USA > Virginia > History of the German element in Virginia, Vol I > Part 4
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During the same period some Germans rendered very valu- able services by exploring the unknown country in the interior.
Johannes Lederer was the first explorer of the Alleghany mountains, and he is one of the brightest figures in the early history of the German element in Virginia. The German-Ameri- can historian H. A. Rattermann, of Cincinnati, O., deserves credit for the preservation of the great deeds of Lederer,39) and an extract from his researches may find room at this place.
In the year 1668 Johannes Lederer came to Jamestown and offered his services to governor Berkeley. "A son of the Alps," as he said, "he had come to explore America." He was a scien- tific man and familiar with several languages, especially the classical, and he expressed the desire to explore the mountain region. Governor Berkeley readily equipped an expedition to
37.) "Land Patents No I," preserved in the land office, Capitol Building, Richmond, Va.
38.) "Virginia and the Virginians," by Dr. Brook, Secretary of the Historical Society of Virginia.
39.) "Der erste Erforscher des Alleghany Gebirges : Johannes Lederer," by H. A. Rat- termann, "Deutscher Pionier." Jahrgang 8. Cincinnati, O., 1876.
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accompany him. Lederer undertook three trips, but failed to discover an easy passage through the mountains, which the gov- ernor wished for. During his last expedition his companions became disheartened and deserted him, while he ventured to con- tinue his researches with only an Indian guide, who served him as interpreter. At his return he was ill-treated, - his com- panions, ashamed of their cowardice, circulated false reports about him, - and finding even his life endangered, he fled to Maryland. Sir William Talbot, governor of the colony, received him kindly, and upon his suggestion he wrote an account of his trips in Latin, which was printed in English in London in 1672 with a map of the country drawn by the author. This interest- ing little book was entitled : "The Discoveries of John Lederer, in Their Several Marches From Virginia to the West of Carolina and Other Parts of the Continent, begun in March, 1669, and Ended in September, 1670, Etc., with Map, London, 1672." and contains 27 pages, 4°. A copy of it is preserved in the li- brary of the U. S. Congress at Washington City. It is the first scientific report about the geology, botany, animals and native tribes of the extensive district as far as Florida, seen by the cour- ageous German, and it deserves special acknowledgment in a German-American history, giving evidence, that the first explo- ration of the Alleghanies was the work of a German.
Very little is known of Lederer himself and no reports are left of his later career and end. The family name of Lederer is well known in Austria and Germany. At Wittenberg in Prus- sia, Grossenhain in Saxony, Marburg in Hessia, Vienna and Inns- bruck in Austria, etc., several members of this illustrious family occupied high positions. Some Lederers held diplomatic offices in the United States of America. One, Baron Alois Lederer, . was Consul General of Austria and Toscana at New York, and his son Carl was ambassador at Washington City in 1868.
Lederer's map, which appeared with his book, gives only an inaccurate picture of the country, but it must be taken in con- sideration that his instruments had been carried off by his faith- less companions. It shows the land from Virginia to Florida.
In those early times maps only gave general outlines, and all parts not explored had to be guesswork. This may be illus- trated by the following.
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"A Map of Virginia discovered to ye Hills," 1651, gives to the American continent from the southern cape of Delaware to "the sea of China and the East Indies," a width of less than 300 miles. - On Hennepin's map of 1683, Lake Erie extends to the southern line of Virginia, making the entire-state of Ohio part of the lake. - A map of Wm. Delisle, published by Joh. Justin Gebauer and affixed to Bruzen la Martinier's "Introduction à l'histoire de l'Asie, de l'Afrique et de l'Amerique, etc.," Paris, 1735, presents nothing of the Ohio river and places the source of the Wabash near the Erie in Pennsylvania. - More accurate is a map: "Nouvelle France," by Charlevoix, 1743. - The "Carte de la Virginie et du Maryland, dressée sur la grande carte anglaise de Messrs. Josue Fry4") and Pierre Jefferson par Robert de Vaugondy, Géographe ordinaire du Roi," 1755, gives a fair picture of the lands along the coast of the Atlantic, but the section on the other side of the Blue Ridge and the Alle- ghanies is very inaccurately drawn, - and the same may be said in respect to the old map designed by Augustine Herrmann.
Another German explorer of Virginia is mentioned by Klau- precht, the chronicler of the Ohio valley,-by John Esten Cook,- and by Stierlein in his history of Kentucky and the city of Louis- ville : the German Capt. Heinrich Batte, who in 1667 crossed the Alleghanies and reached the Ohio river.
All these historical facts show that the colonial govern- ments have used German scientific men to open the wilderness to civilization, and the history of North Carolina, the neighbor- ing state of the Old Dominion, furnishes further evidence.
In 1663 a German Swiss, Peter Fabian, from Bern, accom- panied an expedition sent out by the English North Carolina Company. The report of this exploring expedition appeared in London in 1665 and bears the signatures of its leaders : Anthony Long, Wm. Milton and Peter Fabian. The last named was cer- tainly the author of the report and the scientific man of the ex- pedition, as is shown by the estimates of distances in German
40 ) Mr. Josue Fry has drawn several maps of North America, and his name - Fry, or Frei, or Frey, - indicates that he was a German or of German descent.
S. Kercheval, the historian of the Shenandoah Valley, says (History of the Valley of .Va , Winchester, 1833, p. 81) : "There were a mixture of Irish and Germans on Cedar Creek and its vicinity : the Frys, Newells, Blackburns, Wilsons, etc., were among the number."
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and not in English mileage. The report, for instance, states : "On Friday, the 16th, we heaved anchor by north-west wind and sailed up River Cape-Fair 4 or 5 German miles, where we came to anchor at 5 to 7 fathoms."
Before the end of the seventeenth century the administra- tion of the Swiss Canton Bern planned to establish colonies in North America with the surplus of her population. Franz Ludwig Michel41), - English historians misname him Mitchell, - was sent to Pennsylvania, Virginia and North Carolina, and John Lawson, the first historian of North Carolina, relates in his book : "A new voyage to Carolina, etc.," printed at London, 1709, and published in German by M. Vischer, Hamburg, in 1712, - that he met on his voyage to the Carolinas the German explorer, who was well acquainted with the land and its peo- ple. 42) Michel again came to North Carolina in 1709, accom- panied by Baron Christopher von Grafenried, of Bern, at the head of 1500 emigrants from Switzerland and the Palatinate, (die Pfalz in Germany), - all of whom were Germans. Many of these people afterwards settled in Virginia, as will be related further on.
Towards the close of the seventeenth and in the beginning of the eighteenth century, under the leadership of Claude Phi- lippe de Richebourg, another numerous immigration of French Huguenots and German Calvinists or Reformists from Elsace and Loraine took place. These newcomers were industrious and pious people and they scattered successively over the tide-water district, middle Virginia and the Shenandoah valley, but most of them settled in the counties of Norfolk, Surry, Powhatan and Prince William. In the Shenandoah valley they met with a numerous German element and these French Huguenots were perfectly Germanized.
In 1671, by issue of the first law of naturalization, immi- gration was materially supported. This law prescribed that any
41 ) "Die Deutschen in Nord-Carolina." Historische Skizze von General J. A. Wage- ner, Charleston, S. C., publicirt in : "Der deutsche Pionier," Jahrgang III, Seite 328 etc. Cincinnati, Ohio, 1871.
42 ) "Beitrag zur Geschichte der Deutschen in Nord- und Süd-Carolina," von H. A. Rattermann, publicirt in: "Der deutsche Pionier," Jahrgang X, Seite 189. Cincinnati, Ohio, 1878.
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foreigner could be naturalized upon application to the Assembly and by taking the oath of allegiance to the King of England, and that thereafter he should be entitled to hold public office, carry on business, own real estate, etc. The first Germans who applied for naturalization papers were Joseph Mulder, Heinrich Weedich, Thomas Hastmenson, John Peterson and Hermann Keldermann in 1673.
The number of German settlers during the first century of the existence of the colony was, as has been stated, much larger than is commonly admitted, and some Anglo-American historians unfairly ignore or belittle the share the Germans have taken in the development of Virginia, desiring to repre- sent it as an "entirely English colony." But the old mother colony was from the very beginning in its character cosmo- politan, only founded by English enterprise. The following investigations will prove how incorrect and devoid statements of such "manufacturers of history" are.
The Land Patents (Registers) at the land office of Vir- ginia, Capitol building, Richmond, Va., name as early as 1624 to 1635, or during the third decade of the colony, besides many doubtful names, the following German ones : Johann Busch, Thomas Spilman (Spielmann), John Chooh- man (Schumann), Ph. Clauss, Zacharias Crippe, Christopher Windmill (Windmueller), Henry Coleman (Kohlmann or Kuhl- mann), John Loube (Laube), John and Mary Brower (Brauer), Georg Koth, Thomas Holeman (Hollmann or Hoelemann), Robert Ackerman, etc.
The oldest volume of the county-records, kept at Henrico Courthouse at Richmond, Va., referring to inheritances, crimi- nal investigations, etc., mentions as prosecutors, defendants and witnesses among many names that may just as well be English as German, the following Germans :
1677-William Hand, Th. Gregory, John Bowman (Bau- mann.)
1678-Margarete Horner.
1679-John Gunter (Guenther), Katherine Knibbe, Georg Kranz and Thos. Risboc, - the last two in German let- ters.
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1680-Thom. Brockhouse (Brockhaus), Georg Archer, John Harras and W. T. Eller, - the last three in partial Ger- man writing.
1681-J. Tanner, Edm. Bollcher, Rob. Bolling, Th. Grouse (Krause), and in German writing : John Feil.
1682-86-Doll, Rich. Starke, Mary Skirme, Henry Shur- mann (that is : Schuermann, - in later entries the same man signs : Sherman), - Thos. Ruck, Joshua Stap (prob- ably Stapf ), and in German letters: Will. Blachman.
Taking in consideration the small number of white sett- lers, these German names in the registers and records of a single county, which was at the time still predominantly in- habited by Indians, are proof that the German immigration was numerally worthy of notice.
The limits of the counties of Norfolk and Princess Ann originally from 1637 to 1691 formed "Lower Norfolk County." Edward W. James mentions in his "Antiquary" among the earliest landowners the following names of German sound : Samuel Boush, John Weblin, Thos. Wishart, Capt. James Kempe, Wm. Wishart, Thos. and Wm. Brock, Robert Waller, Jeremiah and Matthew Forman, L. Miller, Abrah. Mesler, Ro- bert Fry (schoolmaster of Norfolk Borough), Wm. Plume (member of the Common Council, Norfolk Borough), John Boush (Mayor of Norfolk Borough 1791), Daniel Bedinger (member of a Court of Aldermen), and others.
The population was, as has been mentioned, heavily op- pressed during the government of Sir Berkeley, and dissatis- faction was spreading. The English high-church by its in- tolerance greatly furthered the rebellious spirit. The peace- able Quakers were especially made to suffer. However, the immediate cause of the outbreak of the revolution was the renewed depredations of the Indians in revenge for the treach- erous murder of some of their chiefs.
Alarmed and disgusted by the inefficient measures for defence taken by governor Berkeley, the indignant settlers rose in opposition in 1676. They asked permission to arm and defend themselves and to appoint Nathaniel Bacon, a patriotic young lawyer, their leader. This the governor, fearing to put arms in the hands of the discontented men, and jealous of
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Bacon's popularity, refused ; while the savages continued to commit many outrages on the planters. Bacon now put him- self at the head of his followers, defeated the Indians and then turned round against the governor, who had declared him a traitor. He drove Sir Berkeley and his adherents from James- town and the town was partly destroyed. Bacon died suddenly, and there was not a second man brave and worthy enough to take his place. Berkeley recovered his power and wreaked vengeance on the patriots by confiscations and executions un- til the thoughtless and profligate King Charles II declared: "The old fool has taken away more lives in that naked coun- try, than I for the murder of my father !" - However, Bacon's rebellion, as this revolution is called, foreshadowed the great war of Independence and the end of English tyranny. It is
a remarkable coincidence, that Drummond, one of the sup- porters of Bacon, was beheaded on the same spot where a hundred years later Lord Cornwallis surrendered to the su- perior tactics and strategy of George Washington and his German general von Steuben, assisted by the French allied army.
In 1677 governor Berkeley was discharged from office and for the space of 31 years the king granted the colony to Lords Culpepper and Arlington. The first named was appointed governor for life. He came over in 1680, but trying only to get as much money as possible out of his province, another rebellion was threatening, when the king, for fear of its re- sults, revoked the grant and recalled Culpepper. His succes- sor, Lord Howard, was little better, he also deemed Virginia his "milk cow," and it is really surprising that in spite of all the ill-treatment and mismanagement the colony prospered. In the year 1671 there were 40,000 white inhabitants in Vir- ginia, and at the end of the seventeenth century the popula- tion nearly reached 100,000.
CHAPTER II.
THE ORGANIZATION OF THE COLONIES OF MARYLAND AND PENNSYLVANIA AND THE GERMAN SECTS.
OWARDS the close of the seventeenth century events took place in the country north and east of Virginia, that had decided influence on the growth of German life in the old mother-state.
In England Roman-Catholics were exposed to persecution and most barbarous punishments were inflicted upon them. With the thirty-nine articles of the Anglican High Church a political organism was created, that lacked true religious sen- timent, real Christian love and ideal theory of life. The ha- tred towards the dissenters, Catholics and Protestant sects, led Lord Baltimore, one of the most influential Catholics in old England, to look for some place of refuge in the New World, where those of his creed might follow their worship unmo- lested. He first tried Newfoundland, but found the climate too severe, and then he tried Virginia, but found its English people more intolerant than in England. Finally he obtained, in 1632, from King Charles I a large tract of land, east of the Potomac and extending along the coast of the Chesapeake bay, to which he gave the name of Maryland, in honor of the queen Henrietta Maria. Although Lord Baltimore was an ar- dent Catholic, he made his land an asylum for all those pur- sued and unfortunate. The historian Bankroft says: that from France there came Huguenots, from Germany, Holland, Sweden, Finnland and probably too from Piedmont, the chil- dren of misfortune. - Emigrants accordingly soon flocked to the province from Europe and the English colonies. But be- fore long difficulties arose. Virginia claimed that Lord Bal- timore's grant belonged to her, and Clayborne, a member of the Jamestown Council, who had already established two trad- ing posts in Maryland, opposed the authority of Lord Balti- more. A bloody contest followed, and religious trouble and
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war between the Protestants and Catholics, caused by the in- tolerant and ambitious Puritans and Episcopalians, soon clouded the fair dawn of the rising colony. In England the reign of the Stuarts had been superseded by the new rulers William and Maria, and Lord Baltimore, hesitating to recognize the new government, was in 1691 entirely deprived of his priv- ileges and Maryland became a royal province. Not until 1715 did the fourth Lord Baltimore recover the government - and religious freedom was again restored. During this long period of disturbance the number of the discontented enlarged con- siderably and many, especially a great number of German colonists, left Maryland and wandered to the fertile valleys . in the mountain region of Virginia.
Pennsylvania was also colonized towards the close of the seventeenth century, but religious quarrels and English pre- sumption fostered like results. To enjoy freedom of religion many Germans had emigrated to Pennsylvania. They had en- dured the dangers and hardships of a long sea-voyage, and they were not disposed to allow themselves to be again de- prived of the liberty gained by such sacrifice.
" Religious motives," writes Professor O. Seidensticker, 4 3) "caused the prosecuted Puritans and Quakers to go in search of an asylum to the New World. For these reasons the Ger- mans left the Fatherland. Only three creeds, the Catholic, Lutheran and Calvin, were granted the right of tolerance within the German empire by the treaty of Westphalia. Who- ever was moved by scruples of conscience to give to his Chris- tian belief some different shape or to interpret the Bible in another way, persecution was his lot. Such secular Christians, prosecuted and abused without mercy, were plentiful in Ger- many towards the close of the seventeenth century. The in- offensive Mennonites found only in a few states a precarious admittance,-the pious Schwenkfelder had to endure the most terrible treatment, and even the Pietists, the followers of Ja- cob Spencer, who only endeavoured a more earnest and con- scientious devotion to religion within the bounds of the Lutheran creed, were abused and denounced as dangerous inno-
43.) "Die erste deutsche Einwanderung in Amerika und die Gründung von German· town im Jahre 1683," by Oswald Seidensticker, p. 28. Philadelphia, Pa , 1883.
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vators. The Mystics of various nuances, who had adherents among the literary men as well as among the people, the au- thorities would have liked best to shut up in lunatic asylums or prisons."
Besides the sects named in the above citation, German Quakers, Anabaptists, Dunkards or Tunkers and Moravians or Herrnhuter, participated in the colonization of Pennsylvania ; - in Maryland, in Cecil County, at the Bohemian river, more than one hundred Labidists settled, and later on the moun- tain region of Virginia was mainly opened to civilization by German Lutherans, Calvinists, Mennonites, Dunkards, Quak- ers and Moravians. 44 and 45 )
Wm. Penn, the son of an English admiral, whom the English government owed a large sum of money, received in- stead of payment a large grant of forest land west of the Delaware. Charles II recommended to name this territory "Sylvania," that is, forest land, but finally he prefixed to it the name of Penn and baptized it "Pennsylvania." Wm. Penn had embraced the doctrines of the Quakers or Friends, who were bitterly prosecuted in England, and he resolved to make his American domain an abode for his Quaker brethren and a free colony for all mankind. Very correctly he is considered the talented and noblest leader of his sect, - his highest am- bition was to advance the happiness of his fellow men. Even if, as has been asserted, he had aimed to convert his extended landed property into money, it must be acknowledged that he carried out his plan in a disinterested way, advancing an ideal design.
In Germany some Quaker communities existed at Crefeld and Kriesheim near Worms, and akin to them were the Men- nonites and Anabaptists. Friendship and equality of all men were the leading doctrine of the Quakers, who originated in England in 1647 through the teachings of John Fox. They believe, that he who implores the Holy Ghost by fervent prayer, will share in divine revelation. Their worship is sim- ple, without the ringing of bells they assemble in a plain
44 ) "Die ersten deutschen Secten in Amerika," von L. P. Hennighausen Belletris- tisches Journal, No. 1972, Seite 10 und 11. New York, 1890.
45 ) "F. D. Pastorius' Pennsylvanien ," von Friedrich Kapp, Crefeld, 1884.
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meeting-house without altar and pulpit, without the sound of an organ or vocal music. In solemn silence and with covered heads they await for a member of the congregation to be moved by the Holy Ghost and to preach to them. They re- fuse to take oath and consider war wrong even when waged in self-defence, they condemn all worldly amusements and lux- uries, use the article thou and thee no matter whom they ad- dress, keep their hats on even in presence of the king, and dress very plain.
Louis P. Hennighausen, of Baltimore, Md., writes about the German Quakers: "William Penn visited and preached to them in 1672 and 1677. They had been oppressed and perse- cuted in their old Fatherland. Imprisonment, scourging, heavy fines and confiscations was their lot. In some states of north- ern Germany the magistrates paid a reward of five florins for the information of the whereabouts of a Quaker. The Friends at Crefeld, in June 1683, bought of Wm. Penn 18,000 acres and those of Frankfurt 25,000 acres. In 1683, on the 6th of October, the first thirteen families from Crefeld were landed at Philadelphia. Two days later they selected the land for their settlement, on the 24th it was surveyed, on the 25th the homesteads were divided and the building up of Germantown was begun at once. Many more Germans, especially from Kriesheim, followed and in a few years Germantown had be- come a flourishing city. In an English book, printed at Phi- ladelphia in 1692, George Frames sings :
The Germantown of which I spoke before, Which is at least in length one mile or more, Where live high German people and low Dutch, Whose trade in weaving linnen cloth is much, There grows the flax. -
The German Quakers had been converted to the new creed by English missionaries and in their new adopted home they found good friends. William Penn, the proprietor of the province, frequently visited them, - preached to them in the German language and always remained their true friend. In 1686 they erected the first meeting-house in Germantown and Franz Daniel Pastorius was their leader and preacher. Pas- torius, who also was the first mayor and delegate of the town,
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was a man of lofty character and classical education. He had in Germany been invested with the title of 'Doctor of Juris- prudence,' and he spoke English, French, Spanish and Latin. These Germans were not uneducated people, as they have falsely been represented to be. Among them were Heinrich Herrmann Ruester, who preached in German and English, - Philipp Theodor Lehmann, secretary of Wm. Penn, - van Bebber, Hendriks, Cassel, Brothers of den Graff and other men of education and wealth. The most glorious and famous ac- tion of these German men was: their solemn protest against slavery, published in English on April 18th, 1688."
A great many colonists also came from England to Penn- sylvania. They belonged to different sects, who had lived in hatred and discord in their native land, and they imported unpleasant feelings of jealousy, intolerance and pretention in- to the abode of peace founded by the noble Penn. They were only on one point of one mind, and that was their envy and antipathy towards the prosperous Germans, who were rapidly increasing in number. The English settlers called them "for- eigners," and a very deplorable spirit of native presumption grew up. This spitefulness of the two nationalities was heightened when the Germans issued their protest against the institution of slavery.
The Mennonites and Anabaptists originally were closely connected. Both disputed the legality and efficacy of the christening of children, which they condemned as being in contradiction of the Holy scripture. The Anabaptists were rather troublesome people and religious fanatics, they desired the restoration of the empire of Christ on earth, community of property, belief in sacred revelation, etc., and they soon came in conflict with the civil authority and law. Conse- quently they were bitterly persecuted. But they deserve high credit for having unfolded the banner of constant progress or perpetual reformation - and to have enforced, like the Quak- ers, rigid morality and recognized equality of mankind. Ni- colas Storch was the founder of this sect, born at Zwickau in Saxony, he was in 1521 assisted by Marcus Stubner and Tho- mas Muenzer .- The followers of Menno Simmons in the Nether- lands called themselves Mennonites. Simmons was a Catholic
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