Montgomery County PA Archives Biographies.....Clemmer, Rev. Josiah May 1, 1827 - 
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File contributed for use in USGenWeb Archives by:
Joe Patterson jpatter@epix.net November 14, 2025, 4:44 pm

Source: Biographical Annals of Montgomery County Pennsylvania, T. S. Benham & Company and the Lewis Publishing Company, 1904
Author: Ellwood Roberts, Editor

  REV. JOSIAH CLEMMER, a bishop in the Mennonite church, was 
born May 1, 1827.
He was ordained to the ministry in 1860, 
and became bishop in 1867.

  The
family are of German origin. In 1717, the ancestor of 
the family (great-
grandfather of Bishop Clemmer) came to 
America with four sons: John, Valentine,
Henry, and Abraham  
(grandfather).

  Abraham Clemmer lived in Montgomery
county. He had three 
sons, Henry, Abraham and John (father).

  John Clemmer
was a farmer. He had four sons and four 
daughters, as follows: Abraham, married
Sarah Swartley, and 
had one son, Josiah, and two daughters (Sarah and Mary
Ann) 
dying in 1852.

  Abraham married (second wife) Sophia Bechtel, and had
a 
son Henry; she dying, he married his third wife, who still 
survives, having
one son, Abraham, and one daughter. His 
third wife, Anna, was previously
married to Jacob Nice.

  John Clemmer, born in 1825, married Eliza Moyer; the 

couple had two daughters who died in infancy. Mrs. Clemmer 
died in 1863, and he
then married (second wife) Margaret 
Boorse, having one son, John Henry
Clemmer.

  Henry Clemmer, born in 1837, married Mary Ruth. Their 
children:
Joseph, Tobias, Henry, Abraham and Michael. Henry 
also had one daughter, Annie,
who died at the age of 
seventeen years.

  Elizabeth Clemmer, born in 1820,
married Henry Bergey, and 
had two sons and three daughters. Henry Bergey died
in 
Canada, and she married (second husband) Joseph Hallman.

  Susanna Clemmer,
born in 1830, married George Rosenberger 
and had one daughter. Mary Ann
Clemmer, born in 1830 
(twin-sister of Susanna) married David Hagey, and had
one 
son, Oliver, and one daughter, who died in infancy. Oliver 
Hagey married
Sarah Benner and has two sons, David and 
Willie.

  Anna Clemmer, born in 1840,
married John Rosenberger. The 
couple have had three sons and six daughters, as
follows: 
Harry, Levi, John, Mary Ann, Lizzie, Susanna, Katie 
(deceased), Ella
and Annie. Harry married Miss Lapp; John 
married Miss Moyer; Levi also married;
Mary Ann married 
William Godshall; Lizzie married Henry Hendricks; Ella 

married Henry Heckler; Anna married T. R. Haldeman.
 
  Rev. Josiah Clemmer
married Sarah Kulp, November 9, 1851. 
They had eight children, five sons and
three daughters: 
Jacob, John, Josiah, Jonas, Hiram (died at the age of twenty 

years), Susanna, Mary and Sarah (died at the age of 
seventeen years). Mr.
Clemmer married (second wife) Lydia 
Derstine, on December 24, 1884. Mrs.
Clemmer is the daughter 
of Jacob and Elizabeth (Gemman) Derstine. Her brothers
were: 
John, George, Jacob, Jesse, Abraham, Samuel, Noah, Isaac, 
and her
sisters, Sarah, Kate, Elizabeth, Anna, Mary and 
Hetty.

  Mrs. Sarah Clemmer,
daughter of Jacob Kulp, a minister of 
the Mennonite church, died on November 8,
1883, aged fifty 
years. One of her children, Jacob, married Catharine Benner, 

and had three children as follows: John, unmarried; Sarah, 
married John Hensel;
Lizzie, unmarried. Jacob died at the 
age of thirty-six years.

  John Clemmer,
born September 1, 1861, married Lizzie Free, 
and had two sons, Jacob, died at
the age of two years; and 
Eliner, married Miss Greeser, they having two
daughters, 
Beth and Mary. John Clemmer is a miller.

  Josiah Clemmer, born
June 1, 1867, married Ella 
Hunsberger, in 1885. Their children: Harvey,
Clayton, 
Willis, Norman and Josiah. Josiah Clemmer is a farmer.

  Jonas
Clemmer born August 9, 1870, married Laura 
Loudenslager. He died April 6, 1901.
His wife died in 1898. 
Their children: Katie, Ellwood and Wallace. Jonas
Clemmer 
married (second wife) Barbara Freed in 1899, and had one 
son,
Raymond.

  Hiram Clemmer, born January 28, 1874, died May 10, 1894. 
Susanna
Clemmer, born October 29. 1855, married Samuel 
Derstine and had nine children,
of whom Irvin, Josiah, 
Lizzie, Erma and Edna survive.

  Mary Clemmer, born
December 27, 1857, married Charles 
Brunner. Their children: Hiram, Harvey,
Katie, Sarah, Mary, 
Ella, Barbara (deceased). Mary died and Mr. Brunner
married 
(second wife) Mary Oberholtzer and had five children, Hanna, 
Lizzie,
Elverdy, Charles and Edwin. Of the children by the 
first wife, Hiram married
Lizzie Belger, and had a son, 
Morgan; Harvey married a Miss Hendricks, and had
one son; 
Kate harried Henry Mininger, and had three children; Sarah 
married
Ulysses Alderfer.

  Family of Henry Kulp: Catharine, born February 3, 1798, 

married to John Freed, whose occupation was farming, and who 
was a Mennonite in
faith. Jacob B., born in November, 1799, 
died in 1875, aged sixty-eight years.
Jacob was married to 
Anna Alderfer, who was a minister.

  Polly Kulb married
to Peter Hendricks. They had the 
following children: Henry Kulb was born
January 24, 1804, 
and died August 8, 1869. He married Elizabeth Shoemaker. 

They had the following children: Jacob, Henry, Samuel, 
Michael, Susan, Eliza
and Sarah. Abraham Kulb was born 
January 11, 1806, and married Elizabeth
Landes. Mr. Kulb was 
a weaver and farmer by occupation and was a member of
the 
Mennonite church. Sallie Kulb married Joseph Swartz. William 
Kulb married
Mary Frederick, and had the following children: 
Abraham and Sallie.

  Bishop
Clemmer says of his mother: Her maiden name was 
Swartley. She was a
granddaughter of Henry Rosenberger, who 
came to America from Germany between
1720 and 1730. He was a 
Mennonite deacon. He settled in Franconia, at Indian
Creek. 
He gave the ground for a graveyard where there have been 
buried about a
thousand persons. He was married to Barbara 
Oberholtzer in the year 1745. They
lived together twenty 
years, having nine children, seven daughters, and two
sons 
who died young. The daughters were: Anna, Lizzie, Barbara, 
Mary,
Maudalin, Sarah, Susan. Sarah married John Swartley, 
she being my grandmother.
They had six sons and two 
daughters: John, Henry Samuel, Joseph. Abraham and
Philip, 
Elizabeth and Mary (my mother), who married John Clemmer (my 
father).

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