Isaiah Joseph Fetterhoff & Sarah Jane Matter


This branch of my family connects us to the Lutheran faith, as the Fetterhoff's and the Matter's were all members of various Reformed Lutheran Churches throughout Dauphin County, Pennsylvania.  Sarah Jane Matter's ancestry also connects our family to a famous American icon, for she is distantly related to the family of President Dwight D. Eisenhower.

Isaiah Joseph Fetterhoff was a member of a large family that was widespread and influential in central Pennsylvania, there is even a Lutheran Church there that is named "St. Peter's, Fetterhoff's Church".  Not much is known about Isaiah's early life, but that he was the youngest son in a family of eight born to John Fetterhoff and Susanna Snyder in 1857.  He grew up on his father's farm.

Sarah Jane Matter also grew up on a farm, that of her parent's, Isaiah Matter and Catherine Specht, in Jackson Township, Dauphin County.  Sarah had a difficult life.  By the time she was 22 years old, she had married a man named Samuel Enders and had a 2 month old son with him named Homer D. Enders.  At this time, however, she was still living on her parent's farm apart from her husband, the facts surrounding this discrepancy are unknown to us.  What is known, however, is that Homer died as a young child and Sarah and Samuel were divorced in 1887 after approximately 7 years of marriage.  Later in that same year, Sarah was married to my Great Grandfather, Isaiah J. Fetterhoff "near Fisherville, Pennsylvania".

Sarah and Isaiah began their own family and had a son, Wilmer C. Fetterhoff, the next year.  This child, however, also died before reaching his second birthday.  The couple went on to have two more children in the early 1890's, a daughter, Verna and finally another son, Howard T. Fetterhoff in 1893.  In 1897, Sarah was again expecting and this time she gave birth to a second daughter.  Tragically, Sarah had complications during this childbirth, and both mother and daughter passed away.  They were laid to rest together at Fetterhoff's Lutheran Church in Halifax.

Isaiah continued to raise his children alone, until he was remarried, probably sometime in 1898 to Hannah Lehman.  It is said in our family that Isaiah may have hired Hannah initially as a housekeeper.  Isaiah and Hannah went on to have their own children, John L. Fetterhoff, and Charles E. Fetterhoff.  The whole family resided at 44 Market Street in Elizabethville, Pennsylvania.

Isaiah made his living as a house painter, and the family continued to live in Elizabethville through the first decades of the 20th Century.  In 1929, Isaiah became ill and was taken to Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore, Maryland.  He passed away there, after a month of illness, on June 7th.  His wife Hannah survived him until 1936 and was later remembered by my mother as the kindly "grandmother" that she visited in Elizabethville.