A church record of Fissel’s (Jerusalem) Union Church, York County says: ”Joh. Peter Keller (Kohler) son of Joha. and Mar. Elisabeta, born January 31, baptized February 24, 1788. Sponsors: Peter Gerberich and Cretha.”

1810. Peter Colar lives in Shrewsbury where his father John lives too.

1820. Peter Koller is listed in Shrewsbury Township, York County. He is age 26-45 and the oldest female is 16-26 and she may well be his second wife. He is a neighbor of Adam Hendrix. Another Peter Kohler lives elsewhere in Shrewsbury, next door to John Koller. He is also age 26-45 and a female of the same age is present. Peter is 32, his first wife has died and daughter Elizabeth is 9 -- so either household could be him, remarried. Peter’s father John has died so I believe the correct listing for Peter is the neighbor of Adam.

1830. Peter Koller is listed in Schrewsberry Township, York County. He is age 40-50 (actually 42) and lives with a younger wife who is 30-40 and 4 young males and 3-4 young females. 19-year-old Elizabeth is supposedly already married.

1840. He lives with many children and a younger wife in Shrewsbury.

1850. He lives in South Codurus Twp and is a blacksmith. These younger family members live with him: Sophia, Peter, Edward and Elanora. A neighbor is Andrew Hetrick 36 and wife Erphy 26.

1860. I can find Andrew Hetrick 45 and wife Orpa 39 in Shrewsbury, widow Sarah Kohler 57 is nearby but no sign of Peter.

1870. Peter Koller is listed in Shrewsbury Borough, York County. He is 83 and described as a blacksmith. It is a little ambiguous as to whether he is living alone or in the household of Ad Hetrick 57 and wife Erby 49. If they are together then Erby may be Peter’s daughter.

The Curry cousins, my starting point, both said Peter died 5 Dec 1870. But an affidavit of death filed with his will said he died 5 Nov 1871. Neither is right; a death notice in the 10 Nov 1870 issue of a Glen Rock newspaper said Peter had died 5 days earlier. I take that as definitive. Curiously, though, the newspaper also said he was in his 84th year -- he was actually 82, though it could be said he was in his 83rd year.

Both Becky and W H Curry are consistent on the ancestry of Eliza Koller, that her parents were Peter Koller and Ruth Hendrix and Peter’s parents were John Koller and Elizabeth Gerbrick. The birth, death and marriage dates for all four of these people are stated consistently (with one important exception) by both and they even agree on the spelling of Gerbrick. So, one of them, I think, used the other as their source. W H Curry also shows two additional marriages for Peter Koller.

W H Curry also notes that "Peter's ancestors came from Holland to America about the time of William Penn.” This actually is a direct quote from the Sweeny letter. I really know of nothing to suggest the family was from Holland and have always just assumed they were German, but Sweeny may be right on that detail. On the other hand, I strongly believe their arrival was many decades later than the William Penn era.

And he says that Peter Koller was buried in Shrewsbury. So how could it be that I could never find his 1870 tombstone? The explanation appears to be that he and some family members were buried in a small plot in Shrewsbury that was later paved over.

Overall, Peter, for a man who lived to 1870, left a faint imprint on history. He appears to have outlived three wives and had children with two of them. He was consistently listed in Census, usually reported as being a blacksmith, but there is no surviving tombstone, only a very brief will and only a few land records wherein he was named. His birth is the only church record I am aware of naming him. He is a little curious due to this lack of solid information.

His will, written 12 Sep 1867 but not filed until 18 Mar 1886, is noteworthy because of how few of his children he named. He left daughter Orpha, wife of Andrew Hedrick, a town lot in Shrewsbury Township during her lifetime which at her death was to be sold for the benefit of her children. He left a bed and bureau to Eve Jane Hedrick, Orpha’s daughter and all the remainder of his personal effects to Orpha except his wearing apparel to go to his son Peter.

The will of Ruth's father, Adam, written after Ruth died young, mentioned her daughter Eliza Koller.

In my research into Rachel Klingemann Yost, mother of Ruth Hendrix, I met up with a group of 5-6 people on the Internet all pursuing information on the Yost family. It was a great revelation to them when I told them, based on the information I found in William H Curry’s notes, that Jacob Yost (a person they were very interested in) was buried in the Hendrix plot on the Leader Farm in New Freedom. And when it turned out that William H had transcribed some of the information incorrectly, one of this group actually went out to the Leader farm, met the current owner and went to the graveyard and copied down this information from the graves (I’ve only listed the graves of interest to us, there were others too).

Buried there are:

–Ruth (Hendrix) Koller, b. 22 Jul 1794 d. 6 Mar 1815 (20y, 7m, 2w)
–Adam Hendrix b.26 Jan 1757 d.7 Mar 1836 (could be 1830)
–Rachel Hendrix, consort of Adam, d.4 Aug 1842 in 87th year [implies 1755-56]
–Adam Miller Hendrix b.1729 d.1787, age 58 years.

I haven’t bothered to list them, but there is no doubt Peter had a number of children by Eve. One of them was Robert F Koller. There was a write-up on him published in the 1886 book History of York County, John Gibson editor. I have never put much trust in such books, nonetheless it says that Robert was the son of Peter and Eve (Klinefelter) Koller and that they had a total of 13 children, eight daughters and five sons -- exactly the number and gender of children as listed by JC Sweeny.

Robert F is also noteworthy to us as the father of Charles Wesley Koller who in turn was the father of Charles Oliver Koller who married Ethel Decker 26 Sept 1925.

Neither Eve nor Elizabeth were our ancestor so I haven’t bothered to concern myself too much with either. I did find a family tree showing Eve as the daughter of John Jacob Klinefelter and giving her date of birth and year of death. This tree showed that Eve had a sister named Elizabeth but showed her as marrying someone other than Peter Koller. It would have been my guess that Elizabeth was Eve’s younger sister but apparently that was not the case, if the tree I found is accurate.

Her 1857 will named husband Peter, brother-in-law Daniel Smith and Edward Koller, Elisa Jane Koller and Jacob Klinefelter -- her relationship to those three unstated.