Kochersperger, Johann Martin I * Nov. 11, 1752

Of Johann Martin Kochersperger, the first emigrant of the family to the New World and patriarch of the Philadelphia branch, is no image in our possession. During his lifetime  photography was not yet developed far enough. Whether a portrait was painted in oil, is not known and in view of his frugality rather unlikely.

Johann Martin KOCHERSPERGER was born on November 11, 1752 in Rittershoffen, Alsace [at that time was it a part of the county of Hanau-Lichtenberg, a territory of the Holy Roman Empire of German Nation], as the first of eight children of Johannes II Kochersperger and his second wife Anna Maria, nee Grässel.

About 18 years old, in about 1770, he emigrated as the first family member to the New World, to the United States  of America. He settled in Strasburg Township, Lancaster County, near Philadelphia and married there on July 5, 1756  Maria Christina Seyfried, born in Philadelphia. To the couple were born eleven children. Thus he laid the foundation for today's largest group of our family in the United States and became the patriarch of the so-called "Philadelphia branch".

The children:

When the American Colonies declared their independence, he joined in August of 1776 Colonel John Feree's First Rifle Battalion and in May of 1777 became a 7th Class Private in Captain John Slaymaker's 5th Company seeing action in various skirmishes during the American Revolutionary War.

After the war, Johann Martin Kochersperger relocated to the outskirts of the city of Philadelphia to farm in what was then called Northern Liberties Township. He acquired a vast track of farm land near Gray's Ferry on Darby Road, on the west bank of the Schuylkill River.

Source: Research by Daniel Guggisberg