USA > Pennsylvania > Philadelphia County > Germantown > The settlement of Germantown, Pennsylvania, and the beginning of German emigration to North America > Part 10
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101 Mennonitische Blatter, Hamburg.
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The Settlement of Germantown.
Classen Arents, from Amsterdam, Jan Krey, Johann Conrad Cotweis, who was an interpreter in New York in 1709, and Jacob Gaetschalck, a Mennonite preacher ; and in 1703 Anthony Gerckes, Barnt Hendricks, Hans Hein- rich Meels, Simon Andrews, Hermann Dors102 and Cor- nelius Tyson. The last two appear to have come from Crefeld, and over Tyson, who died in 1716, Pastorius erected in Axe's graveyard at Germantown what is, so far as I know, the oldest existing tombstone to the memory of a Dutchman or German in Pennsylvania.103
On the 28th of June, 1701, a tax was laid for the build- ing of a prison, erection of a market, and other objects for the public good. A weekly market was established " in the road or highway where the cross street of Germantown goes down to the Schuylkill." October 8, 1694, Jacob De la Plaine and Jacob Telner each gave a half acre for the purpose.104 We are told that in 1701 there were in German- town "three score families, besides several single per- ons."105
As in all communities, the prison preceded the school house, but the interval was not long. December 30th of that year " it was found good to start a school here in German- town," and Arent Klincken, Paul Wolff and Peter Schu- macher, Jr., were appointed overseers to collect subscrip-
102 " One Herman Dorst near Germantown, a Batchelor past 80 years of Age, who for a long time lived in a House by himself, on the 14th Instant there dyed by himself."-American Weekly Mercury, October 18th, 1739. 103 It bears the following inscription :
"Obijt Meiy 9, 1716 Cornelis Tiesen
Salic sin de doon Die in den Here sterve Theilric is haer Kroon Tgloriric haer erve."
104 Collections of the Historical Society of Pa., Vol. I, p. 274. 105 Ibid., p. 283, Rath's Buch.
THE SETTLEMENT OF GERMANTOWN.
OBÜTHEÜZÜİ CORNELISTIESE
SALIGAIN DE DOOIN
THEI FICJIS HZER KROO
IFSOY
TOMBSTONE OF CORNELIUS TYSON.
THE MOST ANCIENT IN GERMANTOWN.
I4I
-
Skippack.
tions and arrange with a school teacher. Pastorius was the first pedagogue. As early as January 25, 1694-95, it was ordered that stocks should be put up for the punish- ment of evil doers. We might, perhaps, infer that they were little used from the fact that, in June, 1702, James De la Plaine was ordered to remove the old iron from the rotten stocks and take care of it, but alas ! December 30, 1703, we find that " Peter Schumacher and Isaac Schu- macher shall arrange with workmen that a prison house and stocks be put up as soon as possible. 106
February 10, 1702-3, Arnold Van Vossen delivered to Jan Neuss, on behalf of the Mennonites, a deed for three square perches of land for a church, which, however, was not built until six years later.
In 1702 began the settlement on the Skippack. This first outgrowth of Germantown also had its origin at Cre- feld, and the history of the Crefeld purchase would not be complete without some reference to it. As we have seen, of the one thousand acres bought by Govert Remke, one hundred and sixty-one acres were laid out at Germantown. The balance he sold in 1686 to Dirck Sipman. Of Sip- man's own purchase of five thousand acres, five hundred and eighty-eight acres were laid out at Germantown, and all that remained of the six thousand acres he sold in 1698 to Matthias Van Bebber, who, getting in addition five hun- dred acres and four hundred and fifteen acres by purchase, had the whole tract of six thousand one hundred and sixty- six acres located by patent, February 22, 1702, on the Skip- pack. It was in the present Perkiomen Township, Mont- gomery County, and adjoined Edward Lane and William Harmer, near what is now the village of Evansburg.107 For the next half century, at least, it was known as Beb-
106 Rath's Buch.
107 Exemp. Record, Vol. I., p. 470.
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The Settlement of Germantown.
ber's Township, or Bebber's Town, and the name being often met with in the Germantown records has been a source of apparently hopeless confusion to our local his- torians. Van Bebber immediately began to colonize it, the most of the settlers being Mennonites. Among these settlers were Hendrick Pannebecker, Johannes Kuster, Johannes Umstat, Klas Jansen and Jan Krey in 1702; John Jacobs, in 1704 ; John Newberry, Thomas Wiseman, Edward Beer, Gerhard and Hermann In de Hoffen, Dirck and William Renberg, in 1706; William and Cornelius Dewees, Hermannus Kuster, Christopher Zimmerman, Johannes Scholl and Daniel Desmond, in 1708; Jacob, Johannes and Martin Kolb, Mennonite weavers from Wolfs- heim, in the Palatinate, and Andrew Strayer, in 1709; Solomon Dubois, from Ulster County, New York, in 1716; Paul Fried, in 1727, and in the last year the unsold bal- ance of the tract passed into the hands of Pannebecker. Van Bebber gave one hundred acres for a Mennonite church, which was built about 1725, the trustees being Hendrick Sellen, Hermannus Kuster, Klas Jansen, Martin Kolb, Henry Kolb, Jacob Kolb and Michael Ziegler.
The Van Bebbers were undoubtedly men of standing, ability, enterprise and means. The father, Jacob Isaacs, moved into Philadelphia before 1698, being described as a merchant in High street, and died there before 17II.108 Matthias, who is frequently mentioned by James Logan, made a trip to Holland in 1701, witnessing there Benjamin Furly's power of attorney, July 28th, and had returned to Philadelphia before April 13th, 1702. He re- mained in that city until 1704, when he and his elder
108 He had three grandsons named Jacob, one of whom was doubtless the Jacob Van Bebber who became Judge of the Supreme Court of Delaware, Nov. 27th, 1764.
THE SETTLEMENT OF GERMANTOWN.
IMAGO.ERASMI.ROTERO DAMI AD DELINI: Z
Kon cujufquam Principis vel metus, Del gratia tantum apud me valebit. unquam, ut feier adverfer cuange: Sice veritati, aut glorie Chrifi. . In Spong .
Jo Jaunes Roll Dem, Sont Soß Jurman Roll Dem Soak Sap bag for 17,25. bing zu Je fub to csun Meinen Gründen gestring fall de Kommeri Gor Fini diGel
UFS 99
PORTRAIT OF ERASMUS BY ALBERT DURER.
PROM THE COPY OF HIS WORKS BROUGHT TO GERMANTOWN BY JOHANNES KOLB.
143
The Van Bebbers.
brother, Isaac Jacobs, accompanied by Reynier Hermanns Van Burklow, a son-in-law of Peter Schumacher, and possibly others, removed to Bohemia Manor, Cecil County, Maryland. There he was a justice of the peace, and is described in the deeds as a merchant and a gentle- man. Their descendants, like many others, soon fell away from the simple habits and strict creed of their fathers ; the Van Bebbers of Maryland have been distin- guished in all the wars and at the bar ; and at the Falls of the Kanawha, Van Bebber's rock, a crag jutting out at a great height over the river, still preserves the memory and recalls the exploits of one of the most daring Indian fighters in Western Virginia.
Arms of the Holy Roman Empire.
CHAPTER VII.
THE OP DEN GRAEFF BROTHERS AND THE PROTEST AGAINST SLAVERY.
HERE was a rustic mur- mur in the little burgh in the year 1688 which time has shown to have been the echo of the great wave that rolls around the world. The event probably at that time produced no commotion and attracted little attention. It may well be that the con- Arms of Amsterdam. sciousness of having won im- mortality never dawned upon any of the participants, and yet a mighty nation will ever recognize it in time to come as one of the brightest pages in the early history of Pennsylvania and the country. On the 18th day of April, 1688, Gerhard Hendricks, Dirck Op den Graeff, Francis Daniel Pastorius and Abraham Op den Graeff sent to the Friends' meeting the first public protest ever made on this continent against the holding of slaves. A little rill there started which further on became
I44
145
Protest Against Slavery.
an immense torrent, and whenever hereafter men trace analytically the causes which led to Gettysburg and Ap- pomattox they will begin with the tender consciences of the linen weavers and husbandmen of Germantown. The protest is as follows :
This is to ye Monthly Meeting held at Rigert Worrells. These are the reasons why we are against the traffick of mens-body as followeth : Is there any that would be done or handled at this manner? viz. to be sold or made a slave for all the time of his life? How fearfull & fainthearted are many on sea when they see a strange vassel being afraid it should be a Turck, and they should be tacken and sold for Slaves in Turckey. Now what is this better done as Turcks doe? yea rather is it worse for them, wch say they are Christians for we hear, that ye most part of such Negers are brought heither against their will & consent, and that many of them are stollen. Now tho' they are black, we cannot conceive there is more liberty to have them slaves, as it is to have other white ones. There is a saying, that we shall doe to all men, licke as we will be done our selves : macking no difference of what genera- tion, descent, or Colour they are. And those who steal or robb men, and those who buy or purchase them, are they not all alicke? Here is liberty of Conscience, wch is right & reasonable, here ought to be lickewise liberty of ye body, except of evildoers, wch is an other case. But to bring men hither, or to robb and sell them against their will, we stand against. In Europe there are many oppressed for Conscience sacke ; and here there are those oppressed wch are of a black Colour. And we, who know that men must not commit adultery, some do commit adultery in others, separating wifes from their housbands, and giving them to others and some sell the children of those poor Creatures
146
The Settlement of Germantown.
to other men. Oh, doe consider well this things, you who doe it, if you would be done at this manner? and if it is done according Christianity? you surpass Holland and Germany in this thing. This mackes an ill report in all those Countries of Europe, where they hear off, that ye Quackers doe here handel men, Licke they handel there ye Cattle ; and for that reason some have no mind or in- clination to come hither. And who shall maintaine this your cause or plaid for it! Truely we can not do so ex- cept you shall inform us better hereoff, viz. that christians have liberty to practise this things. Pray ! What thing in the world can be done worse towarts us then if men should robb or steal us away & sell us for slaves to strange Countries, separating housband from their wife & children. Being now this is not done at that manner we will be done at, therefore we contradict & are against this traffick of men body. And we who profess that it is not lawfull to steal, must lickewise avoid to purchase such things as are stolen, but rather help to stop this robbing and stealing if possibel and such men ought to be delivred out of ye hands of ye Robbers and set free as well as in Europe. Then is Pensilvania to have a good report, in stead it hath now a bad one for this sacke in other Countries. Especially whereas ye Europeans are desirous to know in what manner ye Quackers doe rule in their Province & most of them doe loock upon us with an envious eye. But if this is done well, what shall we say, is don evil?
If once these slaves (wch they say are so wicked and stubbern men) should joint themselves, fight for their freedom and handel their masters & mastrisses, as they did handel them before ; will these masters & mastrisses tacke the sword at hand & warr against these poor slaves, licke we are able to believe, some will not refuse to doe? Or
147
Protest Against Slavery.
have these negers not as much right to fight for their freedom, as you have to keep them slaves?
Now consider well this thing, if it is good or bad? and in case you find it to be good to handel these blacks at that manner, we desire & require you hereby lovingly that you may informe us herein, which at this time never was done, viz. that Christians have Liberty to do so, to the end we shall be satisfied in this point, & satisfie lickewise our good friends & acquaintances in our natif Country, to whose it is a terrour or fairfull thing that men should be handeld so in Pensilvania.
This was is from our meeting at Germantown hold ye 18 of the 2 month 1688 to be delivred to the monthly meet- ing at Richard Warrels.
gerret hendricks derick op de graeff Francis daniell Pastorius Abraham op den graef.109
109 The Friends at Germantown, through William Kite, have recently had a fac-simile copy of this protest made. Care has been taken to give it here exactly as it is in the original, as to language, orthography and punctuation. The disposition which was made of it appears from these notes from the Friends' records : "At our monthly meeting at Dublin ye 30 2 mo. 1688, we having inspected ye matter above mentioned & con- sidered it we finde it so weighty that we think it not Expedient for us to meddle with it here, but do Rather comitt it to ye consideration of ye Quarterly meeting, ye tennor of it being nearly Related to ye truth. on behalfe of ye monthly meeting. signed, pr. Jo. Hart."
" This above mentioned was Read in our Quarterly meeting at Phila- delphia the 4 of ye 4 mo. '88, and was from thence recommended to the Yearly Meeting, and the above-said Derick and the other two mentioned therein, to present the same to ye above-said meeting, it being a thing of too great a weight for this meeting to determine.
Signed by order of ye Meeting, Anthony Morris."
At the yearly meeting held at Burlington the 5 day of 7 mo. 1688. "A paper being here presented by some German Friends Concerning the
148
The Settlement of Germantown.
The men who prepared and signed this remarkable doc- ument slumbered in almost undisturbed security until the scholarly Seidensticker published his sketches, and Whit- tier, using the material thus collected, gave the name of Pastorius to the world in his beautiful poem. It is a little sad that Pastorius, whose life in America was spent here, and who belonged to a mental and moral type entirely our own, should become celebrated as the Pennsylvania Pil- grim, as though he could only obtain appreciation by the suggestion of a comparison with the men who landed at Plymouth ; but no poet arose along the Schuylkill to tell the tale, and we must recognize with gratitude, if with re- gret, how fittingly others have commemorated the worth of one whom we had neglected.
It is the purpose of this chapter to gather into one sheaf such scattered and fragmentary facts concerning the lives of two others of those four signers as have survived the lapse of nearly two hundred years. In the Council of the Mennonite Church, which set forth the eighteen arti- cles of their confession of faith at the city of Dor- drecht, April 21, 1632, one of the two delegates from Krevelt, or Crefeld, was Hermann Op den Graeff. He was born November 26, 1585, at Aldekerk, a village of low houses, a somewhat soiled appearance, and a great church which has evidently for centuries exhausted the means of the people. It lies on the borders of Holland
Lawfulness and Unlawfulness of buying and Keeping of Negroes, It was adjudged not to be so proper for this Meeting to give a Positive Judgment in the case, It having so General a Relation to many other Parts, and, therefore, at present they forbear it."
The handwriting of the original appears to be that of Pastorius. An effort has been made to take from the Quakers the credit of this important document, but the evidence that those who sent and those who received it regarded each other as being members of the same religious society seems to me conclusive.
149
The Op den Graeffs.
and later became the scene of a great battle between the French and Germans. From Aldekerk Op den Graeff removed to Crefeld, and there married a Mennonite girl, Grietjen Pletjes, daughter of Driessen Pletjes, from Kem- pen, the town of Thomas a Kempis. He died December 27, 1642, and she died January 7, 1643. They had eighteen children, among whom was Isaac, who was born February 28, 1616, and died January 17, 1679. He had four children, Hermann, Abraham, Dirck and Margaret, all of whom emigrated to Germantown. The Dordrecht Confession of Faith appeared in the Märtyrer Spiegel of Van Braght, published at Ephrata in 1749, and has been many times reproduced in Pennsylvania. When Pastorius had concluded to cross the ocean he went to Crefeld on foot, and there talked with Thones Kunders and his wife, and with Dirck, Hermann and Abraham Op den Graeff, the three brothers. Did they have some dim and vague consciousness of the great work which they and their chil- dren, under the guidance of Providence, were to perform? Was it given to them to catch a glimpse of what that little colony, planted in an unknown land thousands of miles away, was in the course of a few generations to become, or was the hope of a religious peace alone sufficient to calm their doubts and allay their fears? Six weeks later they followed Pastorius. At Rotterdam, on the way, on the IIth of June, they bought jointly from Jacob Telner two thousand acres of land to be located in Pennsylvania. Germantown was laid out in fifty-five lots of fifty acres each, running along upon both sides of the main street, and in 1689 Dirck Op den Graeff owned the second lot on the west side going north, Hermann the third, and Abraham the fourth, with another lot further to the north- ward. All three were weavers of linen. Richard Frame,
150
The Settlement of Germantown.
in a description of Pennsylvania in verse, published in 1692, refers to Germantown :
" Where lives High German People and Low Dutch Whose Trade in weaving Linnen Cloth is much, There grows the Flax, as also you may know That from the same they do divide the tow ;"
and Gabriel Thomas, in his account of the " Province and Country of Pennsylvania," published in 1698, says they made "very fine German Linen, such as no person of Quality need be ashamed to wear." It may be fairly claimed for Abraham op den Graeff that he was the most skilled of these artisans, doing even more than his part to have the town merit its motto of " Vinum Linum et Bowman oy Jri graaf Textrinum" since on the 17th of 9th month, 1686, his petition was pre- sented to the Provincial Council, " for ye Govr's promise to him should make the first and finest pece of linnen Cloath," 110 Upon a bond given by him to John Gibb in 1702 for £38 5s., afterward assigned to Joseph Shippen, and recorded in the Germantown book, are, among others, these items of credit : "Cloth 32 yds @ 3s, 6d," and " 36- 14 Linning @ 4s," showing the prices at which these fa- brics were sold.
On the 12th of 6th month, 1689, Penn issued to Dirck op den Graeff, Abraham op den Graeff, Hermann op den Graeff, called "Towne President," and eight others, a charter for the incorporation of Germantown, and directed Dirck, Hermann and Thones Kunders to be the first bur- gesses, and Abraham, with Jacob Isaacs van Bebber,
110 Colonial Records, Vol. I., p. 193.
15I
George Keith.
Johannes Kassel, Heifert Papen, Hermann Bon and Dirck Van Kolk to be the first committee-men. The bailiff and two eldest burgesses were made justices of the peace.111 This charter, however, did not go into effect until 1691. Under it, afterward, Dirck was a bailiff in the years 1693 and 1694, and Abraham a burgess in 1692. Abraham was also elected a member of the Assembly for the years 1689, 1690 and 1692, sharing with Pastorius, who held the same position in 1687, the honor of being the only Germantown settlers who became legislators.
Their strongest claim, however, to the remembrance of future generations, is based upon the Anti-Slavery protest. It is probable, from the learning and ability of Pastorius, that he was the author of this protest, but it is reasonably certain that Dirck op den Graeff bore it to the quarterly meeting at Richard Worrall's, and his is the only name mentioned in connection with its presentation to the yearly meeting, to which it was referred as a topic of too much importance to be considered elsewhere.
A short time after this earnest expression of humani- tarian sentiment had been laid away among neglected records, awaiting a more genial air and a stronger light in which to germinate, events of seemingly much more mo- ment occurred to claim the attention of the Society of Friends. George Keith, whose memory is apostatized by them, and revered by Episcopalians, who had been one of the earliest and most effective of their preachers, began to differ with many of the leading members of the Society concerning questions of doctrine. In the nature of things, the defection of a man of such prominence was followed by that of many others. Dissension was introduced into the meetings and division and discord into families. In a
111 Pennsylvania Archives, Vol. I., p. 3.
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The Settlement of Germantown.
quiet and peaceable way the warfare was waged very bit- terly and many harsh things were said softly. Dirck op den Graeff adhered to the cause of the Friends, but Abra- ham and Hermann were among the disaffected, and the three brothers seem to have been more deeply involved in the controversy than any of the other Germans. The numerous public discussions which were held only served to confirm each faction in the correctness of its own ren- dering of the Scriptures; the Friends who were sent to deal with George privately and to indicate to him whither he was tending made little progress; and the difficulty having become too great to be appeased, twenty-eight ministers presented a paper of condemnation against him at the monthly meeting at Frankford. Dirck op den Graeff, a magistrate in the right of his position as a bur- gess of Germantown, was present at the meeting and must in some way have shown an interest in the proceedings, since Keith called him publicly " an impudent Rascal." Most unfortunate words ! Uttered in a moment of thought- less wrath, and repeated in the numerous pamphlets and broadsides which the occasion called forth, they returned again and again to plague their author. Beaten out in the fervor of religious and polemic zeal, they were construed to impliedly attack the civil government in the person of one of its trusted officers. Ere long, in reply to the testi- mony against Keith, the celebrated William Bradford printed " An appeal from the twenty-eight Judges to the Spirit of Truth and true Judgment in all faithful Friends called Quakers that meet at this yearly meeting at Burling- ton, 7 mo., '92," signed by George Keith, George Hutche- son, Thomas Budd, John Hart, Richard Dungwoody and Abraham op den Graeff. The appeal is, in the main, an attempt to submit to the people the question which had
I53
Keith's Appeal.
been decided against Keith by the ministers as to whether the inner light was not alone insufficient, but it closes with the following pointed and pertinent queries :
" 9. Whether the said 28 persons had not done much better to have passed Judgment against some of their Brethren at Philadelphia(some of themselves being deeply guilty) for countenancing and allowing some called Quakers, and owning them in so doing, to hire men to fight (and giving them a Commission so to do, signed by three Justices of the Peace called Quakers, one whereof being a Preacher among them) as accordingly they did, and recovered a Sloop, and took some Privateers by force of arms?
" IO. Whether hiring men thus to fight, and also to pro- vide the Indians with Powder and Lead to fight against other Indians is not a manifest Transgression of our prin- ciple against the use of the carnal Sword and other carnal Weapons? Whether these called Quakers in their so doing have not greatly weakened the Testimony of Friends in England, Barbadoes, &c., who have suffered much for their refusing to contribute to uphold the Militia, or any Military force? And whether is not their Practice here an evil President, if any change of government happen in this place, to bring Sufferings on faithful Friends, that for Conscience sake refuse to contribute to the Militia? And how can they justly refuse to do that under another's Gov- ernment, which they have done or allowed to be done under their own? But in these and other things we stand up Witnesses against them, with all faithful Friends every- where.
"II. Whether it be according to the Gospel that Minis- ters would pass sentence of Death on Malefactors, as some pretended Ministers here have done, preaching one day
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The Settlement of Germantown.
Not to take an Eye for an Eye (Matt. v. 38), and another day to contradict it by taking Life?
" 12. Whether there is any Example or President for it in Scripture, or in all Christendom, that Ministers should engross the worldly Government, as they do here? which hath proved of a very evil tendency."112
There was enough of truth in the intimations contained in these queries to make them offensive and disagreeable. According to the account of it given by Caleb Pusey, an opponent of Keith, in his " Satan's Harbinger Encoun- tered," when Babbitt had stolen the sloop and escaped down the river, the three magistrates issued a warrant in the nature of a hue and cry, and a party of men went out in boat and captured the robbers. As they were about to depart, Samuel Carpenter, a leading and wealthy Friend, stood up on the wharf and promised them one hundred pounds in the event of success. Doubtless they used some force ; but to call them militia, and the warrant a commis- sion, was, to say the least for it, quite ingenious on the part of Keith. The Appeal had the effect of converting what had hitherto been purely a matter of Church into one of State. Bradford and John McComb were arrested and committed for printing it, but were afterwards discharged. Keith and Budd were indicted before the grand jury, tried, convicted and sentenced to pay a fine of five pounds each. These proceedings caused as much excitement as our placid forefathers were capable of feeling, and became the subject of universal comment. The justices, Arthur Cooke, Samuel Jennings, Samuel Richardson, Humphrey Murray, Anthony Morris and Robert Ewer met in private session on the 25th of 6th month, 1692, and issued the fol- lowing proclamation of warning and explanation :
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