For a long time, I wasn’t sure of the spelling of her maiden name. Butz said Sterner, and cited other persons of that name, too. Meiser said Stenner, which is how she was listed at Howerters.

But I also have in very old handwritten notes this from Butz: Johannes and Catherine Stellar baptized a child in 1801. M L Kueker also thought about this and said the name was most likely Scheurer. She found record on LDS film 1294878 (Butz) mention of the marriage of Johannes and Catharine Sterner 14 Jan 1798 but she also found the same marriage listed with her name given as Catharina Scheurer. She said Scheurer is a known name of that time and place, while Sterner is not.

But then in 2021, a woman working on a DAR application for a descendant of Johannes contacted me to confirm some of the things I said about Johannes and his daughter Saloma and she found the baptism of daughter Catharina to Michael and Catharina Sterner at Zion Evangelical Lutheran church (about 4 miles from Longswamp). She also found that Michael and Catharina baptized these other children at Zion: Elisabeth in 1784, Susannah in 1786, John in 1788, Salome in 1791, and Magdalena in 1793. 

She added that Michael Sterner died in Somerset County, PA in 1815 and though he listed his daughters in his will, he didn’t use their married names: "Caty Sterner, Betsy Sterner, Susanna Sterner, Sally Sterner". 

But that list of Michael’s daughters is quite compelling in the similarity it has to the names Catharine gave her daughters.

We know that Johannes, son of Johannes and Margaret, was a real person. He was named as John's son in Margaret's Orphans Court petition. Moreover, his baptism was recorded in the records of Longswamp Church. We also know that he and wife Catharina baptized their son John in 1801 at Longswamp.

Johannes is designated P3a.

THE MAHANOY TOWNSHIP MERTZES. I believe I can track this John, but as usual, my version of events is at odds with certain published materials on the Martz/Mertz family.

There seems little doubt that the Johannes whose wife was Catharina Sterner who baptized son John at Longswamp in 1801 and was listed in the 1800 Census there was the known son of Johannes and Margaretha. This line did not move to Northumberland County when most of the rest of the family did so in about 1785 because Johannes the father had died. But then what happened to him after 1800?

My answer to that question is he eventually did move to Northumberland County where he appeared in the records of Howerters Church, was listed in Census in Upper Mahanoy Township and died in 1858 and was buried at the Blue Church in Ralpho Township -- all Northumberland County places. He started out in the Mahanoy area quite apart from any of his cousins in other parts of the county.

1800. He and his wife, both age 16-26, lived in Longswamp Township with one young son.

Two men named John Mertz were among the Longswamp taxables in 1801 or maybe John was taxed on two different tracts of land.

1810. I believe he was the man indexed as John Marle living in Upper Mahanoy Township in 1810, age 26-45 as was his wife with 2 sons and 2 daughters all under the age of 10. There no longer was a John in Longswamp.

1820. John Martz Sr. 45+ and John Martz Jr. 16-26 lived in Upper Mahanoy Township.

1830. For a long time, I couldn’t find John in 1830. Two of his sons remained in Upper Mahanoy, but where was John?

Then I found an 1829 deed recorded in Northumberland County (deed book X, page 29) where John Martz of Barry Township, Schuylkill County sold 100 acres to Benjamin Martz of Upper Mahanoy Township, Northumberland County. Benjamin was a son of John’s. And then I found a man listed as John Matz in Barry Township in 1830. I believe this was John Martz. Then in 1840 and 1850, John had moved to Coal Township and we learn from the 1850 Census that John, now of Coal Township, was born about 1776. (Benjamin too moved to Coal Township by 1840.)

The Joseph A Meiser treatise on the Martzes of Northumberland County didn’t quite understand how simple this was. Meiser wrote: “Johann Benjamin Mertz, born February 4, 1777 in Berks County, resided in the Mahantango Valley near the Howerter Lutheran Reformed Church. He is believed to have lived on the Schuylkill County side of the county line that ran through the church property. His wife's name was Catharina, believed to be Stenner or Sterner. She preceded him in death although the date and place of her burial are unknown. In the 1820's he and at least two of his sons moved to Coal Township where John died May 31, 1858 and was buried in the Blue Church Reformed Church Cemetery in Ralpho Township.

Historians are frequently confused by the early Martz burials in this Blue Church cemetery:
1. John Martz (2/4/1777-5/31/1858) m. Catharine Sterner
2. John Martz (12/22/1780-9/22/1852) m. Elizabeth Arter (12/4/1777-9/24/1852)
3. Henry Martz (10/17/1786-8/?/1848) m. Eliz Fagley (3/16/1794-5/28/1870)

John Martz (1777-1858) was not a brother of either John Martz (1780-1852) or Henry Martz (1786-1848). He could have been a first cousin.

Children of John Martz:
Henry Mertz (ca. 1797- ) m. Sophia ____
Benjamin Mertz (4/20/1799-10/11/1884) m. Lydia Arnold ( 9/24/1803-5/21/1853)
John Mertz (6/16/1801-2/17/1888) m. Mary Weary (1808-6/5/1867)
Catharina Mertz (4/8/1803-12/24/1876) m. George Fetter (7/4/1801-7/17/1878)
Sarah (Saloma) Mertz (9/30/1808-10/23/1887) m. Johannes Maurer (1806-1852)
Susanna Mertz (3/21/1813- )
Elizabeth Mertz (3/29/1814- ) m. Michael Kerstetter”

Here are my comments on what Meiser said:

1. His name was Johannes or John, it was not John Benjamin. Johannes had a son named Benjamin and JL Floyd in a profile on a grandson of Benjamin’s referred to that man’s grandfather and great-grandfather both as Benjamin — a simple typo I think. What he said about the grandfather Benjamin was reasonably accurate and what he said about the great-grandfather who was Johannes but mistakenly called Benjamin was also reasonably accurate — except for giving him the name Benjamin. Then Joseph Meiser, I think, simply invented the name Johann Benjamin to attempt to accommodate what he knew about Johannes with the fact that Floyd called him Benjamin. It is total nonsense.

2. The date of death Meiser gives for the John Martz, husband of Elizabeth Arter, is totally wrong, he died 30 Apr 1815.

3. I am not at all confused by who these three men buried at Blue Church were. John (died 1815, not 1852) and Henry were brothers, sons of David and Barbara (Miller) Mertz. The other John (died 1858) was indeed their first cousin.

4. I generally agree with Meiser as to the list of John’s children. Three of the four daughters (all but Susanna) were baptized at Howerters after the family moved, so only Susanna’s existence is in doubt. Son John was baptized at Longswamp before the family moved. There is ample evidence that Benjamin was another son though, from his age on his tombstone, he too must have been baptized at Longswamp before the move — but his baptism went unrecorded. There is possibly a little doubt about whether Henry was also a son and a lot of doubt about his date of birth.
5. John only briefly lived in Schuylkill County, his presence in Mahanoy in 1810 and 1820 is verified by Census. His son Heinrich and his family did, I believe, live in Schuylkill. And John did also live there for a short period around the time of the 1830 Census.

6. It was the 1830’s when John moved to Coal Township and I think only his son Benjamin also made that move with him.

Joseph Meiser in his chapter on Martz/Mertz Pioneers of Northumberland County lists Johannes and wife Catharina Stenner as an unconnected Mertz line and indicates they worshipped at Howerters. Meiser says Johannes was born 4 Feb 1777 (which is also what Meiser’s Blue Church tombstone transcription says and then also what find-a-grave says, based on Meiser’s transcription) and that he lived near the Howerters Church but actually in Schuylkill County.

I didn’t pay much attention to this “unconnected” Johannes until I found the Howerters Church records where they did indeed worship and baptize certain children and sponsor baptisms of their grandchildren. It seems clear that one of their children was named John (or Johannes) and that he married Polly. He was not among the children that Johannes and Catharina baptized at Howerters, the earliest of which was in 1803. John (Jr.) was probably born before 1803 as his earliest child’s baptism was 1820.

Suddenly, it all made sense. It was the people I knew from Longswamp that I had lost track of. I believe that Catharina Stenner is the person Butz named, in Longswamp records, Catharina Sterner who with husband Johannes baptized son John in 1801 at Longswamp -- the infant being none other than the John who married Polly and baptized children at Howerters starting in 1820.

The question then was if this was the Johannes in Longswamp in the 1800 Census, where was he in 1810? I had already looked for him in Schuylkill County (per the Meiser statement) to no avail. Then I found a man indexed by Ancestry as John Marle in 1810 in Upper Mahanoy Township (where Howerters is) and on inspection, I am convinced the name was written Marts.

The one discordant note here relates to Johannes’ birth date. From Longswamp records as transcribed by Butz, we know his birth date was 28 Jan 1776. But Meiser says in several places, about Johannes buried at Blue Church, presumably quoting his tombstone, he was born 4 Feb 1777. I’m not sure how to explain the discrepancy. But I’m not concerned about it.

But I became totally convinced I was right that Johannes of Howerters did indeed come from Longswamp when once again, the fact of my putting my database on-line so others can find me paid off. A woman named Marge Hinners found me. She is a descendant of Peter Metzger and wife Barbara and knew a lot about this couple, including that they had lived in Mahanoy Township, but did not apparently know that Barbara was Barbara Mertz, daughter of Johannes and Margaretha -- until she found record of their marriage on my website.

I had found that marriage citation long ago, in some Longswamp Township records. I wasn’t certain who Barbara was but I listed the marriage in my database guessing it was the known daughter of Johannes named Barbara. They married in 1796 and so there were very few Mertzes present in that place anymore by that time.

But the Mahanoy Township connection is the proof of everything. When Johannes and Catharina baptized their daughter Catharina in 1803 at Howerters Church, the sponsors were Peter Metzger and wife Barbara. Barbara was the sister of Johannes born 1776 who came to Mahanoy Township.

And one final note. Peter Metzger and the aforementioned John Marle were listed in the 1810 Census one right after the other. Now, the way Census records were listed in that decade, all the “M” names were grouped together, still Peter and John did not have to be listed among all the M’s right one after the other. I attach some significance to that fact and each fact here strengthens the conclusions I have drawn.

John is on find-a-grave. The biography given by J L Floyd is given there, the one that called him Benjamin. I got the person who maintains that memorial to correct it to Johannes.

[I make note here that somewhere I saw that Letters of Administration were issued 3 Jun 1861 for a John Mertz to Jacob, Hannah and John Mertz and William Rigel. Who is this John? The timing is right that it could be this John, a little late, but I don’t know who those heirs would be. I don’t think it was this John but since I don’t know who it was, I note it here only so as not to lose track of it.]