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My Franconia Ancestors

Montgomery and Bucks County, Pennsylvania

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 Souder   |   Fluck   |   Meyers  |  Fox  |  Pickering

of Montgomery and Bucks Counties, Pennsylvania
With generous contributions from cousin Claire B. W. Miller and other family members and genealogy researchers.

QUICK LINKS to
MY FAMILY TREES


United States

Meyers | Fluck
German | Sterling
Demar | Pickering
Souder | Fillman

England

Pickering from 1555
Steffens | Pickering
Walker | Lightfoot

I am a descendant of:

Abraham B SOUDER and Leah Fillman
(my 3x great-grandparents)

• Emma Catherine “Katie” Souder & Jacob H. FLUCK
(my 2x great-grandparents)

Katie Ellen Fluck & Edwin H. MEYERS
(my great-grandparents)

• Miriam Meyers & Arthur John PICKERING, Sr
(my grandparents)

• Arthur John PICKERING, Jr. and Louise Wilhelmenia Mefford
(my parents)

Great Grandparents Edwin H. Meyers and Katie Ellen Fluck

My Franconia Ancestors

This is the story of my ancestors from the pioneer families of Souder/Fillman, Benner, Hunsberger,  Meyers/Fluck of Franconia Twp, Montgomery and Bucks County, Pennsylvania.

My research over 40-plus years has uncovered some genealogies of our ancestors going back 15 generations to the Rosenbergers around 1616. I have added my own research to this story along with photos that I took on my pilgrimage to back to Bucks County, PA (where I lived for most of my life) in 2004. The addition of photos generously provided by Fox family members was such an unexpected bonus.

 

Virginia Fox writes: “My mother [Naomi Louise Meyers Fox] is the smallest child on the floor in the middle of the front row. Miriam [her sister] is the girl standing behind her with her arm on the old lady. The couple all the way on the left are Edwin Meyers and Katie Fluck Meyers”. Note that Edwin is using a cane.

 

1860 Census – Philadelphia Ward 11, PA
………..Samuel Fluck head 38, b. abt 1822 Shoemaker
………..Elizabeth Fluck wife 27
………..………..Jeremiah Fluck 14 apprentice
………..………..Jadith Fluck 12
………..………..Jacob H. Fluck 10 b. abt 1850
………..………..Charles L Fluck 8
………..………..Erastus Fluck 3
………..………..Hannah E. Fluck 1/12

Katie Ellen Fluck’s mother,  Catherine Souder, died before she was 3 years old. In the 1880 Census Katie was living with her grandparents Abraham and Leah Souder. I able to connect my 2004 photo of a grave to Katie’s story. I discovered that Katie’s mother was Emma Catherine “Katie” Fluck who died in 1879 (see photo of grave) and is buried at Little Zion Church near her parents.

katie fluck grave

Grave of Emma Catherine “Katie” Fluck, wife of Jacob H. Fluck. She was born March 1, 1855 and died May 3 1879, age 24 years, 2 months, 2 days. Catherine was Katie Ellen’s mother.

On July 3 1880, Jacob H. Fluck, re-married, this time to Ellamanda Souder Saylor [b. abt 1847], age about 33 years old, both of Richlandtown, by the Rev. H. F. Seiple. Ellamanda was Emma Catherine Souder’s sister.

I found a family in the 1860 Census that might be a match for Jacob’s parents but have not verified it with any other sources, but I mention it here (below) as a possibility. This Jacob would have been born about 1850, which fits in the time frame of his marriage to his first wife who was born in 1855.

 

Katie Ellen Fluck Meyers, wedding photo, age 16.

Katie Ellen Fluck and Edwin H. Meyers

Katie was only 16 years old when she married 19-year-old, Edwin H Meyers, of Bedminster, PA.

Their life together must have been very difficult because Edwin died in 1907 at the young age of 33, when Katie was about 30. In the 1900 census Edwin was listed as 26 years old with no occupation, which is very rare. Edwin was injured when he was working in a stove factory. Apparently he was hit on the side of the head with a stove pipe, which led to his blindness and meant he probably could not work in 1900. Since the incident happened at a young age, it meant that Katie bore the job of supporting the family (apparently for most of her life).

Edwin died in 1907 of peritonitis with contributing factors of brain tumor and enlarged spleen, at age of 33 in Quakertown, PA.

Their daughters Naomi and Miriam (my grandmother) were only 13 and 11 years old when Edwin died.

The daughters of Naomi (Anne) and Miriam (Virginia), remember that Katie lived out in the country in New Jersey and kept goats and chickens and sold milk and eggs to support the family financially. She kept a vegetable garden and canned fruit and vegetables and Virginia (Sis) remembers her grandmother’s cellar full of canned goods. Anne remembers that she raised the bulldogs for sale. Miriam and Naomi were unfortunately forced to quit school early to help support the family. At ages 17 and 15 they were working as a telephone operator and waitress in Quakertown, PA.

Miriam married Arthur John Pickering, Sr. They were my grandparents.


 

Thank you

to these family members for their contributions of stories and photos that bring our ancestors to life: my aunt, Anne Turner, cousin Claire W. B. Muller, and Claire’s grandmother, Virginia Fox Weatherlow.