w YODER NEWSLETTER - Yoder Family Information

lane Yoder (L672-I?42), @
Futting together the fact that ilans Yoder of the Cley
Valley had a brother Iost who joined him in Anerica and
a brother
determine
Nicolaue who renained in Europe, I was able
that Hans Yoder (t572-I?42) was born on the
to
Crtblfhl farurrat SteffJ-sburg, Canton Bern, Switzerland'
March 1Or15?2r and died ln Penneylvania in 1742. He was
the oldeet eon and flrstborn chilil of Adaro Joder and
hie nlfe Barbara Ccheenbein of Steffisburg. The Cchsenbeins
werc a fanily with orlgins in what ie now Canton
SoIothurn.,Some of thern noved to Burgdorf and elsewhere
in the Bernese territorles in the latd Mj.ddle Ages and
durlng the Refornation. In the fifteenth century sone
of then were city offlclals and clergynen in Solothurn
lteelf and !l!-gg94!g or
eeat at Schlose Dorneck.
district Sovernors with their
Adan Joder was born at Steffisburg Septembet 22t
1550. ge had a twin brotherr Hans Joder, for whon Hans
Yoder of Cley was naued. Adam Joder was the son of
Nicolaus and Anna (TrachEel) Joder of the Crtbuhl Farm.
Nicolaue Joder (1509-1580) was the son of Casper and
Margaretha (Hennig) Joder of Steffisburg. This was ttre
Caaper Joder who 6erved briefly
steifisburg and the Freigericht
as Statthalte! of
st"T?G6ffif5r1-15r2.
The Statthalter was, like a Landvogtt a district Sovernor
and representative of the cantonal governrnent of
Bern. For I'icofaus Joder see ny articlet ItThe Kung-
Gnagi ConnectionrI in
VI: l(January 1981), 2-6.
Hane Yoder was twice marrled. Ilis first
nanetl Veronica
"Iselnynrt. At least that is
wife was
the way her
nane braa spelled in the recorde
Church ln Pennsylvania. lhis is
of the o1d:st Reforned
the church 15s1 llans
Ioder joined on hls arrival In L7o9/LZIot the Dutch
Reformed congregation at I'Ihitenarsh, north of Phlladelphla.
f have checked the orlginal record book written
in Holrand Dutcb' now ln the lresbyterian Historical
Society in Philadelpblar and the transcription is as
above given. Thls presents a problen. Is |tleelnyn" a
I{olland Dutchmants way of spelling the Enmenthal nane
rrEschelnannr "
or what is more likely' the Thun-Steffisburg
nane ttl{uoelnannrr? f have not yet been able to
sol-ve this problern, or to fj-nd the place of date of this
oarriage. A11 we know is that llans and veronica were
narried ae earJ.y as L599/L?O0, the birthdate of their
eon Hans Yoder, Jr.(1700-1779). The source for the name
Ileelnynr'ls lVilLialo J. fllnkered.r'r0hurch Record of
I{csbaminy and Benealen, Bucks County, I?LO-l?t8tn
Journal of the Prcgbyterian IlistoricaL Societv'I:1
ee the
riference to the eecond marriager below.
rdhen dli l{ans Yod:r leave Switzerl"t-d? Ag"1" the year
ls not known, but he doee turn up in tbe Palatinate ln
l?08-1?o9r ln the vllIage of SchwetzLngen, not far fton
Mannheln and Heidelberg. Schwetzingen centere around the
Bunner residence of the Electors of the Palatinate! the
great Schlose whj.ch le stilt etandJ-ng anidst its fornal
gardene. W111 tsans Yoderte knowledge of farning and
n11Ling he probably was hired to work ln eone capacity
for thi Elector. Unfortunately the Schwetzingen council
minutee (Ratsprotokolle) for thi6 period are missing.
Cur knowledge of hls reeidence ln Schwetzingen cones
fron the Reforned Church Registers of the town. As 6ome
of ny readers know, there ls extensive research going
on "i pr"""nt into the backgrounds of the
ttlTO9ererrrthe
PaLatine enigrants of 1709, sponsoretl by Ilank Jones of
Unlversal Clty, California. His European reeearcher,
Karla Mittelstaedt-Kubaseck, whorn I know personallyt
attended a lecture I gave at a conference in the Palatinate
ln I9?4, I aeked her to be on the lookout for any
reference she night locate to l{ans or lost loder. Sone
tlnc later ghe wrote ne that ln going through the
Schwetzingen Reforned Church register, on deposit in the
Baden Church Archivea at Karlsruhe, she found Eane Yoder
ln schwetzingcn in the years 1708-1709. gans and.Veronica
foder bad a tlaughter Anna Regina, baptized January 2/t
it oh.!D.. Jot t. ! (lodcr)
uDd Pbrodct lalni lhuafrau Elt l(l!d lBDa naglla
t.t ll|xo
'l?09 d.[ f.ll.rt! l! dt. Ir!.1
1708, wi.th Jacob Kcirner, schoolmaster, and his wife
RacheI a6 sponsors. In connection with thls entry the
pastor later added that trthis
\
\
\
family went to the fsland
of Fs4nsylyanJ-arMarch 1, 1ZO9rr. Like nany Europeans of
the time, the pastor probably thought that Iennsylvania
was just anottrer of those West Indian Islands.
By I'lay 6rL?Og, Hans yoder was in London, with hundreds
of refugee Palatines, preserved in the British Library ,
Hans Joderts name (misspelled as lrFodderil when the lists
were published in 1909) appears among the 'rFirst Arrivalsrt
_(Ioders are always on ti-mel). nis "gi """ given as JB,
his occupation that of
frhusbandmant' (farner), and his'
religion Reforured. Accompanylng him were his wife, two
sons aged ! and 4, and a daughter aged orru y.rr. ih"
source of this information is the article, rrlists
of
Germans from the Fal_atinate who cane to In8land in 1ZO9r I
ln: The New York Genealogical- and tsiographical ]tegisterj
xr,r Tlllet:--
These lists are the key to Hans Yodcrrs early move-
nents, settl-enents, and personal
','/ith
relationships in !ennsylvania.
his name in ttre London Lj-sts appear the
nanes of John LeDee ancl Philip Kuhlwein. This is significant,
since Hans Yod:rrs second wife, who he marrj.ed
in Psnlsylyania April 29rI?l L, was Anna Rosina LeDee.
dau6hter of Jean LeDee, usually spelled LeDez, philip
Ktihlewein (L6v-r73?) became ilanS Ioderrs brother-in-law
1n narrying another daughter of Jean LeDez. Both LeDez
and Kuhlewein settled in Oley with ilans yoder, in fact
pr.eceded him ihere.
Eans Yoder must not have been as trpoortr as some of his
Palatine countrymen in London. l'iost of theu were shipped
by Queen Anne either to County Lime:ick in Irelandr or
to the iludsoa Valley in New York to nake naval stores
for the British governnent. Ilans Yodrrr along with Jeaa
LeDez, Phllip Kuhlewein, lians Jacob Fu1lwei1er, Gerhard
Clenens and a few others listed, nanaged to corne directly
to Fhiladelphia, where they becane founders of Fennsylvania
Dutch rather than of liew York l'alatine fanilies'
l'jhere did ltans Yoder first settle'? Cn January 14,
1?11, he purchased a tract of 275 acres along the Schuylkill
liver in Coventry Township, Chester Countyr somewhere
opposite the preeent Fottstor*n. IIe purchaeed this
land frorn John Henry Kerson (liersten) who later appears
in Cley as reLl. Cn the sane date, January l4rlfllr an
adJoining tract was bought fron Kerson (Kersten) by Hane
Jacob Furrweiler (1682-r?15)
' who also appears in the
London Lists. The purchase of adjolning tracts on the
sane day implJ-es 6ome relationship between the two nen.
(Could Fullweilerrs wi.fe Barbara have been Ilans Yoderrs
,rl
sister Barbara, born at steffisburg Ln L5752 If so shc