USA > Pennsylvania > Lancaster County > New Holland > The Three Earls : an historical sketch, and proceedings of the centennial jubilee, held at New Holland, Pa., July 4, 1876 > Part 4
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Col. for School-master, $12.45 Uncollected, 5.50
Collected for Parson, $83.87} - . Uncollected, 2.12
They also had salaried organists and choir leaders, but that
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MILITARY RECORD.
these did not receive the extravagant salaries paid to such functionaries now-a-days, is clearly evidenced by
Jacob Slemmer's receipt "for one year's salary as organist," $14. 10. Jacob Baker's receipt "for one year's singing salary,"
Let us hope the quality of the preaching, playing and singing was not in keeping with the sums paid therefor.
MILITARY RECORD.
The early population was loyal to the Colonial govern- ment in its times of trouble, and was always ready to give it effective aid. The Mennonites, from being non-combat- ants, for a time brought suspicion on the Germans, but this gradually wore away. In the French and Spanish war of 1762, no less than nine companies, numbering 325 men, were sent into service from the county, and Earl sent her full share: she had previously contributed her quota of horses and wagons to equip the unfortunate expedition of General Braddock. As the struggle with the parent country gradually came on, nowhere were stauncher patri- ots found than here. The few loyalists that here and there discovered themselves, were too closely watched to become a source of apprehension. The Continental Congress, sit- ting in Philadelphia, in November, 1774, requested the freeholders of the province to hold an election for repre- sentatives to the General Assembly. At this election, held December 15 of the same year, Alexander Martin, Emanuel Carpenter, Anthony Ellmaker, William Smith, Zaccheus Davis, George Rein and John Brubaker were chosen. In the following year, 1775, the Committee men chosen were Gabriel Davis, George Rein and Jonathan Roland. This Gabriel Davis doubtless came from the Welsh colony at the eastern end of the township; he was an assessor in 1730, and a juryman in 1733: he was evidently a man of ability and influence. In accordance with a recommenda- tion of the Continental Congress, made on May 15, 1776,
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HISTORICAL SKETCH.
a Provincial conference was held in Philadelphia, com- posed of delegates from the ten counties into which the state was then divided, and it was resolved to hold a gen- eral election for persons who should establish some form of government. For the purposes of this election, Lan- caster county was divided into six districts; the fourth division was composed of Salisbury, Brecknock, Cærnar- von, Earl and Cocalico townships, and the poll to be opened in New Holland, on July 6, 1776. James Mc- Camant, Gabriel Davis and Michael Whitman were elected.
The muster rolls of the nine regiments and battalions furnished by this county for the Revolutionary war, show how largely Earl township participated in the struggle for independence. By a resolution of Congress, passed May 25, 1776, an exclusively German regiment was authorized to be raised in Pennsylvania and Maryland-four com- panies from each state: the former's quota was filled by July 17, and an additional company besides. The Earls were represented in its ranks. It was of this regiment that David Diffenderffer, was standard bearer .*
*David Diffenderffer was the grandson of John Diffenderffer, the first settler in the present Earl township, and the grandfather of the writer. A sketch of his life, and services in the Revolu- tion, may be found in Rupp's History of Lancaster Co. In addi- tion to the particulars there given, a few other facts may be here mentioned. At the time of his retirement from the army, the state was unable to discharge the sum due him for pay as Ensign: it was the custom to issue state warrants for these arrearages, and the one issued to him was for £134 2. 4., dated April 10, 1783.į On April 10, 1784, the Comptroller General reported a certain sum of interest due him on his depreciated certificate, namely £8 0. 10. None of these certificates, I believe, were ever paid in money : the state was unable to discharge them in that way. David Diffenderffer got a small piece of land for his, located in North- umberland county, which he afterwards sold for a small sum. On May 1, 1783, he received, without solicitation on his part, a com- mission as "Lieutenant in the seventh company of foot in the
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MILITARY RECORD.
The people of Earl were true to the principles that carried them over the sea, and resisted oppression in their new homes, with the steady heroism they had manifested in the old. When the tocsin of war again filled the land with its loud alarum in 1812, they grasped their muskets and marched among the foremost to meet the threatened danger. And when in 1846, our country, for the first time in her history, carried on an aggressive war in a foreign land, the Earls sent both men and officers to represent them on the field of combat: the names of Roland and Luther* are familiar in our mouths as household words,
fourth Battalion in the county of Lancaster." The war being over, and no regular military organization being really necessary at that time, his services as such officer were not of importance or long duration. I believe he was the last of the Revolutionary heroes in the county at the time of his death in 1847, and as such, was widely known. Had the writer, then a boy of 13 years, made notes and memoranda of the many narrations that he from day to day heard from his grandfather's lips, concerning the struggle for independence, and the early important events that occurred in these townships, this sketch had been more interesting and valu- able: unfortunately this was not done either by himself or by others, and he has never ceased to regret it. David Diffenderffer's mind and memory being unusually good up to the hour of his death, many facts of those early days might have been preserved that are now irreclaimably lost. Peace to his ashes.
*Brevet Major John F. Roland, son of the late Henry Roland, esq., was born in New Holland, in 1818. He entered the military acad- emy at West Point, at the age of 14, and graduated from that in- stitution in 1836 ; his commission as 2d Lieutenant in the 4th Regi- ment Artillery, bears date of July 1st, in that year: four days afterward he was transferred with the same rank to the 2nd Regi- ment of Artillery. He was promoted to a 1st Lieutenancy on July 8, 1838, and made Captain on March 3, 1847.
Immediately after leaving West Point, Lieut. Roland accom- panied his regiment to Florida, and participated in the Seminole Indian war. He also saw service in the Cherokee nation, and on the Canada frontier during the disturbances there. He was the senior Lieutenant of Duncan's famous Battery, and sailed from New York with it in 1845 to join Gen. Taylor at Corpus Christi. He took part in the brilliant actions at Palo Alto and Resaca de la Palma, and received his brevet as Captain for gallant services
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HISTORICAL SKETCH.
and together with those of the older heroes who preceded them and those who came after, will remain green in the hearts of a grateful posterity. And when in later years that greatest curse of nations, civil war, swept over the
in those battles, and his Major's brevet for the dash and courage he manifested on the hard-fought field of Monterey.
He took part in the siege of Vera Cruz, and there receiving his Captaincy, was ordered home to raise his company. Having done so, he returned to the scene of war and joined Gen. Scott's army in the city of Mexico. After the war, his Regiment was sent to garrison the southern Atlantic posts. In consequence of anticipa- ted Indian hostilites he was again sent to Florida. In 1850 he was placed in command of Castle Pinckney. where he died Sept. 28, 1852, at the early age of 35. Major Roland was an officer of distinguished merit : his professional reputation was deservedly high, and in his death, the country lost a brilliant soldier and an estimable citizen.
Capt. Roland A. Luther, was born in New Holland in 1815, where his father, Dr. John Luther, an eminent physician, resided. He entered the United States Military Academy at West Point along with his playmate and kinsman Major Roland, in 1832, and graduating with him in the class of 1836, was at once commissioned a 2nd Lieutenant in the 2nd Regiment of Artillery. He became 1st Lieutenant in 1838, and was promoted to a Captaincy in 1847.
Capt. Luther accompanied his regiment to Florida, and partici- pated in several of the engagements that occurred with the Indians. He also took part in the troubles of the Government with the Creeks and Cherokees and afterwards marched to the northern frontier when a conflict with Great Britain seemed impending. His regiment having been ordered to join the forces of General Taylor, then gathering in Texas, he sailed for Corpus Christi with his company. He distinguished himself by his gallantry at Palo Alto, where he was so severely wounded as to be compelled to come north. Before he was fully recovered, his Captain's commission reached him, when he at once recruited a company in New York. and again sailed to join the army of Gen. Scott, then in the city of Mexico.
At the conclusion of the war, he was stationed with his com- pany in Charleston harbor on garrison duty. Disease, contracted in his line of service while in Mexico, soon rendered him unable to discharge the active duties of his profession, and his health gradu- ally failing, he died in 1853. He was a skillful soldier, well read in the literature of his profession besides having a wide acquaint- ance with literary subjects generally. Both he and his companion in arms, noticed above, are buried in the Lutheran burying ground in New Holland.
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MILITARY RECORD.
land, scores of brave men left their homes and firesides in our midst, and signalized their devotion to the Republic in the tented field, ready alike to die in the arms of victory or in the hour of disaster. The heroes of 1776, of 1812, of 1846 and of 1861, are laid to rest in your church-yards ; but for them, and we had not met here to-day; their war- fare over, they sleep peacefully, awaiting the final roll- call .*
*The Germans have never been awarded the praise that is their due, for the share they took in the war for independence. On May 15. 1775, a meeting was held in Lancaster to adopt measures for holding an election for members of vigilance committees: on July 4, 1776, another meeting was held in Lancaster by the officers and members of fifty-three battalions of troops of the colony of Pennsylvania: these meetings were largely composed of Germans as their names on the record of the proceedings attest: they speak for themselves and are indisputably convincing. "It was to the German Bauern, (Farmers), America owed her independence. They were among the first to shoulder their guns-they were the . bravest and most enduring of Washington's soldiers .- Peasant Life in Germany," p. 389. A German pamphlet printed in 1775, is still in existence, and bears evidence on this point that ought to silence cavil. It is called "Message of the Evangelical Lutheran and Reformed Church Consistory and of the Officers of the Ger- man Association in Phila. to the German inhabitants of the Pro- vinces of New York and North Carolina." This document sounds no uncertain tone ; it says. "we have from time to time daily with our eyes seen that the people of Pennsylvania generally, rich and poor, approve of the conclusions of Congress: especially have the Germans of Pennsylvania, near and far from us, distinguished themselves, and not only established their militia, but have formed picked corps of rangers, who are ready to march wherever it may be required; and those among the Germans who cannot serve per- sonally are throughout willing to contribute according to their means to the common good." Anything more decisive on this point cannot easily be imagined.
In view of the foregoing, the aspersion cast upon the Germans by a writer in the Lancaster Intelligencer of July 10, 1876, seems uncalled for and ungenerous to the last degree: his words are- "the Germans of this country were not, as a body, distinguished for their opposition to the pretensions of Great Britain." It almost seems as if the writer had in view the 20,000 Hessians and other German mercenaries who came over at British instigation to take part in the struggle, instead of the true and sturdy German
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HISTORICAL SKETCH.
PUBLIC MEN.
While we do not find that any citizens of these town- ships became very prominent in the councils of the Pro- vince at an early day, in after years their descendants were among the best and most honored in the state. Pro- priety forbids that we should name any in private life, still living, but there are those among us whose standing, culture and useful public lives, might well merit a passing notice. The Earls have contributed their full proportion to the public men of the county, during the past hundred years. Thomas Edwards was one of the eight Justices of the Peace appointed when the county was organized; he was a member of the Colonial Assembly in 1729-30-31- 32-35-36 and 39. It is said of him that after his appoint- ment as Justice of the county, he was accustomed to leave his home at the fine spring north of New Holland, known as "Martin's Spring," walk barefoot to Lancaster and sit, shoeless, as a member of the Justices' court,* until the term was over. He is buried in the old "Welsh" graveyard in East Earl. Zaccheus Davis was County Commissioner in 1756: Nathaniel Ellmaker was elected to the State Senate in 1796: Christian Carpenter was Sheriff in 1799: John W. Kittera, a native of Earl, represented the district in Congress from 1791 until 1801, a period of ten years, and was afterwards an eminent jurist in Philadelphia: Jacob Ringwalt was elected to the State Legislature in 1811, and served one term: Amos Ellmaker was District
yeomanry of the Colonies who put their all to stake in the sacred cause of Independence.
*It was one of the laws of the province under the Proprietary, that the regularly appointed justices of the peace should also hold at stated intervals, "a court of judicature for the preservation of the peace and justice of the province." Before the county or- ganizations, and even long afterwards, these courts were intrusted with important functions .- Hazzard's Annals of Penna. 598.
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PUBLIC MEN.
Attorney of Dauphin county, and likewise one of its representatives in the State Legislature for three terms ; he was also elected to Congress from that county in 1814, but declined to take his seat, having been appointed pre- siding Judge of Dauphin, Lebanon and Schuylkill coun- ties; in 1832 he was the Anti-Masonic candidate for the Vice Presidency, and a formidable competitor of James Buchanan for the United States senatorship in 1834: Gen. Henry Hambright was an officer in the war of Independ- ence, and a member of the State Legislature in the years 1813-14-16-17: Henry Shirk was County Commissioner in 1810 and in 1819; Henry Roland filled the same posi- tion in 1821; Dr. John Luther was Director of the Poor for three years; George Duchman was County Recorder for three years; Adam Bare was Sheriff in 1830, and became County Commissioner in 1834; William Hiester was the Anti-Masonic candidate for Congress in 1828 against James Buchanan, but was defeated; in 1830 he was successful and won the prize; he was twice re-elected and served from 1831 until 1837; he was also a member of the Convention that revised the State Constitution in 1836; he was a member of the State Senate in 1840, and was Speaker of that body in 1842; he was president of the great Whig meeting held at Lancaster in July, 1843, which proclaimed Henry Clay, Pennsylvania's choice for the presidency in 1844: Anthony E. Roberts was elected Sheriff of the county in 1839; he was a candidate for Congress in 1843, but was defeated; in 1849 he was appointed United States Marshal for the eastern district of Pennsylvania, by President Taylor, and held the posi- tion until 1853; in 1854 he was nominated and elected to Congress, which honor was a second time conferred on him at the expiration of his first term: William Duchman was Recorder in 1845; Isaac E. Hiester was appointed District
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HISTORICAL SKETCH.
Attorney of the county in 1848; in 1852 he was elected to Congress, and was again a candidate in 1854, but was defeated : John K. Reed was Prothonotary in 1851; Solo- .mon Diller was in 1836-37-38 and 39 a member of the State Legislature; Jonathan Roland was sent to the Legis- lature from this county in 1856: David Shultz was mer- cantile appraiser of the county in 1847, and was twice re- appointed; he became County Treasurer in 1851: W. D. Stauffer was made Prothonotary in 1869-the youngest incumbent that office ever had; he is also at the present time, efficiently and satisfactorily serving his second term as Mayor of the city of Lancaster, and is the youngest man that has ever attained that coveted position: Abra- ham Setley was elected Clerk of the Orphans Court in 1872 .*
LEGISLATIVE ANNOYANCES.
Although our fathers had at last found a refuge from religious oppression, annoyances of other kinds awaited them. The large German immigration caused no little alarm to the colonial authorities, and their fears gave rise to petty and vexatious annoyances, which only the good conduct of the colonists, during a long series of years, could dispel. Sir William Keith, who became Governor . of the Province in 1717, at first treated the request of the Germans for naturalization, with great indifference; for three years, from 1721 until 1724, this act of justice was · denied them, and when a bill was introduced for this pur- pose, they were required to swear as to the value of their possessions, and the nature of their religious views, before their petition was granted. To his successor, Sir Patrick Gordon, a complaint was made concerning those at Pequea ; they were denounced as "peculiar in their dress, religion,
*The above list is by no means complete.
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TRIALS OF THE EARLY SETTLERS.
and notions of political government, and resolved to speak their own language, and acknowledge no sovereign but the great Creator of the universe." Gov. Gordon, however, was a man of broad views, and when he laid the petition of a large number from this district before the House, in 1730, he used this language: "It likewise appears to me by good information, that they have hitherto behaved themselves well, and have generally so good a character for honesty and industry, as deserves the esteem of this Government, and a mark of its regard for them."* Never- theless, the immigration of aliens-as all who were not English subjects were called-was still further discouraged by the imposition of a forty-shilling tax, per head, on the Swiss, French, Germans and Dutch who should come into the Province. This manner of raising the revenue, almost makes one believe, Pennsylvania was a high-tariff colony even at that early day !
TRIALS OF THE EARLY SETTLERS.
Between 1730 and 1775, the condition of these settlers in Earl, was that enjoyed in common with the citizens of the rest of the Province. They seem for the most part, to have been exempt from the Indian murders and depreda- tions that afflicted other communities. That . unwelcome visitor, the tax gatherer, put in his annual appearance, with his accustomed punctuality. The 5635 taxables within the county in 1760, were assessed $16,000, a pro rata of which came from Earl .¡ The enforcement of the Port Bill, at Boston, created much distress among certain classes in that city ; subscription papers were circulated in this township in July, 1774, for their relief.
They had also other trials to contend with, which neither
*Colonial Records, III, p. 296.
+See Appendix B.
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· HISTORICAL SKETCH.
their own conduct nor legislative enactments could evade or dispel. Only a few of them can be referred to here. In 1732, immense swarms of locusts ravaged their fields and destroyed their fruit crops. In 1737, a severe earthquake spread general consternation over all the eastern portion of the Province. The summer of 1738 was made memo- rable by a heat so extraordinary as to destroy many birds, while laborers fell exhausted and dead in their harvest fields. The winter of 1740 was severe beyond example; deer and turkeys in vast numbers perished of cold, and formed a large part of the food of the people; the snow was of a depth unknown before; severe floods also occurred during the year. In 1741, the cold was even greater than during the previous winter, and the privations and suffer- ings of the people augmented and intensified. With 1750 and 1751, came seasons of scarcity and want. A county meeting was called, and means of relief devised, and whence eventuated our Alms-house establishment. The harvests in 1752 were bountiful beyond anything pre- viously experienced in the history of the iufant settle- ments; so abundant was the yield of wheat that it was fed to the hogs. This plentiful year was succeeded in 1753 and '54 and '55, by a widely prevailing drouth; the earth was parched, and vegetation of all kinds perished for lack of moisture; a famine seemed impending: to add to these horrors, the French war broke out, and the frontier Indian tribes, having nearly all allied themselves with France, began killing and scalping on all sides. Terror and dismay filled every heart; even after peace was concluded, the Indians continued their hostilities. So great was the danger in 1763, that farmers, in the more exposed dis- tricts, carried their rifles with them to the fields. On the 17th of June in that year, fell the most destructive hail storm known to the pioneers; it extended over the entire
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FARMING.
county ; the hailstones were large as turkey eggs; birds and small quadrupeds were killed in great numbers; the growing fruits and ripening grain perished in this assault of the elements, while the trees were as destitute of foliage as in midwinter. The winter of 1780, was by way of dis- tinction, known as the "Hard winter;" ice twenty inches thick formed on the ponds; the cold was intense; birds perished, and the ears of sheep and cattle were frozen.
FARMING.
Farming in those days was not what it is now. Rota- tion of crops was not strictly followed. Wheat, rye, oats and barley were the principal crops; corn was but little cul- tivated for a long series of years, more generally indeed by the Indians than by the whites. Oxen were mostly used in plowing; horses were scarce, and bulls and cows were frequently loaded with wheat for the mill, and brought back the grist. The scarcity of horseflesh may be inferred from this-we are told "nine German settlers united their means to purchase a gray-mare, of whose services they availed themselves turn-about." Horses were seldom shod ; the soft roads through the forests rendered it unnecessary. Before and during the Revolution, much of the work on farms devolved on the women. They performed the tasks usually allotted to men, working in the hay and harvest fields, taking care of horses and horned cattle, and occa- sionally in the enforced absence of the male portion of the family, took entire charge of all out- and in-door work. Irrigation, although hardly ever practiced now, was gen- erally resorted to then; the natural meadows, by this means, furnished an abundant supply of hay and pastur- age. Governor Pownall of New Jersey, who in 1754 traveled through the county, saw and described the pro- cess: on the south side of the Welsh mountain, on land
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HISTORICAL SKETCH.
owned by Adam Diller, traces of an irrigating canal could in recent years, and may perhaps even now, be seen.
Lime was first used as a fertilizer in this state by a Ger- man named Jacob Berger, who applied it to a field near Philadelphia some years before the Revolution .*
At their first settlement, these townships were almost entirely covered with heavily wooded forests; here and there grassy meads were to be found: the Indians gener- ally selected these spots for their dwelling places. And here we may add, that the red men were never numerous hereabouts; scarcely more than half a dozen families were ever to be found at one place; they had no villages of any importance .¡ There was little underbrush in consequence
*Dr. Rush's Manners and Customs of the Pennsylvania Ger- mans, p. 14.
¡The Indian tribes by whom these townships were inhabited, were Piquaws and Conestogos, principally the former, whose chief place of residence however-if the term is admissible-was in the Pequea valley and on the Pequea creek, to both of which they have appropriately left their name. They were of the Algonquin tribe, but paid tribute to the Six Nations, and seem to have been in the beginning among the best disposed and most tractable of all the natives with whom the whites ever came in contact. They were extremely hospitable to the early settlers, furnishing them from their own stores with no stinted hands, whenever called upon. No serious troubles ever arose between them and the Europeans. The Huguenots and Palatines often joined the Piquaws in their hunting and fishing excursions and in their other pastimes. Their principal chief was Tanawa, who had sold his lands to Penn, was present at the "Great Treaty," and ever prided himself on the warm friendship entertained for him by the Proprietary.
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