Johannes Ache & Anna Margaretta Krafft

Johannes Ache was born in 1728 in Eisleben, Germany. He died in 1808 in German, Fayette, Pennsylvania, USA. 

Anna Margaretta Krafft daughter of Andreas Krafft and Maria Catarina Kitzmuller was born on 27 Dec 1734 in Tulpehocken, Berks, Pennsylvania, USA. She died in 1792.

Information on Johannes Ache is very inconsistent. The best explanation I have found is that there appear to have been two men named “John Ache” in Pennsylvania in the 1700s, leading to great confusion. The notes below are my current understanding, but more research may change this!

Church records document that Johannes Ache married Anna Margaretha Kraft on January 12, 1754. Also that they had a son John Henrich born January 18, 1759, who apparently later went by Henry.

He was born in 1728 and died in 1808. One researcher online claims to have a family bible placing his birth in Eisleben, Germany.  Another researcher puts him living in Lebanon County, Pennsylvania, prior to 1752. He also lived in Tuplehocken (Berks county), Paxton (Dauphin county) and eventually moved to Virginia or Maryland after he became older and his son took over the land in 1792.

Samuel Aughey Jr.'s obituary states that John Aughey emigrated from Germany in 1752. His family had been driven from France to Germany by religious persecution. They were of French Huguenot extraction and were descendants of the French nobility.

The following book excerpt matches up with this information, and suggests that Johannes Ache may have had the full name Johannes Heinrich Ache.

From Lyman Aughey's entry in the Commemorative Biographical Encyclopedia of the Juniata Valley, 1897, page 831:

The Aughey family were originally inhabitants of Germany, from which country the members emigrated to France. They went there to Scotland and the north of Ireland, and in 1852, a number of them came to America. The spelling of the name went through various transformations. At first it was Ache, then successively, Aughe, Achey, and now Aughey. John Henry Aughey, great-great-grandfather of Lyman, was one of the original emigrants to America. One of his sons, named John, was a farmer in Tulpehocken, Berks county, Pa., and subsequently resided in Linglestown, Dauphin county, where in 1774 he purchased a farm, and erected on it a log dwelling, remarkable in that day on account of its size and completeness. Henry Aughey, one of the sons of John Henry Aughey, purchased one-half of the homestead farm of his father, which he cultivated for several years, but subsequently sold it, and removed to the Licking Creek valley, Milford township, Juiniata county.He here purchased a large tract of land for fifteen hundred pounds, equivalent to $7,500, paying for the same in silver tied up in bags, each of which contained one hundred pounds. He married, and became the father of six children. His wife dying, he married Miss Magdalena Felty, by whom he had one child, Samuel, who was the father of Lyman. Henry Aughey and his family were members of the Lutheran church. He and his wife were buried in the Lutheran graveyard at Mifflintown.

Possible Mistaken Identity?

Johann Ludwig Ache / John Lewis Ache appears to be a different person, who lived from 1720-1762. He arrived in America on the ship Halifax in 1752. He married Catharine Holtz and lived in Vincent Township, and reportedly had no male heirs. But he is often stated as the father of Henry (John Henrich), including in the Heikes-Aughey genealogy book.

John Lewis Aughey was the first school master for St. Vincent’s in Westchester, PA. He was a scientist, and after his death his collection was place in the Museum of Natural History in Philadelphia.

Three Ache brothers (Johan Ludwig, Hermannus and Johannes Jacob) came to the American Colonies on the ship Halifax which landed in Pennsylvania on September 22, 1752. It came from Rotterdam via Cowes (Isle of Wight).

The inconsistencies in the various records seem likely explained by the idea that there were two different men, and facts about one were frequently attached to the other.

Ache family history often seems to describe a connection to France, and to Ache D’Agnr of Normandy who was slain in the St. Bartholemew’s massacre in 1572.

Johannes Ache and Anna Margaretta Krafft were married on 12 Jan 1754 in Bern, Berks, Pennsylvania, USA. They had the following children:

• Johann Heinrich Ache was born on 18 Jan 1759. He may have married Elizabeth Shuey.

• Henry Ache was born on 26 Jan 1759 in Tulpehocken, Berks, Pennsylvania, USA. He married Mary Magdalene Felty on 10 Aug 1803. He may have also married Elizabeth Shuey. He died on 31 Jan 1825 in Milford, Juniata, Pennsylvania, USA.

• Maria Susanna Ache was born on 18 Apr 1762.

Johannes Ache also married Elizabeth Wenrich, who was born on 21 Jun 1743 in Heidelberg Townhship, Berks County, PA. They had a son named John Ache.