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THE BROBST CHRONICLES
A HISTORY OF THE EARLY BROBST/PROBST
FAMILIES IN PENNSYLVANIA
Index
and Table of Contents to The Brobst Chronicles
Title Page
Foreword
Introduction
Chapter
One - The Early Swiss/German Probsts
Chapter
Two - The History Of The German Immigration To America
Chapter
Three - The Struggles of the Settlers
Chapter
Four - The Early American Pennsylvania Brobsts
Chapter Five - Children of Philipp Jacob Probst
Chapter Six - The Other Children of Philipp Jacob Probst
Chapter Seven: The Other Children of Christophel Probst
Chapter Eight: Other Interesting Brobstology Intermarriages
Appendices
Chapter II
THE HISTORY OF THE GERMAN
IMMIGRATION TO AMERICA
War, poverty, and religious persecution were rampant in
Western Europe in the 1600s and into the early 1700s. With the Protestant
Reformation, Roman Catholics were making it difficult for the Lutherans.
In 1572, the French Catholics conducted the St. Bartholemew's Day massacre
in which hundreds of Huguenot Lutherans were killed. For a period of over
150 years, the Protestants suffered cruel persecutions in which an untold
number of lives were sacrificed. The history of Switzerland and Germany
has been one of constant migration of people from one area to another.
Many Probst families left their homes in Switzerland to escape to Germany,
some to the Rheinland-Pfalz area of southwestern Germany, in the Palatinate;
others moved further to the east in Bavaria, especially around Pfistermuehle,
Regen. Many emigrated to southern Alsace, France. Little did they know
that it was mostly a case of out of the frying pan, into the fire. Religious
persecution was just as severe in Germany and France.
(Note: The term "Palatinate" appears often in the early
Probst history records. The Palatinate ("Der Pfalz" in German) includes
the lands west of the middle part of the Rhine river (Rheinland-Pfalz).
In the 1600s, it also included much of northwestern Bavaria, Schwabia,
and Baden-Wurttemburg. The de facto capital of the Palatinate at that
time was Heidelberg. This area was the center of the religious upheaval
which brought about the mass exodus to America and elsewhere. For those
readers who are interested in the history of the Palatinate, and the details
of how bad things really were for the German citizens of southwestern
Germany, look at Appendix 9. There are also some photographs in that Appendix
of the Kandel/Minfeld area.)
The religious Thirty Years War, with its bloodshed, murder,
robbery, and pillage, raged on from 1619 to 1648, and was disastrous to
the Palatinate. Although the war "ended" in 1648, the repressive effects
lasted for a century. One report1 states that the persecution reduced the
population of the Palatinate from some half-million to fewer than fifty
thousand. By the time the early 1700s had come along, the Palatine Germans
had had enough of poverty, sickness, starvation, freezing, and being caught
in the middle between the warring French and German troops. The Palatines
had enough. They looked westward. They packed up, floated down the Rhine
to Rotterdam, and headed for America. They fled. They fled from Switzerland
and Tyrol (Schwaben), from the Lower Rhenish Palatinate of Germany and
from the Alsace area of eastern France. The great exodus, "Massenauswanderung
der Pf�lzer", had begun. Little did they know what they faced.
The only safe haven on the continent was the Netherlands
which could absorb only a few of the many German Protestants. Others of
the "V�lkwanderung" fled to England, Eastern Europe, South Africa, and
Australia. So many went to England that they caused a serious economic
problem. England's "Good Queen Anne" was sympathetic to both sides, and
financed the shipping and feeding of those who wanted to go to America,
provided that they would swear allegiance to the Crown of England. (Note
the irony: French citizens of German ancestry, traveling on English ships
from Rotterdam to America, and then having to become British subjects!)
"I, ---, do solemnly & sincerely promise & declare that
I will be true & faithful to King George the Second & do sincerely & truly
Profess, Testifie, & Declare that I do from my heart abhor, detest, &
renounce as impious & heretical that wicked Doctrine & Position that Princes
Excommunicated or deprived by the Pope or any Authority of the See of
Rome may be deposed or murthered by their Subjects or any other whatsoever.
And I do declare that no Foreign Prince Person Prelate State or Potentate
hath or ought to have any Power Jurisdiction Superiority Preeminency or
Authority Ecclesiastical or Spiritual within the Realm of Great Britain
or Dominions thereunto belonging."
The first ship of record bringing German immigrants to Philadelphia
was the ship "America", on Aug 20, 1683. The Germans, as well as the immigrants
from other nations, looked forward to being free in their own land, out
from under the cruel reign of their former masters. Little did they know
the cost that freedom would entail.
"While the storm clouds gather, far across the sea, Let
us swear allegiance to a land that's free." (Song, "God Bless America")
William Penn was born into a wealthy family in England in
1644, but was expelled from Oxford University for associating with religious
"radicals". Penn's father, Admiral Sir William Penn, was deeply disappointed
in his son and sent him to Ireland in an attempt to separate him from
this group. In Ireland, however, Penn met and joined the most radical
and persecuted of all the Protestant sects -- the Society of Friends,
or "Quakers". It was this persecution, and later imprisonment, that drove
Penn to seek freedom in the New World.
William Penn "acquired" part of Pennsylvania in 1681 in
payment of a debt that King Charles II owed his father, Admiral Penn2.
He came to America on the ship "Welcome" in 1682, at the age of thirty-eight.
He used the king's land grant to establish his "holy experiment" -- a
colony dedicated to religious tolerance. He purchased additional land
on the Delaware River from the Delaware Indians.
It is interesting that William Penn's mother, Margaret Jasper
of Rotterdam, Netherlands, had German cousins. This relationship may have
played a part in why William Penn was offering Pennsylvania as a haven
for the beleaguered German Protestants. William Penn lived in Pennsylvania
from 1682 to 1684, and again from 1699 to 1701. He died in England in
1718.
(Note: Pennsylvania had been explored and parts of it, mostly
in the east, had been settled by the French, the Dutch, and the Swedish
in the early 1600s. The British conquered the Dutch in 1664, and this
part of America became English territory. A small band of Krefeld Quakers
and Mennonites came to Pennsylvania as a vanguard in 1683; they founded
the city of Germantown. They were followed by the Amish, Dunkers, Moravians,
and Schwenkfelders. And the Probsts!)
Penn's new colony became an absorbing subject of interest
through the British Isles and Continental Europe, and almost immediately
great numbers of people from the British Isles joined the America-bound
throngs, many of them into Pennsylvania.
"Send me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning
to breathe free." (Inscription, Statue of Liberty)
Initially, all this land was known as "Penn's Woods". This
was a tract of land of 45,000 square miles; Penn "owned" more land than
any other commoner of that day. William Penn suggested that this large
tract of land be called "New Wales." King Charles' and savage assistant
objected to such a name for this unsettled wilderness, so Penn suggested
"Sylvania", a Latin word meaning "forest". The King decided to honor the
Penn family name and so coined the name "Penn's Sylvania."3
Penn returned to Europe shortly after that. In Germany he
met with Karl K�nig (King Charles) and to encourage the beleaguered Protestants
to come to Pennsylvania.4 He preached the beauty of the Poconos and Alleghenies,
and assured the Germans that there were many similarities between Pennsylvania
and Der Pfalz. His territorial mission was a beckoning light to the downtrodden
Palatinate peasants. They must have felt that the potential hell of the
voyage and wilderness were preferable to the real hell in which they were
already living.
"Pennsylvania began its history as a "Holy Experiment"
with basic principles of democracy and ideals of human liberty as its
foundation stones."5
Around 1710, after a very severe winter, a mass migration
of religious exiles -- German, French, and Swiss Lutheran families --
was underway, headed for America, mostly to the New York and Pennsylvania
areas. Persecuted by the Roman Catholics, they became the Roamin' Lutherans!
They came with farmers, craftsmen, artisans, home-makers, doctors, and
lawyers. They came from Germany (Palatine, Saar, Baden, Bavaria, Schwabia,
Wurttemburg, Darmstadt, Lower Saxony, Krefeld, Hesse, Prussia), France
(Alsace), Austria, and Switzerland. Most of them traveled down the Rhine
River to embark at Rotterdam for America. Other Germans left from Hamburg,
Bremen, and Le Havre. From the Palatine alone, 40,000-50,000 Germans emigrated
to America in the early 1700s. One document discusses the emigration:
"It was so great that, for a time, it appeared as if
the entire Palatinate (the present Rheinland Pfalz or Rheinland Palatinate
and part of Baden) might be depopulated ..."6
"The colonization, although romantically revered, was
still a usurping of land. Reasons for colonization included the areas
of war, taxation, land hunger, religious beliefs, assumed religious beliefs
in order to escape unbearable circumstances, adventure, eviction from
a social regime, debts, incarceration, visions of hope for future family
generations, -- and greed."7
The steadily increasing flow of people from Germany and
England to Pennsylvania caused a number of enterprising English ship owners
to enter into the business of transporting passengers. Mittelberger states,
in his diary8,
"The Newlanders .... were rascals, ship owners, and commission
merchants who went up and down the Rhine, well-dressed, pretending to
be prosperous Philadelphia merchants, to persuade the humble and unsuspecting
peasantry to sell their belongings and embark for the land of promise,
Pennsylvania."
The cost of passage from Rotterdam fluctuated from five
to ten pounds Sterling, a great sum in those days. Children were half-price,
although few under the age of seven survived the voyages. The trip down
the Rhine River from the Palatinate to Rotterdam sometimes lasted for
several weeks, much of the time being spent in complying with the regulations
of the various German principalities which existed along that great river
valley through which they were obliged to pass. They were normally delayed
in Rotterdam for several weeks more, and again at one of the English ports
(usually Liverpool) where the ships stopped to pick up English immigrant
passengers.
The sailing time for crossing the Atlantic from England
to Philadelphia was from eight to sixteen weeks! Ships usually left in
early summer to take advantage of calmer seas and balmy weather over the
North Atlantic.
Conditions on board the ships were usually horrible, with
many passengers sick and dying. As many as 150 to 400 passengers were
stuffed into the hold spaces of these small ships. Rarely was there sufficient
food for the trip. Starvation and death stalked amidst stench, vermin,
and filth. "Ship fever" (typhus), dysentery, smallpox, and scurvy ravaged
the passengers. Many vessels were lost at sea in storms. The following
is an account of the trip of some Palatiners who embarked at Rotterdam
in June, 1731:9
"It was a severely harsh trip, taking from six weeks
to six months, on fillthy (sic) ships which were hardly seaworthy and
with passengers packed `like herrings' and exposed to rats, disease, thirst,
and starvation. Their provisions fell short, and in the last eight weeks
they had no bread; but a pint of grouts [crushed oats] was all the allowance
for five persons per day. They all ate rats and mice they could catch.
The price of a rat was 18 pence, a mouse was 6 pence, and water 6 pence
a quart. Frequently the survivors had to pay not only for themselves but
also for those who died during the voyage."
"The pitiful signs of distress on the
journey should have given any traveller pause: smells, fumes, horrors,
vomiting, various kinds of sea sickness, fever, dysentery, headaches,
heat, constipation, boils, scurvy, cancer, mouth-rot ... caused by the
age and the highly-salted state of the food, especially the meat, as well
as by the very bad and filthy water ... hunger, thirst, frost, heat, dampness,
fear, misery, vexation, lamentation .. so many lice, especially on the
sick people, that they have to be scraped off the body. Parents must often
watch their offspring suffer miserably, die, and be thrown into the ocean.10
"One day, just as we had a heavy gale, a woman on our
ship, who was to give birth and could not under the circumstances of the
storm, was pushed through the porthole and dropped into the sea, because
she was far in the rear of the ship and could not be brought forward." 11
When the ships landed, a doctor came on board to decide
who was sick and who was well. Often the diagnosis was made by whether
a person had a "furry tongue" (which was considered an indicator of disease)
or a "clean tongue". Those who had furry tongues were sent back to Europe!
Philipp Jacob Probst and his wife C'erine had to make the
trip aboard ship and from Philadelphia to Berks County (original German
spelling "Bercks") with three small boys! It's a wonder they survived
the trip at all.
"Most of the ships arrived in the fall, with the hardships
of the winter staring the pioneers in the face. But, in spite of all difficulties
and hardships, new settlers continued to come. The wonder is not that
so many succumbed, but that so many faced all hardships uncomplainingly
and after a few years of service emerged from all difficulties as successful
farmers, who made the country blossom. These pioneers were made of sturdy
stuff."12
(Note: The Probsts were not the first French Huguenots
to come to America. In 1564, a group of French Huguenots came to America
to escape religious prosecution. Led by Rene Goulaine de Laudonniere,
they landed in North Florida and established Fort Caroline at the mouth
of the St. John's River. The Spanish, threatened by these French interlopers,
sent an expeditionary force and massacred the entire French colony.)13
Between 1708 and 1760, war, hunger, and persecution drove
100,000 German immigrants ("Auswanderungs") to America. Between 1727 and
1776, a total of 324 ships arrived at Philadelphia carrying German passengers.
Other ships carried immigrants from many European nations to other American
ports. The tens of thousands of German immigrants settled at various places
in America, from New England to Pennsylvania and the Virginias, most of
them settling in Pennsylvania. Other immigrants from other countries spread
throughout the northeastern quarter of the American colonies. And then,
after those hardships, the pioneering ancestors had to suffer further
extreme hardships in hewing out the wilderness for their new homes in
America. Germans (and German Americans) have a reputation (somewhat deserved)
of being obstinate, but how else could have those early settlers survived
in their terrible struggle against first their homeland rulers and then
the wilderness and the Indians?
"The very essence of our nation is founded on the strength,
courage, and determination of these immigrants." (Thomas Jefferson)
It was in 1717 that the growing influx of Germans to Philadelphia
created concern. Pennsylvania Governor Keith opined that immigration could
prove dangerous! Little did he know!!14 By 1727, there were 20,000 Germans
living in Pennsylvania. Twenty years later, this has doubled. By 1766,
there were 100,000, said Ben Franklin.15
"Pennsylvania German migration and its part in the settlement
and development of America form an epic tale of faith and zeal, of sacrifice
and achievement. When the pioneers arrived, the government of Pennsylvania
was in the hands of British subjects. Penn's agents were Englishmen; the
English language was used; English common law was in force. It early became
a matter of concern to these Englishmen that so large a body of continentals,
speaking another language and accustomed to another form of government,
should be admitted to the land, even though they came at the invitation
of Penn himself."16
But reaching Philadelphia was not inevitable good fortune.
Slavery in the New World was in full bloom, and not just with black Africans!
Those who lacked funds or security for the sea freight had to essentially
sell themselves for payment. Adults bound themselves into "slavery" from
three to six years, while children had to serve until twenty-one. Many
parents in order to pay their fares in this way and get off the ship must
barter and sell their children as if they were cattle. Indentured servants
had to agree to work for their master for 3-7 years in exchange for passage
to America. At the end of the term, the servant might be given clothes,
tools, a small sum of money, or even a piece of land. Some 50-75% of the
white American colonists were indentured, and though most made the trip
willingly, others were tricked into service. The Probsts appeared to have
escaped this form of immigration; no Probsts were listed among the thousands
of indentured servants who came to America in the 1600s and 1700s.
REFERENCES:
1. Dean V. Cunfer, "The Early Brobst - Probst Family",
1987 [return]
2. Gary R. & Elizabeth L. Hovinen, Pennsylvania Dutch
Country, 1986 [return]
3. Dennis B. Fradin, The Pennsylvania Colony, 1988 [return]
4. William Bobst, "Notes on the Genealogy of the family
- Brobst, Probst, Bobst, Bopst, and Bopes, in America from 1733 to 1941",
Feb 29, 1940 [return]
5. Stevens, Pennsylvania, The Keystone State, 1956 [return]
6. German Family Research Made Simple, Summit Publication,
Monroe Falls, Ohio [return]
7. Stambaugh, 1686-1986 [return]
8. Mittelberger, Gottlieb: "Proceedings of the Pennsylvania
German Society", Vol. IX, pp 170-180. [return]
9. Dean V. Cunfer, "Brobst Family History", 1987 [return]
10. From Gottlieb Mittleberger, "Reise nach Pennsylvanie",
1756 [return]
11. John McVey, "Gottlieb Mittelburger's Journey to
Pennsylvania in the year 1750", 1888 [return]
12. John McVey, "Gottlieb Mittelburger's.....", 1888
[return]
13. Carter Smith, "American Historical Images on File;
Colonial and Revolutionary America", 1990. [return]
14. Joseph E. Illick, Colonial Pennsylvania, 1976 [return]
15. "Deutsche in der Neuen Welt" [return]
16. Strassburger and Hinke, Pennsylvania German Pioneers,
1980 [return]
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This page was last updated on Monday, 21-Feb-2011 18:23:40 MST
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