Christoph von Schlegel
Christoph Friederich von Schlegel, a Lutheran and native of Saxony, the founder of the Schlegel (Slagle) family in the United States of America immigrated after 1697, at which time he was living in Grimma, Germany, where he was baptized 26 November 1676. By December 14, 1700 he had immigrated and settled in Germantown in the Province of Pennsylvania, established by William Penn. During the next two decades Christoph Schlegel bought several hundreds of acres of land. On May 15, 1718, he married Anna Maria Aister, the daughter of Johann Jacob Aister (Eyster) (ca. 1664-1745), a prominent Lutheran settler of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, who immigrated from Germany to that colony in 1717. Christoph Frederich von Schlegel was the father of Maria Magdalena von Schelgel who married Henry Bedinger, the son of Hans Adam Büdinger, the immigrant.
Christoph Schlegel, under a warrant issued in 1714, was the first man to build a mill within the Susquehanna watershed. At that time the Susquehanna valley was still virgin territory and its only inhabitants were Indians and a handful of Swiss Mennonites who had settled a few years earlier on both sides of Pequea Creek, a few miles southeast of what was to become the city of Lancaster. The mill was situated on a tributary of Conestoga Creek on a tract of land of 1000 acres. In 1717 Christoph Schlegel sold the mill to an Indian trader, Edmund Cartledge. He later he sold the remainder of the 1000 acre tract. Sometime between 1731 and 1735 Christoph Schlegel joined a movement of families of German origin and crossed the Susquehanna River to settle in the valley of the headwaters of Conewago Creek, in what was then Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, now Adams County, Pennsylvania. Until the year 1743 this German Lutheran community had no church, but in that year a church of logs was constructed, which stood on a site near the outer limits of the present town of Hanover, then as yet not founded. Among those who paid for the building of this church was the Christopher Schlegel whose contribution was the largest of all.
In the early 1740s, Christoph Schlegel obtained warrants for three large tracts of land situated on Collington Creek, later called Slagles Run. Christopher Schlegel obtained a grant for these tracts from John, Thomas, and Richard Penn on April 28, 1747. In the year 1758 Christopher Schlegel divided his original grant of five hundred and one acres in Lancaster County (now Adams County), Pennsylvania by separate deeds among three of his sons, Daniel, Jacob and Henry. It was not until 1768, when Christopher Schlegel was well advanced in years that he was naturalized. Christopher Schlegel died intestate. The date of his death is unknown, but it is probable that he died in the year 1772. The inventory of his estate was taken by Adam Gresser and Michael Bittinger, and bears the date 25 April 1772.
Anna Maria (Mary) (Aister) Schlegel, widow of Christopher Schlegel, died in 1779 as well as can be determined. Her will, dated December 1, 1778, was probated November 12, 1779, mentions her four sons and her three daughters, viz.: Daniel, Jacob, Christopher, Henry, Catherana Cockus[i], Magdalin Bittinger[ii] and Susanna Clapsaddle.
Anna Maria (Mary) (Aister) Schlegel, widow of Christopher Schlegel, died in 1779 as well as can be determined. Her will, dated December 1, 1778, was probated November 12, 1779, mentions her four sons and her three daughters, viz.: Daniel, Jacob, Christopher, Henry, Catherana Cockus[i], Magdalin Bittinger[ii] and Susanna Clapsaddle.
Source:
The biography of Christoph Frederick Schlegel is condensed from “The Schlegel (Slagle) Family in America” by William B. Marye and A. Russell Slagle, pp. 27-35, in Frank, Karl Frederick Von, 1967, The Schlegel Von Gottleben Family in Germany, Translated. by George A. Bingley and William B. Marye, Published. by A. Russell Slagle, Baltimore Maryland, 391 p.
The biography of Christoph Frederick Schlegel is condensed from “The Schlegel (Slagle) Family in America” by William B. Marye and A. Russell Slagle, pp. 27-35, in Frank, Karl Frederick Von, 1967, The Schlegel Von Gottleben Family in Germany, Translated. by George A. Bingley and William B. Marye, Published. by A. Russell Slagle, Baltimore Maryland, 391 p.
Notes:
[i] Catherena Cockus was Catherine (Schlegel) Cookus, the widow of Henry Cookus of Shepherdstown, Berkeley Co., Virginia (now Jefferson Co., West Virginia).
[ii] Magdalin Bittinger was Mary Magdalena (Schlegel) Bedinger, the widow of Henry Bedinger of Shepherdstown, Berkeley Co., Virginia (now Jefferson Co., West Virginia).
[i] Catherena Cockus was Catherine (Schlegel) Cookus, the widow of Henry Cookus of Shepherdstown, Berkeley Co., Virginia (now Jefferson Co., West Virginia).
[ii] Magdalin Bittinger was Mary Magdalena (Schlegel) Bedinger, the widow of Henry Bedinger of Shepherdstown, Berkeley Co., Virginia (now Jefferson Co., West Virginia).