I want to thank K.S. Richards for taking the time to type this
large article for use on this website. She took a lot of her time to help
other researchers
The principal purpose of this paper is to lay the framework for future
studies into the diffcult genealogy of this rather widespread
Pennsylvania-Dutch family. The aticle is confined to general abservations
concerning the numerous colonistsof this name who arrived in Pennsylvania
during the eighteenth century, and to outline genealogies of the
early generations of those family groups which continued to spell the name
Stauffer or Stouffer. At the present time, emphasis is given to the
genealogy of emigrants who migrated to Lancaster County. Those who wish to
inquire into the early Stauffers who settled in the extreme eastern part of
the Province should consult Volume X of the Publications of theGenealogical
Society of Pennsylvania,*and such secondary material as A. J. Fretz, A
Genealogical Record of the Descendants of Henry Stauffer and Other Stauffer
and Pioneers, Harleysville, 1899.
A final purpose of this paper is to make more usable the various
Stauffer genealogies in print. Much, however, is left to subsequent
research. Further study is needed on theEuropean origins of persons of the
Stauffer name, genealogies of the more recent generations, genealogies of
those who anglicized the spelling to Stover, as well as on the contributions
of the family of Pennsvlavania life.
As far as possible this paper is based upon original source records,
which in many particulars are so meager that a full story cannot be
told. When reliance has been placed upon secondary material or
tradition, it has usually been indicated.
Acknowledgment is due Mr. Amos K. Stauffer, of Lancaster,
Pennsylvania, who possesses the finest collection of Stauffer material
in existence, and Dr. Albert H. Gerberich, of the Department of State,
Washington, D.C., whose knowledge of Pennsylvania-Dutch genealogy is
probably unexcelled. Each read this manuscript and offered valuable
comments.
The patronymic Stauffer is an ancient one and seems to have roots in
Berne and Lucerne Cantons, Switzerland, as early as the fourteenth and
fifteenth centuries. According to the standard historical and
biographical dictionary of Switzerland, the Historisch-Biographisches
Lexikon der Schweiz, (1931) VI, 520-11, the family very numerous in the
districts of Buren, Fraubrunnen, Konolfingen, Nidou, Signau, and Thun of
the Bern Canton. Several of the Pennsylvania Stauffer settlers came
directly from this locality, but the majority had migrated from the
Palatinate. though they were presumably of Swiss parentage or ancestry.
It is most probable that the name Stauffer is derived from a place
name. The root Stauf- means both cup and steep hill; and the Stauffer
family in Berne, Switzerland, used as its coat of arms a hand holding a
cup, symbolizing a cup bearer. (B. Reitstap, Armorial General, 2nd ed.,
1887, Vol. II, p. 827). No credence is placed on the unverified
statement that the name is derived from the noble name of Hohenstaufen,
which in translation means "top of the steep hill."
Numerous families of the surname emigrated to Pennsylvania during
the colonial period from as early as 1709. Almost never did they come to
other colonies in America, though some of the Pennsylvania settlers or
their descendants eventually migrated elsewhere. A century following
1709, they appeared most frequently in Frederick and Washington
Counties, Maryland, the Shenandoah Valley, Virginia, north central Ohio,
and Waterloo Township, Ontario County, Canada. By 1790 one Stauffer
family was in North Carolina.
Although one early Pennsylvania Stauffer was Moravian, and some were
Lutheran or German Reformed, the great majority were Mennonites, who
migrated because of religious persecution.
The published ship lists show that they generally embarked from
Rotterdam, stopping perhaps at an English port and ultimately landing at
Philadelphia, where they usually took the oath of allegiance to George
II or his successor. Their origin was usually described as the
Palatinate. Modern scholars, such as Mr. Milton Rubincam, point out that
"Palatinate" as there used is a relative term, embracing not only the
Rhenish Palatinate itself, but also numerous principalities adjoining.
Dr. Harold S. Bender's illuminating article "Palatinate Mennonite
Census Lists, 1664-1774," in the Mennonite Quarterly Review, vols. XIV
and XV, shows that the surname was frequent if not common in this
locality at that time. The census lists were maintained to permit the
Elector of the Palatinate to obtain revenue from this religious group,
which was allowed to reside there upon payment to a heavy tax. That
these Stauffers or most of them were originally Swiss is suggested by
the statement of Dr. Bender, "So far as known, all the Mennonites of the
Palatinate originally immigrated into that region from Switzerland after
the year 1650."
Among the numerous Stauffers listed on the census schedules was a
Christian Stauffer, who in 1672, was 90 years of age. He then had a
second wife, aged 70, and was father, grandfather, and great-grandfather
of 94 descendants, of whom 16 were dead and 78 living. The extreme
frequency of the name is a caution to those who would ascribe parents to
Stauffer emigrants without the most careful analysis. Rarely indeed is
it possible to identify an American colonist with certainty as a man
appearing on a census list. This is due in part to the fact that the
census lists became far list detailed during the period of the actual
Stauffer migrations to this country, and partly also to the fact that
the information about the early arrivals is meager.
The best source of identification for the early Stauffer comeovers,
is, of course, the shipping lists as reprinted and edited by Ralph
Beaver Strassburger and William John Hinke in their "Pennsylvania German
Pioneers," which is published in the Proceedings of Pennsylvania German
Society. Following is a list of the Stauffer arrivals for the
pre-Revolutionary period. Alphabetical designations are arbitrary
symbols to be used for identification purposes.
Name.......................Age..Ship................Oath...............Page
A. Christian Stauffer......28...Vertuous Grace......Sept.24, 1737......175-7
B. Christian Stauffer...........Muscliffe Galley....Dec.22, 1744.......358
C. Christian Stauffer...........Saint Andrew........Sept.09, 1749......396
D. Christian Stauffer...........Phoenix.............Sept.15, 1749......406
E. Christian Stauffer...........Hero................Oct. 27, 1764......699
F. Christian Stauffer...........Union...............Sept. 30, 1774.....759
G. Daniel Stauffer........24....Plaisance...........Sept. 21, 1732.....78, 81-82
H. Daniel Staufer...............Saint Andrew........Sept.09, 1749......397
I. Daniel Stowfer.........20....Patience............Sept.15,1753.......526,528,530
J. Daniel Stauffer..............Crawford............Nov. 23,1770.......732
K. Henric Stauffer..............Saint Andrew........Sept.09, 1749......397 (2)
L. Jacob Stauffer........19.....Samuel..............Aug. 11, 1732......59, 63, 65
M. Jacob Stauffer........20.....Plaisance...........Sept. 21,1732......97, 82-83
N. Johannes Stauffer.....20.....Vertuous Grace......Sept. 24,1737......175-177
O. Johann Caspar Stover.........James Goodwill......Sept.11,1728........22
P. Johann Caspar Stover.........James Goodwill......Sept. 11,1728.......22
Q. Johannes Stauffer............Two Brothers........Oct.21, 1751........465
R. Martin Stouver...............Francis & Elizabeth.Sept.21,1742........327, 330
S. Philip Stover................Friendship..........Sept. 20,1738.......225,228, 230
T. Samuel Stouffer..............Richmond............Nov. 29,1766........695
U. Ully (Ulrich) Staufer (fam: 6)..James Goodwill...Sept. 27,1727.......10, 11
V. Ullrich Staufert.............Saint Andrew........Sept. 09, 1749......397
W. Ulerich Stauffer............Saint Andrew........Sept. 23, 1752......486
X. Vincent Stougher............ Mortonhouse.........Aug.23, 1738(arr.)...18
