More Mellick History

The German Moelich Family

"The first of the name is Peter, who appears in or about the year 1500 on the register of the Lutheran congregation at Winningen. This place is a market town of about three thousand inhabitants, on the left bank of the Moselle, five miles above Coblentz. It has a background of lofty and precipitous rocks, every available spot of which is planted with vines, producing the best flavored wine of the Lower Moselle. Winningen is one of the most ancient settlements in Germany, the unearthing of numerous coins, bits of arms, and remains of masonry, proving conclusively its Roman origin. In the year 888 the place was called Windiga, the present name having first been used about 1136."

"In 1288 Winningen came into the possession of the county Sponheim, which resulted, a few years later, in its forming, like Enkirch, Trarbach, and other places on the Moselle, a strong Protestant enclave in the midst of the Roman Catholic Electorate of Treves. Since 1814 it has been part of the kingdom of Prussia, and for sixty years before that date was attached to the Grand Dukedom of Baden. During the year 1557 the congregation - whose register has supplied the little information I have regarding the Moselle Moelichs, - went over in a body, under the leadership of Father George Muller, to the reformed religion and, to-day, there are only Lutherans in Winningen. The church, which is a very plain but noble-looking Romanesque structure, was built soon after the year 1200. During the seventeenth century the side naves were raised, in order to introduce galleries, which of course much mars its original architectural outlines. Pastor Theveny, the present incumbent, exhibits with much pride a Roman baptismal font, and, if his visitors are willing to climb, he will also, show the fine large bells hanging in the tower. On one of them is inscribed "in godes namen lueden ich, matheus heis ich, henrich vom proim gois mich anno x vc unde seven." (In the name of God I do ring; my name is Mathens, and was formed by Henry of Proim in the 1507)."

"JONAS MOELICH, the 2nd great grandson of Peter Moelich, was born in 1650 in Winnengen on the Moselle, Rheinland-Pfalz, Germany, where his family had lived for at least the last 183 years. He married and had four children in Winnengen. George Thilmann 1678; Justinia Maria 1681; HANS PETER born on September 19, 1683; and Anna Apollonia. In the year 1668, when Georg was 10 years old and Justinia was 7, JONAS left his two oldest children in Winningen, and moved with his two youngest children to Bendorf, Rhineland-Pfalz, Germany. This town, of 4500 people is located on the right bank of Rhine, four miles below Coblentz. Like Winningen it was founded by Roman settlers early in the Christian era, they establishing a fortress there, which was destroyed by Huns, A. D. 875. The next known settlement at this point was in the eighth century when the nucleus of a population was formed by the establishing of a mission station in the vicinity by an English missionary named Wilibrord. The baptismal font of brown stone, now in the possession of the Evangelical Head-Church of that place, is said to have been the one used by this missionary in baptizing the converted Rhine heathens. About the tenth century, as recited in the old documents of the county, Wied, the Frankish kings set up here three courts. This attracted many settlers and the place, soon after, assumed the name of Bethin, or Bede, meaning cheap, said to refer to the low price at which land could then be acquired. Since then the name has gradually changed from Bethendorf and Bendendorf to Bendorf."

"Jonas established at Bendorf, a tannery, and became a prominent citizen and an assessor of the court. He married his second wife and had TWO children; Johan Michael born February 13, 1689, who remained in the place of his nativity and had there, children and grandchildren; and Maria Christina born September 25, 1691 who died in infancy. Jonas's wife died in May 11, 1693. After a while, he married his third wife, Gertraut Lucas. They had THREE children; Johannes born on February 14, 1695, who remained in Bendorf and had there, eleven children; Maria Cathrine born July 21, 1699, who died in infancy; and Anna Cathrine born April 17, 1704, who also died in infancy. His third wife, Gertraut died in 1718, and on September 24, 1719, Jonas married for the fourth time, the widow Elisabetta Pistoris. Jonas died at Bendorf in 1722, while Elisabetta lived another 20 years, dying at the age of eighty in 1742."

"When JONAS migrated from Winningen to Bendorf in 1688 he was accompanied by, Johan Wilhelm Moelich, the father of Johannes, who founded the "Old Farm," whose story is told in this volume. There is every reason to believe that if not the son, he was at least a nephew of JONAS. Four of Johan Wilhelm's children were named after the children of JONAS and as will be shown in the baptism of his nine children, in almost every instance, JONAS himself stood sponsor." Jonas MOELICH's third child was Hans Peter MOELICH."

"Johan Peter Moelich was the son of Hans Peter, of Bendorf on the Rhine, Germany, and the grandson of Jonas, who migrated to that place from Winningen on the Moselle in 1688. He was a brother of David and Johan Jonas, both of whom emigrated to America. Peter Melick (note the spelling change), as he was known in later life, was born probably on August 29, 1719, in Bendorf; with that his record ends in Germany. The date of his immigration is unknown, but it is probable that he came with his brothers to America. As neither his nor their names appear among those of the Palatine arrivals in Pennsylvania, they must have landed at New York. Unfortunately that colony did not require arriving immigrants to register their names with the provincial secretary. Peter is said to have remained with his brothers for some time in New Jersey, and then migrated to Pennsylvania, taking up land in the vicinity of where is now the village of Espy, in Columbia County. Here he cleared the ground of its primitive forests and engaged in farming, and here many of his descendants are still living."