The Ulrich/Baker Ancestral Lines

The journey from Europe to William Penn’s Pennsylvania, or later to the Massachusetts area, was lengthy, costly, and deadly – with a high mortality rate due to starvation and disease.  In the 1700’s the ships were simply large, crude sailing boats.  In 1738, over 600 emigrants died at sea and were buried at sea.  It was not feasible, nor hygienic, to carry dead bodies across the sea.  

Some of our most eager immigrant ancestors left for America with their entire family, only to not survive the trip.  Their wives and children arrived to America as widows and orphans.  (See: …WHEN SORROWS LIKE SEA BILLOWS ROLL). 

The journey via these large sailboats was 3 months long.  Most of our original ancestors came during the 1700’s, which was largest the largest immigration during the entire Colonial period.  This time period was the immigration of 2,100 people from Rotterdam (the German Palatinate) to Philadelphia.  

Yet, they had to first arrive to the port of Rotterdam.  Some made their way on their own volition, others were being forcibly deported.  Their belongings would have been meager after decades of hardships.  The families would have to make their way from the mountain regions (where they had settled on leased lands, trying to survive), cross rivers and sail downriver to the port.  

Many had spent decades under laws that did not allow them to own land due to their religious refusal to make an oath of allegiance, refusal to baptize babies, and sign up for military service.   Any land they did own was taken away, they would flee and any possessions they fled with were taxed additionally as they left regions of persecution.  Many had already endured prison in multiple occasions, some had lost parents and other family members who were martyred for their beliefs.  

The earthly belongings of this type people – about to board a ship to a new land – was minimal, their possessions had already been taken away slowly over a length of time.  If they had arrived with any amount of funds, it would have dwindled away as they passed through the 6-8 Custom Houses in Rotterdam, paying fees, fines, travel expenses. 

(Editors note: It is because of the taxation laws forced on the Anabaptist as they left regions of persecution –  that we have the first indication that Jacob of Winterkraut was a fellow preacher alongside Jakob Amman.  Below is the tax record of the men leaving Bern together). (Jacob of Winterkraut is possibly the father to Jacob Hochstetler “The Immigrant” and of the “Hochstetler Massacre”). 

In cases of forced deportation, they were placed onto river boats in the mountains.  Some escaped downriver and tried to settle into new regions for a little longer, or assimilated into new regions, foregoing their divisive beliefs.  

The animosity between the “established church” and our Anabaptist forefathers was strong, but it was also animosity between themselves.  There is clear recorded information that Amish and Mennonites – at times – refused to board the same vessels… vessels that were carrying them to safer regions, yet they would not let go of their internal divisions.  

This should not be surprising, since one of the main distinguishing characteristics of Amish beliefs, which they were adamantly fighting for at this time, was the ‘right to shun’; the right to excommunicate and estrange family and people they considered ‘worldly’.  (Note: this is not to imply that shunning meant that no acts of kindness were done to outsiders, nevertheless is must be understood that the ‘separation from the world’ that was sought by the act of shunning was exclusive and was wielded, at times, irrationally and cruelly).

Boarding a ship in Rotterdam, was not the beginning of the trip.  Supplies were insufficient in Rotterdam.  The religious communities in Rotterdam area were constantly making collections of funds, clothes, and food for the poor fleeing refugees of Switzerland and other areas of persecution.  It is important to understand that only the human cargo, the emigrants / the refugees, were obtained in Rotterdam. 

Then the vessel sailed from Rotterdam to London for food and supplies, which were supplied partially from support of Queen Anne.  The vessels did not said direct to London because there was serious threats from pirates,  so the vessels would sail over the north of Great Britain and down to London.  This northern voyage and berthing for supplies added 6 weeks to the voyage.  

Now the sailboat was ready to start the 2 month voyage to Philadelphia.  The immigrants had been on the boat for 1  1/2 months, but the voyage was just beginning. 

————————-Some notable journey’s: ————

The Muscliffe Galley:  arrived with the Kurtz brothers, a Yoder, two Koenigs, a Dillenbough… it arrived on December 24, 1744.  This arrival date is unheard of.  Vessel arrival windows from Europe were expected to be in September until first week November, necessary to arrive before winter conditions.  The Muscliffe Galley did not.  There is no information why, but it is clear that this trip was exceptionally problematic and harrowing, arriving almost 2 months longer than a regular voyage.  (All of these men/families are 3x/4x Great Grandparents to Mary Bertha (Eash) Baker’s mother and father, to both the Eash family line and the Hochstetler family line). 

The ‘Side-Wheel’ vessel of Barbara Eigsti- 1850/51:  this emigration occurred almost 80 years later than the main emigration, yet the voyage of this 51 yr old widow is recorded with notable precision.  Barbara (Gascho) Eigsti was already a widow, her Mennonite preacher husband – Nicolas Aegstein – of the German Pelheim Church died in Germany.  She left to reunite with some of her children already in Tazewell County, Illinois.  She said for 56 days on a “Side-Wheel” vessel to New York City, then a train to Chicago, a boat on the canal to La Salle, another boat to Hennepin, then a horse team to Bureau County.  (Barbara is the 2x Great Grandmother to Lillian (Eigsti) Ulrich).

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How would poor agricultural workers, who had over decades, had their farms reduced in size due to persecution, had no rights to land ownership, had been taxed and re-taxed on their possessions or taxed for not participating in the military… how did these people afford the trip?   

Many became indentured servants at the port of discharge. 

William Penn targeted the poor and religiously oppressed to come to America, based on his Quaker beliefs.  He wanted people who were renown for their agricultural skills and stable family units, yet the oppressed Amish / Mennonite often did not have the ability to pay for the sea travel to America.  He created the “Bond Servant Law”.   

He would advertise in American harbors for ‘sponsors’ who would pay for workers to come from Europe.  On arrival, the immigrants would work for the sponsor until their transportation costs had been fully covered. 

We actually do not know if any of our ancestors worked under the Bond Servant Law.  Nevertheless, this concept was well used.   In our non-Amish ancestral lines, this type of arrangement is more clearly recorded since immigrants stayed in cities, and formally applied for ‘release’ from their state of financial bondage in order to obtain a job.  This would have been less important in agricultural jobs outside of the towns and cities.   

For example, Ira “Bud” Bakers 8x Great Grandfather and Great Uncle travelled to America 100 years prior to the German Palatinate arrivals of the 1700’s.  The Lombard brothers (Thomas and Barnard – both about 50 yrs old) arrived on the “Mary and John” vessel in 1630.  There is clear documentation of the Lombard brothers requesting and obtaining “Freeman” status. Thomas Lombard obtained this right in one short year, on May 18, 1631,  and became an Inn-keeper.  (See Chart B1-A).  

It is also documented that one of their son’s, our ancestor, Jabaz Lombard also had to file a request to become a “Free Man”.  Jabaz is the Great Grandfather to Jane (Gage) Baker, who married Samuel Baker in Connecticut.  Jane and Samuel are the 4x Great Grandparents to none other, Ira “Bud” Baker. 

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Update on Indentured Servents- from the Genealogy Book, “Descendants of Barbara Hochstetler and Christian Stutzman” , 1938.  

Johan Jacob Stutzman left Rotterdam, sailed to Plymouth, England, then to Philadelphia on the ADVENTURE, arriving in October, 1727.  He left Rotterdam with his wife and children, it is unknown how many children.  

Nevertheless, over the course of the journey,  his wife and several children died.  Only two underage sons, Jacob and Christian Stutzman, survived with him.  The forlorn father no longer wanted to stay in America, but neither could he pay for all the voyages, let alone his return trip.    The verbal family story passed down and recorded in the above book, states that the Captain of the ADVENTURE, Capt. John Davies, had seen the suffering of his loss on the voyage and was sympathetic to Johan Jacob, and arranged a feasible return trip on the same vessel.  

What history does record is that there is NO record of his two boys that survived on the ship’s manifest, meaning that they would have been under 16yrs of age.  The names of these two boys DO appear in the following years in tax reports “among the Amish of Bern Twsp, Berks County, PA” –  when they become of age.  

Records also show that these two boys had lost all their family, were greatly in debt, and their father set to resolve this issue in the only way possible; “he bound out his son’s as indentured servant’s to pay thereof.”.

There is a record of the younger son, Christian Stutzman (now called Christian Sr.), receiving a land grant of 193 acres on Jan. 17, 1753 (26 yrs after arrival to Philadelphia).  He sold 100 acres three years later to John Yoder and “paid all proprietors all unpaid debt”.  

This story is important for the double heritage of this line, both of the Ulrich line AND the Baker line.

The older son, who was indentured, was Jacob Stutzman.  He named his son after his brother, therefore Christian Jr..  It was Christian Jr. who married Barbara Hochstetler, surviving daughter of Jacob “The Immigrant” of the Hochstetler Massacre.  Christian Jr. and Barbara lived close to the location of Hochstetler Massacre, and they worked with the surviving son, John Hocstetler,  of the massacre, who witnessed the fire of the burning house, to maintain the Hocstetler farm, until Jacob was able to escape after 3 years, and the boys returned 5 -7 years later.  Christian Jr. is the 4x Great Grandfather to Mary Bertha (Eash) Baker. 

Christian Jr. is also the 3x Great Uncle to Frank Eash’s brother, who married Sarah Ulrich in Illinois, she is the sister to Clarence Ulrich, Leo Ulrich’s father.