Philip Jacob Acker, the ancestor of this family, was born in 1696 in Germany and landed at Philadelphia on 9/23/1732, on the ship "Loyal Judith," with his brother Henry Acker. He was then thirty-six years of age. He settled in the district, which at that time was called Macungie in Bucks county, now Upper Macungie township, Lehigh County, about six miles west of Allentown, on what is now the Koch farm, on the south side of the public road leading from Allentown to Fogelsville, located several miles east of Fogelsville and probably one mile east of Chapman's Station on the Catasauqua and Fogelsville Railroad.

Philip Jacob Acker was naturalized at the session of the Supreme Court in Philadelphia on 9/27/1743, and in 1745 he was one of the organizers of the Ziegel Church, located in Weisenburg Township. On March 30-31, 1757, David Schultze surveyed land for Philip Jacob Acker in Macungie, as also for Dewald Koontz, Christian Heisler, Adam Fisher and Conrad Pien.