JACOB HOCHSTETLER

The name Hochstetler originated in the 14th-15th centuries in the Schwarzenburg region of Switzerland, about 20 miles southwest of the Swiss capital, Bern. The traditional homes of the Hochstetlers were the townships of Guggisberg and Wahlern, which each had a type of tree-laden cultivated garden called a "Hostett." (The Swiss name of the family is now rendered "Hostettler.")

The Anabaptists (otherwise known as Swiss Brethren) established a church which, according to descendant Daniel Hochstetler, "tried to follow the Bible and restore the biblical church, which they understood to be a believers' church made up of members baptized as adults upon their confession of faith in Jesus and who lived out the ethic of love and nonviolence taught by Jesus." But "due to brutal religious persecution by the state churches, both Catholic and Reformed, our ancestors along with many others left Switzerland. The man we now believe was the father of the immigrant Jacob left his native Schwarzenburg area in the late 1600s and settled in Echery near St. Marie-aux-Mines in Alsace (now in France), where Jacob was born in 1712."

Jacob Hochstetler is one of the progenitors of our Knepp line in America, and was our first Amish ancestor in the New World. He arrived in Philadelphia in November 9, 1738 aboard a ship called the Charming Nancy, along with other Amish immigrants seeking religious freedom--one of the first major groups of Amish, in fact, to come to America. The passage was extremely difficult, as you can read in diary entries from one of 1737 Charming Nancy Amish passengers.

Our ancestor Jacob is famous in Pennsylvania, but unfortunately because of his survival of a 1757 Indian attack on his home that killed his wife, youngest daughter, and one son. The following condensed account of the attack comes from the book Amish Society by John A. Hostetler (4th edition, 1993). You can also read two other somewhat more detailed accounts here by Steve Nolt and Laurence Gieringer. Forthcoming is a very long biography of Jacob Hochstetler, and shorter ones of his sons, from a 1912 Hochstetler genealogy by the Rev. Harvey Hochstetler.

On the whole, Pennsylvania's Quaker government maintained peaceful relations with the Indians until about 1755. Under pressure from the British citizenry, a chain of forts was established along the Blue Mountains, Pennsylvania's frontier during the French and Indian War. The Jacob Hochstetler family was one target of the numerous Indian attacks on settlers on the Northkill area. On the evening of September 19, 1757, after the family had retired, there was a disturbance. One of the boys opened the door and was shot in the leg. He quickly reached for the rifle but his father objected, stating that it was against their principles to take human life. The house was set afire by the Indians, and when the family escaped through the cellar window, the mother, a son, and a daughter were scalped. Jacob and his sons Joseph and Christian were taken captive. After several years of living with the Indians they managed to return. The encounter with the Indians, it has long been believed, was responsible for the decline of this Amish settlement. There likely were other reasons for the movement of families out of Berks County, however, such as the influence from proselyting groups.

You can also read the legend of Tom Lions, the Indian who scalped Anna Hochstetler.

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