where did the Maryland Readers come from ?

The Maryland Readers are a German family who were first mentioned what was then Frederick County, Maryland and now part of Carroll County. At least part of the time they lived at or near Pipe Creek in what was then called Pipe Creek hundred not far from the present town of Westminster, Maryland, and attended the German Reformed Church of St. Benjamin's or Kreiders Church at Pipe Creek. Great and little pipe Creek's art Easter tributaries of the Potomac River. In these Maryland church records the surname spelled Rader, Rorder, Räder, Röther and in other contemporary records the name is also spelled Raider, Reeder or Reader. These appear to be variance on the common German surname of Roeder or Röder. In 1804 the Readers removed to Fredericksburg, Spotsylvania County, Virginia and in 1818 they traveled on to Goshen, Claremont County Ohio. After 32 years there, in 1850, they went by wagon to the vicinity of Tipton, Cedar County, Iowa. Since then the family has spent all spread all over the U.S. No known descendents were left in Maryland.

Regarding Jacob Reader Sr. (born Mar 30/31, 1757 and died Mar 16, 1842 at Goshen, Ohio. – tombstone record) family information as to parents and brothers and sisters is not yet definitely proven. We know he was educated, was able to sign his name and was involved in numerous property transactions. The earliest facts we have are the entries concerning him or members of his family -- are an entry in the First Reformed Church of Baltimore and in the St. Benjamin’s Church register as well as entries in the 1790 and 1800 censuses of Frederick County Maryland, Westminster District number six. In most cases, in most of these records the name is given as Jacob Rader. In the census list 1800 the names of Mary Durbin, Jacob Sherman and Michael Wagner are listed adjacent to Jacob Rader's entry. Earlier records of the St. Benjamin’s Church and deeds and other records in the vicinity of Westminster show the presence of a Michael Reeder or Rader, with wife or Barbara, who are old enough to be the parents of Jacob Reader (?17571842). Jacob Reader Sr. married Rosina Wagner, who was a child with her parents Michael and Maria Elizabeth (Shuee) Wagner worshiped at Winters church were the Wagner's are buried. J. T. sharff in his “History of Western Maryland), page 905, states: “ Many Germans from the old country and Pennsylvania settled in this part of new Windsor District as early as the year 1750. They worshiped at their homes until the increase in their numbers necessitated building of a church. It was 1 1/2 miles from new Windsor, on the road to Uniontown with Lutheran and German Reformed together, built 1766”

The first Reader to appear in area is Michael Reeder, who bought 108 acres called “ the resurvey on Lamb’s choice bogg” from Thomas Durbin on March 22, 1774, and this purchase indicates the probability that he lived near Durbin's as Jacob later did. In this deed Michael Reeder's wife is named Barbara. Meanwhile, in the court minutes of Frederick County for 1778-79 is entered (on page 267) that “Mike Reeder”, listed with 20 others “did take and repeat the oath of Fidelity and support to the State of Maryland”. Thus qualifying him as a Revolutionary Patriot. On March 17, 1779, Michael Reeder (spelled Rader and St. Benjamin's church records) bought a property called “Father's advice” from John Bricker for 330 pounds W. Winchester Sr. is one of the witnesses. A year later, 17 Aug 1780 Michael Reader and wife Barbary sell “Father’s advise” for 3,000 pounds to John Yunte, wheelwright of the “Commonwealth of Pennsylvania”. One witness to this deed is W. Winchester Jr. In these deeds and the fidelity oath, all recorded by English speakers and writers the name is spelled Reader.

A Michael Röder also spelled Roeder and Barbara Meyer were married 26 Feb 1760 at the New Goshenhoppen Reformed Church, East Greenville, Upper Hanover Township, Montgomery County Pennsylvania. Could this be the couple that came to Maryland in 1774? One record says they went to Bedford County Pennsylvania, but an extensive search has so far revealed no trace of them in that County. This Michael Roeder Jr. was a son of Michael roeder Sr. and the first wife susanna Zimmerman. [In 1725 Michael Roeder Sr.'s mother Anna tauber Roeder had emigrated to several children from Mutterstadt in the Palatinate, near Mannheim. Her husband and Michael's father Johann Adam Roeder had died there in 1721] The will of Michael Roeder Sr. probated in 10 June 1789 from Upper Hanover Township states: “And further I give my to my eldest son Michael Roeder the Sum of three pounds in Cash for his Right for his being my eldest son …” confirmation as to were Michael Roeder Jr. and his wife Barbara went comes from “The journals of and papers of David Schultz”, published by the Schwenkfelter Library, Pennsburg, Pennsylvania. On page 175 of this book, Schulze entered the remark” “4. wrote Adam Moyers will again.” After this follows a quote of part of Adam Moyer's long will which includes the following bequest: “-- and also to my eldest daughter Barbara as wife of Michael Roeder now living in the State of Maryland --. The sum of one hundred pounds in cash, which said sums together with what I have given them in my book account, are all to be accounted to my other estate.” This will dated 7 Jan 1786 of Adam Mayer of Upper Hanover, Montgomery County, Pennsylvania was recorded January 16, 1789. Near the end of this will Abraham Mayer states: “And secondly, relating [to] the share of my said eldest daughter Barbara the wife of Michael roeder, as much as she may have yet to get a my estate the same I do hereby give and bequeath to all of her children got my him the said Michael Roeder to be divided to them in equal shares, when they shall be of full age, except so much as she, my said daughter Barbara should have need, or be necessary for her own substance and support, so much thereof be paid to her during her Life Time in my said Executors—“

After their 1760 Marriage this couple Michael Roeder Jr. and wife had only one child, Elizabeth, christened at New Goshenhoppen 18 February 1772, but she died less than seven months later on 7 Sep 1772. It seems at the family was struck by an epidemic disease as three other children -- unnamed in the church Book aged about one, three and 11 years old died and were buried on 29 January, 12 February and 21 Feb 1773. none these three -- or any other children except Elizabetha, born to Michael and Barbara --were baptized at New Goshenhoppen. Because these entries say only children “of Michael Roeder” it is possible that at least one of them could have been a child of Michael Roeder Sr., and his second wife. After 1773 there are no further entries that could pertain to Michael Roeder Jr. at New Goshenhoppen . Since we know from the will of Adam Mayer [also spelled Meyer and Moyer], that Michael and Barbara removed to Maryland, it seems that the migration to that state must have been in 1774 (the year that Michael Reader purchased the “Resurvey on Lamb's choice Bogg” in Frederick county Maryland). Jacob is not a name that was used in the immediate family of Michael Roeder Sr. but Barbara Mayer had a brother named Jacob whom a son could have been named for.

Should Michael and Barbara Mayer Roeder Jr. married at New Goshenhoppen, have been parent said Jacob Reader Sr. then he would most probably have been born after 1760 not in 1757. Since Jacob's wife is known to have been born in 1762 and his birth year comes only from his tombstone a later year for his birth is not unlikely. Because a family Bible preserves the record in German of Rosina Wagner's birth date, we also know that his wife Rosina Wagner Reader’s age at death was incorrectly indicated on her tombstone, the dates given there making her two years and 15 days older than she actually was. Another hint that Jacob was born later than the birth year suggested by his tombstone is that he did not take the oath of Fidelity in Frederick (now Carroll County) in 1778, when Mike Reader and Michael Wagner senior and Jr. did. Had he been born in 1761 , 2 he would have been born and 16 or 17 the time. If born in 1757 he would have been 21 and old enough to take the oath in 1778.

Descendants in Iowa believed that Jacob Reader saw Revolutionary service and his grave at Goshen, Ohio is marked as a revolutionary soldier. However, no record of services has been found in Maryland. His wife Rosina is said to have cooked a meal for the Major General the marquis de Lafayette during the Revolution. Revolutionary service has been incorrectly claimed for this Jacob reader with the DAR, and elsewhere, based on service records of a Jacob Reader of English descent with Revolutionary service in New York as well as, in another case from a record of service in Virginia of Jacob reader who is most likely is most unlikely to be the man buried a Goshen Ohio. All present evidence indicates that our Jacob Reader lived in Baltimore, Maryland at the time of the revolution where he may have met General Lafayette. Perhaps equally the meal served Lafayette was prepared by Rosina Wagner Reader while still living at her father's home. In an article published in the Baltimore Times, Sunday, January 31, 1886. Michael Wagner is said to have been a soldier in the American Revolution and a friend of General Washington, this probably could explain the reason for naming the various “George Washington” Readers.

In the records of St. Benjamin's (or Krieders) Evangelical Lutheran Church located just north of the site were Westminster [formally Winchester], Maryland developed, written Pfeiff Kreik in the Reformed church book, Michael Reder and wife are sponsors to the baptism, Nov. 23, 1777 of Daniel Frock (son of Daniel and Catherine Frock) – name spelled Frack elsewhere in the church book. This record is particularly important because this couple came from at New Goshenhoppen Church, Montgomery County, Pennsylvania. Their marriages entered in the Church Book there as follows: “married, 1768 September 6 Jacob Frack’s son Daniel Frack of New Goshenhoppen and Catharina daughter of the late yost wiand of New Goshenhoppen”. Daniel and Catharina (Katy) Frack had children baptized at both New Goshenhoppen and and St. Benjamin's at Pipe Creek. Clearly the fracks must have known the particular Michael and Barbara Reader and were married at New Goshenhoppen. Perhaps they came together or about the same time to Maryland. Michael Roeder Sr. of at New Goshenhoppen community had a daughter, Anna Barbara –half sister of Michael Jr., who married Jost Wiand and son of Wendel Wiand. A 1795 deed in Frederick County, Maryland between Yost wiand and a Jacob Ritter [apparently not related] may well indicate that this sister of Michael Roeder Jr. (with her husband Yost) also moved to Maryland.

On August 1, 1780 at St. Benjamin's Lutheran, Pipe Creek, Maria Catherine gund (daughter of Hannes Gund) was baptized and Michael Räder and wife are sponsors. [no gund or gend occurs elsewhere in the Pipe Creek church records nor at New Goshenhoppen. No such name appears to 1790 census for Maryland, and perhaps it has been misread or is misspelled. For instance, in old German script the letters G and Y are very similar] A map made by David Schultze and dated 1767 shows that Michael Roeder Sr. and Adam Mayer had adjoining farms in Upper Hanover Township. And that a nearby farm (late of [=owned by] Michael Zimmerman) belonged to John Yond. In another map dated years later this John Yond is gone and the tract belongs to another. [Johannes Yond and wife Elizabeth had a daughter, Anna Elizabeth, baptized July 23, 1769 at St. Paul's Lutheran Church in Upper Hanover Township near Red Hill.] This man could have been the same John Yunte to whom Michael Reader sold “Father's Advice” in August 1780, which in turn may indicate yet another connection between the Pipe Creek German colony and that of New Goshenhoppen.

Returning to the church records in Frederick now Carroll County Maryland. On April 4, 1763 a group of Lutherons and reformed church members in the Pipe Creek area made a union church agreement. A small tract of land was then acquired on October 8, 1765 from Johannes Kreider for the Union church and Kreider's name stuck to the church although Lutherans called at St. Benjamin's and the Reformed only Benjamin's. In both sets of pastoral records marriages and burials are lacking and the reformed register has a gap between 1788 and 1795 and only very scattered baptisms before 1785. The Lutheran record has considerable baptisms from the 1760s onward but if both Michael and Jacob Reader considered themselves Reformed members any baptisms in their families may have been part of the lost reformed records. As pastor Daniel Schroder indicated in 1790 (see below) Jacob Reader was considered a reformed church member.

It may be that Michael and Barbara Reader in Maryland were also of the Reformed church, as they do not appear in any Lutheran records as other than sponsors and other entries considered them may be lost or perhaps they worshiped elsewhere. As already indicated not all records of known churches and survived to the present in this part of Maryland. It seems that, after about 1780, Michael Reader and Barbara his wife had left the Pipe Creek area. On October 5, 1781 in Baltimore County, Maryland records indicate that a Michael Reader reported having found a stray horse. Then in 1783 the tax list of Middlesex hundred Baltimore County, had a location some 18 or 20 miles south of Pipe Creek, a Michael reader is listed as living on 30 acres, which made a part of a tract called “Coles Adventure”.

Judging from the foregoing, Michael and Barbara Mayer Rader could well have been the parents of the Jacob Reader who married Rosina Wagner. Evidences in favor the relationship are that both families lived in the Pipe Creek area. Both couples attended St. Benjamin’s church, and Jacob was of the reformed church persuasion as were the Roeders at New Goshenhoppen, although, Jacob and Rosina appeared in both the Lutheran and reformed sessions. These two Jacob and Rosina, must have married about 1780 when Michael and Barbara were worshiping at Pipe Creek. However, lists of marriages and burials are completely lacking at this church. The Winchester family are involved in deeds or as witnesses first with Michael and Barbara and then later, with Jacob and his son Michael whose wedding was witnessed in 1804 in Virginia by William Winchester senior’s son Stephen Winchester. The town Westminster Maryland, just south of St. Benjamin's church was originally named Winchester in honor of this family as William Winchester Sr. had established on his land. Another association is that Mary Durbin was listed next to Jacob reader in 1800 Federal Census, District #6 (The Pipe Creek area) and, since Michael Reader's original land purchase in Maryland was from Thomas Durbin, this suggested Jacob, in 1800, still lived near Durbin land. Also the death of many of the children of Michael and Barbara might explain why are Jacob Sr. by the 1790s seems to had few or no close relatives.

The above-mentioned deed records show at this Michael reader sold the tracks of land he bought in Frederick, now Carroll County, and there are no recorded deeds involving Jacob and Rosanna Reader until well after 1800. It may be that both Michael and Jacob, later on, were renters and thus this Michael, if he was Jacob's father, would have had little to leave in a will, or perhaps before his death he moved west, as Jacob and Rosina later did. Jacob and Rosina did name their eldest child Michael. but since that was her father's first name, the boy need not have been named after Jacob's father. The strongest proof that the father was indeed Michael Reader, however comes from a document discovered since I began to write this account. It is an entry in the records of the First Reformed Church of Baltimore, which reads, in translation, as following:

1784 January 18 Catherine Child parents and sponsors Father Jacob reader Mother Rosina sponsors Michael Reder born 11 October last year.

Grandparents often stood as sponsors to children and in this case it would have been easy for Michael reader to have ridden down from “Coles adventure”, located only a few miles to the north of Baltimore town, to attend this baptism. The stepmother of Michael Reader Jr. was named Catharina as was Barbara Mayer's mother. Rosina Wagner had a sister Caterina born in 16 Oct 1755.

Other than the above entry in Baltimore, the records cited here in St. Benjamin's church, the birth and death dates of many of the first two generations of Reeder/Readers are from tombstone records, with all the inaccuracy that may bring. We have not found the birth date of Jacob and Rosina's eldest son, Michael, but suppose it was about 1781 or two. The third known child, Elizabeth's tombstone at Tipton Iowa indicates a birth date of 11 September 1789. As this is a same day of the year as a birth date given at St. Benjamin's entry for her younger sister Rachel four years later this May indicate a mixup in entries kept in a family Bible

One record that appears to pertain to our Jacob Reader in the 1780s is contained in article of agreement dated 24 Sep 1787 between Woolrick Bruner of Milford Township, Bedford County, Pennsylvania, and Adam Snyder of Washington County, Maryland but “now [1787] living in the borough of Somerset.” The article contains a sale for 100 pounds of a house in “Baltimore Town” on Howard Street “joining that of the widow Bankles and now occupied [rented?] by Jacob Reader. The baptismal record (copied above), of a daughter, Catharina, born to Jacob and Rosina with a sponsor Michael Reder in Baltimore confirms Jacob Reader lived in Baltimore town in the 1780s. This could mean that early in his marriage he had a trade or other than farming. Records concerning two of his sons indicate that they held the profession of carpenter. As mentioned, the Winchester family of Westminster were associated with both Michael and Jacob Reader not only in Westminster near Pipe Creek but in Baltimore and later. William Winchester Jr. is buried in Baltimore 1812, “from his home on North Howard Street.” His brother Steven Winchester, married a member of the Howard family [Sally] as did Jacob and Rosanna Reader's daughter Rachel, who married on June 16, 1819 in Ohio, William Howart. Stephen Winchester was also a witness of the marriage of Jacob and Rosina’s eldest son, Michael Reader, at Fredricksburg Spotsylvania County, Virginia on December 13, 1804

The first entry concerning Jacob Reader's family at St. Benjamin’s Evangelical Lutheran Church occurred on the second Sunday after Trinity 13 June 1790, a list of those who went to communion after confession [entry number] 42. Michael Wagner, widower; 43 Rötherin [her] husband, ref[ormed]. This entry indicates a Jacob Reader or Röther was of the Reformed Church (as were the Roeders of New Goshenhoppen), while this communion and confession which Rosina and her father took part was in the Lutheran session which met and the same building. On that date Rosina Reader had attended church with her father, whose wife Maria Elizabeth (Shuee) Wagner had died in 1789. Michael Wagner normally worshipped and is buried with his wife at Winter’s Lutheran Church located 1 mi. west of New Windsor. In the fall of 1792 in the Lutheran session (St. Benjamin's) “Rahel”, daughter of Jacob and Rosina Röther, born 11 Sep 1792 was baptized October 7, 1792 sponsor: Elizabeth Shermännin, [Rosina Wagner’s sister] alone”. Then in the Reformed session was baptized on 9 May 1795 son of Jacob and Rosina Roeder, born 25 April. Sponsors” parents

Unfortunately it appears that Jacob (often called “Old Jacob” by descendants) and his wife Rosina Wagner seem to have stopped attending St. Bemjamin’s after 1787 – perhaps having shifted to a smaller church whose records do not survive – and so we have not found the birthdates of their (three?) youngest children. Jacob and Rosina however, were sponsors at St Benjamin’s to the baptism of Jacob Herbster July 17, 1796 and of Margaret Merkel May 21, 1797 daughter of Joh. And Nancy Merkel [a child f a Johannes Merkel and wife Eliz. Was baptized at New Goshenhoppen in 1790]. The tombstone of the third son of Jacob and Rosina, George Washington Reader of Tipton, Iowa indicates a birthdate of Jan. 8, 1787, but he was not baptized at St Benjamin’s. After this birth another daughter, Lydia was born, and perhaps a son John. It seems that William Reeder was the youngest child of Jacob and Rosina Reader, born about 1808 or 9 and by this time they had moved to Spotsylvania County, Virginia where there may not have been a German Church.