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 6
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When we come down to the affairs of every-day life, the comparison is equally marvellous. The sickle, the grain- cradle and the broad Dutch scythe, have given way to the reaper and the mower. Then grain was either threshed out with the flail, or tramped out in winter by horses. Do not the ears and toes of many here now, again tingle, as memory carries them back to that olden time, when many cold and weary days were passed in irksome rides around the barn floor? Those rides were long and monotonous, without much to boast of in the way of scenery. Now the farmer takes his thresher to the field, feeds in the sheaves at one end, affixes the grain bag to the other, and removes it when filled. You will agree with me, the process has been expedited and simplified. The linen and flax indus- tries, once so widespread, are hardly known to the present generation. The spinning wheel that made music on rainy days in almost every house in these townships, has been rotated out of existence, and almost out of memory .-- They show one at the Centennial Exposition as a curiosity. The sugar-scoops which our grandmothers were pleased to call bonnets, have not survived the "struggle for existence," but made room for the jaunty hat, hardly larger than the old-fashioned silver dollar, that once found its way into the pockets of our fathers, but has become a myth to us.
The steamboat, the telegraph, the railroad, and a hun- dred other inventions equally wondrous, were all unknown in those primitive days. No butcher nor baker's wagon called daily at their doors with meat and bread; the dim woods supplied them with the former, and the pestle and mortar often with the latter. The lands that were bought by our ancestors at ten cents per acre, are now bought and sold at about two thousand times that price, and no allow- ance for roads thrown in .*
*In all the land grants issued by Penn and his heirs, there was
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The Earls have not stood still. They have kept step in the grand march, where Time is marking the progress of earth's generations. Progression has been the law, not only within our own borders, but around us. From Phila- delphia with its three or four houses in 1682, to its 800,000 population in 1876-from Lancaster with its swamps, 200 population in 1730, and not a good house in it in 1754, to the Lancaster of 1876, there is verily an Aladdin's trans- formation. Everything promised by the past, and more, has been realized in the present. Where is your Saue Schwamm now? The long reaches of green and gold, that swell into rustling billows at the soft breath of every sum- mer breeze, make fitting answer.
CONCLUSION.
I have endeavored to place before you a sketch of the people by whom, and the circumstances under which, these townships were first settled. You all know what they are to day. Through long, plodding years-years of trial and ultimate triumph-their present proud position has been reached. Self-laudation is seldom justifiable, but we feel that we would in this instance be unjust to ourselves, if we failed to award the meed of praise which is our just due. From those lowly cabins under the trees of the primeval woods, to the stately homes that everywhere rise around us now, there is progress that compels recognition. For once, the wilderness has indeed been made to blossom like the rose.
As we stand here to-day, and gaze on the scene spread out before us, and then permit our minds to wander back one hundred and fifty years, the picture can be matched
an allowance made of six acres in every hundred, "for roads and highways," and when occasionally a farm that has not been sur- veyed for half a century or more, is found to contain more acres than the deed calls for, the error may be attributed to the old-time road allowance.
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CONCLUSION.
by naught save the marvels of an Arabian tale. We have done much ourselves, but how much do we owe to our fathers before us! They began as the subjects of a king, but through their efforts, we live under a form of government to-day, which, with all its defects, is the grandest the world has ever known. Frugal, honest and industrious, they belonged to the class of men who found empires. They had faults, and many of them. They were superstitious, with strong leanings towards bigotry and prejudice. These were the errors, not so much of our ancestors, as of the times in which they lived. We who have lived to see many of their mistakes, can therefore look kindly upon the weaknesses of a past age. Let us devote our energies, rather, to revere and emulate the worthy lessons of life and conduct they have sent down to us. They early learned the rights of freemen, and were ever prompt to maintain them. They were zealous of the purity of the ballot-box, from the hour they acquired the right of suffrage; and when in 1743, the county sheriff "assumed upon himself the power of being sole judge at an election," they were quick to petition for redress, and the offender's removal.
Of all the nations that sent emigrants to America, the German element was pre-eminent for its love of liberty and personal independence: the hardy sons of toil came, but monarchy was left behind: they brought along many virtues, but priestcraft did not migrate with them. Strongest among their feelings, was the love they bore for the evangel of freedom that was proclaimed anew in this western Pat- mos. They seem to us, worthy successors to those brave, bold barons, who wrested the Great Charter of rights from a tyrant king at Runnymede.
I repeat again, ancestral pride should burn strong
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within us: and when I sometimes detect in men and women of the present generation, a disposition to ignore, or deny the lineage whence they sprung, I have for them only mingled feelings of pity and contempt. The dullest peasant that left his home in the Fatherland to seek an asylum in the land of Penn, is more than peer to his faith- less descendant, who meanly denies his German parentage, lest he be called a "Pennsylvania Dutchman;" and they who do so, are both recreant and craven-the unworthy sons of worthy sires. Let it be our endeavor rather, to render ourselves worthy of the heritage that has come down to us-to emulate their self-denial, their heroism, and their brave stand in defense of religious and political freedom. May our own conduct in all the manifold rela- tions of life be such, that when a hundred years hence those who shall come after us, gather around their coun- try's altar, to rekindle the fires of loyalty and patriotism as we have done to-day, and our history comes up before them for review, they may render of us the same verdict we here pronounce upon those who preceded us, "They fought a good fight; they kept the faith."
APPENDIX.
AUTHOR'S NOTE.
It may be objected to by some, that undue prominence is given in the foregoing sketch to one nationality at the expense of others-that there were other peoples besides Germans who aided in the settlement and development of these townships. To him, however, who critically examines the story of that early colonization, this objection comes with no validity or strength. The English and Irish who settled here were insignificant in number, while the French did not reach a dozen: the Welsh outnumbered all these; they were steady, honest, hard-working colonists, and in time became wealthy and prominent citizens.
The German element, however, largely exceeded all the others combined, and even at that early day stood forth prominently as the controlling power in the new districts, just as it is to-day the controlling power in this Common- wealth, numbering 1,500,000 souls. Naught, save igno- rance, to-day denies its claims or questions its influence. Besides, one of my aims has been to give it, so far as was in my power, the prominence to which it is so justly entitled. While the claims of other nationalities have been sung by poets, proclaimed by orators and told by historians, but scant mention or praise has hitherto fallen to the large Germanic emigration that found a congenial home on the fruitful soil of Pennsylvania.
The ignorant abuse of Parkman may be cited as a case in point; Swinton's school-history of the United States is another; in this latter volume not one word is said concern- ning the German exodus to Pennsylvania; the Quakers- barely a handful compared with the Germans-receive full mention, while the nationality that to-day controls the des- tinies of this state, is quietly ignored ; and yet, this is the History (!) discriminating school-boards place in the bands of the rising generation, and out of which it is expected
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to learn the true history of this country! The truth of history, no less than the too long neglected claims of our German ancestry demands this full recognition. Would it were in my power to present the case more strongly still.
I never knew how deep the well is, at whose bottom truth is said to lie, until I personally undertook to sound it. My desire to accept no verbal statements on trust only, and my anxiety to refrain as much as possible from making any that were not susceptible of verification, have entailed no little amount of labor upon the preparation of the preceding sketch. The conflicting statements of aged men and women as to past events, and the unreliability of men's memories concerning transactions that occurred fifty or more years ago, when confronted with written records, have perhaps made me unnecessarily cautious, but if I needs must err, I preferred to do so in saying too little rather than too much.
While I am well aware my performance is by no means free from errors, I take it upon myself to say no attempt has been made to bend or distort facts in support of any peculiar views or theories: my aim has at all times been to elicit the truth and that only. I have endeavered to. make a fair and honest use of the materials that have come into my hands. My regret is that my work falls so far short of what I could wish it to be, or than it perhaps would have been, had its preparation been confided to abler hands.
In addition to the acknowledgments already made in the preceding pages for courtesies received, and assistance rendered, I avail myself of this means of owning my indebtedness to other parties who have from time to time voluntarily tendered such information as they possessed, or who, at my request or suggestions have taken the trouble of investigating facts which I could not conveniently do myself. My thanks are due Revds. J. W. Hassler, D. W. Gerhard and S. S. Henry for valuable information relative to the church organizations with which they stand con- nected: to ex-Sheriff Adam Bare, Michael Hildebrand and Joseph Miller-men nearly a century old, but with minds still strong and clear,-to Messrs. James Diller, John
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S. Weaver, A. E. Roberts, Dr. C. F. Groff and G. W. David- son for statistical information concerning the towns in which they respectively reside,-to Geo. H. Ranck, esq., for many valuable favors and suggestions, and above all to E. G. Groff, esq., who, from the beginning until now, has been indefatigable and untiring in his endeavors to aid me, and of whose valuable services gratitude impels me to make this free and full recognition.
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APPENDIX A. THE LUTHERAN CHURCH LOTTERY.
The authority to raise money to pay the debt on the Lutheran church in New Holland, is here given in full :
"An Act for raising, by Way of Lottery, the Sum of Four Hun- dred and Ninety nine Pounds, nineteen shillings, to be applied to the Payment of the arrears of Debt due for the building and finishing the German Lutheran Church in Earl Township, in Lancaster County. and towards the erecting and building of a School- House to the same church."
The various clauses and conditions of the act cover some five or six large pages, and cannot be reproduced here : to give the reader an idea how such things were managed in those days, the principal rules governing the scheme may be briefly told. It is stated in the act that the Wardens and Elders of the said church have repre- sented that notwithstanding the subscription heretofore made, there yet remains a considerable sum due for the work already done; and a further sum besides what has hitherto been raised by contributions among themselves will be wanted to pay off the in- debtedness. Authority is therefore granted to raise the money by a lottery: Edward Hughes, Michael Tiefendurfer, Philip Marts- teller, John Schultz, Charles Miller, George Rine, George Stahley and Henry Rockey, were nominated and appointed Managers and Directors of the said lottery. The issue of 4,444 tickets to be sold at fifteen shillings each was authorized; of these 1,519 were to be "fortunate" (prize) tickets, of the following values :
1 fortunate ticket of £112 10 0 ) which principal sums so to be 2 37 10 0 ،، expressed upon the said for- 4 18 15 0 tunate tickets, together with 10 11 50 £9 7 6 to be allowed to the 20 7 10 0 owner of the first drawn ticket - 50 3 15 0 and the like sum of £9 7 6 to 100 3 00 66 be allowed to the last drawn 400 2 50 66 ticket would amount in the 932 1 10 0) 66 whole to £3333. From this sum the managers were authorized to deduct fifteen per cent., which would give them £499 19. The drawing was to be published in the Pennsylvania Gazette : the managers were obliged to take an oath before a magistrate to do their duties fairly and honestly ;
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APPENDIX B.
every fortunate drawer was obliged to call for his prize money within nine months; if he failed to do so. it was covered back into the church treasury. The net receipts, after all expenses were paid, were to be applied to the discharge of the church debt and the erection of the school-house: the Treasurer was to be released from his obligations upon getting a receipt in full from the Elders and Wardens: the managers and directors were re- quired to lay their acts before any three of the Justices of the Court of Quarter Sessions, to be by them examined and adjusted. The lottery to be held within two years of the date of the passage of the act of authorization, which was May 20, 1767.
The lottery was drawn in accordance with the above scheme, and the church debt no doubt paid off; but where is the school- house that was contemplated ? Were the funds insufficient, or was it built after all and has its very existence been forgotten? The erection of a free-school-house in 1787, in which this congregation took a very prominent part, is almost decisive evidence that no school-house was built with the lottery money .- See Acts of the Colonial Assembly for 1767.
APPENDIX B.
ASSESSORS' LISTS AND TAXATION.
No existing documents are more interesting or throw more light on the early history of these townships, than the Assessors' lists. Unfortunately, these go back no further than the year 1754, all prior to that year having been destroyed by fire. Nor is the series complete from that time on; more than half are missing, until we come down to 1814. Consisting at times of a single sheet of fools- cap paper, and at most of a few sheets loosely stitched together, we need not wonder they were not better preserved, but rather, that any at all have survived the flight of years.
In the year 1754, just twenty-five years after the township organ- ization, we find the number of taxables 199, and the amount of tax levied £29 19 0, or less than $150: the population for the same period may be set down at about 800, the increase being no doubt largely attributable to the influx of new emigrants. The names of some of the first colonists had multiplied considerably, and as a matter of interest and curiosity, a list of the number of the best known. as found on that list, is here given: Graaf, 7; Davis, 7;
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Carpenter, 5; Weaver, 5; Martin, 4; Diffenderffer, 3; Hildebrand, 3; Bear, 3; Hoover, 3; Edwards, 3; Ronk, 2; Reif, 2; Mumma, 2; Sheaffer, 2; Roland, Smith, Shirk, Kinser, Diller, Kurtz, Greybil, Eby, &c., only one time each. The largest tax paid by any one man was seven shillings and four pence, by Emanuel Car- penter, esq., who for a long series of years stood at the head of the list : the smallest sum paid was one shilling. Jacob Roland was the collector for this year. The tax list is commonly headed "Earltown Tax for the King's use."
Three years later, in 1757, when Moses Irwin and John Smith collected it, that assessment had increased 900 per cent .. amoun- ing to £274 2 6. In 1759 the amount of tax levied went up to £290 9 9. The early names on the tax list had increased still more rapidly : there were 12 Martins, 11 Weavers, 9 Carpenters, 8 Groves or Groffs, 7 Davises, 5 Diffenderffers. 5 Bears, 3 Rolands, 2 Ellmakers, 2 Kinzers, 2 Kreybils, etc., etc.
The names on the tax roll were divided into several classes. First came the list headed "Inmates;" these were married men and house or land holders: after these followed the list of "Free- men," which included the unmarried portion of the male popula- tion. When the Revolutionary war commenced, the assessment lists were still further subdivided, into such as took the Oath of Allegiance to the state, and those who refused to do so. At this period we also have "Associators" and "Non-Associators;" the latter represented the non-fighting element, such as Quakers, Men- nonites, etc., while the former, untrammeled by religious or other scruples, were willing and ready to take up arms when called upon. In the year 1777 the list of Non- Associators numbered no less than 338 names: if they were exempt from doing military duty, they were not absolved from contributing their quota of money to the good cause, for in this year these peace-loving citizens were obliged to pay £3 10 each into the strong box of their sorely- pressed country.
In and after the year 1781, the taxes were levied in two kinds of money, gold and silver, and paper or state money, that is, part had to be paid with the former and part could be paid with the latter. The instructions addressed to the tax collectors ran as follows: "And further you are to take Notice, that all Persons who have
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APPENDIX B.
taken the Oath or Affirmation of Allegiance to this State, have a right to pay the one half part of the Tax, called the Hard Money Tax, in State money, emitted in pursuance of an act passed the seventh Day of April 1781, for which Purpose the Persons who have taken said Oath are placed separately. But the Tax called the State Money Tax may be received in any sort of State money." So much had state money depreciated in 1781, that I find the tax for that year put down at the enormous sum of £45196 10; how much that was equivolent to in gold, it is not easy to say. In the_ year following the conclusion of the war, the hard money tax as- sessed was £2375 17 6, and that in state money £1020 4 7. These two kinds of money continued to be received for a number of years: in 1787 the amount of taxation had dwindled down to £791 4 3 in hard money, and £146 7 5 in soft.
Although a large number of the citizens of these townships were "Non-Associators," still, as I have elsewhere said, the pop- ulation was very generally loyal to the cause of the Colonies. So far as I have been able to ascertain-and I have searched dili- gently-there was at no time any serious or organized resistance to the patriot cause. Elsewhere in the county, as is well known, formidable opposition was manifested to the enlistment and de- parture of soldiers. In April, 1777, Congress passed a militia law to be better enabled to repel the threatened state invasion by Gen. Howe. Lancaster county was called on for nine battalions: in eight of the thirty-three townships into which the county was divided, there was open rebellion, and for a time it was found impossible to enforce the law. Donegal and the adjacent districts seem to have been the principal theatre of discord : the Mennon- ites were foremost in the strife; they paid little attention to the constables or their warrants. On June 25, 1777, a squad of soldiers was sent to levy the fines due by one Samuel Albright: he had notice of their coming, and collected a number of men and women armed with scythes, coulters and pitch forks; they brained one of the soldiers and put the rest to flight, but not before the latter had fired a volley, badly wounding Albright and several other ringlead- ers .* That precious species of casuistry which forbade them to
*See letters of Col. Lowry, John Bagley, B. Galbraith and James Lang, in Penna. Archives, Vol. V, pp. 343, 353, 396-7, 407, 409.
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fight the enemies of their country, and yet allowed them to delib- erately slay their friends and neighbors, seems difficult of appre- hension.
APPENDIX C. TOWNS. NEW HOLLAND.
Some notice of this town, especially in reference to its name, has already been given in a previous portion of this sketch: a fuller description is here added. Its location is on the New Hol- land turnpike, thirteen miles in a north- east direction from Lan- caster. It lies continuously on both sides of this road for more than a mile: several attempts have been made to open other streets at right angles with the turnpike, in the hope that the town would grow in other directions than length, but thus far these efforts have not met with any extraordinary degree of success. It is built on a slightly elevated limestone ride, from whence the ground slopes northward towards the Conestoga, and southward towards Mill Creek.
As has already been said, the first settler built his cabin not on the present site of the town, but in the immediate vicinity. Who erected the first house in the town proper. and where it stood, are questions that will perhaps never be positively determined : no known written record exists bearing on these facts. It is known, however, that the first well dug in the place. is the one on the turnpike opposite the residence of William L. Barstler: it is also known that it was dug by Amich Snyder, who, in company with two neighbors, had built their log huts in that vicinity. They had no permanent water supply, however, and to remedy this defi- ciency, agreed to dig a well; lots were drawn to decide upon which one of them the task should fall: the fates pointed out Snyder as the one appointed to do the work, and he did it. It is reasonable to suppose the site for the well was not far removed from their dwellings, and as it is a well authenticated fact that a house formerly stood on the spot now occupied by Mr. Barstler's dwelling-itself a very old building-we cannot go far astray in marking that as the spot whereon stood one of the first three houses, built about the same time, in the present town of New Holland. The second well in this place was dug by a Mr. Brant, at the lower end of the town. Before these wells were dug, the
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APPENDIX C.
few settlers living in the town were obliged to do their washing, butchering, &c., at the spring now owned by Mrs. Buch, at the eastern end of the town, and bring their daily supply of water for domestic purposes from thence.
New Holland has not shown the increase that might reasonably be expected from its central locality and great age. Although the buildings erected a century ago are gradually disappearing, it has been only within the last twenty or thirty years that any very marked advance has been made in the style of its architecture and in material progress generally. A new era seems, however, to have dawned, and in recent years, no inland town in the county has progressed more rapidly.
There are in the town, 4 churches, 1 graded school of four grades, 1 select or private school, taught by Miss Annie C. Bru- baker, 4 Sunday-schools, 3 physicians, 1 dentist, 5 hotels, 3 stores selling general merchandise, 2 hardware stores, 2 millinery stores, 1 lawyer, 2 surveyors, 3 conveyancers, 1 confectioner, 1 drug store, 3 master carpenters, 1 auctioneer, 1 brick-yard, 1 hot-house, 1 marble yard, 2 wagon makers, 2 tin and copperware manufactur- ers, 1 plasterer, 1 butcher, 2 barber shops, 2 hucksters, 3 ice-cream saloons, 1 beer saloon, 8 cigar factories, 1 base-ball club, 1 cooper, 1 photograph gallery, 1 grocery, 2 drovers, 3 coach-making estab- lishments, 1 stone-mason and brick-layer, 3 tailor shops, 5 black- smiths, 4 saddle and harness manufacturers, 1 cabinet-maker and furniture-dealer, 1 warehouse, including coal and lumber yards, 4 resident clergymen, 1 printing office using a steam-power press, and publishing the NEW HOLLAND CLARION, a four page weekly newspaper with a large and rapidly increasing circulation, and a widely extended influence; it has also a brass band which has been in existence for a period of twenty years : during the war of the Rebellion, it went into service as a band, and made for itself an enviable record: the person to whom it owes its origin, and to whom its long life, efficiency and success are almost wholly attrib- utable, is Mr. Isaac Witwer: during all that period his valuable services as organizer and leader have been freely rendered, and it is to him the citizens of New Holland are indebted for what has become one of their most highly-prized institutions.
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