w YODER NEWSLETTER - Yoder Family Information

These Cley connections with the Canton Bern could be
Multiplied. I will mention one nore. On a fara adjolning
Eans Yoderrs lived the David Kauffnann fanily, who were
related to the Yoders j-n sone way not known, for Hane
Yoder was executor of the Kauffnann estates. ft is significant
that some of the Lancaster County Kauffnann
fanilies had their origins in Steffisburg, and it is
possible that these Oley Kauffnanns were Steffisburgere
as well.
The Yoder properties in the Cley Vs11st and el-sewhere
often contained nri-1ls - grist mil1s, sawmi11s, flaxmi1ls,
even papermills. I{ans Yoder,Jr. (1700-1779) built and
operated what was later known as the Griesemer Mil1.
Fron 1744-1?50 he was an owner and operator of the OIey
forge, until he sold out his share to his son-in-lawe
Col. John Lesher (U11-1794), later of revolutlonary
fane, and oae of the leading citizens of Berks County.
Col.Leeherrs son-in-l.aw, Jstrn Pott, Jr. (f759-f827) fafa
out Pottsville in what l-s now Schuylkill Counly, s6s3"
he operated the Greenwood Purnace and Forge. I'tany of the
Oley Yoders joined in thie nigration into Schuylkill
County, but that is another story.
I have always been impressed with the nechanical arrd
practical talents shared by so nany of our Yoder forefathers,
thelr love of nachinery, constructionr and
nathenatics. (My own father is remembered in the world
of Anerlcan railroading for his book Locomotive Valves
and Valve Gearsrllew Yorkr]-9lT.) Thesa tendencies must
run in the family. hhen I fj-rst visited Steffisburg in
1950 I found that most of the nill6 in the parish were
run by the Yodere since the sixteenth century. Hans antl
Iost Yoderrs father, Adam Joder, operated the fulling
nill at the Schnittwej.er Bad, on the nountain north of
Steffisburg.
Yoot Yoder the Frontiernan
fost Yoder, brother of Hans, was baptized Cctober 5 r
I5?9, at Steffisburg. Lees docunentation is available on
hl-s trail in Europe than his
bably went to the Palatinate.
brother's, but he too pro-
re did not cone to Arnerica
with lIans Yoder in L7O9/I7LO, since his nane does not
appear in the London Lists of Falatines in 1709. He
probably calne over before l/2O, and of course settled in
the Cley VaIleYr near hl-s brother. The naiden name of his
wife Elizabeth has not yet turned up. tsut he had a son
l{ans also, cal-Ied
rrYost-Hannesrr to distingui.sh hin fron
his first cousin, Hans YoderrJr., and a daughter Elizabeth.
who in 1744 was written up in a book of ghost
gtories published by Chri-stopher Sauer in Germantown.
Yost Yoder is remenbered in Penngyfvani.a legend as a
nighty hunter and trapper. He is saj.d to have made hunting
excursions in and even beyond the Bl-ue l":ountain in
'what was then fndian country and is now Schuylkil-l County.
Friendly Indiane sti11 lived in the Cley Va1ley when the
first Yoders arrived. l'eter G. Bertolet recorded fron the
older nenbere of the Yoder family lnany stories about the
reLationships between the whi.te and the red nan. Severalof
the second-generation Yodere in Cley in fact learned
and could talk the Delaware Indian language.
Sone of Yostrs fanily were rough and ready frontier
types as wel1. An o1d by-word in Oley was rllike Yost-
I{annestt-i.e. ;rough and uncouth.
Yost Yoder made his w111 May 29tI741. It was proved
January 14tI742.(Ividently the executors of his and his
brotherrs wills nade a joint trip to Philadelphia to
settle the courthouse buslness.) Yost is deecri-bed in
the will as rrJost Jodder of Philadelphia County, husband-
Eanrr. He nentione his wife El"izabeth and his son John.
f,e narnes his wife and Gabriel Boyer executors. Abrahan
Eehnan and John Jodder (thich one?) witnessed the docurnent.
Yost Yoder nade his mark instead of signing his
nane. The will l-o on record in the Philadelphia Archivesr
Uitl Book F, page 267 .
The Yoder ghost story, as related by llizabeth Yoder,
Yoetre daughter, in L74tt tells how her fatherts.spirit
7
returned to visit her. It seens that fike most shosts g,
he had a nessage for his daug.hter which he was unable to
give her before his death. It was torrscorn and despiee
not the Frenchmanrrr i.e.rDr. George deBennevil-Ie (t?Ot-
1793), who was the pioneer preacher of the Universalist
gospel in America. I{e lived in Gernantown but also had
a base in Cley. Cn being asked by his daughter wlere he
was, Yost Yoderrs 6host answered that he was "at a good
placerrr and his beloved brother (Hans) was there too.
This story appeared in a bestseller volune of ghost
appearances, with religi,ous conmentary, published by
Christopher Sauer in Gernantown in 1744. It was reprinted
in 1748,1755, and 1792.
According to Dr. Feter G. Bez'toletrs history of Cleyt
Ellzabeth Yoder, Yostrs daughter, narried Lazarus "r'eidner.
If this is the case, that nakes ne a descendanl sf Yost
Yoder as well as of Hans, since Lazarus
',{eidnerrs
daughter
iraria l^Jeidner (1?55-1841) was the second wife of
ny ancestor George Yoder,sr. (1752-18JJ), "otr of Sanuel
Yoder and grandson ef Hans YoderrJr. This makes me a
double Yoder.
And if Karl- Joderrs information is correct on the
marriage of one of my nothetts ancestorsr Ilichael
Dentlinger (Denlinger), a LlIl llennonite emigfarrt to
Lancaster County, to Veronica Joder of Rotenhof near
Albersweiler in the Falati-nate, then I am, for better or
for worse, a triple Yoder. The Denlinger-Yoder is cited
unfortunately without documentation, in the otherwise
completely documented article by Ralph E.Denlinger,
rrThe
Denlinger Familyr" in t
III:, (July 1980)'IO-15. Cn roy laet visit with Karl-
Joder in Oggersheim in November, 1981, f asked hin
what documentation he had for the marriager which evldently
took place in the Palatinate' but unfortunately
he had lost or nislaid i-t. I hope it turns up!
The.Oley Yoders and the Later MiFration
Ilans and Yost Yoder were of course not the only
Yoders to come to colbnlal Pennsylvania.. They "ere the
first to cone, wi-th lians leading the procession in
L7O9/L7LO, and founding the Reforned branch of the
faelly in Amerl-ca. The second wave of Yoder migration
brought the Mennonite Yoders to Bucksr }iontgonery and
Iehigh Counties, about 1720. (See Kenneth l{ottlers
excellent artj-c1e on trHans Joder of Great Swaraptrr in
Mennonlte Fanily l{istoryrll:4 (October 1981)'144-146'
@oder Newsletter r:J,Apr.84).
The third rnigratlon brought the Amish YoderstrStrong
.Iacobrr, ItDl-ck Christelrr and the others- in
I?42 and Later. The readers of thl-s newsletter and of the
several Mennonite historical a.nd geneal.ogical periodicals
are well informed on this mj,gration.
I am certaj-n that all these early Yoder enigrants
r,rere aware of their relationship to the other branchest
a.n awareltess that we have had to rebuild in our century.
Peter Bertoletrs history of Oley clains that they were
related, and he was much closer than we to the emigrants.
It is significant that the Amish Yoders came to Berks
County following the Reforned branch. Bern Townshipt where
they eettled, is not far fron 01ey, and some of the Oley
Yoders had lands in sern Township. And the founder of the
North Carolina Yoder c1an, Conrad Yoder, who arrived at
Philadelphia in IIJL, first settled in CIey among his
Yoder cousins and then went eouth to Lincoln County,
liorth Carolina. There is a history of the llorth Carolina
Yoders written by Dr. Fred Roy Yoderr whon I had the
pleasure 6one years ago of showing through the Cley
Va1ley.
In conclusion, let ne say that I have always been
interested in the fact that the Yoders- with al-I their
talents, virtues, arrd faults- are and always have been
a typical Pennsylvalia German fanily. The tbree branches-
Reforned, l'lennonite, and Anisb- af1 trace back to the
sarne roots i-n Steffisburg, C6p161 Dern. i'fl:i1e there wer':
in other Svriss Cantcns Joder farnilies that appear to be
unrelated to the Steffisburg clan' all the Pennsylvania
Yoders can cl-ain a relationship to each other. Using
the Pennsylvania Gernean word, we can say that we al-l
belone to the sane Freindschaft.