Person:Dietrich Sitler (2)

Dietrich Sitler was born on 13 Sep 1716 in Huethenthal, Westphalia, Prussia, Germany. He immigrated in 1744 to Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. On page 171 [of Rupp's collection of thirty thousand names of immigrants in Pennsylvania] is found the record of the coming of our ancestor Dietrich Sitler. His name is recorded as Deitrich Schattler, he arrived at the port of Philadelphia in the ship named Friendship, under the care of Captain John Mason, having sailed from Rotterdam and last from Gowes. The date of his arrival was November 2nd, 1744; the evidence from which he came is not recorded in this volume, but information from other sources leads to the belief that the Sittlers came from Alsace. Some may be discouraged by the spelling of the name Sitler in the form of Schattler; but of those who arrived within the 45 years, among the thousands of names emamined, there is not one that came anywhere near to Sitler, or could be translated into it, but this name. He resided between 1752 and 1754 in Berks Co., Pennsylvania. Among the Pennsylvania archives, of which there are 30 volumes, in the third series, we found two records of Dietrich Sitler having obtained land warrents. First under the name of Teeter Seidler, he received a warrant for 50 acres of land in Berks Co., Nov 13 1754. Second, under the name of Diter Sitler, he received a warrent for a tract of land, then in Berks Co., now in Lehigh, of 98 acres, ordered to be surveyed to him by the "Reverend William Penn," Esq., dated Oct 15, 1752, this same land was sold to Engle Meyer, May 27th, 1779, by Dietrich Sitler, and by Engle Meyer to Philip Sitler, son of Dietrich, May 27th 1786, price 220 Pounds of gold and silver money of Pennsylvania, about $1600 of our money. The record shows that Dietrich Sitler, in religion was a protestant, in denominatin, a Lutheran. He died on 20 Oct 1788 in Richmond Twp., Berks Co., Pennsylvania. He practiced the following religious faith: Lutheran. Family legend tells that the Sitler boys left the Catholic Church in Germany and became Lutherans. This enraged their father who disowned them. They subsequently came to America. Dietrich was reportedly robbed on the journey which fact is used to explain why he was not as well off as his brother Mathias who prospered as a property owner in Baltimore. Their Father left them out of the will by leaving his estate in trust for 100 years. At the end of that trust, the German Government came to America looking for all the descendants to close this Von Sitlers estate. This was 1890's. In 1745, one year after his arrival in America, he assisted in building a Lutheran Church of logs, on a tract of land near 100 acres presented by the son of William Penn, to the German Lutherans in Berks Co>Co. That sturcture was burned by the Indians; but the congregation survived and Dietrich was an officer in the same in 1761; 16 years after, the church was rebuilt of stone, a few rods from the original site, and Dietrich was one of the builders. This is the Moselem Church with a history of more than 150 years. Of this church Dietrich was an officer nearly every year from 1745 to 1765. From this date on his son, Philip Sitler, succeeded him; and is is recorded as an officer of Ebenezer Church near New Tripoli, Lehigh Co., from 1769 to 1770. Nor does he seem to have deserted or seased to be honored in the church at Moselem, even after this, for we have found the record showing that he had audited the annual financial accounts of that church for several succeeding years, ending with March 1778 Most of his children stayed in Berks or Lehigh Co.