♀Elizabeth Stetler

Elizabeth Stetler was the daughter of Abraham Stetler, a settler of Bethel Township in what became Lebanon County, Pennsylvania, and the wife of John Holdeman, whose farm there came to him through her: a deed of 1814 conveyed it “in right of the said Elizabeth”. She was the third great-grandmother of Ora Emogene Walrath (1925–2014), through her son Henry Holdeman (1792–1824).

Family

She was one of the eight children of Abraham Stetler, with brothers John, Henry, Abraham and Christian and sisters Maria, Anna and Catharine. Abraham’s widow was named Barbara, and she is probably the children’s mother, but the records name her only as his widow and never as their mother. Her father had died by August 1760, when his will was proved. When the Lancaster County Orphans’ Court divided his estate on 3 June 1772, one share was paid to “John Haldiman and Elizabeth his wife”, so she was married by then and of age.

Marriage and the Stetler land

She and John Holdeman settled on her father’s tract, “Reading”, in Bethel Township. A published genealogy records John buying the tract from her father’s heirs on 27 January 1774; a deed of 1814 reciting the title says instead that he bought out the co-heirs’ shares by indentures of 7 April 1783 and 27 January 1794. The two readings have not been reconciled. Later deeds show her brothers and sisters releasing their shares to him. A Joseph Bicksler bought part of it from the couple; her sister Maria was married to a Joseph Bicksler, but the records do not say whether he was the buyer. The family was living in Bethel when their daughter Maria was born in January 1780. John Holdeman’s eleven children were born between about 1772 and 1792.

In February 1814 John deeded land to their daughter Catharine. The deed recited Abraham Stetler’s will and all his children, and conveyed the land through “John Holdeman and Elizabeth his wife in right of the said Elizabeth”, the legal form for property a wife held by inheritance. The recital names her as the heir through whom he held the land; it does not show that she was alive in 1814, and no later record of her is known. John died in 1819, and the court papers of 1820 name his children and seem to name no widow; no record of her death is known.

Notes

Abraham Stetler’s will, dated 14 August 1753 and proved on 27 August 1760 (Lancaster County Will Book B, page 333), names his wife Barbara but none of his children, who are to share equally; he therefore died between those two dates. The 1804 church record of their daughter Maria’s marriage names the bride’s parents as “Holderman” and “Elizabeth Staetller”, and Elizabeth was his wife by June 1772. Several lineage compilations name John’s wife as Maria, and a John Holdeman of Bethel sold land with a wife Maria in May 1772, three weeks before the court paid Elizabeth’s share. An online family tree gives her birth as 1745 and her death as 1820; no record gives either date.

The widow in the 1820 petition

The petition to the Orphans’ Court in 1820 names his eleven children, but the words about his wife are hard to make out in the surviving copy. One typed version gives “leaving widow but Issuer”; a closer look gives “no widow but Issue”. Two judgments lean toward “no”, and neither is certain. If “no” is right, the petition would state that his wife was dead by December 1819, which would be stronger evidence than the rest of the record gives. It does not name her in either case, so on its own it does not settle whether she was Maria or Elizabeth.