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 9
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BLUE BOOK OF Mexican War
Castle of Revote, Mexico, July 16, 1847.
My Dear Mother :-
I am now in this castle, 36 miles from Jalapa, about IIO from Vera Cruz, and more than 2,000 from you and my own dear home. I am in good health, good spirits, and pleased with my companions. Here we live on the best productions of Mexico, without work, and permitted to enjoy ourselves as we most desire ; and so long as we enjoy health, no one could wish for more happiness. The building is very large, the city of Revote a short mile distant, and the whole country around is a level plain of cultivated land, bounded by mountains of immense heighth, for their tops are always covered with snow. Beef, pork, potatoes, onions, beans, peas, tomatoes, etc., are very plenty, but very dear here.
We have had some hard fighting, but, thank God, I am yet among the living, although in the midst of all the trials. On the evening of the 21st of June, our company, with some others, left here to relieve a train of wagons from Vera Cruz, and the next morning at three o'clock we routed our savage enemies at Lavidia, about 16 miles from here. The Mexicans numbered about 500-our force about 300; but we routed and defeated them, killing about 100 of them, with- out loss of a single man, although we lost four horses.
We are now awaiting fresh orders, and expect to have another engagement with more than 5,000 Mexicans who have fortified the National Bridge, between here and Vera Cruz. When or whither we go is uncertain.
The sick and wounded are dying very fast in our hos- pital. The funerals average from 10 to 13 every day. We have only lost five out of our company by death, but many by desertion and discharge.
We are uncertain when peace will be agreed upon, or when we will return home.
grafi
Albrecht Strug
in Right of - hours
Philly Shown
Var Wilhelm Valentine Undren
Jable Joe Konder Jol Anda
. Tarte: Agerman
Giro. Right" \ hit Culich in formes)
1m
Henry Jung
Mail. Makin" Coupon Mung
Peler .Lo
John Orgel
Godutan
Vac. Hayale
Un Tulpchoccon
Marcus Margin
Hyphen
Michael
( Brukt
Meghan
1
1
Hastael
Polothat No Greider
LAND OF EARLY SETTLERS ALONG THE TULPEHOCKEN
John Terry
Mick Wantner
Mar!"
Mal Ingen
And Safe
SCHUYLKILL COUNTY Mexican War
I2I
I have never received an answer to any of my letters home, and you need not expect another until you write to
Your affectionate son,
William Merkle.
Mrs. Elizabeth Merkle.
The Civil War of the Rebellion has not been adverted to in these pages. It is of too recent occurrence and its his- tory too well known to class it with the early events to which the volume is devoted. Its stirring history is left to the pen of the historian of the future if it has not been already covered by the ready writer.
S
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BLUE BOOK OF The Early Settlers
The Early Settlers
'T IS difficult to divorce a given locality from the name it bears at the present time. From this arises the general impression that Schuylkill County, because it was not or- ganized at that date, has no ante-Revolutionary history, and that its area had no settlers before Berks County was erected in 1752, or even before its broad acres were included under its present title, Schuylkill County, in 1811. It should be borne in mind that the land included in Schuylkill County was once known as Chester, later as Lancaster and then as Berks County.
The history of the early settlers along the Schuylkill River and the interior townships of Schuylkill County is synonymous with that of Berks County and one of the keen- est pleasures of the historian is to trace the relationship of the heads of the many prominent families in Berks County, (Schuylkill), whose descendants by the hundreds occupy prominent places in the makeup of other cities, states and towns all over the United States and not the least of them, those that have contributed so largely to the population of Schuylkill County. A brief mention of some of these, it would be impossible to note all, is involved in the story.
EARLY NOTABLE SETTLERS
The Minsi Indian village, Tulpewehaki, after which the section called Tulpehocken was named, existed in 1723, when the thirty-three families came to where Middletown, Dauphin County, now is, on the Swatara Creek, where they distributed themselves, their descendants populating the Tulpehocken,
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SCHUYLKILL COUNTY The Early Settlers
from which was formed Tulpehocken, Upper Tulpehocken, Bethel, Heidelberg, North Heidelberg, Lower Heidelberg, Bern, Penn, Centre, Upper Bern, Marion and Jefferson Townships, all that locality at that date being then included in Chester County.
One of the most notable men among the early settlers was Conrad Weiser Jr1., who came to the Tulpehocken from New York, 1729, with his wife and four children and settled one mile east of Middletown (Womelsdorf.)
His father, John Conrad Weiser, Sr., was a magis- trate and man of influence in Gross Astlach, County Back- nang, Duchy of Wuertemberg, Germany. With the ruin of his home he cast his lot with the Palatines and immigrated to America in 1710. The mistake of his life was that he, a widower with seven children-one daughter, married, re- mained in Germany-in 1711, married a woman much younger than himself. His first wife was Anna Magdalena Ueblen, who died May I, 1709, and was buried in Astlach. The second wife, with whom he had three children, was unkind to him and to his children. Two of his sons, George and Christoph Frederick, were bound out by the Governor of Long Island ; his family scattered, and his son, Conrad, lived with the Mohawks.
THE WEISERS, FATHER AND SON
Though treating his children with harshness he seemed himself to have been very unhappy and came in great hu- mility and penitence, at the age of 86, to die with his son, Conrad, in Penna., his death occurring July 13, 1760, and that of his wife June 10, 1781.
Conrad Weiser, Jr., was born at Aestaet, Herrenberg, Wuertemberg, Germany, November 2, 1696. He came with
(Note 1-A diary of his, owned by Howell Souders, of Tamaqua, Pa., and translated from the German by Rev. George Gebert, gives many in- teresting facts of his life.)
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his father to New York, 1710, at the age of 14. He lived with the Mohawk Indians eight years, in the family of Quaynant, Mohawk Chief, where he acquired the Magnaisch language. Returning to his father's home in the Schoharie he frequently acted as interpreter between the Germans and the Indians. He was employed in this capacity by the Pro- vincial Government, after his removal to the Tulpehocken, 1729, a position he filled with great discretion and tact. He was promnient in the French and Indian war and served as Colonel in that war in command of the Second Battalion, Pennsylvania Recruits. He was a magistrate for the Pro- vincial Government and his letters to the agents of that Government during the Indian War reflect great credit on his sagacity and prudence in his dealings with the red men.1
CONRAD WEISER'S DIARY2 3
In the year 1696 on the 2nd of November was I, Conrad Weiser, born in Europe, in the country of Wuertemberg, in the Magistracy at Herrenberg. , The village is called Ae- staet, and at Kuppingen nearby I was baptized.
My father's name was Johann Conrad Weiser. My mother, Anna Magdalena, nec Ueblen. My grandfather, also Jacob Weiser, magistrate in the village of great Astlach, in the District of Backnang, situated in the county of Wuert- emberg, in above village. My ancestors, from very olden times were born and lie buried there, as well on the father's as on the mother's side.
In the year 1709 my mother departed on the Ist day in May in the 43rd year of her age, when she was with her 10th child. She left the children: Catrina, Margreda, Magdalena,
(Note 1-Col. Records, Vol. 2, Penna. Archives.)
(Note 2-From "Penn Germania," September-October, 1912, Vol. 1, Old Series.)
(Note 3-The diary is interwoven with many pious ejaculations and quotations from the Scriptures. The historical part only is published.)
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SCHUYLKILL COUNTY The Early Settlers
Sabina, Conrad, George, Frederick, Barbara, Johann Frederick, and was there buried by the side of her ancestors. *
In the above named year, 1709, my father moved away from Great Astlach, on the 24th of June. He took seven chil- dren with him. My oldest sister Catrina remained there with her husband, Conrad Boss, with whom she had already two children. My father left them his house, fields and meadows, vineyards and gardens. They could raise no more than 75 guilders. The rest, amounting to 600 guilders, my father was to get later, but was never done and is now presented to them.
After about two months we landed in London, England, with some thousand (a few thousand) Germans whom Queen Anna of most honorable memory received and supplied with food. About Christmas we were loaded, ten ships full, about 4000 souls, for America. On the 13th of June we came to anchor in New York, North America, and in the Fall of the same year were placed on Lewenstein's Manor at the expense of the Queen.
Here in Livingstone or Lewenstein Manor, we were to burn tar and cultivate hemp to remunerate the Queen for the passage. From Holland to England and from England to New York under direction of Compeers as: Johann Cast, Heinrich Meyer, Reichard Seukott, who were placed over us by Robert Hunter, Governor of New York. Nothing would succeed however, and the people were declared free and re- leased in the year 1713. Then the people separated into the province of New York. Many remained there.
Nearly 150 families resolved to move to Jochary, a place about 40 English miles to the west of Albany. They sent Deputies to the Magnaisch Land to confer about it with the Indians, who allowed them to settle at Jochary because of their Indian deputy, who was in England, while the German people lay in tents on the black heath, had presented this
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BLUE BOOK OF The Early Settlers
Jochary to Queen Anna to settle this people on it. The In- dian Deputies were sent to direct the Germans to Jochary. My father was the first among the German Deputies.
In November, 1713, after the above mentioned deputies returned from the Magnaisch Land to the Manor Lewenstein, the people moved the same Fall to Albany and Schenectady, so as to move to Jochary the next Spring. Bread was extra- ordinarily high. The people worked hard to earn their daily bread, but the inhabitants were very liberal and did these newly-arrived Germans much good although the evilminded were not wanting also. My father arrived the same Fall in Schenectady and stayed during the winter with a man by the name of Johann Meynderton. A chief of the Magnaisch Na- tion by the name of Quaynant visited my father, and they decided that I should go with Quaynant into his country to learn the Magnaisch language. I went with him and arrived toward the end of November, in Magnaisch Land, and had to lodge with the Indians. I had to suffer .much from the severe cold for I was but poorly clothed. Toward Spring I suffered much from hunger because the Indians had nothing to eat. One bushel of corn cost from 5 to 6 shillings. The Indians were at that time also very cruel in their drunken- ness, so that I had often to hide myself from fear of the drunken Indians. *
In the Spring of 1714 my father moved from Schenectady to Schohary, with about 150 families in great poverty. One borrowed a horse here and another borrowed a cow there, a harness for a plow, with it they hitched together and broke up so much land so that the next year they had almost corn enough to eat. During the year we suffered much hunger however, and the people made many a meal with wild pataten (potatoes) and strawberries (Erdbonnen) which grow here in large quantities. Potatoes are called by the Indians, ochnanada and strawberries, otachvagara.
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SCHUYLKILL COUNTY The Early Settlers
If we wanted flour we had to go about 35 or 40 miles for it and to get it we had to beg it on credit; then one got a bushel or two here and the other there of wheat and had to be often 3 or 4 days from home before we arrived with our own people, who waited meanwhile with pain and tears for bread. The people had settled in villages, of which there were seven. The first and nearest to Schenectady was called I, Knes Kernville ; 2, Gerlachisville ; 3, Foxville ; 4, Hans George Schmitzville; 5, Weisers or Bremenville: 6, Hartmansville ; 7. Upper Weiserville.
After the deputies who had been sent to Lewensteine's Manor returned toward the end of July, I came again from the Indians to my father. I had made a good beginning, or had learned the greater part of the Magnaisch language. One English mile from my father's house lived some Magnaisch families. Then there were often of the Magnaisch on their hunting trips in trouble and there was much to interpret but without pay. There was no one else to be found among our people who understood the language. I therefore mastered the language completely, as much as my years and other circumstances permitted.
Here the people lived for a few years without a preacher and without government, generally in peace. Each one did what he thought was right. About this time I became very sick and thought I had to die and would gladly have died, for my stepmother was a stepmother indeed. On her repre- sentation I was treated very severely by father, had besides no other friend, and had to suffer hunger and cold. I had often decided to run away but by this sickness the bridle and bit were in my mouth, I was bound as it were with a rope to render obedience and to stay with my father.
I have said above that my father migrated as widower from Germany and landed with 7 children in New York in 1710. There my two brothers George Frederick and Chris-
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BLUE BOOK OF The Early Settlers
toph Frederick were bound out by the Governor of Long Island, with permission of my father who was sick at the time. The following winter, namely in December, my young- est brother Johann Frederick, died about the sixth year of his age and was buried in Lewenstein's Busch. He was the first dead that was buried in the church flats of the Reformed church, in Weiserville.
In 1711 my father married my stepmother, of whom I have just written. It was an unfortunate marriage and caused that my brothers and sisters were all scattered. And at last I was alone with him, besides the three children he had with my stepmother as Johann Frederick and Jacob Wei- ser and Rebecca. Everything else, too, went backward and one misfortune after another came over our family, of which I took at all times my share. Often I knew not where to go and I learned to sigh to God and the Bible became to me a very acceptable book.
To come back to Schohary, the people had taken pos- session of it without greeting the Governor of New York, who after he showed them his disapproval, sold the land of Schohary to seven rich merchants, of whom four lived in Albany and the other three in New York. The names of those in Albany were: Meyndert Schiller, John Schiller, Robert Livingstone, Peter von Brughen. Those in New York were : George Clark, at the time Secretary ; Doctor Hads, Rip von Dam ; whereupon arose a great cry in Schohary and Al- bany because in Albany many people desired that the people should keep the land.
The people in Schohary divided into two parties, the strongest party would not submit but maintained the land. and sent therefore deputies to England to obtain from King George, the First, not only Schohary but more land for the other High Germans. It did not go according to their wish, for first the three deputies had to depart secretly. They
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SCHUYLKILL COUNTY The Early Settlers
took ship therefore in Philadelphia in 1718 and ran as soon as they got on the open sea into the hands of pirates, who took their money as well as that of the people of the ship, and then let them go.
My father, who was one of the deputies, was bound and scourged three times but would confess to no money. At last William Schaft, the other deputy, said to the pirates: you men, I and this man had one purse and I have given it to you. he can give you nothing, thereupon they let him in peace. They had to run into Boston to buy provisions in the place of those which the pirates had taken from them. When they arrived in England they found the times changed, nor did a Queen Anna rule any more, they found but a very few of the old benefactors. *
Among them were two gentlemen, Boehm and Robert, Preachers of the German Castle Chapel. These did all they could. The matter of the deputies came at last before the Lord Commissioners of Trade and Plantation. The governor of New York, Robert Hunter, was cited home, in the mean- time the deputies got into debt. Walrath, the third deputy, got homesick, boarded a ship for New York and died on the ocean. The other two were thrown into prison. They wrote in good time for money but the imprudence and dishonesty of those who should forward the money which the people had brought together, caused the money to come very slowly to England. Meanwhile Robert Hunter had arrived in England, settled his difficulties, had accounted for what he had done to Schohary before the Lords of Trade. His opponents were in prison, had neither friends nor money. When at last a draft of 70 pounds sterling arrived they were released from prison again and renewed their appeal. At last they effected an order on the newly arrived Governor of New York, by the name of William Burnet to give to the High German people, which had been sent to New York by Queen Anna the land which had not yet been given away.
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Toward the end of the year, 1720, William Burnet arrived in New York. At the beginning of 1721 I was sent to this above named Governor to give him a petition. He showed himself friendly and told me of the order of the Lords of Trade he had brought with him, which he had resolved to live up to. Our deputies were yet in England and were not satisfied with the decision, but effected nothing more. Toward the end of this year, 1721, Schaft had become dis- satisfied with my father and came home-they had both hard heads. At last in November, 1723, my father also came home. Schaft had died some weeks after his arrival.
Governor Burnet gave those few who wanted to settle on land of the Magnaisch land patents, namely for land on Stony Arabia and above the fall but none on the river, as the people had hoped, therefore they separated, most of them moved to the Magnaisch land or stayed in Schohary and bought land from the above named 7 gentlemen. The people received news from the land at the Swatara and Tulpehocken in Penn- sylvania. Many of them came together, cut a way from Scho- hary to the Susquehanna and brought their goods hither and made canoes and journeyed down to the mouth of the Swa- tara Creek and drove their cattle overland in the Spring of 1723. Thence they came to Tulpehocken and this is the be- ginning of the Tulpehocken Settlement. Later others fol- lowed and settled there, at first without permission of the owners of the land or his company, or toward the Indians from whom the people had not yet bought the land. There was no one among the people who could manage them, each one did as he wished and their stubbornness stood in their way up to this time. I will now leave them and describe my own cir- cumstances :
In 1720 when my father went to England I married my Anna Eva, the Rev. Johann Frederick Heger, Reformed preacher, united us on the 22nd November in my father's
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SCHUYLKILL COUNTY The Early Settlers
house in Schohary. On the 7th of September, 1722, my son Philip was born and by Johann Bernard von Dueliren, Luth- eran preacher, baptized. His sponsors were Philip Braun and his wife. On the 14th of January, 1725, my daughter Anna Madlina was born and was baptized by Johann Jacob Ochl, Reformed preacher. The sponsors were Christian Bausch, Junior, and my sister Barbara. * * * *
On the 24th June, 1727, my daughter Maria was born and was baptized by William Christoph Birkenmeyer, Lutheran minister. Sponsors were Nicklas Feg and his wife. On the 244th of December, 1728, my son Frederick was born. He was baptized by Johann Bernard von Deuren, Lutheran preacher. Sponsors were Nicklas Feg and his wife. These four were born to me at Schohary. After this, namely in the year 1729, I moved to Pennsylvania and settled at Tulpehocken where the following children were born to me : On the 27th of Feb- ruary, 1730, my son Peter was born and on the 15th of Feb- ruary, 1731, two sons were born to me, who were named Christoph and Jacob; the first lived fifteen weeks and the second thirteen weeks, when they were released from the evil of this time and departed into blessed eternity. On the 19th of June, 1732, my daughter Elizabeth was born to me. On the 28thi of January, 1734, my daughter Margreda was born. On the 23rd of April, 1735, my son Samuel was born. On the 18th of July, 1736, another son was born to me. I named him Benjamin. When he was three months old the kind Providence of the Almighty God took him away. In the same year my daughter Elizabeth followed. On the 11th of August, 1740, again a son was born to me. We named him Jabez. The mercy of God released him from the evil of this time when he had lived 17 days. On the 27th of February, 1742, again a daughter was born to me. I named her Hannah. On the following 11th of August she departed into the blessed eternity. On the 16th of March of this same year my beloved
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BLUE BOOK OF The Early Settlers
daughter Madlina departed from time to eternity with a gentle death after a long continued sickness. On the 12th of August, 1744, my son Benjamin was born to me. (Ending of my book writing.)
(The diarist died July 13, 1760; his wife, Anna Eve, December 27, 1778, and his stepmother, 1781.)
THE WEISER FAMILY
Conrad Weiser did not seem to ally himself with either party in the early religious difficulties, but as mentioned heretofore, signed himself as an "impartial witness" and J. P. to an arbitration settlement in the "Tulpehocken confusion." He however was baptized at Ephrata by Conrad Beissel, of the German Seventh Day Baptists, but antagonisms arose and he forsook that society several days after his baptism.
The remains of Conrad Weiser and his wife Anna Eva- to whom he was married in the Schoharie, November 22, 1720, and by whom he had fourteen children-are interred on the Sheetz farm, in a private burial ground, less than a mile from Womelsdorf.
The Weiser farm contained two hundred and forty-eight acres and the remains of several old stone buildings, erected a century and a half or more ago, may still be seen on it. A handsome granite monument has been erected to the mem- ory of Conrad Weiser by the citizens of Womelsdorf. It stands in front of the public school house and is an ornament to the town.
Rev. Henry Melchoir Muhlenberg was born at Reimbeck, Hanover, Germany, September 6, 1711. He could preach in German, French, Swedish, Hollandische and English and was a fine Latin scholar. He came to America November, 1742, and was stationed at the Trappe from whence he visited the Lutherans as far north as the Blue Mountains. He was mar-
(Note 1-Life of Conrad Weiser, J. S. Walton.)
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SCHUYLKILL COUNTY The Early Settlers
ried to Anna Maria, daughter of Conrad Weiser. He lived for a time in Albany Township, but died at the Trappe, October 7, 1787. His son, Rev. Henry E. Muhlenberg, was an able minister of the Lutheran church at Lancaster, and his grandson, Rev. Henry A. Muhlenberg, was for 27 years the efficient pastor of Trinity Lutheran Church, Reading. On his retirement he was elected to Congress, where he served as a member nine years and was subsequently United States minister to Austria.
John Peter Muhlenberg, whose statue is in Statuary Hall, national capitol, Washington, D. C., was a son of Henry Melchoir Muhlenberg, D. D., and was born at La Trappe, Montgomery County, Pennsylvania. He was a Lutheran minister but was obliged to be ordained a priest in the Pro- testant Episcopal Church in order to take a charge in Vir- ginia. He preached his farewell sermon at Woodstock, that state, December, 1775, concluding it with these words, "There is a time to preach, there is a time to pray, but this is the time to fight." He then threw off his black silk robes and stepped forward in the full uniform of an officer of the Continental Army. A drum was beat outside of the church and a fife played and on his repairing thither, a company of recruits of the male members of the congregation was formed with the fighting pastor as captain.
GOVERNOR JOHN ANDREW SCHULZE
Rev. Christian Emanuel Schulze was a son-in-law of Rev. Henry Melchoir Muhlenberg and Anna Maria Weiser. He was pastor of Christ Lutheran Church, Stouchsburg, from December, 1770, to March 9, 1809. Governor John Andrew Schulze was born in the parsonage, July 19, 1775, and was edu- cated and ordained for the Lutheran ministry, 1796. He assist- ed his father in Berks, Lancaster and Lebanon counties but retired from the ministry and removed to Myerstown, Dau-
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