John Blankenbaker's Germanna History Notes

Note 1612

Jim Messersmith writes that his ancestor, Johann Henrich Spitzer, was baptized 19 Nov 1713 in Neckargemünd, and asks if this was done by Rev. Henckel.  Close, Jim, but you miss by about ten months.  Rev. Henckel did not start at Neckargemünd until Sept of 1714.  The pastor who baptized the baby Hans was Rev. Johann Adam Gutheil.  In June of 1714 he left, saying there was too much activity for him.

The Henckels did make it to America where I have heard that Rev. Henckel started a (Lutheran) Church in Germantown, Pennsylvania.  One of his grandsons was Johann Justus Henkel, who married Maria Magdalena Eschmann.  This last family found its way to North Carolina.

In 1727, George Teter (American spelling) found his way to Philadelphia from Schwaigern.  That he came relatively soon to the Robinson River Valley may have been due to the influence of other people there from Schwaigern.  He bought 200 acres of land in 1735/36 under the name Jeter (which is how I believe is the way he is to be found in the tithe lists).  Though he was relatively young, he died in 1743, and his wife Margaret Teter was appointed the administrator of his estate.  The picture grows a bit fuzzy, but the Teter family went to North Carolina.  There, there were four marriages between the Henkel and Teter families:

All of these Henkel children were from Johann Justus Henkel and Maria Magdalena Eschman.

Did the Henkel family know the Teter (Dieter) family in Germany?  It does not seem to be the case.  Each family probably had heard of the places where the other family was.  They would have felt like they were meeting friends.

Perhaps a more telling factor is that each family seems to have been better educated than average.  The George Teter estate included books.  And his wife Maria Margaretha signed her own name in the estate administration.  In Germany, the German Henckel family, on both sides, were professional and were supporters of education.  In fact, the lack of good schools may have been a contributing factor to their decision to emigrate.

An article on the Teter family by Frank Cochran appeared in volume 9 of Beyond Germanna.
(07 Mar 03)

We gratefully acknowledge the work of John Blankenbaker who published over 2,500 Germanna History Notes via the Germanna-L@rootsweb.com email list from 1997 to 2008. We are equally thankful to George Durman (Sgt. George) for hosting the list and republishing the notes via rootsweb.com.