A brief history of the Kuder Family who came to America from Germany and settled first in Pennsylvania and then spread to Ohio, Michigan and else where |
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Our Kuder ancestor came to Pennsylvania from Germany in about 1748 and then to Medina County, Ohio. The name has also been spelled as Cooter, Kuter and possibly even Conder. Kuder is apparently the original spelling. Sometime in 2002, I purchased a book by mail from Robert C. Kuder (Robert C. Kuder, Kuder-Kuter-Cooter-Cooder Families, Maple Grove, Minnesota, copyright 2000). Mr. Kuder did a tremendous amount of work on the Kuder family genealogy and history. His book contains many family lines in several states in the United States and traces their ancestry back to Germany. My work here measures just a fraction of what he has compiled. In 2003 we moved from Fort Smith, Arkansas to Florence, Arizona. During the relocation I managed to lose Mr. Kuder's address. I have been unable to contact him since I corresponded with him back in 2002. I wanted to put his address and information on the availability of his book on this site so others could benefit from it. If anyone knows how to reach Mr. Kuder, please let me know. His book is the source for much of the Information here on the first four or five generations of Kuder's in Germany and Pennsylvania. The Dictionary of American Family Names, Oxford University Press, states that the name Kuder is derived from someone who worked with or dealt with tow, a component of hemp, or broken strands of flax. It was also a nickname from the southern German dialect, Kuder meaning "wildcat". Either, or both, could be the source of our family name. Robert C. Kuder traced our line as far back as about 1630 with the estimated and apparently undocumented birth of Philip (Phillipp) Kuder. He, his children and grandchildren were from the village of Neckargartach on the banks of the Neckar River in the duchy of Wurttemberg. Today it is part of Heilbronn. This area is in that part of Germany known as the Rhine-Palatinate. Philip's son Jacob (Hans Jakob) and his wife Anna Christina Magdalena Silling had a son, Adam (Hans Adam) Kuder. Adam and wife Margaretha had two sons who emigrated to America, Peter (Hans Peter) and Bernhard Kuder. Hans Peter Kuder was the first to leave Neckargartach for America probably in the spring of 1737. After several weeks in Holland he left Rotterdam on the ship Charming Nancy for Plymouth, England. From Plymouth the ship sailed for Philadelphia arriving there on October 8, 1737. Peter is listed on the ship's passenger list as Hans Pieter Conder. His name on the list of those taking the Oath of Allegiance to the British Crown is given as Hanns Peter Kuder. in 1743 or early 1744 Peter returned to his native village in Germany and married Catherina Dorothea Rossler. The couple returned to Philadelphia and settled in Milford Township in Bucks County. The children of Peter and Dorothea were all baptized in the Lutheran Church in Red Hill, Pennsylvania. Peter died probably in January, 1759 and his will was proved on February 8, 1759. Peter was the father of three daughters and three sons. You will invariably run across the names of the sons when searching for Kuder's in Pennsylvania. They were John Peter (or Peter), Elias and Valentine Kuder. Peter and his two brothers were the ancestors of many of today's Kuder families. Our ancestor was Bernard Kuder, the brother of Peter. Variations on his given name are Barnard, Bernhard and Bernhardt. He was fourteen years younger than Peter and was born in Neckargartach. He was baptized on February 15, 1729. Children were usually baptized within a few days of birth in the German Lutheran Church. Bernard arrived in America on September 16, 1748 on the ship Patience which sailed from Rotterdam, then to Crowes, England and finally, Philadelphia. He was naturalized in 1765, seventeen years after his arrival in the Colony of Pennsylvania. Bernard married Anna Maria (Mary) Hoffman, a widow, on November 7, 1764 in Germantown. By the time of the American Revolution, the couple were living in Milford Township, Bucks County. During the Revolution, Bernard served as a wagon master and supposedly was wounded at the battle of Brandywine or Germantown in 1777. He died in about 1782. After his death his widow Mary and four of their youngest children left Pennsylvania and moved to Wythe County, Virginia. The Virginia branch of the family changed the spelling of the name to Cooter apparently because of confusion over the pronunciation. In Virginia she remarried to John Bishop. Bishop died about 1804. When the 1810 census was taken Mary was apparently living in the home of her son Philip Cooter. She died at an advanced age probably about 1811. Bernard and Mary Kuder had seven children:
George Kuder was the elder son of Bernard and Mary Kuder. He was born was born June 24, 1765 in Germantown, Philadelphia County, Pennsylvania. His wife's name was Susanna; her maiden name is unknown. According to Perrin's History of Medina County and Ohio (1881), in a biographical sketch on his grandson George Kuder, George and Susanna had a total of 16 children. We can only verify the names of seven. On the 1820 census George and his family were living in Fishing Creek Township, Columbia County, Pennsylvania. The census indicates seven boys and six girls in the household plus an adult male and female over 45 years of age. We do not know the date George passed away. Susanna died about 1847 in Orange Township, Columbia County, Pennsylvania. The following is a list of children of George and Susanna Kuder that we can verify:
Adam Kuder was born on March 19, 1794. He married Ester Pealer probably in Columbia County, Pennsylvania about 1817. He and his younger brother Jacob came to Sharon Township in Medina County, Ohio reportedly in 1834, probably from Columbia County, where they are listed on the 1820 census. However, the "History of Medina County and Ohio" says Lancaster County, Pennsylvania. Adam purchased a farm of 105 acres in the south half of section 14 in Sharon Township. We have his name on the tax lists for Sharon from 1834 through 1849. We did not collect any later tax information. Adam died on June 5, 1858 on his farm in Sharon and Ester died November 9, 1867. Our ancestor and my great great grandfather Jacob Kuder was born on April 22, 1796 supposedly in Northampton County, Pennsylvania. He married Mary M. Kime in 1824 or early 1825 possibly in Columbia County, Pennsylvania. Jacob purchased public land in the north east quarter of Section 27 of Sharon Township, Medina County on November 14, 1831. This makes me wonder about the actual date he and his brother Adam came to Ohio. This small tract of land was immediately south and adjacent his brother's farm in section 14. The "History of Medina County and Ohio" incorrectly stated that Adam and Jacob bought land in sections 14 (correct) and 23 (wrong). The "History of Medina County and Ohio" says of Adam and Jacob, "They were men celebrated for fair dealing, and did much in the settlement of the township." Jacob died on June 2, 1876 and Mary died on July 4, 1887. Both are buried in the Sharon Cemetery on the east side of Ridge Road (Highway 94) a couple of miles south of Sharon Center. The children of Jacob and Mary Kime Kuder were:
My great-grandmother, Abigail Kuder, married Reason Wall on December 12, 1861 in Wadsworth, Medina County, Ohio. Reason and Abby lived for awhile in Granger, but spent most of their lives in Sharon Township. Their farm was located in Section 32 about three miles east of Sharon Center north of Copley Road (Highway 162). For more about Reason and Abbie, click here to go to the REASON WALL page devoted to them and their family. Abbie's brother Hiram had a granddaughter, Eva Marie Kuder, daughter of Hiram Mason Kuder, who married Harold Melville Wall. Harold was the grandson of Reason and Abbie and the son of Reason Deforest and Winifred (Tyler) Wall. For more on them, click here to go to the page devoted to REASON DEFOREST WALL and his family. |
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Ronald N. WallModified: 06 July 2020 |
