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XTbe Begfnninos of tbe
(German Blement in l^ork (Tountie
penns^Ivanfa
BY
ABDEL ROSS WENTZ, B.D., Ph.D.
Professor of History in Pennsylvania College, Gettysburg, and Curator of the
Historical Society of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in the
United States of America
^3(o
LANCASTER, PA.
1916
REPRINTED FROM VOLUME XXIV OF THE PROCEEDINGS OF THE
PENNSYLVANIA-GERMAN SOCIETY
Copyrighted, 1916
By the
PENNSYLVANIA-GERMAN SOCIETY
PRESS OF
THE NEW ERA PRINTING COMPANY
LANCAUTEK, PA.
151
This Volume is Gratefully Inscribed to the
Memory of
PHILIP H. GLATFELTER
FOREWORD.
^i^Blj^HE sources usually determine the stream. The
m ■ I beginnings of a movement generally contain a
All prophecy of its later development. For that
^^^^F reason it has been thought worth while to
make a study of the origin of the present Ger-
man element in York County. The position of Pennsyl-
vania in the affairs of the nation and the position of York
County in the affairs of the state, make it profitable to
investigate the earliest beginnings of the strongest ele-
ment in the county. The study has been fruitful for it
has dealt with virgin soil.
It has not been possible in a single monograph like this
to trace the history of these settlements beyond their very
beginnings. Nor has the attempt been made to follow out
all possible lines of investigation, such as the economic, the
sociological, the political, the industrial, the religious, and
the linguistic. To set forth the full history of the Ger-
mans in the county will require a series of volumes. The
present treatise is merely a study preliminary to such a full
presentation of their history. It has been regarded as
suiScient to show in this treatise how those German settle-
ments took their beginnings, and to set forth such char-
acteristics of the original settlers and such features of the
original settlements as will enable the reader to understand
6 German Element in York County, Pa.
the relation of this element to the subsequent history of the
county, to the general movement of Germans in this coun-
try, to the colonial history of the state of Pennsylvania,
and to the general course of events in our national history.
Our study therefore has barely covered two decades and
has in no case carried us beyond the middle of the eight-
eenth century. But this brief span of years lies in the
most important because the most formative period of our
history.
The York County with which we deal is the county as
bounded on the map of today. Other geographical ex-
pressions also are used with their present-day signijficance.
An effort has been made to weave the body of the text
into the form of a continuous narrative and so far as pos-
sible to relegate to the footnotes all references to sources,
all allusions merely incidental, and all details not directly
relevant. Specific acknowledgment of all sources is made
at the places where they are used and these are also col-
lated in the Bibliography (Appendix D). The Blunston
letters that are quoted or referred to are always found
in the " Miscellaneous Manuscripts of York and Cumber-
land Counties, 1738-1806" (see Bibliography) unless
otherwise indicated.
Gettysburg, Pa.,
April 30, 19 14.
CONTENTS.
Foreword 5,6
Table of Contents 7
Chapter I. — The First White Men in the County . . . 9-20
Chapter II. — The First Settlers 21-36
Chapter III. — The First Settlement 37-68
Chapter IV. — Other Early Settlements 69-95
Chapter V. — ^Whence the Germans Came and Why . 96-123
Chapter VI. — Outstanding Characteristics 124-147
Chapter VII. — ^The Limestone Soil 148-174
Chapter VIII. — Their Place in Pennsylvania History . 175-185
Chapter IX. — Their Place in General American His-
tory 186-196
Appendix A. — Letter of Samuel Blunston 197-202
Appendix B. — Signers of Letter to Maryland 203, 204
Appendix C. — Inventory of Jacob Welshover's Estate . 205-207
Appendix D. — Bibliography 208-217
CHAPTER I.
The First White Men in the County.
^^JJ^^'ONG before the white man began to make per-
^ll manent settlements in what is now York
^■B j County, its valleys were trodden by the pil-
^0^m grim, the explorer, and the trader. Already
in the first decade of the eighteenth century
settlements had begun in Lancaster County just east of the
Susquehanna River. At the same time or shortly before
that settlements began to spring up on the Monocacy in
Maryland and in the Shenandoah Valley of western Vir-
ginia. The settlers in these regions were for the most part
Germans who had left their homes chiefly on account of
religious persecutions. That there were German settle-
ments in Virginia some years before the end of the seven-
teenth century is shown by an old French map^ of 1687
which marks the location of a German settlement at the
headwaters of the Rappahannock River. This is also con-
firmed by an English map of about the same time which
has the words " Teutsche Staat " on the upper Rappahan-
nock, and on the upper James River points out " Meister
1 Now in the collection of Dr. Julius F. Sachse of Philadelphia. See
letter of Sachse, Feb. 10, 1907, to Wayland in Wayland's "German Ele-
ment in the Shenandoah Valley," p. 10.
9
10 German Element in York County, Pa.
Krugs plantasie." Furthermore in 1699 Daniel Falckner,
one of the pietists on the WIssahickon Creek, was sent to
Germany as representative of the pietistic fraternity. One
of the expressed objects of this trip to the Fatherland was
to solicit aid and additional recruits so that the perfect
number of forty could be kept intact and so that the fra-
ternity could extend their usefulness In educating their
neglected countrymen in Pennsylvania and Virginia.^
It was only natural that these German pioneers In the
different colonies should early seek to communicate with
one another. And so as a matter of fact they did. The
common bonds of nationality and of religious Interest soon
operated to bring about Intercourse and conference between
the German sectarians of eastern Pennsylvania and those
of Maryland and Virginia on the south. Letters were
written and journeys were made. The journal of John
Kelplus^ shows that on October 10, 1704, that philosoph-
ical mystic wrote from the banks of the WIssahickon In
Pennsylvania a twenty-two page German letter to Maria
Ehzabeth Gerber,* a disciple of his in Virginia. But the
religious enthusiasm of the sectarians was not satisfied with
the Interchange of letters. Visits were made for the purpose
of exhorting and strengthening the brethren In the faith.
Long preaching journeys were undertaken. The manu-
script of Reverend Petrus Schaffer (written to Reverend
August Hermann Francke) now in the archives at Halle
shows that before the end of the seventeenth century,
about the time that Falckner went to Germany, both Petrus
2 Sachse, " Curieuse Nachricht," p. 371; also Sachse, " German Pietists
of Pennsylvania," i^g^i-iyoS, p. 96 f.
3 Journal now in the possession of Mr. Charles J. Wistar of German-
town, Philadelphia.
* There were Gerbers also in Lancaster County; see Rupp's "History of
Lancaster County," p. 189.
First JVhite Men in the County. ii
Schaffer and Heinrich Bernhard Koster travelled from
Pennsylvania to Virginia on such a mission.^ After Ger-
man settlements had been made in the Carolinas in 1710^
the preaching and teaching trips of the Pennsylvania Ger-
man sectarians extended beyond Virginia to what is now
North Carolina, Thus in 1722 Michael Wohlfarth, a
pietist from Germantown, journeyed on foot from Phila-
delphia by way of Conrad Beissel's hut on the Miihlbach
and through the Valley of Virginia to preach a revival
among the Germans in North Carolina/
Now the route of these religious enthusiasts on their
journeys from north to south was a well-marked one. It
was the great natural avenue formed by the valley between
the Blue Ridge and the Alleghany Mountains. This is
the highway that from time immemorial had been used by
the Indians in their wanderings from north to south or
vice versa. It included the series of fertile valleys now
known as the Cumberland, the Shenandoah, and the Vir-
ginia Valleys. The first white men to set foot upon these
regions were the German pietists of Pennsylvania and Vir-
ginia. Before the close of the seventeenth century the
German settlers, pilgrims, and explorers had begun to pass
up and down over this great natural highway with its fer-
tile soil and its well-watered bottoms and long before the
middle of the eighteenth century the Germans were buying
lands in the Shenandoah Valley and settling there as though
it had been one of the outlying districts of the city of Phila-
delphia.
5 Sachse, "German Pietists of Pennsylvania," i'694-i7o8, p. 289; also
" Curieuse Nachricht," p. 37, footnote.
6 At Newbern, North Carolina, see Bernheim, " German Settlements and
the Lutheran Church in the Carolinas," p. 67 ff. ; also Williamson's " His-
tory of North Carolina."
"^ Sachse, " German Sectarians of Pennsylvania," 1708^-1742, p. 80.
12 German Element in York County, Pa.
York County is not a part of this great highway but for
the pilgrims coming from Lancaster County and the coun-
ties east and northeast of Lancaster, York County is the
gateway to the Cumberland and the Shenandoah Valleys.
The German evangelists and pilgrims from eastern Penn-
sylvania when they set out to visit their brethren in the
South would usually call upon their countrymen in Lancas-
ter County and then crossing the Susquehanna River would
make their way across the entire breadth of York County
until they reached the Cumberland Valley.^ In doing this
they followed the path of the Indian trail which led from
a point on the Susquehanna afterwards known as Wrights-
ville, westward along the Kreutz Creek and across the
Codorus Creek to a point one and one fourth miles beyond
the present city of York and thence northwestward by
MacAllister's Mill and through Wakely's (Moore's) Gap
in the South Mountains to Carlisle on LeTorts Spring in
the Cumberland Valley. Or else, instead of turning north-
westward after leaving the site of York they continued
southwestward and thus followed the entire course of the
valley which extends across the width of the county from
Wrightsville through York and Hanover and into Mary-
land.^ These were well marked paths. They were in
almost constant use by the aborigines before the white men
came to America as a thorough-pass from the wilderness
in the south and west to the wilderness in the north and
8 Heinrich Sangmeister in his " Leben und Wandel " tells how he and his
companion Brother Antonius left the Ephrata Cloister and reached the
Cumberland Valley in this way. Sachse, German Sectarians, p. 345.
^ The diaries of the Moravians (now preserved at Bethlehem, Pa.)
indicate that they usually employed the latter route in their missionary
journeys. And in the Virginia Magazine, Vol. 12, p. 55, footnote, we have
the general statement: "The first part of the journeys of these Moravian
missionaries was always the same. From Bethlehem by way of Lebanon,
Lancaster, York, Pa., Frederick and Hagerstown, Md., to the Potomac."
First White Men in the County. 13
east. Long before permanent settlements had been made
along the courses of this route its paths were trodden by
the German missionaries and pilgrims on their way to the
great valley highway that led to their brethren in the south.
And when the county of York began to be populated and
the need of roads began to be felt, a large part of this old
Indian trail which had furnished the route for the mission-
aries was constructed into the " Monacacy Road " ( 1739) •
With the construction of the " Shippensburg Road" in
1749 and the "Carlisle Road" in 175 1, the several
branches of the historic missionary route from the Susque-
hanna River to the Cumberland Valley disappeared en-
tirely beneath the roadbed of the public hlghways.^*^ It is
worthy of note that the Germans should have been the first
white men to set foot upon these regions which were to be
so largely settled by Germans less than half a century later
and which were to furnish the outlet for so large a body
of German immigration to the south and the west.
After the valleys of York County had been in use for
some years as a thoroughfare for the German pilgrim, the
explorer and the trader began to interest themselves in
these districts. The first traders appeared shortly after
the beginning of the eighteenth century. John Harris an
Englishman settled at the site of Harrisburg In 1705. He
opened a trading station and carried on an extensive busi-
ness with the Indians on both sides of the Susquehanna
River both north and south of his station. The Indians
in York County were situated chiefly along the river and
Harris purchased large quantities of skins and furs from
them. But the chief pioneer Indian traders along the
lower Susquehanna were French Canadians. Prominent
1° See, for example, Gibson's " History of York County," p. 321 f.
14 German Element in York County, Pa.
among them are the names of Martin Chartier, Peter
Chartier, Peter Bazaillon, and James LeTort. They all
had their stations on the east side of the river but carried
on a large business in trading with the Indians west of the
river.
The first man to explore the county was a representative
of the German Mennonites from Switzerland. It was the
explorations of Lewis Michelle from Bern that led to the
first Pennsylvania survey within the present limits of York
County. Michelle (or Mitchel) was employed by his
fellow countrymen and co-religionists of the canton of
Bern and sent to America in 1703 or 1704 to search for a
convenient tract of vacant land in Pennsylvania, Virginia,
or Carolina, that might serve as a suitable place for the
settlement of a Swiss Mennonite colony.^ ^ In the course
of this search he came in 1706 to the Conestoga region in
the western part of Lancaster County. On February 24,
1707, the Conestoga Indians made formal complaint
against Michelle for his wanderings among their lands,
and for having pressed their people into service as guides
and assistants.^ ^
Michelle was a miner according to the testimony of
Governor Evans, and for that reason received the encour-
agement and support of the Pennsylvania government in
his explorations.^^ For the early colonial governments
11 A. Stapleton in his " Memorials of the Hugenots in America," speak-
ing of the French traders in the Conestoga Valley of Lancaster County,
says, p. 89: "It is worthy of note that Lewis Mitchelle the advance agent
and prospector of the Bernese Mennonites, spent a number of years with
these traders (1703^1707) on terms of intimacy and was accused by the
authorities on the occasion of a misunderstanding of having led the French-
men here."
12 Colonial Records, II : 4x34 f . Also Rupp's " Lancaster County," p. 54. f .
13 "The Governor added that he found he {i. e., Michelle) had some
notion of mines, and had his thoughts much bent that way; that he was
First White Men in the County. 15
were always keenly on the alert for even the slightest indi-
cation of mineral wealth in the soil of the new land and
they always encouraged the search for mines, at the same
time exercising care to pre-empt for themselves the ex-
clusive rights of exploitation. At one time Governor
Evans was strongly suspected of conniving with Michelle
to secure personal gain from the discoveries of this roving
prospector. In 1708 William Penn wrote from England
to James Logan, his secretary: "Remember the mines
which the Governor yet makes a secret, even to thee and
all the world but himself and Michelle."
\ But the explorations of Michelle west of the Susque-
hanna bore their first real fruit under the governorship of
Sir William Keith, a shrewd and enterprising Scotchman
who was quick to develop the natural resources of the prov-
ince and who also was not beyond turning those resources
partly to his own personal benefit. Governor Keith was
the first governor to lead the proprietary surveyors beyond
the Susquehanna River and into the present limits of York
■ County. This first survey was made in 1722 and was one
of two surveys made within the present limits of our
county in the month of April of that year. Governor
Keith's survey was the first and was made secretly on April
4 and 5. The governor afterwards gave as his reason for
making this survey that he wished to prevent the obnoxious
intrusions of the Marylanders in this part of Pennsylvania
soil. The circumstances under which this survey was made
throw much light on the historical background of the
earliest German settlements in the county.
willing to let him proceed, and had not discouraged him; that he advised
him to take some Indians with him; that of the persons before mentioned,
the Governor had ordered two that he could confide in to be there, that he
might have a full account of their proceedings." Col. Rec, II: 405.
l6 German Element in York County, Pa.
Sir William, it would seem, was amply justified in the
swift and sudden measures he took to secure the territory
west of the river. Delay might have been costly. The
governor explained his action at the meeting of the Pro-
vincial Council in Philadelphia on April i6, 1722, in these
words :
Upon some information I lately received that the Indians were
like to be disturbed by the Secret and Underhand Practices of
Persons, both from Mary Land and this Place, who under the
Pretence of finding a Copper Mine, were about to Survey and take
up Lands on the other side of the River Sasquehannah, contrary to
a former Order of this Government; I not only sent up a Special
Messenger with a Writ under the Lesser Seal to prevent them, but
took this Occasion to go towards the Upper parts of Chester County
myself in order to Locate a small quantity of Land unto which I
had purchased an original Proprietary Right; And understanding
further upon the Road, that some Persons were actually come with
a Mary Land Right to Survey Lands upon Sasquehannah, fifteen
miles above Conestoga, I pursued my course directly thither, and
happily arrived but a very few hours in time to prevent the Execu-
tion of their Design. Having the Surveyor General of this Prov-
ince along with me in Company, after a little Consideration, I
ordered him to Locate and Survey some part of the Right I pos-
sessed, viz. ; only five hundred acres upon that Spot on the other Side
Sasquehannah, which was like to prove a Bone of Contention,
and breed so much mischief, and he did so accordingly upon the 4th
and 5th days of this Instant April, after which I returned to Con-
estogoe, in order to discourse with the Indians upon what had
happened.^*
He was none too soon with his scheme to forestall the
Maryland survey. For a company of people under Mary-
land authority and in partnership with the Maryland Pro-
prietor was busy sinking shafts and prospecting for mines
"Col. Rec, II: i6o.
First White Men in the County. 17
in that region. They were already operating a mine far-
ther south along the Susquehanna and had designs upon
the very tract which Governor Keith had reserved. Among
the unpublished Calvert Papers^ ^ is the certificate of a
survey of 200 acres made April 24, 1722, by Deputy Sur-
veyor John Dorsey of Maryland "by virtue of a warrant
granted unto Philip Syng and Thomas Browne both of the
City of Philadelphia in the Province of Pennsylvania out
of his Lordships Land Office bearing date of March 28th,
1722." This tract was known as " Partner's Adventure."
Another of the Calvert Papers gives an account of the ex-
amination of Philip Syng,^^ May 28, 1722, before the
Governor and Council of Pennsylvania, on the charge of
having surveyed land under a Maryland warrant within
the bounds of the Keith tract.^"^ The evidence in this ex-
amination shows that the survey on account of which Syng
was apprehended and committed was the Partner's Ad-
venture of 200 acres surveyed by John Dorsey. For this
a warrant had been issued as early as March 28, 1722.
Governor Keith therefore was just in time with his survey
of April 4 and 5 to make good the Pennsylvania claim.
The keen disappointment of the Marylanders at their
exclusion from this region and their further designs upon
the land are manifest from the following letter of July 19,
1722, from the Secretary Philemon Lloyd to Lord Balti-
more and Co-Partners in London:
I did myself the honor of writing to you of June 1722 . . .
have seen Roach, Sing and Brown ; the 3 remaining partners in the
15 No. 274. In the Maryland Historical Society, Baltimore, Md.
16 No. 273. The warrant for his arrest (among the Calvert Papers) is
dated May 27, 1722, and designates Philip Syng as a silversmith.
" See also Col. Rec, III: ijG.
1 8 German Element in York County, Pa,
adventure. They seem very much disconcerted at the loss of their
mine upon Susquehannah, of which I sent the ... in my (last).
I have received at their hands 2 ps of Oar : the one copper and Iron
the other silver and iron. The mine is so strictly guarded that they
tell me they could not possibly gett any more, (but) promise a
larger quantity against the time that I come up to them. Which I
design in six or seven days at the farthest and will then go to the
place where they have several men at work in opening a copper
mine, much lower down in Maryland.
Gentlemen, According to the worth and circumstances of this
and other mines, I shall find myself under a necessity of doeing
something with the discoverers rather than be wholly shut out from
these first undertakings in case the land be allready taken up; but
if not I will then lay warrants wherever I can hear of any probabil-
ity of a mine. Schylers and the mine upon the Susquehannah hath
made such a noise in the world, that the woods are now full of
mine hunters. Many discoveries are already made; but the worth
of them unknown untill shafts shall be sunk to find out the large-
ness and quality of the vein. Upon which account I humbly pro-
pose: [here follow four propositions to encourage the finding and
reporting of mines]
Publick reports concerning the value of the mine upon Susque-
hannah are various and uncertain, especially of late, they have given
out that the Governor &c after a great deal of pains and cost are
about to quit it. On the other hand Sing, Roach, and Brown tell
me, that such reports are spread abroad on purpose to give . . .
oppertunity of conveying away the oar with little or no notice, they
allso . . . they came from Philadelphia, 7 Waggons were in wait-
ing near . . . transport the oar down to New Castle which is 50
miles distance, & I had . . . some persons tell me allso that a much
better way be ... to the head of one of our rivers with 30 miles
land carriage.
I am not a little concerned that the reserve of 10,000 Acres
formerly advised of hath not been executed. I know not by what
means the Pennsylvanians had notice of it, but before our surveyor
First White Men in the County. 19
went up (he was out of the way for some time after I sent the
warrant to him) they had posted souldiers all about the woods So
that our officer dared not to go and execute the warrant. How-
ever I am resolved to be up among them and to lay the reserve if
possible ; notwithstanding if Sir William Keith hath laid out all the
adjacent lands for young Penn by name of Springetts Bury qr
75,520 Acres though I believe twice that quantity may be thrust
into those bounds, by reason of the terms more or less ; as you will
see they are there made use of in the enclosed copy of warrant.
As soon as Sing Roach &c went up ; a warrant was issued out by
Sir William and Sing taken upon the mine : thence carried to Phil-
adelphia and committed to the city goal, as you will perceive by the
inclosed papers which I have purposely transmitted that the rigor-
ous methods of these people may be known. I design however
to make a survey there with all imaginable secrecy, but should be
heartily glad if a proper instrument were sent over (for) the taking
the Lat. of the place, or that some publick directions were given
to the Government for the making an (exact) discovery of the
line of 40 North.^^
The second survey was made on April 10 and 11, and
covered much the same territory as Keith's survey. It
was made upon the order of Penn's Commissioners of
Property. The Commissioners afterwards gave as their
reason for making the survey that they had been " informed
that the Governor (Sir William Keith) had gone towards
Susquehanna and had taken Jacob Taylor with him, which
gave them some apprehension of a design which he might
have on a parcel of land on the other (west) side of the
Susquehanna where was supposed to be a copper mlne."^^
The region covered by these surveys afterwards for some
years bore the title " Keith's Mine Tract." There can be
18 The published Calvert Papers, No. 2, p. 25 ff. " Fund Publications."
19 Minutes of the meeting of the Commissioners of Property held in
Philadelphia, April 161, 1722.
20 German Element in York County, Pa.
little doubt therefore that the first authorized survey in
York County was incited by the hope of finding some min-
eral or ore, either copper or gold, and that attention was
directed to this region by the explorations of Lewis
Michelle, the Mennonite miner, whose prospecting for
mines in 1706 had led to the formal complaint of the
Conestoga Indians. It is not at all surprising that Gov-
ernor Keith was well informed of the movements of this
advance agent of the Mennonites. For he was keenly
interested in the development of the natural resources of
his province and he also seems to have been generally on
\ favoring terms with the Germans. For it was he who in
1723, of his own motion and with the subsequent disap-
proval of the Proprietary, placed the Germans from Scho-
harie, New York, in the Tulpehocken Valley.
Just how much of the present area of York County was
covered by the explorations of Michelle it is not possible
to ascertain but it seems certain that they extended over the
present townships bordering on the river from Newberry
south, and at times must have penetrated as far westward
as the Cumberland Valley.^^ Much of this territory after-
wards became very familiar soil, not only to the German
Mennonites but also to Germans of other religious faiths.
20 For the formal complaint of the Indians (supra, p. 5) stated that
"divers Europeans, namely: Mitchel (a Swiss), Peter Bezalion, James le
Tort, Martin Chartiere, the French glover of Philadelphia, Flranck, a
young man of Canada, who was lately taken up here, being all French
men, and one from Virginia, who also spoke French, had seated themselves
and built houses upon the branches of the Patowmack, within this govern-
ment, and pretended that they were in search of some mineral or Ore, &c."
Col. Rec, II: 403 f.
CHAPTER II.
The First Settlers.
^^^■^HE earliest attempts at settlement within the
i "m I present limits of the county were made before
ft I L the land had been purchased from the Indians,
^^^^ hence before any kind of title could be given
according to established usage. Those who
thus entered unpurchased Indian lands were known as
squatters. The first white squatter on the territory west
of the Susquehanna was John Grist (otherwise Crist,^
Krist, Greist). He was an Englishman who came
to York County from Hempfield Township, Lancaster
County, in 17 19 or 1720.1 Grist was accompanied in
this move by several other persons. They settled near the
mouth of Kreutz Creek known In Keith's survey of 1722
iThe fact referred to in footnote 20 of Chapter I that Michelle and
others had, according to testimony of the Indians in 1707, " seated them-
selves and built houses upon the branches of the Potowmack within this
Government " can hardly be taken to mean that they were the first squatters
west of the Susquehanna. For they were merely prospectors and adventur-
ers. They certainly made no substantial improvements such as would con-
stitute their houses a " settlement " or " plantation." They quickly moved
on to other fields of exploration. In fact Michelle had already many
weeks before the complaint of the Indians moved on to Maryland soil.
Col. Rec, II: 404.
21
22 German Element in York County, Pa.
as " White Oak Branch." We are able now to determine
very definitely the exact spot where Grist settled and
planted his corn. Two drafts of the Keith survey are in
existence, one in York and one in the Department of In-
ternal Affairs at Harrisburg. The draft at Harrisburg
identifies the settlement of John Grist with the habitation
>^ of Captain Beaver, an Indian. The draft in York fixes
^^ the habitation of Captain Beaver at about the spot now
covered by the Pennsylvania Railroad Station at Wrights-
ville. This then was the location of Grist's house and
improvement.^
But the new settlement was very short-lived. Grist
soon came into conflict with the Indians who resented his
intrusion upon their domain. And in 172 1, upon com-
plaint of the Indians and after repeated warnings and
threats from the Commissioners of Property, he was fined
and imprisoned in the jail at Philadelphia and was given
his liberty only out of compassion for his poor family and
on condition that he and his " accomplices" would remove
at once from the west side of the river and that he would
be placed under heavy bond for his good behavior. This
was "judged absolutely necessary for the quiet of the In-
dians, and also to prevent such audacious behavior in con-
tempt of the authority of this government in the time to
come."^
2 It is evidently not accurate when Rupp says (" History of Lancaster and
York Counties," p. 529) that Grist was accsmpanied by " divers other
families," for the provincial authorities deal with Grist alone and the
" divers other persons " mentioned in the Colonial Records were probably
only his associates in labor.
3 Col. Rec, III: 137. This same John Grist afterwards, in 1738, settled
298 acres on the Bermudian Creek in Manchester Township in the western
part of York County, receiving his final warrants for the same on July 23,
1742 and October 25, 1747. Lancaster County Records.
The First Settlers. 23
It might seem that this treatment was severe enough to
serve its purpose of preventing any further attempts at
squatting west of the Susquehanna. Nevertheless it was
not long until others crossed the river from Lancaster
County and settled on the west bank. In 1722, shortly
after making the survey of Keith's Mine Tract, Governor
Keith made a treaty with the Indians guaranteeing them
the territory south and west of the Susquehanna for their
exclusive possession. But in spite of this agreement it was
shortly thereafter, perhaps even beginning in that same
year, that three Englishmen, Edward Pamell, Paul Wil-
liams, and Jefferey Sumerford, and one German, Michael
Tanner,^ took up their abodes on the west side of the river
opposite the Indian town of Conojahela, about three and a
half miles south of the former settlement of John Grist.^
Here these intruders remained until late in the year 1727
and that too not without the knowledge of the Pennsyl-
vania authorities.^ But in the fall of 1727 upon the com-
plaint of the Conestoga Indians they were removed by
order of the deputy governor and council. And again for
* Tanner could not have joined the rest until 1727, for he did not reach
the port of Philadelphia until September 27th of that year.
5 It is a confusion of facts when Carter and Glossbrenner, the first his-
torians of the County, assert that these men had come from Maryland and
were known as " the Maryland intruders." They were indeed intruders
upon the territory of the Indians but they had come from Pennsylvania.
^ For Wright and Blunston in their report to Governor Gordon in 1732
state that until about two years before 1729 Parnell and the others had
been settled west of the river and " for several years had paid uninter-
rupted acknowledgement to this Province." Archives, 1 : 3 64 and Col. Rec,
III: 470. The deposition of Tobias Hendricks (Dec, 1732) states that
" during the continuance of the said Parnel, Williams and Others there,
they paid taxes to this Province, Applied there for Justice, and in all cases
acknowledged themselves Inhabitants of Pensylvania, until they were Re-
moved from thence by Order of the Governor of Pensylvania, at the
Request of the Conestogoe Indians." Archives, I: 362.
24 German Element in York County, Pa.
a short interval the lands west of the broad river lay vacant
for the exclusive convenience of the Indians.
By this time it had become evident that no permanent
or successful settlement could be made west of the river
without securing either the consent of the Indians or the
authorization of the colonial government. Accordingly
the next effort at pioneer improvement on the new soil
proceeds with the consent of the secretary of the province.
This first authorized settlement within the present limits
\ of our county was made in 1728, a few months before
Lancaster County was organized and separated from Ches-
ter County. In the summer of that year John Hendricks
removed from the banks of the Conestoga about three
miles north of the Susquehanna and under the authority of
government settled west of the Susquehanna upon the tracts
from which John Grist and his companions had been com-
pelled to remove in 1721. The circumstances attending
this settlement will help us to understand something of the
conditions under which the earliest settlements in York
County took their beginnings.
Hendricks's removal to the west side of the river had
been under contemplation for several years. The hunt-
ing-trips of Hendricks and his relations had often taken'
them across the river and thus they had become fairly
familiar with the soil on the west bank. Early in the year
1727 John Hendricks had applied to James Logan, secre-
tary of the Province, for permission to take up land and
settle west of the river. At the same time a similar appli-
cation was made by Joseph Chapham. Hendricks told
Logan that the Indians west of the river were desirous that
that he should settle there. Now Logan had heard that
some people from Maryland were about to make surveys
The First Settlers. 25
on those lands. Accordingly upon the application of Hen-
dricks and Chapham, Logan ordered Samuel Blunston, a
magistrate located on the east bank of the Susquehanna,
to survey a tract west of the river opposite Hempfield em-
bracing about 1,000 or 1,500 acres. This was to be sur-
veyed to William Penn, grandson of the first proprietor,
and was to be regarded as part of the 10,000 acres devised
by the proprietor to his grandson. It was hoped that this
arrangement would both forestall any claim to the land
that the Marylanders might put forth and at the same time
give no offense to the Indians. Logan also instructed
Blunston that if Hendricks and Chapham could secure the
consent of the Indians, they together with Hendricks's
brother James should be permitted to make settlement on
part of the tract west of the river.
In July, 1727, Blunston crossed the river and marked
the four corners of a tract such as he had been ordered to
survey. The actual survey was not then made because, as
he explained, " at that time the weeds being so high we
could not chain it nor carry an instrument to any purpose."
Meanwhile Chapham had given up his intention of settling
there and had moved to Carolina. Moreover the attitude
of the Indians had become such that John and James Hen-
dricks did not regard it as a safe venture to settle west of
the river. For their brother Henry together with one
Thomas Linvil had during the summer settled as squatters
on the Codorus Creek at a point twelve miles west of the
Susquehanna but the violent opposition of the Indians had
forced them to withdraw. Thus no authorized settlement
was effected in that year.
But John Hendricks persisted. In the fall of the year
1727 he appealed to Logan a second time for permission
^
26 German Element in York County, Pa.
to settle on the tract which had been marked off. But he
was now informed that since the Indians insisted upon
their rights and were determined that there should be no
settlements of whites within their domain, no such per-
mission as Hendricks sought could be granted by the
authorities. However during the year 1728 the Indians
began to grow cool in the assertion of their rights as over
against the Pennsylvanians. For they began to realize
from sad experience that if they hindered the citizens of
Pennsylvania from settling in those parts the Mary-
landers would occupy them by force without any consider-
ation for the rights or feelings of the Indians. Marking
this change of sentiment among the aborigines John Hen-
dricks during the summer of 1728 removed across the
river with his wife Rebecca and took up his abode upon
the former plantation of John Grist.^ This he did with-
out any further license than that which he had already re-
ceived, namely, permission of the secretary of the Province
to settle on a part of the tract marked off for William
Penn, on condition that he first secure the consent of the
Indians. As the Indians never objected to Hendricks's
settlement there this settlement was always regarded by
the authorities as legal and authorized.^ The tract on
'^ Local historians following Carter and Glossbrenner have always as-
signed 1729 as the date when both John and James Hendricks settled west
of the river. But these statements are erroneous, as is evident from the
clear and reliable account of Samuel Blunston (see Appendix A) and
from the provisional warrant issued by Thomas Penn in 17133 (vide infra,
p. 27). This date is also attested by a third document, a letter from Samuel
Blunston to Richard Peters dated March 25, 17140, in which he says:
" Inclosed herewith is a draught of the tract of land I bought of John
Hendricks . . . the land was surveyed to and settled by John Hendricks in
the year 1728 by order and consent of the proprietary commissioners."
Penna. Archives, Second Series, Vol. VH, p. 219.
8 For example, the Provincial Council makes reference in 1737 to " John
TJie First Settlers. 27
which Hendricks lived was formally surveyed to him by
Blunston during the last week of November, 1729. It
included 600 acres and constituted about one half, " the
uper side and best part," of the tract originally marked
off for the proprietor.^
The proprietary warrant for this survey and settlement
was not issued until March 20, 1733. It was then issued
on behalf of John Hendricks, James Hendricks, and
Joshua Minshall. For John Hendricks did not long enjoy
the distinction of being the only authorized settler west of
the river. About the year 1731 James Hendricks, his
brother, came and settled on a part of the tract on which
John lived " it always being understood to be their equal
right." But in the early spring of 1732 James was acci-
dentally shot and killed by his father while they were hunt-
ing turkeys, and his widow sold out her rights in the prop-
erty to Joshua Minshall. Minshall settled on the land
which he had thus bought and when Thomas Penn the
following spring approved the survey and issued a condi-
tional grant it read as follows :
Wheras upon the Application of John & James Hendricks &
some others, Inhabitants of Pensilvania the Commissioners of
Property did in the year 1728 order Samuel Blunston to lay out a
Tract of Land of Twelve hundred Acres lying on the West Side of
Susquehannah opposite to Hempfield ; which Land was then settled
by the said Parties, and is now in the Possession of the said John
Hendricks and Joshua Minshall, who holds in right of the said
Hendricks, who for some years lived on the west side of Susquehannah,
on a Tract of Land laid out to him by the Authority of this Government."
Col. Rec, IV: 150.
^The draft of this survey was promised to Logan (as per Blunston*s
Letter). If it was ever made it has since been lost. But the location of
the tract is well known, being identical with the former plantation of
John Grist.
28 German Element in York County, Pa.
James Hendricks; and it appearing to me that the said John Hen-
dricks & Joshua Minshall are settled upon the said Land by regular
Surveys — ordered to be made in the Year 1 728 of which I approve
and will order a Patent or Patents to be drawn for that share of the
Land laid out to the said John and James Hendricks to John Hen-
dricks and Joshua Minshall as soon as the Indian Claim thereon
shall be satisfied — on the same Terms other Lands in the County
of Lancaster shall be granted. Philadelphia, 20th March
1732/3.1°
It has usually been assumed that these first settlers within
the present limits of York County were Englishmen. It
is impossible to trace them farther back than their settle-
ment in Lancaster County, and in the absence of informa-
tion to the contrary they have been regarded as English.
The earliest historians of the county, Carter and Gloss-
brenner, in their " History of York County " take the Eng-
lish nationality of the Hendrickses for granted, "The
earliest settlers were English; these were, however, soon
succeeded by vast numbers of German immigrants." In
this they are followed implicitly by all the other historians
of the county from Day to Gibson and Prowell. Thus
Day quotes the above authors with approval and remarks :
"John and James Hendricks in the spring of 1729, made
the first settlement. . . . They were soon followed by
other families, principally Germans, who settled around
them within ten or twelve miles. "^^ Other writers have
been content to accept the statement of these early authori-
ties on the history of the county. Their conclusion is
doubtless drawn from the associations and the names of
the Hendrickses.
They came from an English Quaker community in the
10 Now in the Land Office at Harrisburg.
11 Historical Collections of the State of Pennsylvania, p. 693.
The First Settlers. 29
township of Conestoga. Here in 17 15 "James Hen-
dricks and company" had taken up a tract of 1,100 acres
on the Conestoga Creek. This tract was divided out
among the members of the "company" and became a
strong Quaker community. This James Hendricks was
the father of James and John, the earliest settlers west of
the river, and associated with him In his " company" were
such men as Jeremy Langhorne, Thomas Baldwin, David
Priest, and Tobias Hendricks. These families were
closely intermarried. Thus John Hendricks was married
to Rebecca, daughter of Thomas Baldwin. This would
seem to indicate also religious affinity between the Hen-
drickses and the Baldwins, who were English Quakers.^^
Moreover their Immediate associates east of the river
were in all cases English. The elder James Hendricks
kept an ordinary where the highway from Philadelphia
and Lancaster forded the Conestoga Creek. When the
Hendrlckses migrated west of the river their property
on the Conestoga was bought by an Englishman, John
Postlethwait. John Hendricks's first petition to settle west
of the river was made jointly with Joseph Chapham. Here
again the name is unmistakably English as Is also the case
with Thomas LInvil, the man associated with Henry Hen-
dricks, brother of John and James, in the effort made in
1727 to affect a settlement on the Codorus twelve miles
west of the Susquehanna. Moreover the widow of James
Hendricks sold out her rights to the English Quaker,
Joshua Minshall. And afterwards when John Hendricks
removed from Hellam Township to Manchester Town-
ship he took up land adjoining Francis Worley, another
name prominent among the Quakers. These close asso-
12 Rebecca Hendricks in her deposition of Dec. 29, 1732, is specifically
designated "one of the People called Quakers." Archives, I: 361 f.
30 German Element in York County, Pa.
ciatlons of the Hendrickses with the Quakers may be held
to justify the conclusion that they were themselves Quakers
and Englishmen. It can hardly be argued as against this
conclusion that John Hendricks took up arms and partici-
pated actively in the border warfare between the Mary-
landers and the Pennsylvanians. For it is a well-known
fact that in spite of their scruples against armed force, the
hardy pioneer Quakers did sometimes in cases of emer-
gency and for reasons of self-defense join in the appeal to
arms.
But when consideration is had for the names of these
earliest settlers themselves the argument for their English
nationality seems less conclusive. The name Hendricks
may be either English or German. It is of frequent oc-
currence among the pioneer Germans of Pennsylvania.
The name Hendrick appears repeatedly, both as Christian
name and as surname, in the lists of German immigrants
who arrived at the port of Philadelphia between 1727 and
1775.^^ The transition from Hendrick to Hendricks,
like that from Myer to Myers, was easy and quite usual.
And although John and James Hendricks were located on
the banks of the Conestoga before these lists of German
immigrants began to be kept in Philadelphia, nevertheless
it is an established fact that there were Germans in Penn-
sylvania by the name of Hendricks (not merely Hendrick)
early in the eighteenth century. For in the list of Germans
naturalized by act of the Assembly September 29, 1709,^*
are found the names of Wilhelm Hendricks, Henrich Hen-
13 Instances of such names are pointed out by H. L. Fisher in Gibson's
" History of York County," p. 222. These lists of immigrants are to be
seen in the Division of Public Records at Harrisburg. They were edited
and published in substantially correct form in 1856 by Professor I. Daniel
Rupp, Rupp's " Collection of Thirty Thousand Names, etc."
14 Col. Rec, II: 493.
The First Settlers. 31
drlcks, Gerhart Hendricks, and Lorentz Hendricks.^'^ So
far therefore as the family name of John and James Hen-
dricks is concerned it is altogether possible that they were
Germans.
Nor does the argument from their Christian names ex-
clude the possibility of the German nationality of these
first settlers. The Christian name James is indeed a good
Quaker name and may be regarded as a strong indication
of English heritage. For it occurs quite often among the
kin of the pioneer settlers west of the Susquehanna. Their
father was named James. And John had a son named
James. ^^ But too much weight must not be attached to the
inference from names alone as they occurred in those days
of commingling races and languages. For as a matter of
fact, in the second generation of Germans in America the
name James does sometimes occur. And it may perhaps
have occurred, by translation from the German, even in
the first generation. For instance, as early as 1738, at the
organization of the German Baptist Church of the Little
Conewago, one of the first elders of the Church bears the
name James Hendrick.^'^
isRupp's "Collection," p. 431. Michael Hendricks paid the yearly quit-
rent in Frederick Township, Philadelphia County, before 1734. Rupp's
" Collection," p. 472.
16 There was a James Hendricks in the western part of Lancaster
County even after the death of James the brother of John Hendricks in
1732. He was connected with the first use of violence in the border diffi-
culties west of the river. He was a carpenter, lived east of the river, and
was employed by James Patterson in 1733 to make trips across the river to
look after Patterson's horses there. We have two depositions made by
him. In the one he is called a Quaker and makes affirmation (Nov. 25,
17132). In the other he takes oath (Apr. 7, 1733 ). In both cases he makes
his mark for a signature. Archives, I: 348 f. and 399 f. Also Col. Rec,
4: 655.
17 See Falkenstein, " History of the German Baptist Brethren Church,"
p. 97.
32 German Element in York County, Pa.
Moreover It Is a significant fact that James Logan in a
letter to Samuel Blunston of May lo, 1727/^ when he has
occasion Incidentally to refer to the younger James Hen-
dricks erroneously calls him Hendrick Hendricks. This
is a purely German name and was the correct name of
another brother of James and John. Samuel Blunston
afterwards calls this third brother Henry, which is but the
English translation of Hendrick. Then too, In the course
of their correspondence both Logan and Blunston refer to
the father of James and John as Jacobus. This Is the
German for James and this fact taken in connection with
the occurrence of the German name Hendrick among the
sons of Jacobus raises a high degree of presumption In
favor of the German nationality of these Hendrlckses.
Several years later when the Germans west of the river
felt that as a class they were being treated with Injustice
and subjected to Indignities they united among themselves
to assert their rights and on this occasion their principal
leaders and spokesmen were two men named Henry Hen-
dricks and Michael Tanner. These Samuel Blunston
speaks of as "the most principal Note among those Ger-
mans."^^ The Identity of this Henry Hendricks with the
Henry Hendricks who was a son of Jacobus Hendricks
cannot be proved beyond doubt, but neither can It be suc-
cessfully denied. It is, however, quite conceivable that
Henry Hendricks, son of Jacobus, having made an unsuc-
cessful effort in 1727 to settle on the banks of the Codorus,
should have repeated the effort after his brothers had suc-
ceeded, that he should have been among the first to settle
in that region when settlers began to crowd Into it, and
that this priority as well as his former English associations
IS See Appendix A.
i»Col. Rec, IV: 57 and 75.
The First Settlers. 33
should have marked him together with Michael Tanner,
another of the earliest settlers, as leaders among their
countrymen.
A similar inference may be drawn from the conduct of
John Hendricks after he settled on the west bank of the
river. For some years he was quite content and loyal to
the Pennsylvania government under whose authority he
had settled there. But then he became dissatisfied with
the amount and the location of the land which had been
assigned to him. In the spring of 1735 he appeared be-
fore the proprietaries and complained of the "unfair and
dishonest usage" he had received at the hands of John
Wright and Samuel Blunston in relation to the land west
of the Susquehanna. This was the occasion of Blunston's
informing correspondence cited above. Blunston's ex-
planations and endeavors evidently did not satisfy Hen-
dricks for from this time forth he sympathizes warmly
with the Marylanders. In 1736 we find him harboring
them on his plantation and giving them aid in their aggres-
sions. And in January, 1737, we find him imprisoned in
the jail at Lancaster for "having unhappily engaged him-
self on the side of Maryland and been concerned in some
of their late riots.''^^ It is highly improbable that if John
Hendricks had been an English Quaker in good standing
he would have manifested such violent opposition to the
Quaker government or such acrimony against such promi-
nent individuals among the Quakers as were John Wright
and Samuel Blunston. Nor would It have been necessary
for these Friends to bring about his imprisonment and to
bind him to keep the peace. This would have been a very
unusual proceeding of Friends against a Friend. The prob-
20 Col. Rec, IV: 150.
34 German Element in York County, Pa.
ability Is that If John was not a German he was at least not
bound to the English Quakers of Lancaster County with
such strong bonds of intimacy and nationality that they
could not be severed.
Nevertheless before the Hendrlckses crossed the Sus-
quehanna they were evidently regarded as Englishmen by
their fellow-citizens In Chester County. For In an old
assessment list^^ for " Conestoga," Chester County, which
gives the names of all the Inhabitants of the Conestoga
district In the year 171 8 together with the rate for each,
the inhabitants are distinguished as "English" and
" Dutch." Here we find the names of James Hendricks
and John Hendricks listed among the "English In-
habitants."
A similar Inference may be drawn from the case of the
Tobias Hendricks mentioned above as one of the mem-
bers of "James Hendricks and company" settled on the
Conestoga in 17 15. Here the names, both Christian and
surname, might be either English or German.^^ But this
Tobias Hendricks was certainly regarded as English, for
he became one of the magistrates of the peace for Lan-
caster County about 1727^^ and served repeatedly in that
capacity. His signature, still to be found on many docu-
ments In the Division of Public Records at Harrisburg,
is always in English script. From the appearance of his
signature in 1737 and from the fact that he died as an old
man In 1739 he seems to have belonged to the generation
21 In the court house at West Chester. Copied by Gilbert Cope, Esq.,
and published in Egle's "Notes and Queries," Second Series, p. 131.
22 The Christian name Tobias is of frequent occurrence among the Ger-
mans of Pennsylvania and John Tobias is the full name of a German who
arrived in New York port Sept. 17, 1743'. See Pennsylvania Magazine of
History and Biography, Vol. 33, p. 21321.
23 According to his own affirmation. Archives, I: 3-62;.
The First Settlers. 35
of the elder James Hendricks and was probably his
brother.^*
But here again midst the conclusive evidence for the
English nationality of Tobias Hendricks there are clear
indications of close relationship with the Germans. For
Tobias Hendricks, Jr., second son of the magistrate, very
early associated himself with the Germans of York County
in religious affairs. He was one of the founders of the
German Lutheran Congregation of the Codorus. In the
baptismal records of that Church his name appears as one
of the heads of families in that congregation. All the
other members of the Church were pure Germans. But it
is a significant fact that a slight distinction is made in the
Church Record between Tobias Hendricks and the other
members of the Church. Pastor Stover, who kept the
record, made all the entries in deep German script with
the sole exception of the entry concerning Hendricks.
His name is written in English script. The words of the
entry are written in the German language and in German
script but the English (or Latin) name of one of the
children baptized is also in English script like the super-
scription "Tobias Hendricks. "^^ This is a clear indica-
24 He died in the Cumberland Valley west of the river in Nov. 1739,
leaving a wife, Catherine, one daughter, Rebecca, and six sons. Egle's
" Notes and Queries," Vol. II, 1896, p. 264. He was the ancestor of Vice-
President Thomas A. Hendrix.
25 This record is in the possession of Pastor Enders of York. The entry
referred to is as follows (the words in English script are here in italic) :
Tobias Hendrick
Gab. Getauft
[Here are records of baptisms of two sons,
Joh. Jacob and Joh., and two daughters,
Elizabetha and Rebecca.]
1744 ^744
Jan. 30. — Eine tochter Veronica zeug. Joh: Wolf. — April 15.
36 German Element in York County, Pa.
tion that Tobias Hendricks, though associated with the
Germans in their worship, was nevertheless regarded by
Pastor Stover as English.
What conclusion may we draw from these considera-
tions? It is highly probable, but remains without positive
proof, that these Hendrickses were of German descent,
that their ancestors one or two generations previous were
Mennonites in Switzerland or in the Rhine Valley and
had fled before persecution and found refuge in England;
that there they quickly associated themselves with their
English brethren in the faith, the Quakers, and with them
came to America. In this case they might be called Eng-
lishmen of German descent, and this would account for
their German spirit of enterprise in pushing across the
Susquehanna and locating where they did, while at the
same time it would account for their English associations
and the English form of their Christian names. Certain
it is that soon after their location in York County the
Hendrickses were close associates of the Germans who
followed them into the county. They sympathized with
them in times of adversity and cooperated with them in
matters of religion. But while there were these strong
bonds of sympathy and cooperation, perhaps even ties of
blood between these pioneer Hendrickses and the early
Germans in the county, nevertheless the places from which
they came, their associates before their migration, together
with the other evidence in the case, seem to leave little
room for doubt that John and James Hendricks were
regarded as Englishmen when they crossed the Susque-
hanna and that the honor of the first authorized settle-
ments in York County cannot be claimed for the pure
Germans.
CHAPTER III.
The First Settlement.
3F the first individual settler in the county was not
a German the first community of settlements
did undoubtedly consist of German settlers and
those parts of the county which were first
tamed and subdued to the purposes of civiliza-
tion have from the beginning borne the stamp of German
language and culture.
It was in that same valley of the Kreutz Creek where
the Hendrickses were settled and where unsuccessful efforts
at permanent settlement had previously been made that
the first stream of newcomers from the eastern side of the
Susquehanna deposited itself. It followed very closely
upon the settlement of John Hendricks in 1728. Even
before that settlement was consummated many of the set-
tlers east of the river had begun to manifest a desire to
settle on the west bank. The Shawannah Indians of the
village opposite Hempfield had removed into the interior.
The false impression had got abroad among the people
east of the river that the Indians of the Five Nations had
resigned their claims to the lands on this part of the Sus-
quehanna, and a letter of August 10, 1727, from James
37
38 German Element in York County, Pa.
Logan to Samuel Blunston indicates that not a few citizens
of Pennsylvania were prospecting daily on the lands be-
yond the river with a view to staking out claims and set-
tling there. We have one instance of this in the effort of
Henry Hendricks and Thomas Linvil mentioned above.*
Such settlements were, however, prevented for the time
being. But when the opposition of the Indians subsided
and when Hendricks had made a beginning, a veritable
tide of immigration began to rise and sweep into the new
territory. Many of these settlers took the trouble to
secure the permission of the proprietary representative.
Others settled irregularly though not without the knowl-
edge and tacit consent of the government. It is known,
for example, that Caspar Spangler settled in the valley in
1729 and that Tobias Frey had settled there prior to 1733.^
Already in November, 1729, Blunston could write to
Logan: " Many people out of this province are for remov-
ing over the River so that I doubt not but another year will
settle most of the habitable land for they flock over daily
in search. The remainder of that by Hendricks would
have been settled before now had they not been prevented."^
These settlers all took up their claims in the valley of
the Kreutz Creek stretching westward and southwestward
from John Hendricks's property. Hendricks's plantation
was the oldest and therefore the best known of the planta-
tions in that neighborhood and so was used to designate
the location of other places. A number of these settlers
afterwards in their depositions in referring to the location
of their plantations would regularly affirm that they were
1 Vide supra, p. 315'.
2 " The Spengler Families With Local Historical Sketches," pp. 17 and
138.
3 Vide Appendix A.
The First Settlement. 39
situated a certain number of miles westward or southwest-
ward from John Hendricks.* The nationahty of these
earliest settlers in the community of the Kreutz Creek was
almost without exception German, This fact is important
for the subsequent history of the county and for a while it
entailed rather serious consequences upon the settlers them-
selves. Carter and Glossbrenner remark: "The earliest
settlers were English; these were however succeeded by vast
numbers of German immigrants. . . . Most of the German
immigrants settled in the neighborhood of Kreutz Creek.
... In the whole of what was called the ' Kreutz Creek
Settlement' (If we except Wrightsville) there was but one
English family, that of William Morgan." We have it
upon the same good authority that the first tailor in the
county was Valentine Heyer, that the first blacksmith was
Peter Gardner, that the first shoemaker was Samuel Lan-
dis, who had his shop somewhere on the Kreutz Creek,
that the first stone dwellings were built in 1735 on the
Kreutz Creek by John and Martin Schultz. The first
schoolmaster was known by no other name than " Der
Dicke Schulmelster." Thus all the known arts of that
primitive civilization among the county's first inhabitants
were in the hands of Germans. The number and names
of these earliest German settlers In the Kreutz Creek settle-
ment, their legal status and their distressing experiences in
their new homes we shall be able to understand after we
have taken a glance at a parallel effort at settlement that
was being made by Marylanders.
This Maryland settlement within the present limits of
York County centered about the spot from which Pamell
and others had been compelled to remove in 1728. The
* For example, Pennsylvania Archives, I: 523, 524; Col. Rec, III: 613.
\
40 German Element in York County, Pa.
settling of the Marylanders here began in the year 1729
and grew rapidly during the next few years. Already on
November 30, 1729, Blunston wrote to Logan "All the
land about Parnels^ is surveyed and settled by Mary-
landers." Afterwards when the dispute concerning the
boundary had become acute the Marylanders sought to
establish their claim to the region by proving their priority
in time of settlement. For in 1736 after the undignified
controversy between the provinces had led to forceful con-
flicts and among other acts of violence the house of Col.
Thomas Cressap, a Marylander settled at the mouth of
Cabin Branch on the west bank of the Susquehanna, had
been burned over his head, evidence was adduced to show
that a number of persons living in the immediate neighbor-
hood of Cressap's house had held lands under Maryland
warrants for several years. Thus the evidence of Stephen
Onion, taken at Annapolis on January 12, 1736, and pre-
served in the unpublished Calvert Papers,^ indicates that
in 1729 Onion had secured a warrant from the Maryland
office for "Pleasant Garden" which he sold to Thomas
Cressap who settled and built "soon after it was sur-
veyed"; that by virtue of a warrant from the Maryland
office in the same year Jacob Herrington surveyed and
"soon thereafter settled" a tract of 81 acres called "Bul-
ford"; that in 1730 by the same authority Thomas Bond
secured a tract of 460 acres called" Bond's Mannour" and
settled thereon William Cannon and John Lowe; that by
virtue of warrant dated December 19, 1729, Onion had
surveyed on June 2, 1730, a tract of 600 acres called
" Conhodah " and had occupied the same in February,
5 Parnell evidently had been located there long enough to give his name
to the place.
6 No. 319.
The First Settlement. 4^
1732; that In 173 1 Onion had secured a tract of 290 acres
called "Smith's Choice" which was occupied by William
Smith. " And this deponent also saith that before the im-
provements made on the said lands by the said settlers
there were no Improvements on them that this deponent
saw but a few Indian Cabbins and a little hutt made of logs
and a small quantity of ground cleared by a White Man
who was driven away by the Indians as this deponent was
Informed and which hutt was sometimes empty and at
other times possessed by the Indians and that no white
person or persons was or were settled on any of the lands
to this deponent's knowledge or that he hath heard of
when the people herein beforementioned settled and im-
proved the same, and further this deponent saith not."
Now Cressap's log house Is known to have stood upon
the spot cleared and Improved by Edward Parnell and
others and relinquished by them on order of the Pennsyl-
vania government In 1728. It was therefore about three
and one half miles south of the property of John and
James Hendricks.^ The other tracts referred to in Onion's
deposition adjoined the Cressap property. For on March
I, 1736, Rachael Evans testified that her husband Edward
Evans lived " about one and one half miles from Cressap's
late dwelling house " ; that Jacob Herrington lived one and
one fourth miles westward from Cressap; that William
Smith lived two miles westward from Cressap ; and that
Robert Cannon lived one and one half miles north from
Cressap. Adjoining Cannon was John Lowe less than a
mile westward from Cressap's house.^ No dates are given
7 The foundations and cellar of the house are still to be seen on the
Maish property in Lower Windsor Township. A photograph of these re-
mains in the possession of the York County Historical Society.
8 No. 319.
42 German Element in York County, Pa.
for the actual settlement of these persons except in the
case of Stephen Onion himself, and this date (February,
1732) in all probability refers not to his first occupation
but to a later location. But from other sources it would
appear that Thomas Cressap was the first settler there.
For on September 13, 173 1, Governor Gordon of Penn-
sylvania complained to Governor Calvert of Maryland
because for several months he had heard rumors about
grants from the Maryland Office for lands on the west side
of the Susquehanna. Two weeks later the Indian Cap-
tain Civility complained to Samuel Blunston of Lancaster
County because Cressap had settled at Conejohela and
had been disturbing the peace of the Indians there. And
the following January Cressap himself declared under
oath that he had been living on the west side of the Sus-
quehanna since March 16, 1731.^ Stephen Onion seems
therefore to have been the first Marylander to take out a
warrant for land in that neighborhood and Thomas Cres-
sap seems to have been the first settler. But as Onion's
warrant was not secured until 1729 and as Cressap did not
settle there until 1 731 it is clear that the Maryland settle-
ments could not have followed very closely upon that of
John Hendricks and certainly the closing sentence in Onion's
deposition is a mistake. Priority of authorized settle-
ment in the Kreutz Creek Valley cannot be maintained for
the Maryland settlers even if this had constituted a valid
claim to the territory. But from the foregoing it is evi-
dent that the settlements under Maryland authority were
early enough and numerous enough and far enough north
to constitute a real source of apprehension to any others
who might claim jurisdiction over those parts.
8 Archives, I: 291, 295, and 311.
The First Settlement. 43
Now It was the bitter conflict between the EngHsh citi-
zens of Maryland gathered about Thomas Cressap at the
mouth of Cabin Branch and the German citizens of Penn-
sylvania whose plantations stretched westward and south-
westward from John Hendricks along the Kreutz Creek
Valley, that shaped events among the very earliest inhabi-
tants of our county and occupied the attention of both the
settlers and the provincial authorities for several years.
And It Is from the documents pertaining to this conflict
that we draw much of our information concerning those
earliest settlers.^*^
10 This conflict was one of the incidents in the general contention between
the two provinces concerning the boundary. William Penn received his
title to Pennsylvania from the British Crown in i'68i, and for more than
eighty years thereafter the boundary lines between his province and Mary-
land were the source of almost constant dispute. There is now a bulky
literature pertaining to this controversy and its tedious negotiations. Many
of the documents bearing on the dispute are found scattered over the Archives
and Colonial Records of the two provinces, and many of them remain un-
published among the " Penn Papers " in the Historical Society of Pennsylva-
nia at Philadelphia, in the Department of Internal Affairs and the Division
of Public Records at Harrisburg, and in the Maryland Historical Society at
Baltimore (vide, e. g., Pennsylvania Archives, Second Series, Vol. VH,
pp. 301-400; for other literary references see Winsor's "Narrative and
Critical History of America," Vol. IH, p. 5i'4). A brief statement of the
issues involved and the facts of the negotiations is found in the article by
J. Dunlop, " The Controversy between William Penn and Lord Baltimore,"
in the " Memoirs of the Historical Society of Pennsylvania," Vol. I, pp.
i63'-204. A popular statement of the case in brief compass is Chapter XI
of Sydney George Fisher's " The Making of Pennsylvania."
Suffice it to say here that the whole difficulty concerning the southern
boundary of Pennsylvania grew out of ignorance on the part of the pro-
prietors in England as to the location of the 40th degree of latitude in
America. Lord Baltimore's grant (1632) was merely for the unoccupied
part of Virginia from the Potomac northward, a very indefinite description.
But in Penn's grant of 1681 the province of Pennsylvania is described as
bounded " on the south by a circle drawn at twelve miles distance from
Newcastle, northward and westward unto the beginning of the 40th degree
of north lattude and thence by a straight line westward." Now the " begin-
44 German Element in York County, Pa.
It follows from the conditions of haste and irregularity
under which the first surveys west of the Susquehanna were
made and from the circumstances of intercolonial strife
ning of the 40th degree " from the equator is the 39th parallel. But the
39th parallel runs just north the present city of Washington. And the 40th
parallel runs somewhat north of Philadelphia. Neither of these parallels
falls within la miles of Newcastle. Thus the boundary was uncertain
and while the propietary negotiations dragged on in England a petty
border warfare began in America. The disturbances began east of the Sus-
quehanna where the Pennsylvanians contended for lands as far south as
the mouth of the Octoraro Creek, about 51 miles south of the present border.
In 1723 both proprietors agreed to abstain from making further grants in
the disputed territory for eighteen months or until satisfactory adjustment
could be made. But years passed and no conclusion was reached. By 17132
the controversy was carried into the region west of the Susquehanna, and
here the Marylanders laid claim to the lands at the mouth of Cabin Branch
and in the Kreutz Creek Valley, nearly thirty miles farther north than any
point claimed by them east of the river. Their object was to extend the
Maryland domain west of the river as far north as the 40th parallel of
latitude. This region west of the river and within the present limits of
York County, was the chief scene of the border warfare and the disturb-
ances here are known as " Cressap's War."
In 1732 the proprietors of the two provinces agreed to have the boundary
line surveyed. This agreement placed the southern boundary of Pennsyl-
vania on a parallel of latitude fifteen miles south of a parallel passing
through the most southerly point in Philadelphia. But because of other
stipulations in this agreement it proved distasteful to Lord Baltimore and
under various pretexts he delayed its fulfillment and refused to let the sur-
vey be made. So the acrimonious correspondence between the provinces
continued but without effect. In 1735' the Penns began a suit in equity
against Baltimore to compel him to fulfil his contract. This was not ended
until 1750, when it was decided in favor of the Penns. Meanwhile re-
peated appeals came from America asking that a provisional line be run
in order to allay the hostilities between the inhabitants of the provinces.
This resulted in an order from the King establishing the " temporary line
of 1739" fifteen and one fourth miles south of Philadelphia on the east
side of the Susquehanna and fourteen and three fourths miles south of
Philadelphia on the west side of that river. The pending proceedings in
chancery resulted in 1750 in a decree that the agreement of 17321 should be
carried into specific execution. But forthwith a dispute arose as to the
proper methods of mensuration. This was not settled until 1760. In 1736
The First Settlement. 45
attending the first settlements there, that the legal status
of the earliest settlers is not easy to determine. It prob-
ably was not in all cases clearly defined at the time. The
Marylanders took out their claims and settled under ordi-
nary warants from the Maryland Office. This gave them
a certain advantage over those who came from Pennsyl-
vania. For according to established custom and law in
Pennsylvania no titles whatever could be granted to lands
until they had been purchased from the Indians. The
government of Pennsylvania did not begin to issue even
temporary licenses until 1733. John and James Hen-
dricks had settled on Indian territory before that time but
this was by special permission of the proprietary govern-
ment and then only on condition that they first secure the
consent of the Indians. Their formal license was not is-
sued until March, 1733, and even this was only a tem-
porary license. But in Maryland no such custom obtained
with reference to the lands of the Indians and the Mary-
land authorities did not hesitate to grant permits to settle
on lands that had never been purchased from the natives.
The Maryland government did indeed early recognize
such a purchase as desirable for the security of its people.
For Philemon Lloyd, the proprietary agent at Annapolis,
in a letter of October 8, 1722, to the "Co-Partners" in
London urges at great length a treaty with the Susque-
hanna Indians and then remarks,
I do assure you Gentlemen that something of this Nature is very
necessary to be don; for now, that we are about Lycencing our
two expert surveyors, Charles Mason and Jeremiah Dixon, were sent to
America to supervise the survey of the boundary. This survey, carrying
out the agreement of 17132', was completed on December zG, i-]6j, and has
given us the famous Mason and Dixon Line, celebrated now as the dividing
line between the two sections of the country during the Civil War.
46 German Element in York County, Pa.
People, to make Remote Settlements, we must likewise use the
Proper Measures to protect them; for the Lands next above our
Settlements upon the west side of the Susquehannah, and all along
upon the West side of Baltimore County, are cutt ofE & separated
from the Present Inhabited Parts by large Barrens, many Miles
over; so that as yet, the setlers there can expect very little Com-
munication with us ; yet if they should be Cutt off & Murthered by
the Indians we must insist upon Satisfaction for the security of our
present Outer Inhabitants ; which may involve us in a f atall War.
But by this Means of Purchasing those Indian Rights, we may
think ourselves pretty secure, as well from those Indians them-
selves as from any strange Indians that shall traverse those Woods."
Nevertheless no such purchase was ever made by Mary-
land and hence the Marylanders who took up lands within
the limits of our county must be regarded as squatters and
not as authorized settlers. They had warrants, it is true,
> but the validity of these warrants was always denied by the
Pennsylvania authorities who claimed that whole region
under the terms of the royal grant to William Penn.
Not until January, 1733, did the proprietary govern-
ment of Pennsylvania begin to issue its first licenses to take
up land west of the river. The settlements that had been
made there by Pennsylvanians before 1733 had been per-
mitted by the government authorities with the consent of
the Indians but no titles had been given. It was hoped
that the lands west of the Susquehanna would soon be pur-
chased from the aborigines and thus the Indian policy of
the Penns might be carried out. Thomas Penn (son of
WiUiam Penn, Sr.) arrived in the province August, 1732,
and John Penn (eldest son of William) came in October,
1734.^2 gut the Indian purchase west of the river was
11 Calvert Papers, No. 2, p. 54.
12 John Penn returned to London the following year to care for the inter-
ests of Pennsylvania in the boundary dispute with Lord Baltimore. Thomas
Penn remained in the province until 17411.
The First Settlement. 47
not consummated until late in the year 1736. Meanwhile
the incursions of the Marylanders which Governor Keith
more than a decade before had made the excuse for his
survey of the " Mine Tract," were becoming a real menace
to the proprietary rights in that region. The settlers from
Maryland and under Maryland authority were pushing
farther and farther north and were growing constantly
bolder and more annoying along the west bank of the Sus-
quehanna, The provincial authorities of Pennsylvania
became convinced that active measures must be taken to
secure the rights of their province in that region.
The Maryland authorities had long before felt that
special inducements ought to be offered to settlers in that
region. Their custom did not prevent them from issuing
full warants for settlements on Indian lands. But even
this, they felt, was not enough and ten years before the
government of Pennsylvania took any measures to settle
the new territory the proprietary agent at Annapolis had
urged the granting of easy conditions for payment of war-
rants in order to induce citizens of Maryland to settle in
this district west of the Susquehanna. Thus Philemon
Lloyd, In the letter quoted above, writes:
If this Place were well Seated, it would be a good Barrier unto
the Province on that Side & doubt not, but that it would in a few
years, bring on the Planting of that other Vast Body of Rich Lands,
that lyes something more to the Westward; & would likewise
secure our Country against the Claims of the Pensilvanians on the
North side; for we are allready Seated to the Northward of that
Line, which I lay down for the true Location of Pensllvania
upon the Back of the 12 Mile Circle, as they have encroached upon
us to the Southward of that Line about Octeraro, & to the East-
ward of It, which seems to be occatloned by our own too great
Suplness; & makes me so desirous now, of Seating farther up the
48 German Element in York County, Pa.
Susquehannah ; & if his Lordship should be pleased to grant 7 or
10 years Time for the Payment of the Ffines for Lands in those
remote parts; he will, I verily am perswaded have his back part
of his Country Seated, by more than 10 years the sooner, ....
There are other Advantages, that will Acrrue from Setling the Re-
moter Parts of the Province, by Conditional Warrants as above
proposed: the Scotts Irish, & Palatines, after the news of so great
Concessions, will I imagine fHock apace in, & Even some from
Pensilvania it Self;
But even without such special Inducements as were here
proposed, the Marylanders, as we have seen, were flocking
to the west bank of the Susquehanna much to the annoy-
ance of the provincial government and the Lancaster
County authorities just east of the river and to the great
unrest of the Pennsylvanlans who had settled west of the
river.
In order to counteract these annoying encroachments the
proprietary agents of Pennsylvania began to adopt the
policy of encouraging citizens of Pennsylvania to cross the
Susquehanna and settle west of the river acknowledging
the jurisdiction of Pennsylvania In that region. For this
\ purpose In January, 1733, they commissioned Samuel
Blunston, who lived near the river, ^^ to Issue temporary
licenses to such persons as were willing to take up lands on
the west side of the river and settle there. These licenses
were afterwards confirmed by the proprietor on October
30, 1736, as soon as the lands could be purchased from the
Indians. The full text of one of these confirmed Blun-
ston licenses was presented as evidence In the case of Nich-
olas Perle In 1748. It is of special Interest because It was
doubtless the same form that was used by the proprietor
13 At Wright's Ferry, where Columbia now stands.
The First Settlement. 49
in confirming the licenses of all the early German settlers
in the county.
Pennsylvnia ss:
Whereas, sundry Germans and others formerly seated them-
selves by our Leave on Lands Lying on the West side of Sasque-
hanna River within our County of Lancaster, & within the bounds
of a Tract of Land Survey'd the Nineteenth and Twentieth Days
of June, Anno Domini, 1722, containing about Seventy thousand
Acres, commonly called the Manor of Springetsbury ;
And Whereas A Confirmation to the Persons seated on the same
for their several tracts has hitherto been delayed by reason of the
Claim made to the said Lands by the Indians of the Five Nations,
which Claim the said Indians have now effectually released to Us
by their Deed bearing date the Eleventh Day of this Instant,
October ;
And Whereas Nicholas Perie, one of the Persons living within
the said Manor, hath now applied for a Confirmation of Two
Hundred Acres, part of the same where he is now Seated ;
I do hereby Certify that I will cause a Patent to be drawn to the
said Nicholas Perle for the said Two hundred Acres (if so much
can be there had without prejudice to the other settlers) on the
common Terms other Lands on the West side of Sasquehanna River
are granted, so soon as the said quantity shall be Survey'd to him &
a return thereof made to me
October 30th, 1736. Tho. Penn."
The nature of these licenses reflects the primitive meth-
ods of granting lands. They were variously known by the
government as "licenses," "grants," and "certificates."^^
They were not real warrants but merely approved the mak-
ing of a survey and promised to order a patent to be drawn
at some Indefinite future time. They thus secured the
14 Col. Rec, V: 219 f.
15 Vide Hamilton's Warrant for Resurvey, infra, p. 53 f.
50 German Element in York County, Pa.
settler in his right to his settlement. The licenses had all
the essential features of warrants with the single exception
that they showed no previous payment of purchase money.
In the litigations that arose long afterwards over these
tracts the Blunston licenses were regarded by some as mere
locations, by others as actual warrants. The distinction
was made in the courts between "warrants on common
terms" and "warrants to agree." The former were war-
rants issued for lands that were not reserved by the pro-
prietor but were offered to the public at a fixed price. The
latter were contracts for the possession of lands which had
been surveyed from the common stock as manors, had thus
been withdrawn from the public market, and so could be
acquired only by special agreement.^® The Blunston
licenses were issued for lands that were supposed to lie
within the Springettsbury Manor^^ and so could be acquired
only by special contract or "warrants to agree." But as
a matter of practice they were always issued on common
terms. Note, for example, the closing sentence in the
Hendricks warrant, " on the same Terms other Lands in
the County of Lancaster shall be granted "^^ and the closing
sentence in the Perie warrant, " on the common Terms
other Lands on the West side of Sasquehanna River are
granted."^^ These Blunston licenses afterwards played a
very conspicuous part in the judicial investigation into the
validity of the claim to these manorial lands west of the
river.^*^
18 Decisions of the Supreme Court of U. S., Wheaton, Vol. IX, p. 35,
Curtis edition.
i'^ They were afterwards by the resurvey of 171681 actually comprehended
in that manor.
18 Vide supra, p. 28'.
18 Vide supra, p. 49.
20 Dallas Reports, Circuit Court, Pennsylvania District, Vol. IV, pp. 373-
The First Settlement. 51
Samuel Blunston kept a careful list of the persons to
whom he issued permits to settle west of the river together
with the approximate number of acres allowed to each one.
This list he transmitted from time to time to the Land
Office in Philadelphia. It was preserved in that office until
1762 but has since disappeared.^^ There is, therefore, no
way of ascertaining directly the names and exact locations
of the earliest settlers in the county. For no surveys of
their tracts were made at the time. Blunston had surveyed
in person the tract upon which John and James Hendricks
had settled. He had laid out a tract of 1,200 acres and
had assigned one half of it to Hendricks, " the uper side
and best part." This was done by special order of the
secretary of the province and the exact location of this
tract is well known. But when he issued his conditional
grants (1733-1736) he did not undertake the work of
making the surveys and the new territory was well dotted
with settlers before any surveys were made.^^ Thus on
March 18, 1735,^^ Blunston wrote to Thomas Penn:
380. " Blunston's Licenses have always been deemed valid: and many titles
in Pennsylvania depend upon them. . . ." Ibid., p. m. Wheaton's Reports,
Vol. IX, pp. 34-7'3-
21 Vide Governor Hamilton's Warrant for Resurvey of Springettsbury
Manor, infra, p. 513 f. Perhaps it was on the occasion of this resurvey that
the list of permits disappeared.
22 For some years, in fact, it was the express policy of the Pennsylvania
government to avoid making surveys in this region. For Governor Gordon
wrote to Governor Ogle on July 26, 1732, and speaking of the agreement
of 1723 he said that convention " notwithstanding the numerous Settlements
made by those who forced themselves upon us from Ireland and Germany,
has been so punctually observed by our office that there has not been one
Survey made, as is affirmed to me by Order of that Office, within the
Limits which it was conceived Maryland either could or would claim."
Archives, I: 338.
23 The date of the letter is March 18, 1734, but this was under the old
method of dating. Under the modern method this would be March 18,
52 German Element in York County, Pa.
Though as much care as possible has been taken to prevent dis-
putes yet many are like to arise which can never be well adjusted
without surveying to each their several tracts. And as warrants
are already lodged here for that purpose I make bold to propose
that a surveyor of sense and honesty (if such can be had) might be
sent up as soon as possible for that service, which if done with ex-
pedition I am certain would be greatly for your interest and the
only sure means of a regular settlement for I do not think it proper
at this critical juncture to leave the people room to quarrel among
themselves. Beside in a country so scarce of water as that is if the
people are alowed to be their own carvers a great part of the
land will be rendred uninhabitable. This as well as the other
should be timely prevented. The people are now settling building
and improving daily. This is the season for surveying which can-
not so well be done in any other season as the six or eight weeks
coming. This I thought to mention though I know of no person in
these parts to recommend yet doubtless such may soon be had. . . .
I should be glad to know thy mind herein that I may be able to give
the people an answer for they are generally desirous and expect it
will be done.
It Is not at all certain that such surveys were ever made.
No drafts of these settlements are known to exist. There
is no trace of the confirmed warrants in the Land Office
at Harrlsburg. The individual surveys had evidently not
been made when the Blunston licenses were confirmed in
1736, and the words of Governor Hamilton's warrant for
the resurvey of Sprlngettsbury Manor leave little doubt
that at least so far as most of the tracts were concerned
no such surveys had yet been made In 1762.^* We are left
17135. We shall hereafter give all dates as they would be under the modern
method.
2* The original survey of Sprlngettsbury Manor, made in 1722, is still in
existence. It either had been mislaid or else was being purposely sup-
pressed at the time the resurvey was ordered in 1762. It has recently been
discovered by the Hon. Robert C. Bair, of York, and was published in the
The First Settlement. 53
therefore to inference and Incidental allusions for our in-
formation concerning the names, the nationality, and the
location of the earliest settlers in the Kreutz Creek Valley.
But such sources of information are not entirely lacking.
It is clear in the first place that the Kreutz Creek Valley
was from the beginning regarded as settled predominantly
and almost entirely by Germans. For example, in Gov-
ernor Hamilton's warrant of May 21, 1762, for the resur-
vey of Springettsbury Manor, it is set forth that the manor
was originally surveyed for the use of the proprietor on
the 19th and 20th of June, 1722, and that
sundry Germans and others afterwards seated themselves by our
leave on divers parts of the said manor but by reason of some claim
made to those Lands by the Indians of the Five Nations (v^^hich
they afterwards released to us by their Deed of the nth day of
October, 1736) the confirmations of the parts so seated in the said
manor were for some time delayed. And whereas, upon our ob-
taining the said Release from the said Indians we did give to each
of the persons so as aforesaid settled on our said Manour License
or Certificate bearing date respectively the 30th day of October in
the year last aforesaid, thereby promising that we would order a
patent to be drawn to each of them for their respective Settle-
Pennsylvania Annual Report of the Secretary of Internal Affairs, 1905,
Part I, Map E, where it is shown to differ widely from the relocation made
under Hamilton's orders. But the words of Hamilton's warrant indicate
clearly that surveys for the grants to individual settlers had not been made
systematically and were really not in existence.
In the Proceedings of The Supreme Executive Council, January 25, 1787
(Col. Rec, XV: 153), there is a suggestion as to what became of such
copies of patents for tracts within the Springettsbury Manor as were re-
corded in the secretary's office. The secretary was there instructed to
deliver to the attorney of the Penns the copies of warrants which had been
issued for such tracts, and the proceedings of the council on September 22,
1788^ indicate that these instructions were carried out and that "several
inclosures " had been thus delivered.
54 German Element in York County, Pa.
merits and plantations in the said Manor as soon as surveyed mak-
ing in the whole by Computation i2,ooo Acres or thereabouts, as
in and by a Record and particular list of such Licenses or Grants
remaining in our Land Office more fully appear. And whereas
the survey of our said Manor is by some accident lost or mislaid and
is not now to be found but by the well known Settlements and Im-
provements made by the said Licenced Settlers therein and the many
Surveys made round the above said Manor and other proofs and
Circumstances it appears that the said Manor is bounded on the
East by the River Susquehannah, on the West by a North and
South Line West of the late Dwelling plantation of Christian
Esther, otherwise called Oyster (to which said Christian one of
the said Licences or Grants was given for his Plantation) North-
ward by a Line nearest East and West Distant about three Miles
North of the present Great Road leading from Wright's Ferry
through York Town by the said Christian Oysters plantation to
Monocksay and Southward by a Line near East and West distant
about three Miles of the Great Road aforesaid. And whereas
divers of the said Tracts and Settlements within our Manor have
been surveyed and confirmed by patents to the said Settlers thereof
or their assigns and many of them that have been surveyed yet
remain to be confirmed by patent and the Settlers or possessors
thereof have applied for such Confirmation agreeable to our said
Licences or Grants whose requests we are willing and desirous to
comply with and we being also desirous that a compleat Draught or
Map and return Survey of our said Manor shall be replaced and
remain for their and our use in Your Office and also in our Secre-
tary's Office. . . .
The "well known settlements and improvements" of
these "sundry Germans and others" were Hamilton's
chief means of determining again the bounds of the manor,
the original survey of which had been temporarily lost.
The Blunston licenses confirmed by Thomas Penn In 1736
The First Settlement. 55
totaled about 12,000 acres.^^ The entire manor as relo-
cated under Hamilton's orders embraced 64,520 acres.
The Blunston licenses therefore covered about one fifth of
the manor. In the subsequent litigation concerning these
manorial lands the number of licenses confirmed by
Thomas Penn is stated to be fifty-two. ^^ Now there is
abundant evidence to show that with very few exceptions
these fifty-two licensed settlers occupying one fifth of the
entire fertile valley afterwards included in the Springetts-
bury Manor were Germans.
25 The usual grant to each settler in those days was 200 acres. The
grant to John Hendricks was in this respect also an exception.
26 In February, 1824, in the case of Kirk and others, Plaintiffs in Error,
vs. Smith, ex. dem. Penn, Defendant in Error, tried before the Supreme
Court of the United States, evidence was produced showing that the num-
ber of licensed settlers on Springettsbury Manor in 1736 was fifty-two.
Chief Justice Marshall delivered the opinion of the Court on that occasion
and said among other things:
" Now it appears from the statement of the testimony made in the charge
of the court to the jury, which is the only regular information of the evi-
dence given in the case, that an agreement w^as entered into, in 1736,
between the proprietary and a number of the inhabitants, by which he
agreed to make them titles for certain specified quantities of land in their
possession on the common terms. This agreement is stated to have been
afterwards carried into execution. The contract, as stated, contains un-
equivocal proof of having been made under the idea that the survey of 1722
was valid, that it related to lands within the lines of that survey, and that
the lands within its lines were considered a manor. That survey may not
have been attended with those circumstances which would bring it within
the saving act of 1779, and certainly, in this cause, is not to be considered
as a valid survey of a manor. It was nevertheless believed, in 1736 by
the parties to this contract, to be a manor: and those proceedings which took
place respecting lands within it, are consequently such as might take place
respecting lands within a manor. We find sales of lands made to fifty-
two persons upon the common terras, and grants made to them according
to contract. When the final survey was made, comprehending these lands
as being part of the manor of Springettsbury, were they less a part of that
manor because they were granted as a part of it before the survey was
made ? " Wheaton's Reports, Vol. IX, February Session.
56 German Element in York County, Pa.
For it must be remembered that the purpose of the pro-
prietary agents in encouraging settlements beyond the Sus-
quehanna was to preempt that soil for those who acknowl-
edged the claims of Pennsylvania as over against the
claims of "the Maryland intruders." This was not an
afterthought on the part of the Pennsylvania government,
as was so often claimed by the Maryland authorities in the
trying times that followed. Pennsylvania's claim to this
soil was a consistent one. From the time of the arrest of
Philip Syng on Keith's Tract in 1722 and the original
survey of Springettsbury Manor in that same year, to the
final adjustment of the difficulties almost half a century
later, Pennsylvania never relinquished her claim upon this
region and never consented to recognize the Susquehanna
as the boundary between herself and Maryland. This
claim was recognized by Pamell and his associates in 1728
and it was only with the advent of Col. Thomas Cressap
that the claims of Pennsylvania in this region were aggres-
sively denied and withstood. The property of these
earliest settlers in our county, therefore, became at once
the immediate bone of contention between the two colonial
governments in their border difficulties. It is through the
recorded transactions incident to these border difficulties
that we learn how large a proportion of the earliest settle-
ments in the county were made by Germans, and these
records, replete in their references to the "unfortunate"
Germans, also tell us something about their names, their
v^ position and their purposes.
^ Thus on December 10, 1736, the deposition of Michael
Tanner was taken by Magistrate Tobias Hendricks as
evidence in the case of Thomas Cressap the instigator and
leader of the Maryland intruders. This Tanner was the
The First Settlement. 57
same young German who had settled west of the river In
the company of Edward Parnell and several other Eng-
lishmen and upon the complaint of the Indians had been
expelled in 1728. From his deposition we learn that he
had persisted in his effort to settle west of the river and on
September 17, 1734, had made an authorized settlement
of 200 acres six miles southwest of John Hendricks.
This time he was not accompanied by English companions
for now it was chiefly the Germans who seem to have been
attracted across the river. Tanner also declares that in
1734 and 1735 Cressap with pretended authority from
Maryland had surveyed upwards of 40 tracts of land for
the Germans living in those parts.^''^
27 Michael Tanner (afterwards Banner) was a native of Mannheim,
Germany. On September 27, 1737, when he was thirty-one years of age, he
and his wife arrived at the port of Philadelphia. He passed the winter
among his countrymen in the western part of Lancaster County. The fol-
lowing spring he crossed the Susquehanna, selected a tract of land near
the mouth of Cabin Branch, where Parnell, Summerford and Williams had
taken up their abodes. But when he applied to the government for per-
mission to settle there and make improvement, it was refused and in the
fall of the year he was required to remove from the west bank. In 1734
he secured a Blunston license and effected a settlement in the Kreutz Creek
Valley. Here he soon became involved in the Cressap disturbances. During
these difficulties and for some years thereafter Tanner was the spokesman
for his countrymen west of the river (for example, Col. Rec, IV: fs)- He
stoutly resisted the claims of the Marylanders, rejecting their promises and
ignoring their threats. In ly^^i he was surprised and captured by the
Marylanders while he was helping to bur}'' one of his neighbor's children
and was carried off and Imprisoned for a time at Annapolis. Michael
Tanner was a leader of men. When a measure of peace was restored in
York County he was one of its most prominent citizens. His name appears
frequently in the records of the County, as witness to wills, appraiser of
property, executor of estates, and viewer of roads. In 1749 he was one of
the commissioners to lay off the County. His signature grows constantly
more Anglicized with the years, indicating the influence of his contact with
English-speaking officials.
In religious faith he was a Mennonite, as is evinced by the fact that
■^
58 German Element in York County, Pa.
From similar depositions we learn that Balzer Springier
(otherwise Spangler)^^ in the beginning of 1733 under a
Pennsylvania grant had settled and improved a tract of
land on Codorus Creek twelve miles west of John Hen-
dricks, but that he had been ejected by Cressap to make
room for another German, John Keller; that late in 1733
he " solemnly affirmed according to law " instead of taking oath. It was
under his leadership that the Mennonites coming from Lancaster County
began to settle the rich farming lands in the Conewago Valley near Digges'
Choice in 17381. He was afterwards a close friend of the Scotchman
Richard McAllister, and it was probably due to Tanner's influence that
McAllisterstown received the name of Hanover. His son, Jacob Danner,
was the first elder of the German Baptist Church of Codorus, I'l miles
southeast of York, organized in 1758, and became involved in the famous
religious controversy with Jacob Lischy. Vide Archives, 1 : 524 f . Division
Public Records, Harrisburg, Provincial Papers, Vol. VI: 4, 15, z$, York
and Lancaster County Records, passim.
28 John Balthasar Spangler was the eleventh child of Hans Rudolph
Spangler. Born November 2% 1706, at Weiler-Hilsbach in the Palatinate
on the Rhine, and married in April, 17132, he migrated to America and
arrived at the port of Philadelphia on October 11, 1732. The following
spring he made his way westward across the Susquehanna armed with a
Blunston license for a tract on the Codorus Creek but he was forcibly pre-
vented by Cessap from executing this grant. He soon succeeded however
in gaining permanent possession of another tract of 200 acres. This he
purchased from his countryman Tobias Frey and it lay one mile east of
the Codorus, just south of the Peachbottom Road (now Plank Road) where
it crosses the Mill Creek, in what is now Spring Garden Township. He
gradually added to his possessions until in 1763 he owned 483 acres. Part
of this land has been incorporated in the city of York. Balthasar Spangler
had been preceded to America and to York County by his elder brother
Caspar and he was accompanied to the New World by his brothers George
and Henry. Balthasar was one of the patriarchs in the early history of the
County. When the town of York was laid out in 1741 he was one of the
first persons to take up a lot and build a house. When the first County
election was held in 1749 Spangler's house was the voting-place. He after-
wards kept a public inn there. He was one of the most prominent and
influential members of the German Reformed Congregation. He died in
1770 possessed of a large estate and survived by six sons and two daughters.
"The Spengler Families With Local Historical Sketches," pp. 138 ff.
The First Settlement. 59
Frederick Lather, a German, had taken up his abode near
the Codorus Creek, though at the persuasion of Cressap
under a Maryland grant; that in 1735 Frederick Ebert,
a German, apparently without any grant had settled and
improved a tract of land near the Codorus only to be ex-
pelled the next year by one of Cressap's agents to make
room for another German, Ffelty Shults; that Martin
Schultz and his wife Catherine were settled in Hellam
Township (now York County) prior to 1736 and suffered
violence at the hands of the Marylanders. These facts,
tend to confirm the impression, reflected by other public
instruments, that the first people to settle in any consider-
able numbers west of the Susquehanna were Germans.
In 1736 the "Chester County Plot" was discovered.-^
This was a conspiracy on the part of the Maryland sym-
pathizers living in Chester County, Pennsylvania, " for
ousting by force of arms those German families settled on
the west side of the Susquehanna within the unquestionable
bounds of this province \_t.e., Pennsylvania]." Among
the court records at West Chester is a document which
contains the names of many of the German settlers west of
the river in 1736. It is the record of a " billa vera"
against Henry Munday and Charles Higginbotham, insti-
gators of the " Chester County Plot," in which they are
charged with having conspired on October 25, 1736,
against " the lands and tenements of the honorable pro-
prietaries, county of Lancaster, on west side of Susque-
hanna within the province of Pennsylvania then in the
quiet and peaceful possession of
Christian Crawl Peter Steinman
Henry Libert Henry Pann
Jacob Huntsecker Henry Smith
6o
German Element in York County, Pa.
Methusalem Griffith
Michael Tanner
Henry Stands
Martin Shultz
Jacob Welshover
Paul Springier
Andreas Felixer
Ulrick Whistler
Nicholas Booker
Hans Steinman
Conrad Strickler
Caspar Springier
Michael Walt
Peter Kersher
Reynard Kummer
George Pans Pancker
Frederick Leader
Michael Miller
Martin Weigle
Hans Henry Place
Tobias Fry
Martin Fry
Jacob Landis
Henry Kendrick
Tobias Rudisill
Jacob Krebell
Michael Springle
Jacob Singler
Philip Ziegler
Caspas Krever
Derrick Pleager
George Swope
Michael Krenel
Thomas May
Nicholas Brin
Kilian Smith
Martin Bower
George Lauman
Martin Brunt
Michael Allen
Christian Enfers
and
Nicholas Cone"
These forty-eight names are all the names of Germans,
except one, that of Methusalem Griffith.
This list indicates very clearly, therefore, that as soon
as the valleys west of the Susquehanna were opened to the
settlement of white people there was a rapid influx of
Germans and that the population there was from the begin-
ning preponderatingly German. It is practically certain
also that most of the fifty-two licenses issued by Blunston
from 1733 to 1736 and confirmed by Thomas Penn in
October, 1736, were taken by Germans. But it must not
The First Settlement. 6i
be concluded that all of the Germans In the Kreutz Creek
and Codorus Creek Valleys had taken out " Blunston
licenses." Most of them undoubtedly had secured these
conditional "warrants to agree" before making settle-
ment west of the river. Some however were not impressed
with the immediate necessity of securing such license. For
the Pennsylvania government was disposed to encourage
the migration of Its citizens across the Susquehanna and
the easiest terms possible were granted. No purchase
money whatever was expected until the Indian claim had
been satisfied and In many cases the purchase money was
not paid for some years even after 1736. Moreover,
those who chose to settle west of the river as squatters
were no longer sought out and expelled. The securing of
a Blunston license, therefore, seemed a mere empty for-
mality which might easily be postponed to some more con-
venient time, and after the migration had once begun
many of the people in Lancaster County saw no impro-
priety in removing and settling west of the Susquehanna
River without even consulting the authorities. And so,
while most of the settlers In the Kreutz Creek settlement
had taken the precaution to secure a formal license for their
land, a considerable number had settled there without hav-
ing secured any license whatever but Intending to take out
license under Pennsylvania as soon as they should be called
upon to do so.
It Is worthy of mention in this connection also that there
were quite a number who secured Blunston licenses to settle
west of the river, but who never availed themselves of
their permission and never actually took up their abodes
beyond the Susquehanna. For Blunston remarks in his
letter to Thomas Penn, March 18, 1735, "I had not
62 German Element in York County, Pa.
timely notice of this opportunity or I should have sent a
list of the persons licensed to settle over Susquehanah
which amount to about 130."^^ Many of these did not use
their licenses, at least for some years, either because they
could not find such tracts as they deemed desirable or else
because the growing hostilities of the Marylanders de-
terred them. Hence Thomas Penn found it necessary to
confirm licenses to only fifty-two persons and about 12,000
acres was sufficient to satisfy all their claims.
The above list of persons against whom Munday and
Higginbotham aimed their plot, cannot, therefore, be re-
garded as an exhaustive list of the Germans living in that
region. It can be supplemented from another source.
For many of the settlers west of the river, both such as
had secured Blunston licenses and such as had not, were
for a time induced by the dire threats and the alluring
promises of the Maryland agents to accept Maryland war-
rants and surveys and to acknowledge Maryland authority.
They soon found however that they had been deceived,
that the Maryland authorities discriminated against them
because they were Germans, and that their possessions
were uncertain under the Maryland proprietary. So they
made haste to repudiate their allegiance to Maryland and
to acknowledge again the jurisdiction of Pennsylvania in
those parts. This action the government of Maryland
regarded as "the revolt of the Germans" and it led to
serious disturbances in their neighborhood including an
invasion of a body of 300 armed men from Maryland
and the Chester County plot to force the Germans out of
their possessions. Their lands were surveyed to other
persons. Their property was stolen, demolished, or
burned. Their doors were broken down with axes in the
29 Appendix A.
The First Settlement. 63
dead of winter. Their growing crops were destroyed.
Their sons and fathers were captured and imprisoned.
They were subjected to all sorts of indignities and in some
cases were glad to escape with their lives to the east side
of the river.
Under date of August 13, 1736, a petition of the Ger-
mans was delivered to the provincial council at Philadel-
phia asking that their error in accepting warrants from
the government of Maryland be imputed to want of bet-
ter information, and praying to be received again under
the protection of the government of Pennsylvania. The
council unanimously declared in favor of receiving the
Germans again and of encouraging them in their fidelity.
The correspondence concerning this return of the Ger-
mans to their allegiance to Pennsylvania helps us to fur-
ther fix the names and total number of German settlers
within the bounds of York County up to the end of 1736.
For on August 11, 1736, just two days before the Ger-
mans petitioned the council at Philadelphia for reinstate-
ment as citizens of Pennsylvania, they wrote a somewhat
similar letter to the governor of Maryland apprising him
of their intention to acknowledge the jurisdiction of Penn-
sylvania. This letter was suggested by Samuel Blunston
but was not drawn up or signed in his presence. After-
wards in reporting in person to the council in Philadelphia
Blunston said that he had learned since coming to Phila-
delphia that the letter " was signed by about sixty hands."^^^
The lieutenant governor of Maryland in writing about
this letter shortly thereafter said it was " subscribed with
the names of fifty or sixty persons." This document was
published in the Maryland Archives.^i Only 22 of these
30 Col. Rec, IV: 57L
31 Md. Archives, Vol. 28: 100 f. Vide also Col. Rec. Pa., IV: 61 f.
64 German Element in York County, Pa.
names of signers are preserved in the Archives.^^ But in
the unpublished Calvert Papers^^ we have a copy of the
original document and this includes also a copy of the
signatures. The signatures in this copy number fifty-six
and they are identical with the names of fifty-six persons
whose arrest was ordered by the Maryland authorities by
proclamation on October 21, 1736, "for contriving sign-
ing and publishing a seditious paper and writing against
his Lordship and this government."^* These fifty-six
names therefore undoubtedly constitute the full list of the
signers of the letter of August 11, 1736. This list in-
cludes nearly all of the names mentioned in the document
pertaining to the Chester County Plot (which took place
in the Fall of that same year) and in addition includes
such German names as
George Scobell Godfrey Fry
Hance Stanner Henry Young
Tobias Bright Eurick Myer
Tobias Henricks Caspar Varglass
Leonard Immel ' Nicholas Peery
Balchar Sangar and
Peter Gartner Martin Sluys.
Michael Reisher
A few more names and locations of German settlers
may be gathered from the depositions concerning the ar-
rest of John Lochman, a German living west of the river.
From the account of Lochman himself and from that of
John Powell, undersheriff of Lancaster County, it appears
32 The original document went to England when the whole matter of the
boundary dispute was to be reviewed in London, and there it was lost.
33 No. 717. For the list of signatures vide Appendix B.
3* The proclamation also includes in a separate list the names of four
Lancaster County officials. These are English.
The First Settlement. 65
that on December 24, 1735, Robert Buchanan, sheriff of
Lancaster County, and three others had arrested Lochman
on a writ of debt at his house about seven miles west of
John Hendricks's plantation and two miles south of the
Little Codorus, within 100 yards of the main road through
the valley, and had taken him eastward past the home of
his countryman Peter Gartner, " a Dutch Smith," when,
about four miles west of Hendricks's, they were suddenly
set upon by a number of Lochman's countrymen living in
those parts. Lochman was rescued and the Lancaster
County officers were sorely abused. Lochman asserts that
there were " 5 Dutchmen " in the attacking party and
gives their names: Barnett Wyemour, Michl Risenar,
Feltie Craw, Francis Clapsaddle, and Leonard Freerour.
Powell asserts that there were about twenty or thirty in
the crowd but names only six : Bernard Weyman, Michael
Rysner, Christian Croll, Francis Clapsaddle, Nicholas
Kuhns, and Martin Schultz. He says that these six
together with Mark Evans " all live on the West side of
Susquehannah River, not above one Mile to the South-
ward of the house of John Kendricks." This incident
therefore gives us the location of Croll, Reisher, Cone
and Schultz, and adds the names of Welmer, Clapsaddle,
Feerour, Lochman, and Craw (or Kroh)^^ to the above
lists of names. ^^
The Maryland authorities estimated the number of
'5 Croll's name was often spelled Crawl, especially by the Marylanders.
But that this is not the same person as the Feltie Craw is evident not only
from the difference in surnames but also from the Minutes of the Lancaster
County Court for September 24, i73'6i, where it appears that both Ffelty
Crow and Christian Croll were tried for disturbing the peace of Lancaster
County and assaulting Sheriff Buchanan.
36 Proceedings of the Council of Maryland for 17135, P- 83. Col. Rec,
Pa. Ill: 612 f.
66 German Element in York County, Pa.
Germans in that region at fifty or sixty families. For in
a communication of Friday, February i8, 1737 (i. e., the
spring following the "revolt of the Germans"), from
the Governor and Council of Maryland to the King they
say "... accordingly not less than 50 or 60 families of
that nation immediately took possession of those lands and
paid their proportion of the taxes and demeaned them-
selves in every other respect as peaceable subjects of your
Majesty and unquestionable inhabitants and tenants of
. this Province until very lately."^"^
^ Now the petition of August 13, 1736, in which the
Germans pray the Council of Pennsylvania for reinstate-
ment as subjects of that province, was signed by forty-
eight Germans and was entitled "The Petition of Most
of the Inhabitants on the West Side of the Susquehanah
River opposite to Hempfield in the County of Lancaster."
The list of subscribers to this petition^^ must have been
very much the same as the list of signers to the letter of
two days previous, and as this number forty-eight embraces
"most of the inhabitants west of the River" this document
serves to corroborate the conclusion drawn from the Mary-
land letter and we have a fairly accurate idea of the num-
ber and the names of the Germans in this part of our
county at the close of 1736.^^
37 Proceedings of the Council of Maryland for 1737.
38 The list of signers was not preserved. The petition itself and the
statement concerning the number of signers is given in the Colonial Records,
IV: 64 f., and in Pennsylvania Archives, Second Series, Vol. VII: 2oa.
39 The difficulties grew worse during the winter of 173 6-1737. This was
the height of " Cressap's War," The " revolt of the Germans " was made
the pretext for many cruelties that were perpetrated upon them. Some of
the Germans who had assisted in rescuing John Lochman from the Lan-
caster County officials had been taken and lodged in the Lancaster County
jail. John Hendricks was also imprisoned there for a time because he had
harbored the Marylanders on his plantation which they used as a base of
The First Settlement. G'j
The improvements of these Germans lay in the fertile
limestone valley of the Kreutz Creek stretching southwest-
ward from John Hendricks's plantation, where Wrights-
ville now stands, to the place where the Kreutz Creek
Valley merges into the Codorus Creek Valley, where the
city of York now stands. This is the exact region that
was included in the Springettsbury Manor when it was
resurveyed in 1768 under Governor Hamilton's warrant
operations against the Kreutz Creek Settlement. On the other hand, four
Germans (Michael Tanner, Conrad Strickler, Henry Bacon, and Jacob
Welshover) as they were in the act of burying a child, had been seized by
the Marylanders and carried ofiE to Annapolis. After a strenuous resist-
ance, Cressap had been captured and was imprisoned in Philadelphia.
But Higginbotham had succeeded to the leadership among the Marylanders
at Cabin Branch, whom Samuel Blunston called " that nest of Vilains at
Conejohala." Several lives had been lost in the conflicts. The Germans
were being subjected to great inconveniences and serious dangers. Eighteen
of their number had been seized and lodged in the Maryland jail (Mary-
land Archives for ifn. May 23). The others became terrified when their
leaders had been captured and near the end of December, 1736, very many
of them deserted their habitations and sought safety east of the river.
Early in January, 1737, Blunston wrote in a letter to the Council at Phila-
delphia: "They have left their homes and are come over the River so that
there are none left on that side but women and children. . . . Before this
happened if the sheriff had gone over he might have had 30 or 40 Dutch
to assist him, but now he has none but what he takes with him if he can
go over." Archives, I: 317 (for the date of the letter vide Col. Rec, IV:
II49'). This evidently refers to the number of those who lived nearest to
the river and who could have been counted on to assist against the Mary-
landers. Measures were taken to protect them and in a few days they
all returned again to their homes and families. On May 23, 1737, Joseph
Perry and Charles Higginbotham reported to the Maryland Council that
they have " apprehended several Dutchmen and others set forth in procla-
mation as disturbers of the peace." The twenty-two names which they
recite as partial list of those captured include the names of Tanner,
Strickler, Bacon, Welshover, Liphart, and others prominent in the history
of the Kreutz Creek Settlement (vide Md. Archives for 1737). But by
this time the negotiations between the two provinces had advanced so far
in the direction of peace that the captives were not long detained in
Annapolis.
68 German Element in York County, Pa.
of 1762. It has been asserted that the original survey of
the Springettsbury Manor was purposely suppressed at the
time of the resurvey because the provincial authorities
wanted to exchange bad land for good.*^ However that
may be, it is certain that the resurvey, differing widely
from the original, was made to embrace part of the most
fertile area in the county. It comprehended a tract six
miles wide extending from Wright's Ferry along the entire
length of the Kreutz Creek Valley to the plantation of
Christian Eyster one and a quarter miles west of the town
of York. The resurvey thus included nearly all of the
plantations of the Germans, if not all, and it thus bears
eloquent witness to the superior skill of the Germans in
the selection of good soil for their locations.
40 Dallas Reports, IV: 3719. "It is further argued, that the recital of the
loss of the survey of 1722^ is a mere pretence, a fraud, to enable the pro-
prietaries to exchange bad land for good."
CHAPTER IV.
Other Early Settlements.
ANOTHER German settlement, among the
earliest of all settlements within the present
limits of the county, was that made where the
city of Hanover is now situated. In the time
of its beginnings it followed very closely upon
the commencement of the Kreutz Creek Settlement, but In
its earlier years it did not grow nearly so rapidly as its
sister settlement In the eastern part of the county. The
history of this settlement furnishes striking instances of
the hardships which the German pioneers In our county
were obliged to undergo.
This second German settlement was made under a Mary-
land grant and was therefore the occasion of no little strife
between the agents of Maryland and those of Pennsyl-
vania. . The original settlement was known as " Digges'
Choice," from the owner of the tract upon which the set-
tlement grew up.^ John Digges was a petty Irish noble-
man of Prince George County, Maryland. On October
14, 1727, he obtained from Lord Baltimore a warrant
^ In Maryland a custom obtained of naming the tracts for which warrants
were granted. For a few instances of this vide supra, p. 40 f. These names
usually expressed either some quality or circumstance of the tract or some
fancy of the warrantee or some aspect of public opinion concerning the
venture.
69
JQ German Element in York County, Pa.
for 10,000 acres of land. The warrant empowered him
to locate the grant " on whatsoever unimproved lands he
pleased within the jurisdiction of his lordship." No sur-
vey was made for four and a half years but the warrant
was kept in force by repeated renewals. Meanwhile
under the direction of the noted Indian chief, Tom, Digges
had selected for his grant a promising tract of land em-
bracing the whole of Penn Township, in which Hanover
is now situated, and most of Heidelberg Township but ex-
tending also into what is now Adams County and includ-
ing parts of Conewago, Germany and Union Townships.
The survey was made in April, 1732, and embraced 6,822
acres, although the patent was not issued until October 11,
1735. The full title of the tract in the return of the
survey was " Digges Choice in the Back Woods." Un-
fortunately for those who afterwards settled in those parts,
this tract had 270 courses and these were not marked ex-
cept on paper, only the beginning boundaries being marked
on the tract itself.^
Digges's Choice soon began to be settled, and that too by
2 Only about 120 of these courses were indicated on the return of the
survey made by the surveyor, Edward Stevenson. About 150 of the courses
run on the land were left out of the draft in order to produce a more
regular figure. It was this action on the part of the surveyor that led to
much of the confusion among the settlers afterwards. This confusion
would have been impossible under the Pennsylvania system of making
surveys. For under that system trees were marked on the ground and
where there were no natural boundaries artificial marks were set up to
distinguish the survey. Stevenson's field notes of the original Digges's
survey contained 270 courses and embraced the full grant of 10,000 acres.
But the return of the survey did not follow these field notes and there was
nothing on the tract itself to indicate the courses. These facts were brought
out in the judicial determination of the matter in the case of Thomas Lilly's
lessee vs. George Kitzmiller, tried before Justices Shippen and Yeates at
York in May, 1791. Vide Yeates, " Reports of Cases in the Supreme Court
of Pennsylvania," I: 281-33.
Other Early Settlements. 71
Germans. Of the many squatters who had begun to cross
the Susquehanna about 1730 and locate here and there on
the lands of the peaceful Indians, some were attracted to
the DIgges estate. The Pennsylvania authorities could
grant no kind of license before 1733 and then only pro-
visional licenses, whereas on the Digges lands, held under
a Maryland grant, full and permanent licenses could be
obtained at once. For the charter of the Maryland pro-
prietor, as we have seen, permitted him to authorize settle-
ments in western Maryland irrespective of the Pennsyl-
vania purchase of the Indian title. This fact undoubtedly
operated as a special inducement to attract settlers to Dig-
ges's Choice. Then, too, Digges took active measures to
sell his lands and to start a settlement on his tract. Both
in person and through his agents he crossed to the east side
of the Susquehanna River where he advertised his acres
among the citizens of Pennsylvania and sought to make
sales of plantations under his Maryland patent west of the
river. This he did even before the survey of his " Choice "
was made, and this entire agitation among Pennsylvanians
was deeply resented by the Pennsylvania authorities. Thus
a letter from John Wright to James Logan, April 10,
1731,^ tells that the writer had "learned that Thomas
Digges had come over the River and gone amongst the
Duch to sell lands, "^ that Digges had taken up 20,000
acres of which " 8000 lye between Conewago and Codorus
Creeks," and that Wright had "openly resisted" Digges
in his effort to induce Pennsylvanians to remove to Mary-
3 Among the " Official Penn Manuscripts " in the Historical Society of
Pennsylvania at Philadelphia.
* Wright was in error as to the surname, and indeed, the entire letter
shows that Wright's information on the subject was inaccurate, though
there can be no doubt about the main fact of Digges's propaganda west of
the river before April lo, 1731.
72 German Element in York County, Pa.
land. Nevertheless Digges's efforts west of the river were
not without avail.
The earliest purchase of lands on Digges's Choice and
within the present limits of York County^ — the earliest of
which we have any record — was made by Adam Forney
on October 5, 173 1. As Digges could not at that time
give absolute title to the land, no survey having been made
and no patent having been issued, he gave Forney his bond
for 60 pounds to deliver the title at some future time.®
Forney's purchase was for 150 acres. It covered what
is today the heart of the city of Hanover. This was near
the " Conewago Settlement " which was also on Digges's
Choice, but in what is now Adams County, and which had
5 Other purchases had been made from Digges's tract about a year before
this, but they fall within the present County of Adams and they were not
made by Germans.
^ This bond is typical of a number that Digges issued to the earliest
Germans who bought lands and made settlement upon this tract: "Know
all men by these presents, that I, John Digges, of Prince George's County,
in the Province of Maryland, Gent, am held and firmly bound unto Adam
Faurney, of Philadelphia County, in the Province of Pennsylvania, Farmer
and Taylor, in the full and just sum of Sixty pounds current money of
Maryland, to which payment well and truly to be made and done, I bind
myself, my Heirs, Executors and Administrators, firmly by these presents.
Sealed with my seal and dated this fifth day of October, Anno Domini, 173 1.
" The Condition of the above obligation is such that if the above bound
John Digges, his Heirs, Executors or Administrators, shall and will at the
reasonable request of the above Adam Faurney, make & order by sufficient
conveyance according to the custom and common usage of the Province of
Maryland, a certain parcell of land containing one hundred and fifty acres
already marked out by the above named Adam Faurney, near a place
known by the name of Robert Owing's Spring, and on the same tract of
land where the said Robert Owing now Dwells in the Province of Mary-
land, then this obligation to be void, otherwise to remain in full force and
virtue of Law.
" Sealed and delivered in the Presence of us, " John Digges."
George Douglass,
JoHANN Peter Zarich."
Other Early Settlements. 73
been begun in 1730 by Robert Owlngs and other Catholics
from MarylandJ
Adam Forney came to York County from Philadelphia
County. He was originally a tailor in Wachenheim-in-
the-Haardt in the Palatinate, whither his ancestors had
probably come as Hugenot refugees from religious perse-
cution in France. With his wife, Elizabeth Lowisa, and
four children he arrived at the port of Philadelphia on
October 16, 1721.^ For a decade he remained in Phila-
delphia County. By the city magistrates in Germany he
was styled "citizen and tailor."^ In Digges's bond he is
''Vide John T. Reily's " Conewago: a Collection of Local Catholic His-
tory," pp. 39 flF.
8 The ancestral family Bible of the Forneys at Hanover records this fact.
Forney's name in Germany was Johann Adam Faurney, but, like a great
many other Germans with Johann or Hans as an initial surname, Forney
dropped the Johann shortly after coming to this country.
^ The certificate of dismissal which he received upon his departure from
Wachenheim is still In the possession of his descendants in Hanover. It
furnishes evidence of his favorable standing among his fellow-citizens in
Germany. The English translation published in " The Forney Family,
1690-1893 " (pages z and 3) is as follows:
" We, magistrates, burgomasters and council of the city of Wachenheim-
in-the-Haardt, certify herewith that before us came the worthy Johann
Adam Forney, citizen and tailor here, the legitimate son of the worthy
Christian Forney, also a citizen here, and informed us that he, with his
wedded wife, Elisabetha Lowisa, have firmly resolved to set out with their
four children and effects, on the journey to the island of Pennsylvania and
to settle there ; but he stands in need of an attested certificate of how he
behaved with us and why he departed, such as he can show at the place of
his settlement. Which we gave him according to his reasonable desire and
truthfully; moreover because we believe it would really be required in
order that no one may calumniate our citizen or citizen's children ; although
we have indeed sought dilgently and earnestly to dissuade him from such
departure, yet he remains of his first intention ; therefore after steadfast
perseverance we have given the said Johann Adam Forney this certificate:
That as long as we have known him he has behaved himself honorably,
piously and honestly, as well becomes a citizen and artisan, and moreover.
74 German Element in York County, Pa.
described as " farmer and tailor." In York County he
became farmer and inn-keeper.^^ Forney made his pur-
chase in 173 1 but whether he settled at once upon the tract
he bought cannot be ascertained as there Is no record of
his settlement. But when in 1734 Andrew Schreiber set-
tled on the Conewago his nearest neighbors, he tells us,
were the family of Adam Forney, four miles distant.^^
And as Forney marked off his purchase in person In the
fall of 1731,^2 it is highly probable that he settled there
Immediately or very shortly after that. The new settle-
ment may be said therefore to have actually begun a little
more than three years after John Hendricks took up his
abode on the west bank of the Susquehanna and almost
simultaneously with the first influx of German immigrants
Into the Kreutz Creek Valley.
Another prominent individual among the first settlers in
this new settlement was Andrew Schreiber, lineal ancestor
of Admiral WInfield Scott Schley. Andrew Schreiber was
born at Alstenborn In the Palatinate in 17 12. His parents,
Andrew and Ann Margaretha, together with their chil-
showed himself so neighborly that no one has had any complaint to make of
him; he also is bound to no compulsory service or serfdom; he will not be
unwilling to give, to show with all readiness to those of his intended
residence all affection and kindness. To this true certificate we, the
authorities, have affixed our city council's great seal to this statement which
is given at Wachenheim-ih-the-Haardt, the 7th of May, 17121'."
10 The Moravians, Leonard Schnell and Robert Hussey in the diary of
their missionary journey from Bethlehem, Pa., to their brethren in Georgia,
November 6, 174.3 to April 10, 1744^, remark that after leaving York on
November 15, "Towards evening we came to the district which is called
after the river " Canawage." We lodged in an inn. The name of the
inn-keeper is Adam Forny. He complained much about ministers and their
useless efforts." Virginia Magazine of History and Biography, Vol. XI,
1903-4, p. 371'.
"Vide "The Shriver Family, 1684-188)8," Samuel S. Shriver, p. 14.
12 According to the text of Digges's bond quoted above, footnote 6..
Other Early Settlements. 75
dren, after "having borne many adversities,"^^ emigrated
to America arriving in Philadelphia late in the year 1721.
The family first settled at Goshenhoppen, near the Trappe,
on the Schuylkill River. Here Andrew the younger mar-
ried Ann Maria Keiser in the spring of 1733 and in June
of that year removed to York County.^^ From John
Digges he bought a tract of 100 acres near what is now
Christ Church and paid for it with one hundred pairs of
negro shoes, the price agreed upon. This location was
four miles west of the plantation of Adam Forney. Here
Schreiber lived on peaceful terms with the neighboring In-
dians and subsequently made additional purchases of land
from Digges. He hunted deer and tilled the soil by day
and tanned deerskins in the evenings. He became the pro-
genitor of the numerous family of Shrivers who live in
that community at present.
When Andrew Schreiber set out from Goshenhoppen
for the region west of the Susquehanna in the summer of
1733 he was accompanied by his stepbrother David Jung
(Young) who remained with him about three weeks, until
they had cleared a few acres and planted corn on it, and
then returned home. But shortly thereafter, probably the
next year. Young also bought a tract from John Digges
and took up his abode not far from his stepbrother Schrei-
ber.^^ Other neighbors from Philadelphia County soon
13 These words occur in the certificate of dismissal which Andrew
Schreiber received from John Mueller, the Reformed pastor of Alstenborn.
This certificate is still in the hands of the Shrivers and is reproduced in
" The Shriver Family," p. lo.
1* A statement of the late Hon. Abraham Schriver, resident judge of the
Frederick County court, is authority for the information concerning the
original homestead on the Schuylkill and Andrew's marriage and removal
to York County. Communicated to the " Star and Sentinel " for March
1876' by John A. Renshaw.
1^ The fact may be gathered from the deposition of Robert Owings on
^6 German Element in York County, Pa.
followed these two pioneers, among them Ludwig Schrei-
ber, brother of Andrew, Peter Mittelkauff, and Michael
Will.
Among the other early settlers In this new community
whose names have been preserved were many whose de-
scendants are still to be found In the thriving town of
Hanover and its prosperous vicinity. As early as 1731
Nicholas Forney and Peter Zarlch were there. In 1732
or 1733 we find that John Lemmon, Adam Miller, and
Adam Messier have had surveys made to them on DIgges's
tract. In 1734 Conrad Eyler and his son Valentine had
settled there, receiving their warrants in 1738. In 1735
Henry Sell and the following year Martin Kitzmlller had
joined the settlement. Before 1737 Peter Jungblut
( Youngblood) , Matthias Marker, Jacob Banker, William
Oler, Peter Oler, and Peter Welby had taken out grants.
In 1737 at least two more additions were made, Derrick
Jungblut and Peter Relsher (Rysher). In 1738 George
Evanaar received his warrant and by 1741 we meet with
such names as those of Herman Updegraf, the shoemaker,
Peter Schultz the blacksmith, Matthias Ulrich, and Peter
Ensmlnger, and a few years later with Martin Brin, Abra-
ham Sell, Martin Ungefare, and John Martin Inyfoss.^®
July 181, 1746', and the approximate date of Young's settlement is also im-
plied there. Archives, I: 6195'.
1^ These names and dates are gathered by inference from the Pennsyl-
vania Archives and the Pennsylvania Colonial Records embodying the
negotiations of the proprietaries concerning the boundaries of their respect^
ive provinces. The records of these negotiations are to be found chiefly in
the Archives, I: 680-715' and Colonial Records, V: 51821-597. The names
that occur there cannot be regarded as at all exhaustive of the list of
inhabitants in the entire settlement. They are chiefly such as happened to
be located on that portion of the entire tract which was in dispute between
the two provinces.
In the course of the correspondence between the two provinces in 1752,
Other Early Settlements. 77
But the lives of these enterprising and industrious Ger-
mans were no more peaceful than those of their country-
men who had settled about the same time or a few years
earlier in the eastern part of the county. This was
through no fault of their own. Their purposes were alto-
gether peaceful and their motives beyond reproach. They
had not even been made the victims of a scheme to pre-
empt the soil for a particular province, as was the case
with most of the early settlers in the Kreutz Creek Valley.
They had ventured out upon those newlands in quest of
quiet homes where they might worship without hindrance
and might work undisturbed, sowing their crops and reap-
ing the fruits of their own labors. But they had the mis-
fortune to settle upon border land at a time when bound-
aries were indefinite and open to dispute. The conse-
quence was, their days were fraught with distraction and
their lives were in many cases made miserable for years.
The blame for this condition of affairs must rest entirely
with the authorities. The irregular and indefinite bound-
aries of Digges's reservation caused much uncertainty as to
President Tasker of Maryland transmitted to Governor Hamilton of Penn-
sylvania a copy of a warrant to collect taxes of persons settled on Digges's
Choice under Maryland rights (Col. Rec, V: 592; Archives, II: 90 f.)-
Governor Hamilton recognized the jurisdiction of Maryland over the
property of the persons mentioned in that warrant and gave strict orders
to the officers in York County not to try to collect from them (Archives, II:
8191 £.). The warrant had been issued in January, 1750, and gives the
names of 40 persons who were settled at that time north of the temporary
line between the provinces but under Maryland jurisdiction. In addition
to the names already mentioned we have in this list such German names as
Martin Bayers George Shrier Peter Gerson
Christian Stoner Philip Kinsfoor Henry Null, Dr.
Casper Berkharaer Jacob Perts Michael Behlar
Philip Sower Andrew Hanier Henry Knouf
John Counts Conrad Eakron John Shreder
Frederick Sheets George Frusch George Coflfman
78 German Element in York County, Pa.
the validity of their titles and led to frequent disputes be-
tween Digges and the settlers on his lands. The conflict-
ing claims of the Penns and Lord Baltimore to the pro-
prietorship in that region only served to aggravate the
difficulties and involved the inhabitants In greater turmoil.
The land upon which many of the Germans had settled
came to be known as "the disputed land." Unlawful
claims were made and violent measures were resorted to in
enforcing them. Jurisdiction in criminal cases was diffi-
cult to determine, the administration of justice was im-
peded or prevented, and lawlessness naturally flourished.
For this reason the community was sometimes referred to
as " Rogues' Resort," but this cannot be taken as a reflec-
tion upon the character of the earliest settlers and the
permanent residents In that district, for it was due to con-
ditions brought about entirely by the neglect of the distant
authorities in Philadelphia, in Baltimore, and In London.
A brief narrative of some of the disturbances In this
region will help us to understand something of the adverse
conditions under which this settlement took its beginnings.
Some of these Germans who were settled on and about
the Conewago Creek on the lands claimed by John Digges
soon began to suspect that his patent did not cover all that
he claimed, that he was not In a position to give valid
titles, and that some day the proprietary government of
Pennsylvania might compel them to pay a second time for
the lands which they occupied. Digges's boundaries were
not marked and the Increase of settlers and the expanding
of the colony called for a clear definition of rights. The
Germans therefore repeatedly called on Digges to mark the
boundaries of his claim. This he refused to do, and as he
gave conflicting accounts of the extent of his patent, they
began to grow solicitous about the validity of their deeds.
Other Early Settlements. 79
Their suspicions were turned to certainty when in 1743
they sent one of their number, Martin Ungefare, to An-
napolis and secured an attested copy of the courses of
Digges's tract. Despite Digges's protests and threats of
violence the Germans proceeded to have the courses of his
tract run by an authorized surveyor, and then it was plain
that he had claimed a great deal more land than he had a
right to by his patent and that he had sold a number of
tracts that lay without his survey of 6,822 acres.
Digges was greatly disturbed by this revelation and be-
gan at once to cast about for some means of securing title
to such lands as he needed to fulfill his contracts with the
people. To secure an additional patent under a new sur-
vey from Maryland was now impossible. For a royal
order of 1738^^ had fixed a temporary line (called the
'^'' This was an order issued by the King on May 25, 17381, ratifying an
agreement between Lord Baltimore and the Penns. In this Order the fol-
lowing paragraphs are of interest in this connection:
3rd, "That all other lands in contest between the said proprietors now
possessed by or under either of them shall remain in the possession as they
now are (although beyond the temporary limits hereafter mentioned) ; and
also the jurisdiction of the respective proprietors shall be finally settled;
and that the tenants of either side shall not attorn to the other, nor shall
either of the proprietors or their officers receive or accept of attornments
form the tenants of the other proprietors.
" 4th, That, as to all vacant lands in contest between the proprietors, not
lying within the three lower counties and not now possessed by or under
either of them, on the east side of the River Sasquehannah down so far
south as fourteen miles and three quarters of a mile south of the latitude
of the most southern part of the city of Philadelphia, the temporary juris-
diction over the same is agreed to be exercised by the proprietors of Penn-
sylvania, and their governor, courts, and officers; and as to all such vacant
lands in contest between the proprietors and not now possessed by or under
either of them on both sides of the said River Sasquehannah south of the
southern limits in this paragraph before mentioned, the temporary jurisdic-
tion over the same is agreed to be exercised by the proprietor of Maryland
and his governor, courts, and officers, without prejudice to either proprietor
and until the bounds shall be finally settled." Archives, I: 713 f.
8o German Element in York County, Pa.
Temporary Line of 1739) between the two provinces
west of the Susquehanna at fourteen and three fourths
miles south of Philadelphia but provided that lands already
possessed in the disputed territory should remain in the
possession and jurisdiction in which they then were. Now
Digges's Choice lay four miles north of the temporary line,
and while under the provisions of the royal order it re-
mained in Digges's possession and continued under Mary-
land jurisdiction, nevertheless after 1739 the province of
Maryland could claim no kind of authority over any of the
lands surrounding Digges's Choice north of the temporary
line between the provinces. Accordingly in November,
1 743 J after the Germans had deliberately surveyed the
boundaries of his claim and thus had laid bare his false
pretensions, Digges applied to the land office of Pennsyl-
vania for permission to take up enough land to make his
tract a regular square. He was told that he might have
a warrant for as much as he pleased, provided he would
meet the common terms of Pennsylvania and would not
interfere with the rights of some Germans who had regu-
lar warrants for some of the lands contiguous to his tract.
These conditions he refused to meet and he left Phila-
delphia without coming to any agreement with the secre-
tary.
Digges then resorted to a new measure. He turned to
Maryland and determined to get a Maryland warrant to
complete his original grant of 10,000 acres. In July,
1745, a warrant was issued from the office at Annapolis
requiring the surveyor to correct the errors of the original
survey and to add any vacant land he could find contiguous
to the tract originally patented. This survey was made
two weeks later and embraced an additional 3,679 acres.
For this Digges paid a new consideration and a new rent.
Other Early Settlements. 8i
The patent therefore was In direct violation of the royal
order of 1738 and of the rights of Pennsylvania in that
region. Digges claimed that he had merely made a resur-
vey marking the true courses of the 10,000 acres that had
been granted to him originally. Nevertheless, his new
patent embraced several German plantations that had not
been embraced in the original survey and included a num-
ber of tracts for which warrants had been granted to Ger-
man settlers by the proprietaries of Pennsylvania.^^ All
of these lands Digges offered for sale and thus we have
the fruitful cause of years of conflict and turmoil in this
neighborhood.
There were at least fourteen Germans who had settled
under Pennsylvania warrants outside of DIgges's original
18 An instance of such a grant is to be found in the following document
now in the possession of the York County Historical Society. It is a land
warrant granted to George Evanaar, a German, and signed by Thomas
Penn, on October 5, 17381, a year before the temporary line was run be-
tween Pennsylvania and Maryland.
" Whereas George Evanaar, of the County of Lancaster, hath requested
that we would grant him to take up one hundred acres of land situated at
Conewago, adjoining Adam Forney and Nicholas Forney, in the said County
of Lancaster, for which he agrees to pay to our use the sum of fifteen pounds,
ten shillings current money of this province for the said one hundred acres,
and the yearly quit-rent of one half penny sterling for every acre thereof.
This is therefore to authorize and require you to survey or cause to be
surveyed to the said George Evanaar at the place aforesaid, according to
the methods of townships appointed, the said quantity of one hundred acres,
if not already surveyed or appropriated, and make return thereof into the
secretary's office, in order for further confirmation; for which this shall be
your sufficient warrant; which survey in case the said George Evanaar
fulfill the above agreement within six months from the date hereof shall be
valid otherwise void. Given under my hand and seal of the land office,
by virtue of certain powers from the said proprietaries, at Philadelphia,
this fifth day of October, Anno Domini, One Thousand Seven Hundred
and Thirty-Eight.
"To Benjamin Eastburn, Surveyor-General. Thomas Penn."
6
82 German Element in York County, Pa.
survey of 1732 but within his resurvey of 1745. In April,
1746, these Germans sent a delegation to Philadelphia
with a petition to the Pennsylvania authorities asking for
protection in their rights as against Digges's aggressions.^^
Thomas Cookson, surveyor of Lancaster County, was sent
to the Conewago to warn Digges and the people against
violations of the royal order.^^ But to no avail. Digges
insisted that his resurvey and new warrant were merely
confirmatory of the originals and therefore no violations
of the royal order. The governors of the two provinces
began a correspondence about the matter but without defi-
nite results for many years. Meanwhile the settlers in
the disputed land were kept in constant uneasiness, a num-
ber of arrests were made and violent conflicts took place,
thus greatly retarding the growth of the settlement.
Very shortly after Cookson's visit to Digges's Choice in
April, 1746, Thomas Norris, deputy sheriff of Baltimore
County, at the suit of John Digges arrested Matthias
Ulrich and Nicholas Forney (son of Adam Forney), two
of the German settlers on the disputed land. This was
done because these men failed to give Digges their bonds
for the lands which they held. The sheriff took his pris-
oners as far as Adam Forney's house. Here Adam Forney
remonstrated with the sheriff, insisting that the prisoners
were settled under- proper Pennsylvania warrants and of-
fering to go bail for them. This was refused, whereupon
Forney boldly told the two men to return to their homes.
The sheriff drew his sword and Forney's party drew theirs,
but without coming to blows the sheriff and his assistants,
Dudley Digges and John Roberts, mounted their horses
and fled towards Maryland. Then Forney wrote an ac-
19 Archives, II: 28).
20 Archives, I: 681-683.
Other Early Settlements. 83
count of the affair to Cookson, pleading for his interven-
tion and assistance and concluding: "For if this matter is
not rectified, & we do not get help speedily, we must help
ourselves, & should it be with our last Drop of Blood, for
I am well assured that we will not be put upon by no
Digges that ever lived under the sun. . . . Digges also
troubled many more, in short all them that lives in his re-
survey'd Additional Line, & was a going to have them ar-
rested, but some sent them a packing in the Striving. . . ."^^
The troubles grew worse and Digges discovered that
the Germans were as stubborn in maintaining their rights
as he was determined to force them into submission. On
January 26, 1747, John Wilmot, an under-sheriff of
Maryland, and six others, all armed with heavy clubs,
arrested Adam Forney at his home and carried him off to
the Baltimore jail on the charge of resisting the officers of
the law. Forney was subjected to very rough treatment
and in the struggle that attended the arrest his wife,
Louise, and his daughter, Eve, were badly beaten with
clubs. In Baltimore Forney entered bail for his appear-
ance at court. The provincial authorities of Pennsyl-
vania at once took measures to defend Forney on the
ground that the arrest was made within the jurisdiction of
Pennsylvania. A Maryland lawyer was retained to de-
fend Forney at the trial. But a little investigation re-
vealed the fact that the house where Forney had been ar-
rested was actually within the limits of Digges's original
tract. The case thus ceased to interest the Pennsylvania
authorities and Forney was left to his own defense. How
the case was settled is nowhere recorded but there was
probably nothing more than the imposition of a fine, for
we soon find Forney at his home again. ^^
21 Archives, I: 685 f. and 694 f.
22 Archives, I: 724-733.
84 German Element in York County, Pa.
During the week following Forney's arrest a formal
complaint was drawn up by the German settlers on the
"Disputed Land" and sent to Thomas Cookson, setting
forth the facts of Forney's arrest and brutal treatment and
asking Cookson to intercede with the governor " that sum
Releef may be spedely, for it is vary hard for us to live
af ter this manner, to be toren to pesis." This was signed
by Martin Kitzmiller, Martin Brin, Abraham Sellen
(Sell), Hanry Sellen, "and numerous others. "^^
In 1749 a petition was presented to Governor Hamilton
signed by Hendrick Seller (Henry Sell) and thirteen
others, stating that they were all settled on the tract in-
cluded by Digges in his resurvey of 1745, that they all
held Pennsylvania warrants for their land, that Digges was
threatening to sue them unless they would pay him 100
pounds Maryland currency, and that they were in con-
stant danger of being forced from their plantations, car-
ried to Maryland and there confined. The petitioners
asked that some speedy means be devised for their relief .^^
This unsettled condition of affairs continued until in
1752 it led to the tragic shooting of Dudley Digges, son
of John Digges. Martin Kitzmiller, with his wife and
three sons, Jacob, Leonard, and John, was settled on a
tract of 100 acres continguous to Digges's Choice. Kitz-
miller had bought the improvements on this tract from
John Lemmon in 1736. Lemmon had recognized the
right of Digges to the land but had not yet paid Digges
for the land when he sold the improvement to Kitzmiller.
When Kitzmiller came into the possession of the improve-
ments he refused to acknowledge Digges's right to the
land and secured a warrant from Pennsylvania for the 100
23 Archives, I: 724 f.
2* Archives, II: 28.
Other Early Settlements. 85
acres. This plantation, including a mill and a blacksmith
shop, lay entirely outside the limits of Digges's original
survey but within the bounds of his resurvey. Accordingly
Digges sought to force payment from Kitzmiller. This
Kitzmiller resisted. On February 26, 1752, the sheriff of
Baltimore County accompanied by several other persons,
among them Henry and Dudley Digges, went to Kitzmil-
ler's mill and placed Martin under arrest, Kitzmiller re-
sisted arrest, his sons came to his rescue, and in the strug-
gle a gun in the hands of Jacob Kitzmiller was discharged,
killing Dugley Digges. The Marylanders then left the
premises and Jacob Kitzmiller went to York and delivered
himself into custody. John Digges represented that his
son had been murdered and appealed to the Maryland
authorities for justice. The president of the Maryland
council at once laid claim to jurisdiction in the case and
demanded that Kitzmiller be delivered to Maryland for
trial. But the council of Pennsylvania established the fact
that at the time of the royal order of 1738 Digges was not
in possession of the land where the tragedy had taken
place and that any possession that he may have acquired
under Maryland authority subsequent to 1738 was in vio-
lation of the royal order. The case therefore was ordered
to be tried at York on October 30, 1752, and the province
of Maryland was invited to submit at the trial whatever
evidence they had to show that the place of shooting was
In their jurisdiction.^^ But at the trial of the case before
the court of Oyer and Terminer held by the supreme
judges at York the jurisdiction over the disputed land was
shown to belong to Pennsylvania. It also appeared from
the evidence In the case that the shooting of Dudley Digges
was in all probability an accident, and Jacob Kitzmiller
25 Colonial Record, V: 582-597:; Archives, II: 70-83.
86 German Element in York County, Pa.
and his father were acquitted.^^ But this tragedy helped
to sober the disputants somewhat and no further acts of
such violence occurred, although the land disputes con-
tinued to disturb the peace of the settlement for almost a
decade.
Thus did the German pioneers in York County unwit-
tingly become the means of resisting the encroachments of
the Marylanders at both of their points of collision with
the Pennsylvania authorities. But both in the eastern
part of the county and in the southwestern part, they stood
their ground for the most part quite loyally and with true
German tenacity endured the hardships of improving their
lands and maintaining their rights until at length the cum-
bersome negotiations of the proprietaries determined the
respective spheres of the two provinces and thus brought
to the settlers the peace and prosperity in search of which
they had left their native land. The running of the
"Temporary Line of 1739" according to the royal order
of King George II settled forever the difficulties in the
Kreutz Creek Valley. Thomas Cressap, who had been
captured and imprisoned in Philadelphia, was released and
returned to Maryland.^''' The Pennsylvanians who had
been carried off from that region and imprisoned in Balti-
more jail were also set free.^^ The Kreutz Creek Settle-
ment then began to grow rapidly.
But the German settlements on Digges's Choice were
not freed from the disturbances of border difficulties for
some years after the royal order had been issued. The
vexed question of the exact bounds of Digges's grant under
26 From the full account of the trial which Richard Peters, secretary of
the province, wrote to the Penns in England immediately after the trial.
27 Col. Rec, IV: 266.
28 For example, Nicholas Perie, Col. Rec, V: 22-51.
Other Early Settlements. 87
his original survey and the further question concerning
his right to lands north of the " temporary line " under a
Maryland "resurvey" of 1745, continued to disturb the
settlers in the southwestern part of the county and tended
to discourage settlement there. The confusion continued,
as we have seen, until 1752 when at the noted trial of
Jacob Kitzmiller at York, in the presence of the attorney-
generals of both provinces, the bounds of Digges's original
survey were accurately determined and the principle was
recognized that the lands north of the temporary line of
1739 which Digges had added to his original survey by
his resurvey of 1745 were Pennsylvania property accord-
ing to the royal order, and that therefore the Pennsylvania
titles of the German residents on those lands were entirely
valid. This decision, although it did not determine ulti-
mately in what province those lands were, nevertheless
served greatly to pacify the settlers In the southwestern
part of the county and gave impetus to the influx of immi-
grants into that fertile region. Finally with the amicable
adjustment of the boundary question by the proprietors in
England in 1763 and the completion of Mason and Dixon's
line in 1767 all the inhabitants of this neighborhood of
Hanover found themselves the unquestioned citizens of the
province of Pennsylvania.
Meanwhile the two settlements whose beginnings we
have described were gradually growing in numbers and
extent. New accessions were being made in constantly
increasing numbers. The Kreutz Creek Settlement nat-
urally grew more rapidly than that on Digges's Choice.
As new immigrants arrived in the valley they pushed
farther and farther to the west and southwest, selecting
always the choicest farming lands for their settlements.
Thus the settlement expanded from the Kreutz Creek
88 German Element in York County, Pa.
Valley into the Codorus Creek Valley and up this valley
until it joined the German settlement at Hanover. So that
in 1749 when York County was erected there was an
almost continuous stretch of German plantations across
the entire breadth of the county from the mouth of the
Kreutz Creek in the east, across the very center of the
county, to the banks of the Conewago in the southwest.
This stretch of valley has been the home of the German
element in the county ever since the planting of these
earliest settlements. In 1740 the number of taxables in
the county is said to have been over six hundred. More
than three fourths of these were Germans, the rest being
the English who had settled in the northern part of the
county and the Scotch-Irish who had taken up their abode
in the southeastern part. In 1749 the number of taxables
reached almost fifteen hundred, the same proportion of
Germans still obtaining.
But more than a decade before York County was sepa-
rated from Lancaster County events had begun to shape
themselves for the formation of a third German settle-
ment in our county. Already in September, 1733, Rev.
John Caspar Stoever, coming from Lancaster County,
visited his German brethren west of the Susquehanna,
gathered them together from the whole district of the
Kreutz Creek and Codorus Creek Valleys, and organized
them into " Die Evangelisch-Lutherische Gemeinde an der
Kathores." The first Church Record of this congregation
contains on its fly-leaf the names of twenty-four of these
earliest Germans who contributed to the purchase of the
book.^^ Pastor Stoever baptized 191 persons and married
34 couples in this congregation before the close of his
29 Now in the possession of the Rev. Dr. G. W. Enders, the present
pastor of the Church.
Other Early Settlements. 89
pastorate at the end of 1743.^^ His successor, Rev. David
Candler, organized the Lutheran Church on Digges's
Choice, " Die Evangelisch-Lutherische Kanawagische Ge-
meinde," in April, 1743. These organizations were some
of the guarantees of permanency and the harbingers of
healthy growth of these settlements.
By the year 1739 the settlements immediately west of
the Susquehanna had become so numerous and their Penn-
sylvania citizenship so obvious that the Provincial As-
sembly by special act added a new township to Lancaster
County, the township of Hellam, which included most of
what is now York County. In that same year a petition
was presented to the Lancaster court by the inhabitants of
Hellam Township praying for the opening of a public
road between the Susquehanna and the Potomac. The
petition was granted and of the six viewers appointed to
locate this the first public road in the county at least four
were Germans, namely, Michael Tanner, Christian Croll,
Henry Hendricks and Woolrich Whisler. The road be-
gan at a point between the lands of James Wright and
Samuel Tayler on the west bank of the Susquehanna im-
mediately opposite the plantations of John Wright^^ and
extended thence along the entire route of the German
plantations through the Kreutz Creek and Codorus Creek
Valleys, past Adam Forney's land (now Hanover) and
Kitzmiller's Mill on the Conewago Creek, to the provin-
30 A history of this Church is to be found in the article by the Rev. Dr.
B. M. Schmucker in the Lutheran Quarterly, Vol. XVIII, i8i88, pp. 473-5^9,
" The Lutheran Church in York, Pa." A general history of the Lutherans
on the Codorus and the Conewago is presented in Schmauk's " Lutheran
Church in Pennsylvania," Vol. I, Chapter XIV, pp. zsT-193'
31 To this point a road had been constructed from Lancaster in 1734.
90 German Element in York County, Pa.
cial line. ^2 It was known as the Monocacy Road and
covered a distance of 34 miles.
Thus the steps were taken in the German valley which
were soon to lead to a county-seat for a new county and
ultimately to give to Pennsylvania one of her most flour-
ishing cities. For it was only two years after the ordain-
ing of the Monocacy Road that a movement began which
resulted in the establishing of a third German settlement
in the county, destined in the course of time greatly to out-
grow the other two and to play a significant role in national
affairs. This was the town of York. In October, 1741,
by order of the Penns, Thomas Cookson, Surveyor of
Lancaster County, crossed the Susquehanna River and pro-
ceeded " to survey and lay off in lots a tract of land on the
Codorus where the Monocacy Road crosses the stream."
This point is as far west of the Susquehanna as Lancaster
is east of it. The prospective town on the Codorus re-
ceived the name York, a neighboring city of Lancaster In
England. The site selected for the new town lay on both
sides of the creek but only the part east of the stream was
laid off Into lots. Applications for lots were then invited
and in the month following the survey, November, 1741,
twenty-three lots were reserved by Intending citizens. Of
these at least twenty-one were taken by Germans, George
Swope purchasing four, George Hoke two, and the others
each one as follows:
Jacob Welsh Michael Laub
Baltzer Spangler Zacharlah Shugart
Michael Swope Nicholas Stuck
Christian Croll Arnold Stuck
32 Vide Gibson's " History of York County," p. 322. Michael Tanner
was also one of those appointed in 1766 to view the road southward from
Hanover to the line between the provinces.
Other Early Settlements. 91
Samuel Hoke Matthais Onvensant
Hermanus Butt Martin Eichelberger
Jacob Grebill Henry Hendricks
Joseph Hinsman and
Andrew Coaler John Bishop.
All except the last two are certainly German. Hendricks
is probably German, and John Bishop Is very probably
the Anglicized form of Johannes Blschof, who arrived at
the port of Philadelphia October 27, 1739.
But an application for a lot did not in every case mean
that residence in the new town was effected. A yearly
quit-rent of seven shillings sterling was required by the
proprietors for every lot that was taken up. James Logan,
who was sent to regulate and supervise the affairs of the
incipient town. Imposed a condition upon the applicants
by which each applicant was required within one year of
the time of his application "to build upon his lot at his
own private cost one substantial dwelling-house of the
dimensions of sixteen feet square at least, with a good
chimney of brick and stone, to be laid in or built with lime
and sand" ; otherwise his claim should be void. This was
not an easy condition for the poor immigrants of that day
to comply with. Few of the pioneer settlers had the
means to build such houses, and of the few who had the
means nearly all had gotten them through farming and
this occupation they intended to continue now that they
had crossed the Susquehanna. Consequently most of the
newcomers to the county were not disposed to take up
their residence in town but preferred to locate upon the
fertile farms adjacent.^^ Accordingly the town grew
33 George Swope and Baltzer Spangler afterwards kept public houses in
the town. But Adam Miller was the first person to receive permission to
keep a public house there. Vide Rupp's " History of Lancaster and York
92 German Element in York County, Pa.
slowly at first. Two years after it had been laid out
seventy lots had been applied for, but many of these had
been forfeited because of the failure to build and only
eleven houses had actually been built, although several
more were in prospect, among them a Lutheran and a Re-
formed house of worship.^^ Practically no public im-
provements had been made. In 1746 forty-four addi-
tional lots were reserved and in October, 1749, when
York became a county-seat, the town consisted of sixty-
three dwelling houses and two churches. ^^ During the
next five years under the efficient supervision of George
Stevenson the town began to thrive and by the end of
1754 contained 210 dwelling houses. In 1764 when the
town of Hanover was laid out, York was already grow-
ing rapidly. It was in the very center of a flourishing
agricultural community and had attracted wide attention.
Its population was predominantly German and it was to
the thrifty German farms lying all about it that the town
owed its growth and prosperity.^®
The origin and the growth of this settlement at the
Counties," p. 5714. In 1754 George Stevenson wrote from York: "The
timber of the town land was all destroyed before I came here; the inhabi-
tants ever since, have bought all their timber for building and firewood,
very dear, of the adjacent farmers, which is discouraging to poor settlers,
and few rich people settle here." See letter of October 26, quoted in
Gibson, p, 5161.
3* Vide letter of James Logan to Thomas Penn, August 30, 17(43. Among
the OfRcial Penn Manuscripts,
35 A few persons had taken possession of lots and built homes on them
without securing a legal title. The names of such town squatters are Jacob
Billmeyer, Jacob Fakler, and Avit Shall. They were required to give up
their possessions to the agent of the proprietaries in 1751. Rupp's " His-
tory," p. 575.
36 Referring to the German citizens who constituted nearly the entire
population of the town Thomas Penn wrote in 17615' of " the flourishing
state to which the town hath arrived through their industry."
Other Early Settlements. 93
intersection of the Codorus Creek and the Monocacy Road
cannot be understood entirely apart from the settlers in
the country round about. Eight or nine years before
York had been laid out as a town a number of Germans
had taken up their abodes on the inviting lands in that
vicinity. They had not come from the same region as
that from which the original settlers on the Kreutz Creek
had come. And in their new homes in York County they
were for the most part too far west to be affected by the
border disturbances which embroiled the settlers in the
Kreutz Creek Valley, although they had migrated into the
county almost simultaneously with the settlers on the Kreutz
Creek. Their plantations lay about the point where the
Kreutz Creek Valley ceases and merges into the Codorus
Creek Valley. From that point they stretched north and
northeast along the course of the Codorus and some of
them also stretched southwest along that creek.
Here these Germans had settled chiefly as squatters,
undisturbed by the Indians and tacitly tolerated by the
Pennsylvania authorities who knew that these settlers
would secure warrants in the course of time. For a long
time they constituted a group quite distinct from the set-
tlers in the Kreutz Creek Valley farther east.^^ Many of
them had arrived here as early as 1733 and it was from
their number that Pastor Stoever, in September of that
year, gathered the members for the first church organiza-
tion west of the Susquehanna. The location of the mem-
bers of this congregation gave the new organization its
name, the "Church on the Codorus." And the list of the
37 The Lancaster County authorities knew that there were Germans
settled at the west end of the Kreutz Creek Valley, for Blunston wrote on
January i&, 1737 : " Most of the Dutch not taken are come away that live
towards this end of the valley."
94 German Element in York County, Pa.
names of the Individuals who helped to purchase the first
record book for that Church doubtless embraces the names
of most of the German settlers In that neighborhood In
the fall of 1733. Of this list of twenty-four names only
four (Christian CroU, Philip Zlegler, Jacob Ziegler, and
Michael Walck) are familiar to us from our study of the
names of settlers In the Kreutz Creek Valley. The
others^^ were beyond the reach of those disturbances..
Some of these German settlers along the Codorus after-
wards drifted Into the town of York. But most of them
remained upon their thriving plantations and constituted
the base of supplies and the ground for the prosperity of
the new town. These settlers and their plantations must
therefore be regarded as an Integral part of the third
German settlement In the county.
These, then, were the earliest German settlements In
York County. After five years of border difficulties in the
Kreutz Creek Valley and two decades of turmoil over the
boundaries of DIgges's Choice, the development of these
38 These are as follows:
Martin Bauer Christof Kraut Heinrich Schultz
Johannes Bentz Gottfried Mauch Valentine Schultz
Joseph Beyer Nicholas Koger George Schwab
Paul Burkhardt Jacob Scherer George Ziegler
John Adam Diehl Mathias Schraeiser Heinrich Zanck
Carl Eisen George Schmeiser and
Baltzer Knetzer George Zimmermann One illegible.
A complete list of males to whom Pastor Stoever ministered during the
ten years of his pastorate (1733-1743) as gathered from the entries in his
record, includes exactly 100 names. Of these at least 14 are names that
occur in the documents concerning the Kreutz Creek Settlement. This
indicates that some of the settlers in that first settlement, probably those
who were Lutherans, availed themselves of the ministrations of the pastor
who served the settlement on the Codorus.
Other Early Settlements.
95
German settlements, stretching from one end of the county
to the other, went steadily and peacefully forward until
the outbreak of the French and Indian War. They con-
centrated, as we have seen, along the line of the Mon-
ocacy Road and this In turn followed for the most part
the ancient Indian trail which had marked the course for
early German missionary and pilgrim.
twenty Jiollars. Ko,
F/^ Bn.L entities
r«f -^ Bearer ftf neetVe
ITWENTY Spanish
|JMiLLEijDGLLA,RS,
^^Q!«z Gold or Silver,'
^^Krr^/rf, at Torktowriy
'^' 'fuf,fApril,j778.
CHAPTER V.
Whence the Germans Came and Why.
^^^rOW that we have seen how the German ele-
I ^L^ ment in York County had its beginning there,
T*«— 5k we cannot fail to be confronted by the larger
0^ ^k and prior question as to the origin of these
Germans before they settled on the banks
of the Kreutz Creek, the Codorus and the Conewago.
Why did they come to America? Where did they come
from when they settled in York County? And how did
they come to settle the particular parts of the county which
they did and which their descendants have occupied to the
present day?
Of the reason why the Germans left their native homes
and braved the discomforts and dangers of an ocean voy-
age to take up their abodes upon the unsettled newlands
of America we have a very clear intimation in a declara-
tion wrung from them by their distresses in our county
shortly after their settlement here. In the course of the
proceedings concerning the "revolt of the Germans" in
the Kreutz Creek Valley from Maryland authority and
their return to Pennsylvania allegiance, the Germans had
^
Whence the Germans Came and Why. 97
occasion to send an answer to the Governor of Maryland
(1736). In this statement they take occasion to explain
why they left Germany and how they came to locate in
what is now York County. For they set forth
" that being greatly oppressed in their native country, principally
on account of their religion, they resolved, as many others had done
before, to fly from it. That hearing much of the justice and mild-
ness of the government of Pennsylvania, they embarked in Holland
for Philadelphia, where on their arrival they swore allegiance to
King George and fidelity to the proprietors of Pennsylvania and
their government. That repairing to the great body of their
countrymen settled in the County of Lancaster, on the east side
of Susquehannah they found the lands there generally taken up
and possessed, and therefore some of them by licenses from the pro-
prietors of Pennsylvania, went over that River and settled there
under their authority, and others according to a common practice
then obtaining sate down with a resolution to comply as others
should with the terms of the government when called on, but they
had not been long there until some pretending authority from the
government of Maryland, insisted on it that that country was in
that province, and partly by threats or actual force and partly
by very large promises, they had been led to submit to the com-
mands of that government." Then they recount the ill treatment
they have received at the hands of the Marylanders. " This un-
common and cruel usage" is only one of a number of arguments
by which " we are persuaded in our own consciences we are clearly
within the province of Pennsylvania." " We could not therefore
but believe ourselves obliged in conscience in the honest discharge
of the solemn engagements we had entered into at our first arrival
in Pennsylvania, to return to our obedience to its proprietors as
soon as we discovered we were truly seated within its limits." And
in conclusion they appeal to the Governor's consideration against
" the treating of a parcel of conscientious, industrious, and peaceable
people, like rebels, for no other reason than . . . because we are
98 German Element in York County, Pa.
convinced of the mistakes we had been lately led into by the false
assertions of persons of no credit."^
From this writing it is clear that these Germans had left
their native land for a threefold reason, partly because of
political oppression and severe religious persecutions at
home, partly because of the example of many who had
preceded them, and partly because of the alluring accounts
they had heard about Pennsylvania. They had gone first
to Lancaster County because most of the Germans in
Pennsylvania were located there. They had continued
through Lancaster and across the river and into what is
now York County and had settled there, most of them as
squatters without licenses but intending to take out licenses
in course of time. Here their ignorance of the language
of the government and their lack of acquaintance with
political intrigues made them the easy victims of evil
schemes. Their own motives v/ere peaceful but they were
inveigled into procedures which involved them in strife and
unrest. The stubborn dispute of the provincial govern-
ments concerning the jurisdiction over the lands on which
the Germans had settled entailed unhappy consequences
for the newcomers and for a time threatened seriously to
disturb the peace and permanence of their settlement.
Now the grounds of this religious persecution and the
other kinds of oppression which these Germans had suf-
fered in their native country and which they give as their
reason for fleeing from Germany, are of no little impor-
tance for our subject. They carry us across the ocean and
back more than two centuries into the past but they help
us to understand the character and class of the immigrants,
1 Archives, 1 : 492 f . This statement was signed by about sixty hands.
Col. Rec, IV: 57.
Whence the Germans Came and Why. 99
the circumstances under which they left their homes and
came to the New World, and the distinctive characteristics
which they manifested in their lives and habitations after
they arrived in York County. For that reason we must
pause to enumerate, in outline at least, the causes of the
German immigration to Pennsylvania in the eighteenth
century.^
The chief causes are of two kinds. A long series of
destructive wars, continued religious persecution, and re-
2 The sources of information concerning German immigration to Amer-
ica are many and varied. A complete bibliography of works relating to
Germans in the United States far exceeds 10,000 titles. The first volume
of Professor A. B. Faust's " The German Element in the United States "
(1909) gives a faithful summary of the history of German immigration
into America. Chapters II — V deal in a general way with the immigra-
tion into Pennsylvania. At the close of Volume II Professor Faust pre-
sents a rather full bibliography compiled from European and American
sources and containing nearly two thousand titles.
In the first chapter of Professor Oscar Kuhns's reliable volume on " The
German and Swiss Settlements of Pennsylvania" (1901) we have a brief
but thoroughly accurate portrayal of " the historic background " of the
immigration, and chapter two gives a very clear account of " The settling
of the German counties of Pennsylvania." This work when read in con-
nection with Professor Faust's two volumes serves to impress the student
with the distinctive history and the distinctive qualities of the Pennsylvania
Germans in contrast with the more modern waves of German immigrants.
This distinction is not clear in Faust. The original Pennsylvania German
settlers were part and portion of the American colonists and their spirit
and ideals and characteristics were very diflFerent from those of the modern
German Americans. Professor Kuhns's volume also contains a bibliog-
raphy far less extensive than Faust's but much more useful for the general
student.
For our brief survey of the story of Pennsylvania German immigration
at the beginning of this chapter we have used besides general works like
those of Faust and Kuhns and besides the works referred to in the other
footnotes, such special works as Hausser, " Geschichte der Rheinischen
Pfalz," Heidelberg, 1856; O. Seidensticker, " Geschichte der Deutschen Ge-
sellschaft von Pennsylvanien, 17164-18716," Philadelphia, 1876; and the
volumes of " Proceedings of the Pennsylvania German Society."
loo German Element in York County, Pa.
lentless oppression by petty tyrants, had rendered exist-
ence at home almost unendurable, while favorable reports
from earlier settlers beyond the Atlantic, more plentiful
means of transportation, and an innate desire for adven-
ture (Wanderlust) , made the attractions of the foreign
shore almost irresistible. These two sets of historical
causes operated as mighty forces leading the Germans to
turn their backs upon the homeland which they loved and
to embark for a land of peace and plenty, as they thought.
The first of the series of wars that rendered life in Ger-
many intolerable was the Thirty Years' War. This was
the most awfully destructive and demoralizing struggle in
history. Its horrors beggar description. It set Germany
back in the scale of civilization at least two hundred years,
so that she is only in the present day recovering her pris-
tine position in the onward march of the nations. The
dire consequences of the war fell most heavily upon the
peasants, the foundation of the nation and the root of its
growth. In many parts of the country in the course of the
war 75 per cent, of the inhabitants were destroyed, 66
per cent, of the houses, 85 per cent, of the horses, and
over 80 per cent, of the cattle.^ These multiplied woes of
war fell with greatest force upon southwestern Germany,
especially the Palatinate. The Palatinate may be roughly
defined as that part of Germany which lies about the left
bank of the Rhine between Mayence and Spires. Two
centuries ago it was one of the integral parts of the empire.
It was this fair province that suffered most from the
ravages of war in the seventeenth century. The Elector
Palatine Frederick V himself precipitated the war and thus
attracted to his own fertile land the full fury of that awful
3 Gustav Freitag, " Bilder aus der deutschen Vergangenheit," Vol. Ill,
234.
Whence the Germans Came and Why. loi
storm. In 1619 the Elector accepted the crown of Bo-
hemia and thus became involved in war with the strong
house of Austria. Retribution came swiftly and terribly.
He was very quickly driven from his winter throne, de-
prived of his new crown, put to the ban, and robbed of his
lands on the Rhine, which became at once the object of
repeated spoliation for all the lawless hordes of dissolute
soldiery. For years in succession the grim shadows of
famine and pestilence brooded darkly over the land. So
great was the desolation that in the last years of the war
neither friend nor foe any longer entered the Palatinate,
the melancholy fact staring them in the face that there was
no longer anything to steal, — the most fertile area of Ger-
many had become a desert.
The peace of 1648 endured but a few years so far as
southwestern Germany was concerned. The survivors of
the war had begun the tedious work of reviving their
homes, their fields, and their fortunes. The new Elector
granted religious freedom and this fact together with the
liberal terms under which lands were granted to colonists
attracted some of the best products of neighboring coun-
tries. The country began to prosper anew and was well
on the way to recovery from its recent distresses, when in
1674 the blood-curdling cry of war rang out once more
through the land, and the painful efforts of more than two
decades remained fruitless. This time France was the ag-
gressor. War was on between France and Holland, the
War of the Protestant Netherlands, 167 2-1 67 8. From
its position the Palatinate was most exposed to the ravages
of the contending armies. For it was one of the border-
lands of the German Empire, fair and prosperous, an at-
tractive mark for the marauding bands of military robbers
I02 German Element in York County, Pa.
and therefore destined to be crushed between the two mill-
stones of the opposing powers. Louis XIV ordered the
beautiful Palatinate to be devastated, to render it useless
to his enemies. The work of devastation was done thor-
oughly. Once more the doleful tale of destruction and
misery, of burning city and homeless peasant, is recorded,
and It was at this point In the history of the Palatinate that
the first faint beginnings of the emigration to Pennsyl-
vania took place. But greater woes were yet to come to
the Rhineland.
After a brief respite of less than ten years the War of
the Palatinate (1688-1697) was begun. Louis XIV had
laid claim to the entire Palatinate In the name of his
sister-in-law. When the countries of northern Europe
leagued themselves together In a mighty coalition to with-
stand this new effrontery Louis hurried a large army Into
the country. Then, because he could not hold the con-
quest he had made and because the Palatines had har-
bored the Huguenots expelled from France, the covetous
French monarch gave summary orders to "burn the Pa-
latinate," Breathing forth fire and slaughter his base
hyenas of war leaped wildly upon the defenceless land.
Crops were destroyed, villages and towns were reduced to
ashes, and more than a hundred thousand innocent and
helpless peasants were rendered homeless.
The war lasted seven years and when at length in 1697
the smoke lifted from the last glowing embers of the
various parts of the Palatinate, there sat upon the throne,
one John William, an ardent Romanist. Now religious
persecution was added to economic bankruptcy. The per-
secution of Protestants, Lutherans and Reformeds, was
carried on systematically. Their Church property was
Whence the Germans Came and Why. 103
confiscated to a very large extent and the worshippers in
many cases expelled from the country. The sects, such as
the Mennonites, Quakers, and Huguenots, were summarily
driven from the land. Hundreds of petty persecutions on
person and property were made. And this continued for
nearly a century. The ravages of war followed one an-
other in rapid succession. The War of the Palatinate had
scarcely closed (1697) when the War of the Spanish Suc-
cession broke out ( 1 701-17 14) . Then followed the War
of the Austrian Succession (1741-1747). All of these
were sorely felt in the Palatinate and other parts of south-
western Germany. Meanwhile the cruelties of religious
persecution continued unabated. For a long period each
new prince of the Palatinate forced a change of religion
on his subjects. The injustice and the petty tyrannies of
the rulers made life a constant burden and fostered a wide-
spread discontent. The continued disturbances of war and
religious persecution soon began to entail dire effects of a
social and economic nature. For in the course of the late
seventeenth and early eighteenth centuries nearly 500,000
Palatines, Wuertembergers, and Swiss, were ruthlessly ex-
pelled from their homes. Exile was followed by famine,
famine by pestilence, and at last all the finer impulses of
the heart were threatened with complete extinction in the
gross wretchedness of brutalizing despair. It is not a
matter for surprise, therefore, that the Germans in the
midst of such trials set their faces resolutely towards the
west in the hope of finding a better land where peace and
quiet reigned and where there was liberty of conscience.
And coming as they did from such conditions of long-con-
tinued oppression and ruin, we cannot expect them, after
they arrive in the New World, to take a place at once in
the forefront of social and literary circles.
104 German Element in York County, Pa.
If we take a general view of the streams of German im-
migration which flowed into Pennsylvania before the Rev-
olutionary War, we can distinguish three well-defined
periods.* The first period extends from 1683 (when the
first settlement was made under William Penn at German-
town) to 17 10. During this period the number of those
who came was small, probably not exceeding in total 500
souls. They all remained in or near Philadelphia, and
this period of immigration had therefore no direct influence
upon York County. The second period from 17 10 to
1727, is marked by a considerable increase in the number
of immigrants, although there is as yet no steady influx of
large numbers. Perhaps 14,000 would be a liberal esti-
mate for the immigration during the second period.^ The
year 1727 marks an epoch in this matter for it was then
that the immigration began to assume large proportions
and that official statistics began to be kept. The third
period therefore begins with the year 1727 and extends
to the outbreak of the Revolutionary War. During this
period the numbers of German immigrants swell to enor-
mous size, and by the year 1775 the grand total of Pennsyl-
vania Germans must have been no less than 110,000 or
about one third of the total population of the state, a pro-
portion which seems to have kept itself practically un-
changed down to the present day.
When the Germans fled from the hardships of their life
in southwestern Germany and in Switzerland they invari-
ably took their course down the Rhine. The earliest set-
tlers of Germantown made their way directly from Hol-
*This division of periods is the one presented by Kuhns, p. 31.
5 Vide Kuhns's refutation (German and Swiss Settlements, pp. 52^-54) of
Rupp ("Thirty Thousand Names," pp. i f.) and Wayland ("German
Element of the Shenandoah Valley," p. 27').
Whence the Germans Came and Why. 105
land to America. But after a few years, at the instigation
of Queen Anne who had compassion on the suffering exiles
and who was earnestly seeking settlers for her own Amer-
ican colonies, the exiles began to cross the Channel into
England where they threw themselves upon the kindness
of the Queen's government. Their numbers sometimes
embarrassed the English government. In 1709 as if by
sudden common impulse over 13,000 Palatines swarmed
into London and asked to be sent to America. Of this
number over 3,000 were sent to the colony of New York
and settled along the Hudson and Mohawk Rivers.^ Here
after a decade of varying fortunes, insuperable difficulties
arose in regard to the titles to their land. They were
forced to leave the homes which they had built with the
labor of many years and in 1723 three hundred of them
painfully made their way through the wilderness of south-
ern New York to the headwaters of the Susquehanna and
floated down the river until they came to the mouth of the
Swatara Creek, opposite the northern part of York County.
Up the Swatara they made their way to the district now
known as Tulpehocken, where they settled Heidelberg and
Womelsdorf.^ They were followed In 1728 by a large
party from New York under the leadership of Conrad
Weiser. Thus we have the beginnings of Pennsylvania
Germans in Berks and Lebanon Counties. This became
one of the gathering points for German Immigration into
Pennsylvania and from this region came not a few of the
very earliest settlers In York County. The Germans had
^ The experiences of the Germans in the colony of New York are graph-
ically depicted by Rev. Sanford H. Cobb in his " The Story of the Palatines:
an Episode in Colonial History," 18197.
'' Vide supra, p. 20. For an accurate and detailed history of the Tulpe-
hocken settlement and its subsequent development, vide Schmauk's " Lu-
theran Church in Pennsylvania," Vol. I, pp. 433-576.
lo6 German Element in York County, Pa.
made their first and last effort in colonial New York.
They began to advertise among their people in the home-
land what ill treatment they had received in New York
and how favorable were the conditions for settlement in
Pennsylvania, and henceforth the Germans began assidu-
ously to avoid New York and the mainstream of their im-
migration came to Pennsylvania.
Another important distributing center of Pennsylvania
Germans before the Revolution was Lancaster County.
The settlement of this county was due primarily to the
religious persecutions of the emigrants rather than to
economic causes. The movement began in 17 lo and had
its chief source in Switzerland. For nearly a century the
doctrines of the Mennonites had been flourishing in Switz-
erland.^ But like the Quakers in England and New Eng-
land, the Mennonites in Switzerland were the victims of
systematic persecution. From time to time individuals and
families made their way across the Swiss frontiers and
sought refuge among their brethren in the faith on the
banks of the Rhine. Thus was formed a chain of Men-
nonites all the way from Switzerland to Amsterdam. And
when these plain but serious people heard the favorable
reports concerning the peace and prosperity of their breth-
ren at Germantown, Pennsylvania, and when their awful
persecutions in Switzerland continued undiminished, many
of them resolved to try their fortunes in the land of Wil-
liam Penn. Accordingly in 17 10 some hundreds, perhaps
thousands, of the most desirable citizens of Switzerland
and the Rhine Valley arrived at Philadelphia and selected
as their settlement a tract of 10,000 acres on the Pequea
Creek, Conestoga, just east of the Susquehanna River, in
what is now Lancaster County. These industrious and
8 D. Musser, "The Reformed Mennonite Church," 1873.
Whence the Germans Came and Why. 107
gentle Mennonites lived on good terms with the Indians
and by the aid of the German immigrants that soon poured
into the count}^ they made Lancaster the garden-spot and
pride of Pennsylvania.
After these successful beginnings had been made, In
Germantown, in the Lebanon Valley, and in Lancaster
County, the tide of German immigrants began to flow
strongly. The influence was contagious. The ancient
Wanderlust of the Teutons revived in the breasts of their
descendants. The settlers in America returned favorable
reports to their friends and relatives still bearing their hard
conditions in the homeland. Tracts were published de-
scribing Utopian conditions of the New World. Ship-
owners hired agents to stimulate the exodus from the val-
ley of the Rhine. Lands, farms, and plantations were
freely offered to every settler for a small amount of pur-
chase money. Many representatives of every class of
society in that overburdened population of Europe yielded
to the alluring prospect held out by the New World so full
of opportunity for the industrious. Besides the great body
of political refugees and those persecuted on account of
their religion there were also considerable numbers of
others, such as the Industrious artisan seeking opportunity
to maintain his family, the overburdened tenant groaning
under a load of taxes and labors, the unfortunate merchant
looking for better Investments and more promising specu-
lations, the impecunious nobleman seeking a chance to re-
trieve his lost fortune, the romantic spirit in search of ad-
venture and desiring to hunt and trap unrestrained in the
primeval forests, and the poverty-stricken redemptioner
fleeing the starvation that threatened him at home. All
these helped to swell the stream westward. With the year
io8 German Element in York County, Pa.
1727 the Germans began to come in such large numbers
that the colonial government grew alarmed and began to
keep official lists of these immigrants exacting from each
man an oath of allegiance to the British government. The
largest contingent of Germans continued to come from the
Palatinate but there were also considerable numbers from
the neighboring states of Germany.
If now the question be asked why this German immigra-
tion focused thus upon Pennsylvania to the exclusion of
the other provinces the answer is fourfold. In the first
place, before the German immigration began, William
Penn, himself half German by birth, had made two jour-
neys to Holland and Germany and had made many ac-
quaintances among those who were the objects of religious
persecution in the Fatherland. When therefore the great
Quaker received his grant of land in America these people
among whom he had visited in Germany were naturally
interested in his project to establish a colony in the New
World and specially susceptible to the arguments pre-
sented in his pamphlet calling for colonists. When they
crossed the ocean they were received by Penn and settled
at Germantown. Those who followed them across the
ocean naturally followed them also into Penn's province.
Thus the tide began to flow into Pennsylvania.^
In the second place, when the stream of German immi-
gration into America grew stronger and the influence of
the English government tried to determine its direction,
the experiment of sending Germans to New York was
tried. But, as we have seen, it was unsuccessful. The
Germans in New York soon became involved in serious
» John Fiske in his "Dutch and Quaker Colonies" (Vol. I, p. 351) agrees
with Diifenderffer in assigning Penn's travels in Germany in 1671 and 1677
as the chief cause in directing German immigration to Pennsylvania.
Whence the Germans Came and Why, 109
difficulties with the English there. They became con-
vinced that the colonial authorities were unjust to them,
and that, too, because they were Germans. Many of them
removed to Pennsylvania where they found conditions quite
satisfying. Then they sent word back to the Fatherland
establishing a veritable prejudice against New York and
strongly urging their friends to come to Penn's land.^*^
Thirdly, Pennsylvania was far more widely advertised
in Germany than any other of the thirteen colonies. Im-
mediately after Penn's grant received the royal confirma-
tion in 1 68 1 he published his ten-page compilation en-
titled " Some Account of the Province of Pennsylvania in
America." This was translated into German" by his
counsellor Benjamin Furley and circulated broadcast in
the valley of the Rhine. In 1682 Penn sent forth his
second advertisement of his province. It is entitled " In-
formation and Direction to Such Persons as are inclined to
America, More Especially Those related to the Province
of Pennsylvania." This was a pamphlet of three and a
half pages. It was quickly translated into German and
spread abroad in the hope of attracting colonists to Penn-
sylvania. And another work that was translated and pub-
lished in German^^ was Penn's " Brief Account of the
10 " The Germans, not satisfied with being themselves removed from
Nev7 York, wrote to their relatives and friends and advised them, if ever
they intended to come to America, to avoid New York, where the govern-
ment had shown itself so unjust. This advice was of such influence that
the Germans who afterwards went in great numbers to North America
constantly avoided New York and always selected Pennsylvania as the
place of their settlement." — Peter Kalm's "Travels in America" (1747 and
1748), Vol. I: 271. Kalm ascribes the comparatively slow growth of
colonial New York to this treatment of the Germans.
11 " Eine Nachricht wegen der Landschaft Pennsylvania in America,"
Amsterdam, i6'8i.
12 Kurtz, " Nachricht von der Araericanischen Landschaft Pennsylvania,"
1682.
no German Element in York County, Pa.
Province of Pennsylvania." Then followed a number of
more accurate and more detailed descriptions from the
learned pen of Pastorius, leader of the original settlers
of Germantown. These were all intended to arouse inter-
est in Penn's colony among mercantile and pietistical cir-
cles. In this they succeeded, as results show. The chief
of Pastorius's contributions to the advertisement of early
Pennsylvania among the Germans was his "Umstandige
geographische Beschreibung der zu allerletzt erfundenen
Provintz Pensylvaniae," published in 1700. But among
the advertising influences tending to draw German immi-
gration to Pennsylvania, more important than any we have
mentioned is Daniel Falckner's " Curieuse Nachricht von
Pennsylvania."^^ When Falckner returned to Halle after
some five years of experience and observation in Pennsyl-
vania, his friend, August Hermann Francke, who was then
at the head of the Pietistic movement in Germany, pro-
pounded to him one hundred and three questions concern-
ing the voyage to America and the condition of the country
and its inhabitants, both European and Indian. To these
questions Falckner replied in writing with frank and ex-
haustive answers. Questions and answers were published
in book form at Frankfurt and Leipsic in 1702, and the
work constituted for years the chief source of information
for intending German immigrants. It passed through
several editions, and became a mighty factor, not only in
stimulating immigration to America but more particularly
in directing it to the province of Pennsylvania. This vig-
orous advertisement among the Germans of the colony of
Pennsylvania is entirely without a parallel in any other of
the original thirteen colonies and it serves in no small de-
13 Edited by Julius F. Sachse and published in Volume XIV of the " Pro-
ceedings of the Pennsylvania German Society," 1905.
Whence the Germans Came and Why. in
gree to account for the fact that German immigration to
America concentrated upon this province.^^
Finally, Pennsylvania made a special appeal to such as
were driven from their homes on account of their religion.
And for the majority of German immigrants to this coun-
try in the early eighteenth century the chief cause of their
flight was religious persecution at home. The avowed
purpose of Penn in establishing his colony was to provide
religious freedom for the persecuted. He called his gov-
ernment a " Holy Experiment." His plan as embodied in
his " Frame of Government" was to extend the benefits of
complete religious and political liberty to all. This was
one of the chief arguments advanced by Penn and his
agents in advertising his province. Freedom of conscience
was the glittering gem that they held out before the long-
ing eyes of the oppressed. It was an argument that natu-
rally appealed to multitudes in those days of chaotic re-
ligious conditions. Those who settled in Pennsylvania
found their expectations In this respect entirely fulfilled.
The result was that, among the Germans at least, Pennsyl-
vania came to be regarded as preeminently a place of reli-
gious liberty, a refuge for the persecuted. And thousands
upon thousands of those who were distressed in heart and
conscience looked longingly towards the west and when
1* We have enumerated only the most important of the literary works
that helped to induce German immigration to Pennsylvania. A detailed
list of such works is found in Sachse's "Pennsylvania: the German In-
fluence on its Settlement and Development. Part I: The Fatherland (1450-
1700)," pp. i26-i'68i To this is added an Appendix, pp. 173-228, con-
taining fac-similes of the title pages of the books and pamphlets that influ-
enced the German emigration. This work is a reprint from Volume VII
(1897) of "The Proceedings of the Pennsylvania German Society." A
critical account of these works is also found in Winsor's " Narrative and
Critical History of America," Vol. Ill: 495-516.
112 German Element in York County, Pa.
the opportunity came to cross the ocean they aimed directly
for the province of Pennsylvania.^^
Such, in brief, are the reasons; why Pennsylvania re-
ceived the great preponderant mass of German immigra-
tion in colonial times.^® From the very beginnings of the
history of the commonwealth the Germans have consti-
tuted one third of her total population and have at all
times exercised a profound influence upon her progress
and development. Other colonies had their German set-
tlements. New York, New Jersey, Maryland, Virginia,
North and South Carolina, Georgia, and Louisiana were
not without their representatives from the Fatherland.
But none of these, nor all of them combined, could com-
pare in number or in influence with the German settlements
in Pennsylvania, where they have always been the most
15 Christopher Saur, the celebrated Pennsylvania German printer and
publisher, himself a Dunkard, says in his " Pennsylvania Berichte " of
October i6i, i75'4j:
Pennsylvania ist ein solches Land, von desgleichen man in der gantzen
Welt nicht horet oder lieset; viele tausend Menschen aus Europa sind mit
verlangen hierher gekommen, bloss um der giitigen Regierung und Gewis-
sensfreyheit wegen. Diese edle Freyheit ist wie ein Lockvogel oder Lock-
speisse, welche den Menschen erst nach Pennsylvanien bringt und wann
der gute Platz nach und nach enge wird, so ziehen die Menschen auch von
hier in die angrentzende englische Collonien und werden also die eng-
lischen Collonien um Pennsylvanien willen mit vielen Einwohnern aus
Deutschland besetzt zum Nutzen der Krone." Quoted in Seidensticker,
" Geschichte der Deutschen Gesellschaft," p. I2.
16 Once the stream of German immigration had begun to flow strongly
into Pennsylvania this fact itself served as an argument to attract others
to this province. Thus in 171 1 Moritz Wilhelm Hoen published the advice
of the German pastor in London, Anton Wilhelm Bohme, under the title,
" Das verlangte nicht erlangte Kanaan by der lustgrabern, etc." in which
it is said: Im Gegentheil ist by Pennsylvanien zu mercken dass daselbst
mehr Teutsche Colonien sich gesetzt haben als in einem einigen andern
Theil der Englischen Plantationen in America; welche die jenigen zu-
mercken haben die etwa von Lands-Leuten einige Hulfe und Hand-Reich-
ung bey ihrer ersten Ankunft erwarten mochten."
Whence the Germans Came and Why. 113
important single racial element within the borders of the
state.
Coming into the province through the port of Phila-
delphia these immigrants only gradually made their way
into the interior. Step by step they spread out in all direc-
tions from the city of Philadelphia. Germantown, the
pioneer of all German settlements in America, now the
twenty-second ward in the city of Philadelphia, remained
predominantly a German city for more than a hundred
years after its settlement and was chiefly prominent during
the eighteenth century as the base for distribution of Ger-
man immigration to the interior counties in southeastern
Pennsylvania. The steady expansion of the German col-
ony westward and southward in the eighteenth century is
as interesting as the movements of their Alemannic ances-
tors in the fourth century and would be a fruitful theme
for study. At the very beginning of the century we see
the hardy German pioneers move out from Germantown
and enter the unbroken wilderness, clearing the lands and
turning the primeval forest into grain-covered fields. First
they were content to remain in the vicinity of Philadelphia,
in the counties of Montgomery, Lancaster, and Berks.
Then as the population increased they made their way
further and further to the west. As good lands became
scarcer they crossed the Susquehanna and founded the
counties of York, Adams, and Cumberland. Then they
pushed northward into Dauphin, Lebanon, Lehigh, North-
ampton, and Monroe Counties. Towards the middle of
the century Pennsylvania herself became a center of dis-
tribution of German immigration, which spread out from
the Quaker commonwealth to all points south and west.
As early as 1732 promising settlements had been made by
8
114 German Element in York County, Pa.
Pennsylvania Germans in Western Maryland and in the
Shenandoah Valley of Virginia. ^''^ Germans from Berks
County had settled at various places in the central and
western parts of North Carolina. ^^ When Ohio was
thrown open to colonists after the successful issue of the
French and Indian War, Germans from Pennsylvania
were among the enterprising pioneers who settled there.^^
Still later they were in the forefront of that vast move-
ment which wave by wave swept over the broad expanse
of the west and northwest and won it to the purposes of
civilization. The settlement of York County, Pennsyl-
vania, is therefore simply one small step in the Teutonic
occupation of colonial Pennsylvania and the general west-
ward expansion of American population before the Revo-
lution. Its relation to subsequent American history can
easily be seen when it is regarded as one of the very first
steps preliminary to the " winning of the west," an achieve-
ment in which the Pennsylvania Germans and the more
recent German-Americans have always borne a highly im-
portant part.
More specifically it may now be asked from what part
or parts of Pennsylvania the Germans came who first set-
tled York County. Few of them came to our county
directly from the port of landing as untried European im-
migrants. Most of them had reached America before the
official lists of German arrivals began to be kept in 1727
and hence had some taste of American life before the val-
17 J. W. Wayland, "The German Element of the Shenandoah Valley"
(1907), p. 33; Faust, Vol. I, pp. 188 ff.
18 Williamson, " History of North Carolina," Vol. II, p. 71 ; Bernheim,
"German Settlements and the Lutheran Church in the Carolinas " (1872),
pp. 150 f. ; Faust, Vol. II, pp. 2281 ff.
iS'Vide, e. g., Roosevelt, "The Winning of the West," Vol. I, Chapter
V, pp. 139 f. (Sagamore Edition).
Whence the Germans Came and Why. 115
leys of York County were thrown open to settlers. Then
in the late twenties and early thirties when proprietary re-
strictions and Indian claims were lifted west of the Sus-
quehanna, they were moved by various considerations to
dispose of their former lands and improvements and to be-
gin life a second time on American soil by taking up lands
on the inviting stretches of the newly opened county. It
was this class of people, with several years of pioneer ex-
perience behind them, who constituted the great majority
of the original German element in York County.
Some of the earliest settlers did, indeed, come directly
from their landing-place and made our county their first
American home, but such are comparatively rare instances.
Of the known names of earliest settlers in the Kreutz
Creek Valley and on Digges's Choice more than four
fifths had arrived in this country before those settlements
were begun and hence must have settled elsewhere before
coming to York County. A search of the official lists^*^ of
German immigrants reveals the fact that less than one
fifth of those mentioned above (pp. 59 f, 64, 75 ff ) are to
be found among the arrivals from 1727 to 1740. Nor
does the identity of name always identify the person.
Tobias Frey, Philip Ziegler, Nicholas Bucher, Nicholas
Perie, Michael Miller, Caspar Spangler, and John Leh-
mann arrived in 1727. Peter Mittelkauf, Frederick
Leader and John Morningstar arrived in 1728.^^ Jacob
20 Division of Public Records, Penns}^lvania State Library, Harrisburg.
Vide Rupp's " Thirty Thousand Names."
21 Peter Mittelkauf is known to have settled first in Montgomery County,
as did also Michael Will (Vi^iill) who arrived in 1732. Vide supra, p. 76.
Johannes Morgenstern's name occurs as late as June, i7'34, on the baptismal
register of Pastor Stoever's Record for the Lutheran Church of the Trappe
in Montgomery County. Vide " Proceedings of the Pennsylvania German
Society," Vol. VI, pp. 1781, 179 and 180.
Ii6 German Element in York County', Pa.
Krebell and Christian CroU arrived in 1729. John Counts
and Henry Smith arrived in 1730. All of these had ar-
rived before the German migration across the Susquehanna
had begun. Hence they must first have settled elsewhere
in Pennsylvania. But Jacob Welshover, Henry Bann and
Martin Schultz arrived in 173 1 and may have gone directly
to York County. Likewise the following : Martin Weigle,
Martin Bower, Adam Miller (arrived 1732), Hans Stein-
man (1733), Ulrich Whistler (1733), Jacob Huntzecker
(1733), Michael Spangler (1737), Martin Buyers
(1738), and William Oler (1737). Matthias Ulrich
arrived in 1738 but from his deposition of August 29,
1746, it is evident that he did not settle on Digges's Choice
until 1742, just before making his visit to Germany.^^
Peter Ensminger arrived in Philadelphia in 1733 but first
settled in Lancaster County where he was naturalized in
1734 or 1735.^^ It is clear, therefore, that at all times
the great mass of the immigrants into our county used
some other part of Pennsylvania as a stepping-stone,^^
Some few may have come from Maryland but the num-
ber of those who came from that direction could not at
any time have been very considerable. It is known, for
example, that in 1765 Richard MacAllister sold several
of his town lots to " George Naes, tanner, of Baltimore
town, in the province of Maryland," and that after that
the Nace family resided in Hanover.^^ The road on the
22 Archives, 1 : 700.
23Rupp's "Thirty Thousand Names," p. 436.
2* In the statement of the Germans of August 13, 1736, they say: "being
many of us then newly arrived in America," Col. Rec, IV: 64. But in the
light of the above facts this expression cannot be taken to preclude several
years residence in this country. It simply serves to explain their lack of
acquaintance with political conditions (" altogether strangers to the bound-
aries") and accounts for their susceptibility to "plausible pretences."
25 Lucy Forney Bittinger's "The Forney Family, 1690-1893," p. 59.
Whence the Germans Came and Why. 117
line of the present Hanover and Baltimore turnpike had
been laid out by order of the Baltimore County Court as
early as 1736.^^ This highway early established direct
communication between Baltimore and the Conewago set-
tlements. But there is no evidence to indicate that such
transfers of German residence from Baltimore to York
County took place earlier than that of George Naes in
1765 or that they were at all frequent even at so late a
date as 1765. The same is true of the Germans in the
Kreutz Creek Settlement. The Germans whom Cressap
placed on the improvements of those whom he succeeded
in expelling from the west side of the Susquehanna had
not been brought from Maryland. They were in all
probability impecunious Pennsylvania German squatters
from York or Lancaster County whom Cressap and his
agents had seduced by fa,ir promises. For in all the nego-
tiations concerning the border difficulties between the
provinces the distinction is sharply drawn between "the
Marylanders " and " the Germans." The Maryland
authorities assume that the Germans before settling west
of the Susquehanna had been within the proper bounds of
Pennsylvania, they protest against the action of the Penn-
sylvania authorities in securing the sworn allegiance of the
Germans to the province of Pennsylvania immediately
upon their arrival at Philadelphia, and they never claim,
as they certainly would have done if there had been the
least semblance of support for the claim, that the Ger-
mans had come from Maryland before taking up lands on
the controverted territory. Everywhere the assumption
26 According to a statement in a petition of the Conewago citizens of
1766 asking that the northern ten miles of the road be viewed and recorded
in Pennsylvania. This petition is quoted in Gibson's " History of York
County," p. 322.
ii8 German Element in York County, Pa.
is that the Germans in that settlement had come from
Pennsylvania.^'^
It would seem that as a class the settlers on the Codorus
and about the future site of York had less American ex-
perience when they came to our county than those in the
other German settlements. They had come more directly
from the Fatherland. An unusual proportion of those
gathered together by Pastor Stoever in 1733 had arrived
in America after September, 1727. At least two thirds
of the original members of that congregation were recent
arrivals (5 of them had arrived in 1727, i In 1729, 5
in 173 1, and 6 in 1732) while in the other settlements,
as we have seen, less than one fifth of the whole number
had come after 1727. And this settlement continued to
draw more extensively from the newest arrivals than the
other settlements. For of the 100 names of males entered
in Stoever's baptismal register before 1741 at least 49
had come to America since September, 1727 (5 in 1727,
1 in 1728, I in 1730, 10 in 1731, 23 in 1732, 6 in 1733,
2 in 1734, and i in 1737). It is safe to conclude, there-
fore, that as a class the German settlers in the central part
of the county had not tarried so long after landing in
America before they came hither. But even they did not,
except in a very few instances, come to York County
directly from the port of landing. When the town of
York was founded the earliest lot-owners came from among
the Germans already living in the county.^^ In the course
of its growth and until it became a county-seat the town
27 Colonial Records, IV: 13a and 142.
28 Among the names of the first applicants for lots (p. 90 f) those of
Baltzer Spangler, Michael Swope, Christian Croll, George Swope, Jacob
Grebell, and Henry Hendricks are familiar to us as the names of early
residents in the Kreutz Creek Valley.
Whence the Germans Came and Why. 119
continued to draw its citizens from the outlying districts
of the county and from Lancaster County. After the
progress of the earliest settlements was well under way
and after the border difficulties were adjusted it occurred
more frequently than earlier that Germans settled in York
County immediately upon their landing on our shores.
We have one striking instance of this in the case of Lorentz
Schmal. He arrived in Philadelphia on September 2,
1743, and went at once to take up a farm at what is now
Maish's Mills, six miles southeast of York, where he be-
came the progenitor of the numerous and influential Smalls
of the county.^^ But up to the middle of the century when
Yorktown began to attract attention, this class of settlers
directly from the Fatherland formed no considerable part
of the community.
The great majority of the German settlers In York
County came from the fertile lands of Lancaster County
just across the Susquehanna. This was the chief source
of recruits and reinforcements for the York County settle-
ments but it was not the only source. Some of them came,
as we have seen, from Philadelphia and Philadelphia
County. Such was the case with Adam Forney, the con-
spicuous pioneer among the Germans on Digges's Choice,
who had been living in Philadelphia County fully ten
years before he removed to the southwestern part of York
County.^*^ Such also was the case with George Albright
and his son Anthony, who had settled in Philadelphia upon
their arrival from the Palatinate and had remained there
some eight years or more before taking up lands in the
valley of the Codorus near the newly founded town of
2^ " Genealogical Records of George Small, etc.," p. 4.
30 Vide supra, p. 73.
I20 German Element in York County, Pa.
York.^^ Some of the Immigrants into York County came
from the banks of the Schuylkill in Montgomery County.
Such was the case with Andrew Schreiber, also one of the
earliest settlers on Digges's Choice, who had been settled
at Goshenhoppen near the Trappe for nearly thirteen years
before he took up his abode near Christ Church. His
brother Ludwig, their stepbrother David Young, Peter
Mittelkauf, and Michael Will also came from Mont-
gomery County.^^ The Tulpehocken settlements in Berks
and Lebanon Counties also made their contribution to the
valleys of the Codorus and the Conewago.
But while these counties along the course of the Schuyl-
kill sent of their valued citizens to strengthen the settle-
ments of York County, yet their combined total output to
that county was not nearly so great as that of the single
county of Lancaster on the Susquehanna. As the eastern
counties furnished the first settlers for Digges's Choice
and the Conewago, so Lancaster County furnished the
first settlers for the Kreutz Creek and Codorus Valleys.
And the indications are that throughout the first three
decades of the history of these settlements the greater
number of the Germans on the Conewago in the south-
western part of the county came from the more remote
regions of the Tulpehocken, the Schuylkill, and the Perki-
omen, while the vast mass of those in the valley of the
Kreutz Creek came from the nearby lands of the Cones-
toga and the Pequea.^^
When the German settlements in York County began
Lancaster County was already well settled. Hundreds of
31 " Genealogical Records of George Small, Philip Albright, Johann
Daniel Diinckel, etc.," pp. 991 f.
32 Vide supra, pp. 75.
33 Of many of these it is definitely stated that they formerly resided in
Lancaster County.
Whence the Germans Came and Why. 121
Swiss Mennonites had settled in the western part of the
county in 17 10 and for several decades thereafter their
brethren in the faith, both in Switzerland and along the
Rhine, made Lancaster County their objective when they
decided to forsake their European homes. Then people
of other religious persuasions who were persecuted on ac-
count of their faith, Lutherans and Reformeds, joined the
stream to Lancaster County. Its picturesque seclusion
made it appeal also to that class of religionists who were
given to extreme pietism and a semi-weird mysticism. The
reputation of its fertile soil made it specially attractive to
people who must needs devote themselves to agriculture.^*
All of these factors helped to swell the procession of Ger-
mans from the port of Philadelphia to the fertile soil of
Lancaster County. Thus in course of time this county
came to be known as the chief gathering-place of Ger-
mans in the province, the location of " the great body " of
them, and hence most of the newcomers in those early dec-
ades began their experience in America by " repairing to
the great body of their countrymen settled in the county of
Lancaster on the east side of the Susquehanna."^^ The
York County Germans were simply doing what " many
others had done before " them when they set out for Lan-
caster County immediately upon their arrival in America.
What the causes were that led the German people to
34 George Ford's MSS., quoted in Rupp's " History of Lancaster County,"
p. 115, says: "Their success, the glowing, yet by no means exaggerated
accounts given by them, of the scenery of the country, the fertility of the
soil they cultivated, the abundance of game with which the forest teemed,
the quantity and delicacy of the fish which the rivers yielded; but above
all, the kind and amicable relationship they cultivated and maintained
with their Indian neighbors, all conspired to make them the objects of
attention, and afterwards one of the prominent points whither immigra-
tion tended in an increasing and continued stream."
35 See the statement of the Germans quoted above pp. 97 f.
122 German Element in York County, Pa.
cross the Susquehanna River into the bounds of York
County they themselves imply in their statement that " they
found the lands there [i. e., east of the River] generally
taken up and possessed and therefore . . . went over the
River." It was not because of political oppression or un-
satisfactory religious conditions such as had moved them
to leave the Palatinate. It was not because of dire eco-
nomic necessity, such as had impelled the Germans of New
York to leave the Mohawk Valley and settle in the Leba-
non Valley, Pennsylvania. It was not race prejudice such
as helped to determine the movements of the early Scotch-
Irish in America. It was not the love of adventure, such
as operated in the settlement of Ohio. Nor was it the
desire for great financial gain through speculation in lands,
such as contributed to the German settlement of the Shen-
andoah Valley of Virginia. But it was simply the next and
most natural step in the expansion of the population in the
search of the most comfortable means of subsistence and
the most convenient soil upon which to invest their meager
savings and fix their humble dwellings. The continuous
stream of German farmers into the territory just east of
the Susquehanna had occupied the best and most conven-
ient farming districts there and in the third decade of the
century many of those who had settled there found them-
selves crowded and so sold their lands and improvements
to their neighbors or to newcomers and moved on to where
lands were more plentiful and convenient.^^ It was a
short step across the Susquehanna.^^ The soil promised
36 " Dahero gehen sie iramer weiter fort in das wilde Gebiische. Solche
die . . . aus Noth weiter fortgehen miissen in die noch ungebauten Einoden,
schreiben bisweilen die beweglichsten Briefe, sie erzahlen wie gut sie es
gehabt." H. M. Muhlenberg in his Hallesche Nachrichten, I: 342.
37 As the Susquehanna could not be forded, ferries were established at
Whence the Germans Came and Why. 123
well. Fathers saw better prospects there for securing
lands for their growing sons. They had spent several
years in the New World and had become accustomed to
the pioneer life. The period of stress in their history
was passed and they were now in a better position to en-
dure the struggle with the untamed forests than they would
have been immediately after their arrival in the country.
And above all the persuasions and inducements held out to
them by the proprietary agents who wished to preempt
the soil west of the river under Pennsylvania authority,
helped to encourage them in their expansion and furnished
the immediate occasion for it.
Such was the combination of immediate causes that
brought the Germans to the Kreutz Creek Settlement. And
very similar must have been the motives of those who settled
Digges's Choice. There is evidence that these settlers in
the southwestern part of the county also had gathered
somewhat of possessions in the way of farming imple-
ments and equipment before emigrating from their former
abodes, so that they too had some experience and were not
the raw and unprepared victims of pioneer conditions. It
is worthy of note also that in the case of these settlers on
Digges's Choice we must count as a contributory cause, in
addition to the causes mentioned above, the personal work
of John Digges through his soliciting agents.
an early date. The earliest and most important of these was John
Wright's Ferry, chartered in ly'so. It crossed the river at the point where
the road from Lancaster and the Monocacy Road afterwards met the river.
Wright's Ferry was established to meet the needs of intending settlers in
York County. But once established it also helped to give direction to
subsequent immigration into those parts by providing the only convenient
crossing-place. For more than a century it was part of the great highway
from Philadelphia to the West. In i8ii4 it was converted into the Colum-
bia bridge.
CHAPTER VI.
Outstanding Characteristics.
^^^^^ROM the foregoing account of the steps in the
^M B movements of the Germans from the time
^m r they left their native land until they reached
j^^^ York County, it must be evident that the
original element in our county had two out-
standing characteristics, namely, that by occupation they
were almost exclusively farmers, and that in character they
were hardy, aggressive and self-reliant. Both of these
characteristics serve to indicate the distinctive relation of
the German element in York County to the general move-
ment of Germans in this country and help to determine
their distinctive contribution to American civilization.
The resoluteness and independence of spirit which char-
acterized the York County Germans from the very begin-
ning distinguishes them from most of the other German
settlements in America at the time of their beginnings.
For as a rule the German pioneers in this country had fled
from their homes and had reached our shores under cir-
cumstances that left them broken in spirit, practically desti-
tute of means, satisfied with a mere livelihood, and not at
all disposed to resist the injustice of the authorities or the
124
Outstanding Characteristics. 125
impositions of their neighbors. Neither their class nor
their condition permitted them to make any immediate
contribution to the stream of American civilization.
The very earliest settlement, that of Germantown, had,
it is true, manifested a high degree of aggressiveness and
self-confidence and had attracted the respectful attention
of all the other colonists. But that was due not only to
the more favorable conditions under which these settlers
had emigrated but also to the fact that the members of this
closed German community on the banks of the Delaware
enjoyed the personal acquaintance and the special favor of
the great founder of Pennsylvania, who was their brother
in the faith and who had been their companion in persecu-
tion. Moreover, for a whole generation this settlement
had the great benefit of the leadership of the learned and
distinguished Pastorius. For these reasons the inhabitants
of Germantown were able to begin at once and to maintam
throughout a flourishing German civilization and at the
same time compel the esteem and respect of their English-
speaking neighbors.
But quite different was the experience of the other Ger-
man settlements in America. The thousands of Palatines
who came to New York in 17 10 were not the bold, self-
reliant souls who go forth in search of religious freedom,
else their history in New York might have been very dif-
ferent from what it was. Rather were they the pitiable
victims of economic bankruptcy, fleeing from their homes
in search of the necessaries of life. They were willing
and able to work and some years later, when they could
make the opportunity, they proved themselves to be really
expert farmers. But when they first arrived in this coun-
try, through no fault of their own they were placed, in
126 German Element in York County, Pa.
circumstances that precluded the free exercise of their
agricultural talents and compelled them to engage In an
ungrateful task and one to which they were not at all
adapted. Their unhappy past had filled them with in-
finite patience and endurance and had made them all too
wining to be led and ruled, though they were without
leaders and rulers among their own ranks. Even before
crossing the ocean they had become the objects of English
scorn. For when In 1709 some 14,000 of these economic
fugitives from the Palatinate and from Wiirtemberg
flocked aimlessly into London, their destitute condition
aroused the pity of the English and even of the visiting
Indian chiefs, and out of commiseration for the "poor
miserable Germans" a camp was provided for them on
Black Heath where as the objects of charity they were kept
from starvation during the winter. And when in the
spring they were sent by thousands to Ireland and to the
American colonies, 3,000 of them were dispatched to New
York. Those who survived the horrors of transportation
across the ocean were driven into veritable slavery on the
banks of the Hudson and set to work under government
overseers to make tar for the English navy. This colony
the English settlers had once entered on their own Initia-
tive and with high and hopeful mien. The German immi-
grants now came to it as hirelings, almost as slaves, hum-
bled and bent, led by taskmasters and under the paternal
direction of the government even In the details of their
lives. With great humility and with a deep sense of their
Inferiority to their English masters, as faithful " bounden
servants of His Majesty," they drew out their weary lives
and constantly measured their strength against poverty and
want. Flight from the valley of the Hudson availed them
Outstanding Characteristics. 127
little, for the English authorities pursued them to the val-
leys of the Schoharie and the Mohawk and there continued
to embitter their hves. But the constant dangers of life
in the wilderness developed among them men of leader-
ship like the Welsers, strong spirits capable of breaking
the net that had been thrown over them. And when after
two decades of American bondage the New York Ger-
mans finally gained the right to hold their lands with a
sense of security and to enjoy the fruits of their labors,
they swung themselves higher and steadily higher to posi-
tions of useful and independent citizenship and in the
course of time took their places alongside of the best in
their province. Their early misfortunes had only delayed
the inevitable development of their German culture on
American soil.
The German settlements in Pennsylvania, east of the
Susquehanna, had preliminaries far less dismal than those
antecedent to the German settlements in New York. The
conditions under which the Pennsylvania Germans came to
our country were not nearly so hopeless for the future, the
circumstances under which they settled In the new country
were not nearly so humiliating nor so compromising of
their personal dignity, as was the case with their country-
men in the neighboring province to the north. Neverthe-
less the early Germans in eastern Pennsylvania were char-
acterized by great modesty and reserve. They asked
only to be left alone. They had no desire to impress
themselves upon their neighbors. They seemed to stand
in awe of their more numerous and more aggressive Eng-
lish neighbors. Theirs was not the cringing attitude of
those who are reduced to dire economic necessity. They
were for the most part religious refugees fleeing before
128 German Element in York County, Pa.
the oppression of intolerant rulers and seeking their in-
alienable right of freedom to worship God. They devoted
themselves diligently to their work and to their worship.
But they led a quiet, unobtrusive life, yielding a passive
obedience as citizens but allowing others to have charge of
public affairs, living at peace with all men and preferring
to yield every point rather than to become involved in
strife. Their entire bearing in those early years of their
life in the New World was not the bearing of aggressive
American citizens but that of a people who, for the time at
least, seemed to regard themselves as strangers in an Eng-
lishman's country.
This attitude of apathy, this lack of aggression on the
part of the Germans when they arrived in southeastern
Pennsylvania, was not due entirely to the quietistic prin-
ciples of their religion. It is to be explained also on the
ground that the English in those parts could claim priority
of settlement and great preponderance of numbers. The
English had determined the language of the province and
the Germans were regarded as "foreigners" in the land
even after they had taken up their abodes in due legal
form. The first generation of newcomers naturally did
not learn to speak English and this made them the objects
of connivance and suspicion not only on the part of their
English-speaking neighbors but also on the part of the
proprietary authorities. Even the Quaker Assemblymen
were persuaded to enact special legislation in the case of
these Germans, because they felt that such special meas-
ures were necessary to secure the allegiance of the Ger-
mans to the British King and to the proprietors of Penn-
sylvania.^ After submitting to such measures the Ger-
1 On September 14, 1727, Governor Gordon called a special meeting of
the council to report that large numbers of Palatines were arriving from
Outstanding Characteristics. 129
mans in those early decades of their American life could
not but feel that they were guests in the English colony
and that their presence there was largely by sufferance of
the English authorities.
Another reason for the unequal position of the Germans
among the English in southeastern Pennsylvania during
the first half of the eighteenth century Is to be found in the
extreme poverty in which most of them arrived in this
country. Most of the German emigrants had not the
means to pay their ocean passage. They were persuaded
therefore by the agents of the ship-owners to take trans-
portation on the basis of a contract binding them to a cer-
tain period of service (usually from five to seven years)
after they should arrive In America. On reaching America
these contracts were offered at public sale by the ship-
owners and the scenes enacted at the port of landing were
often pathetic and revolting and always humiliating to the
German colonists In America. Those who thus sold them-
selves into service were known as " redemptloners." Their
fate usually amounted to practical slavery.^ Comparatively
very few of this class of immigrants came from any other
country than from Germany. Another class of German
Immigrants, but less numerous than the redemptloners,
Holland and advised them that " 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, and settling in a body together, make,
as it were, a distinct people from his Majesties Subjects." One week
later the Council approved the oath of allegiance which all of " those
Palatines" arriving thereafter were required to sign. Col. Rec, III: 282 f.
2 The revolting experiences of the redemptloners, both on shipboard and
after their arrival in America, are vividly portrayed by Gottlieb Mittel-
berger in his " Reise nach Pennsylvanien in Jahre 1750 " and " Riickreise
nach Deutchland ira Jahre 1754" (Stuttgart, I75'6) and by Heinrich
Melchior Muhlenberg in Die Hallesche Nachrichten, page 997.
9
130 German Element in York County, Pa.
had sold all of their possessions to pay for their transpor-
tation. Arriving in this country penniless they would
make their way through the inhabited parts of the land,
begging as they went, until they reached the borders of
civilization where they would settle as squatters.^ This
made a very unfavorable impression upon the early in-
habitants of English blood, who enjoyed the utmost per-
sonal freedom and a satisfying abundance of this world's
goods and who in addition were well provided with lead-
ers. This moving picture of time-serving and poverty-
stricken Germans, in groups and in companies, an army
without officers,* greatly reduced the favorable impression
that had been made by the Germantown community under
Pastorius. Their resigned attitude and the utter help-
lessness of their position gradually brought the Germans
into the contempt of their English lawgivers and in every
measurement they were placed at least one degree lower
than those who spoke English. When they finally brought
themselves into positions of prominence and equal influ-
ence with the English they did so against great odds.
These facts just related furnish the necessary perspec-
tive in which to view the York County Germans if we wish
to determine their place in the general history of Germans
of America and in the development of our national char-
acter. For, to this inferior standing of the earliest Ger-
mans among their neighbors in their original settlements
in New York and in eastern Pennsylvania, the German
3 It is from these conditions that Charles Sealsfield has drawn his doleful
picture of the early Germans in his voluminous works on America and
Americans.
* Friedrich Kapp in his " Geschichte der Deutschen im Staate New York
bis zum Anf ange des 19. Jahrhunderts " has said : " Zur Eroberung des
neuen Weltteils stellten die Romanen OfEziere ohne Heer, die Deutschen
ein Heer ohne Offiziere, die Englander dagegen ein Heer mit Offizieren."
Outstanding Characteristics. 131
settlement of York County presents a striking contrast.
It marks a ntw step, one of the first in the Americanization
of the Germans in this country.^ In the settlement of
York County we have a stage in the political and cultural
evolution of the Germans in our country that was not at-
tained in other German communities until the middle of
the eighteenth century or until the Revolutionary War.
The first generation in this county occupied a position and
influence and manifested an aggressiveness of character
that was only attained by the second or even the third
generation of their countrymen east of the river. From
the beginning of their history York County affairs received
their color and their trend from the German element in
the county, and from the beginning, too, German customs
and peculiarities have shown great tenacity here.
The Germans who first settled in York County belonged
to that hardy class of individuals who are not afraid to
venture forth even in the face of danger. When they
came to this county they placed the broad Susquehanna
between themselves and the great body of their country-
men and in many instances they separated themselves by
wide stretches of wilderness from the habitations of civil-
ized man. Men of daring and men of brawn they were,
determined to stand on their rights and to resist any en-
croachments upon their liberties. Nearly all of them had
spent several years upon American soil and were now be-
ginning life anew. Their experience had been valuable.
They had become acclimated to America and inured to the
soil of the New World. They had passed the period of
strain and stress which always came to every immigrant
when he first arrived. Though by no means rich, they had
s It was paralleled perhaps by the case of those New York Germans
who had fled to the Lebanon Valley.
132 German Element in York County, Pa.
passed beyond straitened circumstances and had usually
accumulated enough to provide their own equipment and
a fair degree of comfort. They had not been preceded
west of the river by a large number of English-speaking
neighbors who could thus lord it over them. The settle-
ments of the English in the northern part of the county
and those of the Scotch-Irish in the southeastern part had
begun almost simultaneously with their own, certainly not
earlier, and these settlements had not grown nearly so
rapidly as their own. The Germans were able therefore
to make York County predominantly a German county
and their life manifested an independence of spirit ;and a
self-reliance that was quite unknown in the incipient stages
of other German settlements.
This view is amply substantiated by a scrutiny of their
conduct during the early years of their settlement in York
County. The difficulties occasioned by the border con-
troversy between the two provinces concerning the lands
in the Kreutz Creek Valley furnished abundant oppor-
tunity to show the mettle of the Germans who had settled
there. They had been invited into those parts as a buffer
against the intrusion of Marylanders and they served this
purpose well. Their tenacity of purpose and their stout
resistance was a matter of no little surprise to those who
sought to intrude upon their domain. It cost them many
conflicts and not a few real hardships but under the ca-
pable leadership of men like Michael Tanner, Henry Hen-
dricks, Christian Croll, and Henry Liphart, they succeeded
In maintaining themselves and preserving their allegiance
to Pennsylvania until the exact determination of the bound-
ary line settled the whole difficulty. Some of their num-
ber had been persuaded or forced to acknowledge the
Outstanding Characteristics. 133
authority of Maryland for a while but they were quick to
observe that the Maryland government discriminated
against them In its dealings with its subjects, and their
resentment at this, together with other arguments of rea-
son,*^ led them fearlessly to disown the authority of Mary-
land, to refuse payment of taxes to Maryland agents, and
to prepare to stand their ground as citizens of Pennsyl-
vania. In their statements to the governor of Maryland
they give unmistakable evidence of their fortitude and
determination. In their communication to him under date
of August II, 1736, they protest against being "seduced
and made use of, to answer purposes which are unjusti-
fiable."^ And In a subsequent reply to the governor they
firmly declare themselves unwilling to tolerate the " impo-
sitions" of the Maryland agents and " the uncommon and
cruel usage " to which they had been subjected. They re-
count their reasons for concluding " upon their own obser-
vations " that they are within the rightful bounds of the
province of Pennsylvania, and then register an emphatic
refusal to act " against the manifest convictions of our
consciences."^ Later they explain their action on the ground
that "we believed in our consciences it was our duty."^
For freedom of conscience they had come to America and
6 Among these other considerations which weighed with the Germans to
convince them that they were within the proper bounds of Pennsylvania
was the fact that the Maryland government persistently failed to give
them certificates or warrants for their lands, the observation that their
own countrymen east of the river were settled may miles farther south
than they themselves and had been settled there for twenty-five years
under the undisputed jurisdiction of Pennsylvania, and the conclusion that
it was impossible for the Susquehanna to be the boundary between the
provinces. Col. Rec, IV: 493.
7Md. Archives, Vol. 281: 100 f.; also Col. Rec. Pa., IV: 61 f.
8 Col. Rec, IV : 492 f .
»Col. Rec, IV: 75-
134 German Element in York County, Pa.
freedom of conscience they are now determined to main-
tain in York County though it be necessary tO' fight for it.
They were accused of having revolted from their allegiance
to Maryland because of the influence and persuasion of the
agents of Pennsylvania. This they deny very emphat-
ically. They stoutly insist that they have acted solely upon
their own initiative and in a special statement they set
forth at length that they have taken these measures entirely
" of our own mere motion and freewill, without any pre-
vious persuasion, threatening or compulsion. "^^ And this
there is every reason to believe. It was always doubted
by the Maryland authorities, but it is substantiated both
by direct statements and, what is more, by the clearest of
implications on the part of the Pennsylvania authorities.^^
10 Ibid.
11 The full and confidential statement of Blunston gives no intimation that
he has persuaded them to this action but plainly Implies that they have
taken the initiative in the matter (Col. Rec, IV: 57), and the personal
appeal of the Germans in Philadelphia (Col, Rec, IV: 188' f.) shows their
sincerity in their move. Furthermore the unmistakeable implications of
several private letters from Blunston allow no reasonable doubt that the
Germans proceeded without his Instigation. Already on January 2, 1735,
almost eighteen months before the Germans actually transferred their
allegiance to Pennsylvania, Blunston wrote to the proprietary: "A few
days since twelve or fourteen Dutch Inhabitants on the other side opposite
to us were here and desired to be admitted to take licence under you.
They think they have been imposed upon by the Marylanders and most of
Em incline to be Pennsylvanlans." Afterwards during the difficulties that
followed upon the " revolt of the Germans " there arose between Blunston
and Penn a slight difference of opinion as to the policy that ought to be
pursued and on January I's, i7'37, Blunston wrote to Penn protesting that
Penn's letters implied a conviction " that he receiving the Dutch as tenants
to this government (who had once been under that of Maryland) was an
act of favor to them and not a benefit to your proprietary interest. . . .
Now if that be the case I must acknowledge the principles 1 have acted
on have been wrong, for when the Dutch informed me of their inclinations
to change I believed it would be for your benefit." This clearly indicates
that the Germans had taken the initiative, for if Blunston had tried to
Outstanding Characteristics. 135
The action of the Germans in refusing to pay taxes to
Maryland and In declaring themselves citizens of Penn-
sylvania called forth retaliatory measures from the Mary-
landers. They sought to collect taxes from them by force.
They harassed and plundered them and threatened them
with fire and ejectment. The Germans used peaceful
means of defence as long as that course seemed feasible.
On one occasion when the Marylanders were seizing the
goods of some of the Germans " under pretence of publick
Dues" the Germans sent Michael Tanner to remonstrate
with them. He went alone and met them " six miles back
from the River" and by reasoning with them succeeded in
getting them to withdraw under a truce of two weeks.^^
In the hope of adjusting the difficulties without resort-
ing to force they sent to the Council at Philadelphia and
asked that their tracts be laid out In accurate surveys so
that they might have clear titles under Pennsylvania.^^
Later they proposed to go In a body to Annapolis and lay
their case before the Governor In person, acquainting him
with the violence and the Inconveniences to which they
were exposed by " HIgginbotham and his lawless crew,"
and seeking his Intervention for the betterment of their
conditions.^* And they even took measures to apply to the
King himself for the redress of their grievances,^^ But
neither of these latter proposals seem to have been carried
into execution.
persuade them to disown Maryland and to acknowledge Pennsylvania he
would certainly have used this fact as an argument here in this confidential
letter. And Penn evidently knew nothing of such efforts to persuade the
Germans and even doubted the expediency of receiving them when they
had applied.
12 Col. Rec, IV: 69; also a Blunston letter to Penn of Sept. 8, 1736.
13 Col. Rec, IV: 70.
"Col. Rec, IV: 155.
"Col. Rec, IV: 156.
136 German Element in York County, Pa.
The Germans sought first of all to keep the peace so
long as that was possible without doing violence to their
consciences, but when peaceful measures did not avail and
when they were threatened with attack they did not scruple
to employ more strenuous measures of defense.^® When
the governor of Maryland threatens to treat them like
rebels and enemies they prepare to defend their homes.
They meet force with force. When unable to do this alone
they call for constables and assistance from the other side
of the river. When Cressap captures one of these con-
stables and is hurrying off with him towards Maryland he
is " warmly pursued " and the constable is rescued.^'^ When
the outrages of the Marylanders continue without abate-
ment they send a delegation of their number to Phila-
delphia with representations to the provincial council con-
cerning their distresses and praying for aid against the
turbulent enemy.^^ When a force of 300 comes from
Maryland the provincial government of Pennsylvania
takes a hand in the defense but not without the valiant aid
of the Germans themselves. ^^
By the beginning of 1737 several of their leaders had
been taken captive and the guerilla tactics of the Mary-
landers had so depleted the numbers of the Germans that
the rest of them became terrified and fled across the Sus-
quehanna for safety.^^ In May, 1737, many of them are
reported in prison at Annapolis.^^ But meanwhile their
stout resistance west of the Susquehanna had permitted
the cumbersome negotiations between the two provinces
"Col. Rec, IV: 148.
17 Col. Rec, IV: 58,.
18 Col. Rec, IV: i8S> f.
i»Col. Rec, IV: 63 fiF.
20 Col. Rec, IV: 1491.
21 Vide supra, p. 681, footnote 39.
Outstanding Characteristics. 137
and between the proprietors in England to take their
course without prejudice to Pennsylvania and their service
to their state had been rendered even though they were
now for a time driven from the field. Another year saw
the royal order of 1738 and its temporary conditions after-
wards led to the permanent jurisdiction of Pennsylvania
over all that disputed region.
The Germans were always encouraged by the Lancaster
County authorities and by the provincial council of Penn-
sylvania^^ and their firm unyielding attitude was appre-
ciated by those authorities. The council sympathized with
the Germans in the hardships and distresses to which they
were exposed but at the same time they felt that for the
Germans to yield to their adversaries and quit their habi-
tations west of the Susquehanna would mean the over-
throw of an important principle and might involve serious
consequences for the future of the province of Pennsyl-
vania. For when Samuel Blunston raises the question be-
fore the council "whether it may be more elegible to order
the Removal of all those who are seated under Pennsyl-
vania on the west side of Susquehanna, than to use further
Endeavours for their Defence, since it is now apparent
these cannot be effectual without coming to Blows," the
council sets itself strongly against the suggestion, on the
ground that " it is not consistent either with the Honour
or Safety of this Province, to remove those of its Inhabi-
tants who are seated within its unquestionable Bounds,
since such an Act might be construed a Cession of those
parts to Maryland, who would not fail thereupon to take
possession of them; and in all probability from such ar^
Encouragement, would endeavour at further Encroach-
ments on this side of the River, in pursuance of their late
22 £. g.. Archives, I: 317; Col. Rec, IV: 195.
138 German Element in York County, Pa.
exorbitant Claims. "^^ It was felt that the honor and
authority of the province depended upon the tenacity of
the German settlers.^* This responsibility they discharged
by insisting upon recognizing the jurisdiction of Pennsyl-
vania until the crisis of the controversy between the prov-
inces was passed. This function they performed for the
history of Pennsylvania not so much out of a consciousness
of their mission as out of their native hardiness and ag-
gressiveness of spirit. And these qualities of character
were a source of no little gratification to the provincial
authorities. For, says James Logan, President of the
Council, in a writing to Governor Ogle dated September
18, 1736, in which he speaks of the encroachments and the
hostilities west of the river: "This province, especially
those parts are filled with people of more spirit than to
brook such treatment, and if any mischief ensue on their
opposition to your attacks, you cannot but well know who
must be accountable for it."^^ Where the poverty-stricken
23 Col. Rec, IV: 150 f.
24 Blunston wrote to the proprietary on October 17, 1734, suggesting that
the tracts of the Germans be laid out to them and that they be given sur-
veys, and observing: " Tis true the sellers are at present generally poor
and unable to pay for their lands (or even the surveys) but we look on
them as persons suitable to keep possession." The sentiments of this letter
were endorsed by John Wright. The Lancaster County officials evidently
appreciated the resoluteness and tenacity of these Germans, and two years
later when the forceful Conflicts west of the river have begun and when
Thomas Penn suggests that some of the Germans be removed, Blunston
sets himself against the suggestion and remarks (letter received by Penn
on December i, 1736) : " For those who are most in danger by staying
are those who are most resolute and active and by whom the rest are
directed." The York County Germans evidently did not lack aggressive
leaders among their own numbers.
25 Col. Rec, IV: 78^ This sentiment concerning the "spirit" of the
Germans was echoed a few months later by the governor and council of
Maryland in a communication to the King dated February i8, 1737', in
which they say the government of Pennsylvania " was pleased to issue a
Outstanding Characteristics. 139
squatters would not have ventured In the first place, where
the enslaved redemptioners could not have gone, where
the Germans of New York would have been compelled to
flee, and where the peaceful Mennonites east of the Sus-
quehanna because of their religious convictions would have
refused to resort to force, the Germans of York County
firmly stood their ground in the maintenance of their rights
and In following the dictates of their consciences. Their
Independence and aggressiveness of spirit is therefore of
no small importance In the history of their county and
state and In the history of German Americans in general.
Similar qualities of character and disposition are found
in prominence also among the early German settlers on
DIgges's Choice. This is evident from the account of the
beginnings of that settlement as given In Chapter IV.^®
These settlers had ventured farther out on the frontier,
but In many respects their fortunes, as we have seen, paral-
leled those of their countrymen In the eastern part of the
county. A few references will suffice to indicate the same
unquenchable spirit of independence and the same unwill-
ingness to endure imposition.
With keen discernment they conclude from Digges's
conduct in refusing to survey the bounds of his tract and
from Inconsistencies in his utterances, that he cannot make
proclamation under the specious color of preserving peace, but really to
inflame and incite the inhabitants of those borders (which that government
then acknovyledged vras filled with people of more than ordinary spirit)
to the commission of horrid and cruel violences."
The Lancaster County authorities had had occasion to test this spirit of
the Germans. For during the short time that they had acknowledged the
jurisdiction of Maryland the German settlers did not scruple to resist the
Lancaster County officers when they felt they were being imposed upon.
See, for example, the incident of the rescue of John Lochman from Sheriff
Buchanan, supra, p. 56; also Col. Rec, IV: 194.
26 Vide supra, pp. 69-85, for the facts referred to here.
140 German Element in York County, Pa.
good all of his claims. They coolly plan to have his
bounds surveyed on their own account, and this determina-
tion they carry into effect despite Digges's opposition.
When it thus becomes clear that they had been imposed
upon, they proceed to take out warrants under Pennsyl-
vania. Then when their lands are still claimed by Digges
under a resurvey, they petition the Pennsylvania author-
ities for advice how to proceed.^'' A warning from the
secretary of the province does not deter Digges from try-
ing to force some of the Germans to pay him for their
lands. Then they meet force with force, and drive off the
officers that try to carry them to Maryland. They ex-
press in no uncertain terms their determination to stand
on their defense and to insist upon their rights.^^ Several
times they make petition for authoritative adjustment of
matters, on the ground that they do not wish to be put in
the position of resisting government but that they cannot
tolerate the abuses which are being practiced on them.^^
And several instances are on record of strenuous resistance
to what they regarded as the injustice of Digges. The
dealings of Adam Forney with the Maryland officers and
the shooting of Dudley Digges may serve as examples of
the tenacity of these Germans in maintaining their rights.
Thus they manifest much the same stern qualities of char-
acter which their countrymen in the Kreutz Creek Valley
manifested, though, of course, with less vital consequences
for the future of the province.
27 Archives, I: 680 f. and 6813. "The people hope that Your Honor [i. e.,
the governor] will direct inquiries to me made into the true state of this
matter and give them your directions for their behavior with Mr. Digges."
28 Vide supra, p. 83 f.
29 " For -ppe are no people that are willing to Resist government, but
rather to semit, if we do but know how, and whare; and further Beg you
would advise us how to behave most safely in the main Time." Archives,
I: 724.
Outstanding Characteristics. 141
Another characteristic of the early Germans in York
County is worthy of note in this connection. It was one
that they shared with all of the early Germans in this
country with the possible exception of the Germantown
settlement. They were at a great disadvantage, both so-
cially and politically, because they could not speak the
English language. For while the provincial authorities of
Maryland recognized the Germans of our county as a
resolute, determined people whose resistance it was almost
impossible for them to break, and while the provincial
authorities of Pennsylvania recognized those hardy Ger-
mans as a very fit element with which to withstand the
encroachments of the Marylanders, nevertheless there is
unmistakable evidence that on both sides of the line those
who made the laws and enforced them looked down upon
these Germans with a certain degree of contempt and dis-
dain. The records of the unhappy incidents growing out
of the boundary dispute between the provinces indicate very
clearly that the spirit of nativism was already at work in
that early day and that the Germans were regarded as
"ignorant and unfortunate Dutchman," the helpless vic-
tims of circumstances and suitable objects for the com-
miseration of their English-speaking superiors.
In a deposition of December 2, 1736, John Starr relates
an interview that he had with the governor of Maryland a
few months previous in the course of which " the Gover-
nor said that there were some Unfortunate Dutch Men
that had lately Apply'd themselves to him for those Lands,
& that he went there & Settled them, & and that he con-
doled the Misfortune of the sd Dutch Men for declining
to be Subject to the Government of Maryland, & turning
to the Proprietors of Pennsylvania, And that the sd Dutch
142 German Element in York County, Pa.
Men had Revolted through Ignorance or Perswasion, And
that the Governor further said that if the sd Dutch Men
did not Return again to the Government of Maryland
he would not Suffer them to Live on those Lands any
Longer. . . ."^° This was evidently the general attitude
of the Marylanders towards the Germans. For ten days
later Edmund Jennings and Daniel Dulaney, the two
Maryland commissioners who had come to Philadelphia
to treat with the Pennsylvania council concerning the
troubles west of the Susquehanna, in the course of a lengthy
communication to Logan and his council observe concern-
ing the Germans : " they must certainly be ignorant For-
reigners or they would never have been so far deluded as
to imagine it to be in their power to divest the Lord Pro-
prietary of Maryland of whom they received their posses-
sions, of the Rents and Services due from them as Ten-
ants."^^ And in the communication of the Maryland
authorities to the King on February 18, 1737, they declare
that they have exercised " the utmost care to disabuse these
deluded people," and that " this government might reason-
ably conclude these unfortunate people had been privately
encouraged by some persons daring enough to protect them
against any prosecution. "^^
Much the same attitude of lofty superiority towards the
Germans was held by their fellow-citizens in Lancaster and
Philadelphia, though without the element of bitterness
which naturally entered into the feelings of the Mary-
landers. When in August, 1736, they decided to re-
nounce the authority of Maryland in the Kreutz Creek
30 Archives, 1 : 509.
31 Col. Rec, IV: 132.
32 Md. Archives, for 1736.
Outstanding Characteristics. 143
Valley and to acknowledge the jurisdiction of Pennsyl-
vania in those parts, they sent several representatives to
state their case to Samuel Blunston and to ask his advice.
Shortly thereafter Blunston reported the matter in person
to the provincial council at Philadelphia and in explanation
of their conduct stated that they were " ignorant people
who had been seduced, and now being sensible of it, were
desirous to return and live under our proprietor who alone
they believed could truly be their landlord." He said that
he " told them, since it was their ignorance, and the false
information of others, and not malice by which they had
been misled, they need not doubt but they would be re-
ceived and treated as the other inhabitants."^^ ^ fg^
weeks later the Pennsylvania council in a letter to Gov-
ernor Ogle of Maryland remarked concerning the " natu-
ral Honesty and Simplicity" of "those Palatines" and
then added: "they have been made Sufferers by their
Weakness and Credulity in believeing those busie Emis-
saries."^* Repeatedly they are referred to by the council
simply as "those poor people. "^^ And on one occasion
the council wrote of them as " those poor ignorant for-
eigners who had transported themselves from Germany
into Pennsylvania."^^
In a petition to the King, dated December 11, 1736,
the Pennsylvania council charged Cressap with having
persuaded "some innocent German people lately come
into Pennsylvania, who were ignorant of our Language
and Constitution " to take possession of Lancaster County
lands under Maryland jurisdiction, and in the same docu-
33 Col. Rec, IV: 57.
3* Col. Rec, IV: 77.
35 £. g., Col. Rec, IV: 114, 12a.
36 Col. Rec, IV: 122,
144 German Element in York County, Pa.
ment these Germans are referred to as *' the miserable
people."^'''
It would appear then that the "misfortunes" of these
"poor Dutchmen" were due primarily to their "igno-
rance" (they themselves called it "want of better infor-
mation") and this in turn was due to their lack of famil-
iarity with the English language. ^^ This ignorance made
them susceptible to plausible pretences and the objects of
wilful machinations. Their ignorance of the language of
the government had led the government authorities to
take special precautions to secure their allegiance. Hence
the oath of allegiance to which they were obliged to sub-
scribe upon landing at the port of Philadelphia. When
in the course of the negotiations concerning the difficulties
in the Kreutz Creek Valley the Maryland commissioners
protested against these previous " engagements of Fidelity
to the Proprietor of Pennsylvania "^® the Council of Penn-
sylvania made reply:
The Germans who yearly arrive here in great numbers, wholly
ignorant of the English Language & Constitution, are obliged, on
37 Col. Rec, ia6 f.
38 In all their negotiations with the authorities in those first few years
of their settlement in York County, their leader and spokesman was
Michael Tanner. He was a young man, had been associated with the
English at Parnell's in 1728, and certainly was better acquainted with the
language of the government than most of his countrymen. This quality
alone was sufficient to make him one of their chief leaders.
The Germans as a rule employed an interpreter in their dealings with
the authorities. As late as 1747 before the Provincial Council in Phila-
delphia, " Nicholas Perie desired that as he was a German & did not
understand the English Language, that he might be permitted to speak
by an interpreter " and received the assistance of " Mr. Christian Grass-
hold, who is usually employed in this Service by the Germans." The
" incivility of his Language " was excused on the ground that " it was
owing to his Ignorance of the English Language." Col. Rec, V: 2i8' f.
39 Col. Rec, IV: 132.
Outstanding Characteristics. 145
Account of our too near northern Neighbors, the French, whose
Language many of them understand, not only to swear Allegiance
to our Sovereign, but as a farther Tie upon them they promised
Fidelity to our Proprietors & this Government, a Practice only
used with them & no others.'*'^
Their chief offense therefore seems to have been in the
fact that they could not speak English immediately upon
their arrival from Germany, and that some of them knew
somewhat of French.
Very similar was the attitude towards the Germans in
the southwestern part of the county. In 1747, when
Adam Forney was arrested on Digges's Choice by a Bal-
timore County sheriff, ^^ the correspondence indicates that
the secretary of Pennsylvania, Richard Peters, after a
personal examination of Forney, is not a little fearful that
the witnesses who will attend the Annapolis court will be
Unable to make themselves understood. He writes to
Thomas Cookson, surveyor of Lancaster County, that the
witnesses who are to accompany Forney to his trial must
be able to testify " in a clear, positive manner, and there-
fore they must be sensible people, and people who know
Digges' tract well, and Adam Furney's house, and can
give a satisfactory account of things, so that the Court
may understand them. I must, therefore, beg of you to
attend Adam Furney in finding out such persons, and
examine them yourself and be satisfied that they will
answer the purpose effectually by giving a plain evi-
dence."*^ The difficulty, it would seem, was to get per-
sons as witnesses who would be able to speak English well
enough to be understood in Maryland. For, a few days
40 Col. Rec, IV: 1381.
41 Supra, page 83.
42 Archives, I: 728.
ID
146 German Element in York County, Pa.
later Cookson replies to Peters that he has now had op-
portunity to examine certain citizens from Forney's gen-
eral neighborhood. "They are clear, intelligible men,
and speak English well." This leads Cookson to a differ-
ent conclusion from that which had been reached upon
examining Forney himself.^^ Whereupon Peters writes
to Annapolis and dismisses the counsel he had retained for
Forney's case and says: "Mr. Cookson had examination
of some sensible people in Furney's neighborhood."*^ The
inference is that Forney was not sensible, clear or intelli-
gent. This was because of his lack of facility with the
English language, a fact that is very manifest from his
own letter to Cookson on this occasion.*^ This corre-
spondence, therefore, is one instance of several which
show that the Germans were often regarded by the gov-
ernment officials and by their English-speaking neighbors
as unintelligent and unreasonable, simply because they
were unskilled in English.
The Governor of Maryland had thought that "the
Dutch Men had revolted through Ignorance or Perswa-
sion." But the clear logical arguments which they put
forth in support of their action, and their emphatic dis-
avowal of outside persuasion, showed that they were not
so ignorant or so ^easily persuaded as the governor had
supposed. And the subsequent determination of the
boundary by the highest authorities completely vindicated
them in this action. The governor had spoken of them
as "unfortunate Dutch Men" whose misfortunes he con-
43 " Let Adam Forney defend his own Cause, since he has entirely mis-
represented the situation of the place where he was arrested." Archives,
I: 731.
4* Ibid.
45 Archives, I: 725.
Outstanding Characteristics. 147
doled. But the decision of conduct and the tenacity of
purpose which they manifested in the course of the con-
troversy, as well as the outcome of the whole difficulty,
showed that his commiseration was quite superfluous.
The conditions imposed upon them by their pioneer life
and their critical position in the conflict between the two
provinces, together with the fact that they did not as a
class speak the language of the governments under which
they lived, naturally tended to diminish the respect in
which they were held by those in the distance who were
more comfortably established. But their "natural hon-
esty and simplicity" and the fortitude and hardiness which
they manifested in their difficult circumstances did not fail
of appreciation, and those who knew these Germans well
did not regard them as helpless creatures and objects of
pity. For in their own county they have from the begin-
ning been the most important single racial factor, polit-
ically, socially, and industrially.
CHAPTER VII.
The Limestone Soil.
3N setting forth the original settlement of the
primitive soil in this country and the subse-
quent readjustment of communities the effort
is not infrequently made to show a relation
between the preponderating nationality of a
given settlement and the geological formation of its soil.
The attempt has sometimes been made to indicate that
such a general relationship applies to the German farmers
of the eighteenth century. Thus it has occasionally been
asserted in a general way that the Germans who came to
this country before the Revolution regularly settled on
limestone soil. Professor Faust says that when we study
on a map the location of the Germans in America before
the Revolution we are impressed with the fact that " the
Germans were in possession of most of the best land for
farming purposes. They had cultivated the great lime-
stone areas reaching from northeast to southwest, the most!
fertile land in the colonies. The middle sections of Penn-
sylvania were in their possession, those which became the'
granaries of the colonies in the coming Revolutionary;
War, and subsequently the foundation of the financial"
148
The Limestone Soil. 149
prosperity of the new nation."^ This tendency to settle'
a particular kind of soil, he says, was manifest among the
Germans in other colonies as well as in Pennsylvania.'
"They continued to settle in limestone areas in every new
territory, as for instance in Kentucky, where they entered
the Blue-Grass Region in very large numbers during and
immediately after the Revolutionary War. It is an inter-
esting experiment to examine the geological maps of the
counties in Pennsylvania where there were both German
and Irish settlers, such as Berks or Lancaster counties.
The Germans are most numerous where the limestone ap-
pears, while the Irish are settled on the slate formations.
This phenomenon is repeated so often that it might create
the impression that the early settlers had some knowledge
of geology."^
Professor F. J. Turner is a little more specific when he
says: "The limestone areas in a geological map of Penn-
sylvania would serve as a map of the German settlements.
First they filled the Limestone Island adjacent to Phila-
delphia, in Lancaster and Berks counties; then they crossed
the Blue Ridge into the Great Valley, floored with lime-
stone. This valley is marked by the cities of Easton,
Bethlehem, AUentown, Reading, Harrisburg, etc. Fol-
lowing it towards the southwest along the trough between
the hills, they crossed the Potomac into Central Maryland
and by 1732 following the same formation they began to
occupy the Shenandoah Valley in Virginia."^ " The
i"The German Element in the United States," Vol. I, p. 2165.
2 Ibid., Vol. II, p. 34.
3 " Studies of American Immigration," by Frederick Jackson Turner, in
the Record-Herald's " Current Topics Club," Record-Herald, Chicago,
August 28 and September 4, 1901, " German Immigration in the Colonial
Period." Cited in Faust, Vol. I, p. 138.
150 German Element in York County, Pa.
limestone farms of the [Pennsylvania] Germans became
the wheat granaries of the country."*
Another keen observer of conditions among the Penn-
sylvania Germans, Professor Oscar Kuhns, testifies to this
same general fact. "The best soil in Pennsylvania for
farming purposes is limestone, and it is a significant fact
that almost every acre of this soil is in possession of Ger-
man farmers. ... It is due to the fact that Lancaster
County is especially rich in limestone soil and is largely
inhabited by Mennonites that it has become the richest
farming county in the United States."^ This author also
cites in this connection the statement of the late Eckley B.
Coxe that a letter from Bethlehem written to his grand-
father asserts that in Pennsylvania, if you are on limestone
soil, you can open your mouth in the Pennsylvania Dutch
dialect and you will always be understood.®
Still another writer points out this same general fact
and shows its effect upon the Lutheran Church in the
United States. Dr. Sylvanus Stall in an article on " The
Relation of the Lutheran Church in the United States to
the Limestone Districts,"^ shows how the Germans who
4 Faust, Vol. II, p. 34.
5 " German and Swiss Settlements of Pennsylvania," p. 86 f.
6 Sometimes this observation that the Germans followed certain natural
features of the country is expressed in terms of timber rather than in
terras of soil. Then the comment is that the Germans selected districts
that are heavily wooded. Mrs. Kate Asaphine Everest Levi, in " How
Wisconsin Came by Its Large German Element" (1892), p. 17, says:
" Thus the Germans are seen to be massed in the eastern and north central
counties, a position that corresponds markedly with that of the heavily-
wooded districts; they have shown their preference first for the wooded
lands near the main routes to travel, namely the eastern counties, and
from there have spread to the north central parts of the State into the
deeper forests."
''Lutheran Quarterly, Vol. XIII, 1883, pp. 509 fiE.
The Limestone Soil. 151
had been placed at Newburgh on the west bank of the
Hudson In 1708 were dissatisfied with the soil there and
gradually migrated to the limestone districts of that state.
He also shows how the Palatine refugees whom the Eng-
lish government had located on the east bank of the Hud-
son In 17 10, speedily removed to the Schoharie and Mo-
hawk valleys with their clear water and their limestone
rock. " When the migrations of this colony of Germans
who constituted the beginnings of the Lutheran Church in
the state of New York are followed, It will be found that
when they moved In any considerable numbers their even-
tual settlement was upon the choicest lands, and when
uncontrolled by foreign circumstances. It was upon lime-
stone bottom. The same Is true in Pennsylvania. . . .
These tendencies of the earlier Immigrants are to be found
not only in Lancaster County, but are clearly defined In
the broad limestone belt which sweeps across the State,
including In Its area the cities of Easton, AUentown, Read-
ing, Lebanon, Lancaster, York and Harrlsburg. The in-
fluences may alike be followed In Ohio, Illinois, Indiana
and other States, and may account in a large measure for
the absence of Lutheran congregations In New England."
Now these general statements concerning the prefer-
ences of the Germans for the limestone soil have never
been verified by more exact determination. They are,
however, confirmed in a remarkable way by the location
and distribution of the Germans In York County. A study
of the German settlements In this county In their relation
to the geology of the county and In their relation to other
nationalities, reveals the fact that ethnologlcally York
County is an epitome of the country at large. The rela-
tions of the Germans in our county serve to bear out the
152 German Element in York County, Pa.
general observations noted above concerning the Germans
in other parts of Pennsylvania and in other states of the
union.
The geological map of York County furnishes an inter-
esting analogy to the geological map of the whole United
States.^ Each of the five great areas of geological time
has its representatives within the borders of our county
and they occur in much the same order and the same
manner of contact in which they occur in the country at
large. We have in this small compass parts of the ocean
bottoms that were formed during each of the five geolog-
ical ages. The general trend of the formations is from
northeast to southwest. They are, in a general way, the
continuation of the geological plains of Lancaster County
and in their turn they merge into the formations in Adams
County and Maryland. A brief survey of the geology
and topography of the county is necessary to an under-
standing of the early German settlements in their relation
to the soil and to other nationalities.
The oldest part of the county belongs to the Eozoic
period. It constitutes a broad belt in the southern part of
the county. Its southeastern boundary is on a line with
the last course of the Muddy Creek. Its northwestern
boundary lies approximately on a line beginning at the
southeastern extremity of Lower Windsor Township ex-
8 Professor Persifor Frazer (professor of chemistry, Franklin Institute,
Philadelphia) who supervised the Second U, S. Geological Survey of York
County, says, " In a rough and general way, York County is a partial
imitation, on a very small scale, of the United States; inasmuch as, like
that part of the American continent, it consists of a belt of Archaean rocks
in the northwest, of another in the southeast, and its intermediate portions
are made up of newer formations containing fossils." And this analogy
he carries into great detail. Vide Gibson's " History of York County,"
p. 463.
The Limestone Soil. 153
tending thence westward, passing north of Windsor Post
Office and then due southwestward between Dallastown
and Red Lion, through the center of Glen Rock and north
of Black Rock. It thus includes all of Upper Chance-
ford, Lower Chanceford, Hopewell, Fawn and Shrews-
bury Townships, the western part of Peach Bottom Town-
ship, and parts of Windsor, Lower Windsor, Springfield,
Codorus and Manheim Townships. This part of the
county constitutes the geological floor upon which the
other parts were laid.
These Eozoic rocks are destitute of valuable minerals
in York County but the soil formed from them is com-
paratively fertile, second only to the fertility of the lime-
stone soil. Its composition is generally slaty. It is ca-
pable of sustaining heavy timber growths and contains at
present large woods of strong trees. When the earliest
settlers came to the county there were large tracts in the
southeastern part that were bare of all timber. This is
accounted for by the Indian custom of burning the trees
and other vegetation in certain sections either for the pur-
pose of increasing the facilities of hunting or to provide
land for the cultivation of beans and corn.^ This Eozoic
belt of the county has received in history the uncompli-
mentary title of " The Barrens." This was not due to the
character of the soil but to the absence of trees in the early
days and to the methods of agriculture afterwards employed
there.^*^ The earliest settlers who took up their abodes on
^ Carter and Glossbrenner say that this was done to provide hunting
grounds, but it seems more probable that these bare spaces in York County
may be accounted for by the general observation of William Penn, " There
are also many open places that have been old Indian fields." In a letter
written to the Duke of Ormunde in i'68'3, quoted from Egle's " Notes and
Queries " by Swank, " Progressive Pennsylvania," p. 76.
1° Philemon Lloyd says in his letter of October 8, 1722, "But from the
154 German Element in York County, Pa.
this belt were unskilled in the art of agriculture and in the
proper rotation of crops. They would select a tract of land
and put out their crops but by unwise methods of culture
would soon drain the soil of its substance. When one
tract was exhausted they would desert it and move on to
new tracts. Thus in the course of time there came to be
a number of tracts In this region that were deserted on
account of their sterility. Thus was perpetuated the name
of " Barrens," a name that is quite at variance with the
present flourishing condition of the soil brought about by
the importation of wiser methods of cultivation.^^
The next oldest geological formation in the county Is
found just north of the Eozoic belt. This belongs to the
Cambrian period of the Paleozoic era. It is only about
three fourths as wide as the Eozoic belt, but stretching as
It does across the central part of the county it has a much
greater length than the older belt and embraces a larger
area In the county. Its northern boundary begins at the
southern mouth of the Conewago Creek and extends with
Heads of Patapsco, Gunpowder, & Bush Rivers, over to Monockasey is a
Vast Body of Barrens; that is, what is called so, because there is no wood
upon it, besides Vast Quantities of Rockey Barrens." Calvert Papers,
No. 2, p. 56.
11 Christoph Daniel Ebeling in his " Erdbeschreibung und Geschichte
von America," Vol. 4, 1797, p. 681, speaking of York County, says, " Das
Land ist ziemlich angebaut, und man rechnete vor einigen Jahren schon,
dass an drei Viertel desselben von Pflanzern besezt waren. Allein ihre
Besitzungen sind lange nicht alle urbar gemacht, sondern viele davon noch
mit dicken Waldungen besezt. Jedoch treiben viele, sonderlich die
Deutschen, guten Kornbau, haben grosse Obstgarten mit Aepfeln, Pfir-
sichen, etc. und weitlaufige Wiesen mit Timotheusgras etc., zum Theil auch
etwas Kleebau. Hopfengarten giebt es gleichfals hie und da. Die Acker-
pferde, welche hier fallen, werden wegen ihrer Starke und Grosse ge-
schatzt." These efficient methods of the Germans afterwards spread to
other nationalities in the County and helped to abolish the wasteful con-
ditions and inefficient methods of which Ebeling writes.
The Limestone Soil. 155
much irregularity in a general southwesterly direction to
Abbotstown just beyond the Adams County line. It thus
embraces the whole of Hellam, Spring Garden, North
Codorus, Heidelberg, Penn, and West Manheim Town-
ships, and most of Manchester, West Manchester, Jack-
son, Paradise, Lower Windsor, Windsor, York, Spring-
field, Codorus, and Manheim Townships. It also in-
cludes Conewago and Union Townships in the south-
eastern part of Adams County. This kind of rock Is
also found on the southern side of the Eozoic floor and
covers a large part of Peach Bottom Township. ^^
This Cambrian belt consists of four fairly distinct layers
of rocks. The oldest of these are the chlorite schists, com-
posing about one third of the entire belt and stretching
along the southern portion of the area. Next in order Is
the Hellam quartzite, found chiefly in the township of
that name but with outcroppings at many other places In
this belt. Then come the hydro-mica schists, or limestone
schists as they are sometimes called. These occupy In
general the central and northern portion of the belt and
encase the fourth and most recent layer which is the nar-
row ribbon of limestone stretching across the entire length
of the Cambrian belt.
The presence of the Hellam quartzite lends an undulat-
ing effect to the landscape here. For the quartzite is very
hard and enduring In composition. It undergoes but little
decomposition either through chemical or mechanical
action. Thus the less durable rocks, the argillltes and the
12 This rock in the southeastern extremity of our county is the source of
the celebrated Peach Bottom roofing slate. This economic value of the
Cambrian rock as found in this Township grows out of the fact that it
occurs there with a fine grain, an even texture, and an almost perfect
cleavage.
156 German Element in York County, Pa.
calcltes, are disintegrated and carried away, leaving the
quartzlte outstanding In the form of hills. But the most
important part of the Cambrian belt, so far as the history
of the county Is concerned, Is the limestone formation.
This is but a continuation west of the Susquehanna of that
limestone formation which constitutes the major portion
of Lancaster County. It is a comparatively narrow strip
and extends continuously across the center of the county
and Into the southeastern corner of Adams County. The
tract embracing the pure limestone soil is not more than
two miles wide on an average, though at a few points It
reaches a width of four miles. It begins at the mouth of
the Kreutz Creek on the Susquehanna and extends along
the whole length of that creek from the town of Wrlghts-
ville to the city of York. From York there Is a narrow
extension northeastward along the Codorus to Its mouth,
and one directly west among the sources of the Little
Conewago. But the general direction of the limestone
strip continues from York southwestward up the valley of
the West Branch of the Codorus Creek and including
Hanover, McSherrystown and LIttlestown. An isolated
tract of this formation also occurs at the mouth of Cabin
Branch In Lower Windsor Township.
This limestone is a dolomltic composition containing
varying amounts of carbonate of magnesia. It is popu-
larly known as the "York limestone." Some of it is so
hard as to furnish excellent building material. But most
of it decomposes and mingles with the soil. Thus it has
produced the most fertile soil in the county and, together
with the related soil that was formed from the neighboring
schists, it constitutes the richest farming area in the county,
not unlike that of Lancaster County east of the river. It
The Limestone Soil. 157
Is well watered and the rolling contour of the ground
makes It exceptionally well adapted to agricultural pur-
poses. When the first settlers came to the county these
limestone hills and valleys were covered with heavy tim-
ber, and under wise methods of culture the soil has con-
tinued highly productive ever since, and this belt has
always been the scene of the county's chief industry and
activity.
A third main geological division of York County em-
braces practically the entire northern part of the county.
This belongs to the Triassic period of the Mesozolc era.
It Is very sharply defined from the Cambrian belt just
south of It. It is that same red sandstone formation which
begins in the extreme northern part of Lancaster County
and covers nearly all of Adams County on the west. The
line of demarcation from the Paleozoic era Is quite clear
and distinct because there are no traces whatever of the
Silurian, the Devonian, or the Carboniferous periods of
that era. The soil of this region differs widely from that
of the other parts of the county. It is composed primarily
of beds of red shale, red sandstone, and quartzlte con-
glomerate. Extensive areas of trap also occur, and this
Is practically Identical with the so-called "Gettysburg
Granite " In Adams County. This material offers strong
resistance to disintegrating forces and this has produced
a number of elevated ridges and hills in this part of the
county. It Is also the geological cause of the bothersqme
falls In the Susquehanna near York Haven. Everywhere
traces of Iron abound, and It Is this that gives the soil of
the region its characteristically red color. On the rocks
In this region occasionally occur deceptive stains of green
and blue carbonates of copper. These were doubtless the
cause of those nervous and Illusive searches, surveys, and
158 German Element in York County, Pa.
mining shafts, made by Sir William Keith and the Mary-
land adventurers in the hope of obtaining copper or some
other valuable metal. There are many evidences of
brownstone in this Triassic region of somewhat the same
quality as the celebrated Hummelstown variety, but it has
not yet been discovered west of the river in sufficient quan-
tities to give it commercial value. Farming has always
been the chief industry in this part of the county as in the
other parts, although from the above description of the
geology it must be clear that the soil here is not nearly so
well adapted to agriculture as In other parts of the county.^^
These are the three main geological divisions of our
county. If now we examine the nationality of the earliest
settlers In the county we find that they are three In number
and that each one of them gravitated strongly towards one
of the three general kinds of soil furnished by the geolog-
ical divisions. Germans, Scotch-Irish, and English crossed
the Susquehanna in rapid succession and settled within the
limits of York County in the fourth and fifth decades of
the eighteenth century. Of these the Scotch-Irish took up
their abodes on the Eozoic belt in the southeastern part of
the county where the ground required little clearing and
where the soil was ready to produce at once. The Ger-
mans laid out their plantations on or near the limestone
ribbon of the Cambrian belt in the central part of the
county with Its heavy timber, Its rolling hills and Its many
streams. While the English Quakers chose to settle the
Triassic region In the northeastern part of the county with
its secluded lands, its red soil, and its mining prospects.
13 To complete our outline of the geology of the county it should be
mentioned that the Cenozoic era is represented in the county principally
by the marl bed north of Dillsburg in Carroll Township. Thus the great
eras of geology are all present in some form or other.
The Limestone Soil. 159
These choices were not promiscuous. But we are con-
cerned here only to establish in detail the correctness of
the statement concerning the Germans, and to indicate its
probable causes and its results.
In the absence of individual surveys for the plantations
of the earliest Germans in the county we are left to infer-
ence and general statements to show where they were.
But these are so many and so varied as to permit a high
degree of accuracy in locating the early German settle-
ments upon the map. The very name of the Kreutz Creek
Settlement indicates its general location. And the Kreutz
Creek Valley, as we have seen, belongs entirely to the
Cambrian belt and is composed almost exclusively of pure
limestone soil. The pioneer plantation of this settlement
was that of John Hendricks. He occupied a part of that
1,200-acre tract which was marked off for the younger
William Penn in July, 1727, and surveyed in November,
1729. The whole tract is described In the warrant as
" opposite to Hempfield," that is, due west of the town of
Lancaster. Hendricks's part of this tract embraced 600
acres and it is described by the surveyor as " the uper
side and best part of the tract." The lower part, i. e., the
part nearest to the mouth of the Kreutz Creek, was occu-
pied several years later by James Wright, son of John
Wright. This embraced the landing-place of Wright's
Ferry, the heart of the present town of Wrightsville. The
entire tract therefore lay just north of the future " Mon-
ocacy Road,"^'^ the present turnpike from Wrightsville to
York, and Hendricks's 600 acres on the upper part of the
tract was therefore but a short distance north of Wright's
1* This road is described as beginning between the lands of James
Wright and Samuel Tayler on the west bank of the Susquehanna immedi-
ately opposite the plantations of John Wright. Vide supra, p. 89.
i6o German Element in York County, Pa.
Ferry and embraced the plantation from which the squat-
ter John Grist was compelled to remove in 1721.^^ This
is entirely within the limestone ribbon, as a reference to
the geological map shows.
The other plantations in the Kreutz Creek Settlement
are determined chiefly with reference to the Hendricks
plantation. Michael Tanner, we have seen, was settled on
a tract of 200 acres six miles southwest of John Hen-
dricks.^^ He had previously been seated for a short time
near the mouth of Cabin Branch, which is also limestone
soil, but from this location he was obliged to remove in
1728 together with several English squatters there. In
1734, however, he took up his permanent abode on the
limestone of the Kreutz Creek. Among his immediate
neighbors were Conrad Strickler, Henry Bacon (Bann or
Bahn), and Jacob Welshover. With these persons Tan-
ner was engaged in burying another neighbor's child when
they were all taken captive by the Marylanders. Another
close neighbor of Tanner was John Lochman who said
that his house was seven miles west of Hendricks, about
two miles south of the "little Codorus " and within 100
yards of the main road through the valley. About one
and one half miles east of Lochman along the main road
lived the blacksmith, Peter Gardner. Farther east in the
same limestone valley and on both sides of the road were
the dwellings of Bernard Wiemar, Michael Reisher,
Christian Croll, Francis Clapsaddle, Nicholas Kuhns,
15 The exact location of Grist's improvements is fixed by the two drafts
mentioned, supra, p. 22. Blunston's letter of January z, 1737 (Archives,
I: 319), says: "I suppose you know Hendrix's House stands just by John
Wright's."
i^Vide supra, p. 57', and Archives, I: 524.
The Limestone Soil. i6i
Valentine Kroh, and Martin Schultz.^"^ Samuel Landis,
the German shoemaker, had his shop on the Kreutz
Creek.^^ This valley was also the home of the other
Germans in that first settlement. It is not possible now to
locate precisely the individual claims of each one of the 50
or 60 German planters who settled in this part of the
county before 1737, but it is clear that they lay in the same
general valley with those we have already fixed. For
Michael Tanner in his solemn affirmation declares that in
1734 and 1735 Thomas Cressap " came into the neighbor-
hood of this Affirmant and Surveyed upwards of forty
tracts of Land for this Affirmants Countrymen, the Ger-
mans living in those Parts."^^ This same idea is expressed
or implied in a number of other depositions and docu-
ments relating to the border difficulties. The Germans
who signed the papers to the governor of Maryland and
to the council of Pennsylvania in August, 1736, spoke of
one another as "neighbors." Their place of assembling
in self-defense was John Hendricks's house at the foot of
their valley. They regularly referred to their individual
plantations as lying southwest of John Hendricks. The
Marylanders in their attacks upon the Germans never met
any opposition nor found any victims until they had come
into the immediate neighborhood of the Kreutz Creek,
17 Vide supra, p, 651. When John Powell, under-sheriff of Lancaster
County, affirms that these men lived " on the West side of the Sasquehannah
River, not above one Mile to the Southvpard of the house of John Hen-
dricks" (Col. Rec, III: 613), he evidently does not mean to say that they
all lived within one mile's distance of Hendricks's house, but merely that
they were within the undoubted bounds of Pennsylvania because they all
lived north of a line passing east and west through a point one mile south
of Hendricks's house. Thus they lived in the valley just north of the
Kreutz Creek.
18 According to Carter and Glossbrenner, vide supra, p. 391.
i» Archives, 1 : 5215.
II
l62 German Element in York County, Pa.
and they never proceeded farther north than that valley.
The Springettsbury Manor, whose bounds were relocated
In 1762 by means of the German plantations, lay wholly
within the Cambrian belt spreading a short distance on
each side of the limestone ribbon in the Kreutz Creek
Valley. And at the judicial Investigation In 1824 evidence
was presented proving that in 1736 at least 52 Germans
had settled on that area In a regular manner. There can
be no doubt therefore that most of the original German
settlers In the eastern part of the county were located on
the pure limestone just north of the Kreutz Creek, that
the rest of them were settled on the fertile soil of the ad-
jacent limestone schists, and that practically all of them,
If Indeed we may not say all of them without exception,
were seated within the Cambrian belt.
The same kind of soil continues to be the abode of the
Germans as we follow their settlements westward across
the county. The settlement which had gathered on the
Codorus about the future site of York,^^ occupied the
limestone strip at its place of greatest breadth. Here the
limestone valley of the Codorus meets the prolongation
of the Kreutz Creek Valley and the combination produces
an unusually favorable location for a flourishing farming
community. This region therefore supports the densest
population in the county and the original German settle-
ment here flourished from: the beginning.
Among the most prominent families In the early history
of this settlement on the Codorus were the Spanglers.
About 1730 Caspar Spangler settled 711 acres about a
mile and a half east of the Codorus and extending across
the future Monocacy Road but lying chiefly north of that
20 Vide supra, p. 90.
The Limestone Soil. 163
road.^^ His brother Baltzer arrived in the community in
'1732 and took up 200 acres about a mile east of the
Codorus somewhat to the south of Caspar's land about
the spot where the present Plank Road intersects with the
first run. 22 Contiguous to this was the abode of Tobias
Frey. About a mile north of Tobias Frey was the land
of his father Martin Frey, who had settled there in 1734
and whose property is now embraced in the northeastern
part of the city.^^ Before 1738, Caspar Spangler's sons,
Jonas and Rudolph, settled upon a tract of 719 acres seven
miles west of the Codorus "near the Little Conewago
Creek on the Conogocheague Road," now the York and
Gettysburg turnpike. This was a part of the westward
extension of the limestone ribbon, which forms as it were
an offshoot from the main southwestward direction, and
which contains many of the large springs that supply the
sources of the Conewago. Another settler in this com-
munity and "near Codorus Creek" was Frederick Ebert,
whose lands were in 1736 possessed by Valentine Schultz.
About three miles northwest of the present site of York
21 Edward W, Spangler, Esq., describes this land as follows: "seven
hundred and eleven acres of limestone land about one and a half miles
east of that portion of the banks of the ' Katores ' on which Yorktown was
thirteen years later laid out. The plantation began at the northern range
of hills and extended across what was later designated as the ' Great
Road leading from York-town to Lancaster.' ... A deed for 385 acres
thereof was executed by Thomas Penn to Caspar Spengler October 30,
17136. . . . The southern portion, bisected by the ' Great Road,' was con-
ducted by Caspar in conjunction with his youngest son Philip Caspar
Spengler." " The Spengler Families with Local Historical Sketches," p. 18.
^"^Ibid., p. 1381
23 This land was afterwards owned in turn by Isaac Rondebush (174.1),
Michael Schwack (1741), and Bartholemew Maul, the schoolmaster (1743).
By 1750 Hermanus Bott, one of the earliest lot-owners in York, also pos-
sessed about 300 acres on the west bank of the Codorus adjoining the
town on the northwest. Gibson, p. 514.
164 German Element in York County, Pa.
lay the adjoining lands of Michael Walck and Martin
Bauer, and about five miles southwest of the town were the
properties of George and Jacob Ziegler.^* From this
point the German plantations stretched off northeastward
down the Codorus Valley and southwestward up the val-
ley of the west branch of the Codorus, and these limestone
bottoms were the main support of the town of York dur-
ing its early years.
Precisely the same rule obtains with reference to the
German settlements on Digges's Choice in the south-
western part of the county. This tract was chiefly lime-
stone soil and it was settled chiefly by the Germans. From
the definition of Digges's Choice already given^^ and by
reference to the geological maps of York and Adams
Counties it will be observed that these 10,000 acres lay
wholly within the Cambrian belt and almost wholly on the
limestone ribbon, embracing all of its southwestern ex-
tremity. About six miles of the end of this strip was cut
off from York County when Adams County was erected
in 1800, and thus a few of the original plantations now
fall within the bounds of Adams County. But this fact
only serves to impress upon the historian the regularity
with which the Germans settled upon the limestone, for
this southeastern extremity of Adams County is the only
limestone soil in the whole county and to this day is the
only German community in the county. The limestone
ribbon across York County reaches a greater width on
Digges's Choice, the present neighborhood of Hanover,
than at any other point except where it crosses the Codo-
rus, the present site of York. And the farms adjacent to
2* Vide Map F, Report of Secretary of Internal AflFairs of Pennsylvania,
190S', Part I.
25 Supra, p. 70.
The Limestone Soil. 165
Hanover are among the most beautiful and prosperous In
the county.
Adam Forney, the first German settler in this settle-
ment, located his claim on the present site of Hanover.
Andrew Schreiber soon thereafter settled near what is now
Christ Church, about four miles southwest of Hanover.
This is also on pure limestone soil, though now in Adams
County. The German neighbors of these two pioneers
located on the fertile lands between them and just north
of them. Digges's original survey of 6,822 acres extended
four miles north of the temporary line of 1738 and in-
cluded the present site of Hanover. His addition of 3,679
acres adjoined his original survey on its north side and
was situated therefore wholly on the limestone formation,
as a reference to the geological map will Indicate. This
inviting soil was the disputed land and on this area lay the
plantations of most of those whom we have learned to
know as the earliest settlers of Digges's Choice.
From the recorded incidents In the early history of this
settlement it Is clear that Adam Forney's land lay within
Digges's original survey and just south of his addition,
that Schreiber's land and that of his neighbors from Phila-
delphia County also lay within Digges's first survey and
that Martin Kitzmiller, John Lemon, Nicholas Forney,
Matthias Ulrlch and practically all the other Germans
whose names are mentioned In the course of the disturb-
ances, were settled upon Digges's additional survey on soil
contiguous to his original survey. Their location there
was the reason why they were involved in disturbance and
why their names are preserved for us. The Germans had
been induced to begin their immigration into this com-
munity partly by the personal persuasions of DIgges and
i66 German Element in York County, Pa.
his agents. But the location of their Individual tracts
they determined for themselves. They invariably located
on the limestone bottom. DIgges's misfortune, therefore,
lay In the fact that he had not at once Included In his orig-
inal survey all the limestone soil in that neighborhood.
For this German settlement on the Conewago would have
been spared many years of strife and contention If the
bounds of DIgges's Choice had coincided throughout with
the limestone belt.
There is therefore a remarkable coincidence between
the location of the early German settlers In the county and
the length and breadth of the limestone ribbon that runs
across the county. In the few instances where the German
plantations did not perhaps lie directly on the pure lime-
stone soil, they coincided with the nearby limestone schists
or hydro-micas, also a part of the Cambrian belt. From
this the original home of the German element in York
County It has since spread out over the entire Cambrian
belt with Its fertile soils related to limestone. And even
on the isolated outcropplngs of limestone rock near New
Market in the extreme northern end of the county, and on
the small district north of Dlllsburg In Carroll Township,
we have today the homes of German communities. A
more striking Illustration than York County affords of the
tendency of German settlers to occupy limestone soil can
probably nowhere be found.
English speculators took out large tracts of land In these
valleys of our county but It was the Germans who settled
them. The Englishman, Samuel Blunston, issued the
licenses and English surveyors laid off the tracts, but Ger-
man immigrants occupied them. Englishmen supervised
the affairs of Yorktown but Germans were the lot-owners
and the citizens. An Irishman held the claim to DIgges's
The Limestone Soil. 167
Choice but it was chiefly the Germans who settled the
tract. Both English and Irish sought to establish them-
selves on the limestone island at the mouth of Cabin
Branch south of the Kreutz Creek Valley, but in the
course of time the Pennsylvania claim to that neighbor-
hood prevailed and the limestone island was swallowed
up and assimilated into the general German belt. On this
kind of soil the Germans took up their abodes in the begin-
ning, from this soil they excluded practically all represen-
tatives of other nationalities, and to this soil they have
themselves clung most tenaciously to the present.
The frequent recurrence of this phenomenon in eastern
Pennsylvania and the striking regularity and precision
with which it occurs in York County encourages us to seek
for its causes here. It appears then that the reasons for
this rule of choice among the Germans in our county are
two. In the first place, the Germans chose good farming
land and in Pennsylvania the best soil for agriculture is
limestone soil. It is highly improbable that the German
immigrants had any knowledge or concern about the geo-
logical formations of the different districts. They had
regard first of all to the vegetation which the different
sections had produced in their natural state and they made
choice of those regions where the trees were largest, the
timber the thickest, and where the vegetation was most
luxuriant. Then, too, the German insisted that his pro-
spective farm must be well watered. These marks he
always found on the acres that were underlaid with lime-
stone.
The German instinct for the selection of good soil is
traditional. It was soon observed by their neighbors in
eastern Pennsylvania. The eminent Quaker, Dr. Ben-
jamin Rush, the Tacitus of early Pennsylvania, has noted
l68 German Element in York County, Pa.
the fact In his classic pamphlet entitled! "An Account of
the Manners of the German Inhabitants of Pennsylva-
nia."^^ Speaking of the German farmer he says: "They
always prefer good land or that land on which there is a
large quantity of meadow ground. From an attention to
the cultivation of grass, they often double the value of an
old farm in a few years, and grow rich on farms, on which
their predecessors of whom they purchased them nearly
starved."^^ This intuitive knowledge of good land and
this agricultural success was the inheritance of thirty gen-
erations of ancestors. The crowded conditions of life in
the Rhine Valley had led to very intensive methods of cul-
tivation, a fine skill in agriculture, and the highest degree
of wisdom in the husbanding both of soil and of crops.
These qualities had made the Palatinate the "garden
spot" of Germany, and transferred to the rich soil of
eastern Pennsylvania they made It the pride of the Key-
stone State. ^^ The native tenacity and the indomitable
26 This essay was written in 1789, edited and republished by I. D. Rupp
in 18715, and revised with a full introduction and copious annotations by
Theodore E. Schmauk in 19 10. Dr. Schmauk's edition appeared as Part
XXI of "Pennsylvania: The German Influence on its Settlement and De-
velopment" in the Proceedings of the Pennsylvania German Society, Vol.
XIX. In his discerning account Dr. Rush gives many interesting details
concerning the methods which the early Pennsylvania Germans employed
in their farming and of the characteristics which distinguished them from
other nationalities in Pennsylvania.
27 Pp. 516 f. Schmauk edition. Sydney George Fisher in his " The Mak-
ing of Pennsylvania " gives a brief resume of Dr. Rush's observations on
this subject. He puts it thus: "They [the Germans] were good judges
of land, always selected the best, and were very fond of the limestone
districts." But Dr. Rush made no mention whatever of " limestone " and
there is no evidence that the Germans consciously and purposely sought
out this particular geological formation. They were only looking for good
land and if this could have been found on any other kind of rock they
would have been attracted thither.
28 This inherited agricultural skill, together with the regular selection
The Limestone Soil. 169
industry of the Germans, together with the hard condi-
tions under which they left their native land, made them
willing to undertake heroic tasks when they arrived in the
New World. Undaunted by the size of the trees or the
thickness of the wilderness they boldly attacked the
forests, for they realized that where the heaviest timber
grew the soil must be most capable of producing rich
crops. This was undoubtedly the guiding principle that
led the Germans to the limestone soil. Other nationalities
such as the Scotch-Irish clung to the lands that were more
easily cleared. They were less inured to heavy manual
labor and were guided by their bucolic instincts, while the
slowly plodding German looked farther into the future
and was guided entirely by his sharper eye for good soil.^^
Thus in Pennsylvania he invariably preferred the lime-
stone regions and in York County this preference always
placed him on or near the fertile ribbon that stretches
along the central Cambrian belt.
After the Germans had begun their settlement in these
of good soil, made the limestone farms of the German farmers in Lancaster,
York and the other German counties without a superior in this country.
Their value to the State of Pennsylvania was early recognized by Governor
Thomas who said to his council on January 2, 1739: "This Province has
been for some years the Asylum of the distressed Protestants of the
Palatinate, and other parts of Germany, and I believe it may with truth
be said that the present flourishing condition of it is in a great measure
owing to the Industry of those People; and should any discouragement
divert them from coming hither, it may well be apprehended that the
value of your Lands will fall, and your Advances to wealth be much
slower; for it is not altogether the goodness of the Soil but the Number and
Industry of the People that make a flourishing Country." Col. Rec, IV: 315,
29 Dr. George Mays refers to this contrast between the German farmer
and the Scotch-Irish farmer in a brief and popular article on " The Early
Pennsylvania German Farmer " in the Pennsylvania German magazine,
Vol. II, No. 4, October, 1901, pp. 184 f. Vide also Kuhns, " German and
Swiss Settlements," p. 85, and Lutheran Quarterly, Vol. XIII, 1883, p. 509 f.
170 German Element in York County, Pa.
fertile valleys other nationalities also began to recognize
their value and in some instances looked upon them with
covetous eyes. As early as 1733, when Cressap and some
of his associates were trying to fix their abodes and estab-
lish their claims upon the cleared limestone lands at the
mouth of Cabin Branch, Governor Gordon of Pennsyl-
vania wrote to Lord Baltimore, " I could not but be of
opinion that as some Gentlemen of your Lordship's Prov-
ince, who, casting an Eye on those Lands, now rendered
more valuable by the Neighbourhood of our Inhabitants,
had attempted so unjustifiable a Survey, it might suit their
purposes to have Cressop and some others of the like
turbulent Dispositions settled there, to give some Coun-
tenance to their claim. "^"^ Others recognized also the
value of the arable lands in the Kreutz Creek Valley and
were very willing to take charge of them after the Ger-
mans had cleared them with the heavy toil of years, had
made improvements upon them, and had begun their cul-
tivation. In the fall of 1736, when the Germans, as we
have seen, were already occupying many tracts west of the
Susquehanna, and when the Chester County Plot was laid
against their lands, the impelling motive of the plotters
was to secure possession of the "good land" which the
Germans occupied. This is indicated repeatedly by the
affidavits concerning the incident.^^ These efforts to seize
the lands of the German are real compliments to his wis-
30 Pennsylvania Archives, Fourth Series, Papers of the Governors, Vol.
I: 505.
31 For example, Henry Munday, one of those implicated in the plot,
testified before the Pennsylvania Council on November 27, 1736, that he
and others had met Cressap and " that Cressap had shown them some
vacant Plantations, and Some that vpere inhabited by Dutch People, with
a very large Tract of good Land." Col. Rec, IV: 1071. This idea recurs
frequently.
The Limestone Soil. 171
dom in the choice of soil and to his skill in methods of
clearing and cultivating.^^
But there is also a second reason why the Germans in
York County settled with such regularity upon the kind
of land that they did. This is found in the general ethno-
logical principle that when people migrate from one coun-
try to another, or even from one neighborhood to another,
they tend to take up their new abodes upon land whose
natural features resemble those of the abodes they have
left. This tendency has often been observed and it has
been evidenced by many nationalities.^^ It applies notably
to the many Scotch-Irish in Pennsylvania and it applies to
the Germans. These early German immigrants into our
state were chiefly Palatines. Their native land lay about
the banks of the middle and upper Rhine. It included
more than the present Bavarian Palatinate; it stretched
across to the eastern side of the river and embraced parts
32 In 1744 Daniel Dulany of Annapolis made a trip to the more remote
parts of his province, evidently the neighborhood of Digges's Choice, and
upon his return wrote a letter to Lord Baltimore which indicates that he
valued the limestone soil of that region.
" I have not been long returned from a journey into the back woods, as
far as to the Temporary line between this province and Pennsylvania,
where I had the pleasure of seeing a most delightful Country, A Country
my Lord, that equals (if it does not exceed) any in America for natural
advantages, such as a rich & fertile soil, well furnished with timber of all
sorts abounding with limestone, and stone fit for building, good slate &
some marble, and to crown all, very healthy. The season of the year was
so far advanced towards Winter that I could not possibly go to the neck
of land in the fork of the Patomack. . . ." Calvert Papers, No. z, p. ii6.
33 Faust calls attention to it briefly thus: "This principle of selecting
land similar to that which was found good at home prevailed even on a
second and third choice. Remarkable instances have occurred in the cases
of families who have migrated farther and farther westward, generation
after generation, of the choice of a farm or homestead almost identical in
appearance with the one owned by them in the original locality." Vol.
II. P- 3S-
172 German Element in York County, Pa.
of Hesse, Baden, and Wiirtemberg. From all parts of
southwestern Germany they came. Now If we examine
the topography of this part of Germany we find that It
resembles closely the topography of the limestone districts
of southeastern Pennsylvania including the Cambrian belt
of York County.^^
The geological formation of the Rhenish Palatinate and
her nearest neighbors, It Is true, Is not limestone. The
Bavarian Palatinate consists of four distinct sections
measuring north and south, the level plain nearest the
Rhine, the rolling hills which mark the approach to the
Haardt, the wooded heights of the Haardt itself, and the
foothills of the western district. Southwards all of these
sections merge into the forests of the Vosges. The geol-
ogist discerns three geological groups, the alluvial deposits
on the plain, the red sandstone soil of the rising hills, and
the coal regions of the third section. In the countries just
east of the Rhine the red shale of the Triassic period pre-
dominates again and lends the soil its chief character-
istics.^^ This part of Germany is not entirely without its
3* An understanding of the geology and topography of the Palatinate
and southwestern Germany may best be gathered from the following works :
W. H. Reihl, " Die Pfalzer," pp. 1^691. E. von Seydlitz, " Handbuch der
Geographie," 25th edition, pp. 4515-462. Cf. map of forests, p. 432. F.
Ratzel, " Deutschland," pp. 23-132.
" Deutschland als Weltmacht," pp. 4^-27', Chapter on " Deutsche Erde
und Deutsches Volk," by Professor W. Goetz.
Franz Heiderich, " Landerkunde von Europa," pp. 94-112.
35 Ratzel says : " Weit verbreitet sind von den nordlichen Vegesen an
durch den nordlichen Schwarzwald, den Odenwald, Spessart, das hessische
Bergland, Thiiringen und das obere Wesergebeit die roten, oft leuchtend
purpurbraunen Gesteine des Rotliegenden und des bunten Sandsteins, eine
machtige, aber einformige Bildung, die dem Walde giinstiger als dem
Acker ist. In weiten Gebeiten Mittel- und Siidwestdeutschlands breitet
sich iiber Ackerland und Stadtarchitektur einen rotlichen Hauch. Von
Basel bis Frankfurt sind die Miinster und Dome aus rotem Sandstein
gebaut." " Deutschland," p. 30.
The Limestone Soil. 173
limestone but It Is almost negligible in quantity and It Is of
that firm unyielding variety which only constitutes a bar-
rier to the farmer. Thus the Rhenish province of Hesse
contains a considerable region of durable limestone with a
strong dolomitic admixture and a very narrow strip of this
rock extends across the Rhine and southwards acrosis most
of the Palatinate, appearing here in the form of brec-
clated limestone conglomerate. So that nearly every-
where It Is the Trias of the Mesozoic era which gives
color to the soil. Geologically, therefore, it cannot be
maintained that the Germans in our county settled upon
the same kind of formation as that from which they had
come when they left Europe. And herein lies a very
strong indication that these people did not consciously seek
out the limestone tracts when they settled in the New
World.
But when we turn from the geology to the topography
of the middle Rhine valleys and of southwestern Germany
we find that It Is very much like that of the districts upon
which the German Immigrants settled In York County.
Not level like north Germany, not mountainous like south
Germany, but a medium between the two, an undulating
plain and easy rolling hills. The most familiar features
in the configuration of the country are the gradual emi-
nences which mark the steps In the elevation from the
level of the Rhine in the center to the heights of the Haardt
In the west and the Vosges In the southwest and to the
Swablan Jura in the east and southeast.^^ The numerous
valleys between are well watered by the many streams that
ultimately empty Into the Rhine. The red soil of the
Trias is not so well adapted to agriculture as some other
36 " Wellenformige Flache " and " Hugellandschaft " are the expressions
most frequently used to describe the rolling surface of this country.
174 German Element in York County, Pa.
kinds of soil and in this part of Germany it required a
hand that was highly skilled in agriculture to make the
soil yield sustenance for its dense population. But this
soil is well adapted to forest growths and to this day it
contains large stretches of sturdy timber. Its dense forests
with their luxuriant foliage constitute one of the most
striking characteristics of the Palatine hills and indeed of
southwestern Germany in general. From the Odenwald
in the north they stretch to the Black Forest in the south
and across the Rhine to the Vosges Forest in the west.
In the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries this region
must have been even more heavily wooded and it was only
natural for the Palatines when they reached York County
to welcome the sight of the thick timber growths on the
central belt. The general contour of the Palatinate the
Germans found reproduced in the undulating central re-
gion in York County with its rich forests and its many
springs and streams.^^ The unconscious charm of the
homeland and an instinct for the best soil led them there-
fore to fix their abodes upon the limestone soil and begin
the work of taming the wilderness. And this fact has
had a marked significance in their subsequent fortunes in
this county.
87 The writer can testify from personal observation to the striking simi-
larity between the configuration of the land in the Rhenish Palatinate and
that of the limestone valleys in York County.
CHAPTER VIII.
Their Place in Pennsylvania History.
SHE part which the York County Germans of
that early period played in the history of
colonial Pennsylvania and in the general course
of American history may be gathered from
the facts and events already narrated. They
were a valuable support to the provincial authorities of
Pennsylvania at a time when that Im'portant province
was passing through its most formative period. The
Germans of York County contributed in their small meas-
ure to the support and strength of the provincial govern-
ment both In Its conflicts with Maryland and in its con-
test with certain opposing elements among its own popu-
lation. Then, too, these pioneer settlements stretching
out into the primeval forest seem like an index finger
pointing westward to an empire of land and wealth whose
conquest and acquisition by successive steps of similar
communities was to make the future greatness of our
nation. And finally, these first German settlers In York
County constituted a small but relatively Important part
of that numerous and growing body of farmers In our
province who early got into the native soil and drew from
175
176 German Element in York County, Pa.
it the materials that formed the basis for the prosperity
of colonial Pennsylvania, even as today they constitute the
backbone of the nation.
In the first place their significance for the political his-
tory of the province during those early years grows out
of the fact that they were on friendly terms with the
Quaker Assembly at Philadelphia. The province of Penn-
sylvania shared with New York the place of greatest
prominence and importance among the middle colonies of
the North American coast. Now the government of
Pennsylvania, though at first apparently under the abso-
lute control of one individual, was nevertheless in reality
more completely democratic than any other in America.
In this respect Penn's province presented a striking con-
trast to the government of the Puritans in New England,
that of the Episcopalians in Virginia, and that of the
Catholics in Maryland. Government in Pennsylvania
was thoroughly representative.^ Other colonies, notably
Massachusetts and Virginia, had enjoyed a fair degree of
self-government at first but had later forfeited their priv-
ileges into the hands of tyranny. But the history of
Pennsylvania before the Revolution is a continuous story
of the unintermittent development of civil liberty. This
contrast is due to the complete ascendancy of the Quakers
in Pennsylvania during that long, formative period from
1682 to 1776, when they suddenly disappeared from
1 This is only cited as one of the achievements of the Quakers in colonial
Pennsylvania. Others may be gathered from Chapters IV-VII of Isaac
Sharpless' " A Quaker Experiment in Government."
W. A. Wallace in a lecture before the Pennsylvania Historical Society in
i8Sz on " Pennsylvania's Formative Influence upon Federal Institutions,
i6Sz-i7'Zfj " shows by a clear statement of actual facts what remarkable
results colonial Pennsylvania achieved for the nation. Vide also Penny-
packer, "Pennsylvania in American History," pp. 202 ff.
Their Place in Pennsylvania History. 177
power. Until the middle of the eighteenth century the
political history of Pennsylvania is a history of the Quakers
and from' 1755 to the Revolution it is a history of the un-
successful efforts on the part of the Scotch-Irish and the
Church of England people to displace the Quakers.
Throughout the period of their ascendancy the Quakers
were warmly supported by the numerous German element
in the province.^ For the Germans never forgot the debt
of gratitude they owed to the Quakers, and then, too, they
had their own grounds of animosity against the other ele-
ments in the colony. After the middle of the century it
was only the vigorous support of the Germans, who held
the balance of power, that enabled the Quakers to main-
tain their hold upon the political helm.^ But decades be-
fore that the Germans were cooperating with the Quakers
and supporting them In their government. Palatine and
Quaker labored together as builders of the common-
wealth.* And herein lies the significance of the first two
2 Rufus M. Jones says: "Until the Revolution the Quakers and the
Presbyterians constituted the rival political forces of the provinces. The
Episcopalians tended towards the Friends and the Germans were also
usually sympathetic." " The Quakers in the American Colonies," pp. 494
et passim.
8 " Parties were now [after i7'63] formed on new lines. They had
largely disappeared during the twenties and thirties, but at this time we
find a marked difference, growing more emphatic with the years between
the proprietary party and the * country ' party. The Quakers were now
in considerable minority in the Province, but were practically all on one
side. The Proprietors had left the Society and joined the Episcopal
Church and that body rallied around them. So also did the Presbyterians,
and all who believed in a vigorous, warlike policy. These stood together
for proprietary rights and interests, and had as their stronghold the Gov-
ernor and Council. The Friends and the Germans and their sympathizers
maintained their ascendancy in the popularly elected Assembly, where they
did practically as they pleased." Sharpless, " A Quaker Experiment in
Government," pp. 103 f.
* " The Palatine and Quaker as Commonwealth Builders," by Frank
12
178 German Element in York County, Pa.
decades of York County Germans for the early political
history of Pennsylvania.
The York County Germans, like the great body of their
countrymen east of the Susquehanna and between the
Schuylkill and the Delaware, were generally on good terms
with the provincial assembly. And these kindly feelings
were mutual. They are reflected in the above narrative
of the earliest German settlements in the county. The
provincial authorities favored these Germans where they
could and these Germans for the most part loyally sup-
ported the authority of the provincial government. The
government allowed the Germans very easy terms of pur-
chase for their lands west of the river. So long as the In-
dians did not complain the board of property winked at
the settlement of squatters upon unpurchased lands. And
finally in 1733, in the matter of the Blunston licenses, the
provincial authorities even strained a point in their tradi-
tional Indian policy in order to accomplish the settlement
of the Germans in the Kreutz Creek Valley without delay.
Afterwards when the Germans recovered from the illu-
sion into which some of them had been misled concerning
the jurisdiction over their lands and when they frankly
acknowledged their error and asked to be restored to
citizenship in Pennsylvania, the Council of Pennsylvania
received them promptly and kindly, encouraged them in
their allegiance and took measures to help them defend
themselves. On this occasion the discussions in the pro-
vincial council and their letters to the governor of Mary-
land indicated very kindly feelings towards the Germans
west of the river and a sincere sympathy for them in their
Ried DiffenderflFer, is a very discerning discourse, showing the immense
significance of colonial Pennsylvania in American history and the mo-
mentous influence which the combined forces of Germans and Quakers were
able to exert upon that crucial colony.
Their Place in Pennsylvania History. 179
trying circumstances. And from that time forward none
of these Germans ever again swerved in their loyalty to
the Quaker government, though It cost them many serious
annoyances.
It was the tenacity of the Germans in insisting upon
their rights and in maintaining the Pennsylvania claims
over those parts that prevented the Marylanders from
taking possession of their lands and thus giving a large
semblance of correctness to the Maryland claim of juris-
diction in the Kreutz Creek and Codorus Creek valleys.
Whatever the Quaker officials may have thought about
the Intelligence and culture of these Germans they recog-
nized them as a good element to serve the Important pur-
pose of resisting the encroachments of the Marylanders.
This service they performed and It was recognized by the
government. But for the good understanding between
these Germans and the Quaker government the boundary
history of Pennsylvania might be very different from
what It Is.
Moreover, the substantial support which the York
County Germans in company with the great body of their
countrymen throughout the colony gave to the Quaker
government was the decisive factor In helping the Quakers
to maintain their ascendancy In the legislative assembly.
For the Quakers had their political opponents within their
own province. At first these consisted chiefly of the ad-
herents of the Church of England, a class that was not
numerous enough to be troublesome. But after the third
decade of the eighteenth century the Scotch-Irish began to
pour into the province In Increasing numbers and as a class
they aligned with the political enemies of the Quakers.
Then began the political contest against the power of the
peaceful Quakers which dragged on until the Revolution
when the Scotch-Irish finally triumphed. But meanwhile
i8o German Element in York County, Pa.
the Quakers had achieved remarkable results. Slowly,
very slowly, through their continual disputes with the gov-
ernors and proprietors, they had evolved for their province
a body of constitutional liberty. Patiently, persistently,
unconsciously they wrought, striving to maintain the honor
of Christian civilization in the province's dealings with the
Indians, and gradually working out the great constitutional
principles which were the political pride of provincial
Pennsylvania. This they accomplished in spite of the op-
position of the Scotch-Irish and the Church of England
people. And they accomplished it because they were regu-
larly supported by the ballot of the Germans. The Ger-
mans had no political ambitions for themselves. As a
class they were politically indifferent.^ They were satis-
fied with the government of the Friends, they had their
own grounds for gratitude to them, they disliked the
Scotch-Irish and they regularly voted with the established
power. A great many of the Germans were religiously
akin to the Quakers, and everywhere they came into con-
flict with the Scotch-Irish. The Scotch-Irish as a class
were settling on the outer belt of civilization on lands
contiguous to the Germans and this brought about many
conflicts between the two nationalities. And it has been
suggested that it was these conflicts that eventually evolved
a political self-consciousness on the part of the Germans
themselves.®
s They were capable of being stirred by great principles, as is abundantly
evidenced by their brilliant part in the French and Indian War and by
their early rush to the cause of the Revolution, where they proved to be the
most skilled soldiers in the Continental Army. And they soon developed
great leaders among themselves and men of political influence, like Weiser
and the Muhlenbergs. Nevertheless, the very earliest German settlers as a
class had no ambitions to interfere in the affairs of others or to participate
actively in public politics, and years elapsed before they developed a
political self-consciousness.
^ This suggestion is made by Julius Goebel, who says : " Es scheint dass
Their Place in Pennsylvania History. i8l
This is the perspective in which to view the relation of
the York County Germans to the colonial history of Penn-
sylvania. For the documents concerning the early settle-
ments in York County and the difficulties with the Mary-
landers reflect not a few instances of this partisan national
spirit. When the German settlements in York County
were taking their beginnings the Scotch-Irish had not yet
arrived there and the chief opposition to the Quaker gov-
ernment and their faithful subjects west of the river came
from Irish Catholics and from adherents of the Church of
England. Thomas Cressap was an Irish Catholic from
Maryland and so were his close associates at the mouth of
Cabin Branch.''' When Cressap was captured and im-
prisoned In Philadelphia the troubles west of the river
were continued and even intensified under the leadership
of another Irishman, Charles Higginbotham. Shortly
thereafter Samuel Blunston wrote to President Logan that
there Is now not so much to fear from the Marylanders as
from " our own people," that band of " Irish ruffians with
Higginbotham." The reference Is to the aftermath of
the unsuccessful Chester County Plot. That plot had been
headed by three Irishmen, Charles Higginbotham, Henry
Munday, and Edward Leet, and was participated In by
others with Irish names. ^ But the great majority of the
participants were English or Scotch and the entire plot was
sich die Deutschen am politischen Leben der neuen Heimat vor der Mitte
des i8, Jahrhunderts wenig beteiligten. Wie Hesse sich auch von den
Verfolgten und Gedriickten, die aus dem Vaterland kein politisches Em-
pfinden mitbrachten, anderes erwarten? Erst langsam, wohl im Kampfe
mit den Irlandern und Schotten, die seit den zwanziger Jahren nach Penn-
sylvanien zu stromen beginnen hat sich ihr poltitisches Selbstbewusstsein
entwickelt." " Das Deutschtum in den Vereinigten Staaten von Nord-
Amerika," p. sz.
■^ Vide, e. g., Archives, I: 516.
8 Vide the list of those involved, Col. Rec, IV: 102.
1 82 German Element in York County, Pa.
carried by the Pennsylvania enemies of the Quaker govern-
ment. It was a minister of the Church of England who
conceived the plot and directed its execution.^ The gov-
ernor and council of Maryland wrote to the King, Feb-
ruary 1 8, 1737, relating how the Germans on the Kreutz
Creek had renounced the authority of Maryland and add-
ing this comment: " and in order to account for this their
extraordinary proceeding they declared their unwillingness
to contribute towards the support of the ministers of the
Church of England by law established in this province."
And about a month later Governor Ogle of Maryland
wrote to the Pennsylvania authorities : " Suppose a num-
ber of your Inhabitants touched with a tender Regard for
the Church of England and the support of its Ministers
(and such a Case certainly is not impossible, however im-
probable it may be judged to be) should all of a sudden
renounce your Government in the same formal manner
that these People did ours for contrary Reasons, pray what
would your Government do in such a Case?"^^ These
expressions serve to indicate the national and ecclesiastical
element that entered into the conflict.
Moreover in the face of the Chester County Plot Samuel
Blunston wrote to Thomas Penn, October 21, 1736, re-
questing that vigorous efforts be made to prevent "the
Irish from Chester County" from helping to dispossess
" the Dutch west of Sasquehannah " on the ground that
" it might be difficult to get the Donegal people to go
against their country men." The Donegal people and
others east of the Susquehanna were expected to help de-
^ Henry Munday wrote to Rev. Jacob Henderson, November 14, 17136,
"You being the first that projected the settling the said Lands and Plan-
tations." Col. Rec, IV: 103^ Henderson was also one of the Commis-
sioners for Maryland.
10 Col. Rec, IV: 188.
Their Place in Pennsylvania History. 183
fend the Germans if necessary even as they had helped to
capture Cressap and four of his associates. Now the posse
of 25 persons who had effected the capture of Cressap and
his associates was officially described as consisting "mostly
of German Protestants & other Europeans of the Com-
munion of the Churches of England and Scotland, of late
years arrived here."^^ Hence it is clear that Blunston,
himself a Friend, realized that he could not depend upon
the aid of the Church of England people and the Presby-
terians to support the authority of the Quaker govern-
ment when that authority conflicted with the wish of other
members of those faiths. No love was lost between the
Germans west of the river and those of the English just
east of the river who were not Quakers. In one of the
forceful conflicts between these two parties in 1735 one
of the Germans specially laments the fact that he "was
knocked down by an Irishman. "^^
The contest with the Scotch-Irish in York County did
not begin until after the period which we have studied but
the coming feuds were foreshadowed. Very shortly after
the Germans had made a beginning of their settlements in
York County the Scotch-Irish had begun to settle in that
part of the Cumberland Valley which drains into the
Potomac. And they were making an unfavorable im-
pression. Scotch-Irish immigration into Pennsylvania had
begun about 17 15. James Logan had early complained
to the proprietor against this class of Immigrants, their
crowding In where they are not wanted, and their cruel
treatment of the Indians. " It looks as if Ireland Is to
send all her Inhabitants." But with 1734 the Scotch-
Irish began to come In much larger numbers. In that year
they first settled In the Cumberland Valley, and already
11 Col. Rec, IV: 12S.
12 John Lochman in Proceedings of Council of Maryland for 1735, p. 83.
184 German Element in York County, Pa.
on. August 1 5 of that same year, Samuel Blunston, writing
to Thomas Penn concerning the terms for warrants west
of the river, expresses his opinion of these Scotch-Irish in
these words :
How far these terms may be liked by the loose setlers on potomac
I know not, for though they may be easy in themselves, yet to them
who were always a sort of free-booters they may seem strict enough
for tis generally at present settled by such people who in all prob-
ability wil never be able to comply with the terms prescribed, nor
are many of them at present able to pay for their warrants or
surveys; nevertheless I think considering the dispute between the
provinces they ought to be encouraged & I am of opinion it would be
well they had warrants & surveys though it remained a debt on
the place for those who come after to pay, for tis very probable
few now settled there will be the possessors at the end of seven
years But for some consideration assigning their rights to more
industrious & able persons will stil remove further, such idle trash
being generally the frontiers of an improving colony. However
poor as they are since they are the present Inhabitants as I said
before I think they should be encouraged to keep them in possession,
but I only speak this of those Inhabitants towards Potowmac.
Blunston evidently wishes to draw a sharp distinction be-
tween the earliest settlers in the Cumberland Valley and
his German neighbors just west of the Susquehanna.
Blunston's expectations that these earliest Scotch-Irish
settlers among the headwaters of the Conococheague would
not long remain there but would soon be succeeded by a
different class of settlers, were abundantly fulfilled by the
subsequent course of events. For when the Scotch-Irish
began to settle in York County violent conflicts took place
between them and the Germans.^ ^ For the sake of the
peace of the province, therefore, the proprietors in 1749
13 Vide, e. g., Rupp's " History of Lancaster and York Counties," pp.
581-585.
Their Place in Pennsylvania History. 185
instructed their agents not to sell any more lands in York
County to the Irish but to hold out strong inducements to
people of that nationality to settle further north. This
suggestion, however, seems to have had little effect in the
way of diverting the stream of Scotch-Irish immigration
from the immediate neighborhood of the Germans. But
meanwhile the Germans themselves had begun to sup-
plant the Scotch-Irish, so far as they were settled upon
good soil, by buying out their lands and improvements.
From York and Lancaster Counties and the counties far-
ther east they crossed Adams County and the South Moun-
tain into the Cumberland Valley and purchased the hold-
ings of the Scotch-Irish there, while these removed north
across the Susquehanna or west beyond the Blue Ridge.
This process of supplanting the Scotch-Irish began as early
as 1757 and by the time of the Revolution the limestone
Cumberland Valley was occupied predominantly by Ger-
mans.^*
The significance of the early York County Germans
for contemporary history of Pennsylvania, therefore, grows
out of their warm support of the Quaker regime, their
stout opposition to the Maryland claims, and their contact
and conflicts with the Scotch-Irish. And this last, as we
have seen, is involved in their regular choice of limestone
lands.
14 Egle's " History of Pennsylvania," p. 615. Rupp has also noted this
same process of Germans supplanting Scotch-Irish in Northampton County,
Rush's "Account of the Manners of the German Inhabitants of Pennsyl-
vania," Schmauk edition, p. 57', footnote 35- Also Rupp's "History of
Lancaster and York Counties," p. 57^', footnote.
Ascherwall in his "Observations on North America" in zj^7 says:
" Scotch and Irish often sell to the Germans, of whom from 90 to 100,000
live in Pennsylvania, and prefer to put all their earnings into land and
improvements. The Scotch or Irish are satisfied with a fair profit, put
the capital into another farm, leaving the Germans owners of the old
farms." Ascherwall received his information from Franklin the year
previous. Pennsylvania Magazine of History and Biography, Vol. 27, p. 5:
CHAPTER IX.
Their Place in General American History.
3T remains but to Indicate with a few strokes the
position of these early communities in the
general course of American civilization. Of
course in so far as colonial Pennsylvania was
a formative factor in American history and
in so far as these Germans helped to give direction to
events in colonial Pennsylvania, their place In American
history may be gathered from the preceding chapter. But
they have also another significance for American history,
a significance that comes not indirectly from the part they
played in the history of their own province but directly
from their own Influence upon American life and civili-
zation.
So far as numbers and possessions are concerned they
constituted only a very small part of the American nation
and their significance In themselves when weighed in the
balances of the whole continent must necessarily be very
small except In so far as they are Indicative of a larger
movement and prognostic of a greater future. In fact
they constitute but a small portion even of the German
i86
Their Place in General American History. 187
element in the population of colonial America. But when
viewed in the perspective of nearly two centuries they are
seen to be the very van of a great movement that has made
the American nation and moulded the American character
and fixed American institutions. In the light of what has
already been said concerning their distinguishing charac-
teristics it must appear that their national significance is
entirely disproportionate to their numbers and their hold-
ings. Their significance for the history of American civil-
ization and the evolution of American institutions lies
partly in their location, partly in their occupation, and
partly in their quahties of character.
In the first place, the Germans in York County before
the middle of the eighteenth century were upon the very
frontier of American civilization. Now the whole his-
tory of the American advance even down to our day is the
history of the western frontier. The peculiarity of Amer-
ican institutions is the result of successive waves of west-
ward expansion. The forces dominating American char-
acter today are the outgrowth of the gradual development
from the simplicity of primitive industrial society to the
complexity of modern manufacturing civilization. Over
and over again this process has been repeated on each new
frontier line as the population from decade to decade has
marched with steady step across the American expanse.
This continual rebirth of American life has given Indelible
stamp to our national character and our national institu-
tions. The European has conquered the wilderness but
during the process the wilderness has reacted upon the
European and made him over into a new character with
new Ideas and new Ideals. The frontier has been the
meeting-point between civilization and savagery and thus
it has constituted the crucible in which the different Euro-
1 88 German Element in York County, Pa.
pean nationalities have been moulded into an entirely new
product known as the American.
The westward advance of the frontier has taken place
in well-defined stages marked by natural boundary lines.
At the end of the seventeenth century the frontier was the
fall line, the edge of the tide-water region of the Atlantic
coast. By the middle of the eighteenth century it had ad-
vanced to the Alleghanles. During the Revolution the
frontier crossed the Alleghanies and by the end of the
century reached the Ohio. At the end of the first quarter
of the nineteenth century it had advanced to the Missis-
sippi. By the middle of the nineteenth cenutry it lay
along the Missouri. Shortly thereafter it leaped across
the Rockies and by the centennial year it had reached
the Pacific and had begun to swerve northward towards
Canada and Alaska. Thus has the retreating frontier
marked the stages in the growth of the nation.
At each of these boundary lines the process of Amer-
ican transformation has been very similar. First came
the Indian trader's frontier. The Indian had followed
the buffalo trail. Now the trader, the pathfinder of civili-
zation, follows the Indian trail and begins the disintegra-
tion of savagery. He is soon followed either by the miner
or the rancher, and the trail is widened into a road. Then
comes the pioneer farmer to exploit the soil, render it
"barren," and then move on to virgin lands. He is fol-
lowed by the steady farmer who devotes himself to inten-
sive culture and permanent settlement, and he converts the
road into a turnpike. This denser farm settlement is fol-
lowed by city and factory with all the complexity of manu-
facturing organization. The turnpike has now been trans-
formed into a railroad and the process of Americanization
is complete. Each of these stages has wrought political
Their Place in General American History. 189
and economic transformations and has contributed some-
thing towards the finished American product.^
In this process of American history it is not difficult to
determine the place of the York County Germans as they
appeared during the period which has come under our
view. They fall within that stage when the Atlantic coast
was yet the only settled area and when the frontier was
slowly advancing up the courses of the Atlantic rivers
towards their headwaters and towards the Alleghanies.
But in this transition from the coast to the mountains the
York County settlements constitute an important step.
The first to settle west of the Susquehanna in this region,
and among the first of all the settlements west of this
natural dividing-line, the early German communities of
York County stand like an auspicious prognosticator point-
ing westward beyond the South Mountain and the Blue
Ridge and inviting to the conquest of the Alleghanies and
the promising lands beyond. Like an entering wedge into
the Indian country this tongue of German settlements
pushed forward indenting the wilderness, broadening the
national horizon, and inspiring to almost limitless acqui-
sition of empire.
When the Germans settled in York County the Indian
trader's frontier had passed. The Indian had withdrawn
Into the interior and with him had gone the trader. The
mining explorer had also had his day in York County. It
was time for the farmer's frontier and this was the posi-
1 For this view of American history we are indebted to Professor F. J.
Turner, of Harvard. A brief statement of Professor Turner's philosophy
of American history together with valuable suggestions as to the concrete
influence of the frontier upon certain phases of American character and
American institutions, is found in his article " The Significance of the
Frontier in American History " in the Annual Report of the American
Historical Association for the year iS^S, pp. i97'-247'.
igo German Element in York County, Pa.
tlon occupied by the Germans. Throughout colonial times
Pennsylvania was the basis of distribution of frontier
emigration and the settlement of York County is signifi-
cant as one of the earliest steps in this Pennsylvania ex-
pansion southward and westward. The observer who
takes his stand among the Delaware and Shawnese Indians
on the west bank of the Susquehanna at the opening of the
eighteenth century will see the successive stages of the
American frontier passing before his view in exactly the
same order in which they afterwards pass the many nat-
ural boundaries in their westward course to the Pacific.
With the beginning of the fourth decade of that century
Indian resistance will have ceased, the farmer with inten-
sive methods of culture will have arrived, the next to the
last stage in the process of complete Americanization will
have been reached, and there will remain but one more
step to make this region one of the most populous and
thriving communities in the New World. The place of
the first decades of York County Germans in general
American history may be seen from the fact that they con-
stituted the farmer stage of the American frontier during
a critical period in the frontier advance. The settling of
these Germans was like the formation of an artery in the
embryo of the nation that was yet to be.
The movement of the Germans across the Susquehanna
was a decided step in advance. Others had come as far as
that river but had halted and hesitated to cross. Before
the first authorized settlement had been made in York
County the Quaker settlements had been slowly pushing
westward along the northern part of Lancaster County.
In 1727 a number of Quakers, among them Samuel Blun-
ston, John Wright, and Robert Barber, had settled at
Hempfield, on the east bank of the Susquehanna. But
Their Place in General American History, 191
here the westward migration of the Friends halted for
more than a decade. The cause of this delay in their prog-
ress was the boundary dispute with Maryland and the
Cressap War which resulted from that dispute. Not until
1738 did the Quaker movement continue across the river
and begin the belt of Quaker settlements which extends
across the northern part of York County.^ Meanwhile
the German wave of westward immigration had arrived.
This tide suffered no serious check either from the river or
from the Cressap War. These hardy and resolute Ger-
mans quickly crossed the river, plunged boldly into the
forest, and bore the brunt of the border difficulties with the
Maryland intruders. Not until this critical and difficult
stage in the history of that frontier had been passed and
quiet had been restored did the other nationalities sweep
into the county after them. To the Germans, therefore,
was reserved the special mission of occupying in a peculiar
sense the very forefront of the farmer stage of the frontier
In this part of the American advance beyond the Susque-
hanna.
But even within the farmer stage of the American ad-
vance there are usually two or three distinct periods In each
case. Two or three classes of farmers follow one another
across the frontier. First is the pioneer farmer whose
wants are few but who seeks quick results. He searches
out the bare spots or those most easily cleared and begins
to exploit the virgin soil. He has no ambition to become
the owner of his holding for he expects soon to take up his
march again. With the simplest implements of agricul-
ture, a rude log cabin, and a rough shed for a stable, he
occupies his range until he has completely drained the soil
2 Albert Cook Myers, " The Immigration of the Irish Quakers into
Pennsylvania, 168121-17'So," pp. 1612 and 180.
192 German Element in York County, Pa.
of its strength or until he is crowded by neighbors. Then
he disposes of his "improvements" and moves on to new
soil to carry out the same process again.
The second class of farmer is the settler who stakes out
his claim, takes measures to secure a survey, and negotiates
for the purchase of that which he occupies. He welcomes
neighbors into his community, builds a church and school-
house, and practices the arts of civilized life. He builds a
substantial house and often a more substantial barn. His
house is of hewn logs, with windows of glass and a chimney
of brick or stone. His barn is made to shelter a large
number of domestic animals and to store the products of
careful cultivation. He rotates his crops and fertilizes his
lands so as not to exhaust the soil. He adds to his fields
from year to year and settles down to plain and frugal but
contented living. This is the class of farmer that usually
continues to occupy his improvements and thus forms the
nucleus of permanent settlement.
Sometimes this second class is followed by a third class,
the capitalist. This man of enterprise buys out some of
the substantial properties of the second class. Industrial
enterprises are begun on a larger scale. Villages are laid
out and soon grow into town,s. Large edifices arise;
higher education begins; the finer arts of civilization are
practiced; and above all manufacturing industries begin,
factories loom into view, and the community has brought
forth a city. This class marks the transition to the final
stage of the American frontier.
Now the York County Germans before the middle of
the century belong almost exclusively to the second class
of the farmer stage. The third class did not make its ap-
pearance among them until somewhat later. And the
first class mentioned above never did have a place in the
Their Place in General American History. 193
German belt of York County. The typical pioneer farmer
with his superficial methods of cultivation was well repre-
sented, as we have seen, among the earliest inhabitants of
the southeastern part of the county. But the German set-
tlers on the limestone belt belonged entirely to the second
class. They came intending that their settlements should
be permanent and they proceeded accordingly in their
methods of clearing and improving.^ And it is a remark-
able fact that these early settlers usually continued to oc-
cupy their original possessions until their death. They
added to their belongings but in very few cases did they
migrate from their settlements. The good soil had at-
tracted them to these valleys and their own skillful meth-
ods of cultivation kept them there. As their growing
families demanded more lands they spread out and occu-
pied more and more of the Cambrian belt but usually re-
mained In the same general neighborhood.
Despite the difficulties that confronted them in their new
homes these German farmers in the first half of the eight-
eenth century flourished rapidly. Many of them when
they died were possessed of property whose value is a
3 These intensive methods were the result of inheritance and of experi-
ence and hence it was a rare thing to find a German exhibiting the
characteristics of the earliest class of pioneer farmers. Where the Ger-
mans have gradually occupied large farming areas they have done so not
by migration but by expansion. An appreciative description of the char-
acteristics of the German farmer in colonial Pennsylvania is that from
the pen of their contemporary, Dr. Rush, in his " Account," Schmauk
edition, pp. 54-73-
The preference of the German farmer for forest land, his intensive
methods of culture, and the consequences of this combination in the sub-
sequent prosperity of the German farmer in the northwest, are described by
Emil Rothe in his article on " Die Entwicklung des Deutschtums im Nord-
westen," in Jahrgang II, z. Heft (April 1870), p. 55 et passim, of " Der
Deutsche Pioneer."
13
194 German Element in York County, Pa.
splendid monument of their industry and economy.* In
their position as a flourishing farming community they
were not without significance not only for the early history
of Pennsylvania but even for the general course of Ameri-
can history. It has been asserted that these " farms of the
* This rapid prosperity of the original settlers is abundantly proved by a
study of their wills and by the inventories of their property at their
death. Thus the inventory of Christian Croll (completed on August 22,
17581) indicates a remarkable growth to wealth during the 25 years of his
settlement in York County. Among his possessions are the following:
" Houses and Lots in Yorktown
2 Houses and lots in High Street £490
House and lot at the North and Water Street £50
One do at the east end of Race Street £451
One do adjoining Jos Adlums House £80
Improvement bought of Geo Albright £380
Improvement bought of Jacob Hoague £120
Patent Lands on west side Conewago £140
Part of the improvement in partnership with Mr. Stevenson. £70 "
The list of " chattels " covers 19 pages. Of these there are articles to the
value of £ 351 10 s. 81 p. in "the Shop," and others to the value of £ 4
I s. 6 p. in " the Bar." The " book debts " cover 9 pages and amount
to about £ 750. Two pages of these are called " debts due for smith
work." The inventory indicates that the total of his possessions at his
death amounted to £3,476 8 s. 9 p.
But Christian Croll had become a blacksmith in York and his extra-
ordinary prosperity may have been due partly to that fact. More typical
perhaps is the inventory of Jacob Welshover (17518) and for that reason this
inventory is reproduced in full in Appendix C.
The inventory of the property of John Jacob Kuntz (September 171,
17154) estimates his plantation alone at £ 320. The inventory of Fred-
erick Lether (made July 8, 1746, that is, before York County was estab-
lished) estimates his " Blandation or Improvement" at £150 and his
total possessions at £ 232 6 s. 6 p. For Micheal Spengler whose inventory
was made on March 20, 1748^ the "Big Plantation" is placed at £350
and his " Chattels" at £292. The inventory of Balser Shamberger (made
April 28, 1751) estimates his "improvement and winter grain" at £ 2CX3.
John Kuhns (inventory dated May 26, 1753) had personal estate alone
valued at £ 371 5 s. 8 p. These inventories are thoroughly typical and
indicate a remarkable degree of early prosperity on the part of these first
settlers.
Their Place in General American History. 195
Germans became the wheat granary of the world."^ From
this point of view their significnce might be traced in a
great many directions. Suffice it to say here that not until
we have formed a correct estimate of the service of the
American farmer to the American nation will we be able
to determine with precision the place of the early York
County Germans in general American history. As a p^rt
of that great body of prosperous farmers who have always
constituted the very bone and sinew of our national exist-
ence, the York County Germans of the first half of the
eighteenth century have more than ordinary significance
for the national history of their times.
And finally, the Germans of York County before the
middle of the eighteenth century occupy a distinct place in
general American history because they fulfilled a special
mission In the general movement of Germans in this coun-
try. That the great body of Germans In the United States
has at all periods of our history had a decided cultural In-
fluence upon American institutions is now freely recog-
nized on all sldes.^ The relation of the early German set-
tlements of York County to the other German settlements
of that time has already been set forth In detail.'^ Their
significance lies in the fact that they occupied advance
ground. They had moved out on the frontier farther
5 By Professor Turner as quoted in Faust, I: 138 and II: 36.
6 For a general evaluation of the German element in this country see
Faust, "The German Element in the United States," Vol. II; Rudolf
Cronau, " Drei Jahrhunderte Deutschen Lebens in Amerlka " ; and Bosse,
" Das Deutsche Element in den Vereinigten Staaten."
■^ Supra, Chapter VI.
The position of the Pennsylvania Germans in general among the other
nationalities in colonial Pennsylvania, and the circumstances that led to
the prominent part of the Germans in the Revolution from England, are
suggested in Pfister, " Die Amerikanische Revolution 17715-1783," pp. 51-97
and 1281-170.
196 German Element in York County, Pa.
than any other of the numerous German settlements In
Pennsylvania. This was both a result and a cause of cer-
tain distinguishing elements of character which they mani-
fested in their lives and conduct. These Germans made
a new frontier but the frontier made them over into a new
nationality. The peculiarity of their position coupled with
their previous experience and their special characteristics
gave them freer rein for self-government than any other
German community had and it made them more susceptible
to the reflex influence of the New World. Separated from
the great body of their countrymen in America and free
from all ties that might bind them to the Fatherland, they
soon began the process of Americanization. The uncon-
scious charm of the locality quickly made its impress upon
their plastic German souls. The length, the breadth, the
giant height and the rich depth of the new continent left
an indelible stamp upon their characters and quietly trans-
formed them into a new people. From the soil of their
new homes and from the incidents and circumstances of
their new life arose the inexorable forces that compelled
them to stand forth a new type of world's citizen. The
period which we have studied marks little more than the
beginning of this important process of transformation.
But already at the: time of the Revolution the process is
fairly complete. At the report of the first shot at Lexing-
ton they showed themselves the best Americans of us all
and when General Washington in camp at Valley Forge
felt that he was in the enemy's country the center of the
German belt in York County was the home of the national
capital. The first two decades of York County Germans
constituted one of the first chapters in the Americanization
of the great and influential German element in this country.
^ O <!& O
appeuMy a.
Letter of Samuel Blunston to the Proprietors,
April 9, 1735.
May it please the proprietors:
By John Hendricks I received a letter which informs me of his
complaint of the unfair & dishonest usage he has met with from
John Wright & me in relation to the land opposite to us. As I
well know we are clear of any such charge I shal according to your
desire give a full relation to the whole affair & coppys of letters
sufficient I hope to satisfy you that no imputation of unfair practice
can justly be charged on either of us.
In the later part of the year 1 726 John Hendricks being over the
river Turkey Hunting with some of his relations through a stupid
carelessness or fatal mistake shot a young man his first cousen &
killed him. This accident & some ill management of his affairs
put him upon selling the place where he lived & to gain a new
settlement in the spring of the year 1727 he applyed to J: Logan
for leave to settle over the river oposite to us teling him the In-
dians were desirous he & his brother James should settle there. J :
Logan haveing heard the Marylanders designed to survey that land
upon this application of John & also of one Jos : Chaphem wrote me
the following letter: Friend Saml Blunston: I am informed that
some persons from Maryland have proposed to survey & take up
that tract of land where the Shawanna Indians were lately settled
on the west side of Sasquehannah opposite to Hempfield to pre-
vent which & for their own accomodation John Hendricks & Hen-
drick Hendricks sons of Jacobus Hendricks are desirious to seat
themselves there as also Joseph Chapham would willingly make
some settlement. Therefore if thou please to run lines about the
197
198 German Element in York County, Pa.
best part of that tract taking in about 1000 or 1500 As or more for
William Penn grandson to the late proprietor who devised 10,000
acres of land in this province to his grandson by will. And return
the draught thereof to me, I shall satisfie thee for thy trouble
therein. And if the sd Brothers & Jos Chapham can obtain the
consent of the Shawannah the chief of those Indians we should be
willing they should make settlements on those parts of the tract as
may be convenient for themselves & at the same time the least in-
jurious to the remainder of it & be pleased to inform me what
thou does herein who am with respect thy loving friend J Logan
Philadelphia May 10, 1727.
This is the letter & the only letter or pretense on which J Hen-
dricks founds his claim & by this you will see the land was not
apparently laid out for him, & by this both he and his brother
James (who is there called Hendrick) & Jos Chapham were but
to settle on part of it the least Injurious &c But the letter speaks
for itself & I proceed. In the month of July following pursuant
to sd order I went over & marked four corners including the
greatest part of the tract after surveyed & no more was done at
that time the weeds being so high we could not chain it nor carry
an instrument to any purpose.
About this time or a little before the afsd Henry Hendricks &
one Thomas Linvil went & settled at Codorus a Creek about I2
miles west of sd River which settlements disturbing the Indians
they threatened to burn their houses and obliged Em to quit their
settlements & return back to this side. The Indians opposing the
peoples settling hindered John Hendricks from removing thither
that year as he had intended for as some of the chief of the Indians
told me John had no liberty from them as he had falsely reported
to J: Logan Now as all the 3 persons before mentioned were to
have but part of that tract & Jos Chapham wholy declined settling
there & went to Carolina John Wright & I thought we might
without any injustice ask leave to secure a part of it for ourselves,
some further attempts being made to settle it. Accordingly when
John Wright went to town the August following & spoke to J:
Letter of Samuel Blunston to Proprietors. 199
Logan in behalf of himself upon which & some other affairs J L
wrote the following part of a letter :
Phila 10 August 1727
My f rd S. B : J Wright spent the last evening with me & informs
me that the people having got a notion that those Indians of the
5 nations who were here lately had assigned all their claim to the
lands about Sasquehannah were now crowding upon those lands
beyond the River in order to settle them though this part of the
Indians is surely a mistake. As he desires a part of that lOOO
acres formerly mentioned to be secured for one of his boys. I am
very willing he should be favoured in any thing that is practicable
of that kind, and that the land should be kept for him from all others,
if it may be done & in order to it would have him take some
proper methods to secure it. But people must be no means be
allowed to take up lands & make settlements on that further side,
otherwise then as it may answer some other necessary end. Nor
would we by any means have the Indians to quit their settlements
there or abandon those parts of Sasquehannah. I mean princi-
pally the other side of it.
In the fall of the year the Marylanders continuing their in-
croachments Jno Wright & I in a letter joyntly to J Logan gave
him an account thereof & made request that we might have some-
thing from them to show a right to part of the afsd land (which
then all lay vacant) that we might be the better able to prevent
others who had designs to come there. John Hendricks also
being with him about that time to make a second request for leave
to go to that tract J Logan thereupon wrote to us joyntly a letter
upon the subject of the Maryland incroachments, & upon the pres-
ent affair, the part thereto relating as follows:
Phila 30/8/1727/ Jno Wright & Sam'l Blunston: Loving frds:
In answer to yours of the 28th instant I must observe &c here he
gives a pretty large account of a former agreement between the two
provinces about the boundaries & then says ... I wish we could fal
on any possible measures to prevent their settlements, if you can
200 German Element in York County^ Pa.
think of any it would be very acceptible, if at the desire of the
Commisioners which you may take as expressed in this letter you
would be pleased to put Em in practice. I prompted John Hen-
dricks to write of his affair to you though I can say nothing further
than what I told himself viz : that since he has not yet settled which
I thought he had done long since, & the Indians insist on our
former agreement not to suffer any such, it woud be extremely
Irregular in us at this time to agree to it. As to the land opposite
agt you I believe we shal all be very willing that you should take
any measures to secure it without giving offence to the natives we
can make no grant at present but any thing else in our power we
should readily consent to.
From the concessions or promises in these letters mentioned rose
our expectations that in a proper time we might be able to make
some of that land our own upon the credit hereof with much care &
pains prevented it from being settled by others which we till this
time have done.
In the year 1728 the Indians grew more cool as they perceived
if they hindered our people the Marylanders would have it. John
Hendricks without any further licence removed over and took his
choice of the whole tract settling where he now lives Now though
by the first letter of J L it plainly appears that ( i ) the whole tract
was never intended to be the sole property of J Hendricks. So it
also appears by that & the other letters already quoted which will
also be corroborated by what follows that the tract though ordered
to be surveyed for the use of W. Penn was not strictly so intended,
that survey then made (& his name used as most proper to secure it
from the Marylanders they not being then willing to have any sur-
vey made to private persons lest others might claim the like power.
In the year 1 729 the Marylanders made a fresh attempt upon us
& that produced the following paragraph in a letter from J Logan
to me bearing date the 29th of Novemb 1729 where he thus con-
cludes : " I am told just now here that they are surveying all the
Land over Sasquehannah from Maryland and sel it again to our
people. Pray discourage it to the utmost & do thou also survey
to perplex Em. And in another letter dated the 4th of December
Letter of Samuel Blunston to Proprietors. 201
following are these words : I wish thou would exert thyself & make
surveys in any name whatsoever Sec From all which the intention
of these surveys I think plainly appear; according to the fore-
going orders & some others I wrote him a letter dated the 30th
of November Afsd which among other things contains what fol-
lows: I have laid out the Land for the Donegal Congregation ac-
cording to thy order & I think to the satisfaction of all parties &
have given them a draught thereof. I have also this week per-
fected a Survey of that piece of Land over the River on which
J. Hendricks is settled of which I shall return thee a draught by
the first opportunity. The whole contains about 1200 Acres, Six
Hundred whereof regularly divided being the uper side & best part
of the tract and on which J. Hendricks has settled we have left to
him But he is so far from being satisfied with it that Except he
could have it so as to spoil the whole tract he will I suppose apply
for a Maryland right for redress. All the land about Parnels is
surveyed & settled by Marylanders & many people out of this prov-
ince are for removing over the river so that I doubt not but another
year will settle most of the habitable land for they flock over daily in
search. The remainder of that by Hendricks would have been
settled before now had they not been prevented. John Wright &
I desiring it may be kept vacant at present that when opportunity
presents we may obtain grants for it. . . .
About the year 1 73 1 the before mentioned James Hendricks went
& settled on the back part of the tract on which John lived It always
being understood to be their equal right & early in the Spring
1732 John & James and their father Jacobus went down together
on that side with their Guns intending to shoot some turkeys at the
place where John had before shot his cousin, and in the way the old
man's Gun went of by accident & killed James Dead on the Spot his
Death occasioned his widdow to leave the place which she after sold
to Joshua Minshal who now lives on it. Nothing more was done
till after the first of you arrived when J Hendricks Jos Minshal
John Wright & myself altogether applied to the Honourable Pro-
prietary for the Grants for our several parts of the sd tracts as itt
had been last surveyed and divided & John Hendricks then made no
202 German Element in York County, Pa.
demand or claim to any more then his share with Jos Minshal in
the six hundred acres. How the other wild notion since got into
his head I know not.
Thus having traced it down from the first beginning to this
present it is time so conclude. And I hope enough is said to con-
vince you that we never had any the least intention to act an unjust
part therein towards J Hendricks or any other person. And as you
desired an account from me I hope you will be so kind as to let
me know your sentiments of our Behavior therein. And if any
Scruple yet remains with you that the licence or grant which I
rec'd is on a bad foundation I am ready to resign it. Though the
pains I have taken to secure it & my endeavours to prevent the mis-
chiefs which have hapened on that side has been to me a source
of continued care and trouble. I do not mention this to make merit
of any thing I have done nor do I expect or desire any reward but
what proceeds from a consciousness of having done my duty. The
land I am ready at all times to pay for if it be thought I am honestly
in possession of it, otherway I made no claim.
For the rest of the letter I need only say I have not heard of the
taxgathers being up. If they come with an evil intent I shall us
my endeavours to circumvent Em.
As to the Behavior of John Wrights Sons or any other persons
on this side towards Hendricks he is so far from having any Ground
for complaint that they and many others have long borne & yet do
bear his intolerable abuses & insults purely upon your account which
else would never be suffered.
As to Cressops Complaint agt the Magistrates the Charge is too
General to receive any other answer than that I know nothing of it.
I am with great regard your assured ffrd
Sa Blunston
Apr. 9th in the evening 1735
The Messenger staid a little longer than expected which gave me
time to finish this.
Names of Those Who Signed the Letter of the
Germans to the Governor of Maryland,
August ii, 1736 (Calvert Papers,
No, 717).
These names are all included In the list of those for
whose arrest a warrant was issued on October 21, 1736,
" for contriving signing and publishing a seditious paper
and writing against his Lordship and this government."
The names are here given as copied by the clerk in Mary-
land and that accounts for the peculiar spelling.
Jacob Grable
Jacob Seglaer
Conrade Lowe
Christian Lowe
Jacob Seglaer, jr.
Michael Aringall
Philip Seglaer
Dennis Myer
Hans Stanner
Tobias Sprlght
Tobias Hendricks
Leonard Immel
Balchar Sangar
Methusalem Griffith
Gorrick Cobell
Kelyon Smith
Nicholas Peery
Micheal Tanner
Micheal Wallack
Micheal Evat
Micheal Miller
Jasper Carvel
George Swope
George Philier
Nicholas Butchier
Andrew Phlavlere
Henry Stantz
Henry Lephart
203
204 German Element in York County, Pa.
Peter Gardiner
Jacob Lonus
Nicholas Conn
Bartholemew Shambarrier
Henry Young
Caspar Varglass
Bryonex Tander
Christian Crowle
Conrade Stricklaer
Henry Bowen
Francis Worley, jr.
Martin Sluys
Jacob Hoopinder
Michael Raisher
Tobias Fray
Martin Fray
Henry Smith
Jacob Welchhutter
Henry Henricks
Charles Jones
Adam Byer
Godfrey Fray
Nicholas Hatchley
Micheal Waltz
Martin Wyngall
Eurick Myer
Inventory of the Estate of Jacob Welshover.
Jacob Welshover's will was made on November 15,
1757, and witnessed by Heinrich Schmidt and Heinrich
Libhart. It was probated on June 29, 1758. The ap-
praisement was made on August 24, 1758, by Heinrich
Schmidt and another German. The inventory totals £495
18 s. o p. The items are as follows:
£ — s — p
7 Cows 1 7 — o — o
the other young horn Cattle 12 — o — o
5 sheep I — 10 — o
2 Wagon horses 20 — o — o
I Meare 6 — o — o
thre Hogs o — 15 — o
10 Hives of Bees 3 — 10 — o
1 high Wagon 1 3 — o — o
6 ould wagon wheals 5 — o — o
2 Blows I — 10 — o
I Iron Harrow i — 5 — o
5 braks o — 10 — o
4 collers Iron trasis brich bands bridle 4 — 10 — o
Doung plows forks Shoffels pitch forks o — 17 — o
the wind mill & Sives Riddels i — 10 — o
the thrash mill o — 18 — o
205
2o6 German Element in York County, Pa.
the cottin box
2 large Roaps and a blow line O — 4 — O
Wheat and Rey of 16 Acre of ground 16 — o — O
2 acre of Hemp in the field 3 — 10 — O
the Still & the Iron & worm blongin to it 18 — O — O
9 Tobs in the Still house i — 12 — o
a box where the keep the Chopt Rey in o — 5 — O
washing Tobs & other tobs & rails & Halbushel . . i — o — o
Clean Hemp 6 — O — O
Earthen pots dishes & plats o — 6 — o
the hogsheds & other casks in the Seller 3 — 10 — o
Rey Liquer four Barrels 9 — 10 — o
Talow about 15 pound O — 6 — O
butter Cands or boxis & pokeds O — 5 — O
meal and wedges from broad ax i — 10 — O
Draw Knife Oagers Chisels i — 5 — O
four plains and 2 Saws O — 9 — o
2 Cross Cut Saw & the Brand mark i — 10 — o
the wagon or hand screw i — 15 — O
2 old bells & a pair of Stilliels o — 9 — O
2 Hatchets i — 2 — o
Brass Cettels & other Brass 5 — O — O
2 Tables & 4 Chairs i — 10 — o
the Iron of an ould Chist a Cobbert & Doadrough . i — O — O
Dresser in the kitchen i — 10 — o
a Cloathbed 2 — 10 — o
A Clock : 4 — o — o
A water Cand & baskeds o — 8 — o
Iron pots & pans & other things 2 — o — O
Tea pot a pair of Ballons o — 12 — o
All the Beuter plats dishis spoons &c 2 — 15 — O
Tinn quarts fonnel & other things O — 6 — o
Bowls tea Cups &c o — 3 — o
Bibles & other books 2 — o — o
Sacks & Cloth for a wagon Cloth 3 — i — O
Blankets vinegar Cask a gun Spining wheals 2 — O — O
Inventory of Estate of Jacob Welshover. 207
2 Beds & bed Sted Slats 5— 0—0
a Flower Chist 15— o — o
Coat & Chacket britches & Shirts 2 — 5 — o
Table Cloth Sheets & other lining i — o — o
Linsy woolsy i — 4 — o
2 Chains o — 1 5 — o
Bees wax o — 10 — o
an ould Spining wheal & sum yearn o — 12 — o
30 bushel of Wheat 3 — 15 — o
20 bushel of Rey i — 13 — o
40 bushel of oats 2 — 10 — o
5 bushel of flax Seed o — 12 — o
a mans Sattle & a womens Saddle i — 5 — O
Tenn Pounds in money 10 — o — o
One Stove 3 — 15 — o
for the improvement 250 — o — o
Bibliography.
I. Primary Sources.
The Pennsylvania Archives. — Of direct value for our subject
among these are chiefly the early volumes of the First Series,
Volumes I-III. The designations in the text, Archives I, Archives
II, etc., always refer to the corresponding volume of the First
Series. These were selected and arranged from original docu-
ments in the Office of the Secretary of the Commonwealth by
Samuel Hazard in 1851 and 1852. Some of the others that come
into consideration for our suSject are Volume VII of the Second
Series, containing " Papers relating to Provincial Affairs in Penn-
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1878; and Volumes I and II of the Fourth Series, containing the
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the State in 1851 and 1852. The designation in the text "Col.
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proceedings for the years 1 735-1 737.
208
Bibliography. 209
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The Calvert Papers. — These are deposited in the Historical
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The Original Church Record of Christ Church, York, Pa.
The original Church Record of St. Matthew's Church, Han-
over, Pa.
Documents in the Department of Internal Affairs (Land Office)
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" The Penn Papers " — Historical Society of Pennsylvania.
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A Scrap-Book of Mr. M. O. Smith of Hanover, Pennsylvania,
containing newspaper articles constituting his " History of York
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14
2IO German Element in York County, Pa.
Bernheim, Gotthardt Dellmann. History of the German settle-
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