USA > Pennsylvania > Philadelphia County > Philadelphia > The German immigration into Pennsylvania through the port of Philadelphia from 1700 to 1775 : part II: The Redemptioners > Part 9
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The German Immigration into Pennsylvania.
The most eminent medical man in Pennsylvania, if not in the United States during the last century, was Dr. Ben- jamin Rush. In the course of a very busy life he found time to write and publish a little volume dealing with the Germans of this State and especially with the German farmers.69 I will be pardoned if I quote numerous passages from this book, written by one who had a thorough per- sonal knowledge of all he tells us.
" The principal part of them were farmers. * I * shall begin this account of the German inhabitants of Pennsylvania by describing the manners of the German farmers. The Germans, taken as a body, especially as farmers, are not only industrious and frugal, but skillful cultivators of the earth. I shall enumerate a few partic- ulars in which they differ from most of the other farmers of Pennsylvania. In settling a tract of land, they always provide large and suitable accommodation for their horses and cattle, before they lay out much money in building a house for themselves. The first dwelling house upon this farm is small and built of logs. It generally lasts the lifetime of the first settler of a tract of land; and hence, they have a saying, that ' a son should always begin his improvements where his father left off,' that is by build- ing a large and convenient stone house.
" They always prefer good land, or that land on which there is a large quantity of meadow land. From an atten- tion to the cultivation of grass, they often double the value of an old farm in a few years, and grow rich on farms, on which their predecessors of whom they purchased them had nearly starved. They prefer purchasing farms with improvements to settling on a new tract of land.
69 BENJAMIN RUSH, M.D., An Account of the Manners of the German Inhabitants of Pennsylvania. Written in 1789.
GERMAN' IMMIGRATION INTO PETISTAMARIA
PENNSYLVANIA-GERMAN FARM LIFE. RAKING THE BAKE OVEN
I22
The German
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Trile pire gains I al hand om larmers. * Miat logo ha wardl & immer inhabitants of gli col member of the German Tragenpopiskere s body, especially as to ( gir onasgoods and frugal, but skillful A Olivofors ie The anh I shall onemer de a few partic- ilurs wo sich they Mißer front most of the nether farmers ot Poonbylyarts. Ju ettling & tract of land. they always prosinein ge und sie alle accommodation for their horses and cattle, hefen they lar Hat mich money in building a house for them !ves * * * The first dwelling house upon this farmis surall wol bellt of logs. It generally lasts the lifetime of the first -eflet ot a tract of land : and hence, Cho jnive a saying, that ' a son should always begin his wp wvaments where his father left off. that in by build- in a large and convenient gone bol
Powiat ao atten-
docile the value
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4 w kabdig farms with improvements to .ciless 5 1 & Knod.
69 BENJAMIN BUSH, M.D. A. .. . Masmars of the German Inhabitants of Pennsylvania WYers - ray
GERMAN IMMIGRATION INTO PENNSYLVANIA.
1
PENNSYLVANIA-GERMAN FARM LIFE. RAKING THE BAKE-OVEN.
123
Customs of Early Immigrants.
" In clearing new land, they do not girdle or belt the trees simply, and leave them to perish in the ground, as is the custom of their English or Irish neighbors; but they generally cut them down and burn them. In destroying underwood and bushes, they generally grub them out of the ground, by which means a field is as fit for cultivation the second year after it is cleared as it is in twenty years afterwards. The advantages of this mode of clearing, consists in the immediate product of the field, and in the greater facility with which it is ploughed, harrowed and reaped. The expense of repairing a plow, which is often broken, is greater than the extraordinary expense of grub- bing the same field completely, in clearing.
" They feed their horses and cows well, of which they keep only a small number, in such a manner that the former perform twice the labor of those horses, and the latter yield twice the quantity of milk of those cows, that are less plentifully fed. There is great economy in this practice, especially in a country where so much of the labor of the farmer is necessary to support his domestic animals. A German horse is known in every part of the State; indeed, the horse seems 'to feel with his lord, the pleasure and the pride' of his extraordinary size or fat.
" The fences of a German farm are generally high and well built, so that his fields seldom suffer from the inroads of his own or his neighbors' horses, cattle, hogs or sheep. "The German farmers are great economists in their wood. Hence they burn it only in stoves, in which they consume but a fourth or fifth of what is commonly burnt in ordinary open fireplaces ; besides their horses are saved by means of this economy, from that immense labor of hauling wood in the middle of winter, which frequently unfits the horses of their (Scotch) neighbors for the toils of the en-
124
The German Immigration into Pennsylvania.
suing spring. Their houses are, moreover, rendered so comfortable, at all times, by large close stoves, that twice the business is done by every branch of the family, in knitting, spinning and mending of farming utensils, that is done in houses where every member in the family crowds near a common fireplace, or shivers at a distance from it, with hands and fingers that move, by reason of the cold, with only half their usual quickness. They discover economy in the preservation and increase of their wood, in several other ways. They sometimes defend it, by high fences, from their cattle ; by which means the young forest trees are suffered to grow, to replace those that are cut down for the neces- sary use of the farm.
" They keep their horses and cattle as warm as possible, in winter, by which means they save a great deal of their hay and grain, for these ani- mals when cold, eat much more than when in a more comfortable situa- tion.
" The German farmers live frug- ally in their families, with respect to diet, furniture, and apparel. They sell their most profitable grain, which is wheat, and eat that which is less profitable, that is rye, or Indian corn. The profit to a farmer, from this sin- gle article of economy, is equal, in the course of a life-time, to the price of a farm for one of his children.
" The German farmers have large or profitable gardens near their houses. These contain little else but useful
PRIMITIVE LANTERN.
125
Industry of German Housewives.
vegetables. Pennsylvania is indebted to the Germans for the principal part of her knowledge in horticulture. There was a time when turnips and cabbage were the principal vegetables that were used in diet by the citizens of Phila- delphia. This will not surprise those persons who know that the first settlers in Pennsylvania left England while horticul- ture was in its infancy in that country. Since the settle- ment of a number of German gardens in the neighborhood of Philadelphia, the tables of all classes of citizens have been covered with a variety of vegetables in every season of the year, and to the use of these vegetables in diet may be ascribed the general exemption of the citizens of Phila- delphia from diseases of the skin.
" The Germans seldom hire men to work upon their farms. The feebleness of that authority which masters possess over their hired servants is such that their wages are seldom procured from their labor, except in harvest when they work in the presence of their masters.70 The wives and daughters of the German farmers frequently for- sake for a while their dairy and spinning wheel, and join their husbands and brothers in the labor of cutting down, collecting and bringing home the fruits of the fields and orchards. The work of the gardens is generally done by the women of the family.
" A large strong wagon, the ship of inland commerce, covered with linen cloth, is an essential part of the fur- niture of a German farm. In this wagon, drawn by four
70 I avail myself at this place of the liberty to state that one of the main reasons why the Scotch-Irish were not so successful as farmers as the Germans, was because their lands were mainly cultivated by negroes as in- dentured servants. They did not care for farm work, and the consequence was the farms did not care for them, and in the end they sold their improved lands to the Germans who under a better system had been successful in accumulat- ing the money to pay for them. They then went into politics and trade, where they succeeded better.
I26
The German Immigration into Pennsylvania.
or five horses of a peculiar breed they convey to market, over the roughest roads from 2,000 to 3,000 pounds weight of the produce of their farms. In the months of September and October, it is no uncommon thing, on the Lancaster and Reading roads, to meet in one day fifty or one hun- dred of these wagons, on their way to Philadelphia, most of which belong to German farmers.71
"The favorable influence of agriculture, as conducted by the Germans, in extending human happiness, is manifested by the joy they express upon the birth of a child. No dread of poverty, nor distrust of Providence, from an in- creasing family, depresses the spirit of these industrious and frugal people. Upon the birth of a son, they exult in the gift of a plowman or a waggoner ; and upon the birth of a daughter, they rejoice in the addition of another spin- ster or milk-maid to the family.
" The Germans set a great value upon patrimonial prop- erty. This useful principle in human nature prevents much folly and vice in young people. It moreover leads to lasting and extensive advantages, in the improvement of a farm; for what inducements can be stronger in a parent to plant an orchard, to preserve forest trees or to build a commodious house than the idea that they will all be possessed by a succession of generations who shall in- herit his blood and name.
" From the history that has been given of the German agriculture, it will hardly be necessary to add that a German farm may be distinguished from the farms of the
71 These were the famous Conestoga wagons and the equally famous Con- estoga horses, whose fame is as enduring as that of the Commonwealth itself.
" Die entfernsten, besonders deutschen Landleute, kommen mit grossen, mit mancherlei Proviant beladenen bedeckten Wagen auf denen sie zugleich ihren eigenen Mundvorrath und Futter für ihre Pferde mitbringen, und darauf übernachten." SCHOEPF'S Reise durch Pennsylvanien, 1783, p. 165.
127
Other Evidence Introduced.
other citizens of the State, by the superior size of their barns, the plain but compact form of their houses, the height of their inclosures, the extent of their orchards, the fertility of their fields, the luxuriance of their meadows, and a general appearance of plenty and neatness in everything that belongs to them."
I think the eminent professor of the University of Penn- sylvania, of 1789, writing with a thorough knowledge of the German agriculture of his time, may be fairly set against the professor in the same great school, writing in the year 1900, whose statement concerning them is so at variance with the facts, so incorrect and misleading, that the inference is irresistible that he wrote without a due examination of the question.
But we need not rely on Dr. Rush alone for evidence that the Germans were the best farmers in the State, that they were given to enjoyment in agricultural pursuits and that their descendants are to this day keeping up the reputation of their ancestors on the ancestral acres. The evidence is so manifold and so conclusive that I almost feel like making an apology for introducing it.
Watson, the annalist, says the best lands in Lancaster county, and deemed, in general, the finest farms in the State, are those possessed by the German families." 72
Another writer says this :
" The Germans wisely chose some of the best land in the State, where they soon made themselves comfortable, and next grew quietly rich. The German popula- tion of Pennsylvania, naturally increasing, and augmented by continual accessions from the Fatherland, has since spread over a large portion of the State, still inheriting the
72 WATSON'S Annals of Philadelphia, Vol. II., p. 148.
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The German Immigration into Pennsylvania.
economy and prudent foresight of their ancestors, and gen- erally establishing themselves on the most fertile soils." 73
Bancroft, in speaking of the German immigrants to this country, says : "The Germans, especially of the borders of the Rhine, thronged to America in such numbers, that in course of a century, preserving their line of rural life, they appropriated much of the very best land from the Mohawk to the valley of Virginia." 74
EARLY SETTLERS AND THEIR VISITORS.
Rupp bears this testimony : " The Germans were prin- cipally farmers. They depended more upon themselves than upon others. They wielded the mattock, the axe and the maul, and by the power of brawny arms, rooted up the grubs, removed the saplings, felled the majestic oaks,
73 CHARLES B. TREGO, A Geography of Pennsylvania, p. 89.
74 BANCROFT'S United States, Vol. X., pp. 83-84.
129
Superiority of German Farmers.
laid low the towering hickory; prostrated, where they grew, the walnut, poplar, chestnut-cleaved such as suited for the purpose, into rails for fences-persevered untiringly until the forest was changed into arable fields." 75
"The Germans," says Proud, " seem more adapted to agriculture and improvements of a wilderness; and the Irish for trade. The Germans soon get estates in this country, where industry and economy are the chief requi- sites to procure them." 76
In the fall of 1856, the Philadelphia Ledger, in reply to some stupid strictures in a New York journal, said : “No one familiar with the German farmers of Pennsylvania, need be told that this (the article referred to) is a stupid and ignorant libel. Its author has either never travelled through our State, or has maliciously misrepresented what he saw. So far from our German farmers being on a level with the serfs of a hundred and fifty years ago, they are vastly in advance of contemporary German or French farmers, or even of English farmers of similar means. On this point we need go no further for authority than to Mr. Munch, who though hostile in politics to our German farmers in general, was forced, during his tour through Pennsylvania, to admit their sterling worth. Mr. Munch is an experienced and practical agriculturist, so that his judgment on such a question is worth that of a score of visionary, ill-informed, prejudiced, disappointed dema- gogues. After eulogizing the picturesque natural features of the landscape of our German counties, praising the ex- cellent taste which has preserved the woods on the hill- sides, and extolling the appearance of the farms, this gen- tleman adds significantly that he found the population of
75 RUPP'S Thirty Thousand Names, p. II.
76 PROUD'S History of Pennsylvania, Vol. II., p. 274.
130
The German Immigration into Pennsylvania.
' a genial, solid and respectable stamp, enviably circum- stanced in comparison with the European farmer, and very far his superior in intelligence and morals.' * In many particulars, the German farmers surpass even the people of New England, who, of late, have put in a claim, it would seem to be the ne plus ultra in all things. The German farmers understand, or if they do not understand, they observe the laws of health, better than even the rural population of Massachusetts ; and the result is that they are really the finest race of men, physically, to be found within the borders of the United States. * To be * plain, if some of our crochetty, one-ideaed, dyspeptic, thin, cadaverous, New England brethren would emigrate to our German counties ; follow, for a generation or two, the open-air life of our German farmers ; and last of all marry into our vigorous, anti-hypochondriacal German families, they would soon cease to die by such scores of consumption, to complain that there were no longer any healthy women left, and to amuse sensible people with such silly vagaries of Pantheism, or a thousand and one intellectual vagaries which are born of their abnormal physical condition." 77
Still another quotation will be allowed me: " Latterly much has been heard of an ' endless chain,' used in a finan- cial sense. There is an endless chain of another kind in existence among the substantial Germans in the German counties of this State. While many of New England's sons have sold or abandoned their ancient acres and sought new homes in other States, the lands of these first Palatine emigrants still remain in the possession of their descendants, held by ancient indentures, supplemented by
77 Quoted by RUPP in his RUSH'S Manners and Customs of the Pennsyl- vania Germans.
13I
The Best Farmers in America.
an endless chain of fresh titles from father to son, reach- ing backward to the original patents from Penn." 78
One of our most eminent historians remarks :
" A still larger number of these German exiles found refuge in Pennsylvania, to which colony also many were carried as indentured servants .* It was this immigra- tion which first introduced into America compact bodies of German settlers, and along with them the dogmas and worship of the German Lutheran and German Reformed churches. Constantly supplied with new recruits, and oc- cupying contiguous tracts of territory, the immigrants preserved and have transmitted to our day, especially in Pennsylvania, the German language and German manners. Their industry was remarkable; they took care to settle on fertile lands, and they soon became distinguished as the best farmers in America." 79
A traveller who passed through the Shenandoah Valley during the French and Indian War writes as follows : " The low grounds upon the banks of the Shenandoah River are very rich and fertile. They are chiefly settled by Ger- mans (and Pennsylvania-Germans at that, who went there prior to 1748), who gain a sufficient livelihood by raising stock for the troops, and sending butter down into the lower parts of the country. I could not but reflect with pleasure on the situation of these people, and I think, if there is such a thing as happiness in this life, they enjoy it. Far from the bustle of the world, they live in the most delightful climate and richest soil imaginable. They are
78 F. R. DIFFENDERFFER, The Palatine and Quaker as Commonwealth Builders, pp. 29-30.
The writer has himself, in the fifth generation ploughed and planted, hoed and harvested upon the original tract patented to his great-great-grandsire, by the Penn heirs, in 1734.
79 HILDRETH'S History of the United States, First Series, Vol. II., p. 264.
I32
The German Immigration into Pennsylvania.
everywhere surrounded with beautiful prospects and sylvan scenes ; lofty mountains and transparent streams, falls of water, rich valleys and majestic woods, the whole inter- spersed with an infinite variety of flowering shrubs consti- tute the landscapes surrounding them. They are subject to few diseases, are generally robust and live in perfect liberty. They know no wants, and are acquainted with but few vices. Their inexperience of the elegancies of life precludes any regret that they have not the means of enjoy- ing them ; but they possess what many princes would give
0
0
OX YOKE AND THRESHING FLAIL.
half their dominions for-health, contentment, and tran- quility of mind." 80
Dr. Oswald Seidensticker, while living, an honored professor in the University of Pennsylvania, and who has, perhaps, given the German immigration into Pennsylvania as much careful and intelligent study as any one else, has this to say of them as farmers: " Often as the Germans
6º HOWE'S Historical Collections of Virginia, p. 468.
I33
Their Industry and Piety.
have been spoken of contemptuously in certain matters, that was not valid when urged against them as farmers. The very sight of their farms is sufficient to tell that they are well and carefully managed, providing blessed and happy homes. Their knowledge of properly preparing the soil, of growing fine cattle, and of erecting proper buildings, and their manner of life led the eminent Dr. Rush to study their character and habits and in his book to encourage others to imitate their example." 81
Still another and a recent author writes thus: " In all they did, they were moved thereto by one great, irresistible desire, and that was the love of home. * * Now that they had found this "home," they were content to abide on it and to make of it a very garden spot and horn of plenty for the Province. * * * Because the Germans were truly in earnest did they persevere until they have spread abroad over the entire land, supplementing their less stable brethren of other nationalities. Before even the break of day, during the heat of the noontide sun they toiled on, and until its rays had disappeared beneath the western horizon, when darkness made work impossible, and then they sought their needed rest in slumber, but not before each little family had gathered about its altar to sing their hymns of praise and invoke the same Divine blessing upon their future undertaking which had been showered upon their past.
" Other settlers have likewise toiled and struggled, but it may well be asked what other settlers can show an equal result to these Palatine immigrants within the same length of time. Hardly had a decade of time elapsed, when, on all sides, were to be seen flourishing farms, with fields
81 OSWALD SEIDENSTICKER, Bilder aus der Deutsch-pennsylvanischen Geschichte, Vol. II., p. 255.
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The German Immigration into Pennsylvania.
of waving grain, orchards laden with fruit, and pastures filled with well-conditioned domestic animals. The tem- porary log house has given place to a two-story stone structure, a most durable, commodious and comfortable home; in place of the shedding, hurriedly erected, now stands the great red barn, upon its stone base, and with its overhanging frame superstructure bursting with plenty ; and everywhere are scattered the many little adjuncts of prosperity and comfort. How well the fathers then built is evidenced by the existence of scores of these buildings, still homelike and inviting as of old." 82
A recent writer, in discussing some changes that have taken place, how German virility and race-tenacity have resulted in the elimination of some peoples and the sub- stitution of themselves, humorously but truly remarks : ".Penn attempted to engraft on his English stock other scions, trusting to the virility of his masterful race to pre- serve the English type, but the strong German sap has outworn them all in Lancaster county. The descendants of the early English who own acres of land here to-day are becoming rare. The children of the Scotch-Irish by a kind of natural selection have quit farming and taken to politics and business, and their ancient acres are covered with the big red barns that betoken another kindred. The Welshman has been lost in the shuffle, and the Quaker is marrying the Dutch girl in self defense. So reads the record at the close of the nineteenth century. It has taken almost two hundred years to get there. But ' by their fruits ye shall know them.'" 83
82 REV. M. H. RICHARDS, D.D., Proceedings and Addresses of the Penn- sylvania-German Society, Vol. IX., pp. 413-414.
33 E. K. MARTIN, Esq., Proceedings and Addresses of the Pennsylvania- German Society, Vol. VIII., p. 13.
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GERMAN IMMIGRATION INTO PENNSYLVANIA.
THE OLDEST HOUSE IN LANCASTER COUNTY.
THE CHRISTIAN HERR, BUILT 1719.
I35
Other Nationalities have Disappeared.
Although the foregoing evidence abundantly disproves the absurd statement that the German colonists found less enjoyment in agriculture than other nationalities, the panel of witnesses is by no means exhausted and the testimony could be expanded into a volume. Most of it is from con- temporaneous sources and deals with the question as it stood one hundred or one hundred and fifty years ago. Let us turn from that long-gone time and look at the situa- tion as we find it at this very hour.
I invite the reader to accompany me for a brief interval to Lancaster county, as typical a Pennsylvania region to- day as i was one hundred and fifty years ago. Its earliest settlers were Germans and Swiss Huguenots. They were agnesburits. They bought lands, settled on them, farmed them, and their descendants in the fourth and fifth genera- tiens are engaged in the same enjoyable pursuit to-day. Chiar men also came into the county : Quakers, Scotch- trib and Welsh, but to-day nineteen twentieths of the more les to,000 farms in the county are owned and cultivated by the descendants of the early German settlers. The town- ships of Fast kod Wall Denegal, Conoy. Mi. Joy and por- tions of Wou Mbavec Land Juntoa mockusively by the Snincs-trial To die De bere 6sgle farm in
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