♀Barbara (surname unknown)

Barbara (living in 1772) was the wife of Abraham Stetler of Bethel Township, then in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, and, in all likelihood, the mother of his eight children. She was the probable fourth great-grandmother of Ora Emogene Walrath (1925–2014), through her probable daughter Elizabeth Stetler.

Abraham had four sons, John, Henry, Abraham and Christian, and four daughters, Maria, Elizabeth, Anna and Catharine; the records name Barbara as his widow but never as the children’s mother, which she probably was. Abraham’s will, written in 1753, left her the estate for as long as she remained his widow, and a third of it if she married again. He had died by 27 August 1760, when the will was proved, and in June 1771 the Lancaster County Orphans’ Court appointed guardians for four of the children, several of them still under age. When his estate was settled on 3 June 1772, the balance was divided as his will directed, “to the said Barbara for her one third part”, the widow’s customary third, with the rest shared equally among the children. A deed of 1814 still named her, as “Barbara his widow”, when it recited her husband’s will.

Her maiden name is not known from any record, and no record of her death has been found. An online family tree calls her Barbara Stucki, married at Bolligen, near Bern in Switzerland, in 1741; that identification cites no source and has not been confirmed.