Emmell-Emeldt-Immel

 from Shadows of the Rhine Along the Tulpehocken
by Viola Kohl Mohn
Read before the Lebanon County Historical Society
May 25, 1970; edited by Henry C. Westernberger
© 1972 Viola Kohl Mohn; reprinted here with permission

Special thanks to Shirley M. Brown

"The quaint, old-world-looking house now standing on the original Weirich site, is that of Johannes and Anna Barbara Immel. The very Germanic looking sandstone date stone with its lovely and romantic carved heart attests to this, and the date 1759 makes it one of the earliest dated houses in the area. The Mathias Theiss stone cabin is the only one of an earlier date, being that of 1744.

"The wooden structure added to the west side is of course out of character, but otherwise this house is a fascinating example of the early type of architecture found in the Lebanon Valley. The limestone masonry is rubble lay and the lovely arches above each window attest to a careful decorative consideration. The eave of the steep pitched roof has the look of two attics, often found in European counterparts. The chimney is central and the front door is a double hung "Dutch door," very Rhinish in style.

"This house had hand made tiles on the original roof as did the one directly north of it. It was these tiles and the house that Rev. P. C. Croll described so vividly in his Landmarks of the Lebanon Valley. He tells us that from the kitchen a hole had been let for drain water to flow outside into a sandstone drain trough. This house retains its ancient feeling today. The three holes mentioned in the eave ends are enclosed in square hand-pegged wood frames. People always attribute these "port holes" to openings for the fighting of Indians. If so then the attic must have had two floors. From a description of the interior of this attic and remaining traces it can be determined, this house definitely had two attics and the holes opened into the two levels. That we had many Indian raids and massacres in this area is a known fact. More than one hundred people lost their lives within a year at the height of the depredations and these old stone houses became forts for refuge for miles around due to their heavy construction. Cellar walls are mostly all constructed in like manner, the ground level windows being slanted into the heavy stone walls with a narrow slit for the air and light.

"The front of the house faces east. The date stone is in this wall. The double hung door enters the kitchen from the north east end of the house. The south side of the house has two windows opening east--making three windows across the top of the second floor facing east, the datestone being between the north east window and the nearer of the other two.

"On the southern exposure, there are two small windows in the ground floor, two above on the second floor, with two very tiny openings set close together on the attic floor and one even smaller in the apex of the roof. The northern side is the same. The western end is covered by the added appendage which must have been there as early as 1844 according to the insurance records preserved by the Myerstown Community Library.

"Rev. P. C. Croll writes of this house as it was when he visited it in 1895. Quote; 'The interior arrangement of this house might well serve as a model, so well is the space utilized. The stairway is convenient to every apartment and yet out of the way. The rooms communicate and are accessible from the hall in which is a large fireplace and Queen Anne Oak Mantel, that speaks of the charms and poetry of rural life in winter. The farm is now the property of Mrs. Capt. John H. Basler, a sister of Rev. Dr. Mosser of Reading.

"To find out where the Immels originated from was no mean task and certainly not a certainty.

"Sept. 11, 1732 the Ship "Pensilvania Merchant" put into Port in Philadelphia with 73 men and 98 women and children, with 70 men listed as Palatines. The total was 171 with 3 dead making 168 disembarking. Many people settling in this area were aboard this vessel; among them Michael Immel and Leonard Immel. On the first list the name is written Emeldt.
"On May 30, 1741 on the Ship "Snow Francis" Thomas Coatam, Master, bearing Palatine men, we find Johannes Immel disembarking at Philadelphia.

"Johnnes Immel is listed as a member of the Tulpehocken Christ Lutheran Congregation 1743-46.--D. Rupp. This is the first listing discovered of Johannes Immel in this region.

"The birthdate of Leonard Immel, buried in the Reformed-Lutheran Cemetery in Myerstown is given as Oct. 14, 1747, and date of death, Jan. 2, 1839. Inscribed also, is son of Johann and Barbara Immel. This cannot be the Leonard Immel listed as coming off the Pensilvania Merchant. Sept. 11, 1732.

"As for the Michael and Leonard Immel mentioned as being on board this ship, there seems to be no record of them in this township except for the name Henrich Michael Immel on the list of Rupp's Swiss and German Settlers 1709-1720. A birth date for a Leonard Immel (Emmel) 1717-1808 was found in the Lei records which could be this Leonard Immel.

The Johannes Immel that built this house named his son LEONARD, so we will let it to the genealogist to decide if these Immels are the same family. *Errata

We do know from the deed of Michael Lei that it was Anna Barbara Lei widow of Christopher. who married Johannes Immel. The transactions proving this, are in the Chapter on the Leis. We do not have the exact date Christopher Lei died only "sometime prior to 1761. The date of the birth of Leonard Immel, son of Johannes Immel, seems to be before this, but his tombstone mentions his mother's name as Barbara.
(section omitted, see errata)

"In 1762 John Immel served as overseer of the poor with Mathias Albrecht. In 1784 John Immel was Constable of Heidelberg township. In 1793 John and Leonhart Immel's names appear as two of the 101 protestors in the Petition to the Governor of Pennsylvania by the Myerstown area residents, after the Myerstown Riot occurred.

"Leonard Immel, John's son, became a Captain in the Revolutionary War. He fought all during the War under Colonel Philip Lorentz Greenawatt. He headed the Sixth Company with Michael Dieffenbach as First Lieutenant, Peter Berry, second Lieutenant, and Michael Spengler, as Ensign.

"The Company was mustered in 1775 and we find later, in a record of return of Militia, April 15, 1783, Captain Leonard Immel commanding the Fifth Company with Lt. Christopher Leis, and Ensign Christian Ley under him.

"By 1781, the only Immels appearing on tax lists are Leonard Immel, Sr. with no acreage listed and Leonard Immel, Jr., 170 acres.

Founding of Frieden's Lutheran Church
"The Immels were members of the old Christ Lutheran Church near Stouchsburg. When the Myerstown area Lutherans founded Frieden's Lutheran Church under the leadership of J. Andrew Schulze on Aug. 9, 1811; the people met and elected three trustees, J. Andrew Schulze, Michael Ley, and Leonard Immel, to whom land for the Church and cemetery was deeded in trust. Christian Ley and Leonard Immel served on the building committee. Michael Ley and Leonard Immel served as elders on the first Church Council. This early church was built of limestone and logs. The logs were brought "from across the mountain". The building was but one story high with a tower of a double belfry shape including a bell. The dedication took place Nov. 1, 1812.
J. Andrew Shulze married Leonard Immel's daughter, Susan; and the first baptismal entered in the records of the new church was that of Emanuel Augustus Schulze, son of J. Andrew Schulze and his wife Susan nee Immel; born Jan. 24, 1806, and baptized July 10, 1806. This baptism took place in Christ Lutheran Church but it was the wish of J. Andrew Schulze that it also be inserted in Frieden's records.

"John Andrew Melchoir Schulze, Susan Immel's husband was born July 19, 1775 in the parsonage adjoining Christ Lutheran Church. He was the son of the minister of that church, Rev. Christopher Emanuel Schulze and his wife Eve Elizabeth and grandson of Johannes Christian Shultz, Lutheran minister who came to America on board ship with Christopher Lei in 1732. J. Andrew's maternal grandparents were the well known, Rev. Henry Melchoir Muhlenberg, Patriarch of the Lutheran Church in America, and Anna Maria, eldest daughter of Conrad Weiser. J. Andrew also became a minister and was licensed to preach in 1796. 'From this fine heritage came one of the most cultured, capable, and popular Governors of our State of Pennsylvania.'--quote--Myerstown Bicentennial Book--Mary Anna Bugg.

"This old Immel house now placidly standing along the Tulpehocken must have been graciously opened to receive a distinguished company. Surely here J. Andrew Schulze courted his sweetheart Susan.

"Susan Immel's niece married Christian Spengler whose lovely home we visited just across the street. Their son Christian became head of the Pennsylvania Railroad and their relatives the Leys served in the Capitol city in the Pennsylvania State Government. Susan Immel Schulze's father, being a Captain, surely must have taken part in the festivities when General Washington visited the Leys. She herself was of course, first lady of the State of Pennsylvania.

"Leonard Immel Jr., Mrs. Christian Spengler's father and brother of Susan Schulze, eventually owned this house and in 1781 is listed as paying taxes on 170 acres. In 1857 he served on the building committee for a new brick church built to replace the old Frieden's Lutheran stone church his father helped to found. The corner stone was laid, August 1857.

"The Immels were intimately connected with Isaac Meier, founder of Myerstown, the families having intermarried. John Myer, Junior, died intestate and the appraisal of his estate was made by Daniel Stine and Leonard Immel in 1846.
An old insurance book discovered at a sale and preserved for the Myerstown Community Library by Mary Bowman Seidel, records dimensions of houses in the area in 1843 and 1844 and records the owners. Appearing in this record are houses of the Immels.

FROM RECORDS: Dec. 11, 1844--LEONARD IMMEL
His mansion house on His farm,
it being part stone and part frame

Another John Immel House
"A unique stone house stands on the south bank of the Union Canal facing south, about a half mile east of Myerstown. It is entered by a lane from a road running south and north, connecting the old Richland road that circles the Royer's Meeting House cemetery; to the Millardsville road. (Once 422). Traveling east and passing this old Brethren cemetery, the road will be found to the left. Proceeding through an old stone arched bridge under the Reading Railroad, and driving a short distance you will find this land on the right or east. At one time a road passed this house, crossing the canal over a Lock, but the bridge no longer remains and the Lock of the Canal is disintegrating.

"This house bears one of the most decorative date stones in the area. The inscription reads: "BUILD BY JOHN & ELIZABETH IMMEL 1814". It is set into an arch of interspersed brick and lime stone and above the inscription, a heart sprouts three flowers composed of intertwined circles bearing quaint stamens and ball shaped petals.

"This is probably John Immel born April 5, 1781, died April 28, 1815 for his wife was Elizabeth Dieffenbach. They are buried in the Lutheran cemetery in Myerstown.

"The unique part of this house, is the floor plan. The door opens into a central hall. A living room to the west has a corner fireplace flush with the west wall. Midway down the hall a short flight of steps rises from the hall to the east, to a small landing. From this landing, flights of steps ascend right and left; the ones ascending to the southern or front portion of the house, the other ascending to the north or rear of the house.

"The kitchen still had the ancient great limestone fireplace with a bake oven opening from the hearth to the brick oven on the outside of the house which was common to many old houses in this section.

"The woodwork seemed to bear the original paint, a dark Williamsburg green, when I visited it in 1942. The walls were never painted, having the original white plaster finish. The old hand wrought hardware was all intact and the Pediment over the door was quite Classic in the predominating Greek style that was adopted at that time during the Greek revival, after the Revolutionary War.

"The door was lighted above with a fan shaped transom set into a deep arch. The glass panes with bubbled texture, surely were the original hand made glass. The windows had twelve panes above and eight below with a nicely treated wood trim above each one, centered with a fluted fan-like decoration of wood. The window trim on the inside was paneled and fluted somewhat Doric in style. Due to the very thick stone walls, all of these stone dwellings have deeply recessed windows; the later ones being beautifully paneled in various decorative ways.

"The marvelous fireplace copies the pediment of the doorway. It was supported by an elaborate cornice and the wood was used in such a way on either side of the fireplace, as to suggest columns incised in a herringbone pattern. The fire bed was enclosed with two doors. The Rambler house down the Tulpehocken from the first Immel house and subject of our next trip has fireplaces with the same triangular classic pediment but on a larger scale. I made sketches of this remarkable Immel house at the time, which I hope to share with you.

"However, as we digressed on this later Immel house we were left standing on the banks of the Tulpehocken west of Myerstown. From the description of the Insurance records we know that this plantation we are now visiting was large and with a self-serving intactness. Butchering, cider and apple butter making, dairy products, and agriculture were all pursued, entailing preserving, candle making, flax raising, weaving and soap making. The large stone barn with fore bay of siding still functions in its original capacity. The date stone was in the western eave, arched in soft red brick. This stone, probably red sandstone, telling the date, is gone.

"Some Immels are interred in the Reformed and Lutheran Cemetery. Capt. Leonard Immel one of the founders of the church is buried there. His tombstone is still legible. The inscription is in German and the birth date, Oct. 14, 1747; died Jan. 2, 1839, son of Johann and Barbara Immel.

"As we leave this peaceful haven and amble along The Tulpehocken, the mellifluous air about us filled with bird song and hum of bee, makes it easy to forget the frenzied world of hurrying humanity to the north on our modern day highway. The ancient abode we can just see above the brow of the hill about a quarter mile east, was once the house of John Rambler or Ramler."

*Errata - "We now know Leonhard and Michael Immel who settled near the city of Lancaster, PA., are brothers of Johannes who settled along the Tulpehocken and came at a later date. (Proof: Johannes was named in the will of Leonhard.) All of them came from Wernetz, Empire of Rothenberg am Tauber.

"Anna Barbara Bayer Lei, widow of Christopher Lei, was the mother of Johannes Immel's children. She married Johannes Immel on April 26, 1742. They were married by Rev. Johann Casper Stoever, Lutheran Minister, and the marriage appears in Stoever's records and in the records of Christ Lutheran Church, where she is recorded as Anna Barbara Bayer. Johannes Immel came to America May 30, 1741."