Johann Jacob Klotz, the elder (1690-?) was born on June 6, 1690 in Holzgerlingen, Wurttemburg, Germany. He married his second wife Martha Faissler (b. 1702) on July 28, 1722 in Simmozheim, Wurttenburg, and came with her and their three surviving sons and one daughter on the ship "Chesterfield" to America, arriving on Sept. 2, 1749 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. They thence settled in Berks County, Pennsylvania. He is said to have been a carpenter. Johann's death date is not known, but the last mention of him is on March 31, 1751. Two of his sons served in the American Revolution, and subsequently relocated to Rowan County, North Carolina.
Johann Jacob Klotz, the younger (1726-1793), who follows.
Ursula Susanna Klotz (1732-?) was born Aug. 27, 1732 in Simmozheim, Wurttemburg, Germany, and came to Pennsylvania in 1749 with her parents and three brothers. She married Johann George Acker (d. c.1767) on Aug. 2, 1757 in East Nantmeal Township, Chester County, Pennsylvania, and died sometime after 1797, according to Kluttz (1990).
Johann Leonhard Klotz (1734-1784) came with his parents and three siblings at the age of 15 to Berks County, Pennsylvania from Germany. He became a weaver and married Anna Margaretha Schall (1741/42-1826), with whom he had ten children. He served in the Revolutionary War from Berks County, and was listed on November 1777 as a Private, 6th Class in the 1st Battlion of Col. Henry Spicker's Unit under Captain Peter Wanner's Company. He resided in Pennsylvania for 33 years, and moved in 1782 to Rowan County, North Carolina, where he lived for 2 years until his death. He is buried in the Grace Lower Stone Church Cemetery in Rockwell, North Carolina, where his tombstone reads, "Leonhart Klotz was born in the year Christ 1734 in the month of August and died in the year Christ 1784, the 1 November, and had by his marriage, 7 sons and 3 daughters, of whom 2 daughters succeeded him into eternity. Here under this stone have my people buried me to rest. Here under this stone rests Leonhard Klotz, he has lived 50 years. His body buried here until awakened by Jesus."
Johann Martin Klotz (1736-1776) was born Dec. 10, 1736 in Simmozheim, Wurttemburg, Germany, and came to Pennsylvania in 1749 with his parents and three siblings. He married sometime around 1764 a woman named Eva Maria, and he died in 1776 in Berks County, Pennsylvania.
Four other children were born in Simmozheim, Germany, and died before their parent's 1749 immigration to America. These are children are identified as Anna Catharina (1724-1725), another Anna Catharina (1729-1730), Georg Friderich (1730-1740) and Hans Michael (1735-1735).
Johann Jacob Klotz, the younger (1726-1793), the son of Jacob Klotz, the elder and Martha Faissler, was born Sept. 13, 1726 in Simmozheim, Wurttemburg, Germany, and came with his parents two borthers and a sister as a young man to America. He is said in the "The Heritage of Rowan County, North Carolina" (975.671 H2hv.1) to have married Sophia Wiand (1736-1796) about 1756 at the New Goshenhopper Church in Upper Hanover, Philadelphia. He later served in the Revolutionary War, and it is recorded in the May 25, 1776 minutes of the committee of safety that Captain Jacob Kluttz received clothing and arms for troops in the Flying Camp in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania. We also hear that during the Battle at Long Island on August 27, 1776, Captain Jacob Kluttz led the Third Company of the First Battalion, Flying Camp under the command of Col. James Cunningham. Jacob Kluttz was then promoted after the battle to Colonel of his own battalion. He relocated about 1777/78 to Rowan County, North Carolina and was buried there on June 28, 1793 in the Organ Lutheran Church Cemetery.
Wendell Klotz (1757-1800) was born on Dec. 24, 1757 in Pennsylvania, and christened in Upper Hanover, Philadelphia in the Goshenhopper. He came with his family to North Carolina and died there in 1800 in Rowan County.
Anna Marie Klotz (b. 1758) was born on Dec. 27, 1758 in Pennsylvania, and christened there on Feb. 11, 1759 in the Oley Hull Church in the town of Pike.
Johann Jacob Klotz III (1760-1827) was born on Aug. 19, 1760 in Berks County, Pennsylvania, and christened there on Oct. 19, 1760 in the Oley Hull Church in the town of Pike. When he died on Nov. 24, 1827 in Rowan County, Pennsylvania he left a will in which he identified his children as Jacob, Wendle, Sophia, Christina, Mary and Elizabeth.
Martin Kluttz (1766-1806), the son of Jacob Klotz and Sophia Wiand, was born on Jan. 4, 1766 in Berks County, Pennsylvania, and christened there on Feb. 28, 1766 in the Oley Hull Church in the town of Pike. He married a woman named Catherine (c.1772-1860) probably about 1788 in Rowan County, and the Rowan County court minutes and baptismal records of the Organ and Lower Stone Churches document at least five children for them. It is generally believed that Catherine's maiden name is Miller, but the evidence for this never seems to be given. The August, 1806 session of the Rowan County Court dealt with the administration of his estate to his heirs, which indicates that he probably died a short time before then. Several years after Martin's death his widow Catherine left North Carolina in 1818 in a wagon with two of her sons and her three daughters to settle in southern Illinois. We find her in later years as a member of her son Philip's household, and she last appears in the 1855 state census for Illinois. As we do not find her in the 1860 U.S. Census, she probably died sometime between the taking of the two census.
Philip Clutts (1791-1850) was born in 1791 in Rowan County, North Carolina, and christened there on May 3, 1801 in the Organ Lutheran Church. "He lived in Rowan County until about 1818. When the wagon trains began to travel west, Philip and his brother Jacob, mother Catherine, and three sisters settled in Union County, Illinois by 1820. They settled near Cobden, Illinois." He married Elizabeth Anna Shooman (1803-1861) on Sept. 9, 1824 in Illinois, probably in Union County, and had several children. Philip died on June 16, 1850 in Union County, Illinois, and is buried there in the Treese Cemetery.
Sophia Clutts (b.1793) was born in March of 1793 in North Carolina.
Jacob Clutts (1796-1870) was born on May 26, 1798 in Rowan County, North Carolina, and was baptized there in the Lowerstone Reformed Church. He came west with his family to Union County in southern Illinois, where on Dec. 12, 1828 he married Delilah Keith. He had several children, and died on March 20, 1870 in Union County.
John Clutts (b. 1798) was born on Jan. 20, 1798 in Rowan County, North Carolina, and christened there on June 16, 1798 in the Organ Lutheran Church. He remained in North Carolina when the rest of his family went west to Illinois.
Frances Barbara Clutts (b. 1804) was born in 1804.
Elizabeth "Betsie" Clutts (Kluttz) (1800-?), the daughter of Martin Kluttz and his wife Catherine, was born on March 29, 1800 in Rowan County, North Carolina, and christened there on May 3, 1801 in the Organ Lutheran Church. Several years after her father's death in North Carolina, she came with her mother and four siblings about 1818 in a wagon to southern Illinois, where she married Paul Hagler about March of 1820 in Union County (Illinois State Marriage Database). A number of online genealogies give her death date as August of 1860 in Union County, but we have not found any evidence for this. We do know that the last official mention of her is in the 1850 U.S. Census, and she does not appear in the 1860 census.
for the children of Elizabeth Clutts and Paul Hagler, please see the Hagler Family History.
REFERENCES:
Kluttz, Ralph Dean, 1990, The Descendants of Johann Jacob Klotz in America 1690-1990 - Kluttz, Klutts, Klutz, Clutts, Clutz: privately published by R.D. Kluttz, Salisbury, North Carolina, 546 p. Available at the Los Angeles Public Library, call no. Gen 929.2 K657.
Perrin, William Henry, ed., 1883, John Lockard in History of Alexander, Union and Pulaski Counties, Illinois, O.L. Baskin & Co., Historical Publications, part B, p. 134-135.
Yoder, Don, ed., 1980, Pennsylvania German Immigrants, 1709-1786: Genealogical Publishing Co., Inc., Baltimore, p. 75. Available at the Los Angeles Public Library, call no. Gen 974.8 P4165-3.
by Janet & Michael Clark
This history is an evolving document.
Despite our best intentions it probably contains mistakes.
Please let us know if you spot any by sending an email to Mike Clark
Genealogy of the Clutts (Klotz) Family 