The Bucher/Booker family, 1686-1990

Germany to Frederick County, Virginia

I first began my research into the origin of my Booker family, believing that we were descended from an old Welsh family of Bookers who arrived in York County, Virginia from England in 1648. This family later settled in the Virginia counties of Gloucester, Halifax and Amelia. After many years of research that included trips to Richmond, Virginia; Indianapolis, Indiana; Washington, D.C. (National Archives, Library of Congress, and the Daughters of the American Revolution Library); and almost every state in the United States, I concluded that our family of Bookers were not in any way descended from the English Bookers of Virginia. In fact, our Booker family was German (possibly before that Swiss) spelling their name Bucher.

In Rhineland Emigrants, List of German Settlers in Colonial America by Don Yoder, he states that the Swiss form of the name Booker was Bucher, and this family was “widely dispersed in Switzerland, especially Ct. Bern, and Unterwalden…Between 1650 and 1690 persecution [religious] and the search for good land led many Swiss Brethren to Alsace [at that time part of France; was German until the 1500’s], the Palatinate [now Rhineland and Bavaria, Germany], and to adjoining territories like Durlach and Zweibrucken [Germany]. After 1680 and especially 1710, the migration to Pennsylvania began which grew its strength not only from Switzerland, but also from Alsace and from southern German regions…From 1683 to 1705, 100 persons arrived in Germantown, Pennsylvania from the Lower Rhineland in Germany…Between 1707 and 1756, 3000 to 5000 persons, mostly Mennonite, possibly 300 Amish, from Palatinate and Swiss regions came to Eastern Pennsylvania, especially the Franconia and Lancaster districts…” There are several books that have been written on the Bucher families of Bern, Switzerland – The Bucher Family of Konitz, Bern, Switzerland by Julius Billeter, “In the name of God Almighty, Amen,” by Jean A. Berlekamp, Echo press, 1980, and Three Central Families by Raymond Martin Bell. These books are on film at the Mormon Genealogical Library in Salt Lake City, Utah.

The causes of emigration to America may be drawn from economic and social factors, but it was more than that. People longed for a life as individuals, beyond the niche of the hierarchical society into which they were born. For the young it was the yearning for adventure and for action; for others there were the open spaces beckoning the landless peasant. A Wurttemberger in 1754 wrote the following: “We were told that whoever wanted to move to Prussia would be given money for travel and as much land as in America. But, oh, what is a free inhabitant compared to a slave or serf? What pleasure would a man have in a country in which he has to work himself to death for an overlord, and where his sons are at no hour safe from the miserable soldier’s life?” Fifty-two million Americans today have ancestors who originally came from Germanic (German speaking) cities and rural areas.

Myths, Legends, and Family Traditions

In all family histories there are many stories of family origins; many family traditions that over the years have been changed, exaggerated, enlarged upon until the family genealogist has difficulty separating fact from fiction. But as in all legends, there is always a thread of truth. Before I explain the actual history of our particular line of Buchers, I believe it is important to mention these legends that gave me clues to our beginnings in America.

Miss Mabel M. Booker of Sullivan, Moultrie County, Illinois, one of our John Philip Bucher descendants wrote to me in a letter dated February 15, 1985, that “yes, she knew that we were of German descent.” Her grandfather, Charles Dexter Booker, born 1860 in Moultrie County, Illinois and great-great grandson of John Philip Bucher, was very explicit about that. She remembers that her Grandpa Charles told her about two brothers (or cousins – not sure) who deserted from the German Army and ran away to America. This was either before or during the American Revolution. During the war they joined the Colonial Army. She was not sure of the spelling her Grandpa gave her, but he explained to her that the other soldiers had such a difficult time trying to pronounce their German name that they changed it to Booker. After the war her Grandpa said one brother (or cousin) changed his name back to the original spelling, the other stayed with Booker. Her Grandpa mentioned it was that generation or the next, that the two brothers or cousins decided to migrate from the East. At some point along the way, one decided to continue westward eventually reaching Illinois. The other journeyed south.

There is another story given to me from Mildred Booker Smith of Orlando, Florida. She is also a descendant of John Philip Bucher. Her Aunt Katherine Booker Greene [1877-1964] kept records, notes, newspapers, and letters on our Booker family. Katherine believed that we were descended from a Booker who migrated from Holland in the middle 1700’s, and settled for about two years in Bucks County, Pennsylvania. She believed our David Booker was born there, and when David was about two years old, his father’s family moved to Virginia, and later to Kentucky.

In 1947, my father, Charles L. Booker, age 17, was required to write a history of our Booker family for a high school project. Since his grandfather, Edward A. Booker [1885-1949], was living with him at the time, my father asked him about the Bookers. Edward said our ancestors were a mixture of Pennsylvania Dutch and English, and that the Booker family moved westward from Virginia to Kentucky. He said that there had always been more boys in the family from as far back as he could remember. Edward mentioned that he had a cousin with thirteen boys in his family. [This was Phillip Booker 1812-1889.] Finally, my great-grandfather concluded, “we had fighting blood, and we were never settled on one thing.”

In a telephone conversation in 1988 with Robert L. Booker of Pesotum, Illinois, a descendant of James Booker (1814-1887, see Chapter IX), Robert stated his father, Donald Booker, told him that our Bookers originally spelled our name Beucher or Buecher. No one could pronounce it; everyone would mispronounce it as Butcher. Someone along the way started writing our name the English way – Booker, to avoid the confusion. Also, his father always said we were Dutch, not German.

Gerald D. Halstead, (a Winnifred Booker descendant – see Chapter VIII) of Huntington Beach, California sent me a photocopy of a handwritten page of Booker information. This information was given to his family by Nellie B. Halstead Chamney, daughter of Winnifred Booker. Nellie, as told to her by her mother, lists her grandfather, Phillip Booker, as German.

Floy Louise Buckles Peterson of Peoria, Illinois wrote that her grandmother, K. T. Ingle Buckles [1860-1945] said:

“Catherine Booker’s father, Jacob Booker (see Chapter III), came from Germany and left his two brothers in the “old country”; that the two became vastly wealthy. They tried to get their just rights, but “patent mediums were lacking”. They inherited the estate in Germany, but the only way that the American Bookers could collect it was for them to go back there and live”.

In October 1989 I contacted Leonard Ray Mason of Hot Springs, Arkansas, like myself a descendant of Samuel Hodge Booker (see Chapter IX). Born in 1914, Leonard told me that during his youth, his grandfather, Samuel Hodge Booker, would visit his parents (John I. Mason and Sarah Catharine Booker Mason) in McCune, Kansas. He remembers that in talking with his grandfather about the origins of the Bookers, Samuel H. Booker (1842-1930) asserted the Bookers were German.

The Indianapolis – Deitrick Records

As my research into our Booker family led back through Macon County, Illinois to Sullivan County, Indiana, I discovered on my first visit to Indianapolis, Indiana, in the Indiana State Historical Building – Genealogical Division, an unpublished book in typed manuscript. It included historical and genealogical information on the Bucher/Booker family, and was my first important clue as to our ethnic background. The book is entitled Deitrick – Hays – Miller – Faith and Allied Families, General Data, and was written by B. A. Deitrick, No. 15, Park Row, NY, NY, year 1944. On pages 141-142, information is given on the Bookers, the Denbos and the Crawfords from Mrs. Alice Gilmore McCullum, granddaughter of John Crawford and Mary Booker Crawford, and daughter of Louisa Crawford Gilmore. Recorded on page 143 is the following information:

General PHILIP BOOKER came from Germany about 1765 – location in Germany unknown. He was four months coming to this country. Settled in Culpeper County, Virginia, and stayed awhile and then moved to Jefferson County, Kentucky, not far from Middletown. Philip died about 1815. He was buried a mile west of Peru (glenarm) Kentucky – close to Pewee Valley. Philip married twice, his last wife’s name was Roy – her maiden name.

The Culpeper County Courthouse has no records of a Philip Booker (by any spelling) during this period of time. But while researching the records of Bookers found in the Washington D.C. library of the Daughters of the American Revolution, I discovered in Wyands and Wyands Colonial Maryland Naturalizations, page 54, a Philip Bucher’s naturalization proceedings dated September 4, 1765. The proceedings listed this Philip as German, currently residing in Frederick County, Maryland. Although I was to discover later that this Philip Bucher was not our line, I visited the Frederick County, Maryland Courthouse and discovered many deeds, wills, etc. of the Nicholas, Peter, and Bartholomew Bucher/Booker family listed during the middle 1700’s. Bartholomew’s will was settled 1 May 1792, listing his children, but no child by the name of Philip was included. (Winfield Scott Booher wrote in his Booher history that Bartholmew Bucher and his brother, Hans Peter Bucher, immigrated via Rotterdam (Holland) from Germany, arriving in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania on 3 September 1739. Both men settled in Middletown, Frederick County, Maryland. This history is also found on film in Salt Lake City. Avery H. Reed wrote in 1958 his history of the same family under the surname, Boogher. This book embraces the lineage of 13 Boogher children, descendants of Nicholas Boogher [arrived in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania in 1727] and Rebecca Davis Combs). Again, this was not our family.

 

Johann Ulrich Bucher of Frederick County, Virginia

There are many Buchers/Bookers of German origin listed in the Shenandoah Valley counties in the 1700’s and 1800’s.

From Cartmell’s History of Shenandoah Valley – Pioneers and Descendants, “The Bucher (Booker) Family…This family found about Newtown as one of the pioneers, also in the Western Section of the [Frederick] County often spelled their name Boogher. They furnished soldiers for all the wars during the history of the country. Many old citizens living near the old Russell Precinct, remember old Capt. Jacob Bucher [Civil War Veteran]; and those about Stephens City remember the old Buchers of that section…”

In Shenandoah Valley Pioneer Settlers, written and published in 1988 by Gene Paige Hammond, a Bucher descendant, Hammond documented our first Bucher/Booker to come to America – (Johann) Hans Ulrich Bucher. Hans (John) arrived from Germany on 21 September 1732 in the port of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania aboard the ship, “Pink Plaisance” [John Parrett, Master] from Rotterdam but last from Cowes, England. Ulrich is listed as age 45,; his second wife, Barbara, age 35. One daughter, Margaret (no age given) is listed, but no sons. Eldest son, John Michael Bucher, born in 1715 from his father’s first marriage, would arrive in 1742. John Phillip Bucher, eldest son from Ulrich’s second marriage, was born in 1728, and at age four surely arrived with his parents in Philadelphia in 1732. It was not unusual for the youngest children to be omitted from the passenger lists.

We know that Ulrich Bucher left Klein Gartach in Germany for Pennsylvania in 1732. Just before publication, I received a copy of an old German document from Mr. Hammond that has been handed down in his family from generation to generation for 248 years. Mr. Hammond is a descendant of John Michael Bucher, son of Ulrich Bucher. Gary Myer, librarian and genealogist at the George Peabody Library in Baltimore, Maryland and an expert in transcribing old German records, translated the three page document in a few minutes. He showed me on a German map the location of Klein Gartach, and Zaberfeld-Michelbach just south of Eppingen in lower Kraichgau, today part of the state of Baden-Wurttemberg.

This document, dated 2 May 1742, was given to John Michael Bucher by the Burgermeister, Alexander Rosser, attesting to Michael’s legitimate birth in Klein Gartach and his good conduct during his residence there.

“We“, [the royal we] local official, Burgermeister [Mayor], and Judge at Kleinen Garttach in the Duchy of Wurttemberg, herewith acknowledge and announce in this document that on the date placed at the end of this document did appear before “us” [royal us] Michael Bucher, yet unmarried, legitimate son of Ulrich Bucher, former citizen and tailor of this place who left here in 1732 and emigrated to Pennsylvania. This deponent stated he desired also to go to Pennsylvania and help seek his father, decided with God’s divine help. To this end, he humbly requests a certificate verifying his legitimate birth in this place and his good conduct during his residence here so that he may show this document during his travels for purposes of safe conduct. Since we have deemed his request as seemly, in every respect truthful and since we are desirous of aiding him in quickly fulfilling his request; We therefore herewith attest by power of our office and oath and in that we are obligated from on high to say and to write the truth; that the said Michael Bucher was born to the aforementioned Ulrich Bucher, his father and Anna Maria, nee Schellinger (his late wife who died some time ago), a pious, upright and [?] married couple who were in the state of Holy Matrimony, on the 17th of August in the year of Christ 1715, and legitimately fathered. There upon he was brought forward to Holy Baptism by his Godparents, Herr Matheus Mertz of the local judicial council, Johann Michael Uhland, unmarried, both from here Kleinen Garttach, and Catharine Wutterich, wife of an attorney [Anwalt] at Michelbach [am Heuchelberg – village nearby]. And thereafter always known and recognized by “us” and all far and wide as a proper and legitimate child. In addition, Michael Bucher always conducted himself in an honest, pious, faithful serving manner and in general in such a manner that we have nothing horrible to report of him, but on the contrary; that we can only find good and dear things to say of him. And for this reason we wish him in his intended move all hail good fortunes and blessings from the All High and commend him to a higher authority wherever he may decide to register himself, de meliori. This we have attested and to strengthen this we have set the greater seal of our town. Executed at Kleinen Garttach 2 May 1742. Signed and witnessed [by the] Mayor of that place, Alexander Rosser [umlaut over the “o”] Attestation

Regarding the Legitimate Birth And Conduct for Michael Bucher unmarried status Kleinen Garttach as mentioned earlier, Hans Ulrich Bucher, arrived in Philadelphia in 1732 with seventy-one other “Palatines” (Rhine River Valley of Germany), with their families totaling “one hundred and eighty-eight persons.” [From the Minutes of the Provincial Council, printed in the Pennsylvania Colonial Records, Volume III, page 454.] As did all German immigrants, Ulrich signed his name on two lists of oaths. First was the oath of allegiance to the king of Great Britain, and the other was the oath of fidelity and abjuration (renunciation of claims to the throne of England by “pretenders” and a denial of the right of the Pope to outlaw a Protestant monarch). A copy of his actual signature can be found in Pennsylvania German Pioneers, 3 Volumes, published in 1934 by Strassburger and Hinke, on pages 71 and 72, just below the signature of John Adam Zimmerman. His name is signed in German script.

From her 1985 book, 18th Century Emigrants from German-Speaking Lands to North America, Volume I: The Northern Kraichgau, the author, Annette Kunselman Burgert, chronicles sixteen emigrants who came over on the same ship as our ancestor, Hans Ulrich Bucher. Although Ulrich is not listed as one of the sixteen in her book, I discovered that fifteen of these men came from villages surrounding the main village of Sinsheim, and the village of Eppingen, both just southeast of Heidelberg. Ms. Burgert writes, “The Hilsbach and the Elsenz creeks flow together at Eppingen, the southernmost city examined in this volume…Eppingen today has incorporated into it nine nearby villages – Adelshofen, Elsenz, Gemmingen, Ittlingen, Kleingartach, Muhlbach, Richen, Rohrbach a. G. and Stebbach, …”

In order to understand Hans Ulrich Bucher’s reasons for settling in the Shenandoah Valley, the reader should be made aware of Jost Hite, a German who arrived in the colonies in 1709, first settling in Ulster County, New York. Robert Z. Jones in his two volume work entitled, The Palatine Families of New York documented Jost Hite’s German home in Bonfeld, Germany [West Germany]. (Bonfeld is at the eastern edge of the Kraigau, an area known as Neckarland in what is now the Landkreis (county) of Heilbronn, in the state of Baden- Wurtemburg. Bonfeld is now a suburb of the city, Bad Rappenau). In 1714 Hite settled his family near Germantown, Pennsylvania, (along the Skippack, about a mile northeast of the present village of Center Point; later he moved to the area along the Perkiomen; started a mill near Schwenksville). Jost Hite was forty-five years old when on 5 August 1731 he acquired from John and Isaac Vanmeter the rights to a conditional grant of 40,000 acres in the Shenandoah Valley. With his partner, Robert McKay, Hite went to Williamsburg, Virginia and obtained on 31 October 1731 an order from the Governor and Council authorizing the survey of 100,000 acres with the stipulation that 100 families be settled thereon within two years. Immediately, Hite moved a total of sixteen families to the Shenandoah Valley in the fall of 1731 or early 1732. Hite later stated he had sold the land “on which he then lived in Philadelphia County, Province of Pennsylvania…within fifteen miles of the City of Philadelphia.” From the book, German Origins of Jost Hite, co-author, Klaus Wust, writes:

It would seem that Ulrich Bucher knew or knew of Jost Hite, and upon arriving in Pennsylvania in 1732, proceeded to the Opequon area of what was then Spottsylvania County, Virginia, later Orange County, and then Frederick County.

I reviewed the Klein Gartach Lutheran Church records on microfilm and discovered the birth and baptismal records of Ulrich Bucher’s two oldest sons. John Michael’s mother is listed as Anna Maria, and John Phillip’s mother is listed as Barbara. Witnesses and godparents of John Phillip were John Michael ?, John Phillip Wutterich, and Matheus Mertz. The reader should note that these persons are mentioned as godparents of John Michael Bucher in the aforementioned Klein Gartach document. Undoubtedly, John Phillip Wutterich and Catharine Wutterich (of Michelbach) were related to the Ulrich Bucher family.

From the Records of Rev. John Casper Stoever, Baptismal and Marriage 1730-1779, by F. G. F. Schantz, published in 1896, I discovered the following early records on our Bucher family in the Shenandoah Valley. Notice the spelling of Bucher!

 

Under the name, John Ulrich Buger, Opequon Settlement:

 

Under the name, Rudi Magg, Opequon Settlement:

 

Under the name, Johnnes Schnepf, Opequon Settlement:

Under the name, Lorentz Schnepf, Opequon Settlement:

 

From the book, The Lutheran Church in Virginia 1717-1962, by William Edward Eisenberg, published in 1967, I found the following reference to our family in the Chapter, “In the Shenandoah Valley (1727-1750):

In the same book, same chapter on page 25:

 

The first court records (that I have been able to find) of Hans Ulrich Bucher in the Shenandoah Valley are found when he signed several petitions in Orange County, Virginia Judgements (Frederick County was then part of Orange County) along with others between 1736, and 1738:

February – May 1736

April 28, 1737

February 22, 1738

[Written in German, the above 1738 petition was presented to Governor Gooch in 1738 (see Heinings Statues, Virginia State Library). Original not found in the Virginia State Library.]

 

I compared the oath of allegiance signature and the oath of fidelity signature of Hans Ulrich Bucher upon his arrival in Philadelphia 21 September 1732 with the signature of Ulrich Bucher on the 1736 petition in Orange County, Virginia and concluded that the signatures are the same.

According to The Source, A Guidebook of American Genealogy, edited by Arlene Eakle and Johni Cerny, in order to own land, non-British immigrants were required by law to declare their intention to become naturalized citizens within three months before application. Also, prior to naturalization proceedings, immigrants were required to show proof they had resided in the colonies for at least seven years, be a free white male and twenty-one years of age.

 

Ulrich Bucher’s naturalization records are found in Frederick County, Virginia Order Book #2, page 195, on Wednesday 5 November 1746:

Gene P. Hammond writes in his book that his ancestor, John Michael Bucher, son of Ulrich Bucher, arrived in Philadelphia on 21 September 1742, ten years to the day after his father. His ship was the “Francis and Elizabeth”, from Rotterdam via Deal, England. His name is found on List 94B; the first 92 names of the C. List are missing.

Also, in Frederick County, Virginia Order Book #2, page 239 on 5 May 1747, both Michael Boucher (sic) and Philip Boucher (sic), German Protestants, after proving in Court that they had been “a liver in this colony above seven years,” and again, having produced Certificates under the same Reverend’s hand which showed that they had complied with the Acts of Parliament, were naturalized. As mentioned earlier, to be naturalized, both Philip and Michael would have had to be living in the Colonies for at least seven years, and be 21 years of age. Mr. Hammond writes, “having worked in the Virginia Courts for more than ten years, I found that the court records were not always totally accurate, and that the intent of the Court is not always ‘letter-of-the-absolute’. Michael undoubtedly had been in the Colony only about 5 years instead of seven; if in Court in 1747 they accepted his declaration (and he probably claimed 5), they may have declared him for 7 with no harm to anyone.” Also, in Ulrich Bucher’s will in 1747, Ulrich mentions that his eldest son, Michael, is to receive only “one cow and calf for he has had his portion before leaving his mother in Germany.” This tells me that Michael Bucher (at a young age) had already left home in Germany before his mother died, and before Hans Ulrich Bucher came to America in 1732 with his second wife, Anna Barbara. Also, this would seem to indicate that Michael had earlier received his portion of Ulrich Bucher’s estate in Germany.

 

The Family of Johann Ulrich Bucher

 

Johann Ulrich Bucher, b. 29/8/1686 Michelbach, Kraichgau, Wurttemberg, Germany. Occupation Tailor; left Klein Gartach 1732, Arrived 21 September 1732 Philadelphia, PA. Living in 1735 Shenandoah Valley, Opequon Creek, VA, d. 1750 Frederick Co., VA.

 

The Bucher/Booker Family, 1686-1990 © 1990 Charles Lee Booker Jr.