Johann Jacob Matthias was born in the town of Schweighausen sur Moder in the Bas-Rhin region of Alsace on October 23, 1704. At that time official sovereignty of Alsace was contested. It was part of either France or Germany, probably France. Alsace has been passed back and forth between Germany and France throughout history, usually as the spoils of a war. Whatever the case, Jacob, as well as most of the people in northern Alsace, were Germans.

Jacob married Anna Margaretha "Margaret" Jung in the nearby town of Gundershoffen on January 25, 1729. Margaret was born August 24, 1709 in Gundershoffen. Jacob and Margaret settled in Gundershoffen where their first two children were born. Johann Heinrich was born July 18, 1730, and Johann Jacob was born August 13, 1732.

In the spring or early summer of 1733, the couple left their homeland and started for America. They first had to travel down the Rhine River to Rotterdam, Holland. There they boarded the British ship Samuel and began their long journey to the new world, first stopping by the port of Deal in England. They arrived at Philadelphia on August 17, 1733. The entire trip from Germany to America normally took about two or three months, and it would be difficult to overstate the hardships they endured. Their two young sons, Henry and Jacob, apparently died during the voyage. There is no record of their deaths in Gundershoffen, yet Jacob and Margaret arrived at Philadelphia without children.

From Philadelphia, Jacob and Margaret probably spent a very short time in the Conestoga area of Lancaster County, Pennsylvania. It is recorded that their daughter, Anna Margaretha, was born and baptized as a Lutheran in June of 1734 in "Monocacy, Pennsylvania." Soon afterwards they moved to what is now Frederick County, Maryland. Frederick County was formed in 1748, carved from the western part of Prince George's County. Prior to 1748, this entire wilderness area was known as Monocacy (river of many bends), named for the river that runs south from the Pennsylvania border and empties into the Potomac. Jacob and Margaret were part of a large migration of Pennsylvania Germans that moved southward into Monocacy. The earliest known date of their life in Maryland was April 28, 1736, the baptismal date of their second child. They first moved to the more southern German settlement in the general area which today would be just southwest of the town of Frederick.

While in this more southern area of Monocacy, Jacob, in 1740, bought or leased 250 acres of land from Jacob Fout which was part of the Rocky Creek survey Fout had purchased earlier from Captain John Stoddert. On June 4th of this same year, Jacob Matthias and his first four children were naturalized, along with Jacob and Balthasar Fout. In about 1743 they moved to the more northern area of Monocacy, purchasing land on August 19th called Slate Ridge. It was at the foot of Piney Mountain, between present-day Thurmont and Emmitsburg. After several additions, by November 8, 1763 their land totaled 579 acres. The plantation was divided into surveys, or tracts, each having different names; such as Jacob's Trouble Ended, Resurvey on Peter's Run, and Sawmill Place. The farm was later known as Slate Ridge Farm, bounded on the west by what is today Kelbaugh Road and on the east by Smith Road. Little Owens Creek runs through the property.

Jacob was a farmer and a wagoner. Yet, as with most of the early German immigrants, religion was the dominant part of their lives.

Most of the Germans who settled the Frederick County, Maryland area were either Lutherans or of the German Reformed faith. Jacob and Margaret were Lutherans. During those early days in Monocacy, before about 1742, services or Bible readings were conducted in private homes by local leaders. However, there were no ordained ministers to officiate at religious ceremonies such as marriages and baptisms. These duties were performed by travelling ministers, mostly from Pennsylvania. Two of the most prominent of these pioneer Lutheran ministers were Johann Caspar Stoever and his son, Johann Caspar Stoever Jr. The father returned to Germany in 1734, but died at sea on the return trip in 1739. The younger Stoever stayed in America and ministered to the settlers in Monocacy during his trips to Virginia, which began in about 1734. He baptized the first four American-born children of Jacob and Margaret – Margaretha, Magdalena, Georg, and Catherina.

In about 1742, around the time Jacob and Margaret moved northward to the Thurmont area, Stoever relocated and began to concentrate his efforts in Pennsylvania. The Monocacy settlers were fortunate to soon obtain the services of Pastor David Candler, from the "Conewago Settlement" (Littlestown), Pennsylvania, and later near Bethel in Monocacy. Candler ministered to the Lutherans in Monocacy until his death sometime around July, 1744. He baptized two of Jacob and Margaret's children - Mary and Barbara.

It was also about 1742 or 1743 that the first Frederick Lutheran Church building may have been constructed. The existence of this church is still just speculation, but there is some evidence it was built on Hunting Creek, just southwest of what is today called Jimtown Crossroads. Although the development of the Lutheran Church in Monocacy was a process more than a single event, this fits in well with the theory that it was about 1742 when the Lutherans around Frederick formally became the Monocacy Lutheran Congregation. It is debatable as to whether Stoever or Candler should be credited with establishment of the church.

The premature death of Pastor Candler signaled the start of a long period of religious turmoil for Jacob and his Lutheran neighbors. Ordained ministers were scarce, and for about eight years a succession of obscure itinerant ministers probably came and went. It was during this time that Moravian missionaries made a strong effort to convert this Lutheran community. Some of them did so, but it seems Jacob and Margaret resisted and remained Lutheran. Nevertheless, this period of upheaval seems to account for the absence of church records for the birth of the last three or four children of Jacob and Margaret. Stability was finally restored among the Lutherans in late 1752 with the arrival of Pastor Bernard Michael Hausihl.

About this same time, the German Reformed group also firmly established themselves. Although the Lutherans and German Reformed were distinct denominations with profound differences, these two groups coexisted well. They seemed to separate geographically, but often shared common resources. Jacob Matthias played an important role in establishing the union church they shared, just outside Thurmont. On May 15, 1760, Peter Appel gave a one-acre parcel of land to Mathias Ambrose, Jacob Matthias, and Jacob Ambrose. On this land they built a schoolhouse and church, to be used by both Lutherans and German Reformed. At first the church was known as "Jacob's Church", but soon became known as "Apple's Church" in honor of Peter Appel. Jacob and Margaret, as well as some of their children, were pillars of this church until their deaths.

Although we are fortunate to have access to a great deal of early history and many vital statistics, personal information about Jacob and Margaret is rare. A few passages from Pioneers of Old Monocacy provide some insight into the nature of Jacob Matthias. "Jacob Matthias was seemingly a friend to all, regardless of religious background. With Jacob Hoff he joined other Germans in signing the 1742 petition to divide Prince George's parish so that the English church could be brought nearer to the people of Monocacy. When the fledgling Moravian congregation was tearing away from its Lutheran neighbors, Jacob Matthias went with John Jacob Weller to Annapolis in 1747 to seek help from Daniel Dulany. Dulany had 10 acres called "Gift" surveyed for what was to become the site of the Graceham Moravian Church, and the certificate was assigned to Jacob Matthias in trust."

Also from Pioneers of Old Monocacy is an account taken from the diaries of Matthias Gottlieb Gottschalk written in 1748. "Two Monocacy Germans, Mathias Ambrose and Jacob Matthias journeyed over South Mountain all the way to Jonathan Hager's in today's Washington County to hear Gottschalk preach. They parted from him tearfully."

Jacob and Margaret had eight sons and five daughters. As mentioned earlier, we know the first two sons died young. There is no known information about one son. Jacob Matthias died on his plantation May 7, 1782 at the age of 72. Margaret continued to live there until her death on October 12, 1788 at the age of 79. They are both buried in the little cemetery next to Apple's Church near Thurmont. Although Jacob would have been 71 years old at the start of the American Revolution, his grave in Apple's Church Cemetery is listed in the Abstract of Graves of Revolutionary Patriots first published in 1900. Several of his sons likely served during the American Revolution as well.

References
History of Apples United Church of Christ, Thurmont, MD by Bob Fout, Genealogist
Littlestown Early History — 1762-1815 —, The Historic Marker Database (HMdb.org)
Maryland, Compiled Census and Census Substitutes Index, 1772-1890
Mathews, Donald (2013) Second Biography, Ancestry.com
Patricia Law Hatcher (1900) Abstract of Graves of Revolutionary Patriots, Pioneer Heritage Press, Dallas, TX
Slate Ridge Farm – A Short Story by Harrold Craig
Tracey, Grace L (1987) Pioneers of old Monocacy: the early settlement of Frederick County, Maryland, 1721-1743, Genealogical Pub. Co., Baltimore, MD
U.S. and Canada, Passenger and Immigration Lists Index, 1500s-1900s
U.S. and International Marriage Records, 1560-1900
www.germanmarylanders.org/churches/apples-church-jacob-s-thurmont