USA > Pennsylvania > York County > The Beginnings of the German Element in York County, Pennsylvania > Part 8
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In the first chapter of Professor Oscar Kuhns's reliable volume on "The German and Swiss Settlements of Pennsylvania " (1901) we have a brief but thoroughly accurate portrayal of "the historic background " of the immigration, and chapter two gives a very clear account of "The settling of the German counties of Pennsylvania." This work when read in con- nection with Professor Faust's two volumes serves to impress the student with the distinctive history and the distinctive qualities of the Pennsylvania Germans in contrast with the more modern waves of German immigrants. This distinction is not clear in Faust. The original Pennsylvania German settlers were part and portion of the American colonists and their spirit and ideals and characteristics were very different from those of the modern German Americans. Professor Kuhns's volume also contains a bibliog- raphy far less extensive than Faust's but much more useful for the general student.
For our brief survey of the story of Pennsylvania German immigration at the beginning of this chapter we have used besides general works like those of Faust and Kuhns and besides the works referred to in the other footnotes, such special works as Häusser, "Geschichte der Rheinischen Pfalz," Heidelberg, 1856; O. Seidensticker, " Geschichte der Deutschen Ge- sellschaft von Pennsylvanien, 1764-1876," Philadelphia, 1876; and the volumes of " Proceedings of the Pennsylvania German Society."
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lentless oppression by petty tyrants, had rendered exist- ence at home almost unendurable, while favorable reports from earlier settlers beyond the Atlantic, more plentiful means of transportation, and an innate desire for adven- ture (Wanderlust), made the attractions of the foreign shore almost irresistible. These two sets of historical causes operated as mighty forces leading the Germans to turn their backs upon the homeland which they loved and to embark for a land of peace and plenty, as they thought.
The first of the series of wars that rendered life in Ger- many intolerable was the Thirty Years' War. This was the most awfully destructive and demoralizing struggle in history. Its horrors beggar description. It set Germany back in the scale of civilization at least two hundred years, so that she is only in the present day recovering her pris- tine position in the onward march of the nations. The dire consequences of the war fell most heavily upon the peasants, the foundation of the nation and the root of its growth. In many parts of the country in the course of the war 75 per cent. of the inhabitants were destroyed, 66 per cent. of the houses, 85 per cent. of the horses, and over 80 per cent. of the cattle.3 These multiplied woes of war fell with greatest force upon southwestern Germany, especially the Palatinate. The Palatinate may be roughly defined as that part of Germany which lies about the left bank of the Rhine between Mayence and Spires. Two centuries ago it was one of the integral parts of the empire. It was this fair province that suffered most from the ravages of war in the seventeenth century. The Elector Palatine Frederick V himself precipitated the war and thus attracted to his own fertile land the full fury of that awful
3 Gustav Freitag, " Bilder aus der deutschen Vergangenheit," Vol. III, 234.
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storm. In 1619 the Elector accepted the crown of Bo- hemia and thus became involved in war with the strong house of Austria. Retribution came swiftly and terribly. He was very quickly driven from his winter throne, de- prived of his new crown, put to the ban, and robbed of his lands on the Rhine, which became at once the object of repeated spoliation for all the lawless hordes of dissolute soldiery. For years in succession the grim shadows of famine and pestilence brooded darkly over the land. So great was the desolation that in the last years of the war neither friend nor foe any longer entered the Palatinate, the melancholy fact staring them in the face that there was no longer anything to steal,-the most fertile area of Ger- many had become a desert.
The peace of 1648 endured but a few years so far as southwestern Germany was concerned. The survivors of the war had begun the tedious work of reviving their homes, their fields, and their fortunes. The new Elector granted religious freedom and this fact together with the liberal terms under which lands were granted to colonists attracted some of the best products of neighboring coun- tries. The country began to prosper anew and was well on the way to recovery from its recent distresses, when in 1674 the blood-curdling cry of war rang out once more through the land, and the painful efforts of more than two decades remained fruitless. This time France was the ag- gressor. War was on between France and Holland, the War of the Protestant Netherlands, 1672-1678. From its position the Palatinate was most exposed to the ravages of the contending armies. For it was one of the border- lands of the German Empire, fair and prosperous, an at- tractive mark for the marauding bands of military robbers
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and therefore destined to be crushed between the two mill- stones of the opposing powers. Louis XIV ordered the beautiful Palatinate to be devastated, to render it useless to his enemies. The work of devastation was done thor- oughly. Once more the doleful tale of destruction and misery, of burning city and homeless peasant, is recorded, and it was at this point in the history of the Palatinate that the first faint beginnings of the emigration to Pennsyl- vania took place. But greater woes were yet to come to the Rhineland.
After a brief respite of less than ten years the War of the Palatinate ( 1688-1697) was begun. Louis XIV had laid claim to the entire Palatinate in the name of his sister-in-law. When the countries of northern Europe leagued themselves together in a mighty coalition to with- stand this new effrontery Louis hurried a large army into the country. Then, because he could not hold the con- quest he had made and because the Palatines had har- bored the Huguenots expelled from France, the covetous French monarch gave summary orders to "burn the Pa- latinate." Breathing forth fire and slaughter his base hyenas of war leaped wildly upon the defenceless land. Crops were destroyed, villages and towns were reduced to ashes, and more than a hundred thousand innocent and helpless peasants were rendered homeless.
The war lasted seven years and when at length in 1697 the smoke lifted from the last glowing embers of the various parts of the Palatinate, there sat upon the throne, one John William, an ardent Romanist. Now religious persecution was added to economic bankruptcy. The per- secution of Protestants, Lutherans and Reformeds, was carried on systematically. Their Church property was
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confiscated to a very large extent and the worshippers in many cases expelled from the country. The sects, such as the Mennonites, Quakers, and Huguenots, were summarily driven from the land. Hundreds of petty persecutions on person and property were made. And this continued for nearly a century. The ravages of war followed one an- other in rapid succession. The War of the Palatinate had scarcely closed ( 1697) when the War of the Spanish Suc- cession broke out (1701-1714). Then followed the War of the Austrian Succession (1741-1747). All of these were sorely felt in the Palatinate and other parts of south- western Germany. Meanwhile the cruelties of religious persecution continued unabated. For a long period each new prince of the Palatinate forced a change of religion on his subjects. The injustice and the petty tyrannies of the rulers made life a constant burden and fostered a wide- spread discontent. The continued disturbances of war and religious persecution soon began to entail dire effects of a social and economic nature. For in the course of the late seventeenth and early eighteenth centuries nearly 500,000 Palatines, Wuertembergers, and Swiss, were ruthlessly ex- pelled from their homes. Exile was followed by famine, famine by pestilence, and at last all the finer impulses of the heart were threatened with complete extinction in the gross wretchedness of brutalizing despair. It is not a matter for surprise, therefore, that the Germans in the midst of such trials set their faces resolutely towards the west in the hope of finding a better land where peace and quiet reigned and where there was liberty of conscience. And coming as they did from such conditions of long-con- tinued oppression and ruin, we cannot expect them, after they arrive in the New World, to take a place at once in the forefront of social and literary circles.
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If we take a general view of the streams of German im- migration which flowed into Pennsylvania before the Rev- olutionary War, we can distinguish three well-defined periods.4 The first period extends from 1683 (when the first settlement was made under William Penn at German- town) to 1710. During this period the number of those who came was small, probably not exceeding in total 500 souls. They all remained in or near Philadelphia, and this period of immigration had therefore no direct influence upon York County. The second period from 1710 to 1727, is marked by a considerable increase in the number of immigrants, although there is as yet no steady influx of large numbers. Perhaps 14,000 would be a liberal esti- mate for the immigration during the second period.5 The year 1727 marks an epoch in this matter for it was then that the immigration began to assume large proportions and that official statistics began to be kept. The third period therefore begins with the year 1727 and extends to the outbreak of the Revolutionary War. During this period the numbers of German immigrants swell to enor- mous size, and by the year 1775 the grand total of Pennsyl- vania Germans must have been no less than 110,000 or about one third of the total population of the state, a pro- portion which seems to have kept itself practically un- changed down to the present day.
When the Germans fled from the hardships of their life in southwestern Germany and in Switzerland they invari- ably took their course down the Rhine. The earliest set- tlers of Germantown made their way directly from Hol-
4 This division of periods is the one presented by Kuhns, p. 31.
5 Vide Kuhns's refutation (German and Swiss Settlements, pp. 52-54) of Rupp ("Thirty Thousand Names," pp. I f.) and Wayland (“ German Element of the Shenandoah Valley," p. 27).
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land to America. But after a few years, at the instigation of Queen Anne who had compassion on the suffering exiles and who was earnestly seeking settlers for her own Amer- ican colonies, the exiles began to cross the Channel into England where they threw themselves upon the kindness of the Queen's government. Their numbers sometimes embarrassed the English government. In 1709 as if by sudden common impulse over 13,000 Palatines swarmed into London and asked to be sent to America. Of this number over 3,000 were sent to the colony of New York and settled along the Hudson and Mohawk Rivers.6 Here after a decade of varying fortunes, insuperable difficulties arose in regard to the titles to their land. They were forced to leave the homes which they had built with the labor of many years and in 1723 three hundred of them painfully made their way through the wilderness of south- ern New York to the headwaters of the Susquehanna and floated down the river until they came to the mouth of the Swatara Creek, opposite the northern part of York County. Up the Swatara they made their way to the district now known as Tulpehocken, where they settled Heidelberg and Womelsdorf.7 They were followed in 1728 by a large party from New York under the leadership of Conrad Weiser. Thus we have the beginnings of Pennsylvania Germans in Berks and Lebanon Counties. This became one of the gathering points for German immigration into Pennsylvania and from this region came not a few of the very earliest settlers in York County. The Germans had
6 The experiences of the Germans in the colony of New York are graph- ically depicted by Rev. Sanford H. Cobb in his "The Story of the Palatines: an Episode in Colonial History," 1897.
7 Vide supra, p. 20. For an accurate and detailed history of the Tulpe- hocken settlement and its subsequent development, vide Schmauk's "Lu- theran Church in Pennsylvania," Vol. I, pp. 433-576.
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made their first and last effort in colonial New York. They began to advertise among their people in the home- land what ill treatment they had received in New York and how favorable were the conditions for settlement in Pennsylvania, and henceforth the Germans began assidu- ously to avoid New York and the mainstream of their im- migration came to Pennsylvania.
Another important distributing center of Pennsylvania Germans before the Revolution was Lancaster County. The settlement of this county was due primarily to the religious persecutions of the emigrants rather than to economic causes. The movement began in 1710 and had its chief source in Switzerland. For nearly a century the doctrines of the Mennonites had been flourishing in Switz- erland.8 But like the Quakers in England and New Eng- land, the Mennonites in Switzerland were the victims of systematic persecution. From time to time individuals and families made their way across the Swiss frontiers and sought refuge among their brethren in the faith on the banks of the Rhine. Thus was formed a chain of Men- nonites all the way from Switzerland to Amsterdam. And when these plain but serious people heard the favorable reports concerning the peace and prosperity of their breth- ren at Germantown, Pennsylvania, and when their awful persecutions in Switzerland continued undiminished, many of them resolved to try their fortunes in the land of Wil- liam Penn. Accordingly in 1710 some hundreds, perhaps thousands, of the most desirable citizens of Switzerland and the Rhine Valley arrived at Philadelphia and selected as their settlement a tract of 10,000 acres on the Pequea Creek, Conestoga, just east of the Susquehanna River, in what is now Lancaster County. These industrious and
8 D. Musser, " The Reformed Mennonite Church," 1873.
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gentle Mennonites lived on good terms with the Indians and by the aid of the German immigrants that soon poured into the county they made Lancaster the garden-spot and pride of Pennsylvania.
After these successful beginnings had been made, in Germantown, in the Lebanon Valley, and in Lancaster County, the tide of German immigrants began to flow strongly. The influence was contagious. The ancient Wanderlust of the Teutons revived in the breasts of their descendants. The settlers in America returned favorable reports to their friends and relatives still bearing their hard conditions in the homeland. Tracts were published de- scribing utopian conditions of the New World. Ship- owners hired agents to stimulate the exodus from the val- ley of the Rhine. Lands, farms, and plantations were freely offered to every settler for a small amount of pur- chase money. Many representatives of every class of society in that overburdened population of Europe yielded to the alluring prospect held out by the New World so full of opportunity for the industrious. Besides the great body of political refugees and those persecuted on account of their religion there were also considerable numbers of others, such as the industrious artisan seeking opportunity to maintain his family, the overburdened tenant groaning under a load of taxes and labors, the unfortunate merchant looking for better investments and more promising specu- lations, the impecunious nobleman seeking a chance to re- trieve his lost fortune, the romantic spirit in search of ad- venture and desiring to hunt and trap unrestrained in the primeval forests, and the poverty-stricken redemptioner fleeing the starvation that threatened him at home. All these helped to swell the stream westward. With the year
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1727 the Germans began to come in such large numbers that the colonial government grew alarmed and began to keep official lists of these immigrants exacting from each man an oath of allegiance to the British government. The largest contingent of Germans continued to come from the Palatinate but there were also considerable numbers from the neighboring states of Germany.
If now the question be asked why this German immigra- tion focused thus upon Pennsylvania to the exclusion of the other provinces the answer is fourfold. In the first place, before the German immigration began, William Penn, himself half German by birth, had made two jour- neys to Holland and Germany and had made many ac- quaintances among those who were the objects of religious persecution in the Fatherland. When therefore the great Quaker received his grant of land in America these people among whom he had visited in Germany were naturally interested in his project to establish a colony in the New World and specially susceptible to the arguments pre- sented in his pamphlet calling for colonists. When they crossed the ocean they were received by Penn and settled at Germantown. Those who followed them across the ocean naturally followed them also into Penn's province. Thus the tide began to flow into Pennsylvania.9
In the second place, when the stream of German immi- gration into America grew stronger and the influence of the English government tried to determine its direction, the experiment of sending Germans to New York was tried. But, as we have seen, it was unsuccessful. The Germans in New York soon became involved in serious
9 John Fiske in his " Dutch and Quaker Colonies " (Vol. I, p. 351') agrees with Diffenderffer in assigning Penn's travels in Germany in 1671 and 1677 as the chief cause in directing German immigration to Pennsylvania.
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difficulties with the English there. They became con- vinced that the colonial authorities were unjust to them, and that, too, because they were Germans. Many of them removed to Pennsylvania where they found conditions quite satisfying. Then they sent word back to the Fatherland establishing a veritable prejudice against New York and strongly urging their friends to come to Penn's land.10
Thirdly, Pennsylvania was far more widely advertised in Germany than any other of the thirteen colonies. Im- mediately after Penn's grant received the royal confirma- tion in 1681 he published his ten-page compilation en- titled "Some Account of the Province of Pennsylvania in America." This was translated into German11 by his counsellor Benjamin Furley and circulated broadcast in the valley of the Rhine. In 1682 Penn sent forth his second advertisement of his province. It is entitled "In- formation and Direction to Such Persons as are inclined to America, More Especially Those related to the Province of Pennsylvania." This was a pamphlet of three and a half pages. It was quickly translated into German and spread abroad in the hope of attracting colonists to Penn- sylvania. And another work that was translated and pub- lished in German12 was Penn's "Brief Account of the
10 " The Germans, not satisfied with being themselves removed from New York, wrote to their relatives and friends and advised them, if ever they intended to come to America, to avoid New York, where the govern- ment had shown itself so unjust. This advice was of such influence that the Germans who afterwards went in great numbers to North America constantly avoided New York and always selected Pennsylvania as the place of their settlement."-Peter Kalm's "Travels in America " (1747 and 1748), Vol. I: 271. Kalm ascribes the comparatively slow growth of colonial New York to this treatment of the Germans.
11 " Eine Nachricht wegen der Landschaft Pennsylvania in America," Amsterdam, 1681.
12 Kurtz, " Nachricht von der Americanischen Landschaft Pennsylvania," 1682.
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Province of Pennsylvania." Then followed a number of more accurate and more detailed descriptions from the learned pen of Pastorius, leader of the original settlers of Germantown. These were all intended to arouse inter- est in Penn's colony among mercantile and pietistical cir- cles. In this they succeeded, as results show. The chief of Pastorius's contributions to the advertisement of early Pennsylvania among the Germans was his "Umständige geographische Beschreibung der zu allerletzt erfundenen Provintz Pensylvaniae," published in 1700. But among the advertising influences tending to draw German immi- gration to Pennsylvania, more important than any we have mentioned is Daniel Falckner's "Curieuse Nachricht von Pennsylvania."13 When Falckner returned to Halle after some five years of experience and observation in Pennsyl- vania, his friend, August Hermann Francke, who was then at the head of the Pietistic movement in Germany, pro- pounded to him one hundred and three questions concern- ing the voyage to America and the condition of the country and its inhabitants, both European and Indian. To these questions Falckner replied in writing with frank and ex- haustive answers. Questions and answers were published in book form at Frankfurt and Leipsic in 1702, and the work constituted for years the chief source of information for intending German immigrants. It passed through several editions, and became a mighty factor, not only in stimulating immigration to America but more particularly in directing it to the province of Pennsylvania. This vig- orous advertisement among the Germans of the colony of Pennsylvania is entirely without a parallel in any other of the original thirteen colonies and it serves in no small de-
13 Edited by Julius F. Sachse and published in Volume XIV of the " Pro- ceedings of the Pennsylvania German Society," 1905.
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gree to account for the fact that German immigration to America concentrated upon this province.14
Finally, Pennsylvania made a special appeal to such as were driven from their homes on account of their religion. And for the majority of German immigrants to this coun- try in the early eighteenth century the chief cause of their flight was religious persecution at home. The avowed purpose of Penn in establishing his colony was to provide religious freedom for the persecuted. He called his gov- ernment a "Holy Experiment." His plan as embodied in his "Frame of Government " was to extend the benefits of complete religious and political liberty to all. This was one of the chief arguments advanced by Penn and his agents in advertising his province. Freedom of conscience was the glittering gem that they held out before the long- ing eyes of the oppressed. It was an argument that natu- rally appealed to multitudes in those days of chaotic re- ligious conditions. Those who settled in Pennsylvania found their expectations in this respect entirely fulfilled. The result was that, among the Germans at least, Pennsyl- vania came to be regarded as preeminently a place of reli- gious liberty, a refuge for the persecuted. And thousands upon thousands of those who were distressed in heart and conscience looked longingly towards the west and when
14 We have enumerated only the most important of the literary works that helped to induce German immigration to Pennsylvania. A detailed list of such works is found in Sachse's "Pennsylvania: the German In- fluence on its Settlement and Development. Part I: The Fatherland (1450- 1700)," pp. 126-168. To this is added an Appendix, pp. 173-228, con- taining fac-similes of the title pages of the books and pamphlets that influ- enced the German emigration. This work is a reprint from Volume VII (1897) of "The Proceedings of the Pennsylvania German Society." A critical account of these works is also found in Winsor's "Narrative and Critical History of America," Vol. III: 495-516.
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the opportunity came to cross the ocean they aimed directly for the province of Pennsylvania.15
Such, in brief, are the reasons why Pennsylvania re- ceived the great preponderant mass of German immigra- tion in colonial times.16 From the very beginnings of the history of the commonwealth the Germans have consti- tuted one third of her total population and have at all times exercised a profound influence upon her progress and development. Other colonies had their German set- tlements. New York, New Jersey, Maryland, Virginia, North and South Carolina, Georgia, and Louisiana were not without their representatives from the Fatherland. But none of these, nor all of them combined, could com- pare in number or in influence with the German settlements in Pennsylvania, where they have always been the most
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