USA > New Jersey > The early Germans of New Jersey : their history, churches, and genealogies. > Part 3
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In 1769, Peter Warbas and family, the first settlers from Bethlehem, removed to the new settlement in Sussex County, and were entertained by Mr. and Mrs. Green, until their house, a log building, was erected. The next year, 1770, a fouring
NEW GERMANTOWN LUTHERAN CHURCH.
2 I
THE MORAVIANS OF NEW JERSEY
mill was built. In May of that year the place was visited by the brethren Christian Gregor, John Loretz and Hans Christian von Schweinitz, members of the Provincial Helpers' Conference, residing at Bethlehem, who gave the name GREENLAND to the new place.
In 1771, Frederick Leinbach became manager, and opened a store for the accommodation of the settlement. Daniel Hauser had charge of the mill and Frederick Rauchenberger was Leinbach's assistant on the farm. In 1773, Frederick Blum commenced a tannery; in 1780, a saw mill was erected; in '83, a pottery; and in '91, an oil mill on the premises of the settlement.
The church edifice, a large stone building, was erected in 1781. The following is a translation of a paper deposited under the corner stone: "In the year of our Lord Jesus Christ one thousand seven hundred eighty-one, the 2d day of April, this corner stone was laid in the name of God the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Ghost, by the Right Reverend John Fred- erick Reichel, Bishop of the Brethren's Church, and. at present visitator from the Elders' Conference of the Unity, to the Brethren's congregations in America, for a house of God, wherein the gospel of Jesus Christ shall be preached in purity, the Holy Sacraments administered and the congregation inhab- iting this place have their daily meetings, according to the rules, customs and usages of the Brethren's Church, of which this congregation is a small twig and new branch lately planted by the Brethren's congregation at Bethlehem, in Pennsylvania, to be a candlestick with a burning and shining light for this part of the country. This building was resolved upon and undertaken in a calamitous time, it being the sixth year of unhappy war between Great Britain and this continent.
"The watchword of the Brethren's Church on this 2d of April, 1781, was: 'The earth shall be full of the knowledge of the Lord as the waters cover the sea.'-Isaiah X1 ; 9.
"And the doctrinal text ; 'When the fullness of time was come, God sent forth his son, made of a woman, made under the law to redeem them that were under the law, that we might receive the adoption of sons.'
"The present Elders' Conference or Board of Directors of
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EARLY GERMANS OF NEW JERSEY
the Brethren's Church, appointed by the last General Synod, held at Barby, in Saxony, 1775, and residing at said Barby, consists of the following brethren :
Joseph Spangenberg, Frederick Rudolph von Watteville, John von Watteville, John Frederick Reichel, Joachim Henry Andresen, John Lorez, Peter Conrad Fries, Christian Gregor, Abraham von Gersdorff, Henry the XXXIII, Count Reuss, John Frederick Roeber, John Christian Quandt, Ernst William von Wobeser.
" The present Provincial Helpers' Conference residing at Bethlehem, consists of the following brethren : Nathaniel Seidel, Episcopus Fratrum.
John Etwein, Matthew Hehl, Andrew Huebner, Hans Christian von Schweinitz Paul Muenster, Franz Christian Laubke. "The following is a list of the inhabitants and first settlers present at the dedication :
Joseph Neiser and Rosina, his wife, (pastor); Frederick and Mary Leinbach, Joseph and Dorothea Huber, Daniel and Elizabeth Hauser, Henry and Margareth Scheiner, Ephraim and Magdalena Colver, Louisa Partser, widow ; Hiram and Magdalena Demuth, Ann Abigail Green, widow ; Frederick and Catharine Blum, Henry Blum, Frederick and Ann Rauchen- berger, Samuel Schulze, Stephen and Ann Niclas, Christian Loesch, Adolph and Catharine Hartmann, Thomas Bulton, Martin and Ann Mary Schenke, Philip Hortman, Jacob and Ann Mary Schneider."
The first year after the commencement of the settlement Bishop Etwein frequently preached there, both in German and English, and administered the sacraments. In 1771, Brother Jacob Schwick was appointed minister ; in '73 he was succeeded by Brother Francis Boehler ; and in '74 by Brother David Sydrick. The latter part of the year Bishop Etwein officiated ; in May, '75, Brother Joseph Neisser was appointed. From November, '79, till March, '80, Bishop Etwein again took tem- porary charge, preaching in English every two weeks. In '82, Brother Joseph Neisser was again. appointed ; in '84, he was succeeded by Brother Meder ; in '87, by Brother Lewis F. Boehler ; in '95, by Brother Abraham Reinke ; in 1803, by
23
THE MORAVIANS OF NEW JERSEY
Brother Lewis Stohle, and in 1807, again by Brother Meder.
On the 25th and 26th of November, 1774, the site of the settlement at Greenland was surveyed and a town laid out by the Brethren Nathaniel Seidel, John Etwein, Hans Christian von Schweinitz and the surveyor, J. W. Golgosky. On the 8th of February of the following year it was decided, by lot, to call the name of the place HOPE.
In June, 1777, Hon. William Ellery, of Rhode Island, a signer of the Declaration of Independence and a member of Congress, from '76 to '85, and Hon. William Whipple, also a signer of the Declaration, a general in the Revolution and a member of Congress in '76, passed through the town. In their diary they wrote : "In our way to the next stage we stop'd at a little Moravian settlement called Hope, consisting of five or six private houses, some mechanics' shops, a merchant's store and one of the finest and most curious mills in America. All the Moravian buildings are strong, neat and compact and very generally made of stone."
In 1778, Gen. du Chastellux, of La Fayette's staff, passed through the town. In his published journal he describes the mill at some length : " I set out the 8th a little before nine, the weather being extremely cold and the roads covered with snow and ice ; but on quitting the ridge and turning towards the west, by descending from the high mountains to lower ground we found the temperature more mild and the earth entirely free. We arrived at half-past eleven at the Moravian Mill, and on stopping at Mr. Colver's, found that Mr. Poops had announced our coming, and that breakfast was prepared for us. This fresh attention on his part encouraged me to accept his offer for the evening. As soon as we had break- fasted, Mr. Colver, who had treated us with an anxiety and respect, more German than American, served us by way of conductor and led us first to see the saw mill, which is the most beautiful and the best contrived I ever saw. A single man, only, is necessary to direct the work ; the same wheels which keep the saw in motion serve also to convey the trunks of trees from the spot where they are deposited to the work house, a distance of 25 or 30 toises ; they are placed on a sledge, which,
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EARLY GERMANS OF NEW JERSEY
sliding in a groove, is drawn by a rope, which rolls and unrolls on the axis of the wheel itself. Planks are sold at six shillings, Pennsylvania currency, (about three shillings four pence, sterling,) the hundred ; if you find the wood it is only half the money, and the plank in that case is sawed for one farthing per foot. This mill is near the fall of a lake (mill pond ?), which furnishes it water. A deep cut is made in a rock to form a canal for conducting the waters to the corn mill, which is built within musket shot of the former ; it is very handsome, and on the same plan as that of Mrs. Bowling at Petersburg, but not so large. From the mill I went to the church, which is a square building, containing the house of the minister. The place where the duty is performed, and which may properly be called the church, is on the first floor and resembles the Pres- byterian meeting houses, with the difference that there is an organ and some religious pictures."-Travels in North America, 1780-'82, p. 307, et seq.
On July 25, 1782, Gen. Washington and two aides without escort, rode from Philadelphia to Bethlehem, where he passed the night. The next morning, escorted by the Moravian cler- gyman, John Etwein, he left Bethlehem, passing by way of Easton, and arrived at Hope in time for dinner. Etwein rode on ahead to notify the Moravians of the General's coming so that they might prepare suitable entertainment. At Hope Etwein parted from the General who continued on his journey to his headquarters at Newberg.
In 1790 the number belonging to the congregation at Hope was 147, of whom 66 were communicants ; 100 lived in town, and 47 in the vicinity. From this time the membership steadily decreased. On the 26th of May, 1807, it was announced that the church authorities had decided to break up the establish- ment at Hope and sell the property. This measure was necessary on account of the precarious financial condition of the settlement. On Easter Sunday, April 17th, 1808, the last sermon was preached, and, with the evening service of that day, the existence of the congregation terminated. Its mem- bers removed to Bethlehem and other settlements and the prop- erty was sold to Messrs. Kraemer and Horn, of Pennsylvania.
REV. HENRY MELCHIOR MUHLENBERG, D. D.
REV. MAJOR-GENERAL J. PETER G. MUHLENBERG.
CHAPTER IV.
THE GERMAN EMIGRATION.
N PLACE of the historical address usual upon such occasions a small book was issued as a souvenir. This consisted of twelve pages containing a condensed ac- count of historical reasons for the cele- bration, and also thirteen photo-engrav- ings of former pastors and of three prominent speakers, who took part in the exercises of the day. The following is simply an enlargement of the same :
Formerly the usual explanation of the settlement of Ger- man Valley was that first published by Rupp in his work con- taining a list of thirty thousand names of German immigrants into Pennsylvania. This was as follows : "The period from 1702-1727 marks an era in the early German emigration. Between forty and fifty thousand left their native country- their hearths where soft affections dwell. The unparalleled ravages and desolations by the troops of Louis XIV, under Turenne, were the stern prelude of bloody persecutions. To escape the bloody persecutions awaiting them, German and other protestants emigrated to the English colonies in America.
" In 1705 a number of German Reformed residing between Wolfenbuettel and Halberstadt, fled to Neuwied, a town of Rhenish Prussia, where they remained some time and then went to Holland, there embarked in 1797 for New York. Their frail ship was by reason of adverse winds carried into the Delaware Bay. Determined, however, to reach the place for which they were destined, to have a home among the
26
EARLY GERMANS OF NEW JERSEY.
Dutch, they took the overland route from Philadelphia to New York. On entering the fertile, charming Valley in Nova. Cæsaria, New Jersey, which is drained by the meandering Musconetcong, the Passaic and their tributaries, and having reached a goodly land, they resolved to remain in what is now known as the German Valley of Morrison (Morris) county. From this point the Germans have spread into Somerset, Bergen and Essex counties." He continues : "At Elizabeth- town, where the first English settlement was made in New Jersey, 1664, there were many Germans prior to 1730. There was also a German settlement at a place known as Hall Mill, which is some thirty miles from Philadelphia."
He quotes also from Bard's Religious America, p. 81, the following :
"A well supported tradition maintains that a Polish colony, consisting of two hundred protestants, settled in the early part. of the eighteenth century, in the valleys of the Passaic and Raritan rivers in New Jersey. They were led by Count Sobieski, a lineal descendant of the wide-world-known John Sobieski, King of Poland, who routed the Tartars and Turks in 1683. The name Zabriskie, still found in New Jersey and New York, seems to be corrupted from Sobieski."
This explanation of the settlement by the Germans of this part of New Jersey is evidently only partly true. Of course, there may have been emigrants from Germany who fled to England as early as 1705, and these may have sailed for New York and been turned aside to Philadelphia in the year 1708 or 1709 ; but no authority is given for the story, and it receives no support from any records of land transfers or of family history.
Two important and decisive historical events form the starting points for our history of the Germans in New Jersey. One is the first act of service of the first German Lutheran pastor in this State. This was on August 1, 1714, "at the house of Ari de Guinea" [Harry from Guinea, a Christian negro], "on the Raritans," at which time a child was baptized who had been born March 25. As it is very likely that the parents of this child, John Peter Appelman and Anna Mag-
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THE GERMAN EMIGRATION
dalena, had come at least a few months previously into the State, we select the year 1713 as the most probable beginning of our history. The other event of special interest was the first religious service in German Valley.
According to the letter addressed to Michael Schlatter in 1747 by the people of Fox Hill, Lebanon and Amwell, this had taken place three or four years previously, or in 1743. Thus we feel entitled to celebrate in 1893 the one hundred and eightieth anniversary of the settlement of New Jersey by the Germans and the sesqui-centennial or the one hundred and fiftieth of that of German Valley.
We might also add another interesting date, viz., 1731, when the first German Lutheran Church in New Jersey was opened for worship. This church was located in the small hamlet now called Potterstown, about a mile east of Lebanon.
The records to which we have referred also enable us to trace the first emigrants to the very place and time of their arrival in this country, for we find on the list of baptisms, mar- riages and church members of the First Lutheran Church of New York a number of names, located in New Jersey, of those who came to New York in 1710. For, strange to say, the parish of Rev. Justus Falckner, the Lutheran pastor, who began his ministry in New York City in 1703, extended from Albany, in York State, to the Upper Raritan region or Hunter- don county in New Jersey. From 1703 to 1714 there are no intimations of any services rendered to any but Holland Lutherans in this State. These belong to the region of Hackensack, in Bergen county. In South Jersey there were, indeed, some families of German descent, who had come with the Swedes long before 1700, but they spoke the Swedish language, and their identity has been almost completely swallowed up in that of the predominant race.
Having found that our first settlers were among those who were sent over from London by Queen Anne in the second emigration of 1710, we have opened to us a most inviting and extensive field of research.
Without pretending to enter at any length upon the questions connected with the settlement of Newberg and of
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EARLY GERMANS OF NEW JERSEY
the valleys of the Mohawk and Hudson rivers, we cannot properly omit some brief account of the stream of history which, starting in the Palatinate, rose so rapidly and spread so widely when it passed through London and finally reached these shores. This most unprecedented volume of emigration from one country is the more remarkable from the appalling difficulties in the way of ocean travel. In the first place, the cost of a voyage from Rotterdam to Philadelphia was three hundred and fifty dollars in copper coin [Acrelius, Hist. of New Sweden, p. 146]. And as very many, if not most of the emi- grants, were too poor to pay this sum, they were required to sell their time for three, four or five years to the captain in payment of their transportation. The poor emigrants thus became mere articles of merchandise, and were often treated accordingly. Being entirely at the mercy of heartless captains, who were not apt to learn compassion by this form of specula- tion in human beings, the poor erigrant rarely enjoyed on shipboard any but the most miserable accommodations and most insufficient food. Nearly all the horrors of the "middle passage " in the later times of negro slavery were fully antici- pated. With the slow progress of sailing vessels often be- calmed or driven out of their course the passage over was sometimes prolonged to the period of ten months, and was seldom less than three or four. Closely packed together in over-crowded vessels with the narrowest accommodations, the frequent scarcity of food and water was generally the source of diseases, which became contagious, and death was sure then to reap an abundant harvest. The surgeon of one vessel re- ported that there were 330 sick on board at one time.
When at last the welcome sight of land greeted the weary eyes of the weakened and emaciated traveler, he could hardly have anticipated the sad lot which often awaited him, and which in many cases turned the land of promise into one of bondage.
Children were torn from the arms of parents, never to be heard of again. Brothers and sisters were scattered often in different colonies and remained separated for years, and some- times for life. In some cases these bond-servants soon earned
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THE GERMAN EMIGRATION
their freedom, but they often succumbed to work beyond their strength or grew hopeless and despairing, and died of sheer homesickness.
But oppression and injustice were not inflicted upon indivi- duals only, for even a whole community, as in the case of the settlers upon Livingston Manor, were cheated and robbed in the most barefaced manner, and even by the aid of those in authority. Reports of these experiences were written home to Germany and could not fail of some effect upon others who were intending to follow the example of the first emigrants. But nevertheless, the tide of emigration still flowed on without ceasing, and ship followed ship in rapid succession bringing full cargoes of human freight to New York and the Carolinas, but principally to Philadelphia.
A movement of population so general and persistent would seem to be an event whose causes were as powerful as its results were influential and lasting. Such, indeed, was the case. For nothing less than the material and political an- nihilation of Germany could explain as it does the voluntary expatriation almost all at one time of whole communities, moved by a common impulse such as could be only a mighty hope or a widespread despair. Indeed, as a matter of fact, the general feeling partook of both of these, but more largely of the latter. The cause of this state of mind is to be found in a course of events extending through the seventeenth century, but beginning more particularly with the Thirty Years' War in the year 1618.
Before this war Germany could compare favorably with any other European country for material prosperity, aud the com- fort and intelligence of its inhabitants. The peasant was "on the whole comfortable, moderately intelligent, and obtained in Protestant districts, at least, a fairly good training in school and church. He had his house neatly furnished, he had a little hoard of savings in coin, and valuable cattle in the pasture or stall. But the Thirty Years' War annihilated all this prosper- ity, and it took two centuries afterward to bring the village population to the state of civilization they had already reached at the beginning. It was the peasants on whom the curse of
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EARLY GERMANS OF NEW JERSEY
the war fell. The villages were laid in ashes, the cattle de- stroyed, the tilled land went to waste ; corpses lay unburied ; the village dogs ran wild like packs of wolves ; and to the ruin directly caused by the war were added the miseries of famine and pestilence. During the second half of the war a Swedish general refused to take his army from Pomerania to South Germany, because the desert country between them would cause him greater loss than the most bloody defeat. In those days the mere occupancy of a city for a week by an invading army would often work wider ruin than a modern bombard- ment. License and plunder were universal. When a city was besieged, the neighboring country was first ravaged, and fugi- tives innumerable fled within the walls, so that famine almost invariably came with them, and pestilence soon after. The horrors of the siege of Jerusalem, so often thought incredible by readers of Josephus, were re-enacted in many a city of Central Europe among the contemporaries of Milton. The be- siegers of Nordlingen captured a tower on the wall; the besieged fired it; and when it fell into the city, famished women seized the half-burned corpses of the enemy, and car- ried away pieces to save their children from starvation. The woes of a stormed city, under the wild passions of the soldiery must be left to the imagination. The only pay the soldier received was the plunder he might accumulate. Making war became a trade and a class of men soon became very numerous who came from nearly every quarter of Europe to take their chances of success as soldiers of fortune under some renowned general. Thev cared not on which side they engaged. These men were generally the offscourings of different countries to whom a wandering life of unrestrained license and recklessness was the only life worth living. Accompanying the army was generally a miscellaneous rabble. The camp swarmed with the wives, mistresses and children of soldiers, with market women and wanderers. The Austrian and Bavarian army con- tained forty thousand men bearing arms and drawing soldiers' rations ; and beside a rabble of a hundred and forty thousand more, who had no rations, and could only be fed by plunder. (See History of Germany by Charlton T. Lewis, Chapter XIX).
REV. ERNEST LEWIS HAZELIUS, D. D.
REV. G. HEINRICH E. MUHLENBERG, D. D.
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THE GERMAN EMIGRATION
Such was war in the seventeenth century. And we must re- member that it was but little else than war the whole century through. Moreover whatever the cause of the war or the nations engaged in it, the battle ground for more or less of the time was always Germany. What wonder that the very tem- perament of the German race was changed and mirth and laughter almost ceased from among them. The first of our ancestors to arrive in this country came from regions that had learned war in all its bitterness. They themselves were born at a time when the air was filled with "war's rude alarms." Of those who came to New Jersey, having arrived in New York in 1710, the dates of birth are as early as 1656, and from that date to 1680. These therefore just escaped the Thirty-Years' War but experienced the severities hardly less terrible of the French invasions.
The war of the Spanish succession brought the French again to the Palatinate and the city of Landau was made to suffer severely. From this place several families under their pastor Joshua von Kocherthal took their departure for England and reached London in March, 1708. They made application to Queen Anne for a free passage to America. This was granted and they were sent with Lord Lovelace, who had been appointed Governor of New York. The purpose the authorities had in view was twofold, viz., to use them to protect the frontiers from the Indians and secondly to take from Norway the trade in tar, turpentine and naval stores. Before their departure they were naturalized on August 25th, 1780. Pastor Kocherthal was granted the sum of 20 pounds sterling and 500 acres of land and provision was also made for the support of the others by gifts of land, seeds, agriculturel tools and furniture, and the promise of support for one year. This band settled at New- burgh on the Hudson. The names of the heads of families were Lorenz Schwisser, Heinrich Rennau, Andreas Volk, Michael Weigandt, Jacob Weber, Jacob Plettel, Johannes Fischer, Melchior Guelch, Isaac Tuerk, Peter Rose, Maria Weimar (widow), Isaak Faber, Daniel Fiere and Hermann Schuneman. Only one of these was 52 years old and the rest were between 25 and 40. The most were vintners, others were
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EARLY GERMANS OF NEW JERSEY
joiners, weavers, smiths, carpenters and stocking-makers. They landed in New York in October, 1708. They named their place of settlement Newberg, (sometimes called Quassaick) from the city of that name in the upper Palatinate.
Kocherthal almost immediately returned to England in the summer of 1709 to secure better provisions for the support of his company. He obtained an audience with the Queen and with her encouragement went to Germany and returned with 3,000 of his countrymen. This was more than were expected and the government were at a loss to know what to do with them. It was finally decided to undertake the production of tar and turpentine upon an extensive scale by means of these emigrants. In the meantime the arrivals of Germans, called Palatines, from the electorate whence they had come, continued. There were soon as many as 10, 12 or 30 thousand in England according to the different estimates of their number.
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