Aesch\Neftenbach is situated in the Kanton Zürich in Switzer-land. At present it is a suburb of the industrial town of Winterthur; in earlier centuries it was a village of wine-growers which was part of the somewhat larger village of Neftenbach. Already in 1361 it is mentioned in the Habsburgi-sches Urbar II page 494, 496 and 512 that citizens of Schaff-hausen and Winterthur were loaned in "Escha" or "Eschaw". Aesch had 84 inhabitants in 1463 and 155 in 1910; nowadays it has a couple of hundred citizens. The village consists of a short main street with farm houses on both sides of the street. Most of the farms are still occupied by Hubers ("Wir sind alle Huber hier.") The original farm of the Dutch family Huber is also situated in this village. It is still occupied by a Huber. The locals talk about that farm house as belonging to "die Huber die ausgewandert sind" (Hubers who have wandered away).
The State Archive Zurich states (E II):
"Der Schuldienst erhielt sich seit der 2. Hälfte des 17 Jahr-h. bis ins 19. Jahrh. in der Familie Huber die in eigenen Hause fur eine Schulstube besorgt sein musste" (school lessons were given from the second half of the 17th century till in the 19th century by the family Huber who were obliged to keep the school in their family house).
In 1830 a real school is built for "800 gulden" (Memorabilia Tigurina, p. 370).
The surroundings of Aesch\Neftenbach are hilly. Parts of the hill are indicated by the name "hub": ober-hub, mittel-hub, unter-hub. The names Hubweg and Hubstrasse occur in Aesch. A Huber is someone who lives on a Hub(e) (Überall wo ein Bauer auf seiner Hub sass); a farm passed on from generation to generation in the same family. The first mention of the name occurs in the "Urkunden der Brixner Hochstiftsarchive" wherein are mentioned in 1251 a certain Conrad der Huber and a Hein-rich Huber. The prefix "der" shows we have to do with a name connected to an occupation, in this case farming. The custom to put a "der" or "die" before the surname is still in use in Switzer-land (der Huber, Johannes). In Germanic Dialects (e.g. in the Alsace) the name is also written and pronounced as Hueber or Huober. In the U.S.A. Huber is anglicized as HO(O)-VER.
The "Alemannen" was a group of Germanic people belonging to the group of the "Sue-ven". The most powerful tribe of this group were the Semones. A part of the Sueven were pushed westwards by the Bourgundians and Longobardians and were sighted in South West Germany in 213 A.D. The Roman Emperor Caracalla (Alamannicus) stopped their progress. In 233-234 A.D. they breached the Roman lines and emperor Gallienus had to push them out of Northern Italy. In 260 A.D. they breached the Roman lines again and establis-hed themselves in the Agri Decumates, the area between Rhine, Main and Neckar. In 270 A.D. they were again driven out of Northern Italy to the back of the three above mentioned rivers and in 357 A.D. they were totally defeated by emperor Julianus near what is now Strass-bourgh (Strasbourg) and in 370 A.D. by emperor Valentia-nus in the Black Forest. From 390 A.D. onwards the Alemains established them-selves in Southern Germany, Northern Switzerland and the Alsace. After the sixth century they merged in what later became the Carolignian empire. On one of the hills around Aesch, the Hullibu, traces have been found of an early settle-ment which has been dated to before the Roman period. From the Roman period ruins have been found of a Roman villa as well as waterworks and tools and coins.
In the C13th and C14th under the Habsburg monarchy, Aesch belonged to the earldom of Kyburg. Vassal lords were the lords of Wart; who lived in a castle on the Wartberg and a second castle on the Multberg. Rudolf von Wart was one of the plot-ters who murdered king Albrecht. He was drawn and quartered and a part of his possessions were confiscated. His brother Jacob von Wart sold in 1322 what was left of the estate to Johann Truchsess von Diesenhofen.
In 1799 Aesch became victim of the French revolution. A silent witness is a canon ball embedded in the Church wall, a remin-der of a battle between the French and Austrians. French soldiers quartered in Aesch brought the population to the level of starvation and many people left the district. Aesch comes under the administrative and religious jurisdiction of Neftenbach. The church of Aesch where the Hubers were "Sitten-rich-ter" (a kind of magistrate comparable to a J.P.) still exists.
THE COMMON FOREFATHER OF THE DUTCH HUBERS
In Switzerland in 1553 it became compulsory to register in church all marriages and baptisms. In 1642 this rule was made for deaths.
According to these church registers there were in 1553 three families Huber resident in Aesch, two "Hans Hubers" and one "Martin Huber". All three have a child baptized in 1533, it is difficult to find out which child belongs to which Huber. The keeping of the church register - probably because it was a novelty - was not very precise. Maybe it was not considered very important.
Martinus Huber (09.001) is not only the forefather of all in this family tree named Dutch Hubers but also from many (maybe all) in Aesch and Neftenbach living Hubers.
OTHER HUBER FAMILIES
There are also Dutch Hubers who can trace their ancestry back to Switzerland who are no issue of Martinus Huber. In the town of Brielle, some thirty miles south west of the city of Rot-terdam there lived once a family Taedema. They were related to a well known brewer Taede Taedema, who was married to an Elisabeth Huber, daughter of Zacharias Huber. This family Huber probably hails from the village of Altikon/Dinhard in the Kanton of Zurich, not far away from Aesch. There is a lot of literature about this family and a book is written about them by F.G.A. Huber LLD.
Ulrick (Ulricus) Huber, second son of Zacharias Huber and Sjoukje Rensma, born 13-03-1636 is the most famous offspring of this family. He was University professor at Franeker in the province of Friesland and wrote a book on the Common law in his time. His statue stands next to that of Hugo Grotius before the highest court in Holland in the Hague. The forefat-her of this family from Altikon married to Elisabeth Stulsatz of Dättlikon (see chart of Aesch). Because the baptism regis-ter of Dinhard was not kept properly and Altikon fell under the jurisdiction of Dinhard during this period (1555-1559) we cannot find the baptism registered of their son Heinrich.
This son Heinrich is recruited at the end C16th by Ernst Casimir (later to become the "Stadhouder of Friesland") as a mercenary soldier. He takes part in the battle of Nieuwpoort (1600) and becomes, on recommendation of Ernst Casimir, Cap-tain of the foot soldiers in the service of Hendrik Julius Duke of Brunswick. (The Duke was the father in law of Casi-mir.) Later he returns to the service of the State and went probably in the service of the Admiralty of Friesland to the town of Dokkum.
Heinrich and his wife may have had six children. One of them could have been a certain Ulrich Joan who established himself in Paderhorn, married there and became the common forefat-her of many German Hubers.
In 1924 Dr. Fritz Huber "Geheim-Ober-Regierungsrat" at Char-lottenburg says that he is a descendant of the afore mentioned Ulrich Joan. He has two citations in which is stated that his ancestor was "externus" and as "miles" roundabout 1622/23 arrived in Paderhorn. This is around the time Christian von Brunswick captured the town. Ulrich Joan marries in Paderhorn with Anastasia, daughter of the Town Clerk (Clerk of the Royal Court) Viktor Warnesius. He became the owner of the university press in Paderhorn.
The family Crest of the Hubers is depicted on the compass, beside a depiction of two fishes facing each other (the crest of Nieuwpoort) and the inscription C.T.D.M. plus the year 1618. The year probably refers to twenty five years faith-full service of Heinrich to Ernst Casimir from the time of his enlistment in Switserland in 1593. The letters on the compass mean "Coparium Terrestrium Dux et Maritimarum" or "Overall Commander of the troops on land as well as at sea" = Ernst Casimir. Later this Huber-crest appeared on a letter dated 1627 from Zacharias Huber to his brother in law Lolke Jensma at Bolsward and was identical to the crest of the village of Altikon/Dinhard in the Kanton of Zurich. Since this time the descendants of Heinrich Huber from Altikon carry this crest.
KOOS THE SWITZER
There are in Holland Hubers who are descended from Jacob Huber, who according to his own story was born on 24-07-1806 at Marbach in the Kanton of Luzern. His parents were Johann and Verena Huber. His past is obscure because on the date given by him there is a blank in the baptism register at Marbach. Any search is hampered by the fact that part of the archives were destroyed by fire. Jacob Huber was soldier, fusilier and cargo handler.
HUEBER
In 1761 in Innsbruck (Tirol) is born Joannes Antonius Hueber; he comes to the Netherlands and dies at Ysselstein on 20-05-1830. He was married with a Catharina Moes. The name Hueber is also written as: Hubert, Hubart and Hoebart.
This is the coat of arms of the descendants of Heinrich Huber of Aesch, born 05-02-1793. Heinrich Huber came to Holland in 1815 and was a sergeant in the 30th Swiss (Zuricher) regiment Jakob Christoph von Ziegler. Some years later he was followed by his younger brother, Hans Conrad Huber.
The grapes are part of the wine growers arms of the Huber family in the old church of Aesch. The halberd was (and is still) borne by the Swiss commissioned officers in the Swiss regiments. The Pegasus symbolizes the (humanistic) freedom of thought of the Dutch Huber-family.
The descendants of Heinrich now live scattered over the world; in Holland, in France (Colmar and Bedarieux), in Switzerland (Geneva), in Great Britain (Cambridge), in the U.S. (Bethesda/Washington), in South Africa (Johannesburg), in New-Zealand (Wellington), in Canada (Ottawa) and in Australia (Sydney).
the website of Johan J. L. Huber
© 2000 B. Dirisio
Website maintained by D. Johnson
Last updated: Wednesday 03 August 2005