USA > Virginia > History of the German element in Virginia, Vol I > Part 8
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Several German immigrants crossed the Alleghanies and built their cabins on the New, Greenbrier and Kanawha rivers. The insecurity of titles in the lower valley was the motive prompt- ing them to select so distant homesteads. A large portion of north-eastern Virginia was claimed by Lord Fairfax, as has been stated. In 1681 a grant had been made to Lord Hopton and others by King Charles II of what is known as the "Northern Neck." The patentees sold it to Lord Culpepper, to whom it was
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confirmed by letters patent of King James II in 1688. This enormous land grant, which was afterwards known as the "Fair- fax Patent," included all the territory "bounded by and . within the heads of the rivers Tappahannock, i. e. Rappahannock, and Quiriough, i. e. Potomac river, the course of said rivers as they are commonly called and known by the inhabitants, and de- scription of their parts and Chesapeake Bay," - and it de- scended from Lord Culpepper to his only daughter, Catherine, who married one Lord Fairfax, from whom it entailed upon their eldest son, Thomas. Lord Thomas Fairfax came to Vir- ginia in 1745, and in 1748 he employed George Washington, then seventeen years of age, to survey and lay out into lots the part of the estate situated in the Valley and Alleghany moun- tains, that the proprietor might collect rents and give legal titles. About thirteen miles southeast of Frederickstown, as Winchester was called at that time, the Lord built his resi- dence : "Greenway Court," where he lived until his death in 1782. Leaving no issue to inherit his vast estate, he bequeathed it to Rev. Denny Martin, his nephew in England, who left it by will to General Philip Martin. Finally the title of the Fairfax lands was purchased by Chief Justice Marshall, Raleigh Colston and General Henry Lee. Thus the settlement of the Valley was influenced by excitement caused through the lawsuit of Lord Fairfax against Joist Hite in 1736, as has been stated, and the suit continued in the Courts until 1786, when every one of the original parties to it were resting in their graves. 85-87).
Andreas Simon says in his historical sketch: "Lord Fairfax of Virginia": "How kindly in other respects Lord Fairfax was inclined towards his German neighbors is clearly shown by the fact, that he presented on May 15th, 1753, the ‘German Re- formed Congregation,' which had been organized about twelve years previously in the environs of Winchester, with a lot for building a church, and that he made a like donation to the
85 ) "Historical Collections of Virginia," by Henry Howe, page 235 Charleston, S. C., 1849.
86 ) "History of the Valley of Virginia," by Sam Keicheval, pp 138-140. Woodstock, Va, 1850.
87.) "History of West Virginia," by Virgil A. Lewis, pp. 60-62. Philadelphia, Pa , 1889.
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German Lutherans of the town. The crumbled walls of a small church near Kernstown are still shown to visitors as the ruins of the first named building. The deed of gift drawn up in this case gives the names of Philip Busch, Heinrich Brinker, Daniel Busch, Jacob Sauer and Friedrich Conrad. The parson who first preached in the little church, built of logs, was Rev. Bernhard Wille. The Lutheran Congregation built on the do- nated land a new church building, the cornerstone of which was laid on June 16th, 1764. In Norris' "History of the lower Valley" the following names are given as the founders and mem- bers of the church : Thomas Schmidt, Nicholas Schrack, Chris- tian Heiskell, David Dieterich, Christoph Wetzel, Peter Holfer- stein, Georg Michael Laubinger, Heinrich Becker, Jacob Sibert, Jacob Braun, Stephan Frainecker, Christoph Altrich, Tobias Otto, Eberhard Doring, Andreas Friedle, Emanuel Burger, Christoph Heintz, Donald Heigel, Jacob Trautwein, John Sig- mund Haenli, Johannes Laemmle, Johannes Leutz, Christian Neuberger, Georg Schumacher, Michael Roger, Michael War- ing, Christoph Lamber, Samuel Wendel, Michael Gluck, Julius Spickert, Balthasar Poe, Jacob Koppenhaber and Heinrich Wel- ler. Johannes Caspar Kirchner at that time had charge of the ministry of the community, Ludwig Adam was the sacristan and Anton Ludi the schoolmaster. Rev. Christian Streit was appointed parson in the year 1785 and continued in this capacity until his death in 1812. As long as he preached in German a German parochial school existed. Lord Fairfax supported all the various churches in the Valley and was a regular visitor of the Episcopal church at Winchester and of Cunningham's Chapel. Rev. Sebastian, a Pennsylvanian German, was rector of the church from 1766 to 1777, when he followed the example of his,colleague, the Rev. Muehlenberg of Muellerstadt, or Wood- stock, and exchanged the robe for the uniform to fight for American liberty.
The German Lutheran church at Woodstock was a rough log building, but during the time of office of the Rev. Muehlen- berg a large and pretty church was erected. Abraham Brum- bacher made a present of the lot and by deed of gift transferred it to Abraham Keller, Lorenz Schnapp, Georg Feller, Jacob Holzmann, Friedrich Staufer, Philip Hoffmann, Heinrich Froe.
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bel (Fravel), Henry Nelson, Burr Harrison, T. Beale and Joseph Pugh. Other German Lutherans came to the Valley during the life of Lord Fairfax, like Peter Mauck, Johann Friedrich, V. Helm, Johann Georg Dellenauer, Philip Glass, Jacob Beck, August and Valentin Windel, Christoph Windel, Johann Her- mann, Heinrich Mueller, Philip and Michael Bauscher, Hugo Paul, Johann Sturmann, Simon Linder, Jacob Christmann, etc.
It has been stated that most of the German immigrants to Virginia were prompted by religious reasons, - but it is very difficult to give at the present time a complete description of their church organizations and their numbers. The political issues, the Anglo-American naturalization and lack of a high national self-esteem are the causes that the descendants of the German settlers have retained little knowledge or recollection of the merits of their forefathers. The German Lutherans, Men- nonites, Calvinists, Dunkards, etc., forced their way up the Valley and furnished a high percentage of the population of Rockbridge, Botetourt, Roanoke, Craig, Montgomery, Pulaski and Wythe counties. In the four last mentioned counties they met with the Swiss who emigrated from North Carolina. Capt. R. B. Moorman, of Roanoke, wrote the author: "Rockbridge, Botetourt, Roanoke, Craig, Montgomery and Pulaski present a grateful field to the German-American historian." - German churches existed at the close of the eighteenth century at : Wheeling, Shepherdstown, Winchester, Kernstown, New Mar- ket, Strasburgh, Woodstock and in Augusta, Botetourt, Roanoke, Pulaski and Wythe counties. Salem, in Roanoke, was for a long time the exclusive domain of the Lutherans. Quite a num- ber of German churches, chapels and meeting houses, - espe- cially of Dunkards, - probably existed in the remote valleys of the mountains.
The most reliable information we possess about the Luth- eran congregations in the Valley. Kercheval, the historian of the Valley, says: "The number of the Lutheran congregations is said to be at least one hundred ; that of the Reformed, it is presumed, is about the same." - The first Lutheran parson at New Mecklenburg, or Shepherdstown, was Rev. Bauer, in the year 1776, and his successors were : Reverends Wiltbahn, Nico- demus, Georg Jung, and Weymann. The community after-
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wards was joined with that of Rev. Christ. Streit, of Winches- ter, who was the first native Lutheran minister in America. 88) The Lutheran congregation at Woodstock remained, after the Rev. Muehlenberg joined the army, without a permanent pastor, but was visited at times by pastors from other towns, as, for instance, in the spring of 1775 by Heinrich Moeller, in the fall of 1776 by C. F. Wiltbahn, in 1786 by Jacob Goering, from York, Pa., and by his brother-in-law, the Rev. I. D. Kurtz, in 1792 by Christian Streit, of Winchester, and 1793 by J. D. Jung, of Martinsburg. Other reverends may have preached to them during the following years, until in 1806 Samuel Simon Schmucker was elected pastor and remained in his office for forty years. He delivered his sermons solely in the Pennsyl- vanian German dialect, but with his successor, I. F. Campbell, the English language was introduced. The following are the names of the pastors to the present day : J. P. Cline (Klein), S. Keller, J. A. Snyder, H. Miller, and A. A. J. Bushong .- The : New Market parish was administered by descendants of the first German preacher in Virginia: Gerhard Henkel, of Ger- manna. The names of the pastors are: Paul Henkel, Ambro- sius Henkel, David Henkel, and Socrates Henkel. In a later chapter of this history some publications of Ambrosius, Paul and Socrates Henkel will receive special mention. In the year 1793 Dr. Georg Daniel Flohr came to Virginia, and resigning his medical studies, he devoted himself, under the tutorship of Rev. Carpenter at Madison, to theology. Dr. Flohr89) after- wards acted as pastor among the German settlements on New River and particulary at the Swiss colony at New Bern, Pulaski county. In the adjoining county of Wythe a German Lutheran church was sustained at Wytheville, which was established90) in 1792 on land donated by Stophel Zimmermann and John Davis, and was jointly owned by the Lutheran and the Reformed congregations.
The "Wytheville Dispatch" of April 9th, 1897; contains an
88.) ' 'Church Growth in America," by Rev. J. E. Bushnell, Roanoke, Va , from the Lutheran Quarterly, April, 1888.
89 ) "The American Lutheran Pulpit," pp. 121 to 122.
90 ) "Historical Collections of Virginia," by Henry Howe, p. 514 Charleston, S. G. 1849. .
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historical article written by Rev. Alex. Phillippi, D.D., and pub- lished by request of the Lutheran Pastor's Association of Wythe County. Rev. Phillippi reports : "After 1732, the Germans, mostly from Pennsylvania, came in considerable numbers to the lower Valley of Virginia and slowly extended themselves into the south-western part of the State, so that at the time of the outbreaking of the Revolutionary War, several considerable set- tlements had been formed in what is now Wythe and adjoining counties. These settlements, after the close of the war, re- ceived numerous additions from Pennsylvania, Maryland and the lower valley of Virginia. The early Germans who came to Wythe County, with few exceptions, had some means, and were a hardy, industrious, moral, intelligent, Christian people. The Bibles, some very costly and beautiful copies, which they brought with them, are still found in possession of their pos- terity, with many other useful and religious books, had a place in almost every family. Schoolhouses, which for the time were also used as places of public worship, were among the first and most expensive buildings erected. With few ex- ceptions these people were Protestants, nearly equally divided . between the Lutheran and the German Reformed Churches. For reasons not fully understood at this day, these colonists failed to secure and bring with them into their new homes pious and capable pastors and teachers, - and for twenty-five ·
or more years religion and education were not only greatly neg- lected in these feeble and scattered communities by incapable and immoral, godless leaders." - Rev. Phillippi also mentions that German Lutheran churches were established : one mile north of Wytheville the St. John's Lutheran church and twelve miles west St. Paul's church, - and that in 1796 Rev. Leonard Willy became pastor between Cedar Grove, of Smyth County, Kimberling, St. Paul's and St. John's congregations of Wythe County. - In 1799 Rev. George Flohr, before mentioned, ac- cepted a call to the Lutheran churches in south-west Virginia and localed several miles north of Wytheville. His ministry ended with his death in 1826 and his remains lie buried in St. John's cemetery.
According to Prof. O. Seidensticker91) some faithless mem-
91 ) "Ephrata,"-eine amerikanische Klostergeschichte von Dr. Oswald Seidensticker. Cincinnati, 1883
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bers of the German convent "Ephrata" in Pennsylvania, organ- ized by the sect of the Siebentaeger or Beisselianer, a kind of Dunkards, left in the year 1745 and founded a settlement on New River which they named "Mahanaim." Repeated attacks of the Indians obliged the settlers to flee,-some were carried away prisoners by the savages - and all traces of Mahanaim are lost. A number of fugitive lay-brothers selected the beau- tiful Shenandoah valley for their home, but it appears they were not pleased with it. In a letter published in the eighteenth century by Leibert and Billmeyer at Germantown, Pa., Peter Blaeser complains to his friend, the printer Mich. Billmeyer, that he and others, on account of their virtuous habits of life, are called by the nickname "Strabler," and a German verse sounds thus :
"Der Koth in Virginia den Satan gehecket, Damit er die Stillen im Land hat beflecket, Hat dort her ein Stueck in Cacusa geschmissen Allwo er noch greulich thut stinken und fliessen."
Their monastic life and peculiar habits probably excited the displeasure and criticism of their neighbors, causing their own dissatisfaction.
Several Germans, it has been stated, penetrated into the wild regions of the Alleghanies. As early as the middle of the eighteenth century about twelve miles west of Franklin, in Pen- dleton county, the frontier fort "Seybert" was erected, which was attacked by a party of Shawnees under their vile chief "Kill-buck" in May 175892), when garrisoned by only thirty or forty men. The following account of the affair is given by De Hass : "Finding neither threatening words nor bullets of any avail, the cunning savages, after two days' trial, resorted to strategy and unhappily with most fatal success. They made various propositions to the besieged to give up, and their lives should be spared. - The promise of safety lured the unfortu- nate victims from their duty, they yielded quiet possession of the fort, but of their number all were massacred but eleven, who were carried to the Indian town as prisoners." - Kerche- val states that Capt. Seybert was murdered by Kill-buck imme-
92.) "History of West Virginia," by Virgil A. Lewis, pp 566 to 567. Phila , 1889
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diately after the surrender and that his son was among those carried away prisoners. - Among those who first attempted a settlement within the present limits of Tucker county in 1776 was one Simms, who was also killed by the Indians. - Many German families counted to the pioneers of Pocahontas county, like the Harpers, Grines, Sharp, etc., and Peter Lightner, who built the first mill on Knapp's Creek. - It is of special interest that the first owner of the lands of White Sulphur Springs in Greenbrier county probably was a German. During the year 1774 the Shawnees, the predominant tribe of western Virginia, were gradually subdued by the ever encroaching colonists from eastern Virginia, and having suffered a signal defeat at Point Pleasant, they began to abandon the country, but not entirely, for by frequent marauding parties with tomahawk and scalping knife they fully attested their attachment to their ancient hunting-grounds. It has been before mentioned that the fam- ily Zimmermann at Madison changed its name to " Carpenter," and that several of its members migrated again farther west and to Kentucky. The road they travelled was the same which was afterwards chosen for the construction of the "Stage-road" to the Kanawha and Ohio rivers, and it traversed the territory of the famous Sulphur Springs. One, Nathan Carpenter, 93) came there in 1774 and selected the charming valley of White Sulphur Springs for his home. It was patented to him under what is called a "Corn Right;" but a band of marauding In- dians forced him and other settlers to retreat to a stockade fort, where the town of Covington now stands, and during a fight with the savages he was killed. His wife Kate and their chil- dren took refuge for some time in a neighboring mountain, overlooking the springs from the south, which ever since has been called Kate's Mountain.
At the same period a German Hebrew immigration party settled in the western parts of Virginia94). The numerous Sephardic and Portuguese Jewish element in the Old Dominion was now gradually surpassed by the German, and a new era in
93 ) "White Sulphur Springs in Greenbrier County," p. 9. A. Hoen & Co , Balti- more, Md.
94 ) "Materialien zur Geschichte der Juden in America," von S. Wiener, Belletristi- sches Journal, p. 11. New York, January 8th, 1891.
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the development of Jewish life commenced. A great number of Jews at that time came from Lancaster, Pa., and built up their homes on the fertile lands near the Ohio river. - Other German colonists also came to this section of Virginia. The Deckers were the first white settlers near Morgantown, in Mo- nongahela county, W. Va., of those days. Alexander Withers reports in his "Chronicles of Border Warfare," that in the au- tumn of 1758 Thomas Decker and some others built their cabins on the Monongahela where Decker's Creek joins this river, - but that he was murdered by the Indians in 1759. Soon afterwards other German immigrants came and Michael Kerns was one of the founders of Morgantown. John Decker was the last white man killed by an Indian in Brooke county ; W. Boner, E. Rittenhouse, M. Decker, Capt. van Buskirk, etc., counted to the early colonists. John Wetzel, the Siverts, Early- wines, Tush, Capt. Baker, Col. Beeler, etc., domiciled in Mar- shall county in 1769, and are all well known on account of their bravery and sufferings during the Indian war.
The German immigrants also crossed the Blue Ridge and settled in Loudoun, Fairfax, Prince William, Stafford, Fauquier, Rappahannock and Culpepper counties, where they met with their countrymen come there from the South. Confirming this emigration from the Valley to Middle Virginia, Col. Thomas Whitehead, Commissioner of Agriculture in Virginia, says95) : "Let Virginia distribute her population. Let those who have none, or very small tracts, in the Valley and Piedmont, go to the Southside and Middle Virginia, and they will succeed, as did the Tunkers, who went from the Valley - selling at high prices - to Prince William, where they bought low, and are improving and making former waste fields to blossom. Facts to sustain this position are in possession of this department."
The habits and the mode of life of the German pioneers in the Virginia mountains were simple and modest. Their style of living and their industry were the causes of their prosperity and enlarged wealth. Another circumstance added to their success. "We see in the population only a small infusion of the
95 ) "Report of the State Board of Agriculture of Va." p. 142. Richmond, Va , 1888.
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old Virginia element," - states an official document96) - "be- ing composed chiefly of Germans and Scotch-Irish, - naturally this is the most fertile region of the State, and as it was only partially subjected to the blighting influence of slavery, it has ever been the most prosperous." - It is proven by facts, that the Ger- man farmers in the Valley and the Alleghanies, with few ex- ceptions, owned no slaves. The majority of them, especially the Mennonites, Tunkers and Quakers, considered slavery inhuman and displeasing the Lord, and mainly the English were slave- holders. The above mentioned document bears therefore hon- orable testimony to the German farmers of the Valley and mountains of Virginia. On account of the notorious antipathy of the Germans towards slavery, the number of negroes has al- ways been smaller there than in other parts of the State. Ac- cording to statistical reports, in 1877, the negro population in the Alleghany district amounted to only seven per cent., in the Valley to sixteen per cent., but in the Piedmont and Coast dis- trict from forty-seven to fifty-one per cent. of the total popula- tion.
Another reason why the German farmers prospered more than their English neighbors, was that they did not care to pos- sess excessively large estates, but farms comparatively small, - just large enough that an active farmer could with the assist- ance of his family work them well. On their acres, thus care- fully tilled and manured, they raised better and larger crops, than the Anglo-American planters on their plantations of thousands of acres with the help of negro labor. The culture of these vast estates often was carried to the point of exhaustion. The Handbook of Virginia97) very correctly says of the Ger- man farmers of the last century: "These people brought with them their frugal habits, their conservative systems and modes of farm management, which served to keep it what nature made it to be, one of the most desirable tracts of country in the United States." This statement is confirmed, too, in the reports of Dr. Johann David Schoepf in his description of Virginia a hundred years ago. He says: "They distinguish themselves by
96.) "Status of Virginia Agriculture in 1870,"-U. S. Report of Agriculture for 1870, pp. 271 to 272. Washington, 1871
97.) "Handbook of Virginia," Fifth Edition, p. 110. Richmond, Va , 1886.
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their diligence and steadiness. £ Their fellow-citizens concede that they possess these merits, - but only few are inclined to follow their example."
Concerning the customs and mode of life of the German colonists, Kercheval gives the following interesting details. 98)
"The first houses erected were log cabins, with covers of split clapboards, and weight-poles to keep them in place. There were, however, a few framed and stone buildings erected pre- vious to the war of the revolution. As the country improved in population and wealth, there was a corresponding improvement in the erection of buildings. When this improvement com- menced, the most general mode of building was with hewn logs, a shingle roof and plank floor, the plank cut out with the whip- saw. Before the erection of saw-mills, all the plank used was worked out in this way. The timber intended to be sawed was first squared with the broad-ax, and then raised on a scaffold six or seven feet high. Two able-bodied men then took hold of the saw, one standing on top of the log and the other under it. The labor was excessively fatiguing and about 100 feet of plank or scantling was considered a good day's work for two hands. - The dress of the early settlers was of the plainest materials, generally of their own manufacture. Previous to the war of the revolution, the married men generally shaved their heads, and either wore wigs or white linen caps. When the war com- menced, this fashion was laid aside, for wigs could not easily be obtained, nor white linen for caps. The men's coats were gener- ally made with broad backs and straight short skirts, with pock- ets on the outside having large flaps. The waistcoats had skirts nearly half-way down to the knees and very broad pocket flaps. The breeches were so short as barely to reach the knee, with a band surrounding the knee, fastened with either brass or silver buckles. The stocking was drawn up under the knee-band and tied with a garter (generally red or blue) below the knee, so as to be seen. The shoes were of coarse leather, with straps to the quarters, and fastened with either brass or silver buckles. The hat was either of wool or fur, with a round crown not ex- ceeding three or four inches high, with a broad brim. The
8 ) "History of the Valley," by S. Kercheval, pp 203-208 Winchester, Va , 1833.
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dress for the neck was usually a narrow collar to the shirt, with a white linen stock drawn together at the ends, on the back of the neck, with a broad metal buckle. The more wealthy and fashionable were sometimes seen with their stock, knee and shoe buckles set either in gold or silver with brilliant stones. - The female dress was generally the short gown and petticoat, made of the plainest materials. The German women mostly wore tight calico caps on their heads, and in the summer season they were generally seen with no other clothing than a linen shift and petticoat - the feet, hands and arms bare. In hay and harvest time they joined the men in the labor of the meadow and grain fields. Many females were most expert mowers and reapers. - The natural result of this kind of rural life was, to produce a hardy and vigorous race of people. It was this race of people who had to meet and breast the various Indian wars and the storms of the revolution. The Dutchman's barn was usually the best building on his farm. He was sure to erect a fine large barn, before he built any other dwelling house than his rude log cabin. There were none of our primitive immi- grants more uniform in the form of their buildings than the Germans. Their dwelling houses were seldom raised more than a single story in height, with a large cellar beneath; the chin- ney in the middle, with a very wide fire-place in one end of the kitchen, in the other end a stove-room. Their furniture was of the simplest and plainest kind; and there was always a long pine table fixed in one corner of the stove-room, with perma- nent benches on one side. On the upper floor garners for hold- ing grain were very common. Their .beds were generally filled with straw or chaff, with a fine feather bed for covering in the winter. Many of the Germans have what they call a drum, through which the stove-pipe passes in their upper rooms. It is made of sheet-iron, something in the shape of a military drum. It soon fills with heat from the pipe, by which the rooms become agreeably warm in the coldest weather. A piazza is a very com- mon appendage to a Dutchman's dwelling house, in which his saddles, bridles, and very frequently his wagon or plow harness, are hung up. The Germans erect stables for their domestic ani- mals of every species : even their swine are housed in the winter season. Their barns and stables are well stored with provender,
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