Statler Family Historical Documents

"The Statler/Stetler/Stotler Newsletter"

NUMBER ONE                                              March 1986

Editor and Publisher:
Sandra J. Hall
5324 Apple Tree Court
Orangevale, CA  95662

Transcribed to HTML by David Statler

THE NEWSLETTER

The goal of this newsletter is to promote the gathering and exchange of information.  And then to provide a permanent, published record of the information for the use of future generations.

The cost of this newsletter is $12.00 per year.  There will be four issues per year.  They will be sent in March, June, September, and December.

The newsletter will contain information on any family with a last name resembling STATLER;  I.E.  Stadler, Stadtler, Staedler, Stateler, Statler, Stattler, Stetler, Stettler, Stiteler, Stitler, Stotlar, Stotler, Stottler, Stutler, Stuttler or any other variation.

I named the newsletter "Statler/Stetler/Stotler" to save space and include more than just my spelling.

The newsletter will include census records, will abstracts, land records, war service records, excerpts or existing family histories, obituaries, and news of living families.  Along with genealogial information I have gathered, a very important part of the newsletter will be the Query Section where subscribers may ask for help on their particular problem.

Where will the money go?  A portion will cover the cost of producing the newsletter.  This cost will vary depending on the number of subscribers (the more the better).  Money left after expenses will be spent for research on the various family branches.  This will be roughly in proportion to the number of subscribers from each group, but no group will be left out.

If individuals share the information that has been gathered already it will be very helpful.  That way research money will not be spent to duplicate research that has already been done.

My knowledge of United States research is very broad but I am just beginning to learn about European research.  I know many Stadler families (and other spellings) came to the United States in the 1800's and I want to include information about them.  Perhaps someone can help with that.

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THE FAMILIES

The various Statler, Stetler, Stotler, etc. families include many interesting members.  Men who fought in every war beginning with the French and Indian War, even before the American Revolution.  Traditions have various families coming from Bavaria, Hesse Darmstadt, Switzerland, Alsace Lorraine, and the Spanish Netherlands.  As far as I know, these are as yet unproven traditions.  I do not know of any descendant of these families that were in America before the Revolution, that have found their ancestors in European records.

FAMILY GROUP NUMBERS

In order to organize the information I am gathering, I have given group numbers to the various families found in the 1790 census.  These indicate only a possible relationship based on the fact that families with a rather unusual last name are likely to be related to others with the same name in the same county.  I am sure as more information becomes available that I will be combining or dividing these groups.   I have added two groups at the end of the numbering system because they are large families, but I don't, as yet, know how they are related to any of the other groups.

Group 1
Found in Northampton County, Pennsylvania in 1790.  Lehigh County was split from Northampton in 1812, so I have placed residence of either county in Group 1.  Most common spelling in the 1850 Census index was STETTLER.

Group 2
Montgomery County, Pennsylvania.  Most common spelling STETLER, early church records spell the name STAEDTLER.

Group 3
Chester County, Pennsylvania.  Most common spelling STITELER.

Group 4
Lancaster and Dauphin Counties, Pennsylvania.  Most common spelling was STETLER, but Christian moved his family to Miami County, Ohio and the spelling was changed to STATLER (reference Amy Statler Gilfillen)

Group 5
York County, Pennsylvania

Group 6
Franklin County, Pennsylvania in 1790.  Casper Stotler/Statler had moved to Somerset (then Bedford) County from Franklin County earlier.  Later Rudolph Stotler and Nancy Stotler (widow of Jacob) moved to Allegheny County.  The name was spelled STOTLER or STATLER by members of this group.

Group 7
Washington County, Maryland.  Very close to Group 6 geographically.  Spelled the name STOTLER.

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Group 8
Loudoun County, Virginia.  A son of John Stadler/Statler is said, by the 1938 family history, to be Samuel Statler of Clinton County, Ohio.

Group 9
Berkeley County, Virginia.  The Stotlar/Stotler family lived in a part of Berkeley County that was made into Morgan County in 1820.  This area is now in West Virginia.   I have placed the families of Mathias Stotlar of Knox County, Ohio and Henry Stottler of Belmont County, Ohio in this group because they were both born in Virginia and the first names of their children are very similar to those of the Morgan County Stotler's.

Group 10
Monongalia County, (West) Virginia.  Jacob Statler was killed by Indians in 1778 at Statler's Fort.  His son John survived and was probably in Monongalia County in 1790 but he is not in the "Heads of Families" book.  This book is not a true census but tax lists.  The 1790 Virginia census was burned in the War of 1812.   The name was spelled STATLER, STATELER, or STRADLER.  I have placed any family that spelled or pronounced the name STATELER in this group.

Group 11
Hampshire County, (West) Virginia.

Group 12
Spotsylvania County, Virginia.

Group 13
Caswell County, North Carolina.  Spelled the name STADLER.  I have placed the families in Bourbon County, Kentucky in this group only on the basis of spelling.

Group 14
Lincoln County, North Carolina.  Spelled the name STATLER or sometimes STOTLER.   These families moved to what is now Cape Girardeau and Bollinger Counties Missouri.  There were no census returns for Missouri in 1820 but the heads of these families, at that time, were probably Adam, Conrad and Peter.

Group 15
Richland County, South Carolina.

Group 16
This group may have moved from Frederick County, Virginia.  They were in Harrison County, (West) Virginia, in 1810.  They spelled the name STUTLER or STUTTLER.

Group 17
This family came from Pennsylvania to Montgomery County, Ohio about 1804.  They spelled the name STETLER.  There is a Stetler Church Cemetary in Miami Township, Montgomery County, Ohio.

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A TRADITION FROM SOMERSET COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA

This story begins with an account of the father of Peter Statler (or Stadtler) who was a drafter (draftee ?) in the German Army.  No first name is given.  It is said he was taken prisoner in a war and escaped from a stone church.  He then settled in Hesse Darmstadt and married at the age of forty-three.

Peter Stadtler was born about 1805 in Hesse Darmstadt and married Jacobini Keiper there.  After the marriage they moved to near the border of Switzerland.  About 1837 with two children Bini (Bena) and John and a brother-in-law Fredrick Keiper sailed to America.  They lived for a time in Pittsburg, Pennsylvania and later moved to Scalp Level, Paint Township, Somerset County.  Three more children were born in Pennsylvania:  Peter B., Rebecca and George.

Bena Statler married Jacob Hoffman and moved to a farm near Roaring Fork Creek in Paint Township, Somerset County.  This is on the Shade Furnace Road.  While living there, one day a man came walking along the road who looked exactly like her father, in fact Bena thought is was her father, but the man went by and did not stop.  She told her husband about this and he also noticed the man and his resemblance.  Later they told her father, the Elder Peter Statler, and he instructed them that in case this man came that way again, to stop him and learn who he was.  Some time later, while the Elder Peter Statler was at the home of his daughter Bena, this man was again seen coming along the road.  They hailed him and brought him into the house, and to their surprise, learned he was Samuel Statler, a drover, and son of Casper Statler (Stotler) of Shade Township.  Comparing kinship they found that Casper Statler and Peter Statler were cousins.  It was a very singular romantic instance that two branches of the Statlers were thus separated in inner Germany by the uprisings in the Palatinate, and were again connected over 100 years later, in America.

The herein is nearly a verbatim statement of what Bena Statler Hoffman, during her lifetime, in 1887, told the writer of this article.

Editor's note;  The above was taken from a family history written in 1938.  No reference was given as to where this story was found.   I really like this story, but since Samuel Statler was about thirty years older than Peter I don't know how much of the story is factual.  This is an interesting part of genealogy, finding a romantic tradition and then trying to find records that prove or disprove the tradition.

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RESEARCH AID

When people are searching for ancestors I believe there are two main reasons they might become stalled and unable to go further on a line.

1. Not looking at all possible spellings of the name.
2. Making assumptions based on information (usually family tradition) that just isn't true.

There isn't much to say, in a general way, on the second problem, but here are numerous spelling problems related to the Statlers, Stetlers, Stotlers etc.

Many people in the early days of this country were not able to read and write.   Also spelling was not as formalized as it is now.  Add to that the fact that a county clerk, census taker, or other official was often recording the name.  He probably spoke only English while our Statler ancestors spoke only German.

Families themselves modified the spelling of their last name.  Some examples:

        In Franklin County, Pennsylvania, 1790, Jacob Stotler left a will and named his brother Samuel as executor.  Jacob's children moved with their mother to Allegheny County, PA.  They spelled their name STOTLER.   As least four of the sons of Samuel moved to Somerset County, PA.  They spelled the name STATLER.

        My second great-grandfather, Charles A. spelled his name STATLER, his older half-brother Jacob moved to Ohio and spelled his name STOTLER.

        Some of the STETLER's of Lancaster (Dauphin) County, PA moved to Miami County, Ohio and changed the spelling of their name to STATLER.

An index of records is very important to genealogy.  But many ancestors are not easily found in an index because the name was not transcribed correctly.  About half of the Statler's in Somerset County, PA in 1850 appear as "Slatler" in the AIS Index because the first "T" was not crossed in the census records.  The strangest mistake in transcription, that I have found, is in the AIS Index of the 1820 census where the Revolutionary veteran RUDOLPH STOTLER appears as "FURDKPH SLATTELER".

Keeping all this in mind may help you find that ancestor that just didn't seem to come from anywhere.

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HEADS OF HOUSEHOLDS IN 1790

The Location of Family Groups in 1790

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The Location of Family Groups in 1820

The locations of those families without a group number are shown with X's.

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HEADS OF HOUSEHOLDS IN 1820

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HEADS OF HOUSEHOLDS IN 1820

Note:  These records were copied from AIS (Accelerated Index Systems) books.  I have not yet looked at the actual census records.  Additions or corrections are welcome.  S.J.H.

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SOLDIERS OF THE WAR OF 1812

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©2018 by David Statler of StatlerWeb