Deacon Phillip Wismer in his record book of 1874 documented the arrival on a year-by-year basis of the first settlers in Lincoln County. Many of the names of these Bucks County settlers appear in school records and on “fraktur” samples from the Deep Run School in Pennsylvania and the Clinton Township school records in Ontario.

1799 Arrivals

Jacob (Meyer) Moyer (preacher), Amos Albright, Valentine Kratz, Dilman Moyer, John Honsberger, (tailor) his brother, Abrahm Honsbergeer George Althouse, and Moses Fretz.

1800 Arrivals

John Fretz (Deacon), Lawrence Hipple, Abraham Grobb, Michael Rittenhouse, Manasseh Fretz, Samuel Moyer & brother David Moyer, John Wismer, Jacob Frey, Jacob High, Isaac (Kolb) Culp, Daniel High (elder) & sons Daniel Phillip and Abraham, Abraham Honsberger, and Christian Honsberger.

Many of these families were the charter members of the first Mennonite Church in Canada in 1801

FAMILY HISTORY EMAIL LINKS

The Tufford Family Contact: easton@vaccine.com

The Culp (Kolb) Family Contact: p.high@ymail.com

The High Family Contact: p.high@ymail.com

 

SIXTY YEARS OF  FOLKLORE AT “THE TWENTY”  (1953 – 2013)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Old Culp/High Homestead on Victoria Avenue in Vineland Station, Ont. – It was here that the PGFSO Chapter of the Twenty came into being on March 7, 1953.

 

In 1951 the Pennsylvania German Folklore Society of Ontario was founded by Dr. G. Elmore Reaman to “encourage and assist people to make studies of families and community histories and if possible, to record them in printed form.” The goal was to provide enlightenment regarding the traditions, stories and many noteworthy contributions of the Pennsylvania German people.

At a meeting held in the old farm home of Isaac and Helen High of Vineland Station, on March 7, 1953, approximately fifty people gathered and set about organizing their own local PGFSO Chapter of the Twenty.  Joseph Edwin Culp was elected as the first President of the organization. (A position that he held for the first decade of its existence.)    During the early years of the Chapter, emphasis was placed on highlighting the culture and customs of the Pennsylvania German community.  One of the first small projects was the collection of proverbial expressions still familiar to many of us in their anglicised form. –Sayings such as: “Wo shmok is is aw feiar.” (Where there’s smoke, there is also fire), or “Wos mir net was, mocht em net ‘has’.” (“What we do not know burns us not”. – Perhaps more commonly translated from the dialect as “What you don’t know won’t hurt you”.)

Both the Chapter and the Jordan Historical Museum came into being in the spring of 1953, and much of the outpouring of household furnishings, implements and tools collected for the museum were donations and loans received from descendants of Pennsylvania German pioneer families.

During the past 60 years, members of our Chapter have enjoyed tours of the Fry House, Old Vineland Cemetery (where many of our pioneer ancestors lie buried), the historic buildings at Balls Falls, and the Manasseh Fretz homestead overlooking the Twenty Mile Creek.  We have also had the opportunity to hear presentations given by many notable historians, authors and family researchers from near and far, on a wide range of topics: The Role of the Folklorist; The Conestoga Wagon Trek to Upper Canada; The Construction of Early Log Houses; Pennsylvania German Customs, Folk Art, Music and Cookery; Quilting; Nicknames of the Twenty District; The History of the Twenty Settlement and The First Mennonite Church; Local Family Stories; Folktales of the Twenty; Heritage Homes; The Legacy of Moses F. Rittenhouse; and Preserving Lincoln’s History, Heritage and It’s Documents, – along with many, many more.   In an attempt to resurrect and preserve as much information as possible from these past programs, Sandra Easton, Pat High and Larry Rittenhouse are collecting memorabilia from the past sixty years of Folklore programs, and Pat is creating a summary chart noting the date of the meeting, location, Chair, program topic, speaker, President and archived items collected for each year. Whenever possible, copies of the original talks or newspaper articles relating to them are being collected and will eventually be housed in the Lincoln Archives for anyone wishing to peruse the topics of the past. (If you have any memorabilia from early Folklore meetings lurking in a drawer somewhere, please let us know! It might be just what is needed to help fill in some holes in the Chapter’s collection!)

Charter Members included: Alvin Culp,  Gordon Frey, W. Edwin Troup, Harper Moyer, Alfred E. Frey,  Joseph E. Culp, Isaac High, Gordon Fretz, Reginald H. Rittenhouse, Alfred C. High  and Fred Fretz