MollyPitcher7

Molly Pitcher - 7

The Life and Times
          of
Johann Christian Gutjahr
               By
      Robert C. Goodyear

             Robert C. Goodyear
    Great, Great, Great, Grandson of
   Mary Ludwig Hays (Molly Pitcher)

Johann Christian Gutjahr, the ancestor of the family of this
record, was born in the Venetian section of Merseburg,
Saxony, Germany at eight A.M., 25 October 1714, and was
baptized in the St. Thomas Lutheran Church there on the
28th. He was the seventh child of Johann Gottfried
Gutjahr, a mason, and his wife, Magdalena Kuehn.

Exactly why or when Christian left Merseburg, we do not
know. We do know that he was born in a period of turmoil
in Europe. A succession of civil and religious wars had
reduced to poverty thousands who had been prosperous
farmers and tradesmen, and nowhere was the suffering
more severe than in Germany.

Since no record of Christian's arrival appears in the
existing passenger lists of the Port of Philadelphia,
perhaps he landed in New Castle, Delaware, and from there
went to Wilmington. He may have sailed from Hamburg,
Germany, or possibly from Rotterdam or Amsterdam in
Holland, as many did. The sea voyage from any of these
ports to the New World lasted at least seven weeks, even
with the best of winds. Gottlieb Mittelberger in his
"Journey to Pennsylvania" graphically describes the
hardships he encountered on such a voyage. Upon his
arrival in the Colonies, he was probably required to swear
an Oath.

The memoir [Lebenslauf] of Christian's life, compiled
anonymously at his death, but containing some of his own
writings, states that he probably arrived in this country
about 1738 and may have served as an indentured servant
in Philadelphia, Pa., and/or Wilmington, Del. Many
immigrants, because of the unforeseen costs involved in
the long crossing to the New World, were compelled upon
arrival, to indenture themselves to someone who would
pay the expense of their passage. An individual thus
indentured was simply regarded as a worker bound by
contract to perform a specified amount of labor for a given
length of time. The service carried no disgrace with it and,
at the end of the contract, the individual enjoyed all the
privileges and rights of a free citizen.

The first record we have of Christian is the entry of his
marriage in Lancaster, Pa., March 1746 when he was thirty-
two, to nineteen-year-old Margaretha Roesner.
Margaretha, born 3 May 1722, had emigrated from
Hohenloischen [?], Germany, with her parents, both of
whom had died at sea. She was sixteen when she arrived.
She stayed for some time in Falkner Schwanen (Falkner's
Swamp), which was the site of an early German Lutheran
Congregation near Philadelphia, before going to Lancaster.

When the Gutjahrs were married, the town of Lancaster
was inhabited mostly by Germans and had about three
hundred, homes with the number increasing every year.
The town grew because of its central location and the
availability of provisions and accommodations, and
because the land around it was then, as it is now, "a
paradise for farmers." It had good soil, a long growing
season, temperate weather, and adequate rain.

Settlers living to the west came to Lancaster to shop
rather than make the longer journey to Philadelphia. Even
though it took many hours to travel the sixty-five miles
between the towns, wagons carrying food and supplies
traveled to and from Philadelphia keeping the Lancaster
storekeepers provisioned. The Old Conestoga Road, a
wagon path in existence since 1714, provided the access
between the two markets. By 1754, Lancaster had grown
to five hundred houses and two thousand inhabitants.

Two-thirds of the population of Lancaster during the
period 1730-1790 were German-speaking people. The
English settlers called them "Dutchmen," a corruption of
the word for German, "Deutsch." Most were farmers,
although there was a large number of highly skilled
artisans and a smaller group of professional men among
them.

Christian was both a farmer and an artisan - he was a
hatter. While he resided in Lancaster, he must have rented
a dwelling because in the years 1751-1757 he paid
Borough taxes on a lot only, with no house on it. Although
the tax clerk recorded his name as "Goodjare," and in
1757, the last year he was listed in Lancaster Borough, as
"Goodwar." the name eventually was Anglicized to
"Goodyear."

The Moravian faith, which the couple espoused, appeared
in Lancaster in the 1740's. Its official name was the Unitas
Fratrum (Unity of Brethren). The first bishop of the
Moravians, Count Zinzandorf of Saxony, preached in the
Lancaster Courthouse as early as 1742. The Moravians
were met with slander, bigotry, and violence, and were
despised by members of the Lutheran and Reformed
congregations. However, the Rev. Laurence T. Nyberg,
pastor of the Lutheran Church in Lancaster, gradually
became interested. By the spring of 1746, some eight to
ten families from that church separated and built a new
stone "free church," [St. Andrews] with Nyberg as pastor,
where all would be at liberty to preach. It actually became
the nucleus of a Moravian Congregation, and in 1749,
Abraham Reincke was installed as pastor.

The names John Christian and Margaret F. Gutjahr
appeared on a 1749 list of Lancaster Moravian Church
members which was handwritten by Bro. Abraham
Reincke. In 1750, the Lancaster Moravians built their own
large stone meeting house.

Through all the persecution and hostility, our ancestors
remained steadfast in their new faith, and their third child,
Marle Buetgar Gutjahr, born 21 August 1749, was baptized
by the Moravian Brother Reincke. Their first child, a son,
Johann Christian [Jr.] seems to have been born on 26
March 1746, while their second child, Catharina, had been
born in Lancaster, 23 January 1747.

Christian's family continued to expand, and their second
son, Johann Georg, was born on 30 September 1751 (O.
S.). It was the custom among German families to give all
children baptismal names such as Johann, Hans, or Anna.
The second name, the Christian name, was used with or
without the baptismal name. In this family all the boys were
given the baptismal name of Johann.

Although Christian and Margaretha were happy with their
new baby son, he was little more than a month old when
they were saddened by the death of his sister, Maria, who
died on 5 November 1751.

The year 1753 saw the arrival of Johann Gottfried
[Frederick] born 19 May, and baptized 20 May by Brother
Anton Wagner. The sponsors were Georg and Catharine
Graft, who had stood for all the previous children.
Gottfried [Frederick] is one of the two male offspring of
Christian and Margaretha from whom we shall trace
descendants to the present day.

The year 1753 also saw some two thousand Frenchmen
land on the south shore of Lake Erie, build forts, and
establish an advance post on the Allegheny River at
Venango [Franklin], Pa. This brought home to the Province
of Pennsylvania a further awareness of the ongoing rivalry
between England and France for the possession of the
Ohio Valley.

The capture of an English fort at the Forks of the Ohio by
the French marked the beginning of the French and Indian
War in 1754. “Urged on by the French, the Indians wrought
havoc among the scattered settlements of frontiersmen."
Panic-stricken, they fled to the eastern counties. In 1755,
there were reports of Indian raids less than thirty miles
from Lancaster, so a watch of sixty men was set up each
night. During this time, Lancaster, because of its strategic
location, was important to the defense of the back
country, and it became a western military center. British
regulars and Provincial militiamen were quartered there,
and the residents were required to house them.

During 1757-1758, five hundred or more British soldiers
were billeted in Lancaster, which provided a certain
amount of security to those residing there. War materials
were stored there, and it "also served as a communication
center for conveying intelligence to the back country."

Although the war between the French and English was
ended in 1763, there continued to be trouble with the
Indians, and Lancaster still received refugees from the
frontier settlements which were attacked. Even after 1769,
Lancaster continued to serve as a western military depot.

We recount these brief details of the foment among which
our progenitors lived to evoke the tenor of the times and
to enable us to appreciate their lives during this period
when they were living not on the actual frontier, but
certainly in the hub of military and political action.

Christian must have been torn by ambivalent feelings as
he heard the tales of Indian massacres and burnings which
led the frontier settlers to demand the extermination of the
Indians. He certainly knew of the Infamous Conestoga
Massacre of friendly Conestoga Indian men, women, and
children by the Paxton Boys in his own county of
Lancaster during the Christmas season of 1763. As a
Moravian, he knew that his was the only religious body
which made a serious and persistent effort to educate and
convert the Indians while still allowing them to retain their
ethnic pride. Unfortunately, the unremitting colonization by
white people mitigated against the success of this worthy
Moravian missionary project.

In the midst of all these stirring events, the little family
continued to grow with the addition of Johanna on 23 July
1755. She was baptized by Brother Bader and had a
number of sponsors including Catharine Graf and Jacob
Till. Johanna appears in later records as Anna and
sometimes as Anna Johanna.

Two years later, on 20 October 1757, Johann Ludwick
appeared. Brother Bundt baptized him, and the sponsors
were again the Grafs. Ludwick is the second of the two
brothers whose descendants will be traced down to today.
Soon after this, in 1759, the Gutjahr family moved to a
farm in Warwick Township, near Lititz, still in Lancaster
County, and transferred their church membership to the
Lititz Congregation.

In 1758, there were 185 farm units in Warwick Township,
154.2 average acres per farm, 41.9 average cleared acres
per farm, 2.6 average horses per farm, 6.6 average cattle
per farm, 5.7 average sheep per farm, 10.7 average acres
per farm in grains. Christian’s farm of 20 cultivated and 20
uncultivated acres was not a large one. By 1782, in
addition to his 2 horses and 1 cow, he had acquired 3
sheep. Sheep were usually raised only to clothe the family,
supplying wool and linsey-woolsey for clothing. By 1772,
there were 211 farm units in Warwick Township, 125.1
average acres per farm, 35.3 average acres cleared, 2.4
average horses per farm, 3.1 average cattle and 3.8
average sheep. Christian was close to the average for
livestock, but not in acreage. This may have been because
he was a hatter as well as a farmer, and perhaps his work
as an artisan took precedence over farming.

As the wife of a farmer, Margaretha would have looked
after the house, spun the wool, tended the flower and
vegetable gardens and the poultry, milked the cows, and
helped in the fields when necessary.

Although the Township was growing, the town of Lititz
still, in 1774, had unlighted, muddy streets with cows
wandering freely down them. The houses were lighted by
candles and heated by fireplaces or occasionally small
wood stoves. Cooking, however, was still done in the
fireplace.

Christian first appears on the Warwick Township tax rolls
in 1769 paying an assessment of three shillings sixpence
on his 40 acres, 20 cultivated and 20 uncultivated, 2
horses, and 1 cow. He continued on the Township tax rolls
paying Provincial and State assessments, and then in
1777, when the tax structure changed, Continental, State,
and county levies. In 1780 his 40 acres were valued at 30
pounds, and he paid 18 shillings Continental tax.

Also listed on the Warwick tax rolls were Nicholaus Morret
and his son, Hartman, names to be closely associated with
the Goodyears over the years. In 1769, Nicholaus was
taxed on 150 acres, 60 cultivated, 90 uncultivated, 2
horses, 3 cattle, and 8 sheep. The next year, 1770,
Nicholaus served as tax collector for the Township.

Christian's first child to be born in Warwick Township was
Elizabeth on 10 April 1760. In 1761, the second year of the
reign of George III, Christian decided to become a
naturalized citizen of England, even though he probably
took an oath of loyalty to the English King when he first
set foot on American soil. To accomplish this, he had to
travel to Philadelphia. At the Supreme Court of the
Province of Pennsylvania on Thursday, 10 September l76l,
one of ninety-nine, fifty-five of whom were from Lancaster
County, Christian became a naturalized citizen of England.

At two year Intervals, Christian's next three children were
born; Rosina on 4 June 1762, Johann Mattheus on 28 April
1764, and Anna Magdalena, named for her grandmother,
on 3 June 1766. Susanna, their twelfth and last child, born
10 July 1769, died in that same year. Only the year is
recorded.

In little more than a decade since the close of the French
and Indian hostilities, war came again to the country, the
province, and the county. In this conflict, known as the
Revolutionary War, about one-sixth of the population, or
about fifty thousand, of the Province of Pennsylvania were
conscientious objectors and therefore non-combatants,
like the Quakers and Moravians, and many of them were
Pennsylvania German.

The Moravians in Lititz were surrounded by military
preparations and activities in nearby Lancaster. The town
was manufacturing rifles and furnishing wagons, six
hundred on one occasion, and other supplies to the
American Army. Stores of powder and lead were kept
there, and, beginning in 1755 to the end of the war,
prisoners of war were confined there and guarded by the
Militia of Lancaster, York, and Cumberland Counties. For
one day, 27 September 1777, when the Continental
Congress arrived there, Lancaster was the capital city of
the new nation.

The diaries of the Lititz Moravian community record a
resolve not to sell any more tea in their store after 25
February 1775. In July, when Congress ordered the non-
associators, those who refused to bear arms, to contribute
money toward, government expenses, the Moravian
Brothers appointed collectors to implement the order.

On 8 July 1776, a loud trumpet blast brought the citizens
of Lititz to the Zum Anker Inn (today the site of the General
Sutter Inn). There they listened to the reading of the
Declaration of Independence which had been issued in
Philadelphia on 4 July. No celebration ensued, and it was
considered so inconsequential that it was not mentioned in
the Congregation Diary for that day. Lancaster and
Philadelphia, in contrast, celebrated the momentous
announcement with parades, the ringing of church bells,
and the shooting off of cannons.

Because the Colonies had now declared independence, the
General Assembly of Pennsylvania passed the Test Laws
in 1777, requiring the renunciation of King George III, and
the swearing of allegiance to the Commonwealth of
Pennsylvania. Although the taking of oaths was against
the principles of the Moravians, the Lititz Diary notes that
"twelve adult members and considerable number pf the
younger men . . . had secretly taken the oath."

Among those who decided to take the oath were
Christian's sons, Ludwick Gutsler [Goodyear] and Gotfried
[Frederick] Gootsor [Goodyear], whose names appear
thus on the list of those who took the Oath of Allegiance to
the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania in the town of
Lancaster on 12 June 1778.

After some protestations from Moravian Bishop Ettwein,
the Brother's House in Lititz was used as a temporary
hospital for the sick and wounded soldiers after the Battle
of Germantown. The Army used it for a period of eight
months, from 19 December 1777 to 28 August 1778, and
Lititz was never the same afterwards.

In 1777, the Militia Act, which gave Pennsylvania its first
draft law, was passed. This required the service of all
white males between the ages of eighteen and fifty-three,
capable of bearing arms, to serve two months on active
duty. Battalion districts were set up and subdivided into
eight companies. Each company, divided into eight
classes, was usually comprised of men from the same
neighborhood.

By this time, at sixty-three, Christian was beyond the age
for the draft. However, his sons, Frederick, Ludwick, and
Christian, Jr., served in the Lancaster County Militia, and
his sons, Georg, and Mattheus, served in a York County
Battalion. Serving with the Lancaster County Goodyears
were the Morret men whose male and female descendants
would become intermarried with the Goodyears when the
two families later moved to Cumberland County.

Christian and Margaretha withstood the shortages of tea,
salt, sugar, meat, and other foods, the depreciation of the
currency, inflationary prices, and the other vicissitudes of
war. They had their children around them and by now
several of them had married and produced grandchildren.
Their sons were relatively safe, serving in the militia
guarding the home front.

Their twenty-six year old daughter, Catharine Gutjahr
Rauch, then the mother of three, died on 2 January 1783.
Peace came to the land in that same year, and the Lititz
Diary records: "The church and community flourished."

On 13 August 1787, the church building of the Lititz
Moravian Congregation on Church Square was dedicated,
and the members were awakened at 5 A.M. by the
trombones playing for the first time from the new steeple.
The Goodyears undoubtedly contributed to this building in
one way or another.

Four years later, on 12 February 1791, Christian passed
away at seventy-six plus years of age. A man who, through
a set of circumstances and partly of his own volition, had
been a citizen of three countries - his native Saxony,
British through choice and immigration, and American
through the fortunes of the war of Independence. At his
death, of their twelve children, nine survived as well as
thirty-three grandchildren of whom we have a record. As
far as is known, he died without a will, but he left for
posterity some of his words and thoughts in the
Lebenslauf or memoir of his life. He was buried in the Old
St. James Cemetery in Lititz. The cemetery area still exists,
but grave markers are no longer in place. The Lititz
Moravian Archives, however, do retain a record, of "burials
"there.

Margaretha, who served the neighborhood as a midwife,
continued to live on the farm with her children after her
husband's death. She had borne him twelve children, lost
three, and at her death was survived by forty-four
grandchildren and two great-grandchildren. After living a
full life in exciting times, she died on 13 December 1799,
aged seventy-two years. She is buried in the married
woman's section of the new cemetery, called the "Flats"
behind the Church Square in Lititz.

In 1979, the Goodyear Family Association purchased a new
grave marker to replace the original one of sandstone
which had weathered so badly as to be illegible.

Agricultural frontiers were moving farther westward, and
Cumberland County, organized in 1750 from part of
Lancaster County, beckoned. So, after the deaths of both
their father and mother, Ludwick and Frederick took off to
establish their families iCumberland County.