Johannes Peter Fetterolf
Born 20 Mar 1698 in Wachbach, Germany
Died before 16 Sep 1784 in Hereford Township, Berks County, PA
married in 1729 in Germany
Anna Maria Rothermel
daughter of John Rothermel and Sybilla Zimmerman
(See Ships list below Peter & Anna came over with her parents)
Born on 12 Feb 1711 in Wachbach, Germany
Died circa 1787 in Macungie Township, Northampton County, PA.
Children
Philip Fetterolf 1729 -
Anna Maria Fetterolf 1732-
Catherine Fetterolf 1732-
Juliana Fetterolf 1733-
Anna Barbara Fetterolf 1736-
Eva Fetterolf 1737-
Johannes Peter Fetterolf
Charles Fetterolf AFT.1738.
Joseph Fetterolf was born AFT 1738.
Jacob Fetterolf 1742 -1823
Mary Magdalena Fetterolf 3 Aug 1755-
Notes:
Biographies from Historical and Biographical Annals by Morton Montgomery
The large and influential Rothermel family of Pennsylvania is descended from John Rothermel, who was born in Wachbach, a province of Holland, in 1688. In 1708, he married Sybilla Zimmerman, a sister of General Zimmerman, of his native land. In 1730, after the birth of one daughter and five sons, he set sail from Rotterdam, with his entire family, for America. John Rothermel died at sea and never saw the shores of the country for which he started. His wife and children arrived in Philadelphia Aug. 29, 1730. The daughter, Anna Maria, who had married Peter Fetherolf, in Wachbach, in 1729, settled with her husband in Macungie township, Lehigh county. The five sons, namely: Lawrence, Paul, Peter, John and Christian, all settled in Berks county
From The Fetherolf-Fetterolf Family
from Genealogical & Biographical History Of Lehigh County Pa
pages 355-158
The ship "Thistle" which arrived at Philadelphia August 20, 1730 had among its passengers Peter Fetterolf, son of John Jacob Fettrolf. He was a native of Wachbach, Germany and was born March 20, 1699. He was married to Anna Margaretha Rothermel in 1729. She was born in February 1712 and was the onl daughter in a family of six children of Johannes and Sabilla (Zimmerman) Rothermel, also natives of Wachbach, Germany. Peter Fetterolf and family and his brother-in-law Leonard Rothermel, before the organization of Berks County in 1752, had ssettled in Hereford Township. In the year 1759, Peter Fetterolf was the largest tax payer in Hereford Township. He was the tax collector for the district and collected the sum of 74 pounds 15 shillings and 6 pence; of this amount he paid 18 pounds as his share. His son, Peter Jr., in the aforesaid year, 1759, was assessed among the single men of the township.
The name Fetterolf has been corrupted into various spellings. the ancestor in his last will and testament, plainly wrote his name Peter Federolf. In the list of immigrants in the Pennsylvania Archives, the clerk spelled it Federolph. The tax lists have it Fetterolf. In the old Lehigh Church records it appears as Johann Peter Fetherolf. The descendents in Berks and high counties spell it Fetherolf; and in Northumberland County Pa descendents, as well as those in Philadelphia including Prof. Adam H. Fetterolf, PHD LLD & late distinguished president of Girad College, spell it Fetterolf.
Peter Fetterolf, the pioneer, was a farmer. He owned a large acreage of land, located on the line of Berks and Lehigh Counties, and in three townships, namely Hereford and Longswamp in Berks County and Lower Macungie in Lehigh County. The Fetterolf homestead (on which the pioneer settled, and erected the first log building, cleared the land, lived a useful, industrious, and prosperous life, reared his family and died) is situated near the village of Seiszholsville, in Hereford Township, Berks County, PA. The pioneer died August 15, 1784, in his 66th year of age. He and his wife and several children, also later descendants are buried in a private graveyard on this farm.
The Pioneer divided his large estate by a last will, which was made July 19 1784, and probated September 15th of the same year, and is recorded in the court house in Reading Pa. It's witnesses were Hendry Bortz and Christopher Shultz, the latter a justice of the peace of that district. It appointed as executors Paul Drosscup of Rockland Twp (who was the ancestor of the Hon. Peter S Grosscup, the distinguished jurist of Chicago) Jacob Fetterolf and Christopher Bittenbender. The following six (6) children are mentioned in teh will: (1) Jacob (2) Philip married Christiana Richards (1749-1870) on Nov. 13 1770. Their daughter Elizabeth married Adam Wartman: (3) John Peter; (4) Maria Magdalena married to Christopher Bittenbender; (5) Catherine married (first) John Siegfriend (second) to Abraham Zimmerman, and (6) Anna Barbara, married to Philip Hain (Hehn). Items of the will were:
300 acres of land to his son Jacob
100 acres of land to his son in law Christopher Bittenbender, a blacksmith
300 oounds to each of the six children of his deceased son Peter
The three daughters were well provided for by the will, which distributed the vast estate equally among all his children.
The pioneer was a leader among the settlers of his section. His wisdom in the selection of land is shown by the fact that it remained in the Bittenbender family from the year 1784 until 1908, a period of 124 years. Valuable iron ore, in later years, was discovered and profitably mined on is long settled homestead. "At the Bittenbender mine the ore raised from January to August 1880 was 3,892 tons. Until the year 1880, 188,000 tons of iron ore were mined with big profit" Montgomerys History of Berks County, 1886, page 998.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Immigrated on the ship "The Thistle of Glasgow;" listed as Peter
Fefferol. The name of Fetterolf has been corrupted into various
spellings. In his last will and testament, Peter plainly wrote his
name as Peter Federolf. In the Pennsylvania Archives, the name is
spelled "Federolpph." In the various tax lists it's spelled
"Fetterolf. In old Lehigh church records it appears as Johann Peter
Fetherolf. The descendants in Berks and Lehigh counties tended
towards "Fetherold" whereas those in Northumberland and Philadelphia
counties used "Fetterolf."
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From Floyd's History Of Northumberland County:
FETTEROLF. The Fetterolf (Federolf, Fetherolf) family, two of
whose representatives in Upper Mahanoy township, Northumberland county,
are Edward and Daniel Fetterolf, brothers, is of Dutch origin, its
founder in this country, Peter Federolf, having been a native of
Wachbach, Holland, born in 1699. In 1729 or 1730 he married Anna Maria
Rothermel, only daughter and eldest of the six children of Johannes and
Sabilla (Zimmerman) Rothermel. In 1730 Peter Federolf and his wife
accompanied his father-in-law to America, the voyage being made in the
"Thistle," and about 1732 he and his wife and one of her brothers,
Leornard Rothermel, located in Hereford township Berks Co., Pa., where
Peter Federolf acquired large acreage of what has become valuable
farmland, upon which he passed the remainder of his life, dying there.
His property was partly in Hereford township and partly in Longswamp
township and he made his home near what is now Seisholtzville, near the
line of Lehigh county. Leonard Rothermel located in Perry township,
Berks county, before the Revolution, and there died at an advanced age,
leaving a large family.
Peter Federolf was a man of more than ordinary importance in his
locality, not only because he was a large land owner, but because his
successful management of his own affairs showed him entitled influence
and leadership in the conduct of such matters as affected the general
welfare. He reared a family of seven children, who became connected by
marriage with other substantial old families in the county, and all of
whom are mentioned in his last will and testament (on record in the
court house at Reading, Will Book B), made July 1784, and probated Sept.
16, 1784, showing that he died during the summer of that year. The
witnesses to the will were Henry Bortz and Christopher Schultz, the
executors Paul Groscup, of Rockland township, who was the testator's
true and trusty friend (he was the ancestor of Judge Peter Grosscup, the
Federal jurist of Chicago), Jacob Fetherolf, the eldest son, and
Christopher Bittenbender, blacksmith, a son-in-law. In later years this
Christopher Bittenbender obtained the original Federolf homestead, on
which is located the Federolf private burial ground, where the emigrant
ancestor, Peter, is buried, as well as Christopher Bittenbender his
wife, and some of their children. The will sets forth that the son
Jacob was to have three hundred acres of land; the son-in-law,
Christopher Bittenbender, one hundred acres of land; the six children of
the son Peter, who predeceased his father, three hundred pounds of money
(divided between them); that the son Philip, deceased, left one
daughter; that the daughter Catharine was twice married, first to John
Siegfried and after his death to Abraham Zimmerman; that the daughter
Barbara married a Hehn (name now spelled Hain); the daughter Magdalena
married Christopher Bittenbender, who was a blacksmith and farmer, and
who as previously noted eventually acquired the old homestead of Peter
Federolf, which remained in the Bittenbender name until 1908. About 1840
a valuable find of iron ore was discovered on this property, and some
of the Bittenbenders became wealthy thereby, the ore mines being worked
until the early eighties.
Jacob Fetherolf was born Feb. 16, 1762, and died April 6, 1823; he
is buried at Wessnersville, Berks Co., Pa. His wife Catharine, born May 12, 1760, died Jan. 10, 1849. (There was a Jacob Fetherolf, son of
Peter, who died in Albany township in 1823, and whose will is on record
in Will Book 5, page 412. He left sons John and Peter.)
The will of a Peter Fetherolf of Berks county who died in 1840 is
also on record (Will Book 8, page 242). He died without sons, and John
S. Kistler and William Mosser were the executors
[List 11 A, B] Thistle of Glasgow
Captain: Colin Dunlop
From: Rotterdam, June 1730
By Way of: Dover (19 June 1730)
Arrival: Philadelphia, 29 Aug 1730
Seventy-seven Palatines, who with their families, make about two hundred and sixty persons. A study of the individuals and families on this ship, especially those from the region of Ludwigshafen a. Rhein, was made by Fritz Braun and published in
Schriften zur Wanderungsgeschichte der Pfälzer Vol. 8 (1959) under the title, "Auswanderer aus der Umgebung von Ludwigshafen a. Rh. auf dem Schiff
Thistle of Glasgow 1730." The article was later published in
Ship Passenger Lists, Pennsylvania and Delaware (1641-1825), 3rd edition, edited by Carl Boyer (Newhall Calif.: the editor, 1980).
