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FIRST SETTLEMENTS
OF
Germans in Maryland.
A PAPER READ BY
EDWARD T. SCHULTZ 11
BEFORE THE
FREDERICK COUNTY HISTORICAL SOCIETY.
JANUARY 17TH, 1896. AND BEFORE
The Society for the History of the Germans in Maryland,
MARCH 17TH, 1896.
TO WHICH ITEMS OF HISTORICAL INTEREST REFERRING TO FREDERICK CITY AND COUNTY ARE ADDED.
(PUBLISHED BY REQUEST.)
- DAVID H. SMITH, Frederick, Md. 1896. 6.54 6× 4
F170 Geta
..
-
OLD GERMAN REFORMED CHURCH, FREDERICK, MD. (First Church Tower Erected in Maryland.)
PREFACE.
My regard for the city of my nativity and my veneration for the old church, the Reformed, in which my parents worshipped for over a half century, induced me to devote some of my leisure moments during the past few months, to the investigation of their early history, the results of which will be found embodied in the following pages:
Few of us, I think, fully realize or appreciate the value and importance of the part taken by the Germans in the early set- tlement and development of Western Maryland, then a part of Prince George, but subsequently comprising the one county, Frederick.
A writer in a recent publication well says: "The settlement of the Germans in Western Maryland in colonial times was undoubtedly an important factor in the development and history of our State. They not only increased the numbers of our inhab- itants, but brought new industries and arts, intelligence and learning, indomitable perseverence and energy, but above all sturdy arms, an immense working capacity and frugal, simple habits. They brought with them their schoolteachers and pastors and one of their first acts was to erect a schoolhouse and have their children instilled in the principles of christianity and the useful arts of life. From them have sprung many illustrious men, who rendered our nation great services in times of war and peace in the councils of the nation, on the judicial bench, in schools and colleges and in every other department of life. They turned the wilderness of Frederick county of the year 1735 into a blooming garden, so that in 1790 Frederick county was the largest wheat-growing county in the United States."
The following narrative of some of the more important settle- ments in the county by the Germans, with an account of the organization and early history of their churches so closely asso- ciated with their settlements, compiled from a number and variety of sources, may serve in some measure, at least, to give a clearer view of the subject, more particularly of the origin and early history of the present Lutheran and German Reformed congregations at Frederick, without question the first two German congregations organized in Maryland, and to correct some errors into which the historians of those congrega- tions have fallen.
The hope is indulged that this small contribution to one phase of the history of Frederick City and County may stimulate others to make further investigations, so that before the older people of this generation, from whom valuable data may be obtained, pas; away, we shall have a full and complete his- tory of old historic Frederick.
BALTIMORE, February, 1896.
E. T. S.
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THE FIRST SETTLEMENTS
OF
GERMANS IN MARYLAND.
The first known German settlers within the present limits of the State of Maryland were those among the Dutch and French Labadists, who located on Bohemia Manor, Cecil, but then Balti- more county, about the year 1681.
The Labadists were a religious body of communists. They pur- chased a tract of land, containing 3,700 acres, from Augustine Herman, proprietor of Bohemia Manor, where they erected large buildings, in which the males and females were housed separately. They raised corn, tobacco, flax, hemp, etc. "'They had fine stocks of cattle, and also manufactured linen. They were prosperous, but the severe and austere life they were com pelled to live was too much for their frail human nature, and about 1720 to 1722 they scattered, mixed and were lost amidst their surrounding neighbors." From the Labadists have sprung some of the best people of Maryland and Delaware, among them the family of our present Minister to England, Thomas F. Bayard.
This settlement was made several years prior to the coming of William Penn's German Quakers, who, under Daniel Pastorious, in 1684, founded Germantown, near Philadelphia, the location of the latter, now a large and flourishing city, was then claimed by Lord Baltimore as a part of his Province of Mary - land.
It is well known the first Lord Proprietary, as well as his successors, claimed not only what is now included within the present State lines, but also all the land and water east of it as far as the present New Jersey, including the whole of the State of Delaware and a strip of Pennsylvania twenty miles wide along the entire north boundary of our State.
The dispute over the boundary between Maryland and Penn- sylvania was continued for nearly a century, and it was not until
1763 that it was finally settled, and then by the shrewdness of the Penns Maryland was dismembered of between three and four millions acres of land. Whatever doubts may have existed in the minds of historical students, as to the validity of the claim of the Lords Baltimore, have been entirely brushed aside by the infor- mation disclosed in the Calvert papers recovered a few years ago by the Maryland Historical Society.
GERMAN SETTLEMENTS IN VIRGINIA.
For many years Germantown was the rendezvous for the Prot- estant refugees fleeing from the relentless persecutions which devastated some of the fairest portions of France and Germany. From here as a centre the immigrants spread over Southern Pennsylvania into what is now Lancaster, York and Adams counties, many of them or their descendants finding their way across the boundary line into Maryland and Virginia.
As early as 1714 twelve German families of fifty persons, fol- lowed by twenty families of eighty persons, settled on the Rap- pahannock river near the present city of Fredericksburg. Others followed, and by 1730 some of them had crossed the mountains into Shenandoah and Rockingham counties. These in turn were reinforced by Germans from the Pennsylvania settlements, and by 1743 there were a number of flourishing settlements of Ger- mans in the Shenandoah and other valleys of Virginia. In 1748, when Washington was surveying lands in that part of Virginia, "he met many Germans, men, women and children, who followed him through the woods and spoke nothing but Dutch (German.)"
"These Virginia settlements were in regular communication with the Pennsylvania settlements, and it was in consequence of the kindness shown the settlers by Governor Spottswood that the Ger- man Pennsylvanians in the last century called Virginia "Spotts- sylvania."
SETTLEMENT AT MONOCACY, FREDERICK COUNTY.
The route of travel from Lancaster county to the Virginia settlements was over an Indian trail, a route for pack horse travel and missionaries, extending across the territory now York an l Adams counties, Pennsylvania, to a point on the Monocacy river near the boundary line of the Provinces of Maryland and Penn - sylvania and thence to the Potomac river, crossing the Blue or South Mountain, through what was and is now "Crampton's Gap."
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It was by this route that about 1729 the first Germans drifted into Maryland (it is said that they thus came as early as 1710- 1712), and settled near the Monocacy river, and between 1732 and 1734 built the first German church in Maryland. It was situated on the west side of the river, and about ten miles above where Frederickstown was afterwards laid out. -
In 1739, by order of the Lancaster County Court, a road was : built from Wright's Ferry (Wrightsville), to the Maryland line, a distance of thirty-five miles, and thence, by an act of the Mary- land Assembly, it was continued to the Potomac river. This road followed substantially the old Indian trail, and for many years was known as the Monocacy Road. It was the great highway from the East to the South and Southwest, and it was over this road that in 1755 the 150 wagons and 200 pack horses, secured in Pennsylvania by the efforts of Benjamin Frank- in, then Postmaster-General were transported to the camp at Frederick, where a part of the army was collected preparatory to the campaign which ended in the disastrous defeat of General Braddock. [It was at this camp that Washington and Franklin met for the first time, and where both were called in consultation with General Braddock and Governor Sharpe, and it was while the army was encamped here during April and May, 1755, that Washington was appointed aide-de-camp to General Brad- dock.]
It was the route by which the British prisoners captured during the Revolutionary War were taken to the barracks at Frederick- town, Maryland, and Winchester, Virginia, and the route used by General Wayne with his 900 patriots on their way to Yorktown, Virginia, during the same war.
It was also the road used during the war of 1812, when the British threatened Washington and Baltimore, to transport cotton from Georgia, Mississippi and other points in the South to Phila. delphia and New York. In 1808 this road was macadamized and it continued to be the great highway between the lower counties of Pennsylvania and Maryland and the South until the building of railroads.
"The Governor of Virginia and afterwards Lord Fairfax made strenuous efforts to direct the German immigration to Virginia, and in 1732 the Governor ceded a tract of land of some 25,000 acres to a certain Joss Hite, a German, and Jacob Van Meeter, a Dutchman, on condition that they would settle 200 German
6
families on the land ceded to them. Hite and Van Meeter trav- ersed Pennsylvania, New Jersey and Germany in search of emi- grants and directed them by the road of the Monocacy to Vir- ginia. Charles Lord Baltimore, not to be outdone by the Governor of Virginia, thereupon on the 2d of March, 1732, made the liberal offer of 200 acres of land in fee, subject to a rent of four shillings sterling per year, payable at the end of three years, for every hundred acres, to any person having a family who should within three years actually settle on the land between the rivers Potomac and Susquehanna, and to each single per- son, male or female, between the ages of fifteen and thirty, one hundred acres of land on the same terms, with the assurance that they should be as well secured in their liberty and property in Maryland as in any part of the British plantations in America without exception.
"The Germans, on their way from Pennsylvania to Spottsylva- nia, seeing the rich lands of Frederick county, offered them on such liberal terms (a rental of one cent an acre per annum), did not proceed further, but struck their spades into the ground right there and then, and in a few years there was a prosperous settle- ment in and about Monocacy. From there they spread east, south and west, but for many years the church at Monocacy was their meeting place," and Lutherans and German Reformers scattered for miles in the surrounding country, including tbe sub- sequent settlement at Fredericktown, worshipped therein for a a number of years.
SETTLEMENT AT FREDERICKTOWN.
In 1735 there arrived about 100 families from the Palatinate Germany by way of Chesapeake Bay, landing at Annapolis or Alexandria (both of which towns were then more important ports of entry than Baltimore.) Their leader or head man was Thomas Schley, "their schoolmaster." This gentleman was the progenitor of the large and prominent family of that name in Maryland, Georgia, and other parts of our country.
These settlers located on lands belonging to Daniel Dulaney, of Annapolis, who was a large land owner in that section of the province. Here ten years later (1745) a town was laid out on both sides of Carroll Creek, and three miles from the Monocacy river. In compliment to Frederick, son of Lord Baltimore, then a youth of 14, it was called Fredericktown.
L
Germans from Pennsylvania, as well as direct from the Palati- nate, continued to arrive, and these being reinforced by settlers of English, Scotch and Irish extraction from the lower counties of the province, the wilderness was soon transformed into cultivated fields.
The early German and Swiss set lers were essentially a relig- ious people, and a history of their churches and congregations is a history of themselves. Those who settled at Monocacy and Frederick were remarkably free of the sects, Moravians, Mennon- ites and others, into which the German settlers of Pennsylvania were divided. They were mostly followers of the teachings of Luther and Zwingli, known respectively as Lutherans and Ger- man Reformers.
It was the invariable custom of the early settlers, when a suffi- cient number located In a neighborhood, to set about the erec- tion of first-a schoolhouse, and then a church, the schoolmaster being regarded but little less an important personage than the pas- tor. Our pious forefathers wisely believed that the intellectual improvement of the young was a necessary adjunct to their relig- ious training. They organized congregations, but it was many years before regular pastors were obtained for them. The school- master read printed sermons on Sunday and imparted religious as well as secular instruction to the young. The Reformers around the Monocacy and Frederick settlements mostly occupied the tract of land known as "Tasker's Chance," containing 7,000 acres of land, and, although there were a few scattered settlers who had come from the lower counties, these were undoubtedly the first considerable number of white people to locate in and about the present city of Frederick.
In 1748 they built a log church on a lot of ground 62x363 feet, extending from the present Church street to Patrick street, donated by Daniel Dulaney; the church being located on the Patrick street end of the lot. The County Court was for several years held in this building. By the year 1763 this church was found to be inadequate for the needs of the growing congregation, and a substantial stone building was erected, 45 feet wide, 60 feet long and 28 feet high, with a tower and steeple 60 feet high, which was subsequently increased to 150 feet. This church was used by the congregation over three-fourths of a century, until 1848, when a new building of enlarged capacity was built on the opposite side of the street. The corner-stone was laid June 12th of that
8
year in the presence of General Winfield Scott and a large number of United States Army officers, who were in attend - ance at a Court of Enquiry held at the time. The old church was left standing until 1881, when it was torn down and a chapel built upon its site. The tower and the remarkably graceful spire were fortunately permitted to stand as originally constructed.
Among the early membership of this church are found the names of Adams, Baltzell, Brunner, Baer, Cramer, Getzendan- ner, Michael, Ramsburg, Holtz, Kemp, Sinn, Stull, Schley, Steiner, Thomas, Wolff and others, descendants of some of whom are living on lands originally settled by their forefathers. At later periods came from the Pennsylvania settlements as well as direct from the fatherland, the Baers, Bantzs, Gepharts, Buckeys, Bren- gles, Dolls, Mantzs, Hauers, Lingenfelders, Schwartzs, Shrivers, Stulls, Schriners, Schultzs, Rohrs, Kunkles, Kuntzs, Faubles, Weavers, Wipperts, Webbers, Witmans, Albaughs, Derrs, Bentzs, Dofflers, Weiss, Wetzel, Huber, Staleys, Devilbiss, Houcks, etc.
In 1752 the Lutherans at Frederick commenced the building of a stone church upon a lot of ground deeded to the congregation for a nominal consideration by Daniel Dulaney. The foundation was dug and the walls reared to the height of five or six feet when the regular pursuits of the town were thrown into confusion by the French and Indian war, which now broke out in great fury. The formerly well disposed Indians, instigated by French money and influence, set the midnight torch to the homes and barns of the peaceful settlers of Frederick county. The women and chil- dren, as a protection from the tomahawk and scalping knife of the infuriated savages, were removed to places of security, and instead of the plough, the men took guns and swords into their hands. Many of the more timid abandoned their homes and barns and sought safety by flight to distant points. So great was the desertion on the frontier that Washington wrote in August, 1756: "The whole settlement of Conogocheague has fled and there remains now only two families from there to Frederick- town. That the Maryland settlements are abandoned is cer- tainly a fact, as I had the accounts transmitted to me by several hands and confirmed yesterday, 28th, by Henry Brinker, who left Monocacy the day before, and who affirms that 350 wagons had passed that place within the space of three days."
"It was in these troublous times that the famous Indian fighters, the Prathers, Pohs (Poes), in Maryland, and the Weitzels, in Vir-
9
ginia, all German settlers, first became known. Colonel Thomas Prather lived two miles from Conogocheague and was the com- mander of the Frederick county militia. The old stockade fort, near the present town of Clearspring, was rebuilt at an expense of £6,000 and named Fort Frederick. It was quadrangular in form, 120 yards each way, with heavy stone walls, with bastions, and contained barracks sufficient to accommodate 300 persons. It was for a time under the command of Col. F. Haldiman, a Ger man Swiss officer, commissioned by the English government. It was garrisoned by Frederick county militiamen, 200 of whom volunteered to strengthen the distant Fort Cumberland, an out- post in this war."
The capture of Fort du Quesne (Pittsburg) by the British and Americans in 1758 subdued the Indians, and the farmers returned to their homesteads, peace and quietude following the turmoil of war in Western Maryland, and work on the Lutheran church, as well as on the courthouse at Frederick, which had also been inter- rupted, was resumed. and both were speedily completed.
The best accounts we have of the settlements at Monocacy and Frederick, as well as those at Conogocheague and in the valley of Virginia, are from the reports of the Reverends Michael Schlatter and Heinrich Melchior Muhlenberg, the organizers respectively of the German Reformed and Lutheran Churches of America.
- In 1746 Mr. Schlatter was sent by the Reformed Churches of Holland as a missionary to the Dutch and Reformed settlers of this country to organize them into congregations in the various localities where they resided and to bring them into ecclesiastical relations with the churches of the Old World.
From Philadelphia and Germantown as a centre, Schlatter made many journeys of one, two, and even three hundred miles, preaching the Gospel and gathering up families and organizing them into congregations.
In his journal, Mr. Schlatter says, "on the 29th April, 1747, I undertook a great journey to Monocacy and other places in Maryland." After stopping and holding religious services at Lancaster, York and Conewago he reached Monocacy on May 6th, where on the following day he preached a sermon and baptized twenty-six children, and on the next day, May 8th, he adminis- tered the Lord's Supper to eighty-six members.
After Divine Service he read his instructions to the people, and forty-nine heads of families at once offered to raise for the sup-
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port of a minister, in money and grain, the amount of forty pounds, equal to 266 Dutch guilders. Referring to the Monocacy congregation, Mr. Schlatter says : "It appears to me to be one of the purest in the whole country, and one in which I have found the most traces of the true fear of God ; one that is free of the sects, of which, in other places, the country is filled. For on 7,000 acres of land in that neighborhood there are none but such as are of the German Reformed faith." He intimates that this is the seventh congregation or charge that he had organized, and says, if this congregation was united with the one called Con- ogocheague, lying thirty miles distant, the two would be able to sustain a minister. [Such a union was effected some years later.] After ordaining elders and deacons he returned the same evening to Conowago and arrived at York on the morning of May 9th. Mr. Schlatter did not at this time extend his visit to Frederick- town, as some of the church historians have erroniously stated, but exactly one year later he again visited Monocacy, arriving there May 7th, 1748, and on the following day "in Frederick- town," a newly laid out town, preached in the schoolhouse," and on the same day, in company with an elder of the congregation, who offered to accompany him through Virginia, he started on his journey. They arrived at Conagocheague at 2 o'clock the next morning. Here Mr. Schlatter found a German Reformed con- gregation, to whom he preached a sermon. After which he and his companion traveled ten miles to the Potomac river and crossed over into Virginia, and traveled fifteen miles without seeing either a house or human being. On the 10th day of May they took dinner at Fredericktown, Virginia (now Winches- ter). In the evening Mr. Schlatter preached to a Reformed con- gregation at Shenandoah (Strasburg). The next day they pro- ceeded forty two miles up the valley to New Germantown (New Market), where Mr. Schlatter preached to a large congregation. He and his companion then retraced their steps to Monocacy, where they arrived on May 12th.
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The following day Mr. Schlatter preached at Fredericktown, Maryland, "in a new church which is not yet finished." After the sermon he administered the "Holy Supper" to ninety seven members, baptized several aged persons and children, married three couples and installed elders and deacons.
He says : "It is a great advantage to this congregation (Monoc- acy) that they have the best schoolmaster I have met with in
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محمد
America. He (Thomas Schley) spares neither labor nor pains in instructing the young and edifying the congregation according to his ability by means of singing and reading the word of God and printed sermons on every Lord's Day."
Mr. Schlatter found the land fruitful for grain and pasture, pro- ducing "Turkish corn (maize or Indian corn) almost without manure, with stalks ten and more feet long. He found in Virginia "deer in droves" and saw "a fearful rattlesnake seven or eight feet long and five inches thick. This is a dangerous kind of snakes. Still it warns the traveler by rattling when he is yet twenty steps off, so that he has time to avoid it."
There were many Indians in the neighborhood of the settle- ments, but Mr. Schlatter found them "well disposed and very obliging, and, when not made drunk by strong drink, friendly towards Christians."
Mr. Schlatter, in May, 1753, again visited Frederick, accompa- nied by Rev. Theodore Frankenfield, whom he installed the first regular pastor of the Monocacy and Conogocheague congrega tions, which, according to Mr. Schlatter's report, July, 1751, were the only regularly organized German Reformed congregations in Maryland.
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