USA > Pennsylvania > Philadelphia County > Germantown > The settlement of Germantown, Pennsylvania, and the beginning of German emigration to North America > Part 2
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13 Matthew, XXVI., 52.
14 Matthew, V., 32-37.
15 John, XIII., 4, 17; I. Timothy, V., 10.
16 Matthew, XVIII., 17; I. Corinthians, V., 9, 11 ; Thes., III., 14.
17 Says Catrou, p. 269, " On ne peut disconvenir que des sectes de la sorte n'ayent eté remplies d'assez bonnes gens et assez reglées pour les moeurs." And page 103, " Leurs invectives contre le luxe, contre l'yv- rognerie, et contre incontinence avoient je ne scai quoi de pathetique." 18 Life of Gerhard Roosen, p. 9.
19 Geschiedenis der Doopsgezinden in Holland, etc., Ten Cate, p. 72.
THE SETTLEMENT OF GERMANTOWN.
OLD PRINT OF JOHN OF LEYDEN.
II
The Mennonites.
used to extort confessions, and get information concern- ing the others of the sect. Ydse Gaukes gives, in a let- ter written to his brother from prison, a graphic descrip- tion of his own treatment. After telling that his hands were tied behind his back, he continues: "Then they drew me up about a foot from the ground and let me hang. I was in great pain, but I tried to be quiet. Nevertheless, I cried out three times, and then was silent. They said that is only child's play, and letting me down again they put me on a stool, but asked me no questions, and said nothing to me. They fastened an iron bar to my feet with two chains, and hung on the bar three heavy weights. When they drew me up again a Spaniard tried to hit me in the face with a chain, but he could not reach; while I was hanging I struggled hard, and got one foot through the chain, but then all the weight was on one leg. They tried to fasten it again, but I fought with all my strength. That made them all laugh, but I was in great pain." He was afterward burned to death by a slow fire at Deventer, in May, 1571.20 Their meetings were held in secret places, often in the middle of the night, and in order to prevent possible exposure under the pressure of pain, they pur- posely avoided knowing the names of the brethren whom they met, and of the preachers who baptized them.21 A re- ward of one hundred gold guilders was offered for Menno, malefactors were promised pardon if they should capture him,22 Tjaert Ryndertz was put on the wheel in 1539 for having given him shelter, and a house in which his wife and children had rested, unknown to its owner, was confis-
20 Van Braght's Blutige Schauplatz oder Martyrer Spiegel. Ephrata, 1748, Vol. II., p. 632.
21 Van Braght, Vol. II., p. 468.
22 A copy of the proclamation may be seen in Ten Cate's Geschiedenis der Doopsgezinden in Friesland, etc., p. 63.
I2
The Settlement of Germantown.
cated. He was, as his followers fondly thought, miracu- lously protected, however, died peacefully in 1559, and was buried in his own cabbage garden. The natural re- sult of this persecution was much dispersion. The pros- perous communities at Hamburg and Altona were founded by refugees, the first Mennonites in Prussia fled there from the Netherlands, and others found their way up the Rhine.23 Crefeld is chiefly noted for its manufactories of silk, linen and other woven goods, and these manufactures were first established by persons fleeing from religious intolerance.
From the Mennonites sprang the general Baptist churches of England, the first of them having an ecclesiastical con- nection with the parent societies in Holland, and their or- ganizers being Englishmen who, as has been discovered, were actual members of the Mennonite church at Amster- dam. 24 It was for the benefit of these Englishmen that the well-known Confession of Faith of Hans de Ries and Lubbert Gerritz was written,25 and according to the late Robert Barclay, whose valuable work bears every evi- dence of the most thorough and careful research, it was from association with these early Baptist teachers that George Fox, the founder of the Quakers, imbibed his views. Says Barclay : " We are compelled to view him as the unconscious exponent of the doctrine, practice, and discipline of the ancient and stricter party of the Dutch
23 Life of Gerhard Roosen, p. 5. Reiswitz und Waldzeck, p. 19.
24 Barclay's Religious Societies, pp. 72, 73, 95.
25 The preface to that Confession, Amsterdam, 1686, says : " Ter cause, also daer eenige Engelsche uyt Engeland gevlucht ware, om de vryheyd der Religie alhier te genieten en alsoo sy een schriftelijke confessie (van de voornoemde) hebben begeert, want veele van hare gheselschap inde Duytsche Tale onervaren zijnde, het selfde niet en konde versteen ende als dare konde de ghene die de Tale beyde verstonde de andere onder- rechten, het welche oock niet onvruchtbaer en is ghebleven, want na over- legh der saecke zijn sy met de voernoemde Gemeente vereenight."
I3
A Noted Leader.
Bilo und Contrafactur bes Edlen ond Bottegelehrten SEnen Ca= fpar Schwend feldts von Ofing/Liebhabers ond zeugen der warheit.
.CASPAR . SCHWE NIL. CHRISTO TRISTE . RECEP TO. 2
NCKFELT . VON. OSSING . ANNO ATATIS- SVÆ · LXVI & 1556 .
WER LESVM CHRISTV VOR IM.HAT. DAS. ER.AVCH .WIRT .D' WELLE SPOT DE' RHVET SANFE.FRVE.V.SPAT. SO . SCHAIDET ER . DOCH.NIT VO .GOT ERIST GETROST.IN.ALLE NOIT DERIN BEHVET VO' FELL.VN. TODT VNOB.ER SCHO HISSECKT IM. VID. SPEIST IN. MIT SEIM HIMEL BR CHOTT~
Contemporary portrait of Caspar Schwenckfeldt, A. D. 1556.
I4
The Settlement of Germantown.
Mennonites." 26 To the spread of Mennonite teachings in England we therefore owe the origin of the Quakers, and the settlement of Pennsylvania. The doctrine of the inner light was by no means a new one in Holland and Ger- many, and the dead letter of the Scriptures is a thought common to David Joris, Casper Schwenckfeldt, and the modern Quaker. The similarity between the two sects has been manifest to all observers, and recognized by themselves. William Penn, writing to James Logan of some emigrants in 1709, says : "Herewith comes the Palatines, whom use with tenderness and love, and fix them so that they may send over an agreeable character ; for they are sober people, divers Mennonists, and will neither swear nor fight. See that Guy has used them well."27 Thomas Chalkley, writing from Holland the same year, says : " There is a great people which they call Mennonists who are very near to truth, and the fields are white unto harvest among that people spiritually speak- ing.28 When Ames,29 Caton, Stubbs, Penn, and others of the early Friends went to Holland and Germany, they were received with the The Story, utmost kindness by the Mennonites, which is in strong contrast with their treatment at the hands of the established churches.
The strongest testimony of this character, however, is given by Thomas Story, the recorder of deeds in Pennsyl-
26 P. 77.
27 Penn Logan Correspondence, Vol. II., p. 354.
28 Works of Thomas Chalkley, Phila., 1749, p. 70.
29 William Ames, an accession to Quakerism from the Baptists, was the first to go to Holland and Germany, and it was he who first made the con- verts in Amsterdam and Kriegsheim.
I5
The Quakers.
vania, who made a trip to Holland and Germany in 1715. There he preached in the Mennonite meeting houses at Hoorn, Holfert, Drachten, Goredyke, Hoerveen, Jever, Oudeboone, Grow, Leeuwarden, Dokkum and Henleven, while at Malkwara no meeting was held because " a Person of note among the Menists being departed this life," and none at Saardam because of "the chief of the Mennists being over at Amsterdam." These meetings were attended almost exclusively by Mennonites, and they entertained him at their houses. One of their preachers he described as " convinced of truth," and of another he says that after a discourse of several hours about religion they " had no difference." Jacob Nordyke, of Harlingen, a "Menist and friendly man," accompanied the party on their journey, and when the wagon broke down near Oudeboone he went ahead on foot to prepare a meeting. The climax of this staid good fellowship was capped, however, at Grow. Says Story in his journal : " Hemine Gosses, their preacher, came to us and taking me by the hand he embraced me and saluted me with several kisses, which I readily answered, for he expressed much satisfaction before the people, and received us gladly, inviting us to take a dish of tea with him. . . . He showed us his garden, and gave us his grapes of several kinds, but first of all a dram lest we should take cold after the exercise of the meeting," and " treated us as if he had been a Friend, from which he is not far, having been as tender as any at meeting."
William Sewel, the historian, was a Mennonite, and it certainly was no accident that the first two Quaker histories were written in Holland.30 It was among the Mennonites
30 Sewel and Gerhard Croese. In my library is the copy of Burrough's works which Penn gave to Sewel's mother, containing also the autograph of Sewel.
16
The Settlement of Germantown.
they made their converts.31 In fact, transition between the two sects both ways was easy. Quakers became members of the Mennonite church at Crefeld 32 and at Haarlem, 33 and in the reply which Peter Henrichs and Jacob Claus, of Amsterdam, made in 1679 to a pamphlet by Heinrich Kassel, a Mennonite preacher at Kriegsheim, they quote him as saying " that the so-called Quakers, especially here in the Palatinate, have fallen off and gone out from the Mennonites."34
These were the people who, some as Mennonites,35 and others, perhaps as recently converted Quakers, after being unresistingly driven up and down the Rhine for a century and a half, were ready to come to the wilds of America. Of the six original purchasers Jacob Telner and Jacob Isaacs Van Bebber are known to have been members of the Mennonite Church; Govert Remke,36 January 14, 1686, sold his land to Dirck Sipman, and had little to do with the emigration ; Sipman selected as his attorneys here at various times Hermann Op den Graeff, Hendrick Sel- len, and Van Bebber, all of whom were Mennonites ; and Jan Streypers was represented also by Sellen, was a cousin of the Op den Graeffs, and was the uncle of Hermannus
31 Sewel, Barclay, Seidensticker.
32 Life of Gerhard Roosen, p. 66.
33 Story's Journal, p. 490.
34 This valuable pamphlet is in the library of A. H. Cassel.
35 In this connection the statement of Hortensius in his Histoire des Anabaptistes, Paris, 1695, is interesting. He says in the preface : "Car cette sorte de gens qu'on appelle aujourd hui Mennonites ou Anabaptists en Holande et ceux qui sont connus en Angleterre sous le nom de Koa- kres ou Trembleurs, qui sont partagés en plus de cent sortes de Sectes, ne peuvent point conter d'autre origine que celle des Anabaptistes de Mun- ster quoi qu'a present ils se tiennent beaucoup plus en repos, et qu'ils n'ayent aucune ambition pour le governement ou l'administration des af- faires temporelles, et mesme que le port ou l' usage de toute sortes d'armes soit entierement defendu parmi eux."
36 Johann Remke was the Mennonite preacher at Crefeld in 1752.
17
The Mennonites.
and Arnold Kuster, two of the most active of the early Pennsylvania members of that sect. Of the emigrants Dirck, Hermann and Abraham Op den Graeff were Men- nonites, and were grandsons of Hermann Op den Graeff, - the delegate from Crefeld to the Council which met at Dordrecht in 1632, and adopted a Confession of Faith.37 Many of the others, as we have seen, were connected with the Op den Graeffs by family ties. Jan Lensen was a member of the Mennonite Church here. Jan Lucken bears the same name as the engraver who illustrated the edition of Van Braght published in 1685, and others of the books of that church, and the Dutch Bible which he brought with him is a copy of the third edition of Nicolaes Biestkens, the first Bible published by the Mennonites.38 Lenart Arets, a follower of David Joris, was beheaded at Poeldyk in 1535. The name Tunes occurs frequently on the name lists of the Mennonite preachers about the time of this emigration, and Hermann Tunes was a mem- ber of the first church in Pennsylvania.
This evidence, good as far as it goes, but not complete, is strengthened by the statements of Mennonite writers and others on both sides of the Atlantic. Roosen tells us " William Penn had in the year 1683 invited the Menno- nites to settle in Pennsylvania. Soon many from the Neth- erlands went over and settled in and about Germantown."39 Funk, in his account of the first church, says : " Upon an invitation from William Penn to our distressed forefathers in the faith it is said a number of them emigrated either from
37 Scheuten genealogy in the possession of Miss Elizabeth Muller, of Crefeld. I am indebted for extracts from this valuable MS., which begins with the years 1562, to Frederick Muller, the celebrated antiquary and bib- liophile of Amsterdam.
38 The Bible now belongs to Adam Lukens, of North Wales, Bucks Co., Pennsylvania.
39 P. 60.
18
The Settlement of Germantown.
Holland or the Palatinate and settled in Germantown in 1683, and there established the first church in America."40 Rupp asserts that, " In Europe they had been sorely per- secuted, and on the invitation of the liberal-minded Wil- liam Penn they transported themselves and families into the province of Pennsylvania as early as 1683. Those who came that year and in 1698 settled in and about Ger- mantown."#1 Says Haldeman : "Whether the first Tauf- gesinneten or Mennonites came from Holland or Switz- erland I have no certain information, but they came in the year 1683."42 Richard Townsend, an eminent Quaker preacher, who came over in the Welcome, and settled a mile from Germantown, calls them a " religious good people," but he does not say they were Friends, as he probably would have done had the facts justified it. 43 Abraham, Dirck, and Hermann Op den Graeff, Lenart Arets, Abraham Tunes and Jan Lensen were linen weav- ers, and in 1686 Jan Streypers wrote to his brother Willem inquiring " who wove my yarns, how many ells long, and how broad the cloth made from it, and through what fine- ness of comb it had been through."44
The pioneers had a pleasant voyage, and reached Phila- delphia on the 6th of October. In the language of Clay- poole, " The blessing of the Lord did attend us so that we had a very comfortable passage, and had our health all the way."45 Unto Johannes Bleikers a son Peter was born while at sea. Cold weather was approaching, and they had little time to waste in idleness or curiosity. On the 12th of the same month a warrant was issued to Pastorius for six
40 Mennonite Family Almanac for 1875.
41 History of Berks County, p. 423.
42 Geschichte der Gemeinde Gottes, p. 55.
43 Hazard's Register, Vol. VI., 198.
44 Deeds, Streper MSS.
45 Claypoole letter-book.
19
Armentown.
thousand acres " on behalf of the German and Dutch pur- chasers "; on the 24th Thomas Fairman measured off four- teen divisions of land, and the next day meeting together in the cave of Pastorius they drew lots for the choice of loca -- tion. Under warrant five thousand three hundred and fifty acres were laid out May 2, 1684, " having been allotted and shared out by the said Daniel Pastorius, as trustee for them, and by their own consent to the German and Dutch pur- chasers after named, as their respective several and distinct dividends, whose names and quantities of the said land they and the said Daniel Pastorius did desire might be herein in- serted and set down, viz. : The first purchasers of Frankfort, Germany, Jacobus Van de Walle 535, Johan Jacob Schutz 428, Johan Wilhelm Uberfeld 107, Daniel Behagel 3562/3, George Strauss 17813, Jan Laurens 535, Abraham Hase- voet 535, in all 2675 acres of land. The first purchasers of Crefeld, in Germany, Jacob Telner 989, Jan Streypers 275, Dirck Sipman 588, Govert Remke 161, Lenert Arets 501, Jacob Isaacs 161, in all 2675 acres." In addition two hundred acres were laid out for Pastorius in his own right, and one hundred and fifty acres to Jurian Hartsfelder, a stray Dutchman or German, who had been a deputy sheriff under Andross in 1676, and who now cast his lot in with the settlers at Germantown. 46
Immediately after the division in the cave of Pastorius they began to dig the cellars, and build the huts in which, not without much hardship, they spent the following win- ter. Thus commenced the settlement of Germantown. Pastorius tells us that some people making a pun upon the name called it Armentown, because of their lack of sup- plies, and adds, " it could not be described, nor would it be believed by coming generations in what want and need,
46 Exemplification Record, Vol. I., p. 51. It is also said that Heinrich Frey was here before the landing of Penn.
20
The Settlement of Germantown.
and with what Christian contentment and persistent indus- try this Germantown-ship started."47 Willem Streypers wrote over to his brother Jan on the 20th of 2d mo. 1684, that he was already on Jan's lot to clear and sow it and make a dwelling, but that there was nothing in hand, and he must have a year's provision, to which in due time Jan replied by sending a " Box with 3 combs, and 3 -, and 5 shirts and a small parcel with iron ware for a weaving stool," and telling him " to let Jan Lensen weave a piece of cloth to sell, and apply it to your use." In better spirits Willem wrote Oct. 22d, 1684: "I have been busy and made a brave dwelling house, and under it a cellar fit to live in, and have so much grain, such as Indian Corn and Buckwheat that this winter I shall be better off than I was last year."48
47 Seidensticker's Pastorius in the Deutsche Pioneer, Vol. II., p. 176. 48 Streper MSS.
CONCORDIA RESPARVE CRESCUN
8 hi
Arms of the Netherlands.
CHAPTER II.
THE FRANKFORT LAND COMPANY.
HERE was another force at work in Germany and Hol- land which had a conspicuous and important, though not a pri- mary, influence upon the settle- ment of Germantown. In 1670 the celebrated Philip Jacob Spener, founder of the Pietists, established in the city of Frankfort a Collegia Die Stadt Frankfurt. Pietatis, the object of which was to awaken a deeper and more heartfelt interest in religion by means of meetings of laymen for purposes of prayer and instruction. Among those who were brought within the sphere of this influence were Jacob Van de Wall, a mer- chant of Frankfort, to whom Neander dedicated his book of hymns ; Dr. Johann Jacob Schutz, a great friend of Neander and a jurist, who was born in 1640 and died in 1690, and who wrote the beautiful hymn " Sei Lob und Ehr dem höch- sten Gut ": Johann William Ueberfeld, whom the church historian, Gotfried Arnold, designates as " brother Ueber- feld "; Daniel Behagel, merchant in Frankfort; Casper Merian, George Strauss, Abraham Hasevoet and Jan
2I
22
The Settlement of Germantown.
Laurens, an intimate friend of Telner, who appears to have lived at Rotterdam.49 In November, 1682, these eight
JVWW
Bob's Vande walle
men, all of them of influence and distinction, had discussed at their meetings in Frankfort the subject of the purchase of a tract of land in Pennsylvania and had concluded
D JB
lamise Bagage .
to make the venture. The motive which determined this action is no doubt expressed by Pastorius when he
49 Max Goebel's Geschichte des Christlichen Lebens, Coblentz, 1852, Vol. II., p. 324-326.
THE SETTLEMENT OF GERMANTOWN.
Fr. Johanna Eleonora Beterlen gebobine von und Ju lierlau Srn D' JOB. Peterfen Cheliebife
.
23
Johanna Eleanora Von Merlau.
says : " After I had sufficiently seen the European provinces and countries and the threatening movements of war and had taken to heart the dire changes and disturb- ances of the fatherland, I was impelled, through a special guidance from the Almighty, to go to Pennsylvania with the living hope that my own good, and that of my neigh- bor and the furthering of the honor of God, which is the chief point, would be advanced, since in Europe worldi- ness and sin increase from day to day and the just pun- ishment of God cannot be much longer delayed."
Pastorius, who had been appointed their agent, bought for them when in London, between the 8th of May and the 6th of June, 1683, fifteen thousand acres of land which later was increased to twenty-five thousand acres. Before November 12, 1686, Merian, Strauss, Hasevoet and Lau- rens had withdrawn and their interests had become vested in Pastorius, the celebrated Johanna Eleanora Von Merlau, Dr. Gerhard Von Mastricht, Dr. Thomas Von Wylich, Johannes Le Brun, Balthasar Jawert and Dr. Johannes Kemler.
Johanna Eleanora Von Merlau was born at Frankfort in 1644, of a noble and distinguished family. She was in- clined to religious thought and mysticism and early in life began to have dreams and see visions. When she was four years of age her parents, in order to escape the wars and rumors of war, had temporarily gone to Philipseck near Hettersheim. One day when her mother had been left with the three children, an older sister aged seven, Eleanora and an infant, suddenly the servants came with the cry that a troop of horse were upon them. The mother with the babe in her arms and the tots by her side, walked to Frankfort with the shouts of the soldiers and the shots of firearms resounding about her. When she reached a
24
The Settlement of Germantown.
place of safety she fell upon her knees and gave thanks to God, whereupon the sister of seven years exclaimed : " What is the use of praying now, they cannot get at us any more."
When Eleanora was ten years old she asked permission to go to church to see her sister instructed in the mysteries of the Lord's Supper, and after she had seen it the devil put it into the head of some wicked person to accuse her of having said that if she could get hold of the cup she would drink the whole of it, as though she were fond of
iskan Wilhelm Meterfen.
wine. In her twelfth year she was taken to court to the Countess von Salms-Redelheim and in her fifteenth year to the wife of the Hertzog von Hollenstein, Countess of Hesse, who upon her first marriage became a princess. In her eighteenth year, in 1662, she saw in a dream in great golden figures upon the heavens " 1685," which forecasted the disturbances and persecutions in France and also the secret of the Millennium which in that year was disclosed to her. She was married by Dr. Spener, September 17, 1680, at Frankfort, in the presence of her father, the Princess of Philipseck and thirty other persons, to one beneath her in rank, Dr. Johann Wilhelm Petersen, professor at Ros- tock, preacher at the church of St. Egidius in Hanover,
THE SETTLEMENT OF GERMANTOWN.
DJoh Wilhelm Peterfen
25
Johanna Eleanora Von Merlau.
3. ergens efpråch
mit
0
gn heile abgefaffet / und Bu Aufmunterung anderer from men Gott s liebenden Seelen ans Tages Licht geftellet pon
Bobanna leonora seterfen/ gebohrnen von und gu Merlau. Mit einer Porrede On. Chriftian Stortholtens/ per 55. Schrift Doctoris, und ben ber Rielifchen Uni- verftåt Prof. Prim. Miniego zum andernmebl gedrudt und mit vielen fchonen Zupffern gesieret
Grandfurth und Leipzigi Ben Johann Seinichen/. 1 6 9 4.
26
The Settlement of Germantown.
Anleitung augrundlidjer Berftandnie Beiligen
fimbabr
melde Crfcinem Rnecht tind Spoffel ver Dhannt
Burch feinen Engel gefanot und gedeutet hat / fofern Gie in ihrem eigentlich ften lessteff prophetifthen Ginn und 3med betrachtet mird/ una m threr polligen Erfüllung in den allertesten Bellen/ benen mir nahe tommen find/groften ChelBusch bevorftebet; Sach Ordnung einer dazu gehörigen
TABELLE.
Darinnen bicheilige Offenbahrung in Der Garmonie Der Dinge und Seiten Fürtzlich entrorffen ift/ Mit einer sur Borbereitung Dienlichen Kor Bede Erenfachem minhange/
in mobimennender Liebe nad) Dem LDana der Gnade mitgetheilet und herausgegeben bon Johanna &Bleonora Meter fen gebobrnen von und zu Sierlau.
Frankfurt und Leipzig: au finden ben Johann Daniel Mullern : 1696.
1
27
Frankfort Land Company.
bishop's superintendent at Lubeck, chief preacher and superintendent at Luneberg, and the author of one hun- dred and sixty books and pamphlets. Together they were among the founders of the Philadelphia Society at Berle-
E
S
Johannes kamlowmig
burg, where later was published the "Geistliche Fama," containing so much information concerning early Pennsyl- vania. Their lives, with portraits, a book now so rare that Max Goebel, the learned author of the exhaustive history of the religious life along the Rhine, was never able to see a copy, appeared in 1717.50 She was the author among other works of "Herzens-Gespräch mitt Gott," 12mo, 1694, and " Anleitung zu gründlicher Verstandniss der Heiligen Offenbahrung Jesu Christi," folio, 1696.
Dr. Thomas von Wylich was Secretary or Recorder of the city of Wesel and we are told that after forty years his good name there was still like a " plenteous balsam in fragrance."51 Johannes Le Brun was a business man in Frankfort, one of those to whom Neander dedicated his hymn book, and Johannes Kemler was rector at Oldenslo
50 The foregoing incidents of her life are taken from my copy of this autobiography.
51 Goebel, Vol. II., p. 326.
28
The Settlement of Germantown.
and at Lubeck. Daniel Behagel, grandson of Jacob Be- hagel, was born at Hanau, November 18, 1625, and married at Muhlheim, May 20, 1654, Magdalena van Mastricht. Together with his brother-in-law, Jacob van de Wall, he in 1661 established the manufacture of faience at Frank- fort.52 Of the eleven persons interested five lived in Frank- fort, two in Wesel, two in Lubeck and one in Duisburg. It was originally their intention to come to Pennsylvania, but, much to the regret of Pastorius, who complained loudly of their change of plan, this purpose was abandoned and the company formed later became only a seller of lands to the settlers whom other influences brought here, and a commercial undertaking. The twenty-five thousand acres of land bought by him constituted the most extensive sin- gle sale made by Penn in the settlement of his province.
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