Conflict on DOD - 1/17/1780 in Lower Saucon Twp., PA. Also, father added.


Rudolph Oberly, to whom belongs the honor of having been the founder of the American branch of the family, was born June 8, 1712, a son of a silk manufacturer at Ruderwyl, in the canton of Berne, Switzerland. Of his boyhood days nothing definite is known more than that he was a member of a large family, and, being obliged to assist in their support, his education was neglected to such an extent that he never learned to write his own name. About the time he became of age there were a great number of Germans and Swiss emigrating to America, principally to Pennsylvania, and the fever must have early taken hold of him, for we note that he sailed for America in the spring of 1735, in the ship "Mercury," from Rotterdam, and was qualified as an emigrant at Philadelphia, May 29, 1735. Presumably he settled at once in the Saucon Valley, and no doubt after his marriage built a log hut to live in. He soon took an active interest in the affairs of the province, and was naturalized by the Supreme Court at Philadelphia, September 24, 1757. He had in the meanwhile secured title to a portion of the property on which he settled for a patent for two hundred and ten acres was issued to him January 8, 1755, and another for thirty-eight acres on July 1, 1765. This gave him a clear title to two hundred and forty-eight acres of land, on which he lived the remainder of his days. On May 1, 1770, he purchased two hundred acres of land on the south bank of the Lehigh river, from William Allen, founder of Allentown, and then chief justice of Pennsylvania, this property being a portion of the ten thousand acres of land which had been willed to William Penn, grandson of the proprietor and founder of Pennsylvania. He was a member of the German Reformed church, and in 1752, when the inhabitants of the Saucon Valley decided to build a church, he contributed liberally both of time and money.