Person:Stephen Hotsinpiller (2)

Early Land Acquisition in Orange County, VA

Acquisition of Land from Orange County, Virginia Records:

• Pages 431-36. 23-24 March 1736 [1737]. Jost Hites of Orange County, Gent., to Stephen Hunsonbella, blacksmith. Lease and release; for £14 current money. 450 acres on Opeckon Creek on the west side of Sherrendo River and near the head of the said creek... part of 5,012 acres granted Jost Hite 3 Oct. 1734... on the side of a marsh above the saide Hutsonbella fence... boundary between him and Charles Earhall. (signed) Jost Hite. 24 March 1736 [1737]. Acknowledged by Just Hite, Gent. On motion of Wm. Waller, Gent., admitted to record. [Orange County Virginia Deed Book 1, Dorman, pg. 30].

• Pages 76-79. 21-22 [Feb. 1738/1739] - Just Hite of Orange County, Gent., to Stephen Hutzenbuller of same. Lease and release; for £25 current money. 450 acres in St. Mark's Parish near the head of Opeckon Creek on the west side of Sharrando River... side of a marsh about twn poles above the said Hutzenbella's fence... crossing the said marsh and Opeckon Run... line of the entire tract... stake set for a bounder between the said Hutzenbella and Charles Earshall... (signed) Just Hite. Wit: John Funk, Lewis Stephans. 22 Feb. 1738 [1739]. Acknowledged by Just Hite, Gent. [Orange County Virginia Deed Book 3, Dorman, pg. 7].

1.   Vann, Elizabeth Chapman Denny, and Margaret Collins Denny Dixon. Brumback--Hotsinpiller genealogy: some of the descendants of Melchoir Brumback of the 1714 Germanma colony in Virginia through his daughter, Elizabeth, who married Stephen Hotsinpiller : and allied families of Afflick, Anderson, Bunger, Burns, Campbell, Coffman, Cornwell, Denny, Dotson, Graham, Jennings, Kessler, Kincaid, Knapp, Knox, La Rue, Lemley, Lewis, Livesay, McCutcheon, Neal, Nichols, Pollock, Powell, Ransberger, Rector, Rudolph, Sharp, Surbaugh, Tuckwiller, Watts, Williams and others. (Englewood, New Jersey: E. C. D. Vann, 1961)
   pg. 21.

   FIRST GENERATION
   
   1. STEPHEN HOTZENBELLA the IMMIGRANT In 1728, the ship Mortonhouse, John Coulter, Master, left Rotterdam, Holland with immigrants from the Palatine section of Germany. They cleared the port of Deal, England, on June 15, and set sail across the Atlantic. Nine weeks later, on Aug. 24, the ship reached Philadelphia. There were 205 passengers, 80 men, 69 women, and 56 children. No deaths on the crossing were reported. On the day of arrival it was customary for foreign immigrants, (if over 16 years of age,) to sign an oath of allegiance. “Staffen Hatssebieller” signed his oath in clear German script. The Captain’s list, furnished to the port authorities, spells the name “Stephen Haltsbielder” and there have been difficulties with the spelling of the name ever since. English clerks listened to a strange name spoken in a foreign accent and wrote the name “by ear.”
   Over 40 different spellings of this name have been observed in various documents. In the case of early generations this book uses the spelling used by the individual himself in some written document. In the case of later generations the name is printed as used by living members of various branches of the family. Family names began to be used in the Palatinate about 1300, usually taken from a physical characteristic, a trade or a place name. There is a village called Hatzenbiihl, in Germersheim township, near the Rhine. It is the opinion of a German archivist, Dr. Fritz Braun, of Kaiserslautern, that a man moving from this village would have been called Hatzenbiihler. This family name is still found in the Palatinate and our Stephen possibly descended from such a family. Nothing more is known of his origin, of the motives that impelled him to emigrate, of the actual date of his birth, or whether he learned his trade of blacksmithing in the old world or the new. Since he found his way to Germantown and there married a German girl, born in Virginia, it is concluded he was able to finance his own passage and was not indentured, as were many newcomers.
   Germantown was settled by free citizens and would have attracted like settlers. Nor is it known how Stephen became involved in Joist Hite's scheme to start a settlement in the Shenandoah Valley, only a short journey across the Blue Ridge from Germantown. The second grant recorded by Col. Joist Hite, gentleman, in Orange County, Va., on Mar. 20, 1736, was to Stephen “Hansonbella, blacksmith,” for 450 acres on “Opechan” Creek, on the west side of the Sherrendo (Shenandoah) river, near the head of the creek, next to Christian Newswanger’s, for which Stephen paid 14 pounds, 5 shillings. His land lay near the stone fort which Hite built on the creek, where Hite’s son John later built “Springdale,” which still stands, the oldest house in the Valley. Most of the settlers came from Germany and the language and customs of their native land prevailed for several generations. Stephen found a full life developing his farm and plying his trade. That section of the Valley became the center for building the wagons used in later years by Virginians moving west. Some of Stephen’s descendants continued his trade, forging the iron for the wagons, the “heavy industry” of the time. Stephen took his civic duties seriously. In 1743, he became constable of Capt. John Hite’s precinct in Frederick Co., serving for two years. This was a very important position in English law.
   He was appointed overseer of the road also with a force of men to work on it. When the time came to vote for Burgesses, candidates were accustomed to dispense drinks at the court house. Voting was by “viva vice” and the candidate would thank the voter for his support. When George Washington was a candidate from Frederick Co., in 1758, he “stood on his dignity, relying on his merit and took no trouble or expense to obtain votes.” Stephen Hotzenbell (Mr. Washington’s spelling) voted for Col. Martin and Mr. Hugh West. Washington must have decided dignity and merit were not enough to win the office. At the next election he furnished a full barrel of whiskey. Stephen and his oldest son, George, voted for Col. George Washington and Col. George Mercer, who were winners. Only freeholders could vote. They were supposed to be of the gentry class and owners of estates. The franchise was broadened in 1762 to include owners of smaller properties. Every man in the settlement shared in defense against the Indians. After many years of service, on Oct. 31, 1760, Stephen’s captain, John Allen, relieved him of further muster duty. He went to law several times to force payments from debtors and on Mar. 3, 1/62, he was paid 375 pounds of tobacco for 15 days attendance at court as a witness. Stephen married Elizabeth Brumback of Germantown, between 1732 and 1736. Families were moving into Hite’s settlement in the Valley as early as 1732, though it was 1736 before the deeds were recorded. Elizabeth was probably born at Germanna in 1715 or 1716. She shared in the development of three pioneer communities: Germanna, Germantown and the Shenandoah Valley. She had the advantage of instruction at Germantown from the school¬master, Jacob Holtzclaw, and she probably learned some English as a child, for she signed her name in English. The first recorded mention of Elizabeth was when she, her two sisters and their husbands gave their father’s Germantown property to the sister who continued to live at Germantown. Here she appears, on July 23, 1746, as the “wife of Stephen Huntzenbiller.’’ She signed various deeds of sale in Frederick Co. in 1766. When Rev. Johann Casper Stover, Jr., came through the Valley to render religious services, the name Elizabeth “Hartzenbuehler” appears in his list of baptismal sponsors. She does not appear on the records after 1767. She died before she was sixty. She bore and reared 12 children. Stephen married, second, Barbara -, who survived him. He provided well for her in his will. In the early spring of 1776, Stephen had 11 acres of wheat and 7 acres of rye in the ground when he became ill. He made his will on Apr. 2 and signed it with his mark. The name is spelled Hotzenbella throughout the document. The will was probated on May 7. His son Jacob and son-in-law Valentine “Switzler” were executors. To Barbara he left an unbranded bay horse, a cow, a feather bed and its furniture” and the plantation for life, or so long as she remained a widow. She appears on the records for the next 15 years. She bought two hogs at the sale of her step-son, John Hotsenpiller, who died in 1780. A suit between her and John’s widow was dismissed. The census of 1782 showed that one white male lived on her place and that she had two cows. She paid land taxes from 1782 to 1790.
   After Barbara’s remarriage or death the plantation was to be sold to the best advantage. The son Jacob was to receive 40 pounds. The son Stephen, Jr., 60 pounds and a granddaughter, Rebecca Bumgardner, 14 pounds. Five pounds each were left to the Lutheran and Calvinist churches. Court orders call it the “Reformed Calvinist ministry from the Palatinate.” An itemized inventory of the personal estate was filed in Aug. 1776. The total value was 162 pounds. The smith’s tools must already have been given to the sons. Horses, colts, cows, calves, hogs and pigs were reported. A still was valued at 16 pounds. A barrel of licker was put at four pounds. There was food for man and beast; 148 pounds of bacon, 36 pounds of dried beef, 48 bushels of rye, 14 of wheat and 75 of oats. There was a walnut cupboard, a table, an arm chair, four small chairs, a chest and several beds. The “old woman’s” bed was valued at six pounds, five shillings. There was a sword and a “smooth” gun. The large Bible and “sundry” small ones were set at one pound, five shillings. When the final account was filed in 1787, we learn his coffin cost two pounds. Barbara lived a long time. The executors sold 347 acres of Stephen’s original grant from Joist Hite on Oct. 3, 1796, for 1,060 pounds. This land lay on the west side of Opequon creek, the line beginning below the dwelling house of John Bucker. The line then followed from a white oak standing in a hole to where a black oak formerly stood, then to a stake on the west side of a marsh, then to a large white oak which was at the beginning corner of the entire tract, by which time the line had arrived at the creek.
   Down the middle of the creek the line then proceeded, “with its several courses and the meander thereof” until it arrived back at the beginning. Could a surveyor today find this 347 acres? In the final settlement the average amount which went to each daughter or her heirs was something over 119 pounds. There were also several special legacies. The executors filed detailed accounts, all questions were resolved by the Court and the account was recorded July 6, 1801, 25 years after Stephen’s death. Stephen lived in America less than 50 years. He shared in the economic, civic and religious life of his adopted country. He left a comfortable estate, but the greatest contribution of this pioneer couple was their family of twelve children, seven daughters and five sons. Their many thousands of descendants, if found and catalogued, would fill several volumes the size of this one.
   Limitations of space have confined this work, after three generations are sketched, to the story of the descendants of only two of the sons. No attempt has been made to write the story of the daughters’ families. Future historians will find large scope remaining for their investigation. One such book is well on the way to completion. Mrs. Jacob Kahle Rader of Troutville, Va., is developing the story of the descendants of Adam and Mary (Hotzenbeler) Rader, a daughter of Peter Hotzenbeler. Helen Eckert, of Columbus, Ohio, is producing a series of pamphlets about the Rector Family, which include a large number of descendants of John Hotsenpelar, Sr., through his son Jacob, of Ross Co., Ohio. Grant J. Smith, of Princess Anne, Va. is working on the line of John Preston Hotsinpiller, a grandson of John, Jr. William C. and Willetta (Bayliss) Blum of Washington, D.C., have produced a pamphlet, which they are expanding into a book, on the George Rudolph family, of over 2000 persons descended from Christina, daughter of John, Jr., and Dr. Warren W. Koontz, of Lynchburg, Va., is working on an Affiick branch, which includes descendants of Catherine, daughter of John Jr. Finally, some years ago Robert Mauck Switzer, of Gallipolis, O., published a pamphlet tracing the descendants of Valentine and Mary (Hutsinpillar) Switzer, she being the daughter of Stephen and Elizabeth (Brumback) Hotzenbella. It is the hope of the authors of this book that the history of other descendants of this pioneer couple may also be written.
   Children, order of birth unknown and deduced from various records:
   2 i Mary Hotzenbella; b. about 1736 or 1737.
   3 ii George Hotzenbella; b. about 1738.
   4 iii John Hotzenbella, Sr.; b. about 1739.
   5 iv Jacob Hotzenbella; b. about 1740.
   6 v Agnes Hotzenbella; b. about 1741.
   7 vi Catherine Hotzenbella; b. about 1742.
   vii Elizabeth Hotzenbella; b. about 1743; d. bef. 1776;
   m. Jacob Hoover, prominent in Hampshire Co., as “gentleman trustee” of Watson, a founder of Hebron Church, built the church and burial ground on his own farm, whose records in German script go back to 1786, many members of which were descendants of Mrs. Hoover’s parents, and of which Bishop Asbury wrote they were “God fearing, pious, industrious and much interrelated,” purchased 294 acres from Jacob, Mrs. Hoover’s brother, in 1779, who signed a receipt in 1788 that Jacob Hoover had satisfied all debts to him “from the beginning of the world to this day”; legacy from her father, Stephen, paid to husband and children, in 1787 and 1797; known ch.: i, Elizabeth; ii Susannah, m. - Hickler; iii, Jacob; iv, Mary Ann, b. 1774, m. 1st. cousin Peter Switzer, 1794, moved to Ohio and then Vermilion Co., Ind., d. 1848; v, possibly a daughter, who m. Abraham Bernard and who d. bef. 1797.
   8 viii Peter Hotzenbella; b. about 1745.
   ix Anna Maria Hotzenbella; b. about 1747; m. Wm. Stroop; signed receipt for legacy in 1797; no ch. discovered; (Stroops were among the first settlers south of the Potomac).
   x Sarah Hotzenbella; b. about 1749; m. Hopliel Coffman, of a German family early resident in the Valley; signed receipt for legacy in 1797; no ch. found.
   xi Susannah Hotzenbella; b. about 1750; m. - Sigler; bequeathed by father a mare, side saddle, bridle, two cows, rug and blanket; signed legacy receipt in 1797; no ch. found.
   9 xii Stephen Hotzenbella, Jr.; b. about 1752.