The Stout Family

The Stout Family

Source: History of Lehigh County, Pa., Charles Rhoads Roberts, 1914

The name Stuadt (Stoudt, Stout), is one of the early Palatinate family names. The
seat of the family is at Rothenberg. Members of the family figured prominently in
some of the Crusades. The family spread northward into Holland, where several
members obtained noble rank. During the persecutions of Bloody Alba, some members
of the family fled to England, one of them, Richard by name, enlisting in the
English navy. Upon one of his visits to New Amsterdam he met Penelope Van Princis,
who later became his wife, and they settled in Middletown, N.J., prior to 1688,
becoming the progenitors of a large and honorable family.

   
The Staudts of Pennsylvania come directly from the Palatinate and seem to be divided
into two groups, that of Berks and that of Bucks county. On Aug. 30, 1737, there
landed at Philadelphia, John Jacob, Johannes and Hans Adam Staudt, and on September
24th of the same year, Peter Staudt. These four, it is claimed, were brothers. The
following year, Peter and Daniel arrived, and in 1741 another Peter, and these were
joined in 1744 by George Wilhelm. It is believed that all of the above named were
related. John Jacob settled at what is now Perkasie, and was the father of the
following children: Abraham, Henry K., Jacob, Hannah, Magdalena, Annie Margaret.

   
Abraham was a man of prominence in his day, serving during the Revolution as a
member of the Committee on Safety, also of the Committee of Observation, member of
the Constitutional Convention of 1787 and of the Convention of 1789-90. The Stouts
of Lehigh and Northampton Counties are chiefly descendants of the Bucks group.

   
At the head of the Berks group stands John Michael Staudt, who took the oath of
allegiance at Philadelphia Sept. 18, 1733. Tradition says that his father died at
sea, and that the headship of the family fell upon him though he was only twenty-one
years of age. How large the family was is not known, but that Mathias, aged eight,
and Johannes, probably still younger, were in the group is certain, and it is quite
probable that the family was even larger.

   
John Michael Stoudt was born 1711 or 1712, and died May 13, 1776, aged 63 years, 5
months. His body and that of his wife, Barbara, were buried at the Berne church, of
which he is said to have been one of the founders. On Oct. 25, 1737, there was
surveyed for him a tract of land consisting of 180 acres on the west bank of the
Schuylkill river opposite the “flat meadows.” Later this number of acres was almost
doubled. The estate is beautifully located sloping towards the south and the
river. The dwelling, a substantial stone building was built over a fine spring of
water, no doubt in order to have water in case of an Indian attack. The scenery
along the river is romantic, a bridge now spans the river where formerly a ferry was
the means of crossing. The bridge is known as Stoudt’s Ferry bridge. To him and his
good wife Barbara, were born ten children: Johannes, Jacob, Michael, George,
William, John George, Jost, Anna Barbara, Catherine, Apolonia, and Elisabeth. John
Michael Staudt frequently acted as sponsor and guardian. The first act thus
recorded is found in the baptismal record of Rev. John Casper Stoever, when he, John
Michael Staudt and Elisabeth Brauer stood sponsor for Elisabeth, a daughter of Jacob
Amman, of Schuylkill, on April 29, 1735. He was naturalized as a citizen of Berks
county on April 10 or 11, 1761, at which time he declared that he had taken the
Sacrament on April 1, 1761.

   
Mathias (1725-1795), was married to Anna Margaret Schrader, (Oct. 13, 1728-May 22,
1797). They lived in Bern township and were members of the Berne Reformed
congregation where their ashes repose. To them were born five children: John;
Mathias; Jacob; Catherine Maria, married to Thomas Umbenhauer; and Elizabeth.

   
John (Johannes) Stoudt, settled in Brunswick township, now Schuylkill county, where
he had an estate of one hundred acres. He died prior to Oct. 28, 1773, when his
eldest son, John, about fourteen years of age, petitioned the court that his uncle,
Michael Staudt, of Bern township, be appointed his guardian. Nov. 11, 1773, Michael
Staudt was also appointed guardian for the other three children of John Staudt, of
Brunswick; Daniel, 13 years of age, Jacob, 11 years of age, and Anna Margreth, 8 1/2
years of age. Michael Staudt died May 13, 1776, and it became necessary for the
court to appoint new guardians for the children of John. On May 14, 1777, John
Stroudt, of Maiden Creek, was appointed guardian for Anna Margreth and George
William Stoudt, of Maiden Creek, for Daniel and Jacob.

   
Jacob Staudt, son of Michael, was born in Bern township, Nov. 12, 1738, and died in
Richmond township in Jan. 20, 1802. His remains and those of his wife lie buried at
St. John’s Union church, Kutztown, Pa. He is recorded as having a tract of land
consisting of 95 acres in Bern township in 1768. In 1790 he removed from Bern
township to Richmond township, having purchased the farm now owned by Edwin Kutz.
Margretha, the wife of Jacob Staudt, died cir 1819 and was also buried at
Kutztown. To them were born the following children: John Jacob, born May 17, 1776;
Adam, 1777-1853; John Henry, born May 17,1780; Daniel; Barbara, married to John
Schucker; Mary, married to Michael Knittle; Catherine, born Oct. 27, 1793, died May
28, 1804; and Elizabeth, married to William Ebling.

   
Daniel, son of Jacob and grandson of John Michael, was a distiller by trade. He
resided in Maiden Creek township, but his declining years were spent in and about
Kutztown, where he died in 1853 and was buried in Hottenstein’s private cemetery.
His wife, a Miss Bowman, whose parents removed to Ohio, and were neighbors to the
Breyfogel family, is said to have been one of the best spinners of her day, both as
to quality and quanity, also that she spun all her sewing thread. Their children
were: Adam, moved to Logansport, Ind., where he died; George, married Hannah
Borrel, and reared a family of nine children; Reuben, is mentioned below; Frank,
died unmarried; Margaretha, married Jacob Saul, of Molltown; Polly and Hannah died
unmarried; Maria, married Joseph Hampshire and lived at Bower’s Station; Hettie
Esther, died young; Isaac, served in the Mexican War, and soon after his return left
again for the Western country.

   
Reuben, the third son of Daniel, married Hannah Koch, daughter of John Koch and his
wife Catherine (Gehret), and this union was blessed with the following children:
Benjamin, who located at Pine Grove, Schuylkill county, but his descendants live
chiefly in Lebanon county; Daniel, who located at Circleville, Ohio; William, who
located at Pottstown, Schuylkill county; Henry; Kate, who died unmarried; Hannah,
married to Mr. Lobo and living in Chicago; Reuben, who was killed in the Civil War;
Samuel, who settled in Carlisle, Pa.; Charles, who died of disease contracted in the
Civil War; James, who served in the Civil War and afterward located in California;
Melinda and Ellen, unmarried, who live at Reading; and Sarah, who married a Mr.
Yingst, and lives at Carlisle.

   
Henry Stoudt, son of Reuben, was born March 27, 1827, and died Sept. 23, 1859. He
was married to Otilla, a daughter of Peter and Elizabeth (Oswald) Reppert. She was
born Dec. 12, 1827 and died Aug. 3, 1877. Their remains were buried at DeLong
Reformed church, of which they were members. They resided at Topton, where he died
of hiccough. This union was blessed with six children: John, Hannah, Francis,
Oliver, Daniel, and Lucius.

   
John R. Stoudt, son of Henry and Otilla Stoudt, was born Feb. 10, 1848. His father
died when he was a mere boy and he was hired out among strangers. He was reared on
the farm and received but a common school education, and later learned the art of
milling. On June 10, 1876, he was married to Anna Amanda, daughter of Charles and
Anna (Carl) Baer. The following year he engaged in farming, which occupation he
continued up to the time of his death, Feb. 3, 1907. He was well read, a good
farmer and a fine stock man, breeding blooded stock. Mr. and Mrs. Stoudt members of
the Reformed Church and were confimred at DeLong’s church, Bowers’, Berks county.
After the death of her husband, Mrs. Stoudt removed to Fleetwood, where she and the
family reside. The ashes of Mr. Stoudt repose on the family burial plot in the
Fleetwood cemetery. To Mr.and Mrs. Stoudt were born the following six children:
Charles Henry, a moulder by trade, is married to Minnie Lease, has two children
Mabel and Charles, and resides in Reading; Rev. John Baer, see below; George B., a
machinist, resides at Topeka, Kansas, and has four sons; Calvin, Francis, Paul, and
Kenneth; Jacob, a moulder, is married, to Katie Kline, resides at Fleetwood and has
two daughters, Anna and Esther; Annie L., at home, is married to John Herring, a
bricklayer and has one son, Harold Robert; Frederick M., of the firm Stoudt &
Schlegel, tin roofers and metal workers, resides with his mother.

   
Rev. John Baer Stoudt, pastor of Grace Reformed congregation, was born in Maxatawny
township, Berks county, Pa., Oct. 17, 1878, and later removed with his parents to
Richmond township, near Fleetwood. He was reared on the farm, attended the local
public schools and the Fleetwood high school. In 1896 he was licensed to teach in
the public schools, which profession he followed for three years. He was graduated
from the Keystone Normal School in 1900, and Franklin and Marshall College in
1905. While at normal school and at college took an active interest in literary and
oratorical work, winning a number of collegiate and inter-collegiate prizes. After
graduating from college, he entered the Eastern Theological Seminary of the Reformed
Church from which he was graduated with honors in 1908. During the summer of 1906 he
studied theology in the Univeristy of Chicago. On June 3, 1908, he was examined and
licensed to preach the Gospel by Lehigh Classis at Jacksonville, Lehigh county. On
September 1st of the same year, he accepted a call from the Salisbury charge,
consisting of the congregations of New Jerusalem, Western Salisbury; St. John’s,
Emaus; and St. Mark’s, South Allentown, and was ordained and installed on Sunday
evening, September 27th, in St. Mark’s church, South Allentown. The committee were
Revs. M.H. Brensinger, T.H. Krick and T.M. Reber. While pastor of the Salisbury
charge, the charge was reconstructed, the congregation chartered and the
congregational and benevolent offerings double. Having received a unanimous call
from Grace Reformed congregation, Northampton, Pa., he removed from Emaus to
Northampton, Feb. 9th, in which field of labor he still continues.

   
Though popular as a preacher and pastor, Rev. Stoudt is known to the public at large
as an antiquarian and historian. His researches are confined mainly to the life,
literature, manners and customs, religion and folklore of the Pennsylvania
Germans. His contributions to the historic lore of his own people have been many
and varied and he is being recognized as an authority in this particular line of
research. He is the author of a history of the Reformed congregation of Western
Salisbury, a history of Grace Reformed congregation, Northampton, Pa.; the Life and
Services of Col. John Siegfried; the Nursery Rhymes and Riddles of the Pennsylvania;
the Proverbs and Sayings of the Pennsylvania Germans; House Mottoes and other
inscriptions, etc. He is a member of the American Society of Folklore, the Penna.
German Society; the Lancaster, Berks, Lehigh and Northampton Historical Societies.

   
On Oct. 15, 1908, he was united in holy wedlock with Elizabeth A. DeLong, a daughter
of Joseph and Mary (Yoder) DeLong. This union is blessed with one son, John Joseph,
born March 11, 1911. Mrs. Stoudt is a member of Liberty Chapter, Daughters of
American Revolution.

   
George Wilhelm Staudt, son of John Michael Staudt, the emigrant, was born on the old
homestead at Stoudt’s Ferry, in Berne township, Berks County, Jan. 12, 1748, and died
on his plantation in Maiden Creek township, Sept. 17, 1820. He possessed a farm of
150 acres in Berne township, but cir 1785 he removed to Maiden Creek township, where
he resided until the time of his death. He was married to Christina Weidenhammer, a
daughter of Johannes (1726-1804) and Margreth (1727-1812) Weidenhammer. They were
members of the St. John’s Reformed congregation at Kutztown, where their ashes as
well as some of their descendants repose. They had the following children: George;
Margaret, married to David Gross (1775-1831); Joseph, born 1773, died 1817;
Magdalina, born Aug. 11, 1778, married to John Mohr; Daniel; Maria, married to
Daniel Mertz; Adam; Jacob; and Catherine, married to Daniel Meckly.

   
Jacob Stoudt, great-grandfather of Stanley H. Stoudt, who was a farmer near Calcium,
in Maiden Creek township, married a Miss Reeser, and they had these children: Jacob,
married a Miss Hill; Benneville; Daniel, married Elizabeth Forney; Joel, married
Eliza Rickenbach; and Rebecca, married Isaac Huy.

   
Benneville Stoudt, who was also a farmer, carried on operations near Molltown, in
Maiden Creek township. He married Hettie Bernt, and they had nine children, as
follows: John; William, married Emma Brown and has had seven children; Alvin;
David; Benneville; Oneida, deceased; Laura; Jennie; and Carrie; Lewis B.; Edwin B.;
George B.; Racy, married Abraham Heffner and has four children: Samuel, Mary,
Sallie, and Susan; Mary, married John Adams and has three children: John, Edgar,
and Hettie; Sallie, married Ezra High and has two children: Hettie and Lena; and
Wilson, died when nearly twenty-one years old.