Call Number:

02

Repository:

Southampton Baptist Corporation

Extent:

1.5 linear feet

Language:

English

Date:

circa 1880s-1984

Creator:

Fetter family

Abstract:

Sometime prior to 1754, Casper W. Fetter (1726-1779) emigrated from Germany and established a farm in what would become Montgomery County, Pennsylvania. His many descendants, several of whom had strong ties to the Southampton Baptist Church in Southampton, Bucks County, became farmers in Bucks and Montgomery counties during the 18th and 19th centuries. The Fetter family papers, circa 1880s-1984, contain photographs, letters, genealogy research, newspaper clippings, vital records, and other materials that document the Fetter family, its history, and other families, including the Leedom, Montanye, and Lefferts families, whose members married into the Fetter family. There are also materials that document the Southampton Baptist Church. The materials were collected by Claude K. Fetter (1901-1984), a direct descendant of Casper W. Fetter.

Sometime prior to 1754, Casper W. Fetter (1726-1779) emigrated from Germany and established a farm in what would become Montgomery County, Pennsylvania. His many descendants, several of whom had strong ties to the Southampton Baptist Church in Southampton, Bucks County, became farmers in Bucks and Montgomery counties during the 18th and 19th centuries. Eventually, some Fetters settled outside of Pennsylvania, in places such as Trenton, New Jersey. Nevertheless, Fetter family members from several generations, regardless of where they were living, maintained their relationships with Southampton Baptist Church and often were baptized, married, and/or buried there.

Casper (or Caspar) W. Fetter (1726-1779) was born in Illesheim, Neustadt an der Aisch-Bad Windsheim, Bayern, Germany around 1726. Sometime before 1754, Casper immigrated to Pennsylvania and established a farm in Moreland Township, Philadelphia County, later part of Montgomery County. (In 1784, Montgomery County was created from parts of Philadelphia County. Moreland Township was split into two townships, one in each county and each called Moreland. Moreland Township in Philadelphia County was incorporated into the city of Philadelphia when Philadelphia County consolidated in 1854. Moreland Township, Montgomery County was divided into Upper Moreland Township and Lower Moreland Township in 1917.) In 1754, Casper married Rachel Diehl (1730-1812) at Christ Church in Philadelphia. They had nine children, including Casper Diehl Fetter (1760-1829).

In 1781, Casper Diehl Fetter (1760-1829) married Rachel Campbell (1762-1824) of Monmouth County, New Jersey. They had several children together, including George Campbell Fetter (1786-1865). In 1813, George married Cornelia Montanye (1796-1858) in Southampton, Bucks County, Pennsylvania. In 1801, Cornelia Montanye's family had moved from Warwick, Orange County, New York to Southampton, Pennsylvania, where her father Thomas Benjamin Montanye (1769-1829) became the pastor at the Southampton Baptist Church and served in that role until his death in 1829. On her father's side, Cornelia was a direct descendent (4 times great-granddaughter) of Johannes de la Montagne (1595-1670), a French Huguenot refugee and physician, who lived in Holland and made several trips abroad to various Dutch colonies, until he went to the colony of New Netherlands in 1637. Johannes, also known as Jean Mousnier de la Montagne, served the New Netherlands government in a variety of capacities, including as the commander of Fort Orange (present day Albany, New York) from 1656 until 1664. George Campbell Fetter's marriage to Cornelia Montanye was the second marriage in his family linking the Fetters to the Montanyes. The first was in 1809 when George's brother, John Fetter (1783-1851), married Cornelia's sister, Maria Norris Montanye (1790-1870).

George C. (1786-1865) and Cornelia M. (1796-1858) Fetter were farmers and raised twelve children together, including their son, Casper G. Fetter (1815-1891). Sometime between 1830 and 1832, George and Cornelia Fetter relocated from Warminster, Bucks County to Moreland, Montgomery County. Casper G. Fetter (1815-1891) married Ann Miles Search (1818-1897) in 1838. Casper G. and Ann's son, Christopher Search Fetter (1842-1926), married Mary C. Van Dyke (1842-1911), from Hopewell, Mercer County, New Jersey in 1866. Christopher and Mary's son, Casper G. Fetter (1874-1962) married Elizabeth P. Leedom (1877-1962) in Southampton, Bucks County, Pennsylvania in 1895. Elizabeth's parents were George Murray Leedom (1840-1923) and Elizetta Banes (Lefferts) Leedom (1841-1924), farmers in Southampton. George Leedom served in the American Civil War in the Pennsylvania 128th Infantry.

Early in their marriage, Casper G. and Elizabeth P. Fetter lived in Newtown, Bucks County, where Casper worked as a station agent for a railroad. Casper also served as a sexton at the Southampton Baptist Church. Sometime between July 1900 and August 1901, Casper and Elizabeth moved to Trenton, Mercer County, New Jersey, where the youngest of Casper and Elizabeth's children, Claude K. Fetter (1901-1984), was born. Elizabeth's parents, George and Elizetta Leedom, moved to Trenton and lived with Elizabeth and Casper until their deaths. Claude K. Fetter lived the rest of his life in Trenton with his sister, Mary C. Fetter (1898-1977), until her death in 1977. Claude K. Fetter passed away in Trenton in 1984. He is buried with several other Fetters, including his sister, Mary, in the Southampton Baptist Church cemetery in Southampton, Bucks County, Pennsylvania.

Bibliography:

Society of the Descendants of Johannes De La Montagne. "Genealogy." Last updated 2003. Accessed on May 4, 2016. http://www.delamontagne.org/.

Additional information located through searches on Ancestry. 2016. Accessed on May 4, 2016. http://www.ancestry.com/.

This collection consists of photographs, letters, genealogy research, newspaper clippings, vital records, and other materials that document the Fetter family, its history, and other Bucks and Montgomery County families, including the Leedom, Montanye, and Lefferts families, whose members married into the Fetter family. There are also materials that document the Southampton Baptist Church. The materials, dating from the 1880s to 1984, were collected by Claude K. Fetter (1901-1984), a direct descendant of Casper W. Fetter.

Several materials in the collection document Claude K. Fetter's and his father, Casper G. Fetter's personal lives, as well as their involvement in the Southampton Baptist Church, including copies of the Church's trustee minutes, materials relating to the Church's application for the National Register of Historic Places, newspaper clippings about the Church, correspondence with the Bucks County Conservancy, correspondence relating to the Church or its members, and genealogy research and burial information relating to people buried in the Church's cemetery.

Other materials in the collection include: birth announcements, memorial cards, copies of birth certificates, and other family records, some of which are photocopies; a small amount of receipts and other financial records; a book, A Family Record of Christopher S. Fetter and Relatives, which includes genealogy information about the Fetter and Montanye families; personal letters from family members, as well as letters asking about Fetter family history; religious pamphlets; and a Fetter family bible with genealogy notations. Leedom family materials include a volume containing minutes from Leedom family reunions and genealogy on the Leedom family, circa 1934-1953.

Also included in the collection are copies of bylaws and some financial statements, 1939, from the Primitive Baptist Home, Inc. The Primitive Baptist Home was incorporated in 1928 and is located in Salisbury, Maryland. There is a small amount of materials in the collection from Henry Lefferts, who served as treasurer of the Primitive Baptist Home. Henry Lefferts is possibly related to Claude K. Fetter through Claude's maternal grandmother, Elizetta Lefferts Leedom.

There are about fifty photographs in the collection, mostly from the mid-20th century, but also some from the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Several images are labeled as being from the Leedom family.