The Ulrich/Baker Ancestral Lines

“When sorrows like sea billows roll;

Whatever my lot, Thou hast taught me to say

It is well, it is well, with my soul.”

-Hymn, Horatio Spafford, 1873

     This well known, immensely beautiful hymn when sung with harmonies on a Sunday morning, was written by a man sailing from America to England.  The words came to him as he was sailing over the area where a ship had sunk with his wife and 4 daughters onboard.   He only received a telegram from his wife;  “Saved alone.  What shall I do?”.  His daughters with ages of 11, 9, 5, and 2 died at sea.  He was sailing to his wife, when he sailed over the part of the route where his daughters died, and these words came to him. 

     This was 1873.  Yet, our ancestors – probably numbering close to 100 families or individuals –  made this journey, starting in the early 1700’s until mid 1800’s.    

     Loss of life was common, but not without the same grief, the same disorientation and the same feeling of the loss of the future, that a person feels whenever there is a loss of a family member or a child.  

     These are a few of the stories of our family that have been recorded, that suffered this same loss on their voyages:

Johann Jacob Stutzman – 1727: wife and 4 children died at sea.  He survived with his two underage sons; Jacob & Christian (under 16yrs).  The father returned to Europe, heartbroken at the loss of so many family members.  Family tradition says that the ship captain took pity on him and helped him with the fare to return to Europe.   His two sons became Indentured Servant’s in America to pay off the family’s transportation debts.  It took 25 years for them to become freemen.  (The younger son, Christian, is the 4x Great Grandfather to Mary Bertha (Eash) Baker).

John Martin & Anna Elizabeth Bontrager – 1767: Lutheran’s that converted to Anabaptist beliefs which required them to leave Germany, they became refugees. They travelled with their 3 sons, 1 daughter.  Anna Elizabeth died at sea.  (One of the surviving boys is John Bontrager, who is 3x Great Grandfather to Ira “Bud” Baker).

The ship “Frances and Elizabeth” – 1742:   

1. Johannes Gneagy/Kenagy:  Traveled with his pregnant, unnamed wife, she gave birth onboard the ship to their son.  She died onboard with her newborn and another child.  Johannes re-married to Magdalena Yoder, who lost her father on the same voyage.
2. Magdalena Yoder: Traveled with her parents and her 8 siblings.  Magdalena is 16yrs old.  Her Father died during the voyage, leaving her mother, Barbara, to arrive to America as a widow with 9 children.  She is infamously giving the name, “Barbara the Widow Yoder”.  Five years later, Magdalena marries Johannes Kenagy.    (Johannes and Magdalena are the 5x Great Grandparents to Mary Bertha (Eash) Baker). 

John Hannes “Indian John, Wounded John” Miller – 1737:  Traveled to America with his 6 brothers.  His brother, Samuel’s, wife died leaving him a widow with 5 children.  He lists the children as orphans.  The children are possible raised by other Amish families in Pennsylvania. (John is the 3x Great Grandfather of Ira “Bud” Baker). 

As the hymn continues:

“That Christ has regarded my helpless estate, 

And has shed his own Blood for my soul.

It is well, it is well, with my soul.” 

For more information on the travel between Europe and America, see: THE JOURNEY ON AN IMMIGRANT SHIP.