferred
his citizenship from Duehren to Leimen in 1702. This indicates that he
was born about 1656. Gilbert E. Swope's History of the Swope Family and
Their Connections states that Yost (Jost) was born in 1678. If he were
married in 1681 this would be impossible.
Many of the parish records of this area were destroyed during the Thirty
Years War, and again in 1689 bythe armies of Loui XIV of France. It was
in 1689 that the parish register of Sinsheim was destroyed, and so the
record of birth of Jost Schwab and bis brothers and sisters is lost to
us.
In the following pages appears the story of his life gathered from the
existing sources in Baden and in Pennsylvania, and then the records that
have been found concerning bis children and his grandchildren. In Pennsylvania
a sparsity of records also exists tor this pioneer period making it difficult
to recreate a record of the family and their activities. Baptisms, marriages,
and burials were often performed by itinerant ministers who usually did
not keep records, or if they did keep records, the records have been lost
or discarded by their families. When these records are lacking, we must
depend on wills, deeds, orphans court records, and tax lists. The sources
of information, as nearly as possible in their original form, are presented
at the end of each chapter under ,,Original Record Evidences." We
hope that here you will be able to find at least some of the answers to
your questions about your Swope ancestors.
page 1287 - Duehren pictures not shown due to
poor quality
page 1288
HUSBAND: SCHWAB, Jost or Justus (citizen and master-baker
Born: 1656 (age 46 in 1702)
Place: Sinsheim, Heidelberg, Baden-Wuerttemberg, GERMANY
Married: 17 May 1681
Place: Duehren bei Sinsheim, Heidelberg, Baden-Wuerttemberg, Germany
Died: 29 Jan 1727 L of Adm.
Place: Leacock (now Upper Leacock) township, Chester (now Lancaster)
county, PA
Husband's father: Schwab, Georg
Husband's mother: Zimmerman, Margaretha (1611-1695)
WIFE: WOLFHARDT or WOHLFAHRT, Anna Katharina (No. 3, page 1331)
Born: 9 Oct 1663
Place: Duehren bei Sinsheim, Heidelberg, Baden-Wuerttemberg, Germany
Wife's Father: Wolfhardt or Wohlfahrt, Hans Jorg (1639-1712)
Wife's mother: Hagi or Haagen, Anna (abt 1643-1673)
Children: When
born: Town: County: State: Date
of 1st marr.: Died:
Ctry To
Whom:
SCHWAB
1. (M) Hans Jorg 19
July 1682 Duehren bei Heidel- Baden- wp
10 Apr 1756
chr
following Sunday Sinsheim berg Wuertt. ...,Anna
Eva
2. (M) Jost Conrad 29
Apr 1687 " " " " 17
Aug 1689
chr
1 Aug 1687 " " " "
3. (M) Jost Conrad 11
Jan 1960 " " " "
chr
12 Jan 1690 " " " "
4. (F) Anna Elisabetha 10 Oct 1692 " " " 5
Apr 1712 4
Mar 1761
chr
16 Oct 1692 " " " RIEHM,
Johann Eberhard
5. (F) Anna Margaretha 18 June 1695 Sinsheim " "
chr
18 Aug 1695 " " "
6. (F) Anna Magdalena 11 Apr 1697 Duehren bei " "
Sinsheim
7. (F) Anna Maria 3
Oct 1698 " " " 9
Sept 1719
chr
9 Oct 1698 " " "
MEIXEL, Andreas
8. (F) Anna Katharina 3 Sept 1701 " "
9. (M) Johannes 26
May 1704 Leimen " " 18
Dec 1780
chr
28 May 1704 " " " (1) LEIN,
Anna Dorothea
10. (M) Hans Ulrich 21
Oct 1707 " " "
11. (?) stillborn child 7
Sept 1709 " " "
Sources of information:
1. Reformed & Lutheran Church rec., Duehren, Leimen and Sindheim.
2. Citizenship rec. of Leimen.
3. Personalities File, Hist. Soc. of Berks County, Reading, PA.
4. Chester Co., rec. of Administrations, Bonds,and Inventories.
Other marriages:
#9 Johannes md (2) 25 May 1742, GRAEFF, GROFF, GROVE, or
GREVE, Catharine Elisabeth.
pages 1289
C
H A P T E R 1
JOST SCHWAB, THE EMIGRANT -
HIS PARENTAGE, HISTORY, AND LIFE STORY
JOST or JUSTUS SCHWAB is the ancestor of most Americans bearing the
surname SWOPE and, as far as we have been able to ascertain, is the first
Schwab/Swope to migrate to America. Through research in Germany and the
United States, a considerable amount of data has been gathered concerning
him, and this information gives to us the following story of his life.
According to these facts, more than one Jost Schwab lived in the vicinity
of Leimen near Heidelberg, Germany, and they were probably all related
to one another. Did they come to America together? This is also possible.
Jost Schwab, the father of Johannes Schwab (John Swope) who settled
on the Mill Creek in Upper Leacock Township, Lancaster County, Pennsylvania
in 1720, is easily identified. This Jost Schwab was born in Sinsheim, Baden
in 1655 or 1656, the son of Georg Schwab, citizen and counselor in Sinsheim,
and Margaretin born Zimmerman. Jost had a brother Georg, born in 1659,
and another brother, George Albrecht, who was a baker (Jost was also a
baker) and seminary director at Sinsheim. He had also a sister whose name
is unknown, who had a child, Anna Christina, born in 1678. Georg Schwab,
father of Jost, is thought to have been the brother of another Jost Schwab,
the mayor of Sandhausen, a village which was part of the parish of Leimen
in 1700. (See page1303).
Jost Schwab, our American ancestor, son of Georg and Margaretha (Zimmerman)
Schwab, grew up in Sinsheim and became a baker as did his brother, Georg
Albrecht. On the 17th of May 1681 when he was twenty-five years old, Jost
married his betrothed, the seventeen year old, Anna Catharina Wolfhardt,
in the beautiful Choir Roorn of the Lutheran Church at Duehren, a village
near Sinsheim. Jost was a member of the Reformed Church in Sinsheim. Anna
Catharina, born 9 October 1663, was the daughter of the Mayor of Duehren.
Hans Jorg Wolfhardt/Wohlfahrt and his wife, Anna Haagen. (See Chapter 2).
Her grandfather, Georg Johann Wolfhardt/Wohlfahrt, was the Minister of
the Lutheran Church in Duehren during the Thirty Years War. Her father,
Hans Jorg, was born in the Steinsberg Fort (the ruins of this fort can
still be seen near Duehren (picture page 1293) where his father, Georg
Johann, had taken his family for protection.
Jost and Anna Catharina settled down in Duehren where he earned his
living as a baker. For almost twenty-one years the family lived in Duehren
and six of their children were baptized in the Lutheran Church there. The
27th of March 1695, Jost's mother, Margaretha Schwab, died and was buried
in Sinsheim. At the time of her death she was a widow; her husband, Georg
Schwab, died
page 1290 (area chart) - not shown -
page 1291
sometime after Jost was married in 1681 and before 1689 when the church
record of Sinsheim commences.
In 1702 Jost moved his family to Leimen (see map page 1290) where they
enrolled as citizens the 27th of April 1702. Jost declared that he was
46 years old and was born in Sinsheim on the Elsenz river, Kreis (county)
Heidelberg, Baden and that he was a member of the Reformed Church. His
wife, Anna Katerina, was 38 years old and a Lutheran. They brought with
them the following seven children:
Hans Jorg, 19 years
Jost Conrad, 13 years
Anna Elisabeth, 11 years
Anna Margaretha, 7 years
Anna Magdalena, 5 years
Anna Maria, 3 years
Anna Katharina, 1/2 year
On the 26th of May 1704 their son, Johannes, ancestor of many Arnericans,
was born, and was baptized the 28th of May 1704. In 1707 another son, Hans
Ulrich, was born in Leimen. The 7th of September 1709, Anna Catharine,
gave birth to her last child; the infant was stillborn.
Shortly after the move to Leimen, their eldest son, Hans Jörg or
Georg, married Anna Eva (some researchers say her maiden name was Schaeffner,
but do not give the source of this information). They named their first
child, Johann Georg, at his baptism, 9 January 1706. The sponsor at the
baptism was Johan Georg Wohlfarth (or Wolfhardt) of "Duehren bei Sinsheim",
the grandfather of Hans Georg Schwab and the great grandfather of the child.
On the 5th of April 1712 Jost and Anna Catharina Schwab's eldest daughter,
Anna Elisabetha, now nineteen years old, married Johann Eberhard Riehm.
Both are listed as of the Reformed religion. Their first child was christened
Johann Jacob Riehm at Leimen 14 June 1713. Jost Schwab wrote in his records,
,,My daughter, Anna Eliss' child born 1 Brachmond (June) 1713." (See
page 1304) Another child, Anna Katharina, daughter of Johan Eberhard and
Anna Elisabetha Riehm, was christened, 19 January 1716. In 1717 the Riehms
(spelled Ream in America) left for Pennsylvania. Their third child, Abraham
Riehm, was born in Philadelphia (according to the records of the Ream Family
Association),
Jost and Anna Catharina Schwab and the rest of the family must not have
left Leimen in 1717, because their daughter, Anna Maria, married the widower,
Andreas Meixel, 19 Septenter 1719. The marriage record states that ,,Anna
Maria is the legitimate, single daughter of Jost Schwab, citizen and baker
at Leimen" as though he were still living here.
Jost Schwab, his family, and possibly other relatives are believed to
have departed from Leimen for the trip down the Rhine to the sea in May
1720. We do not know how many of the children came to America with Jost.
The parish registers of Leimen infer that all of them left Leimen in 1720
except Hans Georg, who made the trip in 1727. No Schwabs are named in the
records of
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