This past week I proved to my satisfaction that our Philip and Amelia Fuch and family spent at least 3 years, around 1780 to 1783, in the vicinity of Earl, PA, now New Holland, in Lancaster Co. This would have been between the time they left Bucks Co., Pa, and they settled in Rowan Co., NC. It is an important chapter because Lancaster Co. would have been where the Fuchses met the Hinkles and resulted in several intermarriages between the two families. It also may have brought about the move to NC because Anthony Hinkle seems to have been the prime mover in NC migration for the two families.
Mary and I spent most of one day in the Lancaster, PA, Historical Society Library. Later we spent about an hour at Trinity Evangelical Luther Church in New Holland, PA. Personnel in both places were very cooperative. The Historical Society Library was well staffed with people that knew their local history.
Our main source of information was a transcription (the original was in German) of old Trinity Church records--"Trinity Evangelical Lutheran Church, New Holland, Penna., Parish Records, Vol. 1, 1730-1813." We found three Fuchs entries in that book. We found Philip's and Amelia's names together. In one place there appeared to be an entry for Philip, Jr. We found a number of entries for Anthony Hinkle and Wendle Hinkle. In one place we saw Anthony's wife Magdalena listed. There is no doubt in my mind that here were our Fuchs and Hinkle families. In the church records, we found nothing on my Jacob Fuchs or any of the other Fuchs children, though I am sure they were with the family.
Our other source of Fuchs information was the tax records. There we found a number of entries in and around the 1780 to 1783 time frame for one Philip Fox (note that the tax records used his English name). These tax records indicated that Philip rented his land, was not a land owner. We found much in the tax records for the Hinkles. Though I cannot conclusively prove it, I believe these entries in the tax records were for our Philip based on what we found in the church records.
I did find a Jacob Fox, as a renter, in the tax records as late as 1785. However, I doubt that he is my Jacob because it is recorded that my Jacob Fox bought 160 acres from one Mary Spurgeon in Rowan Co., NC, in February 1784.
We did a search of the deed record abstracts. We found records for the Hinkles but nothing for our Fuchses. This makes sense since it appears that Philip Fuchs rented and participated in no property transfers in Lancaster Co.
We made a halfhearted search for Rosenboms. Nothing dramatic was found. I did find entries in one of the records for Alexander Rosenbom. I assumed, rightly or wrongly, that he was the Alexander Rosenbom who later owned land in Rowan Co., NC, near our Philip Fuchs.
I gather that the Hinkles found all of the above data back in the 1920's but were concentrating on their family and did not record the Fuchses in enough detail to satisfy my interest. One curiosity for me was that I found no record of the marriage in 1783 of Wendle Hinkle and Elizabeth Fuchs (Fox), as the Hinkle's have recorded. I believe this was because the Hinkle's back in the 1920's were looking at the original church records in German handwriting. I was looking at a typed transcription done later. For me, there were some marriages in the church records but there was a gap in marriages starting in the mid 1760's and extending to around 1790. There were two 1783 marriages recorded but they were not Hinkle or Fuchs. I would guess that the gap was because of deterioration of the original material after the 1920's.
Lancaster Co. is prime Penn. Dutch farming country and one would wonder why our Foxes left it for NC. Between Mary, myself, and archive personnel we came up with the following possibilities. 1) Available land was scare and expensive in Lancaster Co. and very available and inexpensive in Rowan, NC. 2) Philip had a number of boys who would need land for their growing families. They needed to go South for that. 3) We read that the Indians were a problem in PA, but I can't imagine that being any better in NC. And 4) Farmers did not have commercial fertilizer in the late 1700's. Land becoming infertile with use was a continuous problem that forced our ancestors to move south and west.
I made photo copies of the applicable church records. Anyone interested in that detail, let me know and I can easily e-mail it to you.
Regards,
Al Spinks aspinks3@triad.rr.com