William J. Striffler

Notes:

The only ones of the Striffler family to remain in western New York. David married Sophia Muck.

Ruth Marcetti showed his death date as 30 December 1871, but Carole Jean Benkelman who has a photo of his headstone, states that it instead shows Dec. 30, 1872. The headstone is further inscribed "Erected by the Lancaster Benevolent Association of Which He was the First President."

(Research):
Census Information:

1850 Census
New York, Erie County, Lancaster
Enumerated 23 Aug 1850
Page 200
1048-1082
Otil Strifler 59 F $2550 Germany
Jacob Strifler 30 M Farmer
Susanna Strifler 27 F
Joseph Stifler 24 M Farmer
Christian Strifler 22 m Farmer
John Strifler 17 Farmer New York (sic)
David Strifler 14

1860 Census
Not located

1870 Census
New York, Erie County, Lancaster
Enumerated 14 Jun 1870 by James Remington
Striffler, David 32 House Carpenter $100 NY
Striffler, Sophia 28 Housekeeping NY
Striffler, Philip E. 8 Attends School NY
Striffler, John B 5 Attends School NY
Striffler, Christina O 3 At Home NY
Striffler, William J 2 At Homer NY
Striffler, Adam F 1/12 At Home

David married Sophia Muck before 1860. Sophia was born in Feb 1842 in Amherst, Erie County, New York; died on 5 Mar 1924 in New Sewickley, Beaver County, Pennsylvania; was buried in Rehoboth Lutheran Church, Beaver County, Pennsylvania. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Notes:

March 6, 1924, probably from the Beaver Daily Times: Obituary for Mrs. Sophia Seyboth: Mrs. Sophia Seyboth, aged 83, of New Sewickley township, died yesterday afternoon at the family home from complications, due to old age.

Surviving is her husband one son and two daughters. Funeral services will be held from the Rehoboth Lutheran church of which the deceased is a member Friday afternoon at 2:30 o'clock. Interment will be made in the Rehoboth Lutheran cemetery.

[Note: no mention of her children from her prior marriage to David Striffler of Erie County, NY]

(Courtesy of Judith Muck)

Notes:

According to the Rev. Roy J. Striffler, the Striffler's emigrated from the Alsace-Lorraine region of France to New York State in 1830. They were part of the German-speaking population of Alsace. Some of the older Striffler family members recalled a family joke---there were 11 boys in the family, and all of them had a sister Susanna. She married Christian Oscar Lenzner. Family genealogists have only been able to account for eight of the 12 children however. Two of the boys married Benkelman sisters. One son married Mary Rommel, and as there were several Benkelman/Rommel marriages as well, the two families became further intertwined.

Although the family originally settled in New York only Jacob's son David remained in New York. Peter pushed further west, to Kansas. Around 1880, most of the others settled in Cass City, Michigan, where they lived until their deaths. They cut off the stumps remaining on the land they built and turned the wilderness into fruitful farm land.

(Excerpted from Art Peck's THE TEN BENKELMANS WHO EMIGRATED TO AMERICA. He in turn references a September 4, 1950 article from the "Striffler-Benkelman Broadcast", Volume 13, Cass City, Michigan)

Both the flyleaf of the Striffler family Bible, and the tombstone of Jacob Striffler in Lancaster, showed him to be be born in Kirrberg, "departmente de Rhein." (Jacobs, p. 164). In the chapter on the Striffler family in her unpublished 1981 manuscript, BonnieMargaret Jacobs noted that widely spread family stories stated that the Striffler family originated in Switzerland (p. 164). It would appear these were either errorneous, or that the family moved from Switzerland to Alsace.


BonnieMargaret Benkelman Jacobs, in an undated family report she prepared for some of the descendants of the Striffler brothers who married Benkelmann sisters, wrote that birth records had been of the children born to Jacob and Otillia "Have been extracted from the French civil records and translated, and show 8 children born in France, two of whom died while still just children (one was only 15 months old, the other just a few months past their sixth birthday). She stated that "these official civil records support the oft repeated family joke, "There are seven brothers and each one has a sister." On page 165 of her unpublished 1981 manuscript documenting the Benkelman family, she repeated this saying, adding however that "one Striffler heard the riddle with 11 brothers and it should be noted that there is still much to be learned about this family."

With the records in France showing 8 children were born there, and census records show two known children born in the United States, it appears we can account for 10 of the 11. It is possible that records may be uncovered one day to find the final child, or that this final son may have been stillborn or died at a young age, and his memory passed down only through the family joke or riddle.

Jacob married Ottila "Odila" "Otil" Zimmerman on 4 Nov 1809 in Kirberg, Imperial Territory of Alsace-Lorraine, Imperial Territory Of Alsace-Lorraine, Elsa?-Lothringen, Germany. Ottila was born on 10 Nov 1790 in Kirberg, Imperial Territory of Alsace-Lorraine, Imperial Territory Of Alsace-Lorraine, Elsa?-Lothringen, Germany; died on 17 Sep 1863 in Lancaster, Erie County, New York. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Notes:

Her father was a school master.

(Research):

Census Listings;

1850 Census
New York, Erie County, Lancaster
Enumerated 23 Aug 1850
Page 200
1048-1082
Otil Strifler 59 F $2550 Germany
Jacob Strifler 30 M Farmer
Susanna Strifler 27 F
Joseph Stifler 24 M Farmer
Christian Strifler 22 m Farmer
John Strifler 17 Farmer New York (sic)
David Strifler 14

1860 Census
Not located