History of Lehigh county, Pennsylvania and a genealogical and biographical record of its families, Vol. I, Part 11

Author: Roberts, Charles Rhoads; Stoudt, John Baer, 1878- joint comp; Krick, Thomas H., 1868- joint comp; Dietrich, William Joseph, 1875- joint comp; Lehigh County Historical Society
Publication date: 1914
Publisher: Allentown, Pa. : Lehigh Valley Publishing Co.
Number of Pages: 1158

USA > Pennsylvania > Lehigh County > History of Lehigh county, Pennsylvania and a genealogical and biographical record of its families, Vol. I > Part 11

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In times of war the German was no less pa- triotic than in times of peace. Bancroft pays them a high tribute when he says: "The Germans, who composed a large part of the inhabitants of the province of Pennsylvania, were all on the side of liberty." Many of them, for conscience' sake, were non-combatants, but none the less loyal. Historian and poet have given due credit to the simple petition against slavery, signed by the Op Den Graeffs, Hendricks, and Pastorius of Ger- mantown. Their protest was only a voice in the wilderness, but its echo never died away. Gov- ernor Pennypacker, in whose veins flows the blood of those early Abolitionists, says: "A little rill there started which further on became an immense torrent, and whenever hereafter men traced the causes which led to Shiloh, Gettysburg and Appomattox, they begin with the tender con- sciences of the linen weavers and husbandmen of Germantown."

While the sects, including the Moravians, did not as a rule carry arms on the battlefield, they

THE GERMAN PIONEERS.

rendered invaluable service in furnishing supplies for soldiers, ministering to the sick in hospitals, and paying enormous revenues to the Continental Army. The Moravian missionaries kept power- ful Indian tribes neutral, notably the Delawares. The silken banner of Count Pulaski's regiment was made by the Moravian Sisters of Nazareth and Bethlehem.

The more aggressive Lutherans and Reformed won for themselves an honorable place in the Revolution. German names are found on all the committees and in the conventions which pre- ceded or organized for the conflict. They be- came members of the militia, raised rifle corps, and subscribed money. Of the nine Pennsylva- nia companies four had German captains. Cap- tain Hendricks led the Cumberland county com- pany in the siege of Quebec. He fell mortally wounded in an assault, and his body lies buried by the side of General Montgomery. The pulpit and press of the Germans joined in inculcating the spirit of patriotism. Pastor Gobrecht was one of many who preached farewell sermons to the soldiers leaving home for the field of battle. Helfenstein incurred the enmity of the Hessians when he announced his text in their presence : "Ye have sold yourselves for naught; and ye shall be redeemed without money." Weyberg was cast into prison, and Schlatter's house was plundered. The sons of the patriarch Muhlen- berg had to flee from their congregations-Fred- erick from New York, Ernst from Philadelphia. Nor should we fail to mention the dramatic in- cident in the life of their brother, Peter Muhl- enberg, then in Virginia. He ended his sermon by saying: "In the language of holy writ there is a time for all things-a time to pray and a time to preach-but those times have passed away; there is a time to fight, and the time to fight is here." He threw off his gown, buckled on his sword, ordered the drums to beat at the church door, and marched at the head of 300 Germans, who became a part of his regiment in the army.

There were doubtless traitors and Tories among the Germans, as there were in all the colonies, but the race which gave a Herkimer and a Kichlein, a Rittenhouse and a Ludwig, a Hillegass and a Hambright, and a host of greater and lesser lights to the cause of American independence, cannot be charged with disloyalty to the land of its adoption. Nor does their record end with the Revolution. The Germans of Penn- sylvania were represented in the War of 1812. Two regiments fought in the Mexican War ; and at least eighty-five monuments stand on the field of Gettysburg to commemorate their heroes and

martyrs who died for the Union their fathers helped to found.

The church life of the German colonists was different in form and spirit from that of the English settlers. Though the sects were natur- ally allied to the Quakers, they differed so much in language and in the manner of living that they could not coalesce. The Anabaptistic and Quiet- istic spirit in the German mind took a different form from what it assumed in the English mind. By conviction separatistic and non-resistant, neither the English Quaker nor the German sects wielded a far-reaching influence in the re- ligious life of the Commonwealth. For want of the aggressive qualities, which are so essential to progress in a young nation, they became compara- tively small bodies in Eastern Pennsylvania.

The German Lutherans and Reformed were trained in Europe to take part in the affairs of State. With them the service of God and the service of country were two aspects of religion. The Reformed, being Calvinists, were in reli- gious sympathy with the Scotch-Irish. But here again the Calvinism of Germany was different in spirit from that of Scotland. Probably ties of blood and nationality, in spite of difference of creed, brought the Lutherans and Reformed into closer fellowship than the Reformed and Pres- byterians. The union churches of Eastern Penn- sylvania bear witness to this fact. In the early part of the nineteenth century the process of Americanizing the Churches began. It was noth- ing more or less than puritanizing or methodiz- ing them. Many of the Germans fell in with the new tendency. But on account of the firm stand taken by the prominent men in two of the German Churches, a reaction followed, and they preserved their original character sufficiently to become the medium for bringing German philoso- phy and theology into American Christianity. In this fact again appears the purpose of Providence in sending a comparatively small group of Ger- mans into the colonies in order that they might be the means of introducing the rich heritage of the universities of the Fatherland into the United States. If American Christianity and institu- tions had been previously puritanized and meth- odized, they were now Germanized. In the third and fourth decades of the last century the ag- gressive and often offensive young blood of Ger- many found refuge on our shores. Dr. Thomp- son, the Presbyterian historian says: "A Charles Follen, flying from the Holy Alliance and find- ing a tutor's place at Harvard, not only brought us the gymnastic of the German Burschenschaft, but infused a wider interest in Germany and its thought. So men like Rauch, Schaff and Kapp

HISTORY OF LEHIGH COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA.

brought us an atmosphere of German philoso- phy." The Congregationalist historian, Dr. Leonard Bacon, writes of Marshall College at Mercersburg: "At this institution was effected a fruitful union of Americans and German the- ology; the result was to commend to the general attention aspects of truth philosophical, theologi- cal, and historical, not previously current among American Protestants." In speaking of the lack of appreciation of Kant's philosophy in America in the eighteenth, and the early part of the nine- teenth century Dr. I. Woodbridge Riley, in his American Philosophy, says: "Moreover it illus- trates the philistine attitude of one born and bred in the British Schools towards a continental sys- tem, and this serves to explain the difficulties which the critical philosophy had to contend with in the United States until its first sympathetic in- terpretation among certain Pennsylvanians of German origin. It is in the light of these now recognized broader influences that we can under- stand the value of the comparatively obscure German Churches in the Pennsylvania colony.

We have hastily and inadequately sketched the character and contribution of the German pio- neer to the Commonwealth. Among the three leading elements, the English, Scotch-Irish and the German, the last had a specific mission to ac- complish. Their lot fell in rural districts; their heritage was of the Teutonic type. Counting the qualities which go toward the making of a strong community, a powerful Commonwealth, and a permanent citizenship, one will not find them combined in fairer proportions in any other ele- ment than in the Germans. They did their part in the colony well. Their sons have grown in influence from the opening of the nineteenth cen- tury to the present hour.

THEIR ACHIEVEMENTS.

Their mission, according to the dispensation of history, was not that of the Puritan or of the Cavalier. Pennsylvania could not become the mother of Presidents nor the founder of an Athens in America. The excellency of the men in Virginia and Massachusetts, the glory of their achievements and their institutions, no one ad- mires more than the intelligent German of Penn- sylvania. He has a glory of his own. He, too, is a scion of a noble race. He is the disseminator of the principles of a Luther and a Melanchthon, of a Zwingli and a Calvin. Martyr blood flows in his veins. His greatness in America is in the performance of the work which Providence, working mysteriously in ages past, has assigned him. Though he came comparatively late into

the New World, his numbers small and his in- fluence limited by a strange language and a for- eign government, he has reared for himself an indestructible monument in the Keystone of the States, which he has helped to hew into shape.

In the history of the Germans in Pennsylvania we find three distinct periods. The first was that of the German in Pennsylvania; the second, that of the Pennsylvania-German; the third, that of the German-American. In the last period he attained the summit of his influence. In the colonial German there was an originality and freshness which gave him color and character. He spoke the language of his fatherland, read its literature, sang its songs, and worshiped in its spirit. He was rough and impetuous at times, but always real. He brought with him a certain dignity and culture to the farm, the pulpit, and the offices of the State, which bespoke an older race. The glory of the Rhine beamed beneath his rugged brows.

The generations which followed brought forth men of another type. After the Revolution the influx of fresh blood from Germany ceased. Only 400,000 out of a 10,000,000 increase from 1790 to 1830, came to the United States from Germany. They were cut off from the fellow- ship of the fatherland. They no longer had preachers or teachers who spoke the mother tongue. They ceased to read German books. Nor did they enter the larger life of America. They were hemmed in by a strange language, so- cial customs, and racial prejudices. By a grad- ual transformation the German in Pennsylvania became the Pennsylvania-German. In the rural districts the latter was almost as much estranged from the former as from the Irish or the English. They degenerated into a clan. That was the dark age of the Pennsylvania-German. He op- posed education, became stagnant in religion, and kept aloof from social movements. We cannot glory in his weakness, nor do we believe that his tribe should be perpetuated.

But the Pennsylvania-German recovered him- self and proved himself worthy of his noble an- cestry when he passed into the American stage of his history. He broke the bonds of provincial- ism. He built schools, educated his sons and daughters, enlarged the scope of his church life, and entered American society. He became con- versant with its literature and shared in the in- dustrial affairs of the country. What he has be- come for our generation a brief citation of facts will reveal.

There are over three million German-born citizens in the United States. Ten millions are said to have German ancestry. In every depart-

THE GERMAN PIONEERS.

ment of American life the hour of the Germans seems to have come. Of this nationality no group is wielding a greater influence in our coun- try than the Pennsylvania-German.

The merchant prince of the world is John Wanamaker. He alone could revive the estab- lishment of A. T. Stewart, in New York, and conduct it with financial success. One of the most significant banquets at the Waldorf-Astoria in recent years was given in honor of the founder of the Bethlehem Iron Works, John Fritz. The man who is acknowledged to be the greatest liv- ing expert in the manufacture of steel is Charles M. Schwab. When Speyer & Co., of New York, were in search of a man to whom they could en- trust their interest of millions in the Consoli- dated Lake Superior Company, they found him in the village of Riegelsville, Pa., in B. F. Fack- enthal, the president of the Thomas Iron Com- pany. One of the men who is shaping the eco- nomic movements of this generation in the United States is a Pennsylvania-German. He is presi- dent of the Philadelphia and Reading Railroad Company and a natural leader among men. These men of national distinction in the indus- trial world are examples of the spirit which has given wide reputation to the practical ability, the sound judgment, and the keen foresight of the Pennsylvania-German business man.

In the professions they have won distinction. In law, whether on the bench or at the bar, the array of talent is so brilliant that it is hard to specify individuals. Many of the famous judges of the Supreme Court of the State and of the county courts have been sons of German parents. One of the foremost lawyers and orators of the State, whose eloquence has swayed national con- ventions and determined the issues of national elections, is William U. Hensel, a Pennsylvania- German and a citizen of Lancaster, Pa. When the State of Colorado sent a counsel to defend its interest before the Supreme Court of the

United States, is selected Henry Dubbs, a young Pennsylvania-German lawyer and an alumnus of Franklin and Marshall College.

In medicine the German is no less prominent. The names of Wistar and Gross, Leidy and Pep- per will be forever associated with the history of that science in this country.

In education he has made for himself an en- viable reputation. Massachusetts sent us a Hig- bee, whose educational work has won for him a permanent place in our history. But I heard it said by a Boston lecturer at an institute of teach- ers that they never had an educational revival in Massachusetts like that which followed the lec- tures of the present Superintendent of Public In- struction in Pennsylvania. Among the men who took a foremost part in the National Teachers' Convention in Boston and sat on the same plat- form with President Eliot, was Thomas N. Ballick, who spent his boyhood on a Carbon county farm forty years ago.

A mere allusion to the distinguished educators of the Reformed, Lutheran, and Moravian insti- tutions will suffice. Among the dead stand out prominently a Krauth and a Schmucker, a Rauch and a Harbaugh, a Schaff and an Apple. Among the living there are men whose theological, scien- tific, and philosophical works have given them not only a national, but even an international, reputation.

The German giant is awakening and shaking his locks. The Pennsylvania-German is rapidly passing into the broader life of America. His mission will be accomplished when he and his German kinsmen unite with the English stock. Then each will contribute his own unique life- social, intellectual and religious-toward the mak- ing, not of a New England nor of a New Ger- many, but of a new nation, whose members find their chief pride in being American citizens.

February 15, 1913, Lancaster, Penna.

CHAPTER V.

FIRST SETTLEMENT AS PART OF BUCKS COUNTY

Pennsylvania, named by King Charles II in honor of William Penn's father, Sir William Penn, was granted to Penn by the King in con- sideration of the claims against the crown for his father's services, amounting to £16,000. The charter was dated March 4, 1681, and the extent of the province was three degrees of latitude in breadth, by five degrees of longitude in length, the eastern boundary being the Delaware river (named for Lord Delaware and called by the Dutch "South River or Sud Revier") and the northern boundary the line of the forty-second degree of northern latitude. William Penn left England in the ship Welcome on the 30th of August, 1682, accompanied by about one hundred colonists and after a long voyage arrived in De- cember at Newcastle. Soon after his arrival he divided his province into three counties, Phila- delphia, Bucks, and Chester.

Before his arrival his deputy governor, Mark- ham, had purchased from the Indians a consider- able tract of country and in 1683 and 1684 he himself purchased other tracts. In 1686 the In- dians granted to him an extent of land commenc- ing on a line of the former purchases and from thence northwestwardly, as far as a man could ride on horseback in two days.

William Penn was born in London, Oct. 14, 1644, and died at Ruscombe, in Berkshire, July 30, 1718. His sons by his second wife, John, Thomas, and Richard Penn became the owners of the province of Pennsylvania. John Penn, who was born Jan. 29, 1700, died without issue Oct. 29, 1746, bequeathing his share of the province to his brother Thomas. Thomas Penn born in 1702, married in 1751, Lady Juliana Fermor, daughter of the Earl of Pomfret, and died March 21, 1775. His children who reached maturity were: Juliana, wife of William Baker, Esq .; John Penn, born Feb. 23, 1760, died 1834; Sophia, who married in 1796, Dr. William Stu- art, Archbishop of Armagh, and Granville Penn, Esq., born 1761, died 1844, heir to his brother John, of Stoke Park. Granville Penn married Isabella, daughter of General Gordon Forbes, and was the father of Granville John Penn, born 1802, died March 29, 1867, who visited Penn- sylvania in 1851.

Richard Penn, youngest son of William, died in

1771. He married Hannah Lardner and had four children: Hannah, who married James Clayton, Esq .; William ; John, born in 1728, and died Feb. 19, 1795, who married, May 31, 1766, Ann Allen, daughter of Chief Justice William Allen, but had no children, and Richard, born in 1734, and died May 27, 1811. He married in 1772, Mary Mas- ters, of Philadelphia, and had children: William, born June 23, 1776, married Aug. 7, 1809, Juliet Catharine Balahega; Richard, who died without issue: Hannah, and Mary.

The greater part of Lehigh county, lying be- tween the Lehigh mountains and the Blue moun- tains, was deeded to John, Thomas, and Richard Penn, sons of William Penn, by twenty-three In- dian chiefs on Oct. 1I, 1736. The considera- tion was 500 pounds of powder, 600 pounds of lead, 45 guns, 60 Strowd water match coats, 100 blankets, 100 duffle match coats, 200 yards of half-thick, 100 shirts, 40 hats, 40 pairs of shoes and buckles, 40 pairs of stockings, 100 hatchets, 500 knives, 100 hoes, 60 kettles, 100 tobacco tongs, 100 scissors, 500 awl blades, 120 combs, 2,000 needles, 1,000 flints, 24 looking glasses, two pounds of vermilion, 100 tin pots, 25 gal- lons of rum, 200 pounds of tobacco, 1,000 pipes and 24 dozen of gartering. The chiefs signing this deed, all of whom made their marks, were representatives of the Onondago, Seneca, Oneida, Tuscarora, and Cayuga tribes of the five nations, by whom the Delawares were held in vassalage or subjection. The most famous of these chiefs was Shekallamy, of the Oneida tribe.

On the 25th of October, following, twenty- one chiefs executed a release in behalf of the Six Nations, including the Mohawks, by which they declared that the true intent of the deed, signed on Oct. IIth, was to release all claim to the lands lying within the limits of Pennsylvania, begin- ning eastward on the river Delaware, as far northward as the ridge of hills or mountains called the Tyannuntasacta, or Endless Hills, and by the Delaware Indians, the Kekkachtananin Hills ( Kittatinny Hills or Blue Mountains).

Another deed covering part of Lehigh county was executed by Sassoonan, King of the Dela- wares and others, on Sept. 7, 1732, at Stenton, for all the lands on the river Schuylkill, or branches thereof, or on any streams which flowed

FIRST SETTLEMENT AS PART OF BUCKS COUNTY.

into or towards the Schuylkill, between the Le- chay Hills and the Kittatinny Hills, which cross the Schuylkill about thirty miles above the Lechay Hills, and all lands lying within the said bounds, and between the branches of the Delaware river on the eastern side of the land and the branches of the river Susquehannah on the western side of the land.

That part of Lehigh county south of the Le- high mountains was deeded in 1718. The deed reads as follows :

"We, Sassoonan, King of the Delaware In- dians, & Pokehais, Metaschichay, Aiyamikan, Pepawmamen, Gheltypeneemam & Opekasset, Chiefs of the said Indians, do acknowledge, that we have seen & heard divers Deeds of Sale read unto us, under the hands & seals of the former Kings, & Chiefs of the Delaware Indians, our Ancestors & Predecessors, who were owners of Lands between the Delaware & Sasquehannah Rivers, by which Deeds they have granted & Con- veyed unto William Penn, Proprietor and Gov- ernor in chief of the Province of Pennsylvania, & to his Heirs & Assigns, all & singular their Lands, Islands, Woods, & Waters, situate be- tween the said two Rivers of Delaware and Sas- quehannah, & had received full satisfaction for the same. And We do further acknowledge that we are fully content & satisfied with the said Grant. And Whereas, the Commissioners or Agents of the said William Penn have been pleased, upon our Visit to this Government to be- stow on us, as a free Gift, in the name of the said William Penn, these following goods, viz .: Two Guns, six Strowed water Coats, six Blank- ets, six Duffell match-coats & four Kettles. We therefore, in Gratitude for the said Presents, as well in Consideration of the several Grants made by our Ancestors & Predecessors, as of the said several Goods herein before mentioned, the Re- ceipt whereof we do hereby acknowledge, Do by these presents for us, Our Heirs & Successors, Grant, Remise, Release, & forever Quitt claim unto the said William Penn, his Heirs and As- signs, all the said Lands situate between the said two Rivers of Delaware & Sasquehannah, from Duck Creek to the mountains on this side Lechay, and all our Estate, Right, Title, Interest, Prop- erty, Claim & Demand whatsoever in & to the same, or any part thereof, so that neither We, nor any of us, nor any Person or Persons in the Be- half of any of us, shall or may hereafter lay any claim to any of the said Lands, or in any wise molest the said William Penn, his Heirs or As- signs, or any Person claiming by, from or under them, them or any of them, in the peaceable and quiet Enjoyment of the same. In Witness whereof We have hereunto sett our Hands &

Seals at Philadelphia, the Seventeenth day of September, in the year of our Lord one thousand seven hundred and eighteen.

Sassoonan x his mark (S)

Pokehais x his mark. (S)

Metashichay x his mark. (S)

Aiyamackan x his mark. (S)

Gheltypeneeman x his mark (S)

Opekassett x his mark (S)

Pepawmamen x his mark (S)

Sealed and Delivered (by all but Pokehais & Pepawmamen who were absent) in the presence of

W. Keith.

Jonathan Dickinson,

Samuel Preston.

Robert Assheton,

Anthony Palmer.

Indian Sam, son of Essepenaike,

Indian Peter, Pokehais's Nephew or Aweay-

koman.

Kachguesconk or Toby,

Tussoigheenan,

Neeshallapy or Andrew,

Sealed and delivered by Pokehais & Pepawma- men, in the presence of

James Logan,

Neeshallapy or Andrew,

Nedawaway or Oliver,

Robert Assheton,

Clement Plumsted,

David Evans.

The minutes of the Provincial Council, on the day the deed was signed, read as follows:

"The deed being fully explained to the Indians in their own Language, Sassoonan & Opekasset, two of those who had executed it being present, viewed their Marks and acknowledged that it was true, and that they had been paid for all the lands therein mentioned; but Sassoonan said the Lands beyond these Bounds had never been paid for, that these reached no further than a few miles beyond Oley, but that their Lands on Tul- pyhocken were seated by the Christians.

"Mr. Logan answered, that he understood at the Time that Deed was drawn, and ever since that Lechay Hills or Mountains stretched away from a little below Lechay or the Forks of Del- aware to those Hills on Sasquehannah that lie about ten miles above Pextan. Mr. Farmer said those Hills passed from Lechay a few Miles above Oley, and reached no further, and that Tulpy- hocken lay beyond them."

Sassoonan, or Allumapees, became chief sachem of the Delawares of the Turtle tribe, about 1715. He visited the Governor at Philadelphia twice during the year 1728, and at other times in the years 1734, 1736, 1738, 1740 and 1742. Bishop

HISTORY OF LEHIGH COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA.

Spangenberg wrote, on June 4, 1745: "We also visited Allumapees, the hereditary King of the Indians. He is very old, almost blind, and very poor ; but withal has still power over and is be- loved by his people; and he is a friend of the English."

Conrad Weiser wrote, on Oct. 15, 1747, that Allumapees had died. Nettawatwees after- wards succeeded to the chieftainship of the Turtle tribe. Most of the Indians of the Turtle and Turkey tribes had crossed the Blue Hills, and settled along the north branch of the Susquehan- nah before William Penn's death. Their chief town, called Shamokin, was where is now Sun- bury. From Shamokin, the greater part of the Delawares, about 1724, settled on the Allegheny river, building a town they named Kittanning. The residue of the Delawares remained in the vicinity of Shamokin under their old chief, Sas- soonan, or Allumapees.

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History of Lehigh county, Pennsylvania and a genealogical and biographical record of its families, Vol. I, Part 11

Author: Roberts, Charles Rhoads; Stoudt, John Baer, 1878- joint comp; Krick, Thomas H., 1868- joint comp; Dietrich, William Joseph, 1875- joint comp; Lehigh County Historical Society Publication date: 1914 Publisher: Allentown, Pa. : Lehigh Valley Publishing Co. Number of Pages: 1158

Author: Roberts, Charles Rhoads; Stoudt, John Baer, 1878- joint comp; Krick, Thomas H., 1868- joint comp; Dietrich, William Joseph, 1875- joint comp; Lehigh County Historical Society
Publication date: 1914
Publisher: Allentown, Pa. : Lehigh Valley Publishing Co.
Number of Pages: 1158