Philip Christian Enders emigrated
to the United States from Germany in 
1764. He fought in the American 
Revolution before founding the village
of Enders, Pennsylvania, in the
Susquehanna River valley north of
Harrisburg. He founded a church (left) 
in the new village, and had seven
children.

 

 

Jeremiah Benjamin Enders, one of Philip's grandsons, was born in 1827 in Williamsville, New York, in the home pictured at right. Around 1849 he went west to California to join the Gold Rush. Failing to get rich there, he emigrated in 1852 to Australia, where gold had been discovered a year earlier. Jeremiah remained in Australia after the Gold Rush died out, settling in the State of Victoria,
where he became known as "Yankee Tom."

 

      

Jeremiah's son, Jeremiah Benjamin Enders, Jr., (in both pictures above),
was born in Trentham, Victoria, Australia in 1856. The photo on the right was taken in 1898,
the year he left Australia for the Klondike.

 

The Enders family home in Trentham, Australia (above) was called The Dell.

 

Enders Bridge,
near The Dell,
spanned the
Colibon River
in Trentham. In this
photo, Jeremiah
Benjamin Enders, Sr., poses on the horse.

 

 

In 1898 gold fever struck the family again. That year, Jeremiah Jr. and his 71-year-old father, Jeremiah Sr., left Australia and traveled 8,000 miles to become prospectors in the Klondike, where gold had been discovered in 1897. They settled in the bustling mining town of Dawson City in the Yukon Territory (above). The father eventually returned home to Australia, but the son never went back, moving to Northern California around 1902 and continuing his career as a prospector.

 

Jeremiah married
Caroline Reel and they settled in Oakland, California. Here they are
pictured at the Dunsmuir
Caves on the
Sacramento River.

 

 

 

Jeremiah and Caroline's son,
born in 1908, was named
Melbourne Enders after the city
in his father's homeland.

He became a police inspector in
Oakland, California, and is pictured
at left on security detail during a 
campaign stop by presidential candidate
Adlai Stevenson. Mel's son, Stephen 
Enders, was born in Oakland in 1946
and now lives in El Paso, Texas.

 

 

 

Annual reunions
are still held
every year in
the picturesque
village of Enders
in South-Central
Pennsylvania.

 

 

 

 

 

 

In 1907, a distant relative, William Enders,
was awarded U.S. Patent #1,791,552
for the Enders Speed Razor.

 

 

         Find out about the annual
           Enders Family Reunion.

 

 

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