Daniel Seilor

This is the description of Daniel Seilor, the first Seilor/Sayler/Saylor in America.

Daniel Sayler (1), the progenitor of that branch of the Sayler Family of America to which the following pages relate, was born in Switzerland, January 15, 1708. He was the second child in a family of seven. It is not known what his father’s name was, nor the occupation of his father. The work from which the date of Daniel’s birth is taken is a German one, printed in 1575. It is entitled “Ein Fundament Und Klave Antweising von der Selich Machen Lehve Unsers Herren Yesu Christi.” Gadracht in Yahre 1575. It is now in the possession of a Mr. Blough, residing about thirty miles from Somerset, Pa. The following record taken from this book was furnished me by the Hon. W.H. Welfley, of Somerset:

This is the way the record was furnished to me by Mr. Welfley. The record is written in German, and is difficult to read. The translation above spells the name Sayler; but the German method of spelling the name was Seiler. The name Schamburgh after Daniel’s name is undoubtedly the place of his birth. It may be Schoeneberg. It is difficult to ascertain properly from the book.

This old book in questions seems to have been presented to Jacob. In one of the first fly-leaves of the book is written the following: “This book belongs to me, Jacob Sayler. I have the same from my father.” The author made diligent effort to obtain personal possession of the book, to have its record thoroughly translated; but its present possessor considered it too valuable to send it by mail or express.

The tradition of the Maryland Saylers is that Daniel Sayler came to America about 1725-1730, with his brother Jacob. Daniel settled in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania. The brothers came with the immigration of the German Baptist Brethren. The first record we have of Daniel Sayler in America is that furnished by the Conestoga Church records in Lancaster County. The records of that church show that Daniel was baptized by Michael Fouts in 1752. This church was a German Baptist Brethren one. The Sayler Family (especially the Maryland Branch) have been closely identified with this church from that time — a period of nearly a century and a half. One of Daniel’s sons was chosen for the ministry in this church, and many of his son’s descendants have done conscientious and noble work in the same profession and for the same church.

Daniel Sayler was a farmer. The following receipt, still in existence, is for a farm of thirty-two acres in Lebanon Township, Lancaster County:

“Rec’d Dan’l Sailor Forty-two pounds 18s. 2p. in full for 32 a’s in Lebanon Township, Lancaster County, formerly granted to Herman Long by War’t of 16th July, 1741. For the Hon. the Sec’y, etc.

The family Bible of Daniel Sayler is now in the possession of Elder Daniel R. Sayler, of Double Pipe Creek, Md. It is a very old book, having been printed in 1575. There is a well-founded tradition that this Bible was presented to Daniel by his father. Certain it is that is has followed the line of Daniel since it has been in America. By that is meant that only those have possessed the book whose Christian names were Daniel. The record given at end of this family paragraph is taken from this Bible.

In the spring of 1772 Daniel Sayler removed to Frederick County, Maryland, where he had previously purchased a farm. There went with him his wife Anna Sayler, his youngest son Daniel, his daughters Catharine, Julia and Mary, together with the husband of the latter, Bostian Neff. From Daniel Sayler’s will it is learned that he sold his Lancaster County farm, before removing to Maryland, to his two sons, John and Christian, at a low figure, so as to include their patrimony.

It is not known whom Daniel Sayler married. His wife’s first name was Anna, but nothing more concerning her personally is known. She survived her husband twenty years. Very little, too, is known concerning Daniel Sayler’s personal appearance and characteristics. It seems that he was a religious man, and that he reared his children in the fear of God. He lived in stirring times, but he lived apart from them. He was probably a believer in the doctrine of non-resistance. The great struggle for freedom from the English government had been actively begun in his lifetime, but he died before it was finished. His death occurred in Frederick County, on his farm, in 1778. He left the following will:

“In God’s name, Amen, the 23rd of January, 1773. I, Daniel Seiler, residing in Frederick Courts, in the Province of Maryland — I having been prior to this time in poor health; but have nevertheless retained my sound mind and memory, but however as God has brought to my knowledge the fact that I must die I am willing to signify my last Will and Testament in writing.

“Firstly: I commend my soul to God who gave it being. My body, when my time has come and passed, I ordain shall be placed in the earth; not doubting that I shall re-occupy the same when the day of Judgment shall come, and the righteous shall arise. Now what concerns my present belongings with which God has blessed me during this life, I order and dispose of them as follows: Prologue — To begin with, this is my Will and Testament that all my rightful debts be correctly paid. Item — So be it known particularly at this point and place, that my land in Lebanon Township whereon I did live formerly was sold very cheaply to my two eldest sons John Seiler and Christian Seiler under these conditions and in no other sense that shall be firmly and indisputably kept and cannot be recalled that my two eldest aforementioned sons have by such bargain at which I gave them such the land aforesaid been completely satisfied as to their portion, and that thereby I gave them their total and complete patrimony and that they have no farther rights and shall have no farther claim on chattels I shall have hereafter; but they shall fall to my other heirs; and if they or one of them shall not be satisfied then the executors of my estate shall pay him or them an English shilling in full of their dues. Item — That the land whereon I now live in Maryland in Frederick Courts, that shall my son Daniel Seiler have, with this condition, that he shall pay to my remaining three daughters full one hundred pounds, as follows: To my eldest daughter Catharine Seillerin^* three and thirty pounds and six shillings, eight pence; and to my second daughter Anna Seillerin, also three and thirty pounds, six shillings, and eight pence; and my youngest daughter Mary Seillerin as Bostian Neff‘s wife, them also three and thirty pounds, six shillings, and eight pence.

“Thereby it shall be provided that he Daniel Seiler shall pay the above money as follows:

“Firstly: To his sister Catharine Seillerin shall he pay her money three years after both parties’ death; and the next year thereafter he shall pay Anna Seillerin her above named share; and in the third year to his youngest sister Mary her portion.

“However, be it provided that should the aforesaid Daniel Seiler lose this land or that it should be taken from him, that he shall not be compelled to pay the aforementioned one hundred pounds.

“Item — What now concerns my personal property or chattels it shall belong to my son Daniel Seiller, under the condition that he pay therefor to his mother twenty-five pounds as she may require the same, provided he shall also give her ten bushels of wheat and fifty pounds of pork and fifteen pounds of spun flax. Item — It is also to be provided that she shall retain her widow’s rights to live in the present house where she now lives, and shall also have a spot in the garden to plant, and that he, Daniel Seiler, shall, as long as his mother lives, keep a cow for her use in fodder, and also provide for the calf, also two sheep must he keep in fodder. Further it is to be provided that the bed and her chest together with what it may contain belongs to her and also that the sheet-iron room stove shall be hers together with the needful wood to burn in the same which he shall provide. It is further to be provided that his mother shall have the three Hackles.

“To this my last will I nominate as administrators and executors Bostian Neff and Martin Gerber.

“Because I, Anna Sayler, the widow of the deceased Daniel Sayler, in Frederick County at the Beaver Dams — myself in high age, and in the same with bodily infirmity weakness, and (Thanks be to the Lord) yet in perfect mind and memory, and because we are teached and convinced that we have not to stay here; but that we are to seek for that to come, so I see myself, for my part, with the will of the Lord, with all my heart after the same, whereby I have a concern, which I would wish to declare to all my beloved children. Namely, of my worldly estate, which I have in my possession and is my own; so is this my will that all whats after my death, yet of mine left, it being money of property, what it may be the same, all my beloved son Daniel Sayler and his children shall be without what he shall give his eldest sister Catharine Liverton aftyr his good thinking and which I will entrust him with and not direct him what it shall be or how much.

Daniel Sayler’s will was written in German. I am indebted to Dr. Dall, of Chicago, for the translation into the English language. The translation is a somewhat literal one, which will explain the peculiarities of the language. The word hackles appearing in the latter part of Daniel Sayler’s will, Webster defines to be an instrument with teeth for separating the coarse part of flax or hemp from the fine. The word is almost obsolete at the present time.

Daniel and Anna Sayler are buried in the family burying ground on the farm on which they lived. Four generations of the Sayler family are buried there.

Daniel Sayler’s family consisted of eight children — five sons and three daughters. All of them were born in Lancaster County, Pa. One of the sons — the first Daniel — died in infancy. Jacob’s name is not mentioned in his father’s will. It is not definitely known what became of him. There are so many of the Sayler Family in Pennsylvania, and the records of this time concerning the family are few, and even the traditions have furnished no very satisfactory clue as to Jacob’s family. It seems that the brother, Jacob, who came from Switzerland with Daniel, had a son Jacob who was born in the same year that Daniel’s son Jacob was, viz., 1740. This has added to the difficulties accompanying the research as to this branch of the family. There was a Jacob Sayler who settled in Somerset County in the last quarter of the eighteenth century; but the evidence seems to warrant the statement that he was Jacob’s son and not Daniel’s.

John Sayler is mentioned in his father’s will as having, together with his brother Christian, purchased the home farm in Lancaster County, upon the father’s removal to Maryland. Christian Sayler subsequently sold his interest in this farm and removed to Frederick County also; but nothing further is known concerning John Sayler.

The daughter Catharine married a John Christopher Liverton; Julia married a Mr. Fisher, and Mary, Bostian Neff, previously named in this history. It seems that these daughters, with their husbands, toward the close of the eighteenth century, removed to Virginia; Mary and Julia going to what is called the Blackwater country.

The two remaining children are Christian and Daniel. The ensuing pages are a history of these two children and their descendants. Christian is the common ancestor of what has been known as the Ohio branch of the family, and Daniel of the Maryland branch. The majority of both branches have been farmers, as is apt to be true of most American families, our country, at the present time, being so largely agricultural. Further than this I may say, however, that there has been a tendency among the Maryland Saylers to enter the church, many of them having done eminent service in the German Baptist Brethren Church; while the Ohio Branch have inclined more to medicine, surgery and the law. In both branches there has also been a tendency toward mechanics.

The following are the names of Daniel and Anna Sayler’s children, with the dates of their birth, and of their death where known:

^* NOTE. — The suffix “in” was used in Germany at that time to denote the female sex.