HISTORY OF THE KRIDER FAMILY
BY ISAIAH WISE KRIDER
Martin Greider and three sons came to Philadelphia in September 1736 and went to Lancaster, on Conestoga Creed, to the Kriders that lived there on 800 acres, bought in 1717, and patented to Jacob Greider in 1734. Michael, who came in August 1732, preceded his father and three brothers Joseph, John Jacob, and Frederick.
This Michael bought of Henry Herr and wife Anna on May 15, 1757, 200 acres of the north side of Conestoga Creek, being a part of the 800 acres purchased in 1717.
This Michael Grider, or Greiter (for he spelled it both ways in his will, dated April 4, 1787) gives this land to Christian and gives $3,800 in gold to Michael and John. There is nothing said in the will of either wife or daughter. Michael dies in 1788; his wife Elizabeth in 1800; Michael Jr., born 1759, died 1825; John born 1761. died 1794. These are all buried on the old homestead. Michael Jr. had no children. John never married. Susanna, the daughter married (no first name) Bossler by whom she bore on son John. He married and had one child.
They all had good estates, but are all dead, leaving no posterity. I did not learn where the Bosslers are buried.
Christian, the oldest son, my grandfather, born January 1757, came into possession of the farm on the death of his father in 1788 and sold it to Jacob Light March 10, 1804. His wife Anna (Ellenberger) joined in the deed of conveyance. They spelled their name with a "G" - Greider.
They moved to Lebanon, which was then a part of Lancaster County and was not organized in Lebanon County until 1818. But the Griders had taken up land on Snitz Creek. His uncle and grandfather, Martin (the blacksmith) were living near where Lebanon City is now. His wife, Anna, died in the summer of 1804 but I was not able to find here grave or any record that he bought land the year he lived in Lebanon Township. He married Susanna Brant April 9, 1805 and moved west the same year with his family and two married sons, John and Christian, and bought lands near Fort Erie (now Erie City). One daughter was born to them there, Catherine, on January 21, 1812. From thence in 1815 they all moved to Washington County, Pennsylvania where Grandfather Christian bought land on the National Turnpike which was at that time being built from Baltimore, Maryland to St. Louis, Missouri. That was a great National highway that was never finished but was completed as far west as Washington County. Grandfather laid out the town of Beallsville on his land, built a tavern (as a hotel was then called) and ran the tavern and farm until 1829 when he again pulled up and moved to Liberty Township, Montgomery County, Ohio where the writer of this sketch was born June 4, 1830. On this move he took his son Henry and family (wife and four children). His own family consisted of wife and one daughter, Catherine, who afterward married Peter Shideler. Two of her children are still living, Margaret Potter of Kincaid, Kansas and Anna Moses of Eaton, Ohio.
This Christian had, by his first wife, four sons and one daughter that married and had children. John, married Anna Gilbert, and whose family is scattered over the west. A part of them lived and died near Prairie City, Illinois, and others are in Missouri, Kansas, and Iowa. Christian Jr. married Barbara Mellinger and moved to Indiana September 1837. He died in 1839, aged 56. Most of his children lived and died in Indiana, but not all. George married Barbara Brown and moved to Fulton County, Illinois in 1835 with his family. He was about 65 when he died. Most of his family died around Prairie City, Illinois.
Elizabeth married John Ebersole at Erie, Pennsylvania and soon thereafter moved to Knox County, Ohio about 1810 or 1812 where they both lived to be very old. Their children never came west to stay very long and are nearly all dead.
Henry (my father), the youngest son, was born July 14, 1799 and died March 23, 1868 in Cass County, Indiana, where he moved in May 1737. He married Susanna Custer September 20, 1819. Susanna Custer was born in Washington County, Pennsylvania March 23, 1802 and died April 12, 1887.
To them were born eight children.:
Elizabethb. June 28, 1821d. August 1833
George C.b. November 24, 1822d. August 17, 1855
Christian E.b. February 24, 1825d. January 3, 1863
David H.b. December 3, 1827d. September 8, 1883
Isaiah W.b. June 4, 1830
Mary M.b. October 21, 1832
Rebeccab. August 17, 1834d. June 11, 1890
Susannab. February 15, 1837d. December 1860
Elizabeth died young and Susanna never married. The four sons and the two remaining daughters married and raised children. Mary M. (Krider) Heddens, 77, and I, (Isaiah W.), 79, are all that are left of our family. Dr. W. L. of Prairie City, Illinois, 77 years old, is of George C.'s family and is 80 years old. I do not know much of John's family or of Elizabeth's, but suppose the old stock are all dead. But their children are numerous.
The western fever was still raging and in 1836 when I was a six year old boy, there was another exodus from western Pennsylvania to the "Far West" of the kinsfolk on both sides of the house; of mother's people principally for the Kriders had been on the go and at that early day were scattered from the Alleghenies to the Mississippi River.
By the spring of 1837 my father was ready for another move; this time to the swamps of the Wabash and Eel river country. By this time grandfather was more than 80 years old, but still a stalwart and still capable of enduring all the hardships incident to a move of 200 miles on horseback, through mud and rain, driving stock of cattle, sheep, and hogs, - for we brought everything with us. This was the fifth move for grandfather in 32 years; in 1804 from Lancaster to Lebanon, 25 or 30 miles; thence to Erie City, in the extreme northwestern part of the state, following up the Susquehanna rive, thence along the lake shore to Fort Erie, 400 or 500 miles; In 1815 to Washing County, the southwestern part of the state, another move of 400 miles; in 1829 to Montgomery County, Ohio, another 400 miles, but part of this trip, from Wheeling to Cincinnati, on a flat boat, thence across country sixty or seventy miles to his destination. In 1837, his wife being blind and both of them old, he thought best to break up housekeeping. During the eight years they lived in Ohio father and son lived in the same yard.
His daughter Catherine, who married Peter Shideler, lived in Preble County, near Eaton, Ohio. His wife, Susanna, went to live with the daughter, and he came to Indiana with his son Henry. He we back once a year to see his wife until her death in 1842, at the age of 72. He died December 23, 1847, age 90 years and 11 months, and is buried in the cemetery of the Methodist Episcopal Church in Bethlehem Township, Cass County, Indiana. His son Christian, his two grandsons, John and Jacob, and some of their children down to the sixth generation, with my wife and seven children, are buried there also. My father and mother, two brothers and two sisters are buried in Spring Creek Cemetery, Clay Township, Cass County. My brother David died in Alabama, near Decatur, and with two of his children is buried there. His wife and some of his children are buried in Spring Creek.
In running back the genealogy of the family I find Martin, his grandfather, and Michael, his father, were born in Switzerland as shown at the beginning of our history. That the first comers in 1709 and those four that took the 800 acres on the Conestoga in 1717 were very closely related and are known now as the Lancaster branch, as is evidenced by the record at the Court Hose, by deeds and wills and old family bibles. But only Michael, son, remained at Lancaster, the father and three other sons going to Lebanon Valley, a most beautiful spot lying in sight of the Blue Ridge Mountains. These lands were taken up in 1737 and much of it is still held by the Kreiders. The Rev. Christian Kreider lives near Cleona in the house his father built in 1709. It is of brick and both it and the stone barn built in 1703 look as good as new.
There was a question as to which Michael was the great-grandfather, but when I went among the gravestones I found at Lebanon names that were not in the graveyards at Lancaster County. Martin and Tobias and Gutleab are names I find at Snitzie Creek in the old graveyard on the adjoining farms of the two brothers - one plat of ground fenced in, on each farm, and each family buried in their own ground.
The names Christian and Gutleab are not found on the tombstones, but are very common in Lebanon. So there is no question but that Michael, who came in 1732, is the oldest son of Martin Kreider who came in 1736 with the other three sons, Joseph, John Jacob, and Frederick.
The family is very numerous, both east and west. They are by the thousands in Lebanon and Lancaster Counties and up in the mountains. As a people they are church goers and a very large per cent are member of some branch of the Christian Church.
In writing this history of the family I get much of the record - that from Philadelphia and Harrisburg - from the Rev. Isaac Kreider of Duncansville, Pennsylvania. It is upon information received from him that I bas my statements concerning those who came in 1736 and Michael who came four years before in 1732. It is upon the same authority that I say that Michael of 1732 remained at Lancaster, and Martin of 1736 stopped four years at Lancaster, that the three sons went to Snitzie Creek and took land there; and that the father followed and they gave him 160 acres of the land they had taken up. I find by the records of Lancaster that after the old stock had died, my grandfather, Christian, the son of Michael of 1732, who owned the 200 acres north of Conestoga Creek and one mile south of Lancaster City and which was part of the 800 acres purchased in 1717, patented to Jacob Krider in 1734. And which the said Michael bought of Henry Herr, May 15, 1759, and willed to his son Christian in 1787 - that Christian sold the land to Jacob Light in 1804 and moved to Lebanon, where his wife Anna dies in the summer of the same year. And when he was old he talked about Martin and Tobias and Gutleab.
The more I recapitulate the more I am convinced that our direct line lies in the Lebanon branch. We have all the generations of the America born and buried in Bethlehem Township, Cass County, Indiana. At least six generations; I belong to the third generation. My grandfather was 73 years old when I was born. He always lived with us and I remember a great deal of what he used to talk about, and the conditions as I find them after going over the field the second time, I give this out to the entire relationship as being as near the correct history of the family as can be obtained at this late day.
ISAIAH WISE KRIDER
Logansport, Indiana, November 15th, 1909
Note:
The above copied direct from the original pamphlet, copy of which is in my possession.
Leroy Glen Krider, Newton, Kansas, January 31st, 1941
Note:
The above history copied direct from the Krider - Reynolds, An outline of Ancestors of Glen Alden Krider, Harrison Snow Krider, and John William Krider, prepared by the father and mother Leroy Glen Krider and Avis Ina (Reynolds) Krider 1941.
Pat Duncan, Manhattan, Kansas, January 9th, 2003