My Genealogy Hound

REV. CHARLES SAMUEL WIEAND, pastor of Zion’s Reformed church, Pottstown, resides at 209 Chestnut street in that borough. He was born in Zionsville, Lehigh county, Pennsylvania, February 28, 1848. He is the son of Charles W. and Susan (Krauss) Wieand, natives of Lehigh county. Charles W. and Susan Wieand had six children, of whom four are now giving: Maria, wife of Dr. I. B. Yeakel, of Bally, Berks county, Pennsylvania; Sarah, wife of L. F. Shetler, of Pottstown; Rev. Charles S. Weand, of Pottstown; Susan, wife of Wilson S. Krauss, of East Greenville, Pennsylvania.

Charles W. Wieand (father) was originally a school teacher and later justice of the peace for many years, conveyancer and general merchant at Zionsville, and was well known throughout Lehigh county. He was an adjutant in the state militia but lost an eye, which incapacitated him for service in the Civil war, but not taking this into consideration he was too old for service at the breaking out of the war. He removed to East Greenville, Montgomery county, about 1872, and spent the remainder of his life in this county. His first wife died in 1877, aged sixty-four years. Both he and his wife were members of the German Reformed church. He married (second wife) Mrs. Catharine (Wieand) Erb, who died a year before he died. They had no children. Charles W. Wieand died in Pottstown at the home of his daughter, Mrs. Shetler, in 1890, at the age of eighty-one years.

David Wieand (paternal grandfather) was a native of Pennsylvania and lived most of his life in Lehigh county, where he was engaged in the occupation of farming. His wife was Susan Walter, daughter of Lieutenant Philip Walter of the Revolutionary army. They had a family of three children.

Wendel Wieand (great-grandfather) lived at Elourtown, Pennsylvania, and afterward in Lehigh county, where he was a linen weaver in early manhood but later a farmer. He was a Revolutionary soldier, enlisting at the age of nineteen years. His wife was Christina Herzog.

Johann Jost Wiegandt (great-great-grandfather) was a native of Freinsheim, in the Palatinate, Germany. He was born along the banks of the River Rhine and was the founder of the family in America. On arriving in America he changed the spelling of his name from Wiegandt to Wieand. Johann Jost Wiegandt landed in Philadelphia in 1750 and took the oath of allegiance November 3, 1750. His wife’s given name was Barbara. Johann Jost Wieand had an older brother Johann Wendel Wieand, who came to America August 19, 1729, twenty-one years prior to Johann Jost Wieand’s arrival. Johann Wendel Wieand was the ancestor of Judge Henry K. Weand of Norristown, who drops the letter “i” in the spelling of the name. The Wiegandt family dates back in Germany to Jacob Wiegandt.

Andrew Krauss (maternal grandfather) was a native of Lower Milford, Lehigh county, Pennsylvania. He was the first pipe-organ builder in the state of Pennsylvania. He and his brother John manufactured pipe organs for many years and one of their organs is still in use in the Roman Catholic church in Bally, Pennsylvania. The wife of Andrew Krauss was Susan Schultz, daughter of Andrew Schultz and granddaughter of Rev. Christopher Schultz, Sr., of the Schwenkfelder faith. Andrew Krauss was born June 21, 1771, and died May 11, 1841, aged nearly seventy years. His wife lived to be eighty-three years old. The couple had thirteen children and owned their own farm.

Andrew Krauss’ father was Balthasar Krauss, a native of Germany, who came to America with his mother in 1733 with the colony of Schwenkfelder immigrants, locating in what was then an almost unbroken wilderness within the limits of what is now Lehigh county. Balthasar Krauss was born in the dukedom of Liegnitz, Silesia, Germany. He died February 25, 1774, aged sixty-eight years. He was the founder of the family in this country.

Rev. Charles S. Wieand grew to manhood in Lehigh county, attending the district schools and the old Allentown Academy. He worked on a farm and also in a mill, learning the trade of a miller and operating his father’s mill for about three years. He prepared for college at Freeland Seminary and later entered Franklin and Marshall College at Lancaster, graduating in 1874. He then founded Perkiomen Seminary at Pennsburg, Montgomery county, and was principal of that school for nine years. During that time he studied theology under Rev. Dr. C. Z. Weiser and was licensed by the classis of Goshenhoppen, of the Reformed church, to preach in 1880. He served the Chestnut Hill congregation in Lehigh county one year and then became pastor of Zion’s Reformed church, Pottstown, in the spring of 1884, and has been continuously since the pastor of this congregation, whose membership now exceeds four hundred and fifty.

On July 1, 1875, he married Leonore M. Sell, daughter of Charles B. M. and Clarissa W. Sell, of Allentown. His wife’s maiden name was Keck. They had seven children: Irma Clarissa, Charles Samuel, Mary M., Leonora S., Edward Wendel, Helen Emma and Alma Margaret. Irma C. is now in Europe taking a post-graduate course in the University of Leipzig. She is a graduate of Mount Holyoke College, Massachusetts, of the class of 1901. Charles Samuel died at the age of five years, four months and twenty- two days. Mary M. died at the age of nearly four years. Leonora died in infancy. Edward Wendel died at the age of eleven months and twenty days. Alma died at the age of five years. Helen E. is now pursuing a course at Mount Holyoke College.

Rev. C. S. Wieand is and has been for many years stated clerk of the Goshenhoppen classis of the Reformed church, and is also its treasurer.