Person:Nichlous Haugendobler (2)

From <a href="http://familytreemaker.genealogy.com/users/h/o/u/Diane-L-Hougentogler/GENE5-0001.html" target="_blank">Nicholous Haugendobler Family History</a>: _____________________________________________________________________________________________________

Notes for NICHLOUS HAUGENDOBLER:

Nichlous left Switzerland with his family and state breifly in Darnstarf Germany before leaving on the Osgood. Nichlous is listed: "Foreigners whose names were imported in the ship Osgood Cap William Wilkie from Rotterdam & Cowes, did this day take & subscribe the forgoing qualifications September 29 1750" (by list 145 Persons total 486 but woman and childern were not listed in document)

They were members fo ther First Reformed Chuch of Lancaster where ther official records are kept. The Rev. William Otterbein was pastor from 1752 to 1758. He was one of the founding fathers of the Church of the United Brethren in Christ which is now part of the United Methodist Church (this writer has yet to find any other reference to a brother). Nichlous settled near Mann's or Brennemen's Taver in Manor Townshipl This was between Washington Borough and Millersville (Ellis and Evans page 951).

Lancaster County Courthouse records show that Nichlous died in 1768. Dr. Moyer of Chestnut Street Columbia PA has his Bible in which is recorded the birth of his daughter Ann in Basel Switzerland, in 1743 and also the death of John Sr. in 1820, aged 74 years and several months. This Bible also records the fact that Nichlous had bought land in Hesse, Darmstadt in 1744. John Jacob Boyer reciding in the Providence of Pennsylvania was a witness. Nichlous dying in 1768 left the following children: Joh, Ann, Nichlous, Michael, Abraham, Joseph, Isaac, Mary and Barbara. John was made guardian by the Court for the following children; Isaac age 14, Joseph aged 12, Mary aged 11 and Barbara aged 5.

The name was spelled Haugendobler, Hougendobler, Hogendoubler, Hogendounler, Houghendobler, Howendonler,Hogendoller, Hougentogler, Hougentougler, Hugentugler and in some cases Hogen, Hubbs and even H. Doebler. Some church record transcriptions show Houendobler and Hauendobler

They lived in quaint old hamlet of Silver Springs near Columbia Pa

Birth date may be 1711 or 1726

_________________________________________________________________________ The following discription was found of what thier voyage to Pennsylvania was like:

"A German immigrant by the name of Gottlieb Mittelberger, who arrived along with my ancestor Michael Peterman in Philadelphia in 1750 ( on the same ship the Osgood) gave us a vivid account of his crossing, which was typical of most who made the voyage to America."

"Both in Rotterdam and in Amsterdam the people are packed densely, like herrings so to say, in the large sea-vessels. One person receives a place of scarcely 2 feet width and 6 feet length in the bedstead, while many a ship carries four to six hundred souls; not to mention the innumerable implements, tools, provisions, water-barrels and other things which likewise occupy such space. On account of contrary winds it takes the ships sometimes 2, 3, and 4 weeks to make the trip from Holland to . . . England. But when the wind is good, they get there in 8 days or even sooner. Everything is examined there and the custom-duties paid, whence it comes that the ships ride there 8, 10 or 14 days and even longer at anchor, till they have taken in their full cargoes. During that time every one is compelled to spend his last remaining money and to consume his little stock of provisions which had been reserved for the sea; so that most passengers, finding themselves on the ocean where they would be in greater need of them, must greatly suffer from hunger and want. Many suffer want already on the water between Holland and Old England. When the ships have for the last time weighed their anchors near the city of Kaupp [Cowes] in Old England, the real misery begins with the long voyage. For from there the ships, unless they have good wind, must often sail 8, 9, 10 to 12 weeks before they reach Philadelphia. But even with the best wind the voyage lasts 7 weeks.

"But during the voyage there is on board these ships terrible misery, stench, fumes, horror, vomiting, many kinds of sea-sickness, fever, dysentery, headache, heat, constipation, boils, scurvy, cancer, mouth rot, and the like, all of which come from old and sharply salted food and meat, also from very bad and foul water, so that many die miserably.

"Add to this want of provisions, hunger, thirst, frost, heat, dampness, anxiety, want, afflictions and lamentations, together with other trouble, as . . . the lice abound so frightfully, especially on sick people, that they can be scraped off the body. The misery reaches the climax when a gale rages for 2 or 3 nights and days, so that every one believes that the ship will go to the bottom with all human beings on board. In such a visitation the people cry and pray most piteously.

"Children from 1 to 7 years rarely survive the voyage. I witnessed . . . misery in no less than 32 children in our ship, all of whom were thrown into the sea. The parents grieve all the more since their children find no resting-place in the earth, but are devoured by the monsters of the sea.

"That most of the people get sick is not surprising, because, in addition to all other trials and hardships, warm food is served only three times a week, the rations being very poor and very little. Such meals can hardly be eaten, on account of being so unclean. The water which is served out of the ships is often very black, thick and full of worms, so that one cannot drink it without loathing, even with the greatest thirst. Toward the end we were compelled to eat the ship's biscuit which had been spoiled long ago; though in a whole biscuit there was scarcely a piece the size of a dollar that had not been full of red worms and spiders' nests. . .

"At length, when, after a long and tedious voyage, the ships come in sight of land, so that the promontories can be seen, which the people were so eager and anxious to see, all creep from below on deck to see the land from afar, and they weep for joy, and pray and sing, thanking and praising God. The sight of the land makes the people on board the ship, especially the sick and the half dead, alive again, so that their hearts leap within them; they shout and rejoice, and are content to bear their misery in patience, in the hope that they may soon reach the land in safety. But alas!

"When the ships have landed at Philadelphia after their long voyage, no one is permitted to leave them except those who pay for their passage or can give good security; the others, who cannot pay, must remain on board the ships till they are purchased, and are released from the ships by their purchasers. The sick always fare the worst, for the healthy are naturally preferred and purchased first; and so the sick and wretched must often remain on board in front of the city for 2 or 3 weeks, and frequently die, whereas many a one, if he could pay his debt and were permitted to leave the ship immediately, might recover and remain alive.

"The sale of human beings in the market on board the ship is carried out thus: Every day Englishmen, Dutchmen and High-German people come from the city of Philadelphia and other places, in part from a great distance, say 20, 30, or 40 hours away, and go on board the newly arrived ship that has brought and offers for sale passengers from Europe, and select among the healthy persons such as they deem suitable for their business, and bargain with them how long they will serve for their passage money, which most of them are still in debt for. When they have come to an agreement, it happens that adult persons bind themselves in writing to serve 3, 4, 5 or 6 years for the amount due by them, according to their age and strength. But very young people, from 10 to 15 years, must serve till they are 21 years old.

"Many parents must sell and trade away their children like so many head of cattle; for if their children take the debt upon themselves, the parents can leave the ship free and unrestrained; but as the parents often do not know where and to what people their children are going, it often happens that such parents and children, after leaving the ship, do not see each other again for many years, perhaps no more in all their lives. . . . It often happens that whole families, husband, wife and children, are separated by being sold to different purchasers, especially when they have not paid any part of their passage money.

"When a husband or wife has died at sea, when the ship has made more than half of her trip, the survivor must pay or serve not only for himself or herself but also for the deceased. When both parents have died over half-way at sea, their children, especially when they are young and have nothing to pawn or pay, must stand for their own and their parents' passage, and serve till they are 21 years old. When one has served his or her term, he or she is entitled to a new suit of clothes at parting; and if it has been so stipulated, a man gets in addition a horse, a woman, a cow. When a serf has an opportunity to marry in this country, he or she must pay for each year which he or she would have yet to serve, 5 or 6 pounds."

From Gottlieb Mittleberger, Journey to Pennsylvania in the Year 1750 and Return to Germany in the Year 1754, trans. Carl Theo Eben (Philadelphia: John Jos. McVey, n.d.).

___________________________________ The following is from Pulaski Co. Illinois

HOGENDOBLER The Hogendobler Family Tree was planted long before Christopher Columbus discovered the "New World." Though not well documented, references to the family name and its variants specifically localize the "Hugentobler" families of ancestry to the Lower Toggenbourg, Canton St. Gallen, in northeastern Switzerland from the year 1423. A registry of Swiss 19th Century vital statistics lists some 2,000 Hugentobler names, all of the family members believed to have descended from the first "Hugotobler" family, and for whom the Family's Coat-of-Arms was created. Some 19th Century family members include Jakob Hugentobler, a world-renowned doctor of herbal medicine, and lwan Edwin Hogentobler, about whom Der Pferdemaler, Iwan E. Hugentobler was written. Th e book, documenting lwan's life as a horse painter, refers to "the Hugentobler Family" as having "for centuries been citizens in Henau-Niederuzwil . . . primarily as craftsmen and tradesmen, but also farmers . . ."

The presence of the Hogendobler Family on this continent predates the signing of the Declaration of Independence by over a quarter of a century. The immigrant forefather, Nicolaus Haugendobler, his wife Anna Maria, and three children at the time, set sail across the Atlantic aboard the Ship Osgood of Rotterdam, bringing with them the first American branch of the Family Tree. On September 29, 1750, after 15 weeks of what has been described as cruel and enslaving conditions, they landed, setting foot onto colonial soil at Philadelphia.

During the next 100 years, the Hogendobler Family would prosper and produce, settling in East and West Hempfield and Manor Townships, Lancaster Co., Pa. By 1850, one of every 25 landowners in the area would be a Hogendobler; and by as late as 1920, a novel by Anna Balmer Myers, Patchwork, A Story of the Plain People, would make "Hogendobler" a household word.

Family members would serve in the military during the Revolutionary Ust Generation) and Civil Wars (3rd and 4th Generations); some would travel westward, settling in Indiana, Ohio and Illinois; most all would adhere closely to family tradition, working as craftsmen (shoemakers and weavers), tradesmen (iron ore mining and tavern owner- ship), and farmers (land and livestock).

Henry Arford Hougendobler, son of Jacob and Catharina (Erfort) Hougendobler and grandson of Isaac (Nicolaus'fifth son) and Elizabeth [Petri (Peters)] Hougendobler, is credited as "the father of the Pulaski Co. Hogendoblers." In 1865 he, his wife Catherine and their four surviving children, Elizabeth Metzger and husband William Henry Leidigh, Henry Metzger, Horace Greeley, and David Milton, settled into the farming community of Villa Ridge, IL. Their descendants would remain here, bringing the family tradition of agriculture and land ownership into the 20th Century.

Countless European generations preceded Nicolaus Haugendobler, but ten American generations and four spelling changes later, the Hugotobler Family Name remains vital. Though spread throughout America and Western Europe, it survives in Southern Illinois as the largest Hogendobler settlement in America. Here, the name once again has become a household word.

(Grateful acknowledgement is extended to David Davis, great-grandson of Henry Arford Hougendobler, for researching this family history.) Submitted by J. Matthew Hogendobler

1.   Hougentogler, Diane Lynn. Nicholous Haugendobler Family History
   Generation 1.