Johann Samuel Schwerdtfeger Born: 4 JUN 1734 Burgbernheim (by Bad Windsheim), Bavaria, GERMANY Sex: M Died: BET. 1798 - 1803 Dundas County, Ontario, CANADA Occupation: Reverend Ancestors:
Father:
Child: Johann Samuel Schwerdtfeger
Mother:
Marriage(s) and Relationships: Married to: Anna Dorothea Schwab 1759, Earltown, New Holland, PA, USA
Child:Benjamin Schwerdfeger Child:John Austin Schwerdfeger Child:Daniel Schwerdfeger Child:Johann Frederich Schwerdfeger Child:Samuel Schwerdfeger Child:Louis Schwerdfeger Child:Jacob Schwerdfeger Child:Lina Schwerdfeger Child:Elizabeth SchwerdfegerNotes: According to custom, he and his male siblings bore the first given name
of Johan - known as the *family name*. The second name Samuel was known
as the *church name*. A third name was often used but not recorded in
any official document.
Rev. Johann Samuel Schwerdtfeger emigrated from the village of
Burgbernheim by Bad Windsheim, Bavaria. His father was H. Guenter
Schwerdtfeger (1702-1794), his grandfather Simon Johann Schwerdtfeger
(1665-1728), his great grandfather Simon Schwerdtfeger (1639-1676).
Johann Samuel was a *United Empire Loyalist*, as were most of the Germans
in the Mohawk Valley.
He preached against the American Revolution and at least one of his sons
fought with Loyalist forces.
Rev. Johann Samuel and most of his congregation of German Reformed
Lutherans removed to what is now Ontario in 1790. He is credited by many
as the first resident protestant minister in Canada.
Schwerdtfeger's mother died soon afther his birth and his father died
when he was 15 years old.
He was apparently raised by his uncle and was referred to in one text as
a *poor orphan* (the word *poor) may have referred to his orphaned rather
than to his financial status). Another text claims that his family was a
prominent *Coat-of-Arms* family. It seems that he was not a good student
and was advised not to continue to study. He never-the-less attended
classes at the University of Erlangen for half a year before being
dismissed. After wandering Europe in a *wretched manner* he became prey
to of redemptioners who transported him to the American Colonies.
Schwerdtfeger arrived in the new world in 1753. He was placed on the
block for 5 years service in exchange for his passage. The Evangelical
Lutheran Church in York (Pennsylvania) was, at the time, interested in
obtaining a new Pastor. Johan convinced them that he was lettered in
Divinity and Law, whereupon they purchased his contract and installed him
as their Pastor. After serving his identure, (during which he fell into
disfavor with some of the church hierarchy, primarily because of a letter
in which he divided all the Lutherans in York into Sadducees, Pharisees,
Halle Pietists and Old Lutherans, counting himself to the last) he
relocated to New Holland (1758) and then to Frederick, Maryland (1763).
Prior to the latter assignment, Pastor Muhlenbach (the senior Lutheran
Minister in America) learned that he hadn't been properly obtained.
Pastor Muhlenbach performed a retroactive ordination in 1762 faced, as it
were, with numerous unblesses marriages and bastard children. During this
period, he also conducted services at in Brecknock, Pennsylvania; Earl,
Pennsylvania; Ephrata, Pennsylvania; and Antietam, Pennsylvania. In 1768,
he made a return trip to Germany without informing the officers of the
church of his intentions. While he was gone, they replaced him (it seems
that he wasn't very popular anyway). When he returned in 1770, he
apparently served congregations in Albany and Brunswick Centre ofr a
period althugh it was noted in Synod minutes that he was destitute during
1772 and 1773.
He was assigned to Gilead at Brunswick Centre and also at Albany until
his move to Upper Canada -
apparently in 1790, although he returned to New York for the 1790-1791
Winter.
He remained royal to the British Crown, as many of the German population
did. At least one of his sons, Johan Frederick, fought with the King's
Royal Rangers of New York. Reverend Johan Samuel and his family were
imprisoned, his property confiscated and his church sacked on account of
his anti-revolution preaching. After which, the family moved to, what was
then known as, Upper Canada, to serve as the first pastor of the Lutheran
church in Williamsburg. Local records in New York indicate that
Schwerdtfeger died in 1787 or 1788 although records clearly show that hew
removed to Upper Canada where he remained until his death in 1798 or 1803.
Most of Schwerdtfeger's congregation moved to Upper Canada with him. They
established the first permanent Lutheran Church in Canada (some believe
the first resident Protestant Church) at
Williamsburg, Ontario. The British official were careful to settle the
Loyalists according to the following plan: Scottish Catholics in
Glengarry near the French Roman Catholics in Quebec, Presbyterians next,
and then Lutherans. The families of the congregation established the
Village of Williamsburg. Each male Loyalist was granted land by the
Crown, the number of acres dependent upon their status during the
revolution.
After his death in 1803 (most sources including his tombstone say 1803,
but some suggest that he died in 1798), the congregation worshipped under
the leadership of Rev. E.A. Myers until his death in 1807, whereupon,
Schwerdtfeger's son-in-law, John Guenter Weageant assumed his pulpit. In
later years, Weageant converted to the Anglican Church. A portion of the
congregation built a new church a few miles away. Some time before the
St. Lawrence Seaway was completed, the ladies of the Lutheran Church
discovered that their founding pastor was buried in an Anglican
churchyard and sponsored a drive to have his remains relocated to the
Lutheran churchyard. Later when the St. Lawrence Seaway was being
flooded, the original church was covered with water. Memorial stones were
removed to a new churchyard on higher grounds. In some cases, the remains
were also moved, but it is not known if Schwerdtfeger's
remains were moved for the second time. His son, Johan Frederich's
tombstone is embedded in the memorial wall at *Upper Canada Village* in
Morrisburg, Ontario.
Johan Samuel Schwerdtfeger married Anna Dorothea Schwabe in 1759. They
had nine children. SCHWABE was from a prominent colonial family for which
significant genealogical data has been recorded (the *SWOPE* family). A
fourth great grandson of Schwerdtfeger's was the Director of the
Genealogical Library in Salt Lake City, Utah. He also wrote several texts
on genealogy using his own
ancestors as examples.
Source: Donald McLatchie
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