Leo D. Hershberger completed "A History of Peter P. Hershberger and Leah Hochstetler" about 1970. Turning to the Hershbergers first, he relates that both sides of the family descended from hardy religious groups, who stuck together and kept their faith through many years, by migrating in groups.

In his research, Leo Hershberger found eight Hershbergers who came to Pennsylvania in the seventeen hundreds. Four were known to be brothers. Jacob, Casper and Christian came in 1749. Heinrich came in 1768 and brought his three brothers some of their inheritance.

Johannes came in 1754; Adam Hershberger in 1767 and David Hershberger in 1779. Each of the seven came from Switzerland.

Christian Hershberger came in 1737 from Bavaria, Germany with his daughters, Anna and Barbara, and his son, Peter. Leo Hershberger makes no connection to any of these; and does not trace the lineage earlier than Peter P. Hershberger. While provided in these charts, I have not seen the connection to Christian Hershberger. More needs to be done on this line.

Leo Hershberger takes the Hochstetler line back a little further.

Jacob Hostetler was born in 1704 and died in 1776. He came to America with the William Penn migrations sailing on the ship Harle. He arrived at Philadelphia on September 1, 1736. His son, John, was about three years old when the ship landed. Early on, they settled in Bernville, Pennsylvania, about 30 miles northeast of Lancaster.

John Hochstetler married Catherine Hertzler of Elk Lick, Pennsylvania. They moved from Berks County ‏(Bernville)‏ to Somerset County ‏(Elk Lick and Summit Mills)‏ in 1784.

Henry Hochstetler in our lineage was John and Catherine's son, and Sarah Yoder was Henry's second wife. Leo Hershberger mentions both Summit Mills, Pennsylvania and Farmerstown, Ohio; but it would appear that they married in Pennsylvania, then moved to Ohio, where their daughter, Leah Hoschstetler was born.

Leah Hochstetler was born in 1821 and died in 1898. The joining of the Hochstetler and Hershberger lineages is one of the great roots of the Fry family.

In the preface of his book, Leo Hochstetler takes us back to the early years of the Hochstetler family in eastern Pennsylvania:

THE HOCHSTETLER MASSACRE

The Hochstetler families always tried to be friendly to the Indians. But the Indians were being pushed out of their hunting ground and sometimes fought back savagely against those that disturbed their peace, or mistreated them.

One spring, food was scarce. The Indians demanded food and other things. Grandma Hochstetler ‏[Jacob's wife]‏ thought they were asking for too much. They, too, had very little. So she refused to give it all to them. This angered the Indians. As they left the house, one Indian picked up a coal and drew a rude picture on the wall of the porch, and uttered angry words. This frightened the family, yet nothing happened for several years.

But when the French and English declared war, the French easily got the help of the Delaware Indians who fought savagely against the English intruders, by devastating, burning, scalping, and then swiftly withdrawing to the mountains.

On the night of Sept. 20-21, 1757, about ten Indians surrounded the Jacob Hostetler home after midnight, and set fire to all of their buildings. The family went down to the basement. The top of the house burned off. The Indians thought they were burned up and left. The family crawled out a basement window. They had nearly escaped when a lone Indian, Tom Lions, spied them from the orchard where he had stopped for ripe peaches. Tom gave the war whoop! The other indians came back. They scalped young Jacob and a girl. But they first stabbed Grandma Hochstetler in the heart and then scalped her, as a sign of special vengeance.

Jacob Sr. was taken prisoner, and two boys about 10 and 15 years old, Joseph and Christian, were spared and taken along by different tribes. The squaws adopted the boys by taking them into a river and washing away their white blood, by pulling out their hair one by one except the topnot, and by dressing them up like Indians. The boys were treated so well, that when the war was over, and prisoners were exchanged, one boy hesitated to come.

‏[Jacob's]‏ oldest son, John, was married to Catherine Hertzler. They were living on the next farm and saw the fire and Indians. They expected to be next. So John quickly took his wife and child into a thicket away from the buildings and hid them. He then returned to find the Indians gone, all of his father's building burned, and discovered the tragic massacre of his mother, brother, and a sister. The father and two brothers, Joseph and Christian, were missing. Barbara was away visiting.

One account mentions that daylight was brightening the eastern sky, and frightened the Indians away. No one will ever know for sure, but if there had been more time, and John expected to be next, our line of descent could easily have been broken.

The little son, Henry, was one that was hid in the thicket. Henry was our grandmother Leah's father. Was he spared by he dawn?

Could you be reading this if Henry had not been spared that early morning in 1757?

Little events in our lives cause great changes in future generations!

Source: A History of Peter P. Hershberger and Leah Hochstetler. pp. 12-13.