Christian Erb (1734 - 1810)

Born 15 Oct 1734 in Switzerland

Ancestors

Husband of Mary (Shirk) Erb — married 1756 in Lancaster, Pennsylvania

Descendants

Died 17 Jul 1810 at age 75 in Doon, Waterloo, Upper Canada

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Biography

Christian Erb born in 1734 in either Switzerland or Lancaster Co., Pennsylvania, USA. He passed away in 1810.

Sources

Mennonite Records, Lancaster, Pennsylvania

Christian Erb, (Oct 1734 - July 7, 1810)

Son of Christian Erb and Maria Winger

Married 1756, Maria Scherch, (1737 - Aug 17, 1814)

Children:

1. Joseph (1758 - 1830) married 1804 Barbara Shirkin

2. Christian (June 11, 1758 - Oct 25, 1820) married Elizabeth Hershey

3. Daniel (Apr 4 1760 - Sep 29 1837) married Elizabeth Longenecker

4. Susannah (Mar 17, 1762 - Jan 22, 1844) married 1781, Jacob Brubacher

5. John (Dec 8, 1764 - Sep 2 1832) married Magdalena Schrantz

6. Mary (Mar 2 1766 - Aug 27, 1835) married Jacob Schneider

7. Jacob ( Jan 25, 1768 - March 20, 1834) married Salome Graybill

8. Elizabeth (Jan 23, 1770 - Sep 29, 18180 married 1789 Christian schneider

9. Abraham (July 12, 1772 - Sept 6, 1830) married 1804 Magdalena Erb

10. Anna (Dec 11, 1774 - Oct 13, 1866) married John Bricker

11. Magdalena (Feb 2, 1777 - Dec 26, 1864) married Samuel Eby

12. Benjamin (Sept 27, 1789 - ) married Susanna Stauffer

Lancaster, Pennsylvania, Mennoinite Vital Records image 2374

....

• 1. Brubacher Geneology in America, Jacob N. Brubacher, Mennonite Publishing Co., Elkhart Ind., 1884, p. 14
• 2. Canada, Find a Grave Index

Christian Erb Gravestone Project

Among the many Mennonite families who migrated from Pennsylvania to Waterloo Region between about 1800 and 1830 was the Erb family. Christian Erb (1734-1810) and his wife, Maria Scherch (also spelled Sherk or Shirk) 1737-1814, had a family of 12 children. According to Ezra Eby in his A Biographical History of Waterloo Township, seven of these children came to Canada: Abraham, Jacob, John, Magdalena, Anna, Mary and Elizabeth. Two of their daughter Susannah’s children, Mary and John, also moved from Pennsylvania to Canada. These seven children and two grandchildren of Christian and Maria arrived in Canada over an 11-year period.

Daughter Anna (usually referred to as Nancy) married John Bricker. They came in 1802 making them some of the very first settlers. Mabel Dunham’s Trail of the Conestoga is based in part on this family.

Daughter Magdalena married Indian Sam Eby and they arrived in 1804.

The year 1805 saw the arrival of son John Erb who is considered to be the founder of Preston, now part of Cambridge, Ontario. He erected a sawmill and a grist mill which according to Ezra Eby made Preston “quite a business centre.”

In 1806, four of John’s siblings, namely Elizabeth, Mary, Abraham and Jacob came to Canada with their spouses. Elizabeth and Mary were married to the Schneider brothers. Elizabeth and Christian settled in Doon while Mary and Jacob (known as Yoch) settled in the Bloomingdale area. Christian and Jacob were brothers of Joseph Schneider whose house in Kitchener is now the Schneider Haus museum.

Abraham Erb is considered to be the founder of what is now the City of Waterloo. Like his brother, John, he erected a sawmill and a grist mill in what is now downtown Waterloo.

The seventh of Christian and Maria’s children to come to Canada was Jacob who settled a little west of Berlin — now Kitchener.

Susannah was married to Jacob Brubacher who had died at the young age of 35, leaving his widow to care for their seven children. Susannah purchased several of the original lots of the original German Land Company. Her daughter Mary married Bishop Benjamin Eby and they arrived in Canada in 1807, shortly after their marriage. John, another of widow Brubacher’s sons, came as a young man in 1815. He returned to Pennsylvania in the fall of that year. The next year, he came back to Canada with his widowed mother, who by now was about 54 years of age. Susannah stayed in Canada for a two year period, visiting with family before returning to Pennsylvania to be with the rest of her family. Susannah had also visited Canada in 1809 to visit her parents, who had moved to Canada sometime during these years and lived with their daughter, Elizabeth and Christian Schneider.

Christian died in July, 1810 and Maria in the summer of 1814 and were buried in the Blair Cemetery. The first known burial in that cemetery was little Johnny Bricker, their grandson, the son of Nancy (Erb) and John Bricker. Their gravestone is a sizable monument compared to many of the others nearby and bears the following approximate inscription:

English translation:

HERE RESTS

CHRISTIAN ERB WHO DIED

IN THE YEAR 1810 AND WAS 75

YEARS, 10 MONTHS OLD.

WHOEVER HERE WISHES TO BE IN GOD’S KINGDOM

MUST BECOME LIKE A CHILD

AND FOLLOW HIS FATHER’S ADVICE

IN FAITHFUL DEED, AND TO LIVE FOR HIM BOTH

EARLY AND LATE.

HERE RESTS MARIA ERB

WIFE OF CHRISTIAN ERB

WHO DIED IN THE YEAR 1814

AND WAS 76 YEARS OLD.

OH GOD, MUCH SORROW

I HAVE MET IN MY TIME,

THE NARROW WAY,

WHICH I SHOULD WANDER TO HEAVEN

WAS FULL OF TRIBULATON.

Christian and Maria’s gravestone is badly worn and corroded, so the above transcription may not be precise.

Ontario Mennonite History Newsletter Volume XXIX, Number 1, June 2011, ISSN 1192-5515 Page 8

"Find A Grave Index," database, FamilySearch (https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:QVKR-F8JY : 10 September 2021), Christian Wenger Erb, ; Burial, Blair, Waterloo Regional Municipality, Ontario, Canada, Blair Cemetery; citing record ID 58525406, Find a Grave, http://www.findagrave.com.

Acknowledgements