History: Family: The KOLB (KULP) Family: Philadelphia and Montgomery Counties, PA Contributed for use in USGenWeb Archives by Thera. tsh@harborside.com USGENWEB ARCHIVES NOTICE: Printing this file within 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. http://www.usgwarchives.net/ ____________________________________________________ The following is from The Strassburger Family and Allied Families of Pennsylvania, by Ralph Beaver Strassburger, 1922, pp. 391-413. THE KOLP (KULP) FAMILY Dielman Kolb of Wolfsheim in Baden, Germany, was born about 1648 and died in 1712, aged 64 years. He is buried at Manheim in Germany, where he resided. His wife, Agnes, was a daughter of Peter Schumacher, who came to Germantown in 1685, and died in 1707, aged 85 years. Agnes died in Germany in 1705, aged 53 years, and is buried at Wolfsheim. Peter Schumacher had five daughtes, three of whom accompanied him to this country. The fourth daughter married Reynier Herman Van Burkalow and came to Germantown, but later settled in Cecil County, Maryland. Dielman Kolb passed away in his 65th year, five years after his wife died, leaving to survive him six children: Peter, Ann, Martin, Jacob, Henry and Dielman. [Note from contributor: See below* where six sons are referenced, making seven children. Actually, I believe there were a total of eight children, seven of them sons. The two additional are, Johannes, b. 19 May 1683, who accompanied his brothers to America in 1707, and Arnold, b. 1688.] Of these, Martin, Jacob and Henry Kolb came to Pennsylvania in 1707, no doubt influenced to take this step by the grandfather, Peter Schumacher, who, however, died about the time of their arrival. Ten years later they were followed by the youngest brother, Dielman. The eldest brother, Peter, who was a Mennonite minister, lived and died in Manheim, Germany, and the only sister, Ann, married Balthaser Kolb, probably a relative, and they also remained in Germany. Dielman Kolb, Sr., and his wife must have been people of means and position in the old country, for four of their *six sons were ministers of the Mennonite faith, Dielman, the youngest, being a man of exceptional education in that day. Children of Dielman Kolb and Agnes Schumacher: 1. Peter Kolb, born 1671, died 1727, aged 56 years, 8 months; buried at Manheim in the Palatinate. He was a Mennonite minister. 2. Ann Kolb, b. 1676, d. 26 Feb 1738 at Wolfsheim; married Balthasar Kolb. They never came to America. 3. Martin Kolb, born 1680; came to Pennsylvana and settled in Germantown in 1707; married Mary Magdalena, daughter of Isaac Van Sintern and his wife Neeltje Claasen. They moved to Skippack, then Philadelphia (now Montgomery) County, in 1709, where he was ordained a minister of the Mennonite faith, and later served the church at Germantown. He died in 1761. Their children were Magdalena, Neltgen, Hannah, Sarah, Dielman, Isaac and Maria. 4. Johannes Kolb, born 19 May 1683; came to America with his brothers in 1707, and removed with them to Skippack in 1709, where on December 15th of that year he bought 150 acres of land. 5. Jacob Kolb, born 21 May 1685; settled in Germantown in 1707, removed to Skippack in 1709; married 1) in 1710, Sarah Van Sintern, sister to Magdalena, his brother Martin's wife; 2) in the old Log Mennonite Church at Germantown (name unknown.) On October 1, 1739, as he was pressing cider, the beam of the press fell on him crushing one side of his head and shoulder, from which injuries he died a half-hour later. He was 54 years of age at the time of his death. He was a trustee of the Skippack Mennonite Congregation as early as 1717, and is, no doubt, buried in the graveyard adjoining that church. 6. Henry Kolb, died 1730; came to America with his brothers in 1707, and settled in Germantown. He also was a minister and settled at Skippack in 1709, which church he served for some years. His will is dated February 20, 1729, and probated the 13th of July of the following year. His children were Peter, David, Dielman, Mary, Dorothy, Anne and Agnes. 7. Dielman Kolb, Jr., born 10 Nov 1691, married 1714, Elizabeth Schnebli. ****************************** Dielman KOLB, youngest son of Dielman Kolb, Sr., was born 10 Nov 1691, at 1:00 in the afternoon, in the Palatinate (Pfalz) at Wolfsheim. The following is taken from an old book which was printed in Germany in 1581, and was brought over to this country by Dielman Kolb and was in the possession of the family until 1895, when it was sold at public sale after the death of Daniel K. Cassel, Harleysville, PA. (Translation) Anno, 1691, the 10th of November, I Dielman Kolb, was born into this world at one o'clock in the afternoon. Anno 1714, on St. Jacob's Day, in the 23rd year of my age, I was married to my housewife, Elizabeth. Anno, 1717, the 21st of March, we went to Ibersheim, in the Palatinate, on the journey to Pennsylvania and the 10th August, 1717, arrived safely here in Philadelphia. This book belongs to me, Dielman Kolb, and I have received it from Jacob Schnebli of Manheim, in the Palatinate, Anno Dom., 1722 at this time dwelling in Solforth township, in the County of Philadelphia, in Pennsylvania. The name of Andrew Ziegler appears as one-time owner of this book; he married Elizabeth, the only daughter of Dielman and Elizabeth Schnebli Kolb. Dielman Kolb was a Mennonite minister, living at Manheim, where he attended that congregation as a preacher. He made himself both useful and most valuable by receiving and lodging his persecuted fellow believers who fled from Switzer- land, as appears from a letter dated August 27, 1710. He in turn suffered persecution, which eventually led to his emigration to Pennsylvania to join his brothers, Martin, Jacob, Henry and John, who had preceded him ten years earlier. Dielman Kolb purchased 225 acres of land on January 4, 1721 from Derick (Dirk Jansen) Johnson, weaver, and Margaretha his wife. This tract lay in that part of Philadelphia County that later became Salford Township. At a still later date, Salford was divided into Upper and Lower Salford, and this land fell then into the latter division and when Montgomery County was taken from Philadelphia, 1785, both the Salfords were included in the new organization. According to the deed of Dirk Jansen to Dielman Kolb, the first land transaction which appears upon record, this tract adjoined other land of "Tilman Kolb." Heckler in his history of Lower Salford, says this other land was acquired by patent from the Commonwealth, but if so, there is no record on file at the Land Office in Harrisburg. On April 2, 1721, Dielman Kolb purchased of Nicholas Scull another 107 acres of land adjoining his other tract bounding on the lands of Andrew Ledrach, Gerhart Clemens and others. Part of this tract is now occupied by the village of Lederachville. On June 14, 1731, he added another 50 acres to his great tract. This last purchase he made of John Naglee. About this time, however, he sold 50 acres of his land out of the northwestern corner of his farm to Gally Heffelfinger. By a survey made for Andrew Ziegler, senior, his son-in-law, May 7, 1767, it appears that after selling these 50 acres he still had 559 acres and eight-eight perches. It is seen by this that Dielman Kolb was a man of means and owner of a considerable estate. On October 10, 1733, Dielman Kolb sold 250 acres of his land to his stepson, Jacob Schnebli, or Snavely, "of the city of Manheim in the dominion or Principality of the Prince Palatine, on the Rhine, in High Germany," who later came to this country and resided on this tract until his death. Dielman Kolb, junior, married in Germany, 1714, Elizabeth Schnebli, a widow, who had several children by her first husband, one of them being a son Isaac, who later settled in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, Mathias, and the above mentioned Jacob "Snavely." In 1728 the great road from Goshenhoppen to Skippack was laid out through Dielman Kolb's land, and his residence was about three-fourths of a mile southeast of the present village of Lederachville. Dielman Kolb was a minister of the Mennonite church, though, as was customary at that time, he engaged in other occupations as well. Not only did he attend upon the Mennonite congregation at Salford, but, besides carrying on extensive farming, he was a weaver as well. He appears to have been prominent in the affairs of the Mennonite Church, and to have been noted for his religious zeal. He was very intimate with Henry Funk, a minister and bishop of that faith, and it was through the perseverance and zeal of these two men that the Mennonite congregation in Salford was organized in 1738. On the fourth and fifth of October, 1738, Henry Ruth and his wife, Modlena, of Salford, by deed of lease and release granted to Henry Funk, Dielman Kolb, Christian Moyer, Jr., and Abraham Reiff ten acres and forty perches of land, part of his homestead tract. Of the parties of the second part all were residents of Franconia Township, except Dielman Kolb, who was of Salford. Funk was a bishop, Kolb a minister, and Moyer and Reiff were deacons or "Vorsteher." There was a building of some kind call a "tenement" on the land when it was purchased, but whether or not this "tenement" was turned into a meeting house to be used until the completion of the new one, which was immediately commenced, is not known, but it was not long before they were in their new church building. It appears that these four officials were considered as the trustees and that they, or the members of the church, were not satisfied that they should have the deed for the land with the meeting house thereon all in their name and power. Therefore, they had Robert Jones of Worcester write them a deed of conveyance, called a "declaration" or deed of trust, in which these four officials as "parties of the first part" convey it to the church as the "second part," the second part being represented by seventeen members of the congregation. This deed of trust was recorded in the office of the Recorder of Deeds, Norristown, long years after. Matters appear to have gone on very well and the church prospered. In time, however, it was considered to the advantage of their church that a new congre- gation be organized at Franconia, for the use and greater convenience of those of the faith residing in that locality, which was then called Indian Field. A new deed was executed, in order to convey back to the congregation in Salford a "Declaration of Trust" from the two surviving trustees residing in Franconia Township to two others of Salford. This second paper dated March 25, 1763, recites that Henry Funk and Dielman Kolb are dead and Christian Moyer and Abraham Reiff are the survivors of the "trustees," while Jacob Clemens and Christian Funk represent the congregation. In connection with Bishop Henry Funk, Dielman Kolb supervised the translation of Jan Van Braght's "Bloedigh Tooniel" from the Dutch into the German language, and certified as to its correctness. "The Bloedigh Tooniel", or Bloody Theatre or Martyr's Mirror, is a history of the "defenseless Christians, who suffered and were put to death for the testimony of Jesus their Saviour, from the time of Christ until the year A.D. 1660." It traces the history of those Christians "who from the time of the Apostles were opposed to the baptism of infants, and to warfare, including Lyonists, Petro- busians, and Waldenses, details the persecution of the Mennonites by the Spaniards in the netherlands, and the Calvinists in Switzerland, together with the individual sufferings of many hundred who were burned, drowned, beheaded, or otherwise maltreated, and contains the confession of faith adopted by the different communities." This book had been published in Dortrecht, July 23, 1659, the author being T. Jan Van Braght, and many copies were brought to this country, but they were all printed in the Dutch language. It was considered necessary by the Mennonites that their young members should have the book to read to remind them of the faith and steadfastness of their fathers in the principles of the church, and the propriety of having it transcribed into the German script was a matter of consultation among prominent members of the church for some time. The great difficulty was to find a translator and a printer in the wilds of Pennsylvania, and naturally they turned to the older and wealthier churches of Europe for assistance. On October 14, 1745, Jacob Godshall of Germantown, Dielman Kolb of Salford, Michael Ziegler, Yellis Cassel and Martin Kolb of Skippack, and Heinrich Funk of Indian Creek (Franconia), sent a letter to Amsterdam on the subject, applying for aid. Apparently this aid did not come, but after a great deal of trouble they succeeded in finding both a translator and printer. This was at Ephrata, on the Conestoga creek, in Lancaster County, where a little community of Dunkards had established themselves and introduced monastic institutions, where they lived single as monks, friars and nuns, holding their lands and goods in common. About 1745 they secured a hand printing press and also had a paper mill. Here in this quiet valley they translated and published the "Bloedigh Tooniel." The first part was completed in 1748, the second part in 1749, the whole containing about fifteen hundred pages, and it took fifteen men three years to finish it. The price per single copy was 20 shillings. Dielman Kolb made his will July 8, 1748, and it was proved April 30, 1757, nearly nine years later. In this will, he named as trustees his "loving and trusty friend Henry Funk" and John Ulrich Berger. He provided well for his widow, Elizabeth, during her natural life; it is not know how long she survived him. Except for 50 acres of land to be laid out of that part next adjoining the land he had sold to his stepson, Jacob Snebley, which he left to his grandson Dielman Ziegler, he bequeathed to his only child, Elizabeth, wife of Andrew Ziegler, Sr., all his lands, plantations and tenements whatsoever. To his stepson, Matthias, and granddaughter, Catherine Ziegler, he left cash money and to the "Congregation of ye Dutch Mennonists in Salford" he bequeathed 2 pounds 1 shilling and to the Mennonists of "Perkyomin & Skepack," he left a like sum. Dielman Kolb died December 28, 1756. David Shultze, the surveyor, entered upon his notebook the following under date of December 28, 1756: "Der alte Dielman Kolb zu Shippack is auch gestorben d. 28th xbr." And then on December 30: "Went to Shippack to the burial." While there is no doubt that he was buried in the graveyard adjoining the church in Lower Salford, which he so long and faithfully served, there is no stone standing today to mark his last resting place. He was in his sixty-seventh year, not quite having reached the alotted three score and ten. "Few men, even in that day of heroic characters, can lay claim to a nobler life, and while no monument marks his last resting place, his name for all time will be indissolubly linked with that great historical work of the Pennsylvania Mennonites, the most durable monument of the denomination. Child of Dielman Kolb and Elizabeth Schnebli: 1. Elizabeth Kolb, born about 1715; married Andrew Ziegler, Sr.; resided on the farm near Lederachville.