USA > Pennsylvania > Dauphin County > Commemorative biographical encyclopedia of Dauphin County, Pennsylvania : containing sketches of prominent and representative citizens and many of the early Scotch-Irish and German settlers. Pt. 1 > Part 4
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Taxation and oppression, however, with difficulties partly political, partly religious, no doubt were the strong motives which one hundred and eighty years ago induced the Scotch-Irish to leave Ireland. It was not the liome of their ancestors, it was endeared to them by no traditions, and they sought and obtained in the wilds of Pennsylvania a better home than they had in the Old World.
Extensive emigration from the northern counties of Ireland were principally made at two distinct periods of time. The first from about the year 1717 to the middle of the century. the second from about 1771 to 1773. They were Protestants, generally Presbyterians-few or none of the Roman Catholic Irish came until after the war of the Revolution, and few then until after the great political upheaval in 1798, since which period, as we all know, the flow of the latter class of immigrants has been one continuous stream.
The Scotch-Irish emigrants landed prin- cipally at New Castle and Philadelphia, save a handful who had settled on the Ken- nebec in Maine, and of these the greater por- tion eventually came into Pennsylvania. Settling on the frontiers from Easton to the Susquehanna and the Potomac, the stream of immigration continued south to Virginia and the Carolinas.
The country north of the Swatara had not been visited save by French traders prior to the coming of William Penn After his first visit he seems to have been well in- formed concerning this locality, and person- ally visited it, and at or above the mouth of the Swatara decided to locate a city, and
proposals were consequently issued therefor in 1690. It is easily understood why the project was never carried out. The careful reader of Pennsylvania history will readily comprehend the peculiar conditions sur- rounding the founder. The government of his Province was giving him serious concern. The material composing his Assembly was of that stubborn, self-willed character that little could be done, and he had as much as he could do in the preservation and foster- ing of those enterprises he had already be- gun.
The Early German Settlers.
The origin of the German-Swiss popula- tion in Pennsylvania dates back to the latter part of the seventeenth century. As early as 1684, Francis Daniel Pastorius, of whom the poet Whittier has sung so sweetly, with a colony of Germans settled and laid out Germantown near to the Metropolis. These came from Cresheim, Germany, and were in religious opinions and proclivities allied to the Quakers. Other colonists followed, set- tling in different parts of the Province. It was not, however, until the years 1709 and 1710 that the emigration of the Germans was of any magnitude. For two or three years previous Queen Anne, of England. gave refuge to thousands of the Palatinates, who, oppressed by the exactions of the French, were forced to flee from their homes. It is stated that in the month of July, 1709, there arrived at London six thousand five hun- dred and twenty German Protestants. Trans- portation was gratuitously given many to America through the aid of the Queen and the government of England. The vast ma- jority were sent at first to New York, from whence many reached the confines of Penn- sylvania, a province the laws of which were more tolerant than those of any of the new colonies. Among these German emigrants were Mennonites, Dunkards, German Re- formed and Lutherans. Their number was so great during the subsequent years that James Logan, secretary to the Proprietary, wrote, " We have of late great numbers of Palatines poured in upon us without any re- commendation or notice which gives the country some uncasiness, for foreigners do not so well among ns as our own English people." Two years afterwards Jonathan Dickinson remarks, "We are daily expect- ing ships from London which bring over Palatines in number about six or seven
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thousand. We had a parcel who came out about five years ago, who purchased land about sixty miles from Philadelphia and proved quiet and industrious. Some few came from Ireland lately, and more are ex- peeted thence. This is besides our common supply from Walesand England. Ourfriends do increase mightily, and a great people there is in the wilderness which is fast becoming a fruitful field."
These emigrants settled principally in Montgomery, Bucks and Lancaster counties, the latter including the present counties of Dauphin and Lebanon. They were well educated, and brought with them their min- isters and school-masters; the latter very frequently, when there was a want of supply of the former, read sermons and prayers.
Between the years 1720 and 1725 a large number of Germans, who had previously settled in Schoharie county, N. Y., descended the Susquehanna river on rafts to the mouth of the Swatara, ascending which stream, al- ready settled by the Scotch-Irish, they took up their abode near the waters of the Tulpe- hocken, partly in Berks county, some few miles within the present limits of Lebanon county. The celebrated Conrad Weiser was of this party of colonists
From 1725, for a period of ten years, there was another great influx of Germans of vari- ous religious opinions-Reformed, Luther- ans, Moravians, Swenkfelders and Roman Catholics. By a letter of Secretary James Logan, in 1725, it appears that many of these settlers were not over-scrupulous in their compliance with the regulations of the land office. He says, and perchance with much truth, "They come in in crowds, and as bold, indigent strangers from Germany, where many of them have been soldiers. All these go on the best vacant traets and seize upon them as places of common spoil." He again says, "They rarely approach me on their arrival to propose to purchase ;" and and adds, "when they are sought out and challenged for their right of occupancy they allege it was published in Europe that we wanted and solicited for colonists, and had a superabundance of land, and therefore they lind come without the means to pay." In faet, those who thus "squatted " without titles acquired enough by their thrift in a few years to pay for the land which they had thus occupied, and so, generally, they were left unmolested. Secretary Logan further states, "Many of them are Papists-the men
well armed, and as a body a warlike, morose race." In 1727 he writes, "About six thou- sand Germans more are expected (and also many from Ireland), and these emigrations" he "hopes may be prevented in the future by act of Parliament, else these Colonies will in time be lost to the Crown." The italics in the last sentence are our own. To us it seeins like a prophecy.
From 1735 to 1752 emigrants came into the Province by thousands. In the autumn of 1749 not less than twenty vessels with German passengers to the number of twelve thousand arrived at Philadelphia. In 1750, 1751 and 1752 the number was not much less. Among those who emigrated during these years were many who bitterly lamented having forsaken their native land for the Province of Pennsylvania. At that time there was a class of Germans who had resided some time in Pennsylvania, well known by the name of Newlander, who, acting in the capacity of agents for certain firins-promi- nent Quakers of Philadelphia-went to Ger- many and Switzerland, prevailing on their countrymen to sacrifice their property and emigrate to Pennsylvania. Many persons in easy circumstances at home were indneed to embark for America. False representations were made, lands were offered for the settling thereon, a nominal charge was to be made for the passage on ship-board, and every in- centive employed by these nefarious agents to begnile the unsuspecting.
Of the horrors and privations of that six or eight weeks on ship-board we shall not refer, the bare recital of which is terrible to contemplate even at this late day. The condition of these emigrants on their arrival was absolutely wretched. The exactions of the masters of the vessels, the plundering of their baggage by these unscrupulous pirates. placed them at the tender merey of the Quaker merchants who purchased the entire cargo of living freight as a speculation, such being the object in sending out their agents; and men, women, and children were thus sold at auction for a term of years to the highest and best bidder. It was white slav- ery, and those concerned considered that it paid them better than negro slavery. We have recently examined some records which throw additional light upon this subject of German emigration, and prove conclusively that for years this nefarious traffic was car- ried on. This statement is not flattering to Pennsylvania and her history, it is true, but
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DAUPHIN COUNTY.
the people at large or the government were not wholly responsible for the acts of those who insisted upon their " pound of flesh." The persons thus disposed of were termed redemptioners. They were usually sold at ten pounds for from three to five years' servi- tude; and in almost every instance the time for which they were sold was honestly served out, while many subsequently, by dint of industry and frugality, rose to positions of wealth and importance in the State and Nation.
In later times, say from 1753 to 1756, the Germans having become numerous and therefore powerful as "make-weights" in the political balance were much noticed in the publications of the day, and were at that period in general in very hearty co-operation with the Quakers then in rule in the Assem- bly. From that time onward, although not so numerous, almost all the German emi- grants to America located in Pennsylvania.
A manuscript pamphlet in the Franklin Library at Philadelphia, said to have been written by Samuel Wharton in 1755, con- tains certain facts which are worthy of repro- duction in this connection, showing, as it does, their influence in the Province, whether fancied or actual we do not say. "The party on the side of the Friends," says the writer, " derived much of their influence over the Germans, through the aid of Christopher Sauer, who published a German paper in Germantown as early as 1729, and which, being much read by that people, influenced them to the side of the Friends and hostile to the Governor and Council. Through this means they have persuaded them that there was a design to enslave them, to enforce their young men, by a contemplated militia law, to become soldiers, and to load them down with taxes, etc., from such causes," he adds, " have they come down in shoals to vote, and carrying all before them." " To this I may add," says Watson, " that I have heard from the Norris family that their ancestors in the Assembly were warmly patronized by the Germans in union with Friends. His alarm at this German influence at the polls, and his proposed remedies for the then dreaded evils, as they show the prevalent feelings of his associates in politics, may serve to amuse the present generation. He says the best effects of these successes of the Germans will probably be felt through many generations ! Instead of a peaceable, indus- trious people as before, they are grown now
insolent, sullen and turbulent, in some counties threatening even the lives of all those who oppose their views, because they are taught to regard government and slavery as one and the same thing. All who are not of their party they call 'Governor's men,' and themselves they deem strong enough to make the country their own! Indeed, they come in such force, say up- wards of five thousand in the last year, I see not but they may soou be able to give us law and language, too, or else, by joining the French, eject all the English. That this may be the case is too much to be feared, for almost to a man they refused to bear arms in the time of the late war. and they say it is all one to them which king gets the coun- try, as their estates will be equally secure. Indeed it is clear that the French have turned their hopes upon this great body of Germans. They hope to allure them by grants of Ohio lands. To this end they send their Jesuitical emissaries among them to persuade them over to the Popish religion. In concert with this the French for so many years have encroached on our Province, and are now so near their scheme as to be within two days' march of some of our back settlements," alluding, of course, to the state of the western country, overrun by French and Indians just before the arrival of Brad- doek's forces in Virginia in 1755.
The writer imputes their wrong bias in general to their "stubborn genius and ignor- ance," which he proposes to soften by educa- tion; "a scheme still suggested as necessary to give the general mass of the inland coun- try Germans right views of public individual interests. To this end he proposes that faith- ful Protestant ministers and school-masters should be supported among them; that their children should be taught the English tongue; the government in the mean time should sus- pend their right of voting for members of Assembly, and to incline them the sooner to become English in education and feeling, we should compel them to make all bonds and other legal writings in English, and no news- paper or almanac be circulated among them unless also accompanied by the English thereof." "Finally," he concludes, " without
some such measure I sec nothing to prevent this Province from falling into the hands of the French." A scheme to educate the Ger- mans as the one alluded to was put on foot in 1755, and carried on for several years, but really with little good results. The Ger-
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inan settlers appreciated education, for they brought their ministers and school-masters with them, and there were few who could not read or write. They could write their names, and as great a proportion as their English neighbors, the Quakers. The difficulty was not alone to educate them in the English tongue, but for the English Church. That they did not take kindly to, and after the lapse of a century and a quarter in many localities there is the same objection to the "scheme of 1755." This matter has been wrongly construed to the detriment of the German settlers, they fostered education, but they did not approve being taught the Eng- lish vernacular.
While upon this subject of the early settle- ment, it may as well be stated that the Penn- sylvania Germans are not the descendants of the Hessians, who were brought to America by the British government to put down the rebellion of 1776, as has repeatedly been charged by New England historians. This statement is as impudent as it is false. All of the German " Mercenaries," as they are called, who were prisoners of war and sta- tioned in Pennsylvania, according to Baron Reidesel, who was one of the commanders, were properly accounted for, and were re- turned to their own country upon the evacu- ation of New York by the British. They did not remain; as it was a condition entered into by the English government with the Land- grave of Brunswick, the Duke of Hesse- Cassel, and the petty princes of Hanau and Waldeck, that a certain price was to be paid for every man killed, wounded or missing. Before the official proclamation of peace the Hessian prisoners were on their way to New York, by direction of the Supreme Executive Council of Pennsylvania. Some few de- serted, and some eventually returned to America after their transportation to Ger- many, but the bold assertion that the origin of the large German population of Pennsyl- vania is due to the settlement of those hired mercenaries of England cannot be supported, and shows the profoundest historical ignor- ance and audacious stupidity.
Pennsylvania took the lead of the Colonies in agriculture because of the great number of Germans settling in the Province; and Governor Thomas, as early as 1738, wrote, " This Province has been for some years the asylum of the distressed Protestants of the Palatinate and other parts of Germany, and I believe it may with truth be said that the
present flourishing condition of it is in a great measure owing to the industry of those people- it is not altogether the goodness of the soil, but the number and industry of the people that make a flourishing colony" (Col. Rec. iv, p. 313). The exportation of farm products kept pace with the increase of the popula- tion. In 1751 there were exported 86,000 bushels of wheat, 129,960 barrels of flour. 90,743 bushels of Indian corn. The total exports of 1761 exceeded $1,000,000 in value. This was a period when the entire population did not exceed 180,000, whereof nearly one- half were Germans.
That the Germans of Pennsylvania have been so uniformly successful in acquiring wealth is due to their industry, to their thrift and to their knowledge of agricultural pur- suits. If some portions of Pennsylvania are the garden-spots of America they have been made so by the Germans who have tilled them-who have indeed "made the wilder- ness to blossom as the rose." Not anywhere in the New England States, in New York nor in the South are farms so well tilled, so highly cultivated as in the sections of Penn- sylvania where the descendants of the Ger- mans predominate; and we assert, with out fear of contradiction, that more works on agri- culture, more papers devoted to farming, are taken and read by the so-called " Pennsylva- nia Dutch " farmers than by the farmers of any other section of the Union. That our Ger- man citizens are not " content to live in huts" is palpably certain, and whoever will go into the homes of our farmers will find evidence of both refinement and culture, their farins being easily distinguished from those of others by the great fences, the extent of the orchard, the fertility of the soil, the produc- tiveness of the fields, the luxuriance of the meadows, the superiority of his horse, which seems to feel with his owner the pleasure of good living. And although their barns are capacious, because their dwellings are not castles, they should not be accused of indif- ference to their own domiciles. At the pres- ent time it is rare to find a farm-house in the old German settlements that does not con- tain a double parlor, sitting-room, dining- room, kitchen and outkitchen, with six or eight bed-rooms. This is more general in the counties of Berks, Lancaster, Lebanon, Dauphin and Cumberland than among the New England settled counties of the North and West-the Quaker counties of Chester and Bucks in Pennsylvania-and to go to
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DAUPHIN COUNTY.
New England, the latter are not to be men- tioned in comparison.
Of the Pennsylvania German language or idiom, which is the vernacular of the greater portion of the people of this section of the State, especially in the farming dis- tricts, we will not speak, except to state that, at the present time, there are few persons speaking this patois who are unable also to speak and read English. Those who are not conversant with English are of recent importation from the Fatherland. Because the Dunkards and other religious bodies re- tain the peculiar views of their ancestors they are accused of being unprogressive, of preserving the customsand general character- istics of the race, which is far from the truth. Next to the Scotch-Irish no race has left such a high and lofty impress upon this Nation as has the German. There is less ignorance and superstition in the German counties of of Pennsylvania than will be found in any agricultural region East, West, North or South. Because some old plodding farmer, who prefers remaining on his farm attend- ing to his cattle and grain, caring little of going beyond the county town in his visits, his disinclination ought not to be reputed to either his ignorance or to his being elose- fisted. In the German counties one rarely meets with an individual who has never been " to town," and we venture an opinion that both in the New England States and in New York are there many persons who have never visited the county seat ; and as for visit- ing Boston and New York City, where. one farmer has visited either metropolis, we as- sert that two Pennsylvania German farmers have seen their own city of Philadelphia.
German opposition to common schools has been a terrible bugaboo to very many outside of Pennsylvania, who never under- stood the occasion of it. Foremost among the opponents of the free-school system were the Quakers, the opposition arising from the fact that, having had schools estab)- lished for many years, supported by their own contributions, they were opposed to be ing taxed for the educational maintenance of others. Precisely similar were the objec- tions in the German districts. As has already been accurately stated, the German emi- grants brought their school-masters with them, and schools were kept and supported by them. More frequently the church pas- tor served as teacher, and hence, when the proposition came to establish the system
of public education, the people were not pre- pared for it, for the free schools severed education from positive religion. But that was nearly sixty years ago, and, to the credit and honor of the German element in Penn- sylvania, Governor George Wolf, the father of the free-school system, and Governor Joseph Ritner and William Audenreid, the earnest advocates of the same, were of Ger- man descent. The opposition died away in a few years, and a glance at the school sta- tisties of Pennsylvania would open the eyes of our New England friends and astonish the descendants of Diedrick Knickerbocker. The present system and management of public education in our State is in the lead in the Union, and figures and facts will bear us out in our assertion.
As a general thing the first settlers were staid farmers. Their mutual wants produced mutual dependence, hence they were kind and friendly to each other -- they were over hospitable tostrangers. Their want of money in the early times made it necessary for them to associate for the purpose of building houses, cutting their grain, etc. This they did in turn for each other without any other pay than the pleasures which usually attended a coun- try frolic. Strictly speaking, what is attributed to them as virtues might be called good quali- ties, arising from necessity and the peculiar state of society in which these people lived- patience, industry and temperance.
CHAPTER II.
John Harris, Trader and Pioneer-Early Assess- ment Lists.
As stated, thesettlers began to pour in, and warrants for land were taken up in various townships, as soon as the land office was opened, it having been closed from the time of the death of William Penn until 1732. For a record of these warrantees our readers are referred to the author's History of Dau- phin County, published in 1883. Most of these show who were the first settlers in the various townships now forming Dauphin county. It was not for twenty years after the organization of the connty of Lancaster that we have any assessment lists, giving the names of the people who inhabited the various town- ships. Recently the earliest in existence, com- mencing in 1751 and continuing down to the time of the Revolution, came into our pos-
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HISTORICAL REVIEW
session and copies made therefrom. For per- manent reference these lists are of great value and we include them in this sketch of the history of our county as being of very great import in locating the earliest settlers.
The first English trader we hear of within the limits of the county was John Harris. The fears of the French, who were constantly gaining ground in the northwestern part of the Province, and especially of "Papists," which all at once seems to have filled our Quaker friends with terror, it became abso- lutely necessary to license only English traders, and they of Protestant proclivities, so as to prevent communication with the French on the Ohio. Among the first was John Harris, who perchance entered this then lucrative field, the Indian trade, at the suggestion of his most intimate friend, Edward Shippen, Provincial Secretary.
Of the John Harris who thus located per- manently at Harrisburg, and who gave name to that city, it may not be inappropriate to refer. "He was as honest a man as ever broke bread " was the high eulogium pro- nounced by Parson Elder, of blessed mem- ory, as he spoke of the pioneer in after years. Born in the county of Yorkshire, England, although of Welsh descent, about the year 1673, he was brought up in the trade of his father, that of a brewer. Leaving his home on reaching his majority, he worked at his call- ing some time in the city of London, where he joined, a few years afterwards, a company from his native district, who emigrated to Pennsylvania two or three years . prior to Penn's second visit to his Province. Watson states that John Harris' "entire capital amounted to only sixteen guineas."
We first hear of him after his arrival in Philadelphia as a contractor for clearing and grading the streets of that ancient vil- lage. In 1698 his name is appended to a remonstrance to the Provincial Assembly against the passage of an act disallowing the franchise to all persons owning real estate less in value than fifty pounds. The memo- rial had its effect, and the objectionable law was repealed. By letters of introduction to Edward Shippen, the first mayor of Phila- delphia, that distinguished gentleman be- came his steadfast friend, and through his influence, no doubt, were secured those favors which induced him eventually to become the first permanent settler in this locality.
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