John Peter Dressler, Treslar, or Trissel, for he was known to have gone by these surnames, was born circa 1714. He migrated to the colonies on the ship "Samuel", commanded by Hugh Percy, landing in Philadelphia on August 27, 1739. Recorded on the "Samuel's" passenger list were only the male passenger's names and ages. There were one hundred and eleven men sailing from Rotterdam and landing in the Philadelphia port. The ship list reveals much about our ancestor. We find that Peter signed his name as "John Peter Dressler" and his age as 25. The signature is such that there is no mistake that he spelled his surname with a "D" rather than "T".
Somewhere between the landing at Philadelphia and his settlement in the c olonies, Peter married. It is believed that he married (?) Hederick, however, this has not been documented. We know that thre were at least two children born to Peter and his wife in Pennsylvania. Peter and his wife are later found in records of Augusta County, VA (now Rockingham County) and at his death his wife's name is given as Margaret Elizabeth. Whether Margaret and the wife in Pannsylvania is the same person, we do not know.
Baptism records, dated 1745 to 1757 and located at St. John's Reformed Church, commonly called "Hain's Church", Heidleberg Township, Berks County, Pennsylvania lists two children for Peter and his wife. Their two children were both daughters. - Elizabeth, baptized in 1747 and an unnamed daughter, baptized November 19, 1749. Interestingly, there are no other entries after the date of baptism for the last daughter. In many cases members of the church or relatives of the infant to be baptized acted as sponsors for the child. However, Peter and his wife are not recorded as sponsors for any children born within the church during the years the Baptismal Records are recorded. This could give the approximate time Peter and his wife left Pennsylvania and moved to Virginia.
Although I am quite sure that our John Peter Dressler the Emmigrant was living in Berks County, Pennsylvania, I received another history that should be recorded and may be of value in later research. This history was sent May 1998 and is documented by German and Swiss records.
Most of the newcomers from Switzerland then emigrated to America and the south-eastern part of Europe. Much work has been done in the last fifty years in research in this area. The work done at Kaiserslautern, Germany has contributed much to the genealogic studies of this area.
The Dressler name began in Switzerland as Trachsel (Traxel, Traxsel, Draxel, Draxsel) in the old church record keeping books and in additional records from the emigration country (Switzerland).
The family Traschel belongs to the Evangelic faith. Altogether there are four groups or roots of the family Trachsel as immigrants from Switzerland registered.
Traschsel (1) appears in 1718 in the church book in Hassloch. Trachsel (2) appears in 1720 in Wolfersheim (St. Ingbert in the present German state of Saarland). It is this root from which we are descended. Trachsel (3) has to this day offsprings in Pfalz, an area of Germany and Trachsel (4) imigrated from Riggisberg-Schweiz.
The earliest records in Lenk, Switzerland of Trachsel (2) are of Hans Trachsel who married Elsbeth Gungsel. A son Jakob Trachsel was baptized March 5, 1652 in Lenk. He married Margaretha Brengel November 18, 1684 and they had four children: Elisabeth - baptized in Lenk, Nov 2, 1685, she died in Wolfersheim, April 30, 1721; Peter - baptized in Lenk, Nov 6, 1691; Hans - baptized in Lenk, Oct. 4, 1689; and Bnedict born 1708.
We are concerned with Hans Peter in Wolfersheim, April 3, 1719 and baptized April 7, 1719. Twins Hans Michel and Johann Nickel were born Christmas day, December 25, 1721 and baptiszed the following day.
The previous records are from Lenk, Switzerland and they match perfectly the following ones from the archives in Kaiserslautern, Germany.
When Hans moved his family to Wolfersheim, Germany, he changed his name Hans to the German Johannes and Trachsel to the more German-sounding Drachsel. Records show that he worked as a miller in nearby Dunzweiler although the name Drechsler in German means a wood working professional or furniture maker, etc.
In 1737 Johannes and his son John Peter made their way down the Rhine to Rotterdam; there they boarded the ship SAMUEL and headed out into the North Sea and then into the English Channel bound for America. They landed at Philadelphia August 30, 1737.