Person:Ulrich Wirth (1)

Document #216-A has a large history of Urlich Also found at this web site http://awtc.ancestry.com/cgi-bin/igm.cgi?op=GET&db=*v127t0074&id=I00964

Entries: Updated: Contact: Unknown

1. ID: I00964
2. Name: Ulrich WIRTH
3. Sex: M

1. Note:

   The Genealogy of Maria Elisabeth Wert (Wirth)- Benninghoff
   Compiled by Randall Wert
   European Records
   Much of the information in this section was obtained from the book Eighteenth Century Emigrants from the Northern Alsace to America by Annette Kunselman Burgert (Picton Press, 1992), and verified by Dr. Bernd Goelzer from the compiled records of Dr. Gerhard Hein.
   The earliest records of this Wirth family come from several rural villages in the northern Alsace region. Although the entire Alsace now belongs to France, many of its inhabitants in the mid-18th century were Germans who spoke a southern Palatine dialect, like most Pennsylvania German ancestors. According to the Diedendorf Reformed Kirchenbuch (parish register), Ulrich Wirth and his wife Catharina (nee Scheurer), daughter of Johannes Scheurer from Weyer (modern-day Drulingen), had a son Johann Ulrich baptized 29 November 1714. Besides young Ulrich, the couple also had daughters named Barbara and Christina. (Christina actually emigrated to America about 4 years earlier than her brother Ulrich.)
   In the Reformed parish register of Rauweiler (now Rauweiler), we find that the younger Ulrich, a linen weaver, was married on 10 February 1740 to Maria Schmit, daughter of Henrich Schmit. The couple's first five children were born in Germany: Johann Jacob on 22 January 1741 in Lixheim, Balthasar on 24 February 1743; twins Daniel and Samuel on 17 January 1745; and Maria Eva on 5 March 1747.
   Emigration and Earliest Years in America
   Our ancestors' life in the northern Alsace had become extremely difficult for a number of reasons: persecution by Catholic authorities, crop failures, lingering effects of the devastating Thirty Years' War, just to name a few. After weighing these hardships against the promise of free land in William Penn's haven of religious freedom across the ocean, our Wirth ancestors joined the wave of emigration that was sweeping the Palatinate and northern Alsace. (The history of this migration is discussed on several excellent Internet sites; you might want to look here, here, here and here. There is also a thorough history of the Alsace region here.) The Wirth family sailed on the ship Two Brothers and landed in Philadelphia on 15 September 1748. The next 12 years constitute a large gap in our knowledge of the family's whereabouts and activities. We do know that Ulrich and Maria had several more children after arriving in America.
   The family reappears again in 1760, when Jacob Wirth was a sponsor at a baptism in Egypt, Pennsylvania. This is mentioned on the genealogy page of the Dormeyer family. This indicates that the Egypt Reformed Church may have been one of the earliest ones attended by our Wirth family in the Lehigh Valley. But members of the family soon began to appear frequently in the records of Schlosser's Church (later known as Unionville, and finally as Neff's Union Church). Approximately 220 years later , Ulrich's great-great-great-great-great-grandson, the Rev. Donald W. Wert, would come to serve as the Lutheran pastor at Neff's Union. He is my father, and none of us had any inkling of our family's history at the church when he accepted its calling the mid-1980's.
   "Ulrich Wuerth" also shows up on the tax list for Whitehall Township, Northampton County in the year 1762. In his "Miscellaneous Family Histories," Raymond Hollenbach describes an old property map for the area, showing that Ulrich owned a rather large tract of land between Levan's Junction (later the approximate location of the Trexler Orchards packing house) and the Jordan Creek. Most of this land was later part of the Trexler Orchards. Interestingly, I have found that some land in Weisenberg Township owned by later Wert generations also wound up as orchards, and I have to wonder whether our Wert ancestors weren't the original founders of these orchards.
   Ulrich's Children Grow Up and Move Out
   One by one, the children of Ulrich and Maria came of age, married, and followed their own paths. Though their earliest church records are found at Neff's, they soon began to spread to other churches, near and far. For example, Jacob had at least 8 children and took all of them and their families along to York County in 1785 as part of a large migration of families from northwestern Northampton County. Balthasar moved to the very base of the Blue Mountain in Heidelberg Township and had at least 8 children, the later ones baptized at Heidelberg Union Church. Daniel and Samuel -- both linen weavers, like their father -- also married, had children, and migrated a short distance to Weisenberg Township.
   That place-name "Weisenberg" is worthy of some explanation. If you look at its modern spelling with a little knowledge of German, you might think its origin had something to do with a "wise mountain." Not so! The name was originally Weissenburg (" white castle"), named after an important city by that name back in Germany, in the border region between the southern Palatinate and the northern Alsace. (Under French occupation, it is renamed "Wissembourg," in case you go looking for it on a map .) The settlers' choice of the name Weissenburg for their township and church is another sign of the strong northern Alsatian influence in this part of Northampton County. History and photos of old Weissenburg can be found here and here.
   Before we begin to concentrate our attention on Daniel, I would be remiss not to quote a statement of Annette Kunselman Burgert which should be a source of pride to all Wert descendants: "All sons in this family appear on the rosters of Northampton County militia companies; several were on active duty during the Revolutionary War." I have confirmed this by examining the muster rolls. Balthasar is described in the History of Lehigh County as having been a "terror to the Indians" (presumably in service on the frontier after the Wyoming Valley Massacre). And Daniel's twin brother Samuel left behind a wife and four young children, a large farm and many earthly possessions, to volunteer as a private in the Second Battalion of Associators in the County of Northampton. This unit formed part of the Flying Camp of 10,000 men commanded by Col. Hart -- a sort of "rapid reaction force" in modern parlance. His name last appeared on the muster roll of 6 August 1776, while the force was encamped at Perth Amboy, awaiting action. Three weeks later, Samuel fought in the disastrous Battle of Long Island (a.k.a. "Battle of Brooklyn"), in the right side of the line, under General Sterling's command. A superb history of this battle can be found here and here. American losses in the battle were appalling, and many more died agonizing deaths under the unspeakably inhumane conditions aboard British prison ships. Whether he died in the Battle of Long Island, British captivity , or one of the many battles that followed for his unit, Samuel's estate was settled in 1777.
   Daniel Wirth and Family
   Here we will discuss Daniel in somewhat more detail than his siblings, because he is Maria Elisabeth Benninghoff's father (and my great-great-great-great-great-grandfather!). As mentioned above, Daniel was a weaver of linen and hemp, like his Father Er and twin brother Samuel. Both twins appear on the 1772 tax list for Weisenberg Township. Daniel apparently owned considerably less land than Samuel, but was nonetheless fairly affluent, judging by the inventory of his possessions.
   We know that Daniel's wife was named Anna Margaretha, but we do not know her maiden name. The couple had five children. Their first child, Maria Elisabeth was born in January of 1773 and baptized on 28 March of 1773 at Weisenberg Church in Weisenberg Township, Northampton County. Her sponsors were Juerg and Maria Elisabeth West. Our family had a custom of naming children after godparents, so it is easy to see where Maria Elisabeth got her name. (Incidentally, Daniel and Margaretha returned the favor by serving as godparents for the 3-week-old son of Juerg and Maria Elisabeth West on May 23, 1773. The boy was named after Daniel.) Maria Elisabeth Wirth married Frederick Benninghoff, and Paul Dentler picks up the story from there on his page Frederick Benninghoff of Venango County.
   Other children of Daniel and Anna Margaretha Wirth include: Christina Barbara (born February 1775, married George Maurer); Daniel Wirth, Jr. (born 26 February 1777, married Susanna Dauber and became my great-great-great-great-grandfather); Anna Margaretha (born 22 January 1780, married Adam Old); and Susanna Catharina (born 8 August 1782, married Jacob Dauber).
   Daniel served in the 3rd Company of the 3rd Battalion of Weisenberg Militia (called the "6th Battalion" after 1780). In this company, he served as an ensign (1777, 1778) and private 2nd class (1780 and 1782). Officers were elected, not promoted ; it was therefore not considered a "demotion" to serve at a lower rank than previously held. He also appears in the 1790 census of Weisenberg Township. Daniel Wirth, Sr. died sometime in early 1812. We know that Anna Margaretha survived him, because she wrote a letter to the court, surrendering to her son Daniel, Jr. her right to act as administrator of her deceased husband's estate. Daniel's letters of administration, inventory, etc. are dated 22 May 1812 and filed under number 282 9 at the Northampton County Register of Wills. Daniel, Jr. also petitioned the court to partition his father's estate; this is dated 21 August 1812 in the records of the Northampton County Orphans' Court. In fact, it is this record that provides the definitive list of the children of Daniel and Anna Margaretha and proves my relationship to Maria Elisabeth (Wirth) Benninghoff. We are indebted to Candace Anderson for listing an abstract of this record in her Genealogical Abstracts of Orphan's Court Records of Northampton County, PA, Vol. 6-8, 1795-1815, Closson Press, Apollo, PA, 1999, and to Jonathan Wert, preeminent Wert genealogist, for bringing Ms. Anderson's book to our attention.
   This page was specially prepared to supplement the Benninghoff genealogical web site. I can provide additional information, including more detailed identification of sources, upon request. There have been some great breakthroughs in Wert genealogy in recent months, and we continue to learn more about Ulrich Wirth's descendants all the time. (And we keep making more of them, too!) Write me at rtwert@@fast.net, and I will do my best to help you with more info. -- Randall Wert

   Facts about this person:

   Occupation
   Linenweaver

   Source: Information on Ulrich Wirth, Some information was found in Lehigh Co

   Comments: ABBR Information on Ulrich Wirth, Some information was found in Lehigh Co
   Quality: Information on Ulrich Wirth, Some information was found in Lehigh Co Historical Society, also from Eighteenth Century Emigrants from the Northern Alsace to America. 

Marriage 1 Catharina SCHEUERER

Children

  1. Has Children Joh. Ulrich WIRTH 
  2. Has No Children Barbara WIRTH
  3. Has No Children Christina WIRTH