Framersheim bei Alzey

Framersheim bei Alzey

Framersheim, a village just northeast of the town of Alzey, in the Rhineland, was the home of the Wendel family. The wagon-maker Philip Wendel, born there about 1680, brought his three sons, Valentine, Augustine, and Christophel to the Port of Philadelphia on August 17, 1732, and after a temporary stay in Pennsylvania, they came down the "Wagon Road" into northern Virginia, seeking land for homesteading. He apparently learned about available land for sale by German-speaker Jost Hite at what is now Toms Brook, in Shenandoah County. The area was called the North Mountain tract, part of Lord Fairfax's vast land grant from the British crown. Philip took what ended up as three plots, one for each son, and paid for them, in part, with wagon wheels that he built for Hite. This arrangement is documented in a 1790 Virginia Chancery Court case entitled "Christopher Windle v. Hite Descendants" (original case file is at the Filson Historical Society, Louisville, KY). A transcript of the case is under Christophel Wendel's entry on this website.

Old postcard of Framersheim from Frank Zink's book Framersheim.

The village of Framersheim, just northeast of Alzey in the Rheinland, is believed to have been the ancestral home of the three Wendel brothers who immigrated to Pennsylvania in 1732, and to what is now Shenandoah County, Virginia in 1737. The book Framersheim by Frank Zink lists a Philip Wendel as head of household there in 1654. That matches the genealogy research. This headstone in the wall of the church tells a brief life story of Johann Jacob Wendel and his two wives.

Entrance to Framersheim Evangelical Church.

Cheery greeting sign at the edge of Framersheim, on the road from Alzey. Alzey is surrounded by vineyards of the Riesling grape variety, from which fine white wine is made.