THE EISENHOWER GENEALOGY: A Post Script

THE EISENHOWER GENEALOGY A Post Script BY HEINZ F. FRIEDERICHS * On the very same day on which Dwight D. Eisenhower was inaugurated as President of the United States, but two hundred years earlier, 20 January 1753, a survey was made of the land on which his great-greatgreat-grandfather, Hans Nicolaus Eisenhauer, was to settle. It was a tract of 168 acres, northwest of Fredericksburg, Pennsylvania, in Bethel Township, then in Lancaster County, since 1813 in Lebanon County. The area, barely settled, was exposed to attacks by hostile natives. Within three years, the Pennsylvania Gazette of 12 August 1756 reported that Indians had burned the log house of Ham Nicolaus Eisenhauer. Hans Nicolaus and his son Peter Eisenhauer, who was born in 1716, came to America in 1741. Mrs. Fannie B. Richardson of Greenwood, Indiana, has accurately traced the descendants of Peter in America down to Dwight David Eisenhower, the 34th President. Hans Nicolaus and his family sailed from Rotterdam on the ship Europa, landing in Philadelphia 17 November 1741. Three days later they took the oath of fidelity. Passengers of the age of sixteen and over numbered forty-five, all designated as "Palatines." In no case was a passenger's place of birth indicated. After long and patient research the present writer discovered that the Eisenhauer family had lived in the Odenwald, in Hessen. . . On 11 September 1731, a Palatine named Friedrich Strubel landed in Philadelphia. He settled in Lancaster County and prospered. Ten years • Dr. Heinz F. Friederichs of Frankfurt on Main is editor of the series Deutsche, Familien Archio and He holds many other responsibilities and honors in the field of German genealogy, to mention only one, e.g., chairman of the Deutsche Arbeitsgemeinschaft genealogischer Verbinde—the German Co-operative Association of Genealogical Societies. In the Neu, York Genealogical and BiograPhical Record, LXXVI (April, 1945), 49, there appeared an article by Ross Reelye Cook and Mrs. Claire Robison Shirk entitled "Eisenhower Family in America." Later Mrs. Fmnie B. Richardson and others approuhed Dr. Friedenchs to discover the ancestry of the immigrant Holl3 Nicolas" Eisenliauer. In the book President Dwight D. Eisenhower', Ancestor, and Relations, Degesser & Co., Neustadt/Aisch near Nuremberg (19511, Mrs. Richardson contributed the portion dealing with the descendants of Peter Eisenhauer, who had come to Pennsylvania with his father Hans Nicolaus. A group of genealogists, under the direction of Dr. Friederichs, worked intensively on the problem of the ancestry of Hans Nicolaus Eisenhauer. Altho they employed modern methods such as making a survey of the geographic distribution of the name Eisenbauer, the outcome of their work was not decisive. Dr. Friederichs offered the conjecture that the immigrant Hans Nicolms Eisenhauer was the son of Hans Peter Eisenhauer of Eiterbach, near Heidelberg. In 1960 evidence was found which positively confirms the conjecture. Dr. Friederichs published these findings in Hessische Pansilienkundr Band 5, pp. 293-96. of the periodical Itemise& Pansdienkunde. 144 The Eisenhower Genealogy 145 later he returned to Hessen to get a wife. The wedding was celebrated 18 April 1741 at Neuenheim across the Neckar from Heidelberg. Among the wedding guests was Hans Nicolaus Eisenhauer, husband of Anna Margaretha Strubel, sister of the bridegroom. Friedrich Strubel must have given such an enthusiastic account of Pennsylvania that Hans Nicolaus Eisenhauer decided to follow the Strubels to Pennsylvania. He carried out his intention within a few months, arriving in November, 1741. He obtained an assignment of land near that of his brother-in-law, Friedrich Strubel. Economic conditions in the Odenwald during the century preceding Hans Nicolaus's emigration were hopelessly unstable. The Thirty Years' War, 1618 to 1648, which began as a struggle between Catholic and Protestant rulers, became a struggle for sheer power and economic advantage. Mercenary soldiers from any and every region roved through the German empire like so many wolves, robbing the inhabitants, burning their towns, and ruining their fields. No region suffered worse than did the Odenwald. After enduring the devastation of war, many residents died of a terrible plague; only the sturdiest survived. Among the few that did survive was HANS EISENHAUER, born ca. 1600, who represents the first generation in the history of the Eisenhauers. Town records of 1646-1648 show that he was a farmer in Heddesbach, about eight miles as the crow flies northeast of Heidelberg. Records of 1659-1671 show that he was farming at Eiterbach, a little to the northwest of Heddesbach. Near Eiterbach there was an endowed chapel, named Lichtenklingen, which owned a farm in the heart of the forest. Durmg the war the buildings had been deserted and had gone to ruin, and the forest had encroached on its fields and meadows. Not till 1671 was any effort made to reclaim the farm land. A farmer named Hans Brand ventured to rebuild the house and barn. He hired a young farm-hand named HANS PETER EISENHAUER, born ca. 1650, son of the above-named Hans Eisenhauer of Eiterbach. On 9 May 1671 Hans Brand and his wife had a son baptized for whom Hans Peter Eisenhauer served as godfather. Not long after that Brand died as the result of injuries suffered in clearing the land. The Widow Brand, born ANNE BECKENBACH, left with little children, married Hans Peter Eisenhauer in 1672. Between the years 1673 and 1676 they had born to them three sons. But when in 1677 Anne died, Hans Peter had to relinquish the property, since it belonged to the children of Hans Brand. Hans Peter Eisenhauer returned to Eiterbach and took over the farm of his father, Hans Eisenhauer. In 1677 he attempted again to operate the land at Lichtenklingen. The entire Odenwald , lacking adequate pro- 146 The Pennsylvania Genealogical Magazine tection, was over-run by French and Imperialist troops between 1674 and 1677. According to contemporary chronicles, many of the villagers fled to the forest and died of hunger and cold. Hans Peter Eisenhauer, with his second wife ANNA CATHARINA MILDENBERGER and several children, were obliged to flee temporarily. Then about 1700, Eiterbach records list Hans Peter Eisenhauer with wife and seven children as living there. The year of his death is uncertain. By his two wives Hans Peter Eisenhauer had in all ten children. Of these, HANS NICOLAUS EISENHAUER, his son by his second wife, was born in 1691, probably at Eiterbach. He was married twice; the second marriage, to ANNA MARGARETHA STRUBEL, occurred about 1725. By his first wife, name not known, he had two children; by Anna Margaretha, he had three children. He and his family landed in Philadelphia 17 November 1741, and settled in Bethel Township, Lancaster (now Lebanon) County, as stated above. He died there after March, 1760. His son PETER EISENHAUER, born about 1716, arrived in Philadelphia with his parents in 1741. He was a farmer in Swatara Township, Lebanon County, Pennsylvania; died in Lower Paxton Township, Dauphin County, Pennsylvania, before 27 July 1802. He married three times, the third time to ANNA DISSINGER On 29 January 1777. FREDERICK EISENHOWER, seventeenth child of Peter Eisenhauer, was born 15 July 1794, probably near Linglestown, Pennsylvania, and was named for an older brother who had been killed in 1777 in the Revolution. He married in 1816 BARBARA MILLER, and was a farmer in Lower Paxton Township, Pennsylvania. He died 13 March 1884 in Abilene, Kansas, at the home of his son JACOB FREDERICK EISENHOWER, who with his wife REBECCA MATTER, were the grandparents of former President Dwight David Eisenhower. Mrs Edward J. Bennett, R. 2, Box 373A, Cannel, Indiana, would like information concerning one JOHN HELM, living in Lancaster County or vicinity prior to 1776. He is reputed to have been a brother of Joseph Helm, of Frederick County, Maryland, and Shelby County, Kenthcky, and the father of Henry Helm and John Helm, Revolutionary soldiers.