USA > Maryland > Annual report of the Society for the History of the Germans in Maryland, 13th-14th, Vol. II > Part 2
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Ilis last work, "The History of the German Element in Virginia," the second volume of which is herewith given to the public after the death of its author, will bear out proof of his struggle to establish a true record of German effort in Virginia, considered by many to have been an exclusively English settlement, - and it is to be hoped will instigate others to follow his exam- ple in other States.
PERIOD II.
German Life in Virginia During the 19th Century to the Beginning of the Spanish-American War.
CHAPTER XI.
RETROGRESSION OF TIIE GERMAN TYPE DURING THE FIRST THREE DECADES.
"With nations it is as with individuals : these have weak hours and those feeble periods."-Jahn.
HIE German element of Virginia entered the new cen- tury much weakened. The Indian massacres, the long years of war, and the emigration to the West, had reduced it in number, and the anglicizing process had
made rapid progress. During the War of Independence the relations of the two nationalities, the English 'and the Ger- man, had become more intimate, - the Germans had been obliged to adopt and use the English language, and after independence was gained, they felt themselves as much Ameri- cans as the English descendants. Immigration from Germany almost ceased when Napoleon I. involved the nations of the European continent into bloody wars, while that from Great Britain continued undiminished. The bitter feeling that the Anglo-Virginians entertained on account of the assistance
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the German allied troops had rendered the British armies in the War of Independence, the German citizens most er- roneously thought to conquer by timid submission and by surrendering their national peculiarities. The majority of the German-Virginians were not embellished with feelings of national pride, or pious attachment to the Fatherland. Na- tional self-esteem, which makes a language imperishable, - that honors and retains the noble character and worthy habits of the ancestors, - the national pride that is the most sa- cred feeling of the stranger in a foreign land, - this the German-Virginians were wanting, although they had ma- terially helped to raise Virginia to what it was by their worthy ancestral qualities : industry, perseverance, economy and love of liberty. They had forgotten that a German who looks with veneration upon his Fatherland, adheres to its customs and language, esteems the inheritance of his fathers, becomes a most desirable citizen, for his energy will benefit his new home, his habits will refine those around him, just like the scion on a wild stock.
Friedrich von Schiller, - bitterly commenting on the un- worthy position the Germans held at the beginning of the new century as compared with other nations, -gathered new hope from the precious treasures of the German language, that expresses everything : "The profoundest and the most volatile, the genius, the soul - and which is full of sense." Only self-respect gives to the man manly vigor and secures to him, even far from his native land, recognition and in- fluence. The firm adherence to the mother-tongue expresses this noble intention, but upon its surrender the mark of pe- culiarity, of self-confidence and self-dependence, is lost. The German poet Theodor Koerner expressed this sentiment as follows :
" Denn mit den fremden Worten auf der Zunge Kommt auch der fremde Geist in unsere Brust, - Und wie sich mancher, von dem Prunk geblendet, Der angebor'nen heiligen Sprache schämt Und lieber radebrechend seiner Zunge Zum Spott des Fremden fremde Fesseln aufzwingt,- So lernt er auch die deutsche Kraft verachten!"
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The tie that binds the German-Virginians to this coun- try will never be loosened by their pious attachment to the old Fatherland, - for being true to it, their patriotic devo- tion to America can all the more safely be relied on.
In Virginia the German clergy faithfully upheld the German tongue until about 1825. On May 28th, 1820, the German-Lutheran Tennessee Synod was organized and Rever- ends Jacob Zink, of Washington county, and Paul Henkel, of New-Market, Virginia, participated. It was resolved : that all business and work should be transacted in German, for rea- son that a conference in which both the German and Eng- lish languages were used, the one or the other side would be dissatisfied. It was also deemed of the highest importance to use all possible diligence to acquaint the German children with all doctrines in faith and in the German language. 152) But already on September 8th, 1826, the same Synod resolved that : "Both the German and English languages may be used in the proceedings of the Synod,"153) and this resolution was the first step, among the members of this influential body, towards the abolishinent of German in their respective con- gregations.
The emigration of the German element to the "Far West" still continued, and the old mother colony lost many good and brave men. Colonel Luke Decker for instance is named with distinction in the history of Indiana. 154) At the beginning of the 19th century he emigrated from wes- tern Virginia to southern Indiana, and in 1811, when the Indians threatened the white population of the new territory with annihilation, he was placed in command of part of the militia. In the decisive battle at Tippecanoe he helped to gain the victory and was badly wounded, - and the Legis- lature of the Territory meeting at Vincennes passed resolu-
152) "History of the Evang .- Luth. Tennessee Synod," by S. Henkel, D. D., p. 25. New-Market, Va., 1890.
153.) "History of the Evang .- Luth. Tennessee Synod," by S. Henkel, D. D., p. 29. New-Market, Va., 1890.
154.) "Geschichte des Deutschthums in Indiana," pp. 12 and 13, by Dr. W. A. Fritsch, Published by E, Steiger & Co., New York, 1896.
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tions of thanks acknowledging his bravery. He died, loved and esteemed by his fellow-citizens, on his farm near "Decker's Station," which derived its name from this German-Virginian patriot.
The U. S. Census of 1890 states that the population of Virginia - East and West - amounted in 1800 to 880,200 iubabitants, of whom 41.52 per cent. were negroes. It is a low estimate to fix the number of the white population at about 514,000, and the German-Virginians at 85,600. To verify this estimate, be it remembered that Richmond, -- al- though Tidewater Virginia had at the beginning of the 19th century fewer German inhabitants than the Valley or the Piedmont district, - numbered in 1830 in all 16,060 inhabi- tants, of whom 10,025 were whites, - inclusive of about 3000 of German descent, - which is almost one-third of the white population of the city.
The German Jewish element, which now forms a very considerable part of the German population of Virginia, and particularly of the city of Richmond, commenced to increase about 1820. With reference to the German Jewish popula- tion of the United States Hon. Simon Wolf says155) : "The emigration of the German Jews remained altogether sporadic throughout the period of the Napoleonic wars, because of the almost insuperable obstacles which hindered their de- parture. The increase of the Jewish population in this coun- try was thus limited mainly to the surplus of births over deaths, until some time after the close of the war of 1812. In the course of the reaction against the innovation of liber- alism which ensued after 1820, the hardly gained political rights of the German Jews were gradually curtailed or en- tirely withdrawn, and at this time the Jews of the German maritime cities began to emigrate to the United States in * increasing numbers." -- This statement fully applies to and explains the causes of the Jewish immigration into Virginia.
Ileinrich Foss, who sailed on the 13th of March, 1837,
155.) "The American Jew as Patriot, Soldier and Citizen," by Simon Wolf, pp. 67 and 68. Philadelphia, 1895.
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from Bremerhafen to Norfolk, Va., was employed for six months on the James river canal, but he emigrated to the West and died at Cincinnati, Ohio, in 1879, an esteemed master-mason. He liked to speak about his travels through Virginia. 15 " )
On his way to Ohio he stopped at Lynchburg, Campbell county ; Buchanan, Botetourt county; Staunton, Augusta county ; Harrisonburg, Rockingham county ; Woodstock and Strassburg, Shenandoah county; Winchester, Frederick county ; Shepherdstown, Jefferson county, and Wheeling, Ohio county, and in all these towns he met with old German farmers who received him kindly. "It was as like as if I was travelling in Germany," Mr. Foss used to say.
This simple narrative of a reliable man characterizes the condition of the German-Virginians at that time. The old folks still retained their German character, but their de- scendants were more and more anglicized. Jahn's sentence, quoted at the head of this chapter, proved true with the German settlers in Virginia.
The dark clouds of that period are however dispersed by some bright sunlight sparks, that kindle the heart of the German-Virginian historian. In the year 1783 Rev. Adolph Nuessmann, of Mecklenburg county in North Carolina, wrote157): "From Georgia to Maryland there is no German printing office, and in North Carolina even no English one." It is therefore a matter of great satisfaction to every German- Virginian, that at New-Market, in the Shenandoah Valley in Virginia, or "Neu-Markt," as it was originally called, soon after the foundation of the Republic, a German printing of- fice was established by a descendant of the first German clergyman in Virginia. 15%) Hle built the press with his own hands and undertook the publication of "German schoolbooks and religious works." This meritorious man was the Luth- eran Pastor Ambrosius Henkel, of New-Market. In 1806 his
156.) "Der Deutsche Pionier," Vol. 11, p. 402. Cincinnati, Ohio, 1880.
157.) "Der Deutsche Pionier," Vol. 13, p. 316. Cincinnati, Ohio, 1890.
158.) "Der Süden," Vol. 1, No. 2, pp. 4 and 5. Richmond, Va., 1891.
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printing office was in the hands of his son, Solomon Henkel, and an "ABC Book," for use in the German school at New- Market, - and probably the first schoolbook ever printed in Virginia, - was published, with lines of poetry and illustra- tions for each letter of the alphabet, cut in wood by Rev. Henkel himself. A second edition of this book appeared in 1819, of which a copy is in possession of Charles E. Loehr of Richmond. The title of the book was: "The little ABC Book or first lessons for beginners, with beautiful pictures and their names arranged in alphabetic order, to facilitate the spelling to children. - By Ambrosius Henkel, New-Mar- ket, Shenandoah county, Virginia ; printed in Solomon IIen- kel's printing office, 1819." - The poetry to each letter is written in a German dialect almost like "Pennsylvania Dutch;" it is not very fastidious in expression, but adapted to the perceptive faculty of children, as for instance :
B .- Der Biber had im Damm sein Haus, Bald is er drinn', bald ist er draus ; Da wohnt er drinn', so wie er's baut. Oft man ihn fang't, nimmt ihm die Haut.
G .- Der Geier friszt mit Ernst und Muth, Stinkt wohl das Fleisch doch schmeckts ihm gut, Er hackt mit Kopf und Fuess hinein, Und friszt es weg bis auf das Bein.
K .- Die beste Milch die giebt die Kuh, Gieb nur den Kindern Mosch dazu, Und auch ein gross Stueck Butterbrod, So stirbt dir keins an Hungersnoth.
R .- Der Rabe riecht das Aas von fern, Er kommt und friszt das Luder gern, - Der Dramm schmeckt manchem auch so wohl, Dass er sich saufet toll und voll.
The book closes with some morning and evening pray- ers, as :
"Nun will ich in die Schule geh'n Und lernen wie ich soll,
· Wird mir der liebe Gott beysteh'n So lern ich alles wohl."
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"Nun dieser Tag ist wieder hin, Die fins'tre Nacht bricht ein, Dass ich noch an dem Leben bin Des soll ich dankbar sein."
In speaking of the printing-establishment at New-Market, Rev. G. D. Bernheim says159) : "The Lutheran Church in America has had its publication boards and societies in abundance, which doubtless accomplished a good work, but the oldest establishment of the kind is the one in New-Market, Virginia, which dates its existence as far back at least as 1810, for the minutes of the North Carolina Synod were printed there at that time. It was established by the Henkel family and has continued under their management to this day."
One of the most prominent members of this illustrious family was Rev. Paulus Henkel, already mentioned. From a biographical sketch160) we copy the following: "He was truly a man for the times ; vigorous in mind and body. He labored unceasingly, willingly and cheerfully, undergoing trials, hardships, and sacrifices for good, and not for gain.
" His parents were Jacob and Barbara Henkel, née Teters. He was born December 15, 1754, in Rowan county, North Carolina, near the present city of Salisbury, where he resided until 1760. The Indians becoming troublesome, the family removed to Loudoun county, Virginia ; thence to Maryland ; thence to Hampshire county, Virginia, where they remained not quite a year, having frequently to live in block-houses, for protection against the Indians. Then they moved to Mill Creek, Hardy county, Virginia, where the father of Paul Henkel died and was buried.
"At the age of about 22 Paul Henkel beginning to pre- pare for the ministry, placed himself under the instruction of Rev. Krug, pastor of the Evangelical Lutheran church,
159.) "History of the German Settlements and the Lutheran Church in the Caro- linas," by Rev. G. D. Bernheim, pp. 445 and 446.
160.) "Biographical Sketch of Rev. Paul Henkel," compiled by his great-grandson Ambrose L. Henkel, New-Market, Va., 1890.
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at Fredericktown, Maryland. After becoming proficient in Ger- man, Latin and Greek, and other studies, he was examined and licensed to preach by the Evangelical Lutheran Synod of Pennsylvania and adjacent States, - the only Lutheran Synod at that time in America. Ile located at New-Market, Virginia, and at once became an active, earnest, zealous min- ister, laboring in Shenandoah, Rockingham, Frederick, Madi- son, Culpepper, Pendleton, Botetourt, Wythe, and many other counties in Virginia.
" On June. 6th, 1792, he was solemnly set apart for the office of pastor in l'hiladelphia, Pennsylvania, the ordination being performed by Rev. John Frederick Schmidt. He labored at New-Market for a while, and then located at Staunton, Virginia, where he remained three years, when he returned to New-Market, Virginia. In 1800, he felt it to be his duty to accept a call to his native home in Rowan county, North Carolina, in which and adjoining counties he successfully labored.
"In 1805, owing to the malarious condition of the country, he returned to New-Market, Virginia, and became an inde- pendent missionary. He did not desire wealth or fame, but strove to do good. He made tours on horse-back and "gig" through Virginia, Tennessee, Kentucky, Indiana, Ohio, North and South Carolina, preaching and organizing congregations, catechising and confirming the young, and giving words of comfort and cheer to all. He underwent sore trials and se- vere privations without faltering. Ile kept a faithful diary of all his labors, which to us, at the present day, seem al- most incredible. He often endured hunger, thirst, fatigue, and loss of rest, excessive heat and cold-every hardship and discomfiture incident to sparsely settled sections and dan- gerous frontier life.
"When the war of 1812 came, he went to Point Pleasant, Mason county, Virginia, where he organized several congre- gations.
"In 1809 he published a work on 'Christian Baptism and the Lord's Supper,'-' Ueber die christliche Taufe und das
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Abendmahl,' in German and afterwards in the English. Ile published a 'German Hymn-book' in 1810, then in 1816 an- other ' Ilymn-book' in English, containing 476 hymns, many being of his own composition. In 1814 he published a German Catechism : 'Der christliche Catechismus, verfasst zum Unterricht der Jugend in der Erkenntniss der christ- lichen Religion ; sammt Morgen- und Abend-Gebaetc.' A second edition appeared in 1816, and soon after an 'English Cate- chism.'
"He was never idle, and though arduously engaged in traveling, preaching, catechising, and admonishing in-private . and public, he found time to write many books and letters. One of his books in rhyme: 'Gereimter Zeitvertreib,' (Pas- time,) was a strong rebuke to fanaticism, superstition, cor- ruption, and folly. It was full of sarcasm and created much friendly and unfriendly criticism. He was a man of indomi- table energy in Church work, and his liberality was almost in excess of his means in such labors and works of charity. It is said, that more than a century ago he helped to fell the trees and build a 'log church' at New-Market, Virginia, his equally energetic wife cooking in an open field, in wash kettles, for the hardy men who came 'to the hewing and log-raising ;'- and that he made a trip with a one-horse cart to Philadelphia, three-hundred miles distant, for glass and a bell, which some friends in that city gave him for the church.
"His first sermon was preached in Pendleton county, Vir- ginia, in 1781, and his last one in New-Market, Virginia, Oct. 9th, 1825, a month prior to his death-having been actively engaged in the ministry for 44 years."
In the year 1807 the first German newspaper in Vir- ginia : " Der Virginische Volksberichter und New-Marketer Wochenschrift"-edited by Ambrosius Henkel, and printed and published by Solomon Henkel, appeared. For the head of the paper Rev. Henkel had prepared a wood-cut repre- senting a mounted postilion sounding his bugle-horn, with the devise :
" Ich bring das Neu's! So gut ich's weiss !"
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This newspaper was however discontinued after the lapse of a few years, not finding the necessary support.
School-matters had been in a deplorable condition since the foundation of the colony. It was not until 1779,161) one hundred and seventy-two years after the settlement of James- town, that a bill providing for Public Education was intro- duced in the Assembly. It was framed by Thomas Jeffer- son, but it failed to pass, and not until 1797 did the main features of the bill become law. It was left to the option of the counties to enforce the act or not, and the number · of the schools established is not given in any document. A second school-law was passed in 1818, but Gov. McDowell, in his message to the Legislature, Jan. 1843, said of the whole School-System, inaugurated under this law, " that after having existed for thirty years it gave only sixty days of tuition to one-half the 'indigent' children of the State as its grand result, and that it was therefore little more than a costly and delusive nullity, which ought to be abolished, and another and better system adopted in its place." The census of 1840 states, that 58,787 white inhabitants of Virginia, over twenty-one years of age,-that is one-twelfth of the total white population of the State, could neither read nor write. However the Germans had their parochial schools since the time of Gov. Spotswood. In Richmond a Swiss or German established in the beginning of the century a large school, named after him: "Haller's Academy."162) It was an extensive establishment and located in a large and homely block of buildings on Carey street, near the head of the basin. Haller is represented as an adventurer of little learn- ing, but he had judgment enough to enable him to select good teachers.
In 1825 the University of Virginia, at Charlottesville, which had been planned by Thomas Jefferson, and still re- tains the cosmopolitan and liberal character which he gave to it, was organized. It deserves special mention, that from
161.) "Report of the Commissioner of Education for 1876," p. 399. Washington, 1878. 162.) "Richmond in By-gone Days," p. 203, published by George M. West. Rich- mond, Va., 1856.
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the very beginning the course of study embraced German language and literature. The first German professor on this State-institution was Georg Blaettermann, 163) a native of Germany and a graduate of the University of Goettingen. At the time of his appointment he was professor of Philo- logy at Oxford, England,-and he occupied his professorial chair at Charlottesville until 1840. He was the first teacher in America to introduce " comparative German-English in- struction."
Professor Dr. M. D. Learned, of the University of Penn- sylvania, and formerly of Baltimore, Md., in his lecture delivered before the National German-American Teachers' Association at Cincinnati, O., on July 8th, 1898, bestowed the following brilliant testimonial on the German immi- grants164) : "The importance of the early German influence in America is still unappreciated by the Anglo-American writers of American history, the best accounts of it having been written either in the German language and thus made practically inaccessible to the Anglo-American public - and I blush to say it, to some of our most heralded Anglo- American historians-or if written in English, having been published more as special or local history, without being considered in its vital relations to the life of the American republic." The same impartial scholastic also stated : "The first epoch of German influence in America was followed, after the Napoleonic wars, by a new and vastly more signifi- cant period which has witnessed the revolution of American thought and education by the touch of German culture. The German influence this time came through three different channels: (1) through the Anglo-American students who from 1815 on finished their studies at German universities ; (2) through the indirect influence of German philosophy, science, and letters by way of England; and (3) through Germans who brought the new stimulus direct after 1825. From the American students in Germany we received the
163.) "Das deutsche Element in den Ver. Staaten," p. 405, by Gustav Körner. Cin- cinnati, 1880.
164.) "Erziehungs-Blätter," 28. Jahrgang, Heft 12, Seite 3 und 4. Milwaukee, Wisc., 1898.
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new impulse in American education. . . 'The turn of the first quarter of the present century brought a new generation of Germans to American shores. Germans this time not only from the shop and fields, but Germans of thought and heroism, graduates from the universities, etc."
Among the German-Virginian clergy Rev. Louis Fred- erick Eichelberger163) was a prominent literary man. He was born in Frederick county Md., on the 25th of August 1803. At an early age he was placed in the school of Rev. Dr. Schaeffer at Frederick. Subsequently he was sent to George- town, D. C., where he attended the classical school of Dr. Carnahan, who afterward gained distinction as President of Princeton College. From Georgetown, Mr. Eichelberger went to Dickinson College, at Carlisle, Pa., where he graduated in 1826. From college he removed to the newly organized Theological Seminary at Gettysburg, and while a student Mr. Eichelberger was invited to become the pastor of the Luth- eran church at Winchester, Va. In 1849 he was elected professor of Theology in the seminary at Lexington, S. C .; the honorary degree of Doctor of Divinity was conferred on him by Princeton College,-and resigning his professorship in 1858, he immediately returned to Winchester, Va., warmly welcomed by many ardent friends. In addition to his labors as teacher and preacher, Dr. Eichelberger was the editor and proprietor of a weekly paper, " The Virginian," at Winchester. He also edited and published from 1833-35 a monthly peri- odical known as "The Evangelical Lutheran Preacher and Pastoral Messenger," which presented sermons and occa- sional articles on doctrinal and practical subjects by leading ministers of the Lutheran Church. Drs. Schaeffer, Miller, Hazelius, Baugher, Strobel, Endress and the editor were among the principal writers. Ilis great work was " The His- tory of the Lutheran Church," which however was never pub- lished. The author of this history regrets not to have been able to examine this valuable manuscript which is in posses- sion of the library of the Lutheran College at Salem, Roanoke county. It covers seven hundred large and closely written
165.) "Some Items of Lutheran Church History," by Rev. J. E. Bushnell. Roa- noke, Va.
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pages. While negotiating for the publication of his favorite work, Mr. Eichelberger died. Although all his publications are in English, they are inspired by a genuine German spirit.
Rer. Samuel Simon Schmucker, at New-Market, Va., wrote several theological works: " Kurz gefasste Geschichte der christlichen Kirche auf Grundlage der Busch'schen Werke," "Portraiture of Lutheranism," and "The American Lutheran Church, Historically, Doctrinally and Practically delineated." The son of this learned minister, Samuel Mosheim Schmucker, or "Smucker," as he styled his name, was not less productive. He wrote biographical and historical works. His most im- portant composition : "Ilistory of the American Civil War," remained unfinished on account of his death in 1863.
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