CHAPTER I BULGARIAN, SWISS AND GERMAN ORIGINS OF THE BITTINGER AND ALLIED FAMILIES Emmert F. Bittinger, BA, MA, Ph.D. WEST BLACK SEA AND BULGARIAN ORIGINS During the terrible wars and catastrophic economic conditions of the 1500s, fifty thousand refugees are said to have fled from the regions north and west of the Black Sea in what is now Bulgaria thence to southern Germany and to Switzerland. Bittinger, Bouser, Philippi families appear to be a part of this migration as stated by Dr. Bouser in his book, History of the Bouser Family, 1922. These migration patterns are quite con-sistent with the recent genome studies done on a Bittinger gene sample by the National Geographic Society. Bittinger origins are quite different than that of the Celts and Germans of the north. The Philippi family is said to have come from Philipipopus, a town founded by Greek Warrior King Philip II ca. 350 B. C. 1 located on the upper regions of what was then known as the Maria River area west of the Black Sea. The town carried different names under different regimes as did the river. The writer found no specific family records for years just prior to the early 1500s, and knowledge earlier Bittingers remains elusive. A recent historical novel entitled The Romanov Sisters: The Lost Lives of the Daught-ers of Nicholas and Alexandra by Helen Rappaport; (St. Martins Press, 2014). The story takes place in what is in what is now southeast Russia east of the Black Sea. The Romanovs, according to the story, engaged members of the Bittner family as teachers for his daughters. The setting for this novel is the eastern-most location for Bittingers found by the writer thus far. SWISS RECORDS The earliest Bittinger sighting discovered was of Elias Bittinger who was born ca. 1560 in Switzerland and his wife Barbel Lybundgut, born ca. 1560. Records show them to have been located a few miles east of Zurich in the small village of Gutenwil. They married 1581 and had their first child, Hannes, later that year. (Our earliest known ancestor). Around 100 years later, a descendant, Heinrich Bittinger, was at Freinsheim, in SW Germany on the west side of the Rhine opposite from Manheim. These Bittingers immigrated to Pennsylvania in 1723 where they settled at New Hanover a few miles west of Philadelphia and a couple miles northeast of Pottstown. Relatives of Heinrich, and Anna Katharine Bittinger: Piere (Peter) Bittner, and sons David and Daniel, settled in Monocacy Manor, Maryland. Adam and his family, of this same branch, settled in 1 See John Haywood, Historical Atlas of the Classical World: 500 B> C. 600 A. D. (Barnes and Noble: Oxford, 2000) for maps and discussions of the History of these regions, pp. 205, 208, 215, 216, 217.
the nearby Hanover in southern York County, Pennsylvania in the 1740s and 1750s. All these Bittingers appear to be related and to share a common descent in Elias and Barbara of Gutenwil, Switzerland, mentioned earlier. Our branch, the Heinrich Bitting/Böttig family was in Freinsheim, Germany on the upper Rhine near Manheim in the first half of the 1700s, perhaps earlier. The parents of Piere (Peter) Büttner and Adam of the 1660s, were Hannes, born February 27, 1614 at Gutenwil, and Maria Sabina Müller. The parents of Hannes were Elias Bittinger and Barbell Lybengut. She was born September 17, 1581 a daughter of Nicholas and Catherine Frantz Lybundgut of Canton, Zurich, Switzerland. (See separate chart of the generational sequence from the 1500 s to 2015). These dates show that Elias, and Heinrich (born 1673), of Freinsheim, were not con-temporaries. Elias was born around 75-80 years earlier than Heinrich of Freinsheim and they ought not to be thought of as brothers or even as contemporaries. This suggests a good possibility that Elias was the grand father of Heinrich of Freinsheim. It seems likely that Elias was born in Switzerland after the family had moved earlier from Bulgaria via Wurtenburg area. The Livengood family (mentioned above) first settled northwest of Philadelphia at Douglas by Pottstown. Around 1769-70, the Livengoods along with the Bittingers moved to what is now Somerset County (formerly Bedford), Pennsylvania. Philip Bittinger, Sr., our ancestor, also took advantage of the opening of the lands in that area. His name appears with Livengood s on a tax list dated 1770. He apparently arrived with the Livengood wagon train party and obtained land rights ca. 1769 following the opening of free or cheap lands west of the Allegheny in that year. Philip, Jr., and Julianna, however, did not move to what is now Somerset County until ca. 1774-5, remaining in near Hagerstown in Washington County, Maryland and upper Mill Creek west of Romney, until then. Thus we note the ancient connections among these families and their pattern of traveling and settling together over a period of several generations both in Europe and in Pennsylvania. 2 MARRIAGES Johan Henricus Bitting (John Henry) was married to Anna Catharina Schӓffer, born in June of 1672. She was a daughter of the Reformed minister of Freins-heim, the Reverend John Adam Schӓffer. Elias Bittinger, born ca. 1560, was married in Switzerland to Barbell Lybundgut, born September 17, 1581. She was a daughter of Nicholas and Catherine (Frantz) Lybundgut of Switzerland. (My great great great grandfather, Christian Fike, married Christina Livengood, daughter of Peter Livengood, an Amishman, of Somerset County who became a Brethren minister.) As we shall see from these and other marriages, Bittingers, Frantzes, Fikes and Livengoodsm have been associated for centuries! Lucy Forney Bittinger relates that that Bittingers and Livengoods were Mennonite-Amish, an un-tolerated religious movement founded by Menno Simons (1496-1561). They had an early connection of Bittingers with Amish people since Amish people tended strongly to marry only within their own Faith.
These unlicensed and prohibited religious movements were not tolerated by the state to exist. They were treated badly, eg., imprisoned, starved, beaten, tortured, beheaded, stretched on the rack, burned at the stake, etc. Mrs. Forney states that the Bittingers were driven from town to town until they fled Switzerland. (See also the Mennonite Martyr Book, for additional details. This book has recently been republished at Scottsdale, Pennsylvania by the Mennonites.) Another source more easily available is the Brethren Encyclopedia, Vol. I pages 28-9 where a similar discussion may be found under the heading of Anabaptism. (Some Swiss records were compiled by Mogens Mogensen of Arbon, Switzerland from records at Melchnau. The writer has not been able to study them.) 3 RECORDS FROM GERMANY The border area between Germany and France (Alsace) was contested and switched back and forth between France and Germany on several occasions making it difficult to discover locations. They lived most likely in the German speaking area. One must discover names of towns and villages. Christoph Bettinger, born Aug. 19, 1686, in Hemmingen, Enz, Germany; was a son of Hans Andrew Bettinger, born 1660 and Julianna Henrica, born 1664, Württemburg. This Christoph (Christian) appears to be a brother of our Heinrich of Freinsheim. Bittinger immigrants in America continued to use the names Henrich, Philip, Julianna and also Anna Dorothea, Anna Catherina for several generations after their arrival here. This was a Germanic naming custom that provides additional evidence that that these Swiss Bűttner 2 (Bittinger) couples are somehow related to the Bitting/Pitting couples that immigrated to the port of Philadelphia and first settled in 1723 at New Hanover in Mont-gomery County near Philadelphia. (See chapter two for their American story). Much of this part of eastern Pennsylvania originally belonged to Philadelphia County. The dating of county formation enters in here as a factor in identifying exactly where on contemporary maps the first Bűttner-Pittner, Livengood, Engelhard, Schӓffer and Philippi families first settled in New Hanover, Cumru, Tulpehochen, Mohnton, Thomasville. These are places Bitting/Pitting etc., family names appear in the areas around Pottstown, a few miles west of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. For working out this settlement location problem, we rely on county will records that usually provide the location of the decedent and the names of the spouse, offspring, witnesses, executor and sometimes other relatives. Another useful approach was to search for the wife s location. Thus the search for Julianna Philippi Bittinger s maiden name produced a number of new leads. The name Julianna was found as a daughter in the will of George and Margaretha Engelhardt 3 of Cumru in Berks County. This lead provided the maiden name of Julianna as a daughter and legatee of George Engelhardt and the wife of Johannes Phillippi. Thus her family background is revealed. 2 This spelling of the Bittinger name is one of the older, common renderings. 3 See separate Engelhardt file folder.
The will also named Johannes Philippi as executor since he was an Engelhardt a son-in-law and husband of daughter Julianna Engelhardt. Our Julianna s father, Johannes Philippi, wrote his will on March 4, 1778, and it was probated at Reading on December 5, 1778 in Cumru Twp. 4 Julianna s siblings, were named and shared equally in the estate. Offspring named were: Henry, George, Margaretha, Magdalena, Christina, Catherina, Julianna, and Barbara, eight children in all. At the time the will was written, Philip and Julianna were living in Somerset County! The will named friend Johannes Pillippi [husband of Julianna (Engelhardt) 5 ] as one of the executers along with Isaac Young. Henry Christ (Crist), Jr. was one of the witnesses along with Daniel Morris. Because Johannes Philippi was Julianna s husband, he was named as the legatee, and received an eighth of inheritance! 6 Other wise he would not have been a legatee. This is strong evidence of Julianna s parentage! She was a grand daughter of the Engelhardts and a daughter of Johannes and Julianna (Engelhardt) Philippi. In turn, Johannes Philippi s will was probated Feb 28, 1781, and his widow, Julianna, received her legacy and served as Executor. These were the parents of Julianna Philippi who by this time had married Philip Bittinger and already had moved to the Meyersdale area in Somerset County Pennsylvania after living a year or two near Hagerstown, Maryland. It will be noticed that Julianna s father died a good many years after Philip and Julianna had left for Washington County, Maryland where their first child Susanna had been born in July14, 1773 and christened by the minister of the Zion Reformed Church. A second daughter, Mary Magdalena Polly was bon ca. 1775. On December 26, 1776 John Peter was born. A complete list of the sons and daughters and their spouses and dates will be provided in the next chapter. Records of these births are at Zion Reformed Church at Hagerstown and at the Berlin, Somerset County Reformed and Lutheran Church. Berlin is where the children were christened and where they were married. These records also have been copied or transferred to the respective Historical Society Archives. Wayne Bittinger also lists them in his excellent book on the Bittingers of Somerset and Garrett Counties. 7 The writer must confess his delight at discovering the name Julianna. It represents a combination of Julia and Anna, a beautiful name! Julianna Philippi s (wife of Johannes) was a daughter of George and Margaretha Engelhardt, who had immigrated on the ship Phoenix that arrived at the port of Philadelphia on August 28, 1750 with 339 passengers packed into her hold. This ship carried a large number of people with names 4 4 Martin and Smith, Abstracts of Berks County Wills, (Westminster, Md., 1993, Family Line Publications), p. 127. 5 As the story develops, and after Philip, Jr. and Julianna eloped, it appears that Philip and Julianna s common-law marriage likely was formalized by the Reformed pastor at Berlin in Somerset County. Neither Wayne Bittinger nor I have discovered no record of it. Julianna s father s will was written, may we presume, after a legitimate marriage had taken place, thus she would be included in the will as a legatee. 6 At this period of history, a wife s property was held in the husband s name, unless she was a widow. 7 Wayne Bittinger, The Bittinger, Bittner, Biddinger, and Bidinger Families and their Kin of Garrett County, Maryland (Parsons: McClain Printing Co., 1986), second edition, p. 10.
familiar to people of Anabaptist back-ground. Several Shãffer persons arrived on the ship Brothers the same day. Anna Catherine Bittinger, our Heinrich s wife, was a Schӓffer. Some of these Schӓffers went to Somerset County where many of them became Brethren and some were ministers. The Englehardt families were prominent citizens of Zurich as early as 1383 when Heinrich Engelhardt served on the council of the town of Zurich. Johannes along with his daughter Katharina lived in Nafels, Glarus, Switzerland where Katharina was married in 1570 to Zacharias Galalti. 8 Besides George and Margaretha Engelhardt, the ship list of the Phoenix names several Bittinger allied family names such as the Immanuel Boger, several Livengood, John George Lutwick, John Philipi, Sr., and Jr., several Zimmermans. (My wife s mother, Ethel Landis, was a Zimmerman). Other familiar names were Phillip Fink who was or would become a leader among the Brethren, Andrew and Christian Philippi, Etter, Farringer and numerous others as well, some previously identified as more distant relatives. Such a list alone by its self, of course, does not alone prove a genealogical connection, and one must rely on careful study of settlement, birth, marriage, and will records etc. Other ships also carried persons having similar names though often spelled variably. Several of the above immigrants, however, have been shown to be distant relatives as revealed by Swiss and German marriage records. 9 (See also, (see Blough, History of the Church of the Brethren in Western Pennsylvania, 1916, (index, etc.). On Nov. 1, 2012, I was able to connect with a German genealogical report by Larry W. Neff and Frederick S. Wilson that gave data on some early Bittinger families back to the 1640s in Switzerland. This report shows evidence that the York County Monocacy Manor Bittinger families are from a similar location in Switzerland as the Somerset Bittinger families. The evidence of connection is the fact that the Lybensgut family also was in Switzerland, at or near the same place, and close enough for the Bittingers and Lybenguts to know each other, also neighbors in New Hanover. This is shown by the marriage between a Barbell Lybengut and Elias Bittinger ca. 1598 and other Livengood inter-marriages during the following 400 years. This is the earliest evidence we have discovered about the Bittinger and Livengood families in Switzerland. The Livengoods settled at Douglas, Berks County, a mile or two north of the village of Pottstown, present-day New Hanover Township where the Bittingers settled. The wills of Jacob and Peter Livengood are found there. 10 Peter wrote his will March 26, 1768, assigning his wife Christina as administrator, apparently an act preparatory to his move to Somerset County. A date of probate was not designated because did not die in that county. The move was taken later that year or in 1769, the year the land was opened up for public settlement. This move gave him the distinction of taking the first Conestoga wagon over the Allegheny Mountains! He was a true American pioneer. 5 8 Source, Wikitree. 9 Consult other articles I have written about these families arrival and places settled. 10 Martin and Smith, Berks County Wills, op. cit., pages 11, 47 Boehm (Beahm) connection, 55, 56, 63, 164-5.
Nevertheless, it is probable that there were several families in the Livengood wagon train, for it is quite unlikely that a single family would have made such a trip alone into the rugged wilderness of western Pennsylvania so early. Philip Bittinger, Sr., likely was part of this pioneering group cutting their way through the virgin forests and crossing the formidable Allegheny Mountain to reach the rich soils of the newly opened lands of the plateau. Philip Sr s name appears in the county tax list as a landowner in 1770 along with several dozen other adventurous pioneers including the Amish Keim family, thus revealing the fact of his earlier arrival. It would be several years, however, before Philip, Jr., and Julianna would actually settle in the Somerset area, perhaps by around 1775. Before moving to new and unsettled territory with their families, pioneers, when possible, would make a preliminary trip to select available land, sometimes building a crude cabin before bringing their families. This Livengood wagon-train record may be found at the Somerset (formerly Bedford) County, Pennsylvania Historical Society Library. I seem to recall also that this Society at one time had Livengood s wagon or parts of it in their possession and on display. Peter Livengood became wealthy, partly as a result of hard work and partly as a result of obtaining cheap land. But Livengood was no miser. When each of his numerous offspring married, he provided them a generous start in their marriage, giving them large gifts of household supplies and other goods. Each item was meticulously noted on paper as a record in order to assure that each one received equally, thus avoiding family squabbles! The record of these legacy gifts has been preserved, and a copy is in the writer s possession. It was also published in Mennonite Family History magazine under the title, The Peter Leibunbgut Journal, Old Springfield Shoppe, Elverson. Pennsylvania. July, 1994. Some of his children were Dunkers, (known today as Church of the Brethren), and they were eager to have Peter Livengood convert to the Brethren Faith. In those days, much emphasis was placed on absolute obedience to the Holy Scriptures. Practicing trine immersion baptism, the Brethren had an advantage over those denominations that claimed sprinkling or pouring was the proper method. There were numerous public debates in the second half of the 1800s concerning the proper method of baptism. The Brethren claimed Jesus was immersed in the water. A proper baptism, they said, was three immersions forward once each in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost. Great crowds attended these debates, sometimes thousands. The Dunker argument was pretty difficult to put down, and often the Dunker Elder was declared a winner in these debates! At any rate, Peter Livengood became convinced and went over to the Brethren. He was soon elected to the ministry. Following this significant event, many other Somerset County Amish families also converted to the Brethren faith as well, much to the dismay of their leadership! Since our great, great grandfather, Christian Fike, married Christina, a daughter of Peter Livengood, I can take the liberty of telling a family story. Before Christian Fike was converted to the Brethren, he married Christina Livengood (named after her mother) whose family had become Brethren. Wanting to attend the Brethren Love Feast (it was required to attend in those days or one got an embarrassing visit from a deacon committee), Christina asked her husband Christian Fike to allow her to buy a pair of shoes, which he denied. She then walked the several miles barefoot to 6
and from the Love Feast. As she returned and walked into the kitchen, her feet left bloody prints on the floor. When Christian saw these prints the next morning, his heart was softened. Soon afterwards, Peter joined the Brethren, the first Fike that I know to have done so. 11 While in the Myersdale area, the Bittingers were Reformed, but were Brethren in Garrett County, Maryland. Fikes and Livengoods, formerly Amish, became members of the Elklick Brethren Congregation south of Meyersdale, Somerset County, Pennsylvania. Peter Livengood s homestead and cemetery are located a half a mile or so west of Salisbury, Pennsylvania on the Livengood- Keim farm, a short distance north of the Maryland line, and a half mile west of Salisbury. Chapter Two of the Bittinger story will trace the several locations where Bittinger, Pittinger, Pitting, Buetner, Philippi, Libengood, Engelhardt, Feig Feick,/Fike, Boger, Bocher, Bowser, Bouser families lived before moving from Bulgaria to New Hanover, Pennsylvania and on to Somerset and Garrett Counties. This 41 page section will provide detailed descriptions of each generation with lists and dates. The third chapter will then describe the descendants of Jonas and Etta Bittinger of recent and current generations, including the lives of the late Foster and Esther Bittinger family to which the writer belongs. Allied Families for this section appear below. 7 ALLIED FAMILIES FOR CHAPTER I FRANTZ FEICK, JOHANNES; son of Christian, Sr. (1773 IMMIG; returning to America.) LIVENGOOD, NICHOLAS LUDWICK, JACOB MULLER, HANS ANDREW PHILIPPI, JOHANNES ROUDOLPH, JOHN HERMAN (Intermarried early with Feicks) SCHAEFFER 11 Source: Elder Emra T. Fike, of Egon W. Va. who wrote a small booklet, History of the Ancestry of the Fikes (Oakland, Md., 1927), 11 pages.