USA > Pennsylvania > Schuylkill County > Blue book of Schuylkill County : who was who and why, in interior eastern Pennsylvania, in Colonial days, the Huguenots and Palatines, their service in Queen Anne's French and Indian, and Revolutionary Wars : history of the Zerbey, Schwalm, Miller, Merkle, Minnich, Staudt, and many other representative families > Part 2
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The inhabitants of Alsace and Lorraine were possessed of distinct traits of character, which distinguished them from the Palatines among whom some had already cast their lot, when Francis I determined to crush the heretics. The King's sister, Marguerite, afterward Queen of Navarre, with other distin- guished nobles had espoused their cause and the King was at first inclined to deal tolerantly with them, but he recanted.
Henry of Navarre, afterward King Henry IV, when heir to the French crown, espoused their cause. The massacres on St. Bartholomew's day were horrifying.1 The number of victims is differently estimated. De Thou fixes it at 30,000, DeGully at 70,000. In 1598 he rewarded them by promulgat- ing the "Edict of Nantes." They were not satisfied with its provisions, which angered the King and he determined to exterminate them. The Huguenots were growing too power- ful politically as well as religiously. In 1590 they worship- ped in 3,500 chateaux and 200 towns.
The Edict of Nantes was revoked October 15, 1685. During the 87 years of its outward protection many subterfuges were resorted to under the dominance of the King, to destroy the growing power of these people. Louis XIV did not use the same prudence with them that Richelieu and Mazarin dictated, but began a series of persecution that in 1657 amounted to a war
(Note 1-Wars Between France and Germany, McCabe.)
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BLUE BOOK OF Huguenots and Palatines
of extermination. Seven hundred of their churches were de- stroyed. Thousands of them could not stand the oppression and yielded, but others suffered death rather than sacrifice their prin- ciples.
Many fled the sunny land, where their thrift and industry had created an Elysian bower, and where the vine and fruitage and broad acres smiled, with the results of their culture and labor.
Fully one million French subjects renounced their beautiful land and left their homes to escape this worse than death torture. The revocation of the Edict of Nantes crushed and wiped out more than half of the commercial and manufacturing interests of the nation and despoiled thousands of acres of the best fruit- age and cultivated land in the kingdom.
The young men crowded into the armies arrayed against the French nation, that they might avenge their wrongs and the men, women and children fled to Bavaria, Holland, Switzer- land and the upper and lower German Palatinate, becoming refugees and joining in a common cause with the Palatines, that they might escape the oppression and begin life anew in the new world.
Among those who came to interior eastern Pennsylvania. from 1710 to 1752, occur these names, and others, whose de- scendants in Berks and Schuylkill Counties are among the best known and most prominent citizens :1
Aurand,
De Benneville,
Ferney-Forney,
Barnard,
De Puis,
Huber,
Beyer,
De Bow,
Herbein,
Bayer-Boyer,
De Turck, Hess,
Baudeman,
De Keim,
Tonnelier-Kieffer,
Bertolette,
De Frehn, Le Van,
Baumgardner,
De Wald, La Pierre-Stein,
Baeshore,
Delchamp,
Meyer-Moyer,
Beauman,
Forrer,
Reyer-Royer,
(Note 1-Ship Lists, Penna. Archives, 2nd Series, Vol. XVII.)
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SCHUYLKILL COUNTY Huguenots and Palatines
Marquette,
Pershing,
Sallade,
Merclen-Merkle,
LeChar-Lecher,
Zarva-Sarva-Sevier.
Molette,
Sellaire-Zeller,
The majority of these names have been changed in the spelling but their origin remains the same. The above were, with others, from Alsace and Lorraine, who left France on the revocation of the Edict of Nantes. Others, whom the blind bigotry of monarchs drove across the seas to settle in eastern Pennsylvania, from 1730 to 1780, were :
Althouse,
Heffner,
Ritter,
Bergan,
Hoffman,
Redcamp,
Bland,
Henninger,
Rickert,
Bechtel,
Koehler,
Reed,
Batdorf,
Kissinger,
Staudt,
Bossard,
Kramer,
Spohn,
Boone,
Kauffman,
Schall,
Clemens,
Koch,
Schwall-Schwalm,
Conrad,
Ludwig,
Schollenberger,
Deibert,
Lauderbrun,
Spohn,
Dreibelbeis,
Pott,
Strauss,
Dengler,
Miessie,
Schaeffer,
Dieffenderfer,
Muenchs.
Shelly,
Easterly-Esterly,
Miller,
Sponchuchen,
Filbert,
Neifert,
Saylor,
Focht,
Oberholzer,
VanDusen,
Gruber,
Parvin,
Witman,
Guldin,
Rhoads,
Weiser,
Hoch-Hock-Hoy, Reber,
Womelsdorf.
Sigfried,
(Dr. W. W. Egle, State Historian, includes the above in his enumeration of the first families of Berks Co., Historical Register, Jan. 1883.)
Most persons familiar with history know that the Palatinate, used in a geographical sense, existed in two territorial divisions, upper and lower, as early as the eleventh century. The Lower,
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BLUE BOOK OF Huguenots and Palatines
Pfalz am Rhein, or Palatinate on the Rhine, was situated on both sides of that river and was bounded by Wurtemberg, Baden, Alsace, Lorraine, Treves and Hesse.
The Upper, or Ober Pfalz, on the east, was surrounded by Bohemia, Bavaria and Nuremberg. The Emperor Frederic II. gave the Palatinate to Louis of Bavaria, who retained the right until 1329. In 1356 the seven electors usurped these rights and the territories became the inalienable feudal possessions of the empire.
In 1559 Frederick III, who introduced Calvanism and gave his protection to the Huguenots, maintained the Reformed religion with great severity.
His son Louis, a zealous Lutheran, tried to undo his work and the Palatinates were compelled to change their religion fre- quently to conform with the tenets of their rulers; being Catholic, Calvanistic, and Lutheran successively.1
Ludovic V. lost the electorate, 1623, and the Duke of Ba- varia retained the upper Palatinate. In 1648 the Rheinish Pala- tinate was conveyed to Frederic's son. In 1694, in the war of the Spanish succession, the Upper Palatinate was again revived, and Bavaria again resumed its ancient rights.
During these numerous changes the Palatinates were cruelly desolated by the armies that made wars of conquest upon that soil. In 1801 France seized all on the west bank of the Rhine. In 1815 the left bank was restored to Germany.
Germany for many years was the battlefield of Europe. The armies of every European nation devastated her soil and de- spoiled her people. The palatinate bordering on France and Germany, was a peculiar prey of the invading hosts. The ceaseless disturbances and religious persecutions, after the revocation of the Edict of Nantes, sent 700,000 of France's best citizens to Germany, Switzerland, Holland and Britain;
(Note 1-Koeppen's Middle Ages.)
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SCHUYLKILL COUNTY Huguenots and Palatines
and the remarkably cold winter of 1708-9 was responsible with their other ills, for the great exodus of the French and Germans from the Palatinate.1
Faith and confidence in their rulers was destroyed and when the Gracious Queen Anne, of England, through her ministers abroad began to aid the French Protestants and sent assistance to the Palatines, in Holland, the exodus of the latter and many of the former followed.
William Penn, the silvery tongued Quaker, made two visits to Germany, in 1671 and 1677. Colonists were attracted to Pennsylvania through his agency, and other Colonial schemes followed.2
It is not the purpose of the writer to deal with the question of the German Immigration to the entire Western Hemisphere, which began in 1526, nor yet to specialize all of the colonies that followed after 1683.
The influx of the German population into Eastern Penn- sylvania, a humantide that at one time threatened to depopulate several provinces of Germany, and change all of this State into a German Colony, is, however, of especial interest.
Queen Anne donated land along the Broad, Saluda, Con- garee and Wateree rivers, in South Carolina, near the present site of Columbia, which is still known as "Dutch Forks."
Rev. Joshua Kockerthal, who was known as the "Joshua of the Palatines." 1706, at Frankfort, on the Main, wrote a volume extoling the wonderful resources of this land, "flowing with milk and honey." Kockerthal was something of a ro- mancist, but the influence of his book and other colonial pam-
(Note 1-Tindal's History of England says, "The winter was the most severe since 1683-4, and cattle, sheep and birds froze to death in the forest. Corn was scarce and fruit trees were killed. Frosts followed, killing the corn and calamity and desolation prevailed.")
(Note 2-Bancroft gives Wm. Penn the credit of this exodus of Ger- mans to Pennsylvania.)
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BLUE BOOK OF Huguenots and Palatines
phlets, induced 14,000 Germans, French, Swabians, and others, to forsake their native land and cast their lot with the Pala- tines.1
GERMAN IMMIGRATION
These people came to London, after many harrowing vi- cissitudes, and in 1709 left England for New York, which they reached December 31. Kockerthal made extraordinary efforts to direct the tide toward Carolina. The few who came to Pennsylvania were filled with distrust. Many adverse reports came from those who had gone south. Carolina was said to be excellent for wine production, while Pennsylvania was best for the staples of life, wheat, corn and barley. Kocker- thal never saw Carolina, but 650 immigrants in two vessels, under Christopher Graffenrid, reached the junction of the Neuse and Trent rivers, Carolina, early in 1710, and founded New Berne, named after the city in Switzerland from which their leaders came.
A fearful massacre by the Tuscarora Indians followed, in which over 100 colonists were slain, and the remainder prom- ised that they would take up no more land without an agree- ment with the Indians.
Twelve families and 50 others went north in April, 1714, where they settled on the Rappahannock river, in Virginia, worked in Governor Spottswood's furnace and defended the frontier. To this colony of Swiss and Huguenots came twenty families of eighty persons, from Alsace and the Palatinate, who were wrecked on the coast. Among them were the ancestors of Gov. Kemper .?
With the Sevier (Sarva), Roller and Bonneauvent families, who left Alsace, France, with thousands of others, on the
(Note 1-Kockerthal's volume at Astor Library, New York, is inac- cessible to the ordinary investigator. A synopsis, Vol. VIII, IX, Penn- sylvania, German Society, Magazine.)
(Note 2-History of South Carolina, Proprietary Government, Ed- ward MacCready.)
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SCHUYLKILL COUNTY Huguenots and Palatines
revocation of the Edict of Nantes, was Valentine Sevier, one of eight sons of John Sevier (Sarva), who took refuge in Switzer- land, subsequently fleeing to London, with his wife, when the persecution became so severe that thousands starved to death, or were executed at the block, stake or gibbet.
Coming to this country, 1727, they settled in Chester County, Pennsylvania, afterward Lancaster and Berks Coun- ties, from where they removed to Virginia; settling finally on the Watauga river, on the western side of the Alleghenies.
In 1732 the Governor of Virginia ceded to Jacob Van Meeter and John Jost Heydt, of Pennsylvania, twenty-five thousand acres of land, in the Shenandoah Valley, on the condition that they locate thereon, two hundred or more families. This was acted upon and was the beginning of a great migration from Pennsylvania to that valley, in Virginia, and which extended South to North Carolina, where a settlement was formed on the Yadkin river prior to 1750.
John2 Sevier, Valentine1, was born in Rockingham County, Virginia, September 23, 1745. The family in 1769 settled on the Watauga river, on the west side of the Alleghe- nies, where they, with other Virginians, built Fort Watauga and founded a new state. In 1774 John Sevier served as Cap- tain in Lord Dunsmore's war. In 1776 the Watauga settle- ments were annexed to North Carolina and Sevier represented the district in the Provincial Congress, which met at Halifax, Nov .- Dec. 1776, and adopted the first state constitution. In 1777 he was a member of the State House of Commons. He took part in the campaign, 1780, when the Cherokees, at Boyd's creek, Sevier County, were defeated. They named the river, Holstein, in East Tennessee, after the Duke and House of Holstein, whose retainers the "Servis" originally were.1
(Note 1-History of Denmark and Norway, Frederick Suhm.)
(Note-the small figures above the names throughout this volume denote the generation.)
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BLUE BOOK OF Huguenots and Palatines
One of the most brilliant achievements in the history of the American Revolution was that of General John Sevier, at the battle of King's Mountain, Oct. 7, 1780. It was at the darkest hour in the history of the war with Great Britain, when the cause in the South seemed doomed. General John Sevier, with indomitable courage, threw his little army against the almost impregnable position of the British. In one hour the left wing of the army of Cornwallis was shattered, he made his surrender at Yorktown; through this fierce assault his forces could not rally and American Independence was assured.
John Sevier, Commonwealth Builder, founded the new State of Frankland (afterward Tennessee), March, 1785, named after Benjamin Franklin. He was arrested by North Carolina authorities, for a leader of an independent government. He was the only Governor, Frankland had. In 1789 he was a member of the North Carolina Senate. In 1790 the North Carolina government ceded its land to the United States. John Sevier was the first Governor of Tennessee, 1796-1801, and again 18II-1815. He died at Fort Decatur, Georgia, September 24, 1815.133.
(The name Sevier is pronounced "Salvar", the "e" being sounded "ah".)
(Note 1-"Baird's Huguenots.")
(Note 2-"Huguenots in America," E. A. Stapleton.)
(Note 3-Eleventh Edition Encyclopedia Britannica.")
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SCHUYLKILL COUNTY Huguenots and Palatines
Palatines Come to London
N MAY, 1709, seven thousand of the Palatines came to London, from Holland, taking advantage of the general naturalization law, for foreigners; and the English nat- urally, were anxious to turn this tide toward populating their colonies in America.
Holland, which these people had enriched with their thrift and industry, three months later, too, issued a proclamation, offering to naturalize all refugees who sought a home in that country and to receive them as subjects.1
The Elector Palatine published an order making it death and confiscation of goods for any one of his subjects to leave their native country.
Ships were provided by the English government to bring them from Rotterdam and Queen Anne did all within her power to aid these unhappy people, who eventually became the object of the Colonial land speculators and English Commissioners.
INDIANS INVITE THEM TO AMERICA
Kapp says, that "about this time there were in London, five Mohawk chiefs, who had come from America to ask assistance of Queen Anne's government against the attack of the French in Canada. They visited the Palatine encampment, at Black- heath, and being told that it was the carnest desire of these people to obtain lands upon which they could live and help them- selves, they invited them to come to America and offered the Queen a gift of rich lands upon which they might settle."
(Note 1-Luttrell Diary, 1709.)
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BLUE BOOK OF Huguenots and Palatines
The army of Palatines in London, the middle of July, 1709, was variously estimated. One extravagant authority placing the number at 32,000. Kapp, more conservatively states, "that there were 14,000;" in this he is corroborated by the British Trade and Parliamentary Journals.1 Between two and three thousand Catholics, among them, who could not take the Protestant oath of allegiance, were returned to Germany; and about eight hun- dred of them abjured their faith rather than return.
Kockerthal, with fifty-three companions, reached New York, Dec. 31, 1709, founded Newburgh, on the Hudson; and 2,100 acres of land were allotted them, Kockerthal being given five hundred acres.
THEY SAIL FOR NEW YORK
The British Board of Trade concluded that New York could be used to furnish tar and pitch, and that the Palatines could be utilized for the manufacture of naval supplies, and, as "a barrier between Her Majesty's subjects and the French and their In- dians." Col. Robert Hunter, Governor, presented a plan for the establishment of three thousand Palatines, in New York.
The date of their sailing was the day before Christmas, but they were detained at Portsmouth, and a month elapsed be- fore their embarkation; they landed at New York June 13, 1710.2
One, Bendysh, contracted with the Board of Trade to carry in ten ships, three thousand, three hundred of them. They took the British oath of allegiance, and each person was required to take communion in a Protestant church, in England, after being naturalized.
(Note I-Pennsylvania Historical Society Records, Philadelphia.)
(Note 2-Rupp's 30,000 Immigrants, Appendix.) (State Papers, Co- lonial Series, N. Y.) (2d Series Penna. Archives, Vol. XVII.)
Note-The story of the Palatines, by Sanford H. Cobb, the former pastor, of the High-Dutch churches, of Schoharie and the Saugerties, of New York, describes in detail the exodus of the Palatines, from Europe, and their attempted settlement, in New York, and gives an outline map of their land in Pennsylvania.
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SCHUYLKILL COUNTY Huguenots and Palatines
The immigrants, who came in 1710, did not suffer as much from the cupidity of the contractors, who commissaried the ships, as those who came later.
WHO THE SETTLERS WERE
Nor were all of the immigrants in an impoverished condi- tion. Many of them bore with them the evidences of their thrift, in the Fatherland, in sums of money destined to provide for themselves and families for at least a year. Pastor Kockerthal sailed with them on his return voyage from Europe. A theolog- ical student, John Frederic Hager, Reformed, who was ordained, an Episcopal Missionary in England, for foreign parts, was with the expedition, and John Conrad Weiser, Sr., a widower with seven children, among whom was Conrad Weiser, Indian interpreter, then a boy of twelve years of age, was of the party. Weiser was the ancestor of Gov. J. A. Schultz, of Penna., and of the first Speaker of the U. S. House of Representatives, Frederick A. Muhlenberg, and his brother, Gen. Peter Muhlen- berg. With them, also, was the great-grandfather of William C. Bouck, Governor of the State of New York, from 1843 to 1845; and the ancestor of Gabriel Bouck, U. S. Senator, from Wisconsin, and that of General Herkheimer, of the war of the Revolution. With John Conrad Weiser, Sr., came Johannes and George Rieth, Johannes Schwall, Andreas Walborn and Martin, Lorentz and John Phillip (Sevier, Sarva) Zerbe, and others.1
Provoking calms and contrary winds prolonged their voyage from Christmas to June. It was difficult to carry provisions for such a length of time and the greatest economy in quantity of food was practiced. Ship fevers ensued from privation and the confinement during storms; and Governor Hunter reported, "four hundred and seventy as having died on shipboard and after their removal to land. Some of the vessels brought every
(Note 1-Kockerthal's Palatine Immigration to New York, Vol. 1, pp. 615-618.)
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BLUE BOOK OF Huguenots and Palatines
passenger safe into harbor." Diseases on shipboard were com- mon in the early days. The vessel Wm. Penn arrived on, in 1682, was infected with smallpox. The mortality in such cases was most severe among the children.
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SCHUYLKILL COUNTY Huguenots and Palatines
Settle in Province of New York
E may not all see sermons in stones, nor books in running brooks, but the story of these German, French and Swiss immigrants is one of the most tragic in the early history of America.
Political oppression and religious persecution drove them from their native land, to the province of New York, where they hoped. as individuals, through industry, to re-establish their homes and enjoy prosperity and happiness with their families, with liberty of conscience and in peace.
The Governor of the Province, Robert Hunter, and Robert Livingstone, a wealthy land proprietor, connived to make a profit out of these people, and a condition of things worse than their European bondage ensued, amounting almost to serfdom.
An instrument, prepared and revised by Attorney General Montague, was signed by the head of each family, in which the promise was made, that all monies advanced by Queen Anne, for their transportation, settlement and maintenance, in her Majesty's Province, should be restored to the British Govern- ment. To this end they were at once set to work, under military intimidation, at felling trees, burning tar, and raising hemp for the use of the British navy. The Covenant was an ironclad one, and the people soon realized that they had made a grievous mis- take in signing it. The covenant is among the documents per- taining to the Colonial History of New York.1
In one year Governor Hunter calculated that the immigrants would be self-sustaining and able to repay Her Majesty's debt, but the conditions were against then.
(Note 1-Vol. IV, 121, S. Q. Q. Astor Library.)
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BLUE BOOK OF Huguenots and Palatines
In the Autumn of 1710 they were taken up the Hudson to Livingstone Manor, where thirteen thousand, one hundred and thirty-three acres, on both sides of the river, were utilized to carry out Hunter's plans. Each family was provided with a lot forty feet front and fifty feet deep ; and the large pine forests were to provide the tar for all Europe.
EARLY PATRIOTS IN QUEEN ANNE'S WAR
The man who profited by this scheme was Robert Living- stone, whom Governor Hunter made terms with, selling the labor of the immigrants to him, at which the people demurred. They objected to being treated as a community, but wished to be dealt with as law-abiding individuals.
The wars which waged in France and England, during this century, soon extended to their domains, in America. The French, who were established in Canada, were desirous of dis- lodging the English on the south and they began to incite the Indians against them. The war of the Spanish succession began in Europe, 1702, and soon extended to America, where it was known as Queen Anne's War. In 1710 an expedition from Boston drove the French out of Acadie and annexed it to the British crown, under the name of Nova Scotia. In 1711 efforts were made to conquer Canada but were unsuccessful. The peace of Utrecht closed the war, April 11, 1713.
Having taken the oath of allegiance, the Palatines furnished three hundred men, and four companies, in the expedition in 171I against Montreal, under General Nichols, and the appeal for the defence of Albany, against the French. This was one year after their arrival in their adopted country.
These companies, whose rosters are incomplete, were only from the villages on the east side of the Hudson. The three vil- lages, on the west side, also furnished their quota. Six hundred was the number of troops from New York and the Palatines furnished three hundred of these. They were distributed in the
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SCHUYLKILL COUNTY Huguenots and Palatines
regiments of Colonels Schuyler and Ingoldsby and formed a large part of the army, being used as a wall of defence between the British and the French and their Indian allies.
On their return the Governor removed their arms from them, under the pretence that they might use them against the Province.1
SOLDIERS IN WAR OF 17II
State of New York. Report of the State Historian. 1896. Colonial Series. Volume I. (Title Page-Second Annual Report of the State Historian of the State of New York. Transmitted to the Legislature, February 22, 1897.) Page 442, Appendix "H."
July 16 (1711). List of Palatine Volunteers in Annsberg, Haysburg and Queensbury Expedition against Canada.
ANNSBERG
Hartman Windecker, apt.
Jacob Ess,
Jno. M. Dill,
Ferd'o Mentegen,
Peter Spies,
Conrad Kuhn,
Herman Bitzer,
Valtin Kuhın,
Johan Wm. Kammer,
Henrich Winter.
Johannes Bonrotlı,
Jno. Geo. Riffenberg,
Johannes Bernhard,
Jno. Wm. Linck,
Sebastian Fischer,
Henrich Fehlings,
Nicolaus Kayd,
Jacob Dings,
Henrick Klein,
Johannes Schue,
Hen. Bal't Stuber,
Jno. Wm. Schnieder,
Casper Rauch.
Jacob Bast,
Hans Hen. Zeller,
Johannes Blast,
Johannes Zeller,
Jno. Mart. Netzbach,
Samuel Kuhn,
Johannis Weis,
Gerhard Schaffer,
Jno. Ad'n Walborn.
Ulrich Bruckhart,
Jno. Hen. Orendorff,
(Note 1-Penna. German Society, Vol. VII-IX, pp. 117-118.)
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BLUE BOOK OF Huguenots and Palatines
Dan'l Busch,
Jno. Phill. ZERBE,
Jno. Hen. Conradt,
Jno Phill. Theis,
Hen. Ballinger,
Martin ZERBE,
Johan Schneider,
Nicolaus Rull,
Marcus Bellinger,
Adam C. Schmidt,
Phill. Schaffer,
Con'd Maisinger,
Johan Kradt,
Tho. Ruffinger.
Christ Sittenich,
Joh. Jost Petry,
Jno. Hen. Schmidt,
Ludw. Schmit,
250 men, women and children in village.
("True copy from original," Hen. Mayer.)
REPORT OF STATE HISTORIAN
State of New York, Report of the State Historian 1896- Colonial Series, Vol. I, 974.7-No. 4, 811.
Article III. "All of the muster rolls of the colony have been compiled from 1664 to 1760. The work on the Colonial records was suspended owing to lack of funds for the transla- tion."
These Dutch records are extremely valuable, historically, but a detailed history of the times in which they were written, can never be obtained until these documents are translated ; when, perhaps, the history of the six villages, on both sides of the Hudson, near Albany, will be revealed in its entirety.
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