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Pennsylvania Families

Bedford County, Pennsylvania Hite Family and Berks County, Pennsylvania Heydt Family

John Hite (Johannes Heyd/Heytt) was born in 1715 in Germany and died in Bedford County ca. 1791. He arrived in Philadelphia 5 September 1751 on the ship Shirley and was living in the town of Bedford (in what became Bedford County) by 1763. Tax records indicate he was a baker by trade. He had married in Germany but had no children there and it is unlikely that the woman he married there was the mother of his children who were born in the colonies. The name of his wife in America is unknown. Some genealogists confuse him with John Hite, the son of Jost Hite of Frederick County, Virginia, but the two men were not related. John Hite of Bedford County had two known sons, both Revolutionary War soldiers –

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  • Christopher Hite 

    • (ca. 1759-1827).  Wife named Margaret, lived out his life in Bedford County.

  • Conrad Hite 

    • (1763-1835). Wife named Mary, grew up in Bedford, moved to Somerset County, Pennsylvania and died there.

 

Jacob Heydt 

  • (1717-1781) was from the same German village as John Hite (Johannes Heyd/Heytt) of Bedford County and they were related. Jacob arrived in Philadelphia 16 September 1751 on the ship Brothers with his wife Maria Catharina Kropf and one young child.  His wife died soon after he arrived, and he remarried to Sophia Barbara Catharina Jauss (born 1737) and had a total of eleven children who survived him. This family lived in Berks County, Pennsylvania and retained the Heydt spelling of the surname.

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Building on site of home of John Hite (Johannes Heyd, 1715-ca. 1791) on Pitt Street in Bedford, Pennsylvania.  The foundation of this building may date from John Hite’s lifetime – it looks similar to the foundation of other colonial era structures on the same street.

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Daniel Hite (1797-1872), grandson of John Hite by Christopher Hite (ca. 1759-1827) and his wife Margaret (ca. 1767-1828).  Daniel grew up in Bedford County but spent his adult life in Tuscarawas County, Ohio.

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Grötzingen/Bedford

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Possibly George Hight (ca. 1795-after 1863), grandson of John Hite by Christopher Hite (ca. 1759-1827) and his wife Margaret (ca. 1767-1828).  This photo is in the family of descendants of Elizabeth (Hite) Stambaugh (1805-1867), sister of George, and someone wrote “Brother George” on it.  George moved several times and was last known to be in Pulaski County, Indiana in 1863.

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​Catherine (Ickes) Hite (ca. 1799-1874), wife of Daniel Hite.

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Lancaster County, Pennsylvania Hayde Family

Johann Georg Hayde arrived in Philadelphia 5 September 1738 on the ship Winter. He was his wife Maria Sara had six children baptized in the Trinity Lutheran Church in Lancaster between 1749 and 1764.  Georg was naturalized in 1765 and died in 1772.

Lancaster and York Counties, Pennsylvania Heyd/Hyde/Hite Family

Valentin Heyd/Hyde (ca. 1740-1829) was probably born in Germany.  He may have come to Pennsylvania as a child. He married Barbara Kreiner in Philadelphia in 1772 but by 1779 he had a second wife named Catharina. Valentin moved to Lancaster County, Pennsylvania by 1780 and then on to York County by 1813. He was the father of 13 children.  Most of his descendants spell their surname as Hyde but some branches of the family (mostly those in Ohio) use the Hite spelling.

York and Franklin Counties, Pennsylvania Heydt/Hade Family

Johan Christian Heydt arrived in Philadelphia 2 November 1752 on the ship Phoenix. He and his wife, Anna Maria settled in Manchester Township, York County, Pennsylvania where Christian died in 1799. They had at least three children including one son, John Heydt. Descendants settled in Franklin County, Pennsylvania and most spell their surname as Hade.

Philadelphia Heyd/Hyde Family

Philipp Heyd arrived in Philadelphia 23 September 1752 on the ship Ann. In 1756 he married Elisabeth Nachtigall in St. Michael’s Evangelical Lutheran Church in Philadelphia. They had nine children who were baptized there. Tax records in Philadelphia were spelling the family’s surname as Hyde by the end of the 18th century.

Cumberland Valley Township, Bedford County, Pennsylvania Hite Family

Jacob Hite (ca. 1785-1845) married Elizabeth Houck in 1807 in Berkeley County, West Virginia and was in Cumberland Valley Township of southern Bedford County by the early 1810s.  He was not related to John Hite who settled in Bedford County by 1763 even though he has sometimes been mistaken for one of John’s grandsons, Jacob Hite (ca. 1791-1836).  Because of his origins in West Virginia, he has also often been confused with Jacob Hite (born 20 December 1785) who was a great-grandson of Jost Hite that apparently died childless. DNA testing has proven that this Jacob Hite was not related to either of those families. Oddly enough, he is not related to William Hite (1786-1857) either, which is surprising since both married in Berkeley County. Jacob fathered eleven children. It is not certain that Elizabeth was the mother of all of them or not.

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Bedford/Cumberland Valley Family

Dauphin County, Pennsylvania Hite Family

Jacob Hite (ca.1781 - after 1850) and his wife Anna (ca. 1782 - after 1850), both born in Pennsylvania.  Had at least seven children. Married prior to 1810 and were still living in Dauphin County as late as 1850.

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