|
Many Germans came from the fertile section of the Upper Rhine known
as the Palatinate. The Thirty Years’ War had made this lovely land
of rich fields a battleground. The people were weary of poverty and
persecution and eagerly accepted Penn’s Invitation. They left their
ruined homes by thousands and took passage on crowded, slow vessels,
into which they were packed for weeks. Many of them were unable to
pay their passage across the ocean so they sold their services for
a number of years in exchange for passage to the ship’s captain.
Agents of sailing companies often contracted to bring them to America
where the agent had the right to sell the “redemptioneer’s” labor for
a certain number of years to pay for his transportation. These
“indentured servants” or “redemptioneers” were virtually slaves until
the contract expired; they were, quite understandably, the first
people in America to protest the slave traffic.
Source: http://www.timevoyagers.com/bookstore/penna/berkshist.htm
The ancestral village of Johannes Heter I is not known. However, on the Mormon
website, nearly every birth record in Bavaria (Bayern) for the surname of Hüter
or Hüeter, prior to 1760, appears in Pfalz or Mittelfranken. Pfalz, located in
western Germany, borders Luxembourg and Alsace-Lorraine, and was at one time an
outlier of Bavaria. Mittelfranken is in northern Bavaria, east of Nuremberg.
Hans Adam Hieter (Hüter, Hüeter), youngest son of Johannes (John) Hieter,
served during the Revolutionary War in Sebastian Lintz's Third Company, First
Battalion, Berks County Militia. He was commissioned as a Second Lieutenant
on 17 May 1777. He was a tailor and a farmer. He appears in the records of
the Evangelical Lutheran Church, Oley Hills, Berks County, 1753-1790. He died
in Earl Township, Berks County, Pennsylvania. His will was dated 28 December
1805 and probated 5 April 1806. His wife Elizabeth died 9 October 1810.
Children of Hans Adam Hieter and Elizabeth (Milot) Hieter:
Anna Maria Hieter, Born c. 1760. Married John Moser.
Benjamin H. Hieter, Born 20 September 1762. Married #1, Maria
Magdelina Menninger (Mennecher); #2, Eva Stofflet. Died October 1830.
Otilla (Odella) Hieter, Born 4 April 1767. Married Henry Clauser,
14 October 1783.
Maria Magdalina Hieter, Born 8 April 1769. Married Jacob Matthias.
Died at Norristown, Pennsylvania.
Johannes Hieter III, Born c. 1770/1773. Married #1, Maria Roth; #2,
Margaret. Died c. 1836, Berks County, Pennsylvania.
Jacob Hieter, Born 3 July 1774. Married #1, Catherine Roth; #2, Anna
Maria Diener, 1815. Died 17 February 1839.
Adam Hieter, Born 14 November 1776. Married Eva Weis. Died 11 April 1829.
Sources: http://homepages.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~vgdeagan/heeter.htm
Thomas Marion Heter, written account, and “Genealogical Chart
of Heter Family in America, 1735-1957”
4
| |