Martin Burkholder

    Every Burkholder who knows something about their history will recognize the names of the Burkholder immigrants who arrived in Pennsylvania in the 1700s. Perhaps the most well-known of them is Christian Burkholder who was a bishop in the Mennonite church during the Revolutionary War. 

     Some of the Burkholders in Switzerland and Germany stayed there. And there were some who were not Mennonite. One non-Mennonite Burkholder who immigrated in the 1700s and settled in Lancaster County has been largely forgotten.

     Martin Burkholder was born in 1731 and naturalized in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, in 1760. He was married to Anna Eve Amweg and had seven children. They lived in the Reinholds area West Cocalico Township. The children were baptized at the Swamp (Little Cocalico) Reformed Church.

   Their first child died young. Henry, George and Michael lived in West Cocalico Township as well as their sister Anna Eve, wife of John Harnish. Peter sold his West Cocalico farm and moved to the Stouchsburg area of Berks County. Sophia married Samuel Batteicher and moved to Upper Bern Township in Berks County.  Some of the descendants of Martin, especially the children of George, joined Mennonite or Brethren churches.

    Martin died in 1811 and was probably buried in the cemetery of the Swamp (Little Cocalico) Reformed Church. His and his wife's graves may be marked by one of the many illegible field stones in the cemetery. 

    You can read the whole story in the July 2022 issue of Pennsylvania Mennonite Heritage magazine published by the Lancaster Mennonite Historical Society.

Swamp (Little Cocalico) Reformed Church built in 1806 to replace the earlier log building. It is now called Swamp Christian Fellowship.

Fifty-five Years of Blessing

   We have tried to take a family picture about every five years. The last one that was taken five years ago was for our fiftieth anniversary. We added some people since then, so it was time to document our tribe again this year. Here's where we started fifty-five years ago with a brand-new family of two.

Two years later there were four of us.

Daryl (1968) Dale (1969)

And then the two boys had a sister.

Cheryl (1971)

A third son joined the family and then we were six. 

Steve (1975)

The boys kept coming. Fifteen years after we began our family of eight was complete.

Gene (1980) Gerald (1983)

Our numbers didn't increase again until our twenty-fifth anniversary when a son-in-law joined the family. Tragically, we lost one of the sons (Steve, back row, left) in an accident about a year and a half later. Cheryl married Richard Miller in 1991.

The family grew as more in-laws and grandchildren were added.

Daryl married Velma in 1998; Dale married Tawnya in 1993.

And grew . . . 

and grew some more.

Then the youngest was married and we kept on growing. By our fiftieth anniversary a grandson was married. Gene married Amy in 2006; Gerald married Kelly in 2011.

Left to right--Dale and Tawnya with 9 adopted children; Leroy & Romaine; Daryl and Velma; Cheryl and Richard with 3 children and a daughter-in-law; Gerald and Kelly; Gene and Amy with one son, Grayson.

Five years later, we are blessed an additional granddaughter (seated left) and great-grandchildren (sitting on the grass to the left) have begun a new generation. Unfortunately, two grandsons, a wife and third great-grandchild are missing from the photo. In fifty-five years we have gone from two to thirty-one. We are expecting the number to increase next year.

Left to right--Gerald and Kelly with daughter Abigail, Cheryl and Richard with 3 children and 2 grandchildren; Dale and Tawnya with 7 of their adopted children; Daryl & Velma; Gene, Amy, and Grayson.

  The way was not always easy, but we have been abundantly blessed through these fifty-five years. "The Lord is good, His mercy is everlasting and His truth endures to all generations."