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GC 977.2 F91A
M. L.
REYNOLDS HISTORICAL GENEALOGY COLLECTION
GEN
.7 ALLEN COUNTY PUBLIC LIBRARY
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3 1833 02333 234 6
Digitized by the Internet Archive in 2016
https://archive.org/details/germansettlersge00frit_0
GERMAN SETTLERS
AND
GERMAN SETTLEMENTS
IN INDIANA
A MEMORIAL
FOR THE
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STATE CENTENNIAL 1916 BY
DR. WILLIAM A. FRITSCH
EVANSVILLE, IND., 1915
1865711
L
TFPEATT
F 895.31
"COPYRIGHT" William A. Fritsch, 1915
309120
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Dedicated to the Members of the German- American Alliance in Indiana By the Author
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PREFACE.
The author of this small volume has been a citizen of Indiana for over fifty years. A German by birth and educa- tion, he has ever taken an interest in the German language and literature. In his travels over the state as a member of the State Board of Health and in re- sponse to calls for speeches, he has come in contact with a large number of Ger- mans throughout the state. He believes that over half the population of the state are either German or of German descent and feels that they have not received due credit for their share in the de- velopment of the state. For many years he has devoted his leisure hours to the task of gathering facts and data regard- ing the Germans as a factor in the up- building of the state and offers this lit- tle book as a result of his labors, with the hope that it may prove of interest to the reader. W. A. F.
THE EARLY SETTLERS OF INDIANA.
When in the year 1786 the United States Congress passed the "Ordinance for the North West Territory," by virtue of which the large domain comprising the present states of Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Michigan and Wisconsin were freed from eastern control and open- ed up to general immigration no one thought that in little more than one hundred years the great forests and prairies of the Middle West would be trans- formed into five great states.
Governor St. Clair took control on July 15, 1788, the territory having then only a sparse population, but the fertile lands and the provision excluding slavery from this territory and granting entire re- ligious freedom to every settler brought a flood of immigration, which in a short time converted these woodlands and prairies into places of human habita- tion and progressive cities.
Among these immigrants there were from the very beginning men and women of German descent who contributed their share in the upbuilding of these states, and to them must be attributed in some meas-
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ure the progress in science and culture for which the state of Indiana is famous.
The first settlers in Indiana were Frenchmen im- migrating over Canada. King Louis XIV of France, who had seized the German countries on the Rhine, also sought conquests in America; and after the dis- coveries of de La Salle, the French pressed down the Mississippi valley. To establish their claims, several forts were built on the Wabash river, the first being Fort Quiatonon, not far from where the city of La- Fayette now stands. Ft. Vincennes, about 100 miles below, was built in 1727. In the wake of the soldiers came tradesmen, and Ft. Vincennes became a thriv- ing French village and subsequently the first capital of Indiana. Among the early inhabitants we find men with German names, evidently Germans from Alsace Lorraine, who had immigrated with the French. When the English tried to seize this wild country in which the Indians were still on the warpath, Virginia sent General George Rogers Clark with an army west over the Ohio to take possession of it for the United States. Among his troops there were many German- Americans, one of whom, Captain Leonard Helm, was appointed commander of Ft. Vincennes and agent for the Indians of the Wabash valley. When an Eng- lish force under Colonel Hamilton came south to re- capture Vincennes, they found Helm in command of the fort with but one soldier, the French inhabitants having fled. Butler, in his "History of Kentucky,"
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tells us how Captain Helm, at the approach of the English, bravely placed a loaded cannon before the entrance of the fort and upon their coming within hailing distance, commanded them to halt, empha- sizing his demand by brandishing a firebrand and shouting that he would shoot if they came nearer. Hereupon the English proposed a parley in which they agreed that Captain Helm and his men should have free passage from the fort with their arms. Imagine their surprise when Captain Helm, with his command of one man, stepped forward!
When General Clark, who was in Kaskaskia, heard of the fall of Ft. Vincennes, he hastened through the wilderness of Illinois with his army and recaptured it, reinstating Captain Helm in his old command.
In 1792 the Mennonite preacher, John Heckewelder came to Ft. Vincennes, having been sent by President Washington to act as counselor and interpreter .of Indian languages to General Rufus Putnam, who con- cluded a treaty of peace with the Indians at this place. Later we find another Mennonite missionary, A. Luckebach, on the White river in Indiana. All these good intentions availed but little at this time as the Indians were restless.
"St. Vincennes, July 4, 1800. On this day com- mences the government of the Indiana Territory; William Henry Harrison being chosen as governor; William Clark, Henry Vanderburgh and John Grif- fin judges for the Indiana Territory."
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With these words of the journal, the young Indiana government announces itself. Indiana Territory was at that time composed of Indiana and Illinois with Ft. Vincennes as the seat of government. In 1800 its whole civilized population amounted to 5,651 souls, but large hordes of Indians roamed about in this wild country. In the year 1811 when Chief Tecum- seh and his brother, the Prophet, encouraged by the British in Canada, stirred up the Indians against the white settlers in the territory, Governor Harrison held conferences with the Indians and strove to pacify them, but when he saw that they were bent to go on the war-path, he gathered troops and with his little army of 910 men, of whom 213 were militia from Vin- cennes, Corydon and other places along the Wabash, marched against the Indians.
'Coming upon the Prophet's town in the neighbor- hood of the present city of Lafayette on the morning of November 7th, 1811, he was attacked by the In- dians, and the battle of Tippecanoe ensued. This was the first battle in the second war with England, Gen- eral Harrison dispersing the Indians and destroying their stronghold. Among the men who distinguished themselves in this battle were two officers, whose names are familiar to German-Americans and plainly indicate their German ancestry. One was Captain Geiger, who with his men conducted himself bravely to the last. The other, Colonel Luke Decker, com- manded part of the militia. When the Legislature
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soon after met in Vincennes, the assembly passed a vote of thanks to Colonel Decker and his men for the valor with which they had fought for their homes and firesides. Luke Decker, who lived in Knox County, not far from Decker's Station was a man of great energy and versatility and held several positions of importance in the new territory. In a fight with In- dians on Mississinewa river, December 12, 1812, Lieutenant Waltz of Captain Markel's company, was killed and praised for his valor in the reports of his superior officers. In the year 1796, some Swiss citizens of the Canton Waadt, attracted by a German traveler's vivid descriptions of the country, organized a company to buy land on the Ohio River and culti- vate vineyards. They bought a large tract of land in what is now Switzerland county and founded the town of Vevay on the Ohio river in Indiana. Vine- yards were planted which are still in existence. In 1810 considerable wine was made here while the women of the colony wove straw hats, which they sold to Cincinnati merchants and to the boats passing on the Ohio river. This was the first settlement of the Swiss, later we will mention others.
In the year 1816, after the separation of the state of Indiana from Illinois, the constitutional Conven- tion assembled at Corydon, whereto the new capital of Indiana had been transferred. The convention opened on June 10th, and the first constitution of the state was adopted, Indiana becoming a state of the
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Union on December 11, 1816. One member of this assembly, Frederick (Reichard) Rapp, we will meet with again in the next chapter.
NEW HARMONY A GERMAN SETTLEMENT.
In a fertile valley on the lower Wabash river about sixty miles from its confluence with the Ohio, lies the town of New Harmony. It is one of the oldest towns in Indiana and some of the quaint old build -- ings of the first settlement are still standing. The history of this beautiful little town is certainly inter- esting. Let us see who its first inhabitants were and whence they came.
Under the government of Duke Charles Eugene of Wuertemberg, Germany (by the grace of Napoleon I, the rulers of this German province are now kings), who had established the Karlsschule, the alma mater of the great German poet Friedrich Schiller, there lived in the rural village of Iptingen, near the city of Maulbronn an active and intelligent weaver by the name of Johann George Rapp. Besides weaving for other people, he cultivated a few acres of land and conducted a wine-press. During his leisure hours he read the Bible. Becoming intensely imbued with communistic ideas he began to preach in his twenty- fourth year, urging the return of the customs and
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ceremonies of the early Christians. Annoyed by his teachings, the pastors of the Wuertemberg state church and other religious denominations petitioned the government to forbid Rapp's preaching to the people. The duke of Wuertemberg, however, regard- ed Rapp and his doctrines as harmless and refused to interfere. Rapp's propaganda bore good fruit and he soon had a large following. Desiring to live together free from persecution they decided to emigrate to America. Rapp, his son Johannes, and two elders were sent to investigate, and purchased a tract of five thousand acres of land twenty-five miles west of Pittsburg at three dollars an acre. In the spring of 1804, Rapp went to Baltimore where three hundred of his people landed with the ship Aurora on July 4th. Another party of two hundred and sixty, headed by Frederick Reichert arrived the next month at Phila- delphia, where Rapp received them. Arriving at
their settlement a constitution was adopted, all the members giving up their money and agreeing to live and work together under chosen leaders. The com- munity was named Harmony, Johann George Rapp being elected the spiritual leader and teacher, and his adopted son, Frederick (Reichert) Rapp, the business manager of the new town, three elders being associa- ted with them in the management of affairs. The Rappites, as they were generally called, built over one hundred houses in their village and soon had over three thousand acres of land under cultivation. As
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far back as 1807 a great number of the society adopt- ed the celibate life; still marriages occurred in the society, Rapp's only son among them, Rapp himself ' solemnizing the marriage. If young couples married and left the community, the Rappites helped them and took a kindly interest in them. In the year 1814 the Rappites sold Harmony to a Pennsylvania German for $100,000, and with their goods, agricultural imple- ments and machinery valued at $45,000, moved down the Ohio River to Indiana, where they had bought 30,000 acres of land, and founded Harmony, later re- named New Harmony. Here they established a dis- tillery, brewery, mills and factories and manufactured cotton and woolen goods, the daily output of their factories in 1822 amounting to $262.00, according to the "Niles Register."
In order to guard against river pirates and warring redskins who were prowling about, the Harmonites built a fort which is still in a fair state of preserva- tion. The falls of the Wabash near the town were uti- lized to furnish water power for a mill and hammer factory. The town grew steadily. The work was done in groups or companies, each group selecting its own foreman whose duty it was to deliver the products to the general storehouse. Soon the lofts of the store house were filled with all kinds of manufactured pro -- ducts and from near and far came farmers to pur- chase necessities and to have their grain ground. The producing power of these enterprising Germans be-
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coming too great for their immediate neighborhood. branch stores and agencies were established in Vin- cennes, Ind., Shawneetown, Ill., Louisville, Ky., Pitts- burg, Pa., and other places, their products and man -- ufactured articles finding a ready sale throughout the Ohio and Mississippi valleys, from Pittsburg to New Orleans. From a report of the English colony at Albion, Edwards County, Illinois, we glean that the manufactures of the Rappites were given the prefer- ence over all others, and that in the years 1818-1824, the English settlers had purchased $150,000 worth of goods from the Rappites. River transportation was mostly on flat boats. In 1823 Jonathan Lenz (then a lad of sixteen, but later one of the trustees of the so- ciety) had charge of such a cargo valued at $1,369 and containing thirty-nine kegs of lard, one hundred kegs of butter, six hundred and eighty bushels of oats, eighty-eight barrels of flour, one hundred and three barrels of pork, thirty-two oxen, sixteen hogs and forty barrels of whiskey. Today its entire cargo would be worth many times more. Among the Rap- pites there were good farmers as well as good me- chanics; travelers coming from far and near to ob- serve the commercial life and the well conducted farms and vineyards. The typical dwelling house of the Rappites had no door facing the street, the doors being on the sides of the houses towards the beau- tiful flower gardens which were to be found every :- where. Some of the houses are standing today, bear-
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ing evidence of the substantial manner in which they were erected. Ferdinand Ernst passed through New Harmony on his way to Illinois in 1819. Coming from Princeton on horseback, he arrived just as the vesper bells were ringing, the familiar sounds of which, though strange in America, carried his thoughts back to his fatherland. In a book published in Germany, he gives a good description of the town and his visit. Of special interest to us is his description of a thresh- ing machine, which the Harmonists used at this early date.
Schoolcraft visited the town in 1821 and writes: "They have no spendthrifts, idlers or drunkards in Harmony-everybody is working." Another writer, George Flower, says, "With surprise all who went to Harmony observed with what facility the necessaries and the comforts of life were acquired and enjoyed by every member of Rapp's community. When com- pared with the privations and discomforts to which individual settlers were exposed in their backwoods experiences, the contrast was very striking. The poor hunter who brought a bushel of corn to be ground, coming from a distance of perhaps ten miles, saw with wonder people as poor as himself living in good houses surrounded by beautiful gardens, clothed in garments of the best quality and regularly supplied with meal, meat and other food without any apparent individual exertion. He could not fail to contrast the comforts and conveniences surrounding the dwel-
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lings of the Harmonites with the dirt, desolation and discomforts of his own log hut. It opened to his mind a new train of thought. One of them said to me, 'I studies and studies on it,' an expression that depicts the feelings of every person that obtained a sight of Rapp's German community at Harmony." Father Rapp was at this time still the head of the communtiy and their spiritual advisor. His adopted son, Frederick Rapp carried on the business with the outer world, while Romelius L. Baker was the mana- ger of the general merchandise store.
When Indiana adopted a state Constitution at Corydon in 1816, Fred Rapp was a delegate to the assembly from Gibson County, and as a man of af- fairs had great influence in that body. In 1820 he was appointed a member of a committee of ten to select a more central place for the capitol of the state of Indiana, which committee subsequently selected Indianapolis.
In the year 1824 the Rappites or Harmonites, through the agency of Richard Flower, sold all their possessions on the Wabash, including the town of Harmony, to Robert Owen of Scotland for the sum of $150,000, and nearly all moved back to Pennsylvania, where they built a third town on the Ohio River be- low Pittsburg, which they named Economy. A few remained in the state and these were the agitators for a large German immigration in the southern part of Indiana. Owen took possession of New Harmony
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and promulgated his humanitarian ideas in the wil- derness of America. Financially his experiment did not meet with the success that favored the thrifty Germans, who to the number of eight hundred had labored and built up a community which could be considered a model in its day. Yet Owen, McClure and the naturalists who frequently made New Har- mony their abode, among them two German princes from the fatherland, contributed their share in the uplifting of humanity and the progress of the state. Since the Civil War, New Harmony has had a healthy growth and with its fine working men's library do- nated by one of its public spirited citizens, Dr. Mur -- phy, together with other endowments, is now one of the most beautiful and progressive little towns of its size in the country.
At Economy, the Rappites displayed the same ac- tivity and industry. Father Rapp died here in the year 1847 at the age of ninety. The German historian Franz Locher, visited him shortly before his death and gives a good account of Rapp and his co-workers in his book: "Land und Leute in der alten und neuen Welt" (Land and people of the old and new World.) During the civil war the Rappites displayed their pa- triotism by taking into their community orphan chil- dren of Union soldiers, who had been killed in the civil war, and raising them until they could support themselves. Among these was J. S. Duss, whose father had been mortally wounded at Gettysburg and
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died in a hospital. Young Duss was raised in Econ- omy, attended college, became a teacher and musi- cian, and after his marriage joined the Harmonist so- ciety and as one of the trustees directed the affairs of the community until it was dissolved in 1906. Sev- eral German books were published at Economy, the best known being the hymn book of the society with the title: "Harmonisches Gesangbuch, theils von anderen Autoren theils neu verfasst" (Harmonic hymn book partly by other authors, partly original compositions).
The first edition appearing in 1827 contained the militant songs of the old protestant church from the time of Martin Luther to Ernst Moritz Arndt and some newer songs by members of the society.
It was in 1869 that the writer first saw New Har- mony, many of the buildings reminding him of struc- tures in the old country. Observing the neglected condition of the massive old Rappist church which was being used as a packing house, he wrote to the trustees of the society at Economy and suggested that they buy the building and donate it to the town for some good purpose. After some correspondence on the subject, Mr. Jonathan Lenz, one of the trustees of the society came to Evansville to visit the writer and then went to New Harmony, where he purchased the church and turned part of it into a public school. He also bought the burial ground of the Rappites, which had been unintentionally sold with the other
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land and used the remaining bricks from the church to build a brick wall around this cemetery where sev- eral hundred of the Harmonist pioneers lie buried, no monuments or mounds marking their resting places. Some fine trees which had grown up in the cemetery were ordered cut down by Mr. Lenz, much to the writer's regret.
In the week of June 6-13, 1914, New Harmony cele- brated its centennial anniversary, many literary men, statesmen and others assembling at the little town on the Wabash to pay homage to the early Ger- man pioneers whose keen intellects and indomitable zeal had blazed a path for future generations. The first day of the celebration was Rapp Day and many people of German descent, the ancestors of some of whom had been pioneers of the town, came from near and far to honor the memory of the sturdy builders of New Harmony in song and speech in the old ceme- tery of the Harmonists. The occasion was a most happy one and many were the wishes for the future prosperity of fair New Harmony on the banks of the Wabash.
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OTHER IMMIGRANTS.
After the departure of the great body of Harmon- ists for Economy, Pa., only a few remained behind on farms near the old home town. Soon, however, other Germans came to help build up existing villages and to establish new ones. Vincennes had been established before Knox county, of which it is the county seat. Soon other counties on the Wabash and Ohio were or- ganized, the first immigration, which came from the eastern states chiefly from Pennsylvania, Virginia, North and South Carolina, being directed to the southern part of the state. At the constitutional con- vention at Corydon in 1816 only 13 counties were represented by delegates. On a chart of Indiana pub- lished in the year 1817 the northern part of the state was a large empty space, only the following counties being given, Gibson, Posey, Warrick, Perry, Harrison, Clark, Jefferson, Switzerland, Dearborn, Wayne, Franklin, Ripley, Jennings, Jackson, Washington, Orange, Pike, Daviess, Knox and Sullivan. To these counties there came many Germans, who as sturdy
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pioneers had a large posterity though sometimes with slightly altered names.
Wayne County on the Ohio border naturally be- came the home of many Germans across the line, chiefly from Cincinnati. Later, however, many immi- grants came directly from the old country, a large number coming from Hanover, Germany. Among these there was a pioneer physician, Dr. Wedekind, who settled in Richmond. Dr. Wedekind became widely known through his contributions to news- papers and magazines. At Centerville, nearby, a Pennsylvania-German Lutheran preacher, Samuel K. Hoshour, conducted a school and was the teacher of Oliver P. Morton, Lew Wallace and other eminent Indiana men. Lew Wallace gratefully mentions Hos- hour in his autobiography. The poet Joaquin Miller was born near Marion, Grant County, among the In- dians, who had a reservation there; and in his old days he wrote feelingly of his Indiana home and his old neighbors. Miller's mother was born at Frankfort on the Main.
The Hoosier poet, James Whitcomb Riley, is also of German descent.
In the year 1847 the first railroad in the state was built from Madison to Indianapolis. Madison attract- ed many Germans and for a short time a German newspaper was published there. In 1850, John L. Mansfield (Johann B. Lutz) came to Madison from Lexington, Ky., where he had been a professor of
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mathematics in Transylvania University and where he had married a lady by the name of Mansfield, whose name he adopted. Mansfield became very popular in Madison and was repeatedly elected to the state legis- lature. During the civil war he was appointed general of the state militia by Governor Morton. The India- napolis-Madison line was utilized during the war to transport many northern regiments to Kentucky.
Between 1820 and 1840 large numbers of German immigrants came to Indiana via New Orleans and up the Mississippi and Ohio rivers. This immigration came chiefly from Hessen-Darmstadt, Wupperthal and the Rhein province. Among those from Hessen- Darmstadt was William Heilman, who worked for a while on a farm in Poscy county, became a successful manufacturer in Evansville and represented the 1st Indiana district in Congress.
From Hueckeswagen, a town on the Wupper where broadcloth is manufactured, came William Rahm with his wife and eight children. Boarding a sailing vessel at Antwerp in October, 1848, they landed at New Or- leans after a voyage of ninety-three days. Another trip on the steamer "Uncle Sam" finally brought them to Evansville, Indiana, on March 1, 1849. At Lamas- co, then a suburb, but now a part of greater Evans- ville, Rahm established a general merchandise store with a stock of dry goods and hardware which he had brought from Germany. He soon built up a large business and his success attracted a large num-
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ber of people from his home town. Of the new ar- rivals some established themselves in Knox County, around Bethlehem Church, Ferdinand, Westphalia and Vincennes. Warrick county was divided and a new county formed which was named Vanderburg, after Judge Vanderburg of Vincennes, who was of Dutch extraction. Many Germans also settled in tic river towns of Newburgh, Rockport, New Albany. Jeffersonville, Madison, Lawrenceburg and Mt. Ver- non. A Swiss-German colony established Tell City, which soon became a live manufacturing town.
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