USA > Pennsylvania > Northampton County > History of Northampton County [Pennsylvania] and the grand valley of the Lehigh, Volume I > Part 8
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In the study of peoples' influence, so far as numbers are concerned, the relative proportion is of more value than exact figures. There is a remark- able unanimity in the conclusion of the authorities that the proportion of Germans was one-third of the whole number.
The habitations of the German pioneers were determined largely by their occupations. They were in the main farmers and mechanics. Therefore we may cite the statement of Dr. Rush concerning the Germans in Pennsylvania : "The principal part of them were farmers, but there were many mechanics, who brought with them a knowledge of those arts which are necessary and useful in all countries. These mechanics were chiefly weavers, tailors, tan- ners, shoemakers, combmakers, smiths of all kinds, butchers, papermakers, watchmakers, sugarbakers." Probably no better material crossed the Atlantic to break the virgin soil, to build hamlets, to begin commerce and to practice religious and social virtues, than these German pioneers. Differing in lan- guage from the Quakers, they built up communities of their kind in fertile
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NORTHAMPTON COUNTY
valleys along the banks of the Perkiomen, Delaware, Lehigh, Schuylkill, Conestoga and Susquehanna. In course of time they became the virtual possessors of the now prosperous counties of Bucks, Montgomery, Lancaster, York, Lebanon, Berks, Lehigh and Northampton. If one were to draw three semi-circles with Philadelphia as center, the Quakers resided in the space of the shortest radius, the Germans in the belt beyond, and the Scotch-Irish in the frontiers. In each of these districts, however, there were small groups of the other classes.
We may group them also according to their religious predilections. The Mennonites settled first in Germantown and spread over the contiguous terri- tory, now Montgomery, Bucks, Berks and Lehigh counties, and a group settled in Allen township, Northampton county. Later another group of this faith became the pioneers in Lancaster county, when a little colony of eight families built homes on the Pequea creek. The Tunkers, arriving in 1719, scattered among the Germans along the Schuylkill, in Falkner's Swamp, Oley and Lancaster. Some of them came under the influence of Conrad Beissel, who was the leader of a cloister at Ephrata. The Schwenkfelders in 1735 settled along the Perkiomen in Montgomery county, where their descendants still reside. The Lutherans and Reformed occupied the counties named above, and became the most aggressive of the German element. The Mora- vians, coming by way of Georgia, located at Nazareth, Bethlehem, Emaus and Lititz.
When we come to take an estimate of the contributions of the Germans to the Commonwealth, we shall have to consider their means and their men ; these together were the capital which they brought from abroad. A citizen of a state becomes valuable to it by what he adds to the wealth of the com- munity, for his obedience to the law, for his fidelity to family, for his educa- tional zeal and religious practices. In the light of these contributions a people's worth to a nation must be determined.
A general survey of a century's immigration shows a diversified condi- tion among the immigrants both in regard to material resources and intellec- tual and moral conditions. Considering the cause for their departure from the homeland, we may safely presume they came without wealth and with a higher degree of social culture. As a rule, they were poor peasants or humble burghers. Yet there were degrees of poverty among them. The colonists who came from 1683 to 1717 were well-to-do. They had the means to pay their passage down the Rhine and across the Atlantic. They had money left to buy lands and to pay for them in part or all together. Loeher says: "Prior to 1727 most of the Germans commigrated and were persons of means." Many of the Palatines, however, were so poor that they consumed their scant means in the journey across the ocean. Numbers of them, who had converted their property into money, were robbed on shipboard by the ship-owners, captains and Newlanders. The only resort of such unfortunates upon their arrival at Philadelphia was to sell themselves and their children into servitude to pay their passage money. Another class, who had not enough money to leave their homes and to purchase a passage on the vessels, sold themselves before they embarked, as redemptioners for a certain number of years to the ship-owners, who conducted a traffic of souls between the
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THE GERMAN PIONEERS
Old World and the New. The Redemptioners came in large numbers from 1728 to 1751. They naturally were poor, and for years were at the mercy of their masters. "Yet," says Gordon, "from this class have sprung some of the most reputable and wealthy inhabitants of the province."
We need not sing the praises of the German farmer and mechanic. Their pre-eminence was recognized in colonial times and their fame is world-wide now. In 1774 Governor Thomas wrote to England of the Germans: "They have by their industry been the principal instruments of raising the State to its flourishing condition, beyond any of his Majesty's colonies in North America." The exports from the colony in 1751 exceeded one million dollars, due largely to the thrift of the Germans. Wherever they located in the rural districts they rapidly supplanted the farmers of other nationalities, notably the Scotch-Irish. This is especially illustrated in the case of the Irish Settle- ment on Allen township. Proud thus contrasts these two races: "The Germans seem more adapted to agriculture and improvement of a wilderness, and the Irish for trade. The Germans soon get estates in the country, where industry and economy are the chief requisites to procure them." If "agricul- ture may be regarded as the breast from which the State derived its supports and nourishments," the German farmer will always hold a high place in the development and support of our commonwealth.
When men cultivate the soil they cultivate all the domestic virtues. These, of course, belong to all nations ; yet the German from time immemorial has attracted special attention of annalist and eulogist in regard to his home life. These virtues were not only prominent in colonial pioneers but may be traced in our generation. Pennsylvania-German hospitality has its crudi- ties and informalities which may grate upon the urbane guest, but it is the outflow of a deeply social nature. If I should seek for a single passage which describes the subtle and indefinable contributions of the German to the growth of our State and at the same time throws light on the life in his home, it is the one in which Dr. Rush grows more eloquent: "The favorable influence of agriculture as conducted by the Germans in extending human happiness is manifested by the joy they express upon the birth of a child. No dread of poverty nor distrust of Providence from an increasing family depresses the spirits of these industrious and frugal people. . Happy state of human society! What blessings can civilization confer that can atone for the extinction of the ancient and patriarchal pleasure of raising up a numerous and healthy family of children, to labor for their parents, for themselves and for their country, and finally to partake of the knowledge and happiness which are annexed to existence! The joy of parents upon the birth of a child is the grateful echo of creating goodness. May the mountains of Pennsylvania be forever vocal with songs of joy upon these occasions! They will be the infallible signs of innocence, industry, wealth and happiness in the State."
One of the most serious charges brought against the German pioneers was their ignorance and want of interest in education. A citation of views expressed by our historians will show a wide difference of opinions. Mrs. Lamb writes: "These earlier German settlers were mostly hewers of wood and drawers of water, differing materially from the class of Germans who
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have since come among us, and bearing about the same relation to the Eng- lish, Dutch and French settlers of their time as the Chinese of today bear to the American population on the Pacific coast." Parkman calls them "dull and ignorant boors, which character their descendants for the most part retain."
Historians equally as great have taken directly opposite positions. Macaulay calls the same people "honest, laborious men, who have once been thriving burghers of Mannheim and Heidelberg, or who had cultivated the vine on the banks of the Neckar and the Rhine. Their ingenuity and their diligence could not fail to enrich any land which should afford them asylum." These diverse conclusions are due to several reasons. It was not prejudice in the historians, but want of knowledge of the conditions which led them to make such unwarranted statements. It is only latterly that men of Penn- sylvania have written up their own history and that the various elements in the Commonwealth have received their due.
It may be freely admitted that the culture and education of the German colonists were not of a high order; but of what colonists may this not be said? The missionaries who came from Germany bore testimony to the ignorance and boorishness of the people. Yet, on the other hand, there are undeniable facts which show that there was a proportion of German citizens of more than average culture, and at times of great learning.
The German educational spirit was mainly found in the Lutherans, Re- formed and Moravians. Though among the members of these churches there were many who had grown indifferent to culture in their separation from the fatherland and in their struggle with the wilderness, they built a church and a schoolhouse. They brought with them their Bibles, catechisms, hymnbooks and devotional literature. Many of the immigrants were accompanied by preachers and teachers, who began their ministry upon their arrival. Prob- ably at no time since was the education of the ministers of the German churches in Pennsylvania of a higher grade than during the colonial period. Muhlenberg, Schlatter and Zinzendorf were university men and were ardent supporters of higher education. In the Reformed Coetus from 1747 to 1793 there were sixty-four ministers; of these, twenty-nine were educated in Pennsylvania, and thirty-five in the universities of Germany and Switzerland. Dr. Weiser says that between 1745 and 1770, in the space of twenty-five years, no less than fifty graduates of German universities labored in the Lutheran and Reformed churches. The students of Harvard University were astonished at their fluency in foreign tongues. Some of them were called to chairs of ancient languages. A Latin letter from the Reformed clergy to Governor Morris in 1754 not only is proof of their ability to use the language of scholarship, but of their culture and dignity in addressing an officer of the State.
The founding of Franklin College in Lancaster, 1787, bears testimony to the educational enthusiasm of Drs. Weyberg and Hendel of the Reformed church, Drs. Helmuth and Muhlenberg of the Lutheran church. The provi- sion that a certain number of trustees were to be chosen "from any other society of Christians" besides that of the Lutheran and Reformed, is proof that the institution was to serve the German element in general. The colleges
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THE GERMAN PIONEERS
and seminaries which have since been built by the German churches in the eastern and western parts of the State are an additional evidence of the regard in which the truly representative Germans held higher learning. The Mora- vians became pioneers of education for young women in this country. Nazareth Hall, the Moravian seminary for ladies, and Linden Hall, count among their alumni members of the most prominent families of New England and the South.
In every department of knowledge German scholars in our colony became noted. Dr. Rush wrote about the faculty of Franklin College in 1787: "A cluster of more learned or better qualified masters I believe have not met in any university."
In times of war the German was no less patriotic than in times of peace. Bancroft pays them a high tribute when he says: "The Germans, who com- posed 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 Germantown. Their protest was only a voice in the wilderness, but its echo never died away. "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 consciences of the linen weavers and the husbandmen of Germantown."
The more aggressive Lutherans and Reformed won for themselves an honorable place in the Revolution. 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. German names are found on all the committees and in the conventions which preceded or organized for the conflict. They became members of the militia, raised rifle corps, and subscribed money. Of the nine Pennsylvania companies, four had German captains. Captain Hendricks led the Cumberland county company in the siege of Quebec. He fell mor- tally 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. Helfen- stein 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 Muhlenberg had to flee from their congregations-Frederick from New York, Ernst from Philadelphia. Nor should we fail to mention the dramatic incident in the life of their brother, Peter Muhlenberg, 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 his sword, ordered the drums to beat at the church-door, and marched at the head of three hundred Germans, who became a part of his regiment in the army.
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NORTHAMPTON COUNTY
There were no traitors and Tories among the Germans. They 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. Nor does their record end with the Revolution. The Germans of Pennsylvania 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 in this recent war to defeat German autocracy and firmly establish that freedom for which they came to Pennsylvania, they furnished us with the two great leaders, Generals John J. Pershing and Hunter Liggett.
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 admires 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 influence limited by a strange language and a foreign 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 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 worshipped 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. They were cut off from the fellowship 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, social customs and racial prejudices. By a gradual transformation the German in Pennsylvania became the Penn- sylvania-German, and cut all the ties that bound him to the fatherland. 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 opposed 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.
Rut the Pennsylvania-German recovered himself and proved himself
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THE GERMAN PIONEERS
worthy of his noble ancestry when he passed into the American stage of his history. He broke the bonds of provincialism. He built schools, educated his sons and daughters, enlarged the scope of his church life, and entered American society. He became conversant with its literature and shared in the industrial affairs of the country.
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.
In medicine the German is no less prominent. The names of Wistar and Gross, Leidy and Pepper, will be forever associated with the history of that science in this country.
In education he has made for himself an enviable reputation. Massa- chusetts sent us a Higbee, 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 teachers that they never had an educational revival in Massachusetts like that which followed the lectures of the present Superin- tendent of Public Instruction in Pennsylvania.
A mere allusion to the distinguished educators of the Reformed, Lutheran and Moravian institutions 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, scientific and philosophical works have given them not only a national, but even an international reputation.
The Pennsylvania-German is rapidly passing into the broader life of America. His mission will be accomplished when he and his German kins- men unite with the English stock. Then each will contribute his own unique life-social, intellectual and religious-toward the making, not of a New England nor of a New Germany, but of a New Nation, whose members find their chief pride in being American citizens.
FRIEDE ISTHAT
A SETTLEMENT OF TIIE MORAVIAN ECONOMY,
Near the Barony of Nazareth Northampton Co.Fenn?
1758
Shoekleim
Saires Broods 20 perches
TATAMY'S
LAND.
MEADOW Taierea Speich
FIELD lacres' 2 roods
BRUSHWOOD
BRUS
073
ยท 9acres 1625 per
FRIEDENSTHAL
acre 3meda /Sperehat
King's Road from
2 acre . 50 perches
Laeres irond 20.5 perchsd
43 herer 2 :pods 22 5 perches
Zaeres Irvad
Incre Jegods 30pt- ches
$04.
BRUSHWOOD
3acres 33 parches
20 arre
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-. 23
FIELD
2 acres 2rueds 24perches
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FIELD
Sacrea Broada 22 perches
Nutercih
Nazareth
road to Lefevre's
Punturay ! from
FIELD
200
IBLAND
CHAPTER VI THE MORAVIANS IN NORTHAMPTON COUNTY
By the Rev. W. N. SCHWARZE, Ph.D.
Like most Protestant bodies, the Moravian church traces its origin to a revival of experimental religion. The revival occurred in an interesting country, amid stirring events, and exerted determinative influence on the character of the church that proceeded from it. Bohemia was the scene of the noteworthy awakening. This land is one of the smallest of the world's famous countries. Embracing an area of not more than twenty thousand square miles, it is less than half as large as Pennsylvania. It lies diamond shaped in the heart of Europe. Its boundaries are defended by mountain ramparts. Centrally situated like a natural fortress, Bohemia has been styled the "key" to modern Europe. Field of many battles, it was the storm-centre of the dark and lurid tragedy of the Thirty Years' War. His- torically, too, the country is of importance. It has been convulsed by great questions of its own raising, and it anticipated by a century of brave struggle the general Reformation of the sixteenth century. To the southeast of Bohemia lies the much smaller margraviate of Moravia. The two have sub- stantially the same history, one by the ties of fortune and misfortune. Both lands, now parts of the newly formed Czecho-Slovak State, are regarded as the original seats of the "Unitas Fratrum," or the Moravian Church.
Into the territory embraced within the borders of these two lands there came in the fifth century the Czechs, a vigorous and high-minded people, the most gifted of the Slavonic tribes. Remnants of earlier inhabitants they either dispossessed or subdued. The missionary interest of the church reached out to them about the middle of the ninth century. It proceeded from both the Latin and the Greek churches, a little earlier from the former, but with much more vigorous expression from the latter. Cyrill and Methodius, sent out by the Greek Church, became the apostles of the Bohemians and the Moravians. They translated the Scriptures into their language and established many churches. A marked feature of their work was the use of the language of the people, not only in giving instruction but, also, in public worship. Thus was laid the foundation for that national feeling and the liberal principles that thenceforward distinguished the Bohemians and Moravians. They were animated by a spirit akin to that which later manifested itself as Protestantism. Roman pontiffs were not indifferent to these developments. On the ground of the prior claims of the Latin Church, they sought to bring the Bohemian and Moravian Church under their supremacy. Toward the end of the eleventh century the two countries became subject to the Roman See. The Greek ritual fell into disuse, the vernacular was no longer employed in public worship. But the impression left in the minds of the people in favor of the use of the popular language for religious purposes was never effaced. The hearts of the people clung to the customs of the fathers. They were ready at any time to wel-
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NORTHAMPTON COUNTY
come a reformer, particularly, when the powerful Roman church became corrupt.
In due time the reformer appeared. His name was John Hus. He was the forerunner of the Moravian Church. Under his guidance-as is well known, because his life is a part of universal history as truly as is the life of Luther, of Calvin, of Zwingli, of Wesley, or of Cranmer-the intellectual and religious movement in Bohemia of the fourteenth century was turned into the channel of a national reformation. As learned pro- fessor at the University of Prague, as powerful preacher and vigorous writer, he labored for truth and righteousness. It was the seed-time of evangelical truth in Bohemia. As he lifted up his voice against abuses, he roused bitter enmity. Eventually, he was condemned to death at the Council of Con- stance and was burned alive as a heretic on July 6, 1415. The consequences of this act of violence were terrible. They precipitated the long and san- guinary Hussite wars. For years the brave Bohemians fought for national
independence and religious liberty but were, in the end, overwhelmed
because divided among themselves. What was left of the several parties at the end of the conflicts was constituted the National Church of Bohemia, enjoying certain concessions granted by the Romish hierarchy, such as the Lord's Supper in both kinds and the use of the vernacular in public worship.
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