1776 Schwenkfelders: Settling in PA

by Allen Viehmeyer

When the Schwenkfelders arrived in Philadelphia, they were unsure about where they could settle. Nearly all of them had lived on farms in villages where the pastures and fields surrounded the villages Initially, they hoped to find sufficient space for the entire group already cleared and ready for building and planting. Unable to do so, they dispersed across Montgomery County from Macungie in the north to Chestnut Hill in the south.

1767 map by Schwenkfelder surveyor, David Shultze that shows the location of forty-eight homes of Schwenkfelders settlers in Pennsylvania

Family names and locations

One example is the stretch between Pennsburg and Sumneytown along Sumneytown Pike where there were parcels for: 1) George, David, and Melchior Schultz, 2) Hans Heinrich Yeakel, 3) Christoph Neuman and Hans Heinrich Yeakel, and 4) Tobias and Melchior Hartranft. Many groups had parcels in Lower Salford: 1), Caspar, George, and Abraham Heydrick, 2) George Hoffmann, 3) George Kriebel, 4) Christoph Kiebel Jr, 5) Christoph Kriebel Sr., and several others. This geographical spread seriously challenged the Schwenkfelders to maintain unity. In the 1800s, the Schwenkfelders divided themselves into Upper, Middle, and Lower Districts.