USA > Virginia > History of the German element in Virginia, Vol I > Part 6
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The treatment on sea was rough, many died and found their graves in the ocean. Very characteristic is an old Ger- man-American verse :
"Sie wurden in enger Koje kalt - Gelangten nie zum Port - Man hat sie auf ein Brett geschnallt Und warf sie ueber Bord."
Just as correctly says Koesting3 7) :
"In einem Hafen Englands, angesichts Bebuschter Kreidefelsen, lag, umschwaermt Von Moeven und Schaluppen, angewaermt Vom Sonnenglanz des jungen Morgenlichts, Ein segelfertig Schiff, fuer wen'ge Stunden Noch mit dem Ufer durch ein Brett verbunden. Auswand'rer draengten sich auf dem Verdeck, Verschuechtert Volk, von fluchenden Matrosen Nicht besser als sein ungeschlacht Gepaeck
[7.) "Der Weg nach Eden," by Karl Koesting, p. 59. Leipzig, 1884.
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Behandelt. Schweigend liessen sie sich stossen ;- Bloss Deutsche waren's, die sich nicht erbosten, - Sie kamen frisch aus einer Hoelle her, Drum scheuten sie kein Fegefeuer mehr. Auch war man laengstens in fuenf Wochen ja Im Land der Sehnsucht: in Amerika !"
By sickness and bad food a great many of these poor brave people were taken away and never gained the shores of the land of their craving. In the year 1743 a vessel arrived in Hamp- ton Roads, Va., with German immigrants, - 200 in number they had left England, but 160 died on sea - and only 40 landed on Virginia soil. 58)
It would be unjust to hold the English government re- sponsible for the ill treatment the emigrants had to endure at sea, for it was prompted by the very best intentions towards the German colonists. The government granted to each Ger- man 40 acres of land, the necessary agricultural implements and provisions for one year, - but many limitations to these liberal conditions subjected them to the mercy of the gov- ernors and selfish officials - and thus frustrated the good intentions of the royal government. The well-known ardent tenacity of the German colonists outlived these distressing difficulties, and by endurance and hard labor they proved a blessing to the colony.
58 ) "In der neuen Heimath," by Max Eickhoff, p 202: New York, 1884
CHAPTER V.
GERMAN SETTLEMENTS IN MIDDLE VIRGINIA AND PIEDMONT.
N the year 1714 Governor Alexander Spotswood founded a German settlement in that part of the colony which was in 1720 named after him: the county of Spotsylvania. The occasion for this measure was the partial failure of Franz Ludwig Michel and Baron Christopher von Graffenried, both from Berne in Switzerland, to establish a colony in North Carolina. This conclusion is evident by reading the "Spotswood Letters" pub- lished in Vol. I of "Collections of the Historical Society of Vir- ginia." On page 116 is stated: that in 1709 the lord proprietors had sold to Christopher Baron von Graffenried 10,000 acres of land on the Neuse and Cape Fear rivers at the rate of £10 for each 1000 acres. A great number of Palatines and Swiss fol- lowed him to North Carolina and founded New Berne. But during the massacre of the Tuscarora Indians they became dis- heartened, for many families were murdered and Baron Graffen- ried himself was taken prisoner. This tragic event occurred in 1711. After the baron's release he sold his land to Th. Pollock and with a number of Swiss and Palatines he removed to Vir- ginia, where he settled in the forks of the Potomac. Besides, other causes necessitated this re-emigration. Many colonists were disappointed by not receiving the promised title for 200 acres of land to each family, and the unwholesome location of Graffenried's possessions may have influenced many of them to select some other country wherein to settle. "New Berne" - says Dr. Johann Daniel Schopf in his account of his travels during the last century60) : "is situated on a point of land em-
59.) "Historical Collections of the Historical Society of Virginia," p. 137.
60.) "Dr. Schoepf's Amerika," or compare: "Der Sueden," d -a. Wochenschrift, I Jahrgang, p 3. Richmond, Va , 189 1.
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braced by the rivers New and Trent. The beds of these rivers are very deep, but the shores are low and subject to frequent in- undations. For these reasons the country does not enjoy a salu- brious climate and pure air, and in fall many people die by sick- ness. The mortality of the children especially is very great, in fact twice as great as in the Northern States."
A number of colonists parted altogether with Baron Graf- fenried. They wandered up the New river to the fertile valleys at the southern slopes of the Alleghany mountains in Virginia, where the present counties of Wythe, Pulaski, Montgomery and Craig are located, and they built another New Berne in Pulaski.
Others, who had followed Baron von Graffenried to the forks of the Potomac, encountered renewed, unlooked for diffi- culties. Their leader went there upon written instructions of the queen to the governor of Virginia: to assign to him that section without pay, - but older claims on the land interfered. In a letter dated July 26th 1714, Governor Spotswood says him- self: that a number of German Protestants came to Germanna on his inducement. They immigrated to Virginia with Baron Graffenried, who was in possession of a letter from the queen, by which he, Spotswood, received instructions to assign to these people tracts of land. Most of these Germans were miners, writes the governor, and he exempted them for several years from payment of taxes, to encourage others of their countrymen to settle in Virginia. Graffenried, 61) utterly disgusted by the failure of his plans, gave up all further efforts at colonization, - but Governor Spotswood and some other 'gentlemen," as is stated in the Spotswood-letter of July 21st 1714, cared for the deserted colonists. Governor Spotswood induced a number of them to enter his service and he erected, with their assistance, on the shores of the Rapidan, between the Russel- and Wil- derness-runs : "ironworks" and the town Germanna ; the balance of the immigrants settled in the present counties of Stafford, King George and Westmoorland. In Stafford county a German settlement was built up at Germanna Ford. Even at the present
61.) Several descendants of Graffenried are living in North Carolina and Virginia. One Dr. Joseph de Graffenried represented Luxemburg in the Assembly from 1805 to 1816 and W. B. de Graffenried was a member of the Petersburg Virginian Volunteers organized October 21st 1812, he served with honor during the war until May 5th 1813.
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time occasionally traces of those German settlers are found. Mr. J. Kohler of Richmond is in possession of a Luther-medal bear- ing the date of 1720. It was ploughed up in Stafford county and was encrusted with earth. It is about the size of a silver-dollar, and is in a fine state of preservation. Upon the obverse are in bass-relief bust portraitures of Luther and Melanchton, with the legend, D. Martin Luther, Philip Melanchton. On the reverse is depicted the Diet of Worms, in Session, and the legend :
Ein gut bekentnis vor vielen zeugen 1st Tim., 6, 12. Augsburg Con. Memoria Renov. 1730.
The date marks the two hundredth anniversary of the adoption of the Augsburg confession, which was compiled by Melanchton and endorsed by Luther.
By direction of Governor Spotswood dwelling houses, a church, a court-house and a residence for himself were built at Germanna and surrounded by palisades for protection against the Indians. The English historian Hugh Jones62) also reports, that the governor employed servants and negroes to clear the land all round, in order to give settlers a good opinion of this little populated country and to encourage their countrymen to join them. There is no doubt but that this historical remark refers to the Germans - and appreciative of their industry Sir Spotswood also encouraged direct immigration from Germany. The relations between the governor and the German colonists were of the very best kind. They called Virginia in his honor : "Spotsylvania"-and he was at home with them. He was so much charmed by this laborious and peaceable people, that he married a young German lady by name "Theke" and born in Hannover. Col. Byrd, the founder of Richmond, describes in his "Progress of the mines" the family life of the governor and his attachment to his wife and many children, in picturesque language.
The reports concerning the first direct immigration from Germany to the settlements on the Rapidan are somewhat con- tradicting. Dr. Slaughter puts it to 32 families, while other
62 ) "The Present State of Virginia," by Hugh Jones. London, 1724.
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historians speak of two separate parties63) of which the first numbered 12 families and is said to have arrived in 1714, and the second counted 20 families and reached Germanna in 1717. However, both statements agree in the main point : the total number of 32 families. Dr. Slaughter also says : the first settlers had a quarrel with the ship-captain over their passage money and cites other authority to show that some time after the set- tlement of Germanna the condition of the colonists was deplor- able in the last degree. Governor Spotswood, under date of 1714, writes to Ye Lords Commissioners of Trade: "The act for ex- empting certain German Protestants from ye payment of Levys is made in fav'r of several Familys of that Nation, who upon the encouragement of the Baron de Graaffenried came over hither in the hopes of finding out mines (they were engaged princi- pally in mining in their native land), but the Baron's mis- fortunes obliged him to leave the country before their arrival. They have been settled on ye Frontiers of Rappahannock and subsisted chiefly at my charge and on the contributions of some gentlemen that have a prospect of being reimbursed by their labors." - Later "complaints" were made against Spotswood which involved various charges and which in a letter to the " Lord Commissioners of Trade and Plantations" he answers at length. In refuting the charge that he had built two forts, one at the head of the James river and one at the head of the Rappahannock, at the expense of the country only to support two private interests, he says: that as to the Germanna settlement, there were about forty Germans, men, women and children, who quitted their native country upon the invitation of Baron Graaffenried, and that both in compassion to these strangers and in regard to the safety of the country he placed them to- gether on a piece of land where he built them habitations, and subsisted them until by their own labor they were able to pro- vide for themselves.
Touching a charge that he "denied " to let his Majesty's subjects take up land,-at the same time gave leave or order to another person to take up 12,000 acres to be patented in the
63 ) Compare Senator Lovenstein's Oration at the "German Day" celebration in Rich - mond, October 6th, 1890, published in the "Richmond Dispatch" and "Richmond Times," October 7th, 1890.
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name of John Robinson to his (Spotswood's) own private use and leased the same to "ye Germans,"-he says: that the pat- ents being signed by the governor it would be improper to grant one to himself. He also claims, that the Germans were not insensible to the kindness he had shown them, and that in- stead of being his tenants they might have been his servants in view of the passage money - 150 £s. they owed him. The date of these answers is 1716.
The consensus of authority is that Spotswood bent his every energy to the development of the resources of the colony, but as has been seen: he did not escape harsh criticism. Refer- ence has been made to his land "deal" with Robinson, but that was not his only "deal" in which the German interest figured. In 1722 he granted to Richard Hickman 28,000 acres of land, the consideration for which, as the books of the Reg- ister of the Land Office show, was monetary alone. In 1732 the same land was "confirmed " to Spotswood upon the aver- ment of Hickman : that it had been held in trust for Spotswood.
"In the following period, from 1720 to 1732," so report the " Halleschen Nachrichten," "the number of high German Protestants from the Palatinate, Wuertenberg, Darmstadt and other places, increased. Many came, too, from the State of New York to Virginia, who had been transported there from England during the reign of Queen Anne. They spread and settled in all parts of the province. Some of those who ar- rived about the middle of this period, were accompanied by preachers like Reverends Hinkel, Falkner, Stoever, etc."
Although plain people, these early German pioneers were not wanting a certain degree of education. The fact alone, that in their company German preachers and schoolmasters came to the virgin woods of Virginia, confirms this assertion; and old documents: the Land Registers and County Records, show that nearly all of them could read and write. Several of their descendants have filled the highest state offices. Among the pioneers who arrived in 1714 was Johann Kemper from Oldenburg, who settled afterwards in the German colony in Madison county, and in 1717 married Alice Utterback. Their son, John Peter Kemper, in 1738 married a daughter of the
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German parson Dr. Haeger64) and one of their descendants is James Lawson Kemper at Orange Court House, who had com- mand of one brigade of Picket's celebrated division in the battle of Gettysburg, and was dangerously wounded at the heroic at- tack of the so-called "Round Top"; but he recovered from his wounds and from 1873 to 1878 he was governor of the State. The biography of General and Governor Kemper follows in a later chapter. - The German inhabitants of Germanna were generally esteemed and some of them were appointed to important offices. In 1748 a commission was entrusted with a revision of the colonial laws and the German, Benj. Waller of Germanna, was a member of that body.
Gerhard Hinkel or Henkel, as his descendants call him, was an old man, of seventy-five years when he came to Vir- ginia as the first German preacher.65) It seems that he was a Saxon by birth, for he had held the position of court chap- lain to Duke Moritz Wilhelm of Saxony-Zeitz until this prince confirmed to the Catholic creed and exiled him. Hinkel then occupied a preachership at Zweibruecken in the Palatinate - and at the time when the Elector Karl Philipp attempted to exile the confessors to the Lutheran and Calvin confessions, he became the leader of the fugitive Palatines and accepted the ministry of their church in Germanna, Virginia. The Ger- man-American historian, H. A. Rattermann of Cincinnati, O., examined Hinkel's daybook, which is in possession of Dr. Geo. C. Henkel at Farmersville, O., and reports: "The church was named the 'hopeful church' (Hoffnungsvolle Kirche), for its members were inspired with hope that they might be allowed with the assistance of the Lord to worship the Savior Jesus Christ undisturbed, according to the teachings of the late Dr. Luther and the statutes of the confession of Augsburg." - In an historical sketch of the Shenandoah valley66) Andreas Si- mon relates: that Rev. Hinkel was a descendant of Count Hin- kel von Poeltzig, to whom America is indebted : to have induced Rev. Heinrich Melchior Muehlenberg, the patriarch of the
64.) Compare "Virginia and Virginians," by Dr. R. A. Brook. Richmond, Va , 1888.
65.) "Deutscher Pionier," Vol. 12, No. 2, page 66. Cincinnati, O., 1880.
66.) "Der Westen," Sunday issue of Ill. Staats Zeitung, May 29, 1892. Chicago, Il1.
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Lutheran Church in America, to make it, after 1742, the field of his meritorious activity.
These statements are also confirmed by some of the Spots- wood Letters, not yet mentioned."7) In a report, dated May 1712, the governor says, that Baron von Graffenried, with sev- eral Swiss families, came to the forks of the Potomac to settle there and that he was greatly disappointed, having expected to receive the lands as a gift from the Queen. In another letter, dated February 7, 1716, Spotswood mentions that about forty Germans, men, women and children, had left North Caro- lina with Baron Graffenried, because he could not fulfill his promises to them and on account of a horrible plot of the Tuscarora Indians for extermination of the entire white popu- lation. The governor added, that he had houses built for them some miles distant from Germanna and that he was furnishing them with provisions until they could provide for themselves. He also says: that he does not expect to be unjust, requiring them to repay his advances. - The above mentioned "Mines and Ironworks" were erected in the " Wilderness," the bloody battlefield of the late war of secession, situated between Ger- manna and Fredericksburg-and the "Handbook of Virginia"6 8) says about them: "The oldest furnace in America of which we have any certain knowledge, was 'Spotswood' in the county Spotsylvania, described by Col. Byrd in the Westover Manu- script a century and a half ago." At the present time iron ore is still produced there by the Wilderness Mining Co., five miles south from Parker's station.
The existence of Germanna seems to have been not of long duration. The German inhabitants who were appointed overseers on Spotswood's plantations or employed in his mines and at the iron furnace, finally had to claim large sums for unpaid wages, and in place of payment he transferred to them large tracts of land on Robertson river, a tributary of the Rapidan, in the present county of Madison. Others acquired farms in a simi- lar manner in Spotsylvania, Culpepper and Stafford counties. Dr. Slaughter, the historian above mentioned, furnishes history,
67.) Collections of the Historical Society of Virginia, Vol. I.
68 ) "Handbook of Virginia," by the Commissioner of Agriculture. 5th edition, p S2. Richmond, Va , 1886.
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tradition, and names, which go to show that a colony from the Germanna immigrants settled Germantown, in Fauquier county. In the middle of the eighteenth century, writes Col. Byrd, 69) "Germanna consisted of the residence of Governor Spotswood and a dozen and a half of half decayed houses, formerly occupied by German families."
On the modern maps of Virginia, Germanna cannot be found, but on "a map of the internal improvement of Virginia," by C. Crozet, published by Ritchie & Dannavent, Richmond, Va., 1855, the "Germanna Mills" are mentioned, located in the north- eastern corner of Orange county, and exactly in the place where the town of Germanna was once erected. On the maps : "Carte de la Virginie," par Robert de Vaugondy, 1758, "A map of the British and French Dominions," by J. Mitchell, "A map of the most inhabited part of Virginia," by J. Frey and P. Jef- ferson, and "A map of the country between Albemarle Sound and Lake Erie," the town Germanna is named and besides the following localities with German names in Spotsylvania and adjoining counties: Hedgeman, Hedgeman's River, Germantown, Fredericksburg and Buckner.70)
Governor Spotswood was the first to cross the "Blue Ridge" on horseback. 71) Desirous to learn more of the wilderness west of the mountains, he. equipped a party of 30 horsemen, employed some Indian guides, and heading in person, left Williamsburg in August 1716. They were well supplied with provisions and invigorating drink. At Germanna they rested for a few days and thence they travelled by way of Mountain Run to the Rappahannock, which they crossed at Somerville's Ford. Advancing on the left shore of the river, near Peyton's Ford, they recrossed and proceeded to near the present site of Stannardsville in Green county, whence they passed through
69.) Compare : "The Westover Manuscript," printed by Edmond and Julian Ruffin, Petersburg, Va , 1841 .
70.) Buckner is a German family name, and in Virginia it reaches back to the earliest days of the colony. Many members of this family were men of prominence. One, Major Richard Buckner, was collector in Williamsburg in 1710; M. Buckner was Colonel of the 6th Virginia regiment during the War of Independence; but special credit is owing to the Ger- man printer, John Buckner, who in 1730 set up the first printing press in Virginia.
71 ) Compare : "History of the Valley," by Sam'l Kerchevall. Woodstock, Va , 1850 ; and "Der Einfluss der Deutschen auf die kulturgeschichtliche Entwickelung des amerika - nischen Volkes," by H. A. Rattermann, "Deutscher Pionier," 1876, No. 3, page 106.
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the Blue Ridge by way of Swift Run Gap into the beautiful valley. Crossing the Shenandoah river a few miles north of where Port Republic is located, near what is known as River Bank in Rockingham, the intrepid governor pushed onward to the west across the Shenandoah valley and through the moun- tain defiles, until on the 5th of September 1716, on one of the loftiest peaks of the Appalachian range, probably within the limits of what is now Pendleton county in West Virginia, they halted. Governor Spotswood ordered the bugle to be sounded, speeches were made, provisions and delicious beverages partaken of, and the health of King George I was toasted. The highest peak of the mountains was baptized "Mount George," and an- other "Mount Spotswood or Alexander," in honor of the gover- nor, but nobody can tell to-day what mountain tops were thus honored. Failing to discover any indication that the Mississippi originated in this part of the country, as had been thought likely, the party returned to Williamsburg and in glowing terms described the country they had visited. For the purpose of in- ducing emigration to the great western valley and the mountain sides with mystical hygeian fountains from which flowed the life-giving water, - the governor established the "Trans-moun- tain Order, or Knights of the Golden Horse Shoe," presenting to each of those who had accompanied him a miniature golden horse-shoe with the inscription : "Sic jurat transcendere montes" (thus he swears to cross the mountains). These decorations were given to all who would agree to comply with the inscrip- tion.
The German colony on Robinson river, west of the present town of Madison, prospered under the kind government of Sir Alexander Spotswood. The colonists were laborious and pious people. In 1735 they founded a congregation with Rev. Johann Kaspar Stoever as parson, who also took charge of the church at Germanna, upon Rev. Henkel's acceptance of a call to the con- gregation near the Yadkin river in North Carolina. The Ger- mans in Madison county at first erected a large log-house in a glen amid the virgin wood, where never before a pale-face had risked to wander. , The church registers which until 1810 were written in German, show that two sentinels, armed with mus- kets, were posted at the entrance of the meeting-house, to guard
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the farmers, their wives and children while at worship from surprise by the Indians. These guards - and likewise the parson - received their pay in tobacco, which was the tender of those times.
In the year 1739 Rev. Stoever travelled to Germany in order to raise money for building a church, a parsonage with school rooms and to establish a library. The instruction in school afterwards was given by the venerable parson himself and it comprised : religion, reading, writing, and arithmetic. This achievement of Rev. Stoever cannot be praised to highly, for his school was the first authentical school for white children in the Old Dominion.
The "few old field-schools,-log huts in the fields or woods," - of which John Esten Cook makes mention in his book : "Virginia," - and which he says to have existed as early as 1634, - are too obscure to be taken in consideration and scarcely possessed a claim on the high title of: "Schools." This opinion is confirmed in an article referring to Virginia : "Early Education in the South," published in the "U. S. Edu- cational Report," 1895 to 1896, Vol. I, page 269: "In this period of nearly one hundred and seventy years (1608-1776) we find nothing to remind us even of the beginnings of the American common schools, save, perhaps, the action of neigh- bors in the support of a 'field school,' or neighborhood ar- rangement, temporary in its character, but the outgrowth of a popular desire for the schooling of the children."
Some historians, and even the German-American : Fried- rich Kapp - in his "History of the Germans in the State of New York, - have represented the German immigrants of that period as of low intellectual and moral standing. Kapp, for instance, says: "Even in religious respects there was a great difference between our countrymen and the English settlers. The English brought to America as an indispensable part of their inventory the schoolhouse and the church, while the Germans struggled for their maintenance before they thought of educating their children, if in fact they possessed any in- terest for such duty." - The most vicious "Knownothing" could not have defamed the early German immigrants any more and offended the truth in a more startling manner, than
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Friedrich Kapp. The majority of the Germans left their dear Fatherland and came to America for religious causes, - while in Virginia, as has been stated, the English Governor Berke- ley reconimended to the clergy: "to preach less and to pray more" - and expressed the hope: "that within a hundred years to come no public school would exist in the colony." The impetuous Bacon fully characterized the English edu- cational standing in Virginia, addressing to Gov. Berkeley the damaging query: "What arts, sciences, schools of learning or manufactures hath been promoted by any now in authority ?" The Germans brought with them their preachers and school- masters - and they built churches and schools at once! The facts, that they were plain, modest, but not wealthy farmers and artisans, that they did not possess the conventional forms and social polish of the English aristocracy, and that their inefficiency in the English language obliged them to stand back in public life, can certainly not degrade them in intel- lectual or moral respects. It must not be overlooked that the colonial government employed German · intelligence to explore the country. In contradiction to F. Kapp says Kercheval72), the historian of the Shenandoah Valley: "It is remarkable that throughout the whole extent of the United States the Germans, in proportion to their wealth, have the best churches, organs and grave-yards."
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