The Culps (Kolb)
Our Kolb ancestors
originated in Germany in an area called Palatinate and thus were
called Palatines. In German history, the Palatinate, or Pfalz in
German, was the lands of the count palatine, a title held by a
leading secular prince of the Holy Roman Empire. (The counts
palatine were also known as the electors palatine after 1356.)
Geographically, the Palatinate consisted of two small territorial
clusters along the Rhine and Naab rivers in the southern part of
present-day Germany.
Many in the
Palatinate were part of the Reform or Protestant (Zwingli,Martin Luther, etc.)
movement which broke from the Catholic Church. For the
Anabaptist, one of the primary (but not only) differences was the
belief that one must be an adult to become a Christian through
baptism. They therefore developed the practice of baptizing those
who joined their movement and from this rose the name Anabaptist (meaning "rebaptizers")While the fundamental
beliefs of the Anabaptist were the same, there were differences
which "divided" them. Contemporary groups with early
Anabaptist roots include the
Mennonites, Amish, Dunkards, Landmark Baptists, Hutterites, and
various Beachy and Brethren groups. Those that followed the
teachings of Menno Simmons were called Mennonites. One of these groups was called the German Baptist Brethren led by Alexander Mack. Due to
religious and personal persecution, many of the Palatines found
it necessary to migrate to other countries. Over 30,000 of them
relocated to Pennsylvania in the United States (often through
other countries). It is said that this was because William Penn,
is his quest to actualize his dream of establishing a Christian state in the New World, had visited the area (in 1677) encouraging the people to go to
Pennsylvania in America; a place where a man and his family could
be free of the problems they were encountering.
Thus we have the
religiously persecuted Kolbs from the Palatinate in Germany coming to
Pennsylvania at the beginning of the 18th century.
Dielman Kolb & Peter Kolb
Dielman Kolb was born in 1648. He resided in
Wolfsheim in Baden, Germany. He died in 1712, aged 64 years. He
is buried at Manheim, Germany. Dielman married Agnes Schumacher,
daughter of Peter Schumacher who came to America in 1685. Peter
Schumacher was a Mennonite, but later united with the Friends. He
came from Kriesheim and died in Germantown, Pennsylvania in 1707.
Agnes (Schumacher) Kolb died in 1705, aged 53 years and is buried
at Wolfsheim. Dielman and Agnes had at least seven children,
perhaps ten. A 1685 census in Wolfsheim shows them with 5 sons
and 2 daughters. Five or six sons came to America and at least
two grandsons. Known children are sons Peter,
Henry (Heinrich), Martin, Johannes, Jacob, and Dielman and
daughter Ann.
Peter Kolb, son of Dielman, was born in 1671 and died in
1727. He was a Mennonite minister and Bishop and is buried at
Manheim Germany. He did not come to America, but at least two of
his sons did and some of his descendants later immigrated to
Canada from Bucks County, Pennsylvania.
Some researchers believe
that Peter is the father of Hans Casper Kolb who
came to America in 1729 but recent evidence suggest this is not the case. As pointed out by Glenn Landis at his web site (http://kolb-kulp-culp.org), the Dielman Kolb family's religious foundation was Mennonite while Has Casper Kolb's was that of the German Baptist Brethren. Additionally, it is reported that through DNA analysis the two lines are not connected (at least in their generational period). Maybe one day we can establish our lineage beyond Hans Kasper Kolb but we have been unable to do that to date.
Hans Kaspar Kolb
Hans Kaspar Kolb was born in 1716 in Germany
and died in 1769 in South Carolina. He came to America from
Rotterdam aboard the ship 'Allen' arriving in Philadelphia on
September 11, 1729 and lived in Pennsylvania until approximately
1754. He was a member of the German Baptist Brethren and came
over with Alexander Mack, a founder of the German Baptist
Brethren (part of the Anabaptist movement). Also on the ship was Anna Phyllis
(Felicitas) Kolb who it is believed was Kaspars wife.
He went by the name of Casper and changed
his last name from Kolb to Culp. He moved from Pennsylvania
to North Carolina in 1754 getting a grant along the Catawba River
in that year from North Carolina. The grant was surveyed into
South Carolina in 1763 when the state line was established. He
died in 1770 in South Carolina. When Chester County was created
in 1785, his land fell in the NE corner of the county. Casper is
believed to have owned over 900 acres of land in Chester Co, SC.
The grant indicates that he occupied the land for some time. He
made his will, which names four daughters and five sons, on
September 30, 1769 and it was proved on April 30, 1770 and is
recorded on page 447 of the old Charleston Wills Book, 1767-1771.
Casper and Anna had nine children and they
were Henry, Augustine, John, Margaret, Mary, Catherine, Barbara,
Peter and Benjamin.
Benjamin Culp
Benjamin was born in 1741 in Pennsylvania
and died October 1819 in South Carolina. He settled in the
Tinkers Creek section of Eastern Chester County, South Carolina.
He served in the South Carolina Militia during the Cherokee War
(part of the Seven Years war or French and Indian War, 1757-1763)
and in Bennetts Regiment during the American Revolutionary
War as a Private under the Gamecock (Gen. Sumter) at the Battle
of Fishing Creek. During the Indian war Benjamins
sister, Barbara
(Culp) McKinney, was scalped in the wilderness of
South Carolina by Cherokees and survived (see bottom). Elizabeth F. Ellet
tells her story in The Women of The American
Revolution written in 1850. Benjamin and his wives
are buried at Burnt Meeting House Cemetery in Chester, South
Carolina
Benjamin married Dorothea Abendschon and had
five children; Catherine, John, Mary (Polly), Elizabeth and
Henry. After Dorotheas death in 1786 he married Anna
Mary Klein and had five additional children; Hannah, Peter,
Margaret, Sarah and William.
William A. Culp
William was the youngest of Benjamins
children from his second marriage. He was born July 3, 1803
in Chester County, South Carolina. He married
Cynthia Smith October 10, 1828 in Harris County, Georgia. We have recently uncovered the fact that Cynthia was the daughter of William Wilkinson Smith (Wm. W had a brother named John Smith "T" whose story is described in a link below) and Judith Heard . It is reported that the Smiths left Wilkes County, Georgia and went to South Carolina and then on to Chambers County, Alabama. This appears to be part of the journey William and Cynthia also took. During their early years they did quite some traveling. Dr
William A. Culp is located in the 1830 York County, South
Carolina census (page 340). According to the 1850
census of Chambers County, Alabama (#1270), their oldest son
William B. was born in North Carolina around 1831 (assume across
the state line from South Carolina), their next, Judith
B., was born in 1836 in Georgia, their third, Smith was
born in 1840 in Missouri, and their last three, Albert, Henry and
Margaret, were born around 1842, 1844 and 1849 respectively in
Alabama. Williams family was also listed in the 1860
census in Chambers County. By the late 1860s William
had moved to Henry County, Alabama and died there.
William A. Culp's will was executed on August 22, 1870 in Henry County. In it he listed his "next of kin" as: "Smith Culp, Margaret Griggs, wife of William A Griggs of full ages. William Mendheim, Rosa Mendheim, Isadore Mendheim, Albert Mendheim and Belton Mendheim, the said William and Rosa being above fourteen and the others under fourteen - All of whom reside in said County of Henry, the said Mendheim minors being in the custody of Isadore Mendheim and being children of Judith B. Mendheim deceased, who was a Daughter of decedent, Carrie Culp, William Culp and Elmore Culp, minors under the age of fourteen years and reside with and in custody of their mother Nancy Culp at Salem in the county of Lee and State of Alabama they being the children of William B Culp deceased, who was a son of said testator." Albert had died at age 17 and Henry had died in the Civil war (both without children) prior to William's death.
Cynthia is in the 1880 Henry County Alabama census with their widowed daughter Margaret and her children.
Judith B. Culp
Judith was born in 1836 in Georgia.
She married
Isidor Mendheim on December 24, 1851 in Harris County, Georgia (the same county where her parents were married 23 years
earlier). Judith and Isidor moved to Henry, County Alabama
and had five children between 1853 and 1864. Judith died at
a young age (33) in 1870 from unknown causes. |