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From: "Cheryll Reed" <>
Subject: [SNOWHILL] The American Settler continued (part 2)
Date: Tue, 2 Dec 2003 12:09:18 -0500


Tradition states that Johann Diedrich Fahnestock came to America to avoid
conscription, fearing that on account his size and strength he might be
forced to join the guards of Frederick Wilhelm of Prussia, all of whom were
of gigantic stature. While this may have been true, he was also undoubtedly
influenced in his decision by the fact that his older brother Johann
Heinrich would (and did) inherit the Halten farm. About the last of June
1726 he set sail from Holland (or America, via England; arriving at New York
on St. Michael's Day, September 29th. He was accompanied by his wife, two
oldest sons, the younger of whom died on the voyage, and his sister, Anna
Catrina. who later married Heinrich Dierdorff. In a letter written to his
relatives from New York, Oct. 15, 1726 (see appendix), he says, among other
things, that they were fourteen days on the journey from Holland to England
and ten weeks from England to New York.

He found the New World much to his liking and was impressed with the high
wages, the abundance and cheapness of food, and the low taxes. He probably
earned his living at first as a weaver since he brought with him a weaver's
shuttle and writes that it was a "necessary occupation". Two years after his
arrival in New York he was settled on the Raritan River, near Amwell, N. J.,
"close to the Evangelical Church ", where he 1ived for many years in
association with the Dunkards. The community centered around a crossroads
now known as Baptisttown but on older records as Dunkertown. It is in
Delaware Twp., Hunterdon Co., N. J., about a mile northeast of the
Washington Headquarters. At first he rented his land there, on which he
raised cattle, horses and cows. By 1734 he had a farm of 105 acres. Living
near him was his sister, Anna Catrina, who had married a carpenter, Heinrich
Dierdorff "born in the Duchy of Neuwit", son of Anthony and Christina
Dierdorff.

Catrina (Fahrenstuck) Dierdorff died several years before 1748. Her husband
married 2nd, Elizabeth Moore, and died Nov.- Dec. 1752, survived by three
children of his first wife, Abraham, Christian, and Henry Dierdorff. His
widow, Elizabeth, married (2) Daniel Bollinger

From:
The Fahnestock genealogy : ancestors and descendants of Johann Diedrich
Fahnestock, Concord, N.H.: Rumford Press, 1945, 461 pgs. (pgs. 9-14)


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