August 28th Newspaper Article on Reunion

From The Morning Call -- August 28, 2005
Gathering of the Stocker clan in the Lehigh Valley is a 'dream'

Stockertown founder's descendants hold reunion in Forks Twp.By Arlene MartínezOf The Morning Call

Call it the Stocker nose.It's a broad nose and if you were familiar with it, you may have seen it on the faces of several people who gathered Saturday — descendants of Andreas Stocker, the man who founded Stockertown.

''We've always joked about the Stocker nose,'' said Ron Stocker, looking around the room. Then, to the amusement of two other Stocker descendants nearby, he added: ''I think there's some validity in that.

''Ron Stocker is one of three genealogists who created the Web site that helped bring more than 50 Stocker descendants from at least seven states together at Forks United Church of Christ in Forks Township. Ron, who has been studying his family lineage for 40 years, called the gathering a ''dream.''

Susie Brown, of Fort Wayne, Ind., learned in part through the Web site that she was a Stocker descendant. With the site's help, Brown organized the meeting.

Ron Stocker is descended from Francis Stocker, one of Andreas' children. Because of his early interest in his family's history, Ron explained, he was able to get information from his grandparents and aunts while they were alive.He learned from an aunt, for instance, that his grandparents were first cousins. Another set of grandparents had the year on their marriage certificate changed from 1841 to 1840. Their child, you see, was born in 1841, just six months after their wedding date.''Those are the kinds of secrets that families like to keep,'' Ron Stocker said. ''It's good to know these people were human beings. It's nice to learn our generation didn't discover sex.

''Descendants sometimes took several minutes to explain their path to Andreas Stocker. The wealthy landowner had 14 children, many of whom also had almost a dozen children.

Virginia Lopresti, 92, author of ''History of the Borough of Stockertown,'' opened the day's events with a synopsis of the area's past. An attentive audience listened as Lopresti explained that Andreas Stocker's parents, Michael and Anna Margaretha, came to the U.S. from Switzerland via Rotterdam in the Netherlands.

Andreas (whose name later became Andrew), was lured from his native Berks County to the Stockertown area by the promise of rich farmland. He laid out Stockertown for use by Bushkill milling industries, though it wasn't incorporated until 1900.

Although some members of the Stocker clan have met — the last time in Ohio a couple of years ago — Saturday was the first time in recent history a gathering took place in the area. The last known time it may have happened was the summer of 1935.