Karl Joder notes on the Oley Yoders, translated by Fred Haines

A Palatine Settlement in Oley Valley in
Pennsylvania by Karl Yoder

YODER FAMILY INFORMATION--CYBERSPACE EDITION-1998

published by the Yoder Family Newsletter, Goshen,
Indiana

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These files contain a collection of Yoder family
data which has been assembled since 1983 by the Yoder Newsletter
(YNL), P O Box 594,Goshen, IN 46527 for subscription information).
For content update, write Chris Yoder, 203 Lakeshire Rd., Battle
Creek, MI 49015 or email at [email protected]. We apologize in advance for any typographical errors
in this work. Please help us correct and extend any of the information
in these records.

In addition to being available for order on
disk from the YNL, these files may be accessed over the Internet
at Genealogy Online.

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This data was translated in 1997 by Mr. Fred
Haines from the German text of Karl Joder and Ottmar Jotter in
their compilation " Picture Book to the Chronicle of the
Joder-Jotter Family". The YNL wants to express it's deep
appreciation to Mr. Haines for his translating AND typing skills
and for his willingness to volunteer his time for the benefit
of all Joder/Yoder descendants around the world (particluarly
those of us who speak English!).

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A WORD OF WARNING- Karl Joder's notes, in their
discussion of the Joder familieswhich left Steffisburg, make certain
claims about different lines which went to theUnited States. He
presents no documentation which establishes this, sometimes gives
data which is in conflict with itself, and for one major line
which he indicates would have been the source of the Amish "Widow
Barbara", he is a generation off from time of actual immigration.
His European data should be considered as a help in ruling out
one line or another, and in suggesting some other lines as candidates
for the source of US immigrants.

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Title Page:

Picture Book to the Chronicle of the Joder-Jotter
Family

(One of the most named families in America)

Yodersville

------------------------

A Palatine Settlement in Oley Valley in Pennsylvania

---------------------

In the Church Register of the Evangelical Church
Congregation inSchwetzingen it is written that the emigrants left
Schwetzingenon 1 March 1709 to seek a new homeland in the State
ofPennsylvania in America. The route did not, however, leaddirectly
to the Atlantic ocean, as they made several farewellvisits in
Oggersheim-Eppstein. In Eppstein the company was joinedby a family
called Kuehlwein and a Huguenot family called LeeDez,and, in Lambsheim,
a Huguenot family called Bertolet. Oggersheimand Eppstein were
not the homeland of the emigrants, though, onlya way station.

The homeland of Hans and Jost Joder was Switzerland,
moreprecisely, the country around Steffisburg in the Canton of
Bern,from which a great number of Joder families came by way of
theAlsace to the southern Pfalz around Albersweiler and Oggersheim-Eppstein
between 1690 and 1709. These families which migrated tothe Pfalz
were all, with a single exception, Old Evangelical orMennonite
- only Hans and Jost Joder, their parents, and brotherswere Reformed.

Hans Joder was married to Veronica Eschlimann
and had a daughternamed Anna-Regina who, when they left for America,
was just ayear old.

We know that there were many victims of the
frightful sea voyage,and it appears that the wife and daughter
of Hans Joder wereamong them, for in 1711 he married a second
time, in theWhitemarsh Reformed Church by a Pastor Van Vlecq,
to Anna RosinaLeeDez, daughter of the Huguenot Jean LeeDez, who
had accompaniedHans Joder to the New World. He is described in
the marriagedocument as 'widower of Fronica Eschelmann.'

Whether Jost Joder married in Eppstein, before
the voyage, oronly in Pennsylvania cannot be determined, but it
is clear thatby the time they turned up in the Oley settlement,
he was marriedto Catherine K hlwein. This was confirmed to us
by KathleenDietrich, resident in Stockbridge MA 01262, USA, who
counts JostYoder and Cathrin K hlwein and John Yoder and Catherine
Lescheramong her American forebears, while her Dietrich ancestors
stemfrom Becherbach in the Pfalz.

In the years 1711 to 1720 many families emigrated
from theFrankenthal-Flomersheim-Eppstein-Lambsheim-Oggersheim
andMutterstadt region to Pennsylvania, among them, in 1709, aPhilipp
Kuehlwein, a cousin of Cathrin Kuehlwein, the wife of JostYoder.
Also from Lambsheim was a Mathias Baumann, who also had awife
named Kuehlwein. Baumann was a Pietist who founded the sectof
'Newborns' in Pennsylvania. In order to attract adherents tohis
sect, he preached at every opportunity that he had been sentby
God, and the proof thereof was that he could wade through theManatawny
river - a river half as wide as the Neckar (inGermany) - without
getting wet. Since he couldn't actually dothis, me managed only
to lose the rest of his adherents. He movedfar away and died in
Baumannsville in 1727.

An Ulrich Stauffer also emigrated from the
Frankenthal district.He was ashamed of his background and ancestry
in the Pfalz, andduring the sea passage on the sailing ship he
learned a fewcrumbs of English. The first thing he did on American
soil waschange his name. He called himself 'Uellerigh Stouffre,'
in orderto create an impression that he was English or Irish.
As he spokeneither perfect English nor Irish nor French, he shot
himself inthe foot with the name change, while other members of
theStauffer families in America, more proud of their heritage,founded
the world famous Stauffer Chemical Corporation.

Hans Joder and his brother Jost were, in the
year 1709, the firstto bring the name Joder or Yoder to America.
Religious refugees,they left everything behind but a Bible - now
the oldest Bible inall of America - which had been bought by Caspar
Joder, thenreigning Statthalter (magistrate or sheriff) in Steffisburg,
andwhich Hans and Jost had inherited. The Bible had been printed
inMainz in 1530, during Martin Luther's lifetime - one of very
fewprinted before 1540. It is beautifully printed and boasts severalillustrations.
The text is not divided into verses. It had beenlong in the possession
of the Joder family and was the onlyobject thought valuable enough
to be taken along on the journeyto America. It later came into
the possession of Mary B. Yoder.

The two brothers lived first in the wilderness
where no man hadever set foot. Later they bought vast flatlands
among the Indians on the Manatawny river in the valley of the
Blue Mountains.

Their lands, which until then had been public
property, weresurveyed for the first time on March 25, 1714, and
entered underthe name of Hans Joder in the Secretary's Office
in Philadelphiathe same day.

On June 21, 1717, Hans Joder sold a tract of
nearly 300 hectaresfrom the northern part of his lands to the
Huguenot settlerAntoni LeeDez, and, in the southern part, a somewhat
smallerparcel lying on the Manatawny river and called Crooked
Dam, toGabriel Boyer, a family from the Mutterstadt-Oggersheim-Frankenthal
district of the Pfalz which settled and anglicizedtheir name from
Bayer to Boyer in the Oley Valley.

Hans Yoder - the pioneer settler - died at
his farm in 1742 andwas buried in the family cemetery of Yodersville
orPleasantville.

[Charcoal drawing of small, two-story log cabin]

In the beginning, there were only such log
cabins in Yodersville,the settlement founded by the brothers Hans
and Jost Joder in1713. However, some years later the small settlement
had become,owing to further immigration, particularly from the
Frankenthal-Eppstein-Lambsheim-Oggersheim-Mutterstadt district
of the Pfalz,a small town. Yodersville boasted grain mills and
sawmills, largefarmhouses, a massively built Pleasantville Hotel,
paper mills,and business firms like Daniel A. Yoder's Distillery
and LiquorFactory. (From Fragments of the Past, Historical Sketches
of Oleyand Vicinity, by Peter Bertolet, 1860.)

[A graphic that appears to be an advertisement
for Daniel A.Yoder's Wines and Liquors]

For his farm, Jost Joder, the pioneer of the
family, sought out aspecially favorable location on the bank of
the Manatawny river.On the day he surveyed his claim with a surveyor,
he laid it outwith long, straight boundaries until he came to
a fresh spring.Surely, the geometrician thought, you want this
spring with itslovely surroundings included in your land. 'No,'
Jost said, 'wewill draw our boundaries past this spring and leave
it for othersettlers. This place is so beautiful and inviting
that I hope itwill soon attract a settler and bring me a neighbor.'

This candor is an example of the man's character.
He was generousand friendly and knew how to value friends, especially
out therewhere men were so isolated in the wilderness. This story
showsthat Yoder was the first to take possession of land in thisdistrict,
as all land outside his own boundaries was still publicproperty.
The site on the Manatawny river was called Crooked Dam,and the
farm build there soon by Gabriel Boyer-Bayer is known tothis day
as Crooked Farm.

Jost Joder had considerable capabilities as
an inventor ofmechanical devices. He manufactured axes, scythes,
plows,firearms, and many other things which the pioneers neededurgently.
He was also a passionate hunter and, in addition, adevotee of
strong drink. His passion for hunting and rum('firewater' to the
Indians) soon attracted the notice of theIndians, and he was gladly
accepted by them, especially those wholived nearby. They obviously
developed a taste for alcohol, andas soon as they discovered that
their good and generous neighborYoder always had some around the
house, the became daily visitorsto him and his whiskey bottle.

Jost Yoder's eldest son was named Johannes
(called de Joscht-Hannes) and is buried in the family cemetery
at Jodersville-Pleasantville. The inscription on his gravestone
runs:

Here lies

JOHANNES YODER

He was born 1718

Married 1747 with Catherine Lescher

and raised 4 sons and 5 daughters. Died

7 April 1812, after 66 years of marriage.

He was 94 years and 14 days old.

The Leschers or L"eschers also come from
the Frankenthal-Lambsheimer district. Catherine Lescher, the wife
of JohannesJoder, was born in 1730, and the couple had nine children,
foursons and five daughters.

The gravestones in the Yoder family cemetery
are artisticallyfashioned from very fine sandstone, and John Yoder,
the son ofHans Yoder, the pioneer settler and founder of a paper
mill onthe Manatawny river, said that such sandstone was nowhere
to befound in America but had to be quarried from mountains in
thePfalz and transported to America. (From the book Fragments
of thePast, Historical Sketches of Oley and Vicinity, by Peter
G.Bertolet, 1960.)

Hans Yoder, the brother of Jost, had four sons,
Hans, Samuel,Daniel, and Peter. Hans Junior had three sons of
his own, Daniel,Martin, and Jakob. His wife, Sarah Schenkel, died
in 1798 and wasburied at Easter in the de Turks cemetery. (The
de Turks are aHuguenot family from the Frankenthaler district
and the Schenkelsprobably stem from Edenkoben.)

One day in Yodersville, Hans Joder and his
wife were busyclearing land near where the Pleasantville Hotel
stands today.The industrious parents had locked their children
in the logcabin to protect them from the wild animals which appeared
fromtime to time. As they tucked into their work, they believed
thatthose at home were in safety. They were however not long at
thework when they heard shots from the direction of the house.
Theyran home to find a band of drunken Indians from the neighborhood.Good
friends of Yoder, they had come to visit. When they foundthe house
locked up although someone was inside, they believedthey were
being kept out purposely. They were insulted and angry,and, as
they were also drunk, they fired thoughtlessly throughthe door.
Yoder, who was very brave, sprang upon them and beatthem before
they had time to realize what was happening. Thewhole band took
off, shouting threats of revenge.

It was not long before they reappeared with
reinforcements todemand reparations. The new arrivals were fortunately
sober.Yoder quietly explained to them what had happened and showed
themthe hole in the door and the helpless children inside and
howeasily one of them could have been been killed. This worked
well.The Indians became furious at the man who had fired the shots
andmight have killed him on the spot if Yoder hadn't interposedhimself
and, with the greatest of difficulty, dissuaded them,since no
real harm had been done. He suggested they return home,which they
promised to do. The drunken Indians had also taken abundle of
Yoder's fleeces, which the sober ones brought back, butYoder refused
to take them and declared the incident closed. TheIndians, however,
insisted on giving them back anyway.

[The following two paragraphs stand side by
side in the original]

Jakob Yoder the Flatboatman on the Mississippi,
born 11 August1758 at Yodersville in Oley County.

Jakob Yoder the Flatboatman on the Ohio, born
10 January 1712 atSteffisburg in the Canton of Bern, Switzerland.

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NOTE- The data above is suspect!-C Yoder- Yoder
Newsletter

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In the marriage register of the village community
of Steffisburg,Switzerland, the marriage of Hans Joder and Christina
Moser isentered for the date September 30, 1707. The following
childrenwere born to them:

Birth Register Date Name

================================================================

Vol 5 page 52 January 8, 1708 Barbara Joder

Vol 5 page 66 June 15, 1710 Jakob Joder (died
as child)

Vol 5 page 77 January 10, 1712 Jakob Joder
('Strong' Jakob)

Vol 5 page 131 August 12, 1714 Hans Joder

Vol 5 page 189 March 7, 1717 Anna Joder

Vol 5 page 205 August 11, 1720 Elsbeth Joder
(died as child)

Vol 5 page 295 December 14, 1721 Elsbeth Joder

Vol 5 page 393 August 19, 1725 Catherin Joder

Vol 6 page 20 September 19, 1728 Magdalene
Joder

This Hans Joder-Christina Moser family, with
its seven children,later emigrated to the Pfalz and from there
to America. The boyborn in 1712 later became known in America
by the nickname'Strong' Jakob Yoder.

Strong Jakob was recognized as the strongest
man in America, and one of his sons was nicknamed Dick Christel...
or 'Dick Christle' Yoder.

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NOTE- The data above is suspect!- C Yoder-
Yoder Newsletter

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The Jakob Yoder born in Yodersville on August
11, 1758, was noteven in the world when his namesake cousin born
in Steffisburg inSwitzerland was already running a flatboat on
the Ohio River,beginning in 1757.

Flatboats are those rafts with a hut built
on them to shelter forthe passengers from bad weather. The rafts
were large enough toaccommodate several horses and other livestock
- the entirebaggage and tools of the crew could be stowed.

(Whoever wants to know more should read the
book by RudolfCronau: Drei Jahrhunderte Deutschen Lebens in Amerika.
Theflatboat of Strong Jakob Yoder is pictured on page 259.)

The bearers of the name Yoder in America who
have Strong Jakob in their list of ancestors are particularly
proud of him.

We come back to the pioneer settlers Hans Joder
(John, inAmerica) and his brother Jost Yoder.

Jost Yoder had, as far as we know, three sons
- Johann or John,Jakob, and Samuel, and a daughter who marred
Lazarus Weidner.

Johann or John had the nickname of Joscht-Hannes,
which did notplease him at all. Jakob had his farm on the other
side of theSchuylkill river, and Samuel had his farm near Iobachsville.

Jost Yoder was a passionate hunter and fur
trapper, enthusiamsinherited by his son Joscht-Hannes. In the
fall of every year, hemade several hunting trips in the blue mountains
which often kepthim away from home for weeks at a time. He blazed
his own trailsthrough the primeval forest, accompanied only by
his dog and hismusket. On his route he had several caches in hollow
treetrunksin which he often left provisions from one year to the
next. Hisexpenditure of ammunition was enormous, but he shipped
pelts bythe wagonload.

Wolves often attacked his herds. These secretive
beasts of preyhad dens in the nearby hills from which they swarmed
out atnight. They regularly sought out the pigpens and sheepcotes
ofthe settlers and disappeared again only when their bloodlust
wasstilled. Although Yoder was an excellent hunter, he could notstop
these thieves, with all of their tricks. He thought of aplan to
annihilate them. Next to one of their trails he dug a pitnearly
eight feet deep. The sides were smooth and vertical. Inthe middle
of the pit he laid out mutton and then covered the pitwith branches.
The wolves, attracted by the smell of theirfavorite food, fell
into the pit, and in this way he trapped fivewolves in one night.
Later he was able to rid the entireneighborhood of this plague.

He was a man with much courage but rough manners.
His name was abyword in the neighborhood for a certain boorishness
- likeJoscht-Hannes, people said. He liked to make jokes at the
expenseof the Indians. Once, as his native neighbors celebrated
amarriage, he decided to have some fun. The gathering was fairlynumerous.
Jost Yoder approached, hidden behind a hickory branch,and looked
on for a while, then however jumped into the midst ofthem and
beat them until he drove them off. All this happenedwithout provocation
from the Indians. As Yoder said, it was alljust in fun. This shows
in part what sort of creature he was. Heloved sport and fun, although
his taste in these matters was morethan a little graceless. He
was very devoted to athletic gamesand exercises, tall in stature
and of remarkable health, and allof his children grew very old
if they died of natural causes.

Mary B. Yoder, the daughter of Johann Yoder
(Joscht-Hannes) wasborn February 13, 1749. She married Daniel
Bertolet (son ofAbraham Bertolet, nephew of Jean Bertolet). According
to the textof their marriage document:

These presents certify that

Daniel Bertolet and Maria Yoder

of Oley township, in the Country of Berks and
Province of Pennsylvania, in North America, were joined together
in the Holy bonds of Matrimony and pronounced man and wife according
to the form established by law, in the church of England the sixth
day of December in the year of our Lord, one thousand-seven hundred
and sixty eight, by me Alexander Murray

Minister

Daniel Bertolet, the husband of Mary Yoder,
was born on May 9,1741, and died on February 19, 1797, at the
age of 56 years, 6months, and 10 days.The Bertolet couple had
the following children:

Esther, born October 21, 1769.

Abraham, born February 28, 1771 (died September
6, 1785)

Catherin, born July 28, 1775 (died September
20, 1801) (She

married Jonathan Grimm of Frankenthal-Lambsheim.)

Charlotte, born February 10, 1778 (married
Jakob Yoder)

Daniel, born June 11, 1781

John, born February 21, 1784 (died August 27,
1785)

Mary, born January 9, 1788 (died February 25,
1782)

Samuel, born May 4, 1791 (died September 21,
1804)

(A number of infants died in their youth in
an epidemic of dysentery.)

Catherin Yoder, Elisbeth Yoder, and Esther
Yoder were sisters ofthe above named Mary Yoder-Bertolet.

Catherin married John Reffert (Reppert in America).
(Reffert wasanother family from the Lambsheimer district.)

Elizabeth Yoder married Mathias Rhode.

Esther Yoder married Cunius.

--------------------

As the names show, most of the families which
settled in the OleyValley were from the Vorderpf lzischen area
[eastern Pfalz?] andwere of Swiss ancestry.

Hans Yoder was the builder and owner of the
Griesemer mill, whichwas leased to the Miller Griesemer. (The
Griesemers also appearto come from the Frankenthal-Oggersheim
district, as a gravestonefor Heinrich and Katherina Griesemer
in the Oggersheim cemeterysuggests.)

Hans Yoder had difficulties with his neighbor
Lescher. Lescherwas immoderate in his ways and involved in many
domesticquarrels, owing to the fact that his wife was unfaithful.
One dayhe came home and found that she had left. Her brother,
MartinSchenkel, had, with his sister, taken everything that wasn'tnailed
down. They hadn't even left dishes for the children to eatfrom.
They later went to Reading where she bore an illegitimateson who
became a decent man and lived on the Susquehanna river.She is
buried in the family cemetery of the de Turks in Oley.

Hans Yoder lived on his farm where the Griesemer
mill stands, and there, in 1758, Captain Yoder was born.

A newspaper reporter from Reading once asked
David and John Yoderabout Captain Yoder. He was their uncle and
had been born on thefarm, not in Reading. They remembered his
visits very well, eventhough they lay fifty years in the past.
They said he wastemperamental and much given to alcohol. He would
have liked thento take Daniel to his farm in Kentucky, where he
planted hemp andtobacco. The Yoders said they could still remember
well. He alsotold them many stories from the revolutionary war
and the Indianwars, in which he had taken part. He made the whole
trip fromKentucky and back on horseback.

In I. Rupp's work, Berks and Lebanon, the following
is found starting on page 181:

Captain Jakob Yoder was born near Reading in
1758. He is a respected, prosperous farmer in Spencer County,
Kentucky. The honor of making the first trip down the Mississippi
by flatboat belongs to him. If nothing but time and wind and no
other forces work on the memorial described below, it will announce
his deed for a good many ages to come. This iron memorial plaque
was molded by Hanks and Niles of Cincinnati in 1834 and marks
the place where Captain Yoder's bones rest.

This plaque is one of the first ever erected
west of theAllegheny mountains. It bears the following inscription:

Jakob Yoder born August 11, 1758, near Reading
in Pennsylvania. Soldier of the revolutionary army 1777 and 1778.
In 1780 he went west and in May 1782 became the first to float
down the Mississippi by flatboat. He died on April 7, 1832, at
his farm in Spencer County, Kentucky, and lies buried beneath
this memorial plaque.

But the world is round and turns,

And everything was once there.

No one who has a soul can observe this memorial
plaque withoutemotion. The train of thought draws the mind along
with it. Thefact that the man who was the first to descend the
Mississippi byflatboat lived long enough to see great steamships
make the samedescent is astonishing. What were his expectations
as he led hislittle ark to water on the Monongahela river? Happiness
for whattime brought? No - he thought of the wild beasts who lay
hiddenin the broad, untouched wilderness. He began his dangerousjourney.
Instead of the cheerful view of industrious towns andvillages
which today attract the attention of travelers, he sawhills covered
with primeval forest from which the frightful howlsof wolves sounded,
the monstrously huge wilderness in which nocivilized man had yet
set foot.

He reached his goal, although his safety lay
only in his ownhands. During his lifetime the land fell into new
hands, thewilderness bloomed like a rose, and the human penchant
forexploration conquered numberless obstacles. For futuregenerations
of Americans, the age would be that which the age ofthe Titans
had been for the Greeks. Captain Jakob Yoder, whodescended the
Mississippi on a flatboat, is a direct descendantof the families
in Oley and many of his daring adventures recallthose of the earlier
Yoders.

----------------------

From these journeys on the Monongahela river,
the Ohio, and theMississippi, a regular shipping route developed
in the course oftime between the American mainland and the island
of Cuba. Thiswas used by succeeding generations of Yoders for
an extensiveimport-export business in agricultural products. The
rawmaterials needed for the liquor and alcohol factories wereimported
mostly from Cuba and neighboring islands, while corn andcornmeal
were supplied by the Oley region and the rest ofPennsylvania.

It is reported that David Yoder built a paper
mill on theManatawny river, that he adopted all modern inventions
anddiscoveries for his paper manufacturing and had an extensivemachine
park. Many experts who came to study his paper millmentioned their
host as a prosperous man with the best mannersand with plans far
into the future.

-----------------------------

David Yoder was married to Hanna Beutler and
lived his family inthe town of Reading. His children were: Margaret,
married toGeorge K. Levan; Hanna; Daniel; John; Catherina, married
toNathan Schaefer; and Sara, married to Abraham Gulde.v

------------------------------

Jakob Joder the Flatboatman

on the Ohio river, USA

On January 10, 1712, a boy first saw the light
of day atSteffisburg in Switzerland, the original homeland of
all Joderfamilies. He was given the name Jakob. His parents were
Hans andChristina Joder born Moser.

His godparents were Jost Moser, Jakob Joder,
and CatherinStauffer.

(Civil Records Office Steffisburg birth register,
vol 5 page 77.)v

His parents had married in Steffisburg on September
30, 1707, andhe was the third of nine children. Two of them died
as sucklings.Jakob Joder had five sisters: Barbara, born 1707;
Anna, born1717; Elsbeth, born 1721; Catherin, born 1725; Magdalene,
born1728; and a brother named Hans, born 1714.

The family emigrated to the USA by way of the
Pfalz after 1730,after having lived several years in the Pfalz
- in the USA theywere designated as Pf lzers or Palatines. Jakob
Joder, theflatboatman on the Ohio river, was known as the strongest
man inthe whole USA. He married a Catherine Blank in America -
she alsocame from a Steffisburg family.

Jakob Joder and his wife Cathrin Blank lived
in Berks County,Pennsylvania, a countryside settled only by German-Swiss
familiessuch as the Hochstedlers, Millers, Dreyers, Gluecks, Koenigs,Tschantzes,
Beilers, Jutzis, Buerkys, Grn gys, Zauggs, Rupps,Blanks, and others.

In 1978 we were visited in Ludwigshafen by
Deborah Yoder, bornApril 19, 1959, in Hartville, Ohio, where she
was still living.She is the daughter of Henry Yoder and Mary-Ellen
Schrok orSchragk. Her ancestors were John Joder and Emma N. Miller
- JohnYoder and Elisabeth Miller; John Jost Yoder and Barbara
Mast;Christian Yoder and Anna Herschberger; Henry Yoder and CathrinDettweyler
- John Yoder and Maria Sewer (Seeber). She brought usa number
of familiar sketches of her original ancestor, 'StrongJakob' Yoder.
According to the descriptions, this 'Strong Jakob'must have been
a truly imposing figure.

-------------------------

Historical Map of the Thun Office before 1798

Dr Hans Bloesch and Dr Bernhard Schmid with
the collaboration ofProf Dr Ennefahrt as well as Dr Paul Beck
(cartographic)

Map of the Steffisburg country with the town
Steffisburg asadministrative center and the sixteen townships
belonging to it.

Steffisburg, original Swiss homeland of all
Joder families.

-----------------------------

Ancestors of the emigrants to America Hans
Joder and Jost Joder

Name Born Married to Number of children

----------------------------------------------------------------

Uli Joder ca 1340 Elsi Zaugg

Heini Joder ca 1365 Leni Berger 3 sons, 1 daughter

Jost Joder ca 1387 Madlene Schlichter 2 sons,
? daughters

Caspar Joder ? Anni Meyer 3 sons, ? daughters

Caspar Joder ca 1480 Margret Moser 3 sons,
? daughters

Balthasar Joder 1525 Anna Roth 2 sons, 2 daughters

Caspar Joder 1548 Anni Moser 2 sons, 2 daughters

Caspar Joder 1571 Margret Hennig 5 sons, 2
daughters

Nicolaus Joder March 25 1609 Anna Trachsel
4 sons, 5 daughters

Adam Joder July 22, 1650 Barbara Ochsenbein
4 sons, 1 daughter

[The five children of this last marriage are
shown vertically: I am rearranging them horizontally]

Hans Joder, born March 10, 1672: emigrated
from Eppstein-Oggersheim Schwetzingen on March 1, 1709 to Oley
Country inPennsylvania, USA

Nicolaus Joder, born October 5, 1673: the descendants
fromWeidenthal in the Pfalz emigrated to Weidenthal in Rumania.Founded
the town of Weidenthal on the Black Sea near Constanza inRumania.

Jost Joder, October 5, 1678: emigrated with
his brother toPennsylvania.

Caspar Joder, born September 9, 1683: descendants
emigrated fromMussbach near Neustadt by way of Weidenthal, Pfalz,
to Rumania.Some still living in Rumania.

Barbara Joder, born April 9, 1676: ?

Hans and Jost Joder founded Jottersville, Pleasantville,
orYodersville in Pennsylvania.

-------------------------

[Photocopy of letter from 'Sakowski,' archive
clerk at theEvangelische Oberkirchenrat's Landeskirchliches Archiv,
datedKarlsruhe 1, September 27, 1983, with regard to 'familyresearch,'
to Karl Joder, Ludwigshafen-Oggersheim:]

Dear Herr Joder,

Enclosed find the desired extract from the
chuirch book of thereformed congregation of Schwetzingen - 'reformed'
is importantfor search work.

-------------------------------

[Photocopy of extract from the churck book
of Schwetzingen:]

Johannes Jotter (Yoder) and Phronica, his wife,
with child AnnaRegina, moved to the Island of Pennsylvania on
March 1, anno1709.

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The first Jotter (Yoder) in America. He lived
with his family andwith his brother Jost Yoder in Oley Valley,
in Jottersville-Pleasantville-Yodersville near Reading in Pennsylvania.

Yoder Newsletter - © Christopher K. Yoder, 1992,
1994