Hans Adam Büdinger
Hans Adam Büdinger, the founder of the Bedinger family in America, was born in 1698 in Ottwiller, a small village that can be found on present-day maps of the Alsace region. His birth name was recorded as Johann Adam Büttinger in the records of the Protestant church in Ottwiller. At that time Ottwiller was in Lützelstein, an ephemeral state of the Holy Roman Palatinate based around the village of Lützelstein (La Petit-Pierre, as the French village is known today) in Alsace in northeastern France bordering Germany. Since 500 A. D. the region has been populated predominantly by Germans, but historically France and Germany have vied for possession of Alsace. France gained control of Lützelstein with the annexation of Alsace according to the Treaty of Ryswyck in 1697 at the end of the Thirty Years War.
Hans Adam Büdinger's father and mother, Peter Büttinger and Maria Sabina Müller of Gondiswil, Switzerland removed to Ottwiller, Alsace between 1660 and 1686. The year may well have been 1671 when 700 Mennonite families were forced by the authorities to leave Switzerland. The Swiss Mennonites were exceptionally good in the practice of agriculture and bred fine dairy cattle; others were craftsmen and weavers. [i] [ii] By the age of nineteen, Hans Adam had left Ottwiller, the village of his birth, and moved to the nearby village of Durstel where is listed in church records as being a farmer and tailor. He was perhaps learning the trade of being a tailor under the tutelage of Johann Georges Hausknecht whose profession in Durstel was a "tailor of custom made clothes". In the summer of 1724 Mr. Hausknecht died, leaving a widow, Anna Margaretha (Schusch) Hausknecht. In November 28 of the same year the pending marriage of Hans Adam Büdinger and Mr. Hausknecht's widow was proclaimed. Hans Adam Büdinger was at this time recorded in the Protestant church records as being a tailor of custom made clothing. The couple were married December 28, 1724. [iii]
The Protestant church records of Durstel from June 1725 to July 1734 record the births of five children born to Hans Adam and Anna Margaretha Büdinger. The second child, Hans Adam's namesake, died in infancy. We assume that Hans Adam Büdinger by now had converted from the Mennonite church to the Lutheran church. The Protestant church records in Durstel include baptismal dates and witnesses for some of his children. And, it is known that members of the Mennonite church do not believe in the sacrament of infant baptism.[iv]
Hans Adam Büdinger in 1737 was the head of a family of a wife and four children. His business was successful and prosperous, but the religious and civil restrictions imposed on the Protestant immigrants in France were oppressive. Hans Adam resisted the efforts of the French to have the French language, customs, and religion imposed upon them. He had heard of William Penn's offer of land and religious freedom in the province of Pennsylvania. Encouraging reports were circulated by residents of Alsace who had heard from their relatives who had migrated to take advantage of William Penn's offer. The monumental decision was made by Hans Adam Büdinger to forsake the life in Alsace and make the journey to the new world in search of the promises of unfettered religious and civil freedoms.[v]
The Protestant church records of Durstel from June 1725 to July 1734 record the births of five children born to Hans Adam and Anna Margaretha Büdinger. The second child, Hans Adam's namesake, died in infancy. We assume that Hans Adam Büdinger by now had converted from the Mennonite church to the Lutheran church. The Protestant church records in Durstel include baptismal dates and witnesses for some of his children. And, it is known that members of the Mennonite church do not believe in the sacrament of infant baptism.[iv]
Hans Adam Büdinger in 1737 was the head of a family of a wife and four children. His business was successful and prosperous, but the religious and civil restrictions imposed on the Protestant immigrants in France were oppressive. Hans Adam resisted the efforts of the French to have the French language, customs, and religion imposed upon them. He had heard of William Penn's offer of land and religious freedom in the province of Pennsylvania. Encouraging reports were circulated by residents of Alsace who had heard from their relatives who had migrated to take advantage of William Penn's offer. The monumental decision was made by Hans Adam Büdinger to forsake the life in Alsace and make the journey to the new world in search of the promises of unfettered religious and civil freedoms.[v]
Hans Adam Büdinger, with his wife and four children, accompanied by his brother Peter, his wife and two children, departed Durstel, Alsace probably in the spring of 1737 for the arduous journey to Philadelphia that took probably one-half year. They traveled down the Rhine River on a barge to Holland, where they took passage on the ship Samuel, commanded by Captain Hugh Percy, which sailed from Rotterdam. Sailing from Rotterdam the ship stopped over at Cowes on the Isle of Wight because it was required to make port in England before making the trans-Atlantic voyage. The ship Samuel landed at Philadelphia August 30, 1737, whereat the courthouse all males of age sixteen or older were required to sign the oath of allegiance to the British Crown and an oath of abjuration.[vi] The Philadelphia Courthouse is believed to be the very building, now known as "Independence Hall", where nearly two-hundred forty years later the Liberty Bell hung and the Declaration of Independence was read. A narrative of the hardships and dangers of the arduous journey from Alsace to Philadelphia is told by Gottleib Mittelberger, a traveler who made the trip in 1750.
We find in the writing of L. F. Bittinger [vii] that Adam and his family first settled near the Susquehanna River in Lancaster County where they resided for several years before moving to 'the Conewago Settlements", afterwards Hanover, in York County. His name appears in the church records of York County about 1744. The land embracing the present [1904, [vii]] "Homestead Farm" in Berwick Township, Adams County, was patented to "Adam Beetinger" by Thomas and Richard Penn, May 7, 1753.[vii] This farm, called the "Schauman Tract" at the time acquired by Adam, was to become his homestead. Adam's farm was adjacent to that of Christoph Schlegel. Adam Büdinger and Christoph Schlegel were members of the same Lutheran congregation, organized in 1743 by the German immigrants, called the "Evangelical Lutheran Church of he Conewago", later named "St. Matthews Lutheran Church of Hanover". [viii] Adam appears to have been a man of substance. He took up other large tracts of land and prospered greatly thereon. Family legend tells us that after his sons were married, he established each of them on plantations near his own. [ix], [x] We know that his second son Henry married and lived with his wife on his own farm near his father's farm. In about 1762, when Henry and his brother Peter left their homes in Pennsylvania and removed to Virginia they had sufficient resources to purchase lots in the new village of Mecklenberg. The legacy of the other children is unknown. Hans Adam Büdinger died, probably intestate, in 1768 because his oldest son Nicholas filed in Orphans Court and became owner of Adam's homestead of 190 acres. [viii]
We find in the writing of L. F. Bittinger [vii] that Adam and his family first settled near the Susquehanna River in Lancaster County where they resided for several years before moving to 'the Conewago Settlements", afterwards Hanover, in York County. His name appears in the church records of York County about 1744. The land embracing the present [1904, [vii]] "Homestead Farm" in Berwick Township, Adams County, was patented to "Adam Beetinger" by Thomas and Richard Penn, May 7, 1753.[vii] This farm, called the "Schauman Tract" at the time acquired by Adam, was to become his homestead. Adam's farm was adjacent to that of Christoph Schlegel. Adam Büdinger and Christoph Schlegel were members of the same Lutheran congregation, organized in 1743 by the German immigrants, called the "Evangelical Lutheran Church of he Conewago", later named "St. Matthews Lutheran Church of Hanover". [viii] Adam appears to have been a man of substance. He took up other large tracts of land and prospered greatly thereon. Family legend tells us that after his sons were married, he established each of them on plantations near his own. [ix], [x] We know that his second son Henry married and lived with his wife on his own farm near his father's farm. In about 1762, when Henry and his brother Peter left their homes in Pennsylvania and removed to Virginia they had sufficient resources to purchase lots in the new village of Mecklenberg. The legacy of the other children is unknown. Hans Adam Büdinger died, probably intestate, in 1768 because his oldest son Nicholas filed in Orphans Court and became owner of Adam's homestead of 190 acres. [viii]
The ancestry and descendants of Hans Adam Büdinger are given in the section on Bedinger Family.
Sources:
[i] Frank Eshleman, 1917, "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; an authentic history, from original sources ... with particular reference to the German-Swiss Mennonites or Anabaptists, the Amish and other nonresistant sects", Lancaster, Pennsylvania,
https://archive.org/stream/historicbackgrou01eshl/historicbackgrou01eshl_djvu.txt
[ii] Longhofer, Jeffrey. "Mennonites." Encyclopedia of World Cultures. 1996. Encyclopedia.com. 16 Jan. 2016 <http://www.encyclopedia.com>.
[iii] Bittinger, Emmert F., 1983, The Bittinger Church Records of Ottwiller and Durstel. <Ancestral Villages in Alsace>
[iv] Longhofer, Jeffrey. "Mennonites." Encyclopedia of World Cultures. 1996. Encyclopedia.com. 16 Jan. 2016. <http://www.encyclopedia.com>.
[v] The book on the Bittinger and Bedinger families by Lucy Forney Bittinger states that Hans Adam was encouraged to immigrate to America on the advice of his friend of Dr. Mühlenberg, a noted Lutheran divine of the day. From a study of Dr. Mühlenberg's biography [a] one would conclude that there was no opportunity for the two to meet before Hans Adam immigrated. Dr. Mühlenbergborn born at Einbeck in Saxony was about thirteen years younger than Hans Adam Büdinger and was a student at Georg-August University of Göttingen in 1737, the year the Büdinger immigrated. Dr. Mühlenberg immigrated to Pennsylvania in 1742 and became the widely acclaimed patriarch of the Lutheran church in America. We believe that L. F. Bittinger knew of the association of the two men in Pennsylvania during Dr. Muhlenberg's travels to the Lutheran congregations in Pennsylvania. [a] Mann, William J.,1888, Life and Times of Henry Melchior Mühlenberg, G. W. Frederick, Philadelphia, 547p.
[vi] Strassburger, Ralph Beaver, 1934, Pennsylvania German Pioneers, ed. William John Hinke, Pennsylvania German Pioneers, Pennsylvania German Society, Norristown, Pennsylvania, 771 p.
[vii] Bittinger, Lucy Forney, 1904, Bittinger and Bedinger Families Descendants of Adam Büdinger, published by the Author, Sewickley, Pa., 63 p.
[viii] Gibson, John, 1886, History of York County Pennsylvania, F. A. Battey Publishing Co., Chicago.
[ix] Dandridge, Danske, 1909, George Michael Bedinger, A Kentucky Pioneer, The Michie Company Printer, Charlottesville, Virginia, 232 p., p. 4.
[x] Danske Dandridge, unpublished manuscript, “Henry Bedinger and Old Shepherdstown” in Bedinger and Dandridge in the Bedinger and Dandridge Family Papers David M. Rubenstein Rare Book & Manuscript Library, Duke University.
[i] Frank Eshleman, 1917, "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; an authentic history, from original sources ... with particular reference to the German-Swiss Mennonites or Anabaptists, the Amish and other nonresistant sects", Lancaster, Pennsylvania,
https://archive.org/stream/historicbackgrou01eshl/historicbackgrou01eshl_djvu.txt
[ii] Longhofer, Jeffrey. "Mennonites." Encyclopedia of World Cultures. 1996. Encyclopedia.com. 16 Jan. 2016 <http://www.encyclopedia.com>.
[iii] Bittinger, Emmert F., 1983, The Bittinger Church Records of Ottwiller and Durstel. <Ancestral Villages in Alsace>
[iv] Longhofer, Jeffrey. "Mennonites." Encyclopedia of World Cultures. 1996. Encyclopedia.com. 16 Jan. 2016. <http://www.encyclopedia.com>.
[v] The book on the Bittinger and Bedinger families by Lucy Forney Bittinger states that Hans Adam was encouraged to immigrate to America on the advice of his friend of Dr. Mühlenberg, a noted Lutheran divine of the day. From a study of Dr. Mühlenberg's biography [a] one would conclude that there was no opportunity for the two to meet before Hans Adam immigrated. Dr. Mühlenbergborn born at Einbeck in Saxony was about thirteen years younger than Hans Adam Büdinger and was a student at Georg-August University of Göttingen in 1737, the year the Büdinger immigrated. Dr. Mühlenberg immigrated to Pennsylvania in 1742 and became the widely acclaimed patriarch of the Lutheran church in America. We believe that L. F. Bittinger knew of the association of the two men in Pennsylvania during Dr. Muhlenberg's travels to the Lutheran congregations in Pennsylvania. [a] Mann, William J.,1888, Life and Times of Henry Melchior Mühlenberg, G. W. Frederick, Philadelphia, 547p.
[vi] Strassburger, Ralph Beaver, 1934, Pennsylvania German Pioneers, ed. William John Hinke, Pennsylvania German Pioneers, Pennsylvania German Society, Norristown, Pennsylvania, 771 p.
[vii] Bittinger, Lucy Forney, 1904, Bittinger and Bedinger Families Descendants of Adam Büdinger, published by the Author, Sewickley, Pa., 63 p.
[viii] Gibson, John, 1886, History of York County Pennsylvania, F. A. Battey Publishing Co., Chicago.
[ix] Dandridge, Danske, 1909, George Michael Bedinger, A Kentucky Pioneer, The Michie Company Printer, Charlottesville, Virginia, 232 p., p. 4.
[x] Danske Dandridge, unpublished manuscript, “Henry Bedinger and Old Shepherdstown” in Bedinger and Dandridge in the Bedinger and Dandridge Family Papers David M. Rubenstein Rare Book & Manuscript Library, Duke University.
Page modified 13 February 2016