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FAMILY DIRECTORY OF SAMUEL SWARTZ HISTAND AND SUSAN OVERHOLT LANDIS (DESCENDANTS and ASCENDANTS) Fanrily Directory OF SAMUEL SW ARTZ HIST AND AND SUSAN OVERHOLT LANDIS (Descendants and Ascendants) COMPILED BY RUTH HIST AND MOSEMANN 1969 COPYRIGHT, 1969 Mrs. John H. Mosemann Printed in U.S. A. EV ANGEL PRESS Nappanee, Indiana, 46550 DEDICATED TO FAYE AND CHARLES AND TO ALL THEIR COUSINS Father and Mother about 1936 MARRIAGE CERTIFICATE SAMUEL S. HISTAND AND SUSAN 0. LANDIS were married October 26, 1895 in the presence of Allen R. Ruth Leidy Hockman Sallie 0. Landis Lydia Histand at the Refarmed Church Parsonage Lansdale, Penna. by Rev. H. F. Seiple INTRODUCTION PURPOSE For most of my adult life I have lived far from my immediate family and home community. This has helped me to realize the need to keep the bonds of relationship strong. This need increases after one's parents are gone, when there is no longer the normal center of family relatedness they provided. Distance and years also emphasize this. However, this can shift to the relationships with­ in the families of our brothers and sisters and provide a stronger bond of natural involvements. The inroads of more independent living today also call for the careful nurture of these ties. A DIRECTORY cannot provide much that is needed to keep a family spirit strong, but it can forcibly remind us that God has given us to each other in blood ties. It can help to make us aware that we belong to each other. In work­ ing with these materials I have experienced a strong spirit of kinship which is inescapable as one is immersed in the facts about our families. You, too, will surely gain a fresh sense of belonging as you move through these pages. It should be normal for us to identify with other members of the family in their experiences of joy, of grief, and times of crisis, when the shelter of prayer fellowship draws us into support of one another. Even this is possible only when there is communication among the families. Our· differences are many. We live in widely scattered areas, although the con­ centration remains in eastern Pennsylvania. Our vocations cover a wide spectrum and offer an intriguing study. We have found our ways into a variety of church­ es, while a few identify with no church. In the face of these and other differ­ ences our capacity to accept, to forgive, and to love will provide the bond which unites us. Perhaps we have neglected each other more than we can justify, and need to invest more effort to strengthen our family spirit and oneness. Some other ways in which we can be helped in getting "re-acquainted" might include more frequent correspondence with each other, visiting among the families, stronger support of our family reunions, consistent efforts to bring families together even though they are widely separated, and to make more personal contacts in our travel plans. Even the use of our telephones could help maintain many contacts. This volume may also encourage the keeping of better records hereafter within our individual families. HOW DID THIS COME TO BE? This DIRECTORY is an outgrowth of a desire to keep up with our larger family. Births, marriages, funerals, reunions, changes of addresses are important 9 occasions to any family. Because we have lived at great distances from our own families, we have had to miss much of such relatedness. For many years I have kept some statistics for our own use. A few years ago in bringing these up to date, it seemed well to prepare them for duplication for the immediate family. This idea grew until Father's and Mother's families were included. A first cousin in each family of my generation was solicited to help secure the information. By now, with multiple checkings of tedious detail, they too know one dare not guess any part of a date, the spelling of a name, nor can one change facts that are the very fabric of our family history. On July 31, 1967 the twelve remaining brothers and sisters of our family were all together for the first time since our sister Susie's funeral in 1954. Some of us took a drive through the familiar countrysides and called at our paternal and maternal homesteads. In addition, the memory of reverent moments together at the cemetery still linger. At the family dinner pictures were taken, and the DIRECTORY progress was reported. Encouragement was given to add pictures, and additional information was secured. A few weeks later, when Mennonite General Conference convened at Lansdale, we were back in our home community again. Enroute to the courthouse to check data of grandparents, etc. the Lord l.ed me to contact a cousin I had never met. Willard G. Histand was not due in his office for several hours, but he re­ turned at that "moment." He soon disclosed that he had in his possession pre­ pared information of the immigration of the Histand family to Pennsylvania as well as their descendants until our generation. To find this material and a per­ sonal letter within the original envelope addressed to my Father postmarked August 28, 1930, was more than a coincidence. It seemed very clear to me that this material was to be included, even though it meant expanding the original intention. I had no idea such data had been compiled at all. Evidently Father and his brother had gathered what information they could, and had secured Mr. H. F. Hippenstiel of Bethlehem to verify, supplement and prepare it for the Samuel and Rebecca 0. Histand Family Reunion on Labor Day 1930. It must have been their hope to see this completed and made avail­ able for future generations. Willard G. Histand gave his permission and encour­ agement to use the Hippenstiel materials he had received from one of my broth­ ers. They are adapted to fit into the format of the previously gathered informa­ tion and are included in Section II. On that same trip, a contact was made in the interest of Mother's Landis ances­ tors with a cousin, Rev. John L. Ruth, King of Prussia. Family history is a real hobby with him, so he knew just where to direct me. Miss Dorothy K. Landes, now of 218 Sunset Drive, Jensen Beach, Florida 33457 had prepared a "Report of the Thirty-Fifth Reunion of the Landis-Landes Families in 1954" held in Perkasie Park. A copy was secured from the Mennonite Historical Society, 2215 Mill Stream, Lancaster, Pennsylvania 17602. She gave full freedom to quote from this report. This material is included in Section III. All these foregoing materials were ready for printing late in 1968, but technical delays prevented carrying out the schedule. This additional time led to the con­ viction that, if at all possible, my grandmothers' families as well as my grand­ fathers' families should be included. (Both grandmother Histand's and grand­ mother Landis' maiden names were Overholt.) With the Mennonite Historical Library nearby, this material was available, and the ancestral part of these two family lines was adapted from the works of A. J. Fretz and Elisha S. Loomis. One of the regrets, which is inevitable in compiling data such as this, is that not every lead for uniform and complete information could be pursued. The time and expense factors removed this from our reach, but it would have been especially desirable for the contemporary generations. Consequently, there are some gaps which could not be filled. Where data was not obtainable, or where contacts were unsuccessful, names were included without dates, since the name is the most basic link in each of the four families. The FAMILY TREE should offer interest to all of us. Here again, how much our grandparents could have helped to fill in the blanks! The FAMILY MAP is included to show that our immigrant forefathers lived with­ in a radius of about thirty miles of Doylestown, having landed most likely in Philadelphia. Then as you look more closely, one finds that most of their de­ cendants live within the range of this map. A real attempt has been made for accuracy. The human factor, however, makes errors inevitable in this kind of compilation. Your help in detecting these is so­ licited, however trivial they seem to you. These should be reported ndt only to me, but also to the secretary of your Family Reunion. I deeply wish that this DIRECTORY will inspire each of us to make a stronger effort to make our F-A-M-I-L-Y a living relationship, in which we become in­ creasingly aware and more supportive of each other. EXPLANATION OF DIRECTORY FORMAT Section I is the presentation of my parents' complete family. It is a statistical record, and not a history as such, though it opens with a brief sketch of our home and family life. A block of material introduces each family, giving abbreviated details in the order indicated by the legend below. Semi-colons are used to separate each type of information. The FAMILY CALENDAR and pictures complete this section. Section II traces my Father's Histand and Overholt ascendants since their im- migration, and also records the descendants of his brother and sisters. Section Ill traces my Mother's Landis and Overholt ascendants since their im­ migration, and records the descendants of her brothers and sisters. Root family members' names are capitalized throughout. All geographic names are in Pennsylvania unless otherwise indicated. 11 LEGEND: The order followed in blocks of family information is: Root member: name, birth, death, burial Spouse: name, date of marriage, birth, etc.

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