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THE     GERMAN     AND     SWISS 
SETTLEMENTS  OF  COLONIAL 
PENNSYLVANIA:         A  STUDY 
OF   THE    SO-CALLED    PENN- 
SYLVANIA   DUTCH 


BY 


OSCAR   KUHNS 

Member  of  the  Pennsylvania  Society  of  the  Sons  of  the 

Revolution,  of  the  Pennsylvania-German  Society,  and  of 

the  Lancaster  County  Historical  Society 


NEW  YORK 

HENRY  HOLT   AND  COMPANY 

1901 


PUBLIC  LIBilAiY 

123  60 15 

ASTOB.  LENOX  AND 

TILDBN  B-OLNUATIOXS 

It  1039  L 


Copyright,  1900, 

BY 

HENRY  HOLT  &  CO. 


ROBERT   DRUMMOND,   PRINTER,    NEW   YORK. 


THIS  BOOK  IS  DEDICATED   BY  THE  AUTHOR 
TO   THE   MEMORY  OF  HIS   ANCESTORS 

GEORGE  KUNTZ 

AND 

HANS  HERR 

PIONEER  SETTLERS  OF 
LANCASTER  COUNTY,  PENNSYLVANIA 


"  Die  Enkel gut  thun  an  die  Miihen 
ihrer  Vorfahren  zu  denken." 

— Freytag. 


3i 


PREFACE. 

The  object  of  this  book  is  to  give  a  complete 
yet  concise  view  of  a  too-much-neglected  phase 
of  American  origins.  The  author  has  especially 
tried  to  be  impartial,  avoiding  as  far  as  possible 
mere  rhetoric,  and  allowing  the  facts  to  speak 
for  themselves.  As  a  book  of  this  kind  can  have 
no  real  value  unless  it  is  reliable,  authorities  have 
been  freely  quoted,  even  at  the  risk  of  making 
the  number  of  foot-notes  larger  than  is  perhaps 
suited  to  the  taste  of  the  general  public. 

Bern,  Switzerland, 
October  i,   1900. 

iii 


CONTENTS. 


Preface . . 

Chapter  I 

II 


■  PAGE 

iii 


The  Historic  Background i 

The  Settling  of  the  German  Counties 

OF  Pennsylvania 30 

Over  Land  and  Sea 62 

Manners  and  Customs  of  the  Pennsyl- 
vania-German    Farmer     in    the 

Eighteenth  Century 83 

Language,  Literature,  and  Education.  115 

The  Religious  Life 153 

In  Peace  and  in  War 193 

Conclusion 221 

Pennsylvania-German  Family  Names.  . . .  230 

Bibliography 247 

Index 259 

V 


HI. 
IV. 


V. 

VI. 

VII. 

VIII. 

Appendix— 


THE    GERMAN    AND    SWISS    SET- 
TLEMENTS OF  COLONIAL 
PENNSYLVANIA. 

CHAPTER  I. 

THE    HISTORIC    BACKGROUND. 

Of  all  the  great  nations  of  Western  Europe 
during  the  centuries  immediately  following  the 
discovery  of  America,  Germany  alone  took  no 
official  part  in  the  colonization  of  the  New  World. 
Spain  in  Florida  and  South  America,  France  in 
Canada  and  Louisiana,  Holland  in  New  York, 
England  in  Massachusetts  and  Rhode  Island, 
and  even  Sweden  in  New  Jersey,  took  formal 
possession  of  the  territory  settled  by  their  sub- 
jects. Previous  to  the  American  Revolution  it 
is  estimated  that  over  100,000  Germans  and 
Swiss  settled  in  Pennsylvania  alone,  to  say  noth- 
ing of  New  York,  Maryland,  Virginia,  Georgia, 
and  the  Carolinas.  And  yet  this,  for  the  times, 
extremely  large  immigration  was  not  officially 
recognized  by  the  home  country,  and  the  settlers 


2  THE  HISTORIC  BACKGROUND. 

themselves,  instead  of  founding  a  German  em- 
pire in  the  West,  became  at  once  the  subjects  of 
a  foreign  power. 

Nor  does  it  follow  necessarily  that  the  German 
character  is  not  adapted  to  the  work  of  coloniza- 
tion ;  at  the  present  time  Germany  is  at  least  try- 
ing to  take  her  place  in  this  kind  of  expansion, 
and  the  not-distant  future  may  show  her  to  be,  in 
this  as  in  other  respects,  no  inconsiderable  rival 
of  England.^ 

One  highly  important  cause  of  this  emigration 
"  without  a  head,"  as  it  has  been  called,  was  un- 
doubtedly the  demoralized  condition  of  Germany 
in  consequence  of  the  terrible  civil  and  religious 
wars  that  again  and  again  swept  over  that  coun- 
try. As  a  final  result  of  these  wars  the  Holy 
Roman  Empire  was  broken  into  fragments ;  one 
half  of  the  German-speaking  people  were  sepa- 
rated from  their  fellows  and  merged  with  Hun- 
gary and  Bohemia  to  form  Austria ;  while  the 

^  Riehl,  the  great  German  ethnologist,  is  convinced  of  the 
colonizing  power  of  his  fellow  countrymen, — the  peasant  classes 
at  least :  "  Seine  Ausdauer  und  Zahigkeit  macht  den  deutschen 
Bauer  zum  geborenen  Kolonisten.  sie  liat  ihn  zu  dem  gross- 
artigen  weltgeschichtlichen  Bcruf  geweiht,  der  Bannertriiger 
deutschen  Geistcs,  deutschcr  Gcsittung  an  alien  Weltenden  zu 
werden."  (Die  Biirgerliche  Gesellschaft.  p.  63.)  JohnFiske, 
however,  gives  as  the  only  cause  of  England's  supremacy  in 
colonization  the  principle  of  self-government.  (Dutch  and 
Quaker  Colonies,  vol.  i.  p.  131.) 


THE  HISTORIC  BACKGROUND.  3 

other  half  was  split  up  into  little  kingdoms  and 
principalities,  whose  chief  efforts  for  nearly  two 
hundred  years  were  directed  to  recovering  from 
the  blighting  effects  of  the  Thirty  Years'  War. 

But  while  the  above-mentioned  facts  explain 
the  lack  of  official  German  colonization,  they  also 
account  for  the  enormous  and  almost  spontane- 
ous movement  of  emigration  to  America,  and 
especially  to  Pennsylvania,  at  the  beginning  of 
the  last  century.  The  Pennsylvania  German  of 
to-day,  who  seeks  to  know  why  his  ancestors 
came  to  this  country  some  two  centuries  ago, 
must  cast  his  eyes  backward  to  the  Reformation 
and  the  century  and  a  half  following  thereupon. 

The  Thirty  Years'  War  was  one  of  the  most 
destructive  wars  in  history.^  Not  only  were  city, 
town,  and  village  devastated  in  turn  by  the  armies 
of  friends  as  well  as  of  foes;  not  only  did  poverty, 
hardship,  murder,  and  rapine  follow  in  the  wake 
of  these  strange  armies,  with  their  multitudes  of 
camp-followers;  but  the  whole  intellectual,  moral, 
and  religious  character  of  the  German  people  re- 
ceived a  shock  that  almost  threatened  it  with 
annihilation.^ 

^  Cf.  Freytag  :  "Dieser  dreissigjahrige  Krieg,  seit  derVol- 
kerwanderung  die  argste  Verwiistung  eines  menschenreichen 
Volkes."     (Bilder  aus  der  deutschen  Vergangenheit,  vol.  iv. 

P-S-) 

3  ' '  Man  mag  fragen,  wie  bei  solchen  Verlusten  und  so  griind- 


4  THE  HISTORIC  BACKGROUND. 

Of  all  the  classes  which  suffered  the  dire  con- 
sequences of  the  Thirty  Years'  War,  none  suf- 
fered more  completely  than  the  peasants,  or  farm- 
ers. Before  that  event  the  yeomanry  of  Germany 
were  in  a  state  of  great  prosperity.  Their  houses 
were  comfortable,  their  barns  capacious,  their 
stables  well  stocked  with  horses  and  cattle,  their 
crops  were  plenteous,  and  many  had  considerable 
sums  of  money  safely  stored  away  against  a 
rainy  day ;  ^  some  even  boasted  of  silver  plate.^ 

The  outbreak  of  the  religious  wars  in  Bohemia 
was  like  the  first  faint  rumble  of  the  coming 
tempest,  and  before  long  the  full  fury  of  the 
storm  of  war  broke  over  Germany  itself.  The  suf- 
ferings of  the  countr\'  folk  during  the  thirty  years 
that  followed  are  almost  incredible.  Freytag  has 
furnished  many  details  which  are  drawn  from 
documentary  sources,  and  yet  which  seem  too 
heart-rending  to  be  true.  Not  only  were  horses 
and  cattle  carried  away  by  the  various  armies 
which  shifted  back  and  forth  over  the  length  and 

lichem  Verderb  der  Uberlebenden  iiberhaupt  noch  ein  deut- 
sches  Volk  geblieben  ist."  (Freytag,  vol.  ni.  p.  115.)  Frey- 
tag  says  that  three  things,  only,  kept  alive  the  German 
nationality:  the  love  t>f  the  people  for  their  own  homes,  the 
efforts  of  the  magistrates,  and  especially  the  zeal  of  the  clergy, 
(p.  116.) 

*  See  Freytag,  tii.  pp.  103  ff. 

^  Illustrirte  Geschichte  von  Wiirtemberg,  p.  473. 


THE  HISTORIC  BACKGROUND.  5 

breadth  of  the  land ;  not  only  were  houses,  barns, 
and  even  crops  burned;  but  the  master  of  the 
house  was  frequently  subjected  to  fiendish  tor- 
tures in  order  that  he  might  thus  be  forced  to 
discover  the  hiding-place  of  his  gold ;  or,  as  often 
happened,  as  a  punishment  for  having  nothing 
to  give.  At  the  approach  of  a  hostile  army  the 
whole  village  would  take  to  flight,  and  would  live 
for  weeks  in  the  midst  of  forests  and  marshes, 
or  in  caves.^  The  enemy  having  departed,  the 
wretched  survivors  would  return  to  their  ruined 
homes,  and  carry  on  a  painful  existence  with  the 
few  remains  of  their  former  property,  until  they 
were  forced  to  fly  again  by  new  invasions^ 
Many  were  slain,  many  of  the  young  were  lured 
away  to  swell  the  ranks  of  the  armies,  many  fled 
to  the  cities  for  safety  and  never  returned  to  their 
native  villages.  The  country  which  had  shortly 
before  been  so  prosperous  was  now  a  wilderness 

«  For  a  vivid  account  of  this  life  see  W.  O.  von  Horn, 
"Johannes  Scherer,  der  Wanderpfarrer  in  der  Unterpfalz." 
Of  especial  interest  are  the  references  to  the  sufferings  of  the 
times  made  by  Yillis  Cassel,  who  was  the  ancestor  of  the  well- 
known  Pennsylvania  family  of  that  name.  Extracts  are 
given  in  Cassel's  Geschichte  der  Mennoniten,  p.  431  ff. 

■f  Johannes  Heberle,  a  Swabian  peasant,  tells  us  in  his  diary 
that  he  was  forced  to  fly  thirty  times:  "  Gott  Lob  und 
Dank  wir  sind  diesmal  noch  gern  geflohen,  weil  es  die  letzte 
Flucht  war,  die  29.  oder  ungefahr  30."  (Wurtembergische 
Neujahrsblatter,  sechstes  Blatt,  1889.) 


6  THE  HISTORIC  BACKGROUND. 

of  uncultivated  land,  marked  here  and  there  by 
the  blackened  ruins  which  designated  the  site  of 
former  farms  and  villages. 

Freytag  gives  some  most  astonishing  figures 
of  the  losses  incurred.  Taking  as  a  sample  the 
county  of  Henneberg  (which  he  says  was  more 
fortunate  than  the  other  parts  of  Germany),  he 
states  that  in  the  course  of  the  war  over  75  per 
cent,  of  the  inhabitants  were  destroyed;  66  per 
cent,  of  the  houses,  85  per  cent,  of  the  horses, 
over  83  per  cent,  of  the  goats,  and  over  82  per 
cent,  of  the  cattle.  It  is  a  bloody  story,  says 
Freytag,  which  these  figures  tell.  Alore  than 
three-quarters  of  the  inhabitants,  more  than  four- 
fifths  of  their  worldly  goods  destroyed.  So  com- 
plete was  the  desolation  that  it  took  two  hundred 
years  to  restore  the  same  state  of  agricultural 
prosperity.^ 

These  facts  are  true  to  a  still  greater  extent  of 
other  parts  of  Germany,  and  more  especially  of 
the  Palatinate,  which  from  its  position  was  most 
exposed  to  the  ravages  of  the  contending  armies. 

^  Following  are  some  official  statistics  given  by  Freytag  : 
In  nineteen  villages  of  Henneberg  there  were  in  the  years 

1634  1649  1849 


Families 1773  316  1916 

Houses 1717  627  1558 

Similar  statistics  arc  given  in  regard  to  horses,  cattle,  etc. 

(Vol.  III.  p.  2J4.) 


THE  HISTORIC  BACKGROUND.  7 

The  Palatinate  has  a  history  at  once  interest- 
ing and  important.  Its  inhabitants  are  the  de- 
scendants of  the  group  of  German  tribes  called 
the  Rheinfranken,  with  an  admixture  of  the  Ale- 
manni,  the  latter  of  whom  had  occupied  the  land 
until  496  A.D.,  when  Chlodwig,  king  of  the 
Franks,  defeated  them  in  a  battle  fought  some- 
where on  the  Upper  Rhine.^  They  were  and  are 
still  among  the  best  farmers  in  the  world,  in 
many  districts  having  cultivated  the  soil  for  thirty 
generations.! "^  Situated  as  they  are  along  the 
great  water  highway  of  Europe,  they  are  said, 
by  those  who  know,  to  combine  the  best  qualities 
of  North  and  South,  being  distinguished  for  in- 
domitable industry,  keen  wit,  independence,  and 
a  high  degree  of  intelligence.^^   During  the  Mid- 

9  The  Alemanni  afterwards  settled  in  Svvabia  (Wiirtemberg) 
and  Switzerland. 

10  u  Kraft  dieser  angestammten  Lebensklugheit  hat  sich  der 
Franke  in  der  Pfalz,  am  Mittelrhein  iind  Untermain  den  Boden 
dienstbar  gemacht  wie  kein  anderer  deutscher  Stamm."  (Riehl, 
Die  Pfalzer,  p.  iii.) 

"  Cf.  Riehl,  Die  Pfalzer,  and  Hausser,  Geschichte  der  Rhei- 
nischen  Pfalz.  Fiske  says  :  "In  journeying  through  it  [what 
he  calls  the  Middle  Kingdom]  all  the  way  from  Strasburg  to 
Rotterdam,  one  is  perpetually  struck  with  the  general  diffusion 
of  intelligence  and  refinement,  strength  of  character  and  per- 
sonal dignity  ;  and  there  is  reason  for  believing  that  at  any 
time  within  the  past  four  or  five  centuries  our  impression  would 
have  been  relatively  very  much  the  same."  (Dutch  and 
Quaker  Colonies,  I.  p.  10.) 


8  THH  HISTORIC  BACKGROUND. 

die  Ages  the  Palatinate  had  been  among  the 
most  powerful  and  influential  of  the  German 
states;  it  had  rejoiced  in  great  and  enlightened 
rulers  like  Conrad  von  HohenstaufTen,  Frederick 
the  Wise  (who  recognized  the  Reformation),  and 
the  tolerant  and  broad-minded  Karl  Ludwig,  the 
protector  of  the  Swiss  Mennonites.  The  country 
along  the  Rhine  and  the  Neckar  was  known  as 
the  garden  of  Germany;  the  University  of  Hei- 
delberg was  one  of  the  oldest  and  most  influen- 
tial seats  of  learning  in  Europe. 

The  terrible  disorders  of  the  religious  wars  dealt 
a  deadly  blow  at  this  prosperity  and  glory.  It 
was  the  Elector  Palatine  Frederick  V.  himself 
who,  by  accepting  the  crown  of  Bohemia,  pre- 
cipitated the  Thirty  Years'  War,  and  thus  at- 
tracted to  his  own  country  the  full  fury  of  that 
war.  The  horrors  related  above  were  repeated 
here  on  a  still  larger  scale.  Hausser  tells  how,  at 
the  capture  of  Heidelberg  by  Tilly  in  1622,  the 
soldiers,  not  content  with  fire,  plunder,  and 
rapine,  pierced  the  feet  of  the  wretched  citizens 
with  nails,  burned  them  with  hot  irons,  and  com- 
mitted other  similar  barbarities.^^ 

"  At  this  time  occurred  the  plunder  of  the  celebrated  library 
of  Heidelberg  when  the  priceless  manuscripts  and  lx)oks  were 
carried  off  to  enrich  the  treasures  of  the  Vatican.  Napoleon 
in  his  turn  robbed  the  Vatican  library,  and  in  1815  part  of  the 
books  and  manuscripts  stolen  were  returned  to  Heidelberg. 


THE  HISTORIC  BACKGROUND.  9 

So  again  in  1634,  after  the  defeat  of  the  Swedes 
at  Nordling-en,  different  bands  of  soldiers  swept 
in  their  retreat  over  the  Palatinate,  utterly  disre- 
garding all  law,  mishandling  persons  and  de- 
stroying property.  Hausser  says  that  the  de- 
vastation of  the  land,  just  recovering  from  its 
former  destruction,  was  beyond  imagination. 
The  cavalry  of  Horn  and  Bernard  of  Weimar  left 
behind  them  terrible  traces  of  plunder,  destruc- 
tion, and  death;  hunger,  violence,  and  suffering 
were  on  all  sides.  The  years  1635  and  1636  mark 
the  period  of  the  most  terrible  misery.  In  the 
years  1636-38  famine  and  pestilence  came  to  add 
to  the  suffering.  The  people  tried  to  satisfy 
hunger  with  roots,  grass,  and  leaves ;  even  canni- 
balism became  more  or  less  frequent.  The  gal- 
lows and  the  graveyards  had  to  be  guarded;  the 
bodies  of  children  were  not  safe  from  their  moth- 
ers. So  great  was  the  desolation  that  where 
once  were  flourishing  farms  and  vineyards,  now 
whole  bands  of  wolves  roamed  unmolested. 

It  might  seem  as  if  the  above  statements  were  ex- 
travagant or  were  mere  rhetorical  exaggerations. 
Yet  these  facts  are  given  almost  in  the  very  words 
of  a  staid  and  judicious  German  historian.^^  For 
the  North  of  Germany  this  state  of  affairs  came 
practically  to  an  end  with  the  Peace  of  West- 

"  Ludwig  Hausser,  Geschichte  der  rheinischen  Pfalz. 


lo  THE  HISTORIC  BACKGROUND. 

phalia  in  1649,  by  which  the  pohtical  map  of 
Europe  was  finally  settled  and  a  condition  of 
toleration,  at  least,  was  agreed  upon  between  the 
three  confessions — Catholics,  Lutherans,  and  Re- 
formed. For  the  Palatinate,  however,  the  respite 
was  of  short  duration.  By  the  terms  of  the  peace 
the  Upper  Palatinate  was  taken  away  and  given 
to  the  Duke  of  Bavaria,  who  also  received  the 
title  of  Elector,  while  a  new  electoral  title  was 
created  for  Karl  Ludwig. 

Under  the  wise  administration  of  the  latter 
prince  the  land  began  slowly  to  recover  from  its 
desolated  condition ;  the  banks  of  the  Neckar  and 
the  Rhine  had  become  a  desert;  the  vineyards 
were  gone,  the  fields  covered  with  thorns ;  in- 
stead of  the  former  flourishing  villages  a  few 
wretched  huts  were  found  here  and  there.  Yet 
so  favored  by  Heaven  is  this  fertile  land  that 
the  improvement  was  rapid.  Many  who  had  fled 
returned ;  lands  were  plenty,  taxes  were  light. 
Other  colonists  came  from  Switzerland,  Holland, 
France,^"*    and    even    England.      The    town    of 

'*  Among  the  founders  of  Germantown  were  certain  Dutch 
families  from  Kriet^shcim,  near  Worms.  (See  Pennypacker.) 
So  also  a  number  of  the  Huguenot  settlers  of  both  Pennsylvania 
and  New  York  were  from  the  Palatinate.  The  settlement  of 
New  Paltz  in  the  latter  State  was  so  called  by  the  Frencli  in 
memory  of  the  land  which  had  been  their  home  for  many 
years.     (See  Bainl,  The  Huguenot  Emigration  to  America.) 


THE  HISTORIC  BACKGROUND.  ii 

Frankeiithal  was  almost  entirely  inhabited  by 
these  foreigners.  Religion  was  free ;  Karl  Lud- 
wig  was  much  more  liberal  than  his  predecessors 
had  been.  He  was  one  of  the  first  of  German 
princes  to  discard  the  idea  that  in  order 
to  govern  his  subjects  well  they  must  all 
be  of  the  same  confession  as  himself.  The 
Anabaptists,  or  Mennonites,  who  had  lived 
for  a  number  of  years  in  the  Palatinate,  and 
had  often  been  oppressed,  now  received  from 
Karl  Ludwig  freedom  of  worship.  Thus  the 
country  in  a  short  time  began  to  prosper  anew. 
So  great  was  the  change  that  the  French  Field- 
marshal  de  Grammont,  who  in  1646  had  passed 
through  the  devastated  land,  twelve  years  later 
was  filled  with  amazement  at  the  change,  "  as  if 
no  war  had  ever  been  there." 

In  the  years  1674-75  the  war  between  France 
and  Holland,  into  which  the  Elector  of  Branden- 
burg and  the  Emperor  Leopold  had  been  drawn, 
brought  destruction  once  more  to  the  Palatinate 
— lying  as  it  did  between  the  two  contending 
countries — and  the  painful  efforts  of  twenty 
years  remained  fruitless.  It  was  the  purpose  of 
Louis  XIV.  to  render  the  Palatinate  useless  to 
his  enemies.  Turenne,  who  had  received  definite 
orders  from  Versailles  to  devastate  the  Pala- 
tuiate,  did  his  work  thoroughly.    Once  more  the 


12  THE  HISTORIC  BACKGROUND. 

monotonous  tale  of  misery  must  be  told :  noble- 
man, citizen,  peasant  plundered;  fields  laid  waste; 
cattle  carried  off;  even  the  clothing  torn  from 
the  backs  of  the  wretched  victims.  What  could 
not  be  carried  away  was  destroyed;  even  the  bells 
and  organs  were  taken  from  the  churches.  At 
one  time  seven  cities  and  nineteen  villages  were 
burning;  starvation  once  more  threatened  the 
homeless  peasant.  This,  however,  was  only  the 
prelude  to  the  famous,  or  rather  infamous,  de- 
struction of  1689. 

In  1685  the  Simmern-Zweibriicken  dynasty 
died  out,  and  the  Neuburg  line,  represented  by 
Philip  William,  inherited  the  electoral  title  of  the 
Palatinate.  It  was  at  this  juncture  that  Louis 
XIV.  made  his  utterly  unjust  and  unrighteous 
claim  to  a  large  portion  of  the  Palatinate  in  the 
name  of  the  daughter  ofthelate  Elector,  EHzabeth, 
who  had  married  the  Duke  of  Orleans,  the  disso- 
lute brother  of  the  French  king.  All  this  in  spite 
of  the  fact  that  Elizabeth  had  no  legal  right  to  the 
land,  and  did  not  herself  claim  it.  At  this  ef- 
frontery on  the  part  of  Louis,  all  the  princes  of 
Northern  Europe  leagued  themselves  against 
him ;  England,  Holland,  and  Germany  stood  as  a 
solid  mass  against  the  intrigues  of  France. 
Louis — feeling  his  inability  to  cope  single-handed 


THE  HISTORIC  BACKGROUND.  13 

with  this  mighty  coaHtion,  and  determined  that 
'■  if  the  soil  of  the  Palatinate  was  not  to  furnish 
supplies  to  the  French  it  should  be  so  wasted  that 
it  would  at  least  furnish  no  supplies  to  the  Ger- 
mans " — approved  the  famous  order  of  his  war- 
minister,  Louvois,  to  "  bruler  le  Palatinat."  The 
scenes  that  followed  surpassed  even  the  hor- 
rors of  the  Thirty  Years'  War.  The  recapitula- 
tion of  such  scenes  only  becomes  monotonous 
and  finally  loses  its  effect  on  the  imagination. 
Macaulay's  description,  however,  is  so  vivid  that 
we  give  a  few  extracts  from  it  in  this  place.  "The 
commander  announced  to  near  half  a  million 
human  beings  that  he  granted  them  three  days 
of  grace,  and  that  within  that  time  they  must 
shift  for  themselves.  Soon  the  roads  and  fields, 
which  then  lay  deep  in  snow,  were  blackened  by 
innumerable  multitudes  of  men,  women,  and 
children  flying  from  their  homes.  .  .  .  Meanwhile 
the  work  of  destruction  went  on.  The  flames 
went  up  from  every  market-place,  every  parish- 
church,  every  country-seat,  within  the  devoted 
province.  The  fields  where  the  corn  had  been 
sowed  were  ploughed  up.  The  orchards  were 
hewn  down.  No  promise  of  a  harvest  was  left 
on  the  fertile  plains  near  what  had  been  Frank- 
enthal.     Not  a  vine,  not  an  almond-tree  was  to 


14  THE  HISTORIC  BACKGROUND. 

be  seen  on  the  slopes  of  the  sunny  hills  round 
what  had  once  been  Heidelberg."  ^^ 

During  this  trying  period,  the  Reformed  es- 
pecially suffered ;  their  churches  were  burned,  or 
turned  over  to  the  Catholics ;  on  both  sides  of 
the  Rhine  Protestantism  received  a  deadly  blow. 
It  was  the  desire  of  Louis  not  only  to  seize  the 
country,  but  to  crush  out  heresy  there.  The 
Elector  Philip  William,  Catholic  though  he  was, 
promised  to  help  his  oppressed  people,  but  died 
before  he  could  accomplish  anything.  He  was 
even  forced  by  the  poverty  of  the  land  to  dismiss 
many  Protestant  pastors,  teachers,  and  officials, 
and  to  combine  or  to  dissolve  a  number  of 
churches  and  schools. 

And  here  for  the  first  time  the  religious  condi- 
tion of  the  Palatinate  enters  as  an  important 
factor  in  preparing  the  way  for  the  movement  of 
German  emigration  to  Pennsylvania.  Hitherto 
the  province  had  enjoyed  religious  freedom. 
After  the  Lutheran  Elector  Otto  Heinrich  the 
land  had  a  succession  of  Calvinist  rulers,  until 
the  accession  of  the  Neuburg  line  in  the  person 
of  Philip  William  in  1685.  It  is  true  that  Luther- 
ans and  Reformed  had  had  many  a  bitter  discus- 
sion and  the  former  had  often  sufifered  injustice 
at  the  hands  of  their  by  far  more  numerous  rivals. 

'^  History  of  England,  vol.  in.  p.  112. 


THE  HISTORIC  BACKGROUND.  15 

But  all  this  was  trifling  compared  with  the  sys- 
tematic oppression  begun  by  John  William^  *5  and 
continued  by  his  successors  for  nearly  a  century. 
Philip  William,  the  first  of  the  Catholic  rulers 
of  the  Palatinate,  was  a  kind-hearted,  well-mean- 
ing man,  by  no  means  intolerant  in  matters  of 
religion.  His  son  and  successor,  however,  was 
weak  in  character,  and  easily  led  by  others.  He 
had  been  educated  by  the  Jesuits,  and  after  be- 
coming the  ruler  of  an  almost  completely  Prot- 
estant land  he  still  retained  the  Jesuits  as  his 
political  counsellors. 

At  the  conclusion  of  hostilities  between  France 
and  Germany,  the  Protestant  church  in  the  Pala- 
tinate was  practically  crushed.  The  French  had 
everywhere  supported  the  Catholics  in  their  usur- 
pations ;  the  Reformed  church-council  was  re- 
duced to  two  men,  and  the  Jesuits  held  full  sway. 
In  one  place  the  Protestant  inhabitants  were 
compelled  to  share  their  church  property  with 
the  Catholics;  in  another  they  were  deprived  of 
everything;  before  the  end  of  1693  hundreds  of 
Reformed  and  a  number  of  Lutheran  churches 
were  in  the  hands  of  the  Catholic  orders,  to  say 
nothing  of  the  parsonages  and  schoolhouses.^''' 

'*  Son  of  Philip  William,  who  died  in  1690. 

"  To  add  to  their  trouble  a  contest  broke  out  at  this  time 
between  the  Reformed  and  the  Lutherans,  much  to  the  satis- 
faction of  the  Catholics.     (See  Hausser.) 


1 6  THE  HISTORIC  BACKGROUND. 

The  Treaty  of  Ryswick  in  1697,  by  which  was 
ended  the  war  between  France  and  Germany, 
was  of  Httle  benefit  to  the  Protestants  of  the  Pa- 
latinate. They  were  compelled  to  accept  the  status 
quo  of  the  Catholic  usurpations.  On  the  basis  of 
the  clause  to  this  effect  in  the  treaty,  colossal 
claims  were  made  by  the  Catholics.  In  1699  the 
French  diplomatist  brought  a  list  of  1922  places, 
mostly  in  the  Palatinate,  which  he  claimed  for 
the  Catholics;  if  he  had  succeeded  in  carrying 
through  his  demands,  Protestantism  in  the  Pa- 
latinate would  have  received  its  death-blow. 

It  is  very  probable  that  John  William  had  con- 
spired with  France,  Rome,  and  the  Jesuits 
against  his  Protestant  subjects,  in  introducing 
into  the  Treaty  of  Ryswick  the  clause  concerning 
the  condition  of  the  Protestants  in  his  dominions, 
and  thus  became,  as  Hausser  puts  it,  "  Landes- 
verrather  "  instead  of  "  Landesvater."  lience- 
forth  in  all  that  pertained  to  the  Reformed 
Church  he  followed  the  tactics  of  his  Jesuit  coun- 
sellors. He  seemed  to  care  more  to  restore 
Catholicism  than  to  restore  the  prosperity  of  the 
land.  In  1697  he  declared  it  as  "  an  inconceivable 
mark  of  divine  favor,  which  they  must  ever  keep 
sacred,  that  the  electorates  of  the  Palatinate  and 
of  Saxony  had  again  fallen  into  Catholic  hands." 

When  John  William  in  1698  came  back  to  his 


THE  HISTORIC  BACKGROUND.  i? 

dominion,  the  first  time  since  its  destruction,  it 
was  not  to  heal  wounds,  but  to  add  new  ones  to 
the  Reformed  Church.  The  large  majority  of 
the  inhabitants  of  the  land  were  Reformed  or 
Lutherans;  1^  there  were  but  few  Catholics.  Yet 
the  Elector,  with  a  show  of  tolerance,  issued  a 
decree  to  the  effect  that  all  churches  should  be 
open  to  the  three  confessions.  This  tolerance, 
however,  was  only  apparent,  inasmuch  as,  while 
the  Protestants  were  obliged  to  give  up  part  of 
their  churches,  the  Catholics  remained  in  undis- 
turbed possession  of  their  own.  In  this  way 
alone  two  hundred  and  forty  churches  were 
opened  to  the  Catholics.  Other  oppressive  meas- 
ures were  enforced.  The  Protestants  were  re- 
quired to  bend  the  knee  at  the  passing  of  the 
Host,  and  to  furnish  flowers  for  the  church  festi- 
vals of  their  rivals;  while  the  work  qf  proselyting 
was  carried  on  publicly  by  the  Jesuits,  who  had 
been  called  in  for  that  purpose.  The  Swiss  Men- 
nonites,  the  Walloons,  and  the  Huguenots,  who 
for  many  years  had  found  a  refuge  in  the  Pa- 
latinate, were  now  driven  from  the  land;  many 
went  to  Prussia,  Holland,  and  America. 

While  no  great  oppression  was  publicly  made, 

^8  The  Lutherans  were  not  nearly  so  numerous,  however ; 
hitherto  they  had  about  forty  churches  under  the  supervision  of 
the  Reformed  Church. 


1 8  THE  HISTORIC  BACKGROUND. 

yet  there  was  a  constant  system  of  nagging,— 
what  would  now  be  called  a  pin-pricking  policy. 
Often  they  would  be  beaten  for  refusing  to  bend 
the  knee  in  the  presence  of  the  Host,  and  for  re- 
fusing to  share  in  Catholic  ceremonies.  Their 
pastors  w'ere  driven  away  or  thrown  into  prison. 
By  one  single  decree  seventy-five  schoolmasters 
were  rendered  penniless.  Hundreds  of  petty  per- 
secutions on  person  and  property  were  made. 

It  is  a  subject  of  legitimate  pride  on  the  part 
of  the  descendants  of  these  people  to  know  that 
they  could  not  be  crushed.  The  Reformed 
Church  of  the  Palatinate  showed  itself  to  be  bold 
and  self-sacrificing;  the  various  congregations 
held  firm  and  would  not  change  in  spite  of  vio- 
lence; the  pastors  were  unyielding — there  is  not 
an  example  of  one  who  was  a  coward  or  proved 
untrue  to  his  office.  Hausser  pays  the  following 
tribute  to  the  steadfastness  of  the  Church  in 
those  days  of  trial :  "  Earnestness  and  modera- 
tion prevailed  among  the  persecuted  congrega- 
tions; the  terrible  sufferings  of  war,  and  the  petty 
persecutions  that  followed  the  peace,  were  excel- 
lent means  for  purifying  the  morals,  and  since 
the  days  of  Frederick  IV.,  the  Protestants  of  the 
Palatinate  had  not  maintained  so  good  a  moral 
conduct  as  in  the  '  Leidenjahren  '  of  the  Jesuit 
reaction."     One  eflfect  of  all  this,  however,  was 


THE  HISTORIC  BACKGROUND.  19 

the  spread  of  pietism  and  mysticism,  which 
manifested  themselves  in  rehgious  emotion.  A 
pastor  of  Heidelberg,  Henry  Horch,  founded  a 
sect  which  looked  for  the  end  of  the  world  as  a 
release  out  of  all  their  sorrows.^^  The  great  body 
of  the  people,  however,  although  undoubtedly 
deeply  afifected  by  pietism,  remained  true  to  sound 
religion.  These  conditions  prevailed  throughout 
the  whole  of  the  eighteenth  century.  From  time 
to  time  the  Protestant  rulers  of  Europe  interfered, 
and  promises  would  be  made,  only  to  be  broken. 
It  would  be  a  tedious  repetition  to  give  further 
instances  of  this  persecution;  what  has  already 
been  given  may  stand  for  what  went  on  for 
nearly  one  hundred  years. 

To  the  above  historical  and  religious  condi- 
tions which  prepared  the  way  for  emigration  to 
America  we  must  add  the  corruption,  the 
tyranny,  the  extravagance  and  heartlessness  of 
the  rulers  of  the  Palatinate;  all  through  the 
eighteenth  century  their  chief  efforts  seemed  to 
be  directed  to  a  base  and  slavish  imitation  of  the 
life  of  the  French  court.    While  the  country  was 

'3  It  was  about  this  time  that  Kelpius  came  to  Pennsylvania, 
there  to  await  the  coming  of  Christ.  It  was  also  only  a  short 
time  later  that  Alexander  Mack  founded  the  sect  of  the  Dun- 
kards.  For  other  examples  of  the  pietistic  spirit  see  Chapter 
VI. 


20  THi;  HISTORIC  BACKGROUND. 

exhausted  and  on  tlic  verge  of  ruin,  costly  pal- 
aces were  built,  rivalling  and  even  surpassing 
in  luxury  those  of  France;  enormous  retinues 
were  maintained;  while  pastors  and  teachers 
were  starving,  hundreds  of  court  officers  lived 
in  luxury  and  idleness.  The  burden  of  feudalism 
still  lay  heavy  upon  the  peasants;  the  chasm  be- 
tween them  and  the  upper  classes  became  more 
and  more  widened.  Down  to  the  French  Revo- 
lution the  peasant  and  his  children  were  forced 
to  render  body-service,  to  pay  taxes  in  case  of 
sale  or  heritage,  to  suffer  the  inconveniences  of 
hunting,  and,  above  all,  to  see  themselves  de- 
prived of  all  justice.2o 

Such  a  state  of  things  became  intolerable.  As 
Hausser  says,  "  In  this  way  a  part  of  the  riddle 
is  explained  which  seemed  so  mysterious  to  the 
statisticians  of  that  time,  i.e.,  why  precisely  in 
these  years  of  peace  the  population  of  the  Palat- 
inate diminished  so  surprisingly.  Schlozer  was 
astonished  at  the  fact  that  from  no  land  in  the 
world  relatively  so  many  people  emigrated  as 
from  this  paradise  of  Germany,  the  Palatinate. 
A  glance  at  the  fatherly  government  of  this  para- 
dise will  give  us  the  key  to  the  riddle.  Many 
hundreds  allowed  themselves  to  be  lured  to 
Spain  (in  1768),  where  they  were  promised  tol- 
"  Cf.  Freytag,  vol.  ni.  pp.  427  ff. 


THE  HISTORIC  BACKGROUND.  21 

erance.  By  way  of  England  so  many  were 
shipped  to  America  that  for  a  long  time  the  name 
of  Palatine  was  used  as  a  general  term  for  all 
German  emigrants." 

In  the  above  pages  we  have  gone  somewhat 
into  detail  in  regard  to  the  condition  of  afifairs 
in  the  Palatinate,  inasmuch  as  that  province  fur- 
nished by  far  the  largest  contingent  of  the  Ger- 
man emigration  to  Pennsylvania.  Many  of  the 
statements  made,  however,  apply  equally  to 
Wiirtemberg,  Zweibriicken,  and  others  of  the 
petty  principalities  in  the  neighborhood  of  the 
Palatinate.-i  The  whole  of  South  Germany 
had  suffered  from  the  Thirty  Years'  War,  hence 
the  same  conditions  which  led  to  emigration — 
poverty,  tyranny,  and  religious  intolerance — ex- 
isted everywhere,  each  province  having  in  addi- 
tion its  local  causes. 

There  is  one  country,  however,  which  fur- 
nished a  very  large  contingent  to  the  emigration 
to  Pennsylvania,  and  which  was  free  from  the 

^^  One  or  two  facts  will  illustrate  the  condition  of  Wiirtem- 
berg after  the  Thirty  Years'  War.  Before  that  event  Stuttgart 
had  8200  inhabitants  ;  in  less  than  two  years  5370  had  died  ; 
the  total  population  of  the  land  in  1634  was  414,536  ;  in  1639 
there  were  not  100,000.  (Illust.  Geschichte  von  Wiirtemberg, 
p.  512.)  For  a  graphic  description  of  the  destruction  of  Zwei- 
briicken see  Heintz,  Pfalz-Zweibriicken  wahrend  des  dreissig- 
jahrigen  Kricges. 


12  THE  HISTORIC  BACKGROUND. 

horrors  of  the  Thirty  Years'  War.  That  is 
Switzerland.  To  a  certain  degree  this  war  was 
for  that  country  a  blessing.  Untouched  them- 
selves, the  Swiss  received  thousands  of  fugitives 
from  the  neighboring  lands.  This  influx  of  people 
raised  the  price  of  land  and  brought  about  a  veri- 
table "  boom."  The  contrast  between  unhappy 
Germany  and  peaceful  Switzerland  is  thus  graphi- 
cally portrayed  by  a  German  traveller:  "  I  then 
came  to  a  land  where  there  was  no  fear  of  enemies 
or  of  being  plundered,  no  thought  of  losing  life 
and  property;  where  every  one  lived  in  peace 
and  joy  under  his  own  vine  and  fig-tree;  so 
that  I  looked  upon  this  land,  rough  as  it  seemed, 
as  an  earthly  paradise."  22  The  devastation  of 
war,  then,  did  not  prepare  the  way  for  later  emi- 
gration in  Switzerland  as  it  had  done  in  South 
Germany;  and  yet  real  and  sufihcient  causes  for 
this  emigration  existed.  While  Switzerland  has 
ever  been  regarded  as  the  ideal  land  of  freedom, 
it  was,  after  all,  up  to  the  present  century,  but 
little  more  than  an  aristocracy.  The  emoluments 
of  office  in  such  cities  as  Berne  and  Zurich 
were  in  the  hands  of  a  few  patrician  families, 
which,  generation  after  generation,  held  all 
of^ces.23     The  lower  classes,   those  who  tilled 

2'  Dandliker,  Geschichte  dcr  Scliwciz,  n.  p.  694. 

"  This  was  especially  true  of  the  eighteenth  century  ;    cf. 


THE  HISTORIC  BACKGROUND.  23 

the  soil  and  who  labored  with  their  hands,  had 
no  share  in  the  government  and  but  little  real 
freedom.  The  feudal  system,  which  had  existed 
for  a  thousand  years  in  Switzerland,  was  not 
abolished  till  the  French  Revolution  swept  it 
away  with  many  other  relics  of  the  past.  During 
the  period  which  we  are  studying,  tithes,  land- 
tax,  body-service,  and  all  the  other  accompani- 
ments of  the  feudal  relations  between  peasant 
and  lord  flourished  apparently  as  vigorously  as 
ever.2-*  Add  to  this  the  traffic  in  soldiers  which 
forms  so  deep  a  blot  on  the  fair  name  of  Switzer- 
land, and  which  was  a  constant  source  of  dis- 
content among  the  people,^^  and  we  may  have 
some  idea  of  the  secular  causes  of  Swiss  emigra- 
tion during  the  last  century. 

Dandliker,  n.  pp.  632  and  710;  HI.  p.  30:  "Von  freiem 
Verfugungsrecht  der  Gemeinden,  vonfreierWahl  der  Gemeinde- 
behorden  war  iioch  keine  Rede";  and  again:  "Allgemein 
war  ferner  jener  Zeit  eigen :  der  Zug  zur  Aristokratie. 
AUerorten  haufte  sich  die  Gewalt,  tatsachlich  oder  Verfassungs- 
gemass,  in  den  Handen  Weniger." 

"Dandliker,  ni.  p.  33  :  "Das  Feudal-  oder  Lehenswesen, 
.  .  .  voile  tausend  Jahre  lang  hatte  es  sich  als  Grundlage  der 
Staats-  und  Gesellschaftsordnung  erhalten  konnen.  .  .  .  Es  be- 
hauptete  noch  immer  seine  voile  Herrschaft  in  wirtlischaft- 
lichen  und  socialen  Verhaltnissen,  zum  Teil  auch  in  der 
Staatsorganisation. " 

'5  At  the  end  of  the  War  of  the  Austrian  Succession  (1740)  no 
fewer  than  seventy  to  eighty  thousand  Swiss  soldiers  were  in 
foreign  service;  and  the  same  number  took  part  in  the  Seven 
Years'  War  (1756-63).     (Dandliker,  in.  p.  19.) 


24  THE  HISTORIC  BACKGROUND. 

The  chief  cause,  however,  of  the  earhest  Swiss 
emigration  to  Pennsylvania  was  of  a  re- 
ligious nature.  We  shall  have  occasion  later 
to  speak  of  the  origin  of  the  ]\Iennon- 
ites,  who  form  so  striking  a  feature  of  the 
religious  life  of  the  Pennsylvania  of  to-day. 
During  the  fifteenth  and  sixteenth  centuries  the 
annals  of  Berne  and  Zurich  contain  frequent 
references  to  the  measures  taken  to  root  out 
this  sect,  many  of  whose  doctrines  were  distaste- 
ful to  the  state  churches  founded  by  Zwingli, 
especially  their  refusal  to  bear  arms.^^  From 
their  first  appearance  in  Switzerland  in  the  early 
decades  of  the  sixteenth  century,  the  ]\Iennonites 
were  the  victims  of  systematic  persecution  on 
the  part  of  their  Reformed  brethren;  even  the 
death-penalty  being  inflicted  on  a  number,  while 
others  w-ere  thrown  into  prison,  exiled,  or — in 
the  case  of  a  few — sold  to  the  Turks  as  galley- 
slaves. 

From  time  to  time  single  families  and  indi- 
viduals had  fled  across  the  frontiers  and  sought 

'"  This  is  frequently  given  as  the  reason  for  Berne's  severity 
against  the  Menonnites.  Thus  the  Bernese  ambassador  or 
agent  in  Holland  excused  the  persecution  of  the  Mennonites  on 
the  ground  that  the  only  possibility  of  defending  a  state  de- 
pended on  the  power  of  the  sovereign  to  call  the  subjects  to 
arms  in  case  of  need,  etc.  (Miiller,  Geschichte  der  Bernischen 
Taufer,  p.  260.) 


THE  HISTORIC  BACKGROUND.  25 

refuge  in  the  Palatinate,  where  Mennonite  com- 
munities had  existed  since  1527.  In  1671  the 
first  considerable  emigration  took  place,  when  a 
party  of  seven  hundred  persons  left  their  native 
land  and  settled  on  the  banks  of  the  Rhine. 
These  were  afterwards  the  supporters  of  their 
compatriots,  who  willingly  or  unwillingly  left 
Switzerland  in  the  following  years.  These  Pala- 
tine Swiss  had  to  suffer  the  same  trials  as  their 
neighbors,  but  were  treated  with  even  more  in- 
tolerance. Poverty,  floods,  failure  of  crops,  the 
billeting  of  foreign  soldiers,  all  contributed  to 
make  their  lot  intolerable,  and  finally  induced 
large  numbers  of  them  to  join  their  brethren  in 
Switzerland  in  the  movement  which  resulted  in 
the  settlement  on  the  Pecjuea  in  Lancaster 
County. 

The  above-mentioned  causes,  both  secular 
and  religious,  produced  a  widespread  discontent 
and  fostered  the  prevalent  desire  for  emigration 
in  Switzerland.^'''  That  it  reached  important  di- 
mensions may  be  inferred  from  the  fact  that 
Zurich  passed  decrees  against  it  almost  annually 

'■^  "Die  Armut  in  manchen  Gegenden  und  dazu  die  plotzlich 
eintretenden  Notzeiten  zwangen  jetzt  im  achtzehnten  Jahr- 
hundert  zuerst  die  Schweizer  zur  Auswanderung.  Vereinzelt 
war  diese  zwar  sclion  im  siebzehnten  Jahrhundert  vorgekom- 
men,  wurde  aber  erst  jetzt  haufiger  und  allgemeiner."  (DUnd- 
liker,  vol.  Ul.  p.  186.) 


2  6  THE  HISTORIC  BACKGROUND. 

from  1734  to  1744;  even  Berne,  which  had  pre- 
viously sent  Michel  and  Graffenricd  to  prepare 
the  way  for  a  Swiss  colony  in  Georgia,  changed 
its  policy,  and  in  1736  and  1742  published  decrees 
forbidding  emigration.^*^ 

In  the  preceding  pages  we  have  endeavored  to 
give  the  historical  events  and  social  conditions 
which  form  the  background  to  German  emigra- 
tion to  Pennsylvania,  and  without  which  that 
emigration  would  never  have  taken  place.  Of 
course  in  addition  to  these  there  were  many 
other  direct  and  indirect  causes,  such  as  Pcnn's 
travels  to  Germany ,2^  and  the  pamphlets  descrip- 
tive of  his  "  Holy  Experiment,"  which  he  after- 
wards caused  to  be  published  in  English,  Dutch, 
and  German,  and  which  were  scattered  broadcast 
over  South  Germany.  So,  too,  the  efforts  of 
Queen  Anne  and  her  Golden  Book,  which 
brought  that  flood  of  Palatines  to  London,  in 
1709,  out  of  which  were  to  come  the  settlements 
on  the  Schoharie  and  the  Mohawk,  and  later 
those   on    the   Tulpehocken,   in    Berks   County, 

**  See  Good,  The  German  Reformed  Church  in  the  United 
States,  p.  172.  Speaking  of  the  party  which  left  Ziirich  in 
1732,  Salomon  Hess,  one  of  tlie  pastors  of  that  city  says  : 
"There  was  no  good  reason  at  that  time  for  them  to  leave 
their  fatherland,  but  they  were  seized  by  an  insane  desire  to 
go  to  America."     (Dubbs,  Ger.  Ref.  Ch.  p.  253.) 

«»  See  Chapter  II. 


THE  HISTORIC  BACKGROUND.  27 

Pa.     George  II.  also  published  proposals  aimed 
directly  at  the  Mennonites  in  the  Palatinate. 

As  in  all  other  affairs  of  life,  so  in  this  matter 
of  emigration,  personal  work  undoubtedly  did 
much.  We  know  that  when  the  Mennonites  set- 
tled in  Lancaster  County,  their  first  care  was  to 
send  one  of  their  number  back  to  the  Old  World, 
in  order  to  bring  over  their  friends  and  brethren. 
We  read  in  Christopher  Sauer's  letter  to  Gov- 
ernor Denny  in  1755:  "And  when  I  came  to 
this  province,  and  found  everything  to  the  con- 
trary from  where  I  came  from,  I  wrote  largely 
to  all  my  friends  and  acquaintances  of  the  civil 
and  religious  liberty,  privileges,  etc.,  and  of 
the  goodness  I  have  heard  and  seen,  and  my 
letters  were  printed  and  reprinted,  and  provoked 
many  thousand  people  to  come  to  this  province, 
and  many  thanked  the  Lord  for  it  and  desired 
their  friends  also  to  come  here."  ^° 

Speculation,  too,  entered  as  a  powerful  stimu- 
lant to  emigration.  As  soon  as  the  ship-owners 
saw  the  large  sources  of  profit  in  thus  transport- 
ing emigrants,  they  employed  every  means  of  at- 
tracting them.  Thence  arose  the  vicious  class  of 
"  Newlanders  "  described  in  Chapter  III. 

Such  are  some  of  the  leading  causes  of  pre- 
30  Brumbaugh,  A  History  of  the  Brethren,  p.  377. 


2S  THE  HISTORIC  BACKGROUND. 

Revolutionary  German  emigration  to  Pennsyl- 
vania, general  and  particular,  direct  and  indi- 
rect. But  even  all  these  causes  might  not  have 
been  effective  were  it  not  for  the  innate  propen- 
sity to  emigration  of  the  German  character,  that 
*'  Wanderlust "  (so  strangely  combined  with 
love  for  home  and  country)  that  has  been  the  dis- 
tinguishing trait  of  German  character  from  the 
dawn  of  their  history  down  to  the  present.^^  It 
was  this  trait  which  has  ever  led  them  to  leave 
their  native  country  when  scarcity  of  land, 
social  and  religious  conditions,  famine  and  war 
have  furnished  the  immediate  occasion.  It  was 
this  which  led  to  the  vast  movement  of  the 
"  Volkerwanderung  "  in  the  fourth  and  fifth  cen- 
turies, and  to  the  colonization  of  Prussia  and 
Silesia  in  the  thirteenth  and  fourteenth  centu- 
ries ;  ^-  it  was  this  that  in  our  own  centur}'  has 
sent  successive  waves  of  German  immigrants  to 
populate  the  Western  States;  it  was  this  that  in 
the  eighteenth  century  sent  the  Palatines  and 
Swiss  to  Pennsylvania,  there  to  take  root,  and 
to   build   new  homes   for   themselves   and   their 

^1  "Die  Liebe  zur  Heimath  und  daneben  dor  unerhiJrte 
Wandertrieb."     (Freytag,  vol.  i.  p.  60.) 

""Seit  in  den  Kreuzziigcn  der  alte  Wandertrieb  der 
Deutschen  wieder  erwacht  war,  und  Ilunderttausande  von 
Landleuten  mit  Weib  und  Kind,  mit  Karren  und  Hunden  nach 
dem  goldencn  Osten  zogen."     (Ibid.,  vol.  n.  p.  I57-) 


THE  HISTORIC  BACKGHOUND.  29 

children  and  their  children's  children.  How 
well  they  succeeded  in  this  we  shall  try  to  show 
in  the  following  chapters. 


CHAPTER    II. 

THE    SETTLING    OF    THE    GERMAN    COUNTIES    OF 
PENNSYLVANIA. 

It  would  be  an  interesting  and  certainly  a 
valuable  thing  to  study  in  detail  all  the  facts  con- 
cerning the  whole  subject  of  German  innnigra- 
tion  to  America,  or  even  such  immigration  in 
the  eighteenth  century.  There  were  colonies  in 
New  York,  New  Jersey,  Maryland,  Virginia, 
Georgia,  Louisiana,  North  and  South  Carolina, 
and  even  so  far  north  as  Maine  and  Nova 
Scotia.^  The  German  settlements  in  Pennsyl- 
vania, however,  were  more  numerous  and  more 
important  than  those  of  all  the  other  States  com- 
bined. In  the  other  States  the  Germans  formed 
but  a  small  percentage  of  the  population,  and 
have  influenced  but  little  the  character  of  the 
State  development;  while  those  in  Pennsylvania 
have  from  the  beginning  down  to  the  present 
day  formed  at  least  one-third  of  the  population, 
and  have  undoubtedly  exercised  a  profound  in- 

'  For  bcK)ks  on  this  subject  see  Bibliography. 

30 


GERMAN   COUNTIES   OF  PENNSYLVANIA.      31 

fluence  on  the  development  of  the  Quaker  Com- 
monwealth and  of  the  neighboring  States,  es- 
pecially those  to  the  south  and  west.  Many  of 
the  facts  cited  in  this  book  apply  equally  well, 
however,  to  the  Germans  of  New  York,  Mary- 
land, Virginia,  etc.^ 

In  the  present  chapter  an  efifort  is  made  to 
give  a  general  view  of  the  streams  of  immigra- 
tion which  flowed  into  Pennsylvania  between 
the  years  1683  and'  1775.  We  may  divide  this 
period  into  three  parts:  first,  from  1683  to  1710, 
or  from  the  founding  of  Germantown  to  the 
coming  of  the  Swiss  Mennonites;  second,  from 
1 710  to  1727,  the  year  when  the  immigration 
assumed  large  proportions  and  when  official  sta- 
tistics began  to  be  published;  the  third  period 
extends  to  the  outbreak  of  the  Revolution, 
which  put  an  end  to  all  immigration  for  a  num- 
ber of  years.^  During  the  first  of  the  above 
periods  the  numbers  were  very  small;  the  sec- 
ond  period    marks    a   considerable   increase    in 

'Indeed  in  common  parlance  the  expression  "Pennsylvania 
Dutch"  includes  the  Germans  of  Maryland  and  Virginia. 
Those  in  New  York  are  often  confused  with  their  Holland 
neighbors,  both  by  themselves  and  others. 

'  This  book  does  not  contemplate  the  discussion  of  German 
immigration  after  the  Revolution  ;  for  this  phase  of  the  subject 
see  Loher,  Geschichte  und  Zustande  der  Deutschen  in  Ame- 
rika,  and  Eckhoff,  In  der  neuen  Heimath. 


32      GERMAN   COUNTIES   OF  PBNNSYLy,4NU. 

numbers,  which  during  the  tliird  period  swell  to 
enormous  size. 

The  Pennsylvania  Germans  may  be  said  to 
have  a  Mayflower,  as  well  as  the  Puritans.  In 
the  year  1683  the  good  ship  Concord  (surely 
an  appropriate  name  when  we  consider  the  prin- 
ciples of  peace  and  harmony  which  marked 
Penn's  "Holy  Experiment"!)  landed  at  Phila- 
delphia,— then  a  straggling  village  of  some  four- 
score houses  and  cottages,'* — having  on  board  a 
small  number  of  German  and  Dutch  Mennonites 
from  Crefeld  and  Kriegsheim.  With  this  little 
group  the  story  of  the  Pennsylvania  Germans  be- 
gins. In  order  to  understand  why  they  thus 
came  to  the  Xcw  World,  we  shall  have  to  note 
some  important  religious  movements  which  cliar- 
acterized  the  seventeenth  century. 

The  Reformation  in  England  gave  rise  to  as 
many  sects  and  parties  as  it  did  on  the  Conti- 
nent. We  may  find  an  analogy  between  the 
Lutheran  Church  and  the  Church  of  England; 
betw^een  the  Reformed  (or  Calvinists)  and  the 
Puritans  (or  Presbyterians);  and  between  the 
Anabaptists  or  Mennonites  and  the  Quakers  and 
Baptists.     This  analogy  is  no  mere  fancy;    we 

"•  Proud,  I.  263.  "  Such  as  they  are,"  adds  Penn,  who  gives 
these  figures  in  a  letter  to  the  Free  Society  of  Traders  in  Lon- 
don. 


GERMAN  COUNTIES   OF  PENNSYLVANIA.      Z?> 

know  the  influence  of  Calvin  on  Puritanism;  the 
Hanoverian  kings  of  England  were  both  Luth- 
erans and  Churchmen  (the  former  in  their  pri- 
vate, the  latter  in  their  official  capacity);  and 
modern  Church  historians  have  declared  that 
it  was  from  the  Mennonites  that  the  General 
Baptist  Church  in  England  sprang;  while  Bar- 
clay says  of  George  Fox,  the  founder  of  the 
Quakers,  "  We  are  compelled  to  view  him  as 
the  unconscious  exponent  of  the  doctrines,  prac- 
tice, and  discipline  of  the  ancient  and  stricter 
party  of  the  Dutch  Mennonites."  ^  Thus,  in  the 
words  of  Judge  Pennypacker,  "  to  the  spread  of 
Mennonite  teachings  in  England  we  therefore 
owe  the  origin  of  the  Quakers  and  the  settlement 
of  Pennsylvania."  ® 

When  William  Penn  became  a  Quaker  he  was 
filled  with  missionary  fervor;  among  his  other 
"labors  in  the  field  of  missions  he  made  two  jour- 
neysto  Holland  and  Germany.  The  second  journey 
was  made  in  1677  and  was  fraught  with  moment- 
ous consequences  for  the  subjectwhichwe  are  dis- 
cussing. On  July  26th  of  the  above  year,  Penn 
with  several  friends — among  whom  were  the 
well-known  George  Fox,  Robert  Barclay,  and 
George  Keith — landed  at  Briel  in  Holland,  hav- 

5  Religious  Societies  of  the  Commonwealth,  p.  77. 
8  The  Settlement  of  Germantown,  p.  66. 


34      GERMAN  COUNTIES   OF  PENNSYLl^ANU. 

ing  as  their  object  "  to  extend  tlie  principles  and 
organization  of  the  Quakers  in  IIoHand  and  Ger- 
many."' It  was  not  the  first  time  that  such  efforts 
had  been  made;  as  far  back  as  1655  WilHam 
Ames  had  estabhshed  a  small  Quaker  commu- 
nity at  Kriegsheim,  near  Worms,  in  the  Palati- 
nate; and  later  \\'illiam  Caton,  George  Rolf, 
Benjamin  Furley,"  and  others  had  visited  the 
Palatinate. 

Penn's  visit  to  Germany  coincided  with  the 
great  pietistic  movement  in  that  country.^  The 
causes  of  this  movement  are  partly  to  be  sought 
in  the  wretchedness  and  sufferings  of  the  times, 
and  partly  in  the  stiff  formalism  into  which  the 
Church  had  fallen.  The  comfort  and  satisfac- 
tion that  could  not  be  found  in  Church  and 
State  were  sought  for  in  personal  communion 
with  the  Holy  Spirit.  Men  turned  from  the  cold- 
ness of  dogmatic  theology  to  the  ecstasies  of  re- 
ligious emotion.  In  the  words  of  Spener,  the 
great  apostle  of  pietism,  religion  was  brought 
"  from  the  head  to  the  heart."  This  movement 
spread  in  a  great  tidal  wave  of  excitement  over 

'  Furley  afterwards  became  Penn's  agent  and  played  an  im- 
portant part  in  inducing  German  emigration  to  Pennsylvania. 

*  Penn  himself  says:  "And  I  must  tell  you  that  there  is  a 
breathing,  hungering,  seeking  people,  solitarily  scattered  up 
and  down  the  great  land  of  Germany,  where  the  Lord  hath 
sent  me."     (Works,  I^ndon,  1726,  vol.  I.  p.  69.) 


GERMAN  COUNTIES   OF  PENNSYLy/INIA.      35 

Germany,  Switzerland,  Denmark,  Sweden,  and 
even  England.  The  "  collegia  pietatis,"  or  the 
meetings  for  the  study  of  the  Bible, — 'One  might 
call  them  adult  Bible-classes, — were  held  every- 
where.^ It  was  to  friends  in  the  spirit,  then,  that 
Penn  came.  He  was  everywhere  welcomed  by 
kindred  souls,  and  their  meetings  were  deeply 
marked  by  the  outpouring  of  the  Holy  Spirit.^ *^ 

The  places  visited  by  Penn  which  are  of  in- 
terest to  us  in  our  present  discussion  are  Frank- 
fort-on-the-Main,  Kriegsheim,  near  Worms,  on 
the  Upper  Rhine,  and  Miilheim-on-the-Ruhr; 
I  have  not  been  able  to  find  any  evidence  that 
he  visited  Crefeld, — a  city  not  far  from  the  fron- 
tiers of  Holland, — from  which,  as  well  as  from 
Miilheim,  the  earliest  settlers  of  Germantown 
came, 

Penn  reached  Frankfort  on  August  20th,  and 
there  met  a  number  of  pietists,  among  whom 
were  Dr.  Wilhelm  Petersen,  his  wife  Johanna 

^  This  was  not  a  movement  of  secession  from  the  established 
churches  ;  among  the  pietists  were  Lutherans,  Reformed,  and 
even  Catholics.  Spener  was  a  Lutheran  and  opposed  to  sec- 
tarianism. For  an  interesting  summary  of  pietism  see  Freytag. 
One  of  the  well-known  literary  results  of  it  is  Jung-Stilling's 
Lebensgeschichte. 

^^  He  tells  how  at  Frankfort  "people  of  considerable  note, 
both  of  Calvinists  and  Lutherans,"  received  them  "  with  glad- 
ness of  heart  and  embraced  our  testimony  with  a  broken  and 
reverent  spirit. "     (Works,  vol.  i.  p.  64.) 


36      GHRM^N   COUNTIES   OF  PENNSYLV/iNIA. 

Eleonora  von  Morlau,"  Daniel  Behagel,  Caspar 
Merian,  Johann  Lorentz,  Jacob  van  de  Wall,  and 
others,  who  afterwards  became  the  founders  of 
the  Frankfort  Company,  and  thus  the  fautors  of 
German  emigration  to  Pennsylvania.  Their 
names  certainly  deserve  to  be  remembered. 

After  leaving  Frankfort,  Penn  went  to  Kriegs- 
heim,  where,  as  before  stated,  a  little  company 
of  German  Quakers  had  held  together  since  the 
visit  of  Ames  and  Rolf,  some  twenty  years  be- 
fore. Here,  as  he  tells  us  in  his  Journal,^-  he 
found,  to  his  great  joy,  a  "  meeting  of  tender 
and  faithful  people,"  and,  after  writing  a  letter  to 
Karl  Ludwig  on  the  danger  of  religious  intol- 
erance, he  returned  to  Holland  and  England. 

In  1681  Penn  received  from  Charles  H.,  in 
payment  of  a  debt  of  £16,000  sterling  which  the 
government  owed  his  father.  Admiral  Penn,  the 
grant  of  an  immense  tract  of  territory,  situated 
between  New  Jersey  and  iMaryland,^^  to  which 
the  king — against  Penn's  own  wishes,  however 

"  For  interesting  autobiographical  extracts  from  the  Lives 
of  both  Petersen  and  his  wife  see  Frcytag,  Bilder  aus  der 
deutschen  Vergangenhcit,  vol.  iv.  pp.  29  ff. 

"  Works,  vol.  I.  p.  72. 

'*  The  indefinite  language  in  which  this  grant  was  couched 
led  afterwards  to  long  disputes  between  Pennsylvania  and 
Maryland,  and  was  the  occasion  of  the  contest  known  as 
Cresap's  War.  in  wlii  h  thf  Ciermans  of  the  present  county  01 
York  took  a  prominent  part. 


GERMAN  COUNTIES   OF  PENNSYLVANIA.      37 

— gave  the  name  of  Pennsylvania.  Penn  imme- 
diately planned  what  he  called  a  "  Holy  Experi- 
ment "  in  government,  a  State  in  which  religious 
as  well  as  political  freedom  should  be  granted  to 
all.  He  went  about  at  once  to  attract  colonists 
to  his  new  colony,  and  soon  after  the  formal  con- 
firmation of  the  king's  grant  there  appeared  in 
London  a  slender  pamphlet  entitled  "  Some 
Account  of  the  Province  of  Pennsylvania  in 
America,"  in  which  the  advantages  of  the  new 
State  were  set  forth  in  a  favorable  light.  Almost 
at  the  same  time  a  German  translation  was  pub- 
lished in  Amsterdam,  entitled  "  Eine  Nachricht 
wegen  der  Landschaft  Pennsylvania  in  Amer- 
ica." 14 

Francis  Daniel  Pastorius,  who  may  be  called 
the  Bradford  of  the  Germantown  settlement, 
writes  in  an  autobiographical  memoir  as  follows: 
"  Upon  my  return  to  Frankfort  in  1682  "  (he 
had  been  travelling  extensively  through  Europe, 
chiefly  for  pleasure),  "  I  was  glad  to  enjoy  the 
company  of  my  former  acquaintances  and  Chris- 
tian friends,  Dr.  Schiitz,  Eleonora  von  Merlau, 
and  others,  who  sometimes  made  mention  of 
William  Penn  of  Pennsylvania,  and  showed  me 
letters  from  Benjamin  Furley,  also  a  printed  re- 

1*  The  same  translation  was  published  in  praiikfoi-t  in  1683, 
as  part  of  a  larger  work,  "  Diariuni  Europaeum." 


38      GERMAN  COUNTIES   OF  PENNSYLVANM. 

lation  concerning  said  province;  finally  the 
whole  secret  could  not  be  withholden  from  mc 
that  they  had  purchased  twenty-five  thousand 
acres  of  land  in  this  remote  part  of  the  world. 
Some  of  them  entirely  resolved  to  transport 
themselves,  families  and  all.^^  This  begat  such 
a  desire  in  my  soul  to  continue  in  the  society, 
and  with  them  to  lead  a  quiet,  godly,  and  honest 
life  in  a  howling  wilderness,  that  by  several  let- 
ters I  requested  of  my  father  his  consent." 

In  the  mean  time  the  Quakers  and  Mennonites 
of  Kriegsheim  had  heard  of  the  wonderful  pos- 
sessions of  the  quiet  and  gentle  Englishman  who 
had  visited  them  a  few  years  before,  and  had  read 
how  under  his  laws  liberty  of  conscience  was  prom- 
ised to  all  who  should  settle  in  the  new  colony. 
Comparing  this  prospect  with  their  own  unhappy 
condition,  they  immediately  resolved  to  seek  re- 
lief in  Penn's  land.^*'  By  this  time  Pastorius 
had  received  the  consent  of  his  father  (together 
with  a  sum  of  money),  and  thereupon  went  to 

**  None  of  tliem,  however,  did  this. 

'*  Their  motives  were  undoubtedly  identical  with  those  thus 
expressed  by  Pastorius  :  "After  I  had  sufficiently  seen  the 
European  provinces  and  countries  and  the  threatening  move- 
ments of  war,  and  had  taken  to  heart  the  dire  ciiaiiges  and 
disturbances  of  the  Fatherland.  I  was  impelled,  through  a  spe- 
cial guidance  from  the  Almighty,  to  go  to  Pennsylvania,"  etc. 
(Pennypacker,  Settlement  of  Gcrmantown.  p.  75.) 


GERM/fN   COUNTIES   OF  PENNSYLVANU.       39 

Kriegsheim,  where  he  saw  the  leaders  of  the 
intending  settlers,  Peter  Schumacher,  Gerhard 
Hendricks,  and  others,  and  with  them  discussed 
the  preparations  necessary  for  the  long  journey. 
He  then  descended  the  Rhine  to  Crefeld,  where 
he  conferred  with  Thones  Kunders,  Dirck  Her- 
man, the  Op  den  GraelT  brothers,  and  others,  who 
followed  him  across  the  ocean  six  weeks  later. 

Pastorius  thus  became  the  agent  of  the  Frank- 
fort Company,  of  the  Kriegsheimers  and  of  the 
Crefelders.  He  sailed  ahead  of  the  others,  June 
6,  1683,  and  arrived  in  Philadelphia  August  16, 
where  he  was  heartily  welcomed  by  Penn.^" 

'"  Francis  Daniel  Pastorius  was  no  ordinary  man  ;  indeed  it 
is  probable  that  there  were  few  men  in  America  at  that  time 
equal  to  him  in  learning.  He  was  born  in  Sommerhausen, 
Germany,  Sept.  26,  165 1,  studied  at  the  Universities  of  Stras- 
burg,  Basel,  Erfurt,  Jena,  and  Altdorf,  taking  a  degree  in  law 
at  the  latter  place  in  1675.  Soon  after  he  travelled  in  Holland, 
England,  France,  and  Switzerland,  bringing  up  at  Frankfort 
in  1682,  as  noted  above.  He  was  well  acquainted  with  Greek, 
Latin,  French,  Dutch,  English,  Italian,  and  Spanish,  as  may 
be  seen  from  his  commonplace-book  written  macaronically  in 
these  various  languages  and  entitled  the  "Beehive."  Ex- 
tracts from  this  book  have  been  published  in  the  Americana 
Germanica.  See  also  Pennypacker,  pp.  109-114.  Pastorius 
built  for  himself  a  small  house,  over  the  door  of  which  he 
wrote:  "  Parva  domus  sed  arnica  bonis:  procul  este  profani." 
Whereat,  he  says,  "  Unser  Gouverneur,  als  er  mich  besuchte, 
einen  Lachen  aufschluge  und  mich  ferner  fortzubauen  an- 
frischete."    (Beschreibung  von  Pennsylvanien,  ed.  by  Kapp.  p. 


4°      GERMAN  COUNTIES  OF  PENNSYLVANIA. 

Pastorius  was  the  advance  courier  of  the  pros- 
pective settlers  of  Germantown.  July  24th  thir- 
teen men  together  with  their  families  sailed  for 
the  New  World  on  board  the  Concord,  reach- 
ing Philadelphia  October  6,  1683,  some  two 
months  after  Pastorius  himself.^**  A  short  time 
thereafter  all  hands  were  busy  getting  settled  for 
the  winter  in  the  new  colony,  then  separated 
from  Philadelphia  by  a  stretch  of  primeval  for- 
est broken  only  by  a  narrow  bridle-path. 

23.)    Whittier  wrote  what  he  considered  his  best  poem,  "The 
Pennsylvania  Pilgrim,"  on  Pastorius  : 

"  Simply,  as  fits  my  theme,  in  homely  rhyme 
I  sing  the  blue-eyed  German  Spener  taught,"  etc. 

(Works,  vol.  I.  pp.  322  flf.) 

*'  One  single  American  poet  has  devoted  a  few  lines  to  the 
arrival  of  this  band  of  German  pilgrims.  In  Whittier's 
"  Pennsylvania  Hall  "  the  following  lines  are  found. 

"  Meek-hearted  Woolman  and  that  brother-band. 
The  sorrowing  exiles  from  their  "  Fatherland." 
Leaving  their  home  in  Krieslieim's  bowers  of  vine, 
And  the  blue  beauty  of  their  glorious  Rhine, 
To  seek  amidst  our  solemn  depths  of  wood 
Ereedom  from  man  and  holy  peace  with  God ; 
Who  first  of  all  their  testimonial  gave 
Against  tlie  oppressor,  for  the  outcast  slave. 
Is  it  a  dream  that  such  as  these  look  down 
And  with  their  blessings  our  rejoicings  crown  ?  " 

(Works,  v..].  III.  p.  58.) 

The  reference  in  the  eighth  and  niiitli  lines  is  to  the  protest 
against  slavery  made  to  the  monthly  meeting  of  the  Quakers, 
April  18,  1688,  by  Pastorius,  Gerhard  Hendricks,  and  the  two 
Op  den  Graeff  brothers.  Pennypacker  (p.  197)  has  rojirinted 
this  must  interesting  document. 


GERMAN   COUNTIES  OF  PENNSYLVANIA.      41 

Pastorius  was  no  mere  dreamer,  but  an  active 
and  able  man.  Under  his  supervision  the  land 
was  soon  cleared,  houses  built,  and  a  prosperous 
community  founded.  That  they  had  many  hard- 
ships to  suffer  at  first  goes  without  saying.  Ar- 
riving so  late  in  the  year,  they  had  only  time  to 
build  cellars  and  huts  in  which  "  they  passed  the 
year  with  much  hardship."  Pastorius  says  peo- 
ple made  a  pun  on  the  name  of  the  settlement, 
calling  it  "  Armentown,"  because  of  lack  of  sup- 
plies. "  It  could  not  be  described,"  he  continues, 
"  nor  will  it  be  believed  by  coming  generations, 
in  what  want  and  need  and  with  what  Christian 
contentment  and  persistent  industry  the  German 
township  started." 

Yet  this  state  of  want  soon  gave  way  to  one  of 
comparative  comfort.  On  October  22,  1684, 
William  Streypers  (who  had  written  to  his 
brother  the  year  before  for  provisions),  writes: 
"  I  have  been  busy  and  made  a  brave  dwelling- 
house,  and  under  it  a  cellar  fit  to  live  in ;  and  T 
have  so  much  grain,  such  as  Indian  corn  and 
buckwheat,  that  this  winter  I  shall  be  better  off 
than  I  was  last  year."  October  12th  of  the  same 
year  Cornelius  Bom  wrote  to  Rotterdam  :  "  I 
have  here  a  shop  of  many  kinds  of  goods  and 
edibles.  Sometimes  I  ride  out  with  merchandise, 
and   sometimes   bring   something   back,    mostly 


42      GERMAN  COUNTIES  OF  PENNSYLVANIA. 

from  the  Indians,  and  deal  with  them  in  many 
ways.  ...  I  have  no  rent  or  tax  or  excise  to  pay. 
I  have  a  cow  which  gives  plenty  of  milk,  a  horse 
to  ride  around ;  my  pigs  increase  rapidly,  so  that 
in  the  summer  I  had  seventeen,  where  at  first  I 
had  only  two.  I  have  many  chickens  and  geese, 
and  a  garden,  and  shall  next  year  have  an 
orchard,  if  I  remain  well,  so  that  my  wife  and  I 
are  in  good  spirits." 

We  have  dwelt  thus  in  detail  on  the  settlement 
of  Germantown,  on  account  of  its  importance  as 
the  pioneer  of  all  German  settlements  in  Amer- 
ica. Moreover,  we  are  fortunately  in  condition, 
owing  to  the  labors  of  Seidensticker  and  Penny- 
packer,  to  follow  the  movement,  step  by  step, 
from  its  first  inception  in  the  old  Kaiserstadt  on 
the  banks  of  the  Main  to  the  infant  city  of  Broth- 
erly Love  in  the  New  World.  The  rest  of  this 
chapter  must  be  given  more  briefly. 

Letters  like  the  above  undoubtedly  influenced 
others  to  emigrate,  for  we  read  in  the  annals  of 
the  settlement  of  new  arrivals  every  year.  The 
only  considerable  addition,  however,  which  we 
find  in  the  last  years  of  the  century  was  in  1694, 
when  an  interesting  band  of  mystics,  forty  in 
number,  settled  on  the  banks  of  the  Wissahickon, 
under  the  superintendence  of  Johann  Kclpius,  a 


GERM/iN   COUNTIES   OF  PENNSYLVANIA.      43 

man  of  great  learning,  though  full  of  vagaries. i'' 
Their  object  in  coming  to  the  New  World  was  to 
await  the  coming  of  the  Lord,  which  they  firmly 
believed  would  occur  at  the  turn  of  the  century. 
In  their  hermitage  on  the  banks  of  the  Wissa- 
hickon  they  cultivated  physical  and  spiritual  per- 
fection,   studied    and    taught;  ^^     among    other 

''Arnold  (Kirchen-  und  Ketzer-Historie,  vol.  n.  p.  1104), 
under  the  heading  "  Mehrere  Zeugen  der  Wahrhcit,"  speaks 
as  follows  :  ''  Heinrich  Bernard  Coster,  Daniel  Falckner,  Joh. 
Kclpius  und  M.  Peter  Schaffer  samt  andern  die  nach  Pensyl- 
vanien  gezogen,  Briefe  und  Schrifften  aus  America  zu  uns 
iibergesandt  samt  ilirem  tapffern  Glaubens-Kampff,  und  wie 
sie  sich  durcli  alle  Secten  herdurch  geschlagen  urn  die  Frey- 
heit  in  Clnisto  zu  erhalten." 

The  real  leader  of  this  colony,  however,  was  Joh.  Jacoo 
Zimmermann,  —  "ein  grundgelehrter  Astrologus,  Magus,  Ca- 
balista  und  Prediger  aus  dem  Wiirtembergerlande,"  who  had 
resolved  to  forsake  "das  undankbare  Europam  "  and  with  wife 
and  family  and  forty  companions  to  go  to  America,  but  who 
died  at  Rotterdam  on  the  eve  of  his  departure.  (Arnold, 
vol.  II.  p.  1 105.) 

Whittier  (in  hi^  "Pennsylvania  Pilgrim")  speaks  of 

"  Paitifiil  Kelpius  from  his  hermit  den 
By  Wissaliickon,  maddest  of  good  men, 
Dreamed  o'er  the  chiliast  dreams  of  Petersen." 

20  ^Yg  ggt  a  glimpse  of  the  character  and  the  ideals  of  these 
men  in  the  following  words  written  by  (jne  of  them  :  "What 
pleases  me  here  [Pennsjdvania]  is  that  one  can  be  peasant, 
scholar,  priest,  and  nobleman  at  the  same  time,"  "To  be  a 
peasant  and  nothing  else  is  a  sort  of  cattle-life;  to  be  a  scholar 
and  nnihing  else,  such  as  in  Europe,  is  a  morbid  and  self- 
indulgent  existence."  (Penn.  Mag.,  vol.  XI.)  There  is  a  singular 


44      GERMAN   COUNTIES   OF  PENNSYtyANM. 

things  they  built  an  astronomical  tower,  from 
which  they  kept  constant  watch  for  the  signs  of 
the  coming  of  Christ.^i  This  community  lasted 
only  a  few  years,  its  logical  successor  being  the 
Ephrata  community.22 

The  second  period  begins  with  the  advent  of 
the  S^^•iss  Mennonites  in  1710.  This  movement 
without  doubt  is  closely  connected  with  the  set- 
tlement of  Germantown.  The  relations  between 
the  ^lennonites  of  Holland  and  Switzerland  had 
always  been  very  close.  Twice  had  the  former 
made  formal  protest  to  Berne  and  Zurich  in  re- 
gard to  the  persecution  of  their  brethren;    they 

resemblance  between  this  community  of  scholars  and  the  Panti- 
socracy  dreamed  of  by  Coleridge  and  Southey  one  hundred 
years  later,  according  to  which  "on  the  banks  of  the  Susque- 
hanna was  to  be  founded  a  brotherly  community,  where 
selfishness  was  to  be  extinguished  and  the  virtues  were  to  reign 
supreme." 

*'  Kclpius  died  before  1709.  He  believed  that  lie  was  to  be 
taken  up  into  heaven  alive  like  Elijah,  and  was  bitterly  dis- 
appointed when  he  felt  the  approach  of  death,  and  the  chariot 
of  fire  did  not  appear.  At  his  fimeral,  the  body  was  buried 
as  the  sun  was  setting,  and  a  snow-white  dove  was  released 
Heavenward,  while  the  Brethren,  looking  upward  with  up- 
lifted hands,  repeated  thrice,  "  Gott  gebc  ihm  eine  selige 
Auferstehung."     (See  Sachse,  German  Pietists,  p.  248.) 

"  It  was  Conrad  Mutthai,  one  of  the  last  survivors  of  the 
Hermitage  on  the  Ridge,  who  advised  Conrad  Beissel  to  go  to 
the  Conestoga,  tliere  to  live  a  life  of  contemplation  and 
solitude. 


GERMAN  COUNTIES  OF  PENNSYLVANIA.      45 

had  subscribed  large  sums  of  money  to  alleviate 
the  sufferings  of  the  exiled  Swiss  in  the  Palat- 
inate, and  a  society  had  been  formed  for  the 
purpose  of  affording  systematic  assistance  to  all 
their  suffering  fellow  believers.  It  was  through 
them,  undoubtedly,  that  the  stream  of  Swiss  emi- 
gration was  first  turned  to  Pennsylvania,  where 
the  success  of  Germantown  seemed  to  assure  a 
similar  prosperity  to  all.^^ 

We  have  seen  above  how  widespread  the  Ana- 
baptist movement  had  been  in  Switzerland,  es- 
pecially in  the  cantons  of  Zurich  and  Berne.  Of 
all  their  doctrines,  that  of  refusing  to  bear  arms 
was  the  most  obnoxious  to  the  state,  which  de- 
pended on  its  citizens  for  defence  in  time  of  ag- 
gression. It  must  be  confessed  that  the  Swiss 
Mennonites  were  the  most  intractable  of  people. 
Exiled  again  and  again,  they  persisted  every 
time  in  returning  to  their  native  land.--*     In  1710 

"  As  early  as  1684  at  least  one  of  the  inhabitants  of  German- 
town  was  a  Swiss,  Joris  Wertmuller  from  Berne  ;  see  letter 
from  him  to  his  brother-in-law  Benedict  Kuntz  in  Pennypacker, 
p.  152.  In  1694  George  Gottschalk  came  from  Lindau  on 
Lake  Constance. 

**  The  condition  and  treatment  of  the  Mennonites  in  Switzer- 
land were  very  much  like  that  of  the  Quakers  in  New  England. 
The  doctrines  of  the  two  sects  were  the  same,  while  the 
Calvinistic  theocracy  of  Massachusetts,  in  its  union  of  Church 
and  State,  closely  resembled  the  government  of  Berne  and 
Zurich.     The  Quakers,   like   the   Mennonites,    were    fond   01 


46      GERMAN  COUNTIES  OF  PENNSYLVANIA. 

the  Canton  of  Berne  itself  made  an  effort  to  get 
rid  of  its  troublesome  sectaries  by  sending  under 
escort  a  large  number  of  them  to  Holland,  hop- 
ing thence  to  deport  them  to  America.  This 
effort  failed  through  the  refusal  of  Holland  and 
England  to  be  a  party  to  such  enforced  emigra- 
tion. 

In  171 1,  however,  the  Mennonites  of  Berne 
were  offered  free  transportation  down  the  Rhine, 
permission  to  sell  their  property,  and  to  take 
their  families  with  them — on  condition,  however, 
that  they  pledge  themselves  never  to  return  to 
Switzerland.  Their  friends  in  Holland  urged 
them  to  do  this,  and  especially  through  the  untir- 
ing efforts  of  the  Dutch  ambassador  in  Switzer- 
land, Johann  Ludwig  Runckel,  the  exportation 
finallv  occurred.25  About  this  verv  time  be^an 
the  settlement  of  Lancaster  County  by  Swiss 
Mennonites,  and  undoubtedly  many  of  the  above 
were  among  them.2<5   In  the  archives  of  Amster- 

public  discussion,  and  could  not  be  out-argued.  Both  were  at 
first  treated  mildly;  both  were  exiled  and  insisted  on  return- 
ing; both  were  flogged,  imprisoned,  and  finally  killed.  (See 
Fiske,  Beginnings  of  New  England,  p.  187.) 

«  Cf.  p.  24. 

'*  The  names  given  by  Miiller  (pp.  307  ff. )  are  identical 
witli  tliose  of  the  Lancaster  County  Swiss,  among  them  being 
Gerber,  Gaumann.  Schiirch,  Galli,  llaldiman,  Biirki,  Rohrer, 
Schallenberger,  Oberli,  Jeggli,  Wisler,   Hauri,   Graf,  Wcnger, 


GERMAN  COUNTIES   OF  PENNSYLVANIA.      47 

dam  we  find  a  letter  of  thanks  to  Holland  written 
by  Martin  Kiindig,  Hans  Herr,  Christian  Herr, 
Martin  Oberholtzer,  Martin  Meili  and  Jacob 
Miiller.  This  letter  was  dated  June  27,  1710,  and 
states  that  they  were  about  to  start  for  the  New 
World.  October  23d  of  the  same  year  we  find  a 
patent  for  ten  thousand  acres  of  land  on  Pequea 
Creek,  Conestogoe  (later  a  part  of  Lancaster 
County,  which  was  not  organized  till  1729), 
made  out  in  the  names  of  Hans  Herr  and  Martin 
Kiindig,  who  acted  as  agents  of  their  country- 
men, some  of  whom  had  already  arrived,  and 
others  of  whom  were  to  come.  No  sooner  had 
these  first  settlers  become  established  than  Mar- 
tin Kiindig  was  sent  back  to  Germany  and  Swit- 
zerland to  bring  over  those  who  wished  to  share 
their  fortune  in  what  was  then  an  impenetrable 
forest,  but  is  now  known  as  the  garden-spot  of 
the  United  States,  Lancaster  County.  Kiindig 
and  Herr  ^~  seem  to  have  been  the  leaders  of  this 

Neukomm,  Fliickiger,  Rubeli,  Riiegsegger,  Kralienbiihl, 
Huber,  Biihler,  Kuenzi,  Stahli,  Rubi,  Ziircher,  Bucher, 
Strahm.  Among  those  exiled  in  17 10  were  the  names  of 
Brechbiihl,  Baumgartner,  Rupp,  Fahrni,  Aeschlimann,  Maurer, 
Ebersold,  and  others.  All  these  names — which,  more  or  less 
changed,  are  common  throughout  the  State  and  country  to-day 
— are  of  Bernese  origin.  The  Landis,  Brubacher,  Meili,  Egli, 
Ringer,  Gut,  Gochnauer,  and  Frick  families  came  from 
Zurich. 

2'  Hans  Herr,  born  in  1660,  was  the  minister  and  pastor  of 


48      GERMAN  COUNT  IPS   OF  PENNSYLVANIA. 

cniigralion.  From  1710  on,  their  names  fre- 
quently occur  in  the  pubhc  land  records  of  Penn- 
sylvania as  talcing  up  choice  bits  of  farming  land 
and  having  them  turned  over  to  their  country- 
men, whose  interests  they  represented.^^  We 
have  such  records  as  late  as  1730,  when  they  took 
up  124  acres  of  land  for  Jacob  Brubaker  in  the 
present  township  of  East  Hempfield.^^ 

In  the  next  important  colony  of  this  second 
period  the  scene  shifts  from  Lancaster  to  what  is 
now  Berks  County.  In  order  to  understand  the 
causes  leading  up  to  this  settlement  we  must  turn 
our  attention  for  a  moment  to  the  exceedingly 
interesting  facts  connected  with  the  early  Ger- 
man immigration  to  New  York.  In  the  year 
1709  a  very  large  influx  of  Palatines  came  to 
England  with  the  expectation  of  being  aided 
there  to  cross  the  Atlantic.     The  general  causes 

the  early  Swiss  settlers  in  Lancaster  County;  he  had  five  sons, 
all  of  whom  came  over  with  him,  and  from  whom  is  descended 
a  large  posterity. 

28  II  Agreed  with  Martin  Kundigg  and  Ilans  Herr  of  5000 
acres  of  land,  to  be  taken  up  in  severall  parcells  about  Cones- 
togo  and  Pcquca  Creeks  at  ^^lO  p.  Ct',  to  be  paid  at  the  Re- 
turns of  the  Surveys  and  usual  quitrents,  it  being  for  settle- 
ments for  severall  of  their  Countrymen  that  are  lately  arrived 
here.  The  Warr't  signed,  dat.  22d  gber.  1717."  (Minute 
Book  "  H"  of  tlie  Board  of  Property.  Penn.  Arch.,  2d  Sen, 
vol.  XIX.  p.  622.) 

"  Ellis  and  Evans,  Hist.  Lane.  Co.,  p.  868. 


GERMAN   COUNTIES   OF  PENNSYLVANIA.      49 

of  this  emigration  are  those  discussed  in  Chapter 
I ;  the  immediate  occasion  seems  to  have  been 
the  special  efforts  made  by  certain  agents  of 
Queen  Anne  to  induce  emigration  to  her  Majes- 
ty's colonies  in  America.  The  presence  of  so 
large  a  number  of  foreigners  was  an  embarrass- 
ing problem  for  the  government,  and  various 
plans  were  proposed  for  their  distribution ;  three 
thousand  eight  hundred  were  sent  to  Ireland, 
where  many  of  their  descendants  still  live;^" 
others  were  sent  to  the  Carolinas;  and  in  1709, 
at  the  suggestion  of  Governor  Robert  Hunter, 
about  three  thousand  were  shipped  to  New 
York,  for  the  purpose  of  manufacturing  ships' 
stores  for  the  English  Government.  These  set- 
tled at  first  on  both  banks  of  the  Hudson  not  far 
from  the  present  town  of  Saugerties,  where  they 
remained  in  a  constant  state  of  discontent  until 
the  winter  of  1712-1713,  when.  Hunter's  scheme 
having  proved  itself  to  be  visionary,  they  set  out 
for  the  valleys  of  the  Schoharie  and  the  Mohawk, 
which  had  all  along  been  the  goal  of  their  desires, 
and  which  they  reached  after  a  two  weeks'  jour- 
ney through  the  trackless  wilderness,  after  hav- 

^^  To  this  stock  belonged  Philip  Embury  and  Barbara  Heck, 
the  founders  of  Methodism  in  America.  For  details  concern- 
ing the  Irish  Palatines  see  Crook,  "Ireland  and  the  Centenary 
of  American  Methodism." 


50      GERM /IN   COUNTIES   OF  PENNSYLyANM. 

ing  suffered  greatly  from  Ininger  and  cold. 
The  descendants  of  these  people  now  form  a 
large  proportion  of  the  inhabitants  of  that  dis- 
trict.3i 

We  have  to  do  here,  however,  only  with  the 
small  number  who,  in  consequence  of  difficulties 
in  regard  to  the  titles  of  their  land,  were  forced 
to  leave  the  homes  which  they  had  built  with  the 
labor  of  many  years,  and  who  in  1723  painfully 
made  their  way  through  the  wilderness  of  north- 
ern New  York  to  the  head-waters  of  the  Susque- 
hanna and  thence  floated  down  that  river,  pass- 
ing the  sites  of  the  present  cities  of  Bingham- 
ton,  Pittston,  and  Wilkesbarre  till  they  ar- 
rived at  the  mouth  of  the  Swatara  Creek,  up 
which  they  made  their  way  to  the  district  now 
known  as  Tulpehocken.^^  jj-,  ^\-^q  Colonial  Rec- 
ords of  Pennsylvania  we  find  a  petition  of  these 
settlers,  thirty-three  families  in  all,  in  which  we 

*'  For  further  details  of  this  exceedingly  interesting  story 
see  Kapp,  O'Callaghan,  and  Cobb.     Among  the  well-known 
men  of  this  st(jck  may  be  mentioned  Edwin  F.  Uhl,  Ex-Am- 
bassador to  Germany  ;  W.  C.  Bouck.  governor  of  New  York 
from  1843-45  ;  and  Surgeon-General  Sternl>erg. 
''        "  And  that  bold-hearted  yeomanrj",  honest  and  true, 
Wlio,  haters  of  fraud,  give  to  labor  its  due, 
Whose  fathers  of  old  sang  in  concert  witli  thine, 
On  the  banks  of  Swetara,  the  songs  of  the  Rhine, — 
The  German-born  pilgrims  who  first  dared  to  brave 
The  scorn  of  the  proud  in  the  cause  of  the  slave.'' 

(Whittier,  vol.  in.  p.  47.) 


GERMAN   COUNTIES   OF  PENNSYLl^/tNIA.      51 

have,  ill  their  own  words,  a  brief  sketch  of  tlie 
vicissitudes  through  which  they  were  forced  to 
pass  in  seeking  a  home  in  the  New  World : 

"  This  Petition  Humbly  Sheweth 

"  That  your  petitioners  being  natives  of  Ger- 
many, about  fifteen  years  agoe  were  by  the  great 
goodness  and  royal  bounty  of  her  late  Majesty 
Queen  Anne,  relieved  from  the  hardships  which 
they  then  suffered  in  Europe  and  were  trans- 
ported into  the  colony  of  New  York,  where  they 
settled.  But  their  families  increasing,  and  being 
in  that  Government  confined  to  the  scant  allow- 
ance of  ten  acres  of  land  to  each  family,  whereon 
they  could  not  w^ell  subsist.  Your  petitioners 
being  informed  of  the  kind  reception  which  their 
countrymen  usually  met  with  in  the  Province  of 
Pennsylvania,  and  hoping  that  they  might  with 
what  substance  they  had  acquire  larger  settle- 
ments in  that  Province,  did  last  year  leave  their 
settlements  in  New  York  Government  and  came 
with  their  families  into  this  Province,"  etc.  ^^ 

The  petition  adds  that  fifty  more  families  de- 
sired to  come,  if  they  received  favorable  condi- 
tions.^* 

During  the  whole  of  this  second  period  immi- 

*^  Colonial  Records,  vol.  iii.  p.  341. 

'*  Many  of  these  came  in  1728  and  1729  ;  among  those  who 
came  in  the  latter  year  was  the  well-known  Cunrad  Weiser. 


52      GERMAN   COUNTIES   OF  PENNSYLVytNIA. 

gration  into  Pennsylvania  went  on ;  the  numbers, 
however,  although  far  in  excess  of  the  first 
period,  have  been  largely  exaggerated.  Reliable 
documents  are  wanting,  and  the  statements  made 
are  usually  guesswork.  It  has  been  recklessly 
estimated  that  as  many  as  fifty  thousand  came 
before  1730.  On  March  16,  1731,  the  minutes  of 
the  Synodical  Deputies  of  Holland  state  that  the 
total  baptized  membership  of  the  Reformed  in 
Pennsylvania  was  thirty  thousand.^^  That  this 
could  not  be  true  we  need  only  to  refer  to  the 
figures  concerning  the  whole  population  given  by 
Proud.^^     As  there  was  no  census  at  that  time, 

'*  Rev.  John  B.  Ritger,  h<jwever,  in  a  letter  dated  Novem- 
ber 22,  1731,  estimates  the  number  at  less  than  three  thousand, 
which  is  nearer  the  truth,  as  Boehm  in  his  report  of  1734  gives 
the  actual  number  of  communicants  as  386.  (See  Dotterer, 
Hist.  Notes,  p.  133.) 

'*  In  1731  he  gives  the  numberof  taxables  atgooo  or  10,000, 
"  at  most,"  which,  according  to  his  method  of  multiplying  by 
seven,  would  give  not  more  than  70,000  at  the  highest  compu- 
tation. (Vol.  ii.  p.  275.)  It  is  clear  that  nearly  one-half  of 
the  total  population  could  not  have  been  German  Reformed, 
and  yet  there  are  the  documents  !  This  only  shows  that  the 
historian  must  use  contemporary  documents  with  as  much 
caution  as  any  other  documents.  As  further  examples  of  these 
reckless  statements  we  may  take  the  following  :  Mittelberger 
declares  tliat,  in  1754,  22,000  Ciermans  and  Swiss  arrived  in 
Philadelphia  alone  ;  yet  a  few  pages  later  he  says  that  there 
were  in  Pennsylvania  some  100.000  Europeans  in  all.  Again, 
Kalm  says  that,  in  1749,  12,000  came,  and  this  statement,  re- 
produced by  Proud,  has  been  repeated  by  all  writers  since.     A 


GERMAN   COUNTIES   OF  PENNSYLVANIA.      53 

we  can  accept  none  of  these  statements  as  au- 
thoritative, and  are  reduced  to  making  our  own 
conclusions  from  the  data  at  hand.  We  know 
that  the  increase  up  to  1710  was  small,  a  few 
score  at  the  most  for  every  year.  In  1708  Ger- 
mantown  was  still  a  weak  and  struggling  com- 
munity. In  17 10  came  the  Swiss  of  Lancaster 
County,  some  hundreds,  possibly  thousands,  in 
number.  Between  that  date  and  1717  there  seem 
to  have  been  no  large  arrivals  of  Germans  at  Phil- 
adelphia. In  this  latter  year  a  considerable  num- 
ber of  Palatines  and  Swiss  arrived.  It  was  of 
these  that  John  Dickenson  spoke  when  he  'said : 
"  We  are  daily  expecting  ships  from  London, 
which  bring  over  Palatines  in  numbers  about  six 
or  seven  thousand.  We  had  a  parcel  who  came 
five  years  ago  who  purchased  land  about  sixty 
miles  west  of  Philadelphia,  and  proved  quiet  and 
industrious."     These  numbers  were  so  great  as 

reference  to  the  tables  will  show  the  number  in  1749  and  1754 
to  have  been  respectively  7020  and  5 141.  Still  another  example 
of  how  such  statements  come  to  be  made  is  seen  in  Gordon. 
On  p.  1S7  he  says  thatinone  year  from  December,  1728,  there 
were  6200  Germans  and  others  imYioritA;  the  natural  inference 
being  that  the  Germans  formed  a  large  majority;  on  p.  208, 
however,  he  gives  the  statistics  of  this  very  year,  and  out  of  the 
6200  only  24J  are  Palatine  passengers,  the  rest  being  chiefly 
Irish;  by  referring  to  the  tables  which  I  have  drawn  up  it 
will  be  seen  that  the  number  of  Germans  who  came  in  1729 
is  304. 


54     GERM /IN  COUNTIES   OF  PENNSYLVANIA. 

to  excite  some  alarm.  In  1717  Governor  Keith 
expressed  the  opinion  that  this  immigration 
might  prove  dangerous,  and  tliought  that  the 
experience  of  England  in  ihc  lime  of  the  Anglo- 
Saxon  invaders  might  be  repeated.  If  these 
large  numbers  had  been  repeated  every  year, 
the  sum  total  in  1727  would  have  been  con- 
siderable; but  I  have  been  unable  to  find  evi- 
dence to  this  efYect.""  The  fears  of  Dicken- 
son and  Keith  seem  to  find  no  repetition  till 
1727,  when  the  long-continued  stream  of  im- 
migration began  which  makes  up  our  third  divi- 
sion. Furthermore,  we  are  distinctly  told  by 
De  Hoop  Schefifer  that  the  desire  for  emigration 
seemed  to  have  lain  dormant  in  Germany  till 
1726.^®  This  authority  based  on  documents  in 
Holland,  a  country  through  wdiich  all  German 
and  Swiss  emigrants  had  to  pass  on  their  way  to 
America,  would  seem  to  be  conclusive.  ^ly  own 
opinion  is  that  before  1727  the  whole  number  of 

"  Indeed  there  is  evidence  to  sliovv  that  German  emigration 
was  actually  hindered  at  this  time.  In  1722  the  Pensionary 
of  Holland  informed  the  Assembly  that  again  a  great  number 
of  families  from  Germany  had  arrived  in  vessels  for  the  pur- 
pose of  being  transported  I'ia  England  to  the  colonies  of  that 
kingdom,  but  that  no  preparation  had  been  made  for  them, 
and  the  king  had  advised  his  ambassador  to  Holland  that 
an  order  had  been  issued  to  forbid  their  entrance  to  his  col- 
onies.    (Dotterer,  Hist.  Notes,  p.  67.) 

'"  Sec  Penn.  Mag.,  vol.  Ti.  pp.  117  ff. 


GERMAN   COUNTIES   OF  PENNSYLVANIA.      55 

German  and  Swiss  colonists  in  Pennsylvania 
amounted  to  not  more  than  fifteen  thousand,  or 
at  most  twenty  thousand,  including  the  natural 
increase  of  the  first  comers. 

The  third  period,  which  we  shall  now  discuss, 
is  marked  by  the  fact  that  we  have  an  of^cial 
record  of  all  those  who  entered  at  the  port  of 
Philadelphia.  We  have  seen  that  in  1717  the 
large  influx  of  foreigners  excited  serious  alarm. 
This  alarm  was  excited  anew  with  the  renewal  of 
large  arrivals,  and  on  October  14,  1727,  the 
Provincial  Council  adopted  a  resolution  to  the 
efifect  that  all  masters  of  vessels  importing  Ger- 
mans and  other  foreigners  should  prepare  a  list 
of  such  persons,  their  occupations,  and  place 
whence  they  came,  and  further  that  the  said 
foreigners  should  sign  a  declaration  of  allegiance 
and  subjection  to  the  king  of  Great  Britain,  and 
of  fidelity  to  the  Proprietary  of  Pennsylvania. 
The  first  oath  was  taken  in  the  court-house  at 
Philadelphia,  September  21,  1727,  by  109  Pala- 
tines. 

The  above-mentioned  lists-''''  contain  the  names 
of  the  vessels  and  their  captains,  the  port  from 
which  they  last  sailed,  and  the  date  of  arrival  in 

'^  These  lists  are  given  by  Rupp  in  his  "Tliirty  Thousand 
Names,"  and  may  also  be  found  in  Penn.  Archives,  Second 
Series,^  vol.  xvii. 


56      GERMAN   COUNTIES   OF  PENNSYLI//tNIA. 

Philadelphia.  They  also  give  in  many  cases  the 
native  country  of  the  voyagers,  not.  however, 
with  much  detail,  or  so  constantly  as  we  could 
wish.  From  1727  to  1734  they  are  all  classed  as 
Palatines;  on  September  12,  1734,  one  ship's 
company  of  263  is  composed  of  Schwenck- 
felders.  In  1735  we  find  Palatines  and  Switzers, 
and  on  August  26,  Switzers  from  Berne.  After 
1742  they  are  grouped  together  as  foreigners 
simply,  until  1749  (with  two  exceptions  only). 
The  lists  for  1749  and  1754  are  especially  full  in 
this  respect,  and  under  date  of  the  arrival  of  each 
ship  the  fatherland  of  the  new  arrivals  is  given 
variously  as  Wiirtemberg,  Erbach,  Alsace,  Zwei- 
briicken,  the  Palatinate,  Nassau,  Hanau,  Darm- 
stadt, Basel,  ]\Iannheim,  Alentz,  Westphalia, 
Hesse,  Switzerland,  and,  once  only,  Hamburg, 
Hannover,  and  Saxony.  About  this  time  we  find 
the  number  of  Catholics  and  Protestants  given, 
owing  undoubtedly  to  the  fears  excited  by  the 
French  and  Indian  War.  After  1754  practically 
no  information  of  the  above  sort  is  given. 

I  have  thought  it  of  some  interest  and  value 
to  prepare  a  tabulated  view  of  the  annual  immi- 
gration to  Pennsylvania  on  the  basis  of  these 
lists.*o 

**•  Sometimes  the  total  number  t>f  passengers  is  given  in  the 
lists,  sometimes  only  tlie  males  above  the  age  of  sixteen  years. 


GERM /IN  COUNTIES   OF  PENNSYLVANIA.      $7 


Date.                                     Number. 
1727 I240' 

1728 390 

1729 304 

1730 448 

I73I 634 

1732 2168 

1733 1287 

1734 433 

1735 267 

1736 828 

1737 1736 

1738 3115 

1739 1663 

1740 1131 

1741 1946 

1742 1092 

1743 1794 

1744 1080 

1745 No  lists 


1746. 
1747. 
1748. 
1749- 
1750- 
1751- 


444 
960 
1944 
7020 
4333 
3951 


Date. 
1752. 
1753- 
1754. 

1755- 
1756. 

1757- 
1758. 

1759- 
1760. 

1761. 

1762 . 

1763- 
1764. 

1765- 

1766. 

1767 

1768. 

1769. 

1770. 

1771. 

1772. 

1773- 

1774. 

1775- 


Number. 
, .  6189 
,  .  5262 
,  .  5141 
,  .   226 

■•   157 
o 


o 
o 
o 

90 

o 

589 

2329 
786 

589 

1077 

854 

408 

554 

951 

903 

1659 

675 
225 


68,872" 

In  the  latter  case  in  order  to  obtain  the  total  number  of  men, 
women,  and  children  I  have  multiplied  by  three.  By  making 
careful  computation  of  those  cases  where  both  data  are  given 
(amounting  to  over  thirty  thousand  persons),  I  have  found 
that  the  actual  proportion  of  males  above  sixteen  is  somewhat 
more  than  one-third.  Hence  the  figures  given  above  are  if  any- 
thing slightly  too  large.  This  excess,  however,  maybe  allowed 
to  stand  as  counterbalancing  whatever  immigration  came  into 
Pennsylvania  by  way  of  New  York,  Maryland,  or  elsewhere. 
"  These    figures    were    at    first    computed    from    the    data 


58      GERM /IN   COUNTIES   OF  PENNSYLyANlA. 

We  see  from  the  above  figures  that  there  were 
periods  of  ebb  and  flood  in  the  tide  of  immigra- 
tion. The  most  important  years  are  from  1749 
to  1754,  when  the  numbers  became  enormous, 
amounting  for  these  six  years  to  31,896,  nearly 
one-half  of  the  total  figures.  As  to  the  whole 
number  of  Germans  in  Pennsylvania  in  1775, 
many  and  divergent  estimates  have  been  given ; 
nearly  all  agree,  however,  in  reckoning  the  pro- 
portion as  about  one-third  of  the  total  popula- 
tion, a  proportion  which  seems  to  have  kept 
itself  unchanged  down  to  the  present  day.  If  I 
were  asked  to  give  my  estimate  in  regard  to  a 
matter  concerning  which  authoritative  data  are 
wanting,  I  should  reply,  somewhat  hesitatingly, as 
follows:  Before  1727  let  us  assume  the  numbers 
to  be 20,000, a  liberal  estimate;  add  to  this  the  fig- 
given  by  Rupp,  but  discovering  later  that  he  was  not  in  all 
cases  reliable,  I  have  carefully  revised  them  from  the  lists 
given  in  the  Pennsylvania  Archives.  Proud  (vol.  ii.  p.  273) 
says  that  by  an  "exact  account"  of  ships  and  passengers 
arriving  at  Philadelphia  from  nearly  the  first  settlement  of  the 
province  till  about  1776,  the  number  of  Germans  appear  to  be 
39,000,  and  their  natural  increase  great.  His  ''account," 
however,  cannot  have  been  very  exact,  for  two  pages  previously 
he  declares  that,  during  the  summer  of  1749,  12,000  Cicrnians 
came  to  Philadelphia,  "and  in  several  other  years  near  the 
same  number  of  these  people  arrived  annually."  Tiic  two 
statements  do  not  harmonize  and  tend  to  destroy  our  belief  in 
Proud's  accuracy.  He  may,  however,  in  .speaking  of  the 
39,000,  have  in  mind  only  the  males  over  sixteen  years. 


GERMAN   COUNTIES   OF  PENNSYLVANIA.      59 

ures  above,  68,872,  making  a  total  of  88,872;  this 
added  to  the  score  or  so  of  thousands  due  to  the 
natural  increase  of  the  two  generations  since  the 
earliest  settlements  would  bring  up  the  grand 
total  to  about  110,000.'*- 

One  of  the  most  interesting  points  of  view 
from  which  to  regard  Pennsylvania  in  colonial 
days,  says  Mr.  Fiske,  is  as  the  centre  of  distri- 
bution of  foreign  immigration,  which  from  here 
as  a  starting-point  spread  out  to  all  points  South 
and  West.  The  earliest  arrivals  of  the  people 
with  whom  we  have  to  do  in  this  book  remained 
in  Germantown,  Philadelphia,  or  the  immediate 
vicinity.  Shortly  after  the  beginning  of  the  new 
century  they  began  to  penetrate  the  dense  forests 
which  then  covered  the  present  counties  of  Mont- 
gomery, Lancaster,  and  Berks.  As  the  lands 
nearest  to  Philadelphia  became  gradually  taken 
up,  the  settlers  were  forced  to  make  their  way 
further  and  further  to  the  West.  When  no  more 
lands  remained  on  this  side  of  the  Susquehanna, 
the  Germans  crossed  the  river  and  founded  the 
counties  of  York  and  Cumberland.  Still  later  they 

^'^  These  figures,  which  have  been  computed  independently, 
agree  substantially  with  those  given  by  Proud,  who  gives  the 
number  of  taxables  in  1771  at  between  39,000  and  40,000, 
which  being  multiplied  by  seven  gives  nearly  300,000,  "one- 
third  at  least"  being  composed  of  Germans.     (Vol.  11.  p.  275.) 


6o      GERMAN   COUNTIES   OF  PENNSYLyANM. 

spread    over    Northampton,    Dauphin,    Lehigh, 
Lebanon,  and  the  other  counties,  while  toward 
the  end  of  the  century  the  tide  of  colonization 
swept  to  the  South  and  the  newly  opened  West. 
One  by  one  Monroe,  Centre,  Adams,  and  Cum- 
berland counties  were  taken  up.    As  early  as  1732 
a  number  of  Pennsylvania  Germans  under  Jost  Hitc 
made  their  way  along-  the  Shenandoah  valley  and 
settled  Frederick,  Rockingham,  Shenandoah,  and 
other  counties  of  Virginia.     In  the  central  and 
western    parts    of    North    Carolina    there    were 
many    communities    formed    by    settlers    from 
Berks  and  other  counties  in  Pennsylvania.    After 
the  successful  outcome  of  the  French  and  Indian 
wars,  when  Ohio  was  thrown  open  to  enterpris- 
ing settlers,  Pennsylvania  Germans  were  among 
the  pioneers  of  that  region,  many  parts  of  which 
are  still  distinctly  marked  by  the  peculiarities  of 
the  parent  colony.  Still  later  they  were  in  the  van 
of  the  movement  which  little  by  little  conquered 
the  vast  territory  of  the  West,  and  subdued  it 
to   the   purposes   of  civilization;    such   distinct- 
ively Pennsylvania  German  names  as  Hoover, 
Garver,    Landis,   Brubaker,    StaulTer,    Bowman, 
Funk,  Lick,  and  Yerkes.  scattered  all  over  the 
West,  tell  the  story  of  the  part  played  by  their 
bearers  in  the  early  part  of  the  century  in  the 
conquest  of  the  West. 


GERMAN  COUNTIES   OF  PENNSYLVANI/t.      6i 

Looking  out  upon  this  moving  picture  of  the 
German  pioneers,  as  they  spread  gradually  over 
the  vast  territory  of  the  New  World,  we  are 
irresistibly  reminded  of  our  Alemannic  ancestors 
in  the  far-off  days  of  the  Volkerwanderung^^  In 
the  eighteenth  as  in  the  fourth  century,  the  Ger- 
man colonist  entered  the  unbroken  wilderness, 
clearing  first  the  lands  in  the  valleys  and  along 
the  river-courses,  then,  as  the  population  in- 
creased and  land  became  scarcer,  advancing  fur- 
ther and  further,  climbing  the  sides  of  the  moun- 
tains, and  everywhere  changing  the  primeval 
forest  into  fields  covered  with  grain  and  dotted 
here  and  there  with  the  rude  buildings  of  the 
farmers. 

^^"Gleich  dem  Hinterwaldler  in  Amerikas  Wildnissen 
musste  der  Alemanne  vor  tausend  Jahren  im  Schweisse  seines 
Angesiclites  Arbeiten  wie  ein  Lasttier,  bis  die  Gegend  wohn- 
lich  aussah."     (Diindliker,  vol.  I.  p.  92.) 

Cf.  also  Boos:  "Es  war  ein  barter  Kampf  mit  der  Natur. 
Um  der  wachsenden  Bevolkerung  Nahrung  zu  schafi'en,  musste 
der  Wald  gerodet  werden,  und  es  entstand  zahlreiche  neue 
Dorfer,"  etc.  (Geschichte  der  Rheinischen  Stadtekultur,  vol.  I. 
p.  162.) 


CHAPTER  III. 

OVER  LAND  AND  SEA, 

There  is  no  more  attractive  line  of  study  than 
that  which  aims  at  reveaHng  the  daily  struggles 
and  trials,  the  manners  and  customs,  the 
thoughts  and  feelings  of  our  forefathers.^  Where 
facts  are  wanting,  the  imagination  of  the  poet, 
the  dramatist,  and  the  novelist  is  called  in  to 
round  out  the  picture.  It  is  this  desire  on  the 
part  of  mankind  to  penetrate  the  veil  of  the  past 
which  makes  the  wonderful  success  of  the  his- 
torical novel  possible. 

Of  course  in  a  book  like  the  present,  the  pur- 
pose of  which  is  to  give  nothing  but  simple 
facts,  all  mere  surmise  and  fancy  must  be  rigor- 
ously excluded.  And  yet  it  ought  certainly  to  be 
of  interest  to  the  descendants  of  the  early  Penn- 
sylvania Germans  to  obtain  some  glimpse,  how- 
ever brief,  of  the  daily  life,  the  vicissitudes,  the 

'  "In  der  Erinnerung  an  die  alte  Zeit  und  die  prossen 
Beispeile  dcr  Vorfahren  liegt  cine  iinwiderstehliclic  Gcwalt." 
(Ranke,  quoted  by  Dandliker,  n.  690.) 

62 


OVER  LAND  AND  SEA.  63 

sufferings,  the  hopes  and  joys  of  their  ancestors. 
Fortunately  we  have  more  or  less  material  still 
preserved  in  the  shape  of  letters,  diaries,  narra- 
tives, etc.,  in  which  many  valuable  details  are 
given  of  the  journey  from  the  Old  to  the  New 
World.  Two  hundred  years  ago  travelling, 
whether  on  land  or  sea,  was  no  easy  matter,  nor 
one  to  be  lightly  undertaken.  The  prospective 
emigrant  must  first  transport  himself,  his  fam- 
ily, and  his  goods  by  wagon  to  the  nearest  river.^ 
This,  of  course,  in  the  vast  majority  of  cases  was 
the  Rhine,  which  was  even  more  important  as  a 
great  water-highway  then  than  now. 

We  have  a  number  of  contemporary  descrip- 
tions of  such  a  journey  down  the  Rhine.  That 
of  the  Bernese  Mennonites  who  were  exiled  in 
171 1  is  given  in  detail  and  with  great  vividness 
by  Muller  in  his  "  Bernische  Taufer."  They  were 
shipped  on  boats  at  Berne  and  at  Neuchatel  July 
13th;  meeting  at  Wangen,  they  descended  the 
Aar  to  Lauffenburg  on  the  Rhine,  and  thence 
floated  down-stream  to  Basel,  which  they  reached 
on  the  i6th.    Here  the  exiles  were  rearranged  on 

'  It  is  said  of  the  Stauffer  family  that  the  sons  dragged  their 
mother  in  a  wagon  to  the  river  and  later  from  Philadelphia  to 
their  new  home  in  Lancaster  (see  Brubacher  Genealogy,  p. 
157).  This  story  or  legend  seems  like  a  far-off  echo  of  that 
old  by  Herodotus  of  Cleobis  and  Bito. 


04  O^^ER   L/iND  ^ND  SE/1. 

three  ships,  in  wliich  they  made  the  rest  of  the 
journey  to  Holland,  wlience  many  afterward 
came  to  Pennsylvania.  The  flotilla  was  under 
the  command  of  George  Ritter  and  his  two  sub- 
ordinates, Gruner  and  Haller.  In  addition  each 
boat  had  a  skilled  helmsman,  the  necessary  crew 
being  formed  from  among  the  Brethren — of 
whom  twenty  declared  themselves  capable  of 
steering — and  two  general  overseers.^ 

Another  interesting  picture  of  the  Rhine  jour- 
ney is  given  in  the  description  of  the  party  of 

'  I  cannot  forbear  quoting  here  the  graphic  description  given 
by  Miiller  (p.  304)  of  the  departure  of  this  fleet,  inasmuch  as 
among  the  passengers  were  tlie  ancestors  of  many  prominent 
Pennsylvania  families.  '-It  has  been  frequently  described." 
says  Miiller,  "how  the  exiled  Salzburger  Protestants,  laden 
with  their  scanty  possessions,  crossed  the  mountains  of  their 
native  land.  and.  with  tears  in  their  eyes,  looked  back  to  Ihe 
valleys  of  their  home;  it  has  been  described  how  the  bands  of 
French  emigrants  wandered  over  the  frontiers  of  their  nat've 
land  singing  psalms.  Our  friends  from  the  Emmenthal  and  the 
Oberland  found  no  sympathy  among  their  fellow  Swiss,  as  the 
lowers  of  the  Cathedral  of  Basel  and  the  wooded  heights  of 
the  Jura  faded  in  the  distance.  Sitting  <  n  lioxes  and  bundles, 
which  were  piled  high  in  the  middle  of  the  boat,  could  be  seen 
gray-haired  men  and  women,  old  and  feeble;  yonder  stood  the 
young  gazing  in  wonder  at  the  shores  as  they  slipped  by.  At 
times  they  were  hopeful,  at  others  sad,  and  their  glances  would 
alternate,  now  to  the  north,  now  to  the  south  toward  their 
abandoned  home,  which  had  driven  them  out  so  unfeeling!}', 
and  yet  whose  green  hills  and  snow-capped  mountains  they 
caimot  forget.     Despite  (he  comforts  of  religion,  their  sadness 


OVER  LAND  AND  SEA.  65 

four  hundred  Swiss  Reformed  led  by  Goetschi  to 
Pennsylvania.  They  left  Ziirich  October  4,  1734. 
At  Basel  they  had  to  wait  a  week  to  get  passes 
through  to  Rotterdam.  At  that  time  France  was 
at  war  with  Austria,  and  the  armies  of  both  coun- 
tries were  on  either  side  of  the  river.  This,  of 
course,  was  fraught  with  more  or  less  danger  to 
the  travellers,  who  literally  had  to  sail  between 
two  fires.  They  were  constantly  hailed  and  or- 
dered to  stop,  were  boarded,  searched,  forced  to 
open  their  chests,  and  were  allowed  to  proceed 
only  after  being  fined,  or  rather  robbed.  All  this 
in  addition  to  the  numerous  stoppages  caused  by 
the  various  tariff-stations  along  the  Rhine,  of 
which  Mittelberger  counts  thirty-six  from  Heil- 
bronn  to  Holland.'* 

As  may  be  seen  from  the  above,  such  travel 
.was  extremely  slow.   The  expedition  from  Berne, 

could  not  he  overcome,  and  from  time  to  time  some  one  would 
begin  to  sing  : 

"  '  Ein  Herzens  Weh  mir  iiberkam 
Im  Scheideu  iiber  d'  Massen 
Als  ich  von  euch  mein  Abschied  nam 
Und  dessmals  miist  verlassen. 

Mein  Herz  war  bang 

Beharrlich  lang  : 
Es  bleibt  noch  unvergessen 

Ob  scheid  ich  gleich, 

Bleibt's  Herz  bei  euch, 
Wie  solt  ich  euch  vergessen  ? '  " 

*  Journey  to  Pennsylvania,  p.  i8. 


66  OyER  LAND  AND  SEA. 

described  above,  left  that  city  July  I3tli  a"<l 
reached  Utrecht  August  2d.  A  similar  expcdi 
tion  the  year  previous  left  Berne  March  i8lh,  and 
reached  Nimwegen  April  9th,  while  the  Goctschi 
party  spent  a  number  of  weeks  in  reaching  Hol- 
land. 

Another  interesting  account  of  such  river-jour- 
neys is  that  of  the  Schwenckfelders  in  1733  from 
Herrnhut,  Saxony,  down  the  Elbe  to  Hamburg. 
From  Berthelsdorf  to  Pirna,  six  German  miles, 
it  took  them  two  days  by  wagon.  Here  they 
embarked  on  two  boats  and  began  the  descent  of 
the  Elbe,  making  very  slow  progress ;  the  first 
day,  from  Pirna  to  Dresden,  two  miles  j'^  the  next 
four,  the  next  five,  then  three,  and  so  on,  never 
making  more  than  six  or  seven  miles  a  day. 
Leaving  Pirna  April  22d,  they  reached  Hamburg 
May  8th.  Here  they  took  passage  for  Amster- 
dam, thence  to  Rotterdam,  where  they  finally  em- 
barked for  the  New  World,  making,  of  course, 
the  usual  stop  at  England  to  take  on  new  pro- 
visions. 

An  ocean  journey  in  the  eighteenth  century 
meant  far  more  than  it  does  now.  If  many  peo- 
ple to-day  look  on  the  trip  with  repugnance,  in 
spite  of  all  the  conveniences  of  modern  steamers, 

*  Of  course  these   are   Gernuin  miles  ;    the  distance  from 
Pirna  to  Dresden  by  railroad  is  loj  English  miles. 


Ol^ER  LAND   AND  SEA.  67 

what  must  have  been  the  feelings  of  our  fore- 
fathers? The  whole  journey  was  one  continual 
series  of  discomforts,  suffering,  disease,  and 
death.  It  is  no  wonder  that  many  in  despair 
cursed  their  folly  in  vnidertaking  such  a  journey.^ 
Most  of  the  vessels  that  came  to  Pennsylvania 
started  from  Rotterdam,  where  the  emigrants 
were  embarked  together  with  their  goods  and 
provisions.  What  these  latter  were  we  get  a 
glimpse  of  in  the  various  publications  made  at 
that  time  for  the  information  of  intending  pas- 
sengers. Thus  in  the  document  published  by 
George  I.,  the  emigrant  is  told  to  present  him- 
self to  one  or  more  of  the  well-known  merchants 
of  Frankfort,  and  to  pay  £3  each  (children  under 
ten,  half  rates);  i.e.,  £2  for  transportation,"  and 
£1  for  70  pounds  of  peas,  a  measure  of  oatmeal, 

s  "  For  I  can  say  with  full  truth  that  on  six  or  seven  ocean 
vessels  I  have  heard  of  few  people  who  did  not  repent  their 
journey."  (Letter  of  John  Naas,  Oct.  17,  1733,  in  Brum- 
baugh's History  of  the  Brethren,  p.  120.)  Mittelberger  paints 
the  picture  in  still  darker  colors,  but  he  is  always  inclined  to 
exaggeration.     See  p.  21. 

'  The  fare  over  changed  naturally  from  time  to  time;  we 
may  take  as  the  two  extremes  the  price  given  in  the  "  Recueil 
de  Diverses  pieces,"  etc.,  that  is,  ^5  per  head  for  man  and 
wife  with  provisions  ;  for  a  child  under  ten  the  fare  was  50 
shillings  ;  in  1773  it  was  £?>  8s.  per  head.  (See  the  agree- 
ment made  with  Captain  Osborne,  of  the  Pennsyvania  Packet, 
given  in  Penn.  Mag.,  vol.  xni.  p.  485.) 


68  Ot^ER   LAND  AND  SEA. 

and  the  necessary  beer ;  they  would  then  be  sent 
in  ships  to  Rotterdam,  and  thence  carried  to  \'ir- 
ginia.  First,  however,  in  Holland  one-half  of  the 
fare  must  be  paid,  and  additional  provisions  se- 
cured:  24  pounds  of  dried  beef,  15  pounds  of 
cheese,  8^  pounds  of  butter.  They  were  advised 
to  provide  themselves  still  more  liberally  with 
edibles,  with  garden-seeds,  agricultural  imple- 
ments, linen,  bedding,  table-goods,  powder  and 
lead,  furniture,  earthenw^are,  stoves,  and  es- 
pecially money  to  buy  "  seeds,  salt,  horses,  swine, 
and  fowls." 

We  may  take  this  as  a  type  of  what  was  a  full 
outfit  for  the  intending  settler  at  that  time.  In 
actual  fact,  however,  the  majority  were  far  from 
being  so  well  provided ;  often  they  had  to  depend 
on  the  charity  of  others.^  Indeed,  so  great  was 
the  destitution  of  those  who  passed  through 
Holland   that  the   Mennonites  of  that   country 

*  Thus  the  Schwenckfelders  tell  us  how  a  wealthy  Dutch 
family  generously  gave  them  for  ships'  stores  16  loaves,  2  casks 
of  1  lollands,  2  pots  of  butter,  4  casks  of  beer,  2  roasts,  a  quan- 
tity of  wheaten  bread  and  biscuit,  2  cases  French  brandy.  It 
is  pleasing  to  add  that  the  Schwenckfelders  were  not  ungrate- 
ful, and  that  this  "bread  cast  upon  the  waters  "  returned  after 
many  days  ;  for  in  1790,  hearing  that  business  reverses  had 
come  upon  the  descendants  of  those  who  had  helped  their 
fathers,  they  sent  over  a  large  sum  of  money.  (See  Heebner, 
Gencul.  Kec.  of  SchwciickfcliJers.) 


\ 


OVER  LAND  /iND  SEA.  69 

formed  a  committee  on  ''  Foreign  Needs,"  the 
purpose  of  which  was  to  collect  money  for  the 
assistance  of  their  destitute  brethren  and  others 
who  were  constantly  arriving  in  Holland  on  their 
way  to  America. 

Even  in  the  best  of  cases,  however,  the  food 
was  likely  to  give  out  or  spoil,^  especially  if  the 
journey  was  unusually  long.  This  in  the  days  of 
sailing  frequently  happened.  Sometimes  the  trip 
was  made  in  a  few  weeks,  while  at  other  times  as 
many  months  would  pass.  Thus  when  Muhlen- 
berg came  over  they  were  102  days  on  board.  In 
a  letter  written  by  Caspar  Wistar  December  4, 
1732,  he  says :  "  In  the  past  year  one  ship  among 
the  others  sailed  about  the  sea  24  weeks,  and  of 
the  150  persons  who  were  thereon,  more  than  100 
miserably  languished  and  died  of  hunger;  on  ac- 
count of  lack  of  food  they  caught  rats  and  mice 
on  the  ship,  and  a  mouse  was  sold  for  30  kreu- 
zer."  ^^  He  mentions  another  ship  which  was  17 
weeks  on  the  voyage,  during  which  about  60 

^  '•  Unser  Tractament  an  Speis  undTranck  war  fast  schlecht, 
denn  10  Personen  bekamen  wochendlicli  3  pfund  Butter,  tag- 
lich  4  Kannten  Biers  und  i  Kanten  Wassers.  Alle  Mittage  2 
Schusseln  vol!  Erbsen  und  in  der  Woclien  4  Mittage  Fleisch, 
und  3  Mittage  gesalzene  Fisclie  .  .  .  und  jedesmal  von  dem 
Mittagessen  so  viel  aufsparen  muss  dass  man  zu  Nacht  zu 
essen  liabe."     (Pastorius,  Beschrcibung,  p.  36.) 

^^  Dotterer,  Perkiomen  Region,  vol.  n.  p.  120. 


70  Ol^ER   LAND  AND  SEA. 

persons  died.  Many  more  similar  details  might 
be  given.  The  discomforts  of  the  journey  were 
many;  the  boats  were  almost  always  over 
crowded.  The  Schwenckfelders  relate  that  their 
ship  of  only  150  tons  burden  liad  over  300  per- 
sons on  board.  Later,  in  the  days  of  speculation, 
overcrowding  was  the  rule. 

Often  the  ship  had  to  w^ait  days  or  even  weeki 
for  favorable  winds  or  the  necessary  escort.  Pas- 
tor Kunze,  in  his  "  Reise  von  England  nach 
Amerika,"  tells  how  he  came  on  board  his  vessel 
July  20,  1770,  but  it  was  the  6th  of  August  before 
they  passed  Land's  End ;  and  we  learn  from  Pas- 
tor Handschuh  that,  although  he  embarked  on 
his  ship  September  25,  1747,  they  did  not  finally 
sail  till  January  14,  1748;  he  arrived  in  Philadel- 
phia April  5.^^  Surely  under  such  circumstances 
it  was  necessary  to  possess  their  souls  in  patience. 

The  actual  sea  voyage  was  invariably  fraught 
with  fear  if  not  with  danger,  although  the  latter 
was  by  no  means  seldom.  Sickness  did  not  fail 
to  declare  itself;  the  mortality  was  often  exces- 
sively high.  On  the  vessel  in  which  Penn  came 
over  thirty-six  people  died  of  the  small-pox;  this 
was  only  an  earnest  of  the  terrible  harvest  of 
death    in    the    following    years.      Of   the    three 

"  Hall.  Nacluichten,  1.  p.  155. 


OyER  LAND  AND  SEA,  71 

thousand  who  came  to  New  York  in  1709  nearly 
one-sixth  had  died  on  the  voyage,  and  Sauer  says 
that  in  one  year  more  than  two  thousand  had 
succumbed  to  hardship  and  disease.  Indeed, 
later  in  the  century  when  speculation  had  taken 
possession  of  ocean  transportation,  sickness  was 
so  unfailing  a  concomitant  of  the  journey  that 
ship-fever  was  generally  known  in  Philadelphia 
as  "  Palatine  fever."  Children  especially  suf- 
fered, those  from  one  to  seven  years  rarely  sur- 
viving the  voyage.i2  There  is  a  world  of  pathos 
in  such  simple  statements  as  those  which  we  find 
in  the  diary  of  Naas:  "July  25th  a  little  child 
died;  the  next  day,  about  8  o'clock,  it  was 
buried  in  the  sea;  August  7th  a  little  child  died, 
and  in  the  same  hour  a  little  boy  was  born; 
August  23d  again  a  child  died,  and  was  buried 
at  sea  that  evening;  on  the  nth  again  a  little 
child  died,  without  anybody  having  noticed  it  until 
it  was  nearly  stiff;  the  13th  a  young  woman  died 
in  childbirth,  and  was  buried  at  sea,  with  three 
children,  two  of  them  before  and  now  the  third, 
the  one  just  born,  so  that  the  husband  has  no  one 
left  now."  13 

The  danger  of  shipwreck  was  always  at  hand, 

"  Mittelberger,  p.  23.     He  says  he  himself  saw  no  less  than 
thirty  two  children  thus  die  and  thrown  into  the  sea. 
1'  Brumbaugh,  pp.  112  ft'. 


72  OyER   LAND  AND  SEA. 

and  the  legend  of  Palatine  Light  still  preserves 
the  memory  of  a  vessel  of  German  immigrants 
wrecked  off  Block  Island,  with  the  loss  of  al- 
most every  one  on  board.^^  During  nearly  the 
whole  of  the  eighteenth  century  England  was  at 
Avar  with  some  one  or  other  of  her  neighbors; 
this  added,  of  course,  to  the  dangers  as  well  as 
the  vexations  of  "  them  that  went  down  to  the 
sea  in  ships."  In  1702  she  joined  the  Grand 
Alliance  against  France;  in  1740  she  was  at  war 
with  Spain;  from  1743-1748  and  from  1756- 
1763  with  France  again;  while  ever  on  the 
political  horizon  hovered  the  fear  of  the  Turk.^'^ 
During  the  early  part  of  the  century  the  x\meri- 
can  coast  swarmed  with  pirates  and  added  a  new 
terror  to  ocean  travel.^ ^  As  soon  as  a  strange 
vessel  was  discovered,  all  was  excitement  and 

'*  See,  for  other  examples  of  shipwreck,  Mittelljerger.  pp. 
34-36.     Wliittier  has  a  poem  on  the  Palatine  Light. 

"  It  was  not  mere  rhetoric  when  the  Mennonites  of  German- 
town,  in  their  protest  to  the  Quakers  against  sl.avery.  wrote  : 
"  How  fearful!  and  faintliearted  are  many  on  sea  when  they 
see  a  strange  vessel.  l)eing  afraid  it  should  be  a  Turck,  and 
they  should  be  tacken  and  sold  for  slaves  in  Turckey."  Wat- 
son says  that  Pastorius  was  chased  by  Turks  in  1683.  (Annals, 
p.  61.) 

'6  Fiske  says  that  never  in  the  world's  history  was  piracy  so 
thriving  as  in  the  seventeenth  and  the  first  part  of  the  eigh- 
teenth century ;  he  places  its  golden  age  from  1650-1720. 
(Old  Virginia  and  her  Neighbors,  vol.  II.  p.  338.) 


Ol^ER  LAND  AND  SEA.  73 

fear  on  board,  until  it  could  be  ascertained 
whether  it  was  friend  or  foe.  We  have  a  vivid 
glimpse  of  this  excitement  at  such  a  moment  in 
Muhlenberg's  Journal:  Shortly  after  leaving 
Dover,  "  a  two-masted  vessel  sailed  directly 
toward  them.  The  captain,  stating  that  occa- 
sionally Spanish  privateers  had  taken  ships  by 
pretending  to  be  French  fishing-vessels,  made  a 
display  of  both  courage  and  strength,  by  com- 
manding the  drummer  to  belabor  his  drum,  the 
guns  to  be  loaded,  and  everything  to  be  made 
ready  for  defensive  action;  then  asked  the  foe, 
through  the  speaking-trumpet,  what  they  wanted, 
and  received  the  comforting  answer  that  they 
were  Frenchmen  engaged  in  fishing."  In  the  ac- 
count given  by  a  member  of  Kelpius's  party  in 
1694,  shots  were  actually  fired  by  the  enemy, 
one  of  which  broke  a  bottle  which  the  ship's  boy 
was  carrying  in  his  hand;  fortunately,  however, 
no  further  damage  was  done.  Similar  scenes 
are  frequently  related  in  contemporary  docu- 
ments.i''' 

In  general,  however,  the  days  passed  much 
as  they  do  now,  in  alternation  of  storm  and  calm, 
sunshine  and  rain.     The  ordinary  events  of  hu- 

'^  Cf.  Handschuh's  Diarium,  in  Hall.  Nach.,  i.  p.  163;  also 
Narrative  of  Journey  of  .Schwenckfelders,  in  Penn.  Mag.,  vol. 
X.  pp.  167  ff. 


74  OVER   LAND  AND  SEA. 

man  life  went  on  in  this  little  floating  world, 
tossed  about  by  the  waves  of  the  sea;  the  two 
poles  of  human  existence,  birth  and  death,  were 
in  close  proximity;  ^'^  and  even  amid  the  hard- 
ships and  sadness  there  was  still  room  for  court- 
ship and  marriagci**  Various  means  were  em- 
ployed to  pass  away  the  time,  among  those  men- 
tioned by  Muhlenberg  and  others  being  boxing 
(by  the  sailors),  singing  worldly  songs,  disputa- 
tions, mock-trials,  etc.  These  were,  however, 
the  amusements  chiefly  of  the  English.  In  gen- 
eral the  Germans  had  other  means  of  passing  the 
time.  In  practically  every  account  we  have  they 
are  shown  to  be  deeply  religious,  holding  divine 
service  daily,  and  particularly  fond  of  singing  the 
grand  old  hymns  of  the  Church.-"^  This  piety 
did  not  desert  them  in  times  of  danger,  as  many 
incidents  which  might  be  quoted  show.    Muhlen- 

1*  On  almost  every  voyage  children  were  born  at  sea. 

^^  In  the  journey  of  Goetschi's  party  down  the  Rhine,  he 
had  appointed  four  marriage  officials  for  his  party.  At 
Neuwied  four  couples  went  ashore  to  be  married,  among 
them  Wirtz,  who  married  Goetschi's  daughter  Anna.  (Good, 
p.  176.) 

20  "These  ptxjr  people  often  long  for  consolation,  and  I 
often  entertained  and  comforted  them  with  singing,  praying, 
and  exhorting;  and  whenever  it  was  pt)ssible,  and  the  winds 
and  waves  permitted  it,  I  kept  daily  prayer-meetings  with 
tliem  on  deck."  (Mittclljerger,  p.  21.  Cf.  also  Ilandscliuli,  in 
Hallesche  Nachrichtcii,  vok  I.  pp.  156  fT. ) 


OFER  LAND  AND  SEA.  75 

berg  tells  us  that  during  the  above-described  ex- 
citement at  the  sight  of  what  was  feared  might 
prove  to  be  a  Spanish  war-vessel,  he  made  in- 
quiry after  a  certain  Salzburger  family  on  board, 
and  was  pleased  to  find  the  mother  with  her  chil- 
dren engaged  in  singing  Luther's  battle-hymn, 
"  Ein  feste  Burg  ist  unser  Gott."  ^i  Wesley 
describes  a  similar  incident  which  occurred  dur- 
ing his  voyage  to  Georgia  in  1736.  A  terrible 
storm  had  arisen;  "In  the  midst  of  the  psalm 
wherewith  their  service  began,  the  sea  broke  over, 
split  the  mainsail  in  pieces,  covered  the  ship,  and 
poured  in  between  the  decks,  as  if  the  great  deep 
had  already  swallowed  us  up.  A  terrible  scream- 
ing began  among  the  English.  The  Germans 
calmly  sang  on.  I  asked  one  of  them  afterward, 
'Was  l^sic']  you  not  afraid?'  He  answered,  'I 
thank  God,  no.'  I  asked,  '  But  were  not  your 
women  and  children  afraid?  '  He  replied  mildly, 
'  No ;  our  women  and  children  are  not  afraid  to 
die.'  "  22 

The  earliest  groups  of  Germans  came  over  un- 
der the  auspices  of  special  companies  or  or- 
ganizations, mostly  religious,  such  as  the  Frank- 
fort Company,  the  party  of  mystics  under  Kel- 

21  Mann,  Life  and  Times  of  II.  M.  Miiblenberg,  p.  45. 
^^  John  Wesley,  Journal,  vol.  I.  p.  17. 


76  OyER  LyiiWD  AND  SEA. 

pius,  the  Schwenckfelders  in  1733,  and  the 
Moravians  in  1742;  often  a  clergyman  would 
personally  conduct  his  flock  across  the  ocean, 
as  in  the  case  of  Goetschi.  The  Mennonites 
who  came  to  Lancaster  County  in  1710  and  the 
following  years  were  helped  by  their  brethren  in 
Holland,  where  the  Mennonites  were  not  only 
tolerated,  but  had  become  wealthy  and  promi- 
nent. Not  forgetful  in  their  prosperity  of  the 
trials  of  their  less  fortunate  brothers,  they  had 
formed  a  society  for  the  aid  of  the  Palatines  and 
Swiss  who  were  forced  to  leave  their  native 
lands;  with  the  money  thus  collected  they  fur- 
nished the  emigrants  not  only  with  passage- 
money  to  America,  but  with  provisions,  tools, 
seeds,  etc.^^ 

During  the  greater  part  of  the  eighteenth  cen- 
tury, however,  especially  the  latter  half,  the  Ger- 
man and  Swiss  emigrants  were  the  victims  of 
fraud  and  oppression.  The  English  ship-owners, 
seeing  the  profit  of  transporting  the  emigrants 
to  be  greater  than  carrying  freight,  employed 
every  means  to  induce  emigration,  chief  among 
these  means  being  German  adventurers  who  had 
themselves  lived  in  Pennsylvania.     They  would 

*'  See  the  interesting  account  of  their  services  by  Do  Hoop 
SchcfTer,  translated  by  Judge  Pennypackor  in  Penn.  Mag.,  vol. 
n,  pp.  117  ff. 


Ol^ER  LAND  AND  SEA.  77 

travel  luxuriously  throughout  Germany,  induc- 
ing their  countrymen,  by  the  most  exaggerated 
statements  concerning  the  riches  to  be  found  in 
the  New  World,  to  try  their  fortunes  beyond  the 
sea.  These  agents,  known  as  "  Newlanders," 
were  generally  men  of  the  most  unscrupulous 
character. 

The  best  contemporaneous  accounts  of  these 
abuses  are  given  by  Muhlenberg,  Sauer,  and 
Mittelberger.2^  According  to  the  former  the 
Newlanders  received  free  passage  and  a  certain 
fee  for  every  family  or  single  person  whom  they 
could  persuade  to  go  to  Holland,  there  to  make 
arrangements  with  the  ship-owners  for  their 
transportation.  Muhlenberg  tells  how  they 
paraded  in  fine  clothing,  pulling  out  ostenta- 
tiously their  watches,  and  in  general  acting  as 
rich  people  do.  They  spoke  of  America  as  if  it 
were  the  Elysian  Fields,  in  which  the  crops 
grew  without  labor,  as  if  the  mountains  were  of 
gold  and  silver,  and  as  if  the  rivers  ran  with  milk 
and  honey.    The  victims  of  these  blandishments, 

^*  Muhlenberg  is  the  most  temperate,  Sauer  the  most  in- 
dignant, and  INIittelberger  the  most  lurid.  The  book  of  the 
latter  must  be  read  with  a  great  deal  of  allowance.  He  was 
evidently  a  disappoiiited  man,  and  being  forced  to  leave 
Pennsylvania  and  return  home,  he  gives  a  picture  of  the  suf- 
ferings and  disillusions  of  his  countrymen  in  that  province 
which  does  not  accord  with  what  we  learn  frcjm  other  sources. 


78  OVER  LAND  AND  SEA. 

on  arriving  in  Holland,  having  often  to  wait  a  long 
time  before  leaving,  were  frequently  obliged  to 
borrow  money  from  the  contractors  themselves, 
in  order  to  buy  provisions  and  pay  their  pas- 
sage. Before  leaving  they  had  to  sign  an  agree- 
ment in  English,  which  they  did  not  under- 
stand.25  "  If  the  parents  died  during  the  pas- 
sage, the  captain  and  the  Newlanders  would  act 
as  guardians  of  the  children,  take  possession  of 
their  property,  and,  on  arrival  in  port,  sell  the 
children  for  their  own  and  their  dead  parents' 
freight.  On  arriving  at  Philadelphia,  the  agree- 
ment signed  by  the  emigrant  in  Holland,  to- 
gether with  the  total  amount  of  money  loaned, 
passage  and  freight,  is  produced;  those  who 
have  money  enough  to  pay  the  exorbitant  de- 
mands are  set  free,  after  being  examined  by  the 
doctor,  and  taking  the  usual  oath  of  allegiance 
at  the  court-house.  All  others  are  sold  to  pay 
the  transportation  charges."  ^c  So  far  Muhlen- 
berg, who  gives  an  exceedingly  clear  and  inter- 
esting account  of  this  nefarious  system.  Chris- 
topher Sauer,  at  that  time,  through  his  news- 
paper and  almanac,  perhaps  the  most  influential 
German  in  Pennsylvania,  is  moved  to  indigna- 

"  One  of  these  agreements  is  published  in  Ponn.  Mag.,  vol. 
xni.  p.  485. 

^*  Hallesche  Nachrichten,  vol.  11.  pp.  459  fi".,  note. 


Ol^ER  LAND  AND  SEA.  79 

tion  at  the  state  of  affairs.  On  March  15  and 
again  May  12,  1755,  he  writes  two  letters  to  Gov- 
ernor Denny,  remonstrating  at  the  abuses.  He 
tells  how  the  emigrants  are  packed  like  herrings, 
how  in  consequence  of  improper  care  two  thou- 
sand died  in  one  year.  "  This  murdering  trade 
made  my  heart  ache,  especially  when  I  heard 
that  there  was  more  profit  by  their  death  than 
by  carrying  them  alive."  "  They  filled  the  ves- 
sels with  passengers  and  as  much  of  the  mer- 
chants' goods  as  they  thought  fit,  and  left  the 
passengers'  chests,  etc.,  behind;  and  sometimes 
they  loaded  vessels  with  Palatines'  chests.  But 
the  poor  people  depended  upon  their  chests, 
wherein  was  some  provision  such  as  they  were 
used  to,  as  dried  apples,  pears,  plums,  mustard, 
medicines,  vinegar,  brandy,  butter,  clothing, 
shirts  and  other  necessary  linens,  money,  and 
whatever  they  brought  with  them;  and  when 
their  chests  were  left  behind,  or  shipped  in  some 
other  vessel,  they  had  lack  of  nourishment." 

Not  all  the  victims  of  these  unscrupulous  ship- 
pers were  poor  and  of  humble  rank.  Sauer  ex- 
pressly says  that  many  had  been  wealthy  people 
in  Germany,  and  had  lost  hundreds  and  even 
thousands  of  pounds'  worth  by  leaving  their 
chests  behind,  or  by  being  robbed,  "  and  are 
obliged  to  live  poor  with  grief."     These  state- 


8o  Ol^ER   LAND  AND  SEA. 

ments  are  borne  out  by  Mittelberger,  who  says 
that  people  of  rank,  "  such  as  nobles,  learned  or 
skilled  people,"  when  they  cannot  pay  their  pas- 
sage and  cannot  give  security  are  treated  like  or- 
dinary poor  people,  and  obliged  to  remain  on 
board  till  some  one  buys  them.^'^ 

But  enough  has  been  said  to  show  how  great 
was  the  abuse,  and  to  justify  the  indignation  of 
]\Iuhlenberg  and  Sauer.  These  abuses  contin- 
ued long  afterwards,  even  down  to  the  first  de- 
cade of  the  nineteenth  century;  indeed,  the  worst 
cases  occur  after  the  Revolution,  and  hence 
after  the  period  discussed  in  this  book.  After  all 
there  is  no  use  dwelling  on  such  details;  they 
were  undoubtedly,  to  a  greater  or  less  extent,  the 
necessary  accompaniments  of  a  great,  unsuper- 
vised movement  of  emigration;  a  movement 
which,  although  it  had  its  dark  side,  was  never- 
theless fraught  with  untold  blessing  to  thousands. 

The  custom  referred  to  above,  of  selling  the 

"  Mittelberger,  p.  39.  He  gives  an  example  of  this  in  the 
case  of  "a  noble  lady"  who  in  1753  came  to  Pliiladelphia 
with  two  half-grown  daughters  and  a  young  son.  She  en- 
trusted all  her  fortune  to  a  Newlander,  who  robbed  her  ;  in 
consequence  of  which  both  she  and  her  daughters  were  com- 
pelled to  serve.  J"hn  Wesley  in  his  Journal,  under  date  March 
6,  1736,  tells  the  story  of  John  Rcinier  from  Vevay,  Switzerland, 
who  came  to  America  "well  provided  with  money,  Inx^ks,  and 
drugs,"  but,  being  robbed  by  the  captain,  was  forced  to  sell 
himself  for  seven  years. 


OVER  LAND  AND  SEA.  8 1 

passengers  to  pay  their  charges, — a  custom 
known  as  redemptionism, — was  not  confined  to 
the  Germans.  In  the  previous  century  the  cus- 
tom existed  among  the  French  of  the  West  In- 
dies; the  "engages,"  as  they  were  called,  sell- 
ing themselves  to  serve  three  years.  Many  of 
the  Huguenots  were  thus  disposed  of.^s  The 
system  was  also  in  vogue  in  all  the  English 
colonies  except  New  England.  Fenwick,  in  his 
Proposal  of  1675, — intended  to  draw  immigration 
to  New  Jersey, — urges  it  as  a  reasonable  means 
of  coming  to  the  New  World  and  obtaining  a 
plantation;  Furley,  Penn's  agent,  also  urges  the 
same  thing.  In  Pennsylvania  it  was  entirely  re- 
spectable, and  many  who  afterwards  grew  to  dis- 
tinction came  over  this  way.^^  The  Germans  as 
servants  seem  not  to  have  come  over  until  well  on 
in  the  eighteenth  century;  later,  however,  they 
became  very  numerous. 

The  condition  of  the  redemptioners  was  not  in 
general    very    hard.      They    were    usually    well 

^*  Baird,  Huguenot  Emigration  to  America. 

^^  Among  them  are  said  to  have  been  Matthew  Thornton, 
one  of  the  Signers  of  the  Declaration  of  Independence;  the 
parents  of  General  Sullivan;  the  wife  of  the  famous  Sir  Will- 
iam Johnson  of  Mohawk  Valley;  and  Charles  Thompson,  sec- 
retary of  the  Continental  Congress  (see  Watson,  p.  544).  Gor- 
don (p.  556)  writes  that  many  of  the  German  and  Irish  settlers 
were  of  this  class,  "  from  whom  have  sprung  some  of  the  most 
reputable  and  wealthy  inhabitants  of  the  province." 


82  Oi^ER  LAND  AND  SEA. 

treated,  protected  1\\'  the  law,  and  at  the  end  of 
their  service  received  a  certain  outfit.^^  Indeed, 
for  a  single  man,  or  for  children,  it  was  often  of  de- 
cided advantage,  being  a  sort  of  apprenticeship  in 
which  the  customs  of  the  new  land  were  learned. 
It  is  said  that  some  voluntarily  sold  themselves 
for  the  sake  of  the  experience  they  would  get.^^ 
The  chief  hardship  was  when  a  whole  family  be- 
came the  victims  of  fraudulent  merchants,  and 
on  arriving  in  a  land  of  freedom,  as  they  fondly 
hoped,  saw  themselves  torn  asunder,  sold  to  dif- 
ferent parts  of  the  country,  parents  and  children 
being  thus  separated  for  years,  perhaps  forever.^s 

'"  See  Fenwick,  Furley,  Kalm,  etc. 

'■  Kalm,  vol.  i.  p.  304,  says  :  "Many  of  the  Germans  who 
come  liither  bring  money  enough  with  them  to  pay  their  pas- 
sage, but  rather  suffer  themselves  to  be  sold,  with  a  view  that 
during  their  servitude  they  may  get  some  knowledge  of  the 
language  and  quality  of  the  countrj-  and  the  like,  that  they 
may  the  better  be  able  to  consider  what  they  shall  do  when 
they  have  got  their  liberty."  Cf.  also:  "For  many  young 
people  it  is  very  good  that  they  cannot  pay  their  own  freight. 
These  will  sooner  be  provided  for  than  those  who  have  paid 
theirs,  and  they  can  have  their  broad  with  others  and  soon 
learn  the  waj-s  of  the  country."  (Letter  of  John  Naas  ;  see 
Brumbaugh,  p.  123.) 

"  See  the  pathetic  account  given  by  Muhlenberg,  Hallesche 
Nachrichten,  li.  p.  461:  "Weit  und  breit  von  einander,  unter 
allerlei  Nationen.  Sprachen  und  Zungen  zerstreuet,  so  dass  sie 
selten  ihre  altcn  Eltern,  oder  auch  die  Geschwister  sich  ein- 
ander im  Leben  wieder  zu  sehen  bekommen."  The  story  of 
Evangeline  must  have  frequently  repeated  itself  in  those  days. 


CHAPTER    IV. 

MANNERS  AND   CUSTOMS   OF  THE   PENNSYLVANIA- 
GERMAN  FARMER  IN  THE  EIGHTEENTH 
CENTURY. 

Although  Christopher  Saner  says  that  many 
of  the  early  Germans  of  Pennsylvania  had  been 
wealthy  at  home;  although  Mittelberger  dis- 
tinctly tells  us  that  "  persons  of  rank,  such  as 
nobles,  learned  or  skilled  people,"  were  often 
sold  as  redemptioners,  yet  the  large  majority  of 
the  eighteenth  century  settlers  were  poor.  This 
of  course  was  through  no  fault  of  their  own ;  the 
devastations  of  the  Thirty  Years'  War,  and  es- 
pecially the  wanton  destruction  ordered  by  Louis 
XIV.  in  the  last  decade  of  the  seventeenth  cen- 
tury, had  reduced  to  poverty  thousands  who  had 
been  prosperous  farmers  and  tradesmen;  and 
not  for  two  hundred  years  was  this  prosperity 
fully  restored  to  those  who  remained  in  the 
Fatherland.i  Whatever  property  they  had  been 
able  to  gather  together  was  used  up  in  the  ex- 

•  See  p.  6. 

83 


84        THE  PHNNSYLI^^NU-GERM^N  FARMER. 

penses  of  descending  the  Rhine  and  crossing  the 
ocean,  or  was  stolen  by  the  unprincipled  ship- 
owners and  their  parasites,  the  Xewlanders. 

It  was  not  long,  however,  before  this  poverty 
was  transformed  into  prosperity  and  plenty.  This 
was  especially  true  of  the  JSIennonites,  who  came 
when  the  land  was  cheap,  and  who  bought  large 
quantities  thereof.  Later,  property  in  the  imme- 
diate neighborhood  of  Philadelphia  and  the  ad- 
jacent counties  became  dearer  and  dearer,  and 
finally  not  to  be  obtained  at  all.  Those  who  came 
towards  the  middle  of  the  century  had  to  move 
further  and  further  into  the  wilderness  beyond  the 
Blue  Mountains  or  across  the  Susquehanna.^ 
After  the  Revolution,  however,  prosperity 
reigned  throughout  the  whole  of  the  farming  re- 
gions of  the  State. 

This  prosperity  was  not  entirely  due  to  the 
peculiar  conditions  of  Pennsylvania  at  that  time; 
others,  both  of  those  who  came  before  and  of  those 
who  afterwards  followed  the  same  kind  of  life, 
did  not  succeed.^  It  was  largely  due  to  the  in- 
domitable industry,  the  earnestness,  the  frugality, 

»  Dahero  gehen  sie  immer  weiter  fort  in  das  wilde  Ge- 
bllsche,  .  .  .  und  aus  Noth  weiter  fortgelien  milssen  in  die 
noch  unbebauten  Einoden."     (Muhlenberg,  Hall.  Nach.,  I.  p. 

342.') 

»  Pastoriiis  says  of  the  Swedes  and  Dutch  that  they  "are 
poor  economists,  have  neither  bams  nor  stalls.  let  their  grain 


THE  PENNSYLVANIA-GERMAN  FARMER.       S5 

and  the  consummate  agricultural  skill  of  the  Ger- 
mans.^ When,  in  the  Palatinate,  they  had  been 
bereft  of  all,  houses,  barns,  cattle,  and  crops,  one 
thing  they  had  still  kept:  the  skill  inherited  from 
thirty  generations  of  land-cultivators,  a  skill  that 
had  made  the  Palatinate  literally  the  "  garden- 
spot  "  of  Germany.^ 

This  same  skill,  brought  to  Pennsylvania, 
soon  changed  the  unbroken  forest  to  an  agricul- 
tural community  as  rich  as  any  in  the  world.  It 
is  doubtful  if  ever  any  colony  was  so  perfectly 
adapted  to  its  settlers  as  Pennsylvania  was  to  the 
Germans  of  one  hundred  and  fifty  years  ago.  The 
soil,  though  heavily  timbered,  was  fertile  and 
only  needed  the  hand  of  the  patient  husbandman 
in  order  to  blossom  as  the  rose;  when  the  Ger- 
mans arrived  this  condition  was  fulfilled.  While 
their  English  and  Scotch-Irish  neighbors  usually 
followed  the  course  of  rivers  or  larger  streams, 
thus  lessening  the  labor  of  clearing,  the  Ger- 
mans and  Swiss  would  plunge  boldly  into  an  un- 

lie  unthreshed,"  etc.  (Pennypacker,  p.  138.)  The  Scotch- 
Irish  likewise  were  inferior  in  this  respect  to  the  Germans,  wlio 
soon  had  possession  of  the  best  farming  land  in  the  State. 

*  "  The  Germans  seem  more  adapted  for  agriculture  and  the 
improvement  of  a  wilderness,  and  the  Irish  for  trade,"  etc. 
(Proud,  II.  p.  274.)  Penn  told  Pastorius  "  dass  ihm  der  Eyffer 
der  Hoch-Teutschen  im  Bauen  sehr  wohl  gefalle." 

5  So  called  by  Schlozer  one  himdred  and  fifty  years  ago. 


86       THE  PENNSYLI^ANIA-GERMAN  FARMER. 

broken  wilderness,  often  fifty  or  sixty  miles  from 
the  nearest  habitation,  knowing  well  that  where 
the  heaviest  forest  growth  was,  there  the  soil 
must  be  good.^  They  could,  in  very  truth,  say 
with  the  Swiss  in  Schiller's  "  Wilhelm  Tell  ": 

"  Wir  haben  diesen  Boden  uns  erschaflen 
Durch  unserer  Haii'le  Fleiss,  den  alten  Wald, 
Der  soust  der  Biiren  wilder  Wolinung  war, 
Zu  einem  Sitz  fur  Menschen  umgewandelt." ' 

The  best  soil  in  Pennsylvania  for  farming  pur- 
poses is  limestone,  and  it  is  a  singular  fact  that 
almost  every  acre  of  this  soil  is  in  possession  of 
German  farmers.^  If  we  may  make  a  distinction 
where  all  are  excellent,  the  Mcnnonites  may 
be  said  to  illustrate  to  the  highest  degree  the 
skill  in  agriculture;  as  Riehl  says,  "  Wo  der 
Pflug  durch  goldene  Auen  geht  da  schliigt  audi 
der  Mennonite  sein  Bethaus  auf."  ^  It  is  due  to 
the  fact  that  Lancaster  County  is  especially  rich 
in  limestone  soil  and  is  largely  inhabited  by  Men- 

*  Penn  says,  "the  back  lands  being  generally  three  tu  one 
richer  than  those  that  lie  by  navigable  rivers."     (Proud,  I.  p. 

247-) 

'  Schiller,  "Wilhelm  Tell,"  n.  2. 

*  The  late  Eckley  B.  Coxe  said  not  long  ago  that  a  letter  from 
Bethlehem  written  to  his  grandfather  asserts  that  in  Pennsyl- 
vania, if  you  are  on  limestone  soil,  you  can  open  your  mouth 
in  Pennsylvania  Dutch  and  get  a  response  every  time.  (Pro- 
cecdings  of  Penn.  Ger.  Soc,  vol.  v.  p.  102.) 

»  Die  Pfiilzer,  p.  374. 


THE  PENNSYLVANIA-GERMAN  FARMER.       87 

nonites  that  it  has  become  the  richest  farming 
county  in  the  United  States.^^ 

'"  This  is  not  mere  rhetoric,  but  a  sober  statement  of  actual 
fact,  as  any  one  who  will  take  the  trouble  to  look  up  the  agri- 
cultural statistics  of  the  country  may  easily  see.  In  the  history 
of  Lancaster  County  by  Ellis  and  Evans  we  find  the  statement 
made  that  "  within  the  memory  of  the  oldest  inhabitants  there 
had  been  no  entire  failure  of  all  its  crops."  Six-sevenths  of 
the  entire  area,  or  463,000  acres,  are  farm-lands.  In  1890 
the  value  of  agricultural  products  in  Lancaster  County  was 
$7,657,790,  while  St.  Lawrence  County,  N.  Y.,  the  next 
richest  agricultural  county  had  crops  valued  at  $6,054,160,  or 
$1,603,630  less  than  Lancaster. 

As  an  instance  of  the  rapidity  with  which  the  new  settlers 
became  prosperous  we  may  take  the  inventory  of  the  ' '  goods 
and  chattels  "  of  Andrew  Ferree  of  Lancaster  County,  who 
died  in  1735,  only  twenty-five  years  after  the  first  settlement  in 
that  county  : 
"  To  wheat  in  the  stack  at  ^8 — wheat  and  rye 

in  the  ground,  £6 £^A-  0-0 

To  great  waggon,  £12 — little  waggon,  ;^5... .        17-  o-o 

To  a  plow  and  two  pairs  of  irons i-io-o 

To  two  mauls  and  three  iron  wedges,  9s. — to 

four  old  weeding  hoes,  4s 13-0 

To  a  spade  and  shovel,  8s. — to  a   matock  and 

three  dung  forks,  los 18-O 

To  two  broad-axes,  12s. — to  joyner's  axe  and 

adze,  7s 19-0 

To  sundry  carpenter  tools,  ^i — sundry  joiner's 

tools,  ;^2-5s 3-  S-o 

To  seven  duch  sythes  [sic'\ 12-0 

To  four  stock  bands,  two  pair  hinges,  sundry 

old  iron 14-0 

To  a  hand-saw,  £2 — to  five  sickles  and  two  old 

hooks I  i-o 


88       THE  PENNSYLy/INIA-GERM^N  FARMER. 

It  is  surprising  how  rapidly  agriculture  pros- 
pered in  Pennsylvania.  In  a  letter  on  Brad- 
dock's  campaign,  written  by  William  Johnston, 
September  23,  1755,  we  find  the  following  re- 
marks: "  Pennsylvania  is  much  the  best  country 
oi  any  I  have  seen  since  I  have  been  upon  the 
continent,  and  much  more  plenty  of  provisions 


To  a  cutting-box,  twf)  knives,  £i — to  twenty- 

^aggs,  ^2-ios 3-10-0 

To  two  pair  chains,  14s. — two  hackles,  ^I-IO 

— to  five  bells,  12s 2-16-0 

To  four  smal  chains  and  other  horse  geers  at..  i-  4-0 
To  other  horse  geers  at  _^i-ios. — to  a  man's 

saddle  at  ;i{^i-io 3-  0-0 

To  three  falling  axes  at  los. — to  two  fowling 

pieces,  £2 2-10-0 

To  a  large  Byble 2-  0-0 

To  twofether  beds  at  £6 — to  wearing  cloaths, 

£7 13-0-0 

To  sundry  pewter,  £2-% — to  a  box  iron,  4s. . .  2-12-0 

To  sundry  iron  ware,  £2 — to  a  watering  pot,  6s.  2-  6-0 
To  sundry  wooden  ware  at  £1 — to  two   iron 

pot-racks,  £1 2-  0-0 

To  four  working  horses.  ;^24 — to  a  mare  and 

two  colts,  £11 35-  0-0 

To  six    grown  cows  at  ,^15 — to   ten   head  of 

young  cattle.  ;^i3-io 28-10-0 

To  eleven  sheep,  £'i~ij — to  swine,  ^i-io. .  .  5-  7-0 

T(j  two  chests,  15s. — to  a  spinning-wheel,  Ss..  i-  3-0 

To  sley,  6s. — to  cash 2-  8-0 

To  cash  received  for  a  servant  girle's  time. ...  3-  0-0 

7^2-  8-6- 


THE  PENNSYLf/ANIA-GERMAN  FARMER.       89 

than  Maryland  or  Virginia."  ^^  Of  Lancaster, 
the  county  town,  Johnston  says:  "  You  will  not 
see  many  inland  towns  in  England  so  large  as 
this,  and  none  so  regular;  and  yet  this  town,  I 
am  told,  is  not  above  twenty-five  years'  stand- 
ing,^ 2  and  a  most  delightful  country  round  it.  It 
is  mostly  inhabited  by  Dutch  people." 

That  this  prosperity  was  largely  due  to  the 
Germans  is  acknowledged  by  the  English  them- 
selves. Thus  Governor  Thomas  says  in  1738: 
"  This  province  has  been  for  some  years  the 
asylum  of  the  distressed  Protestants  of  the  Palat- 
inate and  other  parts  of  Germany,  and  I  believe 
it  may  truthfully  be  said  that  the  present  flour- 
ishing condition  of  it  is  in  great  measure  owing 
to  the  industry  of  these  people."  ^^  We  have  an 
interesting  glimpse  of  the  skill  with  which  these 

'^  Penn.  Mag.,  vol.  xi.  pp.  93  ff.  It  will  be  remembered 
that  Pennsylvania  was  the  youngest  of  all  the  colonies  except 
Georgia,  although  at  the  time  of  the  Revolution  it  was  second 
in  population. 

^'  Lancaster  was  laid  out  by  James  Hamilton  in  1730. 

^'  In  the  preamble  of  the  act  passed  by  the  General  Assembly 
of  Pennsylvania  in  1787  to  incorporate  a  college  in  Lancaster 
are  the  words  :  ''Whereas,  the  citizens  of  this  State  of  Ger- 
man birth  or  extraction  have  eminently  contributed  by  their 
industry,  economy,  and  public  virtues  to  raise  the  State  to  its 
present  happiness  and  prosperity,"  etc.  In  recent  times 
Bancroft  has  said  that  neither  the  Peimsylvania  Germans  nor 
others  claim  for  them  the  credit  due  them. 


90       THE  PENNSYLy/INIA-GERM/1N  FARMER. 

farms  were  worked  in  the  description  of  a  trip 
made  b}'  Governor  Thomas  Pownall  in  1754. 
He  visited  Lancaster,  "  a  pretty  considerable 
town,  encreasing  fast  and  growing  rich,"  and 
then  goes  on  to  say :  "  I  saw  some  of  the  finest 
farms  one  can  conceive,  and  in  the  highest  state 
of  culture,  particularly  one  that  was  the  estate 
of  a  Switzer.  Here  it  was  I  first  saw  the  method 
of  watering  a  whole  range  of  pastures  and 
meadows  on  a  hillside,  by  little  troughs  cut  in  the 
side  of  the  hill,  along  which  the  water  from 
springs  was  conducted,  so  as  that  when  the  outlets 
of  these  troughs  were  stopped  at  the  end  the 
water  ran  over  the  sides  and  watered  all  the 
ground  between  that  and  the  other  trough  next 
below  it.  I  dare  say  this  method  may  be  in  use 
in  England.  I  never  saw  it  there,  but  saw  it 
here  first."  1* 

It  is  no  wonder  that,  in  view  of  such  extraordi- 
nary prosperity  on  the  part  of  many  who  a  short 
time  before  had  been  destitute  exiles  from  their 
native  land,  Benjamin  Rush  exclaims:  "If  it 
were  possible  to  determine  the  amount  of  all  the 
property  brought  into  Pennsylvania  by  the  pres- 
ent German  inhabitants  of  the  State  and  their  an- 

^*  Penn.  Mag.,  vol.  xviii.  p.  215.  This  same  skill  in  agri- 
culture is  seen  likewise  in  the  German  settlements  in  New 
York,  Maryland,  Virginia,  and  even  Ireland. 


THE  PENNSYLVANM-GERM^N  FARMER.       91 

cestors,  and  then  compare  it  with  the  present 
amount  of  their  property,  the  contrast  would 
form  such  a  monument  of  human  industry  and 
economy  as  has  seldom  been  contemplated  in 
any  age  or  country."  ^^  "  How  different,"  he 
goes  on  to  say,  "  is  their  situation  here  from 
what  it  was  in  Germany!  Could  the  subjects  of 
the  princes  of  Germany,  who  now  groan  away 
their  lives  in  slavery  and  unprofitable  labor,  view 
from  an  eminence  in  the  month  of  June  the  Ger- 
man settlements  of  Strasburg  or  Mannheim  in 
Lancaster  County,  or  of  Lebanon  in  Dauphin 
County,  or  of  Bethlehem  in  Northampton 
County, — could  they  be  accompanied  on  this 
eminence  by  a  venerable  German  farmer  and  be 
told  by  him  that  many  of  these  extensive  fields 
of  grain,  full-fed  herds,  luxurious  meadows, 
orchards  promising  loads  of  fruit,  together  with 
the  spacious  barns  and  commodious  stone  dwell- 
ing-houses which  compose  the  prospects  which 
have  been  mentioned,  were  all  the  product  of  a 
single  family  and  of  one  generation,  and  were  all 
secured  to  the  owners  of  them  by  certain  laws,  I 
am  persuaded  that  no  chains  would  be  able  to 
deter  them  from  sharing  in  the  freedom  of  their 

^5  Manners    of  the    German   Inhabitants   of  Pennsylvania, 
P-  55- 


92       THE  PENNSYLy^NU-GERMAN  FARMER. 

Pennsylvania    friends    and    former    fellow    sub- 
jects." i« 

Dr.  Rush  himself  gives  us  many  valuable  hints 
as  to  the  methods  by  which  such  striking  results 
were  obtained.  His  little  pamphlet  on  "The  Man- 
ners of  the  German  Inhabitants  of  Pennsylvania," 
written  in  1789,  is  the  most  valuable  of  all  the 
eighteenth-century  sources  which  throw  light  on 
the  subject  we  are  discussing.  He  gives  many  de- 
tails as  to  the  thoroughness,  far-sightedness,  and 
attention  to  little  things  which  marked  the  Ger- 
man methods  of  farming.  Thus  at  the  very  out- 
set, while  the  Scotch-Irish  or  English  farmer 
would  girdle  or  belt  the  trees,  and  leave  them  to 
rot  in  the  ground,  their  more  far-sighted  neigh- 
bors would  cut  them  down  and  burn  them,  the 
underwood  and  bushes  being  grubbed  out  of  the 
ground.^ ^  By  this  means  a  field  was  as  fit  for 
cultivation  the  second  year  after  it  was  cleared 

^*  For  further  glinipst-s  of  tliis  pro.^perity  see  the  Travels  of 
Weld  (1795)  and  Saxe-Weimar  (1825).  An  interesting  detail 
in  this  connection  is  the  appellation  "King"  applied  to  a  rich 
landed  proprietor.  An  old  "Dutchman"  once  ?aid,  speaking 
of  a  friend,  "  The  people  call  mc  tlie  king  of  the  manor  [town- 
ship], and  they  call  him  the  king  of  the  Octorara."  In  the 
MS.  genealogy  of  the  llcrr  family,  one  sheet  is  marked 
"King"  Herr. 

"  Und  halten  niaiichtn  sauren  Tag,  den  Wald 
Mit  weitversclilungenen  Wurzehi  aus/.utoden." 

(Schiller,  "Wilhclm  Toll,"  ii.  2.) 


THE  PENNSYLV/iNIA-GERM/iN  FARMER.       93 

as  it  was  twenty  years  afterwards.     They  con- 
tended that  tlie  expense  of  repairing  a  plough, 
which  by  the  other  method  vvas  often  broken, 
was  greater  than  the  extra  expense  of  grubbing 
the  field  in  clearing.    Their  foresight  and  careful- 
ness were  also  shown  in  their  treatment  of  horses 
and  cattle.     However  economical  they  might  be 
with  themselves,  they  were  never  so  towards  their 
live  stock.    These  were  so  well  fed  that  the  horses 
"  performed  twice  the  labor  of  those  horses,  and 
the  cattle  yielded  twice  the  quantity  of  milk  of 
those  cows,  that  are  less  plentifully  fed."     The 
Pennsylvania  German's  horses  were  well  known 
all   over  the   State.     Indeed,   says   Rush,   "  the 
horse  seems  to  feel  v.'ith  his  lord  the  pleasure  and 
pride  of  his  extraordinary  size  and  fat."^^     Not 
only  were  the  horses  well  fed,  but  they  were  kept 
warm  in  winter  and  spared  all  unnecessary  labor, 
such  as  dragging  heavy  loads  of  wood  for  win- 
ter fires,  or  driving  about  the  country  for  mere 
pleasure.        In    this    way    they    were    able    to 
perform  prodigious  feats  of  strength  when  the 

^8  This  love  for  animals  is  an  inherited  trait  ;  cf.  Freytag, 
"Die  grosste  Freude  des  Landmanns  war  die  Zucht  seiner 
Rosse."  (I.  p.  307.)  Meyer  (Deutsche  Volkskunde,  p.  212) 
repeats  a  proverb  still  current  near  Heidelberg  wliich  in 
another  form  is  applied  to  the  Pennsylvania  farmer  :  "  Weiber 
sterbe  isch  ka  Verderbe !  Aber  Gaulverrecke,  des  isch  e 
Schrecke." 


94       THE  PENNSYLV/INI/i-GERMAN  F/IRMFR. 

time  came,  dragging  the  immense  loads  of  prod- 
uce over  rough  roads  to  Philadelphia,  sixty 
miles  or  more  away. 

The  farmer's  first  care  after  getting  his  field 
well  cleared  was  to  build  an  immense  barn,  in 
which  no  expense  was  spared  to  make  it  com- 
fortable and  ample.  This  was  invariably  done 
before  any  thought  was  taken  of  building  a 
permanent  home  for  himself.  These  great 
"  Swisser  "  barns,  as  they  are  called,^^  are  down 
to  the  present  day  one  of  the  characteristic  fea- 
tures of  the  landscape  in  the  eastern  counties  of 
Pennsylvania,  and  have  often  attracted  the  atten- 
tion of  travellers,  not  only  in  the  past,-*^  but  in 
these  days  of  railroads,  when  the  traveller  is 
whirled  through  Lancaster  and  other  counties 
on  his  way  to  the  West.  A  detailed  description 
of  them  may  not  be  out  of  place  here.  "  They 
are  two  stories  high,  with  pitched  roof,  suffi- 
ciently large  and  strong  to  enable  heavy  farm- 
teams  to  drive  into  the  upper  story,  to  load  or 
unload  grain.  During  the  first  period  they  were 
built  mostly  of  logs,  afterwards  of  stone,  frame, 

'*  Either  on  account  of  the  chalet-like  projection  of  the 
upper  stories,  or  because  many  of  the  farmers  were  Swiss. 

'"  The  Duke  of  Saxe-Weimar  says  he  was  particularly 
struck  with  these  barns,  many  of  tluia  looking  like  large 
churches.     (Travels,  vol.  ii.  jip.  175  ami  177.) 


THE  PENNSYL^^ANIA-GERMAN  FARMER.       95 

or  brick,  from  60  to  120  feet  long,  and  from  50 
to  60  feet  wide,  the  lower  story,  containing-  the 
stables,  with  feeding-passages  opening  on  the 
front.  The  upper  story  was  made  to  project  8  or 
10  feet  over  the  lower  in  front,  or  with  a  fore- 
bay  attached,  to  shelter  the  entries  to  the  stables 
and  passageways.  It  contained  the  threshing- 
floors,  mows,  and  lofts  for  the  storing  of  hay  and 
grain.  The  most  complete  barns  of  the  present 
day  have  in  addition  a  granary  on  the  upper 
floor,  a  celler  under  the  driving-way,  a  wagon- 
shed,  with  corn-crib  and  horse-power  shed  at- 
tached." 21 

The  houses  at  first  were  temporary  structures 
built  of  logs.  The  preparation  for  the  permanent 
dwelling  was  the  business  of  a  number  of  years, 
before  the  actual  building  operations  were  begun. 
Stones  had  to  be  quarried,  lumber  sawed  and  al- 
lowed  to    season;     frequently    two    generations 

*'  Ellis  and  Evans,  Hist.  Lane.  Co.,  p.  348.  This  same 
architectural  pride  of  the  farmer  may  be  seen  likewise  in  the 
Palatinate  to-day;  cf.  Riehl,  "Seine  Oekonomiegebaude  legt 
der  reiche  Gutsbesitzer  mit  einer  fast  monumentalen  SchOn- 
heit  und  Dauerhaftigkeit  an  und  schmUckt  seinen  Garten 
lieber  als  den  Kirchhof."  (Pfiilzer,  p.  155.)  Elsewhere  he 
calls  the  stables  "wahre  Prachthallen,  massiv  aus  Stein,  mit 
Pfeilern  und  Kreuzgewolben."  (Ibid.,  p.  190.)  Cf.  also 
Meyer  (Deutsche  Volkskunde,  p.  33)  :  "  Formliche  Ehrfurcht 
empfindet  man  in  Bayem  vor  einem  stattlichen  Einzelhof: 
'  Vor  einer  Ainet  (Einodhof)  soil  man  den  Hut  herabthun.'" 


9^>       THE  PENNSYLVANIA-GERMAN  FARMER. 

assisted  in  erecting  the  family  homestead. 
"  These  houses  were  generally  built  of  stone 
(some  of  them  with  dressed  corners),  two  stories 
high,  with  pitched  roof  and  with  cornices  run 
across  the  gables  and  aiound  the  first  story.  A 
large  chimney  in  the  middle,  if  modelled  after  the 
German  pattern,  or  with  a  chimney  at  either 
gable-end,  if  built  after  the  English  or  Scotch 
idea.  Many  were  imposing  structures  having 
arched  cellars  underneath,  spacious  hallways 
with  easy  stairs,  open  fireplaces  in  most  of  the 
rooms,  oak-panelled  partitions,  and  windows 
hung  in  weights."  22 

One  of  the  most  interesting  features  of  these 
old  stone  houses  are  the  quaint  inscriptions 
which  adorn  most  of  them,  usually  high  up  on 
the  gable  wall.2^  ]\Iany  inscriptions  consist  simply 
of  the  initials  or  names  of  man  and  wife,  with  the 

"  Weld,  in  1795,  says  the  houses  were  mostly  built  of  stone 
and  as  good  as  those  usually  met  with  on  an  arable  farm  of 
50  acres  in  a  well-cultivated  part  of  England.  (Travels,  p. 
115.)  For  pictures  and  descriptions  of  some  of  these  old 
houses  see  Croll,  Ancient  and  Historic  Landmarks  in  the 
Lebanon  Valley. 

"  This  was  a  common  custom  in  the  Palatinate;  the  religious 
sentiments  expressed  are  only  seen  on  Protestant  houses,  and, 
significantly  enough,  date  chiefly  from  the  years  of  trial  in  tlie 
seventeenth  and  eighteenth  centuries.  One  of  the  earliest  of 
such  inscriptions  was  made  by  the  wife  of  the  Count  Palatine 
Johaim  Kasimir  of  Zweibriicken,  over  the  portal  of  tlie  Castle 


THE  PENNSYLVANIA-GERMAN  FARMER.       97 

date  of  building.  Others,  however,  are  proverbs 
or  quotations  from  Bible  and  hymn-book,  and 
thus  throw  a  good  deal  of  light  on  the  practical 
and  pious  character  of  the  builders.  Thus  on 
the  Weidman  house  in  Clay  Township,  Lancas- 
ter County,  are  the  following  words: 

''Wer  will  baueii  an  die  Strassen 
Muss  ein  jeder  reden  lassen."  ^* 

On  Peter  Bricker's  house,  in  West  Cocalico 
Township,  in  Lancaster  County,  built  of  sand- 
stone in  1759  and  still  as  good  as  new,  are  writ- 
ten these  words: 

"Gott  gesegne  dieses  Haus, 
Und  alle  was  da  gehet  ein  und  aus; 
Gott  gesegne  alle  sampt, 
Und  dazu  das  ganze  Land." 

Still  more  pious  is  the  inscription  on  a  log-house 
in  Albany  Township,  Berks  County,  built  by 
Cornelius  Frees  in  1743.     On  a  large  iron  plate 

Katharinenburg,  consisting  of  her  initials,  the  year  (1622), 
and  beneath,  "Wer  Gott  vertraut,  hat  wohl  gebaut."  (Riehl, 
Die  Pfalzer,  p.  198.)  Tn  Switzerland,  also,  such  inscriptions 
were  common,  as  we  may  see  from  Schiller's  "Wilhelm  Tell" 
(i.  2),  where,  speaking  of  Stauffer's  house,  he  says  : 

"  Mit  bunten  Wappenschildern  ist's  beraalt, 

Und  weisen  Spriichen,  die  der  Wandersmann 
Verweileud  liest  und  ihren  Sinn  bevvundert." 

2*  Riehl  (Die  Familie,  p.  199)  gives  the  following  variation 
of  this  verse  : 

"Wer  da  bauet  an  Markt  und  Strassen, 
Muss  Neider  und  Narren  reden  lassen." 


98       THE  PENNSYLy^NlA-GBRMAN  FARMER. 

which  had  been  walled  in  on  the  side  of  the  build- 
ing are  the  following  lines: 

"Was  nicht  zu  Gottes  Elir' 
Alls  Glauben  gelit  ist  Sunde; 
Merck  auf,  O  theures  Hertz, 
Verliere  keine  Stunde. 
Die  iiberkluge  Welt 
Versteht  doch  keine  Waaren, 
Sie  sucht  und  fiiidet  Kotli 
Und  last  die  Perle  fahren."  " 

Next  to  barn  and  dwelling-house  the  most  im- 
portant architectural  product  of  the  Pennsylvania 
Germans  is  the  great  Conestoga  wagon,  which 
Rush  called  the  "  ship  of  inland  commerce."  Be- 
fore the  advent  of  railroads  these  were  the  chief 
means  of  transport  between  the  farms  and 
towns  of  Pennsylvania.  In  them  the  wheat, 
vegetables,  fruit,  and.  alas!  whiskey, — which 
often  formed  a  side  industry  of  many  a  farmer, — 
were  carried  for  miles  to  Philadelphia.  Says 
Rush:  "  In  this  wagon,  drawn  by  four  or  five 
horses  of  a  peculiar  breed,  they  convey  to  market, 
over  the  roughest  roads,  2000  and  3000  pounds' 
weight  of  the  produce  of  their  farms.  In  the 
months  of  September  and  October  it  is  no  un- 
common thing  on  the  Lancaster  and  Reading 
roads  to  meet  in  one  day  fifty  or  one  hundred 
of  these  wagons  on  their  way  to  Philadelphia, 

**  Montgomery,  Hist.,  of  Berks  Co. 


THE  PENNSYLVANIA-GERMAN  FARMER.       99 

most  of  which  belong-  to  German  farmers." 
These  teams  were  stately  objects  in  those 
times;  owner  and  driver  alike  took  pride  in 
them  and  kept  them  neat  and  trim.  They  con- 
sisted of  five  or  six  heavy  horses,  well  fed  and 
curried,  wearing  good  harness,  and  sometimes 
adorned  with  bows  of  bells,  fitted  so  as  to  form 
an  arch  above  the  collar.  These  bells  were  care- 
fully selected  to  harmonize  or  chime,  from  the 
small  treble  of  the  leaders  to  the  larger  bass  upon 
the  wheel-horses.  The  wagon-body  was  neces- 
sarily built  stanch  and  strong,  but  by  no  means 
clumsy.  Upon  them  the  wheelwright  and  black- 
smith expended  their  utmost  skill  and  good  taste, 
and  oftentimes  produced  masterpieces  of  work, 
both  in  shape  and  durability.  The  running-gear 
was  invariably  painted  red,  and  the  body  blue. 
The  cover  was  of  stout  white  linen  or  hempen 
material,  drawn  tightly  over,  shapely,  fitted  to 
the  body,  lower  near  the  middle  and  projecting 
like  a  bonnet  in  front  and  at  the  back,  the  whole 
having  a  graceful  and  sightly  outline.^^ 

In  addition  to  the  labor  in  the  fields  and  the 
larger  interests  of  the  farm,  the  cultivation  of  the 
garden,  which  was  the  invariable  adjunct  of  each 

'5  Ellis  and  Evans,  Hist.  Lancaster  Co.,  p.  350.  The  rail- 
roads put  an  end  to  these  wagons.  Tliey  reappeared  latter  in 
the  well-known  "prairie  schooners." 


^^C,t\ 


i^p 


lOO     THE  PENNSYLl^/INIA-GERMAN   FARMER. 

lioiise,  was  of  no  small  itiiportance.  A  love  for 
ilowers  has  always  been  tlic  characteristic  of  the 
natives  of  the  I\-ilatinate,2'  and  this  love  is  quite 
as  noticeable  in  Pennsylvania  as  in  the  home- 
country;  at  the  present  day  there  is  not  a  farm- 
house in  the  country,  or  even  a  small  dwelling  in 
town,  that  is  not  adorned  with  flowers  of  many 
kinds,  often  rare.  They  form  the  one  bright 
touch  of  poetry  in  the  otherwise  hard  routine  of 
farm-Iife.28 

More  important,  however,  from  a  practical 
point  of  view,  was  the  cultivation  of  garden  vege- 
tables, in  which  the  Germans  soon  reached  the 
foremost  rank ;  Rush  says  definitely  that  "  Penn- 
sylvania is  indebted  to  the  Germans  for  the  prin- 
cipal part  of  her  knowledge  in  horticulture."  ^9 
"  Since  the  settlement,"  he  says,  "  of  a  number 
of  German  gardeners  in  the  neighborhood  of 
Philadelphia,  the  tables  of  all  classes  of  citizens 

*'  "Im  ubrigen  Rheinland  erfreut  sich  wohl  auch  der  ge- 
meine  Mann  am  Blumenschmuck  seines  Hauses,  aber  so  all- 
gemein  wie  auf  dem  linken  Ufer  der  Pfalz  nirgends."  (Riehl, 
Pfalzer,  p.  192.)  Richl  traces  this  love  for  flowers  back  to  the 
days  of  Roman  occupation  of  the  Rhine. 

*8  See  Ritter's  History  of  the  MoravianChurch  inPluladelpliia, 
for  description  of  the  garden  of  tlie  parsonage  ;  in  addition  to 
peach,  pear,  and  plum  trees  there  were  various  kinds  of  roses, 
lilacs,  heart's-ease,  lilies,  etc. 

"  Rush,  p.  23. 


THE  PENNSYLVANIA-GERMAN  FARMER.     loi 

have  been  covered  with  a  variety  of  vegetables 
in  every  season  of  the  year." 

Farming  in  those  days  was  a  profession  and 
a  hard  and  laborious  one,  although  one  sure  of 
profitable  returns.  The  whole  life  of  the  farmer, 
his  labor,  his  thoughts,  his  hopes  and  fears,  re- 
volved about  this  one  thing.^^  Industry  was  the 
highest  virtue,  idleness  and  sin  went  hand  in 
hand.21  "  When  a  young  man,"  says  Rush, 
"  asks  the  consent  of  his  father  to  marry  a  girl  of 
his  choice,  the  latter  does  not  so  much  inquire 
whether  she  be  rich  or  poor,  but  whether  she  is 
industrious  and  acquainted  with  the  duties  of  a 
good  housewife."  "^ 

Even  the  superstitions  of  the  early  Pennsyl- 
vania Germans  largely  clustered  about  their 
agricultural  life.  In  the  last  century,  and  in  some 

***  It  is  interesting   to  see  how  many  of  their  proverbs  had  to 
do  with  farming  life  : 

"  Im  kleinsten  Raum  pflanz  einen  Baum 
Und  pflege  sein,  er  bringt  dir's  ein  "; 

"  Eine  gute  Kuh  sucht  man  imStalle";  "Gut  gewetzt  ist 
halb  gemaht";  "Ein  kleines  Schaf  ist  gleich  geschoren"; 
"  Futter  macht  die  Giiule,"  etc. 

31 

"  Arbeite  treu  und  glaub  es  fest 
Dass  Faulheit  iirger  ist  als  Pest, 
Der  Mussiggang  viel  Boses  lehrt, 
Und  alle  Art  von  SUnden  mehrt.' 

*'  Hence  the  proverb,  "Eine  fleissige  Hausfrau  ist  die  beste 
Sparbiichse." 


I02     THE  PENNSYLy/tNM-GERMAN  F/1RMER. 

places  well  on  in  the  nineteenth,  they  had  many 
strange  belief?  and  curious  practices.  These 
superstitions  which  they  brought  from  the 
Fatherland  run  back  their  roots  to  the  early 
twilight  of  German  history.  It  seems  to  be 
another  phase  of  that  deep  touch  of  poetry  so 
characteristic  of  German  character  and  which 
has  so  powerfully  influenced  the  pietistic  move- 
ment in  more  recent  times.  Many  of  the  customs 
of  the  eighteenth  century,  both  in  Germany  and 
Pennsylvania,  are  survivals  of  heathen  customs 
that  have  come  floating  down  the  centuries,  the 
flotsam  and  jetsam  of  the  religious  beliefs  of  our 
pagan  ancestors. 

One  of  the  most  widely  spread  of  these  be- 
liefs is  the  influence  of  the  heavenly  bodies. 
When  Shakespeare  makes  Cassius  say, 

"The  fault,  dear  Brutus,  lies  not  in  our  stars, 
But  in  ourselves,  that  we  are  underlings," 

he  alludes  to  a  belief  that  was  well-nigh  universal 
in  the  Middle  Ages,  that  the  peculiar  juxtaposi- 
tion of  the  stars  and  planets  at  the  birth  of  any 
individual  will  have  a  lasting  influence  on  the 
life  of  the  new-born  child.  Among  the  Pennsyl- 
vania Germans  the  signs  of  the  heavens  were 
always  noted  and  recorded  at  the  birth  of  the 
child,'3  and  we  are  told  that  the  hermits  on  the 

"  This  was  an  old  German  custom.     Goethe   begins    his 


THE  PENNSYLVANIA-GERMAN  FARMER..     103 

Wissahickon  partly  gained  their  living  by  the 
casting  of  horoscopes.  In  the  old  German  alma- 
nacs certain  days  were  marked  as  lucky  or  un- 
lucky ;2-*  any  one  born  on  these  days  was  doomed 
to  poverty ;  engagements  or  marriages  con- 
tracted then  were  sure  to  be  failures,  and  the 
wise  man  would  begin  no  legal  or  other  kind  of 
business.  On  Ascension-day  there  should  be  no 
letting  of  blood.^5  Of  especial  interest  to  farmers 
was  a  knowledge  of  the  times  and  seasons.  The 
different  phases  of  the  moon  had  to  be  carefully 
observed  from  the  almanac,  for  all  cereals  planted 
in  the  waxing  of  the  moon  grew  more  rapidly 
than  in  the  waning.     Things  planted  when  the 

"Wahrheit  und  Dichtung  "  with  these  words  :  "  Am  28.  Au- 
gust 1749,  Mittags  mit  dem  Glockenschlage  zwolf,  kam  ich  in 
Frankfurt  am  Main  auf  die  Welt.  Die  Constellation  war  gliick- 
lich  :  Die  Sonne  stand  im  Zeichen  der  Jungfrau,  und  culmi- 
nirte  fijr  den  Tag,"  etc. 

'*  These  were  Jan.  i,  2,  3,  4,  6,  11,  12;  Feb.  i,  17,  18; 
March  14,  16;  April  10,  17,  18;  May  7,  8  ;  June  17;  July  17, 
21  ;  Aug.  20,  21  ;  Sept.  10,  18;  Oct.  6  ;  Nov.  6,  10  ;  Dec.  6, 
10,  15.  (See  Owen,  Folk-Lore  from  Buffalo  Valley,  Pa.,  Jour- 
nal of  American  Folk-Lore  Society,  vol.  iv. ) 

'5  The  custom  of  blood-letting,  universal  throughout  the 
middle  ages,  was  still  in  full  sway  in  Pennsylvania  a  hundred 
years  ago.  In  the  Journal  of  Christopher  Marshall,  under  the 
date  May  13,  1780  (at  Lancaster)  we  find  this  entry:  "This 
was  a  remarkable  day  for  the  German  men  and  women, 
bleeding  at  (Dr.)  Chrisley  Neff's.  So  many  came  that  I 
presume  he  must  work  hard  to  bleed  the  whole.  Strange  in- 
fatuation."    (Papers  of  Lane.  Co.  Hist.  Soc,  vol.  ni.  p.  156.) 


I04    THE  PENNSYLy/INM'GERMAN  FARMER. 

moon  was  in  the  sign  of  the  Twins  would  be 
abundant.  When  the  horns  of  the  moon  were 
down  onions  must  be  planted;  beans,  and  early 
potatoes,  however,  when  the  horns  were  up.  Ap- 
ples should  be  picked  in  the  dark  of  the  moon, 
else  they  would  rot.  Hogs  should  be  slaughtered 
during  the  waxing  of  the  moon,  otherwise  the 
meat  would  shrink  and  be  poor.  Even  the  thatch- 
ing of  houses  should  be  done  when  the  horns  of 
the  moon  were  down,  or  the  shingles  would  curl; 
and  when  fences  were  built,  the  first  or  lower  rail 
should  be  laid  when  the  horns  were  up,  while  the 
stakes  should  be  put  in  and  the  fence  finished 
when  the  horns  were  down.  Such  are  a  few  of 
the  affairs  of  life  which  were  supposed  to  be 
done  literally  "  by  the  book."  ^e 

Omens  were  frequent.  It  was  a  sign  of  death 
if  a  bird  entered  the  room,  if  a  horse  neighed  or 
dog  barked  at  night,  or  if  a  looking-glass  were 
broken ;  the  same  thing  was  supposed  to  be  true 
of  dreaming  of  having  teeth  pulled,  or  of  see- 
ing some  one  dressed  in  black. 

As  water  was  one  of  the  most  important  things 
for  every  house,  it  is  not  surprising  that  super - 

"  This  view  of  the  influence  of  the  moon's  phases  is  as  old 
as  German  history  itself:  "Aus  demselben  Grund,  aus  wel- 
chem  weise  Frauen  zu  Ariovist's  Zeit  den  Gernianen  gclin'en, 
dass  sie  nicht  vor  Neumond  die  Schlacht  Ijeginnen  soUten," 
etc.     (Riehl,  Kulturstudien,  p.  47.) 


THE  PENNSYLVANIA-GERMAN  FARMER.     105 

natural  means  were  employed  to  discover  it.  The 
following  device  of  "smelling"  for  water  was  once 
common :  "  Hold  a  forked  willow  or  peach  limb 
with  the  prongs  down,  and  move  over  the  spot 
where  water  is  desired.  If  water  is  present,  the 
stick  will  turn  down  in  spite  of  all  you  can  do;  it 
has  been  known  to  twist  off  the  bark.  The  depth 
of  water  may  be  known  by  the  number  and 
strength  of  the  dips  made.  Ore  can  be  found  the 
same  way." 

Also  curious  in  their  way  were  the  weather 
signs.  If  the  ears  of  corn  burst,  a  mild  winter 
will  follow;  but  it  will  be  cold  if  they  are  plump. 
If  the  spleen  of  a  hog  be  short  and  thick,  the 
winter  will  be  short,  and  vice  versa.  If  on  Feb- 
ruary 2d  the  ground-hog  comes  out  and  sees  his 
shadow,  he  will  retire  to  his  hole  and  six  weeks 
of  cold  weather  will  follow.  So,  when  the  snow 
is  on  the  ground,  if  turkeys  go  to  the  field  or  the 
guinea-hens  halloo,  there  will  be  a  thaw.  If 
cocks  crow  at  10  p.m.,  it  will  rain  before  morning. 

Witches  were  believed  in  to  a  more  or  less 
extent,  and  not  only  human  beings,  but  cattle, 
inanimate  objects,  and  even  operations  such 
as  butter-making,  were  more  or  less  sub- 
ject to  their  malign  influence.  Horseshoes  or 
broomsticks  laid  across  the  door  were  supposed 
to  keep  them  out.     Silver  bullets  shot  at  a  pic- 


io6     THE  PENNSYLV/1NM-GERMAN  FARMER. 

ture  of  a  supposed  witch  would  bring  about  his 
or  her  death.-"'" 

The  use  of  amulets  and  incantations  was  more 
or  less  common.  By  means  of  the  former  it  was 
believed  that  one  could  make  himself  "  kugel- 
fest,"  i.e.,  proof  against  bullets.^^  As  was  natu- 
ral when  doctors  were  few  and  far  between,  su- 
perstition was  largely  predominant  in  medicine. 
Especially  were  old  women  endowed  with  cura- 
tive powers.  Those  who  were  born  on  Sunday 
were  supposed  to  have  power  to  cure  headache. 
Among  the  strange  methods  of  healing  may  be 
mentioned  the  following:  To  remove  warts  cut 
an  apple,  a  turnip,  or  an  onion  into  halves  and 
rub  the  wart  with  the  pieces  and  then  bury  them 
under  the  eaves  of  the  house.  A  buckwheat  cake 
placed  on  the  head  will  remove  pain;  and  breath- 
ing the  breath  of  a  fish  will  cure  whooping 
cough.  To  cure  "  falling  away  "  in  a  child  make 
a  bag  of  new  muslin,  fill  with  new  things  of  any 

''  There  was,  however,  none  of  the  fanatic  cruelty  once  so 
prevalent  in  Germany  and  which  has  given  to  Salem,  Mass., 
such  a  baleful  notorietj^  in  American  history. 

'*  This  superstition  was  once  wide-spread  in  Germany  ; 
Luther  believed  in  it  firmly.  See  Freytag,  vol.  ni.  p.  73  : 
"  Der  Glaube,  dass  man  den  Leib  gegen  das  Geschoss  der 
Feinde  verfesten  .  .  .  kOime,  ist  iilter  als  das  geschichtliclic 
Lcben  der  germanischen  Vrilker. "  II  was  said  of  Captain 
Wettcrholt,  in  the  French  and  Indian  War,  that  he  was  "  kugel- 
fest." 


THE  PENNSYLVANIA-GERMAN  FARMER.     107 

kind,  and  place  it  on  the  breast  of  the  child,  let- 
ting it  remain  there  nine  days.  In  the  mean- 
while feed  the  child  only  with  the  milk  of  a 
young  heifer.  After  nine  days  carry  the  bag  by 
the  little  finger  to  a  brook  that  flows  towards  the 
west  and  throw  it  over  the  shoulder.  As  the 
contents  of  the  bag  waste  away  the  child  will 
recover.  Perhaps  one  of  the  strangest  and  yet 
most  interesting  of  all  these  quaint  customs  was 
that  of  powwowing,  or  the  use  of  magic  formulas 
for  the  cure  of  certain  diseases.  It  is  very  inter- 
esting to  see  this  survival  down  to  a  short  time 
ago  in  our  own  country,  and  still  flourishing  in 
certain  parts  of  Germany,  of  a  custom  which  is  as 
old  as  the  German  language  itself.  Some  of  the 
earliest  remains  of  Old  High  German  and  Old 
Saxon  poetry  are  the  so-called  "  Segensformen," 
not  very  different  from  powwowing.^^  The  latter 
was  once  believed  in  by  many  of  the  Pennsyl- 
vania Germans.  It  was  supposed  to  be  especially 
efBcacious  in  nose-bleed  or  blood-flow;  in  re- 
moving pain  from  cuts,  bruises,  burns;  and  also 
in  skin-diseases.  Thus  the  goitre  was  cured  by 
looking  at  the  Avaxing  moon,  passing  the  hand 
over  the  diseased  part,  and  saying,  "What  I  sec 
must  increase,   what   I   feel   must   decrease."  ^° 

^^  Cf.  Braune,  Althochdeutsches  Lesebuch,  p.  81. 

♦"  Cf.   Meyer,    Deutsche  Volkskunde,   p.  116:   "Hat  es  [a 


io8    THE  PENNSYLV/iNIA-GERMAN  FARMER. 

Still  more  curious  is  the  cure  for  snake-bite, 
described  by  Dr.  W.  J.  Hoffman  as  formerly 
existing  in  Lehigh  County.  The  following 
words  were  recited: 

"  Gott  hot  alles  arschaflfen  und  alles  war  gut ; 
Als  du  alle  [alter]  Schlang,  bislit  ferflucht, 
Fcrflucht  solsht  du  sei'  und  dei'  Gift." 

The  speaker  then  with  the  index-finger  made 
the  sign  of  the  cross  three  times  over  the  wound, 
each  time  pronouncing  the  onomatope  tsing.-^^ 

Even  in  religion  these  superstitions  had  their 
place,  and  the  opening  of  the  Bible  at  random  and 
taking  the  verse  which  fell  under  the  finger  as 
the  direct  word  of  God — a  custom  which,  more 
or  less  changed,  has  lasted  for  nearly  fifteen  hun- 
dred years  "*- — was  once  employed  by  the  Mora- 
vians in  all  the  affairs  of  life,  including  marriage, 

child]  ein  Muttermal,  so  blickt  die  Mutter,  das  Kind  im  Arm, 
auf  einem  Kreuzweg  in  den  zunehmenden  Mond  und  spricht, 
indem  sie  das  Mai  mit  der  Hand  bestreicht  :  Alles,  was  ich 
sehe,  nimmt  zu,  Alles,  was  ich  streiche,  nimmt  ab." 

*'  Proceedings  of  Penn.  Ger.  Society,  vol.  v.  p.  78. 

**  "Der  uralte  Aberglaube,  weklier  schon  im  Jahre  506  auf 
dem  Concilium  von  Agde  den  Christen  verboten  wurde,  kam 
wieder  in  Aufnahme  ;  man  schlug  die  Bibel  oder  das  Gesang- 
buch  auf,  um  aus  zufiillis^eni  Wortlaut  die  EntscheiduTig  bei 
innerer  Unsicherheit  zu  finden, — der  Sprucli,  auf  welchen  der 
rechte  Daumen  traf,  war  der  Ijedeutsame  ;  ein  Brauch,  der 
noch  heute  fest  in  unserm  Volke  haftet,  und  von  den  Gegnern 
^le  is  speakinc;  of  the  ''  Stillen  im  Lande  "]  schon  um  1700  als 
'Diiumehi'  verhohnt  wurde."     (I'Veytag,  vol.  iv.  p.  18.) 


THE  PENNSYLy^lNM-GERM/IN  FARMER.     109 

and  is  actually  used  to-day  by  the  Mennonites  in 
choosing  their  bishops. 

The  life  of  the  Pennsylvania  farmer  was  one  of 
unremitting-  toil ;  few  recreations  came  to  break 
the  monotony.  Up  before  sunrise  and  to  bed 
soon  after  sunset,  such  was  the  ordinary  routine, 
day  after  day,  year  after  year.  Later  in  the  cen- 
tury came  more  and  more  the  usual  rural  festivi- 
ties, quilting  and  husking  parties,  country  fairs, 
markets,  and  vctidus.  Very  common  were  the 
butcherings — when  the  friends  of  the  family 
would  help  in  the  killing  of  hogs  and  the  prepa- 
ration of  the  many  kinds  of  sausages;  and  es- 
pecially common  were  the  "  frohcs  "  in  which  the 
various  kinds  of  fruit-butters,  of  which  the  Penn- 
sylvania Germans  were  so  fond,  were  boiled  in 
huge  ketdes,  tended  to  and  stirred  by  friends  and 
neighbors  invited  for  the  purpose.^^ 

In  general,  however,  life  was  uneventful,  "  one 
common  round  of  daily  task."  The  three  great 
events  in  all  lives — birth,  marriage,  and  death — 
were  the  occasion  of  more  or  less  celebration,  the 
weddings  and  funerals  being  attended  by  large 
concourses  of  people,  who  came  in  wagons  from 
far  and  near.     The  custom  of  providing  food  for 

*'  Cf.  Riehl  (Pfjilzer,  p.  267)  for  a  description  of  a  similar 
combination  of  business  and  pleasure  in  the  preparation  of 
Obstlatwerge  in  the  Palatinate. 


no    THE  PENNSYLV/tNIA-GERMAN  FARMER. 

visitors, due  at  first  to  the  long  distance  many  had 
to  come,  soon  grew  to  be  conventional  and  too 
often  excessive.  Muhlenberg  frequently  com- 
plains of  this  excess  at  both  weddings  and 
funerals. 

An  interesting  description  of  one  of  these 
funerals  is  given  by  Mittelberger:  "  In  this  man- 
ner such  an  invitation  to  a  funeral  is  made 
known  more  than  fifty  Enghsh  miles  around  in 
twenty-four  hours.  If  it  is  possible,  one  or  more 
persons  from  each  house  appear  on  horseback  at 
the  appointed  time  to  attend  the  funeral.  While 
the  people  are  coming  in,  good  cake  cut  into 
pieces  is  handed  around  on  a  large  tin  platter  to 
those  present;  each  person  receives  then,  in  a 
goblet,  a  hot  West  India  rum  punch,  into  which 
lemon,  sugar,  and  juniper-berries  are  put,  which 
give  it  a  delicious  taste.  After  this,  hot  and 
sweetened  cider  is  served.  .  .  .  When  the  peo- 
ple have  nearly  all  assembled  and  the  time  for 
the  burial  is  come,  the  dead  body  is  carried  to 
the  general  burial-place,  or,  where  that  is  too 
far  away,  the  deceased  is  buried  in  his  own 
field.'*-*    The  assembled  people  ride  all  in  silence 

**  Many  of  these  old  private  graveyards  are  now  utterly 
neirlected  and  overgrown  with  weeds  ;  Riehl's  description  of 
the  neglected  graveyards  in  the  Palatinate  is  almost  word  for 
word  true  of  many  in  Pennsylvania  :   "Eine  verwilderte  Ilccke 


THE  PENNSYLVAhllA-GERMAN  FARMER,    m 

and  sometimes  one  can  count  from  one  hundred 
to  five  hundred  persons  on  horseback.  The 
coffins  are  ah  made  of  fine  walnut  wood  and 
stained  brown  with  a  shining  varnish."  ^^ 

It  must  not  be  inferred  from  the  above  refer- 
ences to  rum  and  cider  that  the  Pennsylvania 
Germans  as  a  people  were  especially  addicted  to 
strong  drink.  One  hundred  years  ago  every  one 
drank ;  in  New  England  the  settlers  "  were  a 
beer-drinking  and  ale-drinking  race — as  Shake- 
speare said,  they  were  'potent  in  potting' ;"^^  and 
no  public  ceremony,  civil  or  religious,  occurred 
in  which  great  quantities  of  liquor  were  not 
drunk.^^    The  custom   of  drinking  at   funerals, 

umzaunt  sie.  Regellose  mit  Gras  und  Gestriipp  verwachsene 
Erhuhungen  zeigen  die  Griiber  an."  (Pfalzer,  p.  407.)  He 
attributes  this  neglect  to  the  traditional  dislike  of  the  Reformed 
people  to  all  pomp  and  ceremony  even  in  death ;  it  is  still  more 
true  of  the  Mennonites,  who  seek  the  utmost  simplicity  in  all 
things  temporal  or  spiritual, — in  life  and  death.  "Ein  Mit- 
glied  der  Gemeinschaft  im  Bemer  Jura  ausserte  mir  gelegen- 
tlich  die  Ansicht,  man  soUte  nicht  genotigt  sein.  die  Toten  auf 
den  Friedhofen  zu  beerdigen  ;  ein  jeder  sollte  dies  auf  seinem 
Grundbesitz  thun  diirfen."     (Muller,  p.  62.) 

^5  In  making  these  coffins  the  carpenter  was  careful  to  gather 
up  all  the  shavings  and  sawdust  and  place  them  in  the  coffin, 
fcr  if  any  portion  thereof  should  be  brought  into  a  house, 
death  was  sure  to  follow. 

*8  Alice  Morse  Earle,  Customs  and  Fashions  in  Old  New 
England,  p.  163. 

*^  In  the  record  of  the  ordination  of  Rev.  Joseph  McKean, 


112     THE  PENNSYLy/fNIA-GERMy4N  FARMER. 

which  Muhlenberg  reprehends  so  stoutly,  was 
equally  observed  by  the  Scotch-Irish  and  the 
the  Puritans  of  New  England.***  Indeed  we  have 
the  authority  of  Benjamin  Rush,  who  has  been 

in  Beverly,  Mass.,  in  1785,  these  items  are  found  in  the  tavern- 
keeper's  bill : 

30  Bowles  of  Punch  before  tlie  people  went  to  meet- 
ing    /"3 

80  people  eating  in  the  morning  at  i6d 6 

10  liottles  of  wine  before  they  went  to  meeting  ....  i  10 

68  dinners  at  3s 10  4 

44  bowles  of  punch  while  at  dinner 4  8 

18  bottles  of  wine 2  14 

8  bowles  of  brandy 1  2 

cherry  Rum i  10 

6  people  drank  tea gd. 

^  Mrs.  Earle  gives  the  following  bill  for  the  mortuary  ex- 
penses of  David  Porter  of  Hartford,  who  was  drowned  in  1678: 

By  a  pint  of  liquor  for  those  who  dived  for  him £0  is. 

By  a  (juart  of  liquor  for  those  who  bro't  him  home  ...  2 
By  two  quarts  of  wine  &  i  gallon  of  cyder  to  jury  of 

inquest 5 

By  8  gallons  &  3  qts.  wine  for  funeral £1  15 

By  barrel  cyder  for  funeral 16 

I  coffin 12 

Windeing  sheet 18 

With  this  we  may  compare  the  bill  for  the  double  funeral- 
feast  of  Johannes  Gunire  and  his  wife  of  Germantown,  in 
1738: 

Bread  &  Cakes  at  sd  Burialls £1     10 

Gamons  Cheese  &  Butter 152 

Mol.\sses  &  Sugar ....    i   143 


THE  PENNSYLl^ANM-GERMAN  FARMER.     113 

called  the  father  of  the  Temperance  movement 
in  the  United  States,  that  the  Pennsylvania  Ger- 
mans were  not  addicted  to  drunkenness.^^ 

In  this  chapter  we  have  endeavored  to  give  a 
brief  sketch  of  the  Pennsylvania  farmer  a  hun- 
dred years  ago.  It  would  be  of  some  value  to  go 
more  into  detail  concerning  the  routine  of  daily 
life.  The  limits  of  this  book,  however,  will  not 
permit  this,  nor  perhaps  would  these  details  of- 
fer the  same  interest  as  those  which  tell  of  ele- 
gant mansions,  stately  equipages,  and  all  the 
pomp  and  circumstance  of  colonial  Virginia  and 
New  England.  The  houses  of  the  simple  folk 
whom  we  are  discussing,  their  furniture,  cloth- 
ing,^^  food,^i  and  all  the  accessories  of  life  were 
marked  by  plainness  and  comfort  rather  than  by 
elegance.  Hard  work,  good  health,  an  easy  con- 
science, independence  begotten  of  possession  of 
a  comfortable  home,  and  land  enough  to  provide 

*^  This  notwithstanding  the  fact  that  hard  drinking  has  ever 
been  and  is  to-day  a  national  failing  of  the  Germans.  The 
deep  religious  movement  in  Pennsylvania  one  hundred  years 
ago  tended  to  keep  the  people  moderate  in  drinking. 

5°  This  was  at  first  homespun  and  very  simple.  The  Mora- 
vians, Mennonites,  Amish,  and  Ephrata  Brethren  had  a  spe- 
cial garb. 

^1  Typical  Pennsylvania-German  dishes  are  Sauerkraut, 
Nudels,  Schnitz  und  Knep,  many  kinds  of  sausages,  ' '  fruit- 
butters,"  '-Fasnachts"  (a  kind  of  cruller),  coldslaw,  Schmier- 
kas,  etc. 


114    THE  PENNSYl.y/INIA-GERM/iN  FARMER. 

for  all  their  wants — this  was  the  life  of  our  an- 
cestors, a  life  not  altogether  to  be  looked  at  with 
depreciation  even  from  the  present  vantage- 
ground  of  modern  comforts  and  conveniences. 


CHAPTER   V. 

LANGUAGE,   LITERATURE,  AND   EDUCATION. 

Among  the  many  interesting  phenomena  con- 
nected with  the  Pennsylvania  Germans  none  is 
more  striking  than  their  persistence  in  chnging 
to  their  dialect.  Here  we  have  a  group  of  people 
living  in  the  very  heart  of  the  United  States,  sur- 
rounded on  all  sides  by  English-speaking  people, 
almost  every  family  having  some  of  its  branches 
thoroughly  mixed  by  intermarriage  with  these 
people,  yet  still  after  the  lapse  of  nearly  two  hun- 
dred years  retaining  to  a  considerable  degree  the 
language  of  their  ancestors.  Even  in  large  and 
flourishing  cities  like  Allentown,  Reading,  and 
Bethlehem  much  of  the  intercourse  in  business 
and  home-life  is  carried  on  in  this  patois.  This 
persistence  of  language  is  one  of  the  strongest 
evidences  of  the  conservative  spirit  so  character- 
istic of  the  Pennsylvania-German  farmer. 

This  love  for  their  language,  which  to-day  may 

be  regarded  as  a  really   striking  phenomenon, 

was  only  natural  one  hundred  and  fifty  years  ago. 

115 


Ii6  LANGUAGE,  LITERATURE,  AND  EDUCATION. 

Tlic  country  was  then  new,  the  Germans  formed 
a  compact  mass  by  themselves,  the  means  of 
communication  with  their  Enghsh  neighbors 
were  rare ;  it  would  have  been  surprising-  if  they 
had  not  clung  to  the  language  of  their  fathers.  It 
was  precisely  this  same  love  for  the  mother 
tongue  which  led  the  Puritans  to  leave  Holland, 
where  they  were  in  many  respects  comfortable 
enough. 1 

And  yet  this  very  natural  desire  was  regarded 
by  some  at  least  as  evidence  of  a  stubborn  and 
ignorant  nature.^  The  very  efforts  made  by  the 
English — the  motives  of  many  of  whom  were 
more  or  less  mixed — to  do  away  with  the  use  of 

^  "They  wished  to  preserve  their  English  speech  and 
English  traditions,"  etc.  (Fiske,  Beginnings  of  New  England, 
p.  74.)  Winslow  (in  his  Brief  Narrative,  quoted  by  Palfrey, 
Hist,  of  N.  Eng.  i.  p.  147)  says  the  Puritans  did  not  like  to 
tliink  of  losing  their  language  and  tlieir  name  of  English," 
and  longed  that  God  might  be  pleased,  "to  discover  some 
place  unto  them,  though  in  America,  .  .  .  where  they  might 
live  and  comfortably  subsist,"  and  at  the  same  time  "keep 
their  names  and  nation."  "Jede  Provinz,"  says  Goethe. 
'•  liebt  ihren  Dialekt,  denn  er  ist  doch  eigentlich  das  Element, 
in  welchem  die  Secle  ihren  Atem  schopft."  (Meyer,  Volks- 
kunde,  p.  279.) 

*  In  1755  Samuel  Wharton  proposed,  "in  order  to  incline 
them  to  become  English  in  education  and  feeling  quicker," 
that  the  English  language  should  ht  used  in  all  bonds  and  legal 
instruments,  and  that  no  newspaper  should  be  circulated 
among  them  unless  accompanied  by  an  English  translation. 


LANGUAGE,  LITERATURE,  AND  EDUCATION,  n? 

German  only  tended  to  strengthen  the  stubborn 
love  for  their  language  in  which  their  Bible  and 
hymn-books  were  written  and  in  which  their  ser- 
vices were  held.  Indeed,  the  following  prayer, 
which  was  introduced  into  the  litany  of  the  Lu- 
theran Church,  in  1786,  smacks  of  what  many 
would  now  call  real  fanaticism :  "  And  since  it 
has  pleased  Thee  chiefly,  by  means  of  the  Ger- 
mans, to  transform  this  State  into  a  blooming 
garden,  and  the  desert  into  a  pleasant  pasturage, 
help  us  not  to  deny  our  nation,  but  to  endeavor 
that  our  youth  may  be  so  educated  that  German 
schools  and  churches  may  not  only  be  sustained, 
but  may  attain  a  still  more  flourishing  condi- 
tion." 

The  vernacular  thus  religiously  preserved  was 
not  the  literary  language  of  Germany,  but  a  dis- 
tinct dialect.  We  have  seen  that  the  vast  ma- 
jority of  emigrants  to  Pennsylvania  during  the 
last  century  came  from  the  various  States  of 
South  Germany ;  the  three  principal  ones  which 
furnished  settlers  being  the  Palatinate,  Wiirtem- 
berg,  and  Switzerland.  The  inhabitants  of  these 
three  form  two  ethnical  entities  which  are  more 
or  less  closely  allied,  Wiirtemberg  and  Switzer- 
land being  practically  pure  Alemannic,  while  the 
Palatinate  is  Prankish  with  a  strong  infusion  of 


Ii8  LANGUAGE,  LITERATURE,  AND  EDUCATION. 

Alemannic  blood  in  certain  parts  thereof.^ 
Hence  it  follows  that  the  Pennsylvania-German 
dialect  is  a  mixture  of  Prankish  and  Alemannic. 
Of  course  there  are  subdivisions  in  these  dialects, 
the  Swabian  of  Wiirtemberg  being  different  from 
that  of  Switzerland,  and  the  mixed  speech  of  the 
Palatinate  different  from  both.^  The  Pennsyl- 
vania German,  then,  has  as  a  basis  certain  char- 
acteristics derived  from  all  these  dialects,  modi- 
fied and  harmonized,  many  of  the  original  dif- 
ferences having  in  course  of  time  been  so  trans- 
formed that  to-day  the  dialect  is  in  general 
homogeneous. 

The  accurate  study  of  any  dialect  is  one  of 
great  difficulty,  and  should  only  be  undertaken 
by  a  specialist  who  has  been  thoroughly  trained 
in  the  subject  of  phonetics  and  who  has  made  a 
long  and  careful  personal  study  of  the  facts  on 
the  spot.  This  is  not  the  place,  nor  is  the  writer 
competent,  to  give  a  full  treatment  of  this  inter- 
esting dialect.  There  are  some  facts,  however, 
which  are  easily  understood  and  which  at  the 
same  time  form  the  most  striking  characteristics. 

*  .See  Riehl.  p.  105  ff. 

*  See  Paul's  Grundriss  der  Germanischen  Philologie.  vol. 
I.  pp.  538-540  ;  also  Riehl,  Pfalzer,  p.  273  fT.  The  variations 
in  the  dialect  of  the  Palatinate  may  be  studied  in  the  four 
"  Volksdichter  "  Kobell,  Nadler,  Schandein,  and  Lennig. 


LANGUAGE,  LITERATURE,  AND  EDUCATION.  119 

Such  are  the  following :  0  (more  or  less 
open)  takes  the  place  of  the  German  a 
and  aa,  as  in  schlof  (schlaf),  frogc  (frogcn), 
woge  (waagen),  jor  (jahr),  zvor  (zsjahr);  c  is 
used  for  German  ei  and  ciu,  as  del  (thcil), 
hem  (heiin),  hem  (bdiimc).^  As  in  all  Germaji  dia- 
lects, the  mixed  vowels  are  simplified,  0  becom- 
ing e  (here=hdrcn,  Jie  =  hdhe,  bes=bdse),  and  ii  be- 
coming i  (bichcr  —  biiclicr,  brick  =  briickc,  ivvcr  = 
iibcr,  etc.).  The  above  vowel  changes  are  exten- 
sively used;  less  frequent  are  the  changes  of 
en  in  a  few  words  to  ci  (fcicr  =  fciicr,  scheier= 
schcucr),  and  of  ci  and  ai  to  oy  (moy  =  inai,  oy  =  ci, 
zvoy  =  weihe).  A  very  interesting  phenomenon  is 
the  influence  of  r  on  the  preceding  i  or  c  {arve 
=  erbc,  zzvarch  =  zzvcrg,  ::ay'kcl  =  zirkcJ,  karch  = 
kirche.)  Even  the  vowel  u  in  some  words  under- 
goes a  similar  change  {dazvrsch  —  durst ,  fazvrch  = 
furcht,  kazvrz-=knr::).  In  some  cases  an  inor- 
ganic vowel  is  developed  between  a  liquid  and 
the  following  consonant  {milich  =  milch,  marikt 
=markt,  starick  =  stork,  barik  =  berg). 

In  regard  to  the  consonant-system  the  follow- 
ing peculiarities  may  be  noted:   g  between  two 

6  In  many  words  there  is  a  wavering  in  this  use  of  <-;  thus 
we  find  both  JHed  and  JHa'd;  and  especially  are  the  s-iiifixes 
hei(  and  Irit  heard  more  often  than  ^ei  or  kei.  (Learned.) 
So  also  we  find  the  umlaut  of  Mcius  =  Afeis,  Haus  —  Heiser, 
etc.     (Haldeman,  p.  14.) 


I20  LANGUAGE,  LITERATURE,  AND  EDUCATION. 

vowels  and  after  r  becomes  y  {morye  —  morgcn, 
reye  =  rcgcn);  b  between  vowels  becomes  v  {gcve 
=gchcn,  sck'er=selber);  b  and  p,  t  and  d,  g  and  k 
are  often  interchanged  {babicr= papier,  del  =  thcil, 
klick  =  glitck);  pf  is  simplified  to  p  {pund=pfund, 
pluk=pfliig,  schcppc  =  schopfcn);  nn  =  nd  (£n7ie= 
finden,  gfiinnc=gcfundcn,  mimier=hinuntcy);  final 
n  of  inflections  is  lacking  (giicke=giickc)i,  rcchne 
=  rcchncn). 

Syntax  is  freer  than  in  German:  as  in  the  dia- 
lect of  the  Palatinate,  the  perfect  tense  is  regu- 
larly used  for  the  imperfect;  nominative  and  ac- 
cusative are  generally  confused;  the  genitive  is 
used  only  in  compounds  and  adverbs,  its  place 
being  taken  in  other  constructions  by  von  or  by 
the  article  with  the  possessive  pronoun. 

Such  are  some  of  the  most  striking  character- 
istics of  the  Pennsylvania-German  dialect,  in  re- 
gard to  those  features  which  it  inherits  from  Ger- 
many and  Switzerland.  But  that  which  stamps  it 
with  especial  peculiarity  are  the  changes  it  has  un- 
dergone under  the  influence  of  English.  It  was 
only  natural  that,  coming  to  a  strange  land,  sur- 
rounded by  people  speaking  another  language, 
the  Germans  should  borrow  new  words,  espe- 
cially such  as  expressed  things  and  ideas  which 
were  new  to  them.  These  words  were  either 
very  familiar  or  technical,   things  they  had  to 


LANGUAGE,  LITERATURE,  AND  EDUCATION.  121 

buy  and  sell,  objects  of  the  experiences  of  daily 
life,  such  as  stohr,  boggy,  fens,  endorse,  etc.  The 
newspapers  abound  in  curious  compounds  like 
ciscnstovc,  kiichenranges,  parlor-oefen,  carving-mes- 
scr,  sattler-hartzvaaren,  gduls-bldnkets  (horse-blank- 
ets), frdhm-sommcrhaus,  ilaner-bdrrcl,^  etc.  Many 
of  these  importations  are  taken  without  much 
change,  as  oificc,  operate,  schquier,  etc.  Many, 
however,  are  hybrid  words,  some  with  German 
prefix  and  English  root  (a&.y^ar/(7  =  start  ofif, 
abseine  =  s,\gn  away,  anspicke=  ■pick  out,  austeire 
=  tire  out,  fcrboddcrc  =  bother) ;  others  with 
English  root  and  German  suffix  {Jiiekerniss= 
hickory-nuts,  ^nVA'/z  =  little  creek);  still  more 
curious  is  the  expression  of  the  English  idea  in 
German  (gut giicklich  =  good-looking,  hemgemacht 
home-made).'^ 

The  interest — that  is,  the  literary  and  philo- 

^  The  last  four  words  are  taken  from  the  Reading  Adler^ 
Feb.  27,  1900.  This  paper  has  been  in  existence  104  years, 
and  is  still  read  by  the  Berks  County  farmer  with  something 
of  the  same  feeling  with  which  the  London  merchant  reads  his 
Tijnes. 

'' Further  examples  may  be  found  in  Haldeman  and  Learned. 
Interesting  parallels  to  this  curious  mingling  of  English  and 
German  are  presented  in  the  law  French  of  England  of  the 
sixteenth  century,  where  we  find  such  expressions  as  "  walke 
in  le  lane,"  "il  dig  up  un  clod  del  terre,"  "I'owner  del  Park 
vient  al  gate  del  Park  pur  hunter,"  etc.  See  article  in  North 
Amer.  Review,  vol.  Li.  (written  by  Longfellow). 


122  L/INGUAGE,  LITER/ITU  RE,  AND  EDUCATION. 

logical  interest — in  dialects  is  something  modern, 
showing  itself  not  only  in  the  investigations  of 
philology,  but  also  in  the  field  of  literature,  and 
to-day  any  cleverly  written  piece  of  fiction  is  sure 
of  at  least  temporary  popularity  if  written  in 
dialect.  It  is  doubtless  due  to  this  impulse  that 
there  has  arisen  in  the  last  thirty  or  forty  years  a 
small  body  of  literature  in  the  Pennsylvania-Ger- 
man dialect. 

Dr.  Philip  Schafif  is  said  to  have  been  the  first 
to  encourage  the  publication  of  such  dialect  lit- 
erature; it  was  he  who,  among  others,  urged 
Harbaugh  to  publish  his  poems,  and  the  first 
poem  printed  in  the  Pennsylvania-German  dialect 
appeared  in  the  Kirchcnfrciind,  1849,  ^^  that  time 
edited  by  Dr.  Schafif.^  Since  that  time  a  consid- 
erable number  of  persons  have  tried  their  hands 
at  this  modest  kind  of  composition.  The  Nes- 
tor of  such  persons  to-day  is  Mr.  E.  H,  Ranch, 
who,  under  the  nom  de  plume  of  Pit  Scliweflfel- 
brenner,  for  many  years  has  written  articles, 
mostly  humorous,  for  the  Carbon  Democrat  and 
other  papers;  and  who  in  1879  published  his 
Pennsylvania   Dutch    Handbook,    containing    a 

*  This  was  an  "  Abendlied,"  beginning  -'Morgets  scheent 
die  Sun  bO  scho,"  by  the  Reverend  Rondtlialer,  a  Moravian 
missionary.     (See  Life  of  Schaff,  by  his  son,  p.  142.) 


LANGUAGE,  LITERATURE,  AND  EDUCATION.  123 

vocabulary  with  practical  exercises  and  samples 
of  dialect  literature. 

In  poetry  much  more  of  a  higher  sort  has  been 
Avritten,  generally,  however,  in  the  form  of  trans- 
lations from  English,  and  of  "  occasional " 
poetry,  appearing  for  the  most  part  in  news- 
papers or  recited  on  festive  occasions.  In  gen- 
eral we  notice  that  this  poetry  lacks  something 
of  the  spontaneity  that  marks  true  "  Volks- 
poesie,"  such  as  we  find  in  the  works  of  Hebel, 
Nadler,  and  Kobel.  The  life  of  the  Palatine  or 
Swiss  farmer  is  more  individual  than  that  of  the 
Pennsylvania  German  of  to-day,  and  the  poets 
of  the  Fatherland  give  full  expression  to  this  life 
in  all  its  varied  aspects,  humorous  as  well  as 
pathetic.  Most  of  the  poetry  written  in  Penn- 
sylvania German  has  been  written  by  men  who 
have  been  educated  in  English  schools  and  col- 
leges,— who  are  largely  professional  men,  law- 
yers, teachers,  ministers,  and  journalists, — and 
who  are  thoroughly  identified  with  American 
ideals.  Naturally,  then,  such  poetry  cannot  be 
simple  and  naive  as  that  written  by  the  German 
"  Volksdichter." 

The  two  most  voluminous  writers  of  verse  are 
Henry  Plarbaugh  and  H.  L.  Fisher.  The  latter, 
a  lawyer  of  York,  has  published  two  volumes, 
'"S   Alt    Marik-Haus    mittes    in    d'r   Schtadt " 


124  LANGUAGE,  UrURATUnE,  AND  EDUCATION. 

and  "  Kurzweil  und  Zeitvertrieb,"  in  wliich  he 
gives  a  picture  of  the  Hfc  of  the  Pennsylvania 
German  farmer  fifty  years  ago,  describing  among 
other  things  old  customs,  superstitions,  work  in 
field  and  house,  planting,  harvesting,  threshing, 
beating  hemp  and  spinning  flax;  the  joys,  toils, 
and  pleasures  of  the  farmer's  life, — butcherings, 
butter-boilings,  huskings,  and  quilting-partics. 
Much  of  the  contents  of  the  volumes,  however, 
consists  of  imitations  of  German  originals,  or 
translations  from  English  and  especially  Amer- 
ican poetry. 

The  most  original  of  these  writers,  and  one 
who  possessed  genuine  poetic  gift,  was  the  Rev. 
Henry  Harbaugh,  a  prominent  clergyman  in  the 
Reformed  Church,  who  was  born  October  28, 
181 7,  near  Waynesboro',  Franklin  County,  Pa., 
and  died  December  28,  1867.^  He  was  an  indus- 
trious writer  in  English,  especially  in  the  field  of 
local  church  history.  His  Life  of  Michael  Schlat- 
ter, and  the  series  of  Fathers  of  the  Reformed 
Church  projected  by  him,  are  standard  works  on 
those  subjects.  He  also  composed  a  number  of 
hymns,  some  of  which  are  sung  by  all  Christian 
denominations.^^    For  several  years  he  had  pub- 

•  His  life,  written  by  his  son,  has  recently  been  published. 
^°  The  best  known  is  that  beginning, 
"  Jesus,  I  live  to  Thee, 
The  loveliest  and  best." 


1  /tNGUXCn,  IITHRATURE.  AND  EDUCATIOK.   T^$ 

K  Jied  a  number  of  dialect  poems  in  the  Guardian; 
lio  had  often  been  urged  to  gather  them  in  a  vol- 
ume, but  died  before  this  was  done.  In  1870  a 
collection  of  his  Pennsylvania  German  poetry, 
including-  English  translations  of  several  of  the 
poems,  was  published  by  Rev.  B.  Bausman,  un- 
der the  title  of  "  Harbaugh's  Harfe."  The  best 
known  of  these  poems  is  "  Das  Alt  Schulhaus  an 
der  Krick,"  the  first  stanza  of  which  is  as  follows: 

"Heit  is  's  'xjlctly  zwansig  Johr, 
Dass  ich  bin  owwe  naus  ; 
Nau  bin  ich  widder  lewig  z'rick 
Un  schteh  am  Schulhaus  an  d'r  Krick, 
Juscht  neekscht  an's  Dady's  Haus." 

In    "  Der  Alte   Feierheerd "    the   charms    of   a 
wood-fire  are  thus  expressed: 

"Nau  wammer  Owets  sitzt  un  gukt 
Wie's  doch  dort  in  de  Kohle  schpukt ! 
Es  glieht  un  schtrahlt — weiss,  schwarz  un  roth — 
Nau  gans  lewendig,  un  nau  dodt  ; 
M'r  gukt  un  denkt — m'r  werd  gans  schtill, 
Un  kann  juscht  sehne  was  m'r  will." 

The  following  titles  will  indicate  the  character 
of  Harbaugh's  poetry  in  general :  "  Das  Krisch- 
kindel,"  "  Die  Alt  Miehl,"  "  Busch  un  Schtedel  " 
(Town  and  Country),  "  Der  Kerchegang  in 
Alter  Zeit,"  "Will  Widder  Buwele  Sei',"  etc. 
The  poem  entitled  "  Heemweh  "  expresses  the 
feeling  of  sadness  that  comes  over  the  man  of 


126  LANGUAGE,  LITER  A  TURF,  AND  EDUCATION. 

niidille  life  on  returning  after  a  long  absence  to 
the  scenes  of  his  youth.  There  is  genuine  poetic 
sentiment  in  such  lines  as  the  following: 

"  Ich  wees  net,  soil  ich  nei'  in's  liaus, 

Icli  zitter  an  d"r  Dheer  ! 
Es  is  wol  alles  voll  inseid 

Un  doch  is  alles  leer  ! 
's  net  meh  heem,  wie's  eemol  war, 

Un  kann's  ah  nimme  sei'; 
Was  naus  mit  unsere  Eltere  geht 

Kumnit  ewig  nimme  nei' ! 
Die  Freide  hot  der  Dodt  gearnt, 

Das  Trauerdheel  is  mei'!  " 

Most  recent  of  the  published  volumes  of  Penn- 
sylvania-German verse  is  a  little  book,  attract- 
ively printed,  entitled  "  Drauss  un  Deheem,"  by 

Mr.  Charles  C.  Ziegler,  a  Harvard  graduate  of 
1883.  Here  the  homely  and  quaint  dialect  serves 
as  a  medium  for  college  poetry  in  the  form  of 
rondeaus,  sonnets,  etc.  Especially  interesting  is 
a  poem,  "  Zum  Denkmal,"  an  imitation  in  sen- 
timent and  metrical  form  of  Tennyson's  "  In 
Memoriam."^^     Those  who  wish  to  see  how  a 

"  The  following  lines  will  illustrate  what  is  said  above  : 

"  Dar  Sud  Wind  bringt  de  Mensche  Muth 
Un  weckt  die  Aerd  vum  Winter-Schlof, 
Ar  liaucht  uf  Barrick  un  Feld  un  Grofe 
'N  warmer  Duft,  'n  siissi  Glutli. 

"  Die  ganz  Nadur  fililt  sei  Gewalt, 

Juscht  net  die  Dodte  :  schtumm  un  daab 
Un  regies  bleiwe  sie  im  Graab, 
Sie  bleiwe  u'bewegt  un  kalt. 


LANGUAGE,  LITERATURE,  AND  EDUCATION.   127 

quaint  dialect  can  adapt  itself  to  modern  poetic 
themes  should  read  this  little  book. 

This  dialect  literature,  however,  is  of  very  re- 
cent origin;  and  as  the  present  book  aims  chiefly 
at  describing  the  Pennsylvania  Germans  as  they 
were  in  the  eighteenth  century,  the  literary  ac- 
tivity of  our  ancestors  has  more  real  connection 
with  our  theme.  This  activity,  indeed,  is  more 
extensive  than  some  would  suppose.  Of  course 
it  goes  without  saying  that  whatever  was  pub- 
lished then  was  not  in  dialect,  but  in  literary  Ger- 
man. 

At  that  time  the  intellectual  interests  of  the 
Germans  of  Pennsylvania,  as  well  as  those  in  the 
Fatherland,  were  almost  entirely  of  a  theological 
nature;  hence  it  happens  that  some  of  the  earliest 
products  of  the  Pennsylvania-German  press  were 
devotional  and  religious  books  or  pamphlets, 
largely  of  a  polemical  character.  Thus  the  first 
German  book  published  in  Pennsylvania  was 
Conrad   Beissel's   "  Biichlein   vom    Sabbath,"  12 

"  Los'vun  de  Eis-Kett  laaft  die  Grick, 
Es  blihe  weiss  die  Eppelbleem, 
Die  Veggel  kumme  widder  heem  — 
Alias  geliebtes  kummt  zerick. 

"  Juscht  net  die  Dodte— un  ich  guck 

Iwwer  dar  Himmel  'naus,— die  DrSne 
Beweise  wen  ich  winsch  ze  sehne 
Weit  liewer  a's  daer  Frihlingsschmuck." 
1'  Published   by  Andrew  Bradford  in   1728.      See  Seiden- 
sticker,  *'The  First  Century  of  German  Printing  in  America." 


128  LANGUylGE,  LITERATURE,  AND  EDUCATION. 

which,  in  llio  words  nf  llie  Clironicon  Ephra- 
tensc,  "  led  to  the  [uibHc  adoption  of  the  seventh 
day  for  divine  service."  Tlie  next  year  George 
Michael  Weiss  published  through  Bradford  a 
polemic  against  the  New-Born,  a  sect  of  sancti- 
ficationists  which,  under  the  leadership  of  Mat- 
thias Bauman,  deeply  stirred  the  Germans  of 
Montgomery  County.  These  books  began  the 
long  series  of  theological  literature  in  Pennsyl- 
vania which,  receiving  a  new  and  strong  impulse 
through  the  coming  of  Zinzendorf,  has  in  one 
form  or  another,  by  Dunkard,  Mennonite,  Luth- 
eran, or  Reformed,  come  down  to  our  own  day. 

Original  composition  in  verse  at  that  time  was 
chiefly  in  the  form  of  hynms.^^  of  which  a  con- 
siderable number  were  written.  ]\Iost  of  the 
brethren  of  the  Ephrata  Community  turned  their 
hand  to  this  kind  of  poetry,  the  most  voluminous 
being  Beissel  himself.  As  early  as  1730,  Ben- 
jamin Franklin  published  a  book  entitled  "  Gott- 
liche  Liebes-  und  Lobesgethone,"  containing  62 
hymns,  31  by  Beissel  and  the  rest  by  his  asso- 
ciates; while  in  1739  Christopher  Saner  pub- 
lished a  large  hymn-book  entitled  "  Zionitischer 

"  This  is  likewise  true  of  Germany  at  this  time.  What 
Scherer  says  of  tlie  hymns  in  tliat  coxmtry  applies  equally  well 
to  early  German-American  hymnoloj^^y.  (Sec  Scherer,  Ge- 
schichte  dor  deutschen  Littcratur,  p.  340  ff.) 


Ly4NGUAGE,  LITERATURE,  AND  EDUCATION.   129 

Weyrauchshiig'el,"  containing  654  hymns  in  33 
divisions,  "  Each  inscribed  with  a  heading  as  fan- 
tastical as  the  general  title."  !■* 

The  poetical  talent  of  Beissel,  as  shown  in 
these  hymns,  was  of  a  low  order,  and  probably 
not  nearly  so  great  as  his  musical  talent;  they 
are  filled  with  fantastic  ideas,  and  couched  in 
mystical  and  often  obscure  language  in  which 
sensuous  love  is  used  to  express  spiritual  experi- 
ence. They  are  quite  in  harmony,  however,  with 
the  literary  taste  of  the  day  in  Germany  and 
Switzerland.^^ 

The  most  important  of  all  the  earliest  literary 
men  was  Francis  Daniel  Pastorius,  the  founder 
of  Germantown.  We  have  already  seen  that  he 
was  a  man  of  learning,  writing  fluently  in  a  num- 
ber of  languages.  He  was  an  industrious  writer 
on  a  number  of  subjects  both  in  prose  and  poetry. 
Only  a  few,  however,  of  his  writings  have  ap- 

^*  This  includes  all  the  hymns  written  by  Beissel  and  others 
and  published  by  Franklin  in  1730,  1732,  1736,  together  with 
a  large  amount  of  material  obtained  elsewhere,  especially 
from  the  "Kleine  Davidische  Psalterspiel,"  the  hymn-book  of 
the  Inspirationists  in  Germany  and  published  by  Sauer  in 
1744. 

^5  Among  other  writers  of  hymns  in  Pennsylvania  were 
Peter  Biihler,  Zinzendorf,  Spangenberg,  Nitschman  (all  Mo- 
ravians), Helmuth,  Muhlenberg,  Kunze,  Weiser  (Lutherans). 
See,  for  a  discussion  of  this  subject,  Haussmann,  German- 
American  Hymnology,  1683-1800. 


T30  LANGUAGE,  UTf-RATURH,  AND  EDUCATION. 

peared  in  print,  and  the  couple  of  German  books 
which  he  wrote  were  pubHshed  abroad.  He  left 
a  number  of  manuscripts,  most  of  which  are  lost, 
but  a  list  of  whose  titles  is  found  in  the  "  Bee- 
hive," a  strange  conglomeration  compiled  for  his 
children,  being  a  sort  of  cyclopaedia  of  history, 
biography,  ethics,  religion,  and  language.  It  also 
contains  a  collection  of  inscriptions,  epitaphs, 
proverbs,  poetry  (original  and  selected),  pithy 
sayings,  acrostics,  etc.^^ 

This  native  literary  product,  however,  did  not 
suffice  to  supply  the  demand  for  literature  on  the 
part  of  the  early  German  settlers.  Whatever  else 
may  be  said  about  their  education,  they  must 
have  been  great  readers.  This  is  seen  in  the  num- 
ber of  books  imported  as  well  as  printed  in  the 
commonwealth  itself.  The  hymn-books  pre- 
pared by  Beissel  and  others  were  used  by  the 
Dunkards,  while  the  Mennonites  had  the  ven- 
erable Ausbund,  which  was  printed  a  number  of 

'*  The  full  title  is  "  Alvearum  Apiculre  Germanopolitanum 

Anglicanum."     The  poetry  of  Pastorius  was  mostly  doggerel, 

as  the  following  sample  will  show: 

"  This  book  seems  tall  and  small, 
Of  no  esteem  at  all ; 
Yet  I  would  ven'  fain 
That  any  who  doth  find 
The  same  would  be  so  kind 
To  send  it  roe  again." 


LANGUAGE,  LITERATURE,  AND  EDUCATION.   131 

times  by  Sauer  and  is  still  in  use  by  the  Amish;  ^"^ 
the  Schwenckfelders  likewise  had  their  own 
book,  containing  a  number  of  original  hymns. 
For  a  long  time  the  Lutherans  and  Reformed 
imported  the  Marburger  hymn-book,  which  was 
later  reprinted  many  times  by  Sauer.  These 
books  were  not  merely  used  in  church,  but  were 
read  and  pored  over  and  committed  to  memory 
almost  as  much  as  the  Bible. 

We  shall  see  later  how  eager  the  Germans 
were  to  obtain  copies  of  the  Bible;  in  the 
correspondence  with  Holland  this  subject  con- 
stantly occurs,  and  it  was  only  natural  that  as 
soon  as  Sauer  had  established  his  printing-press 
on  a  firm  basis  he  should  think  of  printing  a 
German  Bible, — not  for  gain,  he  says  himself, 
but  "  to  the  honor  of  the  German  people."  The 
glory  of  the  German  press  in  America  is  the 
quarto  Bible  of  Sauer,  the  first  one  printed  in 
the  New  World  in  any  European  language,  and 
of  which  three  editions  were  published  before  the 

"  Ausbund,  das  ist :  Etliche  schone  christliche  Lieder  wie 
sie  in  dem  Gefiingnliss  zu  Bassau  in  dem  Schloss  von  den 
Schweitzer-Briidern  und  von  andern  rechtglaubigen  Christen 
hin  und  her  gedichtet  worden."  Wackernagel  dates  this 
book  from  1583  ;  Egli  in  his  Zliricher  Wiedertaufer  is  inclined 
to  give  it  an  earlier  origin.  In  the  edition  of  Sauer  valuable 
biographical  details  are  given  of  the  ancestors  of  many  Lan- 
caster County  families. 


132  LANGUAGF,  I.ITI-RATURE,  AND  EDUCATION. 

first  English  Bible  appeared  in  Philadelphia  in 
1 782.1 8 

Of  the  many  l)Ooks  of  devotional  literature 
published  in  Pennsylvania,^ '^  the  most  interest- 
ing is  the  translation  of  Van  Bragt's  "  Blutige 
Schauplatz  oder  Martyrer  Spiegel "  into  Ger- 
man by  members  of  the  Ephrata  Community  and 
published  by  them  in  1748.2^    It  was  really  a  re- 

'^  Sauer's  third  edition  came  out  in  1776.  For  a  detailed 
account  of  Sauer's  Bible  see  John  Wright,  Early  Bibles  of 
America,  p.  31.  The  activity  of  the  German  press  is  a  strik- 
ing proof  of  the  intelligence  of  the  people  and  their  interest  in 
theological  literature.  Franklin  says  that  in  1753  there  were 
two  German  presses  in  Pennsylvania,  two  half-German,  while 
only  two  were  entirely  English.     (Works,  II.  p.  297.) 

^'  Each  denomination  had  its  own  especial  books  of  devo- 
tion,— the  Mennonites  having  Menno  Simon's  Fundament  and 
Dirck  Philip's  Enchiridion  in  addition  to  the  Martyr-lxjok 
described  above;  the  Reformed  had  Stark's  Gebet-Buch,  while 
the  Lutherans  had  Arndt's  Wahres  Christenthum  and  Para- 
dies-Gartlein.  The  latter  was  believed  to  be  proof  against 
fire,  and  Sachse  gives  an  instance  in  proof  thereof,  which 
occurred  near  Womelsdorf,  Berks  Co.  A  similar  super- 
stition is  alluded  to  in  a  letter  by  Swedenborg's  father, 
whose  house  burned  down  in  1712:  "  The  fire  broke  out  in  my 
study,  which  was  all  ablaze  when  we  got  to  it,  with  my  library 
and  MSS.,  but,  strange  to  say,  the  Garden  of  Paradise  by  J. 
Arndt,  and  my  own  catechism,  were  found  in  the  ashes  with 
only  their  covers  singed."     (White's  Life  of  Swedenborg,  vol. 

I-  P-  33-) 

'"  Tins  book  gives  the  persecutions  and  sufferings  of  those 
Christians  who  were  opposed  to  war,  from  the  time  of  the 
apostles  down  to  the  Swiss  Mennonitcsin  the  seventeenth  cen- 
tury. 


LANGUAGE,  LITERATURE,  AND  EDUCATFON.   i33 

markable  achievement  for  a  small  religious  com- 
munity in  the  heart  of  a  new  colony  to  translate, 
print,  and  bind  the  largest  book  published  in 
America.  It  took  fifteen  men  three  years  to  com- 
plete the  task,  the  first  part  being  published  in 
1748,  the  second  in  1749.  The  price  was  20 
shillings.2^ 

The  inhabitants  of  the  city  in  modern  times 
can  have  no  conception  of  the  importance  of  the 
almanac  for  the  farmer  of  a  hundred  years  ago. 
In  Germany  it  occupied  a  place  beside  the  Bible 
and  the  hymn-book,  and  was  constantly  con- 
sulted before  any  of  the  important  afifairs  of  life 
were  undertaken.  These  old  German  almanacs 
were  the  repositories  of  all  the  superstitions 
which  still  flourished  in  the  country  and  which, 
banished  from  regular  literature,  found  a  refuge 
here.22  Here  were  given  the  proper  times  for 
sowing,  reaping,  building  fences,  shingling  the 
roof,  and  even  hair-cutting  and  bleeding,  to- 
gether with  the  materia  mcdica  of  the  Bauer, — 
the  medicinal  plants  which,  in  the  absence   of 

^^  The  cause  of  the  translation  at  this  time  was  the  approach 
of  the  French  and  Indian  War  ;  the  Mennonites  believeil  that 
their  principles  against  the  bearing  of  arms  would  subject  them 
once  more  to  persecution,  and  desired  to  fortify  themselves  by- 
reading  of  the  heroic  deeds  of  their  ancestors.  For  descrip- 
tion of  this  remarkable  book  see  Penn.  Mag.,  vol.  v. 

«  See  Riehl,  Kulturstudien,  p.  43  ff. 


134  LANGU/1GE,  LITERATURE,  AND  EDUCATION. 

regular  physicians,  played  so  large  a  part  in  the 
treatment  of  ailments.  These  almanacs  were 
very  popular  in  Pennsylvania,  especially  those 
of  Christopher  Sauer,  which,  beginning  in  Au- 
gust, 1738  (the  first  book  he  published),  lasted 
for  forty  years,  and  then  were  continued  by  other 
firms.  For  many  years  Sauer's  almanacs  were 
the  only  ones  printed  in  German,  and  were  used 
in  South  Carolina,  Georgia,  and  other  Southern 
States  where  German  farmers  then  lived.  Frank- 
lin published  a  German  almanac  for  a  short  time, 
but  it  soon  died  a  natural  death;  Armbriister, 
Miller,  and  others  were  more  fortunate,  but 
Sauer's  was  the  most  popular  as  long  as  it  lasted. 
Newspapers  were  not  so  plentiful  one  hundred 
years  ago  as  they  are  to-day;  in  1775  there  were 
only  2)7  i"  the  American  Colonies.  Of  these  14 
were  in  New  England,  4  in  New  York,  and  9  in 
Pennsylvania.  If  we  take  the  number  of  news- 
papers as  an  indication  of  the  intelligence  of  the 
people,  the  Pennsylvania  Germans  do  not  suffer 
much  in  comparison  with  their  English  neigh- 
bors. According  to  McCrady  ^3  the  average 
number  of  inhabitants  to  support  a  newspaper  in 
the  above  year  was  64.000;  now  of  the  nine  in 
Pennsylvania  in  1775  two  were  German,  which 

"  History  of  South  Carolina  ;  see  Literature,  Sept.  8.  1899. 


LANGUAGE,  LITERATURE,  AND  EDUCATION.   I35 

should  give  the  German  population  at  128,000, 
which  is  not  far  from  the  real  figures.  Indeed 
the  assumption  that  the  Germans  were  great 
readers  can  alone  account  for  the  instant 
success  of  Sauer's  newspaper,  "  Der  Hoch- 
Deutsch  Pennsylvanische  Geschicht-Schreiber 
oder  Sammlung  wichtiger  Nachrichten  aus  deni 
Natur-  und  Kirchenreich,"  the  first  number  of 
which  appeared  August  20,  1739.  This  paper 
became  very  popular,  having  in  its  flourishing 
period  four  thousand  subscribers.^^  Towards 
the  end  of  the  century  the  number  of  German 
newspapers  rapidly  increased,  being  published 
not  only  in  Philadelphia,  but  in  Lancaster,  Read- 
ing, Allentown,  and  other  cities.  Many  of  them, 
still  in  German,  exist  to-day.^^ 

^*  Wright  says  ten  thousand. 

'^5  In  this  connection,  a  word  or  two,  perhaps,  ought  to  be 
said  of  that  kind  of  literature  which,  like  the  common  law  of 
England,  exists  unwritten.  Proverbs  were  very  popular  among 
the  Pennsylvania  Germans,  and  in  certain  districts  are  so  still. 
Many  of  them  are  the  same  as  we  find  in  English,  such  as. 
"Out  of  the  frying-pan  into  the  fire,"  "  The  burnt  child  dreads 
the  fire,"  etc.  Some  are,  however,  peculiar  to  themselves. 
Such  are  the  following  :  "En  blindti  Sau,  findt  a  alsamol  'n 
Echel";  "En  fauler  Esel  shaft  sich  gschwinter  dodt  as  'n 
shmarder";  "Der  Appel  folt  net  weit  fom  Bom";  "Sauer- 
kraut und  Speck  dreebt  alle  Sorge  week." 

"  Wer  sich  nehia  will  mit  Fisha  und  Yawga, 
Muss  ferissene  Husse  drawga." 

For  further  examples  see  Mathews  and  Hungerford's  Hist, 


136  LANGUAGE,  LITERATURE,  AND  EDUCATION. 

It  is  a  difficult  thing  for  people  of  any  age  or 
country  to  give  a  just  estimate  of  another  nation, 
with  whose  language  and  customs  they  are  un- 
acquainted.   What  always  happens  took  place  in 
Pennsylvania  one  hundred  and  fifty  years  ago. 
The  Germans  were  misunderstood  in  many  ways 
by   their   English-speaking   neighbors.      Owing 
to  the  fear  on  the  part  of  the  latter  of  being 
swamped     by     foreigners,     to     the     suspicions 
aroused  by  Jesuit  machinations,  and  to  politi- 
cal prejudice  and  passion,  they  were  accused, 
among  other  things,  of  stupidity,  obstinacy,  and 
ignorance.     In  regard  to  the  latter  accusation 
some  light  is  afiforded  by  a  letter  written  to  Peter 
Collinson  by  Benjamin  Franklin  in  1753.    From 
this  letter  it  appears  that  in  the  mind  of  Frank- 
lin, at  least,  "  ignorance  "  and  "  ignorance  of  the 
English  language"  are  identical  terms;    for  he 
goes  on  to  say:    "Few  of  their  children  in  the 
country    know    English.      They    import    many 
books  from  Germany,  and  of  the  six  printing- 
houses  in  the  province  two  are  entirely  German, 
two  half  German,  half  English,  and  but  two  are 
entirely  English.    They  have  one  German  news- 
paper and  one  half  German."     Surely  a  people 
which  had  as  many  printing-presses  and  news- 

I.eliigh  Co.,  p.  25,  and  Dr.  W.  J.  Iloflman  in  Journal  of  Amer. 
Folk-Lore,  vol.  II.  p.  198. 


LANGUAGE,  LITERATURE,  AND  EDUCATION.  137 

papers  as  the  English,  who  outnumbered  them 
two  to  one,  were  not  ignorant  in  the  proper  sense 
of  that  term.26 

Careful  study  of  the  facts  will  show  the  true 
state  of  afifairs  to  have  been  something  as  follows. 
The  mass  of  the  early  German  settlers  of  Penn- 
sylvania, while  not  highly  educated,  were  not 
ignorant  or  illiterate.  The  proportion  of  those 
who  could  read  and  write  was  probably  as  large 
as  that  in  rural  New  England  and  New  York,  at 
least  in  the  pioneer  days  of  those  colonies.^'''  All 
had  received  at  least  the  elements  of  education 
in  the  Fatherland,  in  accordance  with  the  univer- 
sal  custom   in   Protestant   Germany  of  uniting 

"6  Franklin,  Works  (ed.  Ford),  vol.  11.  The  political  bias  is 
seen  in  the  following  words  from  the  same  letter  :  "  For  I  re- 
member when  they  modestly  declined  intermeddling  with  our 
elections  ;  but  now  they  come  in  droves  and  carry  all  before 
them,  except  in  one  or  two  counties." 

2^  ' '  The  people  of  Colonial  New  England  were  not  all  well- 
educated,  nor  were  all  their  country  schools  better  than  old 
field  schools.  The  farmer's  boy,  who  was  taught  for  two 
winter  months  by  a  man  and  two  summer  months  by  a 
woman,  seldom  learned  more  in  the  district  school  than  how 
to  read,  write,  and  cipher."  (Fiske,  Old  Virginia  and  her 
Neighbors,  vol.  II.  p.  251.) 

"There  was  often  a  disposition  on  the  part  of  the  town 
meetings  to  shirk  the  appropriation  of  a  sum  of  money  for 
school  purposes.  ...  In  those  dark  days  of  New  England, 
there  might  now  and  then  be  found  in  rural  communities  men 
of  substance  who  signed  deeds  and  contracts  with  their 
mark."     (Ibid.) 


138  LANGUAGE,  LITERATURE,  AND  EDUCATION. 

education  and  religion.''^  In  the  early  days  of 
pioneer  life  in  the  wilderness  of  interior  Pennsyl- 
vania, they  lacked  both  schools  and  books,  a 
condition  of  affairs,  however,  more  and  more 
remedied  after  the  third  decade  of  the  eighteenth 
century.  The  early  Philadelphia  press  was  busy 
printing  Bibles,  hymn-books,  the  standard  books 
of  devotion,  and  even  school-books.^^  The 
reading  of  these  books,  the  committing  to  mem- 
ory of  extended  passages  of  Scripture  and  of  the 
hymn-book,  the  rapid  spread  of  the  newspaper, 
which  wc  shall  notice  elsewhere,  must  presup- 
pose a  certain  degree  of  education — an  education 
which,  while  not  broad  nor  deep,  was  practical 
both  in  religious  and  secular  affairs. 

There  was,  however,  a  comparatively  large 
number  of  the  German  pioneers  who  seemed 
to  possess  what  might  be  called  learning. 
Even    among    unprofessional    people    we    find 

*^  "  Seit  der  Reformation  waren  wenigstens  in  alien  Kirch- 
dorfern  Schulen,  die  Lehrer  oft  Theologen."  (Freytag,  vol. 
in.  p.  106.) 

'^  The  first  book  on  pedagogy  published  in  America  was 
by  Christopher  Dock,  written  in  1750,  but  printed  by  Sauer 
in  1770  after  the  death  of  the  writer.  Dock  was  an  interest- 
ing character  ;  he  advocated  correspondence  between  the 
pupils  of  different  schools  as  a  means  of  education,  thus  an- 
ticipating the  modern  system  of  correspondence  between  the 
school-youth  of  France,  Germany,  England,  and  America. 
(See  Pennypacker,  Historical  and  Biographical  Sketches.) 


LANGUyiGn,  LITERATURE,  AND  EDUCATION.  I39 

traces  of  classical  learning  ;  thus  Johannes 
Kolb,  a  weaver  of  Germantown,  had  a  copy  of 
Erasmus  in  Latin,^*^  which  he  had  bought  from 
his  brother;  andaSchwenckfelder,namedSchultz, 
had  a  well-thumbed  copy  of  a  Latin  grammar.^i 
The  earliest  settlers  were  under  the  direction 
of  some  of  the  most  learned  men  of  the  time. 
We  have  seen  that  the  Frankfort  Company  con- 
sisted of  a  number  of  well-educated  and  high- 
born people;  their  agent,  Pastorius,  we  have  al- 
ready spoken  of.  Of  the  company  of  mystics 
who  came  over  in  1694  most  were  university  men. 
Zimmermann,  who  had  planned  the  colony,  was 
called  by  Arnold  "  Ein  grundgelehrter  Astrolo- 
gus,"  etc.  Johann  Kelpius.  his  successor  as 
leader  of  the  colony,  was  the  son  of  a  clergy- 
man, and  a  Doctor  of  Philosophy  of  Tubingen; 
Henry  Bernard  Koster  had  studied  at  the  gym- 
nasium of  Bremen  and  at  Frankfort;  Daniel 
Falckner  was  the  son  and  grandson  of  clergymen 
and  was  himself  educated  for  the  ministry;  his 
brother  had  been  a  student  in  Halle  and  had  left 
home  in  order  to  "  escape  the  burden  of  the  pas- 
torate."   Finally,  Peter  Miller,  at  one  time  prior 

'"  Pennypacker,  Germantown,  picture  opp.  p.  194. 

'1  Now  in  charge  of  Dr.  C.  D.  Hartranft,  president  of  Hart- 
ford Theological  Seminary,  who  has  been  engaged  for  many 
years  on  a  complete  edition  of  the  works  of  Schwenckfeld. 


14°  L/INGUAGE,  LITERATURE,  AND  EDUCATION. 

of  Ephrata,  was  a  very  learned  man  and  often 
came  to  Philadelphia  to  attend  the  meetings  of 
the  Philosophical  Society;  he  is  said  to  have 
translated  the  Declaration  of  Independence  into 
seven  different  languages.^-  Of  course  the  regu- 
larly ordained  ministers  of  the  Lutheran  and  Re- 
formed churches  ^^  were  men  of  education,  as 
that  was  a  necessary  qualification  in  Germany  for 
those  who  entered  the  ministry. 

The  subject  of  education  among  the  Germans 
was  the  cause  of  a  great  deal  of  acrimonious  dis- 
cussion towards  the  middle  of  the  last  century, 
and,  as  usual  in  such  cases,  many  false  and  in- 
accurate statements  were  made.  Politics  both  of 
State  and  Church  had  much  to  do  with  this  agi- 
tation. There  seems  to  have  been  a  genuine  fear, 
however,  on  the  part  of  the  English  inhabitants 
that  the  French  were  endeavoring  to  enlist  the 
sympathies  of  the  Germans  in  their  efforts  at 
supremacy  over  the  whole  of  western  America. 

'*  Miller  applied  to  the  Scotch  Sjiiod  for  ordination.  "  We 
gave  him,"  says  Andrews,  ''a  question  to  discuss  al>out  jus- 
tification, and  he  answered  it  in  a  whole  sheet  in  a  very 
notable  manner.  He  speaks  Latin  as  readily  as  we  do  our 
vernacular  tongue." 

"  The  Synods  of  Holland  sent  Schlatter  to  Germany  and 
Switzerland  to  seek  ministers  for  Pennsylvania  who  should 
be  "orthodox,  learned,  pious."  (Harbaugh,  Life  of  Schlatter, 
P-  232.) 


L/iNGUAGE,  LITERATURE,  AND  EDUCATION.  141 

Indeed,  we  have  documentary  evidence  that 
such  attempts  were  made.  In  the  examination 
of  William  Johnson  in  1756  testimony  was  given 
to  the  effect  that  a  certain  priest,  Neal,  insinuated 
that  it  would  be  better  to  live  under  French  gov- 
ernment, as  religion  would  be  free,  and  told  them 
to  get  arms  and  be  ready  to  join  the  French  and 
Indians.^^  So,  too,  we  read  in  an  intercepted 
letter  written  from  Canada  in  1756  that  the  Mora- 
vians were  true  Roman  Catholics  [^sic'\  and  that 
the  writer  was  persuaded  that  "  they  would  rather 
serve  his  royal  Majesty."  ^^ 

That  there  was  no  need  for  anxiety  goes  with- 
out saying;  the  Germans  were,  as  they  after- 
wards proved,  too  loyal  to  listen  to  any  appeals 
on  the  part  of  the  French.  They  could  not  have 
forgotten  that  France  was  chiefly  responsible 
for  the  desolation  of  their  own  homes  in  Ger- 
many. Besides,  the  Lutherans  and  Reformed, 
who  had  come  to  America  to  escape  the  persecu- 
tion of  a  Catholic  government,  were  not  likely 
to  put  themselves  in  the  same  predicament  by 
espousing  the  cause  of  a  country  whose  revoca- 
tion of  the  Edict  of  Nantes  had  driven  all  Prot- 

'*  Penn.  Arch.,  ist  Ser.,  vol.  iii.  p.  16. 

'6  Amer.  Hist.  Assoc.  Reports,  vol.  I.  p.  663.  The  1113^5- 
terious  journeys  of  the  Moravians  to  the  wilderness,  the 
strange  practices  of  the  Ephrata  Community,  all  helped  to 
spread  this  suspicion. 


14^  LANGUAGE,  LITERATURE,  AND  EDUCATION. 

estants  from  France  and  even  from  Canada. 
Such  insinuations  roused  the  indignation  of  all 
classes  of  Germans.  The  German  Protestants  of 
Philadelphia  County  made  a  vigorous  protest 
against  all  attacks  on  their  loyalty.^^ 

These  suspicions  are  now  seen  by  us  to  have 
been  utterly  unfounded,  and  yet  it  was  perhaps 
not  unnatural  that  the  English  should  entertain 
such  fears  in  regard  to  foreigners,  of  whose  cus- 
toms and  religion  they  were  so  little  instructed. 
French  rule  in  America  meant  not  only  political 
supremacy,  but  the  extension  of  Catholicism 
wherever  that  rule  extended.  It  had  not  been 
many  years  before  that  England  had  driven  out 
the  popish  dynasty  of  the  Stuarts;  the  "  Scarlet 
Woman  "  had  not  lost  her  terrors,  and  the  cry  of 
"  no  popery  "  had  not  yet  died  out  in  the  land.^' 

Owing  to  such  fears  utterly  exaggerated  state- 
ments were  made  regarding  the  number  of 
Catholics  among  the  Germans;  the  Moravians 
were  accused  of  collusion  with  the  French,  and 
the  monastery  at  Ephrata  was  declared  to  be 

'*Penn.  Arch.,  1st  Ser.,  vol.  n.  p.  201  :  •How,  therefore, 
can  any  man  of  due  Reason  think,  much  less  say,  that  this  same 
people  were  anyways  inclined  to  submit  themselves  again 
under  a  Romish  slavery  upheld  by  a  French  king  ?  " 

"  •'  The  clamors  against  popery  are  as  loud  as  ever."  (Let- 
ter by  Dan.  Dulaney,  Dec.  9,  1755,  in  Penn.  Mag.,  vol.  in. 
p.  II.) 


LANGUAGE,  LITERATURE,  AND  EDUCATION.  143 

ruled,  if  not  directly  by  the  pope,  yet  according 
to  popish  rules.^s  William  Smith  in  his  ''  Brief 
State  of  the  Province  of  Pennsylvania "  de- 
clared that  one-fourth  of  the  Germans  were 
Catholics,  while  the  rest  were  liable  to  be  seduced 
by  every  enterprising  Jesuit.  As  a  matter  of 
actual  fact,  out  of  the  total  population  in  1757 
only  1365  were  Catholics,  of  whom  923  were 
Germans.^^ 

These  were  the  facts,  or  rather  the  fears,  that 
underlay  the  formation  of  the  "  Society  for  the 
Promotion  of  the  Knowledge  of  God  among  the 
Germans."  A  pamphlet  written  by  Dr.  Smith 
set  forth  the  object  of  the  society,  and  a  large 
sum  of  money  was  subscribed  for  the  purpose  of 
founding  English  schools  in  the  various  Ger- 
man settlements.  The  statements  as  to  the 
ignorance  of  the  Germans  made  in  the 
above  pamphlet  were  so  false  as  to  draw 
out  indignant  protests  both  from  the  Re- 
formed and  the  Lutherans.-**^  From  the  very 
beginning  both  these  denominations  had  schools 

**  These  suspicions  finally  induced  the  government  to  send 
a  committee  to  Ephrata,  but  Beissel  and  Miller  easily  showed 
how  unfounded  they  were. 

'*  Penn.  Arch.,  1st  Sen.  vol.  ill.  p.  144. 

^  There  is  no  reason  to  suppose  that  these  statements  were 
deliberate  falsehoods  ;  as  usually  happens  in  such  cases,  the 
English  had  but   little   accurate  knowledge  concerning  their 


144  LANGUAGE,  LITERATURE,  AND  EDUCATION. 

connected  with  the  various  churches,  and  no 
community  held  rehgious  services  without  at  the 
same  time  taking  thought  for  the  rehgious  and 
secular  instructions  of  their  children.'* ^  In  some 
places  there  were  schoolmasters  even  before 
regular  pastors,  and  one  of  their  duties  was  to 
read  the  services  on  Sunday.'*- 

While  of  course  in  the  early  decades  of  the 
century  schools  were  few  and  scattered,  and 
while  even  in  Aluhlenberg's  time  he  could  still 
complain  of  the  want  of  good  schools,  yet  the 
consideration  of  a  few  facts  will  show  that  in 
general  the  Germans  were  at  least  no  worse  off 
than  their  Quaker  fellows,  or  than  was  natural 
in  a  new  and  wild  country.  As  early  as  1748 
Jacob  Loeser  was  teacher  of  the  Lutheran 
church  in  Lancaster,  in  summer  teaching  fifty  or 
sixty  pupils,  in  winter  eighty  or  ninety.  In  fact 
we  are  told  that  the  school  grew  so  large  that  six- 
teen English  children  had  to  be  dismissed.^-"^     As 

German  neighbors.  Moreover,  the  desire  to  make  a  success- 
ful appeal  for  funds  almost  necessarily  led  to  exaggeration. 

*>  Thus,  in  1730,  the  settlers  in  Tulpehocken  built  log  school- 
houses  near  the  present  Reed  Church,  with  Caspar  Leutbecker 
as  schoolmaster. 

**  See  the  agreement  between  IIofTman  and  the  Reformed 
Church  in  Lancaster  in  1747.  in  which  he  agrees  to  "serve 
as  chorister,  read  sermons  on  Sunday,  and  to  keep  school  every 
day  in  the  year  as  is  the  usual  custom." 

"  Ilandschuh,  in  Hall.  Nach. 


LANGUAGE,,  LITERATURE,  AND  EDUCATION.  I45 

to  the  curriculum  of  these  schools,  we  get  a 
glimpse  thereof  in  the  records  of  the  time.  The 
teacher  of  the  Reformed  church  in  Philadelphia 
was  to  teach  the  children  reading,  writing,  sing- 
ing, and  to  lead  a  godly  life;  he  was  to  instruct 
them  in  the  articles  of  the  Reformed  faith,  in  the 
Ten  Commandments,  and  to  make  them  commit 
to  memory  passages  of  Scripture.^^ 

That  the  Germans  were  not  unprovided  with 
schools  for  proper  instruction  in  their  own  lan- 
guage the  following  unprejudiced  witness  may 
serve  as  proof:  "The  country  for  miles  around 
this  town  is  thick  peopled,  but  few  else  than  Ger- 
mans and  Quakers,  the  former  being  computed 
at  twelve  to  one  of  all  other  nations  together,  and 
seem  to  be  abundantly  well  provided  in  teachers 
of  one  denomination  or  another.  .  .  .  They 
might  be  at  no  loss  for  English  schoolmasters, 
yet  they  choose  to  send  their  children  rather  to 
German  schools,  which  they  have  everywhere  in 
great  plenty."  ^^ 

Although  Muhlenberg  and  Schlatter  were 
members  of  the  committee,  and  although 
schools  were  established  in  Lancaster,  Reading, 

**  Wickersham,  Hist,  of  Education  in  Penn. 

*^  Letter  of  Rev.  Alexander  Murray,  Secretary  of  the  So- 
ciety for  Propagation  of  the  Gospel  in  Foreign  Parts,  dated  at 
Reading,  April  9,  1763. 


I4<J  LANGUAGE,  LITERATURE,  AND  EDUCATION. 

York,  etc.,  the  movement  soon  failed  ignomin- 
iously.  Christopher  Sauer  threw  the  whole 
weight  of  his  personality  against  it,  and  his  paper 
vigorously  assailed  the  motives  which  he  de- 
clared underlay  the  movement.  According  to 
him  the  motives  were  two:  first,  to  draw  the 
German  vote  away  from  the  Quakers;"***  sec- 
ond, to  attract  the  Lutherans  to  the  Church  of 
England.-*"     After  a  few  years  the  schools  were 

**  See  Gordon,  Hist,  of  Pennsylvania,  pp.  328,  9.  Sauer 
seems  to  have  been  right  to  a  certain  extent.  Only  polit- 
ical prejudice  could  make  Smith  utter  such  evident  false- 
hoods as  the  following:  "One-half  the  people  are  an  unculti- 
vated race  of  Germans  liable  to  be  seduced  by  every  enter- 
prising Jesuit,  having  almost  no  Protestant  clergy  among 
them  to  put  them  on  their  guard  and  warn  them  against 
popery."  (A  Brief  State  of  the  Province  of  Penn.  (Sabin  Re- 
print), p.  19.)  And  again:  "The  Germans,  instead  of  being 
a  peaceful  and  industrious  people  as  before,  now  finding  them- 
selves of  such  consequence,  are  grown  self-willed  and  tur- 
bulent, .  .  .  will  soon  be  able  to  give  us  law  and  language  or 
else,  by  joining  with  the  French,  to  eject  all  English  inhabit- 
ants." (p.  31.) 

*'  This  actually  happened  with  many  churches  in  New  York, 
Maryland,  and  Virginia,  as  well  as  with  the  Swedish  Lutherans 
in  Pennsylvania.  At  that  time  both  churches  were  closely 
connected.  George  I.  was  still  in  private  a  Luthenin.  not  be- 
ing willing  to  renounce  his  religion  for  a  crown.  In  Penn- 
sylvania and  New  York  they  worked  in  harmony,  and  in  1797 
a  resolution  was  passed  under  Dr.  Kunze  "  that,  on  account  of 
an  intimate  relation  subsisting  between  the  English  Episco- 
palian and  Lutheran  churches,  .  .  .  this  consistory  will  never 
acknowledge  a  newly  erected  Lutheran  church  in  places  where 


LANGUAGE,  LITERATURE,  AND  EDUCATION.  i47 

given  up.  Schlatter  lost  his  influence  among  his 
countrymen  largely  through  his  connection  with 
the  matter. 

The  gist  of  the  much-mooted  school  question 
at  that  time  was  a  question  of  language.  The 
English  not  unnaturally  looked  upon  this  as  an 
obstacle  to  the  speedy  and  complete  assimilation 
of  the  Germans  to  the  English  community,  which 
in  those  days  of  suspicion  of  all  things  foreign 
was  looked  upon  as  a  consummation  devoutly 
to  be  wished.  The  Germans  have  been  much 
blamed  in  this  affair,  and  doubtless  it  would  have 
been  better  for  them  if  by  means  of  these  schools 
they  had  become  Anglicized  a  generation  or  two 
earlier.  Yet  their  feeling  was  a  natural  one :  they 
did  not  want  to  give  up  their  language;  they  had 
schools  of  their  own  which  satisfied  them.  They 
saw  no  reason  for  the  change,  and  hence  were 
easily  led  to  see  wrong  motives  in  what  pur- 
ported to  be,  and  in  the  case  of  many  people 
really    was,    philanthropy.      They    were,    more- 

the  members  may  partake  of  the  services  of  the  said  English 
Episcopal  church."  (Jacobs,  Hist,  of  Lutherans,  p.  318.) 
Muhlenberg  was  strongly  attached  to  the  Episcopalians  and  at 
one  time  disposed  to  unite  with  them.  Cf.  also  letter  of  Thos. 
Barton  in  1764.:  "The  Germans  in  general  are  well  affected 
to  the  Church  of  England,  and  might  easily  be  brought  over 
to  it.  A  law  obliging  them  to  give  their  children  an  English 
education  .   .   .  would  soon  have  this  effect." 


148  LANGUAGE,  LITERATURE,  AND  EDUCATION. 

over,  indignant  at  l)eing  treated  as  ignorant 
boors,  and  were  proud  and  independent  enough 
to  repudiate  the  idea  that  they  should  become 
the  recipients  of  charity .^^ 

Nearly  seventy-five  years  later  a  similar  con- 
test arose  in  Pennsylvania  over  the  introduction 
of  the  common-school  system;  and  here  again 
the  Geniians  largely  opposed  the  movement  and 
received  their  full  share  of  obloquy  as  being  op- 
posed to  education.  But  the  impartial  stu- 
dent of  the  facts  will  find,  not  justification, 
yet  at  least  some  excuse  for  tlieir  taking  such  a 
stand.  Their  opposition  to  the  common-school 
law  was  due  to  the  fact  that  it  tended  to  with- 
draw education  from  the  control  of  the  parents 
and  clergy.      As  the  Hon.  H.  A.  Muhlenberg 

*8  See  Ilarbaugh,  Life  of  Schlatter,  p.  294.  "One  says: 
'I  am  conscientious  in  regard  to  having  my  children  taught  at 
the  expense  of  public  charity,  because  I  do  not  stand  in  need 
of  such  aid,  for  I  can  pay  myself. '  "  Muhlenberg,  Schlatter, 
and  later  Kunze  were  in  favor  of  introducing  the  English 
language  into  school  and  church.  At  the  very  beginning  of 
German  immigration  Pastorius  wrote  to  his  children,  John, 
Samuel,  and  Henry:  '-Though  you  are  (Germano  sanguine 
nati)  of  high  Dutch  [sic]  parents,  yet  remember  that  your 
father  was  naturalized  and  ye  l>orn  in  an  English  colony. 
Consequently  each  of  you  Anglicus  natus,  an  English- 
man by  birth.  Therefore  it  would  be  a  shame  for  you  if 
you  should  l^e  ignorant  of  the  English  tongue,  the  tongue 
of  your  countrymen."  (Pennypacker,  Penn.  Mag.,  vol.  iv. 
pp.  I  ff.) 


LANGUAGE,  LITERATURE,  AND  EDUCATION.  I49 

wrote  in  a  letter  to  the  workingmen  of  Philadel- 
phia, January  26,  1836:  "The  Germans  of  our 
State  are  not  opposed  to  education  as  such,  but 
only  to  any  system  that  to  them  seems  to  trench 
on  their  parental  and  natural  rights."  They  still 
retained  the  German  theory  of  education,  that 
the  child  belongs  first  to  God,  then  to  the  par- 
ents, then  to  the  State,  the  chief  responsibility 
for  their  education  resting  on  Church  and  par- 
ents. Their  educational  system  was  pre-eminently 
a  religious  one,  which  looked  not  only  at  the  in- 
tellect but  the  soul,  and  had  in  mind  not  only 
the  preparation  for  the  life  that  now  is,  but  for 
the  life  to  come.  An  additional  reason,  of  course, 
was  their  attachment  to  their  own  dialect,  a 
subject  which  at  this  time  was  playing  so  im- 
portant a  role  in  church  affairs.**^ 

From  the  vantage-ground  of  the  present  day 
we  believe  them  to  have  been  wrong  in  opposing 
the  common-school  system,  and  they  recognize 
it  now,  but  it  was  not  ignorance  nor  any  un- 
worthy motive  which  led  to  their  opposition. 
Nor  must  it  be  forgotten  that  it  was  a  German 
governor,  George  Wolf,  who  finally  succeeded 
in  effecting  the  adoption  of  the  new  system.  In 
regard  to  the  whole  question  of  their  attitude 
towards  education,  the  testimony  of  an  expert 

*3  See  p.  117. 


ISO  LANGUAGE,  LITERATURE,  AND  EDUCATION. 

in  education  in  Pennsylvania,  and  one  not  of 
German  descent,  may  fitly  close  this  part  of  our 
discussion.  Wickersham  in  his  History  of  Edu- 
cation in  Pennsylvania  says :  "  The  above  facts 
will  be  sufficient  to  make  known  the  deep  inter- 
est in  education  felt  by  a  people  whose  history 
in  this  respect  has  either  been  badly  learned  or 
greatly  misunderstood."  ^° 

Hitherto  we  have  been  speaking  of  elementary 
education,  in  regard  to  which  we  have  seen  that 
the  Germans  were  from  the  beginning  anxious 
to  provide  for  their  children.  When  we  come  to 
higher  education  the  case  is  different.  During 
the  eighteenth  century  there  was  little  interest  in 
colleges  or  universities  among  them.  Many  of 
the  sects,  especially  the  Dunkards  and  ]\Icn- 
nonites,  were  opposed  to  it  on  the  same  grounds 
as  the  Quakers;  while  the  vast  majority  of  the 
Lutherans  and  Reformed  were  farmers  and  saw 
no  reason  why  their  children  should  need  to 
know  more  than  they  did.  To  read  and  write,  to 
know  something  of  arithmetic,  to  be  able  to  read 
the  Bible,  hymn-book,  and  newspaper,  seemed 
to  them  all  that  was  necessary.  It  was  owing  to 
this  lukewarmness  that  Franklin  College,  founded 
at  Lancaster  to  show,  as  the  charter  declares,  the 
public  appreciation  of  the  services  of  the  Ger- 

^  p.  142. 


LANGUAGE,  LITERATURE,  AND  EDUCATION.  151 

mans  in  the  development  of  the  State,  fell  to  the 
ground  in  spite  of  the  efforts  of  such  men  as 
Franklin,  Rush,  Muhlenberg,  Hiester,  Helmuth, 
and  others. 

In  recent  years,  however,  this  state  of  affairs 
has  much  changed.  With  the  growth  of  towns 
and  cities,  with  the  progress  of  manufactures, 
with  the  intermarriage  and  mingling  with  their 
neighbors,  the  old  conservative  spirit  has  largely 
passed  away.  Though  even  now  some  look  with 
disfavor  on  higher  education,^i  yet  in  general 
Pennsylvania  is  well  provided  with  colleges. 
Such  are  the  denominational  colleges  of  Le- 
banon Valley,  Ursinus,  Franklin  and  Marshall, 
and  many  others.  A  large  proportion  of  the 
faculty  and  students  of  the  University  of  Penn- 
sylvania, State  College,  Jefferson  Medical  School, 
etc.,  are  of  Pennsylvania-German  descent.  Nor 
are  such  students  and  teachers  confined  to  their 
own  State;   they  may  be  found  in  nearly  every 

51  ''Among  the  queries  sent  up  in  later  years  [i.e.,  to  the 
Annual  Meeting  of  the  Dunkards]  was  one  asking  whether  it 
was  lawful  for  Brethren  to  establish  or  patronize  high-schools. 
The  reply  was  that  Brethren  should  not  mind  /ngh  things,  but 
condescend  to  men  of  low  estate.  The  Brethren,  however, 
continued  to  maintain  a  high-  school,  and  have  even  established 
colleges."  (Carroll,  Religious  Forces  of  the  United  States, 
p.  130.) 


152  LANGUAGE,  LITERATURE,  AND  EDUCATION. 

college  of  the  South  and  West,  and  even  of  New 
England. 

As  for  secondary  education,  perhaps  no  State 
is  more  energetic  than  Pennsylvania;  nowhere 
are  the  high-schools  and  normal  schools  more 
numerous  or  better  attended.  The  Moravian 
schools  at  Lititz  and  Bethlehem  have  for  over  a 
century  been  regarded  as  among  the  best  in  the 
land,  and  are  still  flourishing.'^^ 

5'  The  interest  of  the  Moravians  in  Education  dates  from 
early  times.  When  Mr.  Henry  Dunster,  president  of  Harvard 
College,  who  became  ' '  entangled  in  the  snares  of  Anabaptism 
and  filled  the  Overseers  with  tmeasie  fears,"  was  forced  to 
resign  in  1654,  "that  brave  old  man  Johannes  Amos  Com- 
enius  .  .  .  was  invited  to  "come  over  to  New  England  [and 
illuminate  this  Colledge  in  the  quality  of  President. "  (Cotton 
Mather,  Magnalia  Christi  Americana,  Book  4,  Part  I. ) 


CHAPTER   VI. 

THE    RELIGIOUS    LIFE. 

In  Chapter  IV  we  have  seen  the  Pennsylvania 
German  engaged  in  the  practical  affairs  of  Hfe; 
in  Chapter  V  we  have  endeavored  to  describe  his 
intellectual  condition.  In  the  present  chapter 
we  shall  attempt  to  round  out  the  picture  by  dis- 
cussing his  moral  and  religious  nature. 

No  one  who  has  made  a  careful  study  of  the  hab- 
its and  customs  of  the  German  and  Swiss  settlers  of 
Pennsylvania  in  the  eighteenth  century  can  re- 
sist the  conviction  that  they  were  essentially  a 
deeply  religious  people.^  It  is  true  that  for  the 
first  two  or  three  decades  there  was  little  or  no 
regular  religious  organization,  outside  the  vari- 
ous sects;  it  is  true  that  many  who  lived  far  in 
the  wilderness  had  lost  the  habit  of  church- 
going,  and  that  many  children  were  unbaptized 
and  without  proper  religious  instruction.  But 
this  was  through  no  fault  of  their  own,  and  as 

^  Even  in  olden  times  ''die  Deutschen  waren  ein  sehr  from- 
mes  und  GottbedUrftiges  Volk."     (See  Freytag,  vol  i.  p.  212.) 

^53 


154  THE  RELIGIOUS  LIFE. 

soon  as  the  country  became  sufficiently  settled 
spontaneous  efforts  were  made  on  all  sides  to  ob- 
tain the  services  of  pastor  and  schoolmaster.^ 

The  testimony  of  men  like  Falckner,  Weiss, 
and  others  in  this  matter  must  be  taken  with 
some  degree  of  reserve,  and  their  description  of 
the  religious  state  of  their  countrymen  refers 
very  largely  to  the  anarchy  which  reigned  in 
church  relations  rather  than  to  general  demor- 
alization in  actual  living.^  At  this  time  the 
Lutheran  and  Reformed  churches  were  without 
any  organization  or  regular  pastors,  and  the  only 
religious  activity  was  to  be  found  among  the 
Mennonites  and  the  Dunkards,  both  of  which 
sects  made  many  converts  among  the  two  regu- 
lar confessions.  Even  the  testimony  of  Brunn- 
holtz  and  Muhlenberg,  later  on,  must  be  taken 
with  caution.     In  their  pietistic  ideas  and  their 

*  See  Ilarbaugli,  Life  of  Schlatter,  and  Hall.  Nachrichten. 
Schlatter  tells  how  people  would  "with  tears  in  their  eyes" 
entreat  him  to  assist  them,  etc.     (p.  142.) 

'  As  a  sample  of  the  sentiments  of  the  regular  clergy,  take 
the  following  extract  from  a  letter  by  Boehm  to  the  Classis  of 
Amsterdam,  Nov.  12,  1730:  "By  these  dangerous  sects  an 
appalling  number  of  people  have  been  led  astray.  .  .  .  The 
two  main  heretics  [C.  Beissel  and  Michael  Wohlfahrt]  live  at 
Canastoka  and  Falknor-Schwam.  Meanwhile  it  must  be  feared 
that  if  they  are  not  opposed  many  poor  people  will  be  led 
astray  by  them."  (Hinke,  Early  Hist,  of  Ref.  Church  in  the 
Conestoga  Valley,  in  the  Reformed  Church  Record.) 


THE  RELIGIOUS   LIFE.  155 

eagerness  to  see  the  fruits  of  their  labors,  they 
unconsciously  darkened  the  picture,  while  the 
success  of  the  Moravians  roused  their  ire. 

We  have  ample  evidence  that,  scattered  as  they 
were  in  the  wilderness  which  then  formed  the  in- 
terior counties  of  Pennsylvania,  the  people  hun- 
gered and  thirsted  for  the  word  of  God.  This  is 
the  natural  explanation  of  the  numerous  re- 
vivals attending  the  labors  of  Wohlfahrt,  Bau- 
man,  and  IMack,  and  likewise  explains  the  ex- 
traordinary success  of  the  Ephrata  Community 
and  the  Moravians,  and  the  rise  of  the  Dunk- 
ards, — most  of  the  converts  to  whom  were  taken 
directly  from  the  Lutherans  and  Reformed. 
When  IMuhlenberg  came  to  Pennsylvania  great 
crowds  flocked  to  hear  him,^  and  this  same  love 
for  religion  continued  down  to  the  end  of  the 
century,  when  the  efforts  of  Boehm,  Otterbein, 
Albright,  and  Winebrenner  resulted  in  the  for- 
mation of  several  new  evangelical  denominations. 
In  fact  no  people  in  America  were  so  subject  to 
religious  excitements  as  the  Germans  of  Penn- 
sylvania during  the  eighteenth  century. 

We  read  in  the  Hallesche  Nachrichten  how 

*  See  Hall.  IsdiCh. .  passif?i;  also  Schlatter's  Life.  Handschuh 
writes  on  one  occasion  :  "Das  Volk  war  mit  seiner  besondern 
Aufmerksamkeit,  Andacht  im  Singen,  Ehrerbietung  bei  der 
offentlichen  Beichte  auf  den  Knien  etc.,  ungemein  erbaulich." 
(H.  N.,  I.  p.  165.) 


I5<5  THE  RELIGIOUS  LIFE. 

people  came  fifteen  or  twenty,  nay  even  two  hun- 
dred miles  to  hear  sermons  and  receive  sacra- 
ment. When  Whitefield  passed  like  a  flaming 
comet  through  the  colonies  in  1740  he  preached 
to  thousands  of  Germans,  who,  though  they 
could  not  understand  English,  flocked  to  hear 
the  great  evangelist.^ 

This  deep  religious  nature  is  also  shown  in 
their  reverence  and  love  for  the  Bible.  Those  who 
had  been  able  had  brought  with  them  Bibles 
from  the  Fatherland,  and  cherished  them  as  the 
choicest  of  their  possessions;  ^  others,  who  were 
poorer  or  who  had  lost  all  their  property  in  the 

*  In  a  letter  dated  April  lo,  1740,  Wliitefield  writes  :  "Some 
of  the  Germans  in  America  are  holy  souls.  They  keep  up  a 
close  walk  with  God  and  are  remarkable  for  their  sweetness 
and  simplicity  of  behaviour.  They  talk  little  ;  they  think 
much."  In  the  Journal  of  his  travelling-companion,  William 
Seward,  under  date  of  April  24th  we  read;  "Came  to  Chris- 
topher Wigner's  plantation  in  Skippack,  where  many  Dutch 
people  are  settled.  ...  It  was  surprising  to  see  such  a  multitude 
of  people  gathered  together  in  such  a  wilderness  country,  etc. 
After  he  had  done,  our  dear  friend  Peter  Boehler  preached  in 
Dutch  to  those  who  could  not  understand  English.  .  .  .  Came 
to  Henry  Anti's  plantation,  in  Frederick  Township,  ten  miles 
farther,  where  was  also  a  multitude,  etc.  There  were  Germans 
where  we  dined  and  supped,  and  they  pray'd  and  sung  in 
Dutch  as  we  did  in  English.  .  .  .  O  Heavenly  Musick  I  Hf>w 
sweet  and  delightful  it  is  to  a  New-Born  Soul!"  (Dotterer, 
Hist.  Notes,  p.  84.)  Of  Antes  Whitefield  says  he  "seemed  to 
have  drunk  deeply  into  the  consnlations  of  the  Holy  Spirit." 

6  Among  the  rare  bibliographical  treasures  in  Pennsylvania 


THE  RELIGIOUS  LIFE.  I57 

confusion  and  dishonesty  which  so  often  ac- 
companied an  ocean  voyage  then,  made  every 
efifort  to  get  possession  of  the  precious  book. 
Muhlenberg  tells  us  how  even  redemptioners 
saved  their  chance  earnings  to  buy  copies.  One 
of  the  first  things  a  man  did  on  getting  married 
was  to  buy  a  family  Bible.  It  was  to  supply  this 
universal  demand  that  Sauer  undertook  to  pub- 
lish his  famous  Quarto.  Nor  were  these 
Bibles  mere  ornaments  of  the  centre-table;  they 
formed  the  daily  food  of  those  who  possessed 
them.  The  people  of  those  days  were  "  Bibel- 
fest,"  their  memories  were  stored  with  the  best 
passages;  and  this  is  true  not  only  of  adults,  but 
of  little  children  as  well. 

The  same  statements  apply  to  the  hymn-book, 
which  was  held  in  almost  the  same  reverence  as 
the  Bible.  It  was  not  left  in  the  pew  at  church, 
but  shared  with  the  Holy  Book  the  honor  of  being 
read   constantly  and  learned   by   heart.'^     They 

to-day  are  the  copies  of  the  Bible  published  by  Froschauer  of 
Zurich,  and  brought  over  by  the  early  Swiss  Mennonites. 

'  Many  examples  are  given  by  Muhlenberg  in  Hall.  Nach. 
Take  as  a  single  instance  the  pathetic  story  of  the  death  of  a 
six-year-old  boy.  When  too  weak  himself  to  sing  the  hymns, 
"deren  er  eine  schone  Anzahl  gelemet, "  he  would  ask  his 
parents  to  sing.  "  Als  sein  Verlangen  erfuUt  war,  gab  er  sei- 
nem  Vater  einen  liebreichen  Kuss  zum  Abschiede,  begehrte 
hemach  wieder  auf  sein  Bette,  und  indeni  beiderseits  Eltern 
den  Vers  sungen:    '  Breit  aus  die  Flijgel  beide,  O  Jesu  meine 


158  THE  RELIGIOUS   LIFE. 

were  not  only  "  Bibel-fest,"  but  "  Gesangbuch- 

fest,"  and  in  times  of  danger,  sickness,  and  death 

comfort  and  strength  were  drawn  from  the  grand 

old  hymns  of  the  Church.     Many  touching  and 

inspiring  stories  might  be  told  in  this  connection, 

like  that  of  Barbara  Hartman,  who  after  many 

years'  captivity  among  the  Indians  was  restored 

to  her  mother,  whom  she  only  recognized  when 

the  latter  sang  to  her  the  hymn, 

"  Allein  und  doch  nicht  ganz  allein, 
Bin  ich  in  meiner  Einsamkeit.'"^ 

with  which  she  had  often  cradled  her  infant 
daughter  to  sleep;  or  that  still  more  inspiring 
story  of  John  Christian  Schell  and  his  wife  and 
four  sons,  who  kept  at  bay  a  band  of  sixty-four 
Indians  and  Tories  all  night  long,  shooting  at 
them  from  the  windows,  and  keeping  up  their 
courage  by  singing  lustily  Luther's  old  battle- 
hymn,  "  Ein  feste  Burg  ist  Unser  Gott,"  em- 
phasizing, we  well  may  believe,  especially  the 
lines: 

"  Und  wenn  die  Welt  voll  Teufel  wUr' 
Und  woUt'  uns  gar  verschlingen, 
So  fiirchten  wir  uns  nicht  so  sehr, 
Es  muss  uns  doch  gelingen."' 

Freude,  Und  nimm  dein  Kiichlein  ein,'  entschlief  er  sanft  und 
stille  in  seinem  Erlciser."     (vol.  11.  p.  468.) 

^  This  interesting  story  is  given  in  detail  in  Hall.  Nach., 
vol.  H.  p.  479  ff. 

®  Kapp,  p.  262  ff.  It  is  a  satisfaction  to  know  that  this  brave 
family  was  rescued  on  tlie  following  day. 


THE  RELIGIOUS   LIFE.  IS9 

What  has  been  stated  above  is  perhaps  only 
another  way  of  saying  that  the  whole  religious 
life  of  the  early  Pennsylvania  Germans  was 
strongly  marked  by  pietism.  This  movement, 
which  we  have  spoken  of  before,  was  not  a 
propagation  of  dogma  or  a  new  ecclesiastical 
polity,  but  the  immediate  application  of  the  teach- 
ing of  Christ  to  the  heart  and  conduct,  a  revolt 
against  the  formalism  of  the  orthodox  church; 
it  was  to  Germany  what  Methodism  became  later 
to  England. 

It  is  interesting  to  note  the  development  of 
pietism  in  Pennsylvania.  Almost  all  those  who 
came  over  in  the  early  part  of  the  century  were 
afifected  by  it;  nay,  the  Frankfort  Company  was 
formed  by  the  members  of  one  of  the  so- 
called  Collegia  Pietatis  founded  by  Spener;  hence 
Germantown  owes  its  foundation  to  this  move- 
ment. Zinzendorf  and  the  Moravians,  the 
Schwarzenau  Baptists,  the  Schwenckfelders, 
Otterbein  and  Boehm,  who  founded  the  United 
Brethren,  and  Muhlenberg,  who  had  been  edu- 
cated at  Halle,  then  the  centre  of  the  movement 
in  Germany, — all  were  thoroughly  imbued  with 
the  spirit  of  pietism.  The  same  tendency,  carried 
to  excess  and  manifesting  itself  in  mysticism,  is 
seen  in  the  Society  of  the  Woman  in  the  Wilder- 


i6o  THE  RELIGIOUS  LlhE. 

ness  founded  by  Kelpius,  and  in  the  Ephrata 
Community. 

The  stream  of  emotional  religion,  thus  having 
its  source  in  Germany,  gained  new  strength  in 
Pennsylvania,  where  all  conditions  were  favor- 
able to  its  development.  While  in  Germany  it 
practically  died  out  as  a  force  before  the  end  of 
the  century,  in  the  New  World  it  flowed  on  in 
new  channels,  and  finally  culminated  in  the 
founding  of  several  new  denominations,  which 
to-day  are  strong  in  numbers  and  influence. ^° 

The  great  majority  of  Germans  in  colonial 
Pennsylvania  belonged  to  the  two  principal  con- 
fessions, Lutheran  and  Reformed,  the  latter 
coming  chiefly  from  Switzerland  and  the  Palat- 
inate, the  former  from  Wiirtemberg  and  other 
parts  of  Germany.  Their  numbers  in  the  Quaker 
colony  were  nearly  equal. 

One  phenomenon  which  a  centurv'  ago  at- 
tracted widespread  attention  was  the  perfect  har- 
mony and  good  feeling  which  existed  between 
the  two.^i    There  had  been  a  time  in  the  Father- 

'"  The  United  Brethren,  the  Evangelical  Association,  the 
Dunkards. 

n  'I  Which  fellowship  has  also  been  preserved  sacred  and  in- 
violate, ...  so  that  one  may  well  desire  that  such  traces  of 
harmony  mi^jht  also  be  found  in  Germany."  (Life  of  Schlatter, 
p.  139.)  Rayiial,  Burke,  and  others  speak  in  hisjh  terms  of 
the  harmony  existing  between  all  the   sects  and  churches  of 


THE  RELIGIOUS  LIFE.  l6i 

land  when  jealousy  had  existed  between  them 
and  when  petty  quarrels  had  divided  them.  The 
common  sufferings  and  persecutions  in  more  re- 
cent times  had  tended  to  smooth  over  their  differ- 
ences.i2  From  the  moment  they  arrived  in  Penn- 
sylvania we  see  but  little  evidence  of  hostility. 
The  members  of  both  denominations  being  poor 
and  dwelling  in  sparsely  settled  communities, 
they  were  unable  to  build  separate  churches,  and 
in  the  majority  of  cases  they  founded  Union 
churches, ^^  in  which  they  worshipped  on  alter- 
nate Sundays.  In  some  cases  this  arrangement 
has  been  continued  down  to  the  present  day.^* 

In  view  of  this  community  of  interest,  mem- 
bers of  one  congregation  often  worshipped  with 
the  other,  Lutherans  and  Reformed  frequently 
intermarried,  baptisms,  marriages,  and  funerals 

Pennsylvania, — overlooking,  however,  the  numerous  petty  quar- 
rels. Between  the  Moravians  on  the  one  side  and  the  Lutherans 
and  Reformed  on  the  other  there  was  a  very  strong  feeling. 

1'  ' '  Bei  aller  Zerstiickelung  der  Glaubensparteien  haben  die 
Pfalzer  nach  langen  Kampfen  sich  endlich  vertragen  gelernt." 
(Riehl,  Pfalzer,  p.  379.) 

1*  Such  a  church  had  been  built  in  the  seventeenth  century 
by  Karl  Ludwig  in  Mannheim,  common  to  the  three  confes 
sions    and    dedicated     "  zur    heiligen    Eintracht."       (Riehl. 
Pfalzer,  p.  386.) 

^*  Some  of  these  union  churches  are  common  to  other  de- 
nominations also  ;  such  is  Mellinger's  meeting-house,  in  West 
Cocalico  Township,  Lancaster  County,  in  which  worship 
Lutherans,  Reformed,  Mennonites,  and  Dimkards. 


1 62  THE  RELIGIOUS  LIFE. 

were  performed  by  ministers  of  either  denomina- 
tion, and,  in  general,  lines  of  demarcation  were 
very  loosely  drawn.  Indeed,  it  would  probably 
have  been  difficult  for  many  of  the  people  to  say 
what  were  the  essential  difTerences  between  the 
Lutheran  and  Reformed  churches,  and  a  story 
is  told  of  a  man  who  said  that  the  only  difiference 
was  that  the  Lutherans  said  "  Vater  Unser," 
while  the  Reformed  said  "  Unser  Vater."  All 
this  dulled  the  edge  of  denominational  feeling. 
It  was  easy  to  pass  from  one  church  to  another, 
and  throughout  the  eighteenth  century  Lutheran- 
ism  was  looked  upon  as  closely  allied  to  the 
Church  of  Englandj^-"^  while  in  a  similar  manner 
the  Reformed  Church  was  classed  with  the  Pres- 
byterians.^^ 

A  crying  need  of  both  churches  before  the 
fourth  decade  of  the  last  century  was  the  supply 
of  regular  ministers,  of  whom  there  were  scarcely 
any,    while    the    number    of    church    members 

^*  See  p.  146,  note. 

'*  Thus  in  the  constitution  of  the  new  Presbyterian  churcli 
into  which  the  Reformed  church  of  Frankford  (Phila- 
delphia Co.)  was  merged  we  read:  "And  the  said  con- 
gregation being  satisfied  that  the  shade  of  difference  be- 
tween tlie  principles  of  the  German  Reformed  Church  and 
those  of  the  Presbyterians  of  the  United  States  are  scarcely 
discernible  and  unimportant,"  etc.  (Dotterer,  Hist.  Notes, 
p.  27.)  In  colonial  documents  the  Reformed  are  frequently 
spoken  of  as  Dutch  Presbyterians,  or  Calvinists. 


THE  RELIGIOUS  LIFE.  163 

amounted  to  many  thousands.  Often  the  school- 
master would  read  sermons  and  conduct  ser- 
vices. There  had  been  some  distinguished  men 
who  in  an  unofficial  way  had  tried  to  introduce 
some  order;  among  the  Reformed  there  were 
John  Philip  Boehm  and  George  Michael  Weiss, 
the  former  of  whom  founded  the  churches  in 
Conestoga  Valley  and  perhaps  in  Lancaster.  The 
earliest  Lutheran  church  was  founded  in  Falk- 
ner's  Swamp  in  1720.  The  two  Stoevers  were 
especially  active,  and  at  every  cross-road  founded 
a  Lutheran  congregation  and  opened  a  church 
record;  most  of  these  churches  still  exist. ^'^ 

It  was  not,  however,  till  the  fourth  decade  that 
official  and  systematic  efiforts  were  made  to  or- 

"  One  of  the  early  churches  with  which  the  name  of  John 
Caspar  Stoever  is  connected  is  the  well-known  Reed  church,  in 
Tulpehocken,  founded  in  1727  by  the  settlers  from  Schoharie, 
N.  Y.  Like  the  cathedral  of  Durham,  it  was  "half  house  of 
God,  half  castle"  and  served  as  a  fort  against  the  Indians. 
Mr.  L.  A.  WoUenweber  alludes  to  this  double  function  in  the 
following  lines: 

"  Do  droben  uf  dem  runde  Berg, 
Do  steht  die  alte  Riethe- Kerch  ; 
Drin  hot  der  Parre  Stoever  schon 
Vor  hunnert  Jahr  manch  Predigt  thun  ; 
Gepredigt  zu  de  arme,  deitsche  Leit 
In  seller,  ach  !  so  harten  Zeit. 
Audi  wor  die  Kerch  'n  gute  Fort 
Gegen  der  Indianer  wilde  Hort — 
Un  schliefen  drin  gar  manch  Nacht, 
Die  arme  Settlers  wo  lien  bewacht." 


1 64  THE  RELIGIOUS  LIFE. 

ganize  the  scattered  congregations  of  Lutherans 
and  Reformed  in  Pennsylvania.  Michael  Schlat- 
ter, a  native  of  St.  Gall,  Switzerland,  came  to 
America  in  1746  for  the  purpose  of  studying  the 
church  situation,  and  of  devising  some  means  of 
help.  Through  the  aid  of  the  Reformed  Synod 
of  Holland,  and  the  generous  contribution  of 
friends  in  Germany,  Holland,  Switzerland,  and 
even  England,  he  was  enabled  to  bring  over  in 
1752  six  young  men,  regularly  ordained  minis- 
ters, and  settled  them  in  Philadelphia,  Falkner's 
Swamp,  Lancaster,  Reading,  and  other  places. 
Until  1792  the  German  Reformed  Church  in 
Pennsylvania  was  under  the  general  supervision 
of  the  Holland  Synod;  since  that  date  its  affairs 
have  been  administered  by  its  own  organiza- 
tion.i^ 

Henry  Melchior  Muhlenberg  occupies  the 
same  relation  to  the  Lutheran  Church  in  Penn- 
sylvania as  Schlatter  does  to  the  Reformed.  He 
was  a  man  of  learning,  energy,  deep  religious 
feeling,  and  administrative  talent.  It  is  doubtful 
if  a  better  adapted  man  could  have  been  found  in 
all  Germany  to  undertake  the  peculiarly  difficult 
task  he  was  called  to  do.  The  story  of  his  life, 
his  travels,  his  labors,  his  tact  in  dealing  with  the 

'8  At  the  end  of  the  year  1899  there  were   240, 130  members 
of  the  German  Reformed  Church  in  the  United  States. 


THE  RELIGIOUS  LIFE.  165 

difficult  problems  connected  with  the  loose  rela- 
tions then  prevailing  among  churches  and  sects, 
• — all  these,  as  he  relates  them  in  his  diary  and  in 
the  Hallesche  Nachrichten,i^  must  inspire  every 
reader  with  profound  respect  for  this  pioneer  of 
the  Lutheran  Church  in  America,  and  the  father 
of  a  distinguished  line  of  preachers,  warriors, 
statesmen,  and  patriots.^*^ 

Through  his  efforts  order  was  soon  introduced 
among  the  members  of  the  Lutheran  Church; 
new  congregations  were  started,  and  those  al- 
ready in  existence  were  strengthened.  The  sub- 
sequent history  of  the  Lutherans  is  different  from 
that  of  the  Reformed  Church,  which  to-day  is  al- 
most entirely  composed  of  the  descendants  of  the 

early  Pennsylvania  Germans,  whereas  the  Luth- 
erans have  received  exceedingly  large  additions 

from  the  vast  immigration  from  Germany  in  our 

own  century.     In  the  country  at  large  there  are 

many  separate  bodies  of  Lutherans, — the  Penn- 

'5  Muhlenberg  came  to  Pennsylvania  under  the  auspices  of 
the  Orphan  House  founded  at  Halle  by  August  Hermann 
Francke,  and  for  many  years  wrote  back  detailed  accounts  of 
his  labors,  which,  with  the  reports  of  other  ministers,  have 
been  published  under  the  title  of  "Hallesche  Nachrichten." 
They  are  of  extreme  value  for  the  student  of  the  manners  and 
customs,  the  religious  and  social  condition  of  the  times. 

'"'  Among  his  descendants  were  General  Peter  Muhlenberg ; 
Frederick  Augustus,  Speaker  of  the  House  of  Representatives  ; 
William  Augustus,  founder  of  St.  Johnland. 


1 66  THE  RELIGIOUS  LIFE. 

sylvania  Germans  being  members  of  the  "  INIinis- 
terium  of  Pennsylvania  and  Adjacent  States." 

A  problem  of  capital  importance  to  both  Re- 
formed and  Lutherans  came  into  prominence 
during  the  first  decades  of  the  nineteenth  cen- 
tury and  gradually  assumed  wide  significance. 
The  question  whether  the  services  should  be  held 
exclusively  in  German  began  to  be  agitated  at 
first  in  the  larger  cities,  especially  those  where 
the  English  influence  was  strong.  As  early  as 
1803,  when  the  Rev.  Henry  A.  ^Nluhlenberg^i 
was  called  to  Trinity  Church  in  Reading,  it  was 
understood  that  he  should  often  preach  in  Eng- 
lish. Evidently  the  time  was  not  ripe  for  so 
great  a  change,  for  we  soon  find  the  experiment 
abandoned  and  German  exclusively  used.  The 
movement,  however,  could  not  be  kept  down; 
the  natural  order  of  things  brought  it  more  and 
more  to  the  front,  so  that  in  many  cases  the  re- 
sult was  the  splitting  up  of  congregations,  one 
part  of  which  would  continue  to  hold  services 
in  German,  while  the  other  would  introduce  Eng- 
lish.22  The  change,  however,  came  slowly  and 
was  stubbornly  opposed  by  the  conservative  ele- 

''  Grandson  of  the  patriarch  Henry  Melchior. 

*'  Such  was  the  origin  of  llie  St.  Paul's  Reformed  Churcli  in 
Lancaster,  built  almost  next  dwjr  to  the  First  Church;  English 
is  used  exclusively  in  both  at  the  present  time. 


THE  RELIGIOUS  LIFE.  167 

ment.  It  was  undoubtedly  owing  to  this  con- 
servatism that  so  many  of  the  younger  generation 
left  and  joined  other  churches.  Feeling  ran  so 
high  that  the  Reformed  Synod  of  Frederick,  Md., 
in  1826  publicly  rebuked  a  young  minister  for 
giving  an  address  in  English.^^ 

It  is  claimed  that  the  Moravians  are  the  oldest 
Protestant  denomination  in  the  world,  dating  back 
to  the  days  of  Huss.  After  the  death  of  the  great 
reformer,  many  of  his  followers  continued  in 
secret  the  worship  of  God  according  to  their 
own  doctrines,  while  openly  professing  to  be 
members  of  the  Catholic  Church.  Their  secret 
heresy  being  discovered,  they  were  forced  to  flee 
from  their  native  land,  and  in  1722  settled  in 
Saxony  on  the  estate  of  Count  Zinzendorf,  where 
they  founded  the  now  historic  town  of  Herrnhut. 
Zinzendorf,  who  was  a  Lutheran,  became  much 
interested  in  their  peculiar  views,  and  finally 
joined  them  and  was  made  bishop.  Missions 
from  the  beginning  were  one  of  the  chief  func- 
tions of  the  Moravians,  and  they  already  had 
sent  missionaries  to  Greenland  and  other  places 
before  coming  to  America.  It  was  natural,  then, 
that  they  should  cast  their  eyes  to  the  heathen 
across  the  Atlantic.  In  1735  a  number  of  mis- 
sionaries came  to  Georgia  with  the  intention  of 

2'  Life  of  rhilip  Schaff,  p.  153. 


i68  THE  RELIGIOUS  LIFE. 

settling  there  and  preaching  the  Gospel  to  the 
Indians;  but  the  war  with  Spain  interfered  with 
their  plans,  and  in  1740  they  came  to  Pennsyl- 
vania, where  they  bought  a  large  tract  of  land 
and  founded  Bethlehem. 

In  1 741  Zinzendorf  came  and  took  charge  of 
the  new  settlement.  He  was  inspired  with  the 
laudable  desire  to  unite  all  the  German  Protest- 
ants in  the  colony,  and  organized,  or  rather  took 
charge  of,  the  movement  already  started,  and 
which  was  known  as  the  Pennsylvania  Synod. 
John  Gruber,  Henry  Antes,  and  John  Bechtel 
had  met  in  1740  to  talk  over  the  unsettled  condi- 
tion of  religion  in  Pennsylvania,  and  Antes  ad- 
vised a  union  of  all  German  sects  and  denomina- 
tions. On  December  26,  1741,  he  published  a 
circular  inviting  representatives  of  the  different 
communions  to  attend  a  general  meeting  at  Ger- 
mantown,  "  not  for  the  purpose  of  disputing,  but 
in  order  to  treat  peaceably  concerning  the  most 
important  articles  of  faith  and  ascertain  how  far 
they  might  agree  on  the  most  essential  points." 
A  number  of  people  met  January  12,  1742,  at  the 
house  of  Theobald  Endt,  where  the  above-men- 
tioned Pennsylvania  Synod  was  organized.  Dur- 
ing the  next  ten  months  seven  of  these  Synods 
were  held  in  different  places,  at  which  Lutherans, 
Reformed,  Schwenckfelders,  Mennonites,  Dunk- 


THE  RELIGIOUS  LIFE.  169 

ards,  and  Separatists  were  present.  The  project 
failed  through  denominational  jealousy.  Bechtel, 
Antes,  and  others  joined  the  Moravians,  being 
attracted  by  Zinzendorf.  It  was  the  actions  and 
success  of  the  Moravians  which  hastened  the 
coming  of  Schlatter  and  Muhlenberg,  whose  aim 
was  to  care  for  the  long-neglected  interests  of  the 
Reformed  and  Lutheran  churches.^-* 

The  missionary  efforts  of  the  Moravians 
among  the  Indians  greatly  prospered;  many 
converts  were  made  and  the  settlements  of  Gna- 
denhiitten,  Friedenthal,  and  others  were  founded. 
The  labors  of  such  men  as  Post,  Spangenberg, 
Nitschman,  and  Zeisberger,  whom  Thompson 
calls  the  "  John  Eliot  of  the  West,"  present  a 
picture  of  piety,  self-denial,  and  patient  endur- 
ance rarely  equalled  in  the  annals  of  missions. 
The  French  and  Indian  War  wath  its  intensified 

'*  At  one  time  the  existence  of  the  Lutheran  Church  in 
Lancaster  was  threatened  by  Nyberg,  its  pastor,  who  himself 
went  over  to  the  Moravians  and  wished  to  carry  the  congre- 
gation with  him.  The  gentle  Muhlenberg  frequently  indulges 
in  harsh  language  concerning  what  he  calls  the  machinations 
of  the  Moravians.  No  doubt  Zinzendorf  was  ambitious  and 
imperious  ;  John  Wesley,  who  ardently  admired  him  at  first, 
came  to  see  this  later.  (See  Tyerman's  Life  of  Wesley,  vol.  I. 
p.  207.)  Yet  the  Moravians  in  Pennsylvania  were  inspired  by 
true  evangelical  zeal;  Schaff  calls  them  a  "small  but  most 
lovely  and  thoroughly  evangelical  denomination." 


I70  THE  RELIGIOUS  LIFE. 

race-hatred  interfered  with  and  practically  put 
an  end  to  the  mission-work  on  a  large  scale. 

The  doctrines  of  the  Moravians  were  not  very 
different  from  those  of  the  Lutherans;  ^^  they 
were  only  marked  by  a  greater  depth  of  religious 
feeling  and  the  spirit  of  self-sacrifice.  Their 
manners  and  customs  were  peculiar  to  them- 
selves and  are  picturesque  and  interesting.  At 
first  the  settlement  at  Bethlehem  was  communis- 
tic, but  in  1760  a  division  of  the  prop- 
erty took  place,  the  community  retaining, 
however,  a  tavern  and  a  tanyard,  2000  acres 
near  Bethlehem  and  5000  near  Nazareth.  The 
profits  on  the  property  sold  were  devoted  to  the 
cause  of  missions.  In  the  olden  times  there  was 
a  sharp  distinction  made  not  only  between  the 
sexes,  but  between  the  different  ages  and  condi- 
tions of  the  same  sex.  Each  class  had  its  own 
place  in  church,  often  lived  together,  and  had 
its  own  peculiar  festivals.  The  women  were 
outwardly  marked  by  means  of  ribbons,  children 
wearing  light-red,  girls  dark-red,  the  unmarried 
sisters  pink,  the  married  women  blue,  and  widows 

'*  The  Moravians  do  not  indulge  in  the  habit  of  dogmatiz- 
ing, and  refuse  controversy.  They  have  put  forth  no  formu- 
lated creed  of  their  own,  yet  on  the  Continent  they  declare 
their  adhesion  to  the  Augsburg  Confession  with  its  twenty-one 
doctrinal  articles.  The  great  theme  of  tlicir  preaching  is 
Jesus  Christ.     (See  Thompson,  Moravian  Missions,  p.   9. ) 


THE  RELIGIOUS  LIFE.  ijl 

white.26  Even  in  death  these  distinctions  were 
kept  up,  and  in  the  graveyard  at  Lititz  the  bodies 
were  buried  according  to  age.^"  There  was  and 
is  still  a  deep  touch  of  poetry  over  the  religious 
life  of  the  Moravians.  Not  only  were  head  and 
heart  cultivated  in  religion,  but  also  the  aesthetic 
nature.  This  was  largely  done  by  means  of 
music,  in  which  they  excelled  and  which  from 
the  earliest  times  they  have  cultivated.  Music, 
often  very  elaborate,  marked  all  their  services 
and  added  a  refining  influence  to  the  emotions 
excited  by  religious  worship.  Bethlehem  is  still 
thoroughly  Moravian  in  many  of  its  features,  and 
few  towns  in  the  United  States  ofifer  more  objects 
of  interest  to  the  traveller  than  are  to  be  seen 
here  in  the  way  of  schools,  old  buildings,  church, 
and  graveyard. 

The  Roman  Catholics  had  little  influence  in 
provincial  Pennsylvania.  Although  toward  the 
middle  of  last  century  their  numbers  were  greatly 
exaggerated,  yet  they  were  actually  very  small, 
in  1757  being  less  than  fourteen  hundred  in  all.  Of 

^6  Henry,  Sketches  of  Moravian  Life.  For  description  of 
Moravian  dress  (with  picture)  see  Ritter,  p.  145. 

*'  "No  ornaments  were  allowed  to  disturb  the  simple  uni- 
formity of  the  tokens  of  remembrance  ;  the  marble  slab  was 
even  limited  in  its  length  and  breadth  to  12  X  18  inches,  and 
these  all  flat  on  the  grave-mound."  (Ritter.)  As  late  as 
1820  an  offer  of  $7500  for  the  privilege  of  a  vault  was  refused. 


172  THE  RELIGIOUS  LIFE. 

llie  few  German  Catholics  most  afterwards  became 
Protestants,  and  to-day  it  is  rare  to  find  a  Catho- 
lic of  Pennsylvania-German  ancestry. 

There  is  no  more  interesting  or  picturesque 
sect  in  the  countr)',  or  indeed  in  the  world,  than 
the  Mennonites.  As  they  played  so  large  a  part 
in  the  first  settlements  of  Pennsylvania,  and  as 
so  many  thousands  of  Americans  are  descended 
from  them,  it  is  worth  while  to  devote  a  little 
space  to  their  history .^s  To  trace  them  to  their 
origin  we  shall  have  to  go  back  to  the  Waldenses 
of  the  twelfth  and  thirteenth  centuries,  and 
through  them  to  the  days  of  the  primitive 
church.  While  the  connection  between  the 
Mennonites  and  Waldenses  is  not  absolutely 
proved  historically,  yet  there  is  a  fair  argument 
made  out  by  the  supporters  cf  this  theory.20  It 
is  proved  that  in  those  places  where  the  Men- 
nonites, or  Anabaptists,  first  arose  there  had  been 
for  long  periods  of  time  communities  of  Wal- 
denses and  related  sects.    The  doctrines  were  the 

*8  It  is  singular   how  little   is  known   in  this  country  of  the 

Mennonites, — due  undoubtedly  to   the  desire    and   consistent 

effort  on  their  part  to  be 

"  little  and  iinkno\vn, 
Loved  and  prized  by  God  alone." 

*'  In  recent  years  the  arguments  have  been  strongly  summed 

up  by   Keller,  Die   Reformation  und  die  alteren  Reformpar- 

teien. 


THE  RELIGIOUS  LIFE.  173 

same:  refusal  to  take  oath,  non-resistance,  re- 
jection of  a  paid  ministry  and  infant  baptism, 
simplicity  of  dress  and  life  and  of  religious  wor- 
ship. In  all  these  things  the  Mennonites  are 
the  logical  if  not  the  actual  successors  of  the 
Waldenses. 

If  this  historical  connection  were  capable  of 
proof,  it  would  indeed  be  an  inspiring  thought, 
and  one  fraught  with  profound  belief  in  the  on- 
working  of  Providence,  that  through  the  Dark 
and  the  Middle  Ages,  in  the  days  of  ignorance, 
corruption,  sin,  tyranny,  and  persecution,  the  true 
Church  of  God,  composed  of  those  who  wor- 
shipped Him  in  spirit  and  in  truth,  should  be  car- 
ried along,  first  openly,  then  in  secret  for  long 
centuries,  then  finally,  at  the  outbreak  of  the  Re- 
formation, once  more  boldly  coming  forth  and 
proclaiming  that  true  religion  and  undefiled  con- 
sists not  in  form  or  ceremony,  not  in  magnificent 
cathedrals  built  by  man,  but  in  the  heart  and  in 
the  life  of  the  followers  of  the  meek  and  lowly 
Jesus.  The  Mennonites,  like  the  Waldenses,  had 
no  theology,  cared  not  for  intricate  discussions 
of  philosophy,  but  took  the  life  of  Christ  and 
His  teachings  as  their  only  rule  of  conduct. 
They  did  not  believe  in  the  union  of  Church  and 
State,  nor  in  putting  pressure  on  any  one  in  mat- 
ters of  religious  belief;  "  Believe  and  let  believe  " 


174  THE  RELIGIOUS  LIFE. 

was  their  motto.^°  If  any  one  could  persuade 
them  out  of  the  Bible,  they  were  willing 
to  hear  him;  but  neither  persecution,  fire, 
sword,  prison  nor  exile,  could  bend  their  wills, 
or  make  them  recant  what  they  believed  to  be 
the  truth  as  it  is  in  Christ  Jesus.  Not  only  were 
they  steadfast  in  the  faith,  but  they  rejoiced  in 
dying-  the  death  of  martyrs.^^ 

The  Mennonites  have  often  been  confused 
with  the  Anabaptists  of  the  Munster  rebellion, 

*<*  Their  attitude  in  this  respect  was  almost  identical  with 
that  of  J<jhn  Wesley,  who  once  made  the  remark,  "  As  to  all 
opinions  that  do  not  strike  at  the  root  of  Christ  we  think  and 
let  think." 

^1  Salat  in  his  "Chronika  "  says  of  the  Mennonites  :  "  Mit 
frohlicher,  liichelnder  Gebiirde  heischten.  wiinschten  und  be- 
gehrten  sie  den  Tod,  nahmen  ihn  ganz  begierig  an  und  gingen 
ihn  ein  mit  Absii>gung  deutscher  Psalmen  und  anderer  Ora- 
tionen."  (Quoted  by  Nitsche,  Gesch.  der  Wiedertaufer  in  der 
Schweiz,  p.  35.)  The  death  of  Felix  Manz,  January  5,  1527, 
is  so  inspiring  that  I  cannot  forbear  quoting  the  description  of 
it  given  in  Brons'  Ursprung,  etc.,  der  Taufgesinnten  oder  Men- 
noniten  (p.  40):  "  As  he  stood  there  [on  the  boat],  beneath  him 
the  waters  of  Lake  Ziirich,  above  him  the  blue  %ky,  and  round 
about  him  the  giant  mountains  with  their  snow-capped  sum- 
mits lighted  up  by  the  sun,  his  soul,  in  the  presence  of  death, 
rose  above  all  these  things.  And  as  on  one  side  a  minister 
urged  him  to  recant,  he  scarcely  heard  him  ;  but  when,  on  the 
other  side,  he  heard  the  voice  of  his  motlier,  and  when  his 
brothers  besought  him  to  remain  steadfast,  he  sang,  while  his 
hands  were  being  bound,  with  a  loud  voice,  '  In  manus  tuas 
Domine  commcndo  spiritum  meum,'  and  immediately  after- 
wards he  saixlc  beneath  the  waves." 


THE  RELIGIOUS  LIFE.  175 

yet  Menno  himself  wrote  a  book  against  these 
fanatics,  and  the  only  connection  between  the 
two  parties  was  that  both  were  called  Anabaptists, 
then  a  term  of  reproach.  The  vast  majority 
of  those  who  are  now  known  as  Mennonites  ^^ 
were  earnest,  sensible,  intelligent.  God-fearing,  in- 
dustrious, upright  men  and  women. ^^  Many  of 
their  doctrines  were  simply  two  or  three  hundred 
years  ahead  of  the  times,  and  the  last  decade  of 
the  nineteenth  century  has  seen  their  main  doc- 
trines universally  admitted.  They  believed  war 
to  be  unchristian:  the  Peace  Congress  at  the 
Hague  shows  at  least  how  widespread  is  the  de- 
sire to  abolish  armed  conflicts.  They  believed 
in  the  separation  of  Church  and  State:  the 
Constitution  of  our  own  country  is  based  on  that 
principle.  They  believed  in  freedom  of  con- 
science: to-day  this  is  practised  in  all  civilized 
countries.  Although  quaint  and  curious,  and  in 
some  respects  narrow  even  to-day,  yet  they  de- 
serve the  credit  of  being  the  torch-bearers  of  re- 
ligious liberty. 

The  first  colony  of  Mennonites  in  Pennsyl- 

^^  So  called  from  Menno,  Simon  born  in  Witmarsum,  Fries- 
land,  in  1492.  He  was  to  the  moderate  part  of  the  Ana- 
baptists what  Luther  and  Zwingli  were  to  the  churches  founded 
by  them. 

8'  See  the  testimonies  to  this  effect  collected  by  Arnold,  Kir- 
chen-  und  Ketzergeschichte. 


17^  THE  RELIGIOUS  LIFE. 

vania  was  that  at  Germantown;  the  great  re- 
semblance between  them  and  the  Quakers  made 
the  latter  welcome  them  and  they  often  wor- 
shipped together.  It  was  to  the  monthly  meet- 
ing at  Rigert  Worrell's  that  Pastorius,  Hend- 
ricks, and  the  Op  den  Graeff  brothers  presented 
the  famous  petition  against  slavery  in  1688,  the 
first  instance  of  the  kind  in  America.  It  is  an  in- 
teresting fact  that  the  Dutch  INIennonites  (like 
the  Huguenots)  were  in  the  main  artisans,  and 
especially  weavers;  and  no  sooner  had  German- 
town  been  settled  than  they  began  to  make 
cloth  and  linen,  which  almost  immediately  won 
for  itself  a  widespread  reputation. 

While  there  were  Mennonites  settled  in  other 
parts  of  Pennsylvania,  Lancaster  County  was 
and  is  still  their  chief  centre.  They  were  expert 
farmers  and  soon  prospered;  to-day  the  best 
farms,  the  stateliest  barns,  and  the  sleekest  cat- 
tle belong  to  them.  In  general  they  have  re- 
tained the  manners  and  customs  of  their  fathers; 
many  still  dress  in  quaint  garb,  the  women  wear- 
ing caps  even  in  their  housework.^-*    They  wor- 

'*  We  have  an  interesting  glimpse  of  the  appearance  of  the 
Swiss  Mennonites  shortly  before  coming  to  Pennsylvania  :  '•  Es 
war  ein  ganz  hartes  Volk  von  Natur,  das  Ungemach  crtragen 
konnte,  mit  langen,  imgeschorenen  Barten,  mit  unordentlicher 
Kleidung,  schweren  Schuhen,  die  mit  Hufeisen  und  grossen 


THE  RELIGIOUS  LIFE.  1 77 

ship  in  plain  meeting-houses,  choose  their  minis- 
ters by  lot,  will  not  take  oath,  nor  bear  arms.  In 
certain  localities,  such  as  Strasburg  and  Landis- 
ville,  they  outnumber  all  other  denominations. 

Yet  while  all  this  is  true,  those  families  which 
have  moved  to  the  city  or  gone  to  other  States 
have  gradually  left  the  old-fashioned  faith  of 
their  fathers  and  become  worldly.  Some  inter- 
esting facts  in  this  connection  could  be  given.^^ 
Yet  the  sect  is  still  large;  in  1883  they  had  in 
Lancaster  County  3500  members,  41  meeting- 
houses, and  47  ministers,  8  of  whom  were 
bishops.^*' 

Like   all   denominations,   large   or   small,   the 

Nagelii  sehr  schwer  beschlagen  waren.  Sie  waren  sehr  eifrig 
Gott  zu  dienen  mit  Gebet,  Lesen  und  Anderem,  waren  sehr 
einfach  in  all  ihrem  Thun  wie  Lammer  und  Tauben.  .  .  .  Denn 
davon,  dass  sie  in  der  Schweiz  auf  dem  Gebirge  gewohnt  hat- 
ten,  feme  von  Dtirfern  und  Stadten,  und  wenig  mit  andern 
Menschen  Umgang  gehabt  batten,  ist  ihre  Sprache  ganz  plump 
und  ungebildet."     (Miiller,  p.  271.) 

'^  Take  the  family  of  Heinrich  Pannebecker,  one  of  the  Men- 
nonite  settlers  of  Germantown.  In  spite  of  his  own  principles 
of  non-resistance,  125  of  his  descendants  took  part  in  the  Civil 
War.  When,  a  short  time  ago,  Judge  Brubaker  of  Lancaster 
died,  his  place  was  immediately  occupied  by  Judge  Landis;  both 
were  descendants  of  the  Swiss  Mennonites  of  Lancaster  County, 
one  of  whose  principles  was  not  to  take  oath.  It  may  be  of 
interest  to  add  that  H.  C.  Frick,  Mr.  Carnegie's  partner,  is 
also  a  descendant  of  the  Swiss  Mennonites. 

'^  The  latest  statistics  give  57,948  as  the  total  membership 
of  all  branches  of  the  Mennonites  in  the  country. 


178  THE  RELIGIOUS  LIFE. 

Mennonites  had  their  schisms;  even  in  the  Hfe- 
time  of  Alenno  Simon  a  council  was  held  at 
Dort  in  1632  to  settle  on  terms  of  agreement. 
One  of  the  most  important  divisions  occurred  in 
Switzerland,  and  resulted  in  the  formation  of  a 
sub-sect,  which  later  was  transferred  to  the  Palat- 
inate (where  it  still  exists),  and  thence  to  Penn- 
sylvania. This  was  the  branch  known  as  the 
Amish,  founded  by  Jacob  Ammen  of  Canton 
Berne,  his  purpose  being  to  preserve  more  se- 
verity and  simplicity  of  doctrine  and  dress.  The 
use  of  buttons  was  considered  worldly  vanity, 
and  only  hooks  and  eyes  were  allowed  on  the 
clothing."'  The  Amish  still  exist  in  Pennsyl- 
vania, where  they  worship  in  private  houses,  hav- 
ing no  regular  minister,  and  adhering  rigidly  to 
the  confession  adopted  by  the  Synod  of  Dort  in 
1632.38 

But  even  in  the  Xew  World  the  tendency  to 
schism  showed  itself.  The  Reformed  Mennonites 
were  founded  by  Francis  Herr  toward  the  end  of 
the  eighteenth  century.  Having  withdrawn  from 
the  regular  body,  he  held  meetings  in  his  own 
house,  and  drew  many  people  to  him.     His  son, 

"  Hence  called  "  Haftler  or  H(X)kers."  (See  Miiller,  Ber- 
nische  Tiiufer.  p.  314  ff. ) 

"  There  are  to-day  12,876  Amish  and  2,438  Old  Amish  in 
the  United  States,  making  a  total  of  15,314. 


THE  RELIGIOUS  LIFE.  179 

John  Herr,  carried  on  the  work  and  became 
bishop  of  the  little  sect,  together  with  Abraham 
Landis  and  Abraham  Groff.^^ 

The  River  Brethren  were  founded  by  Jacob 
Engel,  who  came  in  his  childhood  from  Switzer- 
land, and  lived  in  Conestoga  Township.  He  was 
a  Mennonite  and  became  convinced  that  this 
sect  as  it  then  was  lacked  religious  vitality;  and 
in  connection  with  his  brother  John  and  several 
others  he  established  a  system  of  stated  prayer- 
meetings.  The  little  flock  soon  increased,  min- 
isters were  appointed,  and  meetings  held  in 
Engel's  house.  They  had  no  design  at  first  to 
found  a  separate  sect^  but,  as  almost  always  hap- 
pens, the  logic  of  circumstances  forced  them  to 
this,  and  in  1776  a  religious  organization  was 
made.  They  are  commonly  supposed  to  be  a 
branch  of  the  Dunkards,  but  are  rather  an  ofif- 
shoot  of  the  Mennonites.  They  took  their  name 
from  the  fact  that  they  originated  near  the  Sus- 
quehanna. They  are  strictly  non-resistant  and 
elect  their  bishop  by  general  vote. 

The  Dunkards,  now  a  flourishing  denomina- 
tion, were  founded  by  Alexander  Mack  of 
Schwarzenau  in  Westphalia  in  1708,  though 
their  real  origin  dates  from   1719,  when  about 

**  See  Musser's  Reformed  Mennonite  Church. 


I  So  THE  RELIGIOUS  LIFE. 

twenty  families  came  to  Pennsylvania  and  settled 
in  Germantown,  Skippack  (Montgomery  Co.), 
Oley  (Berks),  and  on  the  Conestoga  Creek 
(Lancaster  Co.).  Their  leader  was  Peter  Baker, 
who  had  been  a  minister  under  Mack  in  Schwar- 
zenau.  In  1723  Baker  made  a  missionary  tour 
through  the  German  settlements  and  established 
a  church  at  Conestoga,^**  consisting  of  thirty-six 
members.  In  1724  Conrad  Beissel  was  chosen 
assistant  to  Baker,  "  but  Beissel,  being  wise  in 
his  own  conceit,  soon  caused  trouble  in  tjie 
church  in  regard  to  the  Sabbath,"  he  declaring 
that  this  should  be  celebrated  on  the  seventh  day. 
The  result  was  that  when  in  1729  Alexander 
Mack  himself  came  to  Pennsylvania,  the  ques- 
tion was  put  to  the  Conestoga  church,  and  being 
decided  against  Beissel  by  a  large  majority,  he 
with  a  few  others  withdrew  and  organized  at 
Ephrata  a  society  of  Seventh-Day  Baptists. 
The  Conestoga  church  at  its  organization  had 
settlements  in  the  present  counties  of  Lancaster, 
Berks,  Dauphin,  and  Lebanon,  over  which 
Baker  had  charge  till  the  arrival  of  Mack,  who 
then  assumed  the  ofifice  of  bishop,  with  Baker  as 
assistant.    The  latter  died  in  1734,  Mack  in  1735. 

**>  Lancaster  County  was  not  formed  till  1729  ;  till  that  year 
it  was  known  as  Conestoga. 


THE  RELIGIOUS  LIFE.  i8i 

Settlements  were  made  later  in  Virginia  and  es- 
pecially in  Ohio,  where  the  Dunkards  are  still 
numeroLis.^i  Their  doctrines  are  not  very  dif- 
ferent from  those  of  the  Mennonites;  like  them 
they  disbelieve  in  infant  baptism,  refuse  to  take 
oath  or  to  bear  arms.  They  differ  from  them 
in  the  mode  of  baptizing,  which  they  perform  by 
dipping  (tunkcn),  hence  the  name  of  Tunker  or 
Dunkard. 

Perhaps  the  most  interesting  phenomenon  of 
religious  life  in  early  Pennsylvania  was  the  rise 
and  progress  of  the  German  Seventh-Day  Bap- 
tists and  the  establishment  of  the  monastic  com- 
munity at  Ephrata,  in  Lancaster  County. 

We  have  seen  that  Beissel  with  a  few  others 
left  the  Conestoga  church  and  came  to  Cocalico 
Creek,  where  they  settled  down.  Beissel  was  a 
man  of  unusual  abilities,  though  of  only  limited 
education.  He  was  born  in  1690  at  Eberbach  in 
the  Palatinate,  where  his  father  was  a  baker,  a 
trade  which  he  followed  himself.  Being  con- 
verted to  pietism,  however,  he  came  to  Pennsyl- 
vania in  1720,  intending  to  spend  his  life  in  soli- 
tary communion  with  God.  After  leaving  the 
Conestoga  church  he  lived  for  a  time  the  life  of 

*^  There  are  in  all  108,694  Dunkards,  divided  into  Con- 
servatives, Old  Order,  Progressive,  and  German  Seventh-Day 
Baptists,  the  latter  of  whom  amount  to  only  194. 


1 82  THE  RELIGIOUS  LIFE. 

a  hermit  on  the  Cocalico,  surrounded  by  many 
who  built  themselves  cottages  and  imitated  his 
ascetic  life.  Among  those  whom  he  thus  at- 
tracted was  a  German  Reformed  minister  of  Tul- 
pehocken,  John  Peter  Miller,  and  Conrad  Wei- 
ser,  a  Lutheran  (who  afterwards  left),  and  later 
some  of  the  leaders  of  the  Dunkards,  Kalkloser, 
Valentine  Mack,  and  John  Hildebrand. 

As  the  numbers  increased  it  became  necessary 
to  provide  accommodations  for  them,  and  in 
1735  a  convent  for  sisters  was  erected  called  Kedar; 
in  1738  a  corresponding  monastery  for  the  breth- 
ren, and  later  many  other  buildings  were  built.  ^- 
In  1740  there  were  thirty-six  single  brethren  and 
thirty-five  sisters.  At  one  time  the  society,  in- 
cluding the  married  members,  amounted  to  nearly 
three  hundred.  The  ruler  or  prior  of  this  com- 
munity, Conrad  Beissel, — called  by  his  followers 
Gottrecht  Friedsam, — seems  to  have  been  a 
man  of  great  personal  magnetism  and  drew  the 
loyal  affection  of  all  who  met  him.  He  was 
looked  on  with  mystic  affection  and  even  wor- 

*^  A  number  of  these  old  buildings  are  still  standing,  and 
the  curious  visitor  can  see  the  rotjms  in  which  the  inmates 
lived,  the  chapel  in  which  they  worshipped,  and  even  the 
very  sacramental  utensils  which  they  used  one  hundred  and 
fifty  years  ago.  Interesting  descriptions  of  Eiihrata  have  been 
given  by  Seidensticker  and  Sachse. 


THE  RELIGIOUS  LIFE.  183 

ship,  some  going  so  far  as  to  regard  him  as  a 
second  Christ.-*-^ 

It  would  be  a  pleasant  task  to  give  a  detailed 
account  of  this  strange  community,  its  poetic 
customs,  its  midnight  religious  services,  often 
lasting  till  daybreak,  its  weird  music,  its  exag- 
gerated mystic  piety,  its  monastic  garb  and  clois- 
ter names;  ■*■*  but  all  this  would  lead  us  too  far. 
The  community  gradually  died  out,  until  at  pres- 
ent only  a  small  remnant  remains,  who  still  meet 
however,  from  time  to  time,  and  worship  in  the 
manner  of  their  ancestors. 

Still  another  interesting  sect  is  that  of  the 
Schwenckfelders,  so  named  after  Casper  von 
Schwenckfeld  of  Ossing  in  Silesia,  who  was  a 

*'  This  was  the  evident  meaning  of  a  verse  in  one  of  the 

hymns  v^^hich  Sauer  published  for  Beissel : 

"  Sehet,  seliet,  sehet  an, 
Sehet,  sehet  an  den  Mann  ! 
Der  von  Gott  erhiihet  ist, 
Der  ist  unser  Herr  und  Christ," 

and  which  was  the  cause  of  a  quarrel  between  the  two.  (See 
Penn.  Mag.,  vol.  XU.) 

**  Some  of  these  names  were  genuinely  poetical,  such  as 
Sisters  Genoveva,  Eusebia,  Petronella,  Blandina,  Euphrosina, 
Zenobia.  Whittier,  who  alone  of  American  poets  has  felt  the 
poetry  of  Pennsylvania-German  life,  has  a  Hymn  of  the  Dunk- 
ards,  beginning ; 

"  Wake,  sisters,  wake,  the  day-star  shines  ; 
Above  Ephrata's  eastern  pines 
The  day  is  breaking  cool  and  calm. 
Wake,  sisters,  wake  to  prayer  and  psalm." 


184  THE   RELIGIOUS   LIf-E. 

contemporary  of  Liilher,  and  who  incurred  the 
wrath  of  the  latter,  because  of  his  pecuHar  tenets, 
chiefly  concerning  the  Eucharist,  the  efficacy  of 
the  divine  Word,  the  human  nature  of  Christ, 
and  infant  ]:)aptism.  On  account  of  the  latter  his 
followers  were  frequently  confused  with  the 
Anabaptists.  Many  clergymen  and  nobles  in 
Silesia  and  elsewhere  espoused  his  doctrines,  es- 
pecially in  Licgnitz  and  Jauer,  where  almost  the 
whole  population  were  his  adherents.  Later 
they  were  persecuted  first  by  the  Lutherans,  then 
by  the  Jesuit  missionaries  sent  to  convert  them  in 
1 719.  In  these  troubles  only  one  thing  was  left 
them — flight.  In  1726  more  than  one  hundred 
and  seventy  families  escaped  from  Harpersdorf, 
Armenruh,  and  Hockenau,  and  making  their 
way  on  foot  to  L^pper  Lusatia,  then  a  part  of 
Saxony,  found  shelter  near  Greisenberg,  Gorlitz, 
Hennersdorf,  Berthelsdorf,  and  Hcrrnhut,  where 
they  were  hospitably  received  by  Zinzendorf 
and  the  Senate  of  Gorlitz.  They  lived  in  Saxony 
eight  years,  but  in  1734  were  forced  once  more 
to  take  up  the  life  of  exiles.  In  1732  two 
families  went  to  Pennsylvania,  and  their  report 
and  the  advice  of  certain  benefactors  in  Holland 
induced  forty  families  to  follow.  They  arrived  Sep- 
tember 24,  1734,  in  I'hiladclphia,  where  some 
settled,  while  others  went  to  Montgomery,  Berks, 


THE  RELIGIOUS  LIFE.  185 

and  Lehigh  counties.  They  now  form  two  con- 
gregations, with  three  hundred  famihes  and  five 
churches  or  schoolhouses.'*'^ 

We  have  already  discussed  the  strong  pietistic 
tendency  in  Pennsylvania,  and  how  it  manifested 
itself  not  only  in  the  sects,  but  among  the  regular 
confessions.  This  deep,  personal  religion  was 
especially  cultivated  by  the  Moravians.  It  is 
well  known  that  John  Wesley  was  first  brought 
to  a  sense  of  the  defects  of  a  mere  formal  or- 
thodoxy and  the  need  of  a  heart-religion  through 
the  Moravians.  On  his  journey  to  Georgia,  he 
came  into  close  contact  with  David  Nitschman, 
and,  after  landing,  with  Spangenberg,  and  learnt 
from  them  the  power  of  God  as  manifested  in  the 
heart.  It  was  through  Peter  Boehler  in  London 
that  he  finally  became  convinced  of  the  possi- 
bility of  a  saving  faith,  instant  conversion,  and  the 
joy  and  peace  of  believing.'*^  This  early  connec- 
tion with  German  emotional  religion  had  far- 
reaching  consequences.  It  is  a  singular  fact 
that  Methodism  in  America  was  founded  by  Ger- 

*5  Among  the  well-known  Scliwenckfelder  names  are  Wieg- 
ner,  Kriebel,  Jiickel  (Yeakel),  Hiibner,  Heydrich,  Anders. 
Hartranft,  Schultze,  Weiss,  Meschter. 

*6  See  Tyerman's  Life  of  Wesley;  also  Wesley's  Journal.  In 
1738  he  spent  nearly  two  weeks  in  Herrnhut.  He  writes:  ''I 
would  gladly  spend  my  life  here.  Oh,  when  shall  this  Chris- 
tianity cover  the  earth,  as  the  waters  cover  the  sea  ?  " 


1 86  THE  RELIGIOUS   LIFE. 

mans  who  had  been  converted  by  Wesley,  who 
himself  had  received  from  the  Moravians  some  of 
his  peculiar  doctrines — doctrines  which  he  in 
turn  passed  on  to  his  fellow  countrymen  and 
which  were  destined  to  exert  so  extraordinary  an 
influence  on  the  religious  life  of  the  New  World. 

W'e  have  seen  that  of  the  Palatines  who  over- 
ran London  in  1709,  some  three  thousand  were 
sent  to  Ireland.  In  1756  Wesley  visited  the  town 
of  Ballygarrane  and  preached  to  the  Germans, 
of  whom  lie  says  in  his  Journal:'*"  "They  re- 
tain much  of  the  temper  and  manners  of  their 
own  country,  having  no  resemblance  to  those 
among  whom  they  live.  I  found  much  life 
among  this  plain,  artless,  serious  people.  The 
whole  town  came  together  in  the  evening,  and 
praised  God  for  the  consolation."  Of  this  num- 
ber were  Barbara  Heck  and  Philip  Embury,  who, 
on  account  of  difficulties  in  the  way  of  getting 
a  living  in  Ireland,  with  many  others  came  to 
New  York.  This  was  in  1760,  and  six  years  later 
Philip  Embury  held  the  first  Methodist  meeting 
in  this  country,  in  the  historic  sail-loft  in  John 
Street.48 

Methodism  was  introduced  into  Pennsylvania 
a  little  later  by  Captain  Webb,  one  of  Embury's 

*'  June  16,  1756. 

*8  Buckley,  Mist,  of  Methodists  in  the  United  States,  p.  loi. 


THE  RELIGIOUS   LIEE.  187 

assistants.'*^  Among  those  who  welcomed  it  was 
Martin  Boehm  of  Lancaster  County,  who  had 
been  a  Mennonite  and  later  was  one  of  the 
founders  of  the  United  Brethren.  The  Boehm 
homestead  became  a  centre  of  Methodist  in- 
fluence in  Pennsylvania.  Asbury  frequently 
stopped  here,  many  powerful  revivals  were  held, 
numbers  of  the  German  and  Swiss  farmers  in  the 
neighborhood  were  converted,  most  famous  of 
all  being  Father  Henry  Boehm, — son  of  Mar- 
tin,— who  was  Asbury's  travelling-companion 
for  many  years.  Methodism  spread  more  slowly 
through  the  cities,  and  it  was  only  after  the  be- 
ginning of  the  present  century  that  churches 
were  founded  in  Lancaster,  Reading,  and  other 
cities.  To-day  a  large  proportion  of  the  members 
and  ministers  in  the  State  are  of  Pennsylvania- 
German  descent. ^° 

This,  however,  is  not  the  only  way  in  which 
Methodism  has  influenced  the  German  inhabi- 
tants of  the  commonwealth.  Although  it  is  de- 
nied   that    the    United    Brethren    Church    was 

*'•'  See  Penn.  Mag.,  vol.  xii.  It  is  a  little  curious  that  in 
Philadelphia  as  well  as  in  New  York  the  first  Methodist  meet- 
ing was  held  in  a  sail-loft. 

'•'^  Among  the  bishops  are  Bowman,  Hartzell.  and  Keener 
(Church  South).  A  glance  at  tlie  minutes  of  tlie  Pennsylvania 
conferences  will  show  how  large  a  percentage  of  the  ministers 
ai-e  of  Pennsylvania-German  descent. 


1 88  THE  RHUGIOUS  LIFE. 

founded  in  imitation  of  Methodism,  yet  the  latter 
certainly  exerted  a  vast  deal  of  influence  on  the 
former.  The  two  founders  of  this  denomination 
were  Martin  Boehm  and  Philip  William  Otter- 
bein,  the  former  a  Alennonite,  the  latter  a  pecu- 
liarly spiritually-minded  Reformed  minister. 
Both  Boehm  and  Otterbein  experienced  conver- 
sion, in  the  genuine  Methodistic  sense  of  that 
word,  and  both,  moved  by  the  Spirit,  began  to 
preach  a  heart-religion.  Great  success  attended 
their  efiforts,  and  thousands  crowded  their  re- 
vival services.  In  1768,^^  at  one  of  these  meet- 
ings, they  met  for  the  first  time,  and  falling  on 
each  other's  neck  cried  out,  '"  Wir  sind  Briider." 
Some  years  after  a  regular  church  organization 
was  formed,  and  received  from  the  above  inci- 
dent the  name  of  United  Brethren.  For  many 
years  there  was  a  close  fraternal  relation  between 
the  newly  founded  church  and  the  ]\Icthodists; 
they  adopted  many  features  of  the  Discipline, 
had  class-  and  prayer-meetings,  the  itinerant 
system,  annual  and  general  conferences,  and 
other  details.  For  many  years  fraternal  delegates 
were  sent  to  the  respective  conferences,  and  letters 
were  written  bearing  friendly  greetings.  Otter- 
bein was  the  intimate  friend  of  Asbury,  and  it 

*'  The  date  is  not  sure.     See  Berger,  Hist,  of  the  United 
Brethren,  p.  78. 


THE  RELIGIOUS   LIFE.  1S9 

was  on  the  advice  of  the  latter  that  he  went  to 
Bahimore,  to  the  German  Reformed  Church, 
which  later  became  the  first  church  of  the  United 
Brethren. 

It  seemed  to  be  the  policy  of  Methodism  in  its 
early  years  in  America  to  discourage  all  evan- 
gelical work  carried  on  in  other  languages  than 
English, — apparently  because  the  authorities 
were  convinced  that  all  others  would  soon  die 
out.  Hence  they  welcomed  the  efforts  made  by 
the  United  Brethren  in  evangelistic  work  among 
the  Germans,  and  consequently  both  were  on 
friendly  terms  and  without  denominational 
jealousy.  Some  indeed  did  desire  a  union  and 
propositions  were  made  looking  toward  this  end. 
Nothing  came  of  them,  however,  and  after  some 
years  both  denominations  ceased  sending  dele- 
gates and  friendly  messages  to  the  respective 
conferences. 

The  United  Brethren  Church  was  originally 
almost  exclusively  composed  of  Pennsylvania 
Germans  and  is  now  largely  made  up  of  their 
descendants.^^ 

Still  more  closely  connected  with  Methodism 
is  the  Evangelical  Association,  founded  by  Jacob 
Albright,  who  had  been  brought  up  a  Lutheran, 

"  264,980  members  in  all. 


I90  THE  RELIGIOUS  LIFE. 

and  who  in  1796,  "yearning  for  the  salvation 
of  his  spiritually  neglected  Gemian-speaking 
brethren,  started  out  as  a  humble  layman  to 
preach  to  them  the  Gospel  of  Christ.  His  labors 
extended  over  large  portions  of  Pennsylvania 
and  into  parts  of  Maryland  and  Virginia  and  re- 
sulted in  the  saving  of  many  souls."  ^^  Albright 
had  originally  no  thought  of  founding  a  new  re- 
ligious organization,  but  finally,  in  1800,  he 
yielded  to  the  oft-repeated  and  urgent  requests  of 
those  whom  he  had  led  to  the  Lord  and  began 
the  work  of  organization.  Their  Discipline, 
largely  taken  from  that  of  the  Methodists,  was 
published  in  1809.  A  glance  therein  will  show 
how  thorough  the  influence  of  the  latter  Church 
was: — they  have  quarterly,  annual,  and  general 
conferences;  bishops,  presiding  elders,  the  itine- 
rancy, class-meetings,  and  other  Methodist  char- 
acteristics.^^ 

*^  See  Discipline  of  the  United  Evangelical  Church. 

**  Albright  had  little  knowledge  of  English  and  preached  in 
German  to  the  people  of  Eastern  Pennsylvania.  If  Asbury 
had  cared  to  form  a  German  ministry  within  Methodism,  this 
separate  body  of  German  Methodists  probably  would  not  have 
been  formed.  The  original  conference  in  1807  called  itself 
the  'Newly  formed  Methodist  Conference.'  Albright  had 
l)een  a  Methodist,  and  was  such  still  in  his  heart,  faitli,  and 
practice.  (See  Berger,  Hist,  of  the  United  Brethren  in  Christ, 
p.  193.)  In  1899  there  were  117,613  members  in  the  Evan- 
gelical Association. 


THE  RELIGIOUS  LIFE.  191 

The  spirit  of  schism  which  seems  ever  present 
in  reHgious  bodies,  manifested  itself  in  the  Evan- 
geHcal  Association.  Some  dozen  or  fifteen  years 
ago,  certain  questions  arose  concerning  the 
General  Conference  and  especially  the  episco- 
pacy, and  gradually  the  differences  of  opinion 
grew  so  widespread,  that  in  1891  two  General 
Conferences  were  held  each  claiming  to  be  the 
legal  representative  of  the  Church.  Hence  arose 
the  body  known  as  the  United  Evangelical 
Church,  the  first  General  Conference  of  which 
was  held  in  1894.  In  their  Discipline  no  changes 
were  made  in  the  accepted  doctrines  of  the 
Church,  but  several  new  articles  were  added  and 
the  language  of  all  was  changed.^^ 

Another  body  of  Christians  widely  spread  in 
Pennsylvania  is  the  Church  of  God,  sometimes 
called  Winebrennerians  from  the  founder,  John 
Winebrenner.  He  was  a  minister  of  the  Re- 
formed Church,  and  settled  in  Harrisburg  in 
1820,  where  a  revival  soon  broke  out  under  his 
preaching.  This  being  regarded  as  an  innova- 
tion in  the  customs  of  the  Reformed  Church, 
Winebrenner  met  so  strong  an  opposition  that 
the  doors  of  his  church  were  closed  against  him, 
and  about  the  year  1825  he  was  forced  to  sepa- 

'*  The  United  Evangelical  Church  now  has  59,830  members. 


192  THE  RELIGIOUS  LIFE. 

rate  from  his  denomination.  His  preaching  was 
heard  by  great  numbers  of  Germans,  and  in  1829 
a  regular  organization  was  established.  Owing 
to  their  doctrine  of  immersion  they  are  classed 
with  the  Baptists.  The  polity  of  the  Church  of 
God,  however,  is  Methodistic  in  some  respects; 
the  Annual  Eldership  corresponds  to  the  Annual 
Conference,  and  the  General  Eldership  to  the 
General  Conference.^^ 

We  have  only  space  here  for  a  word  or  two  on 
the  influence  of  other  English  denominations  on 
the  Pennsylvania  Germans.  In  many  cases  the 
Presbyterian,  Episcopalian,  Baptist,  and  Sweden- 
borgian  churches,  especially  in  large  cities,  are 
swelled  in  numbers  by  the  descendants  of  these 
people. 

^^  The  membership  amounts  at  present  to  38,000. 


CHAPTER   VII. 


IN  PEACE  AND  IN  WAR. 


Mr.  Fiske  has  estimated  that  the  20,000  Eng-- 
lish  who  settled  in  New  England  before  1640 
have  increased  to  fifteen  millions.  Considering 
the  large  families  of  the  old-fashioned  Pennsyl- 
vania Germans  it  would  seem  probable  that  the 
100,000  or  more  who  came  over  before  1775  have 
multiplied  at  least  as  rapidly  as  their  Puritan 
neighbors.  It  would  be  a  moderate  statement, 
then,  to  say  that  to-day  there  are  between  four 
and  five  million  people  in  the  United  States  who 
in  some  line  or  other  can  trace  their  ancestry  to 
the  early  German  and  Swiss  settlers  of  Pennsyl- 
vania. Of  these  not  far  from  two  million  still 
inhabit  the  State  founded  by  their  ancestors.  This 
mass  of  people  must  have  had  more  or  less  in- 
fluence on  the  development  of  the  United  States, 
and  they  themselves  must  have  been  largely 
moulded  by  their  new  surroundings.  As  Frey- 
tag  says,  "  In  dem  unaufhorlichen  Einwirken 
des  Einzelnen  auf  das  Volk  und  des  Volkes  auf 

193 


194  IN  PEACE  AND  IN    IV A R. 

den  Einzelnen  liiuft  das  Leben  ciner  Nation."  * 
In  the  present  chapter  we  shall  endeavor  to 
show  some  of  the  ways  in  which  this  mutual  in- 
fluence manifests  itself;  how  the  people  have  met 
the  new  conditions  in  which  they  were  placed; 
what  has  been  their  attitude  to  the  State  in  poli- 
tics and  in  the  various  wars  through  which  the 
country  has  passed  since  they  came;  in  short,  to 
tell,  in  brief  outline,  the  share  that  the  Germans 
have  had  in  the  development  of  Pennsylvania  in 
particular  and  the  United  States  in  general. 

In  regard  to  politics  we  are  struck  by  the  fact 
that  the  Pennsylvania  Germans  have  not  stamped 
themselves  so  strongly  on  the  country  as  their 
numbers  would  warrant.  Great  statesmen  and 
men  of  national  reputation  are  not  numerous — 
not  so  much  so  proportionately,  for  instance, 
as  in  the  case  of  Huguenots  and  Scotch-Irish. 
In  Pennsylvania  down  to  the  middle  of  the 
eighteenth  century  the  public  offices  were  almost 
entirely  in  the  hands  of  English-speaking  people, 
In'the  city  of  Lancaster  the  office  of  burgess  had 
always  been  held  by  an  Englishman  till   1750, 

^  Freytag,  vol.  iv.  p.  i.  Cf.  also,  "von  solchem  Stand- 
punkte  verlauft  das  Lebcn  cincr  Nation  in  einer  unauflx'ir- 
lichen  Wechselwirkung  des  Ganzen  auf  den  Einzelnen  und  des 
Manues  auf  das  Ganze.  Jedcs  Menschenleben,  auch  das 
Kleine,  giebt  einen  Thcil  seines  Inhalts  ab  an  die  Nation." 
{^lOiJ.,  vol  1,  p.  24.) 


IN  PEACE  AND  IN   IV AR.  ipS 

when  Dr.  Adam  S.  Kuhn  was  elected.^  From 
that  time,  however,  the  German  element  is  more 
and  more  represented,  and  since  the  Revolution 
their  proportion  of  local  officers  in  the  towns  and 
cities  of  Berks,  Lancaster,  and  the  other  counties 
has  been  very  large.^  Up  to  the  Revolution, 
however,  the  political  activity  of  the  Germans 
was  largely  confined  to  local  affairs.  Nor  is  this 
to  be  wondered  at.  Hitherto  they  had  formed  a 
compact  body  of  their  own,  pre-eminently  a  rural 
population,  whose  chief  occupation  was  to  found 
homes  for  themselves  and  children  in  the  New 
World.  Then,  too,  they  had  come  from  a  land 
where  there  was  little  chance  for  political  ac- 
tivity, where  the  government  was  despotic,  and 
where  the  country-folk  had  little  or  no  voice  in 
the  affairs  of  state.     This  is  true  not  only  of  the 

^  The  Lutheran  pastor  in  Lancaster,  Rev.  Joh.  Fr.  Hand- 
schuh,  gives  expression  to  his  joy  over  this  event  in  his  diary  ; 
"Den  20.  Sept.  kamen  einige  Kirchenrathe  und  erzalilten  mir 
mit  Bewegung  und  Freude  ihres  Herzens,  wie  .  .  .  unsern 
Kirchenrath  Dr.  Adam  Kuhn  hiitte  man  zum  Oberbiirger- 
meister  .  .  .  erv/ahlet."  (Hall.  Nach.,  I.  p.  542.)  At  the 
same  time  Jacob  Schlauch,  also  a  Lutheran,  was  elected 
Unterbiirgermeister,  while  of  four  other  Lutherans  elected  one 
was  High  Constable,  and  three  others  were  assessors. 

'  For  instance,  in  Reading  all  the  chief  burgesses  (ten  in 
number)  and  twelve  of  the  seventeen  mayors  have  been  Ger- 
man (1883);  a  similar  proportion  prevails  for  justices  of  peace, 
aldermen,  etc.  \i\  the  borough  of  Kutztown  all  the  burgesses 
except  one  have  been  German. 


1 9^  IN  PE/ICB  ^ND  IN    H^AR. 

Palatinate  and  W'iirtemberg-,  but  also  of  Switzer- 
land, for  even  in  that  land  of  freedom,  the  proto- 
type of  our  own  land,  the  peasantry  had  no 
political  rights  whatever  until  nearly  one  hundred 
years  after  the  emigration  to  Pennsylvania  be- 
gan.^ It  must  also  be  remembered  that  a  con- 
siderable number  of  the  people,  Dunkards,  Men- 
nonites,  and  Moravians,  refused  on  religious 
grounds  to  hold  political  ofifice.^ 

Can  we  wonder  then  that  the  Germans  of 
Pennsylvania  were  a  long  time  in  coming  to  an 
active  and  enthusiastic  exercise  of  their  privileges 
in  the  matter  of  political  intrigues  and  ofifice- 
hokling?  We  do  not  mean  to  say  that  they  were 
all  indifferent  to  the  political  questions  of  the 
day,  or  that  they  had  no  interest  in  public  afifairs, 
but  only  that  in  the  eighteenth  century,  at  least, 

*  "Die  Bewohner  der  Landschaften  waren  bis  Ende  des 
achtzehnten  Jahrhunderts  thatsachlich  von  der  Staatsleitung 
ausgeschlossen."  (Dandliker,  n.  p.  632.)  Freytag,  speaking 
of  the  Thirty  Years' Wan  says:  "Noch  hundert  Jahre  Sf)llten 
die  Nachkommen  der  Uberlebenden  die  mannlichste  Empfin- 
dung  entbehren,  politische  Begeisterung."     (Vol.  lu.  p.  13.) 

*  Germantown  was  incorporated  as  a  borough  town  in  1689, 
but  about  1704  lost  its  charter  because  no  one  was  willincj  to 
accept  the  various  offices.  The  records  of  this  short-lived 
municipality  read  like  an  extract  from  "Diedrich  Knicker- 
bocker." In  1795  the  Moravian  Bishop  Ettwein  deplored  the 
dereliction  of  "some  of  the  bretliren  in  Lancaster  who  had 
joined  a  political  body  called  the  Democrats  and  even  accepted 
office  therein."     (Ritter,  p.  98.) 


IN  PEACE  AND  IN   IVAR.  197 

eagerness  for  office  was  not  a  marked  trait  of 
their  character. 

Since  the  Revolution,  however,  they  have  been 
more  and  more  prominent  in  State  and  county 
poHtics.  Dr.  Egle  says  that  in  tlie  Constitu- 
tional Convention  of  1789-90  it  was  their  votes 
that  insured  the  passage  of  the  new  Constitution. 
Not  only  was  the  local  magistracy  largely  drav/n 
from  their  ranks/'  but  in  the  larger  field  of  State 
politics  they  have  furnished  a  number  of  distin- 
guished men.  The  names  of  Kuhl,  Antes,  Muh- 
lenberg, Hiester,  Graff,  etc.,  are  familiar  to  the 
student  of  early  Pennsylvania  history,  while  no 
fewer  than  nme  of  the  governors  of  the  common- 
wealth were  of  German  descent."  It  was  Gov- 
ernor George  Wolf  who  finally  introduced  the 
public-school  system,  and  Joseph  Ritner's  manly 
protest  against  the  usurpations  of  the  slave 
States  called  forth  from  Whittier  a  tribute  to  the 
sturdiness  of  Pennsylvania-German  character.^ 

^  In  1777  all  but  one  of  the  officers  of  Lancaster  were  Ger- 
mans. 

■^  Snyder,  Hiester,  Schulze,  Wolf,  Ritner,  Shunk,  Hartranft, 
Bigler,  Beaver.  In  this  connection  may  be  mentioned  Gov- 
ernors Bouck  of  New  York,  Ramsey  of  Minnesota, — Lebanon 
County  German  on  the  maternal  side, — Schley  of  Georgia, 
John  Bigler  of  California,  and  Geo.  L.  Shoup  of  Idaho. 

"  Thank  God  for  the  token  I  one  lip  is  still  free, 
One  spirit  untrammelled,  unbending  one  knee,"  etc. 

(Works,  vol.  III.  p.  47.) 


10^  IN  PEACE  AND  IN   IVAR. 

In  national  politics  their  prominence  is  not  so 
apparent,  since  here  they  come  in  competition 
with  all  the  rest  of  the  country.  Yet  we  must 
record  the  names  of  Frederick  A.  Muhlenberg, 
president  of  the  convention  which  ratified  the 
Constitution  of  the  United  States,^  i\Iichael 
Hillegass,  Treasurer  of  the  Continental  Con- 
gress, and  such  men  as  Simon  Cameron,  Colonel 
John  W.  Forney,  John  Wanamaker,  and  others. 
Of  course  it  would  be  inappropriate  here  to  give 
a  catalogue  of  men  in  public  life,  or  even  a  statis- 
tical view  of  the  same.  Yet  I  have  carefully  gone 
over  the  files  of  the  Congressional  Record  from  its 
first  issue  down  to  the  present,  and  find  in  every 
Congress  from  five  to  ten  typical  Pennsylvania- 
German  names,  representing  the  Keystone  State 
at  Washington;  ^^  other  States,  especially  in  th.c 
West,  have  often  been  represented  by  men  who 
trace  their  origin  to  the  early  German  settlements 
of  Pennsylvania. 

Mie  was  also  first  Speaker  of  the  House  of  Representatives 
under  Washington's  administration. 

1"  Among  these  names  arc  Hiester,  Muhlenberg,  Krebs,  Wolf, 
Bucher,  Wagener,  Fry,  Uublcy,  Sheffer.  Kcim,  Yost,  Ritter, 
Frick,  Erdman,  Leib,  Strohm,  Everhart,  Kuhns,  Trout.  Kurtz, 
Kunkel,  Leidy,  Longnecker,  Lehman,  Coftroth,  Glassbrenner, 
Koontz,  Hakleman,  Albright,  Neglej-,  Shoemaker.  Shellen- 
berger,  Yocum,  Klutz.  Beltzhoover,  Ermentrout.  In  Berks 
County  out  of  twenty  United  States  congressmen  from  1789- 
1885,  fifteen  were  of  German  descent. 


!N  PEACE  AND  IN   IVAR.  i99 

Such  is  a  brief  glance  at  the  pubHc  Hfe  of  Penn- 
sylvania Germans  in  politics  and  in  times  of 
peace.  It  remains  to  give  a  similar  brief  view  of 
their  services  in  the  various  wars  through  which 
the  country  has  passed  during  the  last  two  cen- 
turies. Here  it  may  be  stated  without  fear  of 
contradiction  that  they  have  shown  themselves  as 
ready  as  any  of  their  fellow  countrymen  to  sac- 
rifice life  and  fortune  for  their  country's  good. 

When  the  Germans  began  to  come  to  Pennsyl- 
vania the  troubles  with  the  Indians  in  New  Eng- 
land and  New  York  were  over.  In  the  former 
colony  the  terrible  prowess  of  the  Puritan  war- 
riors had  crushed  the  Pequots  and  Narragansetts ; 
in  New  York  the  wise  conduct  of  the  Dutch  and 
English  had  permanently  attached  the  Five  Na- 
tions to  the  interests  of  England,  in  spite  of  all 
the  intrigues  of  the  French  to  win  them  over. 

The  attitude  of  Pennsylvania  toward  the  In- 
dians from  the  first  had  been  one  of  conciliation 
and  kindness;  the  example  set  by  Penn,  of  deal- 
ing with  them  with  strict  honesty,  had  been  in 
general  followed  by  his  successors.  The  rela- 
tions between  the  Germans  and  the  Indians  had 
always  been  friendly,  and  the  former  had  shown 
a  deep  Interest  in  the  spiritual  welfare  of  the  lat- 
ter. As  early  as  1694  Kelpius  declared  his  de- 
sire to  preach  the  Gospel  to  them,  while  the 


200  IN  PBACF.    /IND   IN   IV A R. 

Indian  missions  of  the  Moravians  form  one  of 
the  noblest  chapters  of  State  history. 

For  man}'  years  Pennsylvania  was  entirely 
free  from  the  dread  and  terror  that  had  been  the 
inseparable  companion  of  the  early  settlers  of 
New  England.  The  Delawares,  who  occupied 
that  part  of  the  country  before  the  coming  of 
Penn,  gradually  and  peaceably  receded  before 
the  onward  march  of  white  settlers,  till  about 
the  middle  of  the  century  they  had  retired  be- 
yond the  Blue  Mountains  and  left  practically  all 
the  territory  to  the  east  and  south  to  the  whites. 

Soon  after,  however,  this  state  of  affairs  came 
to  an  end.  Dissatisfaction  and  discontent, — 
largely  on  account  of  the  famous  "  Walking 
Purchase," — the  intrigues  of  the  French,  and  es- 
pecially the  disastrous  defeat  of  Braddock  in 
I755>  let  loose  upon  the  frontier  settlements  of 
Pennsylvania  all  the  horrors  of  Indian  warfare. 
Among  the  greatest  sufferers  were  the  German 
settlers,  especially  in  Berks  and  Northampton 
counties.  Hundreds  were  slain  and  scalped, 
houses,  barns,  and  crops  went  up  in  flames,  chil- 
dren and  women  were  carried  into  captivity.  The 
letters  of  Conrad  ^^'"eiser,  Muhlenberg,  and 
others  give  many  harrowing  details  of  scenes 
which  were  then  of  almost  daily  occurrence.^  ^ 

^*  Some  of  these  descriptions  are  very  dramatic, — sucli  as 


IN  PEACE  AND  IN    IV A R.  201 

The  attitude  of  the  Germans  was  at  first  some- 
what indifferent,  owing  chiefly  to  the  non-com- 
batant doctrines  of  Mennonites  and  Moravians, 
and  to  the  fact  that  in  poHtics  they  in  general  fol- 
lowed the  lead  of  the  Quakers.  Yet  when  the  dan- 
ger became  more  acute  many  ofrered  their  lives 
in  the  service  of  the  commonwealth.  Franklin 
says:  "Much  unanimity  prevailed  in  all  ranks; 
eight  hundred  persons  signed  at  the  outset.  The 
Dutch  were  as  hearty  m  this  measure  as  the  Eng- 
lish, and  one  entire  company  was  formed  of 
Dutch."  12 

that  of  the  man  with  his  two  daughters,  who  had  loaded  their 
wagon  and  were  prepared  to  escape  the  next  day,  and  the  pre- 
ceding night  the  girls,  being  '-angst  und  bange  urns  Herz, 
sie  sagten  zum  Vater  es  ware  ihnen  so  traurig  zu  Muthe,  als 
ob  sie  bald  sterben  sollten,  und  verlangten  das  Lied  zu  singen: 
'  Wer  weiss,  wie  nahe  mir  mein  Ende,'  etc.,  sungen  es  audi 
mit  einandor  vom  Anfange  bis  ans  Ende,  thaten  ihr  Abend- 
gebet,  und  legten  sich  zur  Ruhe."  The  next  day  the  Indians 
came  and  both  the  girls  were  killed.  (See  Muhlenberg,  in 
Hall.  Nach.,  vol.  n.  p.  465.) 

12  Watson,  p.  273.  Cf.  also  letter  of  Daniel  Dulaney 
(Penn.  Mag.,  vol.  in.  p.  11  ff.)  :  '-The  Germans  complained 
that  no  measures  had  been  taken  to  avert  the  calamity,  .  .  . 
demanded  arms,  .  .  .  and  signed  an  application  for  a  militia 
law."  It  was  not  strange  that  they  should  be  willing  thus  to 
fight  to  save  their  homes.  Many  had  been  soldiers  in  Ger- 
many and  Switzerland.  In  the  forces  mustered  in  Albany  in 
17H  to  be  sent  to  Canada,  one  thousand  were  Palatines.  (Gor- 
don, p.  163.)  Out  of  a  whole  population  of  356  Palatines  in 
Queensbury,    N.   Y.,  40  men   joined   the  expedition   against 


202  Ihl  PEACE  AND   IN   IV A R. 

As  to  actual  numbers  engaged  in  hostilities  it 
is  hard  to  give  complete  figures.  In  the  Penn- 
sylvania Archives  we  find  a  list  of  provincial  offi- 
cers in  1754;  out  of  33,  8  are  German.  In  1756, 
in  Conrad  Weiser's  battalion,  22  out  of  38  are 
German.  The  rolls  of  privates  are  not  given,  but 
we  have  other  reasons  for  believing  that  they 
were  practically  all  of  the  same  nationality.  Thus 
a  German  chaplain  was  appointed;  Gordon  says 
(p.  342)  that  Weiser's  battalion  consisted  of  Ger- 
mans, and  in  the  list  of  Captain  Nicholas  Wetter- 
holt's  regiment  every  name  is  German.  Even  in 
the  other  two  battalions  many  Germans  were 
enlisted. 

So  much  for  actual  warfare.  The  services  of 
the  Germans  in  other  respects  are  just  as  im- 
portant. Most  distinguished  of  all  was  Conrad 
Weiser,  who  for  many  years  was  the  official  In- 
dian interpreter  and  agent  of  Pennsylvania.  Be- 
fore the  war  he  did  all  he  could  to  pacify  the  In- 
dians; he  was  frequently  sent  by  the  govern- 
ment to  them,  and  successfully  carried  out  many 
dangerous  missions.  When  war  broke  t)ut  he 
raised  a  battalion  and  was  everywhere  active. 
His  name  occurs  in  these  events  more  frequently 

Canada;  ami  in  Amesliury  52  volunteered  out  of  a  total  popu- 
lation of  250.     (See  O'Callaghan,  Doc.  Ilist.  ofN.  V.,  vol.  ni. 

pp.  571,  2.) 


IN  PEACE  AND  IN   JVAR..  203 

than  that  of  ahiiost  any  other  at  this  time, — he  was 
constantly  making  reports,  indorsing  petitions,  ex- 
plaining  the  condition  of  the  inhabitants,  giving 
orders  and  suggestions.  It  was  he  more  than 
any  other  man  who  kept  the  Five  Nations  faith- 
ful to  the  English  at  that  time.  The  value  of  that 
service  can  hardly  be  overestimated.^^  The  spirit 
of  this  heroic  man  may  be  seen  in  the  following 
words  written  by  him  to  Richard  Peters,  October 
4,  1757:  "  I  think  meselfe  unhappy;  to  fly  with 
my  family  I  can't  do.     I  must  stay  if  they  all 

In  the  very  forefront  of  the  French  and  Indian 
War  were  the  Moravians.  No  group  of  people 
suffered  more,  did  more  service,  or  showed  more 
heroism  than  these  messengers  of  the  gospel  of 
peace.  At  the  first  mutterings  of  war  they  be- 
came objects  of  suspicion  to  their  fellow  country- 
men. Their  intimate  relations  with  the  Indians, 
their  settlements  at  Gnadenhiitten  and  elsewhere, 
their  frequent  journeys  through  the  wilderness, 
often  extending  as  far  as  New  York, — all  this 
tended  to  raise  suspicions.  Then,  too,  their 
peculiar  customs,  their  early  communistic  life, 

1^  Weiser  says  liimself  that  the  council  of  the  Six  Nations 
always  looked  on  him  as  a  friend  and  as  one  of  their  own  na- 
tion,    (See  Penn.  Arch.,  ist  Series,  vol.  I.  p.  672.) 

1*  Penn.  Arch.,  ist  Sen,  vol.  in.  p.  283. 


2  04  IN  PEACE  AND  IN   IV A R. 

elaborate  ritual,  and  peculiar  dress  seemed  es- 
pecially to  the  Scotch-Irish  Presbyterians  to 
smack  of  Romanism.  \\q  have  already  seen 
how  the  fear  of  the  Catholics,  together  with  poli- 
tics, had  led  to  the  establishment  of  English 
schools  for  the  Germans.  The  suspicion  of  the 
Moravians  is  only  another  symptom  of  the  same 
fear.  Even  the  French  themselves  seemed  to  be- 
lieve that  the  Moravians  would  go  over  to  their 
side  whenever  they  should  approach.  This  sus- 
picion was  unfounded,  and  the  whole  country' 
awoke  from  their  error  when,  on  November  24, 
1756,  the  massacre  of  Gnadenhiitten  occurred,  in 
which  not  only  the  Indian  converts,  but  Martin 
Nitschman,  his  wife,  and  several  other  Moravians 
perished. 

Although  non-combatants,  the  Moravians 
were  reasonable;  they  fortified  Bethlehem, 
brought  together  a  large  quantity  of  provisions, 
and  even  armed  themselves  in  case  of  last  ex- 
tremity; in  many  ways  they  Vv'ere  of  invaluable 
assistance  to  the  cause. ^^  Their  heroism  was 
manifest    in    wnv^X   and    deed.      "The   country," 

'^  In  1755  Timfjthy  Ilorsfield  writes:  "At  moderate  com- 
putation the  Brethren  liave  lost  ^1500.  and  tlie  expense  they 
are  daily  at  in  victualling  the  people,  witli  their  horses,  who 
pass  and  repass  through  Bethlehem,  and  supply  them  with 
powder  and  ball."     (renn.  Arch.,  1st  Series,  vol.  n.  p.  523.) 


IN  PEACE  AND  IN   IVAR.  205 

wrote  Spangenberg  to  Zinzendorf,  "  is  full  of 
fear  and  tribulation.  In  our  churches  there  is 
light.  We  live  in  peace  and  feel  the  presence  of 
the  Saviour."  The  8th  of  September,  1755,  which 
witnessed  the  defeat  of  Count  Dieskau,  was  dis- 
tinguished at  Bethlehem  "by  an  enthusiastic  mis- 
sionary conference,  composed  of  four  bishops, 
sixteen  missionaries,  and  eighteen  female  assist- 
ants, who  covenanted  anew  to  be  faithful  to  the 
Lord,  and  to  press  forward  into  the  Indian  coun- 
try as  long  as  it  was  possible,  in  spite  of  wars  and 
rumors  of  wars."  ^^ 

The  services  in  general  of  the  Moravians  to 
the  country  were  great.  Missionaries  like  Span- 
genberg and  Post  were  of  the  utmost  value  in 
keeping  the  Indians  quiet  for  many  years,  and 
many  important  embassies  were  intrusted  to 
their  care.^" 

^®  De  Schweinitz,  Life  of  Zeisberger,  p.  222. 

"  "During  the  late  bloody  war,  all  commerce  between  the 
white  people  and  Indians  being  suspended,  he  [Post]  was  in- 
trusted first  by  this  government,  and  then  by  Brig. -Gen. 
Forbes,  with  negotiations  to  secure  the  Indian  nations  ;  and 
although  such  commission  might  seem  out  of  the  way  of  a 
minister  of  the  Gospel,  yet  he  yielded  thereto  on  its  being 
argued  that  the  bringing  of  peace  with  the  Indians  would  open 
the  way  for  future  harvests,"  etc.  (Penn.  Arch.,  1st  Series, 
vol.  III.  p.  579.)  Although  a  large  price  was  set  on  the  head 
of  Post,  he  was  fearless.  "I  am  not  afraid,"  he  wrote,  '-of 
the  Indians  nor  the  devil  himself;  I  fear  my  great  Creator 
God."     {/dici.,  p.  542.) 


2o6  IN  PEACE  AND  IN   IV A R. 

However  active  the  Germans  may  have  been 
in  the  French  and  Indian  War,  there  can  be  no 
doubt  about  their  enthusiasm  and  patriotism 
during  the  Revolution.  Those  who  have  traced 
their  history  to  the  banks  of  the  Rhine  and  the 
mountains  of  Switzerland  will  not  be  surprised 
at  their  patriotism  during  these  trying  times,  A 
love  for  independence  and  a  hatred  of  tyranny 
has  ever  been  a  distinguishing  trait  of  Palatine 
and  Swiss.i^  Although  faithful  to  the  English 
crown  before  the  war,  they  had  no  reason  to  be 
particularly  attached  to  it.  As  far  back  as  1748 
the  Swedish  traveller  Professor  Kalm  distinctly 
states  that  they  had  no  particular  feeling  for 
England,  and  tells,  in  words  that  seem  to  be 
prophetic  in  the  light  of  subsequent  events,  how 
one  of  them  declared  that  the  colonies  would  be 
in  condition  within  thirty  or  fifty  years  to  make 
a  state  for  itself  independent  of  England.^ '^  When 

*8  "  Die  Freiheit  ist  die  Luft  in  dcr  Ihr  geboren,  das  Ele- 
ment in  dem  Ihr  erwachsen,  der  Lebensgeist  der  den  Ilelve- 
tischen  Kiirper  uiiterhalt."  (Dandliker,  vol.  I.  p.  i8.)  The 
same  "Drang  nach  personlicher  Unabhangiglceit "  is  charac- 
teristic of  the  Palatinate  ;  Riehl  says  that  the  words.  •'  Eines 
andem  Knecht  soil  Niemand  sein,  der  fur  sich  selbst  kann 
bleiben  allein,"  is  the  motto  of  every  native  in  whom  is  Ale. 
mannic  blood. 

"  Montcalm  is  said  to  have  made  a  similar  prophecy  in  a 
letter  to  a  "cousin  in  France."  (See  Eng.  Hist.  Review,  vol. 
XV.  p.  128.) 


IN  PEACE  AND  IN   IV AR.  207 

the  Strain  on  the  relations  between  the  colonies 
and  the  mother  country  came,  none  were  more 
ardent  in  expressing  their  sympathies  than  the 
Germans.  On  February  25,  1775,  Pastor  Hel- 
muth,  of  the  Lutheran  church  in  Lancaster, 
writes  that  the  whole  land  was  preparing  for  war, 
nearly  every  man  was  armed,  and  the  enthusiasm 
was  indescribable.  If  one  hundred  men  were 
asked  for,  he  says,  far  more  offered  themselves 
and  were  angry  if  they  were  not  taken.  Even  the 
Quakers  and  Mennonites  took  part  in  the  exer- 
cises, and  in  large  numbers  renounced  their  re- 
ligious principles.-^ 

The  importance  of  this  testimony  for  our  pres- 
ent discussion  lies,  of  course,  in  the  fact  that  Lan- 
caster County  was  almost  entirely  inhabited  by 
Germans.  The  same  spirit  manifested  itself  in 
Berks  County,  where  practically  the  entire  popu- 
lation was  German.  When  news  of  the  Tea  Duty 
came  to  Reading  there  was  great  excitement,  and 
meetings  were  held  condemning  the  English. 
After  the  battle  of  Lexington  in  1775,  every 
township  resolved  to  raise  and  drill  a  company.21 

''°  A  Mennonite  preacher,  Henry  Funck,  took  oath  to  the 
State  and  did  good  military  service  ;  in  consequence  of  which 
he  was  read  out  of  the  Church.  (Penn.  Arch.,  2d  Ser.,  vol. 
ni.  p.  463.) 

"  Montgomery  says  that  by  July,  1775,  at  least  forty  com- 
panies   were   ready   for   active   warfare.     In  a  letter  from  a 


2o8  IM  PE/fCE  AND  IN   IVAR. 

At  the  various  conventions  held  in  Philadelphia 
from  1775  on,  a  large  proportion  of  delegates 
from  Berks,  Lancaster,  York,  Northampton,  and 
other  counties  were  Germans.  We  may  take  as 
a  single  example  the  convention  of  1776,  of 
which  Franklin  was  president.  Out  of  96  dele- 
gates 22  were  Germans ;  4  of  the  8  sent  by  Lan- 
caster and  3  of  the  8  sent  by  Berks  were  Ger- 
mans.    Northampton  sent  6.^2 

Such  was  the  spirit  among  tliem.  With  the 
exception  of  the  Mennonites  and  Moravians,  who 
were  opposed  to  war  on  religious  grounds,  the 
patriotic  feeling  was  practically  unanimous. 
Even  the  sects  rendered  assistance;  the  Men- 
nonites gladly  furnished  money  and  provisions, 
while  the  Moravians  were  of  service  in  many 
ways.23 

member  of  Congress  to  Gen.  Lee,  dated  July  23,  1776,  we 
read  :  "The  militia  of  Pennsylvania  seem  to  be  actuated  with 
a  spirit  more  than  Roman,''  and  again,  "the  Spirit  of  lilierty 
reigns  triumphant  in  Pennsylvania.  (Force's  Amor.  Arch., 
5th  Ser..  I.  p.  532.) 

In  Richard  Penn's  Examination  before  the  House  of  Com- 
mons, Nov.  10,  1775,  he  said  that  there  were  60,000  men  fit 
to  bear  arms  in  Pennsylvania,  and  that  he  believed  all  would 
willingly  take  part  in  the  present  contest,  {/bid.,  4th  Sen, 
VI.  p.  126.) 

"  Among  them  were  Muhlenberg,  Ilillegass,  Slagle,  Hub- 
ley.  Kuhn,  Arndt.  Hartzell.  Levan.  Hiestand,  etc. 

"  The  lion.  William  Ellery  of  Rhode  Island  writes  in  his 


IN  PEACE  AND  IN   IVAR.  209 

These  facts  tend  to  show  the  spirit  of  the  Ger- 
mans, who  were  equahy  earnest  in  putting  their 
patriotism  in  operation.  We  have  seen  above 
how  companies  of  mihtia  were  formed  at  the 
news  from  Lexington.  It  is  a  significant  fact  that 
the  first  force  to  arrive  at  Cambridge  in  1775  was 
a  company  from  York  County,  under  Lieut. 
Henry  Miller,"-*  which  had  marched  five  hundred 
miles  to  reach  its  destination.  Colonel  Wil- 
liam Thompson's  battalion  of  rifiemen,  so  styled 
in  Washington's  general  orders,  was  enlisted  in 
the  latter  part  of  June,  1775 ;  eight  of  these  com- 
panies of  expert  riflemen  were  raised  in  Pennsyl- 
vania.    Among  the  captains  were  Michael  Dou- 

Diary  in  1777  that  the  Moravians,  "like  the  Quakers,  are 
principled  against  bearing  arms  ;  but  are  unlike  them  in  this 
respect,  they  are  not  against  paying  such  taxes  as  the  Gov- 
ernment may  order  them  to  pay  toward  carrying  on  the 
war,"  etc.     (Penn.  Mag.,  vol.  xi.  p.  318  ff.) 

In  a  petition  to  Congress  the  Moravians  themselves  say: 
('We  hold  no  principle  anyway  dangerous  or  inconsistent 
witli  good  government.  .  .  .  We  willingly  help  and  assist  to 
bear  public  burdens  and  never  had  any  distress  made  for 
taxes,"  etc. 

President  Reed  of  Philadelphia  in  a  letter  to  Zeisberger 
thanked  him,  in  the  name  of  tlie  whole  country,  for  his  ser- 
vices among  the  Indians,  and  particularly  for  his  Christian 
humanity  in  turning  back  so  many  war  parties  on  their  way 
to  rapine  and  massacre.  (De  Schweinitz,  Life  of  Zeisberger, 
p.  481.) 

2*  Judge  Pennypacker,  in  Penn.  Mag.,  vol.  xxil. 


2IO  IN  PE/iCE  AND  IN    lVy4R. 

del  of  York  County,  George  Nagel  of  Berks,  and 
Abraham  ]\Iiller  of  Northampton;  the  com- 
panies of  Captains  Ross  and  Smith  of  Lancaster 
were  also  largely  made  up  of  Germans.  As  the 
editors  of  the  Pennsylvania  Archives  say,  "  The 
patriotism  of  Pennsylvania  was  evinced  in  the 
haste  with  which  the  companies  of  Colonel 
Thompson's  battalion  were  filled  to  overflowing, 
and  the  promptitude  with  which  they  took  uj) 
tlieir  march  for  Boston."  ^^' 

All  three  companies  of  Baron  von  Ottendorf's 
corps  were  raised  in  Pennsylvania;  of  the  Ger- 
man Regiment  formed  in  1776 — which  took  part 
in  Sullivan's  campaign  against  the  Indians — 
five  companies  were  raised  in  the  same  State; 
among  the  captains  were  George  and  Bernard 
Hubley  ^^  of  Lancaster.  In  all  other  regiments 
enlisted  in  Lancaster,  Berks,  York,  and  other 
counties  the  Germans  formed  a  good  proportion. 

'^  These  companies  attracted  much  attention  in  the  country 
througli  which  they  passed.  Thacher  in  his  "Military  Jour- 
nal of  the  Revolution,"  under  date  of  August,  1775,  ^ays  : 
"  They  are  remarkably  stout  and  hardy  men  ;  many  of  them 
exceeding  six  feet  in  height.  They  are  dressed  in  white  frocks 
or  rifle-shirts  and  round  hats.  These  men  are  remarkable  for 
the  accuracy  of  their  aim  ;  striking  a  mark  with  great  cer- 
tainty at  two  hundred  yards'  distance."  (Penn.  Arch.,  2d 
Ser.,  vol.  X.  p.  5.) 

"  Author  of  one  of  the  earliest  histories  t>f  the  Revolution. 


IN  PEACE  AND   IN   IV AR.  211 

Even  in  the  city  of  Philadelphia  the  oldest  Ger- 
man colonists  formed  a  company  of  armed  vet- 
erans, whose  commander  was  over  one  hundred 
years  old.^'^  Unfortunately  many  of  the  rolls  of 
Pennsylvania  in  the  Revolution  have  been  lost, 
and  it  is  impossible  to  give  complete  statistics. 
We  know,  however,  that  the  Quaker  colony  oc- 
cupied a  front  rank  in  all  that  pertains  to  the 
v/ar.28  Any  one  who  carefully  goes  over  the  ex- 
tant records  as  recorded  in  the  Pennsylvania 
Archives  will  convince  himself  that  the  Germans 
contributed  their  fair  share  of  soldiers  to  the 
War  of  Independence. 

Naturally  enough  we  find  a  smaller  proportion 
of  German  ofificers  than  men,  especially  in  the 
higher  ranks.  ]\Iost  of  the  officers  from  captain 
down  in  the  companies  formed  of  Germans  were 

27  Graham,  Hist,  of  the  United  States,  vol.  n.  p.  531. 

28  In  1779  President  Reed  wrote  to  Washington  :  '•  We  .  .  . 
hold  a  respectable  place  in  the  military  line.  We  have  twelve 
regiments  equally  filled  with  any  other  State  and  much  superior 
to  some  ;  we  have  a  greater  proportion  raised  for  the  war  than 
any  other  .  .  .  have  been  by  far  the  greatest  sufferers  on  the 
frontiers,  have  had  more  killed,  more  country  desolated,"  etc. 
(Penn.  Arch.,  1st  Sen,  vol.  VII.  p.  378.)  Alexander  Graydon 
(Memoirs  of  a  Life  Chiefly  Passed  in  Pennsylvania,  p.  128) 
says:  "Against  the  expected  hostilities  Pennsylvania  had 
made  immense  exertions.  .  .  .  Had  all  the  other  provinces  done 
as  much  in  proportion  to  their  ability,  and  the  men  been 
enlisted  for  the  war.  we  might  have  avoided  the  hairbreadth 
escapes  which  ensued." 


212  IN  PEACE  AND  IN   IV AR. 

of  course  of  the  same  nalionalily,  many  of  them 
rising  afterwards  in  the  ranks.-'^  This  is  true,  for 
instance,  of  thefour  Hiester  brothers,  their  cousin 
]\Iajor-General  Joseph  Hiester,  Colonels  Lutz, 
Kichlein,  Hubley,  Spyker,  Nagle,  Eckert,  Glo- 
ningcr,  Antes,  Weitzel,  Zantzinger,  and  many 
others.  l"hc  most  distinguished  of  all,  and 
the  only  two  great  generals  furnished  by 
the  Germans,  were  Gen.  Nicholas  Herkimer  ^^ 
and  Gen.  Peter  Muhlenberg,  the  friend  of  Wash- 
ington. y\t  tlie  outbreak  of  the  war  the  latter 
was  pastor  of  the  German  church  at  Blue  Ridge, 
Va.,  and  the  story  is  well  known  how  one  Sun- 
day he  preached  on  the  wrongs  of  the  colonies, 
then  putting  off  his  gown,  showing  his  uniform 
beneath,  ordered  the  drums  beat  at  the  church 
door  for  recruits.^^ 

"  According  to  the  Troceedings  of  the  Penn.  Ger.  Soc,  vol. 
V.  p.  i8,  in  Northampton  County  26  c:ipt.iins  and  26  lieuten- 
ants were  German  ;  out  of  2357  volunteers  2000  were  Ger- 
mans. 

so  The  hero  of  Oriskany  was  a  descendant  of  the  New  York 
Palatines,  a  number  of  whom  went  to  Tulpehocken.  Berks 
County,  in  1723.  Of  course  no  mention  is  made  here  of  De 
Kalb  and  Steuben,  who  do  not  come  under  the  rubric  ot  Penn- 
sylvania Germans. 

^'  This  stf)ry  has  been  rendered  into  verse  by  Thomas  Buch- 
arian  Read : 

"  Then  from  his  patriot  tongue  of  flame 
The  startling  words  of  freedom  came,"  etc. 


IN  PEACE  AND  IN   IV A R.  213 

Not  only  in  actual  fighting  did  the  Germans 
help  the  cause,  but  likewise  in  furnishing  the 
necessary  material  of  war,  provisions,  horses, 
wagons,  etc.  Lancaster,  Berks,  and  other  coun- 
ties were  at  that  time  the  most  prosperous  agri- 
cultural districts  in  the  country.  Travellers  who 
passed  through  them  all  speak  of  the  comfortable 
houses,  the  stately  barns,  and  the  rich  fields  of 
grain.  It  would  be  difficult  to  conceive  what  the 
starving  army  of  Washington  would  have  done 
had  it  not  been  for  these  flourishing  farms.  It 
was  especially  here  that  the  non-combatant 
Mennonites  proved  their  loyalty;  they  never  de- 
nied requests  for  provisions.  It  is  interesting  to 
note  how  uniformly  the  committees  appointed  by 
Congress  to  look  after  these  things  were  com- 
posed largely  of  Germans.  Lancaster  County 
seems  to  have  done  the  most  in  this  respect,  then 
York,  Berks,  Northampton,  and  finally  the  Eng- 
lish counties  of  Chester  and  Bucks.-^^     \Ye  find 

'-  We  give  one  extract  out  of  many  which  could  be  given 
from  the  Penn.  Archives.  In  the  call  for  troops  on  August  i, 
1780,  York  furnished  500,  Lancaster  1200,  Berks  600,  North- 
ampton 500,  Chester  800,  Bucks  500,  Philadelphia  County  200, 
and  City  300  ;  of  wagons  Cumberland  furnished  25,  York  25, 
Lancaster  50,  Berks  20,  Northampton  15,  Bucks  15,  Philadel- 
phia County  20,  and  Chester  45.  (See  Penn.  Arch.,  2d  Ser., 
vol.  in.  p.  371.  Cf.  also  Archives,  ist  Ser.,  vol.  v.  pp.  301, 
317,  605;  vol  VI.  p.  327;  vol.  VII.  p.  567.) 


2  14  IN  PEACE  AND  IN   WAR. 

ample  recognition  of  these  services  in  the  records 
of  the  time.  In  Morse's  American  Geography 
pubHshed  at  Elizabethtown,  N.  J.,  in  1789,23  we 
read :  "  It  was  from  farms  cultivated  by  these 
men  that  the  American  and  French  armies  were 
chiefly  fed  with  bread  during  the  late  rebellion, 
and  it  was  from  the  produce  of  these  farms  that 
those  millions  of  dollars  were  obtained  which 
laid  the  foundation  of  the  Bank  of  North  Amer- 
ica, and  which  fed  and  clothed  the  x^merican 
army  till  the  glorious  Peace  of  Paris."  ^^ 

'^  Quoted  by  Barber,  History  of  New  England,  New  York, 
New  Jersey,  and  Pennsylvania,  p.  551. 

^*  Cf.  also  Letter  of  Prcs.  Reed  to  Col.  Brodhead  in  1779  : 
"The  gratitude  of  the  officers  of  Pennsylvania  for  the  gen- 
erous supplies  afforded  by  the  State  does  themselves  and 
State  great  honor."  (Penn.  Arch.,  ist  Sen,  vol.  vn.  p.  570.) 
One  of  the  well-known  characters  of  Philadelphia  during  the 
Revolution  was  Christopher  Ludwig,  Baker-General  of  the 
Continental  army.  At  one  of  the  provincial  conventions  to 
which  he  was  delegate.  General  Mifflin  proposed  to  open  pri- 
vate subscriptions  for  the  purchase  of  firearms.  There  was 
much  opposition  to  this,  when  Ludwig  thus  addressed  the 
chair:  "Mr.  President,  I  am  but  a  poor  gingerbread-baker, 
but  you  may  put  my  name  down  for  200  pounds."  When 
in  1777  l;e  was  appointed  by  Congress  Baker-General  of  the 
army,  the  proposition  was  that  he  should  furnish  a  pound 
of  bread  for  a  pound  of  flour.  "No,  gentlemen,"  he  said, 
"I  do  not  wish  to  grow  rich  by  the  war;  I  have  money 
enough.  I  will  furnish  135  pounds  of  bread  for  every  100 
pounds  of  flour  you  put  into  my  hands."  (See  Penn.  Mag.,  vol. 
XVI.  pp.  343  ff.) 


IN  PEACE  AND  IN    IV A R.  215 

Such  is  a  meagre  outline  of  the  part  played  by 
the  Pennsylvania  Germans  in  the  Revolution. 
The  same  spirit  manifests  itself  in  all  subsequent 
wars  down  to  the  last  great  rebellion.  As  the 
main  discussion  of  this  book  is  confined  to  the 
eighteenth  century,  we  must  content  ourselves 
here  with  a  few  brief  remarks.  It  is  an  interest- 
ing fact  that  just  as  we  have  already  said,  the  first 
company  to  reach  Washington  at  Cambridge 
was  from  York  County,  Pennsylvania,  so, 
nearly  one  hundred  years  later,  the  first  force  to 
reach  Lincoln  at  Washington  in  1861  was  a  regi- 
ment composed  of  five  companies  from  Reading, 
Allentown,  Pottsville,  and  Lewiston, — almost 
entirely  composed  of  the  descendants  of  the  Ger- 
man patriots  of  Revolutionary  days. 

As  to  the  numbers  engaged  in  the  Civil  War, 
it  is  not  necessary  here  to  go  into  details.  A  few 
facts  will  suffice.  The  population  of  Berks 
County  in  the  sixties  was  about  nine-tenths  Ger- 
man; the  rolls  of  the  eight  thousand  soldiers  fur- 
nished by  this  county  to  the  Rebellion  show  by 
actual  calculation  about  the  same  proportion,  or, 
more  accurately,  80  per  cent  of  German  names; 
this  leaves  out  of  account  English  names,  many 
of  which  are  variations  of  a  German  original.  A 
similar  computation  of  the  rolls  given  in  Evans' 
History  of  Lancaster  County  show  the  proportion 


2i6  IN  PEACE  AND  IN    IV A R. 

to  be  somewhat  less,  about  60  per  cent;  the  ex- 
planation of  which,  of  course,  lies  in  the  fact  that 
a  larger  proportion  of  English-speaking  people 
inhabit  that  county.  Although  I  have  not  ex- 
tended this  somewhat  laborious  method  of  ascer- 
taining such  facts  to  Lehigh,  York,  and  other 
counties,  a  casual  inspection  of  the  rolls  given  in 
the  various  county  histories  leads  me  to  believe 
a  similar  percentage  would  be  found  there.^'^" 

When  we  turn  from  the  scenes  of  war  and  ask 
what  have  the  Pennsylvania  Germans  done  for 
the  business,  artistic,  scientific,  and  literary  de- 
velopment of  the  country,  we  find  ourselves  con- 

^'  Following  are  some  of  the  officers  above  the  rank  of 
captain  in  the  Civil  War  who  were  descendants  of  the  early- 
German  and  .Swiss  settlers  of  Pennsylvania  and,  in  a  few 
cases,  of  Marjland  and  Virginia  :  Generals  Beaver,  Dechert, 
Gobin,  Halderman,  Hartranft,  Heckman,  Heintzelman,  Kei- 
fer,  Pennypacker,  Raum,  Wister,  Zook,  Custer,  Rodenbough, 
Small,  Sweitzer,  Zeilin  ;  Colonels  Frederick,  Ilaiipt.  Levering, 
Shoup,  Spangler,  Barnitz,  Runkle,  Schwenk  ;  Majors  Appel, 
Diller,  Reinoehl,  Yoder,  Kress.  Wilhelm,  Rittenhouse  ;  Sur- 
geons Egle,  Kemper.  Foltz,  Oberly,  Sternberg;  Rear- Admirals 
Ammen,  Schley  ;  Chaplain  Ritner  ;  Chief  Engineer  Schock. 
For  short  biographies  of  the  above  see  "  Officers  of  the  Army 
and  Navy  who  served  in  the  Civil  War,"  ed.  by  Powell  and 
Sliijipen.  Mention  ought  perhaps  to  bo  made  here  of  Barbara 
Frietchic, — the  heroine  of  Whittier's  legendary  poem, — who 
was  born  at  Lancaster,  Pa.,  Dec.  3,  1766,  and  died  at  Frede- 
rick, Md.,  Dec.  18,  1862.  lor  the  true  facts  concerning  her, 
see  White's  National  Cyclopedia  (if  American  Biography. 


IN  PEACE  AND  IN   IV AR.  217 

fronted  with  a  far  more  difficult  task.  In  the 
case  of  poHtics  and  war  we  have  more  or  less 
complete  statistics  as  to  the  men  engaged  therein, 
and  the  difficulty  is  chiefly  that  of  selecting  such 
facts  as  will  give  a  fair  picture  of  the  truth.  In 
the  present  case  we  can  only  note  the  names  of 
those  who  have  made  a  national  reputation  in 
the  various  departments  of  life,  leaving  out  of 
account  the  vast  body  of  the  middle  class,  which 
after  all  makes  up  the  national  life. 

We  have  seen  that  the  Germans  were  chiefly  iofj^  ^k>iuJcmJ{' 
fji  '3  farmers,  and  their  skill,  thoroughness,  and  in- 
dustry  have  made  them  pre-eminent  in  this  line. 
Yet  even  in  the  eighteenth  century  there  was  a 
certain  number  of  mechanics  among  them,  and 
these  carried  on  their  trade  after  reaching  the 
New  World;  living  for  the  most  part  in  the 
country, — for  there  were  few  towns  and  villages 
before  1750, — and  carrying  on  farming  at  the 
same  time  Benjamin  Rush  says  that  the  first 
object  of  the  German  mechanic  was  to  become  a 
freeholder,  and  that  few  Hved  in  rented  houses. 
He  also  says  that  they  soon  acquired  the  knowl- 
edge of  mechanical  arts  which  were  more  im- 
mediately necessary  and  useful  to  a  new  coun- 
try.^^    This  adaptability  has  shown  itself  in  the 

S6  Cf.  also  Mittelberger  :    "It  is  a  surprising  fact  that  young 
people  who  were  born  in  this  land  are  very  clever,  docile,  and 


2i8  IN  PEACE  AND  IN   IVAR. 

development  of  those  manufactures  and  inven- 
tions which  have  made  Pennsylvania  so  famous. 
One  hundred  and  fifty  years  ago  a  glass-foundry 
was  established  by  the  eccentric  Baron  Stiegel, 
who  also  manufactured  the  once  almost  univer- 
sally used  ten-plate  stoves;  3"  the  first  paper- 
mill  in  the  United  States  was  built  in  1690  by 
William  Rittenhouse,  a  Mennonite  preacher;  and 
we  already  have  seen  how  early  the  Germantown 
weavers  became  famous.  At  the  present  time 
many  of  the  vast  iron-foundries  and  steel  plants 
which  are  found  in  Reading,  Bedilchem,  Allen- 
town,  and  elsewhere  have  been  established  and 
arc  to-day  owned  and  operated  largely  by  men 
of  Swiss-German  descent.^^ 

The  Germans  in  the  last  century  and  up  to 
comparatively  recent  times  seem  to  have  had 
little  interest  in  trade;  ^^  yet  they  have  given  to 

skilful;  for  many  a  one  looks  at  a  work  of  skill  or  art  only  a 
few  times  and  imitates  it  immediately,"  etc. 

^'  The  first  stoves  were  jamb-stoves,  walled  into  the  jamb  of 
the  kitchen  fireplace,  with  the  back  projecting  into  the  adjoin- 
ing room.     They  bore  the  naive  inscription : 

"  Baron  Stiegel  ist  der  Mann, 
Der  die  Ofengiessen  kann." 

'^  Among  these  ''iron  kings  "  may  be  mentioned  II.  C.  Frick, 
Hon.  John  Fritz  of  Bethlehem,  Hon.  C.  C.  Kauft'maa  of  Lan- 
caster Co. 

'*  Proud  says  :  "  The  Germans  seem  more  adapted  for  agri- 


IN  PEACE  AND  IN   IVAR.  219 

the  world  one  who  is  the  most  widely  known 
merchant-prince  in  the  country  to-day. 

In  the  field  of  learning,  the  Pennsylvania  Ger- 
mans have  produced  a  number  of  men  of  wide- 
spread reputation,  and  the  names  of  David  Rit- 
tenhouse  in  astronomy,  Joseph  Leidy  and  Caspar 
Wistar  in  medicine,  Muhlenberg  in  botany,  Hal- 
deman  in  philology  and  zoology,  show  that  they 
have  not  been  entirely  unfruitful  in  the  domain 
of  scientific  investigation.^^  ]^qj-  jg  jj-  perhaps 
inappropriate  to  mention  here  the  fact  that  the 
two  largest  telescopes  in  the  world  were  given  by 
James  Lick,  of  a  prominent  family  of  Lebanon 
County,  and  Charles  Yerkes,  whose  ancestors 
were  among  the  first  German  settlers  of  Mont- 
gomery County. 

In  the  fine  arts  we  have  not  much  to  chronicle ; 
in  recent  times  we  note  a  number  of  Pennsyl- 
vania names  among  well-known  book-illustra- 
tors, but  no  one  great  name.  So,  too,  in  what 
may  be  called  national  literature, — in  contradis- 
tinction to  that  of  a  purely  local  nature,  discussed 
elsewhere, — in  recent  times  the  names  of  several 

culture  and  the  improvement  of  a  wilderness,  and  the  Irish  for 
trade,"  etc.     (Vol.  II.  p.  274.) 

*"  The  well-known  naturalist  and  secretary  of  the  Smithsonian 
Institution,  the  late  Spencer  F.  Baird,  who  was  born  in  Read- 
ing, Berks  Co.,  was  of  English.  Scotch,  and  German  descent. 


220  IN  PEACE  AND   IN   IV A R. 

of  the  younger  American  writers  should  find  a 
place  in  the  present  discussion.-*^  In  poetry, 
however,  Bayard  Taylor  may  be  at  least  partly 
claimed,  being  in  two  lines  of  Pennsylvania- 
German  blood. 

*'  About  tlie  only  writer  who  has  touched  the  field  for  fic- 
tion presented  by  life  among  the  Pennsylvania  farmers  is  John 
Luther  Long,  who,  in  the  Century  Magazine  for  March,  1898, 
published  a  short  story  entitled  "Ein  Nix-Nutz."  The  young 
Canadian  poet.  Archibald  Lampman,  who  recently  died,  was 
of  Pennsylvania  German  ancestry. 


CHAPTER    VIII. 


CONCLUSION. 


The  Pennsylvania  Germans  and  their  de- 
scendants have  in  round  numbers  been  in  Amer- 
ica for  two  hundred  years;  they  have  shared  in 
its  prosperity,  have  borne  their  part  in  peace  and 
war,  and  have  contributed  in  no  shght  degree  to 
its  success.  They  are  thoroughly  American  in 
thought,  word,  and  deed.  Most  of  them  are  com- 
pletely assimilated  to  the  Anglo-Saxon  element 
of  the  American  stock,  and  are  scattered  far  and 
wide  over  the  whole  country.  And  yet  in  those 
communities  where  they  are  massed  together  they 
still  form  a  more  or  less  distinct  ethnical  entity, — 
a  wedge,  so  to  speak,  thrust  into  the  very  heart  of 
the  United  States,  having  their  own  language, 
their  own  peculiar  religious  forms, — in  some 
cases,  like  the  Dunkards,  not  to  be  found  else- 
where in  the  world, — their  own  customs,  and 
even  their  own  type  of  figure  and  countenance.^ 

^  In  reading  the  present  chapter  we  must  bear  in  mind  that 
the  descendants  of  the  early  Swiss  and  German  settlers  of 

221 


222  CONCLUSION. 

Of  course  the  German  traits  are  not  so  striking 
to-day  as  they  were  one  hundred  years  ago; 
most  of  the  superstitions  and  unfortunately 
some  of  the  earnest  piety  of  our  grandfathers 
have  passed  away,  while  in  their  place  have  come 
various  traits  of  American  character,  some  good, 
some  bad.  Yet  even  to-day  the  type  is  a  distinct 
one  and  strikes  at  once  every  observant  traveller 
who  visits  the  State. 

When  we  come  to  analyze  the  origin  of  these 
people,  we  find  that  they  are  composed  of  two 
great  ethnical  stems.  As  we  have  already  seen, 
they  came  almost  entirely  from  South  Germany, 
especially  from  the  Palatinate,  Wiirtemberg, 
and  Switzerland.  The  two  latter  countries  are 
purely  Alcmannic,  while  the  Palatinate  is  of 
Prankish  basis  with  a  more  or  less  strong  ad- 
mixture of  Alemannic,  especially  in  those  parts 
nearest  the  French  frontiers.  The  Pennsylvania 
Germans,  then,  are  composed  of  almost  equal 
parts  of  both  these  great  stems.     Many  of  the 

Pennsylvania  form  two  distinct  groups, — those  who  have  re- 
mained on  the  ancestral  farms,  and  those  who  have  gone  to 
the  larger  cities  and  to  the  States  to  the  South  and  West ;  the 
two  groups  are  probably  equal  in  numbers.  The  latter  group 
has  been  far  more  completely  assimilated  by  tlieir  English 
neighbors,  they  have  intermarried,  Anglicized  their  names, 
and  there  are  probably  thousands  who  are  unaware  of  their 
Pennsylvania-German  descent. 


CONCLUSION.  223 

traits  given  by  Riehl  and  Dandliker, — the 
Prankish  spirit  of  independence,  the  Schwaben- 
trotz  of  the  Alemanni,  the  indomitable  industry 
of  both  and  their  joy  in  labor,  their  extraordi- 
nary skill  in  agriculture,  their  frugality,  honesty, 
and  serious  view  of  the  responsibilities  of  life, — 
all  these  are  not  only  cited  in  the  works  of  men 
like  Rush,  Muhlenberg,  and  others,  but  are  ob- 
servable even  to  this  day  in  the  rural  districts  of 
Pennsylvania. 

It  is  interesting  to  compare  the  character, 
traits,  habits,  customs,  and  ideals  of  the  early  set- 
tlers of  Pennsylvania  as  they  were  in  the  Father- 
land with  those  of  their  descendants  in  the  years 
that  have  elapsed  since  their  coming.  Indeed  in 
no  other  way  can  we  get  a  true  conception  of  the 
real  genius  of  a  people.  No  one  would  think  of 
studying  the  character  of  New-Englanders  with- 
out some  knowledge  of  their  Puritan  ancestors 
as  they  were  in  England.  Such  a  comparative 
study  as  this  shows  us  the  Pennsylvania  Ger- 
mans not  as  an  isolated  phenomenon  in  the  midst 
of  English  settlements,  but  the  bearers  to  the 
New  World  of  another  civilization,  marked 
with  their  own  character  and  customs  brought 
from  the  Fatherland.  We  have  given  above 
some  of  the  common  traits  of  character;  still 
more   striking  is   the   resemblance   in   customs. 


2  24  CONCLUSION. 

such  as  methods  of  farming,  style  of  houses,  love 
for  flowers  and  music,  affection  and  care  for 
horses  and  cattle,  religious  toleration,  and,  per- 
haps more  than  anything  else,  the  identity  of 
superstitious  customs  and  beUefs. 

One  trait  has  persisted  down  to  the  present — 
the  strong  spirit  of  conservatism.  This  has  from 
the  very  beginning  been  blamed  by  their  Eng- 
lish-speaking neighbors,  who  a  century  and  a 
half  ago  called  them  stubborn  and  headstrong; 
and  even  to-day  the  State  historian  is  apt  to  call 
attention  to  the  fact  that  the  Germans  are  slow 
to  move  along  those  lines  in  which  the  Anglo- 
Saxon  is  rushing  forward.  This  conservatism 
has  its  good  and  its  bad  sides.  No  doubt  it 
would  be  better  for  some  village  communities  to 
have  more  of  the  "  hustle  "  of  the  West,  or  of 
the  education  and  refinement  of  certain  aristo- 
cratic communities  of  New  England.  On  the 
other  hand,  it  is  certain  that  lack  of  repose  is  a 
great  weakness  in  our  national  life;  "  Ohne  Hast, 
ohne  Rast  "  is  an  excellent  motto,  but  Americans 
in  general  have  cut  theGoethean  proverb  into  two 
parts,  and  thrown  away  the  first.  Students  of  eth- 
nology like  Riehl  and  Freytag  have  constantly 
emphasized  the  enormous  value  to  a  nation  of  a 
strong  body  of  farmers.^ 
'  Thus  the  former  says  (Biirgerliche  Gesellschaft,   p.  41): 


CONCLUSION.  225 

It  is  not  meant  here  that  it  is  better  for  any 
particular  individual  to  be  a  farmer,  although  it 
would  seem  that  an  independent  life  of  comfort, 
even  though  one  of  toil,  such  as  the  Pennsyl- 
vania farmer  enjoys,  would  be  preferable  to  the 
half-slavery  of  shop,  factory,  or  counting-house 
which,  for  the  majority  of  city  people,  is  the  only 
prospect  in  life.  It  certainly  is,  however,  good 
for  a  country  to  have  a  substantial,  prosperous 
substratum  of  farmers,  for  to-day,  even  as  yester- 
day and  forever,  the  basis  of  national  prosperity 
is  and  must  remain  in  the  tilling  of  the  soil.  I  for 
one  do  not  wish  to  see  the  day  when  the  sons  of 
the  old  Pennsylvania-German  stock  shall,  like 
those  of  the  Puritans  of  New  England,  be  fired 
with  ambition  to  migrate  en  masse  to  the  city 
and  to  desert  the  homesteads  of  their  ancestors, 
and  especially  to  throw  away  as  useless  the  ex- 
traordinary   skill    in    farming    which    has    come 

''Es  ruht  eine  unliberwindliche  konservative  Macht  in  der 
deutschen  Nation,  ein  fester,  trotz  allem  Wechsel  beharrender 
Kern — und  das  sind  unsere  Bauern.  .  .  .  Der  Bauer  ist  die 
Zukunft  der  deutschen  Nation.  Unser  Volksleben  erfrischt 
und  verjlingt  sich  fort  und  fort  durch  die  Bauern."  Freytag 
(vol.  II.,  2.  Abth.,  p.  170)  says:  '-Audi  deshalb  liegt  die 
letzte  Grundlage  fur  das  Gedeihen  der  Volker  in  der  einfachen 
Thatigkeit  des  Landmannes,"etc. ;  and  again:  "Je  reichlicher 
und  ungehinderter  neue  Kraft  aus  den  untem  Schichten  in  die 
anspruchsvolleren  Kreise  aufsteigt,  desto  kriiftiger  und  ener- 
gischer  wird  das  politische  Leben  des  Volkes  sein  kcinnen." 


2  26  CONCLUSION. 

down  to  them  as  the  inheritance  of  thirty  genera- 
tions of  ancestors,  who  have  made  Eastern  Penn- 
sylvania— and  before  that  the  banks  of  the  Upper 
Rhine — a  veritable  garden. 

Not  that  no  changes  should  be  welcomed  by 
them.  The  farmer  should  share  in  whatever  is 
of  service  in  the  improvements  of  modern  life. 
Books  and  pictures  and  music  and  flowers  char- 
acterize the  homes  of  many  of  our  farmers  to- 
day; may  they  increase  more  and  more!  Those 
who  have  had  an  opportunity  of  observing  the 
conditions  of  life  in  the  rural  districts  for  the 
last  twenty-five  years,  cannot  help  noticing  great 
changes.  In  some  parts  of  Lancaster  County 
German  is  being  rapidly  replaced  by  English, 
even  in  the  home  life,  and  in  the  most  remote 
communities.  This  is  not  so  true  of  Lehigh, 
Berks,  and  Northampton  counties,  but  it  seems 
hardly  to  be  doubted  that  the  time  is  not  far  dis- 
tant when  the  Pennsylvania-German  dialect  will 
be  a  thing  of  the  past. 

Railroads,  telegraphs,  and  trolley-cars  are  con- 
stantly levelling  the  differences  between  town 
and  country,  and  making  the  inhabitants  of 
Eastern  Pennsylvania  a  more  and  more  homo- 
genous mass.  A  potent  factor  of  this  process  is 
the  constant  intermarrying  between  Germans 
and   their   English-speaking  neighbors.      In   no 


CONCLUSION.  227 

State  in  the  Union  is  there  a  more  thorough 
minghng  of  nationahties  than  here.  There  is 
hardly  one  of  the  old  families  of  Philadelphia,  for 
instance,  in  which  does  not  run  English,  Welsh, 
Scotch-Irish,  Dutch,  French,  and  German  blood. 
This  fact  constantly  meets  the  student  of  Penn- 
sylvania genealogy.  Away  back  in  the  eigh- 
teenth century  Muhlenberg  frequently  speaks  of 
the  mixed  marriages  which  he  was  called  on 
to  perform,  and  from  that  time  down  to  the  pres- 
ent the  process  has  gone  on,  until  to-day  it  is  not 
too  much  to  say  that  nearly  every  old  family  with 
an  English  or  Scotch-Irish  name  has  some  strain 
of  German  blood  in  it,  and  vice  versa? 
There  are  some  who  are  impatient  at  the  sug- 

'  This  is  true  of  the  Morris,  Shoemaker,  Levering,  Keen, 
Wistar,  Keim,  Ross,  Evans,  and  many  other  v/ell-known 
Pennsylvania  families.  As  being  of  more  than  mere  genealog- 
ical interest,  a  few  individual  examples  are  here  given.  The 
mother  of  Senator  Simon  Cameron  was  a  Pfautz,  his  wife  was 
a  Brua;  Judge  Jeremiah  Black,  who  has  been  called  "in  some 
respects  the  ablest  man  Pennsylvania  has  produced  since  the 
Revolution,"  was  partly  of  German  descent;  we  have  already 
mentioned  in  other  connections  Spencer  F.  Baird,  Bayard 
Taylor,  and  Archibald  Lampman.  The  late  Governor  Russell 
of  Massachusetts  is  said  to  have  been  a  descendant  of  Abra- 
ham Witmer,  who  built  in  1799  the  fine  old  stone  bridge  over 
the  Conestoga  near  Lancaster  (see  Papers  of  Lane.  Co.  Hist. 
Soc,  Oct.  1898).  Finally,  the  wife  of  Lord  Curzon,  viceroy  of 
India,  belongs  to  the  Maryland  branch  of  Pennsylvania- 
German  stock. 


22  8  CONCLUSION. 

gestion  that  an  infusion  of  English  blood  can  add 
anything  to  the  old-fashioned  Pennsylvania- 
German  stock;  and  yet,  perhaps,  there  is  no  rea- 
son for  this  feeling.  Each  nation  has  its  own 
characteristic  features,  its  own  strength  and 
weakness.  It  seems  to  be  universally  acknowl- 
edged that  the  German  character  is  marked  by 
honesty,  industry,  deep  religious  spirit,  and  many 
other  minor  yet  noble  traits.  It  is  this  deep  in- 
wardness, as  Dr.  Schaflf  calls  it,  that  has  made  the 
German  race  the  founders  of  Protestantism,  and 
that  has  produced  in  their  midst  deep  thinkers 
and  great  scholars.  The  Anglo-Saxons  have 
other  attributes  in  greater  measure,  perhaps, — 
energy,  individual  initiative,  power  of  self-gov- 
ernment,— attributes  which  have  made  them  the 
empire-builders  of  the  world.  Surely  the  Penn- 
sylvania Germans  should  be  glad  to  see  these 
peculiarly  English  traits  engrafted  on  their  own 
stock;  and  the  Anglo-Saxon  American  may  on 
his  side  be  glad  to  see  the  elements  of  steadiness, 
probity,  and  even  conservatism  mingle  with  the 
ever-increasing  forward  movement  of  American 
civilization.  Some  fifty  years  ago  a  wise  German 
observer  of  American  life  ^  saw  the  advantage 
to  be  derived  from  this  union.    He  says:  "Could 

*  Francis  Lieber,  The  Stranger  in  America,  p.  199. 


CONCLUSION.  229 

but  a  little  of  this  quickness  in  practical  percep- 
tion and  boldness  in  embarking  in  the  most  dar- 
ing enterprises  be  engrafted  on  German  steadi- 
ness and  thoroughness,  it  would  produce  fine 
fruit  indeed."  And  we  cannot  close  this  brief 
survey  of  an  interesting  subject  more  appro- 
priately than  Vv'ith  the  words  of  Dr.  Philip  Schafif, 
who,  speaking  of  the  great  mission  of  Germans 
in  America,  declares  that  they  should  "  energet- 
ically appropriate  the  Anglo-Saxon  American 
nature  and  its  excellencies,  and  as  far  as  possible 
penetrate  it  with  the  wealth  of  their  own  German 
temper  and  life." 


APPENDIX. 

PENNSYLVANIA-GERMAN   FAMILY 

NAMES. 

A  KNOWLEDGE  of  family  names  is  often  of 
great  value  for  the  genealogist  and  even  for  the 
historian.  This  is  especially  true  when,  owing 
to  change  in  environment,  such  names  have  un- 
dergone great  variations  of  form.  For  this  rea- 
son a  brief  outline  of  the  subject  is  given  here, 
so  far  as  it  concerns  the  group  of  people  dis- 
cussed in  this  book.  Pennsylvania-German 
family  names,  like  all  other  German  names,  may 
be  divided  into  three  distinct  classes:  first,  those 
derived  from  personal  names;  second,  those  de- 
rived from  occupation;  and  third,  those  derived 
from  the  place  where  the  individual  lived  (includ- 
ing house-signs)  or  whence  he  came.  In  this 
last  class  may  likewise  be  properly  included 
nicknames,  or  those  due  to  personal  peculiarities, 
physical  or  mental. 

The  names  forming  the  first  class  are  by  far 

the  oldest,  often  running  back  to  the  early  cen- 

231 


232  APPENDIX. 

turies     of    the     Christian     era,     and     in     every 
case   arc    of   noble    and    dignified    meaning,    in 
which   the   old   German  love  for  war,   belief  in 
the  northern  mythology,  and  ideals  of  life,  are 
clearly  seen.^     These  personal  names  exist  to- 
day in   Pennsylvania,   some  of  them   but   little 
changed;    such   are  Albrecht  =  of  distinguished 
race  (P.  G.  Albright);   Arnwald  =  one  who  rules 
as  the  eagle;   Bernhard  — strong  as  a  bear;   Con- 
rad =  bold  in  council;    Dietrich  =  ruler  of  peo- 
ple;    Eberhart  =  strong    as    a    boar;     Eckert  = 
strong  sword;    Garman  =  spearman;    Gebhard  = 
generous    giver    (P.     G.     Kephart);      Gerhard 
=  strong    spear;     Gottschalk  =  servant    of   God; 
Hartman  =  strong     man;     Heidrich  =  of     noble 
rank;  Hildebrandt=battle-sword;  Hubert=bright 
of  intellect;  Irmintraut=  friend  of  the  Walkyrie 
Thrudr   (P.    G.    Ermentrout);    Luhr  =  war-peo- 
ple;   Reinhard  =  strong  in  counsel;    Reinhold  = 
ruler    of    council;    Trautman  =  follower    of    the 
Walkyrie  Thrudr. 

In  most  cases,  however,  these  double-stem 
names  were  shortened  by  dropping  the  second 
stem,  whence  such  names  as  Kuhn  (from  Kun- 

'  For  the  meaning  of  German  names  see  Heintze,  Die 
Deutschen  Familicnnamen;  Tobler-Meyer,  Deutsche  Familicn- 
namen  (Swiss);  Steiib,  Oberdeutsche  Familiennamen.  In  the 
above  list  of  names  P.  G.  =  Pennsylvania  German. 


APPENDIX.  233 

rat),  Hein  (from  Heinrich),  Ott  (from  Ottmann), 
Traut  (from  Trautmann),  Bar,  Barr  (from  Ber- 
liard).  To  these  stems  diminutive  sufifixes  were 
added;  thus  from  /  we  have  the  forms  Biirki 
(from  Burkhard),  Ebi  (from  Ebarhard),  EgH 
(from  Agilbrecht),  Hagi  (from  Haginbert), 
Lichti  (from  Ludger:  P.  G.  Light),  StaheH  (from 
Stahal),  Wehi  (from  Wahher),  Geissle  (from 
Gisalhart :  P.  G.  Yeissley) ;  from  izo  we  get  Boss 
and  Blitz  (from  Bodomar),  Dietz  (from  Dietrich), 
Fritz  and  Fritschi  (from  Friedrich:  cf.  Barbara 
Frietchie),  Heintz  (from  Heinrich),  Kuntz  (from 
Kunrat:  P.  G.  Koons  and  Kuhns),  Landis,  Lentz, 
and  Lantz  (from  Landfrid),  Liitz  (from  Ludwig), 
Seitz  (fromSiegfrid:  P.  G.  Sides),  Tietz (from  Diet- 
rich), Waltz  (fromWalther) ;  from  iko  we  get  Frick 
(from  Friedrich),  lUig  and  the  genitive  Hilleges 
(from  Hildebrand),  Kiindig  (from  Gundobert), 
Leidig  (from  Luithart) ;  from  ilo  we  get  Ebli  and 
Eberh  (from  Ebarhard),  Bechtel  (from  Berch- 
told),  Bickel  (from  Botger),  Diehl  (from  Diet- 
rich), Hirzel  (from  Hinizleip:  P.  G.  Hartzell), 
Hubeli  (from  Hugiibert),  Markel  and  MarkH 
(from  Markwald),  Meih  (from  Maganhard), 
NageH  (from  Nagalrich),  Rubli  (from  Hrode- 
bert  =  Robert),  Schnabeli  (from  root  Sneo  = 
snow:  P.  G.  Snavely) ;  from  s  plus  /  we  get  Kiinzel 


234  APPENDIX. 

(from  Kunrat),  Reitzcl  (from  Ricohard  =  Rich- 
ard), and  Tietzcl  (from  Dietrich). 

From  all  the  above  forms  patronymics  in 
mann,  inger,  and  Icr  are  formed:  Bailsman, 
Beidleman,  Denlinger,  Dietzinger,  Gehringer, 
Grissinger,  Heintzelman,  Hirtzler,  Hollinger. 

In  addition  to  the  purely  German  personal 
names  we  have  also  many  names  taken  from 
Biblical  characters  and  from  the  lives  of 
saints:  Bartel  (from  Bartholomaeus),  Klause 
(Nicholas),  Martin,  Theiss,  and  Theissen  (I\Iat- 
thias),  Peters,  Hensel  (Johannes),  Jiiggi  and 
Jackli  (Jacobus:  P.  G.  Yeagy  and  Yackley), 
Jorg,  Jorges  (George:  P.  G.  Yerrick  and 
Yerkes),  Brosius  (Ambrosius),  Bastian  (Sebas- 
tian), Flory  (Florus),  Johst  (Justus:  P.  G.  Yost), 

The  second  class  of  Pennsylvania-German 
family  names  are  derived  from  the  occupation  of 
the  individual;  among  the  best  known  are  Becker 
(baker),  Baumgartner  (orchard-grower), Brennei- 
sen  (blacksmith),  Brunncr  (well-digger),  Drcher, 
Trachsel,Trechsler  (turner), Fischer,  Gerber  (tan- 
ner, currier:  P.  G.  Garver),  Glockner  (bell-ringer: 
P.  G.  Klackner),  Heilman  (doctor),  Huber  (one 
who  owns  a  /nr&^  =  small  farm),  Jager  (hunter), 
Karcher  (carter),  Kohler,  Koehler  (coal-burner: 
P.  G.  Kaler,  Cayler),  Kaufman  (merchant), 
Kiifer,  Kiifner  (cooper),  Kiister  (sexton),  Maurer 


APPENDIX.  235 

(mason),  Metzger  (butcher),  Lehmann  (one  un- 
der feudal  tenure),  Leineweber  (linen-weaver), 
Miiller,  Probst  (provost),  Reifschneider,  Rie- 
menschneider  (harness-maker),  Sauter,  Suter 
(shoemaker),  Schaffner  (steward),  Schenck  (cup- 
bearer), Scherer  (barber),  Schlegel  (one  who  ham- 
mers), Schmidt  (smith),  Schneider  (tailor),  Schrei- 
ber  (writer),  Schreiner  (joiner),  Schiitz  (shooter, 
archer:  P.  G.  Sheets),  Schultz  (mayor),  Siegrist 
(sexton),  Spengler  (tin-smith),  Steinmetz  (stone- 
cutter), Tschudi  (judge:  Swiss),  Vogt  (bailiff), 
Wagner  (wagoner),  Wannemaker  (basket-maker), 
Weber  (weaver),  Wirtz  (landlord),  Widmeyer 
Widmer  (one  who  has  land  from  church  or  mon- 
astery), Ziegler  (brick-maker),  Zimmerman  (car- 
penter). 

The  first  subdivision  of  names  in  the  third  class 
comprises  those  which  denote  the  place  where 
one  lives  or  whence  one  comes;  such  are  Al- 
gauer  (from  the  Allgau  in  Switzerland),  Alten- 
dorfer  (from  village  in  St.  Gall,  Switz.),  Amweg 
(beside  the  road),  Amend  (at  end  of  village), 
Bach,  Bacher,  Bachman  (who  live  near  a  brook), 
Berner  (from  Berne,  Switz.),  Basler  (from  Basel), 
Berger  (lives  on  mountain),  Beyer  (a  Bavarian), 
Biemensdorfer,  Blickensdorfer  (from  village  in 
Canton  Zurich),  Boehm  (a  Bohemian),  Brech- 
biihl    (unploughed    hill:    P.    G.    Brightbill    and 


236  APPENDIX. 

Brackbill),  Breitenbach  (village  in  Solothurn, 
Switz.),  Brubacher  (village  in  Zurich),  Biittig- 
kofifer  (from  village  Biittikofen,  Berne),  Det- 
weiler  (village  in  Canton  Zurich),  Diefenbach 
(Tiefenbach,  in  Canton  Uri,  Switz.),  Diffen- 
dorfer  (from  Tiefendorf),  Fliickiger  (village  in 
Canton  Berne),  Fahrni  (village  in  Berne),  Prick 
(in  Aargau,  Switz.),  Haldi,  Haldeman  (from 
Halden,  common  name  for  village  in  Switzer- 
land), Hofstetter  (name  of  several  villages  in 
Zurich,  St.  Gall,  and  Berne),  Eschelman  (from 
Aeschi,  village  in  Canton  Berne),  Imgrund  (in 
hollow  land),  Imboden  (in  bottom-lands),  Imhof 
(in  farm-yard),  Kollicker  (village  in  Aargau), 
Longenecker  (village  in  Berne),  Mellinger  (vil- 
lage in  Aargau),  Neuenschwander  (village  in 
Berne),  Oberholtzer  (sever?!  villages  in  Berne), 
Riiegsegger  (Berne:  P.  G.  Ricksecker),  Schollen- 
berger  (castle  and  village,  Zurich),  Schwab  (a 
Swabian:  P.  G.  Swope),  Urner  (from  Canton 
Uri),  Zug  (Canton  Zug),  Ziircher  (from  ZiJrich).^ 
During  the  Middle  Ages  the  houses  were  not 
numbered  as  now,  but  had  signs  painted  on 
them,  something  after  the  manner  of  hotels  at 
the    present    time.      From    these    many    names 

'  Some  of  these  names  may  come  from  homonymous  places 
in  the  Palatinate  ;  almost  all  the  Lancaster  County  family- 
names,  however,  which  are  derived  from  places,  are  of  Swiss 
origin. 


APPENDIX.  237 

were  derived:  Bar  (bear),  Baum  (tree),  Bieber 
(beaver),  Bischof  (bishop),  Engel  (angel),  Fas- 
nacht  (Slirove-Tuesday),  Faust  (fist),  Fuchs(fox), 
Fiinfrock  (five-coats),  Haas  (hare),  Hahn  (rooster), 
Hehii  (helmet),  Hertzog  (duke:  P.  G.  Hartsook), 
Holtzapfel  (wild-apple),  Kalb  (calf:  P.  G.  Kulp, 
Gulp),  Kaiser  (emperor),  Konig  (king),  Krebs 
(crab),  Miinch  (monk),  Oechsli  (little  ox:  P.  G. 
Exley),  Pfaff  (priest),  Ritter  (knight),  Vogel 
(bird),  Voegli  (little  bird:  P.  G.  Feagley),  Wiir- 
fel  (die,  cube).  Wolf. 

Finally  we  have  names  given  from  personal 
peculiarities.  Such  are:  Braun,  Diirr  (dry,  thin), 
Frohlich  (cheerful:  P.  G.  Frailey),  Frei  (free), 
Freytag  (Friday),  Gut  (good),  Hiibschmann 
(handsome),  Hoch  (tall),  Jiing  (young),  Kahl 
(bald),  Klein  (small),  Kleindienst  (small  ser- 
vice), Krause  (curly),  Krumbein  (crooked  legs), 
Kurtz  (short),  Lang  (long),  Lebengut  (good- 
liver:  P.  G.  Livingood),  Rau,  Ranch  (rough), 
Reich  (rich),  Roth  (red),  Rothrock  (red-coat), 
Rothaermel  (red-sleeve),  Schwartz  (black),  Sel- 
tenreich  (seldom  rich),  Weiss  (white) .^ 

Such  were  some  of  the  names  brought  by  the 
Pennsylvania  Germans  from  the  Palatinate  and 
Switzerland  to  the  New  World.    It  was  but  nat- 

'  The  author  has  written  an  extended  treatment  of  this  sub- 
ject, which  is  soon  to  appear  in  the  Americana  Germanica. 


238  APPENDIX. 

ural  that  these  names  should  undergo  certain 
changes  in  their  new  environments — changes 
which  took  place  from  the  very  beginning. 

An  interesting  illustration  of  the  way  in  which 
many  names  received  an  English  form  is  seen  in 
the  Pennsylvania  Archives,  Second  Series,  vol, 
XVII.,  which  contains  a  list  of  the  German  and 
Swiss  settlers  in  Pennsylvania  during  the  eigh- 
teenth century,  the  names  of  the  vessels  in  which 
they  came,  and  the  dates  of  their  naturalization. 
Often  there  are  two  lists  given,  one  called  the 
"  original  list,"  which  apparently  was  made  by 
an  English-speaking  person,  who  took  down  the 
names  as  they  were  given  to  him  orally,  and  who 
spelt  them  phonetically.  These  duplicate  lists 
throw  a  great  deal  of  light  on  the  pronunciation 
of  the  names  by  the  immigrants  themselves.  We 
find  the  same  person's  name  spelled  Kuntz  and 
Coones,  Kuhle  and  Keeley,  Ruber  and  Hufifer, 
Gaul  and  Kool,  Vogelin  and  Fagley,  Krautz  and 
Grauce,  Froehlich  and  Frailick.  Often  there  are 
some  marvellous  examples  of  phonetic  spelling. 
Thus,  Albrecht  Graf^  is  written  Albrake  Grove, 
Georg  Heinrich  Mertz  is  called  Jurig  Henrich 
March,  and  Georg  Born  is  metamorphosed  into 
Yerrick  Burry.  Thus  even  before  the  immigrant 
landed  the  impulse  toward  a  change  of  name  was 
given. 


APPENDIX.  239 

Sometimes  the  change  was  gradual,  and  we 
may  trace  many  intermediate  steps  between  the 
original  name  and  its  present  form.  Thus,  for 
Krehbiel  we  have  Krehbill,  Grebill,  Grabill,  and 
finally  Graybill.  So  Krumbein  gives  us  Krum- 
bine,  Grumbein,  and  Grumbine,  and  Kuehbortz 
gives  Kieportz  and  Keeports.  Often  members 
of  the  same  family  spelled  their  names  differently. 
In  Lancaster  there  once  lived  two  brothers,  one 
named  Carpenter,  the  other  Zimmermann,  and 
we  are  told  by  Francis  Lieber  (The  Stranger  in 
America),  that  one  family  in  Pennsylvania  had 
the  three  forms, — Klein,  Small  and  Little. 

In  some  cases  the  changes  were  slight,  owing 
to  the  similarity  between  the  English  and  the 
German,  as  in  Baker  (Becker),  Miller  (Mueller), 
Brown  (Braun),  Weaver  (Weber),  Beaver  (Bie- 
ber),  Pepper  (Pfeffer);  of  course  Schmidt  be- 
came almost  at  once  Smith.  In  other  cases  the 
differences  are  so  great  that  it  is  difficult  to  dis- 
cover the  original  German  form,  and  it  is  only  by 
searching  public  documents  and  church  records 
that  the  truth  is  found.  Who,  for  instance,  could 
see  any  connection  between  Seldomridge  and 
Seltenreich,  or  between  Rhoades  and  Roth?  Yet 
nothing  is  surer  than  that  in  many  cases  these 
names  are  one  and  the  same.  It  is  undoubtedly 
true  that  most  Pennsylvania  Germans  of  modern 


240  yIPPENDIX. 

times  have  no  conception  of  the  changes  that 
have  taken  place.  The  remark  of  a  farmer  who 
spelled  his  name  Minich  (with  the  guttural  pro- 
nounced), "  Oh,  that  INIinnick  is  an  Irishman;  he 
spells  his  name  with  a  A',"  illustrates  the  igno- 
rance of  the  people  in  regard  to  their  own  names; 
for  Minich  arid  Minnick  both  come  from  the 
original  Muench. 

In  the  present  discussion  we  must  bear  in 
mind  that  we  are  speaking  of  the  names  of  those 
Germans  who  came  to  America  before  the  Revo- 
lution, and  who  were  subject  to  an  entirely  dif- 
ferent set  of  influences  from  the  German  of  re- 
cent times,  who  changes  his  name  consciously 
and  bodily  into  English.  The  names  of  the  early 
Pennsylvania  Germans  were  changed  uncon- 
sciously and  according  to  forces  with  which  they 
had  little  to  do.  The  difference  between  the  two 
is  like  that  between  the  mots  savants  and  the  mots 
populaircs  of  French  philology. 

These  German  names  almost  all  came  from  the 
Palatinate  and  Switzerland.  Even  to-day  we  can 
trace  the  Swiss  origin  of  many,  as,  for  instance, 
Urner  (from  Uri),  Johns  (Tschantz),  Neagley 
(Naegeli),  Bossier  (Baseler).  Some  are  of  French 
Huguenot  origin,  which  by  combined  German 
arid  English  influence  have  often  received  a  not 
very  elegant  or  euphonious  forfii:   examples  are 


APPENDIX.  241 

Lemon  (Le  Mon),  Bushong  (Beauchamp),  and 
Shunk  (Jean);  the  original  Fierre  was  changed 
to  German  Faehre,  and  later  became  anglicized 
into  Ferree.* 

The  number  of  different  ways  of  spelling  even 
the  simplest  names  is  often  surprisingly  large: 
thus,  for  the  original  Graf  we  find  to-day  Graaf, 
Graff,  Groff,  Groft,  Graft,  and  Grove.  So  Baer 
gives  us  Bear,  Bare,  Bair.  Of  course  the  vagaries 
of  English  orthography  are  largely  responsible 
for  this.  An  interesting  fact  to  note  in  this  connec- 
tion is  the  difference  yet  to  be  seen  between  the 
same  names  in  town  and  country.  The  farmers 
of  Pennsylvania  are  a  conservative  people,  and 
even  to-day,  after  nearly  two  hundred  years  of 
settlement  in  America,  the  people  still  speak  their 
dialect.  Naturally  the  cities  were  most  subject 
to  English  influence,  and  it  is  there  that  we  find 
the  greatest  changes  in  names.  Take  as  an  exam- 
ple of  this  the  name  of  Kuntz  (with  the  later  forms 
of  Kuhns  and  Koons)  in  the  town  and  environs 
of  Allentown.  In  the  town  proper  there  are 
recorded  in  the  directory  twenty-two  Koonses, 

*  Other  Huguenot  names  in  Pennsylvania  are  Fortune  (Ford- 
ney),  Correll,  Flory,  De  Frehn,  Farny,  Ruby,  Salade,  Bene- 
tum,  Bevier,  Bertalot,  Broe  (Brua),  Lefevre,  Levan,  Erny 
(this  name  may  be  Swiss),  Gobain,  Hubert.  (See  Keiper, 
Franzosische  Familiennamen  in  der  Pfalz,  and  Geschichts- 
blatter  des  deutschen  Huguenotten-Vereins.) 


242  APPENDIX. 

twelve  Kuntzes,  and  fourteen  Kuhnses;  while  in 
the  smaller  villages  around  Allentown  we  find 
sixty-two  Kuhnses,  a  few  Kuntzes,  and  no 
Koonses. 

There  were  three  ways  in  which  the  change  of 
names  took  place:  first,  by  translation;  second, 
by  spelling  German  sounds  according  to  English 
methods;  and  third,  ])y  analogy.  The  former  is 
the  most  natural  in  cases  where  English  equiva- 
lents exist  for  the  German;  hence  for  Zimmer- 
mann  we  have  Carpenter;  for  Steinbrenner, 
Stoneburner;  for  Schumacher,  Shoemaker;  for 
Seidensticker,  Silkknitter;  for  Lebengut,  Livin- 
good;  for  Fuchs,  Fox;  for  Hoch,  High;  and  so 
forth.  Often  only  half  the  name  is  translated, 
while  the  other  half  is  changed  phonetically,  as 
in  Slaymaker  (for  Schleiermacher),  Wanamaker 
(for  Wannemacher). 

But  the  true  field  for  the  philologist  is  found 
in  the  second  class,  that  of  English  spelling  of 
German  sounds. 

The  a  in  Pennsylvania  German  was  pro- 
nounced broadly,  like  English  aic,  and  this 
sound  is  represented  in  such  names  as  Groflf  and 
Grove  (from  Graff),  Swope  (Schwab),  Ault  (Alt), 
Aughey  (Ache),  and  Rawn  (Rahn).  E  was  pro- 
nounced like  English  a.  and  this  gives  us  the 
names  Staley  (Stehli),  Gable  (Gebel),  Amwake 


APPENDIX.  243 

(Amweg).  /,  pronounced  ce,  gives  Reed  (Rith), 
Sheeleigh  (Schillig),  also  written  Shelley.  U  in 
German  has  two  sounds,  one  long  and  one  short. 
The  long  sound  is  represented  by  00  in  the  names 
Hoon  (Huhn),  Fooks  (Fuchs),  Booker  (Bucher), 
Hoover  (Huber).  The  short  sound,  being  un- 
familiar to  English  ears,  was  lengthened,  as 
Kootz  (Kutz),  Zook  (Zug).  Sometimes  an  h 
was  added  to  indicate  the  lengthening  of  the 
vowel,  as  in  Johns  (Tschantz),  Kuhns  (Kuntz). 
0  is  usually  retained,  although  sometimes  spelled 
oa,  as  in  Hoak  (Hoch),  Boats  (Botz). 

Of  the  diphthongs,  an  naturally  is  spelled  otv 
or  on,  as  in  Bowman  (Bauman),  Foust  (Faust), 
Mowrer  (Maurer). 

More  interesting  and  complicated  than,  the 
above  is  the  change  in  the  diphthong  ci.  The  reg- 
ular German  pronunciation  of  this  is  repre- 
sented by  English  i  or  y:  hence  such  names  as 
Hines  (Heinz),  Smyser  (Schmeiser),  Whitesel 
(Weitzel),  Snyder  (Schneider),  Tice  (Theiss), 
Rice  (Reis),  Knipe  (Kneipe).  In  the  names  Heil- 
man,  Weiser,  and  Beiler  the  German  spelling  and 
sound  are  both  retained.  The  Pennsylvania  Ger- 
mans, however,  pronounced  ci  as  English  a,  and 
thus  we  find  the  names  Sailor  (Seller),  Graty 
(Kreidig),  Hailman  (Heilman),  Espenshade  (Es- 
penscheid). 


244  APPENDIX. 

The  mixed  vowels  were  simplified,  o  becom- 
ing c  in  Derr  (Doerr),  Sener  (Soehner),  Kelker 
(Koellicker),  Mellick  (Moehlich),  ca  in  Early 
(Oehrle),  Beam  (Boehm),  and  a  in  Hake 
(Hoeck).  Ue  is  long  and  short  in  German.  The 
former  gives  ce,  as  in  Keeney  (Kuehne),  Keeley 
(Kuehle);  the  latter  usually  gives  i,  as  in  Bitner 
(Buettner),  Kindig  (Kuendig),  Bixler  (Buechs- 
ler),  Tliss  (Huess),  Miller  (Mueller).  In  Sheets 
(Schuetz),  however,  short  ue  is  lengthened  to  ee. 

In  the  following  names  the  umlaut  is  ignored: 
Stover  (Stoever),  Shroder  (Schroeder),  Shober 
(Schoeber). 

Of  course  the  changes  undergone  by  con- 
sonants are  not  so  great  as  in  the  case  of  vowels, 
yet  we  have  some  interesting  phenomena.  /  is 
naturally  changed  to  3-;  hence  Young  (Jung), 
Yost  (Johst).  Z  becomes  .y  in  many  names,  as 
Curts  (Kurtz),  Butts  (Butz).  K  and  c,  and  often 
g,  are  interchangeable,  as  in  Cofifman  (Kauff- 
man),  Cline  (Kline),  Capehart  (Kephart  =  Geb- 
hard),  Grider  (Kreider),  Givler  (Kubler).  At  the 
end  of  a  word,  ig  usually  becomes  y,  as  in  Leiby 
(Leibig),  Leidy  (Leidig).  T  is  changed  to  d  in 
Sides    (Seitz),    Road    (Roth),   Widmayer   (Wit- 

meyer). 

H  is  omitted  in  Sener  (Soehner),  Cole  (Kohl), 
Fraley  (Froehlich),  Lcman  (Lehman).     Pf  be- 


APPENDIX.  245 

comes  simplified  to  /"  in  Foutz  (Pfautz),  or  to  p 
in  Kopp  (Kopf).  B  was  often  pronounced  by  the 
Pennsylvania  Germans  like  v,  and  this  gives  rise 
to  a  large  number  of  new  names,  among  them 
being  the  following:  Everly  (Eberle),  Hoover 
(Huber),  Garver  (Gerber), — also  written  Carver, 
— Whitescarver  (Weissgerber),  Lively  (Leibly), 
Suavely  (Schnaebele),  Beaver  (Bieber). 

The  change  of  cli  into  gli  has  also  brought  in  a 
large  number  of  names,  as  in  Light  (Licht),  Al- 
bright (Albrecht),  Hambright  (Hambrecht), 
Slaughter  (Schlachter),  and  the  numerous  class 
of  names  in  baugh  (bach),  as  Baugher  (Bacher), 
Harbaugh  (Herbach),  Brightenbaugh  (Breiten- 
bach),  Rodenbough  (Rothenbach).  Cli  usually 
becomes  k  in  the  suffix  maker;  probably  this  is 
largely  due  to  translation.  Of  course  sch  is  sim- 
plified to  sh  or  .y  in  the  names  Slagle  (Schlegel), 
Slatter  (Schlatter),  Shriner  (Schreiner). 

One  of  the  most  interesting  of  all  these 
changes  is  that  of  cr  to  ar,  thus  illustrating  a 
phenomenon  common  to  all  languages.  As  the 
Latin  mercantein  becomes  French  marcJiand,  as 
the  English  Derby  is  pronounced  Darby,  Clerk 
Clark,  and  so  forth,  so  the  German  Gerber  be- 
comes Garver,  Herbach  becomes  Harbaugh, 
Berger  becomes  Barger,  Werfel  becomes  Warfel, 
Merkley    becomes    Markley,    Hertzell    becomes 


246  /IPPENDIX. 

Hartzell,  and  Herzog  becomes  Hartsook.  Simi- 
lar to  this  is  the  change  of  Spengler  to  Spangler. 

Interesting  also  is  the  tendency  to  introduce 
an  extra  syllable  between  certain  consonants,  as 
Minich  for  Muench,  Sherrick  for  Sherk,  Widener 
for  Waidner,  Keneagy  for  Gnege,  Yerrick  for 
Jorg. 

As  in  all  language-changes,  so  here,  analogy 
exerted  more  or  less  influence.  When  the  simple 
spelling  of  foreign  sounds  did  not  produce  an 
English-looking  name,  often  a  name  which  re- 
sembled the  German  in  sound  or  appearance  was 
substrtuted,  as,  for  example,  Rush  for  Roesch. 
This  is  probably  the  explanation  of  the  inorganic 
^  in  Rhoades  (for  Roth),  Richards  (for  Reichert). 
Probably  the  spelling  baugh  for  hack  may  be 
more  or  less  influenced  by  such  names  as  Laugh- 
lin,  Gough,  or  by  American  names  of  Dutch 
origin. 


BIBLIOGRAPHY.' 

The  following  list  contains  the  chief  works  which 
treat  of  the  various  topics  discussed  in  this  book.  It  is 
here  given  as  a  guide  to  those  who  wish  to  pursue  the 
subject  further. 

GENERAL. 

The  Colonial  Records  of  Pennsylvania. 

Pennsylvania  Archives,  Phila.  and  Harrisburg,  1852-1900. 

Three  Series. 
The  Statutes  at  Large  of  Pennsylvania,  vols.  2-5.     1896- 

1898. 
Americana    Germanica.       Pub.  by  M.  D.  Learned  of   the 

University  of  Pennsylvania. 
American     Historical    Association,    Annual    Reports    of, 

Washington,  1889-1899. 
Hazard,    Samuel.     The   Register  of  Pennsylvania.     Phila. 

1828-32. 
Hallesche  Nachrichten.     Ed.  by  W.  J.  Mann  and   B.  M. 

Schmucker.       Allentown  and  Philadelphia,  1886,  1895. 
Notes  and  Queries,   Historical  and  Genealogical.    Chiefly 

relating  to  interior  Pennsylvania.     Ed.  by  W.  H.  Egle. 

Harrisburg.     From  1879  on. 
The  Pennsylvania  German.     Issued  quarterly,     Ed.   by 

Rev.  P.  C.  Croll.     Lebanon,  Pa.,  1900. 

*  This  Bibliography  contains  only  part  of  the  sources  used  in  the 
preparation  of  this  book,  sources  which  include  not  only  printed 
material,  but  church  and  town  records,  traditions,  and  personal  obser- 
vation. 

247 


248  BIBLIOGRAPHY. 

The  Pennsylvania  Magazine  of  History  and  Biography. 
Pub.  by  the  Historical  Society  of  Pennsylvania.  Phil- 
adelphia.    Vols.  1-22. 

The  Perkiomen  Region,  Past  and  Present.  Ed.  by  H. 
S.  Dotterer.  Issued  periodically.  Vols,  i  and  2  have 
appeared.     Philadelphia. 

Eckhoff,  A.  In  der  neuen  Heimath.  2.  Ausgabe.  New 
York,  1885. 

Loher,  Franz.  Geschichte  und  Zusiiinde  der  Deutschen  in 
Amcrika.     2.  Ausgabe.      Gottingen,  1885. 

Baer,  Geo.  F.     The  Pennsylvania  Germans.     Myerstown, 

1875- 
Beidelman,    William.      The   Story   of    the    Pennsylvania 

Germans.      Easton,  1898. 

Seidensticker,  Oswald.  Bilder  aus  der  Deutsch-Pennsyl- 
vanischen  Geschichte.     New  York,  1886. 

Barber,  J.  W.  The  History  and  Antiquities  of  New  Eng- 
land, New  York,  New  Jersey,  and  Pennsylvania.  3d  ed. 
Hartford,  1S56. 

Fiske,  John.  The  Dutch  and  Quaker  Colonies  in  America. 
Boston  and  New  York,  1899. 

Bolles,  A.  S.  Pennsylvania,  Province  and  State:  a  history 
from  1690  to  1790.     Philadelphia  and  New  York,  1899. 

Bowen,  Eli.  The  Pictorial  Sketch-book  of  Pennsylvania. 
Philadelphia,  1852. 

Burrowes,  T.  H.  State  Book  of  Pennsylvania.  2d  ed. 
Philadelphia,  1847. 

Egle,  \V.  H.  History  of  the  Commonwealth  of  Pennsyl- 
vania.    3d  ed.     Philadelphia,  1883. 

Fisher,  S.  L.  The  Making  of  Pennsylvania.  Philadelphia, 
1896. 

The  True  William  Penn.     Philadelphia,  1900. 

Franklin,  Benjamin.  An  Historical  Review  of  Pennsyl- 
vania from  its  Origin.     Philadelphia,  1812. 

Gordon,  T.  F.  The  History  of  Pennsylvania  from  its 
Discovery  by  Europeans  to  the  Declaration  of  Independ- 
ence in  1776.     Philadelphia,  1829. 


BIBLIOGRAPHY.  249 

Histoire  Naturelle  et  Politique  de  la  Pensylvanie  et  de 
rEtablissement  des  Quakers.     Paris,  1768. 

Proud,    Robert.     The    History  of    Pennsylvania  in  North 

America.     Philadelphia,  1797. 
Sharpless,  Isaac.     A  Quaker  Experiment  in  Government. 
Philadelphia,  1898. 

Egle.  W.  H.  Pennsylvania  Genealogies,  chiefly  Scotch- 
Irish  and  German.     Harrisburg,  1896. 

Weiser,  C.  Z.  The  Life  of  Conrad  Weiser,  the  German 
Pioneer,  Patriot,  and  Patron  of  Two  Races.  2d  ed. 
Reading,  1899. 

Bean,  T.  W.  History  of  Montgomery  County.  Philadel- 
phia, 1884. 

Diffenderffer,  F.  R.  -The  Three  Earls:  an  Historical  Sketch. 
New  Holland,  Pa.,  1876. 

Egle,  W.  H.  History  of  the  Counties  of  Dauphin  and 
Lebanon.     Philadelphia,  1883. 

Ellis,  Franklin,  and  Evans,  Samuel.  History  of  Lancaster 
County.     Philadelphia,  1883. 

Harris,  Alexander.  A  Biographical  History  of  Lancaster 
County.     Lancaster,  1872. 

Mombert,  J.  I.  An  Authentic  History  of  Lancaster  County. 
Lancaster,  1869. 

Rupp,  I.  D.  History  of  Lancaster  County.  Lancaster, 
1844. 

History   of   Northampton,   Lehigh,    Monroe,  Carbon, 

and  Schuylkill  Counties.     Harrisburg,  1845. 

History  of  Berks  County. 

Montgomery,  M.  L.  History  of  Berks  County.  Philadel- 
phia, 1886. 

Gibson,  John.     History  of  York  County.     Chicago,  1886. 

Mathews,  Alfred,  and  Hungerford,  A.  N.  History  of  the 
Counties  of  Lehigh  and  Carbon.     Philadelphia,  1884. 

Walton,  J.  S.,  and  Brumbaugh,  M.  G.  Stories  of  Pennsyl- 
vania, or  School  Readings  from  Pennsylvania  History. 
New  York,  1897. 


250  BIBLIOGR/IPHY. 

Scharf,  J.  T.,  and  Wesicoit,   T.     History  of  Philadelphia. 

Philadelphia,  1884. 
Watson,  John  F.     Annals  of  Philadelphia.     Philadelphia, 

1830. 
Bernheim,  G.  D.     History  of  German  Settlements  in  North 

and  South  Carolina.     Philadelphia,  1872. 
Chambers,  T.   F.     The    Early   Germans    of    New   Jersey. 

Dover,  1895. 
Mellick,  A.  D.     The  Story  of  an  Old  Farm.     Somerville, 

N.  J..  1889. 
Cobb,  S.  H.     The  Story  of  the   Palatines  :  an  Episode  in 

Colonial  History.     New  York,  1897. 
Kapp,  Friedrich.    Geschichte  der  Deutschen  Einwanderung 

in  Amerika.     Erster  Band.     Die  Deutschen  im  Staate 

New  York  bis   zum   Anfang  des    neunzehten  Jahrhun- 

derts.     Leipzig,   1868.     (An    abridgment   of   the   same 

was  published  in  New  York,  1S84.) 
O'Callaghan,    E.    B.     The   Documentary  History   of   the 

State  of  New  York.     Albany,  1S50. 
Schultz,    Edward    T.     First    Settlements    of    Germans   in 

Maryland.     Frederick,  Md.,  1896. 
Strobel,  P.  A.     The   Salzburgers    and  their  Descendants. 

Baltimore,  1855. 

CHAPTER  I. 

Freytag,  Gustav.    Bilder  aus  der  deutschen  Vergangenheit 

5.  Aufiage.     Leipzig,  1867. 
Hausser,    Ludwig.       Geschichte    der    Rheinischen     Pfalz 

Heidelberg,  1856. 
Heintz,    P.    K.      Das   ehemalige  Fiirstentum    Pfalz-Zwei 

brUcken    wahrend   des   dreissigjahrigen    Krieges.       3 

Ausflage.     Kaiserslautern,  n.d. 
Horn,  W.  D.  von.   Johannes  Scherer,  oder  Tonsor  der  Wan 

derpfarrer  in  der  Unterpfalz.     2.  Auflage.     Wiesbaden, 

1869. 
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BIBLIOGRAPHY.  25 1 

Dandliker,   Karl.     Geschichte  der  Schweiz,  in  drei  Banden. 

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Geschichtsblattef   des    Deutschen    Huguenotten-Vereins. 

Published  at  intervals.     Magdeburg. 
Robbiano,  L.  v.     Die  Rose  von  Heidelberg.    Leipzig,  1872. 

(Historical  novel.) 


CHAPTER   n. 

Diffenderffer,  F.  R.  The  German  Exodus  to  England,  in 
1709.  Lancaster,  1897.  (Proceedings  of  Pennsylvania- 
German  Society,  vol.  7.) 

Jacobs,  Henry  E.  The  German  Emigration  to  America, 
1709-1740.  Lancaster,  1898.  ■  (Proceedings  of  Pennsyl- 
vania-German Society,  vol.  8.) 

Pastorius,  F.  D.  Beschreibung  von  Pennsylvanien.  Her- 
ausgegeben  von  Friedrich  Kapp.  Crefeld,  18S4. 
(Partly  translated  in  Old  South  Leaflets,  No.  95.) 

Penn,  William.  A  Collection  of  the  Works  of.  In  two  vol- 
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Penny-packer,  S.  W.   Historical  and  Biographical  Sketches. 

The   Settlement   of  Germantown,    Pennsylvania,    and 

the  Beginning  of  German  Immigration  to  North  Amer- 
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Richards,  M.  H.  The  German  Emigration  from  New 
York  Province  into  Pennsylvania.  Lancaster,  1899. 
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Rupp,  I.  D.  A  collection  of  upwards  of  30,000  names  of 
German,  Swiss,  Dutch,  French,  and  other  immigrants 
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1880. 

(The  same  lists  are  contained  in  Pennsylvania  Arch., 
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252  BIBLIOGRAPHY. 

Sachse,  J.  F.     The  Fatherland  (1450-1700).     Philadelphia. 
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CHAPTER    IV. 

Riehl,    W.    H.     Die    Pfalzer,    ein    Rheinisches   Volksbild. 

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Gegenwart      und      Vergangenhcit.       Neue      Ausgabe. 

Miinchen,  1893. 
Raynal,    G.   T.     Histoire    philosophique   et    politique    des 

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Mann,  W.  J.     Die  gute  alte  Zeit  in  Pennsylvania. 
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CHAPTER  V. 

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CHAPTER  VL 

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The    Fathers    of   the    German    Reformed    Church    in 

Europe  and  America.  6  vols.  Lancaster,  1857-72  ; 
Reading,  1881-88.     (D.  Y.  Heisler  edited  vols.  3  to  6.) 

Dotterer,  H.  S.  Historical  Notes  relating  to  the  Penn- 
sylvania Reformed  Church.     Vol.  1,     Phila.,  1899. 

Schaff,  D.  S.     The  life  of  Philip  Schaff.     New  York,  1897. 

Jacobs,  H,  E.  A  History  of  the  Evangelical  Lutheran 
Church  in  the  United  States.     New  York,  1897. 

Documentary  History  of  the  Evangelical  Ministerium  of 
Pennsylvania  and  Adjacent  States.     Phila.,  1898. 

Mann,  W.  J.  Life  and  Times  of  Henry  Melchior  Muhlen- 
berg.    2d  ed.     Phila.,  188S. 

Cranz,  David.  The  Ancient  and  Modern  History  of  the 
Brethren  ...  or  Unitas  Fratrum.     London,  1780. 

Reichel,  L.  T.  The  Early  History  of  the  Church  of  the 
United  Brethren  (Unitas  Fratrum),  commonly  called 
Moravians,  in  North  America.     Nazareth,  Pa.,  1888. 

Henry,  James.  Sketches  of  Moravian  Life  and  Character. 
Phila.,  1859. 

Ritter,  Abr.  History  of  the  Moravian  Church  in  Phila- 
delphia.    Phila.,  1857. 

Schweinitz,  Edward  de.  The  Life  of  David  Zeisberger. 
Phila.,  1870. 

Thompson,  A.  C.     Moravian  Missions.     London,  1883. 

Brons,  A.  Ursprung,  Entwickelung  und  Schicksale  der 
Altevangelischen  Taufgesinnten  oder  Mennoniten.  2. 
Auflage.     Norden,  1891. 

Egli,  Emil.  Die  Ziiricher  Wiedertaufer  zur  Reforma- 
tionszeit,     Zurich,  1878. 

Die  St.  Caller  Taufer.     Zurich,  1887. 

Keller,  Ludwig.  Die  Reformation  und  die  alteren  Re- 
formpartien.     Leipzig,  1885. 

Ein  Apostel  der  Wiedertaufer.     Leipzig,  1882. 


25  6  BIBLIOGRAPHY. 

Keller,   Ludwig.       Geschichte  der  Widertaufer.     Miinster, 
1880. 

Zur    Geschichte    der    Altevangelischen     Gemeinden. 

Berlin,  1897. 
Loserth,  J.     Der  Communismus  der  Mahrischen  Wieder- 

taufer  im  16.  und  17.  Jahrhunderte.     Wien,  1894. 
Der   Anabaptismus  in  Tirol.     Von  seinem  Anfiingen 

bis   zum     Tode    Jakob    Huters.     (1526-1536.)      Wien, 

1893. 
Der   Anabaptismus  in   Tirol   vom  Jahre  1536  bis   zu 

seinem  Erloschen.     Wien,  1892. 
Mannhardt,  H.   G.  Jahrbuch  der  Altevangelischen   Tauf- 

gesinnten  oder  Mennoniten-Gemeinden.     Danzig,  i888. 
Festschrift   zu   Menno   Simon's  400   jahrige    Geburts- 

tagfeier  den  6.  November,  1892.     Danzig,  1892. 
Miiller,  Ernst.     Geschichte  der  Bernischen  Taufer.     Frau- 

enfeld,  1S95. 
Nitsche,   Richard.     Geschichte    der   Wiederlaufer   in  der 

Schweiz  zur  Reformationszeit.     Einsiedeln,  1885. 
Staehelin,    R.     Die   ersten    Martyrer  des     Evangelischen 

Glaubens  in  der  Schweiz.     Heidelberg,  1883. 
Eby,  B.     Kurzgefasste  Kirchen-Geschichte  und  Glaubens- 

lehre  der  Taufgesinnten  Christen.     Lancaster. 
Cassel,  D.  K.     Geschichte  der  Mennoniten.     Phila.,  1890. 
Musser,     Daniel.      The     Reformed    Mennonite    Church. 

Lancaster,  1873 
Ausbund,  das  ist :    Etliche  schSne  christliche  Lieder,   etc. 

Germantown,  1751. 
Braght,  T.  J.  van.     Der  blutige  Schauplatz,  oder  Martyr- 
Spiegel  der  Taufgesinnten  oder  wahrlosen  Christen,  etc. 

Lancaster,  1814. 
Philip,  Dietrich.    Enchiridion,  oder  Handbiichlein  von  der 

christlichen  Lehre  und  Religion.     Lancaster,  iSii. 
Simon,  Menno.      Ein    Fundament   und  klarer  Anweisung 

von   der   seligmachenden,   Lehre    unsers    Herrn   Jesu- 

Christi.     Lancaster,  1835. 


BIBLIOGRAPHY.  257 

Brumbaugh,  M.  G.  A  History  of  the  German  Baptist 
Brethren  in  Europe  and  America.    Mt.  Morris,  111.,  iSgg. 

Mack,  Alexander.  A  Plain  View  of  the  Rites  and  Ordi- 
nances of  the  House  of  God.     Mt,  Morris,  111.,  1888. 

Chronicon  Ephratense.  A  History  of  the  Community  of 
Seventh-Day  Baptists  at  Ephrata,  Lancaster  Co.,  Pa. 
Translated  by  J.  Max  Hark,  D.D.     Lancaster,  1889. 

Sachse,  J.  F.  The  German  Sectarians  of  Pennsylvania. 
Philadelphia,  1899. 

The    German    Pietists    of    Provincial    Pennsylvania. 

Philadelphia,  1896. 

Heebner,  Balthasar,  and  Heydrick,  C.  Genealogical- 
Record  of  the  Schwenckfelders.     Manayunk,  1879. 

Berger,  Daniel.  History  of  the  Church  of  the  United 
Brethren  in  Christ.     Dayton,  O.,  1897. 

Wesley,  John,  The  Works  of.  Vols.  3  and  4,  containing 
his  Journal.     New  York,  1831. 

Crook,  William.  Ireland  and  the  Centenary  of  American 
Methodism.     London  and  Dublin,  1866. 

Stevens,  Abel.  History  of  the  Methodist  Episcopal 
Church  in  the  United  States  of  America.  New  York, 
1867. 

Wakelj,  J.  B.  The  Patriarch  of  One  Hundred  Years: 
being  the  Reminiscences,  History,  and  Biography  of 
Rev.  Henry  Boehm.     New  York,  1875. 


INDEX. 


Adams  County,  60 

Adler,  The  Reading,  12 1 

Agriculture,  85  ff. 

Albright,  Jacob,  155,  189-190 

Alemanni,  7,  61,  222 

Alemannic  dialect,  117,  118 

Almanacs,  103,  133 

Alsace,  56 

Ames,  William,  34 

Amish,  113,  131,  178 

Ammen,  Jacob,  178 

Rear-Admiral,  216 
Amsterdam,  66 
Anabaptists,  32,  172,  175 
Andrews,  140 
Anglo-Saxons,  228 
Anne,  Queen,  26,  49,  51 
Antes,   Henry,    156,    168,  197, 

212 
Appel,  Major,  216 
Armbriister,  134 
"  Armentown,"  41 
Arndt's  Waki-es  Christenthum, 

132 
Arnold,  Gottfried,  43,  175 
Art,  219 
Asbury,    Francis,     187,     189, 

190 
Ascension  Day,  103 
Ausbiind,  130 
Austria,  65 
Baird,    Huguenot   Emigration 

to  America,   10,  81 
Baird,  Spencer  F.,  219,  227 
Baker,  Peter,  180 
Ballygarrane,  186 


I  Baptists,  32,  159,  192 
Barber,  214 
Barclay,  Robert,  33 
Barnitz,  Colonel,  216 
Barns,  "  Swisser,"  94 
Barton,  Thomas,  147 
Basel,  56,  63,  65 
Bauman,  Matthias,  128,  155 
Bausman,  Rev.  B.,  125 
Beaver,  197,  216 
Bechtel,  John,  168 
Beehiz'e,  130 
Behagel,  Daniel,  36 
Beissel,  Conrad,  44,  127,  129, 

130,  154,  180,  181,   182 
Berger,  188,  190 
Berks  County,   48  ff.,  59,  207, 

215 

Bernard  of  Weimar,  9 

Berne,  22,  24,  26,  44,  45,  63, 
65,66 

Bernese  Oberland,  64 

Bethlehem,  91,  152,  168,  171, 
204 

Bible,  108,  131  ff.,  156,  157 

Bigler,  Governor  of  Pennsyl- 
vania, 197 

Bigler,  John,  Governor  of 
California,    197 

Binghamton,  N.  Y.,  50 

Black,  Jeremiah,  227 

Block  Island,  72 

Blood-letting,  103 

Blue  Mountains,  84,  200 

Blue  Ridge,  Va., 

Boehm,  Henry,  187 

259 


26o 


INDEX. 


Boehm,  John  Philip,  52,  163 
Martin,  154,  155,  159, 

187,  188 
Bohemia,  4,  8 

Bohler,  Peter,  129,  156,   185 
B(jm,  Cornelius,  41 
Boos,  61 

Bouck,  Governor,  50,  197 
Bowman,  Bishop,    187 
Braddock,  General,  88,  200 
Bradford,  Andrew,  127 
Brandenburg,  Elector  of,  1 1 
Braune,  107 

Bricker,  Peter,  House  of,  97 
Brodhead,  Colonel,  214 
Brons,  174 
Brua,  227 

Brubacher  Genealogy,  63 
Brubaker,  Jacob,  48 

Judge,  177 
Brumbaugh,    M.    G.,   27,   67, 

71,  82 
Brnnnholtz,  154 
Buckley,  J.  M..  186 
Burke,  Edmund,  160 
Calvin,  33 
Calvinists,  32 
Cameron,  Simon,  198,  227 
Canada,  141,  142,  201 
Carroll,  H.  K...  151 
Cassel,  5 
Catholics,  14  ff.,  56,  141,  142, 

I43»  171 
Caton,  William,  34 
Cattle,  93 
Centre  County,  60 
Charles  II.,  36 
Chlodowig,  7 

Chronicoti  Ephratense,  128 
Church  of  England,  32,  146 
Church  of  God,  191 
Civil  War,  215,  216 
Cobb,  50 

Coster,  see  Koster 
Coleridge,  44 
Colleges,  151 


Collegia  Pi et  at  is,  35,  159 
Collinson,  Peter,  136 
Comenius,  152 
"  Concord,"  32,  40 
Conestoga,  44,  163,  180 
Conestoga  Wagons,  98,  99 
Conestogoe,  47 
Congress,  Members  of,  198 
Conrad  von  Hohenstaufen,  8 
Coxe,  E.  B.,  86 
Crefeld,  32.  35,  39 
Cresap's  War,  36 
Croll,  P.  C,  96 
Crook,  49 

Cumberland  County,  59 
Curzon,  Lord,   227 
Custer,  General,   216 
Dandliker,  22,  23,  25,  61,  196, 

206,  223 
Darmstadt,  56 
Dauphin  Count}',  60 
Dechert,  General,  216 
De  Hoop  Schefter,    see  Schef- 

fer 
De  Kalb,  212 
Delaware  Indians,  200 
Denny,  Governor,  27,  79 
Dialect,  I17  ff. 
Dickenson,  John,  53 
Dieskau,  Count,  205 
Diller,  Major,  216 
Dock,  Christopher,  138 
Dort,  Synod  of,  178 
Dotterer,    H.   S.,  52,   54,    69, 

156,  162 
Doudel,  Michael,  209 
Dresden,  66 
Dress,  113 
Drinking,    ill  ff. 
Dubbs,  J.  H..  26 
Dulaney,  Daniel,  142,  201 
Dunkards,    19,    150,  151,  152, 

154,  160,  179,    180,  196 
Dutch,  84 

Earle,  A.  M.,  iii,  112 
Eckert,  Colonel,  212 


INDEX. 


261 


Eckhoff,  31 

Education,    136  ff. 

Egle,  Dr.  W.  H.,  197,  216 

Egli,  131 

Elbe,  66 

Eliot,  John,  169 

Elizabeth,  Duchess  of  Or- 
leans, 12 

Ellery,  William,  208 

Ellis  and  Evans,  History  of 
Lancaster    County,  48,    87, 

95-  99 
Embury,  Philip,  49,  186 
Emmenthal,  64 
Endt,  Theobald,  168 
"  Engages,"  81 
Engel,  Jacob,  179 
England,  Wars  of,  72 
Ephrata  Brethren,  113 
Ephrata  Community,  44,  128, 

132,  143.  15s.  160,  181-3 
Episcopalians,  192 
Erasmus,  139 
Erbach,  56 
Ettv/ein,  Bishop,  196 
Evangelical  Association,    160, 

189,  190 
Evangeline,  82 
Evans  Family,  227 
Evans,    History  of  Lancaster 

County,  215 
Falckner,  Daniel,  43.  139,  154 
Falkner's  Swamp,  163 
Fenwick,   81,  82 
Ferree,  Andrew,  87 
Feudalism,  20,  23 
Fisher,  H.  L.,  123,  124 
Fiske,  John,  2,   7,  46,  72,  116, 

137.  193 
Five  Nations,  199,  203 

Flowers,  100 
Foltz,  Surgeon,  216 
Food,  113 

Forbes,  General,  205 
Force's     American    Archives, 
208 


"  Foreign  Needs,"  Committee 

on,  69 
Forney,  J.  W.,  198 
Fox,  George,  33 
France,  II,  65,  72 
Francke,  August  Hermann,  165 
Frankenthal,  li,  13 
Frankfort  Company,   75,  139 
Frankfort-on-the-Main,  35,  36, 

67 
Frankish  Dialect,  1 17,  118 

Franklin,  Benjamin,  128,  129, 

132,  134,     136,     137,    150, 
151,  201 

Franks,  7,  222 
Frederick,  Colonel,  216 
Frederick  IV.,  18 

v.,  8 

the  Wise,  8 
Frees,  Cornelius,  98 
French   and  Indian   War,  56, 

133,  169,  203  ff. 

French  Language   in  English 

Law,  121 
French  Revolution,  20,  23 
Freytag,  Gustav,   3,   4.  6,  20, 

28,   36,   93,    106,    108,   138, 

^53-  ^94.  195.  196,  224 

Frick,  H.  C,  177,  218 

Friedenthal,  169 

Frietchie,  Barbara,  216 

Fritz,  Hon.  John,  218 

"  Frolics,"  109 

Froschauer,  157 

Funck,  Henry,  207 

Funerals,    1 10 

Furley,  Benjamin,  34,  81,  82 

Genealogy.  227 

German    Reformed,  see    Re- 
formed 

German  Regiment,  210 

Germantown,   40  ff.,  53,  159, 
176,  196 

Germany,  2 

George  I.,  67,   146 
IL,  27 


262 


INDEX. 


Georgia,  26.  167,  185 
Gloiiinger,  Colonel,  212 
Gnadcnhutten,  169,  203,  204 
Gohin,  General,  216 
Goethe,  102,  116 
Goetschi,  65,  66,  74,  76 
Golden  Book,  26 
Good,  J.  I.,  26,  74 
Gordon,  53,  81,  146,  201 
Gottschalk,  George,  45 
GraTf,  197 
GraflenriL-d,  26 
Grail. im,  211 
Grammont,  Field-Marshal  de, 

II 
Graveyards,  no,  175 
Graydon,  Alexander,  211 
Greenland,  167 
GrofT,  Abraham,  179 
Gruber,  John,  168 
Gruner,  64 

Gumrc,  Johannes,  112 
Ilaldeman,  S.  S.,  I19,  121,  219 
Ilalderman,  General.  2x6 
Ilalle,  Orphan  House,  165 
Ilaller,  64 
llallesche  Nachrichtcn,  70,  73, 

74,    78,    144,   154,  155,  157, 

158,  165 
Hamburg,  56,  66 
Hamilton,  James,  89 
Hanau,  56 
Handschuh,    Pastor,    70,    73, 

74,  144,  155,  195 
Hannover,  56 
Harbaugh,    Henry,    122,  123- 

126,  148,  154 
Harlman,  Barbara,  158 
Harlranft,  C.  D.,  139 

Governor,  197,  216 
Hartzell,  Bishop,  187 
Harvard  College,  152 
Haupt,  Colonel,  216 
Hiiusser,  Ludwig,  7,  8,  9,  15, 

16,  18,  20 
Haussmann,  129 


Hcbcl.  123 
Heberle,  Johannes,  5 
Heck,  Barbara,  49,  186 
Heckman,  General,  216 
Ileebner,  68 
Heidelberg,  8,  14 
Heintz,  21 
Heintze,  232 

Ileiiitzelman,  General,  216 
Helmuth,  129,  15 1,  207 
Hendricks,  Gerhard,  39,  176 
Ilenneberg,  County  of,  6 
Henry,  James,  171 
Herkimer,  General,  212 
Herman,  Dirck,  39 
Herodotus,  63 
Herr  Family,  92 

Christian,  47 

Francis,  178 

Hans,  47,  48 

John,  179 
Hess,  Salomon,  26 
Hesse,  56 

Herrnhut,  66,  167,  185 
Hiester,  151,  197,  212 
Hildebrand,  John,  182 
Hillegass,  Michael,  198 
Hinke,  Rev.  W.  J.,  154 
I  lite,  Jost.  60 
HolTman,  144 

Dr.  W.  J.,  108,  136 
Holland,  II 

"  Holy  Experiment,"  37 
Ilorch,  Henry,  19 
H(jrn,  General,  9 

W.  O.  von.  5 
Ilorslield,  Timothy,  204 
Horticultm-e,  100 
Houses,  95 

Hubley,  Bernard,  210 
Colonel,  212 
George,  210 
Huguenots,  lo,  17,  81,  176 
HunUr,  Robert,  49 
Hynm-books,    130,    131,    157, 

^5« 


INDEX. 


263 


Hymns,  128,  129 

I/liistrirte       Geschichte       von 

Wtirtemberg,  4,  21 
Immigration,  31 
Incantations,  106 
Indians,  169,  199  ff. 
Inscriptions  on  Houses,  96 
Inspirationists,  129 
Iron  Foundries,  218 
Jacobs,  H.  E.,  147 
Jefferson  Medical  School,  151 
Jesuits,  15,  16,  17,  136,  143 
Johann  Kasimir,  96 
John  William,  15,  16 
Johnson,  William,  141 

Sir  William,  81 
Johnston,  William,  88 
Jung-Stilling,  35 
Kalkloser,  182 
Kalm,  Peter,  52,  82,  206 
Kapp,  Friedrich,    39,   50,  158 
Karl  Ludwig,   8,    10,    11,  36, 

161 
Kauffman,  Hon.   C.  C,  218 
Keen  Family,  227 
Keener,  Bishop,  187 
Keifer,  General,  216 
Keim  Family,  227 
Keith,  George,  33 

Governor,  54 
Keller,  172 
Kelpius,    Johann,    19,   42,    43, 

44>  73>  75.  139,  160,  199 
Kemper,  Surgeon,  216 
Kichlein,  Colonel,  212 
Kobel,  118,  123 
Kolb,  Johannes,  139 
Koster,  H.  B.,  43,  139 
Kress,  Major,  216 
Kriegsheim,    10,   32,    34,   35, 

36,  38,  39 
Kuhl,  197 
Kuhn,  A.  S.,  195 
Kunders,  Thones,  39 
Kiindig,  Martin,  47,  48 
Kuntz,  Benedict,  45 


Kunze,  Pastor,  70,  146 

Kutztown,    195 

Lampman,     Archibald,     220, 

227 
Lancaster,   89,   90,    163,   176, 

194,  207 
Lancaster  County,    25,    46  ff., 

53.  59>  86,  87,  215 
Landis,  Abraham,  179 

Judge,  177 
Landisville,  177 
Language,  115-117,  I47.  166, 

167 
Lauffenburg,  63 
Learned,  M.  D.,  121 
Lebanon  County,  60,  91 
Lebanon  Valley  College,  151 
Lee,  General,  208 
Lehigh  County,  60,  108 
Leidy,  Joseph,  219 
Lennig,   I 18 
Leopold,  Emperor,  144 
Leutbecker,  Caspar,  144 
Levering  Colonel,  216 
Family,  227 
Lexington,  207 
Lick,  James,  219 
Lieber,  Francis,  228 
Limestone  Soil,  86 
Lincoln,  Abraham,  215 
Literature,  122  ff. 
Lititz,  152,  171 
Loher,  31 
Loeser,  Jacob,  144 
Long,  J.  L.,  220 
Longfellow,  12 1 
Lorentz,  Johann,  36 
Lot,  108 

Louis  XIV.,  II,  12,  83 
Louvois,  13 

Ludwig,  Christopher,  214 
Lutherans,  14 ff.,  32,  106,  146, 

150,  154,  160  ff.,   175 
Lutz,  Colonel,  212 
Macaulay,    13 
McCrady,  134 


264 


INDEX. 


Mack,  Alexander,  19,  155,  179 

Valentine.  182 
McKean,  Rev.  Joseph,  iii 
Mann,  75 
Mannheim,  56,  91 
Manz,  Felix,  174 
Marbiirger   Hymn-book,  131 
Marsliall,  Christopher,  103 
Mather,  Cotton,  152 
Mathews     and      Hungerford, 

History  of  Lehigh  County,  135 
Matthai,  Conrad,  44 
"Mayflower,"  32 
Medicine,  106 
Meili,  Martin,  47 
Mellinger  Meeting  House,  161 
Menno,  see  Simon 
Mennonites,  11,  17,  24,  25,  32, 

44  ff. .  76,  84, 86, 87,  109,  III, 

113.  132,  133-  150.  154,  172 
ff.,  196,  201,  207,  208,  213 

Mentz,  56 

Merian,  Caspar,  36 

Merlau.  Eleonora  von,  36 

Methodism,  49,  185  fT. 

Meyer,  93,  95,  107,  116 

Michel,  26 

Mifflin,  General,  214 

Miller,  134 

Abraham,  210 

Henry,  209 

John  Peter,  139,  182 

Missions,  Moravian,  167,  169 

Mittelberger,  52,  65,  67,  71, 
74.  77,  79,  ^o»  83,  no,  217 

Mohawk  Valley,  26,  49 

Monroe  County,  60 

Montcalm,  206 

Montgomery,  M.  L.,  98,  207 

Montgomery  Coimty,  59 

Moon,  influence  of,  103,  104 

Moravians,  76,  108,  113.  141, 
152,  155,  159,  167  ft-.,  170, 
171,  185,  196,  200,  201, 
203  ff.,  208,  209 

Morris  Family,  227 


Morse.  214 

Muhlenberg,  F.  A..  165,  198 
H.  A.,  148,  166 
H.M.,67,  73,  74, 
77,  78,  79,  82,  84,  no,  112, 
129,  144,  147,  151,  154, 
155,  157,  159,  164,  165, 
166,  169,  197,  200,  201, 
219.    223.    227 

Mulilenberg,  Peter,  165,  212 
Wm.  A.,  165 

Miilheim-on-the-Ruhr,  35 

Mailer,    24,    46,    47,    63,    64, 
III,  177.  178 

Miinster  Rebellion,  174 

Murray,  Alexander,  145 

Musser,  Daniel,  179 

Mysticism,  19,  159 

Naas,  John,  67,  71,  82 

Nadler,  118,  123 

Nagel,  George,  210 

Nagle,  Colonel,  212 

Names.  230  fT. 

Nantes,  Edict  of,  142 

Narragansetts,  199 

Nassau.  56 

Neal.  141 

Neff".  Dr.  Chrisley,  103 

Neuburg.  12 

Neuchatel,  63 

Neuwied,  74 

"New-Born,  The,"  128 

"  Newlanders,"  27,  77  fT.,  193 

New  Paltz,  N.  Y.,  10 

Newspapers,  134,  135 

New  York,  48,  49,  137 

Nimwegen,  66 

Nitsche,  174 

Nitschman,    David,    129,  169, 

185 
Martin,  204 

Nordlingen,  8 

Northampton  County,  60,  208, 

212 

North  Carolina,  60 

Nyberg,  169 


INDEX. 


265 


Oberholtzer,  Martin,  47 

Oberly,  Surgeon,  216 

O'Callaghan,  50,  202 

Ocean  Voyage,  67  ff.,  77  ff. 

Ohio,  60 

Omens,  104 

Op  den  Graeff,  39,  176 

Ottendorf,  Baron  von,  210 

Otterbein,  155,  159,  188 

Otto  Heinrich,  14 

Orleans,  Duke  of,  12 

Owen,  103 

Palatines,  21,  48,  49,  53,  56, 
186,  206 

"Palatine  Fever,"  71 

"Palatine  Light,"  72 

Palatinate,  7,  8  ff.,  56,  85,  117, 
118,  160,  196,  222 

Palfrey,  116 

Pannebecker,  Heinrich,  177 

Pantisocracy,  44 

Pastorius.  F.  D.,  37  ff..  69,  72, 
84,  85,  129,  139,  148,  176 

Paul,  118 

Peasants,  4  ff. 

Penn,  Richard,  208 

William,   26,  32,  33  ff., 
36,  70,  85,  86 

"Pennsylvania  Dutch,"  31 

Pennsylvania  Germans,  52 
(numbers),  84  (farmers),  85 
ff.  (customs),  106  ff.  (super- 
stitions), 109  (amusements), 
no  (funerals),  in  (drink- 
ing), 113  (food  and  dress), 
117  (dialect),  122  ff.  (litera- 
ture), 136  ff.  (education), 
153  ff.  (piety),  193  (in- 
crease), 194  ff.  (  politics), 
203  ff.  (in  French  and  In- 
dian War),  206  ff.  (in  Rev- 
olution),   218    (in    science) 

"Pennsylvania  Synod,"  168 

Pennypacker,  S.  W.,  10,  33, 
38,  39,  41,  42,  45,  76,  85, 
138,  139,  148,  209 


Pennypaclcer,  General,  216 

Pequea,  25,  47 

Pequots,  199 

Peters,  Richard,  203 

Petersen,  Dr.  Wm.,  35 

Pfautz,  221 

Philadelphia,  32,  211,  227 

Philip,  Dirck,  132 

Philip  William,  12,  14,  15 

Pietism,  19,  34  ff.,  159 

Pirates,  72 

Pittston,  50 

Poetry,  123-126 

Politics,  194  ff. 

Porter,  David,  112 

Post,  Frederick,  169,  205 

Powell  and  Shippen,  216 

Pownall,  Thomas,  90 

Powwowing,  107 

Presbyterians,  32,  162,  192 

Printing,  131  ff. 

Protestants,  14  ff.,  56 

Proud,  32,  52,  58,  59,  85,  86, 

218 
Proverbs,  10 1,  135 
Prussia,  28 

Puritans,  32,  112,  1 16 
Quakers,  32,  34,  45,  150,  176, 

201,  207,  209 
Ramsey,  Governor,  197 
Ranke,  62 
Ranch,  E.  H.,  122 
Raum,  General,  216 
Raynal,  160 
Read,  T.  B.,  212 
Reading,  166,   195 
Redemptionism,  81,  82 
Reed,  President,  209,  211,  214 
Reed  Church,  144,  163 
i  Reformation,  32 
Reformed,  I4ff.,32,  in,  150, 

154,  160  ff. 
Reformed  Mennonites,  178 
Reinier,  John,  80 
Reinoehl,  Major,  2i6 
Religion,  153  ff. 


266 


INDEX. 


Rhine,  63  fT. 

Rieger,  Rev.  J.  B.,  52 

Richl,  2,   7,  86,   95,    97,   100, 

104,    109,    no.    118,     133, 

161,  206,  223,  224 
Ritner,  Chaplain,  216 
Governor,  197 
Rittenhouse,  David,  219 
Major,  216 
William,  218 
Ritter,  100,  171,  196 

George,  64 
River  Brethren,  179 
Rodenbough,  General,  216 
Rolf,  George,  34 
Roiulthalcr,  Rev.,  122 
Ross,  Captain,  210 

Family,  227 
Rotterdam,  65,  66,  67,  68 
Rmickcl,  J.  L.,  46 
Runkle,  Colonel,  216 
Rupp,  58 
Rush,  Benjamin,  90,   92,  93, 

98,  100,  loi,  112,  151,  217, 

223 
Russell.  Governor,  227 
Ryswick,  Treaty  of,  16 
Sachse,  J.  F.,  44,  132 
St.  Lawrence  County,  N.  Y.,S7 
Salat,  174 
Salem,  ^Iass.,  106 
Salzburgers,  64,  75 
Sauer,  Christopher,  27,  71,  77, 

78,    79,    80,    83,    128,    131, 

132,  134,  138,  146,  157,  183 
Saxe-Wcimar,  Duke  of,  92,  94 
Saxony,  56 
Schaff,    Dr.    Philip,    123,    167, 

169,  228,  229 
Schaffer,  Peter,  43 
SchefTer,  De  PIoop,  54,  76 
Schcll.  J.  C,  158 
Schercr,   128 
Schlatter,   Michael,    124,   140, 

160,  164,  169 
Schiller,  86,  92,  97 


Schlauch,  Jacob,  195 
Schle\',  Governor,  197 

Rear-Admiral,  216 
Schlozer,  20.  85 
Schiick,  Chief  Engineer,  216 
Schoharie  \'alley,  26,  49 
Schoolmasters,  163 
Schools.  143  ff. 
Schultz,  139 
Schulze,  Governor,  197 
Schiitz,  Dr.,  37 
Schumacher,  Peter,  39 
Schvvarzenau,  179 
Schweinitz,  de,  205 
Sell wenckf eld,  Caspar  von,  73, 

131,  183,  184 
Schwenckfeldcrs,   56,    66,   68, 

70,  76,  159,    183-185 
Schwenk,  Colonel,  216 
Science,  218 
Scotch-Irish,  85,  92,  112,  194, 

204,  227 
Seidensticker,  42,  127 
Seventh  -  Day    Baptists,    180, 

181 
Seward.  Wm.,  156 
Shakspere,  102,  in 
Shenandoah  Valley,  60 
Shipwrecks.  75 
Shoemaker  Family,  227 
Shoup,  Colonel,  197 

Governor,  216 
Shunk,  Governor,  197 
Silesia,  28 

Simmern-Zweibriicken,  12 
Simon,  Menno,  132,  175,  178 
Slavery.  40,  176 
Small.  General,  216 
Smith,  Wm.,  143,  146,  210 
Snyder,  Governor,  197 
Southey,  44 
Spain,  20,  72 
Spangenberg,    129,    169,    185, 

205 
Spangler,  Colonel,  216 
Spener,  34,  35,  159 


INDEX. 


267 


Spyker,  Colonel,  212 
Stark's  Gchdbiuh,  132 
Stars,  influence  of,  102 
Stauffer  Family,  63 
Sternberg,    Surgeon  -  General, 

50,  216 
Steub,  232 
Steuben,  212 
Stiegel,  Baron,  218 
Stoever,  Rev.  J.  C,  163 
Strasburg,  91,  177 
Stray pers,  Wm.,  41 
Sullivan,  General,  81,  210 
Superstitions,  101  ff. 
Swabian  Dialect,  118 
Swatara  Creek,  50 
Swedenborg,  132 
Swedenborgians,  192 
Swedes,  84 

Sweitzer,  General,  216 
Swiss,  46-48,55,56,  85  ff.,  176, 

206 
Switzerland,  22  ff.,    56,     117, 

118,  160,  196,  222 
Taylor,  Bayard,  220,  227 
Tennyson,  126 
Thacher,  210 
Thirty    Years'    War,     3    ff., 

83 
Thomas,  Governor,  89 
Thompson,  Charles,  81 

Colonel  Wm.,  209 
Thornton,  Matthew,  81 
Tilly,  8 

Tobler-Meyer,  232 
Trade,  218 

Tulpehocken,  26,  50,  154,  212 
Turenne,  il 
Turks,  72 
Tyerman,  169,  185 
Uhl,  Hon.  E.  F.,  50 
Union  Churches,  161 
United    Brethren,     159,     160, 

187-189 
United    Evangelical    Church, 

191 


University    of    Pennsylvania, 

Ursinus  College,  151 

Utrecht,  66 

Van  Braght,  132 

Virginia,  68,  1 13 

Wackernagel,  131 

Waldenses,  172 

Walloons,  17 

Wanamaker,  John,  198 

Wangen,  63 

Washington,  George,  211,  212, 

213,  214 
Water,  104 
Watson,  72,  81,  201 
Weather  Signs,  105 
Weddings,  109 
Weidman  House,  97 
Weiser,  Conrad,  51,  129,  182, 

200,  202,  203 
Weiss,  G.  M.,  128,  154,  163 
Weitzel,  Colonel,  212 
Weld,  92,  96 
Wertmiiller,  Joris,  45 
Wesley,  John,  75,  80,  169,  174, 

185 
Westphalia,  Peace  of,  10,  56 
Wetterholt,  Captain  Nicholas, 

106,  202 
Whitefield,  156 
Whittier,  40,  43,  50,   72,    183, 

197,  216 
Wickersham,  145,  150 
Wigner,  Christopher,  156 
Wilhelm,  Major,  216 
Wilhelm  Tell,  86,  92,  97 
Wilkesbarre,  50 
Winebrenner,  John,  155,  191 
Winslow,  116 
Wirtz,  74 

Wissahickon,  42,  43,  103 
Wistar,  Caspar,  69,  219 

Family,  227 
Wister,  General,  216 
Witches,  105 
Witmer,  Abraham,  227 


268 


INDEX. 


Wohlfahrt,  Michael,  154,  155 
Wolf,  Governor,  149,  197 
Wollenweber,  L.  A.,  163 
"  Woman  in  the  Wilderness," 

159 
Worrell,  Rigert,  176 
Wright,  132,  135 
Wlirtemberg.  21.  56,   117,118, 

160,  196,  222 
Yerkes,  Charles,  219 
Yoder,  Major,   216 
York  County,  59 


Zantzinger,  Colonel,  212 
Zeilin,  General,  216 
Zeisberger,  169,  209 
Ziegler,  C.  C,  126 
Zimmermann.  J.  J.,  43,  139 
Zinzendorf,     128,     129,     159, 

167  ff.,    184,  205 
Z(X)k.  General,  216 
Zurich,  22,  24.  25,  44,  45,  65 
Zweibriicken,  21,  56   96 
Zwingli,  175 


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WAGNER'S  MODERN  POLITICAL  ORATIONS    (BRITISH) 
Edited  by  Leopold  Wagner,  xv  +  344  pp.  i2mo.  $1.00,  net. 

A  collection  of  some  of  the  most  notable  examples  of  the  po- 
litical oratory  of  the  present  reign.  Includes  Brougham  on  Ne- 
gro Emancipation;  Fox  and  Cobden  on  the  Corn  Laws;  Bright 
on  the  Suspension  of  Habeas  Corpus  Act;  Butt  and  Morley  on 
Home  Rule;  Gladstone  on  the  Beaconsfield  Ministry;  Parnell 
on  the  Coercion  Bill;  and  others  by  Beaconsfield,  Russell,  Ran- 
dolph Churchill,  Chamberlain,  Macaulay,  Bulwer-Lytton, 
Cowen,  Bradlaugh,  McCarthy,  etc.,  etc. 


HENRY   HOLT  ^  CO.     ^^  ^^^^f^l*'""' 

VII,  1900 


"More  entertaining  than  any  fiction." 

— Literary  World. 

3d  Impression  of  a  remarkable  book  that  is  attracting  atteti" 
tion  in  tlie  United  States,  Great  Britain,  and  Germany, 

THE  COURTOT  MEMOIRS 

The  Memoirs  of  the  Baroness  Cecile  de  Courtot,  Lady- 
in-Waiting  to  the  Princess  de  Lamballe.  Edited  by 
MoRiTZ  VON  Kaisenberg.  Translated  by  Miss  Jessie 
Haynes.     298  pp.     8vo.     $2.00. 

This  notable  narrative  of  the  love  and  adventures  of 
the  Baroness  includes  remarkably  vivid  descriptions  of 
France  during  the  Terror,  Prussia  under  Frederick  Will- 
iam III.  and  the  beautiful  Queen  Louise,  and  France 
under  the  all-powerful  First  Consul. 

JV  V.  Times  Saturday  Revietv :  "  It  has  all  the  charm  of  a 
good  historical  novel.  .  .  .  The  entire  volume  will  be  found 
of  much  interest,  mainly  through  the  great  human  interest 
centring  around  the  friendship  of  these  two  devoted  women, 
Cecile  and  Annaliebe,  as  well  as  through  the  historical  details 
introduced,  which  are  all  graphically  and  fully  treated." 

Outlook:  "  This  delightful  Memoir.  .  .  .  Some  of  the  most 
interesting  impressions  of  the  great  ruler  [Napoleon]  which 
have  yet  appeared.     The  Memoir  reads  like  a  novel." 

iV.  Y.  Tribune  :  "  The  book  is  one  of  the  strangest  and  most 
amusing  ever  produced  in  the  department  of  revolutionary 
literature.  .  .  .  The  Baroness  is  charming,  and  has  much 
to  say  about  many  interesting  personalities  and  events." 

Pall  Mall  Gazette  {London):  "We  are  admitted  behind  the 
scenes  and  mingle  with  the  actors  in  perhaps  the  most  power- 
ful drama  the  world  has  ever  witnessed.  ...  A  most  fascina- 
ting book.  Here  is  a  period  that  we  have  read  about  from  our 
youth  up  .  .  .  and  we  might  almost  say  that  we  see  it  now 
for  the  first  time." 

Home  Journal :  "  The  pages  are  certainly  of  unusual  inter- 
est, showing  intimacy  with  personages  and  places,  and  throw- 
ing such  light  on  them  that  we  seem  to  see  them  almost 
as  if  we  were  eye-witnesses.  .  ,  .  Filled  with  tragedy  and 
romance." 

HENRY  HOLT  &  CO.    ^^  ^^^^^^rl''"^^^ 

TII,    1900 


**WIII  Interest  the  old  hardly  less  than  the  young** 

—  Chicago  Evining  Put 

LUCAS'  A   BOOK  OF  VERSES  FOR  CHILDREN 

Over  aoo  poems,  representinfr  some  80  authors.  Compiled  by 
Edward  Vkrrall  Lucas.  With  title-page  and  cover-lining  pic- 
tures in  color  by  F.  D.  Bedford,  two  other  illustrations,  and  white 
cloth  cover  in  three  colors  and  gilt.  Revised  edition,  ismo.   $2.00. 

Prof.  Edward  Everett  Hale,  Jr.:  "  David  Copperfield  remembered 
learning  to  walk,  and  Pierre  Loti  remembers  the  tirst  time  he  jumped, 
r  think.  My  earliest  recollections  are  of  being  sung  to  sleep  by  my 
father,  who  used  to  sing  for  that  purpose  'The  British  Grenadiers' 
and  other  old-time  songs.  At  about  the  same  period  it  must  have 
been  that  my  mother  introduced  me  to  'Meddlesome  Mattie  '  and 
'George  and  the  Chimney-sweep.'  It  was,  therefore,  with  a  rush  of 
recollection  that  on  opening  'A  Book  of  Verses  for  Children'  com- 
piled by  Edward  Verrall  Lucas  I  discovered  not  onlv  these  three 
classics  but  many  another  lovely  thing  by  Ann  and  Jane  Taylor,  Eliza- 
beth Turner,  and  others,  as  well  as  more  modern  poems  by  Stevenson 
and  Lewis  Carroll.  '  Can  it  be,'  thought  I,  'that  children  nowadays 
will  stand  Ann  and  Jane  Taylor?'  An  opportunity  of  experiment 
came  very  soon.  1  happened  to  have  the  book  under  my  arm  the  next 
day  as  I  stopped  to  see  some  friends.  They  were  out,  so  I  asked  for 
the  children  and  had  afternoon  tea  with  real  tea-things  in  company 
with  a  large  and  very  beautiful  doll,  and  afterward  skated  about  the 
hall  on  what  had  originally  been  toy  freight-cars.  At  last  I  asked  if 
poems  would  be  acceptable.  The  proposal  was  received  with  favor, 
and  I  was  soon  seated  on  a  large  trunk  with  Miss  Geraldine  on  one  side 
and  Mr.  Bartlett  on  the  other.  I  began  with  a  safe  one,  '  The  Walrus 
and  the  Carpenter,'  but  went  on  with  the  Tavlorian  '  Birds,  Beasts,  and 
Fishes.'  This  took  very  well.  I  tried  anotner  modern  (not  to  push  a 
Kood  thing  into  the  ground),  and  then  went  on  with  '  Tommy  and  his 
Sister  Jane.'  This  also  succeeded,  so  I  continued  with  others  and 
others.  We  were  finally  interrupted  in  our  delightful  occupation,  but 
I  regarded  the  experiment  as  successful.  ...  I  know  of  nothing 
better  to  say  of  this  book  than  the  strictly  accurate  and  unvarnished 
account  I  have  just  given.  For  my  own  part  I  thought  it  one  of  the 
most  delightful  books  I  had  seen  for  a  long  time. 

Critic  :  "  We  know  of  no  other  anthology  for  children  so  complete 
and  well  arranged." 

/^e7u  York  Tribune:  "  The  book  remains  a  good  one;  it  contains 
so  much  that  is  charming,  so  much  that  is  admirably  in  tune  with  the 
spirit  of  childhood.  Moreover,  the  few  colored  decorations  with 
which  it  is  supplied  are  extremely  artistic,  and  the  cover  is  exception- 
ally attractive." 

Churchman  :  "  Beautiful  in  its  gay  cover,  laid  paper,  and  decorated 
title-page.  Mr.  Edward  Verrall  Lucas  has  made  the  selections  with 
nice  discrimination  and  an  intimate  knowledtje  of  children's  needs 
and  capacities.  Many  of  the  selections  are  classic,  all  are  refined  and 
excellent.     The  book  is  valuable  as  a  household  treasvre." 

Bookman  :  "  A  very  satisfactory  book  for  its  purpose,  and  lias  in  it 
much  that  is  not  only  well  adapted  to  please  and  interest  a  rational 
child,  but  that  is  good,  sound  literature  also." 

Poet  Lore  :  "  A  child  could  scarcely  get  a  choicer  range  of  verse  to 
roll  over  in  his  mind,  or  be  coaxed  to  it  by  a  prettier  volume.  ...  A 
book  to  take  note  of  against  Christmas  and  all  the  birthday  gift  times 
of  the  whole  year  round." 

HENRY   HOLT  &  CO.     ^^  ""^^llv^^^rr^** 


BARROW'S  THE  FORTUNE  OF  WAR  a  novel  of  the 

last  year  of  the  American  Revolution.     12 mo.      fi.25. 

The  scene  is  laid  mainly  in  New  York  City  during 
the  British  occupation,  partly  on  one  of  the  prison 
ships,  and  partly  in  the  patriot  camp  at  Morristown. 
The  life  in  the  headquarters  of  the  two  armies  is 
cleverly  contrasted.  The  story  has  a  strong  "love 
interest." 

N.  V.  Times  Saturday  Review :  "The  story  is  a  good 
one,  the  historical  data  accurate,  and  the  ways  and  man- 
ners of  the  period  are  cleverly  presented." 

The  Otitlook :  "Miss  Elizabeth  Barrow  has  done  her 
work,  not  only  well,  but  delightfully  well." 

Chicago  Times-Herald :  "Another  tale  of  the  time  of 
Washington,  but  one  that  is  more  deserving  both  of 
popular  and  critical  appreciation  than  some  of  the 
much-vaunted  financial  successes." 

Springfield  Republican:  "It  gives  a  good  picture  of  New 
York  City  as  it  was  in  the  eighteenth  century.  .  .  .  The 
story  is  agreeable  reading." 

Hartford  Courant  :  "  She  has  done  good  work  in  her 
romance;  ...  it  is  told  in  a  very  attractive  way.  .  .  . 
The  book  is  decidedly  one  that  will  entertain." 

GODFREY>S   THE   HARP   OF   LIFE 

Uniform  with  the  author's  "  Poor  Human  Nature." 
i2mo.     $1.50. 

An  intensely  human  story  of  an  episode  in  the  life 
of  the  first  violin  of  an  orchestra,  at  an  English  water- 
ing-place. Miss  Godfrey  has  again  been  uncom- 
monly happy  in  creating  a  "musical  atmosphere." 

LUCAS'S  THE  OPEN  ROAD 

A  little  book  for  wayfarers,  bicycle-wise  and  other- 
wise. Compiled  by  E.  V.  LucAS,  editor  of  "  A  Book 
of  Verses  for  Children."  With  illustrated  cover-lin- 
ings.    Green  and  gold  flexible  covers.     i2mo,     $1.50, 

Some  125  poems  of  out-door  life  and  25  prose  pas- 
sages, representing  over  60  authors,  including  Fitz- 
gerald, Shelley,  Shakespeare,  Kenneth  Grahame, 
Stevenson,  Whitman,  Bliss  Carman,  Browning, 
William  Watson,  Alice  Meynel,  Keats,  Wordsworth, 
Matthew  Arnold,  Tennyson,  William  Morris,  Maurice 
Hewlett,  Izaak  Walton,  Wm.  Barnes,  Herrick,  Gervase 
Markham,  Dobson,  Lamb,  Milton,  Whittier,  etc. 

HENRY  HOLT  &  CO.    ^^  ^^Vl^r^^^* 

HI,  igoo 


SEIGNOBOS^S  POLITICAL  HISTORY  OF  EUROPE 

1814-96.       'Irnnslaiion  edited  by  Prof.  Silas  M.  Macvanu,  of 

Harvard.     860  pp.     8vo.     ?3.oo,  net. 
Prof.  Macvane  has  added  to  and  strengthened  the  chapters  on 

Enpland,  and  otherwise  edited  the  book  for  American  students, 

adding  new  titles  in  tlie  bibliographies  and  an  index. 

The  Nation:  "Of  tlie  political  development  of  each  European 
country  since  the  Congress  of  Vienna  he  gives  us  a  summary  which 
is  clear  and  synchronous.  .  .  .  He  states  with  unfailing  impartiality 
the  principles  of  political  sects  and  parties.  .  .  .  Remarkably  dis- 
tinct and  vital,  instead  of  the  desiccated  pith  which  epitomizers  often 
purvey.  .  .  .  Remarkable  for  its  range,  its  precision  of  statement, 
and  its  insight,  an  important  work  on  what  must  be  to  all  of  us  the 
most  important  period  of  recorded  time." 

WALKER'S  DISCUSSIONS  IN  ECONOMICS  AND 
STATISTICS 

By  the  late  General   Francis   A.  Walker.      Edited    by   Prof. 

Davis  R.  Dewkv.     With  portrait.    2  vols.    Svo.    %6.oo,  net  special. 

Important   papers  on   Finance,   Taxation,    Money,    Bimetallism, 

Economic  Theory,  Statistics,  National   Growth,  Social   Economics, 

etc.     The  author's  untimely  death  prevented  him  from  carrying  out 

his  intention  of  himself  bringing  them  together  in  book  form. 

Uniform  with  th'  above.  Walker's  Discussions  in  Education. 
Svo.     $3.00,  7tet  special. 

Circular  of  others  of  General  Walker's  works  on  application. 

THOMPSON'S  MEMOIR  OF  DEAN  H.  G.  LIDDELL 

By  HiiNRY  L.  TiioiirsoN,  Vicar  of  St.  Mary's,  Oxford,  Illus- 
trated.    Svo.     $5.00,  net  special. 

A  biography  of  the  great  lexicographer  of  Liddell  &  Scott's  Dic- 
tionary, by  his  life-long  friend.  The  volume  contains  four  fine 
portraits,  several  views  of  important  places  in  Oxford,  and  some 
fac-similes  of  drawings  by  Liddell  himself. 

N.  Y.  Tribune:  "Extremely  interesting  .  .  .  impressive.  .  .  . 
It  contains  some  attractive  anecdotes  of  the  Dean's  contemporaries 
^including  Thackeray,  Ruskin,  Canning,  and  the  Prince  of  Wales  in 
his  boyhood).  .  .  .  The  impression  that  remains  after  a  perusal  of 
his  biography  is  that  of  an  inspiring  and  even  lovable  man.  .  .  .  He 
moves  through  Mr.  Thompson's  pages  the  ideal  scholar,  the  type  of 
all  that  is  most  elevated  and  most  enduring,  if  not  most  brilliant  in 
the  life  of  the  English  Universities." 

RAE'S   RICHARD   BRINSLEY   SHERIDAN 

A  biography,  by  W.   Eraser    Rae.     With  an   introduction  by 

Sheridan's  great-grandson,  the  Marquess   of   Dufferin   and    Ava. 

With  portraits,  etc.     2  vols.     Svo.     $7.00 

The  Dial :  "  His  book  at  once  takes  its  pl.ice  as  the  standard  one 
on  the  subject— the  one  in  which  the  real  Sheridan,  as  contradis- 
tinguished from  the  half-mythical  Sheridan  of  previous  memoirs,  is 
portrayed  with  all  attainable  clearness.  To  rele.ise  this  brilliant  and 
singularly  winning  and  human  tigure  from  the  region  of  largely 
calumnious  liction  was  a  worthy  task." 

Review  of  Reviexus :  "The  best  biography  of  Sheridan  in  ex- 
istence." 

HENRY   HOLT   &   CO.     ^^  "^^eV^^r^*** 

x'.a 


JAN  3  0 


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