Johann William Hess
Johann Wilhelm Hess (son of Johann Hans Conrad Hess and Anna Marie Best) was born 1741 in Bucks Co. Pa., and died February 17, 1827 in Catawissa twp, Columbia Co. Pa.. He married Anna Catharina Godhard, daughter of Johannes Jacob Gotthard and Sophia ?.
Notes for Johann Wilhelm Hess:
Artical 3 of the Benton Argus Newspaper September 6, 1934 by Kenneth Yocum and Others.
William Hess Senior, (Johann Wilhelm Hess) was born in the 1740’s, the son of an early German settler in the Forks of the Delaware near Easton, Pa.
The Hess family were very numerous arond Easton in the period of the French and Indian War (1756-1763) and later during the Revolution (1775-1785). Some members of this family had thrilling adventures and some lost their lives in the Indian raids incident of the former war. Several of the men served in the Revolution, including William Hess, above, who is said to have been an officer.
Besides William Hess, we find named as heads of families living near Easton in the late 1700′: Peter Hess; Henry Hess; Jeremiah Hess, who later settled in Salem Township, Luzerne County; Frederick Hess, who came to Center Townsip, Columbia County, in the early 1800’s; John Jess, named as a brother of William Hess and who settled in Mifflin Township of this county; and Conrad Hess. Doubtless these were all near relatives, possibly most of them brothers of William Hess. A careful study of the records of Northampton County would reveal this.
William Hess Senior, married before 1765 Catherine Gotthard daugther of John and Sophia Gotthard, well-to-do farmers of Williams Township, Northampton County. A large family of children was born to Mr. and Mrs. Hess, several of whom were baptized by the pastor of the Reformed Church of Easton.
Soon after the close of the Revolutionary War, William Hess became dissatisfied with his farm on the Drylands of Forks Township, Northampton County. His family was growing larger. The times in this post-war depression were hard even as they have been in all post-war periods, before and since. The farm was not very large and the land, never to fertile, was getting farmed out. The farmers of that time used no fertilizer as we do today except manure, and after the war, during which much of the stock had been required for the army, there was not much of that available.
Several of Mr. Hess’s neighbors shared his discontent, and at the suggestion of one of them, Ezekiel Cole, who as a ranger had traveled this region while on duty during the Revolution, they visited the Valley of Fishing Creek and located tracts of land which took their fancy and seemed to fulfill their needs. They chose them by the kind of timber they had on them, choosing spots where grew those trees which they had been accustomed to see growning on the best land at home. That their choice does not seem the wisest now does not mean that it held true in their day. At that time the well drained, if stony, soils of Sugarloaf Township were preferable to the undrainable bogs and shifting sandbars of the ever-flooded river-bottoms.
Possibly some of their party secured title to the lands of their choice at this time, but it does not appear that William Hess did so. After another visit or two to the region, they settled here permanently about 1792. William Hess settled on Fishing Creek just above the Coles Creek Forks, near what has since been called Guave. Ezekiel Cole settled at the Forks. Several sons of William Hess settled higher up Fishing Creek, as they married and went to housekeeping, on lands to which he obtained patents about two years after his arrival. These lands he deeded to his sons and daughters from time to time, and some years before his decease had disposed thus of all his immense tract that is said to have originally been four miles long from Coles Creek toward the North Mountain.
His wife Catherine was dead before 1813, and he removed before 1819 to Catawissa Township, where he lived with his son, Jacob Hess, dying there on February 17, 1827.
On January 1, 1826, he made his will in which he left to his son Jacob and to Jacob’s family numerous articles, his personal property, for their care of him. John Eisely and Daniel Knittle witnessed the document. As the will appointed no executors of April 2, 1827, the Register and Recorder of Columbia County granted letters of administration to William Kile, his grandson. Jacob Shoemaker and William Harman were his bondsmen.
An early account says that William Hess, Sr. had twelve sons and six daughters. A later account says eleven sons and three daughters.
It is said that William Hess was a Democrat in politics and a Methodist in religion. The first is probable if you regarded it as meaning that he belonged to the party of that day, having the same principles of the Democratic party today; that would have been the Jeffersonian or Anti-Federalist party. Of the religousness I am little doubtful, although he may have become a Methodist in his old age. In his youth he was undoubtedly a member of the German Reformed Church of Easton. In 1812 he gave toward the building of the St. Gabriel’s church at Coles Creek, and he may even have belonged to the Protestant Episcopal Congregation here, as some of his sons certainly did.
More About Johann Wilhelm Hess:
Burial: St. Gabriel’s Cemetery, Coles Creek, Sugarloaf twp. Columbia Co. Pa..
Children of Johann Wilhelm Hess and Anna Catharina Godhard are:
- Jeremiah Hess, b. Bet. 1764 – 1790.
- Elizabeth Hess, b. November 11, 1765, Norhtampton Co. Pa., d. October 26, 1828, Columbia Co. Pa..
- Maria Catharine Hess, b., Williams twp, Northampton Co. Pa..
- Sophia Hess, b. November 18, 1767.
- Anna Hess, b. May 22, 1769, Easton, Williams twp, Northampton Co. Pa., d. February 04, 1842, Columbia Co. Pa..
- +Conrad Hess, b. November 19, 1771, Williams twp, Northampton Co. Pa..
- +William Jr. Hess, b. Abt. 1772, d. October 1823.
- Frederick Hess, b. Abt. 1773.
- +Johannes Hess, b. February 05, 1774, Northampton Co. Pa., d. 1851, Coles Creek, Fishing Creek (now Sugarloaf twp). Northumberland Co. (now columbia Co.) Pa..
- +Johann George Hess, b. December 02, 1778, Easton, Williams twp, Northampton Co. Pa., d. March 12, 1850.
- +Andrew Hess, b. January 06, 1780, Easton, Williams twp, Northampton Co. Pa., d. April 24, 1853, Sugarloaf twp, columbia Co. Pa..
- Abraham Hess, b. April 18, 1781.
- +Wilhelm Hennrich Hess, b. December 06, 1782, Williams twp, Northampton Co. Pa., d. 1847.
- +Johann Paul Hess, b. February 26, 1784, Williams twp, Northampton Co. Pa., d. September 27, 1864, Jackson twp. Columbia Co. Pa..
- Jacob Hess, b. November 10, 1785.
- Tobias Hess, b. 1789.
McKenzie Family History 