The Story of the Pennsylvania Germans; Embracing an account of their Origin, their History, and their Dialect

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The Story f

OF THE

Pennsylvania Germans

Embracing an account their History,

of their Origin,

and their

Dialect.

BY

WILLIAM BEIDELMAN OF THE NORTHAMPTON COUNTY BAR, AND

MEMBER OP THE

PENNSYLVANIA GERMAN SOCIETY.

EASTON, PENNA. EXPKESS BOOK PKINT. 1898.

Copyright 1898.

By William Beidelman. All rights reserved.

DEDICATED Germans who many generations ago were exiled from their homes in the beautiful valleys of the Rhine and iSTeckar in South

To

the descendants of those

Germany on account

of fierce religious,

and

still

fiercer political persecution.

So waren wir und sind

Das

es auch,

edelste Geschlecht,

Von biederm Sinn und reinem Hauch, Und in der Thaten Reeht. Goethe.

'I

PEEPATOEY NOTE. This book has been suggested to the author, by reason of several visits made by him among the people of the Upper Ehine country in South Germany, whenee emigrated the ancestors of the Pennsylvania Germans. Much that the reader will find herein contained is familiar history; but it is believed that there are some Pennsylvania Germans, who may find some things in this unpretentious volimie concerning their ancestors and their history, with which they may not be altogether familiar. It is for them that this book has been primarily viTitten. There are not many people who do not share in the sentiment, which unites one to the history of his race, his kinsmen, and the home of his fathers. This sentiment is rooted deep in the affections of most if not of all people, but with the Germans it is preeminent.

The Pennsylvania Germans, whose ancestors were exiled from their homes in the beautiful valleys of the Ehine and ISTeckar, by fierce religious, and still fiercer political persecution, are yet after the lapse of

many

generations bound by invisible ties to the land which has been consecrated and made hallowed, by the same blood which courses in their veins. The aim of the author has not been to tell any-

thing especially new, but rather to bring together in V

Prefatory Note.

vi.

concise form, an account of the origin, history, and dialect

of the

which led

Pennsylvania Germans; the causes

their ancestors to emigrate to the province

of Pennsylvania, together identified

mth

with

other information

their story.

Por ninch of tliis information the author is indebted to Zimmerman's "History of Germany," Bayard Taylor's "History of Germany," Henri Martin's "History of Prance," Proud's "History of Pennsylvania," Watson's "Annals," Nebenius' "Geschichte die Pfalz," Eckhofl's "In der l^euen Heimath," "Hallischen Naehrichten," and to other sources. Certam magazine and newspaper writers are responsible for much misinformation, which prevails among certain people concerning the Pennsylvania Germans, especially with regard to their dialect. ISTot many years ago an article appeared in the "Atlantic Monthly," wherein it was asserted that "Pennsylvania Dutch" was not German, "nor did they expect you to call it so." The same author afterward perpetuated this misinformation by embodying it in a book. It is scarcely necessaiy to contradict such manifest error; if it were necessary to do so, the

—

examples of the Pfalzisch dialect contained in this volume, and their comparison with Pennsylvania German will refute conclusively all such erroneous contention.

In this volume the Pennsylvania Germans are spoken of as Germans, because that is the only designation which is justified by reason of their race, their history, and their speech.

THE AUTHOR. Easton, Pa., 1898.

CONTENTS. CHAPTER. I.

II.

PAGE.

—

Introductory. Earliest known German Tribes. Their Contact with the Romans, Franks, Goths, Saxons and Alemanni,

—

The Palatinate (German

Pfalz),

III.

The Devastation

IV.

The Province of Pennsylvania,

V.

VI.

VIII.

IX.

.

15

.

of the Palatinate,

German Emigration

.

35

.

to Pennsylvania,

— Palatines

settle in Ireland,

The Quakers and the Proprietors, The Pennsylvania Germans in History. .

— In the Revolution,

XII.

59 76

—

Dialect. English Infusion. Pfalzisch and Pennsylvania German Compared,

—

.

XI.

40

81

The Pennsylvania German Its

X.

22

German Emigration to other American Colonies.

VII.

.

1

The German and Dutch Languages,

.

102 123

Schools, Churches and Religious Sects,

129

Social Life AND Customs,

138 yii.

—

—

Contents.

viii.

XIII.

Life in Pennsylvania in the Early Days op its Settlement. Courts and the Administration of Justice. Early Legislation,

—

Appendix A.

166

Examples op Ppalzisch, South

German and Pennsylvania German Dialects,

Appendix

B.

Appendix

C.

—Vocabulary, — Briep Personal Sketches op Eng-

179 195

lish, German, and Palatine Rulers prom 1682 to 1770, the period of the great exodus op German Pala-

tines TO Pennsylvania,

212

Appendix D.— A Chronological Table of all THE REIGNING PRINCES OF THE PaLATINATE, FROM THE FIRST ELECTOR IN 1147, UNTIL 1801, WHEN THE Electorate BECAME EXTINCT,

224

Appendix E. — Glossary,

232

1

THE STORY Or THE

PENNSYLVANIA GERMANS. CHAPTER

I.

INTEODtrCTION.

—The Cimbriana —Their Invasion lloman —They Eomans. —They invade Gaul. — Romans begin Conquest the Germans. —The Struggle Continues More than Five —Decline the Roman Power. — Barbarous Condition the German —The Four Chief German —Development the Alemannic Race. — The Franks the Alemanni. —Founding the — Conrad Ilohen—Extinction the —The Alemanni an Important Con-

Earliest;

Ivho-vto

German

Tribes.

and Tuetonians. Provinces.

of the

defeat

the

the

of

Centuries.

of

of

Tribes.

Tribes.

of defeat of Palatinate State. staufen, Its First Elector. Electorate.

stituent

of

the

First

of

of

German Empire.

—-The

Alemanni the Progenitors of the Pennsylvania Germans. In telling the story of the Pennsylvania Germans, a brief review of the

ginning with the

German

race in Europe, be-

earliest authentic accounts of

it,

will

enable us to trace the movements of the various tribes

The Story of

2

the

during successive periods, until we find an important

branch of the original stock settled in the region of the

Upper Khine,

in the South of

Germany, whence

the ancestors of the Pennsylvania Germans emigrated.

The German

race

an important branch of the

is

Teutonic stock, which constitutes a chief group of the races

comprising,

family. It

is

or

Aryan

home

of the

Indo-European

the

•

known where

not

A

Indo-Europeans was.

the original vast

amount of

literature

has been produced on this subject by ethnologists, and other investigators, with varying views, only to leave

the question of man's birthplace in dispute and doubt.

The weight

of the

more

recent,

and best evidence on

the subject seems to locate his original habitat, at

some

point,

"somewhere on the southern slope of the

vast chain of moimtains

unbroken

ward

line

to the

which extend in an almost

from the northern coast of Spain

east-

Himalayas, and from our present knowl-

edge the western rather than the eastern extremity of this chain,

is

that

which

offers the

higher probability

of having been the cradle of the species."

The period during which species of the

human

the dissemination of the

race began,

the gloom of prehistoric times.

is

also

The

shrouded in

first

authentic

Pennsylvania Germans.

German

accounts of certain

3

tribes, locates

them

in the

region of the Baltic Sea, as early as the middle of the

fourth century, B. C,

It appears that adventurers

from the south of Europe,

visited the shores of the

Baltic at that early period in search of trade, and there

found numeroiis like people, It

is

tribes of a fiercely savage

who proved

to

be German

tribes.

believed that soon after their discovery on the

shores of the Baltic, some of

from

and war-

their homes,

of Europe.

It

them began

to

migrate

and spread throughout other parts

was

not, however, until several cen-

turies after their first discovery, that

any accurate

knowledge of those people was gained.

About the beginning

of the second century B. C.

known

two barbarous German

tribes,

brians and Teutonians,

came down from the north

of Europe, and

made

a descent on the

as the

Eoman

Cim-

prov-

inces.

Their coming was unheralded, and they came

in such

overwhelming numbers,

the

Romans.

dismay to

History informs us that the fierceness

of the invaders,

with terror to

as to bring

made

resist

the

them

The unwelcome

Eoman power

impotent

for a time.

visitors

claimed that they had

been driven from their homes, on the shores of the Baltic and ISTorth seas,

by the inundation of

their set-

4

The Story

of the

tlements, and that they were in search of

That they came

to stay

new homes.

was not doubted, because they

brought with them, their wives and children, and

all

their personal effects.

The Romans sternation into

which they had been thrown, by the

precij)itous descent

ages, raised

from the con-

after they recovered

upon them by the invading

up an army

sav-

against them, to resist their

further advance, but were defeated in a great battle,

fought in the north of Italy.

After

this battle the

invaders marched into Gaul, destroying everything in their way, leaving nothing but ruin their trail. tribes

It has

been estimated that the invading

numbered 200,000.

ten years, they returned,

Romans

in battle,

From make

this

and desolation in

After being absent about

when they

again met the

and were defeated.

time on, other

incursions into the

German

Roman

tribes

provinces, which

\ir brought them into frequent conflict with the

who were very

Romans

aggressively engaged at that period in

extending their dominion by conquest.

After having

brouglit the greater part of

Gaul under

they began the conquest of

German

Romans soon

began to

learned, that they

people to deal with,

who were

their sway,

territory.

The

had a formidable

in possession of the

Pennsylvania Germans. greater part of Central Europe, and resistance to their advance. lasted for

many

years, the

5

who made

After a struggle wliich

Romans succeeded

lishing themselves in that part of Europe,

the

Danube on the

north.

Beyond

south,

fierce

in estab-

bounded by

and by the Main on the

Romans could

that region, the

cenetrate, although they kept the struggle

not

up for

years.

The

struggle only

ceased with the decline of the

Roman

empire, after

more than

five

hundred

which the Germans ritory,

lost

no time in recovering the

ter-

which the Romans had deprived them of dur-

ing the long struggle.

The Germans not only recovered

the region be-

tween the Daniibe and the Main, but pushed forward toward the south,

as far as Switzerland,

area re-occupied by them

has remained

German

German

making the

territory,

which

ever since.

THE GKRMAKS DURING THE PERIOD OF THEIR CONFLICT

WITH THE ROMANS.

The German

tribes

with which the

Romans were

in conflict during the early centuries of our era, were

numerous, and besides fighting

were frequently

at

war with each

a

common enemy,

other.

Their prow-

The Story

6 ess in

war was

all times, it is

great,

and

if

of the

s

they had been united at

not believed that the

Eomans

could

ever have succeeded in crossing the Rhine, or to have

been able to penetrate frequent quarrels

as far as the

Danube.

The

among them weakened them, and

encouraged the Eomans to keep up the struggle for their subjugation.

We know

Romans

are indebted to the

for all that

of the early history of the various

we

German

tribes.*

One would suppose

that the

German

tribes

who

*According to Bayard Taylor's "History oi Germany" the German during their early contact with the Romans were settled, east of the Rhine, except two or three small tribes, which are supposed to have crossed that river and settled between the Vosges and the Rhine, from Strasburg to Mayence. The greater part of Belgium was occupied at that time by "the Eburones and Condrusii, to which were afterwards added the Aduatuci. At the mouth of the Rhine dwelt the Batavi, the forefathers of the Dutch. A little eastward of the Rhine, on the shores of the North sea, dwelt the and beyond Frisii, where they still dwell in the province of Friesland them, about the mouth of the Weser. lived the Chauci. What is now Westphalia was inhabitated by the Sicambrians the Marsi and Ampsiyarii lived beyond them, towards the Hartz, and south of the latter the Ubii, from the Weser to the Elbe, in the north was the land of the Cherusci south of them were the Chatti, the ancestors of the modern Hessians; and still further south along the headwaters of the Main were the Marcomanni. The Hermunduri, were settled in what is now Saxony, with their kindred, the Chatti, who were called Suevi by the Romans. Northward toward the mouth of the Elbe, dwelt the Longobardi (Lombards) beyond them, in Holstein the Saxons; and north of the latter, in tribes,

;

;

;

;

Schleswig, the Angles. East of the Elbe were the Semnones north of them dwelt the Vandals, and along the Baltic coast the Rugii between these and the Vistula were In the extreme northeast, the Burgundiones, and a few smaller tribes. between the Vistula and where Konigsburg now stands, was the home of the Goths, south of whom were the Slavonic Sarmatians, who afterwards founded Poland. The German tribes enumerated constituted all the tribes with which the ;

;

Roman power contended

for five centuries,

few of which have their names

preserved in history. It will be seen later on in this volume how all the names of the German tribes disappeared, and were merged into four principle ones.

Pennsylvania Germans.

had a common religion

and

connected with,

origin,

common

with a

habits,

1 ties of

blood,

destiny,

would

have lived alongside of each other in peace, with a coianion

enemy

But when we

conquest.

were

constantly in sight threatening their

still

consider that those people

saA^ages in the early centuries of

our era,

and that scarcely more than a generation ago, civilized descendants

their

engaged in frequent bloody wars

with their own kinsmen,

it

ought not occasion much

surprise, that their savage ancestors indulged in similar pastimes

At

many

centuries ago.

when

the close of the fifth century,

power was broken, and

its

from German

they

territory,

their civilized arts,

the

legions began to withdi'aw left

behind not a few of

which the Germans acquired dur-

ing several centuries of contact with them withstanding, the

Roman

Germans were

savage people in their habits, and

had not yet learned

to

but not-

and

a fierce

still

mode

;

of

hve in towns and

life.

villages

They ;

the

country occupied by them was an unbroken wilderness,

through which roamed "wild animals, only a

little

more savage than the German tribes themselves."

It is remarkable, ers

during

Romans,

how few names

hundred years of

of

German

lead-

confiict

with the

are preserved in history, while the

names of

five

The Story

8

of the

Eoman

heroes confront us on every page.

the few

German names which we come

names of Hermann, the

who

destroyed the

first

Roman

great

in the

who

battles over the

Alemannic chieftain

Rome, and

;

who invaded Gaul

Romans

Alarich,

;

;

Marbod,

who

;

Theodormar, an

led the Goths into

The

Geiserich, king of the Yandals.

Romans were come down

the chroniclers of to us

all

to the fact

the events

from those days

to the

and were more concerned about the fame of

present, their

Yarns Ario-

German names may be owing

poverty of

that have

leader,

head of the Suevi and Marcomanni, won

at the

that the

German

century before the Christian era

first

numerous

across, are the

legions under

vistus, chief of the ancient Suevi,

Among

own

heroes, than of that of the

IKTLTJENCE OF

EOMAN

During the wars

CIVILIZATION ON THE aEKMANS. for the subjugation of the Ger-

mans the

latter profited

Romans.

They acquired some

customs, and

it

Germans.

by

their contact with the

of their habits

and

has been asserted that those civilizing

influences extended to the speech and laws of their

eonquerers. quest,

While the Romans were bent on con-

they were

also

civilizers.

Wherever they

Pennsylvania Germans. succeeded

prompt

in

themselves,

introducing

in

when

that

establishing

they

left

puted possession

of

9

their

civilization

Germans

the

country,

their

were

they

so

undis-

in

after

;

a

lapse

of centuries, they left the impress of their civilization

upon them, which became a valuable upon which the Germans began of their own,

acquisition,

to build a civilization

which was destined

to

outgrow that of

their tutors.

The

military stations of the

German towns and

Romans grew

into

Everywhere along the

cities.

Rhine, and throughout Central and Southern Ger-

many

are niimerous prosperous cities

attest their

Roman

in the conquered

highways that led

The Romans

origin. territory,

to

Rome,

whose names built roads

which connected with

so as to bring all parts of

the subjugated country in easy communication with

the

Roman

capital

;

streams were spanned by stone

arched bridges, whose enduring piers and foundations still

remain, to be pointed out to the tourist at the

present day. It

can thus be seen

civilization

how

the influences of

helped the Germans, to

barbarous condition, to a higher

were apt

scholars,

state.

rise

Roman

from

their

The Germans

and long before the middle

ages,

10

they had outstripped the civilized

The to

Story of the

TTie

many

other people, in

many

of

arts.

tribal

names hereinbefore mentioned, began

disappear soon after the struggle between the

Romans and

the

Germans began.

Different tribes

became united with each other from various causes often no doubt for mutual aid and protection

small and

weak

;

;

while

were absorbed, by larger and

tribes

stronger ones.

About the

close of the third century

begiiming of the fourth,

all tribal

A. D. or the

names had

disap-

peared from history except those of the Alemanni, Franks,

Saxons and Goths

merged

into these four

eristics

continued, chief

speech.

It

dialects of

is

;

;

all

although

other names had

many

tribal charact-

among which was

that of

claimed by certain philologists, that the

some of those early German

tribes

can yet

be traced, in some of the numerous dialects spoken by the

common

day.

When

people in certain parts of it

is

Germany at this

considered that there are people

living in the moimtainous region of Switzerland, after the lapse of

more than a thousand years

their progenitors dwelt in the

same region,

still

a corrupted Latin dialect, the foregoing claim

be entitled to some

credit.

who since

speak

may

Pennsylvania Germans.

11

THE FRANKS, GOTHS, SAXONS AND ALEMANNI. After the various

names became merged

tribal

in

the four mentioned, a national formative process was

begun by each, which resulted variously during a

The Franks were

century or more. sive,

and soon overran Gaul, and

of the

the most progres-

laid the foundation

They occupied

kingdom of Trance.

at this

time the region of the lower course of the Scheldt, the

Me use, not,

and the region west of the Rhine.

however, separate at once from

with the other

German

graphical union with

tribes,

them

all

They

did

connection

but maintained a geo-

for several centuries, until

they finally became separated, during the process of the formation of the European nations.

The Goths during about

the same period were scat-

tered over a large area north of the Danube,

from

Roman Roman power

which they made frequent incursions into the provinces, against

could

make but

which the declining

The Saxons

little resistance.

same time dwelt along both

at the

sides of the Elbe, extend-

ing northAvest to the !North Sea, and west as far as the

Lower Rhine. of to-day. origin,

Hieir name

is

preserved in the Saxony

The Alemanni were

but they embraced

many

chiefly of Suevic

other

German

tribes,

12

Tlie

name, Alemanni

as their

nations

Story of the

—

indicates.

—

all

men, or men of

In the third century of our

all

era,

they occupied the region from the Main to the

Danube, from whence they were driven by the

Romans, but which

territory they recovered after the

Koinan empire began

to decline.

They not only

re-

from which

established themselves in the country

they had been driven, but extended their dominion as far as the

Rhine and beyond, including Alsace

and part of Lorraine.

Southward they pressed

for-

ward, until they occupied the greater part of South

Germany, and Eastern and Northern Switzerland.

At their

the

the end of six hundred years, from the time of

first

contact with the

German

races

Romans, the triumph of

was complete,

were never again disturbed by a

Alemanni remained

after

which they

Roman

in the region of the

The

foe.

Upper Rhine

country, where they developed into the race, from

which sprung the progenitors of those Germans, who

many

way

to

Penn'

Alemanni

as the

German

tribes.

centuries afterwards found their

sylvania.

The Roman largest,

They

writers regarded the

and most formidable of

all

the

constituted a league of different

against which the

Romans

German

races

struggled in vain, and

Pennsylvania Germans.

when

the latter ceased to offer

much

13 resistance, the

Alemanni themselves undertook the part of conquer-

About the

ors.

close of the fifth century they

an army under Clovis, the on a

field

first

French king, in

met

battle,

not far from the present city of Cologne, in

which they were defeated, when they withdrew

to

Southwestern Germanv where their descendants are living at this day.

During the whole period of Gerj

man the

history,

from the founding of the

Alemanni constituted

With

empire, [

a very important element,

and for many centuries maintained an independent

first

influential and,

political existence.

the coming into existence of the princely

family of Hohenstaufen, in the twelfth century, whose

members furnished to

Germany, the

a long line of kings and emperors

was

political state of the Palatinate

founded, with Conrad of Hohenstaufen as the

first

prince invested vnth the Electoral authority by his brother, the

Emperor Frederick

I.

The Palatinate as a

distinct hereditary sovereignty, continued for nearly

seven himdred years, until in 1801, extinct,

in

and

its

territory

went

when

it

became

to the adjoining states

Germany, except Rhenish Bavaria, which yet

mains

to

remind

us, of the dignity of a

re-

once influen-

The Story

14

During

tial principality.

of the

tlie

continuance of the old

state of tlie Palatinate, its people spread to

Baden,

Wurtemberg, Swabia, Bavaria, the Tyrol, and

parts

All of these states contributed to the

of Switzerland.

German emigration

to Pennsylvania,

same

cally spoke the

dialect,

and

all practi-

which came down from

the Alonanni, and which students claim to be the best

type of old

High German,

as

exists in

it

German

liter-

ature from the eighth to the eleventh century.

Down

to the time

when

the

Romans

^

quitted Ger-

many, there had been no successful attempts made nationalize the

German

races,

to

notwithstanding the

greater part of Europe had fallen under their sway.

Soon

after this period, the races

began

to coalesce,

and lay the groundwork from which the European nations began to be evolved.

The Franks, who

con-

quered Gaul founded the kingdom of France about this time.

The Alemanni who were

Southwestern

G ermany

established in

and who had maintained their

independence long before that period, also began the formation of a national existence with a hereditary chief at the head.

powerful

political division of the first

which dates Verdun.

Later they constituted the most

its

existence

German

empire,

from 843, with the Treaty of

—

CHAPTER THE PALATINATE,

II.

(gEKMAN PFALz).

Palatinate as an Independent State of Germany. Erection of the Electorate. Division of the Palatinate. Prance Takes a Portion. Its Re-

—

—

storation to Germany." nate.

—Present

—Ancestors the —Exodus German —The Rhine of

mans.

of

vania.

—

Rhine

Pennsylvania

Palati-

Ger-

Palatines to PennsylPalatinate the Battlegrotmd

of all Europe.

The

Palatinate

was formerly an independent

state of

Germany, and

ritorial

divisions, respectively called the

consisted of two separate ter-

Upper, or

Bavarian Palatinate, and the Lower, or Rhine Palati-

The Bavarian

nate.

Palatinate

now forms

ern part of the kingdom of Bavaria.

Rhine Palatinate was

situated

the north-

The Lower,

on both

or

sides of the

Rhine, bounded by Wurtemberg and Baden on the east

;

Baden and Lorraine on the south (15)

;

Alsace and

The Story

16

Lorraine on the west. cities of I'reves

It

of the

extended nortli as far as the

and Mainz.

In the twelfth century the Palatinate was erected

which

into a hereditary monarchy, as already stated,

was ruled by about

tlie

electors of the old

German

empire, until

middle of the seventeenth century, when

the two territories were divided, and the Upper Palatinate

became united with Bavaria

while the Rhine

;

Palatinate continued in the possession of the original

During the eighteenth century, the two

dynasty. districts

were again united imder the elector Charles

Theodore,

who

afterwards

also

became

king

of

Bavaria.

During the Prench Revolution, Prance took session of that part of the Palatinate

pos-

on the west bank

of the Rhine, but after the fall of Napoleon in 1815, that ]iart was again restored to

Germany.

and Hesse-Darmstadt received a

part,

part fell to Bavaria.

Rhine

Palatinate, as

many, and sia

is

Prussia

but the greater

This part constitutes the present is

shown on the map

bounded by the Rhine on the

and iresse-Darnistadt on the north

raine on the south and west.

It

;

of Ger-

east

;

Prus-

Alsace-Lor-

forms a Regierungs-

hezirk of Bavaria, with Speyer for

its capital.

After 1801, the Rhine Palatinate ceased to exist

Fenmylvania Germans. as

an independent

and

17

territory was divided under the terms of the Treaty of Luneville, by which state,

JSTapoleon dictated, that the

its

Ehine should thenceforth

By

be the frontier of Prance.

the terms of that treaty,

the territory comprising the Ehine Palatinate was

divided between Hesse-Darmstadt, Baden, Leinigen-

Dachsburg, 'Ba&sau Ehine.

;

Prance taking

all

west of the

This partition of the Palatinate remains un-

disturbed at this day, with the exception of that part

which

fell

to

Prance, which Avas transferred back

again to Germany,

after

IS^apoleon's

downfall,

as

stated.

Ihere

is

nothing in

all

sesses a greater interest,

German

history,

which

pos-

1

than the story of the Ehine

In that beautiful country dwelt the ancestors of the Pennsylvania Germans two centuries ago, be-

Pfalz.

A journey through the valley of the Upper Ehine at the present day will suggest the inquiry, why a people should wish to leave so fair an estate. Is^owhere has nature been fore persecution drove

more

lavish in bestowing

land.

vated

ruined

them from

its

it.

bounties, than in that fair

There, are to be seen, the most highly fields

;

vine-clad hills

castles, that tell of a

;

culti-

enchanting scenery

;

once feudal dignity and (2)

\

\

[

j

I

The Story

18 glory.

The

Ehine

valley of the

den of Germany,"

if

however which led

of the

not of

all

is

indeed "

tlie

The

Europe.

gar-

causes

enormous emigration from

to the

the charming Rhine nigh unto two hundred years ago

were

irresistable.

For m_ore than

They a

are written in fire

thousand years, reaching far back

into the earliest times, the

which the Romans, There

is

and blood.

G auls

Rhine was the

prize for

and the Germans contended.

no region of country on the globe, of equal

extent, that lias witnessed so

many

Sicts as the Palatinate of the

sanguinary con-

Rhine.

It

where the Romans struggled for more than turies to

subdue the

them unconquered the

fierce

five cen-

German tribes, only

to leave

end of that time.

After

at the

Romans withdrew,

there

is

the Palatinate continued to be

The

the battlefield of rival races and of nations.

many

strategic points along the stream

made

it

always

a rich prize to be coveted by European nations at

war with each other, which was nearly

all

when

the time.

'No matter what nations were engaged in war the scene of their conflict was almost invariably transferred to the

Irom no

Upper Rhine country. nation did the Rhine provinces suffer

more, than from the French. cessant wars of the

The

battles of the in-

French monarchs, were almost

Pennsylvania Germans.

19

invariably fouglit in the region of the Rhine. late as the

the

Franco-German war,

promptness

marched

army

r

which

with

to the frontier,

defeated

it,

and drove

in the

the

had not been for

German

troops

where they met the French back npon French

it

ritory, the operations of that

more taken place

if it

Aa

ter-

war would have once

Rhine country.

The crimes committed

in the Palatinate, in con-

sequence of religious intolerance, fanaticism, and political

human

persecution, are unparalled in the history of

They make the

savagery.

blackest pages in

the history of the whole world.

The German

Palatines, at an early day,

the tenets of the Reformation

most of the other German

;

embraced

so did the people of

states.

This exercise of

freedom of thought in matters pertaining to religion, soon brought them in collision with the perors,

who continued

lic faith.

The See

it

Rome

of

heresy every^vhere, events,

to adhere to the

would seem

Roman

Catho-

determined to crush out

and judging from subsequent as if the Palatines

lected as the special victims fullest

German em-

upon

whom

vengeance of the Catholic princes.

manifested the greatest

zeal, in

had been

se-

to inflict the

The

latter

seconding the injunct-

lo

The Story

The

ions of the papal authority.

followed

soon

against the

after

of the

Martin

religious contentions

Luther's

protestation

Church of Rome, and they continued

more than one hundred

for

They were waged

years.

with a cruelty and ferocity compared to which the crimes of the Turks in later years against the Christian

Armenians pale

into a

mere shadow.

During the Thirty Years'

War

the Palatinate was

frequently ravaged by contending armies.

Both the

Protestants and Catholics, in South Germany, were

among

the

religion,

war

to take

first

up arms

in defense of their

which made the Palatinate the theatre of

at once,

and

it

continued the scene of

most important

conflicts until

of thirty years.

Even when

for a time to

many

of

its

peace came at the end the war was transferred

Bohemia and elsewhere, the Palatinate

did not get a respite, for

was then invaded by a

it

Spanish army under Spinola in 1620, and again in

1645 the armies under Turenne and Conde, invaded the Palatinate and each time

When peace phalia,

came

at last

it

was devastated.

with the Treaty of West-

by which Protestantism was saved

many, hwt

to

Ger-

at a fearful cost, the Palatines retired

from

the contest, believing that their persecutions had

come

to

an end.

The war

left

them

now

in a frightfully

Pennsylvania Germans. Tlieir land

impoverished condition.

21

had been turned

into a desert, their substance wasted, a great part of

the population had been destroyed, while those

were

had declined morally and mentally to such

left,

an extent, well as of

as to require very all

Germany

many

to recover

alization, as the result of the

With

who

years for them, as

from the demor-

Thirty Years' "War.

the end of the war, the Protestant Palatines

gained religious freedom

compel them

;

it

to worship

was no longer sought to

God

point of the

at the

sword, in violation of the dictates of their conscience.

But

there was not yet peace for them.

cutions were not yet to end.

The echoes

ing of arms of the Thirty Years' ceased,

when

heard, and

it

War

of the clash-

had scarcely

the tramp of the invader was again

was not long before the unfortunate Pal-

atines learned, that the worst cruelties inflicted

Their perse-

upon them.

were yet

to

be

i

—

CHAPTER

III.

THE DEVASTATION OF THE PALATINATE.

Death of the Elector Philip Wilhelm. seeks the

—Louis XIY.

Electorate for His Sister-in-law, the

—He invades the —Louvois the King's Secretary War. Order. — Burning Score of and Towns the —The

Duchess of Orleans. nate.

Palati-

of

His atrocious

of a

in

Cities

Palatinate.

Palati-

nate overrun and Devastated by the French. William III. of England succors the Palatines. Persecutions Imperial Germany also acts. By Louvois, Tesse, and Duras. Heidelberg sacked and Burned. Its Inhabitants expelled.

—

— — — — Peace and the Treaty Ryswick. —The War the Spanish — German EmigraAmerica — Causes German of

of

Succession.

tion

begins.

to

of

Emigration.

We

have now reached a period in the history of

the Palatinate,

when

transpired there, will

a recital of the events

which

show the chief reasons for the

large emigration of the

Palatines to

(22)

America, of

Pennsylvania Germans.

whom

tlie

23

province of Pennsylvania received by far

the larger number.

Upon

the death of the Elector Philip Wilhelm, in

168S, John Wilhelm, his eldest son, became the lawful successor to the Electorate. Louis

XIV.

undertook to usurp the Electorate for his

of Erance

sister-in-law,

the Duchess of Orleans.

In the autumn of 1688, there began a chapter in the history of the Palatinate which has no parallel in

the history of the world, for savage brutality, and the atrocities perpetrated

by the French

soldiers,

with

the approbation, and under the direction of the French

monarch. The invasion of the Palatinate was attended

by such monstrous

crimes, that a belief in

them

taxes

the creduhty of mankind, notwithstanding the barbarities

of the

Turks in these

later days,

l^o war was

ever waged with such ferocity, as characterized the

French attempt

to subjugate the Palatinate.

In September, 1G88, Louis entered on his campaign of invasion, and in

less

than two months from

that time, the whole of the Palatinate was overrun his soldiers,

desolate

under Louvois, Boufflers, and Marshal de

The whole country was

Duras. ;

by

towns and

cities

were

pillaged,

laid in ashes,

and made and more

than one hundred thousand of the inhabitants mur-

24

The Story of

The descent

dered.

Palatinate

of the

the

French troops into the

came unexpectedly, and was made with

such suddenness, as to give no chance to arrest the

After Louis had

progress of the invaders.

set

up the

claims of the Duchess of Orleans, and promised to sustain her pretensions

by force

government determined

of arms, the

German

to sustain the lawful elector's

But the imperial government was weak,

just claim.

without being prepared to come speedily to

the..aid of

the lawful prince, while the Palatines were able to

make but

feeble resistance against the invaders,

who

soon overwhelmed the people, and more than a score of beautiful cities and towns, fell into the hands of Louis' ferocious soldiers, to which they applied the torch,

and the sword

to the inhabitants,

were spared,

—not even the women and

The

which controlled the

spirit

none of

whom

children.

of the

soldiers

French king can be judged, by the order which Louvois

made

people in

to his subordinates in tlie

country capable of setting

at niglit, in order that places too

by

troops,

command remote

:

to " seek

fire to

to

houses

be reached

might nevertheless submit through

fear, to

the levy of contributions."

Wliilc the work of destruction was going on, the crafty Louis succeeded in involving the imperial gov-

Pennsylvania Germans.

emment, under an incompetent prince

To

Austria.

ment impotent ceeded

of

who

Germany.

perial

weak

Loiiis

suc-

war feeling against

the

to

devote

Hungary and

its

attentions

they

the

to

Austria, while the Pal-

left to take care of themselves.

Being too

overwhelming power of the French

to resist the

soldiers,

a

govern-

threatened to invade the very heart

government

were

German

Those conditions compelled the im-

threatenings of atines

the

on the part of the Hungarians and

ruler,

the Turks,

make

war with

in a

to succor the Palatines,

creating

in

German

further

still

25

an easy prey to their ferocity, not-

fell

withstanding they

made

a heroic struggle in defence

of their homes and firesides.

While the Palatines on both

sides of the

Rhine,

had thus fallen under the cruel yoke of the French and

sovereigTi

remained for

his brutal tyranny, \'ictims of the

diers,

were ready

came

a

fury of the French

sol-

to surrender in hopeless despair, there

relief to the Palatines

whohad escaped death

hands of the brutal minions of Louis XIV.

James

TI. of

England had

just then abdicated the

English throne and fled the country, of

still

ray of shining hope from England, which

promised at the

and those who

Orange

Avas

made king

of England.

when

AYilliam

Soon after

his

The Story

26 accession,

generous prince began to turn Lis

tliis

tention, to the suffering

His

Palatinate.

declaration

found

step towards tlieir relief

war against Louis.

of

Europe entering

When

king..

first

at-

and persecuted people of the was a

William soon

by the greater part of

efforts seconded,

]iis

of the

into a league against the

French

the Palatines learned what the English

king intended doing for their

relief, their rejoicings

were unbounded, and they gathered new hope, and

new courage At

power..

in their efforts to break the

the same time there were

French

many happen-

ings in Europe, which caused fresh complications

of which operated against Louis.

Spain

and

Scandinavian

the

against him.

With such an

;

all

England, Holland, states

all

combined

array of force united

against the French tyrant, the imperial government of

Germany was aroused

the Palatinate, and

doomed. to enter

He

it

to

new

began

action, in defence of

to look as if Louis

was

was undaunted, however, and prepared

on several new campaigns with renewed vigor.

iNTotwithstanding his crimes in the Palatinate, he was able to raise large accessions to his

army

The threatening

attitude of the

European powers,

made Louis more

cautious in his future movements,

and he decided on

a defensive

war

in

Germany.

in the Palatinate

:

Pennsylvania Germans. thencefortli, wliile

lie

27

in order to liead off the English

king in his determination to relieve the Palatines, hastened to take steps to invade Ireland, as the best

means hj which enterprise Louis

than he had

to

embarrass William.

In

this

new

found that he needed more troops

at his disposal

;

for a large portion of his

troops were required to garrison the places in the Palatinate

which had already fallen into the hands of

soldiers.

But the

cruel genius of so great a monster

as Louis, did not require

way

much

deliberation to find a

The scheme entered upon

out of the difiiculty.

by Louis and

his

his generals, has been characterized by

eminent Prench historian,

as

an

one which has "sullied

with an inetfacable stain the reign of Louis the Great."

For an accoimt of the

atrocities perpetrated in the

execution of the scheme determined upon,

here

let

the French historian, Henri Martin,

we tell

will

the

story

It was impossible to furnish garrisons to all places recently conquered, or rather invaded, without renewing with more dangerous consequences, the mis-

take of 1672.

The advanced

had already been abandoned

posts of

—somewhat

Wurtemberg precipitately

Louvois counselled the king, cities that could not be held, so that the posts from which the king's troops should

in January,

16S9. utterly to destroy the

The Story of

28

the

retire might henceforth serve no one. Louis after some hesitation, gave his signature to this expedient, worthy of Tartar conquerors. They began with the trans-Rhenish Palatinate. Laudenberg and Heidelberg Avere burned, after the inhabitants had been warned to leave with their families, their cattle and

their furniture.

The

castle of Heidelberg, the resi-

dence of the Elector-Palatine, was sapped and blown

up

;

its

beautiful ruins are

testimony of Louvois' fury.

still

to posterity a living

The

mills, the bridges,

down the whole was set on fire. Tesse, the executioner of this infernal work (he was nevertheless one of the leaders of the dragonades) had not the heart to see more, or drive the unfortunate inhabitants from among the all

the public buildings, were torn

;

city

ruins of their city. He left with his soldiers. The citi/ens extinguished the conflagration behind him,

German

troops,

themselves in the ruins of the

castle.

and called fied

to their aid the

who

forti-

On

the

news of this, Louvois became furious that Heidelberg had not been entirely burned and destroyed, ordered

Mannheim should not only be burned, but thatnot one stone should be leftonanother, (March, 1869). Of the new conquests beyond the Rhine, Philippsburg alone was preserved. As to the countries on the left bank, the French contended themselves at first with dismantling the cities and blowing up the fortifications belonging to the Palatinate, and the electorates of Mayence and Treves, save Mayence which was made an im])ortant stronghold. But when the hostile forces began to threaten Mayence, the chief of the French army of the Rhine, Marshal Duras, proposed to the king and the minster a frightful resolution, namely, to destroy, not only the burghs and villages which tliat

Pennsylvania Germans.

29

might facilitate an attack on Mayence, but all the towns in the neighborhood of the Rhine between Mayence and Phiiippsburg. The fatal word given, Duras became terrified at it himself, and wished to recede from what he had proposed. Loiivois did not He allow his prey to be thus snatched from him caused the king to order the Marshal to consummate the deed Speyer, Worms, Oppenheim, Bingen Frankenthal were condemned to the flames. Franchises and privileges were offered to the magistrates for such as would be willing to emigrate to Lorraine, Alsace, Franche-Corate, with means of transport for Those who should refuse their household goods. might transport their goods to fortified towns belonging to the king, but not among enemies. Thus even !

I

the consolation of taking refuge among their countrymen was refused them. This was monstrous its exaction worse. Jt is only too easy to conceive all the license and rapacity of the soldiers must have added to those of desolation. It had been desired that the celebrated cathedrals of "Worms and Speyer, as well as the episcopal palaces, and the effects thaf the inhabitants had not been able to carry away, but had been collected there be saved, but the fire reached the churches, and burned whatever coukl be burned (end of May, beginning of June). This beautiful country which the middle ages had adorned with so many religious and military monuments, presented only a mass of smoking ruins, as if a new Atilla had passed over Gaul and Germany. One hundred thousand unfortunates driven from ;

their homes, in flames,

Geniiany, from

all

demanded vengeance from

all

Europe, and raised against the still more gerieral than that

great king an indignation,

30

Tlie

Story of the

had been raised against tlie Frencli refugees. of the Rhine whom nature has attached ties to France, vowed a long and implicable resentment against its government, which was to wliicli

The people by so many

be exinguished only with the monarchy of Louis XIV. in the presence of a new France.

One

other historian in speaking of the cruelties

perpetrated

by the French,

elector beheld

from

soldiers

his castle at

fire

"The

Mannheim two

and twenty-five towns in flames, where walked hand in hand with

says:

cities

lust

and rapine

and sword."

Another

records that while the burning of cities and towns was in progress,

and the country was being turned into a

desert, the defenceless inhabitants

begging for mercy

on their bended knees, were stripped naked and driven into the fields in mid-winter, where they perished in the

The

snow from hunger and

atrocities here

tion of all the rulers of

cold.

recounted raised the indigna-

Europe

to the highest pitch,

and resolved on an offensive and defensive treaty against the French, and determined that they would

not lay

down

their

humbled, and Affaii's in

now

all

arms until the French king was his

conquests

taken from him.

Europe favored the scheme of the princes

allied against Louis,

ginning to haye

because the latter was be-

much more on hand than he was

able

Pennsylvania Germans. to attend to.

cession on

He

hand

;

had

tlie

war of

Spanish, suc-

tlie

he was bent on restoring James

to the throne of England, all of

weakened him

31

which enterprises

in the Palatinate, because

troops had to be withdrawn

from

II.

many

of his

there, because they

were needed elsewhere, while the German princes entered with renewed vigor on the work of expelling

German

the French armies from

conditions in the fall of 1689.

soil.

Such were the

The German

troops

wintered in the Palatinate, although that country had

been made almost inhabitable by the ravages of the

French armies.

The French remained

Lorraine during the winter.

When

in Alsace

spring opened

the war in the Palatinate was renewed with greater ferocity on the part of the French.

the imjDartial French chronicler again

and

tell

still

Here

let

the story:

Louvois was not yet satiated with devastation. After the loss of Mayence, he would have gladly inflicted the fate of Worms and Speyer on a much more illustrious city. He proposed to the king to burn Treves. Louis when the question had arisen of annihilating the towTis on the Rhine, was at first facinated by the kind of terrible grandeur that such a destruction of power manifests but the remorse was not slow to awaken in his soul he recoiled before the new outrage. Louvois warmly repulsed, returned to the charge. Some days afterwards he audaciously de;

;

The Story

32

clared to Louis, that

lie

of the

had taken the responsibility

on himself and had sent the order. The king transported with rage, raised his hand against the minister. Madame jM.aintenon threw herself between the two Louis conananded Lou vols to hasten to countermand the order, or his head should answer for a single The order had not gone Louvois had house burned. sought to compel assent of the king by announcing the thing done. ;

;

It

would seem therefore that the enormity of the

crimes committed by his soldiers was at last beginning to ]nake

an impression on his cruel heart. The follow-

ing year, in 1600, the war along the Rhine was

re-

The

newed, and carried on with varying success.

ravages of the T'rench soldiers continued, wherever there was anything left to ravage and destroy. horrors continued to be enacted.

ISTew

Heidelberg was

again sacked in 1G03, and once more given up to the flames.

This time the entire population was expelled,

and the people

There

French

Avas

no

left

without clothing or provisions.

letting

up

of these outrages by the

until the year 1697,

when

peace came with

the Treaty of Ryswick in September of that year, to

which France, Fngland, Spain, the Netherlands, and

Germany were

From

this

parties.

time on, the Palatinate ceased to be

special object of

vengeance of the French, but

it

tlie

con-

33

Pennsylvania Germans.

tiimed to be the battlefield of other European wars. It

mil be seen how

to repair the ruin

XIV.

difficult it

was for the Palatines

wrought by the

The Palatines despaired

soldiers of Louis

of being ever freed

from the horrors of war, or the tramp of invading

They began

armies.

homes elsewhere.

to look for

Many of them had scattered to other parts of many some went beyond, and sought homes .in ;

land, and in other parts of Europe.

ince of

GerHol-

The new prov-

W illiam Penn was brought to the attention

the troubled Palatines, and

it

of

was not long before the

The wars which

exodus across the sea began.

still

continiied to ravage the Palatinate, stimulated the'

emigration to America.

The war

of the Spanish succession broke out in

1701, and continued until the peace of Utrecht in 1713. atinate

During the continuance of that war the Palwas repeatedly overrun by

the land laid waste.

It

hostile armies,

and

was during those years, that

the emigration from the Palatinate to Penn's province

began in

earnest,

and bv the end of the war many

thousands had found

who formed

new homes

a nucleus around

more gathered

in the

coming

in Pennsylvania,

which many thousands

years. (8)

J

The Story In 1715 Louis

XI Y.

died.

balmed the memory of

memory,

butcher as " Lo

rest of the

world execrates

for the crimes of his soldiers in the Pal-

atinate, perpetrated

by

ceeded by Louis XV., into a

Frencliinen have em-

this great

Grande Monarch," but the his

of the

He

his approval.

who

was

suc-

in turn plunged France

new war with Saxony, Russia and

Austria.

In

1740 a general European war began, which involved the Austrian succession.

when

came

it

Chapelle.

to

It continued for eight years,

an end with the Treaty of Aix-la-

In 1750 war broke out between Prussia and

Austria, wliich involved England and France.

ing

all

these

Dur-

the Palatinate furnished their

wars,

camping grounds and

battlefields.

ISTo

people started to repair the ruin

sooner had the

made by

hostile

armies, than their fields were asrain laid waste

new

a

war.

We

now understand what

led to the great exodus of ica.

by

Life in their

the causes were which

German

Palatines to

own country became

Amer-

intolerable

and Penn's province offered them an asylum.

CHAPTER

lY.

THE PROVIiVCE OF PENNSYLVAISTA.

—Penn His ProvGovernment. —Prior —Makes Laws Explorations the Dutch. — Diitch and Swedish — AVhite People who Foot on Pennsylvania under — Colony

Perm's Grant.

—

Its Extent.

visits

for

ince.

its

of

Settlements.

First

set

passes

Soil,

English Control.

There

is

a pretty well authenticated account of

three European travelers,

who

some point on the MohaAvk bany,

iST.

in

1614

started

river, not far

Y., thence proceeded

from

from Al-

up the Mohawk valley

a distance of about thirty miles, after which they

changed

to a southerly course,

forest, to the

through an unbroken

headwaters of the Delaware river, and

thence f oUowinjj; doAvn the course of that stream a

dis-

tance of nearly three hundred and fifty miles, through (35)

i

The Story

36

of the

a trackless wilderness to Delaware Bay.

have been the

elers are believed to

Those

trav-

white

men

first

that ever set foot on the soil of the present State of

Pennsylvania. rickson, in

It

recorded that Cornelius Hend-

is

command

of one of the vessels of the

West

India Company, while exploring the country along the Delaware river,

met those three men the following

year,

some distance below where the

phia

now

city of Philadel-

Ilendrickson's vessel was the

stands.

one that had ascended the

Delaware river

first

as far

north as Pennsylvania up to that time, although Hendrik Hudson, engaged in the

Dutch

service,

had

as

early as 1609 ascended the waters of the Delaware as far as the state of that name.

The Dutch immediately upon explorations of

Hudson and Hendrickson,

to their discoveries,

with

oflicers

and dispatched

who were

eignty, over the

new

Dutch government. possessions

the reports of the

were

also

laid claim

vessels to

America

instructed to establish sover-

possessions in the

name

of the

Attempts to colonize the new

made

were attended with some

simultaneously,

The

success.

civil

which

authority

over the colonies on the Delaware was thereafter exercised

by the Dutch, whose chief

was

New Amsterdam (New

at

seat of

York).

government There were

Pennsylvania Germans.

37

but few accessions to the settlements for a long time, until in

1638 when

some Finns

a

company

of Swedes, including

and established themselves

arrived,

per-

manently among the Dutch, after which the colony was alternately ruled by the Dutch and Swedes, until

1655 when the Dutch authorities came over from ?^ew Amsterdam, and took possession of the Swedish settlement, as well as the settlements

Dutch.

made by

the

In 1664 the English captured ISTew Amster-

dam, when the colonies on the Delaware passed under Subsequently, in 1674 the Dutch

their control.

re-

captured their American colonies, and after holding

them

for a short time, they

English rule

;

were again transferred

after that the colonies

to

on the Delaware

within the present limits of Pennsylvania, contim;ed to

be ruled over by the English, until the proprietary

goA^ernmeut was established under William Penn.

In 1681 the British government made a grant to

William Penn of a " north of Maryland

aware river

northward

;

to

tract of land in

on the

;

east

America lying

bounded by the Del-

on the west limited

as

Maryland, and

extend as far as plantable."

the boundaries of

Pennsylvania

Such were

as defined

charter of Charles II. of England to William

1681.

The grant

to

Penn was made

by the

Penn

in

in liquidation of

The Story

38 a claim of

of the

father against the government, of six-

liis

teen thousand pounds, to which he fell heir, after hia father's death.

In 1G82 Penn '

visited

province, remaining

his

nearly two years, during which time he instituted a

government for

its

regulation

planned the city of

;

Philadelphia, and laid the foundation of a future

He

mighty commonwealth. stitution,

anteed

established a civil con-

and formulated a code of laws, which guar-

civil

and

religious

freedom

within the limits of his province.

to every inhabitant

Some

beneficient features of Penn's code are

of the most

still

preserved,

in the Declaration of Rights in the present Constitution of Pennsylvania.

After Penn had laid the foimdation of

ernment for its

his province,

One

colonization.

with the Indians,

owners of the title to

soil.

he put forward schemes for

of his

first acts

was a treaty

he recognized as the rightful

lie did not pretend to

make any

title

by

treaty

made by Penn with

and purchase.

The

the Indians were sacredly

kept by him, and they stand out in honorable

when

gov-

lands before he procured the relinquishment

of the Indian treaties

whom

civil

relief,

contrasted with a century of violated treaties,

broken promises, and bad faith of the United States

Pennsylvania Germans.

Government, in

its

dealings with

tlie

39 various Indian

tribes.

After Penn

liad acquired honest title to the In-

dian lands, he offered them for sale in blocks of 5,000 acres for

100 pounds.

This was at the rate of ten

cents an acre reckoned at the present value of

for the choicest land in Pennsylvania.

money,

Persons

who

brought servants with them on coming here, were entitled to

50 acres for each servant, and after the ex-

piration of their term of service, the latter were also entitled to

50 acres of land.

land, were charged one

acre

rented.

Such

Such

as desired to rent

penny per annum for each

liberal

terms

upon which

to

acquire land, gave a great stimulus to emigration, and it

was not long before the great stream of humanity

from the old world, began at a rapid rate,

ment

to flow into

and continued

to flow

Pennsylvania

with

little

abate-

for upwards of three-quarters of a century.

CHAPTER

V.

GERMAN EMIGRATION TO PENNSYLVANIA.

German Quakers

—

arrive.

— They

found

German-

—

Penn's Return to England. Visits town. the Palatinate. William III. Dies.— Queen Anne ascends the Throne. Her sympathies with the persecuted Palatines. Tide of Emigration from the Palatinate begins to flow toward Pennsylvania. Queen Anne's LiberalEmigrants sold for the Cost of their Pasity. Known as Redemptioners. Terms of sage.

—

—

—

—

— —

their Sale.

—German

It has already been seen

—

Hostility to Proprietors.

how

all

the conditions were

ripe for a speedy settlement of Penn's province.

same year

in

which Penn arrived, there was quite an

accession to the

The next two

The

few

settlers

who had

preceded him.

years about fifty vessels arrived bring-

ing settlers from England, a few from Holland, and

German Quakers from

the Palatinate,

who founded

Germantown. .

After Penn returned to England from his (40)

first

Pennsylvania Ger-mans. visit to his pro"\'iiice, lie visited

41

Germany and

there

proclaimed to the persecuted Palatines, the great opportimities awaiting those

who wonld emigrate

This was Penn's

the land of promise in America. third visit to the Palatines

made

in 1671;

having been

his first visit

;

when he was on

to

a religious pilgrimage,

preaching the tenets of the Quakers, whose society as

He

a religious sect had been recently founded.

Germany

visited

many

in

1677 on

converts, with

whom

a similar mission

German and

fluently,

intercourse

scholar

;

spoke the

his preaching to the

-^vith

them was

making

he continued in commun-

Penn was

ication subsequently to his visits. ficient

again

a pro-

German language Germans, and

in their

own

his

tongue, so

that he had no difficulty in cultivating the most inti-

mate personal

The German

relations with them.

converts to Quakerism had learned to honor and trust

Penn

;

so that -when

he came among them on his

third visit to proclaim to them, and their

kinsmen in

the Palatinate, his province in Pennsylvania, where

he

liad already established civil

and

religious liberty,

they did not hesitate long to exchange their desolate

homes a

in the land

hundred

religious

years,

and

where

their ancestors for

more than

had been the victims of the

political persecution, that

fiercest

was ever

in-

The Story

42 flicted

on any people in

of the

tlie

an asylum in Penn's province came

offer of

opportune time.

The

some spot on

earth,

where they could go and

freed

from

peace,

The

world's history.

at

an

Palatines were longing for

cruel

their

live in

Penn

oppressors.

pointed to his province in America, as the solution of the problem which confronted them.

and the Palatines wanted

colonists,

olate

and ruined homes,

Under such circumstances from the Palatinate first

to

He

wanted

to leave their des-

in the land of their birth.

the start of the emigration

Pennsylvania was easy.

The

emigration began while William III. was king

We

of England.

have already learned how his sym-

pathies went out to his suffering Protestant brethren in the Palatinate,

when he came

to their rescue, while

they were struggling against the barbarities of the

French king. succeeded him.

He

died in 1702,

when Queen Anne

iVnne was a zealous Protestant, and

inherited William's sympathies for the persecuted Palatines.

Her sympathies

in this respect, were no

doubt ejnphasized by the fact that her cousin, Frederick V.

was

at that

time the ruling Prince Palatine.

For these and other reasons the Palatines became the subjects of special consideration of the English sovereign.

Queen Anne evinced the most tender regard

43

Pennsylvania Germans. for them, and

when

the tide of emigration from the

Palatinate had set fairly in, assisted

numerous Palatines

bountj, some of

whom

The memory

nia.

to

America, from her own

no doubt came

Queen Anne

of

Queen

the generous

to Pennsylva-

deserves to be

by Pennsylvania Germans by

gratefully cherished

reason of the generosity bestowed by her upon their

persecuted kinsmen.

Other causes operated

emigration to Pennsylvania during the the eighteenth century. the

visited

first

Interested parties

returned

colonies,

German

to stimulate the

their

to

half of

who had

homes

in

Europe, and gave the most glowing and exaggerated accounts of the newly found paradise, so that

who had been

living in comfort at

their effects, often at a sacrifice,

nearest seaport,

quently to regret

pay for sels,

many

home, disposed of

and rushed

to the

and embarked for America,

Many who had no money

it.

their passage,

who depended

fre-

were carried by masters of

to

ves-

for their compensation for trans-

porting them across the ocean, on their chances of sell-

ing them, for the price of their passage to some purchaser for a term of years.

Many

Palatines,

some

Dutch, and a few of other nationahties found their

way

to

America, and

to

Pennsylvania by those means.

44

The Story of

After such immigrants

by honest

service,

liad

many

the

redeemed their freedom

frequently remained with

their masters for a while longer, until they

to set

up

for themselves.

were able

was not an imusual

It

occurence for the servant after he had served his

Some

term, to marry his master's daughter. servants however times,

would gain

by running away from

of these

freedom some-

their

their masters.

This species of servitude, and the selling of emigrants for their passage had not a few of the features

about

it,

of involuntary chattel slavery, and

characterized at the time as the "

German

it

was

Slave

Trade."

There were agents in Rotterdam, Amsterdam, and probably other European seaports,

who made

iness to entice people to go to

America, with the

it

a bus-

promise of having their passage paid, and employ-

ment given

the7u on their arrival.

were known

officially as

Those immigrants

"Redemptioners," and their

term of service depended on the value of vices, in the particular

employed.

A

skillful

their ser-

occupation in which they were

workman

usually gained his

freedom in three years, while others were compelled to serve six or seven years.

Children continued in

this involuntary service usually until

21 years of age.

Pennsylvania Germans.

The Eev. H. M. Muhlenberg

45

in the "Hallischen

Nachrichten," gives an account of the manner in

which

this traffic

A

was conducted.

vessel that

had

been long expected, arrived in the harbor of Philadelphia in mid-winter, and after

it

had anchored in the

stream, one after another of the intending r)urchasers

went on board, and examined the freight,

and the terms upon which each soul could be

bought, which

was furnished the master of the

list

vessel at the port in list set

human

of

list

Holland whence he

sailed.

The

forth the price of each emigrant's passage, and

other incidental expenses in bringing

In the

him

here.

earlier days the price of passage, for each

adult was from 6 to 10 Louis d'or, (a French gold coin

worth 20

shillings)

;

but at the time of which Muhlen-

berg wrote, the price had advanced to 14 and 17 Louis d'or, for

in front of the city, tain

Before the vessel could anchor

each person. it

was

visited

by

a doctor to ascer-

whether there was any contagious disease on

board, after which the immigrants were to the

Land

Office,

all

where they were made

oath of allegiance to the

were then taken back

King

marched

to take the

of Great Britain.

to the ship,

where they were

kept under restraint, until publication could be of the arrival of the vessel, and the

They

number

made

of passen-

The Story

46

gers that were for sale to

other charges.

When

of the

pay for

their passage

and

the time for the sale arrived,

The

the purchasers were on hand.

them

the newcomers, looked

latter

went among

carefully over, and

when

one was found that suited the purchaser, he took him to the seller, paid the charges,

Government

the

office,

and then took him

to

where he bound himself in

writing to serve for a specified term.

The young people go

of both sexes, were the

If however they

difficult to dispose of.

was added

children, their passage

dren.

The

latter

serve long terms

had healthy

to that of the chil-

found ready purchasers, but had to

by reason

of the additional cost.

parents were then set at liberty.

newcomers had friends also

to

old people, and those physically defective were

;

The

first

to

If any of the

pay for their passage, they

were give their freeedom. It

sometimes happened that a master had no

longer use for a servant purchased by him, or that he

was unsuitable for the needs of the master, in which case the redemptioner

was advertised for

remainder of the original term of

sale for the

service.

In the " Pennsylvania Staatsbote " of Aug. 1766, appeared the following: servant

is

for sale.

She has

"A German

4,

female

five years to serve."

In

Pennsylvania Germans.

47

the Pennsylvania Gazette in June, 1762 appeared the

"To be

following advertisement: servant

woman, having three years

sold.

A

likely

She

to serve.

is

a good spinner."

In the Pennsylvania Staatsbote of December 14, 1773 lad,

is

"To be

found:

who

A

Dutch apprentice

has five years and three months to serve

he has been brought up

work

sold.

to the tailor's business.

;

Can

well."

Occasionally these servants were put up at public auction, and

knocked

do"\vn to the highest bidder.

In

Christoph Sauer's newspaper, published at German-

town of date

of

February 10, 1754 appeared the

fol-

"Rosina Dorothea Kost,

7iee

lowing advertisement:

Kaufmann, born Patapsco,

Waldenberg, who arrived

ISTovember 12,

brother-in-law, one

the

in

medium

1753, desires to

let

at

her

Spohr of Conestoga know through

of this paper of her sale at public ven-

due."

Eosina evidently hoped that her brother-in-law

would come forward, and redeem

her, if the fore-

going notice should be brought to his attention. is

hoped

The

tliat

he

may have done

sale of children of old

often worked great wrongs.

It

so.

and decrepid parents,

It not infrequently sep-

The Story

48

of the

arated children from their parents, who never saw them again,

strangers,

became

they

because

scattered

and people of different nationality from

themselves, speaking a different language.

people in ily is as

among

whom

For

a

the sentiment of the home, and fam-

strong as

it is

with the Germans, this was an

almost unbearable cruelty.

The system

of selling immigrants for the cost of

came

to

was made against

it,

their passage, only

protest ligious

sects

led,

notably

an end after a vigorous in

which some of the

the

Mennonites.

scattered the intelligence of the horrors of the

man

re-

They "Ger-

Slave Trade," throughout the European seaport

towns, whence most of the emigrants sailed for the

American

The

colonies.

Palatine elector, Karl The-

odore, also drove the unscrupulous agents of the masters of vessels,

who were engaged

in recruiting emi-

grants, out of the Palatinate.

The owners

of vessels found the business of trans-

porting emigrants to the colonies in America, to be sold for their passage a profitable one, but for the

unfortunate victims of the system sessed little romance.

demption ers did not

The

differ

it

must have

pos-

fate of the so-called re-

very materially from that

of any other system of involuntary serfdom, except

49

Pennsylvania Germans. ttat the term of their servitude

was

and was

limited,

self-imposed.

While the system of

selling emigrants for the cost

of their passage was profitable for ship-owners, the cupidity of the latter often got the better of their

by overcrowding

business judgment,

such an extent, that

many

voyage in consequence of ing out

among them,

passengers died on the

sickness,

and disease break-

as a result of

worse sanitary conditions.

It has

Dutch

small vessel that left a

port,

gers, that arrived at Philadelphia

them

alive.

An

their vessels to

bad food, and

been said of one with 400 passen-

with only 50 of

ocean voyage in those days was an

undertaking to be dreaded under the most favorable conditions possible rible to

make

;

but the emigrant ships were hor-

the long and tedious voyage

chronicler denominated

them

One

in.

as " destroying angels,"

and judging from the mortalities on them, they were properly designated.

The emigrants were packed

between decks, where they were deprived of air,

so that after a long

often of of

filth,

many months, horror,

voyage of

that in the year 1738 not less than

pure

many weeks and

their quarters

and lamentations.

all

in

became a scene

It has

been stated

2000 passengers

died while crossing the ocean. W)

The Story Those wlio

of the

sailed ships in those days

An emigrant was of very

taskmasters.

were cruel

little

account,

beyond the price for which he could be sold brought alive

to

some port

in the colonies.

that the masters of ships had

no

if

Beyond

interest in them.

Those who were able to pay for their passage in advance, received even less consideration from those

who on

sailed ships,

than those whose passage depended

upon

their sale

their arrival in

America, because

no further pecuniary advantage could be derived from the former, while the compensation for porting the latter across the

ocean,

trans-

depended upon

bringing them alive and well into some American port,

while

it

did not matter to the ship-owners,

whether or not the former arrived

alive or not.

As

a

matter of

fact,

the ship-owners were in pocket,

emigrant

who

paid for his passage in advance, died

if

the

early during the voyage.

In 17 G5 the Provincial Assembly was appealed for the purpose of interesting tion, Avhich

would

it

in providing legisla-

result in mitigating the horrors of

a sea voyage in an emigrant ship.

improvement 1818,

when

to,

after that, but

it

There was

was not until

slight

as late aa

the Legislature of Pennsylvania enacted

more stringent laws regulating the importation of

Pennsylvania Germans.

German and

otlier emigrants, that

51

any practical im-

provement was brought about.

With regard were not

to the so-called redemptioners, they

esteemed than their more fortunate

less

countrymen, who were able to pay for their passage to

America, and with very few exceptions, they be-

came useful and

substantial citizens

;

and many of

their descendants in these days are filling honorable stations in every

We have

walk of

life.

seen on what liberal terms colonists were

by

its

founder; but those liberal terms were afterwards

re-

invited

stricted,

when

Penn

liam

the

to

a

province

of

Pennsylvania

change of proprietors came.

died July 30,

1718, and his three sons,

Thomas, Richard, and John succeeded him heirs,

Wil-

and assumed control of

affairs.

as

his

After that the

lands were surveyed, and settlers were expected to

upon which they had

set-

new

con-

pay

liberally for the land

tled,

but the newcomers were ignorant of the

ditions,

upon

and

relied

on the

earlier promises, so that

their arrival, they paid little attention to the

new mode

of procedure to obtain land, but merely

went in search of some favorable location thereon, and proceeded to

make

;

settled

the necessary im-

The Story

62 provements.

of the

Their disregard of the

to obtain land, brought

them

new

regulations

in collision with the

agents of the proprietory government.

The kindly regard which Penn had

German

colonists,

for his early

was now succeeded by the indigna-

tion of the agents of the

Logan the Colonial

new

James

proprietors.

Secretary, wrote in 1725 concern-

ing the great influx of

German

emigrants, and their

unscrupulousness about complying with the rules of the

"

Land

Office, in the following ill-tempered strain:

They come here

strangers

been

and

and

bold indigent

as

from Germany, where many of them have All these go on the best vacant lands,

soldiers.

seize

in crowds,

upon them

as

common

spoil."

plained that they rarely approached

Logan com-

him on

rival for the purpose of purchasing land,

their right to occupy

it

to justify their action,

their ar-

and when

was challenged, they sought

by

stating that

it

had been

published in Europe, that colonists were wanted, and that they had been solicited to

come

;

and came in

pursuance of those representations, without bringing with them the means with which to pay for any land.

The new lent

and

proprietors

pacific

ferent motives,

who

succeeded the benevo-

Penn, were governed by wholly

dif-

from those that controlled him.

In-

Pennsylvania Germans. stead of seeking the

weKare

consideration with

first

own

their

53

of their fellow

men, the

them was the promotion

personal interests.

It

may

of

be said how-

ever to their credit, that they did not molest, or try

any of the newcomers, who had

to dispossess

settled

on land in violation of the regulations of the land ofiice.

More

pacific counsels prevailed,

ful diplomacy on

tlie

and by

skill-

part of the proprietors they suc-

ceeded after a few years, to get a settlement out of the

newcomers for the land occupied by them,

after they

had accumulated enough money for that purpose.

The

gTeat tide of

German immigration

sylvania continued for

many

years.

A

to

Penn-

few came

near the close of the seventeenth century, but wdth the early years of the eighteenth

it

began in

and continued for three quarters of

earnest,

By

a century.

the time of the Revolution their numerical strength,

made them

a

powerful factor in determining Penn-

sylvania on the side of independence.

Authorities differ with regard to the

Germans

The

number

of

in Pennsylvania prior to the Revolution.

late Prof,

llaldeman, in his " Pennsylvanisch

Deitsch," places theirnumber in 1763 at 280,000.

The

natural increase for the next ten years without any increase

hy immigration,

—which

however

still

con-

The Story timied during that period,

of the

—would make

num-

their

bers in excess of 300,000 immediately prior to the

Against these figures

Revolution.

we have

the

esti-

mate of C. D. Ebeling, a German geographer who contributed the accounts of America, in " Busching's

Erdbeschreibung," only 144,660.

While the

Haldeman may be manifestly too low. figures are

who makes

number

their

figures given

is

quite likely that the true

somewhere between the two.

lation of Pennsylvania in

by Prof.

by Ebeling are

too high, those It

1790

in

The popu-

1752 has been fixed

at 190,-

000, of which 90,000 or nearlv one-half were

mated

to

have been Germans.

natural increase, and the

Adding

number

of

esti-

to those the

Germans

arriv-

ing during the succeeding 25 years, as gathered from the reports of masters of vessels,

it

would seem

the statement was warranted, that the

mans

in

of Ger-

Pennsylvania immediately preceding the

Revolution numbered not ernor

number

as if

Thomas

less

than 200,000.

the proprietary Governor places

Gov-

them

in 1747 at 120,000.

During the period of the

largest emigration

from

the Palatinate, which was from about 1730, to 1750, a period of twenty years, the ships crossing the Atlantic,

"plied between Rotterdam and Philadelphia with

almost the regularity of a ferry."

Pennsylvania Germans.

Kotterdam was the grants embarked,

cliief

55

port from wliich the emi-

and the shipping and other

re-

sources, to transport the people across the Atlantic

were overtaxed

to such

an extent, that those under

whose direction the business was conducted, sought to

by

emigration

discourage

among which was

various

expedients,

the circulation of the most horrible

accounts about the hardships and sufferings of the em-

The

igrants on the voyage across the ocean.

ing

a

is

specimen of the distressing

follow-

tales circulated to

turn back the tide of Palatines, heading for the land of promise in Pennsylvania:

"

We

learn

from I^ew York that a ship from Rot-

terdam, going to Philadelphia, with one hundred and fifty Palatines sea.

When

nearly rats

all

on board wandered twenty weeks

they finally arrived at port they were

dead.

The

rest

and vermin, and were

Even

at

were forced all sick

to subsist

and weak."

this horrible tale of suffering at sea,

effect to deter people

so they continued to

on

had no

from undertaking the voyage,

come

as fast as ever.

stated that the foregoing tale

was only a

It

may be

slight exag-

geration of the real truth, of the hardships of an ocean

voyage on an emigrant ship in those days. jSTotwithstanding

the

apprehension felt at one

:

m

The Story

time, about

tlie

of the

danger of the large German immigra-

tion in Pennsylvania to British ascendency in the

colony, Lieutenant Governor

appealed

to,

Thomas

in 1738,

when

regarding some restrictions against the

continued large

German immigration, opposed any

such measure, and gave the following substantial reasons for refusing to give his sanction to any scheme

looking to a restriction of immigration

This Province has been for some years the Asylum of the distressed Protestants of the Palati-

and other parts of Germany, and I believe

nate,

may

with truth be

it

the present flourishing condition of it is in a gTcat measure owing to the industry of those People and should any discouragement direct them from coming hither, it may well be apprehended that the value of your Lands will fall, and your advance to wealth be much slower." said, that

;

This appeal of the Governor, to the cupidity of the English

the desired to put

any

members eifect,

of the provincial council had

and no further

restriction

efforts

were made

on the immigration of German

Palatines.

The German

settlers

occupied

all

the counties

south and east of the Elue Mountain, except Chester

and the lower end of Bucks then organized.

;

Delaware not being

Philadelphia contained very

many

Pennsylvania Germans.

57

of tliem, and constituted an important element in

commercial and

In

political concerns.

later years

they spread to the counties beyond the Blue Mountain,

where

their descendants

The German the

Palatines were excellent judges of

They came from

soil.

still live.

a fertile region in their

native land, the soil of which was in einjilar to that of

The

vania.

many

respects

the limestone valleys of Pennsyl-

chief occupation of the ancient

Rhine provinces was in those

and

days,

still

Upper

remains

In the valleys of the Rhine and

that of farming.

Neckar, the cereals of

oats, rye,

grown abundantly, while the

wheat,

hillsides

etc.,

are

still

are covered

with vineyards.

When

came

the Palatines

instinctively seized

on the

to Pennsylvania they

fertile lands in the lime-

stone valleys, leaving the less fertile, hilly, and

tainous reg'ions to others that

lands settled upon by the bered, and

it

after them.

Germans were heavily

required severe

farms, but they preferred

came

moun-

toil to

them

The tim-

shape them into

to the

more open and

sparsely timbered lands, because the latter were less fertile,

much

though susceptible

less

to

be made into farms

at

expense of labor, and of money.

The wisdom

of the

Germans

in the selection of

The Story

58 lands

is

of the

seen at this day, in the magnificent farms oc-

cupied by their descendants everywhere in the fertile valleys of Southeastern Pennsylvania.

lieved that there

is

It

a region of country

is

not be-

anywhere on

the globe of equal extent, that possesses greater agricultural wealth; such well-tilled fields; palatial

farm

immense barns; picturesque and varied

scen-

hoiises;

ery,

and a more contented pastoral

heritance of the Pensylvania

life, as is

German

farmers.

the in-

—

CHAPTER

VI.

GEEMAIf IMMIGRANTS IN SOME OF THE OTHER AMERICAN COLONIES.

—Maryland —Puritan designed Refuge —Religious Freedom Proclaimed. Province. —MaryGerman immigration Germans the Revolution. land — Germans —In the Shenandoah Val—Also North —A Colony Swiss and Palatines found Bern. — GrafAdventure with — The Indians — burn Lawson "King" the the —War between the English and —German Colony South Purrysburg founded by Them. —Large German Settlement on Edisto River. — Saxe-Gotha. An Imposter. — Executed Murder. — burgers Emigrate Georgia. — Germans other —Palatines

Grant of Maryland as

to Cecilius Calvert.

for Catholics.

a

aggression.

in tlie

in

settle in

Virginia.

Carolina.

in

ley.

of fenried's

jSTew

Indians.

Stake.

at

of

Palatines.

In-

Carolina.

in

dians.

for

Salz-

in

to

settle in Ireland.

States.

"New York received a large German immigration at

an early day.

send

many

The

influences

which operated to

Palatines to Pennsylvania, were exerted (59)

60

Story of the

Tlis

JTew York

in favor of

British

government was anxious

Palatinate began to set

The

latter in

to transport

ISTew

to colonize that prov-

York and

inces,

Mohawk

much

of

it

was diverted

to

to

wards.

many

received

thousands of

whom came from Hudson

settled along the

A

valley.

river,

and in the

also settled in

German immigrants

first

Tlie Schoharie colony its

settlement, on account of difficul-

York under

the lead of

when many

them

of

John Conrad Weiser

Conrad, and settled in Pennsylvania.

After the

"VV'eisers

had led their colony

sylvania, the emigration to the province of

came very nearly

who came

after-

became disintegrated

with the local authorities,

his son

im-

the Rhine prov-

German colony The

German

jSew York in 1710, and others came

a few vears after

left iSTew

In that way

such as desired to emigrate.

Schoharie county.

went

in,

numerous instances furnished the means

migrants, most of

to

an end.

to Pennsylvania,

and countrymen last

Tlie

York, through the influence of the English.

]S[ew

and

very great extent.

and when the great llood of emigration from the

ince,

ties

to a

colonists

wrote to their relatives

in the Palatinate, that they

in their rights,

Penn-

New York

The Schoharie

found an asylum where they could

and be secure

to

had

at

rest in peace,

and advised

all

who

con-

Pennsylvania Germans.

61

templated emigrating to America to avoid ITew York,

and come their

to

homes

Many who

Pennsylvania.

from

started

in the Palatinate after that, with the in-

tention of going to Pennsylvania, were diverted from their plans,

and forced on ships bound for

ISTew

York

;

but they were no sooner landed than " they hastened

iTew

to Pennsylvania in sight of all the inhabitants of

York."

The names

many towns

of

in ISTew

York

attest

their

German

New

Pfalz, Palatine Bridge, Herkimer (Hercheimer),

named

such as jSTewburg, Phinebeck,

origin,

for General Herkimer, a distinguished soldier

of the State of

New York, NEW

New

and numerous other names. JERSEY.

Jersey being situated between

New York

and Pennsylvania, necessarily profited by the immigration in the adjacent States, although there does not

seem

to

man

emigrants to

the

have been that concerted

New York

it,

as there

German

and Pennsylvania

settlers.

Ger-

was made on behalf of

State was continually receiving

of

effort to attract

colonies,

yet the

numerous accessions

German Valley

in

what

is

now

Morris coTinty, was settled by them in consequence of an untoward event.

A

shipload of

German

emi-

The Story

G2

of the

grants sailed from a European port

bound

for ITew

York, but adverse winds drove the ship out of course, and

found

it

delphia,

when

it

finally

most convenient

whence

reached American waters,

to enter the port of Phila-

passengers

its

way

sought to make their

its

disembarked,

to ISTew

across the State of ISTew Jersey.

them

into a beautiful valley,

made

a

York

and

overland,

Their course led

where they halted and

permanent settlement, whence came the name,

German

Valley.

MARYLAND. In 1633 the province of Maryland was granted Cecilius Calvert Catholic, and

it

by Charles

Calvert was a

I.

was designed by him,

to

to

Roman

make

his

province a refuge for his co-religionists, without making

it

a distinct Catholic colony.

olic colonists arrived in

nent settlement. tans

came and

strife

Maryland and made a perma-

Soon thereafter a number of Puri-

settled

by trying

In 1663, 200 Cath-

among them, who soon

created

to enforce their peculiar tenets

Catholic neighbors, which re-

practices

upon

sulted in

making things very uncomfortable

their

intolerant Puritans, so

and

much

of Maryland into Virginia.

so,

that they

for the

moved out

Pennsylvania Germans.

63

Religious freedom was proclaimed in Maryland

by the

after

authorities,

Lutherans,

and other

made permanent

settlements.

German emigrants

ports to

Maryland

where they had become

Considerable

sailed direct

many went

;

German

emigrated thither and

sects

bers of

Quakers,

wliicli

from foreign

there from 'New

dissatisfied

num-

York

with English rule,

while Pennsylvania furnished a good many, and a

New

few came from

England.

The Germans occupied

certain parts of

Maryland

in the early days, to the exclusion almost of people

About the middle

of every other nationality.

of the

previous century, the larger part of the population of Erederick county,

was either German or of Ger-

man

parentage.

those

Germans continued the almost

Like

theix

kin

in

Pennsylvania

exclusive use of

their native dialect for a long period after their settle-

ment

in Erederick county,

recent period,

by them

in the

and until a comparatively

all religious

German

services

language.

of the Revolution, Maryland sent a

of infantry in the

field,

of artillery, besides

other organizations.

and

also a

were conducted

At

the outbreak

German regiment German company

numerous Germans

enlisted in

The Story

64

of the

VIROINIA.

Virginia began to receive Germans from atinate,

and from other parts of Germany In that year a vessel arrived

1743.

tlie

Pal-

as early as

at

Hampton

Roads, whicli had sailed from a Holland port with.

200 passengers on board, 100 of voyage.

Many

in Virginia.

Swiss were

whom

among

died on the

the early settlers

Germans from Pennsylvania

also set-

tled in Virginia during different periods, chiefly in

the Shenandoah valley.

NOKTIl OAKOLIJTA.

In 1719

were rushing were

in

at a

to

time

when

the

German

America, a large number of them

London, awaiting assistance to enable them

to take passage to

some one of the American

There was in London

at that

there one Louis Michel also a Swiss,

some time

in America,

country's needs, and also tAvo

colonies.

time a Swiss gentleman

by the name of Christoph GrafFenried.

The

Palatines

He met

who had

spent

and was familiar with the its possibilities

for colonists.

conceived the idea of founding a colony of

Swiss and Germans in America, and for that purpose secured a tract of land in K^orth Carolina, between

Pennsylvania Germans.

65

the ITeuse and Cape Fear rivers, with the understand-

ing that after they had paid for 5000 acres, they

should obtain

title to

100,000.

Soon thereafter two

vessels

with 650 Palatines

and Swiss on board, were dispatched where they arrived

lina,

in

to ISTorth Caro-

December 1710

;

and they

founded ITewbem.

The following year to

make war

against the English, and whites gener-

Before the

ally.

the Tuscarora Indians began

settlers

designs of the Indians,

had any intelligence of the Graffenried

who came

North Carolina with the Swiss and Palatine started

off

colonists,

on one occasion, with a land surveyor

named Lawson, and

a

negro servant, to ascend the

river ISTeuse in a boat to explore the country.

did not

to

They

dream of any unfriendliness on the part of

the Indians, so in the evening they tied their boat

up

near an Indian village, intending to spend the night with their savage neighbors.

They found

morose mood, manifesting none of their usual good

in a

Graff enried's suspicions that their manner boded

will.

trouble,

was increased, when he saw a large quantity

of arms and ammunition provided

He

the Indiana

started

ions,

away from the

by the Indians.

village with his

compan-

with the intention of ascending higher up the (5)

The Story

66

of the

stream, but after tliey liad readied their boat and

were about entering

they were surrounded by

it,

about 60 armed Indians, who took them back to the village,

and brought them before the

chief,

dered that they should be kept under until the next day,

who

strict

when they were brought

or-

guard

before a

council to consider the question, as to what disposition

should be

made

The following

of them.

evening,

they were taken before the council, the deliberations

of which lasted until the following morning, when an

whom Lawson had and from whom the

Indian made his appearance, with

some time previous a

difficulty,

Indian did not get very good treatment.

The Indian

informed the council, that the whites had conspired in secret to destroy ages, that they

and

his

them

;

angered the sav-

this so

immediatelv condemned Graffenried

two companions

The next day

to death.

they were taken to the place of execution, where they

were bound hand and ground. cross

foot,

The Indians kindled

and

left

a big

which they decorated with

lie

on the

fire,

erected a

flowers.

In the

painful position in which Graffenried and his com-

panions had been placed, they remained the following night.

With

all

day and

sunrise the next morn-

ing, a multitude of Indians assembled, to witness the

Pennsylvania Germans. final act of the tragedy.

condemned during

the

An all

67

armed guard stood over

The

that time.

principal

Indians sat about them in a circle of two rows

them were about 300 Indians engaged

hind

dancing, and yelling like so

Two

be-

;

many

in

devils possessed.

executioners were detailed to carry out the de-

who were

cree of the council, as hideous

an appearance

painted so as to

In

as possible.

make

this ex-

He

tremity, a thought occurred to Graffenried.

turned to the principal chief, and asked what right

they had to condemn an innocent man, and whether they were willing to hazard the execution of a king

;

pretending that he was the king of the Palatines.

This ruse served held

;

its

purpose, for a second council was

Graffenried's

fetters

were

Lawson and the negro servant both

imloosened,

but

suffered death at

the stake.

Graffenried

was kept in confinement for

weeks longer, when he was released, upon

five

his enter-

ing into a compact with the Indians, that in the event of war between

remain neutral

them and the English, as

that he

would

"king" of the Palatines, and would

discontinue measuring and appropriating their lands.

In the war which followed, the Swiss and Palatine settlers,

who were both known under

the

name

of Pal-

The Story

68

remained neutral, and jSTewbern was saved

atines,

from harm.

Tlie details of

Graft'enried's adventure

bim

of the

to the

is

tlie

foregoing account of

based on a letter written by

governor of the province, soon after

its

occurrence.

After the war between the Tuscaroras and the In-

many

dians,

lina

;

other Palatines settled in North Caro-

the names of whose descendants abound

num-

erously in that state at the present day.

SOUTH CAROLINA. It is not

known when

South Carolina, but

it is

the

Germans

known

that in

first

came

to

1734 a num-

ber of emigrants from Salzburg arrived at Charleston

and

settled in the province,

170 Swiss emigrants

and about the same time

also arrived at Charleston

under

the lead of Johann Peter Purry, and founded Purrys-

burg on the Savannah

river; the following year

200

additional Swiss arrived, and later a colony of Swiss

and Palatines made settlement in the neighborhood of Orangeburg, which was founded about the same time.

Their settlement was on the Edisto

river,

and

the whole region on both sides of the stream in that

neighborhood was originally settled cliiefly

by Germans,

from the Palatinate, and Switzerland.

Other

Pennsylvania Germans.

Germans from

Germany

parts in

further north settled

They founded

in South Carolina.

69

a colony further

inland from Orangeburg, and called

it

Saxe-Gotha.

This became an important central point, from which

German

the

settlement spread, which continued to

gain large accessions until the Revolution.

In 1763 there came two ship loads of German emigrants

from London

to Charleston.

They were

poor,

and the Colonial Legislature voted them 500 pounds,

200 muskets and ammunition, and Saxe-Gotha district,

it

tiict as late as

to speak the

had ceased

South Carolina.

them

in the

The Germans monopolized

district.

and continued

long after

settled

A

to be

traveller

1850 wrote, that

German language

spoken elsewhere in

who visited this disGerman was no longer

spoken by the descendants of the early German tlers,

this

but that the people retained their

Bibles, hymn-books, and observed

many

toms, festivals and holidays of their

set-

German

of the cus-

German

ances-

tors.

There

is

said to

have been a remote

South Carolina in the

which had been scarcely

first

settled

district in

half of the last century,

by Germans, which had

any communication with the outside world

;

The Story of

70

the

where the people were without churches, or

who had

schools,

fallen into such dense ignorance, that they

were not far removed from a savage

state.

A

Swiss

came among them named Weber, who represented himself to be J esus Christ

his wife the

;

and another who came with him,

man

This imposter hired a

Virgin Mary,

as the

Holy Ghost.

to represent the devil,

and

he went about making converts of many simple souls

who

He

believed in him.

bound

in chains

ordered that Satan be

and placed in a great cavern which

which was accordingly

existed in that neighborhood,

He

done.

finally decreed that Satan should

out of the world.

The poor

devil

be put

was placed in a

featherbed, and covered with pillows and bed clothes, after

which some of Weber's followers smothered

Satan to death.

When

edge of the authorities for

arrested,

tried

hanged.

His wife,

the affair reached the knowlat

murder

Charleston,

Weber was

convicted

;

and duly

and ignorant dupes

children,

were pardoned by the Governor.

GEORGIA.

Very few

Palatines, if any,

went

to Georgia direct

from Germany in the early days, although

consider-

Pennsylvania Germans. able

71

numbers went there from some of

tlie

otber col-

onies.

In 1739 a archbishopric

tinued for

30,000

and

fierce religious persecution

Salzburg.

of

many

years, during

Protestant

Germans

settled elsewhere.

to Holland,

persecution

and others went

con-

which time more than left the archbishopric,

Some went to

to Prussia,

England,

where they

thereafter left for Georgia, nently, and

This

began in the

some

who

settled

soon

perma-

became a nucleus around which several

thousand of the persecuted Salzburgers afterwards gathered.

TENNESSEE AND KENTUCKY.

Whatever German immigration went tory

now embraced

in the foregoing

to the terri-

named

states in

the early days went to IvTorth Carolina and Virginia

Tennessee being taken from the

Kentucky from the

latter.

first

named

each received large accessions of ^vent to those states

and

After the Revolution,

and Tennessee and Kentucky were admitted

Many

state,

;

German

as states,

population.

from Pennsylvania, Mary-

land and Virginia.

About

GERMAN PALATINES

IN IRELAND.

the years 1709-10,

when many thousands

72

The Story

.

abandoned their native land,

of Palatines

homes elsewhere, what would Thousands

of the to seek

the exodus assumed the nature, of

in these

left their

days be termed a "craze."

homes in the

Palatinate, without

any well-defined idea where they would eventually land.

The

away from

consideration with

first

their oppressors

to their future

;

them was

to get

the question with regard

was deemed of minor importance.

Under such circumstances

Germans from the

5,000,

Palatinate found their Avay to England in the months of

May and

by

June, 1709, which number was increased

October

to

13,000,

comprising

husbandmen,

tradesmen, artisans, schoolteachers, and clergymen.

Those emigrants the

first lot

prise, for

ing,

all

came

London, and when

to

arrived, they took the

Londoners by

sur-

they came without any notice of their com-

and the

first

intimation

which the

citizens of

London had concerning them was when they found about 5,000, Palatine men, women, and children under tents in the suburbs of their to be without

any

city.

They seemed

definite plans for the future,

the fact that they had been told in their

own

beyond

country,

that settlers were wanted for the British colonies in

America, and in pursuance of those representations they came to London, expecting that the British gov-

Pennsylvania Germans.

England did take

ernment would provide for them. care of

them

;

them about the

sheltering

empty

Good Queen Anne ordered

places could be found.

on Blackheath for their accommo-

tents to be pitched

A

large majority of those people were sent

to the British colonies in

Upon

city in

warehouses, bams, and wherever vacant

d-wellings,

dation.

73

America.

the petition of the Lord Lieutenant Gov-

ernor of L-eland 3,800 of them were sent to Ireland

and

settled in the

Munster, where at this day, the

county Limerick, in the province of

many

of their descendants are living

most prosperous and well-to-do farmers

and tradesmen in Ireland.

Eupp in his book of " The Names of 30,000 German Immigrants," makes reference to the settlement of those G erman Palatines in The

late Professor

Ireland, and states

them

still

speak a

'*

that

German

it

is

said " that

dialect.

The author

ited the descendants of those people a

but found no trace of any out long ago

;

of which have to

make

Many

their

only the

become

vis-

few years ago,

dialect

;

it

has died

German names remain, some changed

so

German

German

some of

in their spelling, as

origin scarcely recognizable.

of those people have intermarried with the

Irish population, so that the present generation

ia

The Story

74

more

Irish than

spoken of

of the

German.

Those people are

still

as Palatines.

The migration

many

of so

months and

Palatines in the course

their

sudden appearance in Eng-

land, furnishes one of the

most interesting episodes in

of a feAv

German emigration from

the

Their reception, treatment and their

dis-

the whole history of the Palatinate. position

by the English Government, redounds much

to its credit, generosity,

was owing

and humanity, most of which

to the kindly disposition

toward those peo-

Queen Anne.

ple of

While there was no

settled purpose in the

the English authorities at

first

to

of

regarding the ultimate

disposition of those people, the

was that they had

mind

first

be provided

impulse however

for.

The

Palatines

themselves were without any fixed purpose, but were inspired with the hope of eventually reaching

Some

ica.

in

of the

the British

young men among them

army

;

others

scattered

rural England, while a considerable

Amer-

enlisted

throughout

number

of

them

sought service in London, and in some of the other cities

and towns of England.

The

great majority

however were disposed of in the way hereinbefore stated.

As proof

of the

magnanimity of the English pec-

Pennsylvania Germans.

75

pie in tlieir treatment of their unfortunate guests,

Parliament, at the suggestion of the noble-minded

Queen voted £24,000

who

for those

elected to go to

Ireland, for transportation and subsistence.

that were sent to the transportation paid

Among

American

by the

colonies also

Those

had

their

British government.

the foregoing mentioned Palatines, there

were about 1,500 German Catholics, which dence going to shoAV, that

it

evi-

is

was not alone religious

persecution as has been often contended, that drove those people from their

homes

in the Palatinate, but

that Protestant and Catholic alike left the devastated

land of their birth, to improve their material, rather

than their spiritual welfare.

Those in authority in England

at that time

were

not as tolerant of other people's religious views as people are in these days,

and the government refused

those of the Catholic faith to the

in consequence of which

many

American of

to

send

colonies,

them renounced

their religion rather than return to their desolate

and

ravished homes in the Palatinate, where such as were tenacious of their faith were sent under passports of

the British government.

—

CHAPTER

VII.

THE QUAKERS, GERMANS^ AND THE PROPKIETOKS.

— —

Quakers Emigrate

to America. Tlieir Hostility to the Proprietors after Perm. Indian Outbreaks. Quakers refuse to bear Arms. Defence of

—

—

— —

Own Homes left to non-Quakers. Quakoppose the Formation of a Militia. Penn's sons l orsake Quaker Faith.- Attitude of the Germans. Christoph Sauer's German Newspaper. Its Influence. Controls the Germans. Their Influence is a menace to English Rule. Their Influence in Politics. Sauer's partisan Appeals to the Germans. Asserts English intent to enslave Them. English fear a German Colonj. War between France and Great Britain. Efforts to stop German Emigration. Taxing Emigrants. Fails to have any effect on Emigration. They continue to come. their ers

—

—

—

—

—

—

—

—

—

During the

first

—

—

—

half of the eighteenth century,

the influence of the Quaker element predominated,

and

it

can scarcely be said that

it

was always exerted

for the best interests of the province after

The German Quakers never (76)

cut

much

Penn

died.

of a figure in

Pennsylvania Germans. tlie affairs

of the colony

;

it

was

77

Quakers to concern themselves about l"he latter at their former

affairs.

owed

English

left to the

domestic

its

home

in

England

their origin to a revolt against English religious

thought, in consequence of which they became the subjects of

much

had emigrated

persecution.

After

to Pennsylvania,

sured of religious freedom,

it

many

as-

was not long before they civil

new province was

of the

them

where they were

arrayed themselves in opposition to the

The peace

of

power.

often threat-

The

ened by foes from within and from without.

wars between England and France frequently threat-

ened the peace of

were a menace

would tants,

start out

and

the colonies, and the Indians

all

to the settlers all the time.

on frequent

would

sometimes

massacres, against which

ance to guard, by an

raids,

it

among

cruel

was of the highest import-

efficient militia, the organization

The Indians

that the civil authorities could not rely on the

Quakers for any armed

assistance, because

opposed to war, and the bearing of arms. the defence of tion,

the inhabi-

perpetrate

of which the Quakers opposed to a man.

knew

They

and

to

tlie

they were

This

left

colony to the non-Quaker popula-

the civil authorities to which the Quakers

refused loyal support.

The Quakers were an embar-

78

lire Story of the

rassing influence in the Colonial Assembly, to wliicli

they were frequently elected by the aid of the Ger-

man

votes,

especially

It has

county.

been

of

those

Northampton

in

said that the organization of this

county, was primarily, for the purpose of divorcing the

German

vote from Quaker control, in behalf of

whose candidates

it

was usually

cast, in

obedience to

the influence of the Quakers of Philadelphia and

Bucks

counties.

The Quaker

opposition to the organization of a

militia, to protect the

province against the Indians

and the French, who were making war on the border, while the defence of their

own homes was

left to the

poorly arined non-Quakers, was such a perversion of

common

sense and of justice, as to embitter all classes

against a people whose religious tenets could justify,

such rank injustice and

selfishness.

This attitude of

the reputed mild-mannered Quakers, brought them into unfriendly relations with nists in

most of the other

Pennsylvania, as well as into hostile collision

with the proprietary government. not

much

prietor. it is

colo-

The Quakers had

respect for the sons of the original pro-

Penn's sons were in control at

interesting to note, that

in fellowship with the

this time,

and

none of them remained

Quakers after their father's

Pennsylvania Germans. After his death

death.

were non-Qiiakers, and tendency

all

79

the proprietary governors

no donbt, had the

this fact

to increase the spirit of insubordination, of

the Qiiaker element against the civil authority.

For the sake of the truth of

history,

it

marked, that the Germans who had not

must be

much

re-

affect-

ion for English rule, too often took sides with the

Quakers in opposing the English, and thereby

frus-

trated designs of the lawful authorities, intended for

the general welfare.

In 1739 Christoph Sauer began

man newspaper circulation

at

among

to publish a Ger-

Germantown, which gained

a large

the Germans, and controlled their

political actions entirely,

which was often in opposi-

tion to the ruling class.

The Germans however when the

security of the

province was threatened by the French, or the homes of the settlers were

menaced by

were always among the fence of both

;

first to

their savage foes,

take up arms in de-

while their Quaker neighbors not only

refused to take up arms, to defend the homes of the colonists

when

threatened by hostile savages, but op-

posed the creation of a militia for that purpose. It

is difficult

to reconcile this attitude of the

ers towards the civil authorities,

Quak-

and their refusal

to

The Story

80

perform their obligations

was ever ready

good

citizenship,

faith.

to protect

of the

to the

government which

them, with the duties of

which was one of the tenets of

their

Their disregard of some of the most important

civil obligations,

seem

to contradict the teachings of

the sect, of a rigid morality, unbending personal in-

and living a simple and sincere

tegrity,

life,

of all of

which they were marked exemplars.

The Quakers were however, foremost of

many

They entered

reforms.

in the

work

their protest early

against the infliction of the death penalty, for the

commission of minor offences such

The mild laws

laid

down by Penn

as larceny,

for the

etc.

government

of his province, and the satisfactory results springing

therefrom are the best proofs of their

Quakers were

also the first to raise their voice against

slavery in the colonies, although ings of

The

utility.

more than two hundred

it

required the

years,

and

teacli-

at the

end

a prodigious civil war, to wipe that institution frou)

our American system.

While the Quakers years of

its

in Penn's province in the early

history could not always be

commended

for their fidelity to the constituted authorities, yet

they deserve virtues.

much

credit for

many commendable

CHAPTEE Vm. THE PENNSYLVANIA GEEMANS IN HISTORY. Germans. — Not an —War between England and An— —German the Germans. — The Germans During the Revolution. — Favor Independence. — Germans Furnishing Troops. — Organize. —Prominent unit In^Mainstay the Army. — Germans dependence. — They before a

Political Influence of the

holding France.

office-

Class.

Indifference.

Efforts to

glicize

in

a

of

raise

Independence

is

Battalion,

Declared.

While the Germans never had any fection

for

English

for

rule,

they

particular af-

nevertheless

were

always loyal to the authorities, notwithstanding they

were strong enough during several decades before the Revolution, by making an alliance with the Quaker

element to have wrested the colony from British control.

Such an

alliance

would not have been

by reason of the well-known (81)

difficult

hostility of the Quakers(6X

The Story

82

But the Germans never

to tlie proprietary rule.

any ambition

of the

They cared

in that direction.

little

liad

for

poHtical power, being content to cultivate their fields,

and enjoy

which was denied them

erty,

They

birth.

their

the blessings of civil and religious

provincial government.

German

holding

the land of their

did not aspire to political honors, and

names seldom appear

of the

in.

in the ofiicial

of the

Their almost exclusive use

language, also disqualified them from

numbers exerted an important influence especially in the election of

ofiicers,

lists

They however by reason

office.

Assembly,

lib-

as well as

inasmuch

of their

in the colony,

members of the Colonial

with regard to other elective

as their votes

were in

all cases cast

as a unit for a single favorite candidate. issue raised at the elections in those days

The only

was the one,

whether the representative of the proprietory govern-

ment should should carry

succeed, off

or

the opposition candidate

the honors.

The

latter usually

wherever the German vote predominated.

German paper was among

Germans

the

to-day.

for

many

years,

and It

lines to those of the partisan

It

Sauer's

the only newspaper circulated

their political actions throughout.

on similar

won,

it

controlled

was conducted newspapers of

was thoroughly anti-English in sentiment,

Pennsylvania Germans.

and indulged in vehement appeals tlie

Germans by making them

83

to the prejudices of

believe, that

purpose of the English to enslave them their

young men

up the

to

become

;

it

was the

compelling

thereby bringing

soldiers,

horrible recollections of the military bondage

from which they

fled in their native land.

Sauer'g

paper taught the Germans to believe, that the English

were seeking

to

put burdens upon them,

as great as

The

those which they had borne in the old country.

inculcation of such beliefs, coupled with their numerical strength

alarmed the English, and caused them

to fear, that the

Germans would

give

them not only laws of

make

the colony a

The English

German

at a time not remote,

their

own making, but

province.

distrust of the

Germans was

height-

ened by the fact that about the middle of the eighteenth century, while Great Britain was at war with

Erance for the conquest of Canada, the Germans were reluctant,

and in some instances absolutely refused

serve as soldiers, manifesting no small tOity to the British cause

them

for aid

;

amount of

their struggle

The Germans made no

their sentiments, that

it

hos-

while the Erench looked to

and encouragement in

with the British.

to

did not matter

under whose authority they

lived, so

secret of

much

to

them

long as they

84

The Story

were not molested in

and

tlie

of the

enjoyment of their property,

their personal freedom.

But

later

when

the conditions had changed, and

the French became the aggressors, in threatening the colonies

by making war against them, the Germans

made up

for their former indifference,

large

numbers

by

enlisting in

to defend the colonies against their

hereditary enemies.

Various schemes were proposed to overcome the influence of the

other things

it

Among

Germans by the English.

was suggested,

from having any voice in the

them,

to disfranchise

election of

members of

the Colonial Assembly, pending a period during which

they should be taiaght the English tongue. purpose

it

was proposed

to support Protestant minis-

and school teachers among them,

ters

they should become English.

to the

end that

The schemes suggested

were never carried into execution; failed to

For that

so the

Germans

become Anglicized, and the descendants of

thousands of them continue to be

German

at this

day.

To

arrest the

coming of

so

many Germans

in

some

degree, the Assembly passed a tax of twenty shillings

a head on each newcomer, but

venting them from coming.

it

had no

effect in pre-

The tlie

Pennsylvania Germans.

85

large influx of Palatines gave

James Logan,

secretary of the province

He

annoyance.

much apprehension and

feared that their numbers would in

time result in the colony being

lost to the

British

Logan's apprehensions were prophetic!

crown.

All

the colonies were wrested from the crown in later years,

and no people rendered more invaluable

vices in that behalf, than the

Germans

ser-

of Pennsyl-

vania.

The

prejudice of the English against the Ger-

mans was shared by even

so

eminent

a

From

philosopher as Benjamin Franklin. written by

him

to Peter Collinson

and natural philosopher, in 1753,

statesman and a letter

an English botanist it

would seem

as if

the latter had been also apprehensive about the large

German immigration veyed

his

in Pennsylvania,

and had con-

views to Franklin in a letter to which the

latter replied as follows:

am

your

mind,

measures of great temper are necessary touching the Germans, and am not without apprehensions *'I

perfectly

of

that

througli their indiscretion, or ours, or both, great disorders may one day arise among us. Those who come hither are generally the most stupid of their o^vn nation, and as ignorance is often attended

that,

with great credulity, when knavery would mislead

it,

86

The Story

of the

and with suspicion when honesty would set it right; and few of the English understand the German language, so that they cannot address them either from the press or pulpit, it is almost impossible to remove any prejudice they may entertain. The clergy have very little influence on the people, who seem to take pleasure in abusing and discharging the minister on every trivial occasion. Not being used to liberty, they know not how to make modest use of it. They under no are restraint from ecclesiastical government; they behave however, submissively enough at present to the civil government, which I wish they may continue to do, for I remember when they modestly declined intermeddling with our elections but now they come in droves and carry all before them, except in one or two counties. Few of their children in the countrv know English. They import many books from Germany, and, of the six printing houses in the ;

province, two are entirely German, two half German, half English, and but two are entirely English. They have one German newspaper, and one half German. Advertisements intended to be general, are now

The signs printed in Dutch, (German) and English. in our streets, (Phila.,) have inscriptions in both lanThey beguages, and some places only in German. gin of late, to make all their bonds and other legal instruments in their own language, (though I think it ought not to be), are allowed good in courts, where the German business so increases, that there is continued need of interpreters, and I suppose in a few years, tliey will also be necessary in the Assembly, to tell one-half of our legislators, what the other half In short, unless the stream of importation says. could be turned from this to other colonies, as you

Pennsylvania Germans.

87

very judiciously propose, tliey will soon outnumber us, that all the advantages we have, will, in my opinion, be not able to preserve our language, and even our government will become precarious."

Some

of the adverse criticisms in the foregoing

letter are manifestly unjust;

but as they were made to

harmonize with English sentiment, there been an element of policy in them,

as

may have

Franklin was at

that time an attache of the proprietary government,

and supplicant for royal favor. on

its

face

ticulars.

many

its

own

The

contradiction in

The statement

that the

letter also bears

some

essential par-

Germans "import

books from Germany," which they are pre-

sxmied to have read, does not bear out the statement that they were "the most stupid of their nation,"

which as

contradiction

asserted

by

is

emphasized

Tranklin

that

out

by the of

the

fact,

six

printing houses in the province, the English had only

two; the Germans two, and the remaining two were

haK German, and half English. A people among whom printing

houses, books, and

newspapers abound, can safely be accredited with a fail-

amount of

intelligence, although they

may have

obtained the inspiration of their knowledge from Ger-

man

books and

German

newspapers.

S8

The Story There

hia

no doubt that Franklin thonglit better of

is

German

fellow-citizens

and compatriots, when

than a quarter of a

less

of tie

in

century later they stood

shoulder to shoulder with him in the cause of Ameri-

can independence.

THE

«

GERMATJ-S IN

AYhen the

first

THE KEVOLUTION.

murmurings of

discontent,

which

culminated in open revolt, were heard through-

later

out the colonies, the Germans of Pennsylvania were

among

the

first

to place themselves in

harmony with

those ideas, which determined the colonies in favor of

independence.

Even some time before

separation had

been determined upon, the Germans were active

among that

their

stej).

countrymen

in their efforts to

promote

It required a great deal of resolution

on

their part to espouse such a policy at that time, with

the formidable influences opposed to them.

ernment of the

colonies

was

in the

The

gov-

hands of the royal

representatives of the British crown; these sustained

intimate personal and social relations with leading colonists,

some of

whom

supported the royal authority,

while others were resisting British aggression, but

were not decided stage.

in favor of separation at that early

The English

ties

of blood

no doubt kept many

Pennsylvania Germans. patriots

89

from favoring extreme measures, before

inde-

pendence was declared, but the Germans were not

in-

They had

in-

fluenced

by any such

considerations.

herited a fierce hatred of oppression in their native

country, and they had no sympathy with a temporiz-

ing policy, and declared in favor of independence long before the events of Lexington and Bunker Hill.

The Germans of Pennsylvania exerted

a potent

own colony

influence, not only in bringing their

to

the side of independence, but they were actively em-

ployed in influencing their countrymen in the other colonies to take a similar step.

in communication with the

Thev put themselves

German

every-

settlers

where, and urged upon them to espouse the cause of separation and freedom; and

gun

by the time that the

of the Revolution was fired, the

Germans

first

in all

the colonies were in line against the British govern-

In Pennsylvania they became the mainstay in

ment.

furnishing troops to

fill

the quotas of

came many

its

regiments,

honorable distinction during the war.

who gained Many had

been

where they

and from

their ranks

soldiers

officers

in their native country,

fought against oppression, while others inherited the spirit of

freedom from their fathers, who had

hand of persecution in other

lands.

felt the

The Story

90

The

of the

historian has faithfully chronicled the dis-

tinguished services rendered

by

all classes

during the

Revolution, with the exception of the invaluable vices of the

Germans

ser-

of Pennsylvania; their services

Even Ban-

have been dismissed with curt brevity.

croft in his history of the Revolution passes

in the following words:

them by

"The Germans who

consti-

tuted a large portion of the population of Pennsylvania were

all

on the

side of freedom."

The importance which was attached fluence which the

Germans might

to the in-

exert, in the event

of hostilities between the colonies and the British

crown

is

sho\m, upon the occasion when Franklin ap-

peared before the British ministry, urging the repeal of the

He

Stamp Act, and

of other oppressive measures.

was asked Jiow many Germans

Pennsylvania at that time.

He

t;liere

were in

replied that not less

than one-third of the population, and probably more, as

he had no means

to tell accurately.

He

was then

asked whether any of them had served as soldiers in the European wars; to which he replied, that they had

not only been soldiers in Europe, but that

them had served also

wanted

much

to

in the colonial wars.

know whether

dissatisfied

the

many

of

The ministry

Germans were

as

with the stamp tax, as the English

Pennsylvania Germans. born

citizens; to wliicli his reply

even more hostile to

was that

tliey

were

If this colloquy had any sig-

it.

nificanace at that time,

91

it

must be construed

to

have

meant, that the English had a wholesome dread of the

Germans

in the event of an open rupture, between

the mother country and her colonies.

Whatever the

moving cause may have been, the Stamp Act was repealed.

As

early as 1772 the

delphia,

who

at that

German

residents of Phila-

time exercised a controlling

in-

fluence in business and civic affau's, organized an association

under the name of "The Patriotic Society

of the City and County of Philadelphia."

pose of this society was to

make ready

which the Germans regarded

The

pur-

for the struggle

as inevitable.

In 1774

after the threat

had been made by the British min-

istry, of closing

the Boston harbor, and indicating the

intention of a resort to force, to crush the revolution-

ary

spirit

manifested by the Massachusetts patriots, a

meeting was called by leading Germans of Philadelphia to consider the threatening situation, at which

meeting a " Correspondence pointed, the duty of

Germans

Committee " was

which was

of other colonies,

to correspond

ap-

with the

urging upon them to

organize, so as to be ready for the conflict,

which

to

The Story of their

the

minds could not be much longer delayed.

In the Provincial Assembly which was held in the

same

year, to consider the condition of affairs, the

German element was views received

Among

the

strongly represented, and their

earnest

and careful consideration.

Germans who occupied

seats in that con-

vention were such prominent representatives as Chris-

topher Ludwig, George

Schlosser,

Adam

Hubley,

Jacob Barge, from Philadelphia; Matthias Schlauch,

Moses Erwin, Joseph Ferree, and George Ross, from Lancaster county; Christopher Schultz, and Jonathan Potts from Berks county; Peter Keichlein and Jacob

Arndt, from Northampton county, and Casper Weitzel

from Northumberland county. In the convention which met in January follow-

ing, the

Germans were

more largely represented.

still

This convention declared in favor of the utmost sistance,

re-

against any further British insolence and

tyranny, and issued a call for a Colonial Congress.

The Germans

York and North

residing in the colonies of

Carolina, were undecided at

with regard to taking out of

sides,

hostilities, until

kinsmen

in

New first

before the actual breaking

they were appealed to by their

Pennsylvania

by

means

of

corres-

pondence, and also by messengers sent among them,

93

Pennsylvania Germans. to urge

them

the colonies.

to

go with the Germans of the

A

pamphlet was written and published

rest of

by the "Correspondence Committee," which was cially designed for the

North Carolina,

Germans

in

Germans

which

of ISTew York, and

was

it

set forth, that the

had learned with

of Pennsylvania

espe-

satis-

faction, that the people without regard to race, creed,

or former nationality; whether rich or poor, had given their unqualified approval, to the acts of their gress,

and that the Germans

were taking measures,

to

especially,

Con-

everywhere

have the militia put in shape,

and were forming new military organizations,

so that

they should be ready to march wherever they should

be needed in the event of war, and urging upon those

Germans

that could not enlist for any reason, to con-

tribute to the patriot cause according to their ability.

The pamphlet went on were grieved

further to state, that they

to learn, that there

Germans, in various parts of

North Carolina, who were which their kinsmen had elsewhere.

That the

first

York, and

many

in

indifferent to the cause for

enlisted

and were preparing

efforts of the

sylvania proved successful

the

New

were numbers of

is

Germans

in

Penn-

not doubted, for after

shedding of blood at Lexington, there were

no Germans in any of the

colonies,

that did not

The Story

94

of the

espouse the cause of the patriots in behalf of freedom.

Maj

In tion of

1776 before the adoption of the Declara-

Independeneee the Continental Congress de-

termined to raise a battalion for immediate service,

and called upon Pennsylvaliia and Maryland

On

nish four companies each.

Pennsylvania reported four companies

—not

—but with

from the Germans.

The

to fur-

July 17, following

only with the required

five full companies,

greater

number

enhsted

of the

Mary-

land companies raised for this battalion were also cruited talion

was a German.

took the critical

As

Every

from the Germans.

field,

officer of

Soon after

its

re-

the bat-

formation

and rendered conspicuous service

it

at a

period during the early part of the war. there are no doubt

rank and

file

many

of this battalion,

descendants of the

still

living throughout

Pennsylvania and Maryland, the names of sioned officers are here given:

its

Colonel,

commisNicholas

Hausseger; Lieut. Col., George Striker; Major, LudAvig

Waltner; Adjutant, Louis von Linkendorf.

The

Captains and Lieutenants of each company follow in the order of their rank: erich

Rollwagen,

(1)

Daniel Burkhard, Pried-

George Habacker;

(2)

Philipp

Grebel, Johann Lora, Christian Meyers; (3) George

Hubley, Peter Boyer, Johann Laudenberger;

(4)

Pennsylvania Germans. Karl Balsel,

Heinricli Fister,

95

Micliael

Boyer; (5)

Jacob Bunner, Willielm Eice, George Schafer; (6)

George

Adam

Jacob Kotz,

llieport,

Smith; (7) Ben-

jamin Weiser, Jacob Bower, Friederich Heiser; (8) "W. Heiser, iel

Samuel Gerock, Wilbelm

Ritter; (9)

Dan-

"Woelper, Bernliard Hnbley, Pliilipp Schrader.

There was one piece of battalion. onel,

ill-luck wliicb

Some complaint was made

came

against

to this its

Col-

under the pressure of which he resigned and

afterward turned traitor to the cause of the patriots.

His successor was Baron von Arendt, who afterwards resigned on account of ill-health, after which Major

Waltner succeeded ing September

to the

the

command.

In the follow-

was ordered

battalion

to join

Washington's army.

The cause

of the patriots did not look very prom-

ising at this time.

The

British

had possession of l^ew

York; l^ew Jersey was wholly defenceless; Philadelphia was threatened, and a large and influential party of Tories was watching for an opportunity to strike

the patriots in the rear. ened, Washington's

ragged

mob

The

army was not much more than

a

of undisciplined, "uncouth, intractable

ploughboys and farmers." officers

leaders were disheart-

had experience

Many

of the

German

as soldiers in their native coun-

The Story

96

and they became useful

try,

discipline,

in helping to establish

and in making the army

The German at

of the

fit

to fight.

battalion participated in the affair

Trenton in December 1776, which inspired the

army was

-with confidence,

with Washington at the

at Princeton;

fields of

and the people with hope;

ill-fated

Brandywine and Germantown, and spent the

terrible winter of

1777-1778

deeds and sufferings of this a proud memorial of the lution,

it

and

inclination,

it is

at

German

German

The

Valley Forge.

battalion furnish

Revo-

soldiers of the

hoped that some one with the laudable

and access

to

such of

its

history as

may be

yet preserved, will give to the world a faithful account of

many a battlefield of the RevoGerman soldiers also served in other

heroic deeds, on

its

j\Iany

lution.

commands, and

it is

a matter of history that

ington greatly relied on their

what lists

the

situation they

no matter in

fidelity,

were placed.

If

Wash-

we

will scan the

of company, regimental and brigade officers of

commands from Pennsylvania, we

bristling with It

is

will find

them

German names.

generally believed that the

German Quakers,

Mennonites, and Moravians held entirely aloof from the struggle for independence, on account of their religious faith against bearing arms.

This

is

no doubt

Pennsylvania Germans.

97

true of all tliose wlio remained loyal to their sect, but

there

is

authority for the statement, that not a few

young Quakers, and Mennonites, did with the patriots for freedom.

All

enlist

and

fight

however

such

either voluntarily

withdrew from their church, or

were shut out from

all

fellowship with

many German

Before the Revolution

had

it.

settled in Pennsylvania,

Catholics

and they were prompt

in enlisting on the side of freedom,

and their blood

mingled with their Protestant compatriots on many a sanguinary

Revolution.

field of the

In the German Catholic emigration

may

America,

to

be found an argument showing that the direct

cause of the great exodus of

Germans

to

America was

not altogether the result of religious persecution, but rather the desire to get

European wars and

its

away from the

desolations.

It

incessant

was not an

unusual thing during the later years of the German emigration, for the Protestant and the Catholic, to cross the ocean in the

val settle in the fight side

The

by

same

ship,

and upon their

same neighborhood, and in

arri-

later years

side in the cause of civil liberty.

just tribute to

which the Germans of Penn-

sylvania are entitled for their invaluable services, (7)

The Story

:98

War

has never been duly

may be hoped

that with the revival

during the Revolutionary chronicled, and

it

of the

of interest in their history through the Pennsylvania

German

Society, that

them

full justice.

'do

some chronicler

will

some day

•JERMAW MERCENARIES.

There

a popular belief

is

among some

people, that

the Hessian mercenaries brought here by the British

government

to fight the Americans, remained here after

the war was over, and that their descendants constitute

a

considerable element of the Pennsylvania

of to-day.

Germans

Comparatively few remained here after

the war, because the British government was under contract to return such as escaped the casualities of

the war, after

made good

it

was

over.

diers against the Americans,

do

:sponsible places

so,

that remained

they made the very best

citizens, as

/practicable to

The few

and whenever

it

sol-

wag

they were put in the most re-

by the

British commanders.

The

in-

tense hatred at one time, against the so-called Hessian soldiers,

some of which

generation

is

still

lingers with the present

very unjust, because they did not volun-

teer to fight against the Americans, but they were .forced into the British service,

by the impecunious

Pennsylvania Germans.

German

many

princes

who

sold

them

The Hessian

slaves.

99

to the British like so

soldiers

would sometimes

take a notion to desert, and they invariably found

refuge

among some

siderable

number

them were

of

to time on marches,

German

of the

settlers;

behind from time

on account of sickness or wounds;

these always found a ready

man

left

A con-

colonists.

welcome among the Ger-

few of them ever found their way back

to their native land. Yv^hile all the

German mercenaries

Hessians, they were not

all

are

subjects of the

known

Landgrave

them

of Hesse-Cassel, although the larger portion of

were furnished by that prince. The

German mercenaries was made up

first

contingent of

The

as follows:

Landgrave of Hesse-Cassel, furnished 12,104;

Duke

of

Brunswick

4,084;

as

the

Prince of Hesse 663;

Prince of Waldeek 670, a total of 17,521, for which the several princes received $30 for each man. there were additional troops furnished princes,

some of

whom came from

and Anhalt-Zarbst.

number

the

exact

the

German

ick

Kapp, who

tion

closely,

princes. is

by the German

Anspach-Beiruth,

Authorities do not agree as to of

mercenaries

The German

said to

places

Later

the

furnished

by

historian Freder-

have investigated the quesentire

number

at

29,166.

The Story

100

Kapp

informs us

of the

17,313 returned to their native

tliat

land after the war, which would leave 11,853 unac-

counted for in America.

must be taken the

From

this

casualities of war,

number there

which must have

been exceedingly large, because they had to do their

campaigning in a new, and for a great part in a wild country, in some parts of which pestilential fevers car-

much

ried the soldiers off

the enemy. tions of

faster,

than the bullets of

There were none of the sanitary condi-

an army in those days,

to

guard the health

of soldiers, which prevail nowadays.

gery had made of deaths in

it is

little

among

modern

the

Military sur-

progress, so that the percentage

wounded was much

times.

From

larger than

these conditions a cal-

War,

culation based on the casualties of our Civil will enable one to

form an approximate idea of the

casualties of the Hessian soldiers in the Revolution.

According sians

from

to

such an estimate, the

all

some of

Hes-

causes could not have fallen short of

6,000, leaving less than 7,000 ica,

losses of the

whom

who remained

settled in the

in

Amer-

Canadian provinces,

but the majority of them settled in the states of i^ew

York, Pennsylvania, Maryland, Virginia, North, and

South Carolina.

Pennsylvania Germans. It

by

101

were made

interesting to note, that appeals

is

the Britisli

government

to

some of

European sovereigns for Hreling against the Americans, besides the

herein mentioned.

appealed

to,

proposition.

tlie

other

soldiers, to fight

German

princes

Holland and Russia were both

but their rulers refused to entertain the Frederick the Great was also approached

upon the subject of hiring

his soldiers,

but he not

only declined the tempting offer of $30 a head for

them, but he prohibited, any of the hireling soldiers of the other

German

tory on their

way

embark

princes, to

to the seaports,

for America.

go through

his terri-

whence they were

to

—

CHAPTER THE

PESnSTSYLVANIxV

IX.

GERMAN DIALECT.

Pennsylvania German a dialect of Soutli Germany. German vs. Dutch. Confusion of Terms. Dialect Corrujited, bi;t still Vigorous. Germans Tenacious of their Dialect. Progress of English among Them. ISTo Prospect, that the Dialect will become soon Extinct. Has no Lit-

—

—

—

—

—

erary Merit.

Pennsylvania German

a legitimate dialect of

is

South Germany, which has suffered, and become rupted, idioms.

of English words, and

by the introduction There are

Pennsylvania,

still

many

who speak no

cor-

thousands of people in other language.

They

are found in nearly all the counties of Pennsylvania,

lying east and south of the Blue Mountain, and in

some of the counties beyond, where took up their places of abode, (102)

their ancestors

when they

first

came

to

Fennsylvania Germans. tlie

whom

province of Pennsylvania, some of

arrived-

as early as the last years of the seventeenth century^

There

is

a widespread misconception concerning^

the Pennsylvania Germans, which

is

not altogether

confined to the illiterate classes of English-speaking-

There are those who entertain the

people.

that the Pennsylvania ion,

no

and that

Germans

their dialect

relation to

is

a

are of

Dutch

belief^

extract-

confused jargon, having

any legitimate language.

This mis-

taken notion entertained by untrained people

doubt largely due,

Deutsch and Dutch, and nia

Germans

confusion

a

to

also because the

no

terms^

Pennsylva-

are frequently spoken of erroneously, as

the "Pennsylvania Dutch."

own language

All Germans in their-

are designated as Deutsch; the

are designated in

guage

the

of

is

German

as Ilollandisch.

as Hollander,

Dutct

and their lan-

Uneducated people are apt

to-

confuse these terms, which leads to the eiToneous conception before referred

The

to.

ancestors of the Pennsylvania

Germans emi-

grated from the region of the Upper Rhine, and from' the valley of the JSTeckar in South Germany. dialect spolien in that part of Pfiilzisch,

German

and the people

Germany

is

The"

known

as-

at the time of the great

emigration from there, v/ere

known

as

Ger-

104

man

The Story

The

Palatines.

dialect

vania Germans at tins day, their ancestors,

and barring

substantially the

By

same

as

of the

spoken by the Pennsylis

an inheritance from English infusion,

its

when

first

it is

brought here.

eliminating the English words taken up by

Pennsylvania German, the dialect approaches the

by the common people

Pfalzisch, spoken

Germany very

words, and idioms tinguishable,

There are

closely.

common

to

many

in South

expressions,

both that are

and for the purposes of colloquial

common

course the two dialects meet on

indisinter-

ground, with-

out any serious embarrassment.

There

is

tion, accent,

sylvania

a shade of difference in the pronuncia-

and inflexion of words between the Penn-

German and

Pfalzisch dialects and similar

differences are noticed, in different ities in

German commun-

Pennsylvania, the result no doubt of Germans,

speaking various dialects settling in the same neighborhood, and each contributing certain peculiarities to the

common

speech.

But

as the Pfalzisch largely

predonunated in the early days of German emigration to Pennsylvania,

the Pennsylvania tics.

fessor

it is

that dialect

German

In support of

this

its

which has given to

controlling characteris-

view the following from Pro-

Marion D. Learned's "Pennsylvania German

Pennsylvania Germans.

may

Dialect,"

105

"Pennsylvania German, in

be cited:

borrowing from the English

to enrich its vocabulary,

has by no means forfeited

birthright and

its

become a

bad German and worse English,

pitiable hybrid of

but on the contrary, has perpetuated in their pristine vigor the characteristics of

Rhine Frankish, " lihinepfd Izisch."

When ences

it

considered,

is

venerable ancestor, the

Bhine

specifically

all conditions,

istics, as

its

Palatinate,

how environment

influ-

extending to physical character-

well as to the speech of men, the continued

similarity of the dialect of the Pennsylvania

Germans

and that spoken in South Germany seems remarkable after their separation for a period of

But we must not forget the

centuries.

conditions that surrounded the

vania for

many

Pennsylvania

portion well

of

the

educated

brought

with

influences

Germans

and

in Pennsyl-

generations after their coming here;

which operated in

upwards of two

to

keep the Pffilzisch dialect alive

down

to this time.

German

emigrants

when

they

them

educated

came

The

greater

were

fairly

They

here.

clergymen

who

preached to them in their native language, and school teachers,

who taught

tongue.

Education was never neglected by the Ger-

their children in their

mother

106

The Story

mans, and they

built

whenever they found

German

of the

churches and school houses it

practicable to do

schools were continued in Pennsylvania until

a comparatively recent period

few of the people

counties, not a

man pel

German newspapers

;

circulate extensively in nearly all of the

still

Bible, and

is

The

so.

read their Ger-

still

German Prayer Book,

yet preached in

German

while the Gos-

German from more than a

thous-

and pulpits every Sunday throughout the rural tricts of

dis-

In view of such

southeastern Pennsylvania.

conditions and surroundings, there can be no surprise that the Pennsylvania

German

dialect should

still

flourish in its "pristine vigor," after its separation

from

its

parent speech for more than a century and a

half.

It

near.

not believed that the day of

is

A

country

its

extinction

large majority of the school children in the

districts of half a score of the wealthiest,

most populous counties in the

quently inside.

The

children do

wise than

most

as

tliat

all

it

fre-

their thinking in

are discussed

all their little affairs

in their native dialect, so that

and

State, speak the dialect,

not only outside of the school room, but very

German;

is

by them

can scarcely be other-

they should grow up, and continue

thoroughly

German

as those that

al-

preceded

107

Pennsylvania Germans.

them, laaking almost exclusive use of their German dialect, for all

purposes of colloquial and familiar

in-

tercourse.

may be

asked whetlier the English schools do

make any

progress towards Anglicizing the Ger-

It

not

man

children?

The answer

progress in that direction

man

is

that they do, but the

While the Ger-

slow.

school children get a smattering of English,

becomes a

also

is

prolific

means of

still

it

further corrupt-

ing their native speech, without acquiring

much pure

English.

When way

the

German

schools in Pennsylvania gave

entirely to altogether English schools,

lieved

by many, that

it

would speedily

cizing the Pennsylvania

;

it

was be-

result in Angli-

Germans but forty

perience does not prove that

it

years' ex-

has been an unqualified

success.

The

German-speaking

schools, are laboring

children

in

the public

under great disadvantages along-

side of their English-speaking schoolmates.

ter

have an intelligent appreciation of their

while the training of the

than merely mechanical.

German

child

The German

The

lat-

studies,

is little

more

children be-

gin to learn their letters in a language which they do not understand, and by the time that they begin to

The Story

108

of the

have some intelligent comprehension of their studies the English-speaking children have outstripped them in

the

whether

was altogether wise

it

and compel them

language

The

to take

early Anglicization of the Pennsylvania Ger-

may

hope for

The

ex-

which they are strangers.

to

dence, no matter

to

away from

to pursue their studies in a

mans cannot be looked forward

dialect

question occurs

German-speaking children their German

clusively schools,

The

for knowledge.

race

how much

he desired. its

It

is

to

with

confi-

the extinction of their

yet by far too vigorous

early disappearance.

tenacity with

which the Pennsylvania Ger-

ans have clung to their dialect for so not without

much

its

parallels

among

many

years,

other people.

is

Take

for example Wales, a country which contains an area

much

smaller than

that

embraced by the German

counties of Pennsylvania, with less population; separated from England

by only an imaginary boundary;

ha"sdng been in political connection with Great Britain

for six

hundred years; with English

as the official

language; the language of culture; of commercial tercourse;

in-

and with English schools almost every-

where yet more than one-half of the people of Wales ;

in the cities and towns speak the

Welsh language,

Pennsylvania Germans. while in the rural

Welsh language

the

districts

109 is

spoken almost exclusively.

Out of

Switzerland furnishes another example.

the 22 cantons of the Swiss republic, with a poulation of over three millions of people,

German

1.

spoken by

by those of

the people of 16 cantons; French ian by the people of only

is

5; Ital-

Although German

is

the principal language spoken throughout Switzer-

and

land,

the language of

is

official

intercourse;

its

various people having lived near neighbors for centuries,

and under the same government for a long

time, yet each race has maintained

its

linguistic integ-

rity to this day.

There

is

a region in Switzerland

canton of Grisons,

Eomansch

dialects,

days of the

Roman

where there

exists a

group of

which have come down from the empire,

still

as Rhaetia.

The canton

exist

when

in

the region in which

Roman

was a

those dialects

vail,

embraced in the

province

which those

known

dialects pre-

has an area of about twice the size of one of the

largest counties of Pennsylvania, with a population of

about 90,000, surrounded on the greater portion of people,

whom

all sides

by

neighboi's

speak German, yet those

whose ancestors were "shepherd-peasants"

when Rome was

mistress of the world, continue to

The Story

110

of the

speak corrupted Latin, after the lapse of more than a

dialect

tenacious,

is less

German

Unless the Pennsylvania

thousand years.

it

may

continue to be spoken,

for several centuries.

During the

earlier years of the

tion to Pennsylvania, large

tled in the province of

located along the ley,

and

lish

had preceded them.

river; in the

Mohawk

val-

The Dutch and Eng-

Each race maintained

OAvn language for a while; the

set-

Those chiefly

York.

in Schoharie county.

its

Germans being weakest

in point of numbers, their dialect

appear, but the

emigra-

numbers of Palatines

New

Hudson

German

was the

first

to dis-

Dutch being much more numerous,

they held on to their dialect vigorously for a hundred years,

and

it

did not wholly disappear in the

valley, until

some time during the

first

Mohawk

half of the

present centtiry.

While the prospects of the Pennsylvania

promising,

every year.

it

German

will necessarily

With

ary German, and while

lish

dialect are not

very

become more debased

the abolition of

few of the young people

dialect,

for the early disappearance

German

schools,

will learn anything of liter-

many

will continue to use the

they will be continually taking up more Eng-

words, because they will find their own vocabulary

Ill

Pennsylvania Germans.

growing more thoughts. dialect It

as

was of much better quality than

it

now

as far

is; it still

it.

supplied

This debasement of the

from now

discoveries; every

folded,

who

and their places have been

by English words.

made wonderful

literary Ger-

schooling of those

on.

The present century has been and

to-day.

retained at that time some of

dialect,

dialect Avill increase

it is

many good German words have

Since then

dropped ont of the

removed from

German

the advantages of the

spoke

words to express their

Porty years ago the Pennsylvania German

was not then yet

man

in

deficient

fertile in inventions

branch of the

progress;

many new

arts

and sciences

things were un-

which required the coinage of new words, for

which the Pennsylvania Germans have no German equivalents; so they

the deficiency.

draw on the English

to supply

So when they speak of the telegraph,

electricity, the telephone, or

any other new discovery

or iiivention they add the technical

names employed

to their vocabulary.

So long

as the

Pennsylvania German confines his

conversation to his personal concerns, and talks about his horses, his cows, his crops, his fields,

or his domestic aifairs, his erally sufticient,

and

his family

German vocabulary

and he draws very

little

is

gen-

on the Eng-

The Story lish..

It

is

only when he enters the domain of

or undertakes to

problem,

of the

llaat

some abstruse philosophic

discuss

he interlards

German and probably worse

his speech with

impure

making

a patois,

English,

that would paralyze a Heidelberg professor

within range of

politics,

if

he came

it.

Pennsylvania Gennan makes, no pretensions to

any

literary merit,

and

it

has none, yet

swered the needs of the people speaking period of years, and

it is

it

not doubted that

it

has an-

for a long it

will con-

tinue the speech for colloquial intercourse of

many

years

English could be

made

thousands of people in Pennsylvania for

were far better

to come.

It

to take

place for

its

all

if

many

purposes, but with the knowl-

edge we have of the tenacity with which a people will cling to a language or to a dialect, often under the

most adverse conditions, we are made the day of tenacity

is

very remote.

disappearance

is

one of the proofs of

its

its

Its

and while

it

High German,

it

quality,

has no literary merit in the sense of is

to believe, that

yet wonderfiilly resourcefid in expression, and cap-

able of the sublimest pathos.

with

Ilarbaugh's

"Gedichte

Deutscher Mundart," will

Whoever in

is

familiar

Pennsylvanisch

testify to the fact that

it is

capable of awakening the tenderest emotions of the

human

heart.

113

Pennsylvania Germans.

THE ETCGLISH INFUSION. Since the abolition of

German

eylvania

has suffered

was

nearly

not

schools,

much by

Penn-

the English

Before that time the

infusion into the dialect. fusion

German

tlie

Words which

great.

as

German have

approach nearest to pure

suffered the

having their places usurped by English.

most

in

man

of middle life

will

remember when

words, and

many

who it

is

The

familiar with the dialect

contained

many pure German

others nearly pure,

are yet heard occasionally spoken

but with the generation

in-

some of which

by the

now coming on

older people,

all

such words

have been superseded by English, and too often by worse English relatively, than the quality of the Ger-

man

the places of which

it

has taken.

It is not

more

than a generation and a half ago, since the following words, and

many more

equally good were in

common

use by Pennsylvania Germans, but which have since

then almost entirely disappeared from the dialect

Zum

beispiel

prove),

imme'

(for

ei'richte'

—

billige'

einrichten

(arrange),

— iibereinschtimmen dampkessel —dampfkessel —geschaft

(ballot),

(besides), g'schaft

—

example),

(to

agree),

:

billigen (apiiberi'scht-

schtimzettle

(boiler),

ausser

(business), handel (deal-

ings), koffer (trunk), gerechtichkeit (justice), genies(8)

^

The Story

114

of the

sen (enjoy), genau (exact), entschuldigen (excuse), ansfiUire

—

aiisfiiliren

(execute), ausklaren (explain),

-erwarten (expect), walil (election), offentliclie vers-

teigerung

(public

(humbug), in der inwendig

letter),

tbat, wirklich. (indeed),

betrug

inwennig—

—

(inside), bares geld (cash), dreten

(complete),

Yollstandig

(kick), '

vendue), gewalt (force),

brief

liebes

treten (love-

einsam (lonesome), nacliricbt (notice), genunk

—genug

•

(enough), g'falle' gefallen (please), einfach

langsam (slow),

(plain),

studire'

—

studiren (study),

eichhornche' eichhornchen (squirrel), king (smart), rauche' rauchen (smoke), sicher (sure).

This

list

could be extended so as to reach hundreds

much than it now

of words, which would prove a

better quality of

the dialect in the past,

is

and how

it is

growing more debased by being robbed of legitimate

Oerman

words, which are

This

is

man

schools,

ing

rightfxzl

inheritance.

manifestly the result of the abolition of Ger-

and the

closer relation to English teach-

ing and English speaking.

coming

its

to this country

commimities,

training,

Axdll

pick

and

Eoreign-born Germans settling in English-speak-

their

German

up many Enghsh words

in a com-

notwithstanding

paratively short time, which they

mix up

in their

•German speech, although they are thoroughly con-

Pennsylvania Germans.

German

versant with their

seem

should be liis

greater to

still

vocabulary because

sion,

equivalents.

Pennsylvania

as if the

115

would

German's temptation

draw on English

it is

It

to enrich

really deficient in expres-

while the newly-arrived German's vocabulary

adequate for

all

purposes, yet he

is

is

given to the use

of English -^'ords in almost the same degree as the

native born Pennsylvania German. all is

Germans

to take

shown by the

up English

fact that those

of an English settlement

who

than those

live

The tendency

of

in their native speech

who

live

on the borders

employ more English words,

more remote from English-speak-

ing people.

Pennsylvania German dialect writers vary greatly in the

number

Some do to

uot

of English words

make

which they employ.

use of more than 1

German word

300 of English, while others make use of 1

25.

One

dialect

witer translated an English poem

of 600 words without the use of a single

and the

to every

entire translation

is

Enghsh word

in the vernacular of the

Pennsylvania German.

Humorous

dialect writers

make

use of the largest

percentage of English words, not because they have

no German equivalents, but they think that

it

creases the ludicrous features of their productions.

in-

IIG

The Story

of the

EXjVMPLES of PENNSYLVANIA GERMAN, AND PFALZISCH

COMPARED.

The

"Pfalziscli"

vs-ord

strictly

speaking applies

only to the " Pfalz," or the region formerly embraced within the limits of the old state of the Palatinate,

but inasmuch as the Pfalzisch dialect has spread over South Germany, and even beyond,

German

character to some of the other

the use of the word

South German

is

it

justified in

all

has given

dialects, so

speaking of the

dialects generally.

In spelling and pronunciation Pennsylvania Ger-

man and

Pfalzisch agree in

many

"With

particulars.

regard to some of the consonants, both use them inter-

The Pennsylvania German

changeably.

quently give

:

So will the South German.

Both

fre-

the sound of d; b, of p; v, of w, and

t,

vice versa.

ample

will

will say dode, for todt (dead)

For ;

ex-

dochter,

for tochter (daughter); draurig, for traugig (sad); dhier, for thiir (door); deich, for teich (a swale);

bloge,

for

(planted).

plage

They

for

geschirr

blanscht,

for

will also confuse the letters

w, in similar fashion. to suffer in the

vex);

(to

The

same way,

(harness).

letters k,

as for

The

pflanzt f, v,

and

and g are made

example in k'scher,

South German says

117

Pennsylvania Germans. "nit'' for niclit, wliile tlie

substitute

e,

for

i,

German

Pennsylvania

and make

it

will

"net."

There are very many imperfect German words in

use both in Pennsylvania and in

South Ger-

many, of which the following are a few examples:

The word "grurabeera" by the Germans

(potatoes)

in Pennsylvania,

where in South Germany and It

is

a corruption of a

birn."

The

latter

is

in universal use

and

is

heard every

east as far as Austria.

good German word, "grund-

word

is

however rarely used by

German-speaking people, the word "kartoffeln" being preferred.

"Beera," for birnen (pears); "pershing,"

for pfirsich (peach); "hinkel," for hiihner (chickens) are all terms

common

to

both

of Pennsylvania have the tereesli, for

to

rebhuhn

dialects.

word

"pattereesel," or pat-

This word seems

(partridge).

come from the French perdrix, and

have been brought ing the early

to

The Germans

is

believed to

Pennsylvania by Alsatians dur-

German

emigration.

The word

heard in jMsace and

German

mans corrupted

French word by giving

the

Lorraine.

is

The Gerit its

diminutive form, by adding the suffix "eesli," a custom

which prevails largely among Germans, as for example: For hund (dog), they have "hundli," for madchen (girl),

they make maedh, and very

many

other similar

The Story

118

Germans

Tlie

diiuimi lives.

liave lived neighbors to the

of the

of Alsace and Lorraine

French for

so long a time,

that their speech has acquired a considerable of French Avords and idioms,

number

which have become much,

corrupted.

Some

corrupted

of this

French was no doubt

brought here by German emigrants who came from the borders of France.

There are a number of other words in use by

Germans which cannot be traced

the Pennsylvania

any German

origin.

The Germans

living along the

Delaware river always speak of that stream

origin,

French

and

riviere

is

for

most likely a corruption of the river.

also speak of a river as a

Pennsylvania

is

by Pennsylvania

that are wholly misapplied, and

no relation

Germans

"rewwer," or ''rewer."

Tliere are certain words in use

Germans

as the

This term cannot be traced to any Ger-

"reifeer."'

man

to

to the sense in

which have

which they are used.

This

the result of a misconception of what certain things

were, which they found

when they came

with which they were not familiar.

They

here,

and

associated

those with things they heard mentioned in Germany, believing that

tlie

two were the same and in that way

misapplied certain terms.

119

Pennsylvania Germans.

The term "pomeranze"

an example of

is

tliis

rrm-

application of terms.

The Pennsylvania Germans

word

to designate a "tomato," while

make

use of this

the word

is

the

German term

parts of Pennsylvania the

for an orange.

In some

word pomeranze has been

The

corrupted into "gomeranze" or "giimeranze."

German

for tomato

is

The manner

liebesapfel.

in

which the P. G. have fallen into the error of designating tomatoes as pomeranze has been explained in this

In the days of the Palatine emigration tomatoes

way.

were •unknovTi in the Palatinate, but oranges were loiown there, but their use was confined to the rich

and

"When the Palatine peasants came

well-to-do.

to

Pennsylvania, they found tomatoes, and mistook them for pomeninze (oranges)

—hence the erroneous

nation of tomatoes, which

still

remains.

desig-

There are

other similar misapplication of terms.

The following Germany, and Speyer:

liter

wine).

;

of

them

at the time:

At

denk net" (no I think not); "ich will

(I'll see)

have you done) coffee); "ich

made

a note

"iSTa ich

'mohl Sana"

expressions were heard in South

;

"was hen

sie

don g'doon" (what

"ich will ken koffee" (I don't want

nemenachtel wei'"

(I take an eighth of a

The Pfalzer drop

the final n, in words

120

The Story of

tJie

making them

like nein, stein, wein,

nei', wei',

The Pennsylvania Germans do

on.

and so

the same to a

very large extent.

At

from Speyer was heard:

a Volksfest, not far

"Ich wase net;" "es

echung

fier

is

nem

(refreshment);" "ich

"geb mir

e'

halb

liter bier;"

reide (wheat) guth g'rode

dren playing

(where

uhr, bal' zeit fur erfri-

is

at

is,

when

street a

"Wu en

"hasht

woman

Chilballa

dei'

is

ferlora?"

"sehn

Strolling through a

followed a cat out of house,

she was accosted by one of her neighbors,

said "dort geht dei kats," to

die kats schpringed inimer sie

wurst;"

wie letscht johr."

'mohl dort de geilla (horses)."

narrow

bissel

"ich glaab nit os get-

Heidelberg:

your ball);"

e'

gar net im haus halte."

who

which she replied:

zum

finschter naus, ich

"Ja

kan

That such German should

be heard within the very shadow of the great University at Heidelberg,

must shock the erudite writers of

magazine and newspaper

articles,

who have made

discovery that Pennsylvania "Dutch,"

gon, bearing no relation to any

South Germany of idiomatic

was heard

is

German

here mentioned.

officer

a

mere

jar-

language.

not alone however, in the kind

in classic Dresden.

quiry of a police

known

is

the

A

lady

The following made some

in-

about a railway train, to which

121

Pennsylvania Germans.

he replied: oder mit is

"I^a,

em

mir gans

—

em pferdebahn

rait

electrische-balm?"

"Den nemmen

sie

"Eg

"Gehen

nach

The

"Ja." besser

geh',

She answered:

Question.

einerlei."

Answer.

Berlin?"

Avid

sie

replied:

officer

den zug

dro'wa

os dort

schteht."

may be some satisfaction for a Pennsylvania German to know that there are people who speak a German dialect, compared to which his own may It

make some have

pretensions

being

of

He

classic.

his pride gratified in that respect,

by a

can

visit to

the

extreme southern part of Baden, and the adjoining cantons in Switzerland.

For example,

ten at Neuhausen:

fiir

ni', (fiir i'

"Ne'

den scha'

i'

i'

ne'; er zahlt

ihn arbeit ich nicht, er bezahlt nicht)

ha' ni' (no I have not);" "ge'slit

haus'

in a weingar-

;"

mid nach

bin zurick vor siev' uhr (gehen

sie

"ne*

Scha'-

mit nach

Schaffhausen, bin wieder zurick bis sieben uhr); ich gla' es net (ich

glaube es nicht)."

It will

be noticed

that the foregoing examples of Swiss patois, are inferior to Pennsylvania final

German.

much

The dropping

of

consonants and frequently of entire final sylla-

bles, is exasperating to those

not accustomed to

it.

In the foregoing comparison of the Pennsylvania

The Story

122

German and

of the

Pfiilziscli dialects, tlie

mode

of spelling

has been generally followed, which will produce the

sound with which Pennsylvania Germans are familiar, according to English pronunciation. necessary, because

by

This

is

spelling Pennsylvania

German

High German, would

words on the

basis of literary or

make them

xmintelligible to Pennsylvania

readers,

deemed

who have no knowledge

German

of literary or

High

German.

The reader mil

find

an extension of comparisons

of Pennsylvania and South

pendix to

this

German words

in the

Ap-

volume; together with their High Ger-

man, and English equivalents.

—

CHAPTEK

X.

THE GERMAN AND DUTCH LANGUAGES.

Old Dutch

tlie

Basis of

all

Germanic Languages.

— —

The Separation of Dutch and German. The two Grew Wide Apart. xiffinity of Dutch and English Languages. The Saxon Dialect. Literary High German.

—

—

Before the revival of learning in Europe, the Ger-

man and Dutch

languages pursued the same lines;

but after that period they began to separate, and have since developed into

two

distinct languages.

The German language the

is

spoken by the people of

German empire; by about 60 per

of Austria, and Switzerland.

of

about Yl per cent, of those of

The Dutch language

inhabitants of the ^Netherlands, and

be

identical,

cent, of those

is

spoken by the

it is

claimed to

with only slight differences, with the

Flemish language spoken by the tants of Belgium.

(123)

Low German

inhabi-

The Story

124

of the

There was a time wlien Old Dutcli embraced the whole of the Teutonic, or Germanic

race,

and when

Dutch language included the Teutonic,

the

man

language in

Ages, there was

all its

little

During the Middle

forms.

difference between the various

Changes began

Teutonic forms.

or Ger-

to develop with the

revival of learning in Europe, about the fifteenth century.

Modem

After that time. Modern Dutch and

German, became divorced, and the

differences

at lirst separated them, continued to increase

which

during a

period of more than four centuries, until at this day

they have grown wide apart.

The changes which

have taken place in their spelling, pronunciation, phonology, and inflection of words, resulted in two distinct languages, each with a history of its

two nations with

When gent

little

or

own, and

no homogeneity.

the two languages began to pursue diver-

lines,

the Anglo-Saxon and the

have continued on parallel

Dutch seem

lines for a long period, so

that the affinity between those two languages greater, than that

and ])ntch.

which

exists

striking resemblance to the

hundred

even

of to-day bears a

same language

years,

is

between the German

The Dutch language

isted for three

to

as

it

ex-

beginning with the

twelfth century, during which period the

German

Pennsylvania Germans. pursued nearly the same

125

Learning was

lines.

at a

low ebb during those years, and the development of all

languages from their ruder forms to that of a more

cultivated

was

sIoav.

After the separation of the German and Dutch languages, the former was composed of numerous dia-

many

lects,

of which

still

continue in their modified

forms, but a few of them disappeared, while others

became widely separated from the Middle Ages. of Saxon origin.

One It

their conditions during

of the principal dialects was

made more

progress in traveling

away from Old Middle Dutch, than any of the other dialects,

and in the course of time

ite dialect of

began

German

use of

dialects

it

it,

literary, or

German speaking

little difficulty

so that

and poets adopted

came the

for literary purposes.

found very

ing themselves to ians,

became the

favor-

the more cultivated classes, and writers

make

to

it

it,

German

and

it

in adjust-

authors, histor-

was thus that

High German language

people.

A

Other

it

be-

of

all

chief influence which

gave great emphasis to the making of the Saxon lect the literary

language of

Germans, was on

all

count of Martin Luther selecting of the Bible.

That gave

it its

dia-

it

for his translation

pre-eminence over

the other numerous dialects, and

it

ac-

will

all

no doubt con-

The Story

126

tinue, for all time

tlie

of the

means by which Germans

everywhere throughout the world, will express the thoughts of their inspiration, in poetry, music, and song.

Specimens of the same

showing the

text,

affinity

German Languages.

of the English, Dutch, and

ENGLISH.

In the beginning was the "Word, and the "Word

1.

with

Avas

The 3.

same

All

God

and

was

in

were

things

"Word

the

beginning

the

made

by

4.

In him was

5.

And

life

;

and the

life

God.

that

was the

2.

with

God.

and

with-

him;

him was not anything made

out

was

was made.

light of

men.

the light sliineth in darkness; and the dark-

ness comprehended

it

not.

6.

There was a man sent

from God whose name was John.

7.

The same came

for a witness, to bear witness of the Light, that all

men V.

through him might believe.

—

St.

John, chap.

1-7.

1.

. ,

DTTTCH. 1.

was

In den beginne was het woord, en het woord

bij

God, en het woord was God.

den beginne

bij

God.

3.

2.

Dit was in

Alle dingen zijn door het-

127

Pennsylvania Germans. zelve gemaakt, en zonder hetzelve

gemaakt

aakt, dat

4.

is.

is

geen ding gem-

In hetzelve was het leven,

en het leven was het lieht der nienschen. lielit

En

het

schijnt in de dnisternis, en de duistemis laeeft

het niet begrepen.

gezonden, wiens tot

5.

naam was J oliannes.

een getuigenis,

hem

alien door

Daar was een menscli van God

6.

om van

7.

Deze kwam

het lieht te getuigen, opdat

gelooven zouden.

GEEMAN. 1.

Tm Anfang war

bei Gott,

das Wort,

und Gott war das Wort.

im Anfang

bei Gott.

selbige gemacht,

3.

AUe

und ohne

macht, was gemacht

ist.

und das Wort war Dasselbige war

2.

Dinge sind durch

dasselbige

4.

nichts ge-

ist

In ihm war des Leben,

und das Leben war das Lieht der Menschen, das Lieht scheinet in der Finsterniss, niss

haben

es nicht begriffen.

von Gott gesandt, der

kam znm

6.

und

5.

Und

die Finster-

Es ward ein Mensch

hiess Johannes.

Zeugniss, das er von

das-

dem

7.

Derselbige

Lieht zeugete, und

das sie Alle durch ihn glaubten.

The following ation, is a

version from

Caedmon, on the Cre-

specimen of Anglo-Saxon in King AKred'a

time, about

A. D. 885.

The Story

128 Nil milite

we

and

of the

sceolan lierian lieofon-rices weard, metodea his itiod-geponc

wundra gehwaes

wera wuldor-faeder swa he

ece dryhten cord onstealde.

LITERAL ENGLISH VERSION. !N^ow

we must

praise

the

guardian of heaven's

kingdom, the Creator's might, and

his mind's thought,

glorious Father of men, as of every eternal,

formed the beginning.

wonder

he,

Lord

—

CHAPTEK SCHOOLS, CHTJKCHES,

XI.

AND KELIGI0U8

—

SECTS.

Early scliools in Pennsylvania. German Schools. Lutherans Pre^ Churches, and Religious Sects. Reformed Numerous. German dominate. Swedish Lutherans. Moravians, and other Sects.

—

With

—

—

the founding of Penn's province, and the

organization of a civil government for established a moral code in

it,

there was

which the principles of

the Quaker sect furnished the groundwork; but

not the purpose of ligious sect,

Penn

to

set up.

doors to people of different self.

The only

in the

He

new

political

opened wide the

mind and

faith

from him-

conditions imposed were, that all

came should be peaceably

was

exclude persons of any re-

from participation

regime which he had

it

disposed,

(129)

and loyal

who

to the (9)

The Story of

130

the

government which was erected by

liim.

To

that end

schools and churches were established at a very early

day;

first

by the Quakers; then by the adherents of

the Anglican church, and the

Germans soon followed

in their foo,tsteps.

The German emigrants embarking

for

America

were often furnished with religious books, chief among

which was "Arndt's Wahres Christenthum," which

many

not

generations ago was found in the family

of almost every Pennsylvania

German, and

doubt

of

still

tion to

serves the

many German

purpose readers.

The

latter

no

offering consola-

Ministers often ac-

companied the emigrants on the same school teachers.

it

ship, as also did

would frequently read

printed sermons, and prayers to the people

when

the

supply of ministers was short.

By

far the larger portion of the German emigrants

who came

to Pennsylvania

man

Heformed,

There

also

later

—the

were Lutherans and Gei>

Lutherans

predominating.

came German Quakers, Mennonites and

German

Catholics,

Dunkers, Schwenkfelders,

Moravians, and a few minor

sects.

The Lutherans and German Reformed embraced the tenets of the Reformation, in their native country at

an early day, and when they began to emigrate to

131

Pennsylvania Oermans.

Pennsylvania, they brought with them the germs of

which were soon planted

their religions convictions,

in the

new

soil,

where they grew into flourishing

churches.

There were however Lutherans within the

limits

of Pennsylvania before the granting of the province to

Penn, and before the Germans came here.

1638 a small colony of Swedes made short distance

from where the

was afterwards founded.

About

a settlement a

city of Philadelphia

Pastors were sent to them

from Sweden, who organized a Lutheran church, where

its

members were worshipping God according

to their conscience,

Adolphus

when

their

was fighting for

countryman Gustavua freedom in

religious

Europe.

Dutch Lutherans from church at ISTew Amsterdam

Llolland,

established

(New York),

a

a

few years

prior to the founding of the Swedish church near Phil-

The Holland Lutherans were

adelphia.

of

much

persecution in their

the subjects

new home, on account

their non-conformity with the

Calvanistic

which was

chiefly in vogue.

tured 'New

Amsterdam from the Dutch

of

religion,

After the English capin 1664, they

gained religious freedom.

The Lutheran Church however

did not become an

132

Tlie

Story of the

organized religious hierarchy until Melchoir Muhlen-

berg was sent to America, upon application to the

Lutheran pastors in London, erans in the colonies.

He

to look after the Luth-

arrived in 1742, and im-

mediately proceeded to organize the church by which

he earned the

Church cated,

of the "Patriarch of the Lutheran

title

He

in the United States."

and while pastor in

three times every

Sunday

ISTew

in as

was highly edu-

York, he preached

many

languages viz:

German, Dutch and English.

John Peter Gabriel Muhlenberg, son

of the for-

mer, born in Montgomery county. Pa., became even

more distinguished than man,

soldier,

his father.

and statesman.

He

He

went

to

was clergyWoodstock,

Va., to preach in 1772, where he was serving a Luth-

eran Congregation

when

the Revolution broke out.

One Sunday after the services were finished, he threw off his gown in the pulpit, displaying a military uniform; read his commission as a colonel, and ordered the drums to beat for recruits.

He

served with

dis-

tinction during the war; rose to the rank of Major-

General; served in Congress after the war, and was elected to the United States Senate

nia in 1801.

1807.

He

from Pennsylva-

died near Philadelphia Oct.

1,

133

Pennsylvania Germans.

The Lutherans compose an Christians

who have

evangelical

body of

as a basis for their creed the

Augsburg Confession.

The GERMAN EEFORMED States owes

its

CHTTKCH, in the United

Reformed churches

origin to the

of

Switzerland and Germany, of which Zwingli and Calvin were the most prominent leaders. Schlatter was to the

Reformed Church in the United

and Pennsylvania, what Muhlenberg was

States

He was

the Lutheran.

sent here

Holland in 1746, and with

gan

Rev. Michael

its

his

by the Synod of

coming the Church

him

be-

organized existence as a united ecclesiastical

body; although such eminent clergymen Philip

to

as

Johann

Eoehm, and George Michael Weiss preceded

several years, preaching to various

Reformed

con-

gregations in Pennsylvania.

The Reformed Church Heidelberg Catechism recognized by

It

—This

belief

churches,

and the

the only confession of faith

sect arose in Switzerland in

was named for Menno Simons, the founder

of the sect, whose ious

Calvanistic,

it.

Mennonites. 1525.

is

is

members

differ in matters of relig-

from some of the

among

other

evangelical

other things in opposing infant bap-

134

The Story

of the

and

tism, the taking of oaths, accepting civil offices,

They

bearing arms.

suffered great persecution in

Switzerland where the sect had

Penn

ofl'ered religious

After

origin.

its

freedom in his new province,

they emigrated to Pennsylvania, where they formed a society at

Germantown

DuNKERs.

—The

as early as 1683.

doctrine of theDunkers

is

similar

to that of the Mennonites, only differing with respect to baptism, with regard to

immersion.

They

can Baptists;

They

much

arose in

are also

but they

first

was born in

vice of the

trine

German Ameri-

as

themselves Brethren,

call

emigrated

to

after being

Pennsylvania

quarter of the last century.

ScHWENKFELDERs. feld

known

Germany about 1709, and

persecuted they

during the

which they believe in

—Hans Kasper

Silesia in

Duke

was in the

ser-

when he embraced

the

1490.

of Leignitz,

Reformation; but

He

von Schwenk-

later took issue

with Luther, con-

cerning his teaching with regard to the Lord's Supper.

He

denied that there was any change in the

elements employed in the sacrament. church, which would conform

brought him in

conflict

to

He

founded

his ideas,

a

which

with the Reformers, whose

antagonism drove him from his home

to Strassburg,

135

Pennsylvania Germans.

Most of

and banished.

where he was

tried for heresy

his followers

emigrated to Pennsylvania in 1734.

Moravians. of

its

—This

sect takes its

name from one

principal seats in the fifteenth century,

was Moravia.

Its ofiicial

The martyrdom

trum.

name

is

the Unitas Fra-

John Huss, gave

of

the chnrch, and was founded

by

Bohemia

in

harmony with other evangelical churches.

They began

Its

rise to

his followers at Lititz

in

in 1457.

which

fundamental doctrines are

to arrive in

America

in 1735,

and

tablished a colony in Georgia; and in 1740, they to Pennsylvania,

es-

came

and founded Bethlehem and several

other places; the former continuing

its

chief seat in

the United States.

Catholics.

—Among

in the last century

As an

ecclesiastical

the emigrants to Pennsylvania

were numerous German Catholics.

body they do not

English-speaking co-religionists. lic

Church antedates

all

other

differ

from

their

The Roman CathoChristian churches.

Catholics claim that Christ conferred special attributes on Peter,

church apostles

is built. is

making him the rock on which the

The primary

of Peter as one of the

perpetuated in the Pope of Rome,

who

as

Peter's successor "enjoys not merely a pre-eminence

The Story

136

of the

of lienor, but a real, immediate jurisdiction over entire cliurcli,

Minor

among

and over

Sects.

each, of its

—There

the early arrivals:

tlie

members."

were other minor

who

Mystics,

sects

believe in a

pure, sublime and wholly disinterested devotion,

who

claim that they have direct intercourse with the divine

and that they gain a knowledge of God and of

Spirit,

spiritual things

by the natural

cannot be analyzed or explained. dissent

from

all sects,

church government.

and

as

such

Separatists

who

conform

refiise to

who

Inspirationists,

inspiration extends to the very words

MsTitODiSTS. gi'ation into

odists

came

German

to

any

believe that

and forms of

All these were

expression of the divine message.

represented in the early

and

intellect,

emigration.

—During the period

of

German

emi-

Pennsylvania, no German speaking Methhere, because

Methodism had not gained

any foothold among the Germans though since then

it

at that time, al-

has spread largely

Pennsylvania Germans.

among

the

Methodism did not make

ita

appearance in the province of Pennsylvania until long after

George Whitfield, who led the advance guard of

Methodism the

new

in the

United States came here to preach

tenets of the sect.

Its first organized exist-

Pennsylvania Germans. ence in America dates with, old

"John

which

is

tlie

Street Chapel," in

believed to be the

building of the famous

New York

first

erected in the Western Hemisphere. religious sects

among

137

in

1763,

Methodist church

There are other

the Pennsylvania Germans, but

they are off-shoots of other denominations, and had

no existence among the early emigrants.

There are

numerous descendants of Pennsylvania Germans who after they

became Anglicized, joined other evangeli-

cal denominations,

such as the Presbyterian, Episco-

pal and other churches.

CHAPTER SOCIAL LIFE

XII.

AND DOMESTIC CUSTOMS.

— German —Consid—Inherited and Customs. — Mode of Living. — Folk Lore. —Teuand Legends. — Holidays and Relig—Christmas. — City and Rural — German

The German Home. eration

for

Hospitality.

Strangers.

Traits

tonic ^lytlis ious

Festivals.

Life.

Politeness.

When

the large stream of

German

emigration

poured into Pennsylvania, chiefly from South Ger-

many,

it

found none of the conditions here by which

the emigrants had been surrounded at home.

new

order of things

made

certain

changes in their

mode

of life necessary, but so far as the

tions

would permit, they retained

traits, social

new

their

and domestic customs, nearly

all

have come down to the present generation. instances they

The

condi-

inherited

of which

In some

borrowed from their English-

have

speaking neighbors, while the latter have in return .

(138)

139

Pennsylvania Germans.

borrowed largely, from the predominant German

ele-

ment.

But

and domestic

in the main, the social customs

by the

habits brought

ancestors of the Pennsylvania

Germans from the fatherland were continued, and main

to

latter

and

tliis

day with

the

of these customs and habits are

among

striking,

tricts of

among

kinsmen in the Rhine country.

their

The resemblance most

Httle change, both

re-

the

Germans

in the rural dis-

among

the peasantry of

Pennsylvania, and

South Germany, for the simple reason that the fixed habits,

and

traits of a people, are longest

preserved by

the great body of the rural population.

A where,

marked is

their

su.ch cheerfi;l ISTo

matter

family for

characteristic of

"home

how humble the

first

other people there

every-

we

find

the Germans.

how poor

consideration always

the

is,

to live

and

affect-

virt,ues prevail

among

cheerfulness,

That these is

among

as

the home, or

home and family where

ion reign supreme.

Germans

ISTowhere do

life."

sunny homes,

may be,

all

no doubt, but the Germans are

believed to excel in this respect.

The German mode economical:

of living

is

simple, plain and

heightened by a friendly hospitality.

"With regard to these

traits

the Pennsylvania

Germans

The Story

140

of the

There

retain their racial characteristics.

domestic virtue universal

a single

is

among them, which

and

to

They always

re-

to illustrate their character in this respect,

prove their disinterested friendship.

serves

ceive and entertain strangers with generous hospitalIf one should

ity.

at

come among them unexpectedly

meal time, an extra

seat

is

at

once provided, and the

stranger asked to join the family at the table.

These in-

vitations are never perfunctory, but are extended in the

hope that they

will

Should the stranger

be accepted.

be overtaken by night, a spare bed for such occasions.

the

Germans

always provided

These characteristics have been

the subject of frequent remark,

among

is

by people traveling

in the rural districts of Pennsyl-

vania.

In connection with the subject of the Pennsylvania German's spare bed, a kind

word may be

in oraer

for the traditional feather bed which seems to be an

indispensable feature of every Pennsylvania

household. tinctive

in

The often derided

German

Germany

institution,

and

feather .bed is

at this day, in winter

matter what the season,

German a dis-

is

found everywhere and summer.

the feather quilt

is

No

found

neatly folded at the foot of the bed ready for use, in case the

emergency

calls for

it,

so that its existence

Pennsylvania Germans. to-day in Pennsylvania

the ancestors of the

brought the custom here,

and where

it

is

141

an honest inheritance from

who

Pennsylvania Germans,

"wdth

them when they

has held

its

own

first

came

ever since, as one

of the settled household institutions.

While the Pennsylvania Germans

many

retain

of

the ciistoms of their kinsmen on the other side of the

Atlantic there

is

one particular in which the former

have made a wide departure. antry are

all

In Germany the peas-

crowded in small

villages, in striking

contrast to the Pennsylvania farmers

large well-tilled farms, in palatial tell

who

live

on their

farm houses which

In Germany the peas-

of opulence and luxury.

antry are living in small dorfs, where the houses are all built

of stone most of

old; situated little

on narrow

which are several centuries streets, so as to

take up as

of the valuable ground as possible; the houses

are often situated in such close proximity to the cows, pigs and hens as to to the

make

same household.

it

appear as

This

last

if all

belonged

condition

is

how-

ever an exception to the rule, for as a general rule the

German

peasant homes, are clean and wholesome,

though furnished

in the plainest

manner.

The

al-

first

floors are frequently of stone; carpets are rarely seen

in the houses of peasants, and even

among

the higher

The Story

142

of the

classes, floors are usually painted;

kept scrupulously

clean; and ornamented with rugs.

The

universal passion of the

and other ornamentation est peasants,

the

fields,

is

often

Germans

for flowers

shown by the poor-

but their almost constant employment in

prevents them

stincts in that direction to

from indulging

their in-

any great extent, but they

neglect no opportunity to do

so,

whenever

it is

pos-

sible.

The German ited

instinct for flowers

strongly exhib-

is

by the Pennsylvania German women.

are not many,

who do

There

not find time to give some atten-

The yard

tion to their cultivation.

of nearly every

Pennsylvania German farm house bears testimony to this fact.

There are few houses in rural Pennsylva-

nia the surroundings of which are not beautified

by flowering

more

or less

plants, often of the choicest

kinds while the poorer people are often content, with ;

a

few

roses

;

the fragrant honeysuckle

;

and sometimes

the unpretentious dahlia and sunflower, are

made

to

attest their love of the beautiful.

There are certain kinds of labor performed by the

German women also

in their native country,

performed by German

vania.

They

women

which are

in rural Pennsyl-

attend to the milking, look after the

143

Pennsylvania Germans. poiiltry,

and attend

to the garden, in addition to their

Tliey also assist not infre-

regular liousehold duties.

quently at certain kinds of work in the

customs

still

prevail largely in

satisfaction to note, that the

disfavor in Pennsylvania to be

Germany, but

custom

more every

These

fields.

is

it is

a

growing into

year,

and

it is

hoped that the chivalry of the Pennsylvania

German farmers

will soon relegate the practice

to the rear, as a

wholly

custom out of consonance with the

spirit of the times.

There are many

articles of diet peculiar to the

Pennsylvania Germans to which most people have

been strangers until they acquired the knowledge

from them. haas),

For

instance,

— "Scrapple"

(P. G. pan-

which the "Standard Dictionary" defines

"article of food

made by

boiling meal or

as

an

flour with

scraps of pork, chopped hog's liver, and kidneys, and

seasoning, and served in fried slices;" then adds that it

originated

among

among

did not originate

because in the

fii'st

in the next place

Rhine

Pfalz,

brought

it

the "Pennsylvania Dutch."

the "Pennsylvania Dutch"

no such

people, and

article of

food in the

place there are

it is

a

It

common

whence the early German emigrants

to Pennsylvania.

The Story of

144

The

origin of

tlie

hare, or pan-rabbit),

the

word "pan-haas,"

(Englisli pan-

a puzzle, but

probably be-

is

it

longs to that class of slang words, of which "welsh rabbit;" "blind robin," and the Hke are specimens.

"Sauer-kraut," a dish at one time associated with things vulgar and regarded as not "good form" to eat

by the more

aesthetic people, has forged

the front, until standing.

It

is

it

its

way

to

has acquired a very respectable

of purely

German

origin,

and sup-

plied the larder of the Hessian soldiers as one of their

chief articles of diet

during

pork,

Revolutionary

the

knepp."

—

when they embarked

sliced apples,

another purely

is

"War,

for

America

"Schnits

and

and dumplings, cooked with

German

dish, for

which the

Pennsylvania Germans are indebted to the father-

The

land.

so-called

"Dutch cheese,"

is

merely the

"Mainzer kase," of Germany, so named after the of

Mainz on the Rhine.

German There their

is

"schmier-kase,"

among

"Smear-case," from the is

also a native of the Pfalz.

an endless variety of

manner

city

articles of food,

and

of preparation for the table in vogue

the Pennsylvania Germans, which are inheri-

tances from their ancestors

who brought

the art with

them, when they emigrated to Pennsylvania.

The custom

of feasting at funerals among the Ger-

Pennsylvania Germans,

mans

in Pennsylvania, has been a subject of

comment by English-speaking

Germany a

to a limited extent.

who come some

It

the custom

is

guests, especially for

feasts

prepared by the

the occasion of funerals,

and benevolence

funerals by

but there

is

no doubt that

the outgrowth of the disposition of good-

everywhere.

often

there confined to

be the result of their greater ability to provide

liberally for their guests;

will,

is

distance to attend the funeral.

The somewhat extravagant Germans in Pennsylvania on

may

much

people, also prevails in

few simple refreshments for

those

145

so characteristic of the

Germans

Eelatives are always invited to attend the

come long

Pennsylvania Germans, distances, to manifest their

on such occasions, and

and they

sympathy

would be regarded a great breach of civility and of friendship, to send the relait

away, without inviting them to partake of the hospitalities of the house of mourning; and to refuse tives

to accept such

an invitation, would be regarded an

equal breach of decorum toward the bereaved family.

The

similarity of

the

domestic

customs of the

Pennsylvania Germans and their Palatine kinsmen, are exhibited in

many ways; but

their social habits

their folk-lore,

it

does not stop with

and domestic customs.

legendary

Much

of

romances, and Teutonic (10)

of the

^

come down the

ages,

The Story

146

mytlis, wliicli have

are the inheritances of alike.

The Rhine

and which

Grerman-speaking races are

all

traditions being the

most recent

are best preserved.

The resemblances can be usages and beliefs -observances, tivals;

common

traced in

many

of the

to both; in their religions

and manner of worship agricultural

fes-

;

customs at weddings; the "home-bringings,"

courtship,

making acquaintances; old-fashioned meth-

ods of work; neighborly gathering of friends to aid in certain kinds of work, called by the English-speak-

bam

ing people a "bee," such as a husking bee; a raising bee,

and the

like,

which

is

called

by the Penn-

sylvania Germans in their dialect a "frolic" which

would seem

borrowed the term

to indicate that they

from the English, but ruption of the

more

it is

German word

likely that

which

is

great feast. ticularly

.Among

among

when

the

and make

heightened by "liquid

usually

freshments," followed

a cor-

"frdhlich," because on