David Zediker (Zürcher)

David Zediker was the son of Christopher Zurcher and wife Margaretha Falkenstein. He was born February 17, 1769 and died in Washington County, Pennsylvania on March 6, 1829. He married Catherine Smith (or Schmidt).

One source puts the place of birth for some of Christopher's children as York County, Pennsylvania. This is unlikely. There are no verifiable sources that place Christopher and Margaretha in that county. It appears that Christopher may have married Margaretha in Germantown, Pennyslvania, now a neighborhood within Philaelphia. It is possible that some of the older children were born in Germantown, near Philadelphia. Otherwise, the children would have been born in Maryland. The Hagerstown area is often suggested as their Maryland home.

David and his brother John are believed to have been the first Zedikers to come to Washington County, Pennsylvania. They had been on a hunting and trapping expedition and stopped in that area. Liking the village and surrounding lands, they decided to settle in Strabane, a village in Washington County. David returned home to move their family west, while John set up a blacksmith forge in their new community. They both became prominent citizens of Washington County.

Catherine Smith (or Schmidt) was the daughter of Ludovic or Ludwig Schmidt and wife Susannah Schreiber. She was born in 1770 in Frederick County, Maryland. Her sister Margaret married David’s brother John.

Ludwig Schmidt had been one of the earliest settlers in Washington County, staking claim to roughly one thousand acres, which was eventually divided among his heirs.

There is a wealth of information on this era of the Zediker families in the book Commemorative Biographical Record of Washington County, published in 1893 by J. H. Beers & Co. in Chicago. It can be read online at https://archive.org/stream/commemorativebio03jhbe#page/n5/mode/2up.

Children of David Zediker and wife Catherine Smith:

• Mary “Polly” Zediker, born in 1797 in Pennsylvania and died in 1854 in Ohio, married John A. Smith
• Anna Maria Zediker
• David Zediker, Jr.
• Catherine Zediker
• John Zediker
• Margaret Zediker
• Susannah Zediker
• Daniel Zediker
• George Zediker
• Joseph Zediker
• Lewis Ludwig Zediker

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