Wilhelm Best

birth and Death recorded from headstone.
per DS/Arrived in the US on ship Winter Galley, Sept 5, 1738,from Rotterdam, Master: Edward Paynter, arrived in port of Philadelphia with wife and 2 children and a 3rd born on the voyage. age26;His brothers Jeremiah, George, and Nicholas were also on this ship as well as Anna's parents. Records from PA Archives show that both Wilhelm and son William fought in French and Indian War in 1757.Data on arrival in America from PA Archives Ser 2 Vol 17.
per JF/A History of Wilhem Best and His Descendents:Named for his father, he was born in 1713 in Switzerland where his family was living temporarily, having fled from the armies invading the German Palatinate. In 1732, he married Anna Susanna Schaeffer, daughter of Adam and Margaret (nee Weiland) Schaeffer. He came to America on the WINTER GALLEY, arriving in Philadelphia on Sept 5, 1738 with his wife and three children. they settled in Bucks County in the part which later became Lehigh township, Northampton County. Wilhelm Best died Nov 24, 1762 and was buried in St Paul's Lutheran jCemetery, Indianland, near Cherryville, Lehigh township, Northampton County PA (about 17 miles northwest of Easton PA.)
THE JOURNEY:
By 1738, Wilhelm Best, then 26, and his wife Anna Susanna , had finally saved enough to emigrate to America. They came on the ship WINTER GALLEY withe their two children, a third child on the way. Edward Paynter was the Commander. On the same ship was John Adam Schaeffer, Jr, probably Susanna's brother, and George Smith, who later married Susanna's sister Barbara Schaeffer in Lehigh Township Bucks County, PA.The journey to Pennsylvania fell naturally into three parts. First there was the journey down the Rhine from their German home to Rotterdam,Holland; then there was the trip form Holland to the English Port of Deal; and finally there was the ocean voyage from England to Philadelphia. The sea passage from Rotterdam to Philadelphia was about ten pounds sterling or sixty florins for each person over ten. Children from five to ten years paid half fare, while children under five went free. Our Bests probably departed before William Best Jr reached age five so as to save the half fare. For these prices, passengers were conveyed to Philadelphia and provided with food, as long as they were at sea, though of very poor quality. The other costs on land from home to Rotterdam were at least forty florins or almost seven pounds. No account is taken here of extraordinary contingencies. Even with the greatest economy, many passengers spent about 34 pounds or 200 florins from home to Philadelphia.The first part of the journey and by no means the easiest , was the journey from Palatinate Germany on a slow overcrowded riverboat down the Rhine to Rotterdam, Holland. Weare not sure just where in the Palatinate the Bests originated their journey, but some of the passengers on the Winter Galley were from Petersheim in Kusel Landkries (New County); Oppau in Ludwigshafen; Gommersheim in Landau; and Pfeddersheim in Worms. All these are in the present German state of Rhineland Palatinate (Rhineland-Pfalz) on the west side of the Rhine River so our ancestors were likely from that general area.Their trip began in the Spring, probably March, as a six month trip was typical of the time, and was full of hardships. Gottlieb Mittelberger made theis trip twelve years after our Bests, and the experience of our Bests was probably very similar. He writes:" the Rhine boats from Heilbronn to Holland have to pass by 26 custom houses, at all of which the ships are examined, which is done when it suits the convenience of the customhouse officials. in the meantime the ships with the people are detained long, so that the passengers have to spend much money. The trip down the Rhine lasts therefore four, five and even six weeks. When the ships come to Holland, they are detained there likewise five to six weeks. Because things are very dear there, the poor people have to spend nearly all they have during that time."The second stage of the journey of Wilhelm and susanna Best was form Rotterdam Holland to the English Port of Deal. In England there was another delay of one to two weeks, when the ships were waiting either to be passed through the custom house or waiting for favorable winds. When the ship had for the last time weighed its' anchors at Deal, then writes Mittleberger, "the real misery begins with the long voyage. For from there the ships, unless they have a good wind, must often sail eight, nine, ten to twelve weeks before they reach Philadelphia. But even with the best wind, the voyage lasts seven weeks."The third stage of the journey, or the ocean voyage proper, was marked by much suffering and hardship. The passengers were packed densely, hundreds on a small ship. There were 252 passengers recorded on the Winter Galley. Of these , 113 were women and children. Food and water were scanty and often contaminated, and so the passengers were subject to all sorts of diseases, such as dysentery scurvy, typhoid and smallpox. children were the first to be attacked and died in large numbers. Ventilation was bad. Rats and lice abounded. There was also a danger of being captured by pirates and sold into slavery, and drills of male passengers were held in case of attack. These terrors were much aggravated by frequent storms through which ships and passengers had to pass. Mittelberger writes :"the misery reaches the climax when a gale rages for two or three nights and days so that everyone believes that the ship will go to the bottom with all human beings on board. In such a visitation the people cry and pray most piteously. When in such a gale the sea rages and surges so that the waves rise often like mountains one above the other and often tumble down over the ship so that one fears to go down with the ship; when the ship is constantly tossed from side to side by the storm and waves so that no one can either walk or sit or lie and the closely packed people in the berths are thereby tumbled over each other, both the sick and the well, it will be readily understood that many of these people, none of whom had been prepared for hardships, suffer so terribly from them that they do not survive.'Our ancestors, Wilhelm and Anna Susanna Best and their two small children, Wilhelm, 5, and Susanna, 3, did survive these miseries. In addition , family tradition tells us that Susanna gave birth to her third child Ann Elizabeth during the voyage. when at long last their destination was in sight, it must have been a tremendous relief. Mittelberger writes:" when the ships scome in sight of land which the people were so eager and anxious to see, all creep from below on deck to see the land from afar and they weep for joy, and pray and sing, thanking and praising God. The sight of land makes the people on board the ship, especially the sick and half dead alive again, so that their hearts leap within them; they shout and rejoice and are content to bear their misery in patience in the hope that they may soon reach the land in safety.
From boyhood he planned to emigrate to America and had saved some money toward the journey when he learned that the parents of the girl he planned to marry , Adam and Anna Margaret Schaeffer, were about to emigrate to America themselves. He had not planned to marry so soon, but if he didn't, Anna would have been obliged to go with her parents to America. she did not want to go without Wilhelm, and he had to earn money to make the trip. So to prevent this, they moved up the date of their marriage and then the rest of the Schaeffer family left for America. Wilhelm gave to his father in law what money he had saved toward his own trip with instructions that when Mr. Schaeffer found where he wished to settle in America, he was to buy extra land so Wilhem and Anna could settle near her family when they eventually saved enough for their own passage, plus the necessities to see them through the first year until they could clear land and raise a crop. Adam Schaeffer purchased land in Bush Co. It is said that Wilhelm's health was seriously undermined by all the hardships.Wilhelm fought in the French and Indian War. There were less than 100 people living in Lehigh Twp when Wilhelm received official title of his land. Wilhelm and Anna worked very hard to clear the land, fell trees, and stayed up many nights to keep the wolves away until their shelter was built. Wilhelm's land was near an old Indian trail from the North Branch of the Susquehanna River, not far from the Lehigh Gap. It led to Shamokin, an Indian town, now Sunbury, and on to what was later the site of Bethlehem and Easton, PA. Lehigh Twp suffered greatly during the Indian invasions and was virtually abandoned in 1755/56, the inhabitants seeking refuge in Bethlehem and Nazareth. A stockage was built to protect the town from Indians.[Ref: 1761/62 tax records, Lehigh Twp]: Patent for land issued Oct 1,1748 by Thomas and Richard Penn in Bucks Co.Wilhelm and his family were Lutherans and members of the Union Congregation of St Paul's near the village of Cherryville in Lehigh Twp, founded about 1750; it was then called Indianland Congregation at the Blue Mountains on the Lehigh. He died without a will, and William Jr bought the land and was to pay his siblings their share within a year. However, it seems the homestead later went to his brother Henry and William Jr moved to western PA. The Best home is said to have been burned twice, once by Indians and later by the Hessians.The Bests followed the German custom of double naming the children, with John being a favorite for the sons, Maria and Anna for the daughters. The Best families used John as the first name of all their sons for several generations although they were generally referred to by the second name.Wilhelm and Anna had 9 children. After Wilhelm died, Anna married Peter Lobaugh and had 2 children.