Hubler history W. R. Hubler, Jr., M. D

Jacob HUBLER, Jr. (1742-1811)

Jacob HUBLER, Jr. (Aug. 2⁴⁷⁸or Oct. 2,⁴⁷⁹ 1742 PA-Dec. 19, 1811 Moore Twp, Northampton

Co⁴⁸⁰) (c April 20, 1778, sponsors were Philip and Elizabeth FASS)⁴⁸¹,⁴⁸²

Catharine ?? [?? Seyfried (see following)] ⁴⁸³ (??-1796) (m < 1772)

John Jacob HUBLER (Apr. 30, 1772⁴⁸⁴- ??) (d young) [c June 7, 1772 at Dryland Luth,

Nazareth Twp, Northampton Co, PA; (the church began recording

baptismal records in 1758),⁴⁸⁵ sponsors were Jacob FASS and Ana Maria

Durr, single⁴⁸⁶,⁴⁸⁷]

Maria Catherine HUBLER (Sept. 18, 1775- ??) (c Dryland Ref Cong,

Nov. 4, 1775; sponsors were Peter Ebenreuther and Dorothy FAS⁴⁸⁸)

John Jacob HUBLER (Dec. 11, 1777⁴⁸⁹- ??) (c Apr. 20, 1778 in Dryland Luth in Nazareth

Twp, Northampton Co, PA.; sponsors were Philip FASS and wife

Elizabeth)⁴⁹⁰,⁴⁹¹ (called Jacob the Younger) (?m Susanna?)

Ruben HUBLER (b 1806) ⁴⁹²

Salome HUBLER (b 1806) ⁴⁹³

[also a Jacob HUBLER and Cartharina Moser sponsored a baptism (Peter

Siegried, son of Aaron Siegfried and wife Susanna in 1805)⁴⁹⁴ and there

were several German and Swiss Moser or Mosser immigrant, pioneer

families in Northampton Co. There was a Catharina Moser who was born

in 1779 in Northampton Co, the daughter of German immigants Paul Moser

and Maria Eva Becholt⁴⁹⁵]⁴⁹⁶

Abraham HUBLER (1779 PA- ??) (m Margaret PAUL)

William Henrich HUBLER (Nov. 13, 1781⁴⁹⁷- ??) (c Dec. 25, 1781 in Christ Reformed,

Hanover Twp., Shoenersville, Lehigh Co, PA., sponsors were George

Heinrich Hetael and Christina)⁴⁹⁸ (married Catherine PAUL, sister of

Margaret PAUL)⁴⁹⁹,⁵⁰⁰,⁵⁰¹

Christina HUBLER (Nov. 1, 1783⁵⁰²- ??) [c Nov. 16, 1783 in Christ Reformed Church,

Shoenersville, Lehigh Co, PA; sponsors were George Heinrich Herzel

(Hartzell) and wife Christina⁵⁰³]

Susanna HUBLER (Dec. 12, 1786⁵⁰⁴- ??) (c Jan. 28, 1787 in Dryland Luth in Nazareth

Twp, Northampton Co, PA; sponsors were Michael Stocker and

Susanna Fochs, single)⁵⁰⁵, ⁵⁰⁶

Daniel HUBLER (Mar. 11, 1789⁵⁰⁷- ??) [c Mar. 18, 1789 at Jacob’s “place of business” in

Plainfield by Brother Elerd Coordsen, pastor of Schoeneck Moravian

Church; sponsors were Nicholas Seyfried and “the mother” Catharina

Seyfried (see following note)]⁵⁰⁸,⁵⁰⁹

Christina Stenger (??-Moore Twp-Mar. 7, 1813) (2^nd wife; no children; widow of Adam Stenger)

(m 1799)⁵¹⁰
Jacob HUBLER, Jr. (1742-1811) was the eldest son of Jacob HUBLER, Sr. (1710-1789), the immigrant of 1737. I know little of him. Jacob HUBLER, Jr. (1742-1811) was probably born in Plainfield Twp., Northampton Co, PA and died in Moore Twp, Northampton Co, PA. His family tree is above.⁵¹¹,⁵¹²

The birth year of Jacob HUBLER, Jr. (1742-1811) is simply calculated from his death data. Since he was age 69-2-17⁵¹³ when he died on Oct. 19, 1811, the calculated birth date of Jacob HUBLER, Jr. (1742-1811) would be Aug. 2, 1742 (but the date recorded by Sandwick⁵¹⁴ was Oct. 2, 1742). No birth record has been found. Since his father [Jacob HUBLER (1710-1789)] immigrated to Pennsylvania in 1737, served an indenture term of about 4 years and settled in Northampton Co in about 1740, Jacob HUBLER, Jr. (1742-1811) was probably born at home in Jacobsburg, Northampton Co. Indentured workers were usually prohibited or at least dissuaded from getting married during their pay-back time, so his parents were either married immediately after his father’s term of indenture ended, or they never officially married. Jacob HUBLER, Jr. (1742-1811) was reared at the farm of his father in Jacobsburg.

After his marriage in about 1771, Jacob HUBLER, Jr. (1742-1811) moved to his own home in Plainfield Twp (maybe on his father’s farm) and probably worked on his father's farm. He did not own land. Jacob HUBLER, Jr. (1742-1811) stayed in Northampton Co all of his life. [After his father died in 1798, his widowed mother moved in with her son, Abraham HUBLER, Jacob HUBLER, Jr.’s (1742-1811) uncle in 1790 when Jacobsburg was sold.] Jacob HUBLER, Jr. (1742-1811) and his family lived in Plainfield Twp in March 1789 when his son, Daniel HUBLER, was christened “at his place of business in Plainfield, 2 little miles from Schoeneck,” and he is listed there in the 1790 Federal census. All of his children were born and raised in Plainfield Twp. He moved his family to Moore Twp (also in Northampton Co) in 1790 after Jacobsburg (his father died in May 1789) was sold, and he is recorded there on the 1800 census.

Problems with religion seemed to affect the HUBLER family ever since Jacob HUBLER (1710-1789) was forced to emigrate from Switzerland by the state-recognized and only state-accepted religion, Reformed Lutheranism. All church records in America for the family of Jacob HUBLER (1710-1789) have not been found, and religious events might never have been performed by or recorded by ordained clergy, including the birth, christening and marriage for Jacob HUBLER, Jr. (1742-1811). However, Jacob HUBLER, Jr. (1742-1811) and Catharine ?? used at least three different churches for christening their children [Dryland Lutheran and Schoeneck Moravian churches in Northampton Co (he was not a Moravian even though he used Schoeneck Moravian church, where he was listed as a “non-parishioner” on the record of Daniel HUBLER⁵¹⁵ in 1789) and Shoenersville in Lehigh Co (the same one that his sons, Jacob and Abraham HUBLER, used⁵¹⁶,⁵¹⁷)]. However, records of the chistening of his son, Abraham HUBLER (b 1779), have not been found. In about 1798, the widower, Jacob HUBLER, Jr. (1742-1811), married for the 2^nd time to Christina (maiden name unknown), the widow of Adam Stenger (a school teacher of Allen Twp who had his will administered on April 8, 1797).

Jacob HUBLER, Jr. (1742-1811) did not serve in the Revolutionary War, although his father and several siblings did. I do not know why—there is one account that refers to a Jacob HUBLER as being possibly disabled, but his disability did not affect his longevity (69 years) or the fact that he courted and remarried for a 2^nd time in 1799 at the age of 52.

Jacob HUBLER (1710-1789) left his eldest son, Jacob HUBLER, Jr. (1742-1811), all the legacies he had to receive (but had been unable to collect) from the estate of his father, Hans Jacob "Hoobler" of Germany (sic, really Switzerland).⁵¹⁸,⁵¹⁹,⁵²⁰ [The translation⁵²¹ of the correspondence from Jacob HUBLER (1710-1789) indicates that “the fortune” that he was to receive from his “defunct father” “in Germany or elsewhere” might imply a foreign (? German) or widespread legacy.] It is likely that his father, Jacob HUBLER (1710-1789), knew or suspected all along that his foes in Twann would never release anything to him while he was alive, probably because of his history of religious disparity; however, after he was dead, his son, Jacob HUBLER (1742-1811), would be freed from the animosity, and the estate would become unencompered, and Twann would release the money. That scenario might explain why Jacob HUBLER (1710-1789) willed more or less equal portions of his estate to each of his sons, except to his oldest son, Jacob HUBLLER (1742-1811), to whom he left his uncollected inheritance. Swiss authorities in Bern eventually ordered the intransigent officials in Twann to release the estate. The estate in Switzerland of 400 crowns was finally settled by Jacob HUBLER, Jr. (1742-1811) in 1792 [see discussion of the will under Jacob HUBLER (1710-1789)]. The Swiss did not have a “crown” in their monetary system at that time, so the value of the estate was expressed in the currency of another country⁵²² (probably the British crown) or an English translation of one of the several currencies used in Switzerland at that time. Many countries minted crowns; the British crown (a silver coin) was worth 5 shillings, or 1/4 of a pound, so the estate was possibly worth about 100 pounds, which was similar to the amount, willed to his siblings by his father. (I do not know what a Swiss crown was worth in today’s money, but probably $200 to $1,000.)⁵²³ Apparently, the value of the estate of Hans Jacob HUBLER (1680-1751) when he died in 1731 was 400 Kronen (crowns), and it was all money (not land, house or vineyard). Because of wise investment, inflation and increasing interest, the accrued value by the time it was released to Jacob HUBLER, Jr. (1742-1811) sixty years later was 600 Kronen (crowns).⁵²⁴ The value today might be about $10,000-$15,000.⁵²⁵

According to the will of Jacob HUBLER, Jr.'s (1742-1811) mother, Barbara ?? HUBLER (ca 1725-1796), she left only 1 lb. to each of her sons (Jacob, Frederick, Gottlieb and John).⁵²⁶,⁵²⁷,⁵²⁸ Interestingly, she listed her daughters, but she left paltry to her sons except Abraham HUBLER (1761-1838). I postulate that she was living with her son, Abraham HUBLER (1761-1831), in Lower Mt. Bethel Twp. The federal census of 1790 (the first taken) does not list Barbara ?? HUBLER in Northampton Co,⁵²⁹ so she had already moved; however, I postulate that after Jacob HUBLER (1711-1789) died, she lived with her son, Abraham HUBLER (1761-1831), in Plainfield [the 1790 Federal Census indicates that 2 females lived with Abraham HUBLER (1761-1831), and they were probably his wife and mother since his daughters were not born yet];⁵³⁰ and when Barbara ?? HUBLER (ca 1725-1795) died in 1795, she was living with her son Abraham HUBLER (1761-1831) in Lower Mt. Bethel Twp.

Jacob HUBLER, Jr. (1742-1811) died on Oct. 19, 1811 in Moore Twp, Northampton Co at age 69 years, the result of falling from a tree nine days earlier.⁵³¹ After Jacob HUBLER, Jr. (1742-1811) died, his widow and second wife, Christina, renounced her right to administer the will and passed the responsibility to her step-son, Jacob HUBLER the Younger (b 1777) of South Whitehall Twp, Northampton Co.⁵³² Jacob the Younger (1777-??) was the second John Jacob HUBLER.⁵³³,⁵³⁴ It was the custom of the day in Germanic immigrants that if a child died in infancy, the parents would name the very next child of the same sex the same name (a practice that confounds genealogists following family lines that may be very confusing and circuitous).

Jacob HUBLER, Jr. (1742-1811) of Moore Twp was listed as a "laborer" in his will administration in 1811.⁵³⁵,⁵³⁶ He died intestate, and the inventory produced by his administrator and oldest son, Jacob HUBLER "the Younger," listed only modest holdings. There was no land, but many articles showed the trappings of a farmer or tenet farmer, such as, 10 beehives, farm implements and some farm animals (horses and cows). Interestingly, he also had a spinning wheel and several bushels of flax.⁵³⁷ His son, Abraham HUBLER (b 1779), who had moved to Northumberland Co in 1800 was a "weaver" and undoubtedly learned his trade at home [his grandson, Moses HUBLER (1842-1855), and his great-grandson, James Newberry HUBLER, also became weavers]. Certainly, Jacob HUBLER, Jr. (1742-1811) was not a rich man when he died. He may have given any wealth that he inherited from his father to his children earlier, but it seems his Switzerland estate was less than he had hoped.

Jacob HUBLER, Jr. (1742-1811) married Catherine on Nov. 23, 1805. Almost nothing is known about Catharine ?? (??-1796). Her maiden name is not known but might have been Seyfried since when their son, Daniel, was christened; “Nicolaus Seyfried and the mother Catharina Seyfied” sponsored the event. The identity of “the mother” could have referred to the mother of Nicolaus Seyfried, but the notation could have identified Catharina Seyfried as “his” mother; however, she could have the mother of the infant, Daniel HUBLER, [and thus the wife of Jacob HUBLER (1742-1811)], especially since it is known that the given name of the wife of Jacob HUBLER (1742-1789) was Catharina. It is interesting to note that the first name of Catharine HUBLER in the church christening record was illegible, and so it was simply transcribed as “-----.”⁵³⁸ Catherine HUBLER died in 1796. She was the mother of my ancestor, Abraham HUBLER (b 1779), as well as, all of the known children of Jacob HUBLER, Jr. (1742-1811). She married Jacob HUBLER, Jr. (1742-1811) sometime before 1772 since they had a child (John Jacob HUBLER) in 1772. There was an error in the book Jacobsburg, about the marriage date, and Charles Sandwick corrected that in a letter to me.⁵³⁹ Catherine ?? (??-1796) died prior to 1796 because Jacob HUBLER, Jr. (1742-1811), a widower, married a widow, Christina Stenger in 1799.

The Federal Census of 1790 (no Twp) [with annotations] for Jacob HUBLER:

1 male > 16 [Jacob (1742-1811)] = 47

4 males < 16 [John Jacob-the 2^nd (1777- ??) = 12, Abraham (1779- ??) = 10,

William Heinrich (1781- ??) = 8, Daniel (1789- ??) = 1] [John Jacob-the

1st (1772- ??) had died]

4 females [Catharine = 45, Catharine (1775- ??) = 15, Christina (1783- ??) = 7,

Susanna (1786- ??) = 3]

The Federal Census of 1800 (Moore Twp) [with annotations] for Jacob HUBLER:

1 male > 45 [Jacob (1742-1811) = 58]

1 female >45 [Christina (2^nd wife)]

2 female 16-26 [Christina (1783- ??) = 17, Susanna (1786) = 13]

[Abraham (1779- ??) = 20 (had moved to Hanover Twp,. see below);

Jacob (1777- ??) = 22 (was missing and probably had his own

household); Catherine (1775- ??) = 25 was missing and probably

married)]