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3 1761 01733227 1 UNIVERSITY OF TORONTO
ITY
OF
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TORONTO
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Presented to the
UNIVERSITY OF TORONTO LIBRARY
by the
ONTARIO LEGISLATIVE LIBRARY
1988
ATIVE LIE
E
DISCARDED RY
Digitized by the Internet Archive in 2007 with funding from Microsoft Corporation
http://www.archive.org/details/germanimmigratio00diffuoft
JAR. Difenderffer.
33414
The German Immigration
into
И.Я.
ennsplvanía
8
Through the Port of Philadelphia, 1700 to 1775.
PART II.
The Redemptioners.
PREPARED AT THE REQUEST OF THE PENNSYLVANIA-GERMAN SOCIETY.
BY FRANK RIED DIFFENDERFFER,
Ex-Secretary and ex-President of The Pennsylvania-German Society. Secretary of the Lancaster County Historical Society, Author of " The Three Earls," " The German Exodus to England in 1709," " The Palatine and Quaker as Commonwealth-Builders," etc., etc.
13.
LANCASTER, PA. PUBLISHED BY THE AUTHOR MDCCCC
SEEN BY PRESERVATION SERVICES
DATE ... .. .JUL 1 7 1990
OF TORONTO (
AUG 10
1988
UNIVERSITY
Copyrighted 1900, by FRANK RIED DIFFENDERFFER.
Edition, 250 Copies.
PRESS OF THE NEW ERA PRINTING COMPANY LANCASTER. PA
TABLE OF CONTENTS.
Preface
. 7-8
CHAPTER I.
Our Sources of Information Relative to the German Immigration, and where they are Defective or Alto- gether Absent .- Extensive Character of the Immigra- tion not Realized in the Beginning . 9-15
CHAPTER II.
Causes Leading to the Migration to Pennsylvania .- Penn Favorably Known in Germany .- Descriptive Ac- counts of the Province Published in many Languages and widely Circulated 16-22
CHAPTER III. Penn's own Description of his Province, in which its Advantages and Attractions are Fully and Minutely set forth for the Benefit of Intending Immigrants . 23-33
CHAPTER IV.
Efforts to Secure Colonists Successful .- Alarm Cre- ated by their great Numbers from Germany .- System of Registration Adopted .- Arrival of many Ships .- + Their Names, Numbers and Places of Departure . 34-56
CHAPTER V.
The Voyage across the Ocean .- Discomforts and Privations Attending it .- Insufficient Room .- Deficient Supplies of Food and Drink .- Unsanitary Conditions and Excessive Mortality · 57-70
iii
iv
Table of Contents.
CHAPTER VI.
Pennsylvania the Favorite Home of German Immi- grants .- What Occurred in Massachusetts .- The Ger- mans Especially Adapted to the Requirements of Penn's Province .- Bishop Berkeley's Prevision · 71-77
CHAPTER VII.
Glance at the Quarrels Between the Proprietary Gov- ernors and the Provincial Assembly .- It was not the Political Golden Age to which we Sometimes Refer with so much Pride and Pleasure 78-90
CHAPTER VIII.
Early Demand of the Germans for Naturalization .- Request Denied, but granted Later .- How they Spread all over the Land and Became the Shield and Bulwark of the Quakers by Guarding the Frontiers against the Indians 91-98
CHAPTER IX.
The German Population of Pennsylvania as Estimated by various Writers at various Epochs .- Often mere Guesses .- Better means of Reaching close Results now. -Some Sources of Increase not Generally Considered . 99-108
CHAPTER X.
Their Detractors and Their Friends .- What both Par- ties have said .- The Great Philosopher Franklin Mis- taken .- How the Passing Years have Brought along their Vindication
CHAPTER XI. 109-117
The Germans as Farmers .- Answer to a Recent His- torian who Asserts They, although a Race of Farmers, did not take the Same Enjoyment in Agricultural Pur- suits as the Scotch-Irish and Others ! . 118-140
Table of Contents.
THE REDEMPTIONERS.
CHAPTER I.
Who and What they Were .- A Condition born of Necessity Beyond the Sea and Transferred to Amer- ica .- The Several Kinds of Bond Servants .- A Strik- ing Feature in the History of Pennsylvania 143-150
CHAPTER II.
Bond Servants a Universal Custom of the Times .- Brought from,Great Britain and taken to all the Middle Colonies .- Synopsis of Colonial Legislation on Inden- tured Servants 151-171
CHAPTER III.
Origin and Meaning of the Term " Redemptioner."- Narrative of Gottlieb Mittelberger who, after Residing in Pennsylvania four years, Returned to the Fatherland and by Request wrote a full Account of the Voyage Across the Sea and the Redemptioner Traffic . 172-187
CHAPTER IV.
The " Newlanders " or Soul-Sellers .- Men who made a Business of Sending Redemptioners to Pennsylva- nia .- How their Nefarious Traffic was Carried on in the Fatherland .- Letters from Pastor Muhlenberg and Others . 188-200
CHAPTER V.
The Testimony of the Newspapers Concerning the Traffic in Redemptioners in the Eighteenth Century .- A Mere Article of Merchandise in the Market, and sold to the first Bidder 201-218
vi
Table of Contents.
CHAPTER VI.
Redemptioners or Indentured Servants not all Ger- mans .- Ireland, Scotland and England Contributed large numbers to carry on the work of Commonwealth- Building 219-239
CHAPTER VII.
Christopher Saur's Letters to Governor Morris, Plead- ing for Just Legislation looking to the Protection of German Immigrants in General and the German Re- demptioners in Particular . · 240-257
CHAPTER VIII.
The Mortality of Immigrants on Shipboard .- Organ- ization of the German Society, and its good Work .- Lands Assigned to Redemptioners at the end of their Service on easy Terms 258-275
CHAPTER IX.
The Traffic in Redemptioners in the Neighboring Colonies .- Men Kidnapped in London and Deported .- Prisoners of War sent to America in Cromwell's time and sold into Bondage
276-293
CHAPTER X. .
Argument to show the Redemptioner System was not wholly Evil .- That much Good came out of it .- That in some Particulars it was Preferable to the Unre- warded Toil in the Fatherland . 294-317
INDEX TO FULL-PAGE INSETS.
I. Portrait of Author . Frontispiece. '
2. Gustavus Adolphus Facing page 14
3. William Penn .
30
4. Menno Simon . 46 66
5. Domestic Industries-Tow Reel-Spun Flax 64
6. Glassware made at Manheim, 1768-1774 7.6.
7. Provincial Head Gear-Domestic Utensils . 66
88
8. German Household Utensils 66 100
9. Benjamin Franklin
10. Pennsylvania-German Farm Life
IIO
II. Oldest House in Lancaster County
I35
12. Domestic Utensils, etc. 146
13. Pennsylvania-German Enterprise 159
14. Baron Stiegel Stove Plate 179 66
15. Witmer's Bridge, across Conestoga River
"
202
17. Primitive Cider Mill .
66 214
18. Provincial Kitchen Outfit
230
19. Rifle Barrel Factory 245
20. Henry Keppele 264 ‹‹
21. The Community Cider Mill
298
22. Franklin College . 66
312
vii
191
16. Milk Cellar-Drying Shed
I22
ILLUSTRATIONS IN TEXT.
PAGE.
I. Head Piece . 7
2. Seal of Pennsylvania-German Society . 7
3. Head Piece
9
4. Initial of Pennsylvania-Ger-
man Society
9
5. Arms of Sweden .
12
6. Autograph of Gustavus Adol- phus 14
7. Arms of the Holy Roman Em-
pire .
15
8. Head Piece
16
9. Arms of the Printers' Guild
16
IO. Arms of Penn 19
II. Old Style Fat Lamp
22
Thomas . .
. 113
12. Head Piece
23
13. Palatine Architecture 23
14. Penn's "Brief Account
25
15. Tail Piece
33
16. Head Piece
34
17. Palatine Building
34
18. Penn's "Letter to Society of
Traders "
37
19. Great Seal of the Province 38
20. A Frontier German Hamlet . 44 21. Budd's Account of Pennsyl- vania . 49
22. Old-Time Pennsylvania Cra- dle . 56
23. Head Piece 57
24. Early Farmer's Home 57
25. Cornelius Bom's Account
61
26. Old-Fashioned "Dutch Oven" 70
27. Head Piece.
71
28. Specimen of German Archi- tecture 71
29. Francis Daniel Pastorius' Tracts 73
30. Head Piece.
781
viii
PAGE.
31. Old Hip-roofed House .
78
32. Melchior
Adam
Pastorius'
Booklet.
85
33. Skimmer and Musstopf
90
34. Head Piece .
9I
35. Arms of Holland, A.D. 1694 91
36. Conestoga Team and Wagon . 95
37. Head Piece .
99
38. Coat-of-Arms
99
39. Gabriel Thomas' Pennsylva-
nia
103
40. Head Piece .
9
41. Fatherland Cathedral
. 109
42. Falckner's
Continuation
of
43. Specimen of Early Pottery . . 117
44. Early Pennsylvania Home-
stead .
118
45. Seal of the City of Pennsyl-
vania .
118
46. Primitive Lantern
124
47. Early Settlers and their Visi-
tors .
128
48. Ox Yoke and Flail .
I32
49. Early Pennsylvania Printing
Press .
136
50. Arms of Great Britain
. 140
51. Head Piece
143
52. Insignia of Pennsylvania-Ger-
man Society .
143
53. A Pioneer's Cabin
148
54. Head Piece.
151
55. Seal of William Penn
.151
56. Gabriel Thomas' Map of Penn-
sylvania.
155
57. Peasants and Costumes of the
Palatinate .
162
58. London Coffee House
168
59. Early Pennsylvania Pottery. . 171
ix
Illustrations in Text.
PAGE.
60. Head Piece .
172
61. Initial Pennsylvania-German Society .172
62. Castle in the Palatinate
. 178
63. Straw Bread Basket.
183
64. Tail Piece.
187
65. Head Piece .
188
66. Seal of Germantown.
188
67. Autograph Entry of Pastor Muhlenberg . . 193
68. Title Page Kalm's Travels. . . 197
69. Lesser Seal of Province. .
. 198
70. Head Piece .
. 201
71. Arms of Rotterdam .
. 201
72. Autograph of Christopher Saur 204
73. Facsimile
Title of Saur's
Paper . . . 207 74. Bread Tray, Knife and Scorer 210 75. Roach Trap, Bügeleisen, etc. . 218
76. Head Piece .
. 219
· 77. An Ephrata Symbol.
. 219
78. Irish Redemptioner's Certifi-
cate ..
. 224
79. Cloister Building, at Ephrata. 228 80. Seal of the Ephrata Brethren . 233 81. Redemptioner's Certificate . . 236 82. Razor Case, Razor and Lancet 238 83. Arms of the City of London. . 239 84. Street Scene in Old German- town 240
85. Seal of William Penn . . 240
86. Signature of Francis Daniel
Pastorius
. 244
87. Early Coffee Mill .
.246
88. Currency
of Revolutionary
Period .
. 249
89. Currency
of
Revolutionary
Period ..
250
90. Clock of the Provincial Period 253
91. An old Germantown Land-
PAGE.
92. Old Robert's Mill, near Ger- mantown . 258
93. Arms of the Palatinate .
. 258
94. Smaller Seal of Germantown . 261
95. Tar Bucket of Olden Days . . 263
96. Seal of the German Society of
Pennsylvania
265
97. Map of the Palatinate .
267
98. Gourd Seine Float .
270
99. Penn's " Some Account "
Tract .
274
100. Ross Coat-of-Arms
. 275
IOI. Old Market Square, German-
town .
. 276
102. Old Time Wooden Lantern . . 276
103. Governor Markham's Auto-
graph .
. 278
104. Redemptioners offered for
Sale.
. 280
105. Dutch Boy offered for Sale . . 281
106. Blue Anchor Tavern
. 284
107. Immigrants on the St. Michael 287
108. Passenger Ship of 1750 . .
. . 290
109. Autograph of Conrad Weiser . 292
IIO. Tail Piece. .
. 293
III. De la Plaine House, German-
town. .
. 294
112. Franklin Coat-of-Arms .
. 294
113. Ephrata Display Type
. 295
114. Celebrated Almanac Cover . . 297
115. Provincial Barber's Basin . . 301
116. Facsimile of Trappe Records 303
117. The Pioneers' Foe .
. 306
118. A Custom in the Father-
land
310
119. Plockhoy's
Description
of
Pennsylvania
. 311
120. The Morris House in German-
town
.315
121. The Diffenderffer Wappen .
. 317
mark.
257
122. The End .
. 330
PARIMUS.
UTROQUE
PREFATORY.
GE HE story of the German immi- gration to Pennsylvania in the 17th and 18th centuries, and since, SOCIET forms one of the most interesting and notable chapters in the history of the colonization of the New World. For many decades its importance and significance was not recognized or understood even by those who formed part and parcel of it. It is only within a recent period that it has received the attention it deserves. During the past few years a dozen books on this and germane sub- jects have been written and published and several more will be issued before the year's close.
Perhaps the main factor in directing attention to this needed work was the organization of the Pennsylvania- German Society in 1891. The enterprise of a few en- thusiastic men resulted in arousing an interest in the sub- ject unknown before. Their action met with a hearty response from Pennsylvanians of German descent in all
(7)
8
The German Immigration into Pennsylvania.
parts of the country, and while to-day it may not stand first in actual membership, the Society is certainly far in advance of every similar organization in the land in the amount of excellent work it has done towards carrying out the purposes of its organization, and in placing the Ger- man element in the colonization of Pennsylvania in its proper light before the world. Its contributions to the literature of the subject have received recognition and praise on two continents. The "Slumbering Giant," as the German element in Pennsylvania has been aptly called, has at last been aroused to a consciousness of his might and importance, his birthright and inheritance, and mani- fests a determination to assert his claims to the same.
The question of the German influence in the physical, political and intellectual upbuilding of this Commonwealth is of special interest to those of German ancestry. It has not yet been fully worked out but the present day is radiant with promise. The following chapters are offered as pre- senting some of the " lights and shadows " accompanying this immigration least familiar to the general reader.
It affords me much pleasure and satisfaction to make grateful acknowledgment to Julius F. Sachse, Esq., for the excellent original illustrations he has prepared to ac- company this volume; they not only add much to its at- tractiveness, but have, in addition, an historical value all their own.
F. R. D. LANCASTER, October, 1900.
CHAPTER I.
OUR SOURCES OF INFORMATION RELATIVE TO THE GERMAN IMMIGRATION, AND WHERE THEY ARE DEFECTIVE OR AL- TOGETHER ABSENT .- EXTENSIVE CHARACTER OF THAT IM- MIGRATION NOT REALIZED IN THE BEGINNING.
" I hear the tread of pioneers, Of nations yet to be ; The first low wash of waves where soon Shall roll a human sea.
"The rudiments of empire here, Are plastic yet and warm ; The chaos of a mighty world Is rounding into form."
T must be conceded that the materials, both written and traditional, along many lines of the SOCIETY history of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania are abundant and, N for the most part, thoroughly re- liable. Its founder was himself a university man, ready with tongue and pen, and the writer of many pamphlets, and his selection of agents, assistants and advisers proves him to have had a natural preference for cultured and scholarly men to aid him in carrying out his views for the advancement of his province. His
(9)
IO
The German Immigration into Pennsylvania.
selection of the youthful but scholarly Logan, for more than a generation his tried and trusty Secretary, Griffith Owen, Samuel Carpenter and others, seems to show the importance he attached to having men of culture about him to forward his wise and enlightened schemes of gov- ernment and commonwealth-building. It was in a large measure due to these men, along with himself, that the mass of written material at the command of the diligent historian of to-day is so full and so accessible.
Then, too, time has dealt kindly with our early records. Much has undoubtedly been lost or destroyed, or, mayhap, is still buried in unsuspected and neglected depositories ; but that which has disappeared or failed to appear must of necessity be only a fractional part of the whole. We have no reason to believe that any material of supreme importance to a reasonably full record of our provincial period-any lost books of Livy, so to speak-has per- ished from our annals. The chain of evidence along most lines of investigation is as complete and unbroken as we have a right to expect. It is not to be expected that there should not be a hiatus here and there, something to be wished for, something that seems to be needed along a stretch of time covering more than two hundred years of the fortunes, the trials and triumphs of the most conglom- erate people that ever built up a free and independent State in modern times. But we may congratulate ourselves that our records, even back to our beginnings, are so full, and that with them as faithful guides we can sit down and build up anew upon the printed page the continuous story of the men who laid deep and strong the civil, social, religious and political foundations of Pennsylvania.
And yet there is one chapter, and that a very important one, from which we turn with regret, because while it
II
Family Records Lacking.
deeply concerns all men of German, Swiss and Huguenot ancestry, it is the one most needed to throw light on the arrival of the first comers, the men who came here from the Rhine provinces during the first quarter of the eight- eenth century. Of the many thousands that found their way across the broad Atlantic to Pennsylvania during that period, only a small portion brought written records with them, or took measures to prepare and preserve them after their arrival. The more highly educated did not neglect this obligation to posterity. Still others brought with them that most precious of all their household treasures, the heavy, oak-lidded German Bible, wherein the Old World pastor had with scrupulous care recorded the brief life and death record of the family. Most precious heirlooms are these household treasures to-day to the few so fortunate as to have them. But an infinitely greater number, descendants of those who had not the learning of the schools and who were incapable of preparing such memorials for them- selves, left no such records for their descendants to fall back upon, and the latter have in consequence been left to sail about upon the broad sea of doubt and uncertainty, unable to obtain their bearings or find their moorings.
It is here that the historiographer of the " Immigration of the Germans through the port of Philadelphia " finds himself confronted with almost insuperable difficulties. During the period between 1683 and 1727, the landmarks that could and should guide him are not to be found. They have not been obliterated ; they were never erected, and the perplexed chronicler sails to and fro over that un- . known and uncharted sea of our provincial history, vainly endeavoring to pick up and preserve the flotsam which ac- cident, rather than design, may have cast into his pathway. No wonder that to-day ten thousand men and women of
I2
The German Immigration into Pennsylvania.
German ancestry are tireless in their search for the floating threads, the missing links that are needed to bind them to the unknown kindred in the Fatherland, but which in many instances have seemingly been lost forever.
When the first German settlers came to Pennsylvania, and in what numbers, and under what circumstances, are questions more easily asked than answered. Besides, it would perhaps be more interesting than profitable, for they left no permanent settlements, left no impress upon the future of the Province and may therefore be dismissed with a mere allusion. The settle- ments planted by Gustavus Adol- phus and his illustrious minister Oxensteirna on the Delaware in 1638, and later, although under the auspices of the Swedish king, contained a large infusion of Ger- mans, to whom unusual induce- ments were offered. The second Governor of that little colony, Johannes Printz, was a Hols- teiner, and brought with him a considerable number of Pommer- ARMS OF SWEDEN. anian families. These facts are ample to establish the presence of German settlers in Penn- sylvania long before Pastorius led his colony of Crefelders to Germantown. Even as these pages are running through the press a letter has been found in Germany, through the efforts of a member of the Pennsylvania-German Society," written from Germantown itself by one of the Op den Graeff brothers, dated February 12, 1684, in which the presence of a German Reformed congregation in that lo-
1 Julius F. Sachse, Esq.
I3
The Germantown Colony.
cality is announced at the time when the Pastorius colony was established. Who these were, whence they came, how long they had been there, and kindred questions may perhaps never be revealed, but the general subject is nevertheless a most interesting one.
The story of the first strictly German settlement in Pennsylvania, and of the men and women who composed it, has recently been so fully and so ably written as to leave nothing further to be desired.2 Owing to circum- stances which it is not necessary to recount in this place, the existing records were ample to prepare the story of the beginnings of that mighty Teutonic wave of immigration which, commencing with that colony of less than two score members in 1683, continued to come in an ever-in- creasing volume until it has outgrown and in a measure displaced some of the other nationalities which preceded it, and which was destined eventually to outnumber all the rest, a preëminence it has never lost, but which is to-day as marked and lasting as at any previous period in our history. Well have the results of the past two hundred years fulfilled the promise of that earlier day when Francis Daniel Pastorius and his earnest compatriots established their thriving settlement upon the verdant slopes of Ger- mantown.
At the beginning of the German immigration, the won- derful dimensions it was destined to attain in the course of time seem not to have dawned upon anyone either in the Old World or the New. It was of gradual growth and it was not until nearly two score years after the founding of the Province that even an organized effort was made to
2 See the splendid contribution to the Provincial history of Pennsylvania, The Settlement of Germantown, by JUDGE SAMUEL W. PENNYPACKER, pub- lished in Volume IX. of the Proceedings of the Pennsylvania-German Society.
14
The German Immigration into Pennsylvania.
take an account of the names and numbers of the Germans who landed on these shores. But although fear then did what should have been done from the beginning, the records made were far from complete. We have the names of most of the new comers, know the names of most of the vessels that brought them over, and in some instances the ages of the immigrants, but what to-day seems almost as essential as either of these, we cannot tell in the majority of cases the locality whence they came. They came from every portion of the German Empire; many from Switzerland ; others were of French extraction, but who had for a gen- eration or more been radicated in the cantons of Switzer-
SIGNATURE OF GUSTAVUS ADOLPHUS, KING OF SWEDEN.
land or in the Netherlands, whence, after acquiring the language of those countries, they finally made their way to the shores of the Delaware. In many instances family traditions preserved through after generations the precise name of the Old World home. Fortunate indeed are those who brought with them authenticating documents covering the birthplace, ancestry, age and other valuable items of family history. But the number of such is comparatively small when compared with the entire number of arrivals. How gratefully would such information be appreciated to-
GERMAN IMMIGRATION INTO PENNSYLVANIA.
GUSTAVUS ADOLPHUS, KING OF SWEDEN. (BORN DEC. 9. 1594 ; DIED NOV 16. 163Z ) TY OF PENNSYLVANIA.
-rw of the Germans
th fear then did
oming, the recorda e. \ 1not me names of most De names of most of the vessels In some instigoe the ages of
y shems almost as essential
the majority of cases
rokThey came from every
et who had for a gen- many from Switzerland ;
of Switzer-
berlands, whence, after argwiring the intries, thev finally
& documen!
ge and other v we number of u with the ero - w+ wals.
WeLiated to-
GERMAN IMMIGRATION INTO PENNSYLVANIA.
GUSTAVUS ADOLPHUS. KING OF SWEDEN. (BORN DEC. 9, 1594; DIED NOV. 16, 1632.)
FROM PAINTING AT HISTORICAL SOCIETY OF PENNSYLVANIA.
15
Our Annals Defective.
day by the thousands of German ancestry, who in their search for information covering these and other points find that their ancestors were among the ten or the fifty of the same name who came to America in the eighteenth cen- tury, but which they were or whence they came must ever remain a sealed book to them. Right here is where our historical annals are most defective. There should have been a complete registration from the beginning. Lacking that, ten thousand men and women of German lineage are to-day vainly longing for the information which in all hu- man probability will ever remain irrecoverable.
ARMS OF THE HOLY ROMAN EMPIRE.
4
CHAPTER II.
CAUSES LEADING TO THE MIGRATION TO PENNSYLVANIA .- PENN FAVORABLY KNOWN IN GERMANY .- DESCRIPTIVE ACCOUNTS OF THE PROVINCE PUBLISHED IN MANY LAN- GUAGES AND WIDELY CIRCULATED.
"There is nothing that solidifies and strengthens a nation like the reading of the nation's own history, whether that history is recorded or embodied in customs, institutions and monuments."
LTHOUGH the causes re- sponsible for the German immigration to Pennsylvania are to-day well understood, it will nevertheless be in order to refer to them briefly at the outset of this narrative. They were various and concurrent. There was a spirit of unrest and dissatisfaction through- out Europe and especially in Ger- many. That continent had been almost continuously torn by devastating wars for a hundred years previously. Destruction and desolation had been car- ried into millions of homes. In almost every kingdom and principality the tramp of the invader had been heard, and wherever he appeared ruin followed in his tracks by day,
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