The name Styger, also written Steiger, later became Styer. Like the Spares, the Styers were pioneer settlers of Worcester Township. Stephen Styger, father of Jacob Styger, arrived in Germantown, Pa., between 1712 and 1714, having come, it was said, from Bohemia, where he was born in 1688. His father, John Nicholas Styger, was an officer in the Prussian army in the war with Austria. Freas Styer, Esq., of Norristown, had, in 1931, in his possession the original certificate attesting that in 1688 a Catholic priest who was an army chaplain had christened Stefanus Styger, son of John Nicholas Styger, master of horse, and his wife Catherine. In Pennsylvania, how- ever, Stephen Styger identified himself with the Mennonites. He lived in Germantown until 1727, when he bought from Thomas Shute, of Philadelphia, a tract of 200 acres in the southeastern part of Worcester Township, then Philadelphia County. The site is north of the present Fairview Village, on Germantown Pike.

Stephen Styger died May 5, 1736, leaving a widow, Catharine, and six minor children.

Tradition says that Stephen Styger was buried in a private burial ground which he had set apart on his farm and which later became the burial ground of Methacton Mennonite Church, near Fairview Village. Numerous old graves in this ground are marked with field stones, but among the later inscribed stones are some bearing the name of Styer, the family having been members of Methacton Church. The name of the church is that of the hill on which it is situated.

In 1739 Jacob Stire, as the name appears in the records, and his mother, Catharine, granted thirty-two perches of land from the Styer farm to a group of trustees, the deed designating that the land was "for the use and behoof of the Dutch Anabaptist Society of the Township of Worcester," meaning the Mennonite congregation. The same year Henry Rittenhouse, who owned an adjoining farm, transferred to the same trustees another tract of thirty-two perches bordering that conveyed by the Styers. These two tracts are now (1931) part of the grounds of Methacton Church.

Jacob Styer tilled the Worcester farm after his father's death. There he and his family lived until 1768, when he moved to a tract of 264 acres in Whitpain Township, which he bought from William and Richard Thomas for 1500 pounds, the deed being dated June 4 of that year.

Whitpain adjoins Worcester on the southeast. The farm which Jacob Styer bought extended southwest from the northeastern township line to Morris road, on both sides of Plymouth road, between Gwynedd Valley and Blue Bell. Part of this tract remained in the Styer ownership until early in the 20th century.

No doubt the attention of the Styers was directed to Whitpain Township by the Yosts, who lived in that township a mile west of the farm which Jacob Styer bought. Elizabeth Spare, sister of the wife of Jacob Styer, had married Daniel Yost some years before the Styers moved to Whitpain.

There is a family tradition that Leonard Styer, youngest son of Jacob and Christiana Styer, was born in the new home in Whitpain the night after the family moved thither. The date of his birth is given as March 18, 1768.

Jacob Styer built a house on the east side of Plymouth road, a short distance north of Morris road. The initials "J. S." and the date 1768 were cut on a stone in the southwest gable.

In 1931 Dr. Joseph Leidy owned most of the original Styer tract, and several buildings remained which were erected at the time of the Styer ownership. The house which Dr. Leidy occupied was an enlargement of an old house which had a stone bearing the date 1808. In a wall of the barn was a stone with the date 1792. The barn was a well constructed stone building, and in one wing the stone was set to represent the bust of George Washington.

Jacob Styer remained a Mennonite throughout his life. It has been said he was a preacher of the denomination. His wife evidently continued to be a member of the Reformed Church, for an entry in the books of Boehm's Reformed Church, Blue Bell, near the Styer home, shows that "Christina Steier" was sponsor for Mrs. Lowisa Bez at baptism and confirmation, April 13, 1775, and at the same time her brother, Philip Spare, and his wife Dorothea were sponsors for "Mrs. Catharina Sperr" at baptism and confirmation. The latter may have been the wife of Leonard Spare, son of Philip and Dorothea Spare.

Jacob Styer lived only nine years after making his home in Whitpain Township.

By his will he left his wife 18 pounds a year, "with use of two rooms in my house, a cow, ten bushels of wheat yearly." To his son Henry he bequeathed "my whole dwelling place," and to his son John the remainder of his lands. The sons Stephen and Henry were appointed executors.