History of York County Pennsylvania, Volume I, Part 24

Author: Prowell, George R.
Publication date: 1907
Publisher: J. H. Beers
Number of Pages: 1372

USA > Pennsylvania > York County > History of York County Pennsylvania, Volume I > Part 24

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The

The most important Scotch- Irish migration to York

Marsh County was the " Marsh

Creek Creek Settlement," of which Settlement. the present town of Gettys- burg is the centre. As it was the policy of the Penns to push the Scotch- Irish to the frontier, and as the land at the foot of South Mountain resembled to some extent that of the north of Ireland, it was but natural that many of the early settlers should take up lands in this locality. These early settlers seemed to have crossed the Susquehanna at Harris's Ferry and came through the South Mountains to what was

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SCOTCH-IRISH

then the western part of Lancaster County and from 1749 to 1800 embraced in York County. The name of this settlement is taken from Marsh Creek, a small stream. This district gave to the county of York many of its prominent men in civil and mili- tary matters, in early days. Called upon in their early history to do active service against the Indians, they became inured to all sorts of hardships and were a thoroughly self-dependent and aggressive people. As early as 1736, a goodly number of Scotch- Irish had settled here, upon the invitation of the Penns, to take up lands upon "com- mon terms." During that year the pro- prietaries had determined on surveying for themselves a manor in this territory. They did not look with favor, for some reason, upon the first Scotch-Irish settlers. Finally, in 1741, an order was issued for the survey of a manor to be called " Manor of Maske," of which order the following is a copy :

Pennsylvania, ss. : ( Seal) By the Proprietaries :

These are to authorize and require thee to survey or cause to be surveyed a fract of land on the branches of Marsh Creek, on the west side of the River Susque- hanna, in the County of Lancaster, containing about thirty thousand acres, for our own proper use and be- hoof, and the same to return under the name and style of our Manor of Maske, in the County of Lancaster aforesaid, into our Secretary's office, and for so doing this shall be thy sufficient warrant. Given under my hand and the seal of our Land Office at Philadelphia this eighteenth day of June, in the year of our Lord, one thousand seven hundred and forty-one.

THOS. PENN. To Benj. A. Eastburn, Surveyor-General.

The matter must have been determined upon at an earlier date than the issuing of the order, as Zachariah Butcher writes about that date as follows :

" I was designed about two weeks ago to have laid out the manor at Marsh Creek, but the inhabitants have got into such spirit that it is as much as a man's life is worth to go among them; for they gather together in conference, and go about armed every time that I am anywheres near about. They fairly resolved to kill or cripple me, or any other persons who shall attempt to lay out a manor there. Yet, if the honor- able proprietary shall think it fit to order such assistance as shall withstand such un- reasonable creatures, I shall be ready and willing to undertake the same with my ut- most endeavors. As soon as I come back

from Virginia I am going there on an ur- gent occasion."

The name " Manor of Maske" takes its origin from an estate in Yorkshire, Eng- land, of Anthony Lowther, who married Margaret, sister of William Penn.

The term " Marsh Creek Settlement " has been applied to all of the settlers within the Manor of Maske. There was, however, another Scotch-Irish settlement, known as the " Great Conewago Settlement," which was some miles to the east of Gettysburg, and near the town originated by Captain David Hunter, which bears his name (Hunterstown). So closely and intimately were the people of these two settlements connected in all matters of historical in- terest that in speaking of the Marsh Creek the Great Conewago settlement is included.

The first church in the Marsh Creek dis- trict was in the vicinity of " Black's Grave- yard," a short distance west of Gettysburg, near McPherson's Spring, and is known in history as the Upper Marsh Creek Church. It was built in 1747 of logs. It had low, long, double-sash windows. The date of the erection of this church is fixed from the fact that Hance Hamilton, Robert McPher- son, Samuel Edie and John Buchanan, trustees, applied for a warrant for one hundred acres of land in Cumberland Town- ship, May 25, 1765. They stated that a meeting house was erected by said congre- gation on the tract of land of one hundred acres in the Manor of Maske "about eighteen years ago," which fixes the date of the erection of the building at 1747.

The early pastors of this church in order were, Revs. Joseph Tate, Robert McMordie, James Lang, Joseph Rhea, Samuel Ken- nedy, Robert Huey and John Black.

The Lower Marsh Creek Church was built about 1761, and in all probability grew out of the "Old Side and New Side con- troversy," the Lower Marsh Creek Church containing the "New Side " men, and the Upper Marsh Creek Church the "Old Side " men .. The first pastor of this church was Rev. Andrew Bay, afterward a chaplain in the French and Indian war.

The following is a list of names

Names of of such persons as settled and Early made improvements n the Settlers. Manor of Maske between the years 1736 and 1741 :

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HISTORY OF YORK COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA

William McClellan, May, 1740; John Fletcher, June, 1739; John McDowell, April, 1741; John McFerran, May, 1741; Robert Fletcher, May, 1741; William Mc- Ferran, May, 1741; Samuel Gettys, near Rock Creek, May, 1740; John Steel, September, 1740; Hugh Scott, September, 1740; Daniel McKeenan, September, 1740; George Kerr, October, 1740; Samuel McColock, May, 1741; Alexander Stuart, April, 1741: Robert Smith, April, 1741 ; Robert Johnston, April, 1741; Samuel Pedian, May, 1741 ; Samuel Agnew, May, 1741; Alex- ander McNair, April, 1741; John Millar, April, 1741 ; Henry Pearson, April. 1741; Thomas McCleary, May, 1740; James Thompson, May, 1741; William Stevenson, May, 1741; Henry Rowan, June, 1739; Quintin Mc- Adams, April, 1741 ; Robert McNiel, April, 1740; Joseph Clugston, April, 1741; John McGaughy, April, 1741 ; Henry Cotton, April, 1741; Duncan McDonnel, April, 1740; Wm. McCreary, April, 1740; Rev. Robert Anan, May, 1741; Jean Gibson, May, 1741; George Sypes, April, 1741; James Ferguson, September, 1741 ; Hugh Ferguson, September, 1741 : William Gibson, October, 1736; Robert Gibson, October, 1736: John Hossack, March, 1740; Benjamin McCormick, October, 1736; Duncan Evans, October, 1736; Samuel Gibson, October, 1736; Joseph Moore, March, 1740: David Moore, March, 1741 ; Hugh Woods, March, 1741; Robert Long, Sep- tember, 1739: William Scott, April, 1741; Thomas Martin, May, 1741; John Stuart, April, 1741; John Kerr, April, 1741; John Cishinger, April, 1741; James Orr, May, 1739; Wm. Boyd B. Smith, March, 1740; Jolin Boyd, March, 1740; Thomas Hossack, March, 1740; Edward Hall, March, 1741; John Linn, April, 1740; John Scott, May, 1740: James Walker, May, 1740; Thomas Latta, May, 1740; John Buchanan, May, 1740; Walter Buchanan, September, 1739; Matthew Dean, May, 1740; William Erwin, September, 1739; James Erwin, September, 1739.

Thomas Tedford, May, 1740; Widow Margaret Buchanan, May, 1740; Robert Brumfield, September, 1739; James Agnew, May, 1741 ; Mary McMullen, May, 1741; John Little, May, 1741; Robert Creighton, June, 1739; James Innis, May, 1740; John Carson, April, 1741 ; Hugh Dunwoody, April, 1741 ; Thomas Douglass, May, 1740; James Reed, August, 1738; Alexander Poe, April, 1739; Hugh Davis, April, 1739; Jacob Mcclellan, May, 1740; Thomas Shanon, September, 1740; Thomas Mc- Cracken, September, 1740; the heirs of John Craige, deceased, or Col. Hance Hamilton in trust for said children, April, 1739; John Brown, May, 1741 ; Samuel Brown, May, 1741; Samuel Edie, Esq., March, 1741 ; David Parke, March, 1741; John Parke, March, 1741; James Craige, May, 1741; David Dunwoody, April, 1741 ; Robert Linn, April, 1740; William Smith, April, 1739: John Stuart, Marsh Creek, March, 1741 ; the heirs of Henry McDonogh, deceased, April, 1739; Samuel Gettys for land on Middle Creek, May, 1740; William Ramsey, May, 1740; James Wilson, May, 1741; James Russel, May, 1740; John Russel, May, 1741; James Mc- Naught, May, 1740; Archibald Morrison, May, 1740; Moses Jenkins, May, 1740; James Biddle, May, 1740; the heirs of Robert Black, deceased, March, 1738; Alexander McKeen, March, 1738: Hugh McKeen, March, 1738; Myles Sweeney, March, 1741; the heirs of Thomas Boyd, deceased, March, 1741: Thomas Nealson, March, 1741; Samuel Stevenson, May, 1741 ; James Hall. April, 1741 ; Adam Linn, May, 1741 ; Robert Mckinney, May, 1740; William April, 1741: Andrew Levenston, May, 1740; Charles McMul- len, May, 1740; Alexander McKeen, Hugh McKeen and Samuel Edie, Esq., guardians in trust for the minor children of John McKeen, deceased, March, 1738: John Simple, May, 1740: James McDowell and Charles Mc- Mulling, guardians in trust for the minor children of John Darby, deceased, March, 1740; Joseph Wilson, March, 1738; William Quiet, Sr., April, 1741; William

Quiet, Jr., April, 1741; Samuel Paxton, Sr., March, 1741; Thomas Paxton, March, 1741; John Paxton, March, 1741; Samuel Paxton, Jr., March, 1741; John Reed, November, 1740; David Frazier, March, 1738; Quintin Armstrong, April, 1741; John Murphy, April, 1741; John McNeit, March, 1740; Mary Reed, Sep- tember, 1740; the heirs of John Beard, deceased, Sep- tember, 1740; John Armstrong, April, 1740; Andrew Thompson, May, 1741: John Leard. September, 1739; William Mckinley, April, 1741; Margaret Young, April, 1741; Hannah Lesley, April, 1741 ; Robert Black, May, 1740: Gabriel McAllister, April, 1741; Alexander Walker, April, 1740; James McGaughy, April, 1740; Andrew Herron, April, 1740: James Orr, April, 1739; Moses McCarley, April, 1739; John McNea, April, 1741 ; Elizabeth Thompson, April, 1741 ; Col. Hance Hamilton, April, 1741; Col. Hance Hamilton for a tract of land adjoining land of John Leard and Thomas Hosack, on Conewago, April, 1741.

CHAPTER X THE GERMANS

The Palatines-Mennonites-German Bap- tists-Dutch and Huguenot Colony- Early Baptisms and Marriages.

The Germans were among the first to take up lands west of the Susquehanna. Palatines, German Baptists and Mennon- ites all arrived about the same time. The Palatines were largely representatives of the Lutheran and Reformed faith. In the succeeding pages, a separate story is given of the immigration and settlement of each of these three classes of German people, to- gether with a small colony of Huguenots.

THE PALATINES.

The Palatines were thrifty and indus- trious people who lived in the lower regions of the Rhine. Situated on both sides of that noble river, between Bavaria and Alsace, and extending from above the city of Speyer northward to near Cologne, the Palatinate was as fair a land as all Europe can show. The burghers of its cities were wealthy merchants. Its fertile fields and vine-clad hills brought competence and com- fort to its people, and sent abundance of grain and wine to other countries of Europe. Religion and education were so well diffused that there was no other people of their day to whom in these respects the Palatines stood second. The situation of their native country, the highway from France into the heart of Germany, together with its beauty and fertility, made it a Naboth's vineyard to Louis XIV, whose ambition was colossal, whose absolutism

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could ill brook denial, and whose rapacity makes it the most picturesque ruin in His Europe.

recoiled from no extreme of cruelty. schemes and plots made life a burden to the But a few years had elapsed, far too few Electors Palatine. Charles and his son for the Palatines to retrieve their losses,

Charles Louis. The death of the latter in 1685 without issue ended the Zimmern line of the Electorate, and the succession passed

when the outbreak of the war of the Spanish Succession dragged them once more between the upper and nether mill to Frederick, of the house of Newburg. The stones. This war, brought on by Louis, in moment of transition seemed to Lonis prosecution of a claim to the Spanish crown auspicious to his plans. He at once laid claim to the Palatinate in the name of his brother, who married the sister of Charles Lonis. The claim was opposed by Holland, Austria, Bavaria, Prussia and other smaller German states, which, under the leadership of the great William, organized the Grand Alliance and prepared for war.

King Louis, with the double purpose of wreaking vengeance on the Palatinate-a vengeance made more bitter by the asylum there given to the Huguenots, whom the Revocation of the Edict of Nantes had driven into exile,-and also of making the country untenable for his foes, sent an army of 50,000 men, with orders to its commander to ravage the province with fire and sword and to make the land a desert. The invasion took place in winter. The French went through the length and breadth of the country, destroying cities, burning villages, stripping the people of their possessions, compelling them to pull down their walls, to stand by and see their wealth perish in the flames, killing such as endeavored to save anything from the ruins, and then driving them to the fields, there to perish with hunger or cold.

In the following spring the peasants were forced to plow under their crops. The whole land was filled with mourning. Many were killed. Others were starved or frozen to death. In one day the Elector, standing on the wall of Manheim, counted twenty- three villages in flames. The ferocity of the war and the sufferings of the people cannot be adequately described. To this day their monuments remain in the ivy-covered ruins, which give so much beauty and charm to the hills among which flows the Rhine. It is needless to follow the course of the war. For a few years the people had rest, and then in 1693 another invasion brought on another wave of widespread misery. Then it was that the beautiful castle of Heidel- berg was reduced to that condition which

for his grandson Philip,-a claim opposed by the same Alliance with the addition of England-was begun in 1701 and drew out its miseries and cruelties for thirteen long years. Most of the fighting was done in Spain and Germany, but the Palatinate came in for a full share of the tribulation. It furnished both armies a pathway. Many times they went back and forth, leaving wretchedness in their trail. At length, in 1707, Louis despatched an army to repeat, so far as possible, the rapine of twenty years before. With this the cup of misery was full, and at once began that remarkable exodus, which in the next four decades brought so many thousands of the Palatines to America.

It needs to be noted also that to these afflictions by war was added as an expelling power, a religions trouble, which amounted to a little less than persecution. Early in the Reformation period the Elector Palatine gave his allegiance to the doctrine of Ge- neva. His country became a stronghold of the Reformed faith, and under his patronage was published that oracle of the Reforma- tion, the Heidelberg Catechism. There was, however, a strange variation in the Elec- toral faith. For one hundred and thirty years no two successive Electors were of the same faith. Lutheran and Reformed princes succeeded each other in regular alternation ; and, according to the spirit of the age, each prince desired to bring his people into that communion which had secured his own ad- hesion.

The court religion was constantly chang- ing from Geneva to Wirtemberg, and back again, while many annoyances and dis- tresses to the people were the consequence. Finally John William, the second prince of the house of Newburg, the Elector at the time of the Spanish war, deserted both Re- formed and Lutheran, and adopted the ancient faith of the Church of Rome. He was a man of piety, but narrowness of mind,

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HISTORY OF YORK COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA

and endeavored to constrain his people them. They were very poor, because they towards the Roman communion. Then the lost all by the ravages of the French. The Palatines began to look for a land of peace and freedom. Queen allowed from the public purse six pence a day to each Palatine and issued briefs to the churches in many parts of the kingdom, calling for offerings to the support

In 1708, the year after the last French in- vasion, they began to come to the British colonies in America. The minutes of the of this benevolence. It is estimated that Board of Trade in London addressed to this support cost the English government Queen Anne, set forth . that certain "dis- $650,000. tressed Palatines, who had been driven out

There were no provisions yet made for of the Palatinate by the cruelties of the their shipment to America. Some of these French," forty in number, with one Joshua Germans enlisted in the English army and Kocherthal, a Lutheran minister, for their about 2,800 migrated to Holland. Late in leader, had made an application to the the year 1709 about 700 of these Germans America. crossed the Atlantic to the mouth of the Neuse River and formed a settlement at New Berne, North Carolina, where some of their descendants now live. Board for transportation to Shortly afterward fourteen others were added to this number ; and it would appear that the entire fifty-four constituted a pioneer band, on whose fortune and report depended the action of thousands of their countrymen.

The Queen received the pe- First Immigration. tition. An order was given to send them to New York in the same ship that carried Lord Lovelace to the government of that province ; the new governor being charged by the Queen to do all in his power for the comfort of the Palatines. Arriving in New York late in the summer of 1708, these Ger- man immigrants were planted sixty miles up the Hudson, at the site of the present city of Newburg. A tract of 2,000 acres of land was given to them, and the community by patent from Governor Hunter was erected into the Parish of Newburg.

About the same number, in the autumn of 1709, came with Governor Spotswood to Virginia and settled in the upper regions of the Rappahannock River, giving to the set- tlement the name of Germanna, near which was fought, in the Civil War, the famous battles of the Wilderness. Governor Spots- wood opened iron mines for the employ- ment of these people, some of whom after- wards migrated to the Blue Ridge moun- tains and even across them to the Shenan- doah Valley.

Kocherthal, having settled this pioneer band at Newburg, returned to his native land, that he might organize a larger emi- gration of the people of the Rhine. The success of his efforts was made evident to the English government. The roads lead- ing northward from the Palatinate swarmed with the moving multitudes. Thousands of them arrested their journey in Holland, and there settled to add their numbers and vir- tues to those of that sturdy little republic. Soon afterward about five thousand flocked to London for the purpose of gaining per- mission to come to America, and by October there were 15,000. There were not inns enough to lodge them, and had these been found, the people had not the money to pay the reckoning. The government pitched dian chiefs observed the condition of the one thousand tents along the Thames for

Robert Hunter, who was appointed to succeed Lovelace as royal governor of New York, determined to lay plans for the transportation of about 3,000 Palatines, then in the city of London. The depressing conditions of the time demanded that the poor of London should receive the benefi- cence bestowed upon these German emi- grants. Governor Hunter's proposition to transfer them to the central part of New York was received with enthusiasm by the city of London. About the same time, Peter Schuyler, Mayor of Albany, and Colonel Nicholson, of the provincial army. appeared in England for the purpose of securing aid and protection for the people of New York from the incursions of the French and hostile Indians from Canada. In order to produce a good effect upon the English crown, they took with them five Indian chiefs. A well-founded story has come down by tradition through gener- ations of descendants that when these In- unfortunate Germans, on account of in-

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THE GERMANS

ternecine wars in their native land, took

money for the same purpose. After two pity upon them and offered the Queen 20,- years the experiment proved to be a failure, 000 acres of valuable land in the valley of Schoharie, central New York.

The

Early in January, 1710, the expe. dition of 3,000 immigrants left

New London for the New World. It

York was transported in ten ships, two Colony. of which were war vessels. One of the war vessels carried Robert Hunter and his train of attendants. After a long and tedious voyage, during which the Germans experienced many hardships, nine of the vessels landed safely at Governor's Island, in the harbor of New York, during the month of June. One of the vessels of this fleet, the frigate Herbert, was wrecked on Block Island, which accident was woven into a sad but beautiful story entitled "The Palatine," by the great American poet, Whittier.

While the expedition was crossing the At- lantic, a distressing fever caused the death of about 600 of the German immigrants, and about 2,400 encamped on Governor's Island, in New York harbor, where they remained about four months waiting to be transferred to their place of destination. For the ad- ministration of local government in this colony, seven magistrates were appointed among themselves. John Conrad Weiser for ten years was the leader of this colony. About the same time a commission was dis- patched to the Schoharie Valley to inspect that region and report its adaptability for settlement. When this commission

re- turned the different members reported ad- versely to the migration, whereupon Gov- ernor Hunter accepted a proposition of Robert Livingston for the German colonists to settle upon 6,000 acres of the Livingston Manor, on the east bank of the Hudson, He says : about one hundred miles from New York.

About 200 of the German colonists re- mained in New York, 1,200 on the Living- ston Manor, and the balance on the west side of the Hudson at Saugerties, where many of the descendants now live. The plan of Governor Hunter to settle the Germans in this region for the purpose of making tar for his own province from the pine trees along the Hudson was not successful. He had re- ceived only 8,000 pounds from the English government to further his plans and had advanced about 25,000 pounds of his own

for they had only produced sixty barrels of tar during that time.

The

The Germans now grew to be dissatisfied and clamored to be

Schoharie sent to the promised land along the Schoharie, desig- Settlement. nated as their future home by the Queen of England. They sent a dele- gation of their own members, of whom Con- rad Weiser was the leader, to the Schoharie. Soon after their return about two-thirds of their number traveled through deep snow, and in March, 1713, the two companies into which they had been divided, were united again in the valley of their hope, and became the first white settlers in that region. Ob- taining a deed from the only owners, the In- dians, they set themselves to building houses and breaking the soil. Although they lived in harmony with the natives, the troubles of these settlers came from another source. About six months after their oc- cupancy of this region, Governor Hunter granted patents to seven men of his own province, covering the lands on which the Palatines were now living. The oppressive methods of the new land owners, known in the history of New York as "patroons," proved to be disastrous to the interests of Conrad Weiser and his followers. This op- pression was continued until 1720, when Robert Hunter returned to England and was succeeded by Governor Burnet.

The Rev. Sanford H. Cobb, of Albany, who has carefully studied the history of these Germans while in New York, gives an exceedingly interesting account of their transfer from that region down the Susque- hanna to their settlement in Pennsylvania.

"The new governor set himself to appease the difficulties, but found that the legal rights of the patentees and the stubborn sense of wrong in the Palatine breast ad- mitted, for the most of them, of removal to a new location as the only remedy. For this purpose he issued a grant, buttressed by an Indian deed to lands upon the Mohawk. stretching for twenty miles westward from Canajoharie and reaching north and south of the river as far as the settlers wished. About the same time as the issuance of this grant there occurred in Albany a great

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HISTORY OF YORK COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA

council with the chiefs of the Six Nations history of that province more worthy of honor than that of Conrad Weiser. and the governors of New York and Penn- sylvania. Governor Keith, of Pennsylvania, "The Pennsylvania contingent left Scho- harie in two parties, one in 1722, and the other the next year. Following the stream southward for a few miles, they struck an Indian trail over the mountains to the upper waters of the Susquehanna. There they constructed canoes and batteaux for the car- riage of most of the company and their goods, while some of the men keeping near while attending this council, learned of the troubles of the Palatines and offered them an asylum in his province, assuring them of secure houses and kindly treatment, telling them of the happy fortunes of a small band of Germans who had recently come to Pennsylvania and had settled about sixty miles west of Philadelphia. Thus two avenues were opened. But each involved a the river drove before their horses and cat- third removal and the surrender of all the tle. A Schoharie legend recites that, in the labor of ten years. following year, twelve of these horses found "About one-third of the people, conclud- ing that to compound with their oppressors was better than such removal, made terms either by lease or purchase of the lands which already were their own. The re- mainder were about equally divided, one their own way back to the Schoharie, their souls lusting after the rich clover of its meadows. Having made their boats, the greater portion of the company embarked upon the peaceful river and quietly floated down its course through the wilderness of part for the Mohawk and the rest for Penn- lower New York, unpeopled, save by wan- sylvania. The former settled themselves dering Mohawks and Delawares, through the beautiful Wyoming Valley, forty years before Connecticut made its first token of occupation and settlement." along that river and for years constituted a strong frontier against Indian and French attack, and founded flourishing commu- nities.

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History of York County Pennsylvania, Volume I, Part 24

Author: Prowell, George R. Publication date: 1907 Publisher: J. H. Beers Number of Pages: 1372

Author: Prowell, George R.
Publication date: 1907
Publisher: J. H. Beers
Number of Pages: 1372