Descendants of Joseph J. Flory Sr

compiled by Stephenie Flora

Research on the first three generations was done by other individuals including Ken Florey.  I take no credit or blame for the information provided.  The individuals that are my primary line of interest are noted in red in each generation.  Any updates or additions would be most appreciated.  I do not display information on those who are still living in order to preserve their privacy.   I would  appreciate hearing from descendants of Generation 8 in order to update my files and share information.

Generation No. 1

JOSEPH FLORY SR. was born 1682, and died October 1741 in Lancaster Co., Pa. He married ANNA MARIA (MARY) BUGH.

Children of JOSEPH SR and ANNA BUGH are:
    i.  MARIA FLORY, b. 1712, Germany.
A Mary Florey, whose age was 21, appears on the ship list of "The Hope." Nothing else is known about her. Because her age is 21, she may have been born to a mother other than Anna Maria Bugh (whose age is listed as 40 on the ship lists of "The Hope"), who would have to have been no older than 18 when she was married to have a child at 19.

    ii.  JOSEPH FLORY, b. 1714, Germany; d. Sep 1785, Paxtang Twp, PA.
    iii.  ANNALI FLORY, b. 1716, Germany.
A Hanliey Flory, age 17, appears on the ship list of "The Hope" in 1733. The name of "Hanliey" is unknown in Germany, and this may be an affectionate name for her by the members of the family or it could be the result of faulty transcription by an English recorder on ship.  There is a Swiss name of Anneli, which roughly means "little Anna."  This could be Hanliey's actual name, indicating that the family was ultimately Swiss.

    iv. JOHNANNES F. FLORY, b. 1718; d. 07 Nov 1781, Lancaster Co, PA.

    v.  JACOB FLORA, b. 1727, Palatinate, Germany; d. 1796, Franklin Co, VA.

    vi. BARBARA FLORY, b. 1732, Germany.
Barbara Flory was baptized at the Conestoga Congregration in 1754. This is the only time her name appears on public record. While there is nothing to directly link her to Joseph, Walter Bunderman in his 1948 study assumes that she is his daughter. The congregation was a short distance from Joseph's place of residence in Rapho Township, and there was no other Flory family in the immediate area from which she could have come. There are several alternative explanations, but since Barabara has been accepted by tradition as being Joseph's daughter, she will be placed so here.  Roxann Rhea notes that there are two possible references to Barbara elsewhere.  A Barbara Flohr of Rapho Township married and Adam Bach, Jr., of Lebanon Township on May 2, 1769.  A Maria Barbara Florin married a Johan Bartolomaeus Shuh in Philadelphia on September 19, 1757.  This latter record is from an Evangelical Lutheran Record, and the former from a Reformed Record from the Pastoral Records of John Casper Stoever.  The existence of Rapho Township Barbara Flohr opens up a number of possibilities, one of which is that a Flohr family and a Flori family could have become confused. Was it a Flohr and not a Flori who was baptized at Conestoga?

    vii.    EVE CATHERINE FLORY, b. 08 Sep 1733, on ship "Hope"; d. 1821, Franklin Co, VA.

   viii.   ABRAHAM FLORY, b. 1735, Ralpho Twp, Lancaster Co, PA; d. 1827, Madison Twp, Montgomery Co, OH.

Notes for JOSEPH FLORY SR.
     Much work has been done in recent years searching for answers to questions relating to Joseph's origin and to the full identity of his wife. The essay below represents the latest that is known about Joseph.  The first essay, "Swiss Mennonites and the Hope Passenger List," discusses Swiss persecution of Anabaptists, their expulsion into Germany, and historical factors that influenced their migration into Germany. It reveals how after many generations the name of Joseph's wife, Anna Maria Bugh, was finally uncovered.

SWISS MENNONITES AND THE HOPE PASSENGER LIST

By

Ken  Florey

       The story of the Swiss Mennonites and the journey of many to Germany and then to America is a long and complex one. This essay will attempt, therefore, to cover only the highlights.

       Two major developments have recently come forth with respect to the story of Joseph Flory and his wife, Mary: (1) strong evidence that when Joseph emigrated from Germany on the Hope in 1733 that he was part of a contingent of Mennonite refugees, at least some of whom were from Zweibruecken, a region near the source of the Saare River in the Duchy of Pfalz; and that many of these refugees, wherever they were living in 1733, were born in Switzerland; and (2) reasonable certainty that the full name of Joseph’s wife Mary, the subject of so much speculation, was Anna Maria Bugh (Buch or possibly Pugh).

      These developments were researched and published by Richard W. Davis on his subscription website, MennoSearch.com, and were first reported to me by Jon Shidler. Mr. Davis’ site is devoted to research of the Mennonite families of Switzerland and Germany. It tracks them and their descendants who immigrated to America from the year 1709 to the early 1800’s. Mr. Davis has written 4 books on the subject, all of which are included on the site, and has done research for further studies. He is considered to be a leading authority in this area, and his hypotheses have to be considered seriously.

      Before discussing the highlights of the Hope- Zweibruecken-Mennonite hypothesis, it might be helpful to give a brief outline of Swiss Mennonite history in the 17th and 18th centuries, focusing on their migrations and expulsions into Germany and then to America.

    Mennonite/Anabaptist Activity in Switzerland in the 17th and Early 18th Centuries      

      The main cluster of Mennonite activity in Switzerland in the 17th century was in the Canton (or State) of Bern, with some significant spillover into Solothurn. During periods of Mennonite repression in Bern, some Anabaptists fled across the Alps into Solothurn into the towns of Baltsthal, Barschwil, Champoz, and Matzendorf.  The parish of Matzendorf is particularly interesting as a number of individuals appear there in the period of 1650-1725 with the name "Joseph Fluri." The German counterpart of this name, "Joseph Flory," was unknown in Germany at this time. There was in the late 16th century and early 17th century Anabaptist activity involving people with the Fluri name in an area called Solterschwand in the Swiss Alps above the town of Aedermannsdorf, which was in the parish of Matzendorf. It is not known what connection, if any, these Fluri families had with Bern. Records involving various Fluris with Mennonite connections who were associated with the Solterschwand can be found in the second essay below.

       While there were Anabaptist influences in various parts of the Canton of Bern, the heaviest concentration was in the Emmenthal Valley, including the towns of Sumiswald and Langnau.. The first three heads of families listed on the Hope ship list, Ulrich Wissler, Ulrich Reinhard, and Hans Crumbacher, all apparently were born in Sumiswald. All three may have been related. Another head of the first 13 families on the ship list was Ulrich Longnecker, who was born in Langnau. Hans Jacob Gerber (Garver, Kerwar, Tanner) who appears later on the list and who migrated to York County also seems to have had some associations with Sumiswald. There may have been others—we know too little at the moment about the origins of the majority of Hope passengers.

      There seem to have been continuing links from the Emmenthal Valley across to the Canton of Solothurn. One of the Mennonite preachers from this era was Durst Aebi (Eby), who traveled throughout Mennonite strongholds in this region. His son later migrated to America. The Fluri-Hug report, which is partially included in the second essay below, indicates that a series of Anabaptist meetings was held as late as1732 in an area which extended from the Emmenthal Valley to Solterschwand in the Alps.

      In response to the Mennonites, the authorities of Canton Bern established the Taufer Kammer, the Office of Anabaptist Affairs, to crack down on Mennonite activity. Because of various repressions and imprisonments of Mennonites by the Taufer Kammer throughout the Cantons of Zurich and Bern, many Anabaptists (I am using the terms "Mennonite" and "Anabaptist" interchangeably) continued to flee to the Emmenthal Valley, where sympathizers called Halb-Taufer (Halfway Anabaptists) attempted to protect them. At one time the entire village of Sumiswald was sentenced to pay authorities a heavy fine for hiding Mennonites in their homes.

      As a continuing result of the actions and decrees of the Taufer Kammer, the first mass migration, called "the first expulsion," of Mennonites from the Cantons of Bern and Solothurn into Germany took place in 1671. Swiss authorities enforced departure orders for Mennonites moving to Alsace, Baden, and the Pfalz. Authorities in these regions accepted the Mennonites with certain restrictions, including a prohibition on conversions and the right to own property. They also were forced to pay a yearly tax.

     Despite the efforts and hopes of the Taufer Kammer, Mennonite activity did not cease in Switzerland. In fact, in many ways it seems to have increased.  Many of the state preachers in the Emmenthal (Emmental) region, for example,  indicated that in some of their villages, the number of Halb-Taufer constituted the majority of the population. What resulted was another  was another crack down on Mennonites and their  sympathizers in the period from 1709 through 1717, called "the second expulsion."

      Many Mennonites migrated to Alsace, which is in present day France. As you can see from the Hope "head of household" list below, several passengers seem to have had their family origins in Alsace, which may indicate that they were part of a Mennonite contingent that may have emigrated there during the second expulsion.   Sainte-Marie-Aux-Mines (Markirch)  in Alsace was where Jakob Ammann separated from the Mennonites to form the Amish. The situation in Alsace was complicated and interesting. After the THIRTY YEARS war between France and Germany, Alsace was ceded to France by the treaty of Westphalia on October 24, 1648, which insured religious freedom for its inhabitants. This was why it was an attractive area of refuge for fleeing Swiss Mennonites. However, the French king Louis XIV  in 1712 was disturbed by the presence of  the Anabaptists in the region, broke existing treaties, and ordered them expelled. Apparently part of Alsace was owned by the Duchy of  Zweibruecken in the Palatinate in Germany, and some of the Mennonites were taken in there. Richard Davis believes that many if not most of the 27 Mennonite families living in Zweibruecken in 1732, may have come from Alsace during this period.

      The Palatinate, however, was the first and not the second destination for most of the Mennonites fleeing Switzerland during the second expulsion. Most of the Mennonites who came to Lancaster County in the eighteenth century were from the Palatinate. There was a recorded Anabaptist presence there as early as the 1520's.  During this period of the second expulsion,  Karl Ludwig, the elector of the Palatinate, was in part responsible for opening  up the way for Swiss Mennonites to occupy the territories under his control.. King Frederick I of Prussia on July 5, 1710 tried to intercede with the State government in Berne for the safety of the Swiss  Mennonites, and he offered to receive "these good people" and to aid them to make a new life. Some Mennonites went to Baden, where many of their descendants can still be found today.

      Obviously, there were Mennonites in a variety of Swiss towns, villages, and cities. When they were expelled from Switzerland, they went to various areas in Germany, although the Palatinate appears to have been especially attractive to them. What the research done by Richard Davis may indicate, as we shall see below, was that some families fleeing from the Emmenthal Valley (especially Sumiswald) in the first expulsion emigrated to Alsace in 1671, and later, having been expelled by the French King, to Zweibrucken in 1712, and then to America in 1733 aboard the Hope. There were other ships that imported Mennonites with origins in either Sumiswald and/or Zweibruecken throughout the first half of the 18th century (including the Samuel and the Mortonhouse in 1733), but there is a possibility that the Hope was the principal carrier.  Obviously, some of the Hope Mennonites were too young in 1733 to have been born in Sumiswald prior to the first expulsion in 1671, but their fathers  and grandfathers may have come from there.

      It is unclear as to how both Joseph Flory fits into this pattern of Emmenthal to Alsace to Zweibruecken and how ubiquitous this pattern was among the Mennonite refugees aboard the Hope. Not all of them  necessarily came from Sumiswald and the Emmenthal valley.  At  least, however, some did. Joseph Flory associated with a minimum of 4-5 Mennonite families to whom the pattern applies, and he is grouped with those families on the Hope ship lists. It is very likely that either Joseph or his father left Switzerland after the first or second expulsions in 1671 and 1709-1717. My guess is that they were part of the second expulsion, but this is only a guess.

Zweibruecken and the Identity of Joseph Flory's Wife,

     To return to the Davis hypothesis that the Hope was a ship carrying Mennonite families from Zweibruecken, the following circumstantial evidence seems compelling. In the years 1731 and 1732, there were lists of the numbers of Mennonite families living in the Pfalz that were sent to Mennonite leaders in Amsterdam in Holland. The list for Zweibruecken for 1732 indicated that there were 27 Mennonite families living in that town, although the list did not include the names of heads of families so we are not certain as to who they all were.  The report indicates that the Zweibruecken congregation was made up of exiles from Alsace in 1713 who had been expelled by Louis XIV as we have seen above. Many of these exiles were apparently born in Switzerland. Again, unfortunately, individual family names are not given on this list, but we do know that the ministers were Hans Grundtbacher, Hans Hieruli, and Christian Martin. The deacon was Christian Stouder. Stouder's son, also named Christian, was baptized by the Church of Brethren at Conestoga in America, where several of Joseph Flory's children were also baptized. Christian was 17 at the time, indicating that for the Brethren at least baptism took place at the "age of maturity," which was not necessarily 21.

       At least two of these leaders' names (Hans Grundtbacher and Christian Stouder) appear on the passenger lists of the Hope indicating that a significant migration of Mennonites from Zweibruecken may have taken place in 1733.  Furthermore, Davis can find no evidence that Mennonites were living in Zweibruecken after 1732, although he does find reference to a few such families living in areas outside the town in Gersbergerhof, Kirschbacherhof, and at Heckenaschbacherhof.  Based on all of this, Davis theorizes that most, if not all, left as a group on the Hope in 1733. Because the census list of 1732 does not list names of the 27 Mennonite families then living in Zweibruecken, it is difficult to determine how many of the passengers on the Hope did indeed come from that area beyond the minister and deacon named above. Davis does find evidence that at least one other passenger onboard the Hope in 1733, Ulrich Longenecker (who settled in Rapho Township), was from Zweibruecken. In a quick search through the Internet, I found another Mennonite passenger, Henry Gerber, who was also from that region.

      There were definitely other Mennonites on the Hope other than the four individuals named above.  The ship lists of the Hope are not  alphabetical listings. As indicated earlier, men and women are divided  in the A list into two groups by gender. However, within this list, families are grouped together (husbands with sons, and wives, apparently, with daughters, mothers, and sisters). Beginning with the first name on the ship list of males, that of Ulrich Wissler, running down to that of Christian Blank, Davis finds that the first 13 families all have Mennonite connections. Of these first 13 families at least 3, as we have seen, came from Zweibruecken (it is important to again note that he does not believe that these families were born there, but they probably immigrated there, and that many of them were Swiss).

      When one runs down the corresponding list for the women on the A list, the first 13 families there seem to pretty much match the first 13 male families, at least when it comes to names of daughters (Steinman, Zimmerman, Flory). However, there are 5 or 6 women who correspond in age to the men on the male list, but who don’t appear to have husbands anywhere on the ship. This would have been highly unusual. Women did not travel alone. Why so many spouseless women?

      Davis’s explanation is a simple one. Many women were following the Swiss tradition of going by their family names, not by their husbands' names. Ulrich Wissler, 36 (the first male name listed), for example, may have been married to Anna Ester (25) (the first female listed), Ulrich Reinhard (29) to Barbara Bechtel (29), Hans Grumbacher (26) to Barbara Reinhart (23), Hans Steinman (49) to Anna Grebel (48), Christian Stouter (45) to Elisabeth Schnebeli (44), etc. There may be one or two people out of place on this chart, but when daughter's names are factored in, the idea that the families were charted together, with two lists kept for the sexes, seems pretty clear. When the male in question was old enough to have daughters 16 years or older (some children under this age were listed separately), a corresponding "spouseless" woman was generally listed before those daughters, in the place where one would expect to find a mother’s name.

      The name of Anna Maria Bugh appears just prior to the names of Mary Flory (21) and Hanliey Flory (17) on the ship list (and in the same handwriting as that used to transcribe the names of the Flory children). Her age of 40 is appropriate for that of the wife of Joseph (51). There is no male aboard the Hope with the name of Bugh, so she was not traveling with a husband by that name. Moreover,  German women as well as men went by their middle names rather than their first names. Anna Maria would have been called Maria, or Mary. She was Joseph’s wife. Flory researchers have been searching for the missing Mary Flory for decades, and it appears that she was in full sight all along. We just did not recognize her for what she was.

     The alternative to this theory would be Bunderman's, that somehow Mary was "overlooked" on the ship list--or perhaps that Joseph married Mary in America (eliminating the possibility that Katherine Eva was his child) or that Joseph married a 21 year old woman (the 21 year old Mary on the ship list). The most obvious answer is probably the correct one. Many of the Swiss women aboard the Hope were listed by their maiden names, and Anna Maria Bugh was the woman we know as Mary Flory. The name "Bugh," incidentally, is German. The closest Swiss form would be "Bucher." Considering the fact, however,  that the English scribe of the A list had a tendency to butcher spellings and to leave off the -er on other names, a Swiss origin, though unlikely, cannot be ruled out entirely. The ship list gives Anna Maria Bugh's age as 40, which, if correct, probably indicates that she was a second wife to Joseph. To be his first wife, she would have had to have been 18 when she was married in order to have a child, Mary, who was 21 in 1733 when the Hope set sail.

From Zweibruecken to Lancaster County in America and William Penn

      The emigration of Mennonites to America after 1709 was occasioned by two factors: (1) the religious tolerance of German princes towards their Mennonite subjects was beginning to break down, and while conditions were  not as serious for those Swiss Mennonites as they had been in in their former country, many began thinking about another home; (2) there were large tracts of land becoming available in Pennsylvania as the result of King Charles II of England giving William Penn, a Quaker, a charter to that colony in 1681. When Penn returned to Europe in 1684, he printed circulars and gave lecture tours to try to induce Swiss and Germans to settle in his new land. Some Palatines responded, but it was not until the events of the next 25 years reached their crisis point that large numbers of Palatines, including Mennonites, heard the call.

      After the end of the Thirty Years War in 1648, the Protestant principalities of Germany encouraged Swiss Germans to migrate to their areas. Western Germany especially had become extremely depopulated because of the War and the subsequent scourge of disease. The Mennonites sought to be included in this general immigration to join the remnants of the Anabaptist movement then in place in Germany, and after some extensive effort on their part, those who had immigrated to the Palatine were granted some limited religious freedom from the Elector Charles Louis, despite opposition from the local Reformed Church. Their ability to worship was at first severely restricted, but finally on Aug. 4, 1664, they obtained permission to meet in groups of more than 20 as long as non-Mennonites were excluded from their gatherings.  In return, they had to pay a tax of 6 guilders a year, which was later doubled.

     The relationship between Mennonites and the German princes had its up and downs, but the situation remained relatively stable until the end of the 17th century and beginning of the 18th. Hostilities between France and Germany flared up again, however, and French forces attempted to use the Palatinate as a corridor to reach Holland. The Mennonites, who were pacifists, refused to fight for their adopted homeland, drawing the increased wrath of their German protectors. The relationship between the Mennonites and the Palatines continued to decline under the regime of Elector Charles Philip, 1716-42, who doubled their protection fees, limited their right to purchase land, and attempted to keep the number of Mennonite families in the Palatine under 200. By 1717, some 300 Palatine Mennonites were in Rotterdam, where they hoped to flee to Pennsylvania, where their right to worship would be unrestricted. In all of this, they received financial support from the Dutch Mennonites.

     Pennsylvania had become important because of William Penn. As we have seen, he received a charter from Charles II of England for vast land holdings in that colony.  As the persecutions of the Mennonites in Germany became worse, a Mennonite group approached Penn in 1707 about the possibility of settling in Lancaster County. Lutherans, who also wanted to escape the war, likewise sought Penn out seeking to relocate. Both groups met with favorable response, but so many Germans traveled down the Rhine to Holland in 1709 to sail to America, that the British government felt the need to intervene and send many of them back. A group of Mennonites in Rotterdam, however, held firm, and in late June of 1710, a small company set sail for America and Lancaster County on the ship Mary Hope.   Included in the group were Martin Olberholtzer, Martin Kuendig, Christian Herr, Martin Meli, Hans Herr, and Jacob Mueller. This began a flood of Mennonite immigration that lasted until the second half of the 19th century. By 1732 alone, the year before the departure of the Hope, approximately 3,000 Mennonites from the Palatine had arrived in America.

     Penn had divided the lower southeastern portion of his land into three distinct counties, Philadelphia, Bucks, and Chester. The Mennonite settlers chose Chester, in that area that was later to become part of Lancaster County when it was formed in 1729. Once in place, these settlers wrote back to their friends and relatives in Germany, urging them to come and join them. They decided to send their own recruiting agent, a post which Christian Herr declined  because of advanced age. A younger Martin Kuendig took it up, and became so successful at it that he brought back with him a considerable number of immigrants in 1712 and was appointed as Penn's agent throughout all of the Palatine. He, more than any other man, was responsible for the German emigration from the Palatine. He sought out all groups, but obviously his heart was out for the Mennonites, and by 1718 there were 600 of the faith occupying 15,000 acres of land in Lancaster County.

     This, then, was the basic situation in 1733 when Joseph Flory set sail with a group of Mennonites and Palatine Germans on the Hope. While we know little of Joseph, circumstantial evidence suggests that like many of his fellow travelers he was born in Switzerland and had been exiled to Germany, probably during the period of the second expulsion from 1709-1717.  His wife's name, Anna Maria Bugh, appears to be German, suggesting that he married her in exile. His first four children were probably those that he had with another wife, presumably Swiss. The name of his second daughter, Anneli, a Swiss diminutive, indicates that this first hypothetical marriage may have taken place in Switzerland. While his exact hometown is not known, it may have been in the area from the Emmanthal Valley to Matzendorf Parish in the Canton of Solothurn. He may have been related to a Fluri Mennonite family in a mountain area called the Solterschwand in the Canton of Solothurn that goes back to an Arnold Fluri in the late 17th century (see second essay below). This family had lands confiscated and suffered imprisonment because of their steadfastness to their religious beliefs. Undoubtedly, Joseph had a fair idea in Germany where he was headed in America once he arrived here.  He may have even purchased land before his journey. He probably had enough money to cover expenses himself, but he may have been aided by the contributions of Dutch Mennonites or by relatives over here. There is no evidence that he had necessarily settled in Zweibruecken in Germany after leaving Switzerland, but since at least four of his shipmates had come from that town, the possibility is there.  And this is what we either know or can speculate about Joseph in Europe.  Some of this speculation will undoubtedly be changed or altered as more facts become known.

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