There is a “fraktur” -- a Pennsylvania German form of a birth certificate -- for Philip Fetter Jr. who, according to the fraktur was the son of Philip Fetter and Anna Maria Fissler. The fraktur also tells us that Philip, the father, was the son of Wendell Fetter and Anna Maria, the mother, the daughter of Jacob Fissler.

Floyd says he died in 1810 in Maxatawny, Berks County. There is some evidence that in 1790, either he and some of his adult sons -- or perhaps it was only the adult sons -- lived in Maxatawny and the fact that some of the baptisms by Philip of his sons took place in Lowhill or Weisenberg Township, Northampton County -- does not rule out that he may have lived in Maxatawny.

On the other hand, there is no will, no administration and no land records whatsoever that would prove that Philip ever lived in Maxatawny or that he died there in 1810. I do not know where that idea came from.

I don’t know exactly when Philip was born but the 1730’s is a good guess, and so he most certainly would have come to America with his father in 1741. His father settled in Gwynedd Township, Montgomery County and that was no doubt where Philip started out.

As an adult, Philip was named in records spanning a seemingly wide-spread geographic area encompassing Montgomery, Northampton, Bucks and Berks County. He was listed with his future wife, both single, as sponsors in 1758 at a baptism at Indian Creek Church in Franconia Township, Montgomery County. They baptized two children there, including our ancestor Philip Jr. -- who was said to have been born in New Britain Township, Bucks County. Later, Philip Sr. may have lived in Maxatawny Township, Berks County and he and his sons were named at baptisms in Lowhill and Weisenberg Townships, (then) Northampton County.

I am generally suspicious when I think I see one person named in so many places -- and usually it turns out to be two or more men who happen to share the same name. But in this case, I think all of these disparate geographic references were indeed to Philip Sr. I’ve examined those places on a map and I believe a case can be made that, as an adult, Philip may have lived in just two separate places -- and attended several churches near each place.

I’m almost embarrassed to admit that I have to credit Ancestry World Trees and J L Floyd with my possible breakthrough on the Fetter family. I had never been able to get any lead on Rachel Fetter’s pedigree. I had an idea she was related to Abraham and possibly Benjamin, who I thought may be her brothers -- but it never led me anywhere.

At some point, I encountered an alternate spelling of the name as Vetter when researching the Baer family -- Heinrich Vetter was mentioned as the wife of Johannes Baer’s daughter Barbara and in the records of Lowhill Church. And in the same church Adam Vetter married Susanna Braus. Henry has nothing to do with our family of Kratzerville that I know of, but Adam sure does -- and his was a name already familiar to me from my, to then, futile attempts to identify the name of Rachel’s father. [Wendell did have a grandson named Heinrich -- and he is covered among his descendants -- but he was not the same Henry who married Barbara Baer.]

Using the Vetter spelling, I then found an Ancestry World Tree that quoted Floyd on the Fetter family. Now, I never consider Floyd an authoritative source, but I do often check to see what he might have to say -- about our Northumberland County ancestors. Since the Fetter family was of Union County, I had never before checked Floyd on them. But following this lead, I went there.

Floyd told the story of the family of Philip Fetter who immigrated in 1751 and died in Maxatawny in 1810. Floyd said he had many sons who came to the Susquehanna River area about 1815. Sons Heinrich and Frederick settled east of the river (and were Floyd’s main interest) and Philip, Jacob, Adam and Conrad settled west of the river. Other sons settled elsewhere including John in Tamaqua and George in Northumberland, but I’ve not concerned myself with either of those two sons.

With Floyd my motto always is, don’t trust but see if any of it can be verified. There was a Philip Fetter in Maxatawny Township, Berks County in 1790 and 1800. In 1790, also present were Jacob, Frederick and John. By 1800, only Philip remained (though of the wrong age to be Philip Sr.). It turns out that Floyd was wrong about when the family moved to our area, it was earlier than he said because then in Penns Township, I found Philip, Jacob and Adam -- I have no idea who the Conrad was that Floyd mentioned; no matter.

Floyd was also apparently wrong about when Philip came to America. He says he was the immigrant and arrived America in 1751. There is no record of this and it makes no sense whatsoever. Because, a consistent picture has emerged connecting this same Philip Fetter of Maxatawny to Wendell Fetter of Montgomery County. Wendell was the immigrant, he came in 1741 and most certainly brought his young son Philip with him.

I do not know when Philip was born, but it had to have been before the family left Germany. He was listed as single at a 1758 baptism where he was a sponsor with Anna Maria Fissler, also single -- his future bride (yet another demonstration of my baptisms-as-the-singles-bars of their time observation). And they then had son John in 1761 and Philip Jr. in 1762. Anna Maria was apparently born in 1736 in Germany. So, all of this suggests a birth date of the early-mid 1730’s for Philip.

In addition to Philip Jr., Jacob and Adam (who settled in Penns Township), Frederick and Heinrich (who settled in Upper Mahanoy Township) and John and George (who settled elsewhere), a review of Ancestry World Trees adds Peter and Solomon to Floyd’s list of Philip Sr.’s children. I think both Solomon and Peter deserve to be included. Peter clearly existed and was the right age as he was listed in Census in Union County from 1810 to 1850 and in 1850 a 1771 birth year was implied. Solomon’s 1774 baptism was recorded at Ziegel’s Church and there was a listing for him in the 1820 Census crossed out and a listing for Solomon Jr. in 1830. And that leaves Conrad, mentioned by Floyd as one of the Penns Township brothers -- but I have never seen any mention of Conrad anywhere.

Adam, as noted elsewhere, was married at Lowhill Church, probably by Rev. Hellfrich. And, in the records of Rev. Hellfrich, among the many marriages performed “at the parsonage” were: Frederick Vetter and Catharina Schmidt 15 Jun 1794, Heinrich Vetter and Elizabeth Hartman 11 Dec 1804 and Peter Vetter and Elisabeth Schneider 29 Jan 1797.

Frederick and Heinrich, of course, were the two brothers who came to Upper Mahanoy. And we know that the wife of Peter Fetter of Kratzerville was in fact named Elizabeth Schneider (Snyder) as there was a Union County estate administration on 15 Dec 1818 for Elizabeth Fetter (nee Snyder) with letters of administration issued to Peter Fetter.

More information about Philip, Adam, Jacob and Heinrich follows.

We know the name of Philip’s wife and her parents from the fraktur of their son, Philip.

Her father, Jacob, was the immigrant and he arrived America 20 Oct 1752 on the ship Duke of Wirtenburg. Documented as also being on that ship (only males over 16 were documented) were John Michael and John George Fissler.

Jacob wrote his will 6 Mar 1781. He was of Lower Makefield Township, Bucks County, PA -- a brickmaker. He named (second) wife Barbara and two children he had by her -- and also sons Michael and Jacob and five daughters including Anna Mary, wife of Philip Fether (sic). His will proved 14 Aug 1781.