The Guggisberg family have long recorded ancestry in the Längenberg region just southeast of the City of Bern in Switzerland. The oldest documentary evidence of the family is a hereditary lease agreement for a wine yard on Gurten mountain between the Teutonic Knights of the village of Köniz with Niklaus Guggisberg, a local farmer, dated in the years 1366 and 1370. This document provides the earliest evidence of the family's existence in the geographic region where they can still be found today.
 Oldest historical document linked to the Guggisberg family dated in 1366 and in 1370.
Niklaus Guggisberg, farmer, enters a hereditary lease agreement with the Knights of the Teutonic Order, seated in the village of Köniz, for a wine yard on Gurten mountain. [Courtesy Staatsarchiv Bern, Urkundensammlung, Fach Köniz] Around the year 1660 Bendicht Guggisberg, his wife Catherine and at least one son, Hans, left Bern, Switzerland and emigrated to the neighboring French province of Alsace, settling in the farming village of Rittershoffen in the lower Rhine district. Alsace is German speaking and the Guggisbergs were but one of several hundred other Bernese farming families that emigrated to Alsace, France. The farthest distance some families emigrated was the German Palatine State, also known as the Rhineland.  Old village center with the old cemetery of Rittershoffen, photographed in the late 1930's or
early 1940's. This entire section of the village was completely destroyed in early January 1945. [Courtesy of Marguerite Ravez, née Lenig, France]  Idealized postcard view of Rittershoffen around 1900.
Between January 9th and 21st, 1945, in the waning months of the Second World War, the village of Rittershoffen was completely destroyed in a fierce tank battle between the U.S. 14th Armored Division and their German adversaries of the 39th Panzerkorps. There were 31 civilian casualties. During the first few years after settling in Rittershoffen, the family's surname was recorded with the correct spelling "Guggisperg/Guggisperger", as is evident on the occasion of the marriage of Hans Guggisberg to Anna Sommer on June 7th, 1664 and the births of their first two children. Thereafter, a new pastor arrived in Rittershoffen who did not understand the guttural Bernese-Swiss dialect of the Guggisberg family very well and he wrote their name down the way he believed to have heard it and henceforth Guggisberg became Kochersperger. The pastor appears to have mistaken the surname with the name of a nearby hill called "Kochersberg".  On the 7th June of 1664 in Rittershoffen, Lower-Rhine District, Alsace, France, Hans Guggisberg,
the natural son of Bendicht Guggisberg from the Land of Bern was married to the virgin Anna Sommer, the daughter of the late Lorenz Sommer. This event marks the beginning of a new family. Marriage Register of the Protestant Church of Rittershoffen, Alsace, France.
The family prospered and expanded in Rittershoffen and surrounding villages, mostly engaging in produce farming and in the taylor trade. Around the year 1770 the first Kochersperger decided to try his luck in the New World following thousands of his compatriots to Pennsylvania in North America. Johann Martin Kochersperger, accompanied by his younger sister Maria Eva, farmed near Strasburg Township in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania. When the American Colonies declared their independence, he joined Colonel John Feree's First Rifle Battalion in August of 1776 and in May of 1777 became a 7th Class Private in Captain John Slaymaker's 5th Company seeing action in various skirmishes during the American Revolutionary War.
 baptismal
of Martin Henry Kochersperger of Lancaster County, Pennsylvania on 3rd
June 1780 at Evangelical Lutheran Church of the Holy Trinity, Lancaster PA
 Harper's Magazine, June 1860 issue - story referring to Johann Martin Kochersperger, farmer of Philadelphia County, Pennsylvania
Click the image to view a enlarged version
 After the war, Johann Martin Kochersperger relocated to the outskirts of the city of Philadelphia to farm in what was then called Northern Liberties Township. He died at his home in 1822. Johann Martin Kochersperger is the patriarch of the oldest and largest group of the family in the United States.  Martin Henry Kochersperger, businessman and innkeeper of Philadelphia, PA. Martin Henry Kochersperger was born in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania on November 1st, 1779. He died in Philadelphia on June 12th 1859. He was interred at St. James PE Church burial ground in Kingsessing, Philadelphia. The portrait is dated about 1830's to 1840's, possibly earlier. [Courtesy of Jane Kochersperger, Washington DC]  Kochersperger's Hotel, also known as Sans Souci and Gray's Ferry Inn as it appeared in August 1864. The aquarel by
David J. Kennedy depicts the actual inn. The innkeeper's residence was a few yards' distant further down closer to the water's edge of the Schuylkill River. Neither structure survives. [Courtesy of the Pennsylvania Historical Society in Philadelphia ©]  and operated by Charles Kochersperger of Philadelphia  Republican Party ticket for William Silvy Kochersperger Magistrate of Philadelphia In 1829 Georg Jakob Kochersperger, his mother, Magdalena, née Stötzel, his wife Catharina, née Eyer, their sons Georg, Heinrich and their daughter Magdalena left their home in Reimerswiller, Alsace, France for America. They settled in Sullivan County, Pennsylvania. Two of Georg Jakob's grandsons, Josiah and William both served their country during the Civil War, Josiah making the ultimate sacrifice at the Battle of Gettysburg on the 2nd July 1863. Georg Jakob's descendants by the second and third generation started to spell the surname as Kohensparger, Cokensparger and Cogansparger, whereas the latter version, Cogansparger continues to exist and the other two have since died out.
In 1830, Georg Friedrich Kochersperger from Rittershoffen, Alsace together with his wife, Magdalena, née Kochersperger and their children Magdalena, Philipp, Salomea and Georg sailed for America, following his older brother Johann Martin's footsteps that had left some 60 years earlier. The family briefly lived in Pennsylvania before heading out for Ohio finding a new home in Perry County. Two years later, in 1832, their eldest son Friedrich followed, who had initially decided to remain in the old country. Friedrich arrived in Perry county with his wife Maria Eva, née Fink and his children Dorothea and Friedrich Jr. (by his deceased first wife, Dorothea Seligmann) and Georg. The descendants of this group spell their names as Kochensparger, Kokensparger, Kochenberger, Kokenberger and Cochensparger. The majority continues to live near Perry County, Ohio with branches expanding into Michigan, Missouri and Colorado.
The same year Johann Adam Kochersperger from Reimerswiller, his wife Magdalena, née Grässel and their sons Georg Friedrich, Friedrich and Johann Georg departed for America finding a new home in Verona in Oneida County in Upstate New York. The family prospered for several generations, but the male lineage no longer exists today.
In 1832 Georg Heinrich Kochersperger from Rittershoffen, Alsace his wife Salomea, née Jäger, their sons Georg and Heinrich departed for America. They were accompanied by brothers and sisters of Georg Heinrich, notably - Magdalena Neder, née Kochersperger and her husband Georg Jakob Neder and their children Magdalena, Friedrich, Georg and Dorothea Neder - Georg Kochersperger - Salomea Kochersperger - Sophia Kochersperger The namebearing descendants of this group spell the name today as Kochensparger, Kokensparger, Cochensparger and Coensparger and are mostly concentrated in Ohio and Michigan. In 1837 Johann Adam Kochersperger, a widower from Birlenbach, Alsace and his children Michael, Barbara, Magdalena and Adam departed for America settling in Oneida County in upstate New York. They were followed by Johann Martin and Jakob Kochersperger who were Johann Adam's nephews. Barbara married in Oneida County Adam Schneider, a German immigrant. Together they moved westward to Mc Henry County in Illinois, taking her elderly father along with them. Michael, Magdalena and Adam remained in Oneida County. Adam became a saloon keeper and eventually changed his name to Adam K. Adams, for he felt that the original Alsatian surname was cumbersome in his business dealings. Johann Adam's two nephews remained in Oneida county as well, Jakob, the younger, deciding to change the spelling of his surname to Kochenspere. Today this family no longer exists in the male lineage. In the mid 1840's Friedrich Kochersperger from Hatten, Alsace departed for America. It is believed that he first went to live with his uncle Johann Adam Kochersperger who had settled some years earlier in Verona, Oneida County in upstate New York. Friedrich continued his journey and eventually settled down in Louisville, Kentucky.  gilt cane handle of Friedrich Kochersperger of Louisville, Kentucky, dated 9th June 1878 In the 1850's a new group of Kocherspergers decided to depart for the New World - the siblings Magdalena, Friedrich, Carolina, Anna Maria, Georg, Christian, Philipp, Salomea and Heinrich came to America. Magdalena, Friedrich, Anna Maria, Christian, Salomea and Heinrich settled on Long Island in Queens County, New York, whereas Georg and Philipp settled in Erie County near Buffalo in upstate New York. Their father, Christian had moved from the ancestral village of Rittershoffen to the neighboring village of Oberbetschdorf, where the spelling of the name was changed from Kochersperger to Kochersberger. The descendants of this family are quite numerous and concentrate mostly within the state of New York. In 1871 Philipp Kochersperger from Rittershoffen, Alsace, his wife Maria Eva, née Jäger and their three sons Philipp Jr., Friedrich and Carl made the journey for America. They are the last known Kochersperger having made the long journey to find a new life in America. Philipp and his family briefly lived in Marion County, Ohio before settling down in nearby neighboring Jay County in the state of Indiana. Their descendants continue to live near the area where Philipp settled and also in Ohio. Genealogical data may be perused at:
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http://wc.rootsweb.ancestry.com/cgi-bin/igm.cgi?db=rubelli
© 2009 by Daniel A. Guggisberg, Redondo Beach, CA, USA
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v o n e n g l i s b e r g [a t ] gm a i l [d o t] c o m 
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Genealogy of the Kochersperger, Kochersberger, Kochensperger, Kochensparger, Kokensparger, Kokensberger, Kochenspere, Cokensparger, Cochensparger, Cogansparger, Coensparger, Kochenberger, Kokenberger, Guggisberg, Guggisperg and Gugisperg families with origins in Rittershoffen, Alsace, France and the Swiss villages of Belp, Englisberg, Köniz, Niedermuhlern, Obermuhlern, Oberbalm and Zimmerwald, all in Canton Bern, Switzerland. © 2009 |