Peter Lobach

A Patriot of the American Revolution for PENNSYLVANIA. DAR Ancestor # A070910

From Notes and Queries, Historical, Biographical and Genealogical, relating chiefly to Interior Pennsylvania, Edited by William Henry Egle, Annual Volume 1900, article "Two Pennsylvania-German Families, by A. Stapelton, pp 187-189:

"With the Schwenkfelder colony, there arrived in Philadelphia, in 1734, in the ship 'St. Andrew,' Wilhelmus and Degenhart Pott, and Peter Lobach, the latter a minor. Wilhelmus Pott was the step-father of Lobach. They were from Holland and from highly respectable antecedents. * * * Upon their arrival in Pennsylvania, they settled on a branch of the Manatawny creek in Rockland township, Berks county, where their lands adjoined that of Johannes Keim, who is supposed to have come to the valley prior to 1700. Peter Lobach was fourteen years of age when he arrived in the Province. In 1746 his step-father conveyed to him a portion of the estate, and on which the village of Lobachsville was built, which with all its buildings and industries remained in the Lobach family until its breaking up in 1885, by the death of David Lobach, Esq. The Pott and Lobach families were very active and enterprising people. John Pott, a son of Wilhelmus the immigrant, bought extensive tracts of land where Pottsville now is. He erected large ironworks, and founded the city which perpetuates the family name. It is also claimed that he was the first to utilize anthracite coal in that region, and opened a market for the same. Recurring again to young Lobach, we find that soon after he acquired his land he erected in 1748 a fulling mill and saw-mill. At this time he also imported from England machinery for finishing woolen goods. A dye house was also built this same year, and the manufacture of woolen goods was carried on until 1824. To all these industries were added a chair factory and turning mill. A stone hotel and post-office followed. All as stated remained in the hands of the family. In 1850 Samuel Lobach, a grandson, who had succeeded to the estate, secured the plate of Scull's map of Philadelphia, made in 1750, and published an edition which is now quite rare. It seems surprising that families so important in Provincial days as the Pott and Lobach families should die out so utterly in the locality of its first settlement and activities. Few if any descendants are now found in that region. * * * the Lobachs were not only active in business, but were far in advance of their surroundings in general intelligence."

"The Lobach family history discloses many interesting features. Years ago, before the family papers and records were scattered, the writer saw a manuscript family history, the writing of which was like copper-plate engraving. In this history the family was traced from A.D. 513 to 1687. The family springs from the Swiss ducal house of Von Lobach. The book spoken of contained coat of arms, etc., and many references to connections with other branches of nobility. Many valuable historical documents were in the same collection, inherited by the emigrant Lobach from his noble ancesters. They are all in the German language, and genealogists should be on the lookout for these valuable papers."

"Peter Lobach, Sr., the father of the immigrant, was born in 1687, and died in 1720, leaving Peter, Jr., his only child and heir. After his death the widow married Wilhelmus Pott, who with his brother Degenhart Pott, came to Philadelphia in 1734, as before stated. Peter Lobach was born in January, 1720, the same year his father died."

He is buried in the Lobach family plot in the cemetery adjoining St. Paul's Lutheran Church in Lobachsville, PA.

Peter was described on the Lobachsville sign as a Huguenot. This gives us clues about the earlier history of the Lobach family. From the website of the Huguenot Society:

Origin of the Word Huguenot:

The exact origin of the word Huguenot is unknown, but many consider it to be a combination of Flemish and German. Protestants who met to study the Bible in secret were called Huis Genooten, meaning "house fellows." They were also referred to as Eid Genossen, or "oath fellows" meaning persons bound by an oath. Two possible but different derivations incorporating this concept can be found in the Encyclopedia Britannica:

1. "Huguenot", according to Frank Puaux, at one time President of the Socitie Francaise de l'Historie du Protestantisme Francais and author of the article about the Huguenots in the eleventh edition of the Encyclopedia Britannica:

"is the name given from about the middle of the sixteenth century to the Protestants of France. It was formerly explained as coming from the German Eldgenosen, the designation of the people of Geneva at the time when they were admitted to the Swiss Confederation. This explanation is now abandoned. The words Huguenot, Huguenots, are old French words, common in fourteenth and fifteenth-century charters. As the Protestants called the Catholics papistes, so the Catholics called the protestants huguenots. The Protestants at Tours used to assemble by night near the gate of King Hugo, whom the people regarded as a spirit. A monk, therefore, in a sermon declared that the Lutherans ought to be called Huguenots, as kinsmen of King Hugo, inasmuch as they would only go out at night as he did. This nickname became popular from 1560 onwards, and for a long time the French Protestants were always known by it."

2. The current edition Encyclopedia Britannica offers a somewhat different explanation, although agreeing the word is a derivative of the German word Eldgenosen:

"The origin of the name is uncertain, but it appears to have come from the word aignos, derived from the German Eldgenosen (confederates bound together by oath), which used to describe, between 1520 and 1524, the patriots of Geneva hostile to the duke of Savoy. The spelling Huguenot may have been influenced by the personal name Hugues, "Hugh"; a leader of the Geneva movement was one Besancon Hugues (d. 1532)."