The Pennsylvania-German [12]

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A POPULAR MAGAZINE OF

BIOGRAPHY, HISTORY, GENEALOGY, FOLKLORE, LITERATURE, ETC.

EDITOR

AND PROPRIETOR

—

1

(Sty?

JANUARY,

Vol. XII

The Meaning

1

Delivered September 8, 1910, at Willow Street, Lancaster County, Pa., on the occasion of observance of the 200th anniversary of the first settlement in Lancaster County.

ANCASTER

County

was

conceived i n Godliness Her and honest toil. foundation was laid upon the two great bed-rocks religion

and

agriculUppermost in the of her earliest pio-

minds neers were these two noble

activities.

To

practice these, they came to the virgin forests of the Pequea and of the Conestoga 200 years ago'. And these virtues are our best possessions today. Exponent of free religion and fertile farms, this county has remained their

most

vigorous nursery in America, ever since their most thriving center

1

Two Hundred

1710-1910

By H. Frank Eshleman,

ture.

No.

1

of Lancaster County's

Years of History.

of

9

Esq., Lancaster, Pa.

stung by the memory of the and trials and turmoils and and the tortures, suffered selves and their ancestors for for conscience' sake, these

neers

would not deny

an equal freedom to worship God. And took root, at once, and An English visitor to soul,

to

traditions

torments by themcenturies,

pious pioany other

with their own, thus all creeds flourished here.

our country

in

infancy in 1744 wrote, "The religions that pervail here are hardly to "J numbered" (An. Susq., p. 344) The Mennonites planted their religion here in 1710 the Presbyterians, Quakers and Episcopalians theirs in the Reformed theirs in 1722 at 17 10 its

—

—

— the

Heller's in

— the

1726

Ephrata Dunkers, theirs Amish, theirs in 1733

ing of our 200 years? Religious fervor, transplanted here, flowered out into

theirs 1740 (9 — the Jews, theirs — 1742, 165) — the Moravians, theirs the same year (9 226) — Dunkards and Baptists, theirs equally early as most these — the Methodists, theirs some time afterwards — the United Brethren,

religious freedom religious love, ripened into religious liberty. Bruised by

gelical,

the barbarous iron heel of an arrogant state church filled with the horrors of religious bigotry satiate with, and

until in

—

through two centuries.

THE RELIGIOUS MEANING What has been the religious mean-

—

—

—

the

213 (3

Catholics,

et.

in

seq.)

L.,

in

L.,

L.,

the Reformed

Mennonites, the EvanUnited Evangelical, the Church of God, the Swedenborgen, and a score of others,

theirs

in

quick succession,

modern times three dozen

dif-

— ;

THE PENNSYLVANIA-GERMAN ferent creeds flourish from the beginning,

now

here.

And

all,

and

prospered

prosper in peace and

harmony

to-

gether.

From

theological giant and

of first

to last, ours

have been a

and teaching became

the great peer of Presbyterianism in this region

preaching"

America.

the

first

Through Robert Smith,

"Old Pequea" sent forth

a

score

of

And

Presbyterian preachers, east and west,

thus today within this county's confines there is a higher percentage of communicants than in any other section of America and a far greater number of active religious creeds and sects than in any other equal area on While in our the face of the earth: country as a whole, about one-third of the population are churchmen in this county the proportion is nearly half. While in all America there are 186 reLancaster denominations, ligious County alone has 35 of them (U. S.

among them Waddell, McMillan and the junior Smiths, who also preached

reverential,

religious

people.

—

Those Bulletin of Religions, 1906). did not and do not now coincide with the creeds of established churches quickly and freely invented and now invent creeds of their own deeply religious, their religious craving must be satisfied. Thus practically all here, "belong to church". From their earliest days the r eligious forces of this county have made themselves a center of Gospel radiaa motherland of tion to other fields church power and influence throughThe Mennonites out wide regions. quickly spread their faith and creed foss the Susquehanna into the Cumand down the Shenandoah j ,rland and before the Revolution established the Virginia church. In the early days of the nineteenth century, from this county they went and planted their

whose views

—

standard in Ohio, Indiana and Illinois and over wide fields in Canada and af;

ter the Civil

War,

established

their

phase of the doctrine of peace in Kansas and the West. The Presbyterians of Donegal early carried the Gospel beyond the Alleghenies the Presbyterians of Octoraro planted their banners in Catholic Maryland the Presbyterians of Pequea flanked out to Leacock and Little Britain and became the field where Rev. Robert Smith in his 42 years of

—

—

and taught and developed religious schools and laid the foundations of Jefferson, Sydney, Union and Princeton Colleges, (9 L. 252). The Reformed and Lutherans, long before the Revolution founded different German religious schools, made scores of ministers and by that means laid the foundation on which to erect, at the close of that war, Franklin, and Marshall College, the busy later breeder of a yearly score or two of powerful preachers throughout more than a century, bringing the bread of life to thousands throughout Eastern

America. The Moravians missionized whites and Indians alike from the earliest days. Other churches also flung out their powers far and wide beyond the county. Thus through all her history Lancaster County has stood in conspicuous pre-eminence for religious religious raactivity and earnestness diation and energy. Of religious Lancaster County as a whole we may observe that, the great body of its Christians were and are to-

—

in the literal meaning of accept in simplicity its humble, homely teachings and give no ear to the "new thought", the higher criticism or the higher cults and culture. They have never tried to explain away the Gospel or make a pleasant or only probable Hell. Again observe that practically the whole of our people are still wedded to the belief not only that religion is part of the common law of the land, but that God ought to be in all our political constitutions and that belief in the Savior ought to be one of the qualifications in all who hold public office and discharge public trusts as in

day believers

the

Bible

;

—

LANCASTER COUNTY'S TWO HUNDRED YEARS OF HISTORY the ancient times of Penn. It is not the But Lancaster County law today. would vote that it should be the law, seeing the onslaught made against the Gospel in the schools and the lowering by the law of the religious qualifications, in those to whom the people delgate high trusts. And again observe, in all our numerous religious sects that while Lutherans, Reformed, Catholics, Mennonites were enemies of one another in Switzerland and Germany and some of them delighted in the blood and torture of others there, the moment they landed here they all dwelt in. peace and ever since have so dwelt. Toleration rules on every hand; and its brightening dawn, apace is growing toward the coming rising sun-burst of a universal church. Then, too, a great tenet of our early pioneers was that religion should be free from any sort of governmental interference that church must be separate from state. So determined were they in this that they even held for a time that a true churchman may not

—

take part in affairs of state. They had seen and felt the horrors of the state favoring one church and punishing another and they would have none of it. They would not agree that any but God should be obeyed in religious affairs. This belief they have held through nearly 400 years, from the time their remote ancestors in Switzerland in 1532 asserted it against the government, 250 years before the doctrine appeared in our Federal and State Constitutions. (Ernst Miiller's Bernischen Taufer, p. 34). Finally meditate upon the marvel that the despised doctrine of nonresistance, a corner stone of the belief of four great rural Lancaster County churches, for centuries thought to be a doctrine 100 years behind the times, is now recognized as an ideal 50 vears ahead of the times and the glorious goal toward which all the giant nations of our world are bending- their

most conscientious and anxious energies today. Such is the religious meaning of caster County's history.

Lan-

THE AGRICULTURAL MEANING Our country has held on to agriculture. The first settlers did not take up of gardens and cultivate they took up great tracts and made them huge gardens a community of them took up whole valleys they made the horizon their boundary line. The Swiss and Germans quickly took up the good land of Lancaster lots

little

them

;

—

—

County the Irish-Scotch were too busy holding the frontier and holding In the first four years 60,000 acres or nearly 100 square miles of land were surveyed for applicants on the Pequea and the Conestoga (Taylor Papers, 3,323) and in 1719 before the end of ten years the proprietary surveyors reported that there was very little land left on the Conestoga and Pequea (Do. 2,920 and 2,932). Swiss

office.

;

and

Germans

came

to

Lancaster

regions thick and fast. By 1724 there were over 1,200 in the Conestoga section alone, (9 L.. 151). So many of these transforming farmers came here that by 1718 the Quaker authorities at Philadelphia were jealous and fearful of them overwhelming all others and carrying the province away from England and putting it under the dominion of the German empire (2 V., 217 and 220). Our county for about 150 years has been known as the garden spot of America. Eighty odd years ago a careful writer declared that this county was even then "proverbial in Pennsvlvania for fertility of soil and excellence of tillage", (4 H., p. 50). All thanks to the careful early German farmer. Agricultural development by 1781 had brought the assessed value of Lancaster County about $700,000 (2 H., 78), to $6,700,000 in 1814, (2 H., 12), and to $28,700,000 (Gord. Gaz.) in 1830, or double that of Bucks County, more than double that of Chester, three times

THE PENNSYLVANIA-GERMAN Montgomery or four times that York at the same time (Do.). It was

happy homing upon, and hope for the land upon which they were born and upon whose bosom they expect to die. But nowhere, in the New England or any

that of

and their

of

their loving

valued that year at one-sixth of all Pennsylvania exclusive of Philadelphia, at over one-half of the state west of the Susquehanna and was equal to all of the state west of that river, excepting York, Adams, Huntingdon, Fayette, Westmoreland and WashingAnd finally in ton Counties (Do.). 1830 Lancaster County having onefiftieth of the area of Pennsylvania, and one-sixteenth of the population excluding Philadelphia) had one-sixth of the wealth of the entire state omitting Philadelphia (Do.). This wealth was largely cultivated land and this is largely true today. Therefore, our imperial county, through all this time has been supreme mistress of agriculture in America, excelling all other counties

today

in that particular. In her agricultural c-ops

and dairy

products in our modern day this county holds the banner, standing first in amount and variety in all America with an annual value of over $17,000,000. of which her tobacco is worth over three million dollars, her corn four millions and her wheat nearly half as much. And this monumental year of 1910 her crop is nearly $20,000,000 on her $73,250,000 rural land and live stock valuation a gross income of 27 per cent. (Assessment for iqio). Her produce market is the most famous in any rural section of our nation and has been so since the days of Witham ;

Marshe

in

1744.

Her

cattle

market

ranks next only to those of Baltimore, Philadelphia, Buffalo and New York in all Eastern United States. Our county stands for ownership of farms as against the tenant system. This alone will maintain the dignity of farming. Yet that love of the native acres of our childhood, that patriotism for the homestead, has lately suffered here in common with the general trend of agrarian tenancy, so general in the South, and so growing in the are far behind New EngWest. land farmeis in their tenacious hold

We

we

other section have

and

to

fidelity

the

stronger love of ancestral

home

than here on this remarkable ten square miles of land making up the original settlement, which we celebrate today. And this ancient patrimony of the pioneers belting five

miles across

two townships, sending

from one side of ing like

beam

its civilization

a blaz-

and example today a mighty search light to us on the of advice

other side across 200 years of experience, of toil and of progress, should renew in us our love and determination to hold, possess and pass on to our line and kin, the acres that come to us from

goodly Godly ancestors. Three-fifths of our farms in Lancaster County are yet farmed b T7 the owners who live on them. This still ranks higher than in the central states where more than half of the farms are in tenants' hands, or in the South where less than one-third of them are farmed bv owners. When the West and South shall be as old as Lancaster County, at the rate tenants are now taking hold in those states, they will not be able to show a record of nearly two-thirds of their farms operated by the owners as we do now. But while our county has a large percentage of her farms in tenants' hands, it wisely 12 per cent, rented out to has onl tenants for mone v rent, who pay the rent and then frequently ruin the farm by robbing it while the counties of Berks and Bucks and Chester and -

;

Montgomery and Delaware have

re-

28 and 36 per cent, of their farms let out on money rent the system that gives the tenant no incentive to stay very long on a farm and care for it and keep it up but rather to rob it and go "to skin spectively

16,

18, 22,

—

—

it

and skip".

As

;

(Census of 1900).

tenant farming our county stands for that more provident system to

—

—

LANCASTER COUNTY'S TWO HUNDRED YEARS OF HISTORY of tenancies (or in many cases only employment of a manager) on shares, thus giving the owner voice in the control and care of the farm and the tenant an incentive to remain upon it for a term of years and keep or build it up.

county has stood in agriculture. And from the early days of the last century until a decade or two ago the ideal of the patriarch farmer was to secure a farm for each of his boys to live and work and spend their lives upon and marry his daughters to sons of other farmers who had the same purposes for their boys.

For

our

this

;

THE PATRIOTIC MEANING patriotism, County's Lancaster through 200 years can only be understood, its meaning can only be known its quality can after thorough study only be appreciated when the deeper

—

springs of human action are explored. In the earliest days family was its unit the large family its charm, and glory the home community its ultimate object. Family love was its cencommunity love its circumferter The pious pioneer Teutons ence. loved the family, the community they loved the land whereon the family, the community dwelt. They would not be tenants on that beloved land And thev they would own the land. Their patriotism was devotion to did.

— — —

—

and honesty among to neighbors duty towards rulers Caesar what was Caesar s and to God

their families, faith

—

—

what was God's.

They

believed that these ideals sincerely lived were better patriotism than wild, extravagant and often empty public eulogies on the flag, by those who froth and foam and shout, but who are not fit for a political trust, who would take advantage of a neighbor or cheat the public. And

they were right. National glory did not appeal to our pioneers. "Our Country" to them

2 fulling

mills, 164 grist mills, 8 hemp mills, 87 saw mills, 9 breweries, 5 oil mills,

clover mills. 3 cotton factories, 3 5 potteries, 6 carding engines, 3 paper mills, 1 snuff mill, 7 tilt hammers, 6 rolling mills and one or more nail factories (Gord. Gaz., p. 230). And thus

has gone on increasing until a few years ago, on the ideal of small factor-

11

hand of giant crushed and broken most of the small concerns to pieces, and in their stead has established' This has branches of corporations. exchanged an independent for a dependent industrialism in our county. Through all its ages and stages of manufacture until this last decade, the county stood for and splendidly exemplified the small industrial business man employing his happy contented neighbors, turning out honest homemade goods, in which it took an hondustries, the

monopolies

est delight

relentless

has

and

pride.

Her

industries have and steady and stable ;

always in

been

prosperity

has marched onward not flinching before the shock of financial disaster, throughout the land that in many othcer towns and counties, have laid proud industries in the dust.

and panic she

Her watches

are found throughout all is not a people who do not smoke her cigars and hardly a spot on the earth where her umbrellas do not protect from storm. Her confectionery runs annually upward of a her watches million dollars in value over a million her cigars and smoking and chewing tobacco two millions

the lands

—there

—

—

and a half and her umbrellas nearly

Her silk, four million dollars a year. cotton and iron manufactures are vast

Our little city important industries. 41.000 people ten years ago increased her industrial strength from 1890 to 1900, from 599 manufacturing plants to 738 with capital increased from $8,000,000 to $10,000,000, wageearners from 7,300 to 9,300 wages paid from $2,000,000 to $3,000,000 and' product value from Si 1. 500.000 to $16.of

—

—

500,000..

And

has

there

in these last

been

a

ten

years

corresponding

in-

it

ies,

men

crease.

and many of them in which many of small capital gave employment

each to a score of his neighbors. Small factories until lately were humming by the thousands in our county and large ones by the score. But sad to relate, as to the small in-

In

A SHIP FROM LANCASTER commerce as early as 173 1 there

mention of a ship from arriving at New York with lv laboriously taken down Susquehanna then and ships. (Pa. Gaz., January 5, is

Lancaster goods likeConestoga loaded 1731).

on Our

5

THE PENNSYLVANIA-GERMAN

12

in 1792 to 1794 in building the first turnpike to Philadelphia at a cost of $465,000 (Gordon, p. 229), the first turnpike in America; and from 1775 to i860 she built her share of the system of canals and turnpikes that in that day were the best in the world. And now she is well in the van again with the greatest rural trol-

THE EDUCATIONAL MEANING The educational history of our coun-

county did her part

These were commerce and transpor-

ley system in the

her efforts

in

state.

tation.

In finances the progress of her Ger-

mans and

growing competence

their

attracted the jealous English eyes of the government at Philadelphia before their valleys felt the spell of German agriculture a score of vears, (C R. & V.). By 1830 when they had brought the county's land to be worth $24,,ooo,'ooo this county's citizens had $4,000,-

000 of money at interest, while Chester and Bucks Counties each fifty years older had respectively only $400,000 and $250,000 of money at interest. And our county stood as a fair second to Philadelphia itself. She had more money at interest, even at that early date than all the rest of Pennsylvania, excepting Philadelphia. And best of all every cent of our savings was honest gotten by honest toil and honest methods in agriculture and manufacture and not by speculation in ;

false inflated

values, spurious stocks, representing a plant only on paoer and in the imagination of oiW swindlers. And again in our present day the financial strength of this county has 'grown so that there are returned to the "assessors $27,000,000 of money at interest, which omits fully $10,000,000 more. There are many millions in our manufacturing plants. There are 46 banks and trust companies in operation in our county, with assets of over $40,000,000 or perhaps an average of $1,000.000 each. These institutions have increased from $29,600,000 to $40,000,'ooo in seven vears, about 33 per cent. and the stock of several of them sells from 300 to 500 per cent, of par.

ty needs explanation more than defense. Early English writers were accustomed to criticize our county's edu-

They forget that in 1734 there German school in Lancaster 22). From 1745 to 1780 there were

cation.

was H.,

a

(

parochial and private schools (Riddle, In 1746 the Moravian school was 10). flourishing (Do., 9).. In 1748 there was a large school of English, Irish and German pupils here, which continued till 1788, (Do,, 10). In 1752 the county had the famous Rock Hall school and also others of importance (Lane. Gaz.,

June

Robert Smith had his

29, 1752).

Presbyterian school

in

operation then

Pequea and there were similar ones in Southern and Western Lancaster County The Germans had their church schools very early, too, and these pre-

at

way for Franklin College, in 1787 and afterwards Marshall. Then too, there was and is Yeates school, also started in 1780. About the beginning of the 19th century came on the famous Lancastrian schools, the public school system a decade later and a very progressive system since. There was compulsory public payment for the schooling of poor children as early as 1819 (4 H., 295), and under it (before the days of the regular common school system), Lancaster County paid annually $6,500 as a contribupared the

tion (3 PL, 165).

One

thing

is

evident

:

Lancaster

County from the beginning was concerned about two qualities in the education it gave to its sons and daughters that it should be practical and

—

should be moral and indeed reThey were wiser than we. in that the moral culture which true education should give, we make inferior to the purely intellectual and the religious we are absolutely afraid of. Their education was practical. The primary popular end of education as we see it today everywhere is to enable the children to succeed well in life, to gain a competence, a standing, that

it

ligious.

;

—

LANCASTER COUNTY'S TWO HUNDRED YEARS OF HISTORY an estate, a large estate, a million, if We may boast that modern possible. education has aims higher than these sordid ones but it is not true as a ;

condition.

practical

So

too,

150

or

200 years ago our pioneers gave themselves that kind of education which conditions demanded an education that enabled them to succeed. And they did succeed. They cleared their farms and by 1830 had $4,000,000 at

—

None of the older and alleged more intellectual counties could show more than one-tenth of that result. Their education in the country was interest.

of the soil and crop well a study of to turn the crops into the best market the cultivation of strong re-

necessarily, a study

—

how how

to

liable

judgment and how to meet duty comes to them. In this they had

make

it

—

as it the best kind of education. In the town the education must be that of trade and manufacure and the early t,:

century to seek out the fertile farmlands of interior Pennsylvania, where their descendants have since dwelt. Their thrift kept the PennsylvaniaGermans isolated from English-speaking neighbors, resented the introduction of innovations that might tend toward extravagance, preserved their

on the author and not on the magazine

of the

pendent-Gazette, about the traits and

They have peculiarities of this people. been the subject of some adverse criticism in recent years.

*

*

*

shown in the article on the Pennsylvania German dialect leads interest

to the belief that it might be worth while to write something further in this and succeeding issues of the Inde-

There are few idlers in the land of the Pennsylvania Germans.

The seal of German

ancient Germantown. the settlement in America, shows a clover leaf on the three lobes of which are symbols of three industries a cluster of grapes, a distaff of flax and a weaver's reel. The Pennsylvania Germans long ago forsook Germantown, but in their settlements further up the State they still pay homage to- the multiform guiding spirit of industry. first

—

On the farms there is work for everyone from sunrise until long after sunThe men till the fields and care set. for the live stock. The women cook, bake, wash and mend, not only for the members of the family, but for several hired men as well, and they also attend to the milking, the care of the poultry and the cultivation of a kitchen garden. In the small towns a similar unceasing round of industry prevails. Often husband and wife and every child old enough to escape the requirement of the compulsory education law,

—

TRAITS AND CHARACTERISTICS are employed in a cigar factory, a silk mill or at some other work.

and cents

proprietor of a big butchering establishment in one of the Pennsyl-

—

vania German boroughs burgess of the town and a typically "prominent citizen" had a son, an interesting lad

—

of

15,

killed

who one day was accidentally by the discharge of a rifle with

which he was shooting slaughter

When

house.

rats

the

in

the

coroner

young man

to a

starting out

in life.

So

The

:!.".

many

•'works his colleges of

from

lad

a

the

Muhlenberg,

in

Allentown

;

Ursinus, in

Franklin and Lancaster; Pennsylvania,

Collegeville;

*

*

*

In attempting to refute the charge of unprogressiveness, the defenders of the

Pennsylvania Germans are wont to cite certain Germans and descendants of Germans in Pennsylvania, who at-

this "Why he was my best sausage maker. He could turn out more sausage than any of the regular butch-

national

of

fields

has been asserted, however, in these controversies that no Pennsylvania German ever rose to

human

It

activity.

:

The tragedy was

heartrending, but light in which the father viewed chiefly as a help in maklost son money was the saddest part of tragedy. Nevertheless it was

— —

the ing the typical of the Pennsylvania attitude toward children. *

*

The importance

#

German

*

vania German who can be placed alongside of Carl Schurz, the foreign-

born German. the Pennsylvania Germans of today could produce a Muhlenberg, a Pastorius or a Steuben, doubtless they would be less subjected to adverse If

criticism.

education as an aid to thrift is recognized, and comfortable, well-built school houses are common. Good teachers are sought who can give an adequate return for the salary paid them. The members of the school board may not know a Latin root from an isosceles triangle, and they may conduct their official deliberations in a dialect which scarcely can be written, but they are shrewd enough not to permit an incompetent man or woman to teach their children. Pennsylvania Germans understand that educaton has a money value. Dr. Nathan C. Schaeffer, State Superintendent of Public Instruction, and himself a Pennsylvania German, frequently has delivered an address beteachers'

eminence either in politics, any profession or busiCertainly there is no Pennsyl-

science, art or ness.

ers."

fore

in

*

tained distinction in various

the

.Marshall,

Gettysburg, or Susquehanna, in Selinsgrove.

in

and th^ newspaper man visited the home there were tearful scenes. The father, amidst sobs, told how fine a boy the lad was. But the feature upon which he seemed to lay. most stress

was

farms

way" through one of the counties the German

*

of

institutes

at comstatistics just

and

mencements showing by what an education is worth

in dollars

*

*

Their predominant

* trait of thrift

is

strikingly apparent in the church life of the Pennsylvania Germans. They are religious and few families

have not in

some

at least

church.

nominal membership

On

Sunday

the

churches, particularly in rural parishes, Yet congregations that are crowded. independently support a minister are the exception. Two to six congregations constitute the charge of a clergyman, and each has a membership no smaller than that of the average -ellsustaining congregation of the cities. Orilv when the membership of a rural

approaches one thousand

church

numbers stitute

it

in

deemed advisable

to coninto an independent parish.

is it

Morover man}- congregations are unwilling to fix a stated salary for their They give him "was fallt" pastor.

:

THE PENNSYLVANIA-GERMAN

26

"what

That

falls."

is,

collections are

taken twice or four times during- the year for the pastor, and he is expected to be content with "what falls". Naturally clergymen are reluctant to -respond to a call accompanied bv a

arrangement of that kind. A County Lutheran parish of several congregations where the "was fallt" rule prevailed had been unable to financial

Lehigh

find a pastor for a long time. Finally the president of the conference at-

tended a meeting of the church council and urged the members to agree upon a salary for the pastor. But the president of the council responded thus in

German

"We think our way is better. When the Lord gives us a good harvest, then we give a good collection and when the harvests are poor, then we must give less." "Yes," responded the conference president, "but look how your pastor is handicapped. You are dealing with the kind Father in heaven, but your pastor is dealing with a lot of hardfisted, stingy Pennsylvania Dutch;

men." *

One

*

*

*

most valued privileges connected with church membership is that of having the church bell rung at death and of obtaining burial in the churchyard. In these communities it of the

disgrace to be buried without the tolling of the bell, and the preaching of a long discourse in the church. Inis a

deed so

many

persons contribute a dollar or two to a church yearly just to assure themselves of honorable burial that the clergymen allude to this class of church members as "graveyard Christians."

This privilege is cherished so highly that church members moving to the large cities where churches have no burial grounds are reluctant to connect themselves with those churches; and even though there be a church of their

own

but a few minutes' walk from their home they refuse to join it, but go yearly forty or fifty miles into faith

the country to attend communion services and contribute a small sum to maintain membership in the church of their childhood.

Of the thousand members of a Reformed congregation in the Perkiomen Valley, one hundred live in Philadelphia, forty-five miles away; and a Lutheran congregaton in the same region has so many members in Philadelphia that the pastor formerly held a special communion annually in the city for these long-distance parishioners. ^c

^c

^c

Iji

The funeral is an occasion when the Pennsylvania German's thrift is not overtly manifested. Indeed sometimes it seems as though a lifetime had been spent in skimping and saving merely for the sake of culminating in a splendid funeral.

Funerals are the principal social events in most of the rural districts. They afford the best and often the only occasiojn for a reunion of relatives widely separated, and they give everyone in the community an opportunity to become better acquainted with one another and to partake of one of those feasts for which the Pennsylvania German housewives are famous. As soon as the church secton is notified of a death he tolls the bell. Most churches have a code of bell ringing whereby the number of strokes indicates the sex of the person who has died. Then the age is tolled. Possessed of these facts, the listener, who generally knows of everyone in the vicinity who is sick, is readily able to guess

for

whom

the bell

is

ringing.

The funeral takes place about a week after death, not only that all friends

living at a

distance

may

ar-

range to be present, but also because it is considered disrespectful to the dead to "hurry him underground." *

*

*

*

Traditions and superstition are important factors in the life of the people of Pennsylvania German communities, for both are esteemd to be conducive

;

TRAITS AND CHARACTERISTICS

Customs that helped the forelead happy and contented is felt, ought to serve the same

27

and

an exag-

to thrift.

their political ideal,

fathers to

geration based on the true feelings of the people which asserts that in BerksCounty many votes are still cast for "Old Hickory" at every Presidential

lives

it

purpose for their descendants.

Super-

natural powers exercise potent influence over the weal and the woe of the supernatural people; therefore the should be heeded and studied. Since the success of the farmer depends to such a great degree upon the aid upon weather, much stress is weather predictions, and curious methods of prognostication, coupling keen observation of nature with abject superstition, have gained acceptance. Every community has its weather prophet, who is looked upon as an oracle and is consulted in regard to the planting of crops and the favorable dates for holding church festivals, picHis only rival nics and country fairs. in foretelling the weather is the almanac, long accepted as an infallible household guide. Faith in a multitude of weather "signs" abides, though often they are l

If contradictory. the breastbone of the goose be dark, indicating a severe winter, while at the same time angle worms remain near the surface of the earth, portending a mild winter, a charitable excuse is made for one or the other; and if the almanac happens to miss it occasionally in its "about this time" department, the trustful ones say, "There are exceptions to all rules," and go on believing.

*

*

*

*

Pennsylvania Germans demand thrift Andrew Jackson is in government.

it

is

election.

Their influence

in politics

was much

the nineteenth century than now. At that time they elected a succession of Governors and though Francis Parkman de-

more pronounced early

in

;

scribed

them as "dull, Dutch Governwere firm advocates of pub-

ors," they

education at a time when the establishment of common schools was the foremost issue. lic

;(:

^

>jt

:;

these sturdy Pennsylvania Germans have contributed not a little to the material prosperity of the State wherein they live. It is not their inclination to bask in

Through

their

thrift

On, the glamour of public admiration. the contrary there is a tendency among them to remain secluded in their rural communities and to avoid using the

common

speech of the country. this propensity dominates

So long as

them, their influence upon the life of is of little consequence. But

the world

from their towns and villages many boys have gone forth to the large cities and when contact with varied phases of humanity has overcome the ancestral clannishness, then the sterling honesty and the rugged common sense that are their heritage have equipped them to become leaders in many walks of life..

:

:

^28

The

Pennsylvania Germans By

1

1

E

writer Dialect

German

E. Schultz Gerhard, Trenton, N. of

"A

Defiant

Pennsylvania

in

Fiction",

first

"The Book News Monthly" and re-

published

in

printed in several other publications, took exceptions to the remarks made about the article by the present writer in the September issup of this magazine. The writer referred to happens to be, so we are told, associate editor of the "Independent- Gazette" (Phila.). In a series of articles or sketches in this "paper about the Pennsylvania Germans he replies to the criticisms to which reference has been made.

Seemingly he does not refute the made by the reviewer who accused him of making unwarranted assumptions and sweeping statements that are not trne. But he seems to take criticisms

exceptions to the fact that the present writer happens to be a Schwenkfelder, and that h e quotes from Schwenkfeld history and custom, and accuses him of basing "his estimate of the race upon his own people", which •accusation is unwarranted. These people were not used to disprove these statements because they are Schwenkfelders, but because they are Pennsylvania Germans. This editor thinks Pennsylvania^ Germandom is so large that the few Schwenkfelders do not count. If that is true, then why does he mention

them

But Pennsylvania-Germandom is not so large and the Schwenkfelders are not so few in numat

all?

ber that they can be treated as a negligible quantity. It has been estimated that the Pennsylvania Germans comprise only one-third of the State's

populaton if so, then these people are not so few that they can needs be ignored. And when it comes to proving or disproving the truthfulness of 'general statements, they cannot be ;

Once More J.

AYhat is not true of a part cannot be said of the whole. If his sweeping statements are disproved by quoting Schwenkfeld history and custom, they are disproved, and that is all Instances from other there is to it. sects might be cited were it deemed necessary. And when he claims "that in taking up so comprehensive a subject as the Pennsylvania German dialect and attempting to cover it in about 3,000 words it might be expected that the article would be somewhat general, he begs the question. No logical proignored.

cess is known whereby the truthfulness of the statement made is established by the length of the article. But it is not only a matter of proving or disproving a statement but of saying what is true and what is not If he has been to the Schwenktrue. felder church services and seemingly knows all about them, why does he say is still the prevailing the dialect speech" in the church service when it And there are a great many is not? churches regardless of denominations

where no German

is

used at

all.

He

thinks "in the singing it is apparent that in spite of the fact that the congregation demands German services, the number who can read the German of the hymnbooks is rather limited"; but it is rather a poor criterion that would judge a people's attainments by their ability to read the words to the

music they

We

will

sing.

sav nothing more about the

schools established by the Schwenkor by other denominations but Ave should like to refer the writer to the November issue of this magazine for igio and to the educational felders

numbers

of 1907.

The publishing

of "A Defiant DiaPennsylvania German in Fiction" induced its author to write in the "Independent-Gazette" something more "about the traits and peculiarities lect:

THE PENNSYLVANIA GERMANS ONCE; MORE these people. They have been the subject of some adverse criticism of recent years". True, but what he himself writes about them will hardly serve as a vindication. of

In showing- that "thrift is the dominant motive of the life in the land of the Pennsylvania-Germans", he tells how on a certain occasion (one still recalls the incident) a butcher's son in one of the Pennsylvania German boroughs shot himself accidentally while shooting rats in the slaughter house.

'We are told that the father's chief lament was that his boy was "his best sausage maker", and that "he could turn out more sausages than any of Such a reregular butchers". the

mark

deplorable, likewise the attitude that provoked it. But when the writer goes on to say that such an attitude is "typical of the Pennsylvania German attitude toward children", our commiseration turns into uncomprois

mising resentment. In writing about these people this writer commits the same unpardonable fault that scores of other writers commit. An example of some question-

able act or attitude of mind is held up before the world as being "typical" of these people. Sweeping generalities embodying the charge are applied to the whole people when there is no truth in the matter. wish to state for the benefit of this city editor that a wise man said over a hundred years ago that he did "not know the method of drawing up an indictment against a whole people". But he may not be aware of that. The fact is that you can

We

prowl around

in

class of people in this big country

any corner of any any community of and

find

traits, types, peculiarities,

situations,

and customs

that are just as ludicrous, as eccentric and as unpleasant as anything ever found among these people.

And here is a case in point. A fewyears ago a farmer in Iowa (and he is not a Pennsylvania German) came to the village bank a few days after he had buried his wife. One of the clerks

(known

29*

personally

the

to

writer)

spoke consolingly to him about his bereavement. "Yes", said the farmer, "I would rather have lost my best cow". It will of course be said that it is not necessary to go to far-off Iowa to find a

solitary

thing

incident

said

to

anyPennsylvania-

discredit

about the

Germans. But

shows that not all the and done by these people; the incident from Iowa is but one of many that could be cited were it

fool things are said

it

necessary. insist that

we

fair,

as just,

And

in the

bit as

and as reasonable to say

Iowa think more

that the farmers of their

second place

would be every

it

cows than

of their

to accuse these people

of

wives as it is of using and

treating- their children like chattel, like

sausage machines because this man made such a remark. To say that this butcher's remark

is

"typical"

of

the

Pennsylvania German attitude toward children is uncalled for and unjust it is an insult.

—

If it were universally true, as this writer tries to tell, us, that these people use their children only as machines, as

"hewers

of

wood

and

drawers

of

water"; that they think of them only in mercenary terms, for the money that is in them, then why is it that they have been foremost in educational affairs, that they established one of the first public school systems, and have founded and are maintaining- the various educational institutions mentioned in "A Defiant Dialect" ? Thanks to these noble-minded people, they do not seem as narrow-minded as some of the writers who pen some mean and "measly" account of them. He laments the fact that there are no longer men, as he thinks, like Pas-

Muhlenberg, and Steuben: if Pennsylvania- rermans of today could produce men like these "doubtless they would be less subject to adtorius,

the

I

verse criticism".

Just

we are not told. Have these people

how and why

ceased to progress because of the lack of like

them? As

ir

make men

the military services

;

!

;

THE PENNSYLVANIA-GERMAN

."30

of the men mentioned and that is what has made two of them at least conspicuous, there are a Custer, a Hartranft, and a Beaver, of these later days whose services have been equally val-

whose record the Com-

and of monwealth may well be proud.

iant,

And

respect and as for Steuben, with due for the did he what for appreciation American Cause, one can hardly see why the Pennsylvania Germans of toany day should be pitted against him other thousand a more than against Germans in American history. Steuben was in no sense a Pennsylvania Gerand had no affiliations with them.

man The

charge

is

unjust.

"In-

Why does the writer in the not dependent-Gazette" not castigate the men? age for not producing more great of the men great the are where In fact shoulder day, who stand head and common mass? Where

are

the the great ppets and men of letters, and scientists philosophers, great statesmen, such as graced the closing decades of the previous century? If it the true, as has been said, that is

twentieth century has dawned upon a mediocre race, then presumably the

Pennsylvania-German is to blame Did the Pennsylvania German governors, some of whom were highly in educated, who were influential bringing the Public School System to a successful issue, and who ruled the

Commonwealth

more recent

mention a Schwenkfelder) stand for anything ? If this man would look around a little he would find that "Dr. Schaeffer, Public InState Superintendent of struction and one time president of the National Educational Association, has no superior as State Superintendent, and that he is considered "one of the great educators of the world to-

He would find that Dr. Brumbaugh stands in the foremost rank as City Superintendent and that a leading County Superintendent has said that Dr. Kriebel of Perkiomen Semiday".

;

would be equally fair to accuse not the Pennsylvania Germans for character notable producing any other a Nain history: a Plato, a Caesar, who poleon, a Locke or a Newton, or It

above the

these people. To come to times, do men like Dr. Schaeffer, Dr. Brumbaugh, and Rev. Dr. Kriebel (if it is permissible to

men among

for half a century, not

though accomplish anything? Parkman calls them the "dull Dutch Governors" ? And by the way, it is not even

necessary to try to take a sort of

um-

brage behind New England opinion regarding the Pennsylvania Germans even New England has a few things to We learn from the "dumb Dutch". to reader and writer the refer will former issues of this magazine for accounts of scientists and other noted

nary "has aroused all south-eastern Pennsylvania to greater activity in the cause of education". Numerous instances could be cited, but the foregoing is deemed sufficient to correct wrong impressions. Of course, no one can write about the Pennsylvania Germans without saying something about superstition, witchcraft, pow-wowing, and whatever else has to do with the supernatural Nearly every superstition that is laid to the charge of these people can be traced to customs in vogue in the old country centuries ago in fact many are embodied in the folklore of the Teutonic race and are traceable to the Druids of old. They are characteristic of the Teutonic race whether English or German, and not at all necessarily Pennsylvania German. And as to the foretelling of the weather, why, the ;

world is full of "ground hogs" and "goose bones", and the number of people who foretell the weather thereby is '

facts are common propnot necessary to hold these

legion.

These

erty

is

;

it

people up as a spectacle. as for the pow-wowing, well, anything will do for the "Pennsylvania Dutch" otherwise the practice

And

;

this Science, Christian termed Christian Science! it sounds bigger.

is

is

neither Christian nor

scientific.

It

!

!

!

THE PENNSYLVANIA GERMANS ONCE MORE reminds one of Bryce's "Holy Empire", which, it has been neither holy^ nor

Roman said, is

Roman, nor an em-

pire. It seems, however, that this writer overreached himself when he writes, "Tradition and superstition are important factors in the life of the people of Pennsylvania German communities, for both are esteemed to be conductive to thrift Supernatural powers exercise potent influences over the weal and woe of the people; therefore the supernatural should be heeded and studied"; and "Hex or witch doctors .

and men and women who pow-wow to cure various ailments flourish in some rural districts and also in the cities, though they are not more numerous in proportion to the population than fortune tellers and similar charlatans elsewhere". It was said once before that the writer who wrote what is quoted above did not know what he was writing about the charge may stand and the reader may form his own conclusions. It is the greatest wonder that they have not yet been accused of having brought about the Salem Witchcraft From such an account one might form the idea that all the credulous and superstitious people, all the witch doctors, charlatans, and all those who are in league with the Prince of Darkness are found among the Pennsylvania German people; and that there is not a single, clear, clean, hallowed thought ;

among them He has much

to say about the thriftiness of the people, and imputes some sinister motives *to them because of it. Even when mentioning their interest in education he is anxious to have it understood that it is done chiefly for the money that is in it. are expressly informed that Dr. Schaeffer "frequently has delivered an address before teachers' institutes and at com-

We

mencements showing by statistics just what an education is worth in dollars and cents to a young man starting out in life".

This

may

all

be true; but

it

31

need not be dwelt upon what special emphasis as being a sort of sinister motive. Are these the only people who realize the money value of an education that they need to be branded with the dollar mark? Is it the only thing they see in it, as he would like to have it understood? Has he never heard anyone but a Pennsylvania German bring out the money value of an education? Is it not the money value of an education, the bread and butter theory, that

foremost everywhere, where even Pennsylvania German is entirely unknown? Of course no one sees the money value in any project and strives for it but the Pennsylvania German If he tries to save a dollar or to earn one he is mean, "close", stingy and x sordid! Why may he not be allowed to earn a dollar or save one without bringing a lot of opprobrious terms upon himself? Nothing is said of the scheming scoundrel who amasses his means by unprincipled methods, who is

the

robs a bank (politely termed embezzling!) who steals a railroad or a city's franchises, and carries the manhood of his fellow citizens in his vestpocket. This fellow is a privileged character, and the state is honored in spending

some more money on him. It might be well if lawless, flippant and indifferent young America were taught a few things in regard to honesty, sobriety, and thrift taught ;

some respect

for the domestic virtues,

the beauty of family life and hallowedness of the home, and a reverence for things sacred. Pennsylvania German's honesty, frugality and contentment stand out in noble contrast to the social pollution, scandal and discontentment: just so many sores in the "The State owes life, of the nation. much", to quote from a different writer, "to the solid character of this element in her population, who have illustrated in their lives the development of an uncommon respect for law, the establishment of ideal homes, the adornment of ever)' sphere of private and public service, and. .the building

The

-

.

.

THE PENNSYLVANIA-GERMAN

::i'

up and perpetuating of a system of husbandry that has drawn from the depth of earth's mighty productivity a steady and luxuriant return that has not only enriched the State and promoted the general welfare, but beautified her broad acres until it may be It is said, they blossom as the rose." worth while for penny-newspaper scribblers to sneer at her thrift.

In speaking of innovations, an inciis cited from the Perkiomen Valley where some members of a congregation wished to place a bathtub in the parsonage during the pastor's absence on vacation. The majority of the members objected and the project failed.

dent

understand, of course because of their thrift and unwillingness to incur seemingly unnecessary expenses. The cleanliness of these people will not permit of imIt is

given

that

it

to

was

peachment

;

and

if

writer in

the

the

"Gazette" will look around he will find just as many bathtubs, hot and cold water conveniences, and steam and hot water heating in the rural communities of these people as anywhere else. Just what the writer meant by saying,

"Andrew Jackson

their political

is

ideal" is not quite certin except, probably that some Pennsylvania-Germans democratic and that thus their are At any rate political god is Jackson. it is an old historical expression formerly applied to Berks County, but now without significance or applica;

Whoever would wish to know Lancaster County is strongly republican and Berks County strongly democratic, while the Pennsylvania German element in each is in the majority will do well to read Mr. Eshleman's address at the 200th Anniversary of the arrival of the Swiss Mennonites in Lancaster County. Xor does he convince the reader that the Pennsylvania Germans are more 'indifferent to political matters than tion.

why

formerly when he says: "Their influence in politics was much more pronounced early in the. nineteenth century than now. At that time they elected a succession of governors." They have elected governors since. And at the last election they surely were alive when they came out for reform with their independent vote, but which was snowed under by the political fraud of Philadelphia and Pittsburg. Some of the points taken up by the writer in the "Gazette" are almost too small to be made a matter of further comment, but there has been too much of this of late. This sort of thing has been growing the last ten or fifteen years. Every now and then some writer thinks he is acting "smart" if he can make these people seem ridiculous. More than one writer is "doing" these people by exposing their weaknesses and peculiarities at the expense of

and redeeming qualities, and by catering to the morbid curiosity of a spectacular-loving American public that delights in over-drawn and their virtues

grotesque scenes, because he knows

it

"takes".

The statements made by

the writer the " Independent- Gazette" are in the main true; but they are false, absolutely false, because of what is left unsaid. He has not credited these people with a single noble commendable trait without besmirching it and There is a lack trailing it in the mud.

in

which a fairminded and unprejudiced writer would obviate. These people have their weaknesses and faults they are not better than other people, but they are as good and deserve to be treated as such, but which treatment was not accorded them in the " Independent-Gazette". And through it all there is a tendency of proportion

:

to belittle and everr un called for.

to.

ridicule that

is-

33

Henry Ferdinand von Steuben

Frederick William NOTE.—Address

of C. J. Hexanier, Ph. D., President of the National German Unveiling of the Steuben Statue, Alliance.

true spirit of

military

only would

become

Washington, D. C, December

its officers, and enable win battles, but also felt that its influence would reach far into the future, when, after laying aside their arms, soldiers would again go about their peaceful pursuit, and the golden lessons of fidelity and discipline where every part works for the benefit of the whole, would finally spread through-

LL.

D.,

7th, 1910.

HE

second half of the eighcentury was especially significant and important in the political and cultural development of mankind. Its momentous events occurring in teenth

rapid succession,

men,

its

great

bloody wars, its heroes from the Frederick the Great on a throne down to the lowest ranks of the common people, and its scientists, scholars and thinkers of all nationalities formed in vast array the advent of a new era. The portending signs and events found their culmination in the French its

Revolution, that gigantic broom that swept the cobwebs from the brains of men and removed by one fell stroke the accumulated rubbish of many centuries. The Zeitgeist breathed the equality of man, equal rights and liberty for all. The seeds of coming nations were then sown and a new order of things was evolved. The events leading to the revolution of the American Colonies, and finally culminating in the founding of our republic were some of the many influences

which gave

upheaval

in

rise to the social

On

Europe.

the

other

hand the excesses ror

exerted

of the Reign of Tera beneficient influence in

moderating opinions

in

our young

re-

public people learned that liberty did not mean license and that our constitution stands for a masterful expression of the will of a free people under salutary self-control. ;

Among

the

many

valuable

services

Benjamin Franklin and the "Father of his Country", must be mentioned that they recommended Baron von

of

Steuben to Congress. The genius of Washington, with his knowledge of men and things intuitively grasped the

it

the

army and

him

to

discipline, not a great help to

out the broadest strata of the nation. This was achieved, and was due in a great measure to "Washington's Right

Arm", Baron von Steuben. Flow deep the sympathies

of the best of the German people were at the time for the American colonists in their

struggle for freedom, can

be gleaned from Schiller's newspaper articles, and his "Kabale und Liebe" scourges the utter rottenness of the system whereby German princelings sold their soldiers as mercenaries to England. Franklin, when he met Steuben in France, immediately recognized that he had before him an officer who not 1

only

followed

the

struggle

American Colonies with keen but

of

the

interest,

who

also prayed for their success. best proof of Steuben's sentiments is contained in the letter which he addressed, from Portsmouth, to the Congress of the United States, in which he states that the only motive bringing

The

him

to this

hemisphere

serve a people

is

his desire to a noble

making such

and freedom. He does not crave titles nor money. lis only ambition, in entering our ranks as a volunteer, is to acquire the confidence oi" tlie Commanding General of our armies and to accompany him through all his campaigns, as he did the King of Prussia during the SevenYears' War. lie would like to attain with his life's blood the honor that at some future day his name may be enrolled among the defenders of our fight for their rights

I

liberty.

THE PENNSYLVANIA-GERMAN

34

Though

it

is

to

be

presumed that

sketches the career of this

of

Independence

throughout the

Seven -Years'

extraordi-

War

Fighting at one time against the French, at another against the Rus-

nary man.

Among European

fought

War. At Kunersdorf he was again wounded and taken prisoner. He became adjutant to General von Hiilsen.

Steuben's biography is well-known, I my duty to limn by a few feel it

officers of

our

Frederick

William

Henry Ferdinand von Steuben

is

un-

doubtedly the foremost in military knowledge. He rendered services to our nation which for actual value leave those of others far behind, although

disand Austrians, and so tinguished himself that in 1762 he became captain of the staff and personal adjutant of the King. Later he commanded a cavalry regiment. He resigned his commission in 1763. After several years of service as court marshal to the Prince of Hohenzollern-Hechingen, while a general in the army of the Markgrave of Baden, he again met, on a visit to Paris, in December, 1777 his friend St. Germain, French Minister of War. The latter advised him to go to America. Benjamin Franklin at that time our ambassador to France, did likewise, and rejoiced when he found that it did not require much persuasion. Steuben was considered an authority on military matters. As a member of the staff of Frederick the Great he had actively and carefully studied the commissary departments. He had seen how to. provision and keep armies in an efficient

sians

and knew how to of health, state handle large military bodies. In short, he was "A past master of all the sciences of war, had acquired his knowledge at the most famous high school of those times, and what was himself worthy and distinguished". He no doubt felt that among the

more, he had proved

STATUE OF GEN. von -STEUBEN Unveiled Dec.

7,

1910

COURTESY OF GAELIC AMERICAN

better known ple through the glamour of romance and deeds of a more spectacular dis-

some may be

to our peo-

play.

He was

born on November

15, 1730,

Magdeburg, the son of the Prussian Captain von Steuben, a descendant of an old and noble family, which for generations had produced famous solat

diers.

He

entered the Prussian

Army

at at the early age of 14, was wounded the in serving Prag, of Battle the Volunteer Battalion of von Mayr. and

American patriots he would find excellent raw material, "Free men fighting and capable of enduring every hardship that would lead them to victorv". The masses of remeasures to cruits needed vigorous make them valuable. And in Steuben lived the enthusiasm of the creator, the master, whose heart and soul was We can in truth call him in his work. the "Father of the American Army". Like a father he rejoiced in the progress of his men. He started his work with a number of picked men, and in for libertv, willing

;

FREDERICK WILLIAM HENRY FERDINAND VON STEUBEN

35

a fortnight his company knew how to bear arms and had a miltary air, knew

Only third the Prussian regulations. on the march unanimity of system

how

reigned

to

march

The army was divided into divisions, brigades and regiments, commanded hv major-generals, brigadier-generals

Furloughs and discharges were granted without the knowledge of higher officers. When the troops were in camp, the officers did not stay with them, but lived apart, sometimes several miles away, and in winter went to their homes. Often but four officers remained with a regiment. The officers thought that their duties consisted in attending guard mount and to head their troops in battle. Soldiers did not know how to use their weapons, had no confidence in them, and used their bayonets as spits to broil their food, when they had any. Uniforms could easily be described because the troops were almost naked.

and

The

to march, and to form in columns, deploy and execute manoeuvres with excellent precision. Well could the Secretary of War at the time write that all congratulated themselves on the arrival of such a man, experienced in military matters. His services were the more valuable because the want of discipline and internal order in our army was generally felt and greatly regretted. The general state of affairs on the arrival of Steuben can be gleaned from Steuben's notes, which are preserved in the archives of the Historical Society of New York.

colonels.

Congress had stipulated

number of soldiers for a regiment and a company but the constant flood and tide of men having enlisted for 6 or 9 months, made the condition of a regiment or a company problematical. the

;