Christian Bomberger ¹

  General Notes:

For more on this important ancestor see this excellent website:
http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.com/~davidwood3rd/Misc/BombergerLancasterRoots.html

  Burial Notes:

Information about Bomberger Cemetery is found at:
http://www.pa-roots.com/~lancaster/cemetery/bomberger.html

  Noted events in his life were:

1. He emigrated on 12 May 1722 from Eschelbronn, , Baden-Württemberg, DEU. Christian Bomberger was given a letter of recommendation by his Lord Philip Anthony, Baron von der Fels, when he decided to emigrate. This letter still exists and is with Henry H. Bomberger of Lititz, PA. It is reproduced in a later note here.

2. He immigrated about Sep 1722 to Philadelphia, Philadelphia, PA. Many researchers mistakenly state his date of immigration as 12 May 1722 when in fact that is the date on the letter given to him when he left his village in Germany. We see each year in ships records that almost all arrive in August to October window, using the summer as the best time to sail. We should assume Bomberger arrived in fall of 1722 until a decisive record is found.

3. Property in 1734 in Warwick Twp., Lancaster, PA. ² He established his residence in Warwick Township in 1734 on Newport Road, a couple miles from Lititz. He had initially 546 acres in a deed from the Penns. Later Bomberger Lancaster County deeds are recorded under these numbers: A-52, A-53, A-54, L-106, T-115.

4. Property on 8 Aug 1738 in Warwick Twp., Lancaster, PA. ^{1 3} Christian Bumberger is listed with a warrant for 87 acres of land adjoining Martin Bougher [Bucher], Jacob Hoover and George Cline.

5. Property on 20 May 1740 in Warwick Twp., Lancaster, PA. ^{1 3} Adjoining Bomberger's initial land, he has a second warrant for another 50 acres.

6. He signed a will on 30 Jan 1741 in Warwick Twp., Lancaster, PA. ^{1 4} I, Christian Bamberger, of Warwick in the County of Lancaster and Province of Pennsylvania, Yeoman, being very sick and weak of body, but of perfect mind and memory, thanks be given unto God, therefore calling into mind the mortality of my body and knowing that it's appointed for all men once to die do make and ordain this my last will and testament that is to say principally and first of all give and recommend my soul into the hands of God that gave it, and for my body I recommend it to the earth to be buried in a Christian like and decent manner at the discretion of my executors, nothing doubting but at the General Resurrection, I shall receive the same again by the mighty Power of God, and as touching such worldly Estate wherewith it hath pleased God to Bless me in this Life, I give Devise and Dispose of the same in the following manner and form.
IMPRIMIS. It is my will and I do order that in the first place all my just debts and funeral charges be paid and satisfied.
ITEM. I give and bequeath unto Mary, my Beloved wife, the sum of one hundred and seventy pounds of good and lawful money, to be raised and paid out of my Estate.
ITEM. It is my will that the remainder of my estate be equally divided between my children, namely Anna, Margaret, Barbara, John, Elizabeth, and Christian so that there be due regard kept of what each of them, have received from me in my life. I give and bequeath to my son, John, all that tract of land where he now lives upon, containing 200 Acres, to him his heirs and assigns forever according to the value agreed with him in my Lifetime.
ITEM. I give and bequeath to my son-in-law Martin Bougher, who is married to my daughter, Elizabeth, to him and his heirs, or assigns forever according to the agreement made with him in my lifetime, all that tract of land where he now lives upon, containing about 160 acres.
ITEM. I give and bequeath to my son, Christian, the plantation and tract of land where I now live upon, containing about 200 Acres, to him, his heirs, assigns so that be appraised and he get no more than an equal share I likewise constitute, make and ordain my sons in law, John Caffman, and my trusty friends, Michael Shond and Geo. Klein, my only and sole executors of this my last will and Testament.
Signed this 30th day of June, 1741.
Christian Bamberger,
Witness,
Christian Stafer.
Jacob Weill.
Emanuel Carpenter.

7. Book: Pennsylvania Genealogies: Scotch-Irish and German by William Henry Egle on page 107, 1886. ⁵

8. He received honors in 1920 in Lititz, Lancaster, PA. A large bronze tablet has been set on a granite base and placed on the corner of Memorial Rd and Newport Rd in Lititz, PA.
Following is the inscription:
In Memory of CHRISTIAN BOMBERGER
A God-fearing and industrious man, who with his wife, Maria, two sons, John and Christian, and six daughters, left the tenantry of Baron Von Der Fels, in Eschelbronn, Baden, May 12th, 1722, was granted a certificate of honorable dismissal by the Chief Magistrate of Waibstatt, and settled in this tract, among the Indians. He died in 1742. His body rests in the family God's acre on yonder hill.
Erected By His Descendants 1923.

9. He was honored for in a speech given at the first annual reunion of the Bomberger Family on 29 Aug 1922 in Lititz, Lancaster, PA.

CHRISTIAN BOMBERGER PIONEER

GUSTAV FREYTAG in his "Bider aus der Deutschen Vergangenheit" says "Die Enkel gut thun an die Muhen Ihrer Vorfahren zu denken."
It is well worth while for the descendants to study the lives of their forefathers. It is splendid to be able to boast about one's ancestors. But could those ancestors truthfully boast about us if they were able to appear again in the flesh?

Each generation must go forward. If we do less nobler, less praiseworthier things in our day than our ancestors did in their day, we have fallen down in the work which our Creator intended us to do. The Chinese lay great stress on ancestry. They paid so much attention to what their forefathers did and to the care of their forefathers' bones that there was no time or effort left for their own advancement until in recent years. The result has been that China, although one of the oldest nations in recorded history, still has been one of the most backward.

Lest I be misunderstood I thoroughly approve of family reunions with their avowed purpose of turning over the musty pages of history, especially insofar as they concern the ancestry of the Bomberger family. We can find on those pages a message of inspiration which we can adapt to our modern day activities. That's where the value lies for us.

When first I learned that I was expected to act as historian for the first annual Bomberger reunion pictures of genealogical tables such as are scattered here and there in the Old Testament arose in my mind. Those "begat" chapters were most distasteful in my youthful Sunday school days. And Abraham begat Isaac, and Isaac begat Jacob and Jacob begat Joseph and his brethren and Joseph begat and so on, is what I mean. Drawing up the family trees for each branch and twig I shall leave to some future Bomberger historian.

My efforts will be confined to the who, when, where, how and why of the Bomberger immigration from Europe to America in 1722. Other Bomberger families came across the Atlantic ocean in the years that followed. Most of these other Bomberger families came from Switzerland. We are concerned here only in the Christian Bomberger, who moved his family from Eschelbronn, Baden, Germany, to what is now Warwick township, Lancaster county, Pennsylvania, on a tract of land about two miles from the Lititz Springs Grounds, along about 1722

This Christian Bomberger was a man of good repute as is evidenced by the letter of recommendation given him by the authorities when he decided to immigrate.

The letter written in German on parchment and still in a good state of preservation is today owned by Henry H. Bomberger, of Lititz. It has been translated and reads as follows:

"BY THE AUTHORITY OF
The Honorable and Well-born Lord, Lord Philip Anthony, Baron von der Fels, Dean of the honorable chapter of knights at Bruchsal and Capitulary at Wimpfen, Lord of the lordships at Contre, Heffingen and Chief Magistrate at Waibstatt: I, John George Lamperet, hereby and in virtue hereof, announce and declare that the bearer, Christian Bamberger, who has upwards of twelve years been a farmer and tenant of the Baron von der Fels, has now with his wife and eight children determined to remove hence to seek his fortune and subsistence in other lands; and having for the promotion of the reputation of himself and family, and for the identification of his good name, regularly applied at this office for an honorable dismissal, it has therefore, been deemed proper to grant this reasonable petition.
"For as much, then, as the aforesaid Bamberger personally, as also his wife and children, have in all things conducted themselves well, virtuously and honorably in respect to the officials of our beneficent government, as well as trustworthy, industrious and courteous towards residents and neighbors, and so continue that we should gladly retain him and his as our citizens, the same person and his family at their own pleasure and with the knowledge and consent of the gracious authorities, are hereby dismissed and bidden farewell. Consequently, all and each, exalted and inferior officials civil and military rulers, government, servants and minor officers, as well as other Christian-loving people, are requested in a polite, friendly and neighborly manner to grant them kind, sympathetic, serviceable, genial and favorable assistance and co-operation; more especially as the aforesaid persons now depart from a place which is healthy and free from disease, and have been declared free and absolved from even the smallest obligations. The favor herewith conceded will be reciprocated to the best of our ability on this and on all other occasions. Officially granted under the great seal of my office and attested by my signature. Eschelbronn, May 12, 1722. John George Lamperet. (Seal)."

The next accurate date of his activities is eleven years later when this Christian Bomberger received a patent or deed for a large tract of land in Warwick township in 1733 from the sons of William Penn. These deeds today also are in possession of the Bomberger family as is a considerable portion of the land. The original farm or plantation consisted of upward of 600 acres.

Pennsylvania German family names like all other German names may be divided into three distinct classes: first those derived from personal names; second those derived from occupation; and third those derived from the place where the individual lived or whence he came. Our family name no doubt belongs to the latter class.

"Baum" means tree in German, "berg" means mountain, and "er" one who or the name as you see means one who came from the tree on the mountain. The pronunciation of the German "a" is broad so it became "o" with the passing years in the name. However, you students of geography know that there is a city in Germany called Bamberg. It is just barely possible that one of our ancestors may have come from this town and thus obtained his name. However, that will have to be left to conjuncture as will the dropping of the "u" from the first syllable.

At this point I came to what I supposed was the end of my research so far as the early history was immediately concerned. However, that their immigration was so interwoven with the activities of thousands of their neighbors, many of whom were of the same Mennonite faith as they and who made the Palatinate along the lower Rhine in Germany, a garden spot, only to have it ruined and devastated during the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, soon became evident.

During the Thirty Years war following the Reformation in the early part of the seventeenth century the Palatinate which included a half a dozen states along the upper Rhine was invaded twenty-eight times. The peace treaty at Westphalia in 1649, ended this terrible war.

For the Palatinate the respite was of short duration. Yet so rich was the soil in this country and so industrious were the peasants that within a score of years the land appeared as if no war had ever been there. But war again broke out between France and Holland. Other states were drawn into the maelstrom and Louis the XIV, of France, ardent Catholic that he was, unable to cope single handed with England, Holland and Germany, determined that if the soil of the Palatinate was not to furnish supplies to the French it should be so wasted it would at least furnish no supplies to the Germans. The devastation that followed surpassed even the scenes of the Thirty Years war. MacCaulay, in his history of England draws a vivid picture of the suffering of those days among the people of the Palatinate and the destruction wrought by the invaders. Orchards were cut down, fields of grain plowed under, houses and barns were burned. The people of these provinces were driven into hiding on the mountains or perhaps in some other land. But 1697, when our common ancestor was a mere boy, saw this war also ended with the treaty of Ryswick.

John William at this time ruled over the Palatinate. He was a Jesuit and while he made a pretense of showing tolerance the Catholics were by far the most favored. The Protestants were required to bend the knee at the passing of the Host and to furnish flowers for the church festivals of their rivals. While the work of proselyting was carried on publicly by the Jesuits, the Swiss-Mennonites, Walloons and Huguenots, who for many years found refuge in the Palatinate were now driven from the land. Many went to Prussia, Holland and America.

The reasons for our ancestor's decision to leave the soil of Germany are evident, if we reconstruct in our minds the events of those days. He was a Mennonite. War was repugnant. He was a non-resistant and all around him was war and persecution. Many of his neighbors had gone to Holland where the Mennonites had found a haven and had prospered. The story of the Holy Experiment of William Penn in far off America had been translated into Dutch and German. In 1710 a band of Swiss-Mennonites had gone to America. One of this party, a man names Martin Kindig, returned on a visit to the old country. He brought a glowing report of the advantages to be had by immigration. Further-more the Mennonites of Holland formed a commission on foreign needs and assisted some to their less fortunate brethren from Palatinate and Switzerland in immigrating to this new land.

In 1722, the same year that Christian Bomberger received his letter of recommendation, it is recorded that the pensionary in Holland went to the assembly and told them that a great number of Germans had arrived enroute to America by way of England. They were told that the English were objecting to so many Germans coming at one time. However, some means were found to see that they were sent on their way to the colonies.

Traveling was no sinecure in those days. It took a month or more to come down the River Rhine to Rotterdam. Sometimes several months were required to cross the Atlantic ocean. Comforts were few on board the ships. The Redemptioner system by which the Palatine sold his services for his passage way, virtually a form of slavery, did not come until later. It is entirely probable that this Bomberger family had sufficient money to pay their own passage way and brought with them considerable goods. At any rate it is practically certain that they stopped off with Herrs and Kindigs at Pequea and later made their way to the place for which they secured a deed in 1733 from the William Penn heirs.

We may gather from the letter of recommendation that Christian Bomberger was a farmer of some repute, he knew good soil, he knew how to till that soil and so did his family. He knew that a limestone country was a fertile country. He chose a site for his homestead when traveling through the wilderness at a place where he could build a home on the side of a hill with water convenient, a place where gravel-land joined the limestone land-such in the old country had always marked a place of great fertility.

I feel sure that there are people who peruse these pages who perhaps know more about the traditions of those early days than I do, but that's all they are, merely traditions. We have no record, no authentic record, until quite a number of years later. We do know, however, that the oldest son was named Johann and the second son Christian. The oldest son had five sons, named, John Michael, Christian, Joseph and Jacob. The youngest son, Christian, married a Miss Longenecker. He was a preacher of the gospel in the Mennonite church. He had five sons named, Johannes, Christian, Joseph, Jacob and Abraham. From this point on begins the working out of the various family trees which eventually will lead to the individual members of the generations living today.

Christian married Maria. (Maria was born in 1683 in Eschelbronn, , Baden-Württemberg, DEU, died in Warwick Twp., Lancaster, PA and was buried before 1742 in Warwick Twp.: Bomberger's Burial Ground, Lancaster, PA.)