Zion Stone Church Cemetery, Kreidersville,
Northampton County, PA

Above: The monument which houses tombstones that were removed from the cemetery of the first church, called “Jost’s Church”. Built of logs, the church was located on the border between the land of Jost Dreisbach and his neighbor, John Dieter. The church was abandoned when Zion Stone Church was built in 1772 and its cemetery fell out of use. In 1920 the surviving tombstones were removed and placed in this monument.

The oldest tombstones of the Dreisbach family are located in Zion Stone Church Cemetery. They were originally placed in the graveyard of the Jost’s Church, the first church of the Dreisbach Family in North America. When this church was closed and the congregation became part of Zion Stone Church, the old cemetery was abandoned, the tombstones moved to the side or destroyed and the area plowed for a field. In the 1920’s the remaining tombstones were saved and brought to Zion Stone Church cemetery where they were embedded in the monument above. The stones include those of Simon Dreisbach Sr’s wife, Anna Katarina Keller, the wife and son of Simon Dreisbach Jr, the two daughters of Anna Catharina Dreisbach Ulrich, the father in-law of Adam Dreisbach, Andreas Corber.

In the cemetery itself, the oldest tombstones are next to the church. Here there are many veterans of the Revolutionary war, most of whom were neighbors and friends of the Dreisbach Family. Simon Dreisbach Sr is buried here but his original tombstone was replaced in the 1930’s. It has been said that the old tombstone may be at the Bucks County Historical Society. All the other stones are original.

Graves of Simon Dreisbach Sr’s children: Oldest son, Jost, is buried here. There is a listing for his wife, Elizabeth Dieter Dreisbach, but no stone has been found, Adam Dreisbach and his wife, Susanna Coerber, are buried in the cemetery of the German Reformed Church in Easton, PA. Their graves are beneath the street beside the library. Simon Dreisbach Jr has an elegant tombstone here. The tombstone for Simon’s first wife, Maria Dorothea Dies/Toes is located in the monument. The grave of his second wife, Anna Maria Fuchs Dreisbach, is unknown. George Dreisbach’s grave is not here but is probably in West Penn Township, PA. The tombstone of John Dreisbach and his wife, Elizabeth Waldman Dreisbach, are both here in the cemetery of Zion Stone Church. The grave of Catharine Dreisbach Ulrich is unknown but was probably in the cemetery of the old church (Jost’s Church) which preceded Zion Stone Church The tombstones of her two daughters, Magdalena Ullerin and Maria Ulrin, were rescued from the cemetery of the old church and are embedded in the monument at Zion Stone Church. It is likely that Catharina’s tombstone was never moved.