2070.
Tristam NORSWORTHY
2592.
Paulus KUSTER
Emigrated between 1691-1893, from Germany to Germantown, PA with wife and small children
Occupation: Stone mason
Petioner: Nov 1701, for the laying out of the Germantown Road
In the year 1684, PAUL KUSTER, (or KšSTER) a farmer and mason by occupation, his wife Gertrude (Streypers) Kuster, a native of Kaldenkirchen, in the Rheinland; with their children, ARNOLD, HERMANUS, JOHANNES, and ELIZA, emigrated from Crefeld, Germany, along with twenty-eight other emigrant families from Crefeld and other neighboring towns, and settled at Germantown, Pennsylvania.
These families formed the second German colony who settled at Germantown. The first colony of thirteen families landed at Philadelphia, Oct. 6, 1683. They were Mennonites and were under the leadership of Franz Daniel Pastorius, who was both their pastor and school-teacher,
The church organization founded by these pioneer German emigrants is still in existence. Its records contain an entry of the attendance at communion of Arnold and Hermanus Kuster, under date of May 23, 1708.
The first church building in Germantown, a log structure erected about the year 1700, was torn down and replaced with a stone building in 1770. This old stone church is still standing, and is still used as a place of worship by the Mennonites.
The 225th anniversary of the first settlement at Germantown was celebrated October 6, 1908, and a monument erected there bearing the names of the heads of families who comprised the first colony.
PAUL KUSTER'S name appears in a list of emigrants who left Crefeld for America in the year 1684, also in a tax list of heads of families residing in Germantown in 1693. December 2, 1700, he was chosen a committeeman of the corporation of Germantown. December 4, 1704, he purchased fifty acres of land of Henry Buchholtz, and January 5, 1706, he was appointed overseer of fences for Germantown.
ARNOLD KUSTER married Elizabeth (???), and died in the year 1734.
JOHANNES KUSTER (ancestor of the KESTER families) married Elizabeth Cassel, daughter of Johannes Cassel, September 30, 1692.
PAUL KUSTER died at Germantown, Pa., about Jan. (???), 1708.
Gertrude (Streyper) Kuster died "soon after" the death of her husband.
2593.
Gertrude (Streypers) DOORS
2594.
Jacob SELLEN
2624.
John LOONEY
2707.
Rose AUSTIN