The Sechler Family of Pennsylvania

Great grandfather George Sechler had deep roots in Pennsylvania going back to the early 18th and even late 17th century. The following diagram maps George’s traceable ancestors back to their points of immigration to America.

From this view, we can see that most of the ancestors of George Sechler’s father, Aaron Sechler, came from Germany. Most of the ancestors of Geoge’s mother, Rebecca Roberts, came from Wales, with a few from Germany and England.  One branch of Rebecca Roberts’ family, that of Rebecca Phillips, had a large, multi-generational presence in Chester Pennsylvania, south of Philadelphia.

Recalling that Philadelphia was settled around 1682, we can see from the diagram that our earliest ancestors settling in the region were perhaps the Welsh families of Thomas Ellis and Traharne Davis and that they might have been around in the earliest days of Pennsylvania. I have no specific details about their lives.

The first of our Sechler-named ancestors to immigrate to America was our 5th great grandfather Johannes Sechler (1701-1761).  Born in Lomersheim, Germany (about 30 miles from the French border), his exact immigration year is not known but he married 5th great grandmother Anna Maria Maurer (1709-1777), also a recent German immigrant, in 1728 in Philadelphia.

Maurer was a common name in Pennsylvania at the time. There are genealogies listing dozens of Maurer families in the region north of Philadelphia, the same region where Johannes and Anna lived, although I have not been able to connect them with Anna or her parents. The branches may connect further back in Germany, suggesting the possibility that there were a lot of Maurer family branches following each other to the new world.

After marrying in 1728, Johannes and Anna remained Eastern Pennsylvania for the remainder of their lives, migrating toward what is now the Allentown region, 40-50 miles to the north of Philadelphia. Allentown was founded in 1762, just after Johannes’ death. 

Johannes and Anna had nine or more children. Many lists of names can be found, not all in agreement. The following list is typical.

• Abraham (1729-1783)
• Samuel (?-1761)
• Anna Maria (1737-?)
• John (1739-1831)
• Jacob (1740-1830)
• Andrew (1742-1830)
• Frederick (1743-1825)
• Rudolph (1747-?)
• Joseph (1748-1804) (our 4th great grandfather)

In this and future posts, we will focus on the lives of the four names in bold. We begin with a story that focuses on son Abraham (our 5th great uncle), but must have involved much of the family.

Around 1750, the Sechler family built a homestead in Lynn Township, a few miles northeast of what is today Allentown. (Today’s Appalachian Trail passes within a few miles of this location.) Johannes was 49, Anna 41, and oldest child Abraham was 21, so it seems likely that most or all of the family moved into the new homestead together.

At the time, this was the wild American frontier. By 1757 Abraham was married with at least one child. In this year, a confrontation with local Indians left several dead, including Abraham’s wife and one of their children. The incident is documented in the following report, filed by the barely-literate Lieutenant Jacob Wetherhold to his superiors.

Honored Sir: These are to acquaint you of a murder happened this day at the house of Adam Clauce, in said Township of Lynn, were three or four neighbors was cutting said man’s corn: as they was eating their dinner, they waire fell one by a party of savages, Indians, and five of the Whits took to there heals, two men, two women, and one girl, and got saf out of their hands. Was killed and scalped, Martin Yager and his wife, and John Croushores wife and one child, and the wife of Abraham Secler was sculpt and is yet alive. But badly wounded, one sho thro the sid and the other in the thy, and two children killed belonging to said Croushere, and one to said Secler, and one belonging to Philip Antone not scullpt, and this was don at least three miles within the out side settlers, and 4 miles from John Everett’s and Philip Antone’s wife was one that took her tilit and came home and acquainted her husband, and he came and acquainted me and I went immediately to the place with seven men besides myself and saw the murder. But the Indians was gon and I derectly purs’ed them about 4 miles and cam up with them in the thick groves weaire wee met with nine Indians, and one sprung behind a tree and took site at me and I run direct at him, and another one the sid flast at me, and then both took to there heals, and I shot one as i goge thro the body, as he fell on his face. But I loaded and after another that was leding a maire, and ye meane time he got up and run away and I fired on the other, and I think I shot him in ye Buttux, and my soldiers had oppertunity to shot three times, and then they got out of oure site in the thick groves, and wee cold not find them no more, but I got from them one maire and two saddels, one bridel and halter, and one bag with a cag of stil licker in it, and cloths and one brace cittel and four Indian Cake baked in the ashes of wheat meal and to aquat you further, that I have several new soldiers that has no guns, and were little powder and led, and I have sent this express to you hoping that you wold help me with arms and ammenishan, and so I remaine yours friend and humble servent.

Lieut. Jacob Wetherhold to Major Parsons at Easton. Documented in History of Lehigh County, PA. pub. 1914. Vol. I, pp 90 and 91. on 9 July 1757 at Lynn Twp., Northampton County, Pennsylvania.

About 15 years later, three Sechler sons–John, Jacob and Joseph–moved to central Pennsylvania to help found the town of Danville.  We will pick up their stories in a future post.

Johannes died in 1761, Anna lived to 1777. Abraham Sechler remained in the region. He remarried to Barbara Moll, had a large family and lived until 1783. He did not go to Danville, although some of his descendants later did.