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SOCIET
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YORK JUNIOR COLLEGE
YORK PA.
ES
This book was presented by ...
Francis Farquhar
To his esteemed friend, the Hon. A. B. Farquar , from the author. 1916.
THE PENNSYLVANIA-GERMAN SOCIETY.
WESTERN ENTRANCE TO YORK.
The bridge over the Corodus, and the Baltimore Railroad, are seen in the center. The Market House is in the Center Square, where once stood the old Court House occupied by Congress, in 1777-78.
FROM DAY'S HISTORICAL COLLECTIONS.
·
The Beginnings of the German Element in Dork County Pennsylvania
BY
ABDEL ROSS WENTZ, B.D., PH.D. Professor of History in Pennsylvania College, Gettysburg, and Curator of the Historical Society of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in the United States of America
₹
-
SOCIETY
23648
LANCASTER, PA. 1916
REPRINTED FROM VOLUME XXIV OF THE PROCEEDINGS OF THE PENNSYLVANIA-GERMAN SOCIETY VOL. X
Copyrighted, 1916 By the PENNSYLVANIA-GERMAN SOCIETY
PRESS OF THE NEW ERA PRINTING COMPANY LANCASTER, PA.
F 157 Y6 W 48
GLASS CASE
THIS VOLUME IS GRATEFULLY INSCRIBED TO THE MEMORY OF
PHILIP H. GLATFELTER
PENN
Φιλεί άλλη TE LOUE
FOREWORD.
HE sources usually determine the stream. The beginnings of a movement generally contain a prophecy of its later development. For that reason it has been thought worth while to make a study of the origin of the present Ger- man element in York County. The position of Pennsyl- vania in the affairs of the nation and the position of York County in the affairs of the state, make it profitable to investigate the earliest beginnings of the strongest ele- ment in the county. The study has been fruitful for it has dealt with virgin soil.
It has not been possible in a single monograph like this to trace the history of these settlements beyond their very beginnings. Nor has the attempt been made to follow out all possible lines of investigation, such as the economic, the sociological, the political, the industrial, the religious, and the linguistic. To set forth the full history of the Ger- mans in the county will require a series of volumes. The present treatise is merely a study preliminary to such a full presentation of their history. It has been regarded as sufficient to show in this treatise how those German settle- ments took their beginnings, and to set forth such char- acteristics of the original settlers and such features of the original settlements as will enable the reader to understand
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German Element in York County, Pa.
the relation of this element to the subsequent history of the county, to the general movement of Germans in this coun- try, to the colonial history of the state of Pennsylvania, and to the general course of events in our national history. Our study therefore has barely covered two decades and has in no case carried us beyond the middle of the eight- eenth century. But this brief span of years lies in the most important because the most formative period of our history.
The York County with which we deal is the county as bounded on the map of today. Other geographical ex- pressions also are used with their present-day significance.
An effort has been made to weave the body of the text into the form of a continuous narrative and so far as pos- sible to relegate to the footnotes all references to sources, all allusions merely incidental, and all details not directly relevant. Specific acknowledgment of all sources is made at the places where they are used and these are also col- lated in the Bibliography (Appendix D). The Blunston letters that are quoted or referred to are always found in the "Miscellaneous Manuscripts of York and Cumber- land Counties, 1738-1806" (see Bibliography) unless otherwise indicated.
GETTYSBURG, PA.,
April 30, 1914.
CONTENTS.
FOREWORD 5,6
TABLE OF CONTENTS 7
CHAPTER I .- The First White Men in the County 9-20
CHAPTER II .- The First Settlers 21-36
CHAPTER III .- The First Settlement 37-68
CHAPTER IV .- Other Early Settlements
69-95
CHAPTER V .- Whence the Germans Came and Why . 96-123
CHAPTER VI .- Outstanding Characteristics 124-147
CHAPTER VII .- The Limestone Soil 148-174 CHAPTER VIII .- Their Place in Pennsylvania History . 175-185 CHAPTER IX .- Their Place in General American His- tory 186-196
APPENDIX A .- Letter of Samuel Blunston 197-202
APPENDIX B .- Signers of Letter to Maryland 203, 204 APPENDIX C .- Inventory of Jacob Welshover's Estate . 205-207 APPENDIX D .- Bibliography 208-217
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CHAPTER I.
THE FIRST WHITE MEN IN THE COUNTY.
ONG before the white man began to make per- manent settlements in what is now York - County, its valleys were trodden by the pil- grim, the explorer, and the trader. Already in the first decade of the eighteenth century settlements had begun in Lancaster County just east of the Susquehanna River. At the same time or shortly before that settlements began to spring up on the Monocacy in Maryland and in the Shenandoah Valley of western Vir- ginia. The settlers in these regions were for the most part Germans who had left their homes chiefly on account of religious persecutions. That there were German settle- ments in Virginia some years before the end of the seven- teenth century is shown by an old French map1 of 1687 which marks the location of a German settlement at the headwaters of the Rappahannock River. This is also con- firmed by an English map of about the same time which has the words "Teutsche Staat " on the upper Rappahan- nock, and on the upper James River points out "Meister
1 Now in the collection of Dr. Julius F. Sachse of Philadelphia. See letter of Sachse, Feb. 10, 1907, to Wayland in Wayland's "German Ele- ment in the Shenandoah Valley," p. 10.
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German Element in York County, Pa.
Krugs plantasie." Furthermore in 1699 Daniel Falckner, one of the pietists on the Wissahickon Creek, was sent to Germany as representative of the pietistic fraternity. One of the expressed objects of this trip to the Fatherland was to solicit aid and additional recruits so that the perfect number of forty could be kept intact and so that the fra- ternity could extend their usefulness in educating their neglected countrymen in Pennsylvania and Virginia.2
It was only natural that these German pioneers in the different colonies should early seek to communicate with one another. And so as a matter of fact they did. The common bonds of nationality and of religious interest soon operated to bring about intercourse and conference between the German sectarians of eastern Pennsylvania and those of Maryland and Virginia on the south. Letters were written and journeys were made. The journal of John Kelpius3 shows that on October 10, 1704, that philosoph- ical mystic wrote from the banks of the Wissahickon in Pennsylvania a twenty-two page German letter to Maria Elizabeth Gerber,4 a disciple of his in Virginia. But the religious enthusiasm of the sectarians was not satisfied with the interchange of letters. Visits were made for the purpose of exhorting and strengthening the brethren in the faith. Long preaching journeys were undertaken. The manu- script of Reverend Petrus Schäffer (written to Reverend August Hermann Francke) now in the archives at Halle shows that before the end of the seventeenth century, about the time that Falckner went to Germany, both Petrus
2 Sachse, " Curieuse Nachricht," p. 37; also Sachse, " German Pietists of Pennsylvania," 1694-1708, p. 96 f.
3 Journal now in the possession of Mr. Charles J. Wistar of German- town, Philadelphia.
4 There were Gerbers also in Lancaster County; see Rupp's "History of Lancaster County," p. 189.
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First White Men in the County.
Schäffer and Heinrich Bernhard Köster travelled from Pennsylvania to Virginia on such a mission.5 After Ger- man settlements had been made in the Carolinas in 17106 the preaching and teaching trips of the Pennsylvania Ger- man sectarians extended beyond Virginia to what is now North Carolina. Thus in 1722 Michael Wohlfarth, a pietist from Germantown, journeyed on foot from Phila- delphia by way of Conrad Beissel's hut on the Mühlbach and through the Valley of Virginia to preach a revival among the Germans in North Carolina.7
Now the route of these religious enthusiasts on their journeys from north to south was a well-marked one. It was the great natural avenue formed by the valley between the Blue Ridge and the Alleghany Mountains. This is the highway that from time immemorial had been used by the Indians in their wanderings from north to south or vice versa. It included the series of fertile valleys now known as the Cumberland, the Shenandoah, and the Vir- ginia Valleys. The first white men to set foot upon these regions were the German pietists of Pennsylvania and Vir- ginia. Before the close of the seventeenth century the German settlers, pilgrims, and explorers had begun to pass up and down over this great natural highway with its fer- tile soil and its well-watered bottoms and long before the middle of the eighteenth century the Germans were buying lands in the Shenandoah Valley and settling there as though it had been one of the outlying districts of the city of Phila- delphia.
5 Sachse, " German Pietists of Pennsylvania," 1694-1708, p. 289; also " Curieuse Nachricht," p. 37, footnote.
6 At Newbern, North Carolina, see Bernheim, " German Settlements and the Lutheran Church in the Carolinas," p. 67 ff .; also Williamson's " His- tory of North Carolina."
7 Sachse, " German Sectarians of Pennsylvania," 1708-1742, p. 80.
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German Element in York County, Pa.
York County is not a part of this great highway but for the pilgrims coming from Lancaster County and the coun- ties east and northeast of Lancaster, York County is the gateway to the Cumberland and the Shenandoah Valleys. The German evangelists and pilgrims from eastern Penn- sylvania when they set out to visit their brethren in the South would usually call upon their countrymen in Lancas- ter County and then crossing the Susquehanna River would make their way across the entire breadth of York County until they reached the Cumberland Valley.8 In doing this they followed the path of the Indian trail which led from a point on the Susquehanna afterwards known as Wrights- ville, westward along the Kreutz Creek and across the Codorus Creek to a point one and one fourth miles beyond the present city of York and thence northwestward by MacAllister's Mill and through Wakely's (Moore's) Gap in the South Mountains to Carlisle on LeTorts Spring in the Cumberland Valley. Or else, instead of turning north- westward after leaving the site of York they continued southwestward and thus followed the entire course of the valley which extends across the width of the county from Wrightsville through York and Hanover and into Mary- land.9 These were well marked paths. They were in almost constant use by the aborigines before the white men came to America as a thorough-pass from the wilderness in the south and west to the wilderness in the north and
8 Heinrich Sangmeister in his "Leben und Wandel " tells how he and his companion Brother Antonius left the Ephrata Cloister and reached the Cumberland Valley in this way. Sachse, German Sectarians, p. 345.
9 The diaries of the Moravians (now preserved at Bethlehem, Pa.) indicate that they usually employed the latter route in their missionary journeys. And in the Virginia Magazine, Vol. 12, p. 55, footnote, we have the general statement: "The first part of the journeys of these Moravian missionaries was always the same. From Bethlehem by way of Lebanon, Lancaster, York, Pa., Frederick and Hagerstown, Md., to the Potomac."
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First White Men in the County.
east. Long before permanent settlements had been made along the courses of this route its paths were trodden by the German missionaries and pilgrims on their way to the great valley highway that led to their brethren in the south. And when the county of York began to be populated and the need of roads began to be felt, a large part of this old Indian trail which had furnished the route for the mission- aries was constructed into the "Monacacy Road" (1739). With the construction of the "Shippensburg Road" in 1749 and the "Carlisle Road" in 1751, the several branches of the historic missionary route from the Susque- hanna River to the Cumberland Valley disappeared en- tirely beneath the roadbed of the public highways.10 It is worthy of note that the Germans should have been the first white men to set foot upon these regions which were to be so largely settled by Germans less than half a century later and which were to furnish the outlet for so large a body of German immigration to the south and the west.
After the valleys of York County had been in use for some years as a thoroughfare for the German pilgrim, the explorer and the trader began to interest themselves in these districts. The first traders appeared shortly after the beginning of the eighteenth century. John Harris an Englishman settled at the site of Harrisburg in 1705. He opened a trading station and carried on an extensive busi- ness with the Indians on both sides of the Susquehanna River both north and south of his station. The Indians in York County were situated chiefly along the river and Harris purchased large quantities of skins and furs from them. But the chief pioneer Indian traders along the lower Susquehanna were French Canadians. Prominent
10 See, for example, Gibson's "History of York County," p. 321 f.
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German Element in York County, Pa.
among them are the names of Martin Chartier, Peter Chartier, Peter Bazaillon, and James LeTort. They all had their stations on the east side of the river but carried on a large business in trading with the Indians west of the river.
The first man to explore the county was a representative of the German Mennonites from Switzerland. It was the explorations of Lewis Michelle from Bern that led to the first Pennsylvania survey within the present limits of York County. Michelle (or Mitchel) was employed by his fellow countrymen and co-religionists of the canton of Bern and sent to America in 1703 or 1704 to search for a convenient tract of vacant land in Pennsylvania, Virginia, or Carolina, that might serve as a suitable place for the settlement of a Swiss Mennonite colony.11 In the course of this search he came in 1706 to the Conestoga region in the western part of Lancaster County. On February 24, 1707, the Conestoga Indians made formal complaint against Michelle for his wanderings among their lands, and for having pressed their people into service as guides and assistants.12
Michelle was a miner according to the testimony of Governor Evans, and for that reason received the encour- agement and support of the Pennsylvania government in his explorations.13 For the early colonial governments
11 A. Stapleton in his " Memorials of the Hugenots in America," speak- ing of the French traders in the Conestoga Valley of Lancaster County, says, p. 89: " It is worthy of note that Lewis Mitchelle the advance agent and prospector of the Bernese Mennonites, spent a number of years with these traders (1703-1707) on terms of intimacy and was accused by the authorities on the occasion of a misunderstanding of having led the French- men here."
12 Colonial Records, II: 404 f. Also Rupp's "Lancaster County," p. 54 f. 13 " The Governor added that he found he (i. e., Michelle) had some notion of mines, and had his thoughts much bent that way; that he was
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First White Men in the County.
were always keenly on the alert for even the slightest indi- cation of mineral wealth in the soil of the new land and they always encouraged the search for mines, at the same time exercising care to pre-empt for themselves the ex- clusive rights of exploitation. At one time Governor Evans was strongly suspected of conniving with Michelle to secure personal gain from the discoveries of this roving prospector. In 1708 William Penn wrote from England to James Logan, his secretary: "Remember the mines which the Governor yet makes a secret, even to thee and all the world but himself and Michelle."
But the explorations of Michelle west of the Susque- hanna bore their first real fruit under the governorship of Sir William Keith, a shrewd and enterprising Scotchman who was quick to develop the natural resources of the prov- ince and who also was not beyond turning those resources partly to his own personal benefit. Governor Keith was the first governor to lead the proprietary surveyors beyond the Susquehanna River and into the present limits of York County. This first survey was made in 1722 and was one of two surveys made within the present limits of our county in the month of April of that year. Governor Keith's survey was the first and was made secretly on April 4 and 5. The governor afterwards gave as his reason for making this survey that he wished to prevent the obnoxious intrusions of the Marylanders in this part of Pennsylvania soil. The circumstances under which this survey was made throw much light on the historical background of the earliest German settlements in the county.
willing to let him proceed, and had not discouraged him; that he advised him to take some Indians with him; that of the persons before mentioned, the Governor had ordered two that he could confide in to be there, that he might have a full account of their proceedings." Col. Rec., II: 405.
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German Element in York County, Pa.
Sir William, it would seem, was amply justified in the swift and sudden measures he took to secure the territory west of the river. Delay might have been costly. The governor explained his action at the meeting of the Pro- vincial Council in Philadelphia on April 16, 1722, in these words :
Upon some information I lately received that the Indians were like to be disturbed by the Secret and Underhand Practices of Persons, both from Mary Land and this Place, who under the Pretence of finding a Copper Mine, were about to Survey and take up Lands on the other side of the River Sasquehannah, contrary to a former Order of this Government; I not only sent up a Special Messenger with a Writ under the Lesser Seal to prevent them, but took this Occasion to go towards the Upper parts of Chester County myself in order to Locate a small quantity of Land unto which I had purchased an original Proprietary Right; And understanding further upon the Road, that some Persons were actually come with a Mary Land Right to Survey Lands upon Sasquehannah, fifteen miles above Conestoga, I pursued my course directly thither, and happily arrived but a very few hours in time to prevent the Execu- tion of their Design. Having the Surveyor General of this Prov- ince along with me in Company, after a little Consideration, I ordered him to Locate and Survey some part of the Right I pos- sessed, viz .; only five hundred acres upon that Spot on the other Side Sasquehannah, which was like to prove a Bone of Contention, and breed so much mischief, and he did so accordingly upon the 4th and 5th days of this Instant April, after which I returned to Con- estogoe, in order to discourse with the Indians upon what had happened.14
He was none too soon with his scheme to forestall the Maryland survey. For a company of people under Mary- land authority and in partnership with the Maryland Pro- prietor was busy sinking shafts and prospecting for mines
14 Col. Rec., II: 160.
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First White Men in the County.
in that region. They were already operating a mine far- ther south along the Susquehanna and had designs upon the very tract which Governor Keith had reserved. Among the unpublished Calvert Papers15 is the certificate of a survey of 200 acres made April 24, 1722, by Deputy Sur- veyor John Dorsey of Maryland "by virtue of a warrant granted unto Philip Syng and Thomas Browne both of the City of Philadelphia in the Province of Pennsylvania out of his Lordships Land Office bearing date of March 28th, 1722." This tract was known as " Partner's Adventure." Another of the Calvert Papers gives an account of the ex- amination of Philip Syng,16 May 28, 1722, before the Governor and Council of Pennsylvania, on the charge of having surveyed land under a Maryland warrant within the bounds of the Keith tract.17 The evidence in this ex- amination shows that the survey on account of which Syng was apprehended and committed was the Partner's Ad- venture of 200 acres surveyed by John Dorsey. For this a warrant had been issued as early as March 28, 1722. Governor Keith therefore was just in time with his survey of April 4 and 5 to make good the Pennsylvania claim.
The keen disappointment of the Marylanders at their exclusion from this region and their further designs upon the land are manifest from the following letter of July 19, 1722, from the Secretary Philemon Lloyd to Lord Balti- more and Co-Partners in London :
I did myself the honor of writing to you of June 1722 . . . have seen Roach, Sing and Brown; the 3 remaining partners in the
15 No. 274. In the Maryland Historical Society, Baltimore, Md.
16 No. 273. The warrant for his arrest (among the Calvert Papers) is dated May 27, 1722, and designates Philip Syng as a silversmith. 17 See also Col. Rec., III: 176.
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German Element in York County, Pa.
adventure. They seem very much disconcerted at the loss of their mine upon Susquehannah, of which I sent the . . . in my (last). I have received at their hands 2 ps of Oar : the one copper and Iron the other silver and iron. The mine is so strictly guarded that they tell me they could not possibly gett any more, (but) promise a larger quantity against the time that I come up to them. Which I design in six or seven days at the farthest and will then go to the place where they have several men at work in opening a copper mine, much lower down in Maryland.
Gentlemen, According to the worth and circumstances of this and other mines, I shall find myself under a necessity of doeing something with the discoverers rather than be wholly shut out from these first undertakings in case the land be allready taken up; but if not I will then lay warrants wherever I can hear of any probabil- ity of a mine. Schylers and the mine upon the Susquehannah hath made such a noise in the world, that the woods are now full of mine hunters. Many discoveries are already made; but the worth of them unknown untill shafts shall be sunk to find out the large- ness and quality of the vein. Upon which account I humbly pro- pose: [here follow four propositions to encourage the finding and reporting of mines]
Publick reports concerning the value of the mine upon Susque- hannah are various and uncertain, especially of late, they have given out that the Governor &c after a great deal of pains and cost are about to quit it. On the other hand Sing, Roach, and Brown tell me, that such reports are spread abroad on purpose to give .. . oppertunity of conveying away the oar with little or no notice, they allso . . . they came from Philadelphia, 7 Waggons were in wait- ing near . .. transport the oar down to New Castle which is 50 miles distance, & I had . . . some persons tell me allso that a much better way be . .. to the head of one of our rivers with 30 miles land carriage.
I am not a little concerned that the reserve of 10,000 Acres formerly advised of hath not been executed. I know not by what means the Pennsylvanians had notice of it, but before our surveyor
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First White Men in the County.
went up (he was out of the way for some time after I sent the warrant to him) they had posted souldiers all about the woods So that our officer dared not to go and execute the warrant. How- ever I am resolved to be up among them and to lay the reserve if possible ; notwithstanding if Sir William Keith hath laid out all the adjacent lands for young Penn by name of Springetts Bury qr 75,520 Acres though I believe twice that quantity may be thrust into those bounds, by reason of the terms more or less; as you will see they are there made use of in the enclosed copy of warrant.
As soon as Sing Roach &c went up; a warrant was issued out by Sir William and Sing taken upon the mine: thence carried to Phil- adelphia and committed to the city goal, as you will perceive by the inclosed papers which I have purposely transmitted that the rigor- ous methods of these people may be known. I design however to make a survey there with all imaginable secrecy, but should be heartily glad if a proper instrument were sent over (for) the taking the Lat. of the place, or that some publick directions were given to the Government for the making an (exact) discovery of the line of 40 North.18
The second survey was made on April 10 and II, and covered much the same territory as Keith's survey. It was made upon the order of Penn's Commissioners of Property. The Commissioners afterwards gave as their reason for making the survey that they had been "informed that the Governor (Sir William Keith) had gone towards Susquehanna and had taken Jacob Taylor with him, which gave them some apprehension of a design which he might have on a parcel of land on the other (west) side of the Susquehanna where was supposed to be a copper mine."19 The region covered by these surveys afterwards for some years bore the title "Keith's Mine Tract." There can be
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