The Enigmatic Johannes Kistler of Albany TownshipBy Bruce Kistler [Note: This is revised version of an article that appeared in the Albany Township Historical Society Newsletter, Vol. 7, No. 1, Winter, 2004. Reproduction is permitted with attribution.] Many Kistlers in the United States can trace their roots back to old Allemaengel, a region encompassing parts of northern Berks and Lehigh Counties in Pennsylvania. For a good number of them, like me, the trail leads to Johannes Kistler who settled in Albany Township, Berks County sometime in the late 1740s or early 1750s. Having dug back this far, the descendant faces a choice: Either accept the popular notion that Johannes is the son of George (aka John George or Hanjorg) Kistler who settled nearby in Lynn Township, Lehigh County or take a closer look at the documentation and realize that what many people accept as fact is probably not correct. In spite of evidence to the contrary1, the old notion that Johannes is the son of George persists even today, perpetuated by easily available but erroneous early published accounts2, by the George Kistler grave marker in the Jerusalem Church cemetery that implies that he is the progenitor of all American Kistlers, and more recently by ill-considered postings on the Internet. One result of all this, as Raymond Hollenbach noted, is that Johannes Kistler is often overlooked and not given the recognition he deserves. The available records show that Johannes Kistler and George Kistler where each raising rather large families about the same time, one on the Albany Township side and one on the Lynn Township side of the Berks-Lehigh county line. Although George appears to have been older, their age difference could not have been that great. Also, Johannes comes across as independent and not deferential to George as one might expect a son to be. For example, Johannes followed Rev. Daniel Schumacher when he split to form the Freidens congregation, while George remained a member of the Jerusalem congregation. He also applied for naturalization a year in advance of George. What is certain is that the two men shared a common ancestor. A Kistler Family DNA Project that I initiated has confirmed that DNA samples taken from descendants of both men are an exact match (12-marker Y chromosome test). (The DNA Project later confirmed that Johannes Niclaus Kistler of Tulpehocken also shared a common ancestor with Johannes and George.) Although this was an important finding, a test like this cannot tell us which particular ancestor they shared. The first reliable record of this Johannes Kistler in Pennsylvania is a 1745 petition to the Court of Quarter Sessions at Philadelphia asking for a public road, “…from Abraham Levan’s mill in or near Maxatawny thro’ or over certain hills about eight or 10 miles distant from Upper Hanover Township by Peter Sills near ye first road leading from Philadelphia…close by which new road Thomas Mayberry hath erected or is erecting a Grist Mill and an Iron Furnace….” The petition was signed by both Johannes Kistler and Jurg (George) Kistler3. I am confident that this is the same Johannes Kistler who settled in Albany Township because the signature on the road petition matches the signature on his 1772 will. A 1755 petition to resurvey the same road includes a map that helps us follow its modern route. The surveyed road begins as Church Hill Road near Clayton in Hereford Township which, tellingly, is a continuation of Philadelphia-Kutztown Road in Upper Hanover Township, Montgomery County. The route then turns west at Huff’s Church Road and continues through Longswamp Township and District Township, and eventually becomes Fredericksville Road in Rockland Township. Although it is unclear exactly what route the historic road took on its western portion, it terminated at Daniel Levan’s in what is now Kutztown, not at Abraham Levan’s mill which was at Eagle Point. The research that I have done so far indicates that the signers of the 1745 petition lived near the proposed route, as one might expect. Several were from the area around Bally and at least one was from Longswamp. A Richard Mayberry also signed the petition. It stands to reason that Johannes Kistler and George Kistler probably lived in this vicinity in 1745. About five years ago, Carolyn Buttolph uncovered what I believe is evidence supporting this theory. She found that the 1747 land warrant mentioned on George Kistler’s grave marker was not for land in Albany Township or Lynn Township, but rather for land near the village of New Jerusalem in Rockland Township, less than a mile from Fredericksville Road. The warrant was issued to George Kishler who wished to “take up fifty acres of land adjoining his other land between Oley and Maxatawny….” Field notes from a later survey indicate that the property was “situated in Rockland Township, among the Oley Hills.” Significant also is that the 1755 petition to resurvey the road does not include the signatures of either Johannes Kistler or George Kistler. I believe that by that time they both had relocated to Allemaengel where Johannes was listed among the taxables in Albany Township in 1752-1754. The most important historical document for descendants of Johannes Kistler is the 1803 will of his wife Anna Barbara4. It names five surviving sons—Johan Georg, Wilhelm, Jacob, Abraham and Hannes—and three sons-in-law—Paul Hertzog, Philip Anton and Lorenz Bachman “whose first and second wives were my daughters.” Although more research is needed, the following is the family of Johannes and Anna Barbara Kistler as best we can determine. Because they are not named, the true identity of the daughters remains uncertain. I am indebted to Carolyn Buttolph for showing the links to North Carolina. Many of the dates given are from Pastor Schumacher’s records or Jerusalem Church records. Other dates are from various family researchers over the years whose sources were not cited.
There will be many who will object to my statement that the 1745 road petition is the first reliable record of Johannes Kistler in America. That is because the ship registers show that a Johannes Kistler arrived in Philadelphia aboard the Bilander Townshend on October 5, 17378. The early Kistler family historians wrongly believed that this record reflected the arrival of George (aka John George) Kistler on the assumption that an English clerk had recorded just the first name. For reasons I explain in the next paragraph, it is now clear that this passenger was a Johannes Kistler, not a George or John George Kistler. In fact, an arrival record for a George or John George Kistler has not been found. This is curious because if they were related, it would make sense that they arrived together or at least within a few years of one another. There is no proof that the Johannes Kistler who arrived in 1737 is the same Johannes Kistler who settled in Albany Township. Although it might be the same man, one reason that I hesitate to make this leap of faith without further proof is that the immigrant Johannes made his mark on the ship’s register whereas the Johannes who petitioned for a road some eight years later signed his name. While it is certainly possible that he learned to write in the meantime, I doubt that many poor, illiterate adults had the time, means, or inclination to do so. There is another possibility. The Johannes Kistler who arrived in Philadelphia in 1737 is almost certainly the same Johannes Kistler of Auerbach, Germany who was granted freedom from bondage in April of that year9 (The Baden-Durlach authorities would never have omitted the “George” if this had been John George Kistler.) The manumission certificate describes Johannes as a poor day laborer who wishes to emigrate with his three minor sons. If the sons were in their early teens in 1737, they would not have appeared on the ship’s list and, because they were poor, it is quite possible that they became indentured servants upon their arrival. At the end of their term of service, they would have been of age and ready to strike out on their own. Thus, it is possible that the immigrant Johannes is the father of Johannes Kistler of Albany Township and George Kistler of Lynn Township as well as one other son, perhaps Johannes Niclaus Kistler of Tulpehocken. This theory could account for the arrival of four Kistler males in Pennsylvania with only one record and it is consistent with the time gap between the arrival in 1737 and the next available record in 1745, the apparently close relationship between Johannes and George, and the DNA evidence that the three shared a common ancestor. Also, since masters of indentured servants were expected to provide their young charges with some education, the boys probably would have been able to write. Another leap of faith made by some Kistler family historians is the claim that the ancestral village of the Allemaengel Kistlers is Aarberg, Switzerland. This claim is based on cryptic handwritten notations on a one-page Stammbaum der Familie Kistler von Aarberg, a family tree by U.E. Kistler of Offenbach am Main produced in 1938 and included as an appendix to a 1944 genealogy by Mrs. Floride Kistler Sprague of Chauncey, Ohio10. The first notation, apparently in the hand of U.E. Kistler, indicates that one Hans Rudolf Kistler was the progenitor of the “Amerikanische Line.” A line is drawn from this to another handwritten note in the margin that is apparently in the hand of Mrs. Sprague: “John George & wife Dorotheo, came to America in 1737.” Although it was a Johannes Kistler and not a John George Kistler who arrived in 1737, it is possible that the Stammbaum has the correct family. Still, I doubt it and without documentation it is only hearsay and I am unwilling to accept it as fact. Although I do believe that the Allemaengel Kistlers originated in Switzerland, I doubt if they came to America directly. Like many Swiss immigrant families, they probably came by way of Germany or Alsace. The work that I and others have done on the European origins of families associated with the Allemaengel Kistlers, indicates that the vast majority came from a relatively small region along the middle Rhine. The village of Auerbach, from which Johannes Kistler emigrated, is located between Karlsruhe and Pforzheim on the southern edge of this primary immigrant region. We have been unable to prove the Auerbach connection so far through conventional methods because the records of the Lutheran church there were destroyed in a fire. There is documentation that a Hans Kistler migrated from Bözen, Switzerland to Richen, Germany in 1652. Because Richen is not far from Auerbach, we wanted to use DNA testing to see if we could confirm a relationship between our Allemaengel Kistler lines and the Richen Kistler clan. After much effort, we found a single DNA donor from Richen. Unfortunately, the test showed no match. Although this is not proof of no relationship (there could have been a “false paternity” or unknown adoption in either line), we are seeking other theories to test. Another possible line is that of one Konrad Kistler of Bözen who died in Bretten, Germany in 1691. We continue to seek willing DNA donors from Germany and Switzerland. No grave marker has been found for Johannes Kistler of Albany Township. He is presumed to be buried in the old graveyard of Freidens Church. So even in death he remains elusive. But when he died, an inventory of his worldly goods included horses, cows, heifers, a bull, sheep, hogs, a wagon, stores of buckwheat and rye, and 24 acres of grain in the fields. All told, his estate was valued at 212.8 Pounds, a respectable sum in those days. He was not rich but I believe that he had attained the goal sought by most of the Pennsylvania Germans: To be a free and self-sufficient farmer with land of his own and a fine family to carry on his name. As I imagine his humble log house in the shadow of the Pinnacle, I can feel his presence through the ages and in my growing database I can see his legacy in the form of those who carried the Kistler name to Perry County and to North Carolina, Kansas, New York, Iowa, Minnesota, Colorado, Oregon, Florida, and elsewhere. Those of us who descend from Johannes Kistler of Albany Township can be proud of their worthy, if enigmatic, ancestor. Footnotes (1) See: (1) Raymond Hollenbach, KISTLER FAMILY OF EASTERN PENNSYLVANIA (unpublished), 1972; Updated and corrected by Willard Werkheiser, 1995; Copy in Lehigh County Historical Society, Allentown, PA. (2) Arthur Klingaman, THE KLINGAMAN FAMILY HISTORY AND GENEALOGY, 1973, revised April, 1980. (3) Elaine D. Schwar, "The Kistler Confusion," JOURNAL OF THE BERKS COUNTY GENEALOGICAL SOCIETY, Summer, 1990. (4) Bruce Kistler, "Sorting Out the Kistlers: A Research Update," THE PALATINE IMMIGRANT, Vol XX, No. 2, March, 1995, pp. 102-110. (2) Early Histories of the Kistler family: (1) Samuel J. Kistler, Article in THE HISTORY OF LEHIGH COUNTY; 1884. (2) Charles E. Kistler, "Kistler Valley Kistlers," THE PENNSYLVANIA GERMAN, Vol VII, 1906, p. 104; (3) Charles E. Kistler, "Kistler's Valley and It's Settlers," address before the Berks County Historical Society, September 10, 1922; (4) Charles E. Kistler, "Hanjeorg Kistler and His Descendants," THE PENNSYLVANIA GERMAN; (5) Charles E. Kistler, "To and From Kistler's Valley," Copy in Berks County Historical Society Library. (3) It is important to note how George signed his name. It was not Johan Georg or Hanjeorg as the early family historians call him. Photocopies of the road petition, as well as many of the materials mentioned above, are contained in several large notebooks of Kistler material compiled by Willard Werkheiser and placed in several research libraries including the Lehigh County Historical Society and the Berks County Historical Society. (4) Letters Testamentary issued to Anna Barbara, widow of Hannes Kistler, Will dated November 24, 1772, Probated March 24, 1773; Source: BERKS CO. WILLS, Vol. 2, p. 125; LDS film 0020723 (5) Carolyn Buttolph, KISTLER FAMILIES OF NORTH CAROLINA, unpublished, undated computer printout, p. 10 (6) Johannes Kistler "took the sacrament" and became a naturalized citizen September 24, 1761 along with "Mich'l Propst, Simon Freest, Jacob Hoggugh, and Jacob Dreess". On April 4, 1762, George Kistler took the oaths of naturalization. PERSONS NATURALIZED IN PENNSYLVANIA. (7) Kenneth D. McCrea, PENNSYLVANIA LAND APPLICATIONS. VOL. 1: EAST SIDE APPLICATIONS, 1765-1769, McCrea Research, Inc. 2002, Application Number ES-1160, p. 89 (8) See: (1) Ralph B. Strassberger (Ed. Wm. John Hinke), PENNSYLVANIA GERMAN PIONEERS; Vol. 2; List 48B, p.189. (2) Wm. Henry Egle, NAMES OF FOREIGNERS WHO TOOK THE OATH OF ALLEGANCE TO THE PROVINCE AND STATE OF PENNSYLVANIA; p. 140. (3) Daniel Israel Rupp, A COLLECTION OF THIRTY THOUSAND NAMES OF GERMAN, SWISS, DUTCH, FRENCH AND OTHER IMMIGRANTS IN PENNSYLVANIA FROM 1727 to 1776; p. 110 (9) 61 Kennf Cammer Protocolla vom 23 Apr 1737 biss 10 Aug 1737 Beides inclusive #1 #1258 #1258 #1004; Baden Stadtarchiv, Karlsruhe, Germany; Werner Hacker also concludes that this is the same Johannes. Werner Hacker, AUSWANDERUNG AUS BADEN UND BREISGAU, Index #5351, p. 442 (10) Floride Kistler Sprague, KISTLER FAMILIES DESCENDED FROM GEORGE KISTLER, JR. OF BERKS COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA, 1944 HOME |