Op den Graeff | |
---|---|
Priestly family, political family | |
Current region | Pennsylvania and Ohio, among others |
Etymology | Dutch-German for "of the count" |
Place of origin | German American Community, Dutch American Community |
Connected families | Von der Leyen family Penn family Lupton family Schumacher/Shoemaker family In den Hofen/De Haven family Van Bebber |
Op den Graeff is a German and American family of Dutch origin. [1] They were one of the first families of the Mennonite faith in Krefeld at the beginning of the 17th century. Various family members belonged to Original 13, the first organized immigration of a closed group of Germans to America in 1683. There the family had a long history in religious service and politics, beginning in the late 17th century in the Colony of Pennsylvania. In 1688, they became forerunners of the anti-slavery movement by signing the first anti-slavery protest in North America. Their descendants spread into various lines, Updegraff, Uptegraft, Updegraft, Updegrave, Updegrove, Uptegrove, Ubdegrove, Uptegraph, Upthagrove. The Updegraff branch of Ohio belonged to the leading families of the Quaker religious movement and produced a long line of ministers and elders. [2]
The earliest historically proven Op den Graeff, Herman op den Graeff (1585-1642) lived in Aldekerk (Kleve), near the border to the modern Netherlands. Some believe that Duke John William, Duke of Jülich-Cleves-Berg had a morganatic marriage prior to 1585 with Anna op den Graeff (van de Aldekerk), with whom he had Herman. [3] [4] No substantial evidence of any relation between Op den Graeff and the Duke has ever been presented, so most likely that connection is non-existent. According to another family tradition, the Op den Graeff descended from the Von Graben through Wolfgang von Graben, [5] [6] who where mentioned in Holland between 1476 and 1483. [7] [8] [9] Graeff was the Dutch spelling of Graben during the 14th and 15th century. [10] These sources are not documented and cannot be verified. Another source reports that the Op den Graeff family may have come from Flanders. [11]
The Op den Graeffs were originally Mennonites, and are believed to have come from nearby Aldekerk [12] in the Catholic Duchy of Julich about 1605 to avoid persecution. At that time Krefeld was an exclave of the County of Moers, and under the authority of the Prince of Orange, stadtholder of the Republic of the United Netherlands. In contrast to the leaders of Julich and the nearby Electorate of Cologne, the stadtholders of the Netherlands were tolerant of non-conforming religions. As a result, Krefeld had become a point of refuge for the persecuted Mennonites during the 17th century. The Op den Graeffs, under the guidance of Herman op den Graeff, like many of the Krefeld Mennonites, were linen weavers, other relatives practiced in different cloth making trades such as dying. Some of these families continued this occupation later in Germantown, Pennsylvania. The Op den Graeffs had an influence on the circle of Mennonites, which turned Quaker in part around 1679-1680. In 1683 the three Op den Graeff brothers Derick, Herman and Abraham, grandchildren of Herman, with their families migrated to the United States. They are among the thirteen families, the Original 13, the first closed group of German emigrants to North America, often referred to as the Germantown, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania Founders, who arrived on the ship Concord on October 6. [13] [14] [15] The three Op den Graeffs had another brother, Adolphus Op Den Graeff (* 1648), who did not join the emigration but settled near Koblenz before 1680. [16] His grandson John William (Johan Wilhelm) op den Graeff (1732 - between 1800 and 1804) immigrated in 1753 to Pennsylvania as well. Their descendants joined their name into Updegrove.
In Germantown, two of the Op den Graeff brothers, Derick and Abraham, signed along Francis Daniel Pastorius and Gerrit Hendricksz the first organized religious petition against slavery in the colonies, the 1688 Germantown Quaker Petition Against Slavery. Abraham op den Graeff was the only one of the three brothers who had descendants. Some of them continued in or returned to the Mennonite faith and were found in the Montgomery County congregations of Skippack and Boyertown until modern times. Then the family split up into a lot of different spelled names and family branches, Opdegraf(f), Updegraf(f), Uptagraff(t), Updegrave, Updegrove, Updegraph, Uptegraph, Upthegrove, Upthagrove and Ubdegrove. Pennsylvania Governor Samuel Whitaker Pennypacker was the fourth great-grandson of Abraham. [17]
In 1802 [18] Nathan Updegraff, a great-great-grandson of Abraham, settled north in Mount Pleasant, Jefferson, Ohio. [19] This branch belonged to the 19th-century Quaker families of that state [20] and produced a lot of Quaker Ministers and elders. The son of Nathan, David Benjamin Updegraff (1789-1864) of that family was a conductor and one of the leaders of the Underground Railroad. He was one of the first outspoken anti-slavery men, and voted with the first liberty party from conscientious convictions. His house was the home of antislavery advocates and temperance lecturers also a station on the Underground Railroad.
There is a reference about the Op den Graeff glass paintings of Krefeld, with a description of Herman's possible, but not proven, coat of arms, found in the estate of W. Niepoth (op den Graeff folder) in the archives of the city of Krefeld, who noted a letter dated November 17, 1935, from Richard Wolfferts to Dr Risler: "Saw the Coat of Arms glass pane in the old museum: 'Herman op den Graeff und Grietgen syn housfrau' or the like. Coat of Arms - In the sign a silver swan in blue. Helmet decoration (I think): Swan growing." [21]
Main Op den Graeff / Updegraff line family members from Krefeld and Pennsylvania:
Other Updegraff members:
Upthegrove line members : The Upthegrove line descendant from the Updegraffs of Germantown. US-army captain William Hendry Upthegrove (* 1836) came to settle in the area near Gainesville in 1865 and founded a branch of the family in Florida. [22] [23]
Updegrove line member:
See also:
The Op den Graeff family is sometimes said to be related to William Penn, the founder and gouverneur of Pennsylvania. [25] [26] Sources say, that their connection goes through the Pletjes family, wives and ancestors of the Penn and Op den Graeff families. [27] The sources in support of this view cited above, are derivative sources. Whether the original source documentation is sufficient to justify these claims is unknown.
lineage:
Paintings by austrian artist and historian Matthias Laurenz Gräff in his diploma series and thesis "Weltaußenschau-Weltinnenschau" in 2007/08. [28]
Krefeld, also spelled Crefeld until 1925, is a city in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. It is located northwest of Düsseldorf, its center lying just a few kilometers to the west of the river Rhine; the borough of Uerdingen is situated directly on the Rhine. Because of its economic past, Krefeld is often referred to as the "Velvet and Silk City". It is accessed by the autobahns A57 (Cologne–Nijmegen) and A44 (Aachen–Düsseldorf–Dortmund–Kassel).
George Keith was a Scottish religious leader, a Presbyterian turned Quaker turned Anglican. He was born in Peterhead, Aberdeenshire, Scotland, to a Presbyterian family and received an M.A. from the University of Aberdeen. Keith joined the Religious Society of Friends (Quakers) in the 1660s, accompanying George Fox, William Penn, and Robert Barclay on a mission to the Netherlands and Germany in 1677.
David Upthegrove is an American politician. He is a member of the King County Council, representing the 5th district since 2014. A member of the Democratic Party, he was a member of the Washington House of Representatives, representing the 33rd district from 2002 to 2013.
Kerken with the towns of Aldekerk, Eyll, Nieukerk and Stenden, is a municipality in the district of Kleve in the state of North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. It is located near the border with the Netherlands, approx. 15 km north-east of Venlo.
Upthegrove Beach is an unincorporated community in Okeechobee County, Florida, United States. It is located on US 441/US 98, on the northeastern shore of Lake Okeechobee.
Francis Daniel Pastorius was a German-born educator, lawyer, poet, and public official. He was the founder of Germantown, Pennsylvania, now part of Philadelphia, the first permanent German-American settlement and the gateway for subsequent emigrants from Germany.
Thomas Updegraff was an American attorney, politician, and five-term Republican member of the U.S. House of Representatives from northeastern Iowa. His two periods of service were separated by ten years out of Congress.
Jonathan Taylor Updegraff was an American physician, abolitionist and politician who served as a U.S. Representative from Ohio from 1879 to 1882.
The 1688 Germantown Quaker Petition Against Slavery was the first protest against enslavement of Africans made by a religious body in the Thirteen Colonies. Francis Daniel Pastorius authored the petition; he and the three other Quakers living in Germantown, Pennsylvania, Garret Hendericks, Derick op den Graeff, and Abraham op den Graeff, signed it on behalf of the Germantown Meeting of the Religious Society of Friends. Clearly a highly controversial document, Friends forwarded it up the hierarchical chain of their administrative structure—monthly, quarterly, and yearly meetings—without either approving or rejecting it. The petition effectively disappeared for 150 years into Philadelphia Yearly Meeting's capacious archives; but upon rediscovery in 1844 by Philadelphia antiquarian Nathan Kite, latter-day abolitionists published it in 1844 in The Friend, in support of their antislavery agitation.
Herman op den Graeff, also Hermann was a Mennonite community leader from Krefeld.
Stephen Updegraff, M.D., FACS is an American refractive surgeon best known for his early involvement in, and contributions to, LASIK. He is a Fellow of the American College of Surgeons, a board-certified member of the American Board of Ophthalmology, a founding member of the American College of Ophthalmic Surgeons, and a member of the International Society of Refractive Surgery, the American Academy of Ophthalmology, the American Society of Cataract and Refractive Surgery, and the Pine Ridge Eye Study Society. Updegraff currently serves as the medical director of Updegraff Vision in St. Petersburg, Florida.
Abraham Isaacs op den Graeff, also Op den Graff, Opdengraef as well as Op den Gräff was one of the so-called Original 13, the first closed group of German emigrants to North America, and an original founder of Germantown, Pennsylvania, as well as a civic leader, member of the Pennsylvania Provincial Assembly, award-winning weaver, and as an early abolitionist signer of the first organized religious protest against slavery in colonial America. He, or his brother Derick op den Graeff, are briefly mentioned in John Greenleaf Whittier's poem "The Pennsylvania Pilgrim" simply as "Op Den Graaf".
Mark K. Updegrove is an American author, historian, journalist, and Presidential Historian for ABC News. He is the president and CEO of the LBJ Foundation in Austin, Texas. Previously, he served as the director of the Lyndon Baines Johnson Library and Museum for eight years.
Edgar Rice Updegraff was an American amateur golfer and urologist.
Laura Beatrice Upthegrove Swindal was a 20th-century American outlaw, bank robber, bootlegger, and occasional pirate active in southern Florida during the 1910s and 1920s, along with John Ashley.
Thones Dennis Kunders was an early settler of colonial Pennsylvania.
David Benjamin Updegraff, also David Updegraff, David B. Updegraff and Rev. David Updegraff was an American Quaker minister, abolitionist and conductor of a station of the Underground Railroad from Ohio.
Derick Isaacs op den Graeff, also Dirk, Dirck, Derrick Isaacs op den Graeff, Opdengraef, Opdengraff as well as Op den Gräff was one of the so-called Original 13, the first closed group of German emigrants to North America, an original founder of Germantown, Pennsylvania, as well as a civic leader. As an early abolitionist He was a signer of the first organized religious protest against slavery in colonial America. He, or his brother Abraham op den Graeff, are briefly mentioned in John Greenleaf Whittier's poem "The Pennsylvania Pilgrim" simply as "Op Den Graaf".
Nathan Updegraff was an American Quaker minister, abolitionist and founder and delegate to Ohio's first constitutional convention in 1802.
Herman Isacks op den Graeff, also Herman op den Graeff, Opdengraef, Opdengraff as well as Op den Gräff was one of the so-called Original 13, the first closed group of German emigrants to North America and an original founder of Germantown, Pennsylvania. He was an outspoken anti slavery man and abolitionist.