I have included for the purpose of genealogists in the future to try to find the ancestry of "Ol JAKOB", the following thoughts, theories, stories and other tales that have been around for many years. Maybe there is a small clue somewhere that we have not been able to "see the forest for the trees"

From the notes of Sharon Durels

"Regarding the origin of the Evilsizer name, all Evilsizers seem to feel the name came from Germany or Holland. Germans I have talked to do not think it is German in its present form. Assuming it is an Anglicized German name, I checked names beginning with Ebel....or Abel.... for a while, but found nothing that accounted for the last two syllables, until I ran into a family called Ebelsheiser. their forebears came to America only two generations ago and it might be possible that the American Evilsizers share a common ancestor with this German family. I had an uncle who claimed that Evilsizer, in German, meant "noble house", and that would be the literal translation of Ebelsheiser. the latter name does not have the "s" and "h" together in a "sh" sound, but instead, a syllable divides between those two letters, so that is pronounced "e-bels-hi-ser", which would easily Anglicize to Evilsizer. The member of the Ebelsheiser family I talked to said their family had originally come from Bavaria."***

***This is the line from Immigrant John Ferd Ebelsheiser that settled in Iowa. See later chapter.

Notes from Sandi Evilsizer Koscak
I love the time I went to Seaport Village in San Diego to a "Coat of Arms" Shop. I gave them the name, and for $8.99 they gave me a beautiful color print of the Evilsizer Coat of Arms and describing them as Chick-Pea Farmers. Claimed the name was Sizer and the Evil was added at a later time. This was the greatest laugh of my life. What a rip-off. I have the copy somewhere, but wont give you the pleasure of including a scanned copy on my CD-Rom version of this book. Sorry folks.

Evilsizor History by George Weldon Evilsizor
It has been said by an Evilsizor living in Wood County, Ohio that during the Revolutionary War with Great Britton, the British hired German Hessians to come to America and help subdue the colonists. Receiving no pay as promised, they deserted; the British called them "Evil Traitors". Our original name was Sizor, later called Evilsizor. That was his story.

Dwight Veihland (Descendant of Samuel Blake and Elizabeth Ann Evilsizer)
8-19-1997

I did some thinking on the information you sent. I see actually three Uebelschauser men: 1) Johann Jacob 2) Johannes 3) Nikolas. Johann Jacob was born 12-27-1752 has a record for enlisting into the Hessian Army, was taken as a POW, was made an invalid, returned home, separated from the Army, was married in Germany, and had a daughter there. Johannes was born 3-30-1751, has a record for enlisting into the Hessian Army, has no record of discharge from the Army, was married in Germany, and had a son named Johannes Jacob. Nikolas was born on an unknown date in an unknown place in Germany, does not have a record of enlisting in the Hessian Army, has a record of desertion from the Hessian Army 9presumably between 1778-1780) and has no records after that (ie: he disappears)

I think there is a very simple solution to this three body problem. First, all three men only speak German. Consequently they would have had a hard time surviving in Early America, in particular during the Revolutionary War. Probably all three men came from the same area in Germany and were a combination of cousins and/or brothers.

Now when Johann Jacob was taken POW and later wounded, from a German perspective he sort of became a hero, and from a US perspective it was sort of a tragedy. So, his reputation is not so bad. However, when Nikolas deserted from the Hessian Army, his reputation was not so good. After deserting from the Hessian Army, Nikolas probably found life in Colonial America quite tough. He could not speak English very well. In addition to being significantly cultural different than WASP America. So the only way he could survive was to locate himself in the Pennsylvania German community. He could then communicate well, he knew the culture, and he was more probable to find employment, etc. However Nikolas had a problem with his reputation as he was one of the "evil deserters". Even in America, the PA Germans were still Germans. As we all know, Germans value discipline and military service; so if the PA German community found out about his desertion, he would be in deep trouble. If the War was not over, they might have turned him over to the Hessian Army, at which time he would have been executed. If they did not do that, they would have probably tared and feathered him. Then where does he go? How does he survive? He can't go home because if found he will die.

Nikolas was left with one option open to him in which he could completely cover his tracks. He would become Johann Jacob (his brother or cousin). He would become a "hero" rather than an "evil one" . He could find employment within the PA German community, and he could begin to build a new life. He could later move out of the community and be forgotten. I do not think it necessary that Johannes or Johan to have had children in the US before they returned. The children born in Berks Co, all probably belonged to Nikolas/Jacob.

So in conclusion, I think there maybe IS something to the Legend of Ol Jakob and a high probability that he is actually Nikolas Uebelschauser.

8-18-1997 I have several comments and/or ideas on who Jacob really was. I will summarize.

To me, the structure of the name suggests that Jacob is from Westfallen. This is interesting from the point of the dead end trail. Only part of Westfallen was under Hessian control at the time of the US Revolution. I would guess this to be Kreiss Mindenstadt and Kreiss Luebke (my father comes from this area so I know it quite well)

In spite of the excellent church records in this area, family research in Westfallen can be extremely difficult because of cultural differences with the rest of the western world. In particular, a man's family name may change from generation to generation. The surname does not always follow the male lineage. rather, the surname is dictated by property inheritance. For example, my name Vieland has experienced many dislocations in the last 300 years. The diret male lineage goes from being Vieland to Vierman to Lohmeier to Spectmeyer to Detering between 1729 and 1850. Who ever got the family homeward/business/etc, had by law to carry the family name. So if a man married into a family and the daughter received the inheritance, the children bore the mother's family Names. In addition, the husband had to change his surname. For another Example, when Henrich Spectmeyer married Wilhelminia Lohmeier, he became Henrich Lohmeier. All subsequent legal and church records only mention him by that name. In addition, when the next generation is born, there is generally no mention of the father's maiden name..

The point I am trying to make is that in Westfallen one never knows which direction you are tracing. Evilsizer could be the mother's or father's family. At first thought you might see this as a problem is he was born Jacob Ubelsheuser, then this is the way the records would read in Westfallen. A problem is that many men from Westfallen who immigrated to America took the father's correct surname on immigration. For example, in my family, the Vieland's who came earlier are Vierman's whereas those who came 20 years later are Vieland, even though they had the same mother and father.

So this is what you may be faced with. Jacob Uebelscheuser's real surname is lost to us. We need to know the first name of the father, then look for the first name in conjunction with the last name. Then find who he married. Find the children for this couple and if Jacob appears, well you have your man. Difficult? Westfallen is complicated.

I would also like to point out that Evilsizer is a good Angelization of Uebelscheuser. Slightly off, but not much. The best would be Ebelsizer. So the phonetics of the name supports that this Jacob belongs to the Uebelschauser family. In my opinion, the name has been conjugated, ie, Uebels-Heuser. This also occurs in Westfallen and Oldenburg when families of similar middle to upper social levels marry. In this case, the newly married couple want both families inheritances, so the only solution was to make everybody somewhat happy.

2) Are we absolutely positive that Jacob was from Germany? Another possibility is the family is English. The name Evilsizer is most certainly from Germany, but it might have evolved. Might be Elsevier. Just a thought.

3) Know, interestingly enough, I have heard legends similar to the one of "Ol Jakob" in our family in Missouri, but is told with a much different twist. My grandfather told me when I was a child, a similar family legend. The story has some very sad bends and repeats- First, my grandfather Blake's grandfather (John Wesley Blake, son of Elizabeth Evilsizer) had served in the Civil War for several months. He was married and had about five small children. Something happened in the War. Nobody knows for sure what it was, other than he just could not take it and had some form of stress syndrome. After about five months, he deserted the union Army. His family never heard from him again. We know he remarried, changed his name, and just vanished off the face of Mother Earth. Now here is where the story takes an interesting twist with respect to Jakob. After John Wesley Blake deserted his old life, the family never spoke of him. All information passed down about him was through his mother, Elizabeth Evilsizer. One of the comments that was subsequently passed on to me was that this was not the first time that such a thing happened in this family. In a previous War, (1776 or 1812) another one of our ancestors also had served, deserted his forces, abandoned his family, changed his name, and began a new life. Maybe she was making excuses for her son, or maybe some truth has trickled down through the years.

Letter from Johannes Schwalm Historical Association, November 1997

I personally have already spent many hours on trying to solve the Uebeldhauser riddle. However, I have not been able to get anybody to document for me how, where, and when the story of "Hessian Jakob" developed. It might just contain a clue that would be valuable in the final solution. Unfortunately, all I get is a broad general statement without any source.

In my files I have a letter from the Evangelische-Lutherisches Pfarramt at Loehlbach in Germany in which the pastor offers proof that both the Hessian Jakob and Johannes Uebelshauser did return home, got married in their home parish on dates that would make it impossible for either to have been in Berks Co. in 1779. So they are out of the picture no matter how you slice it.

There is however a possible "sleeper" (Nikolaus) in the military records which appears to have been neglected by the descendants of JAKOB. It will require time, no doubt some money and a lot of patience on the part of the inquirer to "prove him in" or eliminate him from further consideration. And yes, it may turn out to be a "blind alley." JSHA is in no position to do that kind of follow up. I will be willing to guide the person under either of the above options in the event you are seriously interested in working on it. For openers I would want to see a straight line genealogy beginning with yourself and going back to the Jakob of Berks Co PA together with dates and places of birth. I would also want to see some proof that the Jakob of Berks Co did indeed move to Rockingham Co.,VA.

The Winchester Hessian Barracks-by Lion G Miles

During the American Revolution, Winchester, Virginia, and the surrounding countryside became a detention center for thousands of British and German prisoners of war. It served as a prison camp from 1776-1783......In September of 1777 twenty Pennsylvania Quakers arrived at Winchester, arrested in Philadelphia as "prisoners of war", but the prisoners most remembered were the so-called "Hessians" captured at the battles of Trenton, Saratoga and Yorktown....Nearly 30,000 Germans came across the Atlantic during the war years, 17,000 of whom were from the Landgraviate of Hessen_Kassel and 2,400 from the territory of Hessen-Hanau. The first group of German Prisoners to arrive in Winchester were some of the 1,000 Hessians captured at Trenton, New Jersey on December 26, 1776. They had spent the following winter and spring at Lancaster, PA. On August 15, 1777 the Hessians marched to Lebanon and Carlisle where conditions became so crowded, they ordered about 300 to proceed to Winchester. On September 30, in Winchester they were drawn up and parcelled out to the country people to work..In the Spring of 1778 local farmers hired many of the Germans to work on their farms..almost every Hessian captured at Trenton and sent to Virginia returned to his regiment when exchanged in 1778. We will note here that the Hessian Jacob was taken prisoner of war in October 1777 and ransomed in May of 1778. Nikolas deserted to the enemy ALSO in October of 1777.