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Facts and Events
References
- ↑ Kit Ritter. Kit's Ritter family information, Recipient: Kristina Kuhn Krumm, Address:Kingman, AZ, Author E-mail: kit at rvfinancing.com (2005) kit. (December 2005).
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 Brenda Keck Reed. Keck/Moser family information, Recipient: Kristina Kuhn, Address:Oakland, California, Author E-mail: BrendReed at aol.com. (March 2001).
- ↑ "HEINRICH KECK, older brother of JOHANNES, arrived at Philadelphia on 17October 1732. It is said that he came from the Upper Palatinate ofBavaria, a section of Germany lying on both sides of the Rhine,extending south from Bingen and Mainz to Karlsruhe, and fromKaiserlautern west of the river to a point beyond Heidelberg to theeast. The JOHN & WILLIAM dropped anchor that fall day after a harrowingvoyage of seventeen weeks on which forty-four of the passengers died.The crossing took about five weeks longer than usual and conditions onboard became so desperate that some of the passengers mutinied andseized control of the ship. After sailing up and down the coast theyfound Delaware Bay. At this point eight of the mutineers escaped in asmall boat but were later apprehended in Philadelphia.
"Upon disembarking, the male passenger's age sixteen or over weremarched to the Philadelphia City Hall where they were required to signan Oath of Abjuration and an Oath of Allegiance. Heinrich's' signatureon these two oaths clearly spells his surname as GECK. CaptainTymperton's lit of the passengers on the John & William is one of therelatively few such lists that survived and is unusual in that it listedthe women and children as well as the men. Nowhere among the names ofthe women and children can the name GECK, KECK, or any possible variantbe found, leaving no doubt that Heinrich came alone. Evidence that hewas unmarried at a later date is to be seen in the records of the EgyptReformed Church of Whitehall Township, Bucks (now Lehigh) County,Pennsylvania. ONe 13 May 1739 Catharina Eva Arndt was baptized at thatchurch and Heinrich Geck and Eva Roth were the sponsors. ClearlyHeinrich was single at that time.
"It is not know where Heinrich was between the time of his arrival in1732 and the baptism at the Egypt Church. It has been said that he andhis wife served a term as redemptioner's following their arrival in1732. NO record could be found to support this and since it is nowevident that Heinrich did not bring a wife with him this seemsquestionable. There is little doubt that by 1739, and probably a goodmany years earlier, Heinrich had found his way to the Macungie region ofBucks County and had settled on a tract in what later became SalisburyTownship, Northampton (now Lehigh) County, Pennsylvania. The land wherehe lived the remainder of his life had been warranted to JosephZimmerman in 1734. In 1753 Heinrich acquired the warrant and thefollowing year by payment of 15 pounds 10 shillings to Thomas andRichard Penn he was granted a patent. The property was described as 100acres plus six percent for roads lying along a branch of Lehigh Creek.Keystone Road which runs along the land Heinrich once owned, sooncrosses over the Little Lehigh on Keck's Bridge, then winds in aneasterly direction through a narrow defile perhaps half a mile to theWestern Salisbury Church which sits high on a bluff above the stream.The beautiful little valley between the bridge and the church is stillknown as Keck's Valley."
- ↑ Philadelphia, PA
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