USA > Pennsylvania > Historic background and annals of the Swiss and German pioneer settlers of southeastern Pennsylvania, and of their remote ancestors, from the middle of the Dark Ages, down to the time of the Revolutionary War > Part 20
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139
LANCASTER COUNTY'S FIRST SWISS SETTLEMENT
statement Rupp sets forth from that book is that in the year 1709 the first families from the Pfalz reached Lan caster County. Rupp also bases this date on papers belonging to the ancient Herrs and Mylins.
Rupp says the tradition is that these Mennonites made improvements and cleared land here in Lancaster County before they got their first warrant for land, that they felled trees and made cabins. Their warrant was dated October 10, 1710 (Rupp, p. 76). He says that the warrant last men- tioned in 1710 would prove that they came. and settled early because it states on its race that these different families had lately arrived and had settled and selected land twenty miles easterly from the Conestoga, near the head of Pequea Creek. Then on p. 96 he says that they reached America in 1709.
He also sets forth Letters Patent, dated 170S by Queen Anne, to the an- cestors of the Mennonites of Eastern Lancaster County and shows that they arrived and registered in New York the 10th of August, 1709.
On p. 97, he sets forth an extract from an address by Redmond Con- yngham on "The Early Settlement of Pequea Valley." This address was de- livered July 4, 1842. Conyngham was a very famous historian and can be thoroughly relied on. He tells in the address of the wanderings of Issac Lefever, the head of the Mennonites in that section of our county.
Much that is highly interesting could be said here upon the begin- nings of this fist colonly in the Pequea Valley, but that must be re- served for our discussion under date of 1710, which we will shortly enter upon.
1709-Important Swiss and Palatinate Item of 1709.
The Ferrees, now Ferrys and Forrys who reached Lancaster County in 1711
and 12, according to Rupp (p. 91 to 101) reached New York in 1709, and were very Godly people.
Rupp also tells us that some of the Pequea Colony of 1710 (the first set- tlement in Lancaster County) lived in Germantown before coming here. They lived there in 1709. He does not mention the names of those who did live there and I do not believe the fact can be established. The Ger- mantown and Skippack pioneers al- ways seemed to live separate from those of Pequea-they were Germans. The Pequea settlers were Swiss. A letter written in London in 1710 by our Pequea ancestors proves they were not in Germantown in 1709 nor in 1710 either, any considerable time. (Rupp's' 30,000 Names.)
In 1709 the Germans of German- town who had come over a couple of years before were naturalized. We find no Lancaster County names among them. (2 Col. Rec., p. 480-483.) Indeed they had made application to be naturalized in 1706, and the matter was delayed three years (2 C. R. 241).
Bishop Benjamin Eby, who about 1805, moved from Lancaster county to Canada, in his "Geschicten der Mennoniten" p. 150 and 151, says that in the year 1709, there moved several Swiss families from the Palatinate and settled in Lancaster County. (Rupp 74.) We will show, by many evidences, that the date of their ar- rival was 1710.
1709-Berne Mennonites Write Com- plaint to Holland of Swiss State Church Persecutions.
The following letter written in 1709 by one of the Mennonite elders de- scribes the condition in Switzerland at that time.
Switzerland, June 22, 1709. "To the Brethren of Holland:
We greet you most friendly in the Lord, and return thanks to you in
140
SEVERE EDICT AGAINST SWISS MENNONITES
.
general for all the fidelity and love | thing and made large bills of cost, in which you have showed to our breth- favor of the Court House officials, who carried out their work. This was paid out of the Mennonite property." ren in the faith, in the Palatinate and in other places. The Lord will re- ward you in time and eternity. We This edict is a renewal of one issued fifteen years before, which commanded that all persons must go to the court of Sagnau and make a promise that if any one should see a Mennonite, they must bring him to the bailif, or the officer of the court, to deliver him into the hands of the government; and those who harbored them, if found out, must leave the country. Where the husband goes to the State Church and the wife to the Mennonite, or vice versa, the one that is Mennonite was to be called before the court, known as the Mennonite Chamber, where he or she would be punished. It happened that where a man harbored his own wife, who was a Mennonite and he was not. that she was ordered to leave the country, and had to pay 300 pounds fine: and a father for harboring his Mennonite son was ordered by the Mennonite Chamber to pay 500 pounds fine. as ministers and elders in Switzer- land wish this to you. First we make known to you that we are all in mourning because of how the govern- ment treats us. In the year 170S they sent hostages to Berne out of the parishes, in which we lived, that had to be maintained at the expense of the parish, in order that they might help to hate and expel us; and gave council that even children must re- port their parents; and the brother report against his brother that he is a Mennonite. Friends and neighbors, such were their commands, must ex- pel each other out of the bailiwick of Berne and of the whole government, and must then bring report and testi- mony to the government that they are quite gone. Among others, they have carried away to prison on a cart, poor old people who could travel with dif- ficulty. The sick and the faint were brought prisoners to Berne. Some This simple letter is sent to you to make known to the congregations in all Holland to stand by us your ser- vants and elders in Switzerland. were compelled to leave family and all else back. They had to give pro- mise they would not come back again. If they came again, they had to keep themselves concealed. The govern- ment sent out men to search all the houses, and with their swords, they thrust into the hay cocks and hit the minister of the congregation, who had concealed himself in it and he came out with another brother: they brought them both to Berne. The minister had a chain put upon his feet in the severe cold; and he is still a prisoner with others. It also hap- pened that where there was any pro- perty, they divided it among the chil- d:en. who joined the State Church and the portion which would come to the Mennonite children was paid to the Reformed Church. From some who had no children, they took every-
We pray to God that He may be counsel to you that your labors may succeed for us, according to that which seems good to Him. You know better than we can write, how to in- terecede so that the government may treat us a little milder, which would be happy news to our breasts. It seems too, my brothers and sisters that it would be better if we were at peace with each other and there were no divisions and our government would have no reason to accuse us of trouble among ourselves. I believe that if the ministers and elders would come together, as they did long ago, at Strasburg, much division would be stayed and we would be reunited. Oh, that the dear God might grant us
141
FRANKENTHAL ADDITION TO SKIPPACK
his grace that this should happen. (Müller 255.)
Amen.
1709-The Frankenthal Mennonite Addition to Skippack and Vicinity.
The error of some historians in stat- ing that the first Lancaster County seatlement arrived in 1709, arises from confusing the Skippack German Mennonite Colony of 1709 with the Swiss Lancaster County Colony of 1710.
A settlement of German Mennonites came to Skippack on the Schuylkill in 1709, as an accretion to an earlier colony there. They may have been a 1 branch of the great German Exodus of 1709. (Kuhn 26.) But this is not certain. They were Strasburg people. (Rupp 71 and 79.) But they may have come by way of London. Those of the Exodus left from London for America. These Strasburg people went to Skippack.
April 8, 1709, a letter coming from the committee on Foreign Needs at Amsterdam, states that nine or ten poor families from Worms had come to Rotterdam, asking for help to be transferred to Pennsylvania; but the committee advised them not to go (Pa. Mag. of Hist. and Biog., Vol. 2).
August 6, 1709, Jacob Telner wrote of them from London , that eight families had gone to Pennsylvania and that there were six more Menno- nite families in London, too poor to pay passage. He asks the brethren in Rotterdam to come to their assistance. And this year also the yearly meeting of the Quakers at London voted fifty pounds to help Mennonites to go to America (See Smith's Mennonite His- tory 145).
It is these people no doubt, says Prof. Smith, of whom Penn wrote to Logan as having gone to Pennsyl- vania. The letter is dated 26th of fourth month (June) 1709; and in it
Penn says "Herewith come the Pala- tines whom use with tenderness and love and fix them so that they may send over an agreeable character for they are a sober people -- divers Men- nonites and will neither swear nor fight. See that Guy uses them well. (P. & L. Cor. vol. 2, p. 354).
Prof Smith says "They reached America and located on Skippack." (p. 146.)
The Telner letter about them of August 6, 1709, addressed to Amster- dam is in part as follows:
"Eight families have gone to Penn- sylvania from here; the English friends called Quakers helped them. The truth is many thousand persons,
young and old, men and women, have arrived here in the hope and expecta- tion of going to Pennsylvania, but the poor men are mislead in the matter. If they could transport themselves by any means, they might go when it pleased them, but because of inability, they cannot do it, and must go where they are ordered. Now as there are among all this multitude, six families of our own brethren and fellow be- lievers- I mean German Mennonites -who ought to go to Pennsylvania, the brethren in Holland should extend to them the hand of love and charity, for they are poor and needy. I trust and believe, however, that they are honest and God fearing. It would be a great comfort and consolation to the poor sheep if the rich brothers and sisters from their superfluity, would satisfy their wants and let some crumbs fall from their tables to these poor Lazuruses." (Vol. 2, Pa. Mag., p. 122.)
Telner by speaking of "all the mul- titude" refers to the great German Exodus of 1709 in. England, of which we shall presently speak. Only six families of Mennonites were, so he says, in that Exodus. These six fam- ilies and perhaps a few more with them, came from Worms and Franken-
142
FRANKENTHAL AND SKIPPACK SETTLEMENT
thal and reached Skippack. They | were Germans: not Swiss. The Lan- caster County pioneers were Swiss.
Pennypacker in his "Settlement of Germantown" also notices this settle- ment. (p. 126.)
1709- Dr. Hoop Scheffer's Views on the German Mennonite Emigration to Pennsylvania in 1709.
"Dr. J. G. De Hoop Scheffer, of Amsterdam Mennonite College, in an article on Mennonite Emigration to Pennsylvania, written in 1869, vol. 2 Pa. Mag. p. 117, says (inter alia p. 120) on this subject:
One of the oldest communities, if not the oldest of all in Pennsylvania, was that at Scheeback or German- town. The elder of their two preach- ers, Wm. Rittenhouse, died in 1708, and two new ones were chosen. The emigration of the other brethren from the Palatinate with Peter Kolb, were men enabled to make the jour- ney by the aid of the Netherlands and gave a favorable prospect of growth. Financially, however, the circum- stances of the community left much to be desired. In a letter written to Amsterdam, dated September 3, 1708, from which these particulars are de- rived and which was signed by Jacob Godschalk, Herman Kaasdorp, Martin Kolb, Isaac Van Sintern, Conradt Jan- sen, they presented a long and friend- ly request for some catechisms for the children, and some little Testa- ments for the young."
.
It is no wonder that half a year later, April of 1709, the Mennonite Committee on Foreign Needs cher- ished few hopes concerning the colony. They felt, however, for nine or ten families who had come to Rotterdam, according to information from thence, under date of April 8, 1709, from the neighborhood of Worms and Franken- thal, in order to emigrate and whom they earnestly sought to dissuade from making the journey. They were (said the letter from Rotterdam), al-
together very poor men, who intended to seek a better place of abode in Pennsylvania. Much has been ex- pended upon them heretofore, freely, and these people bring with them scarce anything that is necessary in the way of raiment and shoes, much less the money that must be spent for fare from here to England and from there on the great journey, before they can settle in that foreign land." The committee who considered the matter useless and entirely unadvis- able, refused to dispose in this way of the funds entrusted to them." The Palatines understood the situation well. If they could only reach Hol- land without troubling themselves about the letters the committee would end by helping them on their way to Pennsylvania. The emigrants in April, 1709, accomplished their object; though it appears through the assis- tance of others. At all events, I think they are the ones referred to by Jacob Telner a Netherlands Menno- nite, dwelling at London, who wrote August 6, 1709, to Amsterdam and Haarlem."
1709-The Great Palatinate Exodus into England.
This year a great number of pov- erty stricken Gernians from the Palatinate (also Swiss, who earlier had moved into the Palatinate) rushed like madmen into England. There were several causes for it. First: Queen Anne of England had issued a glowing prospectus of the great op- portunities in Pennsylvania . and in- vited the Palatines to go there and take up the rich farm lands. Second: there was great hardship and poverty in the Palatinate, resulting from its over-crowded condition (but the people who flocked into England in this Exodus were not suffering any serious religious prosecution, because they were Catholics, Lutherans and Re- formed, who were not the people per-
-
143
GREAT PALATINATE EXODUS OF 1709
secuted for their religion). The num- | 3,200 were taken by Col. Hunter to ber in the exodus has been stated at New York, in May, 1710. various amounts, from 14,000 to 33,000. The whole subject is written up in a masterly way by Dr. F. R. Diffen- derfer in his "German Exodus of 1709"; and is entrancingly interesting. Their ultimate object was Pennsyl- vania. But when they flocked into England they learned that there were neither money nor ships to take them there.
The most authentic account of it is given in a report mnade to the House of Commons in 1711. The report in part states: "In the Spring of 1709, great numbers came down the Rhine and did not stop until reaching Rot- terdam, Holland. Their destination was England. By June, the number in England reached over 10,000 and the Queen's government became alarmed. Orders were sent to the English min- ister at the Hague to check it. Ad- vertisements were put into the Dutch Gazettes, that no more would be al- lowed to land. But three thousand more came. England issued a pro- clamation in December, that all would be sent back; some were sent to the West Indies and Ireland; but those coming after October were sent back. Holland also tried to stop the tide. The English Board of Trade and Plantations met twenty times to con- sider the matter, in May, June and August.
Queen Anne ordered help to them and 19,838 pounds were provided. They were lodged in ware houses, etc .- on the commons-in large build- ings of business men-and fed.
The Commons Committee says that most of them were farmers and vine dressers, but many had trades.
Finally, 3,800 were sent to Ireland in August, 1709, and February, 1710, there were 800 more sent-600 were finally lodged on Black Heath, 650 were sent to North Carolina (to New Bern), where Michelle and Graffen- reid had bought 10,000 acres of land- 800 (those who were Swiss) were in- duced to go back to Switzerland-
The great bulk of them were Luth- erans and Reformed Their Lutheran minister took 3,548 of them back to Germany and 1,600 also went back, who were to go to Scisily Islands; and 746, who were ordered to go to Ireland, went back to Germany; and 800 who had gone to Ireland, came back and returned to Germany, mak- ing nearly 7,000 in all going back. The elector Palatinate protested against the report that religious persecution drove these people to England. He says they were not persecuted.
My only excuse for writing at such length on this subject is to show that while all of these 14,000 or more, poor Palatinates intended in 1709, to come to Pennsylvania, the only ones who did arrive here were the few who reached Skippack in 1709. And none of our Lancaster County. pioneers came here from the Exodus. The British government ordered the Luth- eran and other ministers, in England, to take an accurate census of the hordes in England, and make a record of their religious faiths. This was done to the number of about 6,520. The record has been recently copied in England, brought to America, and printed by the New York Genealogical Society. Before the record was print- ed the writer went to New York and tabulated the list. It was found that 1,784 were Lutherans, 2.257 were Re- formed, 44 were Catholics, 10 were Baptists, only six were Mennonites; and the remainder were of various faiths.
Our Lancastr County pioneers were Mennonites. Beside, of all the 7,000 names, not more than a dozen or twenty are familiar Lancaster County names(See N. Y. Gen. Rec. Vols. 40 &
144
DUTCH AMBASSADOR HELPS SWISS SUFFERERS
41). It is indeed, most remarkable that out of 14,000 to 17,000 persons intending to come to Pennsylvania in 1709, having accomplished their jour- ney to England, only a little handful reached the province of Pennsylvania and none at all reached Lancaster County, though they were of the Swiss and German stock, who, the next year, began to settle here and who, in the next ten years, had settled here to the number of many thousands.
1710-German Colony in Ireland.
In our article on the Exodus from the Palatinate to England, we noted that a large number of the refugees were sent to Ireland. Dr. Mitchel, who visited the Palatines in Ireland in 1840, says that it is very odd to find the names. Baker, Miller, Ludwig, Madler, Pyfer, Strine, and Shirk in that section of the world, where all those about them are full blood Irish. About 1895 or 6 an article in the Philadelphia Record also dwelt on this situation. (Diffenderffer on the Exodus 81.) 1
1710-Dutch Ambassador Runckel at Berne. Tells of the Mennonite Conditions There.
A letter written by ambassador Runckel to J. Beets in Hoorn (Hol- land) January 22, 1710, explains it- self. It is as follows: "Your letter of Oct. last year has come to me. 1 have not been able to answer sooner, because I have been detained to the present time in Lyons and Geneva and other places in Italy. Yesterday I came back here again and have in- formed myself as far as possible. I have heard, with compassion, that the so called Mennonites are persecuted so severely as has not been the case for years; and that since one named Willading has become Mayor of Berne, who is a Godless man and an enemy to all the pious, has that been the fact. However, there are yet some
good men in the Council who did not want to approve this persecution. But on the other hand, the unspiritual clerics have mightily supported the Mayor. Also, one of these Godless preachers has not been ashamed to tell him that one should cut off the heads of some of them, then the others might come to their senses. In the meantime, the Council has writ- ten to Zurich in order to ascertain how they got rid of the Mennonites there. Whereupon, they answered that they had ordered some to be killed; and after that they had thrown as many as they could, into prison. Some have been transplated forcibly into the war in France. Others had been sold to the galleys-others had been banished and forbidden to re- turn. Of these latter, some had re- turned and have given their persecu- tors occasion to let their wrath loose against them, so that they are now persecuted more than ever and are hunted down in every possible way and thrown into dire imprisonment. They pay money to informers, where- by a large number have come to prison. How many and who, I cannot tell but hope soon to do so. Although it is strictly forbidden to let any one visit them in their prison, yet I hope through the aid of good friends to be able to speak to them myself. In the meantime, it is reported they are very patient under this affliction, edifying one another, and have increased their friends greatly through this persecu- tion. Within the last month, two of the best teachers were caught whom they could not get before, until two prisoners who were in jail, because of thieving, promised to bring them to jail, if they would obtain their liberty for doing so. This bold purpose they carried out in delivering up these two good men, whereupon, they received $200 in specie, as a reward. But that some of those had died in prison I cannot tell. They say that of those
·
143
RITTER'S PROJECT OF DEPORTATION TO AMERICA
now in prison some are to be sent to Pennsylvania.
Now there was in Berne a Mr. Spezieria Ritter, and fellow associate, who were of a mind, soon to take their journey into America; and of- fered of the very poor families here and those Mennonite people, who were of good reputation to be gotten out of the country, to take them along. Arrangements were made with this Ritter that he was to receive for 101 persons who were to go along with this expedition $500; and for the Mennonites $45 a person actually landed in America. The Mennonites were to pay the transportation by wagon themselves, to the boat which was to be taken out of the Mennonite property of the congregation to which they belonged. Return to the fatherland was prohibited on penalty of death. Ritter was to accompany them to Carolina. This was made in 1709; and supplemented the following year, to the effect that Ritter obtain- ed some advance payment and the town Council provided for good ships themselves. These Mennonites were required by the Queen of Great Bri tain for the peopling of their Amer- ican islands and colonies. There must therefore have been agreements and transactions with Great Britain: and passes were provided from there also. Everything was ready for the departure on the 18th of March, 1710. In the last hour, a French Ambassa- dor, Counte Du Luc, asked for a pass. The Imperial Ambassador, Herrn Feontianmansdorf, also asked for a free pass and passage on the Rhine and the places along the same. (Minutes 11th March.) The Council and authorities of Basle. were asked to appoint a walled place situated not far from the Rhine for the pas- sengers (Min. 15th March). They had their thoughts wholly set on get- ting free pasage through the Nether- lands and necessary passes for em-
barkation to America. March 12, 1710, was set for the departure from Berne. Shortly before that date, a letter from th Chancellor to the Bernese Ambassador in Holland, Mr. De St. Saphorin, announced that the French and English passes had been given to Mr. Ritter in order to secure safe transport of the people from their plight. (So they did not need to flee.) Now St. Saphorin took care that the States will impart to the police officers the necessary directions along the route, in order that not only free foreign passage but also the neces- sary assistance be given to the leader of the expedition against any acci- dental escape at the embarkation of the Mennonites at Rotterdam. The necessary writing together with in- structions, St. Sapharin is to send to Ritter in Cologne, to the address of Mr. Deitrich Kaester, export mer- chant. He is also to get into com- munication with the authorities in Rotterdam. St. Sapharin is a perfect diplomat, in the true sense of his time; and one of the finest and most skillful of men."
1710 -- Swiss and Holland Correspond- ence on Mennonite Persecution in Berne.
In the item just cited, found in Mül- ler 257-259, we set forth the Dutch Ambassador Runckel's letter.
We now give the substance of fur- ther correspondence on the same sub- ject between the two nations.
May 13, 1710, the Swiss authorities wrote to Holland saying:
We do not doubt that if your High- ness were acquainted with the condi- tion of our Canton, you would approve of our proceedings in this matter and find, with us, that, this kind of people cannot be tolerated in our land, with- out danger. All the more because we, as a case of necessity, must arm our subjects, and unlike some other of the federated nations, have no foreign
146
ST. SAPHORIN HELPING THE MENN NONITES TO AMERICA
troops in our pay. This we must do ; St. Saphorin then succeeded as he to keep the treaties made by the con- federation." (Müller 264.)
Another letter is noteworthy. It is the reply of the Dutch Ambassador to the request of the Berne authorities, asking the Dutch to take an interest in banishing Mennonites to America, The reply dated March 22, 1710, is in part as follows:
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