The Bretz Register

John Bretz

The earliest record of the John Bretz with whom this account is concerned seems to be in tax lists for Rapho Twp., Lancaster Co., Pa. For 1772. After paying taxes on a farm for ten years, the record comes to an end and only family narratives carry across an intervening 30 years to the next record, John’s gravestone in Berne Twp., Fairfield Co., Ohio.

He died in 1812 and, figuring from his age, 74 years and 9 months, he was born in 1737. The narratives, reported as coming from John’s sons, agree that almost the entire family left Lancaster Co. Pa. early in the 1800’s and settled in Fairfield Co., Ohio.  The family may not have moved as a body. The reported dates range from 1800 to 1809.

Identification of the Rapho Twp. John as the John buried in Berne Twp. is based on the two following facts.

1)Immigration records show no John Bretz entering Philadelphia after 1750.

2) No other John Bretz is listed in the Pennsylvania tax records during the Revolutionary period.

Allen E. Bretz published a pamphlet in 1894 entitled “Genealogy of Jacob Bretz who was born in Germany A.D. 1702”. It contains lists of families of female descendants as well as those of the males and the maiden names of the wives of Bretz men, as far as the facts could then be collected, but has no birth or death dates. The only history it contains is as follows:

In 1822, Philip removed to Seneca County, Ohio, and settled on the farm where we are assembled in Re-union today, Aug. 30, 1894. In 1825 Martin removed to Richland County, Ohio. Conrad removed to Wyandot County, Ohio, except Anthony and Barbara, who remained in Pennsylvania.

There is no documentary evidence for the statement that John was a son of the Jacob Bretz, Pretz or Rats who came to America in 1732. There is arithmetical evidence that Allen’s statement is incorrect because information of John’s gravestone, in Berne Twp., Fairfield Co. Shows that he was born in October 1737. In correspondence with the writer of this present account, Allen wrote, in 1913, that his source was Rupp’s “Thirty Thousand Names....”  No connection can be established between any of the Bretz immigrants there listed and our progenitor John. Since names of only males more than 16 years old appear on the passenger lists of the immigrant ships, John was not the Johannes or the John Cristobal Bretz landing in Philadelphia August 21, 1750. If our John was German born, he entered before he was 16. Assuming that, if this were the case, he accompanied his parents, our John could have entered in 1743, aged 6; in 1744, aged 7 or in 1750, aged 13.  John may have been American born. If so, the immigrant Jacob Pretz, entering five years before John’s birth, might be thought of as his father except for the fact that Jacob brought a son John with him, past 16 years old. It seems more probable that, if American born, John came from parents who entered before 1727, the year the records were begun.

Although there is no record of John during the 18 to 27 years preceding the migration into Ohio, that patriarchal shift with seven sons, three daughters and some grandchildren indicates that the group must have retained close connections in Pennsylvania during this interval. John and his wife were aged 63 and 58 respectively in 1800. One readily conceives that the move was initiated by the older sons and that the father and mother were taken along, instead of being left behind in Pennsylvania. But why all, except one son and one daughter, left Pennsylvania is unstated in any of the oral narratives.

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