Notes on the immigration of Joders from Schwetzingen to the Oley Valley, Berks Co., PA., translated by Fred Haines

YODER FAMILY INFORMATION--CYBERSPACE EDITION-1998

published by the Yoder Family Newsletter, Goshen, Indiana

This data was translated in 1997 by Mr. Fred Haines from the
collected German text of Karl Joder and Ottmar Jotter. 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 (particularly those of us who speak English!).

[Translator's note: the name Schuetz is spelled with an umlaut
over the 'u' rather than 'ue' in the original.]

Local News of Schwetzing

On the 300-year Jubilee of the German Emigration to America

Yodersville - a Schwetzinger Settlement

Johannes Jotter - called Yoder - was the first American
from the Asparagus Town

A New Homeland found in 1713 in the Oley Valley

When celebrations of the 300-year jubilee of German emigration
to America takes place this week, many may think that Schwetzing
has no particular interest in them. Schwetzingen has, however,
along with all its surrounding places, extremely personal, human
relations to America and the Americans. Right up to the most recent
past, Schwetzingers have frequently decided to try their luck
in the New World. In the last century alone they emigrated in
massive numbers, mostly poor people who had nothing to lose,whole
families among them, from sucklings to grandfathers. Even in the
glory days of Schwetzingen, when the Kurfursten (Prince Electors)
held court here, they emigrated - if in somewhat smaller numbers.
This year's festivities may make us realize once again the common
experiences of the people over there and those here, and they
may remind us that we, like it or not, have nowhere so many countrymen
and relations as in North America. An example is the very first
traveller to America from Schwetzingen:Johannes Jotter, called
Yoder.

When Johannes Jotter left Schwetzingen in early spring 1709,
he was not alone. With him were his wife Veronika, his little
daughter Anna, one year old, and his brother Jost Jotter. In addition
there were two other families of friends, Johannes and Maria Schuetz,
with four daughters, and Christoph and Anna Mayer,with their four-year-old
son and their daughter of three. They stated that they wanted
to go to America. So it says in the church register of the Evangelist
Congregation of Schwetzing:'moved anno 1709, the 1st of March,
to the island of Pennsylvania.' Pennsylvania was the magic word
that drove them on for four long years - for that's how long it
took for them to reach the valley that finally became their new
home. In between were fifteen torturous months of travel and almost
three years of forced labor for the colonial masters of New York.
There was much more in those years: doubt and refusal, illness
and death.Johannes Schuetz lost his nerve halfway and turned back
to his homeland. How many of the other participants, especially
the children, fell victim to the rigors of the voyage is not known
-nor how many others were born.

From the Hudson River Southward

The last great effort of the emigrants on this journey was
their flight from indentured servitude in New York - they were
the first who dared this step. Equipped with only the most necessary
things, the solid little group made its way along narrow, hidden
trails through the woods, from the Hudson River valley southward
to Pennsylvania, the land of freedom. The trip was virtually another
emigration. The goal which they so stubbornly pursued was called
Oley. Oley meant 'kettle' in the language of the Indians.It was
the name of a charming hollow (or kettle) ringed about with mountains,
deep in the interior, eighty kilometres northwest of Germantown,
the first German settlement in America. The men had previously
scouted this place on several secret journeys. The Oley valley
became their new homeland.

No Oley Without Jotter

The presence of the Schwetzingers in the then almost uninhabited
Oley is documented by the citizen and rental lists of 1730. To
be sure, Christoph Mayer does not appear in them, although his
son Johann Jakob, described as a farmer, does. All trace of him
was lost later. It was otherwise with the Jotters. The literature
of that homeland reports extensively and with satisfaction on
the farmers and hunters Johannes and Jost Jotter and their numerous
children and grandchildren. Oley isn't even thinkable without
the Jotters. To be sure, their name fared no better than that
of most other immigrants from Germany: Jotter sounded too harsh
for English ears, and they made it Joder (which is better anyway),and
Joder finally became Yoder, and there it stuck. So they also named
the settlement they founded Yodersville. The founding years 1713.

From Farmer to Bank Director

In the course of time Yodersville and even the home valley
of Oley turned out to be too small for all the descendants. They
too had to emigrate.

Today, nine generations later, Yoders are found not only everywhere
in Pennsylvania but all over North America, in every city, in
every state. More than a hundred families and individuals with
the name Yoder live in Reading, the nearest city to the Oley valley.
In Philadelphia there are another twenty-two and in Baltimore
thirty-four more. They are found in all professions and occupations,
from farmer to bank director and high school teacher - especially
in the latter. The Yoders belong to the great old families of
North America who helped to build up the country and of which
they are so proud over there. Why shouldn't Schwetzingers also
be proud of them? They have every reason to commit the name Yoder
to memory so they will know with whom they are dealing the next
time a Yoder turns up.

Moreover, the name Jotter (and Joder) is still alive in the
region of the old Kurpfalz on the left [right?] bank of the Rhine.
It is found especially in the Ludwigshafen-Frankenthalarea. Somewhere
over there is probably the homeland of our emigrants before they
came to Schwetzingen.

However, apart from the Yoders, the many other Schwetzingers
and their descendants in America must not be forgotten. It is
in fact astonishing how little the old relationships have been
preserved.That it could be otherwise is proved by the people of
Salzburg, driven out two hundred fifty years ago, now living in
every country, who today still - or again - have a tight bond
of friendship with their ancestral home - very much to the advantage
of both sides.

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