Jacob Christlieb

1749–1822

The Christlieb-Chrislip-Crislip Family Association, in the 1980s, asked Association members to design and construct banners for each branch of the Christlieb-Chrislip-Crislip family. This banner represents Jacob Christlieb, the eldest son of Friedrich Carl and Anna Catharina Christlieb. Jacob settled in West Virginia, and he and his wife Nancy Singer had seven sons and seven daughters, represented by the 14 leaves in the tree. Based on a design pattern by Jacklyn Crislip Acheson, the banner was fabricated by Marjorie Herring and her daughter, Malinda.

Jacob Christlieb was born in the German Rhineland in 1749. Although no record of his birth/baptism has been found, an entry in the Schlosskirche register at Dürkheim shows that Jacob was 14 years of age when he was confirmed there in 1763.

Jacob was sixteen years old when the family departed Germany for America in late spring or early summer, 1765. Apart from these few facts, nothing further is known of Jacob Christlieb’s life in Germany.

Jacob's Indentured Servitude

Because of the unscrupulous actions of the Newlanders, the passage for the entire family had to be paid again. With no money to pay the fares, Jacob and his brothers were sold into servitude.

While the services of Georg and Catharina Bock were bought by a man from Cumberland County, Pennsylvania, Jacob and Carl were indentured together by a German-American in Maryland. Although his name remains unknown, it was a part of the family’s oral tradition that their master was a benevolent person. By agreement, Jacob's and Carl’s tenure with the Maryland farmer would be four years each. Additionally, the brothers were indentured an additional four years to cover their parents’ passages, as they were deemed too old to work. Thus, Jacob and Carl would spend eight years of indentured servitude, all because of the dishonest practice of the Newlanders.

There are no details pertaining to the eight years that Jacob and Carl spent in Maryland. According to the writings of Benjamin Franklin Christlieb, once the brothers’ indentures were completed, they removed to the vicinity of Yellow Breeches Creek, on a line of Cumberland and York counties, where they remained in relative proximity to their parents and their half-brother, Georg Bock.

Regarding certain behaviors of Jacob and Carl, Benjamin Franklin Christlieb wrote:

“Being pioneer Germans of that locality they had many peculiar experiences with those Irish [Scot-Irish] settlers who were prone to treat the Germans with disrespect by calling them “Dutch, etc.” While they, our ancestors, kept within bounds, patience would cease to be a virtue with them sometimes, and perhaps an Irishman or two would be seen measuring their lengths on the ground from the effect of well-dealt blows from the “Dutch.” They were powerful men, muscular, fearless, and peaceable, if not imposed upon. I would add further that our grandfathers [Jacob & Carl] were not quarrelsome, and the few circumstances, for there were few of them, took place as [a] matter of self defense as far as our grandfathers were concerned.” 1895 Letter from B.F. Christlieb to Ervin G. Chrislip.

When Jacob's and Carl’s indentures ended in 1773, Jacob was 24 years old and Carl was age 22. During their sons' eight years of servitude, Friedrich Carl and Anna Catharina were deprived of seeing them grow from teenagers into adulthood. How unfortunate it was that Anna Catharina only lived for two years after the boys had worked off their indentures. About a year following her death would see the beginning of the American Revolutionary War in which all three of her sons would serve.