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Written by Phil

Category: Eisenbrey-History

Published: July 08 2012

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The Last Will and Testaments of Peter Eisinbrey and John Eisenbrey both show their occupation as Tavern keeper.

What records can be found :

In the City of Philadelphia Magistrate’s Ledger Book, located at the Pennsylvania Historical Society, in the Licenses for Marriages, Taverns, and Pedlars, 1761-1776. (Ref# Am.2014, 2nd vol.) , this ledger book shows Tavern keeper Licenses for a tavern keeper with the name of Peter Icenbrey on April 6, 1770, location of “City”, with a time of recommended date of April 1770, a Price of £2.6.0 and continues to pay this licensing fees through August 12, 1775 on this date of £3.6.0 , the last date for the listing of Peter Icenbrey.  With a date of January 8, 1776, the same ledger book shows John Icenbrey for Tavern keeper’s license fees being paid with a location of “City”, time of recommended –Jan. 1776 and a Price of £2.6.0, which would be date Peter transferred the running of the tavern to his son, John. 

Other copies of these Ledgers as sources are available.

The ledger,  “ A List of Public House Keepers recommended July Session, 1773” from the Historical Society of Pennsylvania shows Peter Icinbry with an “abode” of Cor. 5^th & Race St.                                                                  

By 1774, based on the 1774 Philadelphia City Provincial Tax List, Peter Isinbrey was not shown located in Northern Liberties but is shown as being located in the Mulberry Ward of Philadelphia, due to the fact that the Eisenbrey’s home was at the corner of 5^th and Race Streets, based on City Magistrate records of 1773, although the tavern was still at the southwest corner of Vine and Crown at least through 1785, based on the City Directory.  This section of the city was known for its German residents and would be a familiar place in the “big city” of approx. 25,000 people to resettle with his family of Sophia (Dorothy) and son John, now age 22. Peter is listed as a “t. k. - tavern keeper” with a tax of £ 4.4.0.

 A “tavern keeper” during the colonial period typically is different than an “inn keeper”. Usually a tavern keeper serves beer, rum, Madera wine but does not serve extensive meals or lodging with the full services and accoutrements of an Inn. It was a way to build a business and customer base given your location in the city and a way to struggle out of poverty during the colonial times. In Philadelphia during the pre-revolutionary war era, there were some 175 taverns/inns in Philadelphia (approx. 25% owned by women) with a strict licensing process with annual renewal. Based on being in the Mulberry Ward, the location of the tavern was at the know locations of the Samson and Lion, at Vine and Crown Streets and 5^th and Race Street. (See history of Samson and Lion to follow).

Base on available records, there is no indication that Dorothy took over the running/ownership of the tavern at Peter’s death in 1778, which would have been the custom of a widow taking over a tavern license to support a family. Dorothy died shortly after Peter in 1778. Peter’s son John took over the tavern in 1776. John was scheduled to muster into the Philadelphia City Militia as a Corporal, but was listed as “sick” in the September 17, 1778 muster rolls.

The original Wills of Peter and John are both located in the Register of Wills office in City Hall in Philadelphia. Crumbling in your hands, the Wills also list there assets in their Investory of Assets -- showing the tables, chairs, pewter plates and utensils of running a tavern.

With the death of John Eisenbrey’s father Peter during the first few years of the Revolutionary War in September 1778, and with John’s Tavern License recorded in January 1776 as referenced above, it would be assumed that John’s wife Catharine ran the tavern during John’s active duty in the Militia. It was extremely common for the widow of a tavern keeper to take over the operations of a tavern or inn at this time in Philadelphia. It would require her to petition for an annual tavern license with the  Magistrates of the Courts of Quarter Session.  In order to obtain a license, the keeper would have to be known to be sober, honest and conscientious. During the 1780 service of John, the tavern may have also been run by Henry Smith, t.k. – “For the John Eisenbrey’s est.”  John’s estate was valued at £10,000 with a tax of £27.10.0 for the City of Philadelphia Effective Supply Tax - 1780, as referenced in Pennsylvania Archives, 3^rd Series, (pub. by David Martin, edit.  by William Henry Engle, Vol. XV).  Also, in the Effective Supply Tax, County of Philadelphia -1779 he is listed in Northern Liberties, West Part --John  Eisenbrey, d.,  ..Amount of  Tax  £ 8. (Pennsylvania Archives, 43 Vol. XIV -3^rd Series, 1897, page 669).  With the event that the tavern and wealth was handed down from Peter Eisenbrey to his only son, John Eisenbrey, the tax increase from just over £4 in 1769, £8 in 1779 to just over £27 in 1780 showing the growing fortunes of the Eisenbrey family during the Revolutionary period of Colonial Philadelphia.

John Eisenbrey – Inn Keeper:

With establishing the Samson and Lion tavern being at Vine and Crown Streets by Peter Icenbrey in 1770 and John taking over in 1776, with the Philadelphia oral history showing it to be there as well in 1785, well after Peter Eisenbrey’s death, based on available records it cannot be determined the exact date that the tavern moved locations and changed from being a Tavern and became an Inn, with the Samson and Lion being located at 110 N. Fifth Street, Philadelphia. It occurred sometime between 1785 and 1791. There seems to be some evidence that it was 1785.

Catharine Eisenbrey, John's wife, ran the tavern from 1793 to approximately the year 1813 at 110 N. Fifth Street upon which the tavern was sold to William Hurlick.  This would confirm the 1813 date being at the top of the Samson and Lion sign as mentioned in the Philadelphia Annals. Catharine would live at various locations on Sassafras St and at N. 6^th Streets prior to her death after the sale of the tavern.

Henry Eisenbrey, the only child of John and Catherine to do so, is shown to take over the tavern in 1806 and 1807 during this time period probably due to Catherine's incapacity/illness or other events, with her continuing to run the tavern until the sale of the Samson and Lion.

 Source: A view of the northwest corner of 5th & Race Streets, featuring the North America College of Health/Dr. Wrights Indian Vegetable Pills. Location: Historical Society of Pennsylvania - call number: /862EV15/.152

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Written by Phil

Category: Eisenbrey-History

Published: July 08 2012

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Emigration from Germany to Colonial Philadelphia:

Since their arrival at Jamestown in 1607 along with the English, Germans have been one of the three largest population components of American society. When Columbus arrived in America in 1492, he did so in the name of Ferdinand and Isabella of Spain, that is, with the entitlement of the Habsburgs who also ruled Germany as part of the Holy Roman Empire. It was a German cosmographer, Martin Waldseemüller, who suggested that the New World be designated "America."

German immigration began in the seventeenth century and continued throughout the postcolonial period at a rate that exceeded the immigration rate of any other country; however, German immigration was the first to diminish, dropping considerably during the 1890s. Contrary to myth, the first German immigrants did not originate solely in the state of Pfalz. Although emigrants from Pfalz were numerous from 1700 to 1770, equally high percentages came from Baden, Württemberg, Hesse, Nassau, and the bishoprics of Cologne, Osnabrück, Münster, and Mainz. During the American pre-Revolutionary War period, immigrants came primarily from the Rhine valley, an artery that gives access to the sea. German emigration during this period was almost exclusively via French or Dutch ports like LeHavre or Rotterdam.

Between 1671 and 1677 William Penn made trips to Germany on behalf of the Quaker faith, resulting in a German settlement that was symbolic in two ways: it was a specifically German-speaking ward, and it comprised religious dissenters. Pennsylvania has remained the heartland for various branches of Anabaptists: Old Order Mennonites, Ephrata Cloisters, Brethren, and Amish. Pennsylvania also became home for many Lutheran refugees from Catholic provinces (e.g., Salzburg), as well as for German Catholics who also had been discriminated against in their home country.

By 1790, when the first census of Americans was taken, more than 8.6 percent of the overall population of the United States was German, although in Pennsylvania more than 33 percent was German. During the Revolutionary War, these German Americans were numerically strengthened by the arrival of about 30,000 Hessian mercenaries who fought for England during the hostilities, of whom some 5,000 chose to remain in the New World after the war ceased.

In addition to those who had arrived for political and religious reasons until about 1815, Americans and some foreign shippers brought many Germans to America under the redemptioner system. The scheme was that a German peasant traveled on a sailing vessel without charge and on arrival at an Atlantic port was sold to an American businessman to work from four to seven years to redeem his passage and win his freedom. Some of the early sectarians—Baptist Dunkers, Schwenkfelders, Moravian Brethren, and others—were only able to reach America in this way.

Populous as German immigrants to America were by the end of the eighteenth century, the major waves of immigration came after the conclusion of the Napoleonic Wars in 1815. Germany's economy suffered in several ways. Too many goods were imported, especially cloth from industrialized England. Antiquated inheritance laws in southwestern Germany caused land holdings continuously to be divided, rendering farms too minuscule for assistance. A failing cottage industry collapsed when faced by a flood of foreign products. Finally, the population had grown artificially large because of growing dependence on the potato. Like Ireland, rural Germany in the 1840s was suddenly hit by famine precipitated by the potato blight.

Because the 1848 revolutions in Europe failed to bring democracy to Germany, several thousand fugitives left for America in addition to the nearly 750,000 other Germans who immigrated to America in the following years. While a mere 6,000 Germans had entered the United States in the 1820s, nearly one million did so in the 1850s, the first great influx from Germany. Despite annual fluctuations, especially during the Civil War period when the figure dropped to 723,000, the tide again swelled to 751,000 in the 1870s and peaked at 1,445,000 in the 1880s.

During the nineteenth century religious and political refugees were numerous. During the 1820s, for example, Prussia forced a union of the Reformed and Lutheran congregations, which by the late 1830s caused many Old Lutherans to emigrate.

Societies sponsored by German princes sought to use emigration as a solution to social problems at home. For example, the Central Society for German Emigrants at Berlin (1844), the National Emigration Society at Darmstadt (1847), the Giessener Emigration Society (1833), and the Texas Braunfels Adelsverein (1843) operated on the principle that a one-way ticket for the downtrodden was cheaper than a long-term subsidy.

During the 1850s small farmers and their families dominated the first major wave of immigrants, who often came from southwest Germany. Soon after artisans and household manufacturers were the main arrivals from the more central states of Germany, while day laborers and agricultural workers from the rural northeast estates characterized subsequent waves of German immigrants. Not until German industrialization caught up with the English in the late nineteenth century did German emigrants no longer have to leave the country to improve their lives. Beginning in the late 1880s and for several decades thereafter, migrants from depressed German agricultural regions were destined less for America than for the manufacturing districts of Berlin, the Ruhr, and the Rhine in Germany itself.

Interspersed among these waves of economic emigrants were fugitives from oppression, including thousands of other Germans who left because of economic and social discrimination. Young men sometimes fled to avoid serving in the Prussian military. Organized industrial laborers also fled the antisocialist laws enacted when a would-be assassin threatened the life of Germany's Kaiser Wilhelm I, who blamed socialist labor leaders for the attempt. Catholics, too, were oppressed by Bismarck's infamous May Laws during the 1870s, which suppressed the influence of the Catholic Center Party and its drive for greater democracy during the first decade of the new emperor's reign.

Also during the latter half the nineteenth century, a host of agents fanned out across Germany to drum up emigration. Some were outright recruiters who were technically outlawed. More often these agencies took the form of aid societies working to better the lot of the emigres in Germany, such as the Catholic Raphael Society, the Bavarian Ludwigsmissionsverein, the Leopoldinen Stiftung in Vienna, the Pietist society of Herrnhut in Saxony, and the Lutheran support groups at Neuendettelsau of Franconia in northern Bavaria. Frankenmuth, Michigan, for example, traces its roots to the latter organization. Aiding the immigrants on this side of the Atlantic were such agencies as the Catholic Leo House in New York and the Central-Verein in St. Louis. Much better funded promoters were those established by the north-central states (most prominently, Michigan, Wisconsin, and Minnesota) as they joined the Union, many of which had ample support from their legislatures for their Immigration Commissioners. Even more influential were transcontinental railroads that sent agents to the ports of debarkation along the Atlantic and Germany to recruit immigrants to either take up their land grants or supply freight activity for their lines. Especially active was the Northern Pacific during the time when German immigrant Henry Villard headed the corporation and sought to populate his land grant with industrious German farmers.

In the latter phases of German immigration, newcomers joined established settlers in a phenomenon called "chain migration." Chain migration is defined as the movement of families or individuals to join friends and family members already established in a given place. Chain migration strengthened the already existing German regions of the United States. One such concentrated settlement pattern gave rise to the phrase "German triangle," that is, St. Paul, St. Louis, and Cincinnati, with lines stretching between them so that the triangle incorporates Chicago, Milwaukee, Indianapolis, Fort Wayne, Davenport, and other strongly German cities. Other descriptors include the more accurate "German parallelogram," which stretches from Albany westward along the Erie Canal to Buffalo and farther westward through Detroit to St. Paul and the Dakotas, then south to Nebraska and Kansas, back to Missouri, and eastward along the Ohio River to Baltimore. Except for large settlements in Texas, San Francisco, and Florida, German American settlement is still largely contained within the German belt.

The number of German Americans has remained constant. From 1850 to 1970 German was the most widely used language in the United States after English. In the 1990 U.S. census, 58 million Americans claimed sole German or part-German descent, demonstrating the persistence of the German heritage in the United States.

The first mass migration from Germany to the Americas began with the "Palatine" emigration of Germans to New York in 1709-1710. Emigration from Germany to the colonies grew until it hit its highest numbers in the period 1750-1753, with many of the North American colonies in direct competition in recruiting of Germans in Germany. Although the term "Palatine Emigration" has been applied to this migration in general, the Germans were not only from the Palatinate (Pfalz) region. They were primarily from protestant parts of central and southern Germany which had been heavily hit in the wars of the previous century.

This was an era of change in central and southern Germany. Many areas had been devastated during the 30 Years' War (1618-1648) and the subsequent War of Louis XIV (1688-1697). The areas hit hardest were those bordering France and along the Rhine River (Rheinland, Pfalz, Baden, Hessen, etc.). Many of these towns were partially or completely depopulated, so that new settlers were recruited to re-settle from France (Huguenots), Switzerland, and other parts of Germany.

As these villages slowly rebuilt and began to flourish again, the population quickly rose. Within about two generations there was already an overabundance of workers. Without hope of owning land or making a good living, the stories of possibilities in America began to sound enticing! 

Although the most well- known emigration was the settlements in south east Pennsylvania and Maryland, there were also large groups of Germans who came at this time to Nova Scotia (Neu Schotland), New England (Neu England: Boston, Waldoboro), New York, Virginia, Georgia, and South Carolina (Karolinas). The thumbnail image, below, shows where these centers of German emigration were in colonial North America.

German Settlement in North America

Prior to the 1800s, Germany was not a united country but made up of many kingdoms, duchies, knightly estates, margraves, etc. Each had its own laws and record keeping methods. A manumission record from Baden might be a single line entry; in Hessen an eight page document listing all of the property and who it was sold to, for how much, etc.; or might not exist for the lands ruled by the count of Kastell-Rüdenhausen family in Unterfranken (Bavaria). There are no general census records or tax lists for all of Germany. If these type of records exist they will be for the particular jurisdiction that ruled over that part of Germany in the 1700s.

The journey to America fell into three parts. The first part, and by no means the easiest, was the journey down the Rhine to Rotterdam or some other port. Gottlieb Mittelberger in his "Journey to Pennsylvania in the Year 1750", writes:

This journey lasts from the beginning of May to the end of October, fully half a year, amid such hardships as no one is able to describe adequately with their misery. The cause is because the Rhine boats from Heilbronn to Holland have to pass by 26 custom houses, at all of which the ships are examined, which is done when it suits the convenience of the custom-house officials. In the meantime the ships with the people are detained long, so that the passengers have to spend much money. The trip down the Rhine lasts therefore four, five and even six weeks. When the ships come to Holland, they are detained there likewise five to six weeks. Because things are very dear there, the poor people have to spend nearly all they have during that time".

The second stage of the journey was from Rotterdam to one of the English ports. Most of the ships called at Cowes, on the Isle of Wight (remember these are the old sailing ships). Here there was another delay of one to two weeks, when the ships were waiting either to be passed through the custom house or waiting for favorable winds. When the ships had for the last time weighed their anchors at Cowes or some other port in England, then, writes Mittelberger: "The real misery begain with the long voyage. For from there the ships, unless they have good wind, must often sail eight, nine, ten to twelve weeks before they reach Philadelphia. But even with the best wind the voyage lasts seven weeks".

The third stage of the journey, or the ocean voyage proper, was marked by much suffering and hardship. The passengers being packed densely, like herrings, as Mittelberger describes it, without proper food and water, were soon subject to all sorts of diseases, such as dysentery, scurvy, typhoid and smallpox. Children were the first to be attacked and died in large numbers. Mittelberger reports the deaths of thirty-two children on his ship alone. Of the heartless cruelty practiced he gives the following example: "One day, just as we had a heavy gale, a woman in our ship, who was to give birth and could not under the circumstances of the storm, was pushed through the porthole and dropped into the sea, because she was far in the rear of the ship and could not be brought forward".

The terrors of disease, brought about to a large extent by poor food and lack of good drinking water, were much aggravated by frequent storms through which ships and passengers had to pass. "The misery reaches the climax when a gale rages for two or three nights and days, so that everyone believes that the ship will go to the bottom with all human beings on board. In such a visitation the people cry and pray most piteously. When in such a gale the sea rages and surges, so that the waves rise often like mountains one above the other, and often tumble over the ship, so that one fears to go down with the ship. When the ship is constantly tossed from side to side by the storm and waves, so that no one can either walk or sit or lie, and the closely packed people in the berths are thereby tumbled over each other, both the sick and the well - it will be readily understood that many of these people, none of whom had been prepared for hardships, suffer so terribly from them that they do not survive".

When at last the Delaware River was reached and the city of brotherly love hove in sight, where all their miseries were to end, another delay occurred. A health officer visited the ship and, if any persons with infectious diseases were discovered on the ship, it was ordered to remove one mile from the city.

A vivid account of the arrival of these passenger ships in the harbor of Philadelphia, is given by the Rev. Henry M. Muehlenberg, in a report, which he prepared in 1769. He writes:

"After much delay, one ship after another arrives in the harbor of Philadelphia, when the rough and severe winter is before the door. One or more merchants receive the lists of the freights and the agreement which the emigrants have signed with their own hand in Holland, together with the bills for their travel down the Rhine and the advances of the 'newlanders' for provisions, which they received on the ships on account. Formerly the freight for a single person was $27.00 to $45.00, but now it amounts to $65.00 to $75.00 (remember purchasing power was much greater at that time). Before the ship is allowed to cast anchor at the harbor front, the passengers are all examined, according to the law in force, by a physician, as to whether any contagious disease exists among them. Then the new arrivals are led in procession to the city hall and there they must render the Oath of Allegiance to the King of Great Britian. After that they are brought back to the ship. Then the announcements are printed in the newspapers, stating how many of the new arrivals are to be sold. Those who have money (to pay for the trip) are released. Whoever has well-to-do friends seeks a loan from them to pay the passage, but there are only a few who succeed. The ship becomes the market-place. The buyers make their choice among the arrivals and bargain with them for a certain number of years and days (they become indentured servants for a period of time). They then take them to the merchant, pay their passage and their other debts and receive from the government authorities a written document, which makes the newcomers their property for a definite period."

When the ship “Brothers” sailed up the Delaware River and arrived at the docks of Philadelphia on September 23, 1754, Peter Eisenbrey and his fellow passengers looked upon the largest city in the American colonies and the second largest city in the British Empire.  Only London surpassed Philadelphia in population at that point in time.  However, the estimate of inhabitants of Philadelphia in 1754 indicates that its population was only between 15,000 and 25,000 people.

By modern standards 18^th century major cities would be considered towns today.  Nevertheless, relative to Peter’s frame of reference Philadelphia as he viewed it from the “Brothers” must have appeared to be huge.  An early engraving of Philadelphia dating from 1754, the year of Peter’s arrival, was commissioned by Nicholas Scull, Surveyor General of the Province of Pennsylvania.  The large panorama depicts the water front view of Philadelphia from the New Jersey shore looking across the Delaware River. 

The central portion representing about half of the total width of the engraving is presented below.  The engraver employed by Nicholas Scull was Gerard Vandergucht.  This image was taken from a book titled Philadelphia: a 300 Year History by the Barra Foundation and published by W. W. Norton & Company in 1982.  The cited source of the picture in that publication is the Historical Society of Pennsylvania. 

The structures noted numerically are as follows according to the caption accompanying the picture in the book cited above:

1.    The steeple of the State House (Independence Hall) on Chestnut Street.

2.    The original Court House dating from 1710 in the center of Market Street.

3.    The steeple of Christ Church near Market street.

4.    The steeple of the Academy on Arch Street at Fourth.

5.    The steeple of the Presbyterian Church on Arch Street at Third.

6.    The steeple of the German Reformed Church on Race Street near Fourth.

The engraving of 1754 offers some insight into what Peter and his fellow passengers would have noticed as they sailed closer and closer to Philadelphia.  The engraving depicts many docks along the shoreline of the central part of the city.  In fact in excess of 60 different wharfs existed on the waterfront in mid 18^th century Philadelphia.  Clearly, the port of Philadelphia was a busy place for arriving and departing vessels.  The engraving shows a wide variety of vessels; ships, sloops, schooners, brigs, warships, & etc.

One of the frequently published professional historians on the topic of Germanic immigration into Pennsylvania in the 18^th century is John T. Humphrey.  His most well known publications are a fourteen-volume set of Pennsylvania Births that list more than 170,000 recorded births in eleven eastern Pennsylvania counties.  Mr. Humphrey manages the Education Program of the National Genealogical Society in Arlington, Virginia.  He wrote an article titled Life in Mid-Eighteenth Century Pennsylvania which discusses many aspects of the Germanic immigration experience.  I found a copy of the article on the internet.  The following excerpts describe the experience of German immigrants as they arrived in Philadelphia:

“When a ship finally arrived in Philadelphia, people usually gathered on the wharf.  The narrator of another journal noted as they approached the dock, “…a crowd of persons was seen gathering on shore in expectation the newly arrived immigrants were to be exposed for sale.”  Merchants looking for servants soon boarded.  Frequently, those merchants were the proprietors of the ship or were in the employ of the owner.  An official account was taken to determine the passengers who could be sold as indentured servants.  The merchant then placed an advertisement in one of the Philadelphia newspapers, “German Servants For Sale.”  Sometimes, those advertisements noted the wharf where the ship docked—information that can be especially useful for any family historian whose ancestors may have arrived on a ship so advertised.

Frequently, a representative of the government accompanied the merchants.  The official was not looking for servants, but wanted to make certain that all fit males sixteen and older who were aliens disembarked and proceeded to the courthouse where the required oath was given.  Immigrants, whose origins were not in the British Isles, made their way to the courthouse located at second and High Streets. As they proceeded to the courthouse they climbed the steep riverbank to the city on some very wobbly legs. After an extended period of time at sea they were used to the rocking motion of the ship, and they did not have their “land” legs. Most probably looked like a pack of drunken sailors as they proceeded to the courthouse.

The captain of the vessel usually led the way.  When the alien immigrants entered the courthouse, a representative of the government—namely the Mayor, President of the Assembly, or a Justice of the Court—was waiting.  He told them they were now in a country that belonged to the King of England; a fact that required them to take an oath of allegiance to that King and his successors.  The oath was then explained to the immigrants.  Given the numbers of Germans arriving in Philadelphia, one presumes that someone was available who could translate.  The immigrants had to promise they would conduct themselves as good and faithful subjects, that they would not revolt against his Majesty, nor would they settle on lands that were not their own.  They were also required to abjure or renounce allegiance to the Pope.  In the words of another narrator, “After we took the oath, we signed our names to two different papers, one belonged to the King and the other to the government of Pennsylvania.”

Newly arrived German immigrants probably noticed several things almost immediately.  First, the city had not walls.  Many towns and villages of comparable size in Europe still retained their medieval fortifications.  Second, the streets in Philadelphia were rectilinear, running at ninety-degree angles to one another.  Streets in the Quaker capital did not meander as did many streets in European towns and villages.  Newly arrived immigrants most likely commented that in Philadelphia streets were much wider than in Germany or England.”

When Peter Eisenbrey arrived at the dock in Philadelphia on September 15, 1754 he was escorted along with other male passengers aged sixteen and older to the court house which was on 2^nd and High (Market) Street.  This court house was constructed in 1710.  In the History of Philadelphia, 1609-1884 by Scharf and Westcott, published in 1884 by L.H. Everts & Co. the following description was given:

(The court house) “which was completed towards the close of the year 1710, was built at the eastern end of the old market-house, on High Street, between Second and Third Streets.  It stood upon arches, with brick pillars for them to rest upon, the basement being open for market stalls.  It was a quaint, old-fashioned structure, with a little cupola and a bell, and having a balcony in the front, over the door, and flights of steps leading up to it.  This balcony covered an enclosure beneath it which was rented for a shop, and from the balcony nearly all the out-door speech-making in Philadelphia was heard.  The Governors used to deliver their inaugural addresses here,…This court-house was the town hall and seat of the Legislature and the Municipal Council also, statehouse, and town-house, until the State-House was erected in 1735.”

According to other descriptions, the upstairs portion of the building was used for the mayor’s office and his court.  The Legislature stopped using the 1710 court house in favor of the State-House when it became available in the 1730’s.  However, the mayor of Philadelphia and municipal government continued using the 1710 court house until 1791 when the second courthouse was completed next to Independence Hall (the State-House).  The following drawing is taken from Scharf & Westcott’s History of Philadelphia, 1609-1884: 

Another drawing of this 1710 court house was made in 1764 in a political cartoon which is considered to be the earliest depiction of an internal view of Philadelphia.  It is taken from a publication titled FIRST CITY: Philadelphia and the Forging of Historical Memory by Gary B. Nash, published in 2002 by the University of Pennsylvania Press:

It is apparent from this picture in 1764 that the stairs leading to the balcony from both sides of the building were still intact at that date.  The market building extending westward from behind the court house is also evident. 

 This important historical structure where Peter Eisenbrey, upon his arrival in 1754, officially pledged his allegiance to the King of England and gave his oath to obey the government of the Province of Pennsylvania, was removed in 1837.

Today not a trace of this important historical facility remains.  No commemorative plaque or any other reminder is present on the sight.  It seems very inappropriate and disappointing that nothing exists to remind anyone visiting the spot in Philadelphia today of the significant role this building played in receiving thousands of German speaking immigrants into their new homeland. 

After visiting the court house to take the various legal oaths and to sign the appropriate documents of that process, the German immigrants were led back to their ship.  If they were able to pay they own expenses of the trip from Europe, they were free to leave the ship with no further restrictions beyond those they affirmed when taking their oaths and commitments at the court house.

However, 50% to 70% of the immigrants had to endure the often traumatic indentured servant ordeal. 

But, in spite of all difficulties and hardships, new settlers continued to come. The wonder is not that so many succumbed, but that so many faced all hardships uncomplainingly and after a few years of service emerged from all difficulties as successful farmers.

An indentured servant was typically a young, unskilled laborer contracted to work for an employer for a fixed period of time, typically three to seven years, in exchange for transportation, food, clothing, lodging and other necessities during the term of their indenture. They included men and women; most were under age 21, and most became helpers on farms or house servants. They were not paid wages.

Farmers, planters, and shopkeepers found it very difficult to hire free workers in colonial America, primarily because it was so easy for those workers to set up their own farm. One solution was the purchase of black slaves, but the more common solution was to pay the passage of a young worker from England or Germany, who would work for several years to pay off the passage. During that indenture period they were not paid wages, but they were provided food, room, clothing, and training. Most white immigrants arrived in Colonial America as indentured servants, usually as young men and women from Britain or Germany, under the age of 21. Typically, the father of a teenager would sign the legal papers, and work out an arrangement with a ship captain, who would not charge the father any money. The captain would transport the indentured servants to the American colonies, and sell their legal papers to someone who needed workers. At the end of the indenture, the young person was given a new suit of clothes and was free to leave. Many immediately set out to begin their own farms, while others used their newly acquired skills to pursue a trade. Legal arrangements of this type have been widespread throughout world history in different forms.

                      ____________________________________________

There is no evidence, direct or indirect that the Eisenbrey family was indentured in any way, Peter Eisenbrey and his family immigrated from Guendelbach, Germany, down the Rhine River to Cowes, England through Rotterdam on the Ship “Brother” across the Atlantic Ocean to Philadelphia on September 26, 1754.

 What can be said, is that this voyage was the establishment of a large and dynamic Eisenbrey family in the United States.

                    _____________________________________________________

So what happen once they got there…………

Doctor (Benjamin) Franklin, describing the state of the people about the year 1752, says they were all loyal and submitted willingly to the government of the crown, or paid for defence cheerfully. " They were led by a thread. They not only had a respect, but an affection for Great Britain, for its laws, its customs, and its manners, and even a fondness for its fashions,"—not yet subsided. Natives of Great Britain were always treated with particular regard; and to be "an Old England man" gave a kind of rank and respect among us."

Doctor Franklin has said, that before the war of Independence " to be an Old England man gave a kind of rank and respect among us." I introduce this remark for the sake of observing, that for many years after that war, even till nearly down to the present day, I can remember that we seemed to concede to English gentlemen a claim, which they were not backward to arrogate, that they were a superior race of men; this, too, from their having been familiar at home with superior displays of grandeur, more conveniences of living, higher perfections in the arts, &c., and, above all, as having among them a renowned race of authors, poets, &c. Their assumptions, in consequence, were sometimes arrogant or offensive. And I remember to have felt with others some disparagement in the comparison. If it were only to speak of their grand navy, we felt diminutive when we heard big tales of their " Royal George"—the grandeur of their " great fleet," &c.,—we who had never seen more among us than a single frigate. But the time is now passing off,—we have in turn become renowned and great. Our navy has become respectable; our entertainments have become splendid and costly. I have lived withal, to find that even we, who before cowered, have taken our turn of being lordly; which we manifest in the offensive deportment of a mother country to our numerous colonies in the west. I only "speak what I do know" when I say, I have seen Philadelphians and New Yorkers, as metropolitans, assuming airs of importance at Washington City, at Pittsburg, at Cincinnati, at New Orleans, &c. Those pretensions of our vanity formerly in those places will subside and pass away ; already they will scarcely be observed there, and could hardly have been believed but for this remembrancer, which shows, indeed, the general state of rising society in this new country.

The tradesmen before the Revolution (I mention these facts with all good feeling) were an entirely different generation of men from the present. They did not then, as now, present the appearance in dress of gentlemen. Between them and what were deemed the hereditary gentlemen there was a marked difference. " The gentry think scorn of leather aprons," said Shakspeare. In truth, the aristocracy of the gentlemen then was noticed, if not felt, and it was to check any undue assumption of ascendency in them, that the others invented the rallying name of " the Leather Apron Club," —a name with which they were familiar before Franklin's "junta" was formed, and received that other name. In that day the tradesmen and their families had far less pride than now. While at their work, or in going abroad on weekdays, all such as followed rough trades, such as carpenters, masons, coopers, blacksmiths, &c., universally wore a leathern apron before them, and covering all their vest. Dingy buckskin breeches, once yellow, and check shirts and a red flannel jacket was the common wear of most working men ; and all men and boys from the country were seen in the streets in leather breeches and aprons, and would have been deemed out of character without them. In those days, tailors, shoemakers and hatters waited on customers to take their measures, and afterwards called with garments to fit them on before finished.

One of the remarkable incidents of our republican principles of equality, is, that hirelings, who in times before the war of Independence were accustomed to accept the name of servants, and to be dressed according to their condition, will now no longer suffer the former appellation; and all affect the dress and the air, when abroad, of genteeler people than their business warrants. Those, therefore, who from affluence have many such dependants, find it a constant subject of perplexity to manage their pride and assumption. (Source: Annals of Philadelphia…, by John Watson)

Obviously, German immigrants although they may have signed an oath of allegiance at the time of their entry into Philadelphia, they did not have a strong “affection to Great Britain.”  The taverns of Philadelphia were the havens for talk of sedition, many of which were run by German immigrants like the Eisenbreys. One can only wonder what the discussions of the Declaration of Independence and the progress of the war, the occupation of the British, the victory of the war and the Constitution were at the Samson and Lion, located only a few blocks away from the cradle of the American Revolution and the creation of a new country. Given the nature of the German people, it is not surprising that 24 year old John (Isenberry/Isenbry) Eisenbrey served in the Philadelphia Militia to defend his economic interests or fight to establish his new country for his American born family.

For the American family that is the Eisenbrey’s from Philadelphia, now located around the country, the drive to make a new life in a new country with their struggles, hard work and devotion to God, to family and to their community continues from 1754 to the present day.

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Written by Phil

Category: Eisenbrey-History

Published: July 08 2012

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The following is a history of the origins of Camp Town (also known as Campington), based on the History of Philadelphia 1609-1884:

When the British army entered Philadelphia the barracks were again occupied by the royal troops, whether by regiments or companies is not known. Soldiers were encamped in the open fields near, north, south, and west of the more luxurious quarters. There is no record by which may be ascertained what regiments or organizations were accommodated at the barracks.

Discipline was rather loose in the Northern Liberties after the British evacuation, and the soldiers were sometimes unruly. In December, 1779, complaint was made to the Supreme Executive Council “of great irregularities at the barracks and destruction of the buildings; and also that there is danger of bloodshed from the disputes between the soldiers and the neighboring inhabitants, and that the same are owing to the neglect of the proper officers providing wood." Measures were taken to prevent further mischief. The supply of fuel was a great difficulty at this time. In order to prevent, in some degree, the scarcity, the Council had ordered that the wood growing on a tract of land on the west side of the Schuylkill, belonging to some persons residing in Great Britain, should be cut down and brought to the city for the use of the poor, the same to be valued and accounted for when required. In pursuance of these orders, William Bradford, Tench Francis, James Ash, Isaac Melchor, William Hall, Andrew Tybout, David Duncan, William Miller, William Forbes, Thomas Shields, and Joseph Copperthwaite had cut down considerable quantities of the wood for those uses. They found themselves confronted by a person called William Wood, who made claim to the property, and took possession of some of it. The Supreme Executive Council proceeded promptly, and ordered Wood to be arrested and brought before them by the sheriff of the county. The consequence was that Wood was soon convinced of his error, "made some acknowledgments," and being reprimanded, was dismissed. Probably some of this wood went to the barracks. The necessity of the case and the want of fuel led to considerable destruction there. A committee of the Council, which had been detailed to make an examination of the condition of the barracks, made a very unpleasant report:

"That they find them in a very ruinous condition, all the Bedsteads (except a few In the Invalid quarter) missing having been burned, as we are informed, for want of Wood. Almost all the Glazing of the windows broken, plastering pulled down, the laths & partitions cut up to light fires. The floors much cut up and injured. The soldiers having brought their wood into the rooms, and there cut up for their fires; the rooms A galleries are so full of filth and ordure as to render these places extremely offensive; In short the whole of the buildings are in very bad order. . . . That upon a special inquiry what Wood had been served out, and what prospects there are, it appears to the committee that great part of the Fall & Winter there has been only half allowance, and that irregularly served. That they have been occasionally 2 days without Wood, even to cook their victuals, By which means the Buildings and Fences in the neighborhood had Suffered, which had occasioned great disturbance among the Inhabitants, so as not only to break the peace, but to endanger the lives of both soldiers and citizens; that there is not at present any stock of wood or any other supply than from day to day, and that so insufficient that unless there is some effectual reform in case of bad roads or bad weather which may be expected at this season, they will be destitute, and the like abuses on the buildings and in the neighborhood probably renewed."

    The number of soldiers who might be accommodated at the barracks was not stated, nor the number of soldiers who were in quarters at that time. In regard to the officers there were more than enough. Isaac Melchior was barrack-master; Gen. Gibbs Jones, chief barrack-master and captain of artillery; Christian Schaffer, assistant barrack-master and superintendent of the carpenters; John Fauntz, assistant barrack-master. Beside these principal officers there were three superintendents of wagoners and woodcutters, an issuer of wood, two clerks, and teamsters to an unknown number. There were twenty-one teams at the barracks, and twelve at Bristol, besides several more at the same place whose number was not ascertained. Col. Melchior and his assistants had a number of riding horses for their own use, and the affairs of the establishment were conducted at an extravagant rate. On the last day of December the barrack-master reported that a body of Continental troops were marching into the city, and unprovided with barracks or other cover, from which it would seem that the barracks were filled to their capacity. He asked assistance from the Council so that they might be secured suitable quarters. Orders were issued to the justices of the peace of the city and liberties to billet the troops in the public-houses, proportioning them according to the size of the house. Measures were taken also to recompense citizens who lost their wood when the troops were "constrained" to use that article. The barrack-master was ordered to replace it in the following proportion: "for twenty men one-eighth of a cord of wood for every twenty-four hours, and Bo on in proportion for a greater or lesser number of men."

The use of the barracks was given up to the United States at some time before the end of 1779, at which period the report above quoted was made. Consequently, there were disputes whenever the State authorities undertook to interfere. The report of the condition of the buildings was sent by the Council to the delegates of Pennsylvania in Congress, and the Council said, "Should there be any attempt to refer the correction of these abuses to the authority of the State, we desire you would object to it. We cannot think of involving ourselves in any further disputes with these officers, who, being under the immediate appointment of Congress, resent our interference, and in consequence treat us with very little respect or decency. ... At all events we decline acting farther than giving you information as members of Congress, being resolved never again to commit ourselves as parties or accusers, and with the officers of Congress incur the imputation of indulging private resentment when we have only the public interests in view." The representations made produced no result. So that some months afterward President Reed wrote to the delegates in Congress stating that the abuses and mischiefs continued, "so that in a little time these buildings will be useless to the publick." One thousand pounds in gold, it was said, would not repair the damages that those buildings had sustained during the previous year. The Council, therefore, determined to take the buildings under their own care, and appoint a barrack-master. They requested the delegates in Congress to move in that body for an order to the Continental officers to pay due regard to the barrack master within his department. Matthew McConnell was appointed town-major after this, and Leonard Cooper was superintendent in 1781. In January of the same year, a considerable number of officers belonging to the Pennsylvania line being in the city, were unprovided with decent quarters. Orders were given that they should be billeted by the Deputy Quartermaster-General.

In 1781, Col. Lewis Nicola, who was formerly barrack-master and at that time town-major, appears to have been in authority sufficient to take charge of the barracks again. He was directed to appoint a trusty sergeant to assist him in preserving the barracks from "being damaged by the soldiery that may be quartered therein from time to time." Various repairs were placed upon the barracks during that year.

In November, Robert Morris, superintendent of finance, and Richard Peters, executing the duties of (he War Department, wrote to President Moore stating that a regiment of Federal troops would be stationed in the city during the ensuing winter, and that upon their arrival the militia doing duty would be discharged. Therefore they applied for the use of the barracks, and requested that a barrack-master should be appointed and the buildings put in order.

    Col. Nicola was discharged from his duty as town major in February, 1782, there being practically no farther occasion for his services.

After the conclusion of the Revolution, as soon as public officers became settled down to peaceable thoughts, it was considered necessary to dispose of much of the property acquired for military purposes daring the struggle. On the 1st of April, 1784, the Assembly passed an act authorizing the sale of the barrack lots in the Northern Liberties. The money realized was to be appropriated toward the payment of the sums agreed to be paid to the late proprietaries. The Supreme Executive Council appointed Michael Hillegas and Tench Francis commissioners " to apportion and lay off the ground whereon the barracks are situate into as many lots as may be necessary, with such and so many streets and lanes that the interest of the State and the convenience of the inhabitants may be best promoted, and to make sale thereof." The commissioners opened on the south side of the barrack-ground a new street, to which they gave the name of Tammany Street. As early as 1772 a street had been laid out through the Coats property, north of Green Street, running northward, which was called St. John Street. This highway was continued by the commissioners through the centre of the barrack lot from Green to Tammany Street. Near the Germantown road, Pitt Street was in line of St. John Street. South of Pegg's Run, Ann Street extended on the same line from Vine Street to Cohocksink Creek. The route of St. John Street was confirmed from Pegg's Run to Germantown road in June, 1793. East and west of St. John Street, between Second and Third, small and narrow streets were laid out, to which the commissioners, with delicate taste, gave floral names. Rose Alley was east of Third Street and Lily Alley west of Second Street.

It was the opinion of Messrs. Hillegas and Francis that the best plan to dispose of the property would be to rid it of all the barrack buildings except the centre house for the officers. The materials would bring fair prices. The bricks, in consequence of scarcity, could be sold for nearly as much as new bricks. The lumber might be used, and other material, such as floors, window-sashes, etc. The lots thus being made vacant could be sold at a better price than if incumbered with inconvenient buildings.

The destruction of the barracks was found to be inconvenient in after-years for the want of some place at which the troops might be lodged. In 1788 a contingent being necessary from Pennsylvania, Lieut.-Col. Josiah Harmer was placed in command.

    Capt. David Ziegler, upon recruiting service, was embarrassed for want of quarters. In this emergency the Supreme Executive Council applied to the managers of the House of Employment, requesting them "to permit Capt. Ziegler to occupy an apartment in the Bettering House for the reception of such soldiers as he may enlist during his stay in this city." The application was not successful, and an order was issued to Clement Biddle to procure a house for the purposes of Capt. Ziegler on the best terms that he could.

    The barracks became, as soon as they were erected, a place in which the inhabitants of the city took much interest. Except the militia and volunteer associations, organized under authority of the Lieutenant-Governors, there had been few regular soldiers seen in Philadelphia from the time of the settlement up to 1756, when the remnants of Halkett's and Dunbar's regiments marched back in retreat, it might be said, after the disaster of Braddock's Field. The Royal American regiment, although composed principally of emigrants from Germany and Switzerland, who had been settled in America some of them perhaps for many years, were commanded by officers thoroughly instructed in the military methods of Continental Europe, governed by obedience to such British methods as were considered necessary to be observed by superior authority. Halkett's and Dunbar's regiments were almost entirely composed of soldiers born in Great Britain. Col. Bouquet must have introduced some peculiarities founded upon his experience in the Dutch and Italian armies. Col. Montgomery's Highlanders were objects of great curiosity. Their peculiar costumes, their pipers and music, even their speech, so difficult to be understood by persons not used to cosmopolitan communications, were strange. Subject to proper precautions incident to military organizations, visitors to the barracks were welcome, at least at particular times, when it was understood that the sentries could be passed and access to the premises occupied by the troops was unrestricted. The parades and reviews were matters of continued interest. There was always something going on at the barracks which was worth looking at. It was a popular place to be visited by young people, and even by elderly and grave citizens.

The commissioners who erected the barracks are not known to have made any formal report as to their plans or description of the buildings. It is known that the barracks were of brick, that they had cellars under them, and occupied a parallelogram bounded on the west by Third Street, probably a little back from that highway, the middle building or officers' quarters being possibly in front of the barracks proper, which were of brick, and faced a ground for parade and exercise.

Among the collection of curiosities in possession of the Historical Society of Pennsylvania is a powder.horn upon which is engraved a representation of the city, with a sort of a map and other details sufficient to authorize the Inference that it was the work of a British soldier who was in Philadelphia before the Revolution. From the manner of spelling the name Front Street (" Frond Street") It seems probable that this work was done by a foreigner, a German or Swiss soldier belonging either to Bouquet's or Haldiman's battalions. There is a rude but perfectly obvious representation of the barracks exactly where they would be, in reference to other localities on the map or plan. According to this representation the barracks were one-storied buildings with a pitched roof, which possibly may have been available lofts for sleeping purposes, although there are no marks of garret-windows. Doors at Intervals appeared to have been placed on the west parallel. Chimneys are also marked. The description by Watson does not agree with this rude sketch. He says that "the houses were all of brick, two stories high, and a portico around the whole hollow-square." The view which Mr. Watson publishes shows a gallery above the first story and on a level with the floor of the second story, stretching around the three sides of the quadrangle. The number of soldiers who could be accommodated is also a matter of doubt. Mr. Watson says that they were tenanted "by three thousand men, all in the same year." (" Annals of Philadelphia," vol. i. page 415.) This is a doubtful phrase, and may mean that altogether, in one year, three thousand individual soldiers had tenanted the building. If it meant that three thousand men were at one time quartered there, the statement may be suspected to be an exaggeration. It has already been shown that in March, 1775, Gen. Forbes demanded quarters for seventeen hundred and fifty-two men. Montgomery's battalion of Highlanders in the winter of 1768-69 consisted of thirteen hundred men, and there were four companies of Royal Americans, probably not more than four hundred men, altogether seventeen hundred men. No larger numbers than these are spoken of on the scanty records which remain to show the use of this building.

So far as noted, the battalions of British troops quartered at the barracks were infantry or foot soldiers. Yet there was artillery there. The king's birthday, in June, 1772, was celebrated at the barracks by a discharge of twenty-one cannon. After the barrack lots were laid out, the little street running from Second to Front, below Green, and known as Duke Street, was popularly called Artillery Lane. This was in allusion to the storage of cannon near there, either upon the barracks lot or upon the line of Duke Street. The presence of the troops in the Northern Liberties gave to that portion of the county a new nickname. It was called Camping-town and Camptown for many years. In time this appellation was shifted northward, and was generally known as a name applied to Kensington.

There may be a clue to the  location of the Ridge Rd plantation which seems to connect with the directions to Philip Eisenbrey’s house, as follows:

“26 February 1851. At the office during the morning and in the afternoon about 3 o'clock drove out of town about 8 miles to see a Mr. Philip Eisenbrey and his wife upon some matters of business. Carrie accompanied me. We had a very nice horse. Went out the 2nd Street road to just beyond the 6th mile stone, and then turned off to the right, proceeded about 1/2 a mile & then turned to the left, and in a short time arrived at the house. They were perfect strangers to us, but treated us with much politeness and kindness.”

Source: Bryn Mawr. Edu : Journals of J. Warner Erwin noted his activities, almost daily throughout his life. The journal that follows covers the years from 1839 to 1853, from age 14 to 29, that include his marriage in 1850 and the responsibility of a daughter a year later. A chronicle of a dozen and a half years in the life of a young Philadelphia gentleman, a conveyancer, who describes mid-nineteenth century living in the city, trips throughout the country by steamship, rail and carriage, as well as numerous social events including his courtship, marriage and the birth of his two children. J. Warner Erwin was a conveyancer, a 19th-century term for a writer of deeds, leases, property transfers, real estate agreements, and other legal matters. In 1843 he worked with his father, but in 1845 started his own office.

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Eisenbrey Colonial Neighborhood: 

Location, Location, Location . . . . . . . . .

Philadelphia Street names in Colonial times:

Sassafrass Street – known today and also known then as Race Street

Mulberry Street – known today and also known then as Arch Street

High Street – known today as Market Street

Crown Street – located between 4^th and 5^th Streets between Vine and New Streets (today-Lawrence St.)

Etris’s Alley – W. side of 5^th Street between Sassafras and Vine Streets

Sassafras Alley – N. and S. from Sassafras to Sheibell’s (or Schievely’s) Alley between 5^th and 6^th

Star Alley – N. and S. Cherry to Race between 5^th and 6th 

Steinmetz’s Alley – E. side of 4^th Street between Sassafras and Vine Streets

Wood Street – From the York to the Ridge Road between Vine and Callowhill Streets  (plantation location ??)

Zane Street – Between 7^th and 8^th between High and Mulberry Streets

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Eisenbrey Neighborhood Maps of Philadephia 1776 - 1797 :

 Map of Philadelphia 1776

Source:  Hill Map of 1797

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 In looking through the occupations and addresses of the family members and the related family members and friends of the Eisenbrey family during the colonial period shows that the family married other families connect to the Eisenbrey family’s businesses. Examples of this would be that the family in running the tavern or just having contact with other families due to geographic location or members of the Lutheran church or German community in Philadelphia at the time, such as Catherine’s sister, Elizabeth marrying Peter Lex, being a butcher/grocer and Lex family located within a block or two. The connectivity continues such as Jacob being a tallow chandler requiring access to animal fats, which Peter Lex and his family could supply as butchers. With John being in lumber business, it made it very convenient for Philip to be a coach painter, with John manufacturing the coaches. With Henry being a tobacconist, it would be curious to see if Peter in Maryland was growing tobacco, supplying Henry with the product. Having family or relations that supplied the needs of the family business would allow the family to build their wealth and thrive in a growing/booming city such as Philadelphia, while it was the capital of the new country or during the Revolution. The Eisenbrey family was directly or indirectly involved in significantly important “necessity” occupations… tavern –entertainment/shelter for visitors; grocers –supply food; cordwainer/tailor/dressmaker –clothing; soap –clean civilized city; lumber –growth of the city residency; and  coachmaking/painting –transportation. The family plantations also could have been available for growing food for the Philadelphia markets or for the family during hard times.

The Philadelphia City Directories listing the Eisenbrey family members address and occupation are referenced in the "Eisenbrey-History" section.

Eisenbrey Family Occupations (with Colonial Definitions) :                                                                       

• tavern keeper – inn keeper
• grocer
• merchant (mer.)
• carpenter
• carver
• labourer
• tailor
• book keeper
• accountant
• clerk
• dressmaker
• furnisher and clothier (dry goods)
• gent’s furnishing goods
• umbrella form maker
• stationery
• shop keeper
• baker
• milkman
• dentist
• farmer
• tobacconist – one that buys and sells tobacco as a tobacco merchant.
• carter – a wagoner (driver of a wagon), stable headman or charioteer
• coach maker – a person who makes horse drawn coaches
• coach painter  - a person who painted signs or coaches
• cordwainer – a shoemaker or worker of leather
• fruiterer – a person who bought and sold fruit
• intendant – a director of a public or government business
• sawyer – one who cut timber into logs or boards
• tallow chandler – a person who made and sold tallow candles and soap. See explanation below :           

According to the dictionary, a person that makes or sells candles is a chandler.

In the early day, each town, especially in Europe, had their chandler. A chandler had to meet requirements to ensure only good candles were sold. A chandler belonged to the "The Tallow Chandler Guild" which was established in 1462. Amazingly, at this time in history, candles were so important that is was a crime to adulterate wax in any way!

Being a chandler meant going through an apprenticeship. But after your apprenticeship, being a chandler ensured you earned good money.

Candles in the early days were not very good though. Candles were made using tallow. Only the very rich could afford beeswax candles. So the majority of people had to use the low quality tallow candles.

Smoke from a tallow candle smells bad, creates soot and produces noxious fumes.

It was during the 1800's that candle making really became a business. What most people don't know is that candle makers and soap makers both required tallow for making their respective products. As a result, Proctor (a candle maker) and Gamble (a soap maker) merged and thus was the creation of Proctor & Gamble!

As times progressed, so did the quality of ingredients and thus candle makers were able to move away from tallow. It was in 1823 that stearin was isolated from tallow. Candle makers discovered that adding extra stearin to their candles created candles that burned with less smoke, brighter light and the stearin helped to create firmer candles.

Then, in the 1850's, the car was invented. With the invention of the car came the use of petroleum. This meant a whole new industry was created which was the petro-chemical industry. It was at this time that paraffin wax was created.

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Eisenbrey Family Religious Experience in Philadelphia:

GERMAN LUTHERAN CHURCH:

ST. MICHAEL'S AND ZION.

The German Lutherans of Philadelphia are supposed to have been embodied in congregations before 1742, but there are no records which conclusively prove the fact. St. Michael's Church of Germantown is the oldest German Lutheran congregation in Pennsylvania. The corner-stone of the church building in that village was laid by John Dylander of the Swedish Lutheran church (Gloria Dei) at Wicaco in 1737, and the ministrations there were under the charge of Mr. Dylander for some time, but having his duties to perform at Wicaco, his services at Germantown were irregular and the congregation dwindled to six or seven persons in 1740. Rev. Valentine Kraft was in charge of a German Lutheran congregation in Philadelphia in 1742, but being dismissed, he went to Germantown and filled the pulpit of St. Michael's, when at the end of a year that congregation became dissatisfied with him, and he was again removed. The German Lutheran congregation in Philadelphia under Kraft, and probably John Philip Streiter and Rev. Mr. Faulkner, worshipped in a barn in Arch Street near Fifth, which it occupied jointly with the German Reformed congregation. This congregation, anxious for the services of a pastor, united with the Lutheran congregations of New Hanover and Providence in application to the Lutheran authorities at Halle for the appointment of a minister. Deputies were sent abroad, among whom was Daniel Weissenger. The first overtures were made to F. M. Zeigenhagen in England, who was chaplain to King George II. He took an interest in the matter, and by communication addressed to Dr. Franken of the University of Halle induced the Lutheran authorities to send out to Pennsylvania Rev. Henry Melchior Muhlenberg. He landed at Charleston, S. C., in 1742, and arrived in Philadelphia November 28 of that year. He found the Lutheran congregations not only in Germantown and Philadelphia, but in other parts of Pennsylvania, involved in controversies serious in character. Germantown and Philadelphia congregations, besides the trouble with Rev. Valentine Kraft, were struggling against the assumptions of Count Nicholas Louis von Zinzendorf, the Moravian leader, who had come to Philadelphia in 1741, assumed the name of Louis von Thurnstein, and claimed authority to be inspector-general of the Lutherans in Pennsylvania. Zinzendorf under this assumed authority commenced the building of a church for the use of the Lutherans at the corner of Sassafras (Race) and Bread streets, and laid the corner-stone September 10, 1742. The building was under way when Muhlenberg arrived, and if the latter had been submissive to the claims of Zinzendorf, the first German Lutheran church built in the city would have been dedicated in the building on Race Street. But Mr. Muhlenberg stoutly resisted the authority of the Hernhiitter, and although the latter was sustained by some members of the Lutheran congregation, Muhlenberg had sufficient strength and influence in argument to carry the congregation with him; and so it happened that a Moravian congregation was afterward formed which took possession of the church building originally designed for the Lutherans, and the latter looked about for a site suitable for a building of their own. The church on Race Street was transferred to the Moravians on the 1st of January, 1743. Mr. Muhlenberg preached his first sermon on the morning of the 5th of December, 1742, in the barn on Mulberry Street, and the same afternoon preached at the Swedes' Church in Wicaco. For some time he officiated for both congregations, there being a vacancy at Gloria Dei in consequence of the death of Rev. John Dylander. In the year 1743 the Lutheran congregation bought a lot of ground situate on the east side of Fifth Street, extending from Appletree Alley to Cherry Lane, for the sum of £200. The corner-stone was laid on the 5th of April, 1743. The congregation had but little money, but great faith, and the construction of the building was pressed on in hope that the money necessary to pay for it would be raised by contribution as necessity required. On the 29th of October the work was so far completed that it was possible to use the house for worship. There had been expended upon it up to that time £1500—an enormous sum for the times, and which weighed heavily on a congregation few in numbers and poor in purse. To finish the edifice required, according to estimate, a very considerable additional sum. They resolved to use the building as it stood, the interior work not being completed. The scaffolding erected to enable the bricklayers to put up the walls remained on the outside. The windows were without sashes or glass.

 St. Michael's German Lutheran Church

Several were nailed up with boards, not sufficiently close to keep out the drifting snows in winter. The humble congregation formed their auditorium by placing loose boards on logs, and these were their pews. There was no stove to keep the interior warm, and yet during five years in summer and winter the church, furnished in that rough fashion, was used by the congregation. In winter the drifting snow sometimes covered up the text in the Bible which lay on the pulpit, so that the minister was compelled to wipe it off before he could read from the sacred volume. The money required to pay the debt of the church was slowly obtained. The church when finished cost, including the ground, about $8000. The interior work was finished by degrees, and on the 14th of August, 1748, the church as completed was solemnly dedicated to the service of Almighty God. The ceremonies were imposing. The pastor, Rev. Henry M. Muhlenberg, officiated, and was assisted by Revs. Brunnholz, Handschuh, Kurz, and Schaum of the German Lutheran Church, and Rev. Mr. Sanderlin of the Swedish Lutheran church at Chester. The building, according to the original plan, was seventy feet long, forty-five feet wide, and thirty-six feet high. A steeple fifty feet in height rose from the centre of the roof, but being heavy for the supports, the walls showing a tendency to spread, it was taken down in 1750, and even then, weakness being apparent, as a measure of strength two porches were erected upon the north and south sides near the eastern end of the building, thus giving to the church a cruciform shape which was not according to the original intention. The congregation, when the church building was completed, increased rapidly, so that in two years after the dedication it was found necessary to erect galleries. This work was accomplished in 1750, and in 1751 the church furniture was made complete by the placing of an organ in the gallery which was considered at the time one of the largest and finest instruments in America. No alteration was made in the interior during the one hundred and thirty years it remained in use. Stoves were introduced toward the end of the last century, when religious people generally were coming to the conclusion that it was not sinful to worship the Lord in a building comfortably warmed. The old chandeliers, resplendent with glass drops, remained until the last. The pulpit was a little old, queer-shaped tub with sounding-board above it. The pews were square and roomy, with backs sufficiently high to hide children and small persons entirely from the general view of the congregation. The galleries were supported on low pillars, and the ceilings under them came much nearer the floor beneath than is usual in modern churches. The interior had a strange appearance to worshippers from other churches, and the effect upon the mind was suggestive of the sincerity and piety of the humble congregation which had erected this quaint temple. During the whole period of its use for worship the German language was maintained by a succession of pious and earnest pastors whose hearts were in their ministry. In 1759, £200 were appropriated to the purchase of additional ground for burial purposes. The graveyard was established on the north side of the church, extending to Cherry Street, with a lot on the north side of Cherry street which was purchased for £915 currency. Here were deposited during a hundred years the remains of the leading members of the congregation and their families. The old tombstones bore the names of citizens whose descendants have attained to wealth and local distinction. Upon the weather-stained tablets were to be found memorials of the families of Lex, Ludwig, Hansell, Fritz, Graff', Huber, Greiner, Riehle, Woelper, Boraef, Fromberger, Eisenbrey, Mierken, Emerick, Shubert, and many others.

In 1760, £447 was appropriated for the purchase of a house and lot adjoining the church, upon which to erect a school-house. The building was commenced the same year, and finished July 27, 1761. The school was opened April 13 of that year by Pastor Brunnholz with a small number of pupils. It soon increased to one hundred and twenty children. This number being more than the school-house could comfortably accommodate, the scholars were transferred to the church during the summer and the moderate weather of spring and autumn. In the winter they were crowded in the school-house, which was warmed by means of stoves. There were six classes, and the tuition was upon the plan of the German orphan schools. Quarterly examinations were held in the church before the whole congregation, and among the best scholars cakes were distributed as rewards of merit, and printed verses from Scripture were given to the deserving. There were other recreations for the pupils. Mr. Brunnholz, writing to Halle, said: "In pleasant weather we go out into the country, with the children walking two by two. At one time they repeat their verses as if with one mouth, and at another time they sing, which animates me even in the greatest despondency. Sundays they assemble in front of my house, whence they go by twos to the church, where they are examined by Mr. Heinzelman." On the occasion of the dedication of the school-house Dr. Muhlenberg preached in the church from Second Kings, 2d verse, concerning the miraculous purification of a poisonous spring. Afterward, Provost Wrangel, Pastor Handschuh, and Pastor Muhlenburg, with the elders, deacons, and members of the church, and the scholars, went in procession to the new school-house, which was consecrated with prayer, singing, and a short discourse upon a text taken from the 80th Psalm. The schoolmaster examined the children, and a collection was made amounting to £\2. After the consecration, which took place on Monday, the pastor, elders, deacons, and some friends dined together, a dinner being a method of winding up the ceremonies of an important celebration as much in vogue at that time as it is now. The congregation increased so much in the course of a few years after the church was established that another building for the use of Lutherans became necessary. Thomas and Richard Penn granted a charter to St. Michael's September 25, 1765, with authority for "erecting and supporting one church more within the said city of Philadelphia or the liberties thereof for the better accommodating the said congregation." Thus was formed a new congregation, which went out from St. Michael's, and which was established under the care of that church. This was Zion Lutheran Church, at the south-east corner of Fourth and Cherry streets, which was dedicated on the 25th of June, 1769. During the occupation of Philadelphia by the troops, Zion Church was seized by the British and converted into a temporary hospital, and St. Michael's was used as a garrison church. In 1791, St. Michael's was embellished and improved, and the front organ-pipes gilt, to the great comfort of the congregation, which accomplished the work with the moderate sum of £6o. The additions could not have been many, but they were satisfactory, and St. Michael's was rededicated in honor of the embellishments. The yellow fever of 1793 was very severe upon the congregations of St. Michael's and Zion churches, no less than six hundred and twenty-five members dying within three months. The burning of Zion Church in 1794 crowded in the worshippers of Zion upon the church edifice of St. Michael's, which accommodated them as well as room would allow until Zion Church was rebuilt and rededicated in November, 1796.

The German element in these churches met in time the same difficulty which had injured the Swedish Lutheran congregation and reduced the number of members, but it presented itself in a different way. The children of the original members, growing up among an English speaking population, and understanding the usual language of the country much better than that of their fathers, were anxious for English preaching. The agitation in favor of this change met with stubborn opposition from the old members. In 1802 the controversy assumed importance, and the question of introducing English preaching was carried into the election of trustees in February, 1803, the German party and the English party each nominating a ticket. The German party were triumphant. The question was again in contest in the election of 1804, when the German party had only a majority of seven. In 1805 they had a majority of thirty-four. They then offered the English party the use of St. Michael's Church and the Cherry Street school-house, with the privilege of burying in the Eighth street graveyard to those who had relatives interred in the old ground, the new congregation to pay one-third of the old debt. The offer was not accepted. In 1806 the quarrel reached its height. Nearly fourteen hundred votes were cast. The Germans had a majority of one hundred and thirty. After this the English party virtually separated from the church. They formed a new congregation under the Rev. Philip F. Mayer, who preached to them in English at the old Academy in Fourth Street. From this movement originated St. John's English Lutheran Church, which was built in Race Street between Fifth and Sixth, and opened in 1809. In 1814 the same question was again agitated in Zion and St. Michael's by a new English party, which numbered about one-fourth of the congregation. After three years of trial, not succeeding in overcoming the steady adherence of the Germans to the ancient method of worship, this party also separated and went to the Academy in 1817, where they established C. F. Cruse as pastor. The congregation adopted the title of the church of St. Matthew. The resistance to the introduction of English finally came to a limited compromise. It was resolved that within the schools the English language might be taught, but that the German language in the church should not be given up so long as fifty members were in favor of its use. On the 14th of June, 1843, the Centenary Jubilee of St. Michael's was celebrated by the members. The interior was beautifully decorated. Every pillar was entwined with flowers and evergreens. The door-frames, windows, gallery, choir, and organ were wreathed with the same materials, and festoons of roses filled up the open spaces in other parts of the building. The pulpit was handsomely decorated, and above it appeared upon a ground of sky-blue silk the inscription, "Peace be within thy walls." Tablets of marble were upon the north and south walls, which bore inscriptions in German of which the following are translations:

Opened for Divine service the 20th of Oct'r, called as minister in the year 1757, This Church, a work of faith and love of our German ancestors, and the fervent zeal of their first regularly called minister, the Rev. Henry Melchior Muhlenberg,

In Memory of the teachers of this congregation, whose earthly tabernacles found a resting place in front of the altar of this Church, John Dietrich Heinzelman, called as assistant minister the 26th of July, 1753; died the 9th of February, 1756; Peter Krunnholz, called as minister in January, 1745; died July 5, 1757; John Frederick  Handschuh, was, by Divine assistance, founded the 5th of April in the year 1743; 1743; finished and dedicated the 14th of
Aug., 1748, and received the congregation at the celebration of its icoth Jubilee, the 14th of June, 1843. 9th of Oct'r, 1764; John Frederick Schmidt, called as minister the 18th of Sept'r, 1786, died the 12th of May, 1812; Justus Henry Chr1stian  Helmuth, called as minister the 25th of May, 1799, died the 5th of Feb'y, 1825.

Portrait of Rev. Henry Melchior Muhlenburg

- The Rev. Henry Melchior Muhlenberg may be justly considered the founder of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America. He was descended from a Saxon family which during the Thirty Years' War removed to Eimbeck in Hanover, a free city of the German Empire. His father held a judicial position in the city, and Henry Melchior, the son, was born there in the year 1711. His father died, leaving a small estate, while the boy was young. By the kindness of friends he was enabled to continue his studies, and in the struggle with adversity which followed he acquired courage, energy, and determination, which were to be of the utmost advantage to him in after life. In 1735, being twenty-four years of age, he entered the University of Gottingen, which had been founded during the previous year by George II., king of England and elector of Hanover, and during his studies at that university became chaplain to Count Reuss XXIV. He made here some valuable and influential friends, among whom was Gesner the painter and poet and Count Erdman Henkel. After graduation, by the advice of the latter, he removed to Halle, where he enjoyed the friendship of Franke, Celarius, and the inspector Fabricius, men of influence in the Lutheran Church. They advised him to accept the mission to America. For this charge he was peculiarly fitted from his skill in languages. After his arrival in Pennsylvania he frequently preached not only in German, but in English and Low Dutch. His influence among the Germans was very great. He remained at Philadelphia, in charge of St. Michael's, preaching also at Germantown, New Hanover, and Providence, until the opening of Zion Church in 1767. He resigned in 1774, and went to the church of Augustus at the Trappe, where he remained until his death in 1787. Muhlenberg married, shortly after he came to America, Anna, the daughter of Conrad Weiser, a man of great ability and activity, and of influence with the Indians. The records and archives of Pennsylvania are full of accounts of the transactions of Conrad Weiser with the Indians and his reports of internal affairs. By this wife Mr. Muhlenberg had three sons. John Peter Gabriel, the eldest, born in 1746 at the Trappe, was sent to Germany for his education, and while at Halle ran away and enlisted in a regiment of dragoons as a private. Being discovered and reclaimed, he finished his studies, and was ordained to the ministry in 1772. At the commencement of the Revolution he beat the drum ecclesiastic, and, declaring to his congregation that there was a time to preach and a time to fight, appeared in the pulpit in military uniform covered by the minister's gown, which after a stirring patriotic sermon he stripped off, disclosing the soldier's garb and announcing his intention to recruit. He already held the commission of colonel, and he raised the Eighth Virginia, commonly called the German regiment. He rose rapidly in the Continental army, and became finally major-general. He fought at Brandywine, Germantown, Monmouth, and Stony Point, and was next in command to La Fayette at the capture of Yorktown in 1780. Afterward returning to Pennsylvania, he became Vice-President of the State, member of Congress, United States Senator, and finally collector of the port of Philadelphia, to which position he was appointed in 1803, and which he held till his death in 1807.

Frederick Augustus Muhlenberg, second son of the founder of the Lutheran Church, born at the Trappe in 1750, was ordained to the ministry, officiated in Philadelphia and New York, was member of the Continental Congress, and Speaker of the first and third Federal Congresses. He was President of the Council of Censors of Pennsylvania, State Treasurer, President of the State convention which ratified the United States Constitution, and Receiver-General of the Land Office under the Federal government. It was his casting vote as Speaker of the United States House of Representatives which carried the bill that provided for the fulfilment of some of the stipulations of Jay's treaty—an instrument exceedingly unpopular among the hot Democrats in the last decade of the last century'.

Gotthilf Henry Ernst, the third son, was also educated at Halle, and returning to America was ordained in 1774 third minister and assistant in the Philadelphia congregation. In 1780 he removed to Lancaster, and took charge of the Lutheran church in that town, holding it for thirty five years, until his death. He had botanical tastes, and was a member of the American Philosophical Society and of scientific associations in Berlin and Gottingen. He published some works on botany, and left in manuscript a treatise on the flora of Lancaster county. Henry Augustus Muhlenberg, clergyman and statesman, born at Lancaster in 1782, was his son. He served as pastor of the Lutheran church at Reading for twenty-six years, was member of Congress from 1829 to 1838, and was supported as Democratic candidate for governor of Pennsylvania by the anti-Wolf branch of that organization; the result of which was that both Wolf and Muhlenberg were defeated and Joseph Ritner elected. He was minister to Austria in 1838-40. One of his sons, Henry A., third in descent from Henry Melchior, was member of Congress in 1853-54, and died in the latter year. Rev. William A. Muhlenberg, a great-grandson of the Lutheran founder, became an Episcopal minister, was rector of St. James's, Lancaster, of the Holy Communion, New York; founder of St. Luke's Hospital, New York, and of the Matthias Industrial Community of St. Johnland. He was the author of that well-known hymn, " I would not live alway." He died in New York City April 8, 1877, age eighty years.

Concerning John Dietrich Heinzelman, who was assistant minister of St. Michael's a little over two years and a half, scarcely anything is known. He was probably sent over from Halle. He was very earnest in the school-work of the congregation during his ministry.

The Rev. Peter Brunnholz, a native of Schleswig, ordained April 12, 1744, was sent over from Germany, and sailed for America near the close of 1744. Messrs. Schaum and Kurtz, afterward most excellent and earnest Lutheran ministers in Pennsylvania, came with him. The voyage was long and the winds contrary. They reached the city on the 25 th of January, 1745. They probably landed at some distance from the builtup portions of the town. After they reached the shore, and were walking to the city, they met a German who came out of a piece of woods near the road. Observing that they had just come from a vessel lying in the Delaware, this man accosted them with the question, "Are there any Lutheran ministers on board?" On learning their character he leaped for joy; he took them to the house of a German merchant known for hospitality. The elders, the deacons, many members of the church, soon gathered around them; an express was sent off to Providence to convey the intelligence to Muhlenberg; and upon that day they all united to "thank God and to take courage." They found immediate service. Schaum opened his school in Philadelphia, and Kurtz took the school at New Hanover. Brunnholz officiated at St. Michael's, part of the time at Germantown.

Pastor John Frederick Handschuh arrived from Germany in 1748; was sent by Muhlenberg to Lancaster, but returned to Philadelphia, where he first became permanently attached to the church of St. Michael's, Germantown, and in 1756 became permanently attached to St. Michael's, Philadelphia, where he remained eight years.

Rev. Johann Frederick Schmidt filled the pulpit of St. Michael's for twenty-six years. He was born in Germany on the 9th of January, 1746, and was nearly twenty-three years old when he came to America in 1769. He was educated at Halle, and had charge of the Germantown congregation for sixteen years, including the Revolutionary period. In memory he remains with a fragrant odor of piety. He was earnest, industrious, simple and kindly in his manners, and held in universal respect.

Rev. Justus Henry Christian Helmuth came over with Schmidt in 1769, and was shortly afterward elected pastor of the Lutheran church at Lancaster. He came to Philadelphia in 1779, and was first associated in the service of Zion. He was a man of more than ordinary ability. "He always preached with surprising unction, with great fervor and pathos. He was able not merely to hold an audience subdued under the charm of his eloquence, but at times to electrify them. The minds of those who heard him could not wander: they were chained. Their feelings seemed to be completely under the control of the speaker. His commanding, impassioned manner gave to his words a power which was felt by all—an effect which was truly astonishing." Dr. Helmuth was a fine scholar and linguist. He was professor of the German and Oriental languages in the University of Pennsylvania for eighteen years, and for twenty years he was principal of the theological seminary for the preparation of candidates for the ministry. In the fevers of 1793 and 1800 he remained with his flock, in the midst of which the effects of the pestilence were terrible. He lost no occasion for the performance of his duty at the bedsides of the sick and dying, and was earnest and devoted throughout his service.

Portrait of Rev./Dr. Justus Henry Christian Helmuth

The German Evangelical Lutheran Ministerium of Pennsylvania was present at the centennial celebration of St. Michael's Church in 1843, and several of the descendants of Father Muhlenberg. The exercises were deeply interesting, and the spirit then manifested ought to have been sufficient to preserve the church as a venerable memorial of the past. In twenty years the interest in the old building had entirely died out in the congregation. Zion had left its position at Fourth and Cherry, and erected a grand edifice on Franklin Street above Race. St. Michael's had fallen into disuse. The churchwardens and vestrymen were divided as to the use of the property. Some of them joined in the erection of a new St. Michael's, corner of Trenton Avenue and Cumberland Street, which they claimed was truly the mother-church. Others abandoned all interest in the estate. Acts of Assembly were passed in 1853 and 1871, giving authority to the rector, vestry, and wardens to sell the church property. An attempt was made to prevent this consummation by an application to the Court of Common Pleas for an injunction. The effort failed. During the course of that year the church and lot at Fifth and Appletree Alley were sold. The mouldering remains of the founders of the church were removed from the burying-ground by such of their descendants as lived and who cared for the memory of their ancestors. The bones of others, in indistinguishable confusion, were transferred to a corporation cemetery. The weather-stained walls, the curious low, round-arched windows, and all the distinguishing features of this old landmark were removed from sight, and the history of St. Michael's, after more than a century and a quarter of usefulness in Philadelphia, ceased.

German Lutheran Church School House

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The Eisenbrey family would have had religious training in the German Lutheran Church as well as had their education (learning to read and write) in the church Sunday school classes at the School House above. It would have been to meet other members of the “german” community in Philadelphia, meet other merchants and their future spouses. With the minister of the church signing John’s Will in 1793 and mentioning him in his diary, it is expected that the family had not only a close proximity but close association with the church. They also changed with the church as it changed as described above. We have church records that help to tie the Eisenbrey family history.

Details

Written by Phil

Category: Eisenbrey-History

Published: July 08 2012

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Where It all Started…… in the village of Gündelbach, Germany ……

The Eisenbrey family history starts from a little village north of Stuttgart, in Gündelbach, Germany.

The Aisenbreys before the year 1600.

The Aisenbrey/Eisenbrey family tree is based in its oldest part ( up to the 8th generation ) on church records, which were stored in community archives in the ancient churches. By order of church officials church records were started to be written by 1558, containing incomplete data in the beginning. Due to numerous battles, raids etc. in the Maulbronn area - an important military highway ran through the area - most church records had been destroyed between 1560 and 1650. On the other hand all records generated for the Maulbronn Office - Gündelbach was part of the Maulbronn Office since 1289 (see Fig. 1) - and the Duchy of Württemberg are well preserved. These records consist of Swear lists, Tax Registers, Real Estate Registers, and Muster lists. The real estate registers of the Maulbronn Monastery, now stored in the State Archives in Stuttgart, contain 365 volumes for the period of 1489 to 1811, each volume holding hundreds of pages. Currently there are no plans to finance a very expensive evaluation of this huge amount of data. Since the inner order of the registers is the real estate (location, size, rights, duties) rather than the owners names, an evaluation for owners names and personal data would further increase the expenses. Muster lists however consist of a compilation of a huge amount of names, which are linked to villages. Life data (birth/death records etc.) of the registered persons and family relationships are not covered in muster lists. Due to the special character and construction of our family name an analysis of the Maulbronn Muster lists can reveal connections and results, that have a very high probability to hold true.

All results discussed in the following paragraphs are based upon and derived from the book „ Die Muserungslisten des Württembergischen Amtes Maulbronn 1523 - 1608“ (ISBN 3-9803570-6-6) (The Muster lists of the Maulbronn Office 1523 - 1608), published in 1999 by K.Huber and J.H. Staps. In discussions with Konstantin Huber the research results could further be verified.
For our family name the common German spelling of the last 3 centuries will be used, although we will find many different spellings in the muster lists (see Table 1) and also the emigrants to Russia and America sometimes have changed the spelling.

Etymology

In the small social formations of the Early Middle Ages a single name was sufficient to identify a participant of a kindred or an inhabitant of a settlement. In the High and Late Middle Ages, when settlements grew larger and more villages and towns were founded, a surname was added to the personal name (first name). In the social Upper Class (nobility) this was a very common practice for centuries: Volker The Fiddler, Karl The Great. Additional names mostly were derived from settlement names, village names, occupation names, and surnames. Based upon these derivatives finally family names were formed, which gradually were adopted by people living in the country between 1300 and 1450, especially when names had to be used in documents (Tax lists, Real Estate Registers, Swear lists).

Family Names in the Muster lists.

In the Maulbronn Muster lists 17,722 family names are documented in writing. The number of different family names is much smaller, however. Since most people neither could write nor read, no written documents were available. Only a few educated and trained writers, people living in monasteries and towns, generated documents by interpreting, what they heard from the villagers. Since almost every village had its own dialect, the writers had a difficult job in generating their documents. This fact explains, why in average there are 15 different spellings for each family name in the muster lists – including writing mistakes. By far most family names in the lists were derived from surnames (30,8%), followed by personal names (18,8%) and occupation names (17,2%).

Fig. 1 Area of the Monasterial Maulbronn Office in the 16th century.

Origin of the name Aisenbrey.

Our family name originated from a surname. On principle surnames hold true only for the first bearer of the name. All following bearers of the name obtain the name by heritage, whereas their characters can be totally different. Our name was built from a sentence, which is a rarity. It is derived from the Middle-Highgerman verb oesen(1) = to scoop or to consume (to eat) and from the old word bri(e)(2) = mush or millet.

(1)oesen is the Middle-High german origin of today's German essen = to eat and has lost its second meaning = to scoop
(2)bri(e) is the origin of today's German Brei = mush. Since in the Middle Ages it was very common to eat millet-pap, bri(e) = millet was transformed to denote any kind of mush

Our family name described a person, who “scooped or consumed millet-pap”. This could have been a nickname: oese den Bri = mush-eater or it could have described an activity: oese den
Bri = a person, who allots millet-pap. Since in those times millet-pap was the most important basic nutrition for peasants, “mush-eater” wouldn't have denoted something special, because everybody ate millet-pap. Therefore the second meaning (“person, who apportions millet-pap”) will have a higher probability to be correct.
Our family name can be found 40 times in the Maulbronn Muster lists, written by different writers in the time period 1523 to 1608. As there wasn't any orthographical standard available, the spelling – especially for the vowels – strongly depended on the writer, who had to reproduce the high language as well as the different dialects. The variety in sound and spelling can very well be observed from the reproduction of our Swabian family name Eisenbrei/Aisenbrey:

For oesen you can find: o=4, ö=3, e=2, ei=1, eu=1, y=2, ai=18, ay=7, a=2

For bri(e) you can find: ey=22, y=4, ej=11, ei=3

 The Muster lists

In the military of the 16th and 17th century the armament of ordinary people (peasants, craftsmen etc.) was only of minor importance. In the first place was the levy of the noblemen,
who went to the field as fighters on horseback. In the second place were mercenaries, who could be recruited by any sovereign, only if he could financially afford to do so.

Fig. 2 Mercenaries with longspears and halberds ( by 1540 )

The Duchy of Württemberg has been established since 1495, divided into secular offices and the property of monasteries. Monasterial offices only gradually over time were managed by the military government of the Duke. Mustering started as early as 1430, but only since 1523 was mustering first conducted for the Maulbronn Office. At that time the Duchy was governed by an Austrian sovereign (Habsburger). Duke Ulrich of Württemberg was driven away and only in 1534 did he regain his country. But this didn't change the military constitution.
Muster list A of 1523 denominates 693 men between the ages 17 and 60, who were “guet und tauglich zu der Weer” (good and able-bodied for the military service), where 607 were married and 86 single. Thus Maulbronn provided the second largest levy of all monasteries (only Zwiefalten provided more: 779 men). From different analyses and comparisons it is obvious, that those 693 men didn't reflect the total amount of men fit for military service. Musterings in later years were more accurate. Especially in 1546 the muster lists showed appr. 1200 men, a number close to all men fit for the military.The armament of ordinary people (peasants, craftsmen) consisted of 3 kinds:    Halberd, Longspear and Rifle.

Fig. 3 Three warriors with halberd and longspear. Pen-and-ink drawing by Albrecht Dürer

In the beginning of the observed period of time the halberd was the most efficient weapon for a peasant, towards the end of the period it was the rifle, since its efficiency could be increased by technical improvements (bolt etc.). In 1550 the Spaniards introduced their musket with longer range and higher accuracy, operated by 2 men, but its use in Württemberg was very limited. Some people had armors, mostly incomplete. The problem was, that all men had to buy weapons and armors at their own expenses, and they had to participate in military training courses.

Fig. 5 Page of a Musterlist for Knittlingen, Zaisersweiher , and Gindelbach

1-B-1 Table of mustered Aisenbreys

From all available Musterlists of the Maulbronn Office all men, who bear the name “Aisenbrey”, were extracted and compiled in Table 1 (see below), in ascending order of the column “Year”.

Explanation of the columns:

Nr. = count for different persons
Name = documented spelling of mustered person
Jahr = year of mustering
Ort = village, where a person was mustered
Liste = list name and number of the person in the list
(lists are named from A to O)

Table 1. The Aisenbreys in the Musterlists of Maulbronn Monastery (1523 - 1608)

Analysis

1.  A first result is in column “No.” of the table. As we already know, muster lists are sometimes incomplete. On the other hand in every mustering campaign all men fit for military service (between age 17 and age 60) were mustered again, although they had been mustered in the previous campaign. This fact is the reason, why you can find our family name 40 times in the lists. In the No. Column we are trying to count, how many different persons with the name “Aisenbrey” were mustered between 1523 and 1608. A rather conservative analysis revealed 17 men, but there also could have been 19 men in the military service.
2.  As outlined in paragraph 1-A, the spelling especially of the vowels is very different. An interesting fact is, that the most common variants in the beginning and at the end of our name have endured centuries and have prevailed in the German spelling: “Ai” in the beginning and “ey” at the end.
3.  Since the observed time period covers more than 2 generations, one can conclude, that a maximum of 8 Aisenbrey families have lived in the Maulbronn Office.
4.  In the first half of the period Aisenbreys lived only in Illingen and Gündelbach, whereas in the second half they only lived in Diefenbach and Gündelbach, but by far most lived in Gündelbach.
5.  From this fact and the special construction of the family name (a sentence name as surname) one can conclude, that the Aisenbreys originate from this area.
6.  At least one Aisenbrey family must have lived in the area before the year 1500. Thus our family is older than 500 years.
7.  If one compares the number of mustered Aisenbreys in Gündelbach with the numbers for other families, one can conclude, that the Aisenbrey family was the second largest family in Gündelbach – only the Kocher family had more musterd members. An interesting fact in this context: today in Gündelbach you still can find 10 Aisenbrey addresses – in the former Maulbronn Office there are 18 addresses – whereas the Kochers don't exist anymore in Gündelbach.
8.  Finally one can conclude, that the Aisenbrey family either originated from Gündelbach (and vicinity) or immigrated from parts of German speaking countries (Austria, Switzerland) before the year 1500. An immigration after the 30-years war (1618-1648) can now be excluded.

Aisenbreys continually existed in Gündelbach since more than 500 years!


Sources:
Fig. 1 – 3 by courtesy of Kreisarchiv des Enzkreises
Fig. 4 and 5 by courtesy of Hauptstaatsarchiv Stuttgart (HstAS H 107/16 Nr. 5, A 28a)

Text courtesy of Heinz Aisenbrey, book: The Aisenbrey/Eisenbrey/Eisenbrei Family, A German-American Family with Roots in Wuerttemberg, 2012 - available on Amazon.com

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Our family tree starts in the year 1600, with the birth of Matthaus Aisenbrey. He was a farmer and was married to Maria Stritzinger. They had three children - Gerog, Peter , and Matthaeus. Matthaus died at the age of 91 on September 14, 1691 in Gündelbach.

His son, Peter Aisenbrey was born in 1645 and married Anna Ruef (3 sons – Martin, Matthaeus, Peter and 3 daughters- Katharina, Anna Maria, Anna) and at Anna Ruef’s death , he married Anna Margarete Raim. Peter died on December 29, 1728 at the age of 83. Matthaeus Aisenbrey’s mother, Anna Ruef died in 1693.

Matthaeus was born on December 25, 1680. He was a grave digger. He married Dorothea Oechslin on November 16, 1702 and also was married to Anna Barbara Entzlin and Anna Katz.  Mattaeus died on April 10, 1746 at the age of 65. Peter Aisenbrey’s mother, Dorothea was born in 1680 and died at the age of 43 on October, 11, 1723. Matthaeus and Dorothea had six children – Saloman, Alexander, Margareta, Maria, Peter and Simon.

Peter Aisenbrey (Eysenbreit/Eisinbry) was born on January 11, 1716 in Germany. He had three older brothers, 2 older sisters and a younger brother, Simon. Peter married Sophia Dorothea Majer (Dorothy) in Germany and immigrated to Philadelphia with their 10 month old son, Johann Erhard Eisenbrey and a step-daughter, Maria Dorothea Majer (granddaughter-Dorothy Rafin). In Philadelphia, the family’s names was anglicized to Eisenbrey.

For some insight to why Peter Eisenbrey emigrated to Philadelphia, a full chapter in Heinz Aisenbrey's book referenced above is dedicated to Peter's military service in 1733, Peter's return to Guendelbach, possible means to travel with his family and their journey to Philadelphia !

To the City of Brotherly Love – Philadelphia….they went ………..