Sixth Generation

6. Rev. Anthony Jacob HENKEL^2,3 was baptized on 27 Oct 1668 in Mehrenburg, Germany and died on 17 Aug 1728 in Germantown, Pennsylvania. Anthonius Jacobus Henckel was part of the German migration encouraged by William Penn in an effort to get settlers for his new colony. There is speculation also that his emigration was motivated by his conflicts with the Catholic Church in Germany.
Rev. Jacob Anthony Henkel, who came to America in 1718, was a descendant of Count Henkel von Donnersmark; Rev. Jacob Anthony Henkel was instrumental in bringing to America the famous Rev. Peter Muhlenburg, who descended from the Henkel family. Rev. Peter Muhlenburg was a Major-General in the Revolutionary War, and as such gained much renown. Most every school boy knows the story of how Rev. Peter Muhlenburg, pastor of the Lutheran Church at Woodstock, Virginia, clad in his long black silk clerical gown, preached a patriotic sermon to his people, and then opening his robe, disclosed a Colonel's uniform underneath. Laying the robe aside, he said: "The time to fight has come." He enlisted over a hundred of his congregation in the service of his adopted country.

Out of love for the Henkel family, from which Peter Muhlenburg descended, he gave the robe to the student, Rev. Paul Henkel, asking that it remain in the ministerial line of the Henkel family. From Rev. Paul, the robe went to his oldest son; then to another son, Rev. Andrew Henkel; from Rev. Andrew Henkel to his nephew, Rev. Socrates Henkel, D.D., whose mother was Katherine Hoyl, dau. of "Politician Peter" Hoyl, of Lincoln County, N.C.

Count Henkel von Donnersmark was a descendant of Rev. Johann Henkel, D.D., LL. D., b. in Leutchau, Hungary, and a Protestant Chaplain appointed by the great Reformer, Martin Luther, and was sent to Queen Maria Theresa of Austria-Hungary, at her request. Maria was the mother of the beautiful, but ill-starred Maria Antoinette, who m. Louis XVI of France, and was guillotined, Oct. 16, 1793, during the French Revolution.

In his will Anthony Jacob Henckel left to his two youngest sons, John Justus and Anthony Jacob, the 250-acre home farm in New Hanover Township, then in Philadelphia County, now Montgomery County, Pennsylvania. John Justus' share was 150 acres. In about 1730, John Justus married Maria Magdalena Eschmann, daughter of Abraham and Elizabeth Eschmann of German-Swiss origin, and settled on a farm near Macungie Creek, now Lehigh County, Pennsylvania, paying taxes as late as 1748 in Pennsylvania.

By 1750 he sold his property in Pennsylvania and made the long journey down the mountain valleys from Pennsylvania into North Carolina. In 1751 he was living on Dutchman's Creek in the Fork of the Yadkin, approzimately 13 miles from Salisbury, Rowan County, now Davidson County, North Carolina. He and his family lived there until danger from Indians prompted him to move his wife and twelve children to what is now Germany Valley, Pendleton County, West Virginia. Their new land was near the Shawnee Indian Trail, so there the family built a log fort for protection in 1761-62, the site of which can still be seen today. John Justus, his sons, and his sons-in-law participated actively in the defense of the frontier during the Revolutionary War and furnished supplies for the Continental forces. The Hinkle Fort farm became the headquarters and training grounds of the North Fork Battalion.

Rev. Anthony Jacob Henckel, credited with the first usage of the surname spelling of "HENKLE".

Rev. Anthony Jacob HENKEL and Maria Elizabeth DENTZET were married on 15 Apr 1692 in Kirchain, Germany. Maria Elizabeth DENTZET was born on 26 May 1675 in Birkenau, Germany and died on 23 Jan 1743/44 in Germantown, Pennsylvania. They had the following children: