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 3
Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).
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HAYSBURG
John Christopher Fucks,
Melch Folz,
John Wmn. Dales,
John Segendorf,
John Wm. Schaff,
Phillip Laux,
Christian Bauch,
Abraham Langen,
Peter Hayd,
Jno. Jacob Schutz,
Hen'r Hammer,
Jno. Wm. Hambuch,
Mich. Ittich,
Niclaus Laux,
Johan. Keyser,
Niclaus Gottel,
Jacob Cup,
Paulus Reitchoff.
Paulus Dientzer,
243 women and children in village.
33
SCHUYLKILL COUNTY Huguenots, and Palatines
QUEENSBURY
Johan Con'd Wiser, Capt.,
Christian Haber,
Andreas Bergman,
Johannes Feeg,:
Mattheus Kuntz,
Mattheus Reinbolt,
Jno. Peter Dopff.
Fred. Schaffer,
Jno. Jacob Reisch, Carl Nehr,
Jno. Pet. Sein,
Heinrich Jung,
Jno. Jack. Munsinger,
Hen. Hoffman,
Johan Leyer,
Werner Deichert,
Jacob Kuhn,
Fred. Bellinger,
Hen. Widerwachs,
George Mathias,
Christ'o. Hagedorn,
Niclaus Teller, Jacob Weber,
Wm. Nelles,
Johannes Kistler,
Jacob Schnell, Geo. Breigel, John Schaeffer.
George Dachstader, 356 men, women and children in village. ("True copy from original," Hen. Mayer.)
HUNTERSTOWN July 16, 1711.
Jno. Peter Kneskern, Capt.
David Huppert,
Condad Schawerman, Henrich Sex,
Frederich Bell,
Baltz Anspach. Conrad Keller,
Jacob Kobell,
Jno. George Schmidt,
Jacob Warne, Johannes Schulteis,
Johannes Laysdorf, Frantz Fink,
Andreas Schurtz, Peter Hagedorn, Niclaus Weber, Wm. George, Lieut.,
Antho. Schaid.
Geo. Muller,
Hen'r. Matthews,
Niclaus Eckard,
Martin Dillenback,
Reinhard Schaffer Johannes Roschman, Carl Uhl,
Con'd. Goldman, Geo. Bender,
34
BLUE BOOK OF Huguenots and Palatines
Jno. Hen. Uhl,
Veil. Musig,
Theo. Schumaker,
Geo. Kerchiner,
Peter Schmidt,
Christ Hills,
Johan SCHWALB,
Rudol. Stahl.
Geo. Lud. Koch,
336 men, women and children in village.
The majority of those who came to the Tulpehocken, Chester County, Pennsylvania, 1723, with the thirty-three original families, were from Annsberg, afterward from Schoharic, N. Y., but several were from the last named vil- lages.
The companies were formed of volunteers; and shows that the Palatines were imbued with a patriotic spirit, enlisting to defend the Province of New York, only one year after they entered the country.
Governor Hunter was impoverished and in debt; and in the winter of 1712 informed the people that they must sustain themselves. The contract was broken and starvation was im- minent if they remained. True to their first intention and broken ideals, they recalled the five Indian chiefs, in London, who had presented Queen Anne with a tract of land for their use, and the elder Weiser went to Schoharie, with others, to treat with the Indians. They paid the equivalent of three hundred dollars, to the Indians for their lands, and in less than two weeks fifty families moved to Schoharie, building fifteen miles of roadway through the forests. The Governor threat- ened them that unless they returned they would be treated as rebels. March, 1713, they were joined by a number of their kindred, who made their way through drifts of snow. The Indians gave them potatoes and herbs, and provided them with seed.
THEIR LANDS RESOLD
It was a beautiful country, and they had twenty thousand acres under tillage and made a perfect Acadia of it. There
F
35
SCHUYLKILL COUNTY Huguenots and Palatines
were about seven hundred of them, and they settled in seven villages, named after the delegates, who treated with the Indians and led the colony: Kneskerndorf-Gerlachsdorf- Fuchsendorf - Schmitsdorf-Weiserdorf-Hartsmansdorf- and Ober-Weiserdorf.
The most hazardous labor, privation and hardship, was endured ; but these settlements were made to blossom like the rose, with well cultivated fields, vine-clad hills, meadows green with verdure and gardens of beauty. They had no agricultural implements of any kind, save such as were used by the Indians.
They were zealously watched by Government spies, and conspirators soon dispossessed them of their lands, on the plea that they had no title to them, Governor Hunter selling them to seven rich merchants of Albany and New York.
John Conrad Weiser sent his son Conrad to live with the Indians, that he might learn the Mohawk language, and the most friendly relations were maintained between the exiles and the red men. The most bitter hatred, however, existed between the Holland Dutch and the new settlers.1
(Note 1-Hallische Nachrichten.)
36
BLUE BOOK OF Penna. Pioneers of 1723
The Thirty-three Families
HE Palatines were ignorant in the law, and claimed they had bought their lands from the Indians, or they had been given them by the red men. When the purchasers attempted to settle on them they were resisted by the Palatines. John Conrad Weiser, with two others, left secretly for England, 1718, to lay the matter before the Crown and the English Board of Trade. They were captured by pirates in Delaware Bay, robbed and cruelly beaten, and only reached England after a long delay. Walrath, one of the three commissioners, died and they were imprisoned for debt before they could attempt to secure a redress. Governor Hunter was recalled in 1720 and his defense was used in the Board of Trade against the confirmation of the titles and other land was offered the people. Some purchased their homes outright, and others re- moved to various places.1
What is more pitiful than this third exodus of these Germans, French and Swiss, from their homes and lands in the Schoharie, from which they had again been defrauded? Sir William Keith, Governor of the colony of Pennsylvania, was in Albany at the time the immigrants were dispossessed of their lands and invited them to settle in his state. It was afterward insinuated of him, that "he desired to form a colony in Pennsylvania and Ohio and head it," and that, "he wished to populate Pennsylvania at the expense of New York."
Guided by friendly Indians, through the unbroken forests, a little band of thirty-three families, in 1723, set out for a new
(Note 1-Kapp's Geschichte der Deutschen im Staat N. Y.)
Bender
torbe .
Ofristopher Beustr.
Per Thebo.
Beurge Other Kerbe
Huberich Winter.
Nicholas Heynut.
Hans Boyer
Christopher Bfrump.
Hans Brory Larguer"
Shares Nur
Abraham Hurks.
About Stupp
Helger.
Illanor Liar
Hrane Beach. Throb Chefbregen.
Herman @Uniborn.
Mich nel Bchmibr
Jacob Orgaefter
Caspar Birth.
Piamton
Johnnyhoher.
Joban Koffer
Illance
Wheretophir Kayseri
Preter Bagels
Pier Bifnitta.
Brorge X+6
Cinab Thong.
Christian Habera.
Michnet @trust.
Dobro Tyconfort Birth.
Brorgr Brueg
George Anruf
1717
Abam
Uncob
Diffrbuch .
İşbermm.
Vennes Droserem
S
Vering Oregon
Ludwig Brum
NIVONA
Mnete Heranborn.
happ.
Mifinal Mesi
Oufprharkon Jaffry pioneer Homesteads. 1723 Draws by Lindemouth
Bonnet Holston
From early Survey
Brothers Anspach.
Abnma Shurts.
Martin Butborte
Marge Birth.
Omend Boldinar
Christen Trouver.
Carence are Sebastian Hourfjer.
Philip Braun
Uneab Kappt
H
Myeoand Anapacf
Birthing Minnick.
1
37
SCHUYLKILL COUNTY Penna. Pioneers of 1723
Eldorado, in the backwoods of Pennsylvania, their destination being the "Tulpewihaki," the "land of the Turtle's song." With heroic faith and pathetic determination, they performed an act of endurance and fortitude that has no parallel in the history of the New England States, and forms one of the most romantic and tragic epochs in the colonial events in the early history of the United States.
Guided by the Indians, they traveled from the Schoharie to the headwaters of the Susquehanna, cutting a road through the unimpenetrable forests. Rafts and boats were built for the transportation of their wives, children and household goods, while their cattle were driven overland, along the banks of the rivers, by the men who were not required to propel the boats. Down the Chenango river to where it unites with the east branch of the Susquehanna, past the future sites of Binghampton, Athens and Towanda, they journeyed.1
Bent upon reaching a place they could call home, even their motto, "Ohne hast, Ohne rast" (without haste, without rest") could only conjure up a picture of incessant toil and hardships before the desired haven was attained. The yellow waters of the west branch of the Susquehanna joined them below Danville, friendly Indians assisted them, doubtless on their way, at Wilkesbarre and at Sunbury, where Fort Sha- mokin was afterward maintained against the same tribes. The beauties of the Blue Juniata, with its weird Indian tragedies and romances, did not tempt them to stop; but their motto like the banner of strange device, "Upidec" (Longfellow), bore them on, till the site of Harrisburg was left in the dis- tance; and they reached a point, then in Chester County, near Middletown3, Dauphin County, where the Swatara creek unites with the Susquehanna, where they left that broad stream and
(Note 1-Rupp gives it as the Spring of 1723.)
(Note 2-The settlement of Womelsdorf was first called Middletown. Some historians are of the opinion that the contingent of thirty-three families came to that point before separating.)
38
BLUE BOOK OF Penna. Pioneers of 1723
settled all along the banks of the Tulpehocken River, between the South and the Blue Mountain, in southeastern Pennsylva- nia, and on its tributary creeks, Mill, Plum, Northkill and Cacoosing.1
A tradition says that "twelve horses belonging to the im- migrants, not liking the situation in Berks County, returned to Schoharie, New York, the journey occupying almost a year."2
Another story handed down, says that "when the immi- grants reached the spot where Stouchsburg, Marion Township, now stands, they halted, camped and removed their clothing, bathing in the Tulpehocken river, which was covered with blood from the injuries they received enroute. The tale con- tinuing narrates that the hardiest of the newcomers selected the heavy bottoms, along the streams, where the timber growth was the thickest, and the laziest and infirm took to the hillsides, which were but sparsely covered.3
The township of Tulpehocken was a recognized dis- trict before 1723. It was then a part of Chester County and extended from the Blue, or Kittatinny mountains, on the north, to Reading on the south, where the Tulpehocken river unites with the Schuylkill; and from the latter river, on the east, to an imaginary boundary line included in Lancaster County, when it was erected, 1729.
SETTLERS PETITION GOVERNOR
The first mention of the name Tulpehocken was in 1707, when a French Indian trader, one Nicole, was arrested by order of the Governor, mounted upon a horse, his legs tied
(Note 1-The Tulpehocken river and its branches cover an area of 75 miles, it being the longest river in Berks County.)
(Note 2-Montgomery's History of Berks County.)
(Note 3-Mrs. Elizabeth Deupple Dysinger, born 1760, died 1857, aged 97 years, who lived in the family of John Zerbe, the second miller, nearly all her lifetime, had a great fund of reminiscential folk-lore at her com- mand. The above being one of her stories.)
39
SCHUYLKILL COUNTY Penna. Pioneers of 1723
under its belly, and in this fashion he was taken from a settlement, on the Susquehanna, to Philadelphia, by way of Tulpehocken and Manatawny, for trial at court.1
When Lancaster County was erected, 1729, the Indians still claimed the territory of the Tulpehocken. They had released their rights to the Penns, who purchased a district that was bounded by the South Mountain, but the settlers were aggressive and settled beyond the limits. In 1723 the thirty-three families from the Schoharie made a settlement on Tulpehocken creek, and in 1728 were followed by fifty families more. The Indians knew they were trespassers, but treated the first delegation with great kindness, and made no com- plaint. With the arrival of the second colony, June 5, 1728, the Indians laid a complaint before the Provincial Council, at Philadelphia. Sassoonan, with other Indians, conferred with the Lieutenant Governor and the Executive Council regarding the limits of the lands released, 1718, and it was admitted that the Tulpehocken settlers were trespassers.
Indian Commissioner Logan said, that "this settlement had been effected without the consent of the commissioners." He then presented the following petition, from the Palatines, which he read to a vast assemblage which filled the executive chamber in Philadelphia :
"To His Excellency, Lieut. Governor, and his Executive Council, of the Province of Pennsylvania :
"The petition of us, the subscribers, being thirty-three families in number, at present inhabiting Tulpahaca creek- humbly showeth-
"That, your petitioners, being natives of Germany, about 15 years ago, were by the great goodness of Queen Anne,
(Note 1-Colonial Records, Vol. 2, p. 405.)
40
BLUE BOOK OF Penna. Pioneers of 1723
relieved from the hardships, which they then suffered in Europe, and were transported into the colony of New York, where they settled. But their families increasing, and being in that government, confined to the scanty allowance of ten acres of land to each family, whereon they could not well subsist, your petitioners, being informed of the kind reception which their countrymen usually met with, in the Province of Penn- sylvania, and hoping they might, with what substance they had, acquire larger settlements in that Province, did last year, in the Spring of 1723, leave their settlements, in New York government, and came with their families into this Province ;. where, upon their arrival, they applied themselves to His Ex- cellency, the Governor, who of his great goodness, permitted them to inhabit, upon Tulpahaca creek, being the farthest inhabited part of the Province northwest from Philadelphia ; on condition that they should make full satisfaction to the proprietor, or his agents, for such lands as should be allotted to them when they were ready to receive the same. And now your petitioners, understanding that some gentlemen, agents of the proprietors, have ample powers to dispose of lands in this Province, and we, your petitioners, being willing and ready to purchase, do humbly beseech your Excellency and Council, to recommend us to the favorable usage of the pro- prietor's agent, that upon paying the usual prices for lands at such a distance from Philadelphia, we may have sufficient rights and titles made to us for such lands as we shall have occasion to buy, that our children may have some settlement to depend on hereafter; and that by your authority we may be freed from the demands of the Indians, of that part of the country, who pretend a right thereto. And we humbly beg leave to inform your Excellency and Council, that there are fifty families more, who, if they may be admitted upon the same conditions, are desirous to come and settle with us.
41
SCHUYLKILL COUNTY Penna. Pioneers of 1723
We hope for your favorable answer to this, our humble re- quest ; and as in duty bound, shall ever pray, etc.
Johannes Yans,
Peter Ritt,
Hamelar Ritt, Antonis Sharb,
Conrad Schitz,
Paltus Unsf,
Johan Peter Pacht, Jocham Michael Chiricht
Sebastian Pisas,
Josap Sab,
Andrew Falborn,
Jorge Ritt,
Godfreyt Filler, Johannes Claes Shaver,
Toritine Serbo, (Lorenz Zerbe.)1 23
The names of the signers were in German script. The above are spelled as in the original.
The Indians were requested to wait, and were promised that the matter would be settled satisfactorily. Immigration did not stop and the Germans continued to fill the valley.
Wm. Penn being dead, a division of his Province was demanded by his heirs. The proprietaries were pushed for money at this time, but their letters, November 25, 1727 and 1728, show that they still desired conciliation and peace with the Indians rather than warfare; and to this end James Logan, Indian agent, lent his best endeavors. John Penn promised to come over in 1729, but it was not until 1732, when Thomas Penn came, that the question was settled. September 7, 1732, a deed was obtained from the Indians, covering the entire "Ganshowehanna"4 region for fifty pounds in money and various goods and trinkets. The Germans were enabled to gain valid titles to their land through purchase and the Indians retired over the Blue Mountains to the region of Northumberland, Berks, now Schuylkill County, and North-
(Note 1-Zerbe History, Part 2.)
(Note 2-Colonial Records of Pennsylvania, Vol. VIII, pp. 310-323.)
(Note 3- Penna. German Society, Vol. IX, page 366.)
(Note 4-Ganshowehanna was the name given the Schuylkill river by the Indians and means falling stream. )
42
BLUE BOOK OF Penna. Pioneers of 1723
ampton counties, from which they again were dispossessed by the whites, 1749.
There is no doubt that Governor Keith had transcended his authority in inviting the immigrants to settle in Pennsyl- vania. The land in Lancaster County, erected 1729, belong- ed to the Indians as far as Oley, the first Indian purchase being made in 1718. The land commissioners, of whom James Logan was chief, September 7, 1732, bought other land from the Indians and settlers took their grants from Thomas Penn through his agents, the above, and Casper Wister.1 The grant included all the land drained by the Schuylkill and its tributaries, lying between the Blue Moun- tains and the Blue Ridge, Pennsylvania.2
FIRST CHURCH BUILT
The segregation of the immigrants was complete. In 1725, a meeting was held by them in the block-house, on the Millbach, to discuss the question of building a meeting house, wherein, also, instruction might be imparted to their chil- dren. John Page, the proprietor of Plumpton Manor, had set aside for church, cemetery and school purposes, seven acres of land, to which Adam, Christopher and John Leon- ard Rieth donated an additional seven acres, and a log church was built.
The work was done by the men, women and children, the smallest of the latter being housed in the block-house, which was fortified and where their ammunition and provis- ions were stored during the erection.3 The church stood on an eminence, above the Tulpehocken river and Mill Creek and later was known as the Rieth's, or Zion's Church.
(Note 1-The Penn's agent, Casper Wister, appended to his signature in almost every instance, his trade, "Brass Button Maker.")
(Note 2-Penna. Archives, Vol. 1, pp. 344-347.)
(Note 3-The block house stood on land now owned by Wm. Zeller, near Newmanstown, Berks County.)
RIETH'S CHURCH, BUILT 1727, LOCATED ON THE TULPEHOCKEN, NEAR PRESENT SITE OF STOUCHSBURG, PA.
43
SCHUYLKILL COUNTY Penna. Pioneers of 1723
The Indians were hostile and wily, and a watch was maintained at all times. The building was made of logs, with rude mortar to fill the crevices. The men hewed the trees and split logs, the women carried water and helped fill the chinks.
The pulpit was a huge round block, the base of a tree, the seats were of logs split, with the smooth or inner sides uppermost. A vault was built underneath the earthen floor to stock the ammunition ; and the pastor had his old flint lock rifle in front of him as he preached. In winter a large wood fire was kept outside, at which the people warmed themselves before entering. The church was five months in building and was completed about 1727.1 The log church stood in the corner of the cemetery until about ten years ago, when it was burned down. The present Zion's Church, on the outskirts of Stouchsburg, was built of stone from the abutments of the Union Canal which ran to that point.
The Swedes, who came to this part of Chester County, in 1701, erected a church, 1716, in Amity Township. Prior to this time they worshipped at the Old Swedes' Church, Swanson and Christian Streets, Philadelphia.
PETITION FOR ROADS
The Huguenots, who came to Oley, 1712, later attended religious services at the Trappe.
The Friends Meeting House, situated in the Monocacy Valley, on the Amity line, was not built until 1736. The meeting house referred to in the accompanying petition was a small building adjoining George Boone's mill, built 1725. The sect also met for worship in each other's homes.
(Note 1-Christopher Sauers' newspaper, October 16, 1747, says, "The Reformed and Lutheran people worshipped here," and that it was the "first church in Berks County," meaning, doubtless, first Lutheran and Reformed.)
44
BLUE BOOK OF Penna. Pioneers of 1723
The petition for the building of a road is published else- where in this volume, (see index) and is a facsimile of the original, with a certificate attesting its correctness and is self explanatory.
Another petition for a road from Oley, recorded a little later than the above, was also made.1 It asks for a road from the Blue Mountains, where the Shamokin road intersects the same to the great road, leading to Philadelphia ; and the road from the Tulpehocken. The Oley road was the road to Philadelphia for many years until changed by a road from the point, near Black Bear Inn, to Douglassville.ª
THE TULPEHOCKEN CONFUSION
The potentiality of the early history of the German, Swiss and Huguenot settlers, in Eastern Pennsylvania, would not be complete without some reference to the "Tulpehocken Confusion." When the vicarious conditions that beset the immigrants in every direction from the land of their birth, up to that time, are reflected upon, the bitter aggression and recrimination that arose from their religious difficulties must be considered with at least a moiety of for- bearance. Their strife was largely the result of the lack of sociological conditions, to which their poverty and hardships contributed ; their religion was their all and they fought for it with the same zest they bestowed on other pursuits, its utilitarianism, as a factor in their lives, being its highest standard.
Schmauck's history of the early Lutheran churches in eastern Pennsylvania, gives an interesting and voluminous
(Note 1-The original draft is to be found in Miscellaneous Papers, 1724-1742, p. 83, Lancaster County, Pennsylvania Historical Society, Phila- delphia.)
(Note 2-Fort Augusta, Shamokin, now Sunbury, was erected in 1756, and the road to it, Shamokin road, was afterward the Centre Turnpike, running through Pottsville.)
45
SCHUYLKILL COUNTY Penna. Pioneers of 1723
account of the difficulties in Zion's, or Rieth's church, in detail. An original German manuscript in the Moravian Archives, of the old Moravian church, Bethlehem, Pa., en- titled "Church Book of the Evangelical Lutheran Gemeine, in Tulpehocken, 1733-1747," gives a conservative history of the events involved between these dates. It was written by the early missionaries of that church and fell into posses- sion of the Moravians during their occupancy. This book is the early history, so frequently referred to, as "the lost records of Rieth's church." There are, however, no records, of the five years that Haenckle and Van Duren ministered to these people, and much that occurred from the building of the church, in 1727, to 1733, is lost, and will remain so, unless some Bibliographer, still at work on the original man- uscripts, discovers them.1
"In the year 1723, Tulpehocken was first settled by Luth- erans from Schoharie, (Albany Co., N. Y.) Bernhard Van Duren was their reader and acted as their pastor, in New York. He promised to live among them, but never came. He visited them about once a year, to give them communion and baptize their children. Phillip Mueller, Reformed, came also twice a year. There came one, Haenckle, from Falckner's Schwamm (Swanıp), who advised us to build a church, which was done 1727."
John Bernard Van Duren was a German tailor, accord- ing to the Lutheran historians, a colporteur before Ziegen- hagen, in London, who claimed to be a minister and officiated as such, in Schoharie, but created disturbance there, settling afterward in Raritan, N. J.
(Note 1-The author had access to this manuscript in the private library of the archivist, at Bethlehem, and appends it in part.)
46
BLUE BOOK OF Penna. Pioneers of 1723
Gerhard Haenckle came to Falckner's Swamp, 1717. He was an itinerant Lutheran and school teacher.1
"Caspar Stoever went about preaching and we had ser- mons read by 'Vorlesen'. There were petitions sent by the people to London to Court-preacher Ziegenhagen, for preach- ers, but no pastor was sent."
"In 1733, a call with the seal and signature of each per- son was sent to Germany for a pastor, which was accepted. We built him a house, but almost a year afterward word came that he had died at sea. Then we extended a call to Caspar Leutbecker. He took the house built for the minister and then our troubles began."
"In 1734 a man brought him a child to baptize and he began to question him when he discovered the man was drunk, and he turned him away. The man was not repentant and took the child to Caspar Stoever, at Connestoga, who baptized it, without informing Leutbecker, and a strife and division in the church occurred."2
It was said that "Stoever had been unlawfully or- dained," and it now became the object of the rival faction to gain and keep possession of the church. "A lock was placed on the gate, but the other party cut another entrance to the cemetery, in which the church stood. Caspar Leut- becker had sole authority to preach and teach in the church, and Stoever was enjoined to keep the peace."
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