Peter Phillip Schumacher

• Born:  1622, Kriesheim, Pfaltz, Pfalz, Bayern, Germany

• Married: 1651, Germany

• Died: 1707, Germantown, Pennsylvania

Marriage Information:

Peter married Sara Hendricks

General Notes:

The early European followers of Menno Simons banded together to escape religious persecution, and established colonies at strategic points in Central Europe, where the government was tolerant, and they were more or less welcome.  Peter and George were of these Mennonite families, and it is possible that their roots go back to a small Mennonite colony at Monschau, in the Rhine Province of Germany, just south of Aachen and a few miles east of the Belgian frontier.  At Monschau in the year 1597, is found a Henrich Schumacher and his wife and Arndts (Arnold) Henrich and his wife, Dedenborn, (aptenstucke Staats Archiv Dusseldorf, Julichsberg, 254).

When persecution began in this area, and these Mennonite families began to lose their possessions by confiscation, the colony appears to have moved to Dollendorf, near Lowendorf, near Lowenburg in the Siebengebirge hills on the east bank of the Rhine River, south of Cologne.  It is here at Dollendorf that is found the earliest definite knowledge of Peter and George Shoemaker (spelling changes from Schumacher).  The Duke of Julichund Berg in 1652 gave notice that this religious sect must sell their possessions and vacate their land, and he gave them two years to do it.  In the Staats Archiv Dusseldorf, Bergische Gerichte - Amt. Lowenberg - 4, and in the Dollendorfer Protocoll von Contracten, year 1655, there came before the rent controller, Agnes, widow of Arnold Schumacher, to state that she appoints Eithum, her son-in-law, as trustee for Peter and George, both of age, and guardian for her minor children:-Arnold, Treinchen(Catherine), and Adelgen(Adele).

This family had sold it's possession at Niederdollendorf, including many meadows, vineyards, and lands in and around the Siebengebirge, cooling equipment, stable and furniture to Gerhard von Bonn and his wife, Catherine Benders von Bonn, for 1440 Taler.  From this money they had to take 300 taler for debts, but the rest was divided among the children.  They received free transportation to Mainz.  Arnold Shoemaker's widow was Agnes Roesen, and the family estate was from the mother's not the father's side.

From Mainz the family moved to Kriegsheim, near Worms, and it is well known that Peter and George Shoemaker (Schumacher) were converted at Kriegsheim about 1659 from the Mennonite to the Quaker faith by William Ames and George Rolfe, missionaries of William Penn.  By the year, 1685, Peter's wife, Sarah, and George Shoemaker (Schumacher) had both died.  Records speak of a foster son of Peter Shoemaker also at Kiegsheim in the same year - Rohrig Otto, possibly Otto Rohrig.

See "From Kreigsheim to Pennsylvania" by William Niepoth, Germanown Crier, March, 1957.

The  folowing is from "The Shoemaker Family" by Thomas H. Shoemaker.  "---at the following from the List of Arrivals show; The "Francis & Dorothy"(ship), from London, Richard Bridgeman, Commander, arrived in Philadelphia, 8 Mo 14th 1685.  Among the passengers were Peter Schumacher, Peter his son, Mary his daughter, Sarah his cousin, Frances and Gertrude, his daughters."

Judge Pennypacker, the Pennsylvania Magazine, vol iv, p22, gives Peter's history as follows: 

"Peter Schumacher, an early Quaker Convert from the Mennonites, is the first person definitely ascertained to have come from Krisheim the little village in the Palatinate to which so much prominence has been given.  Fortunately, we know under what auspices he arrived.  By an agreement with Dirk Shipman of Crefeld, dated August 16, 1685, he was to proceed with the first good wind to Pennsylvania, and there receive 200 acres from Herman Op den Graeff, on which he should erect a dwelling, and for which he should pay a rent of two rix dollars a year."  The Judge has a deed of Peter's written by Pastorius.

Peter Schumacher seems to have been a man of importance in the town.  In 1693, he was one of four person who signed the certificate of Samuel Jennings, as a delegate from the Philadelphia Quarterly Meeting to the Yearly Meeting at London.

Besides his son, Peter, Jr., and his three daughters, Mary, Francis and Gertrude, who accompanied him over, he had two others.  The fifth child, a daughter (Agnes), married Dielman Kolb.  Agnes never emigrated.  Of this marriage, four of their children became Mennonite ministers, all but two eventually emigrating to this country.

 The following is by Albert H. Gerberich of Parkesburg, who has been in the United States Consul service in Central America and Germany, is devoting a portion of his leisure to the study of family history,  The results are as follows:

Peter and George Schumacher, who lived in the town of Kriesheim in the Palatinate, Germany, were frequently mentioned in the diaries of William Penn.  These brothers were German Quakers and were persecuted because of their religious beliefs, so that they accepted the invitation of Penn's agents to emigrate to the province of Pennsylvania when this country had only a handful of European inhabitants. Peter Schumacker (1622-1707) arrived in Philadelphia, August 16, 1685, on the vessel "Francis and Dorothy", bringing with him his only son, Peter, his three daughters and his cousin, Sarah Shoemaker.  He settled in Germantown when that section of the city of Philadelphia was all woodland and occupied only by the Indians.  He is said to have been Germantown's first Sheriff; he was a close personal friend of Francis Daniel Pastorius, it's founder of whom Whittier says "His door was free to men of every name, he welcomed all the seeking souls who came, and no man's faith he made a cause of blame"

When an old man Peter was one of the founders of the Germantown Friend's School.