The Schumacher family was prominent in the records of religious persecution in Kriegsheim on the Upper Rhine.1 Peter Schumacher was born around 1622, the son of the Mennonites Arnold Schumacher and Agnes Roesen. Peter was an early convert to Quakerism through the efforts of traveling missionaries. In 1665 he was fined two guilders for attending a meeting of Friends at Worms, a two-hour ride away from Kreigsheim.2  He and his brother George and other Quakers were fined for refusing to bear arms, and for holding religious meetings. The fines included one shilling sterling (imposed upon every Friend for attendance at each religious meeting), numerous cows, “a fat sow”, an ass, bedding, pewter, and from one-seventh to one-fifth of their garden produce.”3 When the local people protested this treatment of the Friends, the Burggraff John Shoffer “forbade their speaking much about it.”4

In 6^th Month, 1677 Penn himself visited this part of the Rhineland.

“… we returned that night by the Rhine to Worms, from whence we … Walked on Foot to Crisheim, which is about six English miles from Worms. We had a good Meeting from the Tenth until the Third Hour, and the Lord’s Power sweetly opened to many of the Inhabitants of the Town that were at the Meeting; yea, the Vaught or Chief Officer himself Stood at the Door behind the Barn, where he could hear, and not be seen; who went to the Priest and told him, that it was his Work, if we were Hereticks, to discover us to be such, but for his Part, he had heard nothing but what was Good, and he would not meddle with us. … Poor Hearts, a little Handful surrounded with Great and Mighty Countries of Darkness…”5

In 1678 Peter Schumacher, his brother George, Christoffel Morrel, Hans Laubach, and Gerret Hendricus circulated a daring poem as a broadside, showing their defiance of the authorities.

“Let our proud foes fume and rage,
Let their power vainly storm!
God is with us in this age;
He regards their threats with scorn.
Though they hold us for their sport,
Our hope still is stayed on God!”6

The Quakers continued to be a thorn in the side of the authorities, until in May 1685 the government threatened to banish them.

“The Friends of Krisheim had still to meet the church-tithes and the Turkish-war taxes which were demanded of them, both of which they steadfastly refused to pay as being contrary to their religious principles. Their refusal also to stand sentinel at the town’s walls was the last straw which broke the patience of the electoral steward at Hochheim, Herr Schmal by name, who [petitioned] the government to order the banishment of ‘the foolish sect’.”7

On the 8^th of May, Gerhard Hendricks, Hans Peter Umstat, and Peter Schumacher petitioned for permission to leave Kriegsheim. They needed passports to travel up the Rhine and out of German lands. It is not clear whether they received passports, but they probably did, since they appeared in Rotterdam by early August. There they signed contracts with the merchant Dirck Sypman for land in Germantown. Peter paid two rix dollars for 200 acres. Sypman, a wealthy Mennonite merchant of Krefeld, had no intention of immigrating himself; he had bought rights to 5,000 acres in Pennsylvania, to be laid out on condition that he settle a number of families there. Schumacher was to proceed “with the first good wind” to Pennsylvania, where the land was to be laid out.8 At the same time that Schumacher signed his deed, Gerhard Hendricks and Hans Peter Umstat signed similar deeds. It is possible that Sipman paid their passage as part of the deal.9

From Rotterdam they would catch a boat to London, and then journey across the Atlantic to Pennsylvania. Peter was traveling with four of his children. He had been married about 1655, but his wife’s name is not known.10 They had five known children before her death, sometime before 1685. One of the daughters, Agnes, was married to the Mennonite Dielman Kolb, and would stay in Germany. The others—Peter, Mary, Frances, and Gertrude—sailed with Peter on the Frances and Dorothy, and arrived in Philadelphia on 12 October 1685.11 Passengers arriving in Philadelphia were supposed to register their arrival with the authorities. This was largely ignored, but many of the passengers from the Frances and Dorothy were registered, including Peter Schumacher’s family and his cousin Sarah, Isaac Shepherd, Hans Peter Umstat, Garret Hendricks, Henry Pookeholes, John Saxby, and Aron Wonderley.12 Sarah Shoemaker, the widow of Peter’s brother George, came on the Frances and Dorothy with seven children and settled on 200 acres in Cheltenham.13

When Peter arrived he found that Sipman’s land was not convenient for settlement. “Pieter acknowledged that he had received 200 acres in Germantown from Sipman, which shall be delivered according to measurement by Herman Isaacs op den Graeff, for a yearly rent of two rix-dollars a year, “without any reduction, whatsoever the pretense may be”.14 But when he arrived in Germantown he found that Sipman’s land was “so far out of the way that said Peter Schumacher upon his arrival could not possibly go thither”.15 Therefore Herman Isaacs op den Graeff tried to preserve the contract between Sipman and Schumacher by granting to Shoemaker 25 acres in Germantown (adjacent to land Shoemaker bought from Abraham op den Graeff), plus 25 acres further north in Krisheim, and the remaining 150 acres in land of Sipman’s not yet laid out.”16

Peter and his family settled into the life of Germantown. In 1691 he was naturalized and made a citizen, along with his son Peter, nephews George and Isaac, and cousin Jacob. The Germans living in Pennsylvania at the time were eager to be naturalized, to ensure the legality of their land ownership. At the time Germantown had some independence, as Penn had promised, electing their own burgesses and enacting ordinances. Peter (now Anglicized to Shoemaker) served as a burgess and a justice.17 The Germantown people still had to pay taxes, and in 1693 Peter Shoemaker was on the tax list. He served on juries. One memorable case was in June 1701, when the jury decided that “the cart and lime killed the man, the wheel wounded his back and head and it killed him.”18 In 1704 Daniel Falkner went into the Germantown court and abused the justices, including Peter Shoemaker, railing most greviously” and using “foul language”. He went out crying, “You are all fools.”19

Peter was active in the affairs of the Germantown friends.20  Before they built a meeting house, they sometimes met at his house, “’in the meadow’ a quarter of a mile east of Germantown Road on Shoe-maker’s Lane now Penn Street, where William Penn preached to the people from the doorstep.”21 Peter served as a witness for Quaker marriage in Germantown, attended Quarterly Meeting as a delegate, and contributed to the building of a stone meeting house in 1705.22 Two of his children married under the auspices of Abington Monthly Meeting.23

Peter died in 1707 in Germantown. He had outlived his wife by over twenty years. “It is not known where he was buried, but it is presumed he was laid to rest in the old Shoemaker Burying Ground…on the south side of the present Cheltenham Avenue…just west of York Road…In the early Friends meetings, it is referred to as the Cheltenham Burial ground.”24

 

Children of Peter Shoemaker:25

Agnes, died 1705, married Dielman Kolb, stayed in Germany, where Dielman died in 1712. They had seven children. Several of the sons became Mennonite ministers and came to Pennsylvania.

Peter, born Germany, died 1741, married in 1697 Margaret Op den Graeff, daughter of Herman.26 Peter was a carpenter, active in public life in Germantown and in the affairs of the monthly meeting, acting as an overseer and repeatedly serving as a representative to the Quarterly Meeting. In 1701 he served as overseer for the school. 27 In 1703 he was appointed, with Isaac Shoemaker, to arrange for building a prison house and stocks. In 1717 he was chosen, with Thomas Canby, Morris Morris and Everard Bolton, to “comprize ye Mo: Meeting Minits, whereby they may be Transcribed according to ye mo: Meetings order.” He died in 1741 and left his land to his three sons, Isaac, Peter and John.28 Children of Peter and Margaret: Peter, Isaac, John, Mary, Margaret, Elizabeth, Agnes, Sarah.

Mary, married Reynier Herman van Barkelow. Van Barkelow was born in the Netherlands and came to New York as an infant. Along with his brother Harman, he became involved with the Labadists, a Pietist sect based in Holland that had obtained land from Augustine Hermann in Bohemia Manor, Cecil County, Maryland. Mary and Reynier moved to Maryland and had a large family.29 Reynier’s will was probated in 1713 in Delaware.30 In it he named his wife Mary, children Peter, Mary, Margarette, Daniel, Susanna, William, Herman, Jacob, Samuel and Rebecca.

Fronica, married about 1690 Isaac Jacobs van Bebber, son of Jacob Isaacs van Bebber, a Mennonite of Krefeld. Along with Fronica’s sister Mary and her husband, Isaac and Fronica moved from Germantown to Bohemia Manor.31 Isaac died there in 1723, leaving a will naming children Jacob, Hester, Christina, Veronica, Peter and Isaac. His wife Fronica had died before him.32

Geertje, married Peter Cleaver the emigrant, in 1695 at Abington Meeting. Her name is often anglicized to Catherine. Peter had immigrated to Germantown about 1689 and worked as a weaver. In 1699 Peter and Catherine moved to adjoining Bristol Township, Philadelphia County and raised a large family. Peter died in 1727 and named seven children in his will; Catherine had died before him. Children: Christine, Peter, Derick, Eve, John, Isaac, Agnes.33