Kolb Family History

Kolb Family History

History: Family: The KOLB (KULP) Family: Philadelphia and Montgomery Counties, PA

Contributed for use in USGenWeb Archives by Thera. tsh@harborside.com

USGENWEB ARCHIVES NOTICE: Printing this file within by non-commercial

individuals and libraries is encouraged, as long as all

notices and submitter information is included. Any other

use, including copying files to other sites requires

permission from the submitters PRIOR to uploading to

any other sites. We encourage links to the state and

county table of contents. http://www.usgwarchives.net/

____________________________________________________

The following is from The Strassburger Family and Allied Families of Pennsylvania,

by Ralph Beaver Strassburger, 1922, pp. 391-413.

THE KOLP (KULP) FAMILY

Dielman Kolb of Wolfsheim in Baden, Germany, was born about 1648 and died in

1712, aged 64 years. He is buried at Manheim in Germany, where he resided.

His wife, Agnes, was a daughter of Peter Schumacher, who came to Germantown

in 1685, and died in 1707, aged 85 years. Agnes died in Germany in 1705, aged

53 years, and is buried at Wolfsheim. Peter Schumacher had five daughtes, three

of whom accompanied him to this country. The fourth daughter married Reynier

Herman Van Burkalow and came to Germantown, but later settled in Cecil County,

Maryland. Dielman Kolb passed away in his 65th year, five years after his wife

died, leaving to survive him six children: Peter, Ann, Martin, Jacob, Henry

and Dielman.

[Note from contributor: See below* where six sons are referenced, making seven

children. Actually, I believe there were a total of eight children, seven of

them sons. The two additional are, Johannes, b. 19 May 1683, who accompanied

his brothers to America in 1707, and Arnold, b. 1688.]

Of these, Martin, Jacob and Henry Kolb came to Pennsylvania in 1707, no doubt

influenced to take this step by the grandfather, Peter Schumacher, who, however,

died about the time of their arrival. Ten years later they were followed by

the youngest brother, Dielman. The eldest brother, Peter, who was a Mennonite

minister, lived and died in Manheim, Germany, and the only sister, Ann, married

Balthaser Kolb, probably a relative, and they also remained in Germany.

Dielman Kolb, Sr., and his wife must have been people of means and position in

the old country, for four of their *six sons were ministers of the Mennonite

faith, Dielman, the youngest, being a man of exceptional education in that day.

Children of Dielman Kolb and Agnes Schumacher:

1. Peter Kolb, born 1671, died 1727, aged 56 years, 8 months; buried at Manheim

in the Palatinate. He was a Mennonite minister.

2. Ann Kolb, b. 1676, d. 26 Feb 1738 at Wolfsheim; married Balthasar Kolb.

They never came to America.

3. Martin Kolb, born 1680; came to Pennsylvana and settled in Germantown in

1707; married Mary Magdalena, daughter of Isaac Van Sintern and his wife Neeltje

Claasen. They moved to Skippack, then Philadelphia (now Montgomery) County, in

1709, where he was ordained a minister of the Mennonite faith, and later served

the church at Germantown. He died in 1761. Their children were Magdalena,

Neltgen, Hannah, Sarah, Dielman, Isaac and Maria.

4. Johannes Kolb, born 19 May 1683; came to America with his brothers in 1707,

and removed with them to Skippack in 1709, where on December 15th of that year

he bought 150 acres of land.

5. Jacob Kolb, born 21 May 1685; settled in Germantown in 1707, removed to

Skippack in 1709; married 1) in 1710, Sarah Van Sintern, sister to Magdalena,

his brother Martin's wife; 2) in the old Log Mennonite Church at Germantown

(name unknown.) On October 1, 1739, as he was pressing cider, the beam of the

press fell on him crushing one side of his head and shoulder, from which injuries

he died a half-hour later. He was 54 years of age at the time of his death.

He was a trustee of the Skippack Mennonite Congregation as early as 1717, and

is, no doubt, buried in the graveyard adjoining that church.

6. Henry Kolb, died 1730; came to America with his brothers in 1707, and

settled in Germantown. He also was a minister and settled at Skippack in 1709,

which church he served for some years. His will is dated February 20, 1729,

and probated the 13th of July of the following year. His children were Peter,

David, Dielman, Mary, Dorothy, Anne and Agnes.

7. Dielman Kolb, Jr., born 10 Nov 1691, married 1714, Elizabeth Schnebli.

******************************

Dielman KOLB, youngest son of Dielman Kolb, Sr., was born 10 Nov 1691, at 1:00

in the afternoon, in the Palatinate (Pfalz) at Wolfsheim.

The following is taken from an old book which was printed in Germany in 1581,

and was brought over to this country by Dielman Kolb and was in the possession

of the family until 1895, when it was sold at public sale after the death of

Daniel K. Cassel, Harleysville, PA.

(Translation)

Anno, 1691, the 10th of November, I Dielman Kolb, was born into this

world at one o'clock in the afternoon.

Anno 1714, on St. Jacob's Day, in the 23rd year of my age, I was married

to my housewife, Elizabeth.

Anno, 1717, the 21st of March, we went to Ibersheim, in the Palatinate,

on the journey to Pennsylvania and the 10th August, 1717, arrived safely here

in Philadelphia.

This book belongs to me, Dielman Kolb, and I have received it from Jacob

Schnebli of Manheim, in the Palatinate, Anno Dom., 1722 at this time dwelling

in Solforth township, in the County of Philadelphia, in Pennsylvania.

The name of Andrew Ziegler appears as one-time owner of this book; he married

Elizabeth, the only daughter of Dielman and Elizabeth Schnebli Kolb.

Dielman Kolb was a Mennonite minister, living at Manheim, where he attended

that congregation as a preacher. He made himself both useful and most valuable

by receiving and lodging his persecuted fellow believers who fled from Switzer-

land, as appears from a letter dated August 27, 1710. He in turn suffered

persecution, which eventually led to his emigration to Pennsylvania to join his

brothers, Martin, Jacob, Henry and John, who had preceded him ten years earlier.

Dielman Kolb purchased 225 acres of land on January 4, 1721 from Derick (Dirk

Jansen) Johnson, weaver, and Margaretha his wife. This tract lay in that part

of Philadelphia County that later became Salford Township. At a still later

date, Salford was divided into Upper and Lower Salford, and this land fell then

into the latter division and when Montgomery County was taken from Philadelphia,

1785, both the Salfords were included in the new organization.

According to the deed of Dirk Jansen to Dielman Kolb, the first land transaction

which appears upon record, this tract adjoined other land of "Tilman Kolb."

Heckler in his history of Lower Salford, says this other land was acquired by

patent from the Commonwealth, but if so, there is no record on file at the Land

Office in Harrisburg.

On April 2, 1721, Dielman Kolb purchased of Nicholas Scull another 107 acres of

land adjoining his other tract bounding on the lands of Andrew Ledrach, Gerhart

Clemens and others. Part of this tract is now occupied by the village of

Lederachville. On June 14, 1731, he added another 50 acres to his great tract.

This last purchase he made of John Naglee. About this time, however, he sold

50 acres of his land out of the northwestern corner of his farm to Gally

Heffelfinger. By a survey made for Andrew Ziegler, senior, his son-in-law,

May 7, 1767, it appears that after selling these 50 acres he still had 559

acres and eight-eight perches. It is seen by this that Dielman Kolb was a man

of means and owner of a considerable estate.

On October 10, 1733, Dielman Kolb sold 250 acres of his land to his stepson,

Jacob Schnebli, or Snavely, "of the city of Manheim in the dominion or

Principality of the Prince Palatine, on the Rhine, in High Germany," who later

came to this country and resided on this tract until his death.

Dielman Kolb, junior, married in Germany, 1714, Elizabeth Schnebli, a widow,

who had several children by her first husband, one of them being a son Isaac,

who later settled in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, Mathias, and the above

mentioned Jacob "Snavely."

In 1728 the great road from Goshenhoppen to Skippack was laid out through

Dielman Kolb's land, and his residence was about three-fourths of a mile

southeast of the present village of Lederachville.

Dielman Kolb was a minister of the Mennonite church, though, as was customary

at that time, he engaged in other occupations as well. Not only did he attend

upon the Mennonite congregation at Salford, but, besides carrying on extensive

farming, he was a weaver as well. He appears to have been prominent in the

affairs of the Mennonite Church, and to have been noted for his religious zeal.

He was very intimate with Henry Funk, a minister and bishop of that faith, and

it was through the perseverance and zeal of these two men that the Mennonite

congregation in Salford was organized in 1738.

On the fourth and fifth of October, 1738, Henry Ruth and his wife, Modlena, of

Salford, by deed of lease and release granted to Henry Funk, Dielman Kolb,

Christian Moyer, Jr., and Abraham Reiff ten acres and forty perches of land,

part of his homestead tract. Of the parties of the second part all were

residents of Franconia Township, except Dielman Kolb, who was of Salford. Funk

was a bishop, Kolb a minister, and Moyer and Reiff were deacons or "Vorsteher."

There was a building of some kind call a "tenement" on the land when it was

purchased, but whether or not this "tenement" was turned into a meeting house

to be used until the completion of the new one, which was immediately commenced,

is not known, but it was not long before they were in their new church building.

It appears that these four officials were considered as the trustees and that

they, or the members of the church, were not satisfied that they should have the

deed for the land with the meeting house thereon all in their name and power.

Therefore, they had Robert Jones of Worcester write them a deed of conveyance,

called a "declaration" or deed of trust, in which these four officials as

"parties of the first part" convey it to the church as the "second part," the

second part being represented by seventeen members of the congregation. This

deed of trust was recorded in the office of the Recorder of Deeds, Norristown,

long years after.

Matters appear to have gone on very well and the church prospered. In time,

however, it was considered to the advantage of their church that a new congre-

gation be organized at Franconia, for the use and greater convenience of those

of the faith residing in that locality, which was then called Indian Field.

A new deed was executed, in order to convey back to the congregation in Salford

a "Declaration of Trust" from the two surviving trustees residing in Franconia

Township to two others of Salford. This second paper dated March 25, 1763,

recites that Henry Funk and Dielman Kolb are dead and Christian Moyer and

Abraham Reiff are the survivors of the "trustees," while Jacob Clemens and

Christian Funk represent the congregation.

In connection with Bishop Henry Funk, Dielman Kolb supervised the translation

of Jan Van Braght's "Bloedigh Tooniel" from the Dutch into the German language,

and certified as to its correctness.

"The Bloedigh Tooniel", or Bloody Theatre or Martyr's Mirror, is a history of

the "defenseless Christians, who suffered and were put to death for the testimony

of Jesus their Saviour, from the time of Christ until the year A.D. 1660." It

traces the history of those Christians "who from the time of the Apostles were

opposed to the baptism of infants, and to warfare, including Lyonists, Petro-

busians, and Waldenses, details the persecution of the Mennonites by the

Spaniards in the netherlands, and the Calvinists in Switzerland, together with

the individual sufferings of many hundred who were burned, drowned, beheaded,

or otherwise maltreated, and contains the confession of faith adopted by the

different communities."

This book had been published in Dortrecht, July 23, 1659, the author being

T. Jan Van Braght, and many copies were brought to this country, but they were

all printed in the Dutch language. It was considered necessary by the

Mennonites that their young members should have the book to read to remind them

of the faith and steadfastness of their fathers in the principles of the church,

and the propriety of having it transcribed into the German script was a matter

of consultation among prominent members of the church for some time. The

great difficulty was to find a translator and a printer in the wilds of

Pennsylvania, and naturally they turned to the older and wealthier churches of

Europe for assistance. On October 14, 1745, Jacob Godshall of Germantown,

Dielman Kolb of Salford, Michael Ziegler, Yellis Cassel and Martin Kolb of

Skippack, and Heinrich Funk of Indian Creek (Franconia), sent a letter to

Amsterdam on the subject, applying for aid.

Apparently this aid did not come, but after a great deal of trouble they

succeeded in finding both a translator and printer. This was at Ephrata, on

the Conestoga creek, in Lancaster County, where a little community of Dunkards

had established themselves and introduced monastic institutions, where they

lived single as monks, friars and nuns, holding their lands and goods in

common. About 1745 they secured a hand printing press and also had a paper

mill. Here in this quiet valley they translated and published the "Bloedigh

Tooniel." The first part was completed in 1748, the second part in 1749, the

whole containing about fifteen hundred pages, and it took fifteen men three

years to finish it. The price per single copy was 20 shillings.

Dielman Kolb made his will July 8, 1748, and it was proved April 30, 1757,

nearly nine years later. In this will, he named as trustees his "loving and

trusty friend Henry Funk" and John Ulrich Berger. He provided well for his

widow, Elizabeth, during her natural life; it is not know how long she

survived him. Except for 50 acres of land to be laid out of that part next

adjoining the land he had sold to his stepson, Jacob Snebley, which he left

to his grandson Dielman Ziegler, he bequeathed to his only child, Elizabeth,

wife of Andrew Ziegler, Sr., all his lands, plantations and tenements whatsoever.

To his stepson, Matthias, and granddaughter, Catherine Ziegler, he left cash

money and to the "Congregation of ye Dutch Mennonists in Salford" he bequeathed

2 pounds 1 shilling and to the Mennonists of "Perkyomin & Skepack," he left a

like sum.

Dielman Kolb died December 28, 1756. David Shultze, the surveyor, entered upon

his notebook the following under date of December 28, 1756: "Der alte Dielman

Kolb zu Shippack is auch gestorben d. 28th xbr." And then on December 30:

"Went to Shippack to the burial." While there is no doubt that he was buried

in the graveyard adjoining the church in Lower Salford, which he so long and

faithfully served, there is no stone standing today to mark his last resting

place. He was in his sixty-seventh year, not quite having reached the alotted

three score and ten. "Few men, even in that day of heroic characters, can lay

claim to a nobler life, and while no monument marks his last resting place, his

name for all time will be indissolubly linked with that great historical work

of the Pennsylvania Mennonites, the most durable monument of the denomination.

Child of Dielman Kolb and Elizabeth Schnebli:

1. Elizabeth Kolb, born about 1715; married Andrew Ziegler, Sr.; resided on

the farm near Lederachville.