Hans Georg Hertzel's great-grandfather was Jacob Hirzel ("Hirtzel"), born about 1580 in Pfäffikon Parish, Zürich, Switzerland, when Galileo and Shakespeare were both 16 years old. Jacob died in Pfäffikon before 1634. Hans Georg's grandfather was Heinrich Hirzel ("Hirtzel"), born in 1619 in Pfäffikon Parish. He and his family emigrated to Germany about 1653.

Heidelberg, Germany, 1620

Heinrich died in 1663 in Reihen, Baden, The Palatinate, Germany. Baden is a historical state on the east bank of the Rhine River in the southwest of Germany. Reihen is a town in what is now Baden-Württemberg (state) of Germany, about 18 miles due southeast of Heidelberg. The Palatinate is an area of Germany where Swiss Mennonite refugees settled after 1650. See Hartzell Narrative [⁴] for interesting details. Hans Georg's father was Clemens Hirtzel, born in 1659 in Reihen. In 1680, Clemens Hirtzel married Anna Sinter, the midwife of the community. Clemens was a subject of the von Vennigen family, and was their administrator, or bailiff. Our ancestor Hans Georg Hertzel was their second son, born in 1686, Reihen, Baden.

When Hans Georg was 7, Heidelberg was attacked and burned. There was endless warfare. When Hans Georg was 16, it was the first of six deaths in his family within the next 12 years. His little sister Maria Margretha died in 1702 at the age of 3. When Hans Georg was 21, his father Clemens died in 1707 at age 48 in Reihen during the "Little Ice Age" in Europe. When Hans Georg was 22, his brother Johann Jacob, the twin of Maria Margretha who died in 1702, died in 1709 at the age of 9.

"During this time, pamplets were distributed across the region describing America in glowing terms. It was an advantage to the English to populate their territories with the hard-working farmers of the region. The first group went up the Rhine to Rotterdam, and then to Dover, and then to Philadelphia in 1708" [⁴]. William Penn himself made several visits to The Palatinate, one as early as 1677, to encourage the people to move to America. (Penn died in 1718.) So, you can say that William Penn played a major role in our ancestral migration.

Hans Georg Hertzel, at age 27, married Anna Margaretha Conrad in 1713, in Reihen, Baden. "They would have seen the pamphlets about America. Warfare, disease, cold, and the growing population limiting the available farmland were all reasons for wanting to leave" [⁴].

In 1714, when Hans Georg was 28, his first son was born, Hans Georg (Jr.). In the same year his brother and two sisters died: Maria Ester, age 26, who had been married 3 years; Hans Jonas, age 20; and Anna Christina, age 17.

By 1715, Hans Georg's surviving siblings and mother were: Mother Anna, born 1690 (died 1738 in Reihen), Hans Heinrich Hirtzel, bap. 1681, Christoph "Stoffel" Hirtzel, bap. 1690, Anna Margretha Hirtzel, bap. 1702, and Hans Ulrich Hirtzel, b. 1705.

In 1716, when Hans Georg was 30, son Hans Jacob Hertzel, our ancestor, was born. In 1719, Anna Margretha was born. In 1722, Johann Dietrich was born. In 1724, Johann Leonard was born.

About 1725, Hans Georg's younger brother Ulrich took a ship to Philadelphia at around age 20. This is an example of the common practice that a young, unmarried son of the family would scout out the land, then return to the homeland to report his findings, possibly take a wife, as did Ulrich, and guide the rest of the family to the new country. Hans Georg was now about 39.

In this around-1725 trip, Ulrick played a major role in our ancestor's move to America. Somehow he made it to Skippack, an already established German settlement 25 miles northwest of Philadelphia. There was surely a well-marked trail by now. Skippack is in what is now Montgomery County, PA. Skippack was an outgrowth of the Germantown settlement near Philadelphia. We don't know how long Ulrich was in this area before his return to Germany. Everyone was German, so everyone spoke German.

In 1727, the Hans Georg Hertzel family made the decision. It was literally a matter of survival, with conditions being so bad in Germany. The trip up the Rhine, with constant tolls, would have sapped their finances. In Rotterdam they boarded the "William and Sarah", William Hill the captain, to a stop in Dover, England, and then on across the Atlantic to Philadelphia. Some pictures below are from Zeigler[³], on George Philip Ziegler, who was also on the 1727 ship.

Artist's depiction of the William & Sarah.         » ship model

From www.genealogystories.net/georg_philip_immigrant.html.

Ship's list, William & Sarah, 1727. Hans Jerg Hertzel is in 2nd column, 2nd name.

The list shows 4 freights, not persons, for the Hans Georg family. Children 4-15 were counted as half-freights, and children under 4 were free. Thus we can account for the entire family, including Margretha, who some think died before or during the journey. The list does not show her as dead. See www.progenealogists.com/palproject/pa/, 1727 William & Sarah. Their ages were Hans Georg Hertzel, 41, Margretha (Conradt), Hans Georg, 13, Hans Jacob (our ancestor), 11, Anna Margretha, 8, Johann Dieterich, 6, Johann Leonard, 2. On board was younger brother Hans Ulrich & his wife. Also on board was Hans Georg's sister Anna Margretha & her husband Johannes Liepp. There were two other relatives, Dietrich and Hans Ernst Rudi & their families. They may have thought they would see their families again, but apparently never returned. They were on a ship with 400 or so people crowded aboard. Typhoid, Yellow Fever, and other diseases of cramped spaces without enough clean water affected many of the ships. There were rats, lice, and bad food. But, only 4 people died on this trip, below average for the times. For a 1750 account of a ship journey, see www.jdhartsell.com/HansGeorg/ship_journey.html. Emigrant ship & interior of the period:

In 1727, records first started to be made of immigrants. We don't know who paid their passage on arrival. When the family arrived in Philadelphia Sept. 18, 1727, Benjamin Franklin, 21, had a print shop in Philadelphia. George Washington was 4, and Thomas Jefferson was 16.

www.genealogystories.net/georg_philip_immigrant.html Philadelphia Court House around 1727

On Sept. 21 (3 days after arrival), all 109 family heads and males 16 or over were compelled to swear an oath to the British Crown. In attendance at the courthouse for the ceremony was Pennsylvania's Lieutenant Governer James Logan, The Honorable Patrick Gordon, Esq., Richard Hill, Esq., and William Fishbourn, Esq. Here the immigrants made the Oath of Allegiance to King George II. It must have been in the German language.

2nd Street at Market, Philadelphia, 1723, with Court House on the left. Because of shadows, the view is looking North up 2nd Street. This area is now a few blocks south of I-95 & I-676. This is how Hans George Hertzel saw this area in 1727. Click picture for larger view.

www.genealogystories.net/georg_philip_immigrant.html

Since the Hans Georg family arrived in Philadelphia Sept. 18, I would guess they wintered in Skippack. See below for more on this. Pioneer diet was potatoes, corn, berries, fish, and game.

This is the Gerhardt Indenhofen house in Skippack Township, built about 1725, and still standing at Evansburg Road and Skippack Pike. It bears resemblance to a few of the other early houses along the Skippack Creek. The Hertzel family probably saw this house. The mortar was a simple mixture of Skippack red clay and lime held together by horse hair and rope and sometimes straw. Click on the picture for the Skippack Historical Society web site.

Swan[²] reports that "Hans Georg settled first in an area some thirty miles north of Philadelphia, and soon afterward, by a decree of the court in 1728, this area was organized as Salford Township, Philadelphia county". But, it gets confusing here. There was a Jorg Hertzel and Ludwig Hertzel who arrived in Philadelphia on the ship Thistle of Glasgow, qualifying Aug. 29, 1730. In 1730, a George Hertzel and Ludwig Hertzel arrived in what was then Salford Township[⁵]. Swan[²] found a petition signed by a Hans Georg in 1731 for the establishment of part of Salford Township, Philadelphia County (later Montgomery County) as a new township called Franconia. Swan says that this petition is the only record we have of Hans Georg in that location. In 1734 a George Hartzell owned 100 acres in Franconia Township and was one of the 34 taxable individuals in the township[⁵].

So, at this point, I'm not sure if our Hans Georg lived in Salford/Franconia Township. His brother Ulrich Hertzel was still in Skippack Township in 1733[⁶], as a member of the Goshenhoppen Reformed Church. There is no mention of Hans Georg. Hans Leonhart Hertzel became a member in 1737 [⁶]. He arrived in Pennsylvania Sept. 21, 1732.

The part of Salford Township that became Franconia Township would narrow where Hans Georg lived, but Franconia township is surrounded on the west and south by Salford, Lower Salford, and Upper Salford townhips. Hans Georg (?) must have lived in the area of the towns Harleysville, Hatfield, Telford and Souderton, in what would have been the northeast quarter of the original Salford Township.

In 1732, more of the family arrived on the ship "Pink Plaisance". They were Hans Georg's brother Hans Heinrich Hirtzel & family. They settled in the Skippack area by 1736, which could indicate Hans Georg was still in this area. This now made 3 brothers and 1 sister in Pennsylvania. Remaining in Germany was their mother (died in 1738) and their brother Christoph (died 1734). Also on the ship were cousins Hans Paul Hirtzel and Hans Heinrich Hirtzel with their families.

About 1734 Hans Georg (?) sold his land in Franconia Township[⁴]. In 1735, in partnership with Nicolaus Transue, he was warranted 300 acres, presumably by William Penn's sons, 20 miles farther north in what would become Lower Saucon Township, Northampton County, PA. I have not found any information on Nicolaus Transue, but there was an Abraham Transu on the ship Thistle, along with George and Ludwig Hertzel mentioned above. There were no roads to this land. The 300 acres, almost one-half square mile of land, was on the East Branch of Saucon Creek, south of the Lehigh River, and east of the future site of the town of Bethlehem. This land is now partially covered by the slag dump of Bethlehem Steel Company (a Google Earth image is below).

Members of the (German) Reformed Church living in the Saucon area were described in 1734 by pastor John Philip Boehm as "the poor sheep at the end of the wilderness" having no settled pastor to minister to them and no money to support one. "It is a somewhat out of the way place", he said. So inaccessible was this corner of what was then Bucks (now Northampton) County that it was visited only at rare intervals by the few pastors from the more settled parts near Philadelphia. In 1747 the congregation in Saucon was meeting at "Hertzel's", the dwelling of Hans Georg Jr.

Below, Hans Georg's 300 acres is on the right, warranted 3 Apr 1735, and surveyed 24 Dec 1737. It was about 3 miles east of the future site of the town of Bethlehem and inside the Walking Purchase of 1737. From the warranted dates of his neighbors, Hans Georg was the first settler. The Road to Irish's Mill (on N. Irish's land) might now be Shimersville Road. Hans Georg's land was surrounded by hilly land on the north, east and south. Note son Jacob's 1749 land and son Leonard's 1751 land north of Hans Georg's.

From Pennsylvania Genealogical Magazine, Hannah Roach, 1966, Vol. XXIV, page 155.
See USGS map at www.usgwarchives.org/maps/pa/county/northamp/usgs/lowsauco.jpg.

Map shows present-day Hellerton (Easton) Road and Applebutter Road which did not exist in 1737.
There are still some old stone houses along Applebutter Road. Maybe one was Jacob's or Leonard's.

Below is how the area looked in Aug. 2010 (Google Earth). All of this was forest in 1735. The location of Hans George Hertzel's land is shown, based on the drawing above. There seems to be more green and less slag than before. I think his dwelling was probably in the southwest corner, south of but close to Saucon Creek. The land was approximately 185 perches by 260 perches, which is 3,050' (0.58 mile) by 4,290' (0.81 mile).

I would expect that Hans Georg and his older sons went up to their new land to build a log cabin before the family move. One or more other men may have joined them, perhaps a brother or two. They must have walked the 20 miles through the woods, probably following Indian traces and a crude map, and sleeping in the woods at night. They would have taken axes, saws, shovels, a tarp for a crude shelter, food, etc. They must have had a pack horse. They were probably gone for a month. They would have used a crude shelter and campfire all the time they were building the log cabin. It surely rained. Pioneers built a log cabin first because it was faster. They tended to replace them with larger stone houses. They made lime mortar by burning limestone in makeshift kilns. At first they used thatched roofs on their stone houses. All cooking and heating was provided for by a fireplace.

Below is a log cabin similar to what Hans Georg may have built, except to save time, he may have left the logs round. Log cabins were 16' by 16' or 16' by 18', about what one man with a mule could bring in from the forest. That's also about the largest that two men could lift as they build up the walls. This one has an obvious loft, where you can see the ends of the beams. A loft was need for extra sleeping and storage space. The door faced south, and from the sun shining in the door, they could tell when it was time for lunch.

The Sanders Cabin, built around 1770.

In 1735, starting life on their new and remote land, Hans Georg was about 49, his wife Anna Margaretha was about 45 (some references say Anna died before or during the ship journey, but the ship list accounts for her presence, and does not state that she died). Their oldest son Hans Georg Jr. was about 21, Hans Jacob (our ancestor) was about 19, Johann Dietrich was about 13, and Johann Leonard was about 9 years old. The family surely spoke only German. (Hans Georg's grandchildren, especially our ancestor Johann Philip, could speak, read and write English.) There was no doctor. They started fires with flint & steel, and probably kept the fireplace going all the time - there was plenty of firewood.

As mentioned above, Hans Heinrich, Hans Georg's older brother by 5 years, arrived in Philadelphia in September, 1732, on the ship Pink Plaisance. With him was his wife Anna Barbara, daughter Anna Christina 27, son Leonard 24, possible son Urigg 18, and daughter Jacobina 15. The family settled in the Skippack area by 1736 and were associated with the Reformed Church there. Daughter Anna Christina married George Peter Knecht, and they later settled near her uncle Hans Georg in Lower Saucon Township, Northampton County, PA. Son Hans Leonard & wife Maria Magdalena also settled in Lower Saucon Township. Daughter Jacobina married Paul Leidy of Franconia Township, Montgomery County, and they settled in adjoining Hatfield Township.

Hans Georg's brother Ulrich, the one who first explored Pennsylvania, apparently lived in Upper Salford Township, Montgomery County, where he died in 1771. Ulrich's son John George Hertzel was the last slaveholder in Franconia Township.

What kind of clothing did the average farmer wear back then? The picture on the left is from the bottom left of the large picture below. This was a farmer in 1757. On the right, I'm looking for a better image.

In June 1742, Lower Saucon Township was laid out, encompassing Hans Georg's land. In 1747, Hans Georg, age 61, sold the southern half of his land to his son-in-law Phillip Schlauch, husband of his daughter Anna Margretha. He had already conveyed the northern half to his original partner, Nicolaus Transue. This implies Hans Georg's house was in the southern half of his land.

In 1741, construction began in the new town of Bethlehem, 3 miles west of Hans Georg. But, it was not a regular town. It was to be the religious communal home of the Moravians, here to convert the Indians. In their religion, starting at the age of 18 months, people lived in groups according to their age and sex. In 1742, they built the largest log house in the country. Called the Gemeinhaus (Community Building), it was 94' x 32'. It is now covered with clapboard siding, at 66 W. Church St. The first stone building, the Single Sister's House, was built in 1744. It is still there, at 44 W. Church St. The Single Brethren's house, built in 1748, is at 89 W. Church Street. Hans Georg surely saw these three buildings. The Moravian Chapel was built in 1751 and was attached to the Gemeinhaus. Bethlehem was the nerve center of the North American Moravian empire, and the industrial center. The nearby Moravian agricultural centers were Nazareth, Nain, Lititz, Emmaus, Lebannon, and Hope. Since outsiders were not welcome in Nazareth, I assume so it was for Bethlehem.

Above is a farm that was 3 miles west of Hans Georg, on the Lehigh river, across from Bethlehem. It is shown in the large 1757 drawing below. Since Moravians could not have their own land, this farm must be a settler's, probably after 20 years of habitation. The dark brown building was a tavern in 1757, right across the river from the Moravians! It could have been an Inn, and looks like it was built of logs. To the right of it is probably the original log cabin, with the chimney in the middle in the German style. Over to the right is the barn. To the left of the tavern must be a stone house that was built later. The buildings other than the tavern all seem to have a thatched roof.

For source of drawing below, see historyproject.ucdavis.edu/ic/image_details.php?id=12886.
See info and 1766 town map at www.nps.gov/history/Nr/twhp/wwwlps/lessons/59bethlehem/59bethlehem.htm..
For a sharper black & white annotated image, click here, then click on picture that comes up.
Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, 1757 (founded in 1741), on the Lehigh River, looking north,
3 miles west of Hans Georg Hertzel's land (click on picture).

In the picture above, the large building left of center is the Brethren's House. The larger building to the right of center is Gemeinhaus, then Sister's House. Below, left to right is the Brethren's House, the Gemeinhaus (now with clapboard siding), and the Sister's House. Click on a picture to see these and others in larger size. See the source for the pictures below at travel.webshots.com/album/562829273pNanSe?start=0.
Also see places.historicbuildingsct.com/?p=349.

To the east in the Lehigh Valley, the town of Easton was first settled in 1739 and founded in 1752. To the west, Allentown was founded in 1751.

Hans Georg's son Hans Jacob, our ancestor, married Barbara Ritter around 1740 in Lower Saucon Township. Hans Georg was surely at the wedding. Their son Johann Philip, our first American-born Hartzell ancestor, was born April 20, 1743 in Lower Saucon Township. Hans Georg surely bounced Johann Philip on his knee.

Hans Georg died after 1747 in Lower Saucon Township (C.Hartzell says 1755[⁴], which would match son Jacob's 1755 move to Bethlehem Township). It is doubtful he had a need to learn English. C.Hartzell[⁴] says his wife Anna Margaretha died Sept. 20, 1796 but she would have been about 106 years old (born about 1690).

For an idea of a person's possessions in the middle 1700's, there is an inventory of the estate of Hans Georg's son Hans Georg (Jr.), 1762. 8 cows, 4 heiffers, 2 sucking calves, two bulls & a steer, 4 horses and a mare, 12 sheep, and 8 swine. Hand saw, auger, crosscut saw, drawing knife, 2 axes, 3 plows & irons, iron tooth harrow, grubbing hoes and scythes, 2 beehives, an old plane, swingle tree (swings back and forth behind the horse), dung hooks & dungfork, windmill, wagon with horse gears, and a man's hackney saddle. In the house was a walnut table, 5 beds, dresser, kitchen dresser, some books, lanthorn & tankard, tobacco, wooden stools, looking glass, tea cups, pair of quillers, 2 spinning wheels, iron and earthen pots, kettles, pans, casks & tubs, churn, wool cards and Bels. (Remember that all cooking was done in a fireplace.) For clothing, there was a jacket, a body jacket, leather jacket, 3 pair of leather breeches, linsey jacket, and 2 other jackets. (No rifle or saddle listed.)