Casper Haulzhausen arrived in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania August 16, 1731, age 23, aboard the ship “Samuel”. He immigrated from the Palatinate area of Germany where he was born in 1708. The ship Samuel was captained by Hugh Peirch, ship master from Rotterdam. Upon arrival, the spelling of his name was changed to Holtzhousen. Later, one of his sons changed the spelling to Holshouser as we use it today. It’s so exciting to find  your ancestor’s name on the passenger’s list when they arrived–to think of that long journey, and to see the men, women ,and children with whom they traveled.  Casper arrived here on August 16, 1731, and on August 17 was required to take an oath of allegiance. You might wonder–or assume that he was showing allegiance to his new country of America–but as I am prone to forget, we were not our own country yet, so yes, he had to take an oath of allegiance to the current King of England! 

“We the subscribers, natives and late inhabitants of the Palatinate upon the Rhine and places adjacent, having transported ourselves into this Province of Pennsylvania, a colony subject to the Crown of Great Britain, in hopes and expectation of finding a retreat and peaceable settlement therein: Do solemnly promise and engage that we will be faithful and bear true allegiance to his present Majesty King George II, and his successors, and will be faithful to the Proprietors of this Province; and that we will demean ourselves peaceably to all his said Majesty’s subjects, and strictly observe and conform to the laws of England and of this Province to the utmost of our power and best of our understanding.” 

Casper, b.1708, is my husband Max Holshouser’s fifth great-grandfather, of course that makes him my childrern’s sixth, and my grandchildren’s seventh great-grandfather! I believe time does fly! Three hundred and eight years since he was born–and I cannot even count the thousands of ancestors spread across the United States!  However, I actually know someone who might be able to do just that! I met Jerri McCoy a couple of years ago, I think on ancestry.com. She was collecting information from my Holshouser family tree and we started “talking”.  I was very surprised and somewhat awed to learn that she had been researching the Holshousers  for many years, and is collecting a master database of Holshousers in the USA! How incredible! I was happy to share my tree with her, and have enjoyed working with her for  some time since then! If you would like to access her database and learn how to be in touch with her, leave me a message and I will send you the link. 

Back to Casper, who met and married Margaretha Bingham in 1732, one year after arriving in America. She was from Germany also, having been born there in 1709. Together they had  five children, three sons and two daughters: 

Johannes Jacob Haulzhausen, Birth 17 Jun 1732-Death 1787

Anna Margaretha Haulzhausen, Birth 1737

Andreas Holtzhousen, Birth 1741-Death, 1810

Michael Holtzhousen, Birth 1743-Death 1810

Catharina Holtzhauser, Birth 1745-Death 1784

Andreas was the first child to move away to North Carolina, but most of the rest of the family followed. In the next post I want to tell you about their trip to NC, and where you can see examples of Andreas’ fine craftsmanship on display still today! Andreas had twelve children. His son Casper, 1785,went on to found my husband’s direct line.  Casper’s son Charles led to Max, and his son  James moved to Blowing Rock, NC and founded the line producing the Governor of North Carolina, James Eubert Holshouser Jr, Max’s third cousin once removed.  Isn’t it amazing –from a single young man arriving alone on a boat, in a foreign country, to fathering the Governor of North Carolina! These early Holshouser immigrants have reason to be proud of their heritage, and of the hard work of their descendants Just  yesterday, my husband of 43 years, Max Alexander Holshouser and I , and our two daughters and three grandchildren, all went to the Holshouser Reunion held annually in our state. It is so much fun to get together- there where the Holshousers settled in the mid 1700’s! You can almost feel their presence in the church in which we meet! More about that next time. 

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