USA > New Jersey > The early Germans of New Jersey : their history, churches, and genealogies. > Part 4
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Public aid and private charity were severely put to it to keep this immense number from starving. Word was quickly sent to the continent to head off this tide of immigration.
Some of those encamped on the Blackheath near London were sent to Ireland, where they settled down and formed a prosperous community. Others were sent back home and others still became homeless wanderers over England. A band of 3,000 were chosen to send to America with Governor Hunter, who was to succeed the deceased Lord Lovelace as Governor of New York. This was the second emigration. Ten vessels were collected at Plymouth for their transportation. In the course of their embarking a boat load was overturned and drowned. The voyage was stormy and painful from the be- ginning. One vessel was driven back by a severe storm, which arose before they were out of sight of land. The whole num- ber suffered all the way over and a fatal disease finally broke out which consigned 470 of them to a watery grave.
These vessels reached New York at various times from June 14th, 1710, till some time in August. Their passengers were in a deplorable, sickly condition. They had embarked December 29th, 1709, and their voyage had lasted six months. Seven
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THE GERMAN EMIGRATION
hundred altogether had died on the way over and soon after they had landed.
The authorities would not permit them to land at the city from fear of contagious diseases, and they were temporarily lodged on Nutten (now Governor's) Island.
On the 24th of June the frigate, Herbert, with the tools, tents and arms, provided for the emigrants was cast away on Montauk Point, and the Berkeley Castle was still missing. On the 12 of July the Governor established courts of justice on Nutten Island for the government and protection of the Pala- tines and forbade exactions and extortions in the price of bread and provisions purchased by them. On the 20th an order of council provided for apprenticing such of the Palatine children as were orphans or whose parents were unable to support them. The boys were bound out until seventeen years old and the girls until fifteen.
Fifteen hundred adults were sent a hundred miles up the Hudson and formed the settlements on both sides of the river, of East and West Camps, Haysberg, Annsberg and Queensberg.
CHAPTER V.
THE GERMAN IMMIGRANTS.
WHO THEY WERE-WHERE THEY SETTLED, AND THEIR TRAITS OF CHARACTER.
E VEN at the risk of being tedious, it would seem necessary to give several lists of names, which may give some idea of the number of the early Germans of New Jersey. An extensive list of those who arrived before the Revolution may be compiled from several sources : First, the list of arrivals in New Amsterdam in the second emigration of 1710, compared with the records of baptisms and marriages in New Jersey by the Rev. Justus Falckner ; second, the list of those naturalized by the General Assembly from 1730 to 1772, who were described as " those born under the Emperor of Ger- many and other princes in amity with the Crown of Great Britain."
Next in order of time is the list of the lessees of the West Jersey Society lands in Hunterdon county in the year 1735. The land taken up by them in parcels of 100 or 200 acres
REV. ALFRED HILLER, D. D.
Henry M. Pohlmann
35
THE GERMAN IMMIGRANTS
amounts to only 12 thousand acres, yet they included all who occupied the society lands (nearly all of what is now Hunterdon county) except the 10,000 acre tract of Cox and Kirkbride.
The list of voters of Hunterdon county (including what are now Sussex, Warren and Morris counties) in 1738 affords us a few additional names.
The signers to Rev. Albert Weygand's call in 1749 include every salary payer and are seventy-eight in number, to these we may add some additional names from the subscription list toward the building of a parsonage barn in 1754, and in 1756 toward the erection of a church at Bedminster.
In 1763 the estate was settled of the old German storekeeper at German Valley, John Peter Nitzer by name, and we obtain from his books 220 names, some of which would be otherwise unknown.
The baptismal registers of German Valley, Lebanon, Alex- andria, New Germantown, Spruce Run, Stillwater, all begin about 1760 and increase the number of names. The records of wills and of property transfers, gravestones and family bibles, complete our sources of information.
Those who arrived at New York in 1710 were : Johan Wm. Schneider, Johannes Lorentz, the widow Elisabeth Mueller, Hermanes Hoffman, Heinrich Schmidt, Michael Henneschid [Hendershot], John Peter ffucks [Fox], Simon Vogt, Johannes and Nicholas Jung [Young], Heironymus [Jerome] Klein, the widow A. Maria Cramer and Frantz Lucas.
Before 1720-Marcus Koenig, from the principality of Halber- stadt ; Laurens Ruloffson, from Copenhagen ; Balthazar Pickle and Gertrude Reiter, from the Graffschaft Hartenberg; probably at the same time, John Nicholas and Frantz Wilhelm Pickel, John Peter Appleman, Jacob Risch, Michael Smit, Johan Titel, John Parleman, Daniel Shumacher, Paul Braun, Andreas and Johannes Roos [or Rose], Johann Peter Voss, Christian Streydt and wife Maria Ursula, Michael Shurts and wife Elis., Johannes Jurgen Riemer and wife Elis., Matthias Reinhold and and wife Eva, Hermen Richiman and wife Maria Elis .; Johannes, Johan Jurgen and Peter Kastner, Martin Stein and wife Johanna Maria, Jurgen Puff, Pieter Poel and wife Anna Sophia.
36
EARLY GERMANS OF NEW JERSEY
The other list of names will be given in full in the appen- dix.
As the Germans were predominantly a religious people we may locate them by their churches. In Amwell township, Hunterdon county, there was a German church in the present village of Ringoes. There was a settlement of Germans in this vicinity as early as 1721 as appears from a road survey of that date in which there is mention of "the palatins' land."
A few names of those who belonged to the stone church built here in 1749 are Woolever, Hoffman, Kase, Rockafellow, Young, Kuhl, Ballisfelt, Trimmer, Dietz, Winter, Snider, Min- gus. Perhaps also, Fisher, Bearder, Fulper, Hoppock, Hann, Dilts, Risler, Boss, Bishop, Servis, Snook, Werts, Lyst, Wombock.
In Alexandria township there was a church before 1766, where at present the Presbyterian Church of Mount Pleasant is situated.
Here worshipped the German Reformed families : Huner, Horn, Schlaut, Casper, Hollenberger, Fishbach, Bitzer, Schmid, Blom, Morkel, Young, Eberts, Loesch, Apgar, Alpock, Enders, Rockefellar, Henn, Metler, Lampen, Case, Dilts, Badenheimer, Reinschmidt, Otto, Bolsin, Klein, Schneider, Wagner, Kuhl, Geist, Alsentz, Solomon, Schrei, Zingler, Patenheimer, Rimer and others.
Near Phillipsburg there was a Lutheran Church at least as early as 1762, being mentioned as found there at that date in one of the surveys of John Rockhill.
In Stillwater, Sussex county, there was a Union church as early as the middle of the last century. Services in German were also held very early in the neighborhood of Newton, Sus- sex county. And these churches were attended by the follow- ing families : Schwartzwelder, Schuester, Merkel, Kien, Hafer, Schnauber, Kaiser, Savacool, Gerlach, Nolten, Goeler, Stahley, Weyker, Sipperly, Raub, Kunckel, Reuss, Ginsberg, Reiss, Waas, Adam, Main, Naedel, Sundel. Muth, Hess, Gruber, Shafer, Wintermute, Snover, Gottschall, Shiner, Dodderer, Willerich, Youngblood, Kirschbach, Knauble, Hamann, Shipman, Titman, Swick, Neubacker, Hawk, Koker and others.
At Pluckamin the Lutheran Church was supported by the
37
THE GERMAN IMMIGRANTS
Appelmans, Castners, Teeples, Eoffs, Folks, Fishers, Gillings, Henrys, Kings, Loders, Moelicks, Neffs, Bergers, Pickles, Remers, Rushes, and others.
At Spruce Run we find the families, Lunger, Leininger, Hearelt, Saeger, Hoff, Heil, Skilly, Gebhard, Mohr, Eichler, Buchler, Faust, Castner, Martini, Simmens, Hipp, Benghard, Sasseman, Hess, Staenger, Boehler, Schwartz, Shultz, Miller, Gaeri, Hunold, Miltz, Felvert, Buckner, Hoffman, Baats, and others.
In the neighborhood of Lebanon settled the families of Apgar, Hofman, Hochstenbach, Scharfenstein, Becker, Roden- baugh, Hummer, Case, Lindaberry, Deats, Schnetz, Engel, Aller, Cramer, Dilts, Kempel, Henry, Lefler, Mueller, Wilhelm, Kohl, Schumaker, Schneider, Dildein, Popencher, Seifers, Crazly, Lance, Hess, Sevitsch, Humerich, Klacs, Seelbach, Philhower, Tiger, Cregar, Hiler, Felmley, Cripps, Yauger, Scharfenstein, Shirts.
To the vicinity of German Valley belonged the Welshs, Eicks, Raricks, Strubels, Sharfensteins, Heils, Schulers, Shu- mans, Hafers, Flomervelts, Mahlers, Bessels, Fishers, Hagers, Youngs, Longhaars, Stelts, Meyers, Webers, Hubers, Hanns, Terryberrys, Kochs, Cripps, Paces, Trimmers, Alpocks, Wein- gartens, Fraces, Bunns, Creters, Heldebrants, Waldorfs, Kerns, Bitzers, Frones, Neighbors, Swackhamers, Weises, Duffords, Naughrights, Trimmers, Alpocks, Beams, Aders, Reinhards, Abels.
At Knowlton there was a German Reformed Church before the Revolution.
The Moravians were established at Hope, Warren county, and Montague, Sussex county, before the Revolution.
The New Germantown Lutheran Church was built in 1750 to take the place of the four churches of Rockaway, at Potters- town, built in 1731, Lesleysland or Whitehouse, " The Church on the Mountain," east of Pluckamin and Fox Hill, afterwards divided into German Valley and Fox Hill.
The bulk of the German population was therefore to be found between Lambertville and Newton and the Delaware and Bound Brook.
38
EARLY GERMANS OF NEW JERSEY
THEIR CHARACTERISTICS.
New Jersey, was perhaps, the most cosmopolitan, so to speak, of all the original thirteen States ; and though small in size it was the theatre of a large part of the Revolutionary war. The character of its people would necessarily thus have much to do with the result of that most critical struggle. How interesting, therefore, that commingling of races, which arose from the presence of the Swedes in the southern, the Hollanders in the central, and the New Englanders in the northern part of the State. To these were soon added the Palatines or Germans of Hunterdon, Warren and a part of Morris and Sussex counties, and these moreover were representative Germans for they came from nearly all parts of the Fatherland. For we trace to the extreme north the Barthels and Roelfsens; the former to Hamburg and the latter to Denmark ; while from the borders of Italy the Apgars began their long journey to the sea, and Sassenberg, Pungstad, Waldorf, Wittemberg and the Palatinate all added their several streams which united at the seacoast of Holland into a mighty flood of emigration that poured its teeming life into New Jersey, Pennsylvania and the Carolinas. Nor was this the influx of an element whose character was weak or indifferent in itself. For though poor almost to star- vation and made more helpless, through their foreign language; the prey of land sharks, press-gangs and all the remorseless cruelty of the "White Slavery;" with their numbers decimated by incessant sickness and privation ; with families torn asunder and separated for years, these forsaken refugees finally over- came all difficulties and settled down in well earned, but hardly won, security and peace. No worse sufferings, no harsher treatment, than they had to endure, were experienced either by Puritan or Huguenot. And their final success was just as much a product and proof of their pre-eminent sturdiness of moral and intellectual character.
THE GERMAN RACE.
It is hardly necessary in the present age of the world to dwell upon the superior and innate excellence in many respects of the German race, and yet it is due to the very reality and
39
THE GERMAN IMMIGRANTS
depth of this excellence that it is unobtrusive and largely be- neath the surface. Whatever, indeed, of racial vigor has brought the German Empire to the front and made it the Um- pire of all Europe, this may be safely attributed to the ancestry of the present subjects of Kaiser Wilhelm, from among whom our forefathers came.
While of course no complete picture can be presented of life as it existed in a frontier settlement and in connection with a hard struggle for mere existence, yet whatever knowledge does come to us from a time so remote and from surroundings so obscure, must be all the more decisive and reliable. Thus we find proof of
THEIR INTELLIGENCE
in the anxiety they expressed at the very start for the services of catechists or teachers and for an educated ministry.
The first settlers of German Valley, in particular, are said to have been distinguished by their intelligence.
In 1760 the large sum of money, for that time, of one thou- sand pounds was left to the church of New Germantown for the double purpose of supporting the church and the school.
With respect to the ministry we find that, although many uneducated men secured a hearing for a time, yet their con- gregations soon dismissed them and willingly faced the expense and trouble of procuring fully equipped pastors from across the seas.
Muhlenberg even recommends that the German pastors should be able to speak the Latin language, in order to con- verse with the ministers of other churches, whose language they might not understand. And Muhlenberg himself was able to preach In Low Dutch and High Dutch as well as in English and French.
Another excellent trait of our early settlers was their high
SENSE OF HONOR.
This is shown by their persistent loyalty to the English Crown even in the American Revolution. They could not forget that when they first landed at Philadelphia, they had sworn alle- giance to Great Britain, while the vast improvement of their
40
EARLY GERMANS OF NEW JERSEY
political condition in this country over that of their native land kept many of them from really understanding the nature of the great struggle of the colonies for freedom. Very many, how- ever, did understand the war with England and cheerfully sur- rendered life and property at the call of their country.
In 1747 when Michael Schlatter visited this vicinity and held service at Fox Hill in the old log church on what is now called the Aunt Katy Sutton farm, he received a pecuniary reward for his labors. This was so exceptional as to call for particular notice on the part of Father Schlatter. Moreover when the continental currency had suffered such disastrous depreciation, the members of the new Germantown vestry, who had bor- rowed the church funds some years previously, and then only to help the church along, refused to allow the church to suffer all the loss by depreciation of the money which had been en- trusted but offered to pay back the equivalent in real value to them. Their
PATRIOTISM,
with the exception noted above, was pre-eminent, at least in particular cases, and, indeed, nearly every family had repre- sentatives in the ranks of the continental forces.
For example, JOHN WESLEY GILBERT NEVELLING, who served the Amwell Church at the beginning of his ministry, converted all his property during the Revolutionary struggle into money which, amounting to five thousand pounds, he loaned to the Continental Congress, and having lost the certificate or receipt of the government never recovered any of the amount. He also joined the army as a chaplain, was highly esteemed by Washington and equally hated by the enemy. A large reward was offered by the British Government for his capture.
The efficient and important services of Peter Muhlenberg, the eldest son of Henry Melchior, as a general in the American army are too familiar to need more particular mention here. In their
RELIGIOUS CHARACTER
our forefathers were generally devout, fervent and spiritual. They laid stress upon the inner life of the heart rather than upon outward forms and ceremonies. No conflict arose among
-
REV. JOHN F. DIENER.
REV. JACOB C. DUY.
41
THE GERNAN IMMIGRANTS
them such as threatened to rend asunder the early Holland churches of this country between the evangelical party and the mere formalists. It was a general custom for Muhlenberg and his fellow ministers to conduct a regular inquiry into the per- sonal experience of church members at each communion season. And, indeed, after every preaching service the hearers were questioned about what they had heard and a more personal application was made of the truth which had just been publicly proclaimed. This would seem to have been a fair equivalent for the modern inquiry meeting.
In the midst of the ordinary difficulties by which they were surrounded, to maintain any religious interest at all would seem difficult enough, but for them to still cling to the church in the face of active opposition from wandering preachers of loose character and from unfaithful pastors, who used their calling only as a cloak for the indulgence of evil passions, should awaken our astonishment and admiration.
The early Germans were almost universally
RELIGIOUS PEOPLE.
Their history is therefore largely the history of their churches. And though the more immediate motive for their emigration from their native land may not have been to escape from re- ligious persecution, yet the privations and restrictions of their life at home, from which they sought to escape, had been caused through their faithfulness to the truth in previous years.
The devastations and ravages of the soldiers of Turenne throughout Western Germany, in 1689 and 1692, was the re- mote if not the nearer occasion of the larger exodus to London in the year 1709. The destruction of 2,000 villages and the frequent traversing of the Palatinate by the French armies would leave but a small chance of subsistence for the much enduring people. When we add to these misfortunes, the con- version of their prince, John. William, of Newburg, to Catho- licism, we cannot wonder at the sudden flight of the vast mul- titude, who sought refuge in England in the above year. At that time the suburbs of London were thronged with an army of Palatines who encamped there to the number of 13 thousand
42
EARLY GERMANS OF NEW JERSEY
and appealed to the charity of the astonished inhabitants. It was found by an official investigation that over-zealous land agents, representing the proprietors of large tracts in America, had spread throughout Germany printed notices of various kinds to encourage with various inducements a large emigra- tion to the colonies.
RELIGIOUS DIFFERENCES.
If the vigor of a religion is shown, as it is said to be, by the number and variety of its various divisions, then our first settlers must take the lead in this respect, for in 1734 a traveller through New Jersey and Pennsylvania found among the Ger- man population all denominations and sects, "Lutherans, Re- formed, Episcopals, Presbyterians, Catholics, Quakers, Tunk- ers, Mennonites, Sabbatherians, Seventh-day Baptists, Separa- tists, Boehmists, Schwenckfeldians, Tuchfeldtians, Eucthelists, Jews and Pagans &c." But the majority, at least in New Jer- sey, were either Lutheran or German Reformed in their form. of religious belief and practice. The difference between these two concerned matters of government, worship and doctrine. Indeed they differed in origin. The Lutherans taking their name from the great Reformer, were at first Reformed Catho- lics, while the German Reformed were so called because they claimed to be Reformed Lutherans. The adherents of Luther retained at first some of the objectionable features of Papal forms and ceremonies. In some places they accepted baptismal regeneration, and also believed that one who partook of the Lord's Supper really received the body of Christ whether worthy or not.
The Reformed, on the other hand, were guilty of going to the opposite extreme. They often used simply wooden platters in the Sacrament. They rejected the use of the organ and of church bells, threw out everything in the shape of an altar in their worship, and even of any distinctive vestments for the preacher. One was as much too fast as the other was too slow, in reforming old abuses.
In church government the Lutherans became Episcopalian. and the Reformed, Presbyterial.
43
THE GERMAN IMMIGRANTS
In matters of doctrine, however, was to be found the most sharply dividing line. With respect to the doctrine of predes- tination, especially, the German Protestants soon took opposite sides. "At first all the Reformers were Predestinarians. The Romanists had so emphasized man's good works as necessary to salvation, that the Reformers went to the other extreme, and emphasized God's grace and sovereignity as the only source of salvation. Melancthon, in the Lutheran Church, finally retired from the high predestinarian position, and carried the Lutheran Church with him. While on the other hand Calvin progressed in it, until he formulated the doctrine for the Reformed Church."
We have been speaking of a state of religious opinion as it existed two centuries ago. In the present day, however, there is practically but little difference between the evangelical wings of these two great divisions of German Protestantism.
Theoretical and formal differences still remain but do not seriously interfere with hearty co-operation and reciprocal re- spect and good will.
CHAPTER VI.
EARLY CHURCH HISTORY.
HE denominational strictness of our Luth- eran brethren in the early period of the history of our State, was of great advan- tage in keeping distinct from those of other religious bodies the historical rec- ords and development of at least one large division of the German settlers. The German Reformed, on the other hand, were under the charge of the Holland Church, and became in many cases identified with the Low Dutch. In this way they failed to have a distinct and separate history. We are, therefore, almost alto- gether dependent upon the records of the Lutheran Church for our account of the early history of the German emigrants. Hence the early history of our section must be found in the history of that body. Some account therefore of the early de- velopment of this denomination is in place here. Strange to say, the parish of the first
LUTHERAN CHURCH OF NEW YORK CITY
included all of Northern and Central New Jersey. This organization was at first kept under and almost crushed out by the illiberal opinions and methods of the Reformed Church in the city. Governor Peter Stuyvesant was especially zealous in preventing all other forms of religious opinion but the estab- lished church, and the English, after they had attained to the supremacy, were not far behind him in their intolerance of any dissent. Thus it was not until the beginning of the eighteenth century that a complete and well organized church life became possible to our Lutheran ancestors. At that time, in 1703,
REV. VALENTINE F. BOLTON.
REV. JAMES R. KEISER.
45
EARLY CHURCH HISTORY
Justus Falkner became, practically, the first pastor of the Lutheran Church in the city. Other pastors had preceded him, but their labors were restricted and interrupted, so that they only sufficed to keep the flickering flame of their church's life from dying out altogether.
In the city and in Albany county, New York, and Bergen county, New Jersey, the members of the Lutheran Church were almost altogether of Holland descent. Thus, the history and the records of the churches of Hackensack, Ramseys or Saddle River, do not particularly relate to our subject.
Likewise the Lutheran Church in South Jersey, of very early origin, belongs more to the history of the Swedish settlers, of whom they were almost exclusively formed, than to that of the Germans.
With the first German emigration to New York, in 1709, came pastor JOSHUA KOCHERTHAL, whose field of labor centred in the site of the present city of Newburg, But the first in- stallment of our ancestors came with the second emigration in 1710. They found a consecrated and devoted religious teacher already at work in their new home in the person of the above mentioned
JUSTUS FALCKNER.
This excellent man had come to this country with his brother Daniel Falckner, both of them being land agents of some of the proprietors in London. While at first actively engaged in secular pursuits Mr. Falckner felt an irresistible appeal touch- ing his heart from the pitiable religious condition of his fellow- countrymen living around him. Having been destined to the ministry in his native land and educated with that end in view, he now sought to renew those vows, which he had laid aside, and sought consecration at the hands of the Swedish ministers near the mouth of the Delaware. Pastor Rudman had selected him for his successor in New York and he was ordained in the Swedish Church in Philadelphia, 25th November, 1703, by the Swedish ministers Rudman, Biork and Sandel. This was the first full ordination in America of a Lutheran preacher. His ministry in New York and New Jersey continued from 1703 until his death in 1723.
46
EARLY GERMANS OF NEW JERSEY
A MODEL PASTOR.
Of him a recent historian says : A particularly amiable, at- tractive character it is, which stands before us in the person of Pastor Justus Falckner during his twenty years activity ; a man of excellent gifts, fine learning, beautiful disposition, heartily pious mind, a decidedly Lutheran standpoint, quiet and persistent industry, in short, a complete pastor. He had accepted the office in the consciousness that he could do noth- ing without divine help. That God himself would make him capable was his heart's desire. In the Church book he wrote on the first day of his activity, after a short communication with reference to his arrival and his entrance upon his office, the following prayer in Latin: "God the father of all good and Lord of great majesty, who has thrust me into this har- vest, be with me, his least and wholly weak worker with his special grace, without which I cannot succeed under the burden of temptations, which often powerfully assail me. In thee, Lord, do I put my trust, let me not be put to shame. Make me fit for my calling. I have not run but thou hast sent me, yea, thrust me into my office. Free me from what- ever taint my lost nature, always without my consent, may mingle with my service. Pardon me I humbly beseech, through our, yea my Lord Jesus Christ. Amen."
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