USA > Maryland > History of the German Society of Maryland > Part 3
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Dr. E. J. Wolf and L. Beard write in their Church History :
In 1710 some of the Palatinates settled in Frederick County, in and about the year 1720 they built the first church in said county at their settlement called Jerusalem. In 1733 the German settlers erected a church at the Mon- ocacy river and in 1735 at Frederick. The missionaries Rev. Melchior Muhlenburg and Rev. Michael Schlatter report in 1747-1748 to Germany that more than 1,000 German set- tlers lived in the valley of the Monocacy. William Eddis, an officer under Governor Eden, in Maryland, in the years 1769 to 1776, in his Letters to a friend in England pub- lished 1792 in London under the title "Letters from Amer- ica," writes that it was the immigration of the Germans who
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mainly increased the population of Maryland and by their industry developed the colony.
The Germans in the years 1732 to 1776 settled largely Western Maryland from Baltimore to the western boundary lines. In 1771, and again in 1773, they elected Jonathan Hager as a member of the Legislature of Mary- land. He was a German immigrant and the laws of Eng .. land prohibited any person not born an English subject to be a member of a legislative body. The legislature of Maryland passed an enabling act which had to be approved by Lord Baltimore, the proprietor of the Province.
Governor Eden of Maryland, in his letter of January 23, 1773, to Lord Dartmouth in England, writes :
"I should be extremely sorry if the Explanation I am to give to your Lordship of the motive for passing the Acts, Cap I should not prove satisfactory ; for I can venture to assure your Lordship that this Act was not intended to contravene the Statute in any degree, and that the People, in whose Favor it was passed, have the merit of being most useful subjects. In consequence of the Encouragement given by Statute, a great Number of German Emigrants have settled in North America, particularly in Pennsyl- vania, and the frontier counties of Maryland. They are generally an industrious laborious People. Their Improve- ment of a Wilderness into well stock'd Plantations, the Ex- ample, and beneficial Effects of their extraordinary In- dustry, have raised, in no small Degree, a Spirit of Emula- tion among the other Inhabitants. That they are a most useful People, and merit the public Regard is acknowledged by all who are acquainted with them."
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Germans were among the first settlers of Baltimore. As early as May 2, 1754, Governor Sharp of Maryland in his report to Lord Baltimore, the proprietor of the province, mentions the Germans as the best element among the inhabitants of Baltimore. In the year 1750, when "Baltimore Town" contained but 25 houses and less than 200 inhabitants, the first German Reformed Congregation of Baltimore town was organized. It is still in existence, now located on North Calvert, near Read street. It erected its first church about the year 1756 on North Charles street, near Saratoga street. The German Lutherans, until the year 1756, worshiped in the same building with the Reformed and about that year separated and proceeded to purchase a lot of ground on Saratoga street, then called Fish street. Not having enough money to erect a church building, they built a school-house, wherein they held their religious services on Sundays and holidays until they had accumulated a capital to erect a house of worship on Gay street, now called "The Zion Church." Mr. Moritz Wörschler was
their worthy schoolmaster. We find him mentioned in the annals of the church from the year 1758 to the year 1773. The Rev. Philip Wilhelm Otterbein in 1774 organ- ized on Conway, near Sharp street, the so-called "Otter- bein Church," a German Lutheran congregation of a large membership, out of which developed the numerous sect calling themselves "The United Brethren in Christ." German professional men, merchants, mechanics andi artisans came in the eighteenth century in large numbers to Baltimore, mostly direct from Germany, and many from York county and other parts of Pennsylvania. In
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the year 1764 Nicholas Hasselbach, a printer and paper- maker, came from Philadelphia and settled with his iam- ily in Baltimore. He had been in the paper-making, printing and publishing business in Philadelphia, where he landed an emigrant from Germany in August, 1749. He was a man of enterprise and success and had accumu- lated considerable wealth. He published German alma- nacs and religious works and, in 1762, was a member of the publishing firm of Ant. Armbruster and N. Hassel- bach, Philadelphia. He brought with him to Baltimore a complete outfit of German and English type and print- ing press. Being established in Baltimore, he published school and other books, etc., in the German and English language and contemplated publishing a German transla tion of the Bible. Only one specimen of his publications is known to be preserved to the present time. It was republished by George W. McCreary, assistant librarian of the Maryland Historical Society, Baltimore, 1903, with a biography of Nicholas Hasselbach, from which the writer has the information. Hasselbach was the first printer in Baltimore. Shortly after his arrival here, July 6, 1765, he purchased a lot of ground 33x99 feet of what is now No. 414 East Baltimore street from Thomas Har- rison; in 1768 a lot corner of Charles and Pratt streets ; in 1769 a lot southeast corner of Gay and Lombard streets, and a lot south side of Mercer street.
On his death his estate was assessed at $50,000.
In 1769 he went on a business trip to Europe and was lost at sea. In the year 1773 his widow sold his printing materials to William Goddard, who, August 20, 1773, issued the first number of the first newspaper published
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in Baltimore under the title of "The Maryland Journal and Baltimore Advertiser" and "The Baltimore Ameri- can." Hasselbach and his family were members of the first German Reformed Congregation.
As early as 1779, less than three years after the Declaration of Independence, a resolution was introduced in the senate of the general assembly of Maryland that Messrs. Hanson, Beale and Fischer translate into the German language certain acts of the assembly, and, in 1787, it was ordered by the house of delegates that the printer of Fredericktown be directed to translate into the German language the proceedings of the Committee on Federal Constitution and the resolves of the general assembly thereon to be distributed, and print 300 copies to be equally distributed in Frederick, Washington and Baltimore counties.
This was the first official recognition by the State of the existence of the German language among its inhabi- tants.
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.
DR. KARL FRIEDRICH WIESENTHAL, The First President of the German Society of Maryland.
One of the most prominent German citizens of Balti- more town at this period was Karl Friedrich Wiesenthal, M. D. He was born in Prussia in the year 1726, studied medicine in Germany, and in the year 1755 emigrated to Baltimore, where he settled and practiced as a physician until his death in the year 1789. We find him a member of the church council of the German Lutheran Zion Church in 1769, and he is supposed to be the annalist him- self to whom we owe the interesting chronicles of the Zion Church, compiled by Rev. Henry Scheib and pub- lished by the society of the History of the Germans in Maryland, Second Annual Report, 1887-88, p. 57. Dr. Wiesenthal in 1762 was one of the committee of five to negotiate for the purchase of the ground whereon the church and schoolhouse were to be erected, and to facili- tate the purchase he bought part of the ground for him- self. He appears at the head of the 147 subscribing mem- bers of the Rules and Regulations of the Church adopted in 1773; he was a member of the church council, and on April 3, 1787, for the last time, elected as the presiding member thereof. Dr. Wiesenthal was not only a good Christian, a successful physician, but also a true patriot and public-spirited citizen. During the War of Inde- pendence he warmly espoused the cause of the patriots and his services and advice were of great value to the State and country.
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In 1771 he became naturalized. In January, 1775, he was made a member of the Committee of Observation of Baltimore County and in December of the same year he received the appointment of superintendent of the manu- facture of saltpetre for the State to be used in the making of gunpowder. On March 2, 1776, he was commis- sioned by the council a surgeon-major of the First Mary- land Battalion, commanded by Colonel Smallwood. In a letter to the council of safety, written at this time and still extant, he expresses his willingness to assist the cause to the extent of his power, strength and abilities and to go with the troops wherever they should be ordered. On the 12th of March he published an appeal to the public for linen and old sheeting for bandages. In the same year he was medical purveyor for the Maryland troops and examiner of candidates for medical positions in the service. In 1777 he was made surgeon-general of the Maryland troops. Dr. Wiesenthal owned and resided in a brick dwelling on the southeast corner of Gay and Fayette streets, extending to Frederick street. In the parts extending on Frederick street, which are still stand- ing, Dr. Wiesenthal and after his death, his son, Andrew Wiesenthal, M. D., conducted a medical school and a dis- secting room. See advertisement in No. 59 (1796) Der Neue Unparteiische Baltimore Bote und Maryland Staats -. Register, Mittwoch, May 4 (The New Impartial Mes- senger and Maryland State Register of Wednesday, May 4, 1796), a weekly German newspaper published in Balti- more by Samuel Sauer, wherein Dr. Wiesenthal offers to several students comforts in his house, where they will have advantages as perhaps nowhere else in this country
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can be found in instruction in dissection, etc. In the same year Dr. Andrew Wiesenthal delivered a course of lec- tures on anatomy in Baltimore. The German physicians, Dr. Wilhelm Zollickoffer, Dr. Henry Keerl, Dr. John Peter Ahl and others were also practicing in Baltimore in those years. There is only the one No. 59 of the New Impartial Messenger, etc., preserved. It is in a glass frame in our city library. The heading of the paper indicates that there were German newspapers published in the city of Baltimore prior to the New Impartial Mes- senger and the addition of "Maryland Staats-Register" indicates that there was a merger of a former separate Maryland State Register. These German publications. wherein we most likely would find the date of the begin- ning of the German Society of Maryland being lost, a search in "Griffith's Annals of Baltimore" in the library of the Maryland Historical Society disclosed on page 703 the following entry :
"1783, directly after the Peace, several merchants from other States and other parts of this State settled here, among whom were Messrs. Slubey, Dall, Stauffer, Stark, Kimmel, Isaac Salomon and Johannot, and a number of European gentlemen, among whom were Grundy, Coop- man, Schroeder, Seekamp, Koneke, Zollickoffer, Valk. By the Minerva, Capt. Bels, Harmony and other vessels there were brought a great many Irish and German Redemption- ers and A SOCIETY FOR THE AID OF THE GERMANS, NOT SPEAKING THE LANGUAGE OF THE COUNTRY, was formed."
In Quinan, Medical Annals of Baltimore, we find, "year 1782, page 15, Dr. Henry Keerl arrived from Ger-
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many," and, "in 1784, Dr. Charles F. Wiesenthal, physi- cian to the German Society," and later, "Dr. William Zollikoffer."
In the Maryland Journal of Tuesday, August 10, 1784, the following thanks of the society were published :
"To Capt. Claus Kulkens, of the Brig Lavater:
"Sir: The brutal advantage which has been taken by some Masters of Vessels, of their power over their passengers, has induced a number of inhabitants of this place, (in imi- tation of their brethren in Philadelphia) to form themselves into a Society, for the protection of such of their country- men as may be induced to come to this State, and guard them from the oppression and barbarity of unfeeling men.
"Upon inquiry concerning the usage of the people on board of your brig 'The Lavater,' we find, with peculiar satisfaction, that your attention to those principles which should animate a Christian heart, has rendered their situa- tion as easy and comfortable as circumstances would per- mit. We cannot, sir, restrain our strong desire we feel of expressing to you our warmest acknowledgments, and pub- licly to offer you our sincerest thanks, which we consider as the smallest Tribute due, for your generosity and tender- ness.
By Order of the German Society JOHN CONRAD ZOLLIKOFFER, Sec. Baltimore, August 9th, 1784."
These notes point to the year 1783 as the beginning of the "German Society of Maryland," especially as they refer to the arrival of many Irish and German redemp- tioners at that time. The abuse and misery these poor
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people suffered on their sea voyage had aroused the Ger- mans in Philadelphia in 1764 to organize for their aid and protection, and as John Conrad Zollikoffer says: It was in imitation of their brethren of Philadelphia they formed themselves into a society. The historian, Loher, says the Maryland society, was formed about the same time (1764) and the Charleston, S. C., was undoubtedly formed in 1766 in imitation of the Pennsylvania society. Whatever year it may have been, family tradition and other notes point to Dr. Karl Friedrich Wiesenthal as the prime mover and first president of the society and for a beginning not later than the year 1783. We shall be the more inclined to accept him as the founder of this noble humane society when we read the notice of his death taken from the Maryland Journal and Baltimore Adver- tiser of June 2, 1789. It says: "The Shaft he so often warded from others has pierced him at last. Yesterday morning, about half-past seven o'clock, departed this life Dr. Charles Frederick Wiesenthal, in the 63rd year of his age after having practiced in this town for 34 years. If the strictest attention in his profession which humanity could excite and that success which might be expected from superior medical abilities improved in an uncommon measure by reason and observation deserve to be remem- bered, the tears of gratitude must flow in sorrowful pro- fusion. He is gone ! and the pain of reflection is the more heightened because it is at the time when he was in daily expectation of the return of an absent and only son whose virtues and abilities are beloved and admired by all who know him." His son was at the time pursuing his studies in Europe. Who were his associates in the found-
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ing of the German Society aside of John Conrad Zol- likoffer and Dr. Wilhelm Zollikoffer, we cannot state. Brantz Mayer, in his memoir and genealogy of the Mary- land Family of Mayer, which originated in the city of Ulm; Baltimore, 1878, states on page 36 that his father, Christian Mayer, on the 3rd of January, 1785, became a member of "the German Society." There were many wealthy and public spirited German citizens, or of Ger- man descent, in the city in those years. W. Griffith in his Annals of Baltimore, printed by Frederick G. Schaef- fer, Baltimore, 1821, on page 72, writes in the year 1776 : Officers in the German Company in 1776 were Peter Mackenheimer, George P. Keeport (Kuhbord), John Lohre, Christ. Myers, Samuel Gerock, John Lindenberger, John Mackenheimer, John Ritter and George Cole, with the remark, "this does not include the Rifle Company."
Before the independence of America, England had a monopoly of the foreign trade of the country. During the war all foreign trade was suspended, but now, after the recognition by Great Britain of the independence of the United States, the merchants of Hamburg and Bremen located branch houses in Baltimore and their ves- sels with cargoes of linen and other products of Germany, and principally with immigrants, arrived here, and re- turned with cargoes of tobacco to their home ports. Bal- timore became more and more a popular port for the immigrants to land from Europe and especially from Ger- many. Among the earliest of the Germans to land here after the war and but a few months after the treaty was John Jacob Astor from Waldorf, Germany, who came here as an emigrant with a few hundred dollars' worth of
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musical instruments to dispose of on commission. He went from here to New York, where, by his industry, enterprise and integrity, he accumulated millions of dol- lars and became the president of the German Society of New York. John Frederick L. Amelung arrived in 1784 with a number of glass manufacturers from Germany and erected an extensive factory on the Monocacy river in Frederick county, and in 1796, with his son, F. L. F. Amelung, built the glass factory on the south side of the basin in Baltimore city. Frederick Leypold arrived here about the same time, and with Charles Carts as partner, in the year 1784, erected a sugar refinery in South Balti- more. The merchants, J. B. von Kappf and -- Ansbach, under the firm of von Kappf & Ansbach, in 1795 estab- lished their extensive tobacco export and import business. Christian Meyer, a merchant from Ulm, Germany. who, in 1817, became the president of the German Society, arrived here in 1784. Heinrich Schroeder, Louis Brantz. Samuel Etting, Michael Kimmel, William Lorman, Dr. Heinrich Keerl, John H. Friese, F. W. Brune and others who, in later years appear as officers of the German So- ciety, came here in those years. The outbreak of the French Revolution and the Napoleonic wars, which lasted till 1815, interrupted the trade with and the immigration from Germany. Very few emigrants arriving in Balti- more during this period from Germany, there was little activity of the German Society of Maryland, which then had for its object solely the protection of the emigrants on board of the vessels which brought them here and on their arrival to guard them against oppression so that no unfair advantage be taken of their ignorance of the
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country, its laws and language, and advise and assist those who intended to settle in the interior. We only know of its continued existence during these years by it being mentioned by travelers who published their jour- neys. The German population of Baltimore in those years, many of them natives of Baltimore in the second and third generation, maintained a large Reformed, two Lutheran, a Calvinist, a Baptist and a Dunkard congre- gation, wherein the services were conducted in the Ger- man language, with parish schools. A German newspaper was published. Samuel Sauer, a printer who came here from Philadelphia in 1792, published here the following books in the German language :
1795, Johann Lassencius' Politische Geheimnisse vieler hin und wieder heutigen Tages einreisender unartigen Atheisten, Gedruckt von S. Sauer und Jones.
1795, Der heilige Krieg, wie derselbe geführt wird von Christo Jesu wieder den Teufel.
1795, Count Roderick's Castle 2 Vol. on one, printed by same Sauer and S. Keating.
1796, Dem Andenken Deutscher Dichter und Philoso- phen, gewidmet George Washington von Deutschen in America, published by S. Keating.
1796, Der Psalter des Königs und Propheten Davids.
1796, A. B. C. Buchstabier und Namen Buch.
1797, Das kleine David'sche Psalterspiel, 2 verbesserte Auflage nebst Appendia, Die kleine Harfe.
1798, Der merkwürdige Lebenslauf, die sonderbaren Bekehrungen und Entzückungen des verstorbenen Dr. De Beneville.
1799, Christliches Handbüchlein von Johannias Tübinger. 1801, Der geschwinde Rechner, Almanacs, etc.
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Samuel Sauer combined with his printing establishment in partnership with William Gwinn a type foundry, which proved a great success.
Among the prominent citizens of these years who were active in public affairs and in German Society were men- tioned : Adam Fonerden, Baltzer Schaeffer, Peter Frick, members of the City Council in 1797; Adam Fonerden became later a delegate to the Maryland Legislature : Capt. Jacob Keeport (Kuhbord), Capt. John Stricker and Col. John Mackenheimer, officers in the Revolutionary War; Michael Diffenderfer, Wilhelm Raborg, John Dobler, Philip Littig, Michael Schryock, Peter Sauer- wein, August Tegtmeyer, Ludwig Tegtmeyer, Wilhelm Keilholtz, Jacob Ad. Knott, Ernst Fauth, Peter Atn. Karthaus, Nicholas Emich, Col. Peter Amigh, George Warner, Friedrich Eiseln, Peter Hoffman, Lorenz Thom- sen, David Hoffman, Jacob Schley, William Schroeder, Michael Warner, Wilhelm Krebs, Erasmus Uhler, Hein- rich Keerl, Justus Hoppe, Johann Leypold, Wendel Michael, Fred. Waesche, Ludwig Brantz, David Bixler, August Schwatka, Heinrich Winter, Christian Weis- hampel, Heinrich Dukehart, Conrad Reil, Johann Fussel- bach, Jacob Small, Capt. John Schirm, Christian Keller, Herman Alrichs, Ludwig Hering, Peter Gold, Captain Haubert, Capt. Michael Peters, Capt. Daniel Schwarz- man and Capt. George Steever, captains in the War of 1812 to 1814. These citizens took an active interest in our city affairs. The city was then divided into eight wards and each ward was represented by two members in the City Council. Among the sixteen members of the City Council in the year 1806 the following names
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appear: First Ward, George Decker, Henry Stauffer ; Second Ward, Jacob Small; Third Ward, Wim. Lorman; Fourth Ward, George P. Keeport; Fifth Ward, Balzer Schaeffer, John Shirm; Sixth Ward, John Miller ; Seventh Ward, Ludwig Hering and Frederick Schaeffer. The names of Peter Hoffman, Adam Fonerden, Peter Frick, Christopher Raborg, John Mackenheimer, Samuel Frey, Peter Diffenderfer, John Snyder, William Warner and George Woelper also appear as members of the City Council in the years from 1807 to 1814.
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THE GERMAN CHURCHES OF BALTIMORE IN THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY.
The first German Reformed Congregation which in the middle of the eighteenth century had its church on North Charles street, at or near the northwest corner of Sara- toga street, had divided in 1770 by a large number of its members withdrawing and organizing the Second Ger- man Reformed Congregation, which, in 1774, elected Rev. Philip William Otterbein as pastor and erected the church on Conway street, between Sharp and Hanover streets, where it still continues to worship in the German language. The First Reformed Church, under the ad- ministration of Rev. Mr. Pomp and the leadership of Michael Diffenderfer, Daniel Diffenderfer, Peter Diffen- derfer, Frederick Meyers and Jacob Meyers in 1785, re- solved to build a larger church at the northwest corner of Baltimore and Front streets. The cornerstone was laid on the first of September, 1785, and on the 20th of June, 1787, the first service was held in the new church. The members, however, soon became dissatisfied with the location of the church on account of the proximity of the Jones' Falls, which often flooded its banks and the noise of the passing vehicles crossing the nearby Baltimore street bridge, and authorized Jacob Hoffman, Peter Dif- fenderfer, George Decker and others, eighty-two male members voting in favor of it, to sell the church. This committee soon effected a sale thereof, which was ratified by the congregation in August, 1796. The congregation
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then bought a lot of ground on the north side of Second street, nearly in the bed of Holliday street as now cut through. The lot had a 100-foot front by 200 feet depth. Melchior Keener, Andrew Steiger, George Decker, Peter Diffenderfer, Nicholas Tchudy and others were the active committee in the erection of the new church, which was 50 by 80 feet in dimension, with a steeple about 200 feet high, with three bells weighing forty-five hundred pounds and a large clock, which became known as the Town Clock. The cornerstone of this new church was laid the 28th day of April, 1796, and it was finished in September, 1797. The congregation increased in membership and influence. Many of its members were in the second, third and even fourth generation in this country and had grad- ually become estranged from the German mother tongue. The incessant strife of languages for domination had been going on. The English is the official and dominant lan- guage of our country, but it was not the exclusive language spoken by its first settlers nor is it to this day the common vernacular in every part of the United States. In Maryland, and especially in Baltimore, the German language spoken by a respectable minority of its citizens was always recognized by the authorities with a friendly disposition, the surest and only way to overcome it. The intense, often fanatical, love which men have for the lan- guage of their parents or rather of their mothers, grows out of the subconscious memory of the sweet words of love caresses and kindness received in their infancy. If he is raised in a community where largely different lan- guage is also friendly spoken to him in childhood, it takes but one or two generations and he will lose his attach-
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