Excerpt from Genealogy of the Whitebread Family in America

In order to escape such military service, he decided to come to America. He took voyage in an old fashioned sailing vessel, and after a tedious voyage of thirteen weeks, landed at Phila delphia on the sixth day of August, A. D., 1784, a stranger in a strange land. Having no education, save in his mother tongue, he found it difficult in his search for Work, to make his desires'known; but by persevering effort, finally was rewarded, and hired to a small truck farmer, in the suburbs of Phila delphia, with whom he remained for several years; by which time, applying the early lessons learned in his old home across the sea, he had accumulated a small sum of money, which he decided to invest in a small farm of his own. He purchased of a Philadelphia lawyer, a small farm, and engaged in truck farm ing on his own account.

On the 8th day of April, 1790, he was married to Mary Danenheimer, and started not only as the head of the family, but of his business also. During this marriage, eight children, five sons and three daughters, were born to them. Four sons, Viz John, Daniel, Bernard and Henry, and one daughter, Mary, were still living, when in October, 1805, his wife died. He remained a widower until January, 1807. It was during this time, while he was a widower, that a very interesting stance occurred. I will relate it as I remember often hearing my father relate it. When he purchased the little farm from the lawyer referred to above, with whom he had become quite well acquainted, and who seems to have been a typical Yankee, and believed, it seems, in Americanizing every thing possible, not excepting even proper names, and who had become accus tomed to call grandfather Whitebread instead of Weisbrod, and in drawing up the deed for the farm, had written the name Whitebread in the deed. This, however, was not. Noticed at the time, and the deed was so recorded. Now, however, in his loneliness, with his children growing up, he realized that his farm was too small, and learning that land was much cheaper up the Susquehanna River, he concluded to sell his little farm in order to buy a larger one with the proceeds of the sale. Hefound no difficulty in finding a purchaser, and made a deed, signing it, as was his custom, by his old name. When, however, his purchaser filed his deed for record, the change of name was discovered. Upon this discovery being made, grandfather at once went to the lawyer to have the error corrected, but was told that it was now too late, the deed having been several years on record; and he was advised to make a new deed and sign it Whitebread, which was simply the English rendering of it, and henceforth to write it in that way. Believing this to be the easiest way out of the difficulty, the lawyer's advice was adopted and from this time on the family name, although a German one, has been written in the English form.

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