Dreisbach-Dresbach Family Association

 Vol. 1, No. 2 - January 1914 - Dreisbach Family Journal

Editorial Comment - The Rev. J. W. Lazarus

In Memoriam - William Dreisbach - The Rev. Samuel A. Bridges Stopp

It was with a shock of sorrow and deep regret that his friends and those members of the Dreisbach family who knew him from the Lehigh Valley to the Susquehanna heard of the death at his home in Philadelphia, on November 24, 1913, of William Dreisbach.  Several years ago he suffered a stroke of paralysis which greatly reduced his physical strength and a few weeks before his death he was caught by one of the swinging doors in the Philadelphia post office and thrown to the floor, sustaining a fracture of the hip joint.  Careful treatment at Jefferson Hospital could not save his life and a sudden collapse resulted in his death.  His remains were laid to rest in the Lewisburg cemetery Wednesday November 26, 1913, not far from the old Dreisbach homestead and the ancestral acres he loved so well.  His widow, formerly Caroline Ammons, three daughters and a brother, Martin L. Dreisbach, of Easton, Pa., active in the affairs of the Dreisbach Family Association, survive to mourn his loss.

Born at the Dreisbach homestead in Union County, Pa., in 1834, William Dreisbach was the son of Martin Dreisbach, 3rd, and the great-grandson of Martin Dreisbach, the pioneer and founder of this branch of the Dreisbach family in America.    Martin Dreisbach the first, a cousin of Simon Dreisbach, from Oberndorf, Wittgenstein, arrived in Philadelphia on the ship "Queen of Denmark," October 4, 1751, settled first in Cocalico township, Lancaster County, Pa., removed in 1763 to a farm near Reading and ten years later, in 1773, he purchased the military tract of Dr. William Plukett in Buffalo Valley four miles west of Lewisburg in Union County.  This was then on the frontier of the province and the family suffered great hardship and was in constant danger from Indian invasions for many years.

Several of Martin's sons served their country during the Revolution.  Like the Simon Dreisbach branch of the family, Martin was a faithful member of the Reformed Church in which he was ordained as an elder.  Probably as a thank offering to Almighty God, Who had gone with him from the perils of the unknown wilderness, in 1788 he gave to the Union Lutheran and Reformed Church of Buffalo Valley seven acres and a half of ground to be used for the erection of a house of God and the establishment of a cemetery.  The church became known by the donor's name and far and near this spiritual home of many generations and resting-place of the departed, this memorial to the Dreisbachs, has been a blessing and an inspiration.  Martin Dreisbach's wife was Anna Eva Hoffman, who died in 1789, ten years before her husband.

Martin's son Martin married Sabina, a daughter of George and Christine Books, and their oldest son, the Rev. John Dreisbach, was a colleague of Jacob Albright, the founder of the Evangelical Association, and became the first presiding elder of the denomination.  Later he served two terms in the State Legislature.  Another son, the Hon. Martin Dreisbach, the father of William Dreisbach, married Elizabeth Kleckner in 1824, and became Associate Judge of Union County.  Other members of the Dreisbach family were among the early settlers of Ohio, where they have left numerous descendants.

William Dreisbach went into business in Philadelphia and became a shoe manufacturer.  In 1863 he went into service in the Civil War.  He was a man of sterling Christian character, deeply interested in historical matters, and a forceful and attractive writer.  He was present at the first gathering of the Dreisbach family, at the writer's home in Allentown, Pa., on September 3, 1910, together with his daughter and his brother Martin of Easton, and took a keen interest in the proceedings and made a most interesting address.  Subsequently he kept in close touch with the family organization by correspondence with the secretary of the Association, Frank S. Dreisbach of Allentown, by pleasant greetings sent to the family at its annual reunions, and by a paper on the family history which his daughter collaborated and which she read at the reunion at Rittersville in August, 1911.

His vital and helpful interest and keen historical sense were abundantly shown by one of his last acts in sending to Laasphe, Germany, for information concerning the old home of the Dreisbachs.  The gratitude of all American Dreisbachs is due to his memory because of the splendid picture of the castle of Wittgenstein which graces the title page of the Family Journal and other most valuable information gathered by him and always cheerfully communicated to those whose kindred spirit he recognized.  And among the kind words spoken and written of the initial number of the Family Journal none are more highly appreciated and sacredly treasured than the encouraging message of our departed brother.  The sympathy and condolence of many sorrowing kinsfolk and friends are extended to the bereaved widow and family of the late William Dreisbach, lover of his fellowmen and faithful follower of his Master even unto the end.

Now the laborer's taks is o'er;
Now the battle day is past;
Now upon the farther shore
Lands the voyager at last.
Father, in Thy gracious keeping
Leave we now Thy servant sleeping.

Proverbs and Sayings of the Pennsylvania Germans - from the Pennsylvania German Society

It is sometimes taken from granted by ignorant persons, that the Pennsylvania Germans have no language of their own, that they speak a "provincial dialect," that their language is an admixture of English, or that it is Dutch.  Hence a word as to its origin.

Martin Luther, in the early part of the XVth Century, by his Bible translations, hymns, and extensive writings in High German, caused that dialect to become the standard language of German literature.  But there were also other dialects spoken through all the centuries in different parts of Germany.  In the Southern portion -- whence the greater part of the Germans who settled in Pennsylvania came -- a dialect akin to that which prevails in the German counties of Pennsylvania was spoken, and has continued to be used to this day.

This is the origin of the Pennsylvania German.  It is as old as the High German, possibly older and frequently more expressive.  As a spoken language it has prevailed from time immemorial in the South German dialects.  The ancestors of many of the Pennsylvania Germans came from the Palatinate or Pfaltz, where a language resembling that of the Pennsylvania German very closely, is still spoken.  It also has a number of Swiss and Alsatian characteristics.  Many of the Pennsylvania German words can be traced back to older roots, offtimes being more expressive than the High German synonyms.

Gaul, the Pennsylvania German word for horse, is older and more purely German than Pferd, the High German, which is derived from the Latin, veredus.

The Pennsylvania German grumbeer, potato, is much more expressive and original, meaning a crooked pear, or "grund-beer", ground pear, than the High German kartoffel, derived from Erdapfel, an artichoke.

The Pennsylvania German Krop, crow; schpel, pin; schtruvlich, stroobly; ponhaws, scrapple; blech, tin cup; butzich, stumpy, are vastly more expressive and original than their English or High German equivalents.

The Dreisbach Church - The Rev. Samuel A. Bridges Stopp

The Dreisbach Church, pictured above, is located in Buffalo Township, Union County, Pa., not far from the borough of Lewisburg.  It is built on ground which forms part of a tract of land comprising seven and one-half acres donated by the pioneer Martin Dreisbach in 1788 to the union Lutheran and Reformed church organized in that locality on the Pennsylvania frontier.  Here was erected in 1788 a log church.  Martin Dreisbach, the donor of the ground, was an elder in the Reformed congregation, which used this original house of worship, and Jacob and John Dreisbach were numbered among its members.  In 1839 the log church was taken down and the present brick structure was erected.  It is a notable landmark in the Buffalo Valley.

In the old churchyard adjacent to this historic building lie buried many of the Dreisbachs, including the original Martin Dreisbach, born in 1717, died in 1799; his son Martin, 2nd, (1764-1831), who lived and died near the church, and his grandson, Martin, 3rd (1800-1880), the father of William Dreisbach, who was born in 1834 and died in Philadelphia 1n November, 1913, and was buried in the Lewisburg cemetery not far from the church which through the generosity and forethought of his ancestor has become a perpetual memory to the Dreisbach family.  Truly here does Martin Dreisbach, pioneer, planter, patriot, churchman, though dead, yet speak in the solemnity of the sanctuary and the silence of this peaceful God's acre.

When the Dreisbachs Came - The Rev. Samuel A. Bridges Stopp