German Immigrants to Pennsylvania: Pioneer Georg “Frederick” MOSER (1722-1800)

The earlier parts of this story can be found here. This is a common German immigrant story so perhaps you will find some connections to your own story.

BRIETENAU, BAVARIA

Our Frederick MOSER had a very interesting life. He was baptized Georg Frederic MOSER in the small village of Breitenau, Bavaria, Germany the 3rd of March 1722. Although others have placed a Johan or Johann in front of his name, nothing in the records I have examined indicates he ever was Johan. He went by Frederick or Frederich here in America. His parents were Johan Martin and Margaretha (SCHWEMBAUER) MOSER. Both were descendants of Lutheran, Austrian “exulanten” [exiles] who left “Catholic” Austria and settled in a Lutheran part of Mittlefranken aka Franconia, Germany. MOSERs lived originally in Wißenkirchberg.

When Fredrick was six years old his parents heeded the call to emigrate to America. He and his 4 siblings 8, 4, 2 an 1 years old and his uncle Johan Adam MOSER , who was then 27, traveled together. They likely went west to meet up with a contingent of the Lutheran, Reverend Caspar STÖEVER, then went west to the Rhine River finally arriving in Rotterdam. From there they boarded the ship the ‘James Goodwill’. The voyage took 89 days to reach Philadelphia. From there they traveled to New Hanover, Pennsylvania where they settled. [Links in highlighted text to that part of the story].

BERKS COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA

After arriving in the bustling harbor and town of Philadelphia the MOSERs along with the STOEVERs would have headed northwest to New Hanover and Faulckner’s Swamp church.

Life in those pioneer days centered around farming, the family and church. For a glimpse of growing up in Pennsylvania German family I am indebted to John Baer Stoudt’s The Folklore of the Pennsylvania Germans : a paper read before the Pennsylvania-German Society at the annual meeting, York, Pennsylvania 1916:

“The early German settlers in Pennsylvania were a God fearing and devotional people…Here, indeed, was earnest Christian devotion, here was the family altar, here was the Bible and the hymn-book, the constant source of instruction and blessing and here, also, there was the careful and religious training of the children…No meal was taken without some one offering an audible prayer, and a verse or even a whole hymn was frequently sung.” STOUDT pg 8

“Strange as it may appear, it was the father and the grandfather, rather than the mother or the grandmother, who usually taught the child the nursery rhymes. Coming in from the work at the barn, the father would draw a chair close up to the kitchen stove or fireplace, for the folklore was taught in winter, — in summer every one was engaged from early morn to late in the evening, — and take the child in his lap and to amuse it or perhaps to amuse himself, taught and rehearsed the nursery rhymes. This is perhaps accounted for by the fact that the mother and the grandmother, whose work was never done, were too busy, their time being all taken up by knitting mittens and stockings, spinning or sewing or perhaps preparing the meal, the father and the child waiting for the latter.” STOUDT pg 25

8From A History of the Lutheran Church in Pennsylvania (1638-1820) by Theodore Emanuel SCHMAUK we learn that in 1741 a new log church at Swamp was begun, but was not yet finished in 1742, when MÜLLENBURG arrived. We know his first sermon was 2 Corinthians 5:19-20 “that God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ, not counting people’s sins against them. And he has committed to us the message of reconciliation. We are therefore Christ’s ambassadors, as though God were making his appeal through us. We implore you on Christ’s behalf: Be reconciled to God.“

“MUHLENBERG’s insistence on educating the young people of the Swamp, as the most important practical task of the congregation, had borne fruit. A schoolhouse and schoolmasters were kept busy. But when, in 1754, the London Society inaugurated the project of the German Charity Schools, with the cooperation of MUHLENBERG and of Michael SCHLATTER, on August 1st the Lutheran Church Council at the Swamp sent a petition to the Pennsylvania trustees of the London Society, urging the opening of a school in that vicinity, and offered the use of their new schoolhouse, conveniently situated in the middle of the township. The request of the Lutheran congregation was also supported by a petition from the ministers, elders and chief men of the Reformed Church at the Swamp, dated October 28, 1754.” SCHMAUK pg 164

We don’t have a record of Frederick’s confirmation which would have likely occurred about 1738. His sister Maria Barbara MOSER “—daughter of widow MOSER” was among Henry Melchior MÜLLENBURG’s first catechetical class in 1743. Frerick’s brothers Philip MOSER and his brother Burkhard MOSER were both confirmed on 8 Apr 1744 by Rev. Henry Melchior MUHLENBERG at New Hanover (Falckners Swamp) Lutheran Church. The sponsors were Johans Adam MOSER & his wife Eva (Their uncle and aunt).

Frederick MOSER’s father Johan “Martin” died about March 1743 without a will at age 50. The Administration of his estate is dated in the body 6 April 1744. As his eldest son, Frederick MOSER received Ł6:11:10.5. Double what the rest of his heirs received.

At 27, Frederick MOSER was granted a warrant for 100 acres of land in Bucks [later Northampton, now Lehigh] County which was surveyed on March 30, 1749 located “beyond Allemangel about a mile from the Blue Mountains adjoining Henry BOYER and Conrad SWITZER.” In A History of he Leigh County, Pennsylvania by James J Hauser he writes “But the settlers got the land cheap. More than three- fourths of the inhabitants of the county are German…” The Blue Mountains are the southernmost ridge of the Appalachian mountains that runs for 150 miles through Pennsylvania.

After acquiring property, Frederich MOSER marries Maria Barbara LOESER [also spelled LIESER or LISER] as recorded at the New Hanover Lutheran Church 22nd of April 1750. This is the same church sometimes known as Faulkner’s Swamp Church where he and his parents originally settled. The original church and later schoolhouse were but simple log structures. Likely the home he grew up in as well. His mother, widow Margaretha MOSER, gave 3 shillings toward the bell at The Falckner Swamp Church in 1748. We know that Margaretha MOSER was alive 8 Apr 1750 when her two sons were confirmed at New Hanover. So we hope she was present at the marriage of her son Fredrich.

Fredrich MOSER and brother, Philip MOSER’s names appear among the signers of a petition for a new township submitted 3 Oct 1752 to the Justices of Court of Common Pleas for Northampton County at Easton. Petitioners were identified as inhabitants of an area lying under (south of) the Blue Mountains between the lately laid out township of Heidelberg and the county line, the area that became Lynn Township and later Lehigh Co. The signers included Fredrick MOSER who made his mark and Philip MOSER who signed. It seems odd that Frederick signed with a mark as he was a tax collector a few years later—perhaps his brother signed for him? The Johannes LÖYE is son of Martin LOY [Brother to George LOY whose daughter later marries Frederick MOSER’s son, Nicholas MOSER].

Frederick MOSER’s brother Burkhardt MOSER moved in 1754 to Linn Township. In 1759, Frederick was the tax collector for Greenwich Township, Berks County. [need citation]. He is supposed to be on the 1759 Tax list for Linn Township [need citation]. These townships all originally a part of Berks County and in close proximity. I was able to find him in 1761 in Linn Township, Northampton, PA:

Please note that Frederick is listed on the same page as his younger brother Philip MOSER and his brother-in-law, Jacob LIESER, [brother to his wife Maria Barbara (LIESER) MOSER]. Also listed, as a single man, is Frederick LIESER another brother-in-law.

Frederick’s brother Philip MOSER is on the list of men naturalized 21 Sept 1761, when Lehigh was still part of Philadelphia County. We don’t know where Frederick MOSER was naturalized. Philip was a deacon for the Lutheran congregation on 5 January 1761 of the Ebenezer Union Church also called die Orgel Kirche or “Organ Church,” in New Tripoli, Lynn Township Church) in PA. It was so called being the only church in that region which had an organ. The limits of the congregation extended to the Blue Mountains on the north. The settlement was made by a portion of the Allemangel colony; Among the first settlers, were Burkhardt and Michael MOSER, uncles of Frederick MOSER. Simon MOSER, bought Dec. 22, 1748 203 acres in Mosserville followed by Michael MOSER, June 8, 1754, 54 acres. They are among members of Faulkner Swamp and Goshenhoppen churches who moved, between 1735 and 1745, up to Lynn township, and settled in “Allemangel.”

Frederick MOSER is a Tax Collector in 1759 in Greenwich Township, Berks County and on the Tax list for Linn Township in Northampton County in 1761. On the 8th of August 1762 Nickolaus (Nicholas] MOSER, my 4th great-grandfather, was baptized at the Ebenezer Union Church also called die Orgel Kirche or “Organ Church,” in New Tripoli, Lynn Township Church) in PA as recorded in the Personal Register of the Rev. Daniel SCHUMACHER. The first church was built out of logs and was dedicated on November 6, 1756. It is quite possible that he was born in Greenwich Township but brought to St Paul’s for baptism.

Children of Frederick and Barbara MOSER born in PA

• Jacob bc 1751
• Johan Michael 1754
• Abraham 1759
• Johan Philip 1758
• Georg 1 Jan 1760 died 1760
• twin Maria Barbara 1 Jan 1760
• Nicholas bpt 8 Aug 1762

Sometime between 1762 and 1763 the MOSER family relocates to North Carolina. We will take that up in the next blog post.

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