Author: Jeremy Louis Sieverts
Valentine Wentz, the Immigrant
1717-1788

The first ancestors of my line of Wentz’s came to this country from Germany on the ship, the Loyal Judith, and landed in Philadelphia on 2 September 1743. Their names were Philip Wentz, his wife, his son and Philip’s brother, Valentine Wentz. In 1749, their younger brother, Frederick, also came; they were the sons of Frederick Wentz who remained in Germany. They probably came to America because their homeland had been decimated by wars and little productive farmland was available. Plus, there was religious persecution of the Protestants, Lutherans and Reforms. These Wentz’s came from a region in southwestern Germany called the Palatinate. The Palatinate is the part of Germany which lies on the left bank of the Rhine River between the cities of Mayence and Spires. They were born, baptized, and grew up in the village of Partenheim, Hesse, Germany. When they came to America they were considered refugees from their homeland. Our direct ancestor, (Johann) Valentine Wentz, the Immigrant, was born 10 July 1717. He died 01 April 1788 and is buried at St. David’s (Sherman’s) Union Church, Manheim Township, York County, just south of Hanover, Pennsylvania. The three brothers first settled in Upper Salford Township, near Philadelphia. Valentine Wentz married Maria Barbara Jennawenner. They were married by Henry Muhlenberg at the Trappe (Lutheran) Church, Montgomery County, Pennsylvania, on 31 August 1748. Maria Barbara was born 18 November 1727 in Saarland, Germany. In 1741, at the age of 14, she immigrated to America with her family. Valentine and Maria Barbara had eight children, John Adam, Catharine, George Frederick, Christina, Barbara, Valentine, Rosina, and Elizabeth.

At first the German immigrants spread out into Lancaster County but by the 1750’s there were so many people in Lancaster County that the new arrivals felt they needed to cross the Susquehanna River and settle in the wilderness of the west. This later became York County, Pennsylvania. Valentine and his brother Fredrick were part of this migration. The Wentz brothers wanted to have more room and better opportunity to develop their resources. They took their teams, loaded their meager furniture and their families and by easy stages made their way out through Lancaster County to the place where Columbia now stands. Here they were ferried across the river by Wright’s Ferry to what is today Wrightsville, and then came on west through York, Spring Grove and Hanover. A son, John Adam, was baptized at Christ Lutheran Church in York, in 1751. By 1756 Valentine found land south of Hanover, Pennsylvania. They lived in West Manheim Township, York County, Pennsylvania. Valentine took out a survey and a warrant and received a patent on approximately 100 acres of land around the town of present day Lineboro, Maryland. After the Mason-Dixon Line was drawn, he had to have some of his land re-surveyed in Maryland because the land straddled the Mason-Dixon Line. Our family has the original patent that was granted to Valentine Wentz and signed by Benjamin Franklin as the President of the Supreme Council of the Colony of Pennsylvania, conveying to Valentine Wentz the property which for six generations was the old homestead in the vicinity of Lineboro, Maryland.