German immigrant. Founded Zittlestown, Maryland.

Johann Michael Zittel—known as Michael Zittle, senior—was the son of Susanna Dorothea (née Ritzer) and Daniel Zittel, born in 1769 in or near Göllheim, now in Germany's Rhineland-Palatinate state. The Zittel family emigrated in 1774 from Germany to America, sailing on the Sally, which landed in Philadelphia. (Daniel Zittel is on the ship's passenger list.) The Zittel family settled initially in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania.

Michael Zittle and Mary Magdalena Hiestand were married on 8 April 1794 at Trinity Lutheran Church in Lancaster, Pennsylvania. The couple, with their two eldest children, moved to western Maryland between 1796 and 1798. Eight more children were born in Maryland.

Michael Zittle was probably a farmer who also dealt in real estate. He purchased initially in 1811 two tracts of land on the western slope of South Mountain, below Turner's Gap: the 72-acre "Foxes Last Shift" on 1 April, and the 35-acre "Partnership" on 14 October. He later subdivided and sold lots from "Foxes Last Shift," establishing the village of Zittlestown, Washington County, Maryland. Michael Zittle reportedly donated land along the South Mountain ridgeline for the construction of first monument to George Washington to be completed (in 1827).

Children of Michael Zittle and Mary Magdalena Hiestand:

• Nancy Zittle Miller (1795 - before 1852)

• Jacob Zittle (1796 - 1868)

• Michael Zittle, Jr. (1798 - 1877)

• Daniel Zittle (1804 - 1875)

• Samuel Zittle (1804 - 1884)

• John Zittle (? - before 1850)

• Joseph Zittle (? - before 1852)

• Peter H. Zittle (1809 - 1885)

• Susan Zittle Poffenberger (1813 - 1867)

• Elizabeth Zittle Hutzell (1814 - 1894)

Notes

"Germany, Births and Baptisms, 1558-1898," index, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/pal:/MM9.1.1/NJ97-9Q5: accessed 4 April 2012), Johann Michael Zittel (1769).

Daniel Zittel. "List of Foreigners Imported in the Ship Sally, John Osmond, Master, from Rotterdam, Last from Cowes. Qualified Oct. 31, 1774" in: Names of Foreigners who took the Oath of Allegiance in the Province and State of Pennsylvania, 1727-1775, William Henry Egle, ed. (Harrisburg; Edwin K. Myers, State Printers, 1892), p. 517.

The 1794 marriage record is the earliest certain American record of Michael Zittle (indexed as "Littel").

The date range for migration from Pennsylvania to western Maryland is derived from the 1796 Pennsylvania birth of son Jacob, and the 1798 Maryland birth of son Michael, junior.

Not found in the 1800 U.S. Census, Michael Zittle was enumerated in the 1810 through 1840 U.S. Censuses in Washington County, Maryland.

1830 U.S. Census, District 6 (Boonsboro Dist.), Washington Co., Maryland; p. 105 (written).

[9.] Sittle, Michael.

[22.] Sittle, Michael jr.

1840 U.S. Census, Boonsboro Dist., Washington Co., Maryland; p. 214 (printed).

[2.] Daniel ZIttle. Four persons including male aged 30 thru 39 and female aged 40 thru 49.

[4.] "Micheal" Zittle. Four persons including male aged 70 thru 79 and female aged 60 thru 69.

Michael Zittle's date of death—7 January 1850—is found in records of Salem Evangelical Church, Boonsboro, Maryland (John H. Bast, A brief history of Boonsboro and records of Salem Evangelical Luther[a]n Church, Boonsboro, Maryland, 1835-1867 (N.p., n.p., 1973), p. 96), and of the Circuit Court of Washington County.

Elizabeth Jayne Blair and Leona Miller Hart, The Descendants of Michael Zittle, Sr. (Anchorage, Alaska: n.p., 1995), p. 1.

Great-great-great-great-grandfather of submitter.

Reviewed 13 March 2024.