Bios: Stoudt Family: Berks County, PA Contributed for use in USGenWeb Archives. USGENWEB NOTICE: Printing this file by non-commercial individuals and libraries is encouraged, as long as all notices and submitter information is included. Any other use, including copying files to other sites requires permission from the submitters PRIOR to uploading to any other sites. We encourage links to the state and county table of contents. ____________________________________________________________ Stoudt Family History of Lehigh County, Pa. Charles Rhoads Roberts, 1914 The name Stuadt (Stoudt, Stout), is one of the early Palatinate family names. The seat of the family is at Rothenberg. Members of the family figured prominently in some of the Crusades. The family spread northward into Holland, where several members obtained noble rank. During the persecutions of Bloody Alba, some members of the family fled to England, one of them, Richard by name, enlisting in the English navy. Upon one of his visits to New Amsterdam he met Penelope Van Princis, who later became his wife, and they settled in Middletown, N.J., prior to 1688, becoming the progenitors of a large and honorable family. The Staudts of Pennsylvania come directly from the Palatinate and seem to be divided into two groups, that of Berks and that of Bucks county. On Aug. 30, 1737, there landed at Philadelphia, John Jacob, Johannes and Hans Adam Staudt, and on September 24th of the same year, Peter Staudt. These four, it is claimed, were brothers. The following year, Peter and Daniel arrived, and in 1741 another Peter, and these were joined in 1744 by George Wilhelm. It is believed that all of the above named were related. John Jacob settled at what is now Perkasie, and was the father of the following children: Abraham, Henry K., Jacob, Hannah, Magdalena, Annie Margaret. Abraham was a man of prominence in his day, serving during the Revolution as a member of the Committee on Safety, also of the Committee of Observation, member of the Constitutional Convention of 1787 and of the Convention of 1789-90. The Stouts of Lehigh and Northampton Counties are chiefly descendants of the Bucks group. At the head of the Berks group stands John Michael Staudt, who took the oath of allegiance at Philadelphia Sept. 18, 1733. Tradition says that his father died at sea, and that the headship of the family fell upon him though he was only twenty-one years of age. How large the family was is not known, but that Mathias, aged eight, and Johannes, probably still younger, were in the group is certain, and it is quite probable that the family was even larger. John Michael Stoudt was born 1711 or 1712, and died May 13, 1776, aged 63 years, 5 months. His body and that of his wife, Barbara, were buried at the Berne church, of which he is said to have been one of the founders. On Oct. 25, 1737, there was surveyed for him a tract of land consisting of 180 acres on the west bank of the Schuylkill river opposite the "flat meadows." Later this number of acres was almost doubled. The estate is beautifully located sloping towards the south and the river. The dwelling, a substantial stone building was built over a fine spring of water, no doubt in order to have water in case of an Indian attack. The scenery along the river is romantic, a bridge now spans the river where formerly a ferry was the means of crossing. The bridge is known as Stoudt's Ferry bridge. To him and his good wife Barbara, were born ten children: Johannes, Jacob, Michael, George, William, John George, Jost, Anna Barbara, Catherine, Apolonia, and Elisabeth. John Michael Staudt frequently acted as sponsor and guardian. The first act thus recorded is found in the baptismal record of Rev. John Casper Stoever, when he, John Michael Staudt and Elisabeth Brauer stood sponsor for Elisabeth, a daughter of Jacob Amman, of Schuylkill, on April 29, 1735. He was naturalized as a citizen of Berks county on April 10 or 11, 1761, at which time he declared that he had taken the Sacrament on April 1, 1761. Mathias (1725-1795), was married to Anna Margaret Schrader, (Oct. 13, 1728-May 22, 1797). They lived in Bern township and were members of the Berne Reformed congregation where their ashes repose. To them were born five children: John; Mathias; Jacob; Catherine Maria, married to Thomas Umbenhauer; and Elizabeth. John (Johannes) Stoudt, settled in Brunswick township, now Schuylkill county, where he had an estate of one hundred acres. He died prior to Oct. 28, 1773, when his eldest son, John, about fourteen years of age, petitioned the court that his uncle, Michael Staudt, of Bern township, be appointed his guardian. Nov. 11, 1773, Michael Staudt was also appointed guardian for the other three children of John Staudt, of Brunswick; Daniel, 13 years of age, Jacob, 11 years of age, and Anna Margreth, 8 1/2 years of age. Michael Staudt died May 13, 1776, and it became necessary for the court to appoint new guardians for the children of John. On May 14, 1777, John Stroudt, of Maiden Creek, was appointed guardian for Anna Margreth and George William Stoudt, of Maiden Creek, for Daniel and Jacob. Jacob Staudt, son of Michael, was born in Bern township, Nov. 12, 1738, and died in Richmond township in Jan. 20, 1802. His remains and those of his wife lie buried at St. John's Union church, Kutztown, Pa. He is recorded as having a tract of land consisting of 95 acres in Bern township in 1768. In 1790 he removed from Bern township to Richmond township, having purchased the farm now owned by Edwin Kutz. Margretha, the wife of Jacob Staudt, died cir 1819 and was also buried at Kutztown. To them were born the following children: John Jacob, born May 17, 1776; Adam, 1777-1853; John Henry, born May 17,1780; Daniel; Barbara, married to John Schucker; Mary, married to Michael Knittle; Catherine, born Oct. 27, 1793, died May 28, 1804; and Elizabeth, married to William Ebling. Daniel, son of Jacob and grandson of John Michael, was a distiller by trade. He resided in Maiden Creek township, but his declining years were spent in and about Kutztown, where he died in 1853 and was buried in Hottenstein's private cemetery. His wife, a Miss Bowman, whose parents removed to Ohio, and were neighbors to the Breyfogel family, is said to have been one of the best spinners of her day, both as to quality and quanity, also that she spun all her sewing thread. Their children were: Adam, moved to Logansport, Ind., where he died; George, married Hannah Borrel, and reared a family of nine children; Reuben, is mentioned below; Frank, died unmarried; Margaretha, married Jacob Saul, of Molltown; Polly and Hannah died unmarried; Maria, married Joseph Hampshire and lived at Bower's Station; Hettie Esther, died young; Isaac, served in the Mexican War, and soon after his return left again for the Western country. Reuben, the third son of Daniel, married Hannah Koch, daughter of John Koch and his wife Catherine (Gehret), and this union was blessed with the following children: Benjamin, who located at Pine Grove, Schuylkill county, but his descendants live chiefly in Lebanon county; Daniel, who located at Circleville, Ohio; William, who located at Pottstown, Schuylkill county; Henry; Kate, who died unmarried; Hannah, married to Mr. Lobo and living in Chicago; Reuben, who was killed in the Civil War; Samuel, who settled in Carlisle, Pa.; Charles, who died of disease contracted in the Civil War; James, who served in the Civil War and afterward located in California; Melinda and Ellen, unmarried, who live at Reading; and Sarah, who married a Mr. Yingst, and lives at Carlisle. Henry Stoudt, son of Reuben, was born March 27, 1827, and died Sept. 23, 1859. He was married to Otilla, a daughter of Peter and Elizabeth (Oswald) Reppert. She was born Dec. 12, 1827 and died Aug. 3, 1877. Their remains were buried at DeLong Reformed church, of which they were members. They resided at Topton, where he died of hiccough. This union was blessed with six children: John, Hannah, Francis, Oliver, Daniel, and Lucius. John R. Stoudt, son of Henry and Otilla Stoudt, was born Feb. 10, 1848. His father died when he was a mere boy and he was hired out among strangers. He was reared on the farm and received but a common school education, and later learned the art of milling. On June 10, 1876, he was married to Anna Amanda, daughter of Charles and Anna (Carl) Baer. The following year he engaged in farming, which occupation he continued up to the time of his death, Feb. 3, 1907. He was well read, a good farmer and a fine stock man, breeding blooded stock. Mr. and Mrs. Stoudt members of the Reformed Church and were confimred at DeLong's church, Bowers', Berks county. After the death of her husband, Mrs. Stoudt removed to Fleetwood, where she and the family reside. The ashes of Mr. Stoudt repose on the family burial plot in the Fleetwood cemetery. To Mr.and Mrs. Stoudt were born the following six children: Charles Henry, a moulder by trade, is married to Minnie Lease, has two children Mabel and Charles, and resides in Reading; Rev. John Baer, see below; George B., a machinist, resides at Topeka, Kansas, and has four sons; Calvin, Francis, Paul, and Kenneth; Jacob, a moulder, is married, to Katie Kline, resides at Fleetwood and has two daughters, Anna and Esther; Annie L., at home, is married to John Herring, a bricklayer and has one son, Harold Robert; Frederick M., of the firm Stoudt & Schlegel, tin roofers and metal workers, resides with his mother. Rev. John Baer Stoudt, pastor of Grace Reformed congregation, was born in Maxatawny township, Berks county, Pa., Oct. 17, 1878, and later removed with his parents to Richmond township, near Fleetwood. He was reared on the farm, attended the local public schools and the Fleetwood high school. In 1896 he was licensed to teach in the public schools, which profession he followed for three years. He was graduated from the Keystone Normal School in 1900, and Franklin and Marshall College in 1905. While at normal school and at college took an active interest in literary and oratorical work, winning a number of collegiate and inter-collegiate prizes. After graduating from college, he entered the Eastern Theological Seminary of the Reformed Church from which he was graduated with honors in 1908. During the summer of 1906 he studied theology in the Univeristy of Chicago. On June 3, 1908, he was examined and licensed to preach the Gospel by Lehigh Classis at Jacksonville, Lehigh county. On September 1st of the same year, he accepted a call from the Salisbury charge, consisting of the congregations of New Jerusalem, Western Salisbury; St. John's, Emaus; and St. Mark's, South Allentown, and was ordained and installed on Sunday evening, September 27th, in St. Mark's church, South Allentown. The committee were Revs. M.H. Brensinger, T.H. Krick and T.M. Reber. While pastor of the Salisbury charge, the charge was reconstructed, the congregation chartered and the congregational and benevolent offerings double. Having received a unanimous call from Grace Reformed congregation, Northampton, Pa., he removed from Emaus to Northampton, Feb. 9th, in which field of labor he still continues. Though popular as a preacher and pastor, Rev. Stoudt is known to the public at large as an antiquarian and historian. His researches are confined mainly to the life, literature, manners and customs, religion and folklore of the Pennsylvania Germans. His contributions to the historic lore of his own people have been many and varied and he is being recognized as an authority in this particular line of research. He is the author of a history of the Reformed congregation of Western Salisbury, a history of Grace Reformed congregation, Northampton, Pa.; the Life and Services of Col. John Siegfried; the Nursery Rhymes and Riddles of the Pennsylvania; the Proverbs and Sayings of the Pennsylvania Germans; House Mottoes and other inscriptions, etc. He is a member of the American Society of Folklore, the Penna. German Society; the Lancaster, Berks, Lehigh and Northampton Historical Societies. On Oct. 15, 1908, he was united in holy wedlock with Elizabeth A. DeLong, a daughter of Joseph and Mary (Yoder) DeLong. This union is blessed with one son, John Joseph, born March 11, 1911. Mrs. Stoudt is a member of Liberty Chapter, Daughters of American Revolution. George Wilhelm Staudt, son of John Michael Staudt, the emigrant, was born on the old homestead at Stoudt's Ferry, in Berne township, Berks County, Jan. 12, 1748, and died on his plantation in Maiden Creek township, Sept. 17, 1820. He possessed a farm of 150 acres in Berne township, but cir 1785 he removed to Maiden Creek township, where he resided until the time of his death. He was married to Christina Weidenhammer, a daughter of Johannes (1726-1804) and Margreth (1727-1812) Weidenhammer. They were members of the St. John's Reformed congregation at Kutztown, where their ashes as well as some of their descendants repose. They had the following children: George; Margaret, married to David Gross (1775-1831); Joseph, born 1773, died 1817; Magdalina, born Aug. 11, 1778, married to John Mohr; Daniel; Maria, married to Daniel Mertz; Adam; Jacob; and Catherine, married to Daniel Meckly. Jacob Stoudt, great-grandfather of Stanley H. Stoudt, who was a farmer near Calcium, in Maiden Creek township, married a Miss Reeser, and they had these children: Jacob, married a Miss Hill; Benneville; Daniel, married Elizabeth Forney; Joel, married Eliza Rickenbach; and Rebecca, married Isaac Huy. Benneville Stoudt, who was also a farmer, carried on operations near Molltown, in Maiden Creek township. He married Hettie Bernt, and they had nine children, as follows: John; William, married Emma Brown and has had seven children; Alvin; David; Benneville; Oneida, deceased; Laura; Jennie; and Carrie; Lewis B.; Edwin B.; George B.; Racy, married Abraham Heffner and has four children: Samuel, Mary, Sallie, and Susan; Mary, married John Adams and has three children: John, Edgar, and Hettie; Sallie, married Ezra High and has two children: Hettie and Lena; and Wilson, died when nearly twenty-one years old.