ON THE FAMILIES OF HANS BAUER OF BERKS CO

On the families of Hans Bauer of Berks Co., PA and Hans Baur of Oberhofen, Switzerland

Lister O. (Bowers) Weiss and Edna M. (Fetzer) Weiss, in their book Trail of the Pioneers; A History and Genealogy of Hans Bauer and His Descendants (1952) wrote (p.30):

"Since the exodus of Hans and Anna Willener Bauer from Switzerland to Sappemeer, Holland, in 1711, has been established by historical records; since there is documentary evidence to prove that our first ancestors, Hans and Anne Bauer, settled in Berks County, Pa., in 1734; and since, according to legend, our first ancestors were Swiss Mennonites who migrated from Holland to Pennsylvania prior to 1717, we have assumed that they are one and the same people. However, to date, we have no authentic proof to substantiate our assumption."

Evidence to refute this assumption exists, however, and was published in 1947 by Michael Georg de Boer ("Vom Thunersee zum Sappemeer. Ein Täufer- und Auswandererschicksal aus drei Jahrhunderten" in Berner Zeitschrift für Geschichte und Heimatkunde, Vol. 9 (1947) pp. 1-24). De Boer, Dutch, a university-trained historian, applied his professional skills to the research of his own family history. In an impressive study that used all the major types of original records in Switzerland, he traced the ancestry of Hans Baur of Oberhofen back to a marriage in 1542 and forward to his own children in the Netherlands. It is an interesting study, offering glimpses into the lives and times of the Willener's and Baur's, as well as insights into the experience of researching in 1947. For the American descendants of Hans Bauer of Berks Co., Pa., this paper proves that Hans Baur of Oberhofen and Anne Willener of Sigriswil lived out their lives in the Netherlands and raised their children there. The children married other Swiss emigrants.

Hans Baur of Oberhofen

I summarize here de Boer's research, to make it accessible to those Bauer descendants who do not read German.

The parish records of Sigriswil show the baptism of Anna Willener, daughter of Heinrich Willener and his wife Verena Kempf, on October 28, 1678. A later annotation to the entry states that on February 19, 1702 she married in Sigriswil Hans Baur of Oberhofen. De Boer persuaded the pastor to dig the records out of the attic of the parsonage.

De Boer cites the parish records in Hilterfingen (the same church served both Hilterfingen and Oberhofen) for the following (not all the children are given):

Andreas Baur married Anna Os(t)wald on March 7, 1542. Their third son --

Joachim Baur married Barbara Kneubühl on August 4, 1595. They had 8 children, of whom many died young. In 1601, 1602, and 1605 there were sons baptized Joachim. The third one …

Joachim Baur married Catharina Thönen on November 1, 1624. He died about 1654. Their sons were --

Andreas
Abraham
Hans was born December 4, 1625. He married March 17, 1656 Christine Linder. Married (2) Margaretha zum Wald on August 17, 1657. Children:

Hans baptized June 8, 1660 (probably died young)
Jacob bapt. July 18, 1662.
Andreas bapt. January 15, 1664
Uly bapt. April 9, 1665
Hans b. about 1670 (unlike brothers, baptismal record not found at Oberhofen, perhaps somewhere else?). Married Anne Willener February 19, 1702. Children:

Christian, baptized January 13, 1704, married Verena Thönen; the couple bought 11 pieces of property in the Sappemeer area between 1733 and 1769. There were five children.
Barbara, baptized January 3, 1706, married Peter Gerber. Bought her sister's share of her father's estate.
Abraham, baptized February 29, 1708. Married Trijntje Stähli, daughter of another emigrant family, in 1733. There were at least five children. This is Georg Michael de Boer's line.
Margaret (not baptized, documented elsewhere)

Barbara bapt April 3, 1674
Christian bapt January 28, 1677

Hans Baur, son of the elder Joachim Baur, was one of the donors of a painted glass window to the church in Hilterfingen and Oberhofen; the window is now in the historical museum in Bern. He married Anna Os(t)wald; there were nine children. His second wife (m. 1657) was Anna ab Egglen. There were three children.

The archives of Amsterdam show that in 1711, the year of emigration, Hans Baur made two substantial money transfers to the Dutch plenipotentiary Runckel, funds to be transferred to Holland. The land registration archives that would have a record of a land transfer in Oberhofen were in an unorganized room in a tower in the castle of Thun, and the light was broken. De Boer eventually found what he was looking for: a file for Hans Baur, who "because of his Anabaptist faith" had decided to leave the country. The name and standing of his father, the value of the sold land, the reason for emigration, and the document sealing the land sale to his brothers were all there. The total amount of the funds transferred to Holland is the same as that received for the property in the sale.

I translate here the land transfer document:

"Since the legitimate son of the Honorable Hans Baur, the old Kilchmeyer and fiefholder at Oberhofen, also called Hans Baur, because of his Anabaptist confession went from here to Neuwenburg, and now has the intention to emigrate farther away, and since my graceful lords ordered that such means belonging to these people and not invested in church or community properties can be taken along with them, and since his mother died recently (N.B. she died on June 3, 1711) and was called by the Lord from this world to the graces of God, and the father is about 80 years old and afflicted with blindness and therefore entirely unfit to take care of his household, for which reason he also resigned his possessions and left them to his sons to be divided up among them. Whereupon the aforementioned Hans Baur the younger, upon his due request and thereupon given consent and granting by my honorable, noble and much esteemed Younker (bailiff) Näglein and by Mr. Amann (burgomaster) Frutinger at Oberhofen, with all formalities required and valid for him and his heirs sells and gives to be bought to the honorable, pious and modest Jacob Baur of the court, idem Andres and Ullrich Baur, all of them at Oberhofen and his beloved brothers, and to their heirs, namely all his heritage and shares which came to him from his father and mother and which is belonging to him to every regard, may it be mountain, pastures, vineyards, or things in dwellings or rooms, movable property and cattle. "In Summa" i.e., everything, however it may be named, may it be his own property or may it be fiefs, how it is well known to the buyers themselves, nothing excepted or reserved. Thus the bargain was done and effected, namely for 4500 pounds, which they, the buyers, have paid to him the seller to his entire and full satisfaction. Furthermore they the buyers shall be obliged to give full board to their father without any further obligation or disadvantage for the sellers until the end of his earthly life and to give him all god care and advice, as it is to be hoped and expected.

"For better credentials and certification to everyone they asked Younker Landvogt (bailiff) to put on his inherited honorable secret seal, but without any disadvantage to him, and for witnesses acted the honorables Jacob Ostwald and I myself, both at Oberhofen.

Actum on the 15^th day of June in 1711."

(from the "Contracted and Gerichtsmanual" of Hans Immer, 1708-16, "Amtsschreiberei" at Thun)

On March 10, 1712 [De Boer omitted the year, 1712 is my guess], Hans Baur, having plenty of resources, purchased half of a piece of property in Sappemeer. In 1714 he bought the other half. In this transaction, the names of both spouses, Hans Baur and Anne Willener are mentioned. Several other small property purchases were made. In 1738, both spouses were mentioned in a purchase document again. Hans Baur died before 1751; in another land transaction, "the Baur heirs" were mentioned as neighbors.

Comments: the Sigriswil and Hilterfingen/Oberhofen parish records have been microfilmed and are available from the LDS church. Some of the people above are in the IGI, and some of the information in the IGI conflicts with de Boer's report. In particular, the IGI marriage record for Hans Baur and Anna Willener names Hans Baur's parents as Andres Bur and Dorothe Kärnen, and the Hans Baur whose parents were Hans Baur and Margarethe zum Wald married Barbara Oswald on December 10, 1694. I have not checked the original parish records; however the land transfer above clearly indicates that the father-in-law of Anne Willener was named Hans Baur.

Hans Bauer of Berks, Co. Pa.

According to Henry S. Bowers (A Genealogical Record of the descendants of Daniel Stauffer and Hans Bauer, News Printing House, Harleysville, Pa., 1897; see alsoWeb data base), Hans Bauer emigrated between 1708 and 1717 and settled in Colebrookdale township, Berks County, then Philadelphia County. He came from Switzerland with a company of Mennonites. He bought three tracts of land at different times and places. No date is given by Bowers for the first one. The second purchase was made on November 28, 1734 in the neighborhood knows as New Goshenhoppen. The third one was purchased in 1734 in the Buttertal, Hereford Township, Berks County. Hans Bauer's will of 1748 is reproduced on page 27-28 of Trail of the Pioneers. It mentions children Samuel (born about 1708, according to Weiss), Hans (born about 1710), Abraham (born about 1712), Barbara (born about 1716), Michael (born about 1718), and Susannah (born about 1720). Hans Bauer died in the winter of 1748-49 and was buried in a small Schwenkfelder burying ground. The original burial marker, if there was one, is gone. The one that is there now was placed by his descendants and can still be found one mile due east of Clayton, Pa., on the county line between Berks and Montgomery Counties.

Conclusion: a question and a challenge

The records clearly show that Hans Baur of Oberhofen, Switzerland sold his property, transferred the funds to Holland, and later bought land there around the same time that Hans Bauer of Berks County, Pa. was buying land. The children who were born and baptized in Switzerland were married in the Netherlands, and their marriages are documented.

For the descendants of Hans Bauer of Berks Co., Pa., there remains a question and a challenge: if our Hans Bauer was not the man from Oberhofen, then who was he?

Email me: msneff@optonline.net