Hans Martin Wetzel, along with his wife Maria Barbara
and their three children; 6 year old Hans Martin, Jr.,
4 year old Nicholas and 3 year old Katharina arrived in
Philadelphia on September 21, 1731. This little family
had just crossed the Atlantic aboard the ship Brittania
of London, having sailed from Rotterdam by way of
Cowes, England.
The Martin Wetzel family doesn't show up again until
June 17, 1739, when Martin was a witness for the baptism
of Johann Berhardt Weimar in a Lutheran ceremony in
Maryland. No one knows where this family was between
the time of their arrival and 1739. They could have come
to America as indentured servants who had to fulfill
indenture agreements before starting out on their own in
their new homeland. No records have been found for
these eight years during which Martin and Maria added
to their family two sons; John, born about 1733 and
Henry, born about 1734. They continued their affiliation
with the Lutheran Church as a Martain Wexler took
communion prior to his naturalization on October 19, 1743.
On November 25, 1741, Martin Wetzel had 100 acres of
Land surveyed in the area now known as Frederick County,
Maryland. His 100 acres were located west of Little Hunting
Creek and he named his new home Mill Place. Martin's two
oldest sons; Martin, Jr., now 16 years old and Nicholas, now
14 years old, would have been a great help to their father
in clearing the land and planting the crops plus helping to
build the cabin they lived in and helping to build the needed
outbuildings for their livestock They would have learned
hunting skills and gone hunting in the nearby woods and
fishing in the Monocacy River to put food on the table for
the family. And they would have been ever watchful in
looking out for the family's safety from the Indians in the
area. The two younger boys would have been able to help
with the smaller chores both inside and out and Katharina
would have been a big help to Maria Barbara in cooking,
cleaning and other household chores. Their days would
have been filled with all the things that needed to be done
and their evenings may have been spent working on the
projects that could be done indoors with Martin or Maria
Barbara reading aloud from the Bible.
The family must have been doing well and on May 28,
1743, Daniel Dulany assigned the certificate of survey
for his property called the "Wine Garden" to Jacob
Bonnett, a neighbor of Martin Wetzel. On that same
day, Jacob Bonnett reassigned the certificate to Martin
who then received the patent. That year Martin also
received the patent on a piece of land, "Bonnett's
Resolution", which had been surveyed for Daniel Dulany
On November 11, 1742.
Map of Old Monocacy. This is a large file so why
don't you go grab a snack while it loads
Between 1744 and 1749, the church book of the Frederick
Lutheran Church shows the births and baptisms of four
Wetzel children. They were Johann Jacob, George Michael,
Friedrich, and Maria Catharina Wetzel. The Frederick
Reformed Church shows the baptism of another child,
Magdalena Elisabetha, in 1751. Martin and his sons Martin,
Jr. and Nicholas signed the Muhlenberg's Articles in the
Frederick Lutheran Church Book in 1747. By 1751, the
Wetzels, or one of the sons, had changed their membership
from the Frederick Lutheran Church to the Frederick
Reformed Church.
Who were the parents of the four Wetzel children who were
baptized between 1744 and 1749? And who were the parents
of Magdalena Elisabetha who was baptized in 1751? Family
records, which are no longer available, recorded the marriage
of Martin Wetzel, Jr. to Elizabeth Bonnett, the daughter of
Jacob and Anna Maria Bonnett. They also showed Nicholas
Bonnett married to Elizabeth Cromerston and the marriage
of John Wetzel to Mary Bonnett, the sister of Elizabeth
Bonnett. However, the records of the Evangelical Lutheran
Church in Frederick, Maryland show a marriage on April 3,
1749 of Nicholaus Wetzel to Elizabeth Bonnett who would
have been about 15 or 16 years old at that time.
Regardless of who the parents of these children were, the
Martin Wetzel family along with the Jacob Bonnett family
and the Henry Six family played a big part in the early
settlement and development of Frederick County, Maryland.
Their descendants were to be found in the area for many years
and there may still be some living there today.
A Martin Wetzel appeared on Peter Butler's muster roll
at the start of the French and Indian War.
The book "Early Lutheran Baptisms & Marriages In
Southeaster Pennsylvania, The Records of Rev. John
Casper Stover from 1730-1779, p. 13 lists Martin
Wetzel and wife Maria Barbara as sponsors on 17 Jun
1739. Their residence listed as Monocacy.
Ref: "Pioneers of Old Monocacy" by John P. Dern and
Grace L. Tracey
Ref: "Hacker's Creek J., Vol 2, page 62
Ref: "The Bonnet-T-E's & Kin, Vol. 11 p. 7, 1983
If any of you Wetzel researchers have information on the
Wetzel family, we would really love to hear from you. We
would like to be able to find the answers to the above
questions and fill in the blanks.
Be sure to bookmark this page. We will soon be adding
a story of Lewis Wetzel, the son of John Wetzel and Mary
Bonnett. You will find the story when it has been added
by clicking on the "next" button below.
Author: Donna E. Kilroy, written especially for Tom and Joan Imes.
Copyright© by Tom and Joan Imes, March 4, 1999
