USA > Pennsylvania > Philadelphia County > Philadelphia > The German immigration into Pennsylvania through the port of Philadelphia from 1700 to 1775 : part II: The Redemptioners > Part 7
Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22
93
Gov. Gordon Advises Naturalization.
dred and eighteen ; and since they came hither have con- tributed very much to the enlargement of the British Em- pire, and to the raising and improving sundry commodi- ties fit for the markets of Europe, and have always behaved themselves religiously and peaceably, and have paid a due regard to the laws and Government of this province ; And whereas, many of said persons, to wit, Martin Meylin, Hans Graaf and others, all of Lancaster county, in the said province, in demonstration of their affection and zeal for his present Majesty's person and Government, qualified themselves by taking the qualification, and sub- scribing the declaration directed to be taken and subscribed by the several acts of parliament, made for the security of his Majesty's person and Government, and for prevent- ing the dangers which may happen by Popish Recusants, &c., and thereupon have humbly signified to the Governor and Representatives of the freemen of this province, in General Assembly, that they have purchased and do hold lands of the proprietary, and others, his Majesty's subjects within this province, and have likewise represented their great desire of being made partakers of those privileges which the natural born subjects of Great Britain do enjoy within this province; and it being just and reasonable, that those persons who have bona fide purchased lands, and who have given such testimony of their affection and obedience to the Crown of Great Britain should as well be secured in the enjoyment of their estates, as encouraged in their laudable affection and zeal for the English consti- tution :
Be it enacted by the Hon. Patrick Gordon, Esq., Lieu- tenant Governor of the province of Pennsylvania, &c., by and with the advice and consent of the freemen of the said province, in General Assembly met, and by the authority
94
The German Immigration into Pennsylvania.
of the same, that (here follow the names of one hundred and five heads of German families) all of Lancaster county, be, and shall be to all intents and purposes deemed, taken and esteemed, His Majesty's natural born subjects of this province of Pennsylvania, as if they, and each of them had been born within the said province; and shall and may, and every one of them shall and may, within this province, take, receive, enjoy, and be entitled to all rights, privi- leges and advantages of natural born subjects, as fully, to all intents and constructions and purposes, whatsoever, as any of His Majesty's natural born subjects of this prov- ince, can, do, or ought to enjoy, by virtue of their being His Majesty's natural born subjects of His Majesty's said province of Pennsylvania." 40
From this time forward long lists of persons, mostly Ger- mans, however, were presented to the Assembly, asking that the petitioners be granted the privileges of naturaliza- tion and citizenship. As we are nowhere informed that these hard-working, industrious citizens anywhere turned in and kicked the Quaker law makers out of their places of honor and profit, it may be taken for granted they did all they promised in their oaths of naturalization. When the troublesome times of the Revolution came along none were stauncher in their support of the Independence of the Colonies.
From the following endorsement which appears on the copy of an act passed by the General Assembly, sitting from October 14, 1738, until its adjournment on May I, 1739, naturalizing a large number of Germans, I infer there must have been a charge for naturalization and that considerable revenue was derived from this source : 41
40 Statutes at Large of Pennsylvania, Vol. IV., pp. 147-150.
41 J. I. MOMBERT'S History of Lancaster County, pp. 424-426.
95
Dispersion of the Immigrants.
PHILADEL'Y, the 18th of September.
Then received of Abraham Witmer the sum of one pound and two shillings (and one pound before) which is in full for his Naturalization. I say received by me. Christian Grassold, Collector.
It was customary to take the immigrants upon disembar- kation to the Court House in Philadelphia to be qualified, but this practice was varied. Sometimes this ceremony oc- curred at the office of the Mayor, and again at the office of some attorney, no doubt authorized for that purpose.42
The names of the incoming Palatines were published in the Colonial Records from September 21, 1727, until Au- gust 30, 1736, when the practice was discontinued.
WHERE SOME OF THEM WENT.
It is interesting to follow these people after reaching Pennsylvania. The little colony of 33 persons who planted
CONESTOGA TEAM AND WAGON.
themselves at Germantown under the headship of Francis Daniel Pastorius, in 1683, was slowly augmented during the following two decades. But by 1702, as Judge Penny-
42See note in RUPP's Thirty Thousand Names, p. 47.
96
The German Immigration into Pennsylvania.
packer tells us, they began to penetrate into the regions beyond their own limited domain. The acquisition of land seems ever to have been a prominent characteristic with the Germans, and it may be said to continue to this very hour. Even then the spirit of speculation was rife among them. Their early cleared farms had become valuable. There were always those who, having money, preferred to buy farms from which the heavy timber had been cleared and on which good buildings were erected. The prices for wild lands were so reasonable that men were tempted to sell their early holdings and, with the aid of their sturdy sons and daughters, to enter upon and conquer new lands in the interior.
Then, too, the inflowing tide became so strong that there were no longer lands near the older settlements to be taken up, and they were perforce compelled to move far into the backwoods. Lancaster County, Berks County, Lebanon County, York and Dauphin, Schuylkill, Lehigh and Northampton all heard the tread of the invading hosts.
One characteristic of these German immigrants deserves especial mention. While many of them were handicrafts- men, by far the greater number were bauern- farmers - and to this calling they at once betook themselves. In- deed, the first thing upon their arrival in Philadelphia was to find out the nearest route to the unsettled lands of the Proprietary, and thither they betook. themselves at the ear- liest possible moment. The backwoods had no terrors for them. As a race of tillers of the soil, they were well aware that the character of the timber was an indication of the nature of the ground on which it stood. They were not afraid to work. The felling of the trees and the clearing of the land neither intimidated nor deterred them from locating where these impediments to farming were great-
97
The Frontiers Defended by Germans.
est. The fatness of the land they knew was greatest where trees were largest and stood thickest. The mightiest forests fell at the resounding blows of the woodman's axe, even as the arch enemy of mankind shrunk at the potent thrust of Ithurial's spear. Their presence was manifested in every fertile valley. Wherever a cool spring burst from the earth, on every green hillside and in the depths of the forest, their modest homes appeared. The traditional pol- icy of the Proprietary Government also pushed them to the frontiers- the places of danger. Let the truth be told, even as history is to-day writing it. It is the boast of the historian that so mild and generous was the dealing of the Quaker with the aborigines that " not a drop of Quaker blood was ever shed by an Indian."43 Shall I tell why? It was because the belt of Quaker settlement was enclosed in a circumference described by a radius of fifty miles from Penn's city on the Delaware. Beyond that point came the sturdy Germans, the Reformed, the Lutherans, the Dunkers, the Mennonites and the Moravians, whose settlements effectually prevented the savages from spilling Quaker blood. Instead, the tomahawk and scalping knife found sheath in the bodies of the sturdy children of the Palatinate. Let the sacrificed lives of more than three hundred men, women and children from the Rhine country, who fell along the Blue Mountains between 1754 and 1763, give the true answer to the Quaker boast.44
There were many entire settlements throughout eastern Pennsylvania as early as 1750 where no language but the German was heard. They went to the north, the south, and to the west. Soon they reached the Appalachian chain of mountains, climbed its wooded sides and de-
43 BANCROFT'S United States, Vol. II., p. 383.
44 RUPP'S Thirty Thousand Names, p. 17.
98
The German Immigration into Pennsylvania.
bouched into the wild regions beyond until the Ohio was in sight. But on, still on, went that resistless army of Commonwealth-builders. To-day they are spread over the fairest and most fertile lands of the great West. Ohio, In- diana, Illinois, Iowa, Kansas, Nebraska and other states, the entire continent in fact, count among the best of their citizens the men who went out of Pennsylvania with Luther's bible in their hands and the language of Schiller and Goethe upon their lips. Wherever they went their fervent but unobtrusive piety went with them. As early as 1750 there were already forty well-established German Reformed and thirty Lutheran congregations in Pennsyl- vania.45 Of the minor church organizations, or rather of those who had no such organizations, " the sect people," like the Mennonites, the Dunkers, Schwenkfelders and many more, we cannot speak. In the aggregate they were very numerous and in their quiet way brought credit on their country and on their lineage, wherever they located themselves ; and all that was said of them at that early period attaches to them to-day.
45 OSWALD SEIDENSTICKER'S Bilder aus der Deutsch-pennsylvanischen Geschichte, Vol. II., p. 254.
e
CHAPTER IX.
THE GERMAN POPULATION OF PENNSYLVANIA AS ESTIMATED BY VARIOUS WRITERS AT VARIOUS EPOCHS. -. OFTEN MERE GUESSES. - BETTER MEANS OF REACHING CLOSE RESULTS NOW. - SOME SOURCES OF INCREASE NOT GENERALLY CON- SIDERED.
"Ay, call it holy ground, The soil where first they trod ; They left unstained what there they found Freedom to worship God."
O mighty oaks centennial, On field and fell that stand ; Keep watch and ward perennial Above that faithful band.
OW many Germans came to Pennsylvania during the eighteenth century? That query will probably occur to many read- ers, because it is one of the most interesting of all the questions con- nected with this subject. In the absence of direct and indisputable evidence every effort to solve the problem must of necessity be in the nature of an approximation, or if you will, only a guess. A score of writers have tried (99)
.
IO0
The German Immigration into Pennsylvania.
their hands at the problem, and their guesses are as various as the writers themselves. In fact, these estimates are hopelessly discordant and some of them are here given that the reader may understand the situation and exercise his own judgment in the matter from the evidence that has been laid before him in the course of this narration.
Sypher, for example, says " in 1727, nearly 50,000 per- sons, mostly Germans, had found a new home in Pennsyl- vania," 46 which I venture to think exaggerates the number at that time so far as the Germans are concerned. Dr. Charles J. Stillé has estimated the population of the State in 1740, at 100,000, and he adds, " of the inhabitants of the Province one-fourth or one-fifth were Quakers, about one-half Germans and the rest emigrants from the North of Ireland."47 Governor Thomas, who ought to be good authority, expressed the opinion that in 1747 the population numbered 120,000 of which three-fifths or 72,000 were Germans. I find an estimate in the Colonial Records, on what authority is not stated, which gives the population at 220,000 in 1747 of which it is said 100,000 were Germans. In 1763, a Committee of which Benjamin Franklin was chairman, reported to Parliament that 30,000 laborers, ser- vants and redemptioners had come into the Province within twenty years and yet "the price of labor had not diminished." 48 This is an interesting fact and is conclu- sive evidence that nothing was so much needed in the growing Province in those early days as men who knew how to work and were willing to do so. In 1776 Dr. Franklin's estimate was 160,000 colonists of whom one- third or 53,000 were Germans, one-third Quakers and the
46 SYPHER'S History of Pennsylvania, p. 73.
47 STILLÉ'S Life and Times of John Dickinson, pp. 46-47.
48 GORDON'S History of Pennsylvania, p. 273.
2
10
8
5
9
DOMESTIC UTENSILS
J
CAN FOP WARMIN. VOR NHJ WHEREID M
100
The German Immigranten wie Prausyhostia.
their hands at the pridijon, and their guesses are as various as the writers throwtives. In fact, these estimales are hopelesslo strarihoy ono 2010: ot them are here given that 'hey MAS Jadeistand the situation and exercise his own se, gerai lo the matter from the evidence that has beyy 'col wort hin in the course of this narration.
Sypher, for example, says " in 1727, nearly 50,000 per- sons, mostly Germans, had found a new home in Pennsyl- Webin, "# which I venture to think exaggerates the number at that time so far as the Germans are concerned. Dr. Charles J. Stille has estimated the population of the State in 1740, at 100,000, and he adds, "of the inhabitants of the Province one-fourth or one-fifth were Quakers, about one-half Germans and the rest emigrante from the North " Feland.' " Governor Thomas, who ought to be good (thority, expressed the opinion that in 1747 the population numbered 120,000 of which three-fifths or 71,000 were Germans. I find an estimate in the Colonial Records, on what authority is not stated, which gives the population at 220,000 in 1747 of which it is said 100,000 were Germans. In 1;63, a Committee of which Benjamin Franklin was chairman, reported to Parliament that 30,000 laborers, ser- vant- and redemptioners had come into the Province Allin twenty years and yet " the price of labor had not linguished."" This is an interesting fact and is conclu- Wie erulence that nothing was so much needed in the powody Province in those early days as men who knew and were willing to do so. In 1776 Dr. -w/ cs 160.000 colonists of whom one- Ferr Lerinans, one-third Quaken and the
" GORDON'S / / 0, 0 57
3
4
2
10
8
5
6
DOMESTIC UTENSILS.
I WROUGHT IRON CANDLE STICK.
2 FAT LAMP ON EARTHENWARE STAND.
3 WALL SCONCE.
4 PAT LAMP ON PORTABLE BASE.
5 LARD LAMP.
6 CAN POR WARMING LARD.
7 WOODEN LANTERN.
8 TIN CANDLE STICK.
9 FISH OIL LAMP.
10 BUNCH OF SULPHUR STICKS.
IOI
Estimates of the German Population.
rest of other nationalities. Michael Schlatter, the eminent missionary and organizer in the Reformed Church, in 175I gave 190,000 as the total population of Pennsyl- vania, of whom one-third or 63,000 were Germans.
Proud, the historian, who ought to be a very competent authority, estimated the entire population of Pennsylvania in 1770 at 250,000, with the Germans as one-third of that number or 83,000. Menzel, in his history of Germany, informs us that from 1770 to 1791, twenty-four immigrant ships arrived annually at Philadelphia, without reckoning those that landed in other harbors.49 This is a wholesale exaggeration of the actual facts. This statement indicates the arrival of more than 500 ships during the 21 years mentioned. We know that is more than the total recorded number from 1727 to 1791. From 1771 until 1775 there were only 47 arrivals. There were hardly any German arrivals during the Revolutionary War, and comparatively few from 1783 until 1790. We know there were only 114 in the year 1789. It is easy for historians to fall into error when they draw on their fancy for their facts. According to Ebeling, the German inhabitants of Pennsylvania num- bered 144,660 in the year 1790.50 Seidensticker gives the inhabitants of the Province in 1752 at 190,000, of which he says about 90,000 were Germans. The Lutherans in 1731 are supposed to have numbered about 17,000 and the German Reformed 15,000.51 In 1742 the number of Ger- mans was given at 100,000 by Hirsching.52 Rev. J. B. Rieger estimated the number of Germans in the Province in 1733 at 15,000. In the notes to the Hallische Nach-
49 MENZEL'S History of Germany, Vol. III., Chap. CCLXXIV.
50 EBELING, Beschreibung der Erde, Abtheilung, Pennsylvanien.
51 OSWALD SEIDENSTICKER, Geschichte der Deutschen Gesellschaft von Pennsylvanien, S. 18.
52 HIRSCHING, Histor. Literar. Handbuch VII., 230.
IO2
The German Immigration into Pennsylvania.
richten, we find this: " If we estimate the Germans of Pennsylvania, at the middle of the eighteenth century, at from 70,000 to 80,000, we shall not be far out of the way." 53
Franz Löher, in his Geschichte und Zustände der Deutschen in Amerika, has some interesting remarks on this subject.54
Amid this multiplicity of estimates the writer of to-day is reluctant to enter the field with some of his own. The observant men who lived here between 1725 and 1775, should certainly have been more capable of forming an accurate estimate than those who came a century or more after them. But it is evident that many made mere guesses, without actual knowledge, and their views are, therefore, without special value. The tendency in almost every case was to exaggerate. But to-day we know with tolerable accuracy the number of ships that reached Philadelphia, and have the ship lists. We know, too,
53 Hallische Nachrichten, Vol. I., p. 463.
54 Löher says : "There was hardly a single year between 1720 and 1727 that a large number of ships bearing German immigrants did not arrive in Phila- delphia, and even greater numbers came between 1730 and 1742 (Hallische Nachrichten, 665-668). Already in 1742, the number of Germans in Pennsyl- vania was estimated at 100,000 (HIRSCHING'S History of Literature). Eight years later (1750) it was thought the number was well nigh 230,000. Still other estimates give the number in 1732 at 30,000, and in 1763 at 280,000 ( Grahame History of Pennsylvania, Vol. II., p. 514. Holmes', Vol. I., 554 ; II., 142). Philadelphia had in 1749 six English and four German Churches. * * * From 1740 on, thousands of Germans landed in Philadelphia every fall. In 1749 alone 25 ships reached that port with 7,049 ; others say 12,000 ( Hallische Nach- richten, 369. Grahame, Vol. II., p. 201). During the following three years, 1750, 51, 52, also came 6,000 (Hall. Nachrichten, 369. Grahame, II., 201). It is said that in 1759 alone, 22,000 came from Baden, the Palatinate and Wirtenberg (Mittelberger, p. 25). In the terrible famine years of 1771 and 1772 came the greatest number, but, in the succeeding four years, from 20 to 24 ships reached Philadelphia with German immigrants (Halle Nachrichten, 125, 735, 682). In 1771 and 1772, 484 persons left Canton Basel for America (Mittelberger, p. 26)."
103
Pennsylvania and New Jersey Described.
An Hiftarical and Geographical Account OF THE PROVINCE and COUNTRY OF PENSILVANIA; AND OF Weft-New- Ferfey IN AMERICA.
The Richrefs of the Soil. the Sweetnels of the Situation the Wholefomnefs of the Air. the Navigable Rivers, and others, the prodigious Encreafe of Corn, the flourithing Condition of. the City of Philadelphia, with the ftately Buildings, and other Improvements there. The ftrange Creatures, as Birds. Beafts, Fifhes. and Fowls, with the feveral forts of Minerals, Purging Waters, and Stones, lately difcovered. The Natives. Aborogmes, their Lan guage, Religion, Laws, and Customs ; The first Planters, the Dutch, Sweeds, and English, with the number of its Inhabitants ; Asalfo a. Touch upon George Keith's New Religion, in his fecond Change fince he left the QUAKERS.
With a Map of both Countries.
By GABRIEL THOMAS, who refided there about Fifteen Years.
London, Printed for, and Sold by A. Baldwin, at the Oxon Arms in Warwick- Lane .1698. TITLE-PAGE OF ORIGINAL EDITION OF GABRIEL THOMAS' Account.
.
104
The German Immigration into Pennsylvania.
that many were here when the registry law went into op- eration and who go to swell the whole number; that in addition, others came from New York prior to 1700.
In the year 1738 sixteen immigrant ships reached port, bringing from 15 to 349 each, or a total of 3,115. The average per ship was about 200. It is reasonable to sup- pose that was also a fair average for previous and succeed- ing years. Between 1727 and 1750, the latter year and that of 1745 when there were no arrivals not included, there were 134 arrivals of ships of all sizes. Allowing these an average of 200 each, we get as a result 26,800 souls, or an average of about 1,220 annually. As has elsewhere been stated the number of arrivals in 1732 was 2,093, and in 1738, 3,257. In 1728, 1729 and 1730 the arrivals were 390, 243 and 458 respectively, which, of course, counter-balance such big years as 1732 and 1738.
We are in the dark as to the ship arrivals between 1714 and 1727, but the accounts are agreed the number was considerable. I am inclined to accept the Rev. Rieger's estimate of 15,000 in 1727, instead of in 1733, where he places it. That number added to estimated arrivals be- tween 1727 and 1749, both years included, gives us in round numbers about 42,000 in 1750, to which must be added the natural increase which was, perhaps, 5,000 more, or a total German population of 47,000 souls in the Province in 1750. Between 1750 and 1775, both years inclusive (but not counting 1757, '58, '59 and '60, during which there were no arrivals) we have a total of 196 ships in 21 years, which reckoned at the average of 200 to each vessel gives us 39,000 arrivals or rather less than an average of 1,900 yearly. This added to our previous estimate for 1750 gives us with the natural increase fully 90,000 Germans in the Province when the Revolutionary
105
German Soldiers who Remained.
war broke out. Indeed, I am inclined to believe the num- ber was nearer 100,000 than 90,000, for these early Ger- mans were noted for their large families. There is, how- ever, considerable unanimity in one particular among most of the authorities, and that is that the Germans at any and every period between 1730 and 1790 constituted about one- third of the total population. This statement is unques- tionably correct as we approach the years nearest the Revolutionary period. The English Quakers and the Welsh had not been coming over in any considerable number, and the same may, perhaps, be said of the Scotch-Irish. The Germans formed the bulk of the immi- grants and necessarily increased their numerical ratio to the total population of the Province which, according to the first census in 1790, was 434,373. Accepting the ratio of one-third being Germans, we get 144,791 as the Ger- man population at that period.
There is still another large increase in the German population of Pennsylvania prior to 1790 which writers do not reckon with, but which must not be left out of our estimates. It is those German soldiers who remained in the State at the close of the Revolutionary War. The number of these men who were sent to America and fought under the banner of George III., was, according to the best authorities, 29,867.55 Of that number, 17,313 returned to Europe in the autumn of 1783. The number that did not return was 12,554. These have been ac- counted for as follows :
Killed and died of wounds. 1,200
Died of illness and accident 6,354
Deserted 5,000
Total
12,554
55 KAPP'S Soldatenhandel, 2d edition, p. 209; SCHLOZER'S Stats-Anzeigen, VI., pp. 521-522.
106
The German Immigration into Pennsylvania.
Here we have five thousand men, most of whom re- mained scattered among their countrymen throughout Pennsylvania. The few hundred who perhaps settled in other states were more than made up by those German soldiers who, by agreement with the several German States, enlisted in the English regiments, some of which had recruiting stations at various places along the Rhine, and who were not counted in the financial adjustment of accounts between Great Britain and the German Princes, nor compelled to return to Europe.36
It is well known that during the first quarter of the nine- teenth century the German immigration to this State was well sustained so that probably the Germans and their de- scendants have pretty nearly kept up the percentage of population accorded them by general consent so long as one hundred and fifty years ago.
The opinion seems to prevail very generally that in 1700 all the Germans in Pennsylvania were those who were gathered at the Germantown settlement, along the Wis- sahickon and immediately around Philadelphia. Rupp expressly states that there were only about 200 families of Germans in the Province in 1700. I do not coincide with that view. The colonists which Sweden had begun to send to the Delaware as early as 1638, were not composed of Swedes and Finns only; special privileges were of- fered to Germans and these, too, came along.
An examination of the Colonial History of New York and O'Callagan's Documentary History of New York, shows that a number of settlements had been planted on the Delaware by the City of Amsterdam. Colonies of Mennonites are mentioned as having settled in New York prior to 1657. In a report on the State of
Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.