Garber Genealogy: Johannes H. Garber

Johannes “John H.” Garber, His Descendants in the Shenandoah Valley
Most of the Garbers in the Shenandoah Valley are descendants of John H. Garber of Flat Rock, Virginia, who established the Flat Rock German Baptist (today called the Church of the Brethren) and was the first German Baptist (Tunker or Dunker) minister to settle permanently in Virginia. His European ancestors Ulrich Gerber (b 1605), Christian Gerber (b 1635), Niclaus Gerber (b 1661), and Jo Hannes Gerber (b 1701) lived in Steffisburg, Bern, Switzerland. About 1719, his father, Jo Hannes Gerber, moved to the Palatinate area of Germany to a Mennonite community, where he and others were recruited by William Penn of Philadelphia to help settle the colony of Pennsylvania. Jo Hannes took a boat down the Rhine River to Rotterdam, Holland, and was the German immigrant who came to America about 1728. He arrived in Philadelphia and lived in Chester County, Pennsylvania, where his third son and our progenitor Johannes “John H.” Garber (1732-1787) was born.
In 1744, Jo Hannes Gerber moved his family to Lancaster/York County, Pennsylvania, where they continued to live after Jo Hannes' death in 1748. In 1768, Johannes “John H.” Garber, the son, moved his wife Barbara Miller and family to Frederick County, Maryland. In 1775, John H. Garber, as he became known, moved his family to the Shenandoah Valley at Flat Rock, Virginia. He was the first Garber to come to the Shenandoah Valley and thus began 275 years of Garber family history in the Shenandoah Valley.