USA > Pennsylvania > Pennsylvania: The German influence in its settlement and development, Pat V > Part 5
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Unfortunately, in that respect the scope of this paper is limited. The writer must leave to others the burden of the proof of his assertion. His work is limited to but a small part of the territory of our great Commonwealth, and, even there, he must confine himself to the deeds of the immi- grants from New York Province alone. With the imper- fect lists at hand of their names, and the slight knowledge
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we have of their individual acts at that early date, there can be given but a few instances of the industrial activity of the race at that time. Even these will serve to show that the New York Palatines were, by no means, in- ferior to their brethren in such matters.
The Stiegel Mansion at Manheim. The south wall is still standing.
When we speak of in- dustries, in this connec- tion, such industries are meant, of course, as were practicable in that local- ity and at that time. These were the saw and gristmills and tanneries, besides the ordinary oc- cupation of the smith, carpenter, wheel-wright, etc. Were we to find the Germans industriously occupied in those di- rections alone we might well consider our case proven. How much more so when we see them branching out in other and unexpected direc- tions. Though the sev- eral names, to which we have especial reference, in this latter remark, are those of immigrants who came up into the Tulpe-
Stiegel's Office in Manheim. Still standing.
hocken region from below, and not down from New York, yet their work was amongst and so iden- tified with that of the others that this paper would be in- complete without some slight notice, at least, of them.
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Baron Stiegel.
Baron Henry William Stiegel was one who originated a large number of indus- tries, creditable alike to himself, his race and the Province. About 1758 he came to Lancaster County where he purchased land and laid out the present town of Manheim, ac- cording to a plan of the city of Mannheim, Ger- many, which he brought with him, and which is Early Lutheran Church, built in 1770, on land donated by Stiegel, at Manheim. supposed to have been his native place. He also built the Elizabeth Furnace, which he named after his wife. Then, to introduce a new industry and furnish labor for the in- habitants of his new town, the Baron erected extensive glass- works at Manheim. These works, he says in one of his letters, brought him an annual income of £5000. His Eliza- beth Furnace was located some six miles from Schaefferstown, Lebanon County, and it was at this place he made iron stoves bearing the quaint in- scription :
A Stiegel Ten-plate.
" Baron Stiegel ist der Mann Der die Ofen machen Kann." (Baron Stiegel is the man Who to make an oven can. )
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W.S.RRice
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Stiegel Relics in Danner's Museum.
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The Stiegel Mansion.
It was not a very classical rhyme, but was easily re- membered by the people, and served its purpose as an ad- vertisement. Here also he built a summer residence. His regular home was a mag- nificent mansion at Man- heim, built of brick im- ported from Germany. The house still stands but has been entirely modernized and changed in appearance. We are told there was a chapel in it where he con- ducted Divine worship for those in his em- ploy. The internal ar- rangements, the wains- coting, the cornices, the fine piece of tapestry on the walls of the parlor representing scenes in falconry, and the beauti- ful tiles adorning the fire- place, were all in excel- lent taste and would be admired by good judges of to-day. Everything tended to show that he was a gentleman of cul- ture and refinement. Stiegel's Clock. His great mistake was that he sought to get rich too suddenly. Not satisfied with his present estate he purchased the entire interest of the
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Messrs. Stedman in the Manheim tract, and might even have brought this venture to a successful issue had it not been for the conflict which broke out between Eng- land and her American Colonies, and which wrecked all his enterprises, making him, almost literally, a pauper.8
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Stiegel Relics.
Another prominent example of German thrift and enter- prise, in this locality, was George Ege, closely connected
8 Penna. Magazine, Vol. I .- Rev. J. H. Dubbs, D.D.
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Failure of Stiegel.
with Baron Stiegel through marriage relations. He was one of the largest land owners of his time in Berks County and prominently identified with its iron industries for half a century. The Charming Forge, or Tulpehocken Forge, erected by John George Nikoll, a hammersmith, and Michael Miller, in 1749, on the Tulpehocken Creek, sev- eral miles north of Womelsdorf, also Germans, after pass- ing through several hands, became the property of Baron Stiegel in 1763. Upon the failure of the latter it came into the possession of Mr. Ege, with four thousand acres of land, who, by 1804, had become the owner, in
School-House where Stiegel taught School in 1778, still standing.
Glassware manufactured by Stie- gel at Manheim. The Table is a falling top, one of Stiegel's.
addition, of Reading Furnace, south of Robesonia, with six thousand acres, of Schuylkill Forge, with six housand acres, and of four large farms in Tulpehocken and Heidelberg townships, embracing one thousand acres, which were named respectively, " Spring," "Sheaff," "Leiss" and "Richards," the three latter after old families of the vicinity. During the Revolutionary War he was an ardent patriot and in 1783 a member of the General Assembly of Penn-
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sylvania. In 1791 he was appointed one of the first As- sociate Judges for Berks County, under the Constitution of 1790, and served, with marked ability, for a period of twenty-eight years when he retired to care for his exten- sive business. He died, Dec. 14, 1829, aged eighty-one years, nine months, at his home at Charming Forge. His remains were interred in the cemetery at Womelsdorf.9
Still more closely connected with the work of our indus- trious immigrants from New York Province is the old mill-homestead of the Rev. Johann Casper Stoever, of whom we have had occasion to speak already. It still stands to-day, on the banks of the Quittapahilla Creek, about two and a half miles west of Lebanon, a venerable landmark of the olden times. This building, which is a large and substantial stone mill structure-originally pro- vided with a suite of domestic apartments, and occupied by this pioneer of Lutheranism as the permanent abode of himself and family for a period of forty years-was erected in the years 1737-40. It is of so strong and substantial a character that three years were required to complete it. Considering the times and meagre facilities for building then existing, it is a massive structure-about 40 by 60 feet-with walls three feet thick, most of them as solid to- day as when first erected, though composed of simple, undressed surface stones, many of them no larger than a man's fist. No penknife has yet been found strong enough to break the cohesiveness of the mortar which binds them together firm as cement. For more than a century and a half the waters of the Quittapahilla have here turned the machinery that has ground out the one kind of grist for the customer and the other for its owner. That it did not do its work in vain for him who first built it is evidenced by
9 M. L. Montgomery.
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Ephrata Paper Mill.
the fact that, at his death, Mr. Stoever was the possessor, besides this mill property, of over five hundred acres of the richest land in the valley.10
In glancing at the German industries of the neighbor- hood where our immigrants did their life work, with all of which some of them were identified, we dare not over- look the paper mill at Ephrata, where Conrad Beissel estab- lished his cloister in 1733. The mill furnished not only paper for the ordinary avenues of trade, but it especially supplied paper for the printing press there established about 1745, the third in the Province, and the first to print both English and German. From its office issued many tracts and hymns, together with several large works in which the views of the founders were fully explained. Its " Mar- tyr's Mirror," printed for the Mennonites in 1748, a vol- ume of some fifteen hundred pages, has been considered by competent authorities, in view of the facilities then ex- isting, to be relatively as impossible and venturesome an undertaking as would be the issue of a new encyclopedia by a modern printing house. It was the first biographical work in Pennsylvania. When Congress left Philadelphia, and, for safety, met at Lancaster and York, the Continental money was printed at Ephrata. It is to be regretted that many of the books have been lost and destroyed. Just after the battle of Germantown three wagon loads of books, in sheets, were seized and taken away for cartridges. They were the unbound sheets of the " Martyr's Mirror," which General Washington directed to be removed to prevent so large a stock of paper from falling into the hands of the enemy.
Of the German immigrants whom we know to have formed a part of those who came from New York Province,
10 Rev. P. C. Croll.
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or whose parents were of the number, we are not entirely without record of some who took an active part in further- ing the industrial prosperity of the Province, besides the large number who, in a more humble capacity, were its un- named weavers, tailors, carpenters, builders, rope makers, blacksmiths and wheelwrights.
We are told that a mill existed in Tulpehocken settle- ment in 1732, as, in October of that year, the provincial treasurer paid £1 5s. to the miller of Tulpehocken for ten bushels of meal delivered to Sassoonan. The Reed and Lechner families, who had intermarried, seem to have been the most prominent in the establishment of industries. They and their descendants were instrumental at differ- ent times, in the erection of a mill, in Marion, for making cement ; a grist mill near the junction of the Millbach with the Tulpehocken, nearly op- posite to the site of which Indian Girl. Primitive Corn Mill. came, later, a carding mill ; a carding mill and an oil mill a short distance up the Millbach, erected by Christopher Lechner after 1776; a saw mill, which, in more recent years, took the place of the oil mill, and new grist and clover mills which supplemented the old wool-carding mill, both the work of the Lechners.
An interesting incident in the lives of these two families occurred in 1793, when General Washington visited the grave of Conrad Weiser. He requested the presence of his former comrades-in-arms, Christopher Lechner and the Reith brothers, Jacob and Valentine, who hastened to com-
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Revolutionary Heroes.
ply and spent several hours in the company of their great commander. The patriotic heroes lie buried in the grave- yard of the old Reed Church, their graves being marked by sandstones, the inscriptions on which have become al- most obliterated. Jacob Rieth died in 1821 and Valentine Rieth in 1825, aged, respectively, seventy-five and seventy- six years. 1
South of Stouchsburg, on the Tulpehocken, was a clover mill put up by Peter Sheetz, its site being occupied by a grist mill erected by Adam Klopp.
Somewhere in the township, its exact location not given, was a tannery conducted by Johannes Miller.11
And so, with patient research, the list might be and will be enlarged, with more or less interest to the reader, until it has reached much greater proportions than the respec- table showings already made. The main purpose at this time, however, is to produce such an amount of historical data as may be conclusive evidence that the German settler in Penn's Province was greatly instrumental in its present prosperity, not only as a mere agriculturist, but in the fundamental work accomplished by him in the rearing of varied and substantial industries, and that here again those who came from New York were not derelict in their duty.
11 M. L. Montgomery.
CHAPTER X.
THE PENNSYLVANIA-GERMAN PATRIOT.
INSTRUMENTAL as was the Pennsylvania-German in the founding and upbuild- ing of our Commonwealth, be- cause of his value from an agri- cultural and industrial standpoint, yet, in a still greater degree, were his sterling qualities manifested when, as a patriot, he braved, un- flinchingly, the onset of the sav- age, and never permitted the In- dian to cross the border lands which he inhabited. It was at the cost of his home, his property, the lives of those he loved, even his own life, that the " lower counties " were en- abled to pursue the usual avocations of their life in peace, and to prosper, unmolested. No one then thought of finding fault with German stubbornness and conservatism. Had it not been for this stubbornness at that time, and for the sacrifices which the Germans made, the advance of civili- zation in Pennsylvania would have been delayed for half a century. In all these events the immigrants from New York Province were especially prominent.
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The Walking Purchase.
It is an unfortunate fact that the occurrences of the French and Indian War in the Province of Pennsylvania have not received the attention which their importance demands. To such an extent is this true that the casual reader is fre- quently under the impression that its settlers were spared the trials and dangers experienced by others, and would be appalled to learn the true condition of affairs. Whilst a future paper will give, in detail, the noble part taken by the Germans in this struggle, yet this writing would be in- complete without, at least, some slight reference to the do- ings of the New York immigrants.
To many it might seem strange that, at any time, there should have been an outbreak amongst the Indians in a Province whose Proprietors made every effort to deal with them fairly and honorably. Various reasons for it might be advanced, but, after all, they resolve themselves back to the old story of human weakness inherent in both the red and white man alike. In the first place, with good in- tentions on the part of the government, the Indian was not invariably treated with fairness. He never forgot the " Walking Purchase" of 1737, in Northampton County ; he could not fail to realize, eventually, how meanly insig- nificant were the trinkets he received in exchange for his vast tracts of rich territory, even though they were the price which he himself asked for them; nor could he dis- miss from his memory the many instances in which he was ill-treated and defrauded by individual settlers. On the other hand, the aborigine, who was a savage, did not and could not possess such a fine sense of honor as to cause him to willingly give up his hunting grounds, for which he had been paid his own price. When his whiskey was drunk, his matchcoat worn out, his fish-hooks and cheap muskets broken, and his squaw was tired of her beads and
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mirrors, then he remembered the lands which were no longer his own, and only awaited his opportunity to regain them and to be revenged upon those who occupied them in his stead.
This opportunity came to him when the Frenchman, dreaming,of a vast power in the New World and the anni- hilation of his English foe, plied his mouth with strong drink whilst he whispered honeyed words of temptation into his ear until his brain teemed with the thoughts of what might be, and, with savage cunning, he only awaited developments to make up his mind with whom he should cast his lot. In the summer of 1755 the settlers of Penn's Province were sleeping over a loaded mine, and little recked that the torch was already lighted which should scatter its sparks all about them and fire it.
It seems difficult to realize that this culmination of affairs found the Province utterly unprepared, and without forts, soldiers or arms with which to defend its people. Warn- ings had been given in vain, and the dangers of the future fully laid bare, but the constant disagreement between the Proprietors, as represented by their Governor, and the Assembly, prevented any action from being taken. In 1740 an appeal was made to the King, explaining the con- dition of affairs, and begging that the Province might be placed in a proper state of defense before it would be too late. The discussion was kept up until 1744 but had no result, as the Assembly constantly claimed that there was no need of it. What availed it if some hundreds of Ger- man lives were lost and some hundreds of their homes destroyed so long as a few hundred or thousand pounds sterling were unexpended.
The defeat of Braddock, in July, 1755, and apparent superiority of the French arms, finally determined the
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Indian Massacres.
wavering redskin to cast in his lot with the foe and take up the hatchet against the English. In October came the massacre at Penn's Creek, on the West Branch of the Sus- quehanna, and by November the savage swarmed along the Tulpehocken region of the Blue Mountains. The first blow fell on the immigrants from New York Province and their children, and the foresight of those who had placed them on the frontier, avowedly as a barrier against just such an outbreak, was apparent. Well for the Province
Trials of German Settlers.
was it that these men had come to their new homes through much tribulation ; that they had already been hardened to war, its terrors and alarms; and that they were so con- servative and old-fashioned as to be willing to make many sacrifices to retain the homes they had gained with so much labor ..
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No sooner had the news of the Indian murders up the Susquehanna reached the ears of Conrad Weiser than he immediately alarmed the neighborhood. The farmers at once gathered together, armed with guns, swords, axes or pitchforks, whatever they chanced to possess, until some two hundred had rendezvoused at the house of Benjamin Spicker, near Stouchsburg. Then, whilst they stood with bared heads, Mr. Kurtz, the Lutheran clergyman who re- sided nearby, exhorted them to do faithfully the duty which lay before them, and invoked the Divine protection upon them. After Weiser had divided them into companies of thirty men, each of which selected its own commanding officer, they took up their march towards the Susquehanna, having first despatched a party of fifty men to occupy the Swatara Gap in the Blue Mountains and close that gate- way to the enemy.
It is not for us, at this time, to tell how their numbers increased rapidly on the way, nor to follow them in their experiences. We may only add that it soon became ap- parent that their services would be needed at home much more than at the distant point towards which they were moving, and they accordingly retraced their steps.
It was none too soon they did so. The appalling nature of the great danger which threatened the Province was now evident to all, and the Government was awaking to a realization of its duty. Hasty arrangements were made to organize a Provincial regiment; Conrad Weiser was promptly commissioned as Lieutenant-Colonel in command of the First Battalion, and immediately ordered to report at Philadelphia for consultation as to the best methods of defense.
During his brief absence on this duty the savages burst the barriers of the mountains, not yet defended, and began
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Conrad Weiser's Account.
their merciless butchery. We will let Col. Weiser tell the story in his own words, as we find them in his report of November 19, 1755, to Governor Morris, as follows :
" Honoured Sir :
On my Return from Philadelphia I met in the township of Amity in Berks County, the first news of our cruel Enemy having invaded the Country this Side of the Blue Mountain, to witt, Bethel and Tulpenhacon. I left the Papers as they were in the Messengers Hands, and hasted to Reading, where the Alarm and Confusion was very great. I was obliged to stay that Night and part of the next Day, to witt, the 17th of this Instant, and sot out for Heidleberg, where I arrived that Evening. Soon after, my sons Philip and Frederick arrived from the Persuit of the Indians, and gave me the following Relation, to witt, that on Saturday last about 4 of the Clock, in the After- noon, as some men from Tulpenhacon were going to Dietrich Six's Place under the Hill on Shamokin Road to be on the watch appointed there, they were fired upon by the Indians but none hurt nor killed. (Our People were but Six in Number, the rest being behind.) Upon which our People ran towards the Watch-house which was about one-half a mile off, and the Indians persued them, and Killed and Scalped several of them. A bold, Stout Indian came up with one Christopher Ury, who turned about and shot the Indian right throught his Breast. The Indian dropt down Dead, but was dragged out of the way by his own Companions. (He was found next day and scalped by our People.) The Indians devided themselves in two Parties. Some came this Way to meet the Rest that was going to the Watch, and killed some of them, so that six of our men were killed that Day, and a few wounded.
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The Night following the Enemy attacked the House of Thos. Bower, on Swatara Creek. They came to the House in the Dark night, and one of them put his Fire-Arm through the window and shot a Shoemaker (that was at Work) dead upon the spot. The People being extremely Surprised at this Sudden attack, defended themselves by firing out of the windows at the Indians. The Fire alarmed a neighbor who came with two or three more men ; they fired by the way and made a great noise, scared the Indians away from Bower's House, after they had set fire to it, but by Thomas Bower's Deligence and Conduct was timely put out again, so Thos. Bower, with his Family, went off that night to his Neighbour, Daniel Schneider, who came to his assistance. By 8 of ye clock Parties came up from Tulpenhacon & Heidelberg. The first Party saw four Indians running off. They had some Prisoners whom they scalped immediately, three children lay scalped yet alive, one died since, the other two are like to do well. Another Party found a woman just expired, with a male Child on her side, both killed and Scalped. The Woman lay upon her Face, my son Frederick turned her about to see who she might have been and to his and his Com- panions Surprize they found a Babe of about 14 Days old under her, raped up in a little Cushion, his nose quite flat, which was set right by Frederick, and life was yet in it, and recovered again. Our People came up with two Parties of Indians that Day, but they hardly got sight of them. The Indians Ran off Immediately. Either our People did not care to fight them if they could avoid it, or (which is most likely) the Indians were alarmed first by the loud noise of our People coming, because no order was observed. Upon the whole, there is about 15 killed of our People, Including Men, Women and Children, and the
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Enemy not beat but scared off. Several Houses and Barns are Burned ; I have no true account how many. We are in a Dismal Situation, some of this murder has been com- mitted in Tulpenhacon Township. The People left their Plantation to within 6 or 7 miles from my House against another attack.
Guns and Ammunition is very much needed here, my Sons have been obliged to part with most of that, that was sent up for the use of the Indians. I pray your Honour will be pleased, if it lies in your Power, to send us up a Quantity upon any Condition. I must stand my Ground or my neighbours will all go away, and leave their Habita- tions to be destroyed by the Enemy or our own People. This is enough of such melancholy Account for this Time. I beg leave to Conclude, who am
Sir Your very obedient CONRAD WEISER.
Heidleberg, in Berks
County, November 19th, 1755,
P. S .- I am creditably informed just now that one Wolf, a Single man, killed an Indian the same Time when Ury killed the Other, but the body is not found yet. The Poor Young Man since died of his Wound through his Belly.
To Governour Morris. (Penn. Arch. 2, 503.)
It will be noticed that the names given in this sad recital are, so far as known, all those of families which emigrated from New York Province. What they there experienced was but the beginning of similar horrors, to extend over some years of time, but their relation is sufficient for our present purpose.
It has been shown that the settlers were already making
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such arrangements for their safety as could be carried out. Watch towers and garrisoned block houses were established at various points. By this time, however, the Govern- ment had decided upon establishing a chain of forts along the entire Blue Range. One of the first of these to be erected, and the largest of the series, was Fort Henry, which was situated near the base of the Round Top Hill, three miles north of Millersburg, in Bethel Township, Berks County, on the farm of Dietrich Six, where the people had located the watch tower mentioned in Weiser's letter. Standing, as it did, on the top of the rising ground, it had a most commanding view of the entire valley.
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