The Great Palatine Migration

I. Introduction

In the early days of the settlement of the English colonies, Some of the major destinations of the English and European Protestants were Pennsylvania, New York and Virginia. The Germans especially were developing colonies in these areas, and those colonies have their counterparts even today. Washington County, Maryland was essentially discovered by German colonists traveling between Pennsylvania and Virginia. Washington County has rich farm land, and streams to power mills for grinding flour. It is no surprise that the German farmers were attracted to this area. To understand the people who settled here and became the "Maryland Dutch", we have to go back to their origins in the old country, and become familiar with the forces which drove them out of their original homes. In 1776 Washington County was formed from Frederick County, Maryland. For a brief over-view of Early Frederick County history, see: Frederick County.

II. The Source of the Migration

A. The Palatinate

The Palatinate was situated west of the Rhine and north of the French (Alsatian) border. Before 1800, it used to include large areas east of the Rhine, including Mannheim and Heidelberg. Those of us today trying to find the Palatinate of the 1700s on maps, and drying to understand what was meant by the terms German, Deutch, and Palatine or Palatinate on colonial records, usually end up confused and frustrated. There is a reason for that. The historic Pfalz always did have rather vague boundaries and once consisted of 44 different countries. 

The Baden map included the Palatine territories east of the Rhine. In the northern and western parts of the Palatinate the terrain is mostly gently rolling hills, and it is valuable farming land. To the east there is the Rhine valley (very fertile land), and to the south you have the large Palatine Forest, with only small agricultural spots around the villages. The Palatinate is now called Pfalz. The present state of Rheinland-Pfalz consists of the Palatinate, parts of the former Prussian Rhine province (Rhineland), plus some smaller territories including Hohenzollern. The slope of the Palatine Forest (Pfaelzer Wald) is one of the biggest wine-producing areas in Germany. There is a new bilingual book which has recently been reviewed in the Palatine Immigrant which goes into great detail on the Palatine migration and conditions that led up to it. I haven't seen this book yet, but it is recommended by the editor of the Palatine Immigrant, Dr. John Terence Golden, 2609 Summit St., Columbus OH 43202-2432, who was kind enough to review this page for me.

B. Elsass

Elsass, was another area from which came a large number of people who were involved in the migration with the Palatines. Elsass was in essence, the upper Rhine River Valley and a good part of the Vosges Mountains in what is now France. The Vosges mountains were the western border and on the South was the Swiss Alps. The Rhine was the eastern border. This land has been claimed and fought over by both France and Germany for centuries. 

III. The Times

A. Liberal Thought

1. Scientific Humanism

Europe and Great Britain in the 1500's were going through a number of changes. Worldly knowledge was growing, and a philosophy of Scientific Humanism was developing and spreading. Scientific Humanism taught that the workings of the universe were controlled by natural processes and laws which could be understood and even controlled by man. This philosophy also taught that the human body worked very much like a machine, and that the processes of the body could also be understood and controlled by man. The Catholic Church felt that it was being challenged in some of its basic beliefs by the Humanists. At the same time, the Catholic Church itself was becoming more worldly and more corrupt, and the Protestant movement was growing in strength. I know there were many devout Catholics, and many good church leaders during this time, but politicians and others in power abused their connections with the churches to further their own goals, and many church leaders allowed this abuse of power, not to mention the issues addressed by the Articles which Martin Luther posted on the door of the famous cathedral.

2. Fashion

As at any other time when liberal thoughts and beliefs are in vogue, the spirit of the times even affected the mode of dress. Hemlines were edging up, and tunics were getting shorter. No, not on the women……..on the men! By the time of King Henry VIII, men required cod pieces to keep from showing off some very private pieces of anatomy. Pants had not yet been invented. The legs were covered with hose that reached up to the groin area and then were tied around the waist, to keep them up. The space between the hose and the ties was called the breaches. (pronounced, "breeks") If a man wearing the fashion in the late 1600's & the early 1700's bent over, he would often "show the breaches and all that was in them", in spite of the fact that he was wearing a cod piece in the front.

3. Catholic Retaliation

Since the Catholic Church felt its authority being chipped away, it started fighting back. In many areas open warfare was waged against the Protestants. Scientific leaders and the leaders of the Protestant groups were declared heretics, and many were executed. Armies laid siege to Protestant communities, and many were killed. Others were imprisoned, tortured and executed.

4. The Anabaptist Reaction

In the light of all this change, turmoil and strife, it is not surprising that a group sprang up which wanted to chuck the whole mess. The Anabaptists got their name from their opposition to infant baptism. They stated that a person should be baptized only after he had learned the gospel and made a personal decision to follow the teachings of Christ. However, they went on from there. They wore their tunics long, to cover themselves modestly as in a former time. Their dress was only decorated with the craft of their own hands. They refused to take oaths, opposed capital punishment, rejected military service and gave no allegiance to any king or pope. The authorities saw them as subversives, and decided that the Anabaptists should be exterminated. Diaries of some of our ancestors who were involved in the Palatine migration give accounts of people being burned at the stake, fried on flat rocks, chained together and thrown into lakes to drown, and many other forms of torture and execution. One account gives record of a woman whose tongue was screwed to the bottom of her mouth to stop her from preaching.

Dr. John Terence Golden points out that the Anabaptists were one the more radical groups which came into being during this time period. And actually, most of the Palatines were Lutheran or Reformed, and there were even some Catholics living in the Palatinate. Also one of the things which did produce a lot of extra strife for this people is the fact that not all of the Anabaptists were peaceful. There was a militant branch of the group which caused a lot of havoc in the cities and towns around the Palatine Provinces. Unfortunately, the strife which came upon this territory and this group of people did not discriminate as to which were the trouble makers and which were the innocent. All the Protestants were lumped in together by those who would persecute them, and the troubles of the land itself did not make any distinctions, but were applied to all equally.

B. Mercantilism

1. General Principles

At this same time, a philosophy of trade was developing among the sea-faring nations. This philosophy was called mercantilism, and it was based upon colonialism. In essence, this philosophy was based upon the idea that a country could increase its wealth by having colonies. The colonies under this plan could be absolutely controlled by the parent country, but they would be occupied by people who were not citizens of the parent country. Therefore the colony would be self-sustaining at no cost to the parent country, but the colony would produce goods for sale at a premium price only to the parent country. The colony could also be taxed without representation and without being provided reciprocating services. Luxury items which the colony could not produce for itself could only be bought from the parent country, which absolutely controlled the prices of such goods.

2. English Colonies

England set up several such colonies, at least one of which (Australia) was actually a penal colony. Several of these colonies were set up in America, and in 1681, the English Quaker, William Penn, was granted the charter for the Province of Pennsylvania. Within the next year, William Penn founded the city of Philadelphia, and in 1683, he made a peace treaty with the Delaware Indians. William Penn then advertised that there was a place of refuge for the persecuted Protestants of the world.

C. The Final Settings to the Stage

1. The 30 Years War

In 1685 the Edict of Nantes, a document granting equality under the law to Protestants as well as Catholics, was revoked. With the revocation of the Edict of Nantes, the authorities, and particularly the French, really put the pressure on the Anabaptists and the Huguenots, who were the French version of the troublesome Protestants. The objective of the 30 Years War was the balance of power between the Catholics and the Protestants in all of Germany. However, the war was fought very hard in the Palatinate because the Palatine Elector was one of the most powerful of the Protestant rulers. After the 30 Years war, most of the population were killed. There were almost no survivors in the Palatinate. Many people immigrated into the Palatinate at this time, especially Protestants, as the Elector promised them religious freedom.

2. Catholic Rule in the Palatinate

The Palatine Emigration started when a Catholic Elector took over the rule, and persecution of the Protestants was started once again. Thus the stage was completely set for the Great Palatine Migration. The ones who didn't leave on their own were forced out by war and religious persecution. Apparently, even many of the Protestants in the jails were released and forced to emigrate. Almost all of those that left were stripped of their valuables, and many had nothing but the clothing on their backs as they started down the Rhine River to the Netherlands.

3. The Weather

Even those who were not forced to emigrate, were affected. In 1709 the winter was so severe, that the Rhine froze over and people were starving in the Palatinate. This was when Queen Anne advertised in the Palatinate that England would accept all German Protestants for immigration. Catholics who tried to enter England were given 5 guilders and sent back to Hannover. This was also when the tent city refugee camp outside of London was set up.

IV. The Emigration Route

A. The Palatinate to The Netherlands

The first part of the emigration route was down the Rhein river to the Netherlands. Few would have been able to make the trip without help. An underground railroad was established, and Protestant families along the Rhein gave sanctuary to the refugees as they made their way to the new world.

1. Origin of the Hans Michael Rohrer Family

The family of my immigrant ancestor, Hans Michael Rohrer originated from the Rhein valley in Switzerland. Hans Michael Rohrer was married and his children were born in Markirch, Elsass, Germany, which is now called Ste. Marie-aux-Mines, Haut-Rhin, France. Johannes Rohrer, his last born son while he was in Markirch, was born 1 Nov 1701. It was customary in that area and at that time to give children the names of saints, thus every male child would be named after the patron saint of the family. Sometimes every girl child will also be found with the same common first name, but not so often as the boys. Then every child would have a distinct middle name by which he would be known. Thus it was common for a German family to have all of its sons named some form of John with all but one of them having middle names. Some family traditions say that this way when the devil came for a child, he would become confused as to which John was which. Two sons of Hans Michael were named Hans Jakob and Hans Michael. The next two sons were given the name of Johannes Jakob and Johannes. Actually we now have five Johns, but I am going to focus on the two named, Johannes.

2. Flight From Markirch

The family of Hans Michael Rohrer, Sr. was forced about the year 1711 to move from Markirch to escape religious persecution. Johannes Jacob, the third son was captured by the French while he was trying to save some of the family possessions. He somehow escaped from prison, and he followed the usual route of the Palatine Emigrants. He escaped into Southern Germany. His final destination was Holland and the Dutch followers of Menno Simmons, the Mennonites. The Mennonites helped the Palatinates to emigrate to the American Colonies, usually via London. Actually the ship owners usually sold the emigrants to England for their passage fees.

Most of the Palatines were then put in one of two refugee camps: there was one outside of London, and when that one got too full, one was set up in Ireland. There is still a colony of Germanic people in Ireland to this day. From the refugee/concentration camps, the English would ship people to any one of a number of its colonies throughout the world. Family tradition states that Johannes Jacob studied veterinary surgery in London, and then migrated to the colonies and settled in Lancaster County, Pa. Another story states that he was sold into bond slavery, he ran off and then he married the daughter of a rich land owner, Maria Souder. Actually a family Bible states that John Jacob married Maria Souder in Mannheim in 1732 which is the same year that he arrived in Lancaster, Pa. with his bride and her father. Mannheim was a Protestant and French Huguenot refuge in Germany. We can assume in this case that the bride's father paid for their passage.

3. Flight From Strasburg

In the meantime, Johannes Rohrer, the fourth son, went with his family as they escaped the French and they settled in Strasburg. About the year 1725, religious persecution forced the family of Hans Michael, Sr. to once again flee its home. As they left Strassburg, Johannes was attempting to save some of the family possessions from their home, when he was separated from his family. He was captured by the French, and he was the second son that the family lost in this manner. He later escaped or was forced to emigrate. At this time he was about 24 years old. He too, probably followed the route of the Palatine Migration, and he was most likely the Johanne Roer who landed at Philadelphia in the ship "The Mortonhouse" on 24 August 1728.

It is speculated that he worked for four years on an English plantation near Philadelphia to pay off his passage fee. The next heard of him was in the year 1732 when Johannes went to Lancaster Co., Pa. and found his brother Johannes Jacob Rohrer. Johannes married Elizabeth Snavely about 1735 and settled near his brother in Lampeter twp. He bought a farm on te Conestoga Creek, 8 Oct 1763.B. England

England saw the German refugees as being worth their weight in gold. However, England had to ensure that the European refugees would not cost too much for upkeep. They were also not to be allowed to become citizens. That was the reason for the refugee camps.

1. Refugee Camps

The camps were as refugee camps always are. They were tent cities that were too crowded, too dirty, and too unsanitary for comfort. Most of the history books (of the ones that even mention them) assure us that the English Queen graciously provided the essentials required for living in the camps, but I am sure that it was not a comfortable time for the Palatines.

2. The Trip

As soon as a boat became available, it was packed with refugees to capacity and beyond. The voyage to the colonies was miserable. The boats were over-crowded, there was no privacy, the drinking water was polluted, and the food was vermin-ridden. Only enough food and water was supplied to provide for the longest average trip. If a boat was delayed by the weather, the refugees, who were considered as cargo, were in trouble. Consider the description of a rather severe ocean voyage by the Ulster Scots, who shared many of the privations of the Palatines: Voyage. In spite of all the difficulties, many of the people made the trip in relative good health.

At least they did arrive at their destination in the new world. Well…..not always! Most of them arrived in Pennsylvania, which was their primary destination. Some were let off in New York, and some were let off in Virginia, but there were others who were dropped off in places like Australia, and even in Brazil. In the case of the German colony in Brazil, which is still in evidence in modern times, the ship was driven off course by storms, and the captain just dropped off his passengers, without even trying to recoup his losses by continuing on to the English colonies. Once the ship arrived at any port, the captain of the ship sold the refugees into bond slavery.

C. The Bond

1. The Contract

In many cases, the officials at each point along the way held up the emigrants for various fees and charges. Some of the most onerous of the officials they encountered were the ship captains. Before boarding the ship, the Germans were made to sign a contract. Since the whole migration program was essentially an English project, and the destination was an English colony, the contract was in English. Many of our ancestors couldn't have read it even if it were in German. They were just told by mouth that they would be required to a time of service in the colonies at their destination. As it turned out, the contract was for a certain amount of money to be paid at their disembarkation. Even if a man or woman died on board the ship, the spouse was obligated to pay for the passage fees of the deceased. If both parents died, the children were held to the obligation to pay for their parents. The trip usually lasted from 3 to 6 weeks. Many got sick on the way, and in the book, "Erster Teil der Geschichte der Deutschen Gesellschaft von Pennsylvanian" by Oswald Seidensticker, estimates that, in one year, over 2000 died on the way.

2. Disembarkation

When the ship reached a harbor, the ones who could pay the disembarkation fees, were allowed to leave the ship immediately. Those who could not pay and who were healthy were kept on the ship until a person who would buy the bond for the full amount of money owed came onto the ship, examined the "redemptioners" chose one or more, and paid the fees. At this point many families were separated when family members were bought by different "masters". This process may take days or weeks, while the sick ones were still on the ship, with the poor conditions and little or no medical care. Once all of the healthy ones were sold at full price, then the sick ones were auctioned off for whatever price they could bring. The trials were also not over for those who could pay their own fees. Many ports, especially in New York, charged their own disembarkation fees.

3. Bond Slavery

As for the "redemptioneers" the usual amount of time that a Palatine spent in bond was four years, but even that at times was variable. Many of the children, especially those who were orphaned, or who were separated from their parents and lost contact with the rest of the family, had to serve until they were 21. Some of the bond holders kept the Palatines, and the Irish, who were treated in much the same way, for as long as it took for the immigrants to pay off their debts. Also some of the bond holders were very creative in the way they computed the debts of their bonded, and charged for such things as room and board.

V. The Palatine Colonists

Once the Palatine emigrants got established in the colonies, they in turn, started helping out other emigrants. The Palatines of America monitored the schedules of ship arrivals, and many of them met the ships which were due to have Palatines on board. In this way many of the colonists were able to pay for the passage of family members and literally to buy them out of slavery.

Johannes Jakob Rohrer was one of the Palatine emigrants who met ships of docking Palatines at the harbor. One day, he lucked out, and one of the first passengers whom he met coming off one of the ships, turned out to be his father. Johnnes, who now called himself John, immediately recognized his parent, but the latter did not know his son. Johannes Jakob's mother had died and his father was married again, and had two or three sons by his second wife. They were destitute of means and expected to be sold for their passage money. John paid the demands, brought his father and his father's family with him, and aided his half brothers to property near what is now Hagerstown, Maryland. I am descended from Martin Rohrer, one of the sons, who was set up on land in what is now Washington County, Maryland. Thus the event in history known as the Great Palatine Migration came to an end for my family.

VI. Links

More Information and background:

The winter of 1708-1709 was very long and cold in the Rhineland. It was a very bleak period. People huddled around their fires as they considered quitting their homes and farms forever. By early April, the land was still frozen and most of the Palatines' vines had been killed by the bitter weather. Since 1702 their country had been enduring war and there was little hope for the future. The Thirty Years War lay heavy on their minds, a period in which one out of every three Germans had perished.

The Palatines were heavily taxed and endured religious persecution. As the people considered their future, the older ones remembered that, in 1677, William Penn had visited the area, encouraging the people to go to Pennsylvania in America, a place where a man and his family could be free of the problems they were now encountering.

To go to America meant a long, dreadful ocean voyage and a future in an unknown land, away from their past and family. Everyone knew that the German Elector would stop any migration as soon as it was noticed. Only a mass exodus from the Palatinate could be successful. Many wondered how they could ever finance such a journey even if they wanted to attempt it. Small boats, known as scows, would have to be acquired for the long ride down the Rhine River and then there was the price for the ocean voyage. While some of the people had relatives that could assist them financially, many were very poor. Soon enough, their minds were made up for them as France's King Louis XIV invaded their land, ravaging especially the towns in the Lower Palatinate.

In masses, the Palatines boarded their small boats and headed down the Rhine for Rotterdam. It was April 1709 and the first parties were afloat on the Rhine, many with only their most basic goods and their faith in God as their only possessions. The river voyage took an average of 4-6 weeks through extremely cold, bitter weather. By June, 1709, the people streamed into Rotterdam at a rate of one thousand per week. The Elector, as expected, issued an edict forbidding the migration, but almost everyone ignored it. By October, 1709, more than 10,000 Palatines had completed the Rhine River journey.

The Duke of Marlborough was assigned by Queen Anne to transport the immigrants to England. British troop ships were also used. The Queen assumed these Protestants would help fuel the anti-Roman feelings developing in England. The ships from Rotterdam landed, in part, at Deptford and the refugees were sent to one of three camps at Deptford, Camberwell, and Blackheath outside the city wall of London. Many Londoner's welcomed the Palatines, but the poor were not, as they felt their English food was being taken from them to feed the Germans. British newspapers published mixed accounts of the Palatines, some praising them while others cursed them.

Over 3,000 of these Palatines were sent to Ireland, again to reinforce the Protestant faith in that land. The trip from england to Ireland was short, taking only about 24 hours. Included among these immigrants were a line of my possible ancestors, Sebastian ROCKEL (later called RUCKEL, RUCKLE, and RUTTLE)and his wife and children. They settled on Lord Southwell's estate near Ballingrane in County Limerick, Ireland. Several branches remained in Ireland, becoming known as the RUTTLE's. Other branches came to New York in the mid-1700's.

Meanwhile, streams of Palatines went to America, with most going to Pennsylvania. The ocean voyage was harsh, with over-crowded, under-supplied, and unsanitary ships. What provisons were supplied were generally the least expensive available to the ship's master. Water frequently ran out, as did food. Dreadful mortality occurred on many voyages. In addition to those woes, the Palatines faced robbery, deception, and worse from those transporting them.

Estimates on the number of Germans in Pennsylvania during this period varies from author to author, but a common estimate is 10,000-15,000 by 1727 and 70,000-80,000 by 1750. A good source for reviewing German arrivals to Pennsylvania is Rupp's "Thirty Thousand Immigrants in Pennsylvania" which contains numerous ship passenger lists and has an excellent surname index. Another good resource is Walter Knittle's "Early Eighteenth-Century Palatine Emigration".

Immigrants not only came from Germany, but also Bohemia and Switzerland. Most were either Lutheran, Reformed, or Mennonite in religious belief.

My earliest known Pennsylvania Palatine settler was Johanne Balthasar ROCKEL who was born in Germany in 1707. His exact arrival in Pennsylvania is unknown. The earliest records I have found is a 1755 tax record in Allen Township and a 1760 baptismal record for his son, Johanne Jurg ROCKEL at Schmaltzgass, in 1760 at Northampton County.

The State of the Poor Palatines As Humbly Represented By Themselves Upon Their First Arrival In This Kingdom, About June, 1709 (from London, England)

We the poor distressed Palatines, whose utter Ruin was occasioned by the merciless Cruelty of a Blood Enemy, the French, whose prevailing Power some years past, like a Torrent rushed into our Country, and overwhelmed us at once; and being not content with Money and Food necessary for their Occasions, not only dispossest us of all Support but inhumanely burnt our House to the ground, where being deprived of all Shelter, we were turned into open Fields, and there drove with our Families, to seek what Shelter we could find, being obliged to make the cold Earth our Lodgings, and the Clouds our Covering. In this deplorable condition we made our Humble Supplications and Cries to Almighty God, who has promised to relieve them that put their Trust in him, whose Goodness we have largely Experienced, in disposing the Hearts of Pious Princes to a Christian Compassion and Charity towards us in this miserable condition, who by their Royal Bounties and large Donations, and the exemplary Kindness of well-disposed Nobility, Gentry, and Others, We and our poor Children have been preserved from Perishing; specially since our Arrival into this happy Kingdom of GREAT BRITAIN. While not only like the Land of Canaan, abounds with all things necessary for human Life, but also with a Religious People, who as freely give to the Distressed for Christ’s sake, as it was given to them by the Almighty Donor of all they enjoy. Blessed Land and Happy People! Governed by the Nursing Mother of Europe, and the Best of Queens! Whose unbounded Mercy and Charity has received us despicable Strangers from afar off into Her own Dominions, where we have found a Supply of all things Necessary for our present Subsistence; for which we bless and praise Almighty God, the Queen’s most Excellent Majesty and all Her good subjects, from the Highest Degree to those of the meanest Capacity; and do sincerely and faithfully promise to all our utmost Powers, for the future, to render ourselves Thankful to God, and Serviceable to Her Majesty, and all her Good Subjects, in what way soever her goodness is pleased to dispose of Us: and in the mean time be constant in our Prayers, that God would return the Charity of well disposed People a thousand fold into their own Bosoms, which is all the Requittal that can present be made by us poor distressed Protestants.

Webster's Collegiate Dictionary defines Palatine (among other things) as: "a native or inhabitant of the Palatinate" or "a feudal lord having sovereign power within his domains". It defines "Palatinate" as: the territory of a Palatine". So much for dictionaries... its no wonder the term is not understood.

Generally speaking, a "Palatine" is someone who came from the region of Germany called "The Palatinate". Germany as a country has not existed very long. Prior to 1871, what is now Germany was a number of separate states, such as Württemberg, Prussia, Bavaria, etc., whose boundaries changed frequently as a result of war and other causes. The Palatinate was one of these states, and was located along the Rhine River, roughly where the modern German state of Rhineland-Pfalz is located.

In the 18th and early 19th century, the term "Palatine" was used in America to describe immigrants from "The Palatinate" and other adjoining German-speaking areas. Finding an American reference to someone being from the "Palatinate" may not point to a specific place of origin, but rather an approximate location in or near western or southern Germany.
 

The German population in Pennsylvania.

The Germans were an important source to white immigration in the eighteenth and nineteenth century, in North America. In the eighteenth century the Germans emigrated from the southwest region, particularly the Palatinate, Württemberg, and Baden. There were also immigrants from the German-speaking parts of Switzerland. The constant warfare, few economic opportunities and a desire for religious freedom drove many people across the Atlantic and to Pennsylvania. It was not unusual to migrate in several stages. Germans were transit-immigrants in Ireland, England and the Nederlands.

Francis Daniel Pastorius brought with him the first Germans to America in 1683, but it was only a small group of Quaker immigrants. William Penn invited them to come and settle in Pennsylvania. Pastorius was an agent for an association of German Quakers. They wished to purchase land within Pennsylvania. In 1863 they did and the area was called Germantown. This town became later a part of Philadelphia. In 1690 the Palatine Prince converted to Catholicism, and he started a persecution of religious sects like Mennonites and Dunkers, in his attempt to convert them to Catholicism. Because of this persecution the German emigration became substantial (15).The first of the immigration waves was characterised by religious pietist sects like the Mennonites and Dunkers. In the 1720s a larger wave of immigrants of the Lutheran and Reformed Churches arrived, it may seem as they left for more economic than religious reasons. Soon other German groups like the Moravians and the Amish people arrived. The Amish People arrived in Delaware and Lancaster County. Dunkers also settled in Lancaster County or in Berkshire County. Pennsylvania was known as a colony with religious tolerant inhabitants. Such conditions may have attracted a lot of those who had experienced persecution in Europe.

Between 1683 and 1760 the number of German-speaking immigrants may have been close to one hundred thousand; and according to the 1790 census, the Germans were more than twenty five percent of Pennsylvania’s population. In the 1790 the Germans outnumbered the People of English and Welsh nationalities in several counties; this situation made some of the English inhabitants fear for the survival of their language and culture. The assimilation of the German groups varied. The "Pennsylvania Dutch " (from German Deutsch, or Deitsch, "German") had large settlements in Berks County. They were easily assimilated with the other "Americans" some of them even changed their names from Holz to Wood and Zimmerman to Carpenter. Even if some of the Germans where assimilated others still preserved their culture. There were a lot of Germans newspapers, Germans schools, special German dishes, German books and German art in Pennsylvania. Even if the Germans seemed to settle in areas of a consisting German population, they were still assimilated (16). A lot of Germans had learned to speak English especially in the urban and near-urban areas.

The largest part of the German population was farmers. Their farming skills were good so their crops were satisfactory and the fields were not exhausted like in the South. Philadelphia was the financial capital in North America from the early days until the1850s, then it lost the position to New York. In Philadelphia one third of the population was German. They were also important in the financial institutions and commerce.

The German immigrants in the nineteenth century settled in the already existing German communities but they went further into the country and settled in Ohio. In the states where the first Germans settled people have still today some German customs and celebration.

German Contribution to the Early History of the USA

A large number of Americans have German ancestors. More than 25% of U.S. Americans are either completely or partly of German descent. There was even some talk after the War of Independence about whether English or German should be the national language! In the mid-1700s, Benjamin Franklin grumbled about Philadelphia's bilingual street signs and complained that the Pennsylvania parliament would soon need German-English interpreters. In the late-1700s the parliamentary records of Pennsylvania and new state laws were published in both English and German, and the parliament of Maryland decided to publish a German-language version of the Constitution. The fact that official bilingual publishing of parliamentary business slackened off in the 1800s had more to do with the fact that the German-language newspapers of the US were then reporting parliamentary news in detail. Much of the technical and cultural innovation that has come out of the USA would not have been possible without the contribution of German immigrants, whose influence on the USA began in the 1600s.

A small number of German tradesmen (glassmakers, carpenters, sawmill wrights, and mining experts) were taken with the first settlers to the Jamestown colony in Virginia in the years 1608 to 1620, however, they all probably died without leaving descendants. Settlers' chances of survival in that period at Jamestown were low due to hunger, diseases and attacks from the native Americans.

From 1626 to 1632 a German, Peter Minuit from Wesel on the Rhine, was employed by the Netherlands to organise and govern their American colony of New Amsterdam. He built the successful foundation for the greatest metropolis on the American continent, which later became known as New York. Peter Minuit later went to work for the Swedish government and in 1638 built Fort Christina (named after the Swedish queen) as the central point of the colony of New Sweden on Delaware Bay. The Swedish colony was keen to attract German immigrants, and in May 1654 Johann Rising, secretary of the Chamber of Commerce of Elbing, led 100 German families to New Sweden, the first group of German emigrants to North America. A few years later the Dutch from New Amsterdam took the Swedish colony by force, and in 1664 New Amsterdam and New Sweden went into English control.

Germantown, Pennsylvania

Tricentennial stampThe English Quaker William Penn received a large area of land west of the Delaware from the English government as payment of a debt owed to his father by the government. He named it Pennsylvania and declared it a place of refuge for all Europeans who felt persecuted on the basis of their religion. The capital of Pennsylvania was named Philadelphia (city of brotherly love). Penn knew German and could preach in German, and had frequently been in Germany in the 1670s. He had contact with the Mennonite community in the area of the lower Rhine and in Frankfurt. Many of them were interested in emigrating to Pennsylvania and did so in autumn of 1683 on the ship "Concord", the journey taking 70 days. A large piece o f land was sold to them by Penn and named Germantown, today a suburb of Philadelphia. The second bible to be printed in America was the German bible printed in Germantown by Christoph Saur in 1743.

The settlement of the Mennonites resulted in other German religious sects seeking refuge in America.

The community leaders of Germantown wrote the first protest against the slave system on American soil (appealing in the name of humanity and of the Christian religion), almost 200 years (18th February 1688) before the Civil War. The Annual Conference of the Quakers in Pennsylvania did not wish to go into the politically tricky issue raised by their German brothers. Only 30 years later did the Pennsylvania Quakers speak out against the slave trade.

In the 1770s a third of the population of Philadelphia was German. A study by Albert Faust came to the conclusion that in 1775 10% of the population of the American colonies was German, though they were distributed unevenly amongst the 13 colonies. Dr Benjamin Rush (1745-1813), a Philadelphia doctor, signer of the Declaration of Independence, surgeon general of the Continental Army during the early part of the American Revolution (1776-1783) and member of Congress, was curious about the prosperity of Pennsylvania and decided that the German farmers there had much to do with it. He wrote a study listing what he thought were the reasons why the German farmers were better farmers than the non-German farmers in Pennsylvania. When the War of Independence began, Pennsylvania farms were producing enough food to feed the American Army and the allied French Army for the duration of the war. Most of the grain was provided by Pennsylvania-German farmers. Dr Rush wrote that the Pennsylvania farms produced millions of dollars, which after 1780 made possible the founding of the Bank of North America (chartered in 1781).

The famous Declaration of Independence was available to the public in a printed German translation before it was released in English. It was a one-page broadside print published by Steiner and Cist of Philadelphia. Large numbers of Germans lived in the Pennsylvania area. Look at a picture of the Declaration of Independence in German! (size: 161K)

On July 5, 1776, the "Pennsylvanischer Staatsbote" was America's first paper to announce that the Declaration of Independence had been adopted. The text reads as follows (there are some old-style German spellings in it):

 

Reasons for German Immigration to the United States:

The Protestant Reformation ignited by Martin Luther opened the door for many others to express their dissatisfaction with the Roman Catholic Church in Sixteenth Century Germany. The expression was not simply a verbal argument; the Protestant princes mustered armies among their followers, and responded to Catholic edicts with violence. The fact that Church lands were confiscated by force was distressing to the Catholic leaders. Charles V, King of Germany at the time of the Protestant Reformation, attempted to settle the religious quarrel between the Protestants and Catholics by discussion and arbitration. When that effort failed, he resorted to force in the attempt to crush the Protestant armies. The Lutheran Princes joined in an alliance with the French king, Henry II, who was promised the border cities of Metz, Toul and Verdun if he supplied French aid to their cause. Charles realized what a war with France would entail, and offered a compromise.

The Peace of Augsburg in 1555 promised to the territorial princes the right to decide whether Catholicism or Lutheranism would be admitted within their respective realms. If the common man within a particular territory disagreed with the faith that the prince of that territory chose, he would be permitted to emigrate with his family to another territory. A second provision was that only Lutheranism, of the various Protestant sects, would be permitted in opposition to Catholicism. Lands which were in Lutheran possession at the time of the Treaty of Passau (1552) would remain under such ownership, but thereafter, if a Catholic bishop or other ecclesiastical leader were to convert to Lutheranism, he would have to forfeit his lands and property.

The Peace of Augsburg was flawed and, in part, served as a cause of the Thirty Years War that would erupt in 1618. It was difficult to enforce the provisions. On the one hand, the provision calling for the forfeiture of property was openly violated and flaunted. Catholic princes of territories throughout Germany professed a conversion to Lutheranism, but converted the Church properties within their realms into private holdings. On the other hand, the Peace of Augsburg recognized only Lutheranism as a valid Protestant sect. The Calvinists, Anabaptists and others resented being excluded from the Peace of Augsburg's provisions. It was because of the latter problem that the Protestant Union was formed. The Union was led by a Calvinist prince by the name of Frederick, the Elector Palatine of the Rhine.

The ambitions of Emperor Matthias, the Habsburg king of Austria posed a threat to both, the Protestants and the Catholics. But the Catholic princes formed a League, led by Maximilian of Bavaria, to counter the Protestant Union. The Catholic League decided to support the Habsburg king, who professed his devout Catholic faith. Matthias was childless, and his choice for successor was Ferdinand of Styria, who was likewise loyal to Catholicism. The choice of Ferdinand was accepted in Austria and most of the other regions that fell under the direct control of the Habsburg king. But in Bohemia, the predominantly Calvinist noblemen staged a protest against another Catholic king over their territories. They declared the dethronement of the Habsburg dynasty and then proclaimed the election of Frederick, the Elector Palatine of the Rhine as their new king.

 King Ferdinand responded to the Bohemian challenge by enlisting the aid of a Spanish army to invade the Palatinate region of Germany, and with Maximilian of Bavaria to invade Bohemia with his own army. The Catholic forces were victorious in this initial foray. From that point the war escalated into an international conflict. The Spanish king, Philip IV saw his success in destroying the Palatinate as simply a stepping stone to retaking possession of Holland. The invasion of Holland by the Spanish brought England and France into the conflict on the behalf of Holland. The war even spread across the Atlantic Ocean to Brazil in South America. King Christian IV of Denmark and Norway, the Duke of Holstein, and as such a member of the Holy Roman Empire, invaded Germany in an effort to overthrow the Habsburg dynasty. The predominantly Lutheran nation of Sweden joined in the war as an ally of the Protestant Union, it is said, because she feared in Germany fell to the Papists, Sweden would be next.

The Thirty Years War was finally brought to a conclusion with the Treaty of Westphalia, which was signed on 24 October, 1648. The terms of the treaty included the extension of the same rights to the Calvinists as those that had been extended to the Lutherans in the Peace of Augsburg. The Upper Palatinate was ceded to Bavaria. The Lower Palatinate was restored to the eldest son of Frederick, the Elector of the Palatinate of the Rhine. Western Pomerania, including Bremen and Verden, was ceded to Sweden. Brandenburg received the bishoprics of Camin, Halberstadt, Minden and a large portion of Magdeburg. France obtained the Alsace, with the exception of Strasburg; she also retained possessionof Metz, Toul and Verdun. The United Provinces of the Netherlands (i.e. Holland) and Switzerland received their independence from the Empire.

The results of the Thirty Years War, in spite of the devastation wrought on Germany included a certain amount of religious freedom and the emergence of "modern" statehood in Europe. In the end, not all of the Protestant sects were granted equal liberty; only Lutheranism and Calvinism were afforded legal status alongside Catholicism. But since it was the Calvinists who instigated the conflict, they were satisfied with the settlement. Of importance to the Protestant Union was the curtailment of the Habsburg dominance in Germany. The prestige of the Holy Roman Empire was shattered as a result of the war, and as a result, it emerged as simply one of the many "sovereign states" of Europe.

The Germany of the 1700s consisted of nearly three hundred territories, duchies, city-states and cantons linked together by language, custom and their common Germanic ethnicity. The Electoral Palatinate (i.e. the Kurpfalz) was one of the larger territories. It encompassed the region on both sides of the Rhine River and it tributaries, the Main and Neckar Rivers. At the present time the Rheinland-Pfalz is known as the Palatinate, and it lies entirely on the west side of the Rhine. The region to the east of the Rhine, the Neckar Valley, is now known as Baden-Wurttemberg. The German emigrants of the 1700s came primarily from the Palatinate territories located along the Rhine River (i.e. in the southern part of western Germany and the northern part of Switzerland). The greatest number of emigrants came from the Duchies/districts of Zweibrucken, Darmstadt, Hesse-Darmstadt, Hanau, Franconia, Spires, Worms, Nassau, Alsace, Baden and Wurttemberg and the Archbishoprics of Treves and Mayence. The region lying to the east of the Rhine and south of the Neckar, between the Schwarzwald (i.e. the Black Forest) and the Odenwald (i.e. Oden Forest) was known during the Middle Ages as the Kraichgau, and from that region came a large number of emigrants.

The Peace of Augsburg of 1555 gave the sovereign over a village or territory the privilege of choosing the religious preference for the people who resided there. The majority of the Palatinate became Lutheran in 1556, but the villages governed by the Bishopric of Speyer remained Catholic. By the 1560s the Reformed Church had come to the Palatinate; it supplanted Lutheranism as the dominant faith. Then, during the Thirty Years War, Catholicism once more became the predominant faith in the Palatinate. In 1705 the "Palatine Church Division" was effected. The terms of the "Division" included a ruling that 5/7ths of the parishes in the Palatinate were to be Reformed; 2/7ths were to be Catholic; none were to be Lutheran.

Religious persecution is the reason often cited for the emigration of thousands of Germans. That idea seems to simply be a misinterpretation of the "religious persecution" reason for the emigration of British subjects hoping to avoid the Church of England. In terms of the German and Swiss emigrants, religious persecution was only one small aspect of the grand migration. In fact, it might be argued that it was more difficult for Germans and Swiss to obtain permission to emigrate on grounds of religious persecution than any other.

In 1688 King Louis XIV of France sent a large army into the Palatinate to take it into the possession of France. Two years earlier King Leopold I, the Holy Roman Emperor entered into an alliance with a number of German princes, and the kings of Holland, Sweden and Spain to preserve the Holy Roman Empire against a possible French attack. Ties between the royal families of Holland and England induced England to join the League of Augsburg. The League of Augsburg was therefore ready to meet Louis' army when it arrived in the Rhine Valley in 1688. The War of the League of Augsburg lasted for roughly seven years from 1689 to 1697. It spread to the North American Continent where it became known as King William's War.

The War of the Spanish Succession was felt in the Palatinate when, in 1707, a French army under Marshal Villars crossed the Rhine and plundered throughout the region which is today southwestern Germany.

The hardships wrought by the Thirty Years’ War and then the subsequent War of the League of Augsburg, along with certain natural causes figured more prominently than religious persecution as causative factors of the migration of Germans and Swiss to America. John Duncan Brite in his dissertation, The Attitude Of European States Toward Emigration To The American Colonies, 1607-1820, noted that there were a series of crop failures throughout the territories occupied by Wurttemberg and Pfalz-Rhineland. Hardest hit were the fruit orchards and vinyards, due to the extreme cold of the winter of 1708/1709. Devastatingly cold weather hit Germany and the rest of western Europe. Extreme cold set in as early as October. By November, 1708 it was said that firewood would not burn in the open air and that alcohol froze. The rivers, including the swift flowing Rhone, became covered with ice that permitted carts to be driven across them. At about the same time, restrictions were placed on grazing and wood gathering in the ducal forests of the Palatinate. Increased taxes added to the hardships of survival faced by the working classes.

The greatest motivation for the mass emigration of Palatines appears not to have been religious persecution, war devastation, crop failures or even taxes. Enticement was probably the greatest encouragement for the emigration of the majority of the Germans and Swiss. That enticement came from two sources: 1.) propaganda spread by Neulanders, and 2.) letters from prior emigrants.

William Penn was given a grant of land by King Charles II of England in 1681 as payment of a loan made by William's father. Charles probably found it beneficial to get rid of Penn because he was a loud exponent of his Quaker faith. That faith, among a few others, threatened the power of the Church of England. By granting Penn the land in the New World, Charles would succeed in repaying the debt (without spending money which his government budget could not easily afford). Also, it would remove the bothersome Quaker group from his country. It would be assumed that the Quakers found the deal to be most satisfactory because they simply wanted to be able to practice their religious beliefs as they wished; their intentions had not been to provoke the troubles that they found themselves constantly in.

The British government expected the proprietors of colonies in the New World to populate those colonies in order to confirm the British claims to the land. William Penn, therefore, set about publicizing the plans for his "Holy Experiment". It would be a self-governing state with the separation of Church and State an integral part of the government's foundation. William Penn called for any and all interested persons to make the trip across the ocean to settle in his granted lands. A pamphlet was printed in England and distributed throughout the Palatine. Titled: Some account of the Province of Pennsylvania in America, the pamphlet published William Penn's offer to sell one hundred acres of land in exchange for £2. Penn's pamphlet also offered equal rights to all persons regardless of religion or race. Various other books and pamphlets were published and distributed throughout the Rhine valley during the next two decades, including Daniel Falckner's Curieuse Nachricht von Pennsylvania (i.e. Curious News From Pennsylvania).

Records do not reveal any mass migrations as a direct result of Penn's pamphlet campaign in Germany, but some families did take him up on the promise of a better life in the New World. Although the first major emigration of Germans would not occur until 1709, the names of sixty-four German men, heads of their households, were included on a listing made in 1691 of the residents of German Town in Pennsylvania. 

The earliest emigration of Germans and Swiss from their homelands to the New World was that of a party led by Francis Daniel Pastorius in the year 1683. Enticed by William Penn's invitation to his province, the party settled near the young town of Philadelphia. The German settlement was appropriately named "Germantown".

Twenty-five years would pass between the emigration of the Pastorius party and the next significant mass departure. In 1708 the Reverend Joshua Kocherthal assembled a party of forty-one adults and their children and prepared to emigrate to the Carolinas; they had been enticed by the advertisements published by the proprietary governor of the Carolina colony. In order to settle in any of the British colonies, Kocherthal had to submit a request to Queen Anne. The party traveled to London in the Spring of 1708 to secure the royal permission and was confronted by the usual governmental red-tape. Reverend Kocherthal had to provide a justification for the emigration; the reason given was the French ravages in the Rhine and Neckar Valleys in 1707. The Germans' petition was submitted to the Board of Trade. The Board of Trade suggested that the Germans should be settled in Antigua. Upon the opinion that the Palatines would not be suited to the hot climate of the West Indies it was then suggested that they be directed to the Hudson River Valley of the Province of New York. The Germans would therefore be available to assist the English on the frontier against the French and the Indians.

By the time that the Germans actually embarked for the New World in October, the original party of forty-one had been increased by the addition of fourteen more emigrants. One family had to remain behind because of the mother's illness. En route, two children were born.

The Kocherthal party arrived at Long Island on 18 December, 1708. They were granted lands along the west side of the Hudson River about fifty-five miles north of New York City. Their settlement developed into the town of Newburgh. Almost from the start, the Germans suffered from want of provisions. A proposed naval stores industry, by which the Germans would be gainfully employed, never materialized. The Reverend Kocherthal returned to England to petition the Queen for additional monetary assistance. He hoped to raise the funds necessary to establish vinyards in the new settlement. Although not able to raise the exact amount that he hoped for, the Reverend Kocherthal succeeded in obtaining some funds, and the Newburgh settlement survived and flourished. The success of the Newburgh settlement is important to the history of German emigration because it paved a favorable path through the English government for subsequent emigrants. If the settlement had failed, the English might not have been so eager to provide assistance to future German settlement schemes.

Other German families were excited by the news of the success of the Newburgh Palatines, as Kocherthal's party of emigrants became known. They were also enticed by the suggestion made by Kocherthal in the third edition of his pamphlet, Aussfuhrlich und umstandlicher Bericht von der beruhmten Landschafft Carolina, that because the English government had provided their party with monetary assistance, perhaps it would likewise provide for other emigrants.

German and Swiss families from the Rhine and Neckar Valleys began to pack up their belongings and traveled north toward the the ports of the Netherlands. A dispatch from James Dayrolle, the British Resident at the Hague, dated 24 December, 1708 included a letter from an unknown person which stated that:

  • "There arrived in this place a number of Protestant families, traveling to England in order to go to the English colonies in America. There are now in the neighborhood of Rotterdam almost eight or nine hundred of them, having difficulty with the packet boat and convoys."
  • Although the letter exaggerated the number of emigrants (i.e. the number would not reach nine hundred until some three months later), it was prophetic. During 1709 approximately 13,500 German and Swiss emigrants would apply for passage to the English colonies.

    Troops were being ferried on transport ships from England to the Low Countries to fight against the French in the War of the Spanish Succession. Dayrolle negotiated with the Duke of Marlborough to allow the Palatines to be conveyed to England on the return trip of the transport ships. Eight hundred and fifty-two Germans were carried to London in April, 1709. Shortly thereafter, word was received in Rotterdam that the Elector Palatine had issued an edict forbidding the German emigrants from leaving their homeland. A number of persons were imprisoned after they were captured making their way down the Rhine. But the edict and the show of force did little to deter the mass exodus of the Palatines. They traveled by land toward the seaports of the Netherlands.

    Queen Anne, through the intercession of the Duke of Marlborough, had agreed to allow the nine hundred or so emigrants to be transported to England. The English government even paid for the transport of the refugees from Rotterdam. In May, when an additional two thousand had arrived at Rotterdam, Dayrolle again requested Marlborough's intercession on their behalf. A second transport was agreed to. But as the German emigrants continued to arrive in Rotterdam, the English hospitality began to strain and break down. The English Secretary of State, Henry Boyle, wrote to Dayrolle on the 24th of June instructing him to send over to London only those Palatines who were then actually in the Netherlands. All others on their way were to be turned back. Dayrolle had advertisements published in the Gazette of Cologne warning that no more Palatines would be given passage to England. The hospitality of the Dutch authorities at Rotterdam was also becoming very strained. They appealed for help from the States General at the Hague. The Dutch ministers at Cologne and Frankfurt were informed to do what they could to stop the flow of emigrants. All the efforts by the English and Dutch authorities were to no avail; the proprietors of the Carolinas had sent over pamphlets and circulars titled: Propositions of the Lord Proprietors of Carolina to encourage the Transporting of Palatines to the Province of Caroline. The missives promised, among other things, one hundred acres of land for every man, woman and child, free of quit-rent for ten years. The Palatines, enticed by the promise of a better life in the American colonies, poured like a giant wave toward the Netherlands and England.

    Thirteen thousand and five hundred Palatines arrived in London between May and October, but the authorities there sent back 2,257 because they were Roman Catholic. The emigrants were initially given shelter throughout London under the assumption that they would soon embark for the American colonies. But arrangements for such a large number had not been made, and the temporary lodging became an extended encampment. As the days and weeks wore on, the patience of the English people wore out. The Palatine encampments were attacked on more than one occasion by mobs of armed Englishmen.

    Until such time that a plan could be devised to handle the logistics of transporting the thousands of German and Swiss emigrants across the Atlantic Ocean, short range plans were discussed to settle them in the British Isles. The plans included settlement of the emigrants in Wales where they could be put to work in the silver and copper mines. Of the various proposals considered by the English authorities, one that was finally agreed upon was proposed by the Council of Ireland. The Council hoped that the settlement of the Palatines there would strengthen the Protestant presence in the largely Catholic island. Over three thousand Palatines made new homes in Ireland between September, 1709 and January, 1710.

    Despite troubles with the Irish Catholics who were understandably upset about the colonization of their homeland, the Palatines flourished in their new settlements. Over time they intermarried with their Irish neighbors to the extent that their "Germanic" origins were nearly forgotten.

    In July, 1709 the Lords Proprietors of Carolina submitted their proposal to the English Board of Trade for the settlement of "all the Palatines here from 15 years to 45 years old". At about the same time, two enterprising former citizens of Bern, Switzerland, Franz Louis Michel and Christopher von Graffenried, developed a plan to establish a settlement of Swiss Anabaptist Protestants (i.e. Mennonites) in the New World. They originally thought to set up their settlement in Virginia, but later chose the Carolinas.

    On 04 August, 1709 Graffenried paid £50 to the Proprietors of Carolina for 5,000 acres of land. Then, on the 3rd of September, the Proprietors granted to Graffenried 10,000 acres. The settlement would be named New Bern, in honor of Graffenried and Michel's home town.

    Michel and Graffenied were permitted to choose 600 Palatines to populate their settlement in Carolina. They, of course, chose healthy, industrious and skilled men and their families. The group, consisting of roughly ninety-two families embarked for the New World in January, 1710. The trip was a rough one and the ships carrying the emigrants was blown off course. They arrived in Virginia thirteen weeks after they had started on their voyage. From there they traveled southward into what is today North Carolina and established a settlement on the Neuse and Trent Rivers.

    A group of Swiss families who had arranged with Michel and Graffenried to join the New Bern emigrants left their homes in Bern, Switzerland on 08 March, 1710. Certain of the men in that group were being deported by the Swiss government for their Anabaptist beliefs. When they reached the Netherlands, the Dutch authorities intervened on their behalf and they gained their "freedom" from having to emigrate. The Swiss party arrived on the shore of Virginia on 11 September, 1710. From there they made their way to join the German emigrants in North Carolina.

    The new settlement was in a poor and miserable condition when Graffenried first visited it. The new settlers had not received supplies originally promised by the Lords Proprietors of Carolina. Graffenried used his own resources to obtain supplies from Virginia and Pennsylvania. He then set about laying out a town plat in the form of a cross with wide streets and spacious lots. Within eighteen months the town of New Bern was prospering. Apart from an Indian attack in 1711, in which many houses were ransacked and burned, and seventy of the Palatines/Swiss settlers were killed, the settlement was a success.

    The Livingston Manor Settlement in New York is generally more well known than the New Bern Settlement. It was born out of a trade war between England and Sweden. Sweden had, in the late-1600s, become England's primary source of naval stores (i.e. tar and pitch for use in ship building). The situation was aggravated when the Swedes increased their prices and England went in search of other sources. She found those sources in Russia, Denmark and Norway. The Northern War between Sweden and Russia between 1700 and 1721 strained the English~Russian trade agreement. Then the Swedish Tar Company (variously known as the Stockholm Tar Company) lowered its prices for naval stores to other countries such as France, but refused to lower them for England. The dispute continued to simmer and boil till finally England looked to the American colonies for its naval stores.

    As early as 1691, the possibility of obtaining her much needed naval stores in the wilderness of the New World had been explored by England. Edward Randolph, Surveyor General in America, had written favorably of the resources to be found in America, including pitch, tar, rosin, hemp and especially the tall straight virgin trees that could supply mast timber for England's ships. In 1696 the Navy Board sent three men as a commission to investigate the possibility of establishing a naval stores industry in the colonies and also to instruct the inhabitants on the making of pitch and tar. Their recommendations included the suggestion that "a sufficient number of poor families" be sent over to "attend the service in the woods at a reasonable rate."

    Certain schemes for the settlement of "poor families" had been suggested prior to the arrival of the Palatines in 1708. They included a scheme proposed in February of 1705 to transport a colony of Scotsmen to be settled near the border of Canada on the Hudson River. For whatever reason, the most of these schemes were never brought to fruition. Then the Reverend Kocherthal appeared in London requesting assistance from the English government to transport his party of some-fifty-five Palatines to the New World.

    When the flood of Palatines and Swiss emigrants poured into England in 1709 and 1710, discussion were held by the Board of Trade in regard to where they should be settled in the New World. Of course the subject of the manufacture of the naval stores and the favorable outcome of the settlement of the Kocherthal party the previous year entered into the discussions. The discussions leaned toward establishing the settlement on the Kenebeck River in New England because of the favorable resources found there for the manufacture of the naval stores. Colonel Robert Hunter, who had recently been appointed to the governorship of the Province of New York submitted his own proposal for the settlement of Palatines in the frontiers of his province. His arguments were persuasive. A proposal was submitted by the Board of Trade to the Queen, and she approved it in early January, 1710.

    A Commission For Collecting For And Settling Of The Palatines had been established and set about accumulating the funds necessary to pay for ships to carry the Palatines to America. Henry Bendysh, the secretary to the Commissioners, arranged with the owners of ten ships to pay £5 ƒ10 per head for 3,300 Palatines. (The passage of the Palatines to North Carolina had been arranged at £10 a head.) The total would amount to between 18,000 and 19,000 pounds sterling.

    The Germans were scheduled to be boarded upon the ships between the 25th and 29th of December, 1709. The boarding took place as scheduled, but the convoy got no farther than Nore, fifty miles from London, when seven of the ten ships refused sailing orders. The actual date on which the ships set sail across the Atlantic is confused because of the differing accounts that have come down to us. Johann Conrad Weiser, one of the emigrants, noted in his diary that the convoy of ships left England "about Christmas Day". Other accounts gave the end of January and March as the dates for embarkation. The London Gazette reported on 07 April, 1710, that the ten ships carrying the Palatines were "ready" to sail from Portsmouth. James DuPre, commissary for Colonel Hunter, stated in his report that the Palatines were embarked in December, 1709, but did not actually set sail until 10 April, 1710.

    Whether lying in port on the Thames, or on the Atlantic Ocean, the Palatines were on board the ships, in conditions suited to the low rate which had been paid the ships owners, for nearly six months. The conditions were harsh and uncomfortable. Following the voyage a surgeon requested reimbursement for medicines he had dispensed enroute, noting that on the ship he sailed, there were 330 persons sick.

    Landfall was made at New York on 13 June, 1710. The first ship to arrive was the Lyon. The rest arrived between that date and 02 August. One ship, the Herbert, was wrecked off the coast of Long Island on 07 July. The death toll on the journey amounted to 446 by the end of July, and during the first month in the New World, that number rose to 470. To augment the numbers, women gave birth to thirty babies during the journey. The ships docked at, and the Palatines and Swiss emigrants disembarked on Nutten Island. Due to the reports of disease among the emigrants, the people of New York City showed no hospitality toward them.

    Four tracts of land had been suggested as the eventual site for the Palatine settlement. They were all part of what was known as the "Extravagant Grants". The Extravagant Grants were lands which had been claimed by the late governor, Colonel Benjamin Fletcher, but whose ownership to which the New York Assembly disputed. On 02 March, 1699 the Assembly had passed a bill titled "An Act for vacating, breaking and annulling several Extravagant Grants of land made by Colonel Benjamin Fletcher, late Governor of the Province". Action was finally taken to settle the matter by the authorities in England until 29 July, 1707, at which time they upheld the colonial Assembly's act. The lands originally claimed by Fletcher were, therefore available for Hunter to consider for the Palatine settlement three years later. They included a tract on the Mohawk River above Little Falls, A tract on the Schoharie River, a tract on the east side of the Hudson River and one on that river's west side.

    The tracts encompassed by the "Extravagant Grants" were still claimed by the Mohawk Indians. Governor Hunter began negotiations with the various Sachems who laid claim to the lands. On 22 August, 1710 the Sachem who went by the name of Hendrick made a gift of the tract on the Schoharie River to Governor Hunter to be used for the settlement of the Palatines. At a conference held at Fort Albany, Hendrick stated:

    "We are told that the great queen of Great Brittain had sent a considerable number of People with your Excy to setle upon the land called Skohere, which was a great surprise to us and we were mush Disatisfyd at the news, in Regard the Land belongs to us.
     

    Nevertheless since Your Excellcy has been pleased to desire the said land for christian settlements, we are willing and do now surrender…to the Queen…for Ever all that tract of Land Called Skohere."

    The Schoharie tract was not really suited to the manufacture of naval stores or pitch and tar because no pitch pine trees grew in its vicinity. The Schoharie land was suitable, though, to the raising of hemp used for manufacturing rope. Governor Hunter was not immediately impressed by the Schoharie tract because its location above a sixty-foot waterfall and its distance from New York City would make it difficult to defend against the French and Indians. Instead, a tract of land nearer to New York City, about ninety-two miles from it along the west side of the Hudson River (known as the Evans Tract because it had been granted to Captasin Evans by Governor Fletcher), was chosen by Governor Hunter for the Palatine settlement. The Evans tract consisted of 6,300 acres. Near to it, on the east side of the east side of the river lay a tract of 6,000 acres owned by the Commissioner of Indian Affairs, Robert Livingston. Governor Hunter entered into an agreement for the purchase of the second tract with the option to remove the pitch pine trees growing on Livingston's neighboring lands. A third tract of 800 acres was purchased from Thomas Fullerton. The name given to the three tracts on which the Palatines were to be settled was Livingston Manor.

     

    In early-October 1710, the movement of the Palatines to the Livingston Manor tract was begun. They had been encamped on Nutten Island (later renamed Governor's Island) since their arrival in July through August. Not all of the Palatines would move to Livingston Manor. In 1713 some eighty-three persons, comprising twenty-three families, remained in New York City.

    The land was surveyed and five town plats were laid out by the surveyors. Three towns were laid out on the east side of the Hudson River and two on the west side. By June, 1711 seven towns had been established at Livingston Manor. Along the east side of the river were Hunterstown, inhabited by one hundred and five families; Queensbury, inhabited by one hundred and two families; Annsbury, inhabited by seventy-six families; and Haysbury, inhabited by fifty-nine families. Along the west side of the Hudson were Elizabeth Town, inhabited by forty-two families; George Town, inhabited by forty families; and New Town, inhabited by one hundred and three families.

    The towns were platted to consist of individual lots measuring approximately forty feet in frontage and fifty feet in depth. The Palatine families were obliged to construct their own houses and out-buildings. They did so in whatever fashion they desired, but most constructed simple log cabins chinked with mud.

    Robert Livingston provided food and many of the necessities of life to the Palatine settlers during the first two years of the settlement's existence. It might be argued that were it not for his generosity, the settlement might not have survived.

    Initially, the Livingston Manor Settlement thrived and grew without discord except for the religious squabbles that erupted, almost as soon as they arrived in the New World, between the Lutheran and the Reformed congregations. To aggravate the situation between the two faiths, the Reverend John Frederick Haeger had been sent to the settlement by the London Society for the Propagation of the Gospel to convert the Palatines to the Church of England. One would be induced to believe that the religious difference between the three faiths would induce a breakup of the settlement, but that would occur as a result of other concerns.

    Certain of the Palatines, in fact between three and four hundred of them, formed a secret association during the Spring of 1711 and plotted a rebellion. Their complaint was that they felt that they were being cheated in the contractual arrangement, the covenant, by which they had come to the New World. Back in England prior to their departure, Governor Hunter had expressed to the Secretary of State, Charles Spencer (aka the Earl of Sunderland) the need for a contract between himself (as Governor of the Province of New York) and the Palatines. The covenant was needed, according to Hunter to prevent the Palatines "from falling off from the employment designed for them, or being decoy'd into Proprietary Governments". The covenant stated that in exchange for the great expenditure in monies advanced by the government to provide for the transportation and settling of the Palatines in the New World and providing them with employment (in the production of the naval stores), the Palatines agreed to settle upon the lands provided for them by the government and to continue to reside there (and that their heirs, executors and administrators would continue to reside there). The covenant contained a clause that stated that on no account or manner of pretense would the Palatines attempt to leave the settlement or break the covenant without the consent of the Governor. The Palatines were to agree to remain in the employ, essentially as indentured servants, until they should "have made good and repaid to her Majesty, her heirs and successors, out of the produce of our labors in the manufactures we are employed in, the full sum or sums of money in which we already are or shall become indebted to her Majesty". In exchange, the governor would grant forty acres of land to each person free from, taxes and quit-rents for seven years.

    The rebellious group claimed that they had incorrectly been told the stipulations of the covenant prior to their embarkation. They claimed that the way it was read to them was that 'seven years after they had been given forty acres, they were to repay the Queen with naval stores of their production'. Rather than receive their forty acres per person, they had received only a small lot. They felt they had been cheated into servitude. One of their demands was that they receive the land that had been promised to them by the Queen, which they believed lay in the Schoharie Valley.

    Governor Hunter replied in force. He called for a military detachment from Fort Albany, who disarmed the rebellious Palatines. They were forced to submit, and most of them asked for pardon. On 12 June, 1711, Hunter established a court to oversee the Palatines. The court had the authority to judge and punish the Palatines for anything it deemed to be "Misdemeaners, Disobedience or wilfull Transgressions". The imposition of a military state of rule over them angered more of the Palatines than simply the original three or four hundred dissenters.

    The issuance of "subsistence supplies" provided another source for agitation throughout the settlement. Bread, beer and meat was supplied by Livingston and issued to the people by Commissaries of Stores. The Palatines were not permitted to provide certain of their own subsistence supplies, which including the baking of bread. The issuance of the subsistence supplies was on a somewhat irregular schedule, and the quantities issued were not uniform. The quality of the food also varied. According to a letter sent by one of the commissaries to Governor Hunter, "I never saw salted meat so poor nor packed with so much salt as this Pork was. In truth one eighth of it was salt."

    Adding insult to injury, John Bridger, the individual hired by Governor Hunter to instruct the Palatines on the techniques of manufacturing the naval stores, gained Hunter's permission in the latter part of 1710 to go to New England. In the Spring of 1711, when Hunter requested that he return to the settlement in order to continue training the Palatines on how to manufacture the tar and pitch, Bridger refused. Hunter found a substitute instructor in the person of Richard Sackett, a local famer who claimed to know the procedure. He proceeded to direct the debarking of nearly 100,000 trees in the vicinity. Sackett's method resulted in the production of 200 barrels of the tar, which was far less than anticipated. An investigation into the reasons for the low level of tar production revealed two major problems. First, Sackett's method of girdling and debarking the trees was not efficient and resulted in loss of the valuable resin into the ground. Secondly, the type of pines that grew in the vicinity were white pine, which were not conducive to producing the same quality of resin as the true pitch pine. The English government was not interested in the reasons for the production failures, no matter how valid; the Board of Trade was only interested in results. Therefore the funding that Governor Hunter expected to receive was directed elsewhere.

    On 06 September, 1712, Governor Hunter gave orders that the industry was to be halted and that the Palatines would receive no more subsistence supplies. The Palatines were to provide for their own needs by obtaining employment where they could, but certain of the rules established the previous year would still remain in effect. The Palatines would be permitted to find work only in the provinces of New York and New Jersey. They would be required to register their new place of residence and employment so that they could be called back to the Livingston Manor settlement in the event that the naval stores industry could be revived.

    The cutting off of the subsistence supplies so abruptly and just at the onset of winter caught many of the Palatines off guard. They suffered miserably through the winter of 1712/1713. The Reverend Haeger sent a letter on 06 July, 1713 to the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel in which he stated that the Palatines were obliged to eat boiled grass and leaves.

    Many of the Palatines left the region. Risking imprisonment by the court, some fled southward to Pennsylvania. Most of them, though moved closer to the vicinity of New York City and Hackensack, New Jersey. On 31 October, 1712 Governor Hunter sent a letter to the Board of Trade in which he stated that "some hundreds of them took a resolution of possessing the land of Scoharee & are accordingly march'd thither".

    Governor Hunter was upset by the fact that the Palatines had moved to the Schoharie Valley without permission to do so, nor with the proper legal arrangements that should have been undertaken. In the spring of 1713 Governor Hunter sent orders to the Schoharie Valley which forbade the Palatines to settle there. But then, he was not in a position to provide subsistence for them any longer and their removal from Livingston Manor relieved him of such obligation.

    The Palatines, ignorant of the British claims to the Schoharie tract, entered into their own negotiations with the local Mohawk Indians for the purchase of the Schoharie Valley lands. The Indians, although they had already presented the tract as a gift to the English Queen, were more than willing to be paid for it by the Palatines.

    During the autumn of 1712 approximately one hundred and fifty families moved to the vicinity of Schenectady and Albany while the negotiations with the Indians progressed. About fifty of those families moved directly to the Schoharie Valley and erected crude shelters. During the following spring, the rest of the families moved to Schoharie. A number of small villages were created by the Palatines: Kniskerndorf, Central Bridge, Gerlachsdorf, Fuchsendorf, Schmidsdorf, Brunnendorf, Hartmansdorf, Weiserdorf, and Oberweiserdorf.

    During the first year that the Schoharie Settlement was in existence, the people were very industrious, building their houses and plowing the land to sow corn, wheat and other grains. Because they had not taken many hand tools, farm implements or furniture from their Livingston Manor homes for fear of being charged with theft, they were without many of the necessary implements to either create a new life or live comfortably in one once it was created. They obtained some supplies from Schenectady, about forty miles away. Others, they received from the friendly Mohawk Indians. In regard to food, the Indians recommended various edible plants that were growing in the region, including potatoes. And the congregation of the Dutch Church of New York sent them some supplies in 1713. Despite the hardships, the Schoharie Settlement prospered and survived.

    As might be expected, Governor Hunter grew increasingly upset with the situation. In 1715 he sent an order to the Schoharie settlers that they would either have to purchase or lease the land on which they had settled, or they would be forced to move from it. The Palatines became beligerent in their attitude toward what they felt was encroachment on their rights to the land promised to them by the Queen of England. A sheriff sent by Hunter to serve a warrant for the arrest of Johann Conrad Weiser, who was implicated in intending to travel to England to present the people's grievances against Hunter to the English government, was beaten and abused by the Palatine womenfolk before he could effect his escape.

    In 1717 Governor Hunter organized a conference between himself and Johann Conrad Weiser and three men from each of the Schoharie villages. He informed them that they would need to come to an agreement with the true owners of the land, which were seven residents of Albany (known as the Seven Partners) to whom he had sold the Schoharie tract in 1714. If they did not, they would be forced to move.

    In 1718 Johann Conrad Weiser, William Scheff and Gerhart Walrath made a trip to London to argue their case against Hunter, but before they got there they were robbed by pirates. When they did arrive, without money to pay for the passage, the three were locked up in the debtor's prison. In the meantime, Governor Hunter, receiving word of the Palatines' intentions, traveled to London. He arrived there before Weiser and the others could get out of prison and presented his side of the story. The English authorities, of course believed his claims that the Palatines had been treated with fairness, and that they were simply being rebellious so as to cheat the proprietors. It was ruled that the Palatines would have to move from the Schoharie Settlement. By the time Weiser, Scheff and Walrath were freed from prison, the decision had been made. Orders to have the Palatines removed from Schoharie were sent to Governor Hunter's successor, William Burnet.

    In 1721, Governor Burnet offered the Palatines a number of choices, including one that they could purchase lands from the Mohawks in the Mohawk Valley, some eighty miles from Albany. Governor Burnet also raised the restrictions that had previously been placed on the Palatines against moving into the other proprietary colonies. As a result, about fifteen families left Schoharie in 1723 and moved southward to settle in the Tulpehocken Valley of the Province of Pennsylvania. Certain of the Schoharie Settlement residents conceded to the assertions of the provincial government that the lands were legally the property of the Seven Partners of Albany. They negotiated purchases or leases from the Seven Partners and continued their residence at the Schoharie Settlement.

    The New Bern and Livingston Manor/Schoharie settlements are the most memorable of the New World settlements of Palatine German and Swiss emigrants. But smaller groups of Palatines had emigrated from their homeland with the Province of Pennsylvania as their destination.

    Because of their lack of knowledge of the North American Continent, many of the early emigrants believed that Pennsylvania and the Carolinas were part of the West India Islands. Their papers requesting permission to leave their homeland stated that their destination was the "island" of Pennsylvania.

    The Reverend Henry Melchoir Muehlenberg traveled throughout the Province of Pennsylvania after his emigration in 1742. He kept journals of his travels. In his journals, Rev. Muehlenberg commented on the Palatine emigration and early settlements in Pennsylvania. He noted four distinct phases of Palatine emigration:

    "In the first period, namely from 1680 to 1708, some came by chance, among whom was one Henry Frey, whose wife is said to be still living. He came about the year 1680. About the same time some Low Germans from Cleve sailed across the ocean, whose descendants are still to be found here, some of whom were baptized by us, others still live as Quakers."

    "In the second period, in the years 1708, 1709, 1710, to 1720, when the great exodus from the Palatinate to England took place, and a large number of people were sent by Queen Anne to the Province of New York, not a few of them came to Pennsylvania…."

    "In the following third period, from about the year 1720 to 1730, the number of High German Evangelical Christians, from the German Empire, the Palatinate, Wurttemberg, Darmstadt and other places increased largely. Also many from the State of New York came over here, who had been sent there by Queen Anne…"

    "At the end of this and the beginning of the next period a still larger number of Germans came to this country…"

    The first period of the emigration mentioned by Muehlenberg included the party led by the Reverend Francis Daniel Pastorius, who settled in the vicinity of Philadelphia that became known as Germantown. It also included a party known as the 'Mystics of the Wissahickon' led by John Kelpius, and who settled in the vicinity of 'the Ridge', where the Wissahickon Creek empties into the Schuylkill River.

    The second period was defined by the emigration of Palatine and Swiss Mennonites who settled on 10,000 acres of land near the head of the Pequea Creek in the part of Chester County that would become, in 1729, Lancaster County. The first of these emigrants arrived at Philadelphia on 23 September, 1710. Seven years later, In September, 1717, three ships arrived in Philadelphia carrying 363 German and Swiss emigrants.

    In 1723 some fifteen families moved from the Schoharie Settlement in the Province of New York to settle in the Tulpehocken region of Pennsylvania. It is claimed that they were invited to settle there by Lieutenant-Governor William Keith. By 1725 there were about thirty-three German families residing in the Tulpehocken district. The increasing numbers of these settlers aggravated the relations between the Provincial authorities and the local Indian tribes.

    The continuing emigration of large numbers of Germans from the Palatinate began to make the provincial authorities uneasy. When Patrick Gordon took office as Pennsylvania's lieutenant-governor in 1726, he took action to institute an Oath of Allegiance & Subjection to naturalize the emigrants as subjects of Great Britain. The action was enterred into the Minutes of the Provincial Council on 14 September, 1727 and read as follows:

    "The Governour acquainted the board, that he had called them together at this time to inform them that there is lately arrived from Holland, a Ship with four hundred Palatines, as 'tis said, and that he has information that they will be very soon followed by a much greater Number, who design to settle in the nack parts of this province; & as they transport themselves without any leave obtained from the Crown of Great Britain, and settle themselves upon the Proprietors untaken up Lands without any application to the Proprietor or his Commissioners of property, or to the Government in general, it would be highly necessary to concert proper measures for the peace and security of the province, which may be endangered by such numbers of Strangers daily poured in, who being ignorant of our Language & Laws, & settling in a body together, make, as it were, a disctinct people from his Majesties Subjects."

    "The Board taking the same into their Consideration, observe, that as these People pretended at first that they fly hither on the Score of their religious Liberties, and come under the Protection of His Majesty, its requisite that in the first Place they should take the Oath of Allegiance, or some equivalent to it to His Majesty, and promise Fidelity to the Proprietor & obedience to our Established Constitution; And therefore, until some proper Remedy can be had from Home, to prevent the Importation of such Numbers of Strangers into this or others of His Majesties Colonies."

    "Tis ORDERED, that the Masters of the Vessells importing them shall be examined whether they have any Leave granted to them by the Court of Britain for the Importation of these Forreigners, and that a List shall be taken of the Names of all these People, their several Occupations, and the Places from whence they come, and shall be further examined touching their Intentions in coming hither; And further, that a Writing be drawn up for them to sign declaring their Allegiance & Subjection to the King of Great Britain & Fidelity to the Proprietary of this Province, & that they will demean themselves peacably towards all his Majesties Subjects, & strictly observe, and confirm to the Laws of England and of this Government."

    The emigrants aboard the ship, William And Sarah, were the first of the Palatines to be so required to take the Oath. Between the years 1727 and 1775, it has been estimated that approximately 65,000 Palatine and Swiss emigrants arrived in the Port of Philadelphia. That number, given in Volume I of the book Pennsylvania German Pioneers, by R. B. Strassburger and edited by W. J. Hinke, was based on 36,129 known passengers, of which 14,423 (males) signed their names to the Oath.

    The emigrants from Germany who arrived during the period from 1727 to 1775 settled primarily in the southeastern region of the province of Pennsylvania. But settlements were also made all along the Atlantic seaboard from Nova Scotia to South Carolina. Just prior to the American Revolutionary War period a migration route southward from Pennsylvania through the Shenandoah Valley opened up. German families began to travel that route and homestead in western Maryland, the Shenandoah Valley of Virginia and in both of the Carolinas. From North and South Carolina, the Germans moved westward into what would later become the states of Kentucky, Missouri and Tennessee. Following the close of the Revolution, a number of German families migrated northward into the Niagara region of New York. The major thrust, though, was westward into the Ohio Valley. That westward route traveled along the roads cut by Braddock and Forbes in the 1750s through the southcentral part of Pennsylvania, which included Bedford County.

    Although exact figures are not available, certain estimates can be made concerning the German population in the 1700s by looking at census records. From the 1790 United States Census we find that German families made up approximately 32% of the total population of Bedford County at that time. It has been estimated that of the Germans who arrived in the New World, at least seventy percent settled in Pennsylvania. The large numbers of German settlers in the province of Pennsylvania, as compared to the other predominantly British colonies, made Pennsylvania seem like a foreign nation. 

    The earliest Euro-American settlers in Mother Bedford, so far as public records can confirm, were the four or five men who made their living as traders to the local Indian population, possibly as early as the 1730s. They tended to be single men, primarily of Scot or English descent, who would establish a trading camp in a certain location, operate their business there for a few years, and then move on. The traders, of whom we have record, included Robert Ray and Garrett Pendergrass, who set up their trading posts in the vicinity of where the borough of Bedford would come to stand in present-day Bedford County; Frank Stevens, who established his trading post in the vicinity of the village of Frankstown in present-day Blair County; George Croghan, who settled along the Aughwick Creek in the vicinity of the village of Shirleysburg in present-day Huntingdon County; and John Hart, who established a trading post in the vicinity of the village of Alexandria in present-day Huntingdon County. Apart from folklore and legends of their adventures and their names in certain features of the local landscape, those early traders left little else. It would be up to the families that followed them, who homesteaded on the land and tamed it from wilderness to cultivated farmland, to establish civilization in the frontier that was Bedford County. As noted in the section titled The Coming Of The Euro-Americans, settlements in the region that became Bedford County in 1771 had been established as early as 1710. Those first pioneer settlers were not German, though.

    The settlement of German families in Bedford County began prior to the American Revolutionary War, and increased dramatically as a result of the post-Revolutionary War migration via the old Forbes Road.

    Although it can't be given as a steadfast rule, the Ulster~Scots and Germans, in general, tended not to settle in the same valleys. It has been noted by many historians that the Germans seemed to seek out limestone based land which was the best suited for cultivation. The Ulster~Scots, on the other hand, were used to farming on less desirable soil; therefore they might not have been as choosy as the Germans. The Ulster~Scots also tended to move about more frequently than the sedentary Germans, the German settlements, therefore, tended to become more well known as established communities. But then, all that is a generalized viewpoint, and did not hold true in all cases.

    In present-day Bedford County, there were large numbers of German settlers in the Dutch Corner region and throughout the Morrisons Cove, which extended from Evitts Mountain northward along the west side of Tussey Mountain into present-day Blair County. The early settlers of Cumberland Valley Township included a number of German descent.

    In present-day Blair County, the Morrison Cove was not the only region settled heavily by the Germans. The Blue Knob mountain and the many valleys stretching down out of the mountain provided prime homesteading lands for German farmers. The Indian Path Valley that extends from the Borough of Bedford northward to the base of the Blue Knob Mountain, along the west side of Dunnings Mountain was settled mostly by German settlers.

    Settlers in the region originally formed as Quemahoning Township, which stretched from the Stony Creek Glades northward into present-day Cambria County, were predominantly German.

    Practically no German families homesteaded in the southeastern part of Bedford County which was erected into Fulton County in 1850. From the proliferation of Irish and Scot place names found in Fulton County (e.g. Belfast, Ayr, Dublin, McConnellsburg, etc) it can be seen that the region was settled predominantly by Ulster-Scots and Irish.

    Apart from the Woodcock Valley, there were few areas of German settlement in present-day Huntingdon County.

    The region lying west of the Allegheny Mountain Range, which is present-day Somerset County, and which included the area in which the Borough of Somerset was laid out, was originally laid out as Brothers Valley Township within Bedford County. The entire region was heavily settled by Germans who belonged to the German Baptist, or Brethren, congregation. The town of Berlin was entirely composed of German families, when it was founded in the 1780s. The valley lying between the Chestnut and Laurel Ridges, known as the Turkey-Foot Valley, is believed to have been the part of present-day Somerset County in which the earliest settlements were made, many of them being German.

    Into the 1790s a number of the residents continued to be refered to as "Duchman" if their given names were not known. The name of Duchman Butterbaugh was one of those that continued to appear on the tax assessment returns.

    According to Solon J. Buck and Elizabeth Hawthorn Buck in their book, The Planting Of Civilization In Western Pennsylvania, in 1790, "Of the 12,955 white families in the five western counties of Allegheny, Washington, Fayette, Westmoreland, and Bedford in 1790, it appears that about…twelve (per cent were) of German (origin)…" Of the total population within the individual counties, they noted that, "Of Germans there were thirty-two per cent in Bedford…"

    Despite the large percentage of Germans residing in Bedford County (at least one third of the population in 1790), they were spread out. Except, as noted above, in present-day Somerset County and other particular regions, the German settlers were scattered among the other ethnic groups in Bedford County. They therefore did not create "isolated" ethnic communities such as those found in the eastern counties, the so-called "Pennsylvania" Dutch (i.e. Deutsch, or German). It should be noted, though, that the intermingling of the German settlers with certain of those other ethnic types (especially the Ulster Scots and Irish) resulted in an unique strain that was almost as exclusive as the Pennsylvania Dutch of the eastern counties.

    The various ethnic groups brought to Bedford County their own particular customs and ways of life, and the German influence was strong. The Germans celebrated many more holidays, such as Christmas, and many more social events, such as weddings, than their British neighbors. Unfettered by decades of Puritan austerity, as their British neighbors were, the Germans exhibited a love of social activities. Any event could easily become a community party, complete with the dancing of jigs and reels and the drinking of whiskey or hard cider, and most of them did. The making of apple-butter and the butchering of pigs in the fall called for a community get-together. House-raisings were another community-shared event. Families would get together to husk corn, to full cloth or to quilt or hap bed coverings. This is not to say that the other ethnic groups did not help each other ~ they simply did not tend to make such events into parties complete with music and dancing and heavy drinking.

     

     
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