Pictured here are Nancy and Craig Souder from Mint Hill, North Carolina, who visited the Lovettsville Historical Society & Museum recently, while seeking additional information on Anthony Souder and his family.
Craig Souder is a direct descendant of Anthony Souder (1730-1803), who is believed to be the first of the Souder family to settle in the German Settlement (Lovettsville) in Loudoun County. Craig has found a great deal of information on the Souder family, but he visited us hoping to find more. He was somewhat successful in this, but we couldn’t answer one of his important questions: Where is Anthony buried?
There are 26 Souders listed in the Loudoun County Cemetery Database maintained by the Thomas Balch Library; all but one are buried in the St. James Reformed Cemetery in Lovettsville. There are likely more at St. James, but it is known that there are many unmarked graves in this and the other old cemeteries.
As related by Craig (and reported in various Souder family histories), Anthony Souder is believed to have been born in Switzerland in 1730, which is consistent with the indications that the family was of the Reformed (Calvinist) faith. Ship records suggest that he arrived in the port of Philadelphia in 1750, and by 1760 was living in York County, Pennsylvania.
The earliest record of his presence in Loudoun County is in 1779, and he was appointed a road surveyor in Loudoun in 1782. But tax records show him also being taxed in Pennsylvania, and purchasing property in Creagerstown in Frederick County, Maryland.
During the Revolutionary War, Anthony Souder provided provisions for the army, providing beef on one occasion, and hay and pasturage on another.
Anthony also showed up in our research on the Tankerville land holdings, and his situation fits exactly into the general pattern we found. Although he had been in Loudoun for at least ten years, he didn’t obtain a formal lease for his property from Tankerville until 1789 – at the point where Tankerville was forced to begin issuing leases — and then he was finally able to purchase the land in 1793, at the point when Tankerville began selling off his Virginia land holdings.
Souder family researchers believe that the Slater farmhouse on Slater Road, was built on the foundation of Anthony Souder’s home.