Jakob Weber
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Jakob Weber (1688 - 1747)

Reverend Jakob "Jacob" Weber aka Wäber, Weaver
Born in Winterthur, Canton Zürich, Switzerlandmap
Ancestors ancestors
Husband of — married before 1721 in Chester County, Pennsylvania Colony, British Colonial Americamap
Descendants descendants
Died at about age 59 in Weaverland, East Earl Township, Lancaster County, Pennsylvania Colony, British Colonial Americamap
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Profile last modified | Created 27 Jan 2012
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Biography

Jakob was the second child and second son of Johann Anton Wäber (1658-1725) and Maria Margarethe Herr (1673-1725) [1] who between 1683 and 1698 had six children, five sons, John,”Hans or Johannes” Weber (1683-1775), Henry “Heinrich” Weber (1690-1745), George Weber (1693-1772), Hans Weber (1698-1755) and one daughter Maria Weber Landis (1695-1787). All the children were born in Switzerland. There is a legend that they had another daughter Anna Weber Martin (1692-1727) who married David Martin (1691-1784) but she died in 1727 on board the ship Molly, while immigrating to Pennsylvania and was buried at sea. [2] [3] When the Weaver brothers moved to Weaverland they left a 500 acre tract of land, for their sister and brother-in-law, that was located between Jakob's land and his brother Henry's land that David Martin took up upon his arrival in 1727 to Pennsylvania. [4]

Jakob was a farmer and a Mennonite Preacher that was born in Winterthur, Canton Zürich, Switzerland in 1688. [5] The Webers, originally from Winterthur, Canton Zürich, had become involved in the anabaptist movement at an early date, but under the repressive measures taken against them by the Zürich government, they fled to the Canton of Schaffhausen, remaining there intermittently until their removal to Pennsylvania in 1711. Jakob's parents Johann Anton Wäber (1658-1725) and Maria Margarethe Herr (1673-1725) and his older brother John,”Hans or Johannes” Weber (1683-1775) names do not appear in the 1710 Peqeau Colony record [6] but it is stated by Eshleman [7] that as soon as the winter of 1710-11 was over the group sent Martin Kendig back to the old country to bring on members of their families, who were left behind. Martin Kendig brought over on the second shipload of Mennonites settling in Pequea Colony. The return party included Jacob Weber. Rupp states [8] that between 1709 and 1730 Jacob Weber, Heinrich Weber, Johannes Weber and Georg Weber, all immigrated to Lancaster County.

The 1710 Pequea Colony received the original warrant for a tract of land in the Conestoga section of what was then Chester County, Pennsylvania Colony, granted by Edward Shippen, Griffith Owen and Thomas Story to this group of Swissers. The warrant appeared to have very liberal terms, indicating that it was done on the explicit instructions of William Penn. The land agent for this transaction was Johann Rudolph Bundeli (Bondeli), whose name led all the others in the original warrant. Bondeli, a Swiss Bernese patrician, who worked as an agent for Franz Louis Michel von Schwertschwendi of Ritter & Company, on June 30, 1711 patented an additional 500 acre tract of land adjacent to and north of the colony for himself. Bondeli's 500 acre tract of land was part of his commission paid by Ritter for establishing the Swiss colonists in Conestoga. About a month later Johann Anton Weber, his sons and the sons of Jakob Guth, Sr. (d. 1730), executed an agreement of lease with Bundeli for this newly acquired land which adjoined the Pequea or Neu-Strassburg settlement. The Webers and the Guths agreed to use that land under a system of rents, which were to be collected at Bundeli's house in Philadelphia on the first day of each year.

Some time during the late summer of 1711, perhaps in September, the Weber family moved to Conestoga. Between 1711 and 1717 Johann Anton Weber directed his sons in establishing a small plantation on the Bondeli tract, which they had dubbed "Weizenthal", or wheat-land, a name still used in that area although no longer in reference to the Weber lands. From 1711 to 1712 several buildings were erected on the Weizenthal tract: a log house, a log barn and a stable, and a number of smaller farm structures. The larger and more complicated buildings were probably built under the direction of Jakob Guth, Sr. who had training as a house-carpenter, the closest profession in those days to what is now known as an architect.

Between 1717 and 1723 the three brothers, Jakob, Henry and George, moved south of the Conestoga Creek along Blue Ball Run. Like the lands at Weizenthal, the tract was timberless when the brothers arrived. The Welsh had been making improvements while the Swiss and Germans were settling in the area. Between 1717 and 1723 Jakob and two of his brothers Henry and George moved to and settled Weaverland, originally called "Weber's Thal," "Weaver's Dale," now Weaverland, originally called Chester County, now Lancaster County, Pennsylvania. Weaverland is the name which has remained in use to this day. It was so called from the Webers or Weavers who took up between two and three thousand acres of land in 1723/4. George Weber and Hans Guth, brothers-in-law, and Jakob Weber and Henry Weber, all Swiss, were the first settlers, contiguous to the Welsh. The name "Guth'" became "Good." The Webers and Goods had settled in Lancaster County twelve or fifteen years earlier and lived near the present city of Lancaster. The Weaverland settlement became well-known during the 18th century as a center of fervent activity that attracted many devout and "newly-awakened" to the area. [9]

George Weaver
Early Weaverland Property Map

Sometime before 1721 Jakob married Anna Bauman in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania. Anna was the daughter of Wendel Bauman and Anna Herr Bauman. Anna's father's land adjoined the Weber's Weizenthal Plantation. Also the Bauman tract was adjoined to the Hans Herr farm, who was the father of Wendel's wife, Anna Herr. It is believed by some that Jakob's mother Maria Margarethe Herr and Anna Herr Bauman were sisters making Jakob and Anna cousins. Between 1721 and 1733 Jakob and Anna had nine children five sons, Jacob Weaver (1721-1802), Samuel Weaver (1721-1787), John Weaver (1723-1805), Henry Weaver (1731-1807), George Weaver (1733-1781), and four daughters Barbara Weaver Gander (1725-1831), Mary Weaver Kendrick (1727-1769), Anna Weaver Root (1728-1805), and Elizabeth Weaver Eaby. [10]

At birth all of Jakob's brothers and sisters took their father's last name of Weber. But all of Jakob's children were given the name "Weaver", an English translation for what the German name implies as the occupation, that is a weaver. It is unknown if Jakob actually changed his own name during his life time.

In 1747, at the age of 59, Jakob died in the home founded by him on the east banks of Blue Ball Run. His home farm contained over 500 acres. The stone meeting house, where the Weaverland Conference Mennonites worship, and the large graveyard, containing over two thousand graves, are also parts of this original farm. One half of the village of Blue Ball also occupies a strip of this plantation.

Jakob is buried in a small graveyard located along a dirt farm road in the center of corn fields (Coordinates: 40°08'00.2"N 76°02'58.2"W) Link to Google Maps. Within this small, enclosure the dust of the earth has mingled with the mortal remains of the first white settlers of the beautiful vale.

Sources

  1. I. From Database of Brent L. Rodes at rootsweb.com 06/10 - Her last name being Herr and the daughter of Hans is speculative.

    II. Only one Maria is listed as the daughter of Hans Herr and Elizabeth Kendig in T.W Herr. That Maria married Benedict Brackbill. This Maria could be an unlisted daughter of Hans Herr. using "Margarethe" as the preferred name to distinguish between the two.Topchy-1 13:16, 18 March 2014 (EDT) Reference T.W. Herr, p.1

    III. Notes on Margaretha Sieber Herr - April 2013 by Jack Gilchrist - There is much speculation and genealogy records that suggest that Margaretha Sieber "Maria" Herr (b.1663, d.1725) and her sister Maria Herr (b.1673, d.1725) are in fact he same person. This is supported by the fact that currently they are both recorded to have died on 1 Dec 1725 in Strasburg, Lancaster Co., PA. The birth dates of Margaretha's children by John Weber (Johann Anton Weber) between 1683 & 1695 and those of her sister Maria between 1702 & 1704 in the same place with the father being Benedictus Brackbill (b.1665, d.1720) would have made this a possibility if Margaretha divorced John Weber (Johann Anton Weber) and remarried in 1701 to Benedictus Brackbill. However I have found nothing in the history of any of their of spring to suggest his happened. Combined with the fairly well documented fact that John Weber (Johann Anton Weber) lived until 1724 and divorce was rare in the Mennonite community I continue to believe Margaretha and Maria Her were two separate individuals.
  2. JD Weaver Website Anna WEBER was born about 1700.19 She died in 1727 in at sea on Molly.19 She died at sea on the "Molly". According to family tradition, her share of the land in Weaverland was given to her husband David Martin. See Note on her marriage. Parents: Johann Anton WEBER and Maria Margaretha HERR. Spouse: David MARTIN. David MARTIN and Anna WEBER were married before 1727. Family tradition said that his (David Martin) first wife who died at sea on the Molly was Anna Weaver, sister of Henry , George, Jacob, and John Weber of Weber's Thal. However, Darvin Martin argues that this is highly unlikely. He argues in his article that the families probably never knew each other and that it is highly improbable that if he had a wife who was lost at sea, her name was Anna Weber. I would like to see more proof before I throw away this wonderful tale which M. G. Weaver quotes in his book. Jay Weaver.
  3. Find A Grave index - Anna Weber Martin
  4. J.D. Weaver Website another traditional narrative that his first wife, who died at sea, was a sister to the three Weber brothers, and the reason that they so thoughtfully provided for David Martin's future home was that they desired to give her the best of their pioneer homes, has not been proven authentically, yet we join in the belief that all circumstances point to the correctness of that sad narrative, and that the development of this section was followed as planned by the Webers, and that David Martin and his descendants never disputed the right nor the propriety of the name of the vale, to be given to those, who first chose the site of their settlement.
  5. Birthplace Source: World Family Tree Vol. 1, Ed. 1- Date of Import: Dec 7, 1998 - Tree #0341- Brøderbund Software, Inc., Publisher - Release date: November 29, 1995.
  6. Mennonites of Pennsylvania The ship Maria Hope, arrived on September 23, 1710, in the City of Philadelphia, Colony of Pennsylvania.
  7. HISTORIC BACKGROUND AND ANNALS OF THE SWISS AND GERMAN PIONEER SETTLERS OF SOUTHEASTERN PENNSYLVANIA, AND OF THEIR REMOTE ANCESTORS, FROM THE MIDDLE OF THE DARK AGES. DOWN TO THE TIME OF THE REVOLUTIONARY WAR BY H. FRANK ESHLEMAN, B. E., M. E.. LL B. - 1917, page 192 1711—Brethren Join the Pequea Colony of 1710. According to Rupp, it would seem that as soon as the winter of 1710-11 was passed, the Pequea colonists sent one of their members back to the Old Country, to bring on members of their family, who were left behind. Rupp described very vividly, pages 80 and 81, how this came about. Quoting from a source which he does not mention, he says, that before the ground brought forth its first crop, they made preparations to bring the balance of their families over — that after the lot fell to Hans Herr, it was decided that Martin Kendig should take his place and that he, accordingly, went abroad and brought a company of Swiss and Germans back with him. He tells us that the party consisted of the balance of families already here and of Peter Yordea, Jacob Miller, Hans Tchantz, Henry Funk, John Hauser, John Bachman, Jacob Weber and three others, whose Christian names are not given, Schlagel, Wenrich and Guildin. It would seem that Schlagel's name was Christopher, because in 1713, he had established himself on the Conestoga creek, and complained of the Cartledges interfering with his mill.
  8. A collection of upwards of thirty thousand names of German, Swiss, Dutch, French and other immigrants in Pennsylvania from 1727 to 1776, by Rupp, I. Daniel (Israel Daniel), 1803-1878, Published 1876 page 437 Swiss and German Settlers in Lancaster County from 1709 to 1730 - Jacob Weber, Heinrich Weber, Johannes Weber, Georg Weber
  9. Historic background and annals of the Swiss and German pioneer settlers of southeastern Pennsylvania, Page 219.
  10. Excerpt from Biographical Annuals of Lancaster County, page 110, Publishers: J. H. Beers & Co. 1903 . Susanna Weaver, the wife of Isaac Schnader, was a descended from Jacob Weber, one of the Swiss Mennonites who settled in Weber-Thai about the year 1723. Jacob Weber settled near Blue Ball, and took up about 750 acres of land in that neighborhood. He died in 1747. His children were: Jacob, Samuel, George, John (known as Hans Weber, and so named in deeds and papers), Henry, Barbara (who married Peter Gander), Elizabeth (who married Peter Eaby), Mary (who married Abraham Kendrick) and Ann (who married Christian Root).

See also:

  • Excerpt from: Weaverland Settlement - Settlers - Graveyard and Four Plantations - Early History Traced Through Weaverland Cemetery, by M.G. Weaver, November 1, 1933 In 1747, two years after the death of his brother Henry, the older brother, Jakob, also the father of a large family, who were older than Henry's family, died in the home founded by him, also on the east banks of Blue Ball Run. His home farm contained over 500 acres, which is now divided into eleven separate farms, and at several places being parts of other farms. The stone meeting house, where the Weaverland Conference Mennonites worship, and the large graveyard, containing over two thousand graves, are also part of this original farm. One half of the village of Blue Ball also occupies a strip of this plantation. His will, made a short time before his death, was also set aside and the family made a division of the real estate to suit themselves, by a mutual agreement, and a Benjamin Bowman administered on the personal property, filing his account (which remains in the Lancaster Court House records) in 1762. Bowman, was no doubt a brother, or at least a near relative to the widow, as she was, Anna Bauman, a daughter of Wendel Bauman, who belonged to the first Swiss settlement on the Pequea. She, like the widow of his brother, Henry, also survived her husband many years. It is safe to believe that tradition is correct in the saying that these brothers were interred in this enclosure, close together. There is a limestone in the southeastern part of the enclosure with the inscription: A WEBER 1777 This I believe to be the resting place of Anna Bauman Weber, widow of Jacob Weber, the first settler. A limestone by its side has the faintly visible inscription Weber 1780, another B. W. and another M. W. with dates not plainly preserved. All the stones in this corner have the appearance of having been brought from the same quarry of soft limestone; they also indicate that they were carved by the same hand, pointing to the information that they were of the same family relationship, or close of kin. To me it is quite logical that they and the Shirk family were closely connected, and the fact that Anna Weber Shirk, who died in 1796, at the age of 45 years, who was a granddaughter of Jacob Weber and Anna Bauman Weber, was buried in the same row, when she was the first one to die out of the family of her husband, John Shirk, gives force to the belief that the family is that of Jakob Weber, one of the pioneers.
  • An Address on the Early Settlement of the Valley Pequea. Delivered by Redmond Conyngham, at the Lyceum Celebration, Fourth of July 1812, page 11 Extract from a letter of Governor Pownall: "I passed through the hills over a rough road, six miles and a half to the widow Cadwell's at the Hat, and then entered the beautiful Valley of Pequea. The Vale is formed by the Valley Hill, on the South, and the Welsh mountain on the North. My next stage was six miles and a half to the Red Lion, then to Conestoga a large stream four miles, thence to Lancaster, two miles. Lancaster is a wealthy and thriving town, about five hundred inhabitants, manufactures saddles, pack saddles, guns. Indian traders, stocking weavers. Pequea afforded a pleasant prospect — a rich landscape — farm houses surrounded with apple and peach trees. The farmer are, proprietors, not tenants. On every farm a lime kiln, and the land adapted for the best of wheat. On inquiry, the finest farms are all owned by Switzers. Land or farms sell readily at three pounds an acre. On the east side of the Hills at five pounds per acre."




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