GERMANNA History Notes Page #008

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This is the EIGHTH page of John BLANKENBAKER's series of Short Notes on GERMANNA History, which were originally posted to the GERMANNA_COLONIES Discussion List.  Each page contains 25 Notes.


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This Page Contains Notes 176 through 200.

GERMANNA History Notes
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Nr. 176:

This note starts another set of twenty-five and I like to review the term, Germanna Colonies.  In the narrowest sense, the Germanna Colony was a group of 42 Germans who came in April of 1714 to Virginia and were settled on the frontier in a "fort" called Fort Germanna.  The transportation of the Germans was paid in part by Lt. Gov. Spotswood.  In return for this, the Germans were to work four years for him.

In 1717 (but by the modern calendar, it was very probably 1718), another group of seventy-odd Germans came and their transportation costs were paid by a partnership of which the principal partners were Spotswood and Robert Beverley.  This group was settled about two miles from Germanna, across the Rapidan River, in a community called New German Town (the alternative name for Germanna, widely used, was German Town).  This second group had no fort, but their defense was the number of people and the Rapidan River which could be forded at their doorstep.  Since this group was only two miles from Germanna, it is customary to consider them as Germanna colonists also.  To distinguish the two groups, they are called the First and Second Colonies.  (Sometimes, Germanna 1 and Germanna 2.)

More Germans came early on, but mostly as individuals and at different times.  Collectively they have been called the Third Germanna colony but it is a misnomer as they were not a group.  The number of people has also been overestimated.  By 1724, the Second Colony had grown from seventy-odd to about 100 per a statement by Spotswood .  Since many of these people were living with the Second Colony, it seems as if they should be called Germanna colonists also.  Some of the immigrants were scattered throughout Virginia.

After 1719, essentially no Germans were at Germanna proper.  After 1725, there were no Germans at New German Town.  But the Germans kept coming right up to the time of the Revolution when the war stopped immigration, and relocation within the colonies slowed down.  These later Germans usually lived in the neighborhoods of where the First and Second Colonies made their permanent homes away from Germanna.

What is the requirement to be called a Germanna colonist?  Was it to have lived at or near Germanna?  The definition that has evolved included anyone who lived in the neighborhood of the original German immigrants whether at Germanna, or in the larger surrounding community.  Generally, this larger community is taken to be the modern counties of Culpeper, Fauquier, Madison, and Rappahannock in Virginia.  All of these counties are east of the Blue Ridge Mountains.  This area is also in the Piedmont of Virginia.  There are alternative phrases.

The history of the Germanna colonists is repeated in part by other Germans.  Also, there were interactions between the Germanna colonists and the larger community.  Several of the Germanna people came from other colonies such as Pennsylvania.  In the writing these notes, I favor being easy-going about the term, "Germanna colonist".  After all, some people moved from other colonies to Germanna, and, the Germanna people moved on to every other colony south of New York and New Jersey.  Researchers primarily interested in these other regions may have information.


Nr. 177:

One research source for answering some questions about our ancestors is the data in the Virginia Colonial Record project.  There is little genealogical information, as most of the data is of a general historical nature.  You can only hope to find your ancestor if he did something unusual which resulted in his record being committed to the official files.  In the case of Germanna ancestors, they were involved in official or near-official acts.  Therefore, many incidents which affected them are recorded.  (This is one of the fringe benefits of getting entangled with the Lt. Gov. of Virginia.)

During colonial times, in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, many records were made and sent back to England.  Spotswood regularly reported to the Board of Trade which oversaw events in the colonies, including the Caribbean area.  Many of these records were bound into volumes and preserved.

Shortly after WWII, the Commonwealth of Virginia, in preparation for the 350th anniversary of the founding of Jamestown, sent crews to England to examine and to make records, on microfilm, of these colonial records.  They limited themselves, though, to records which mentioned Virginia.  Back at the Library of Virginia, in Richmond, they prepared indices to these records using several categories such as personal name, ship name, or keyword.  These indices are now online and accessible via a computer; however, you cannot obtain a copy of the record but only an abstract.  The abstract is often very useful and gives a good clue as to whether you might want the record.

As to how extensive these records are can be judged by the number of different individuals in the index whose surnames starts with the letter "S" and go up to Sands.  The number is about 275.  Many individuals are in the index a multiple number of times.  (Originally, I had intended to count all the people whose name began with "S" but I grew weary with the task and stopped at Sands.)  The number of ships that are mentioned is large also.  There is no assurance that any particular ship or person will be mentioned.

Some people have said that the captain of the ship which brought the Second Colony was Capt. Scott.  Others have been inclined to be doubtful of this as the only source record which hints at this says, "in Capt. Scott", a phrase which does not inspire confidence.

I used the data in the Colonial Record Project to see if I could find a mention of a Capt. Scott as a person.  I could find none close enough to 1717 who is listed as a civilian.  There were many captains named Scott, but they were too far away in time (twenty years or more), or were military men.  Failing to find a captain ("master") by the name of Scott, I tried to find a ship by the name of "Scott".  There was one not too many years from 1717 in 1724.  And fortunately, the name of the master of it was given, an Andrew Tarbett.  A search for Andrew Tarbett in the records discloses another record for him in 1717 when he was talking to Alexander Spotswood.

I have put this information together, with other information, and reached the conclusion, which I believe is most probable course of events, that the Second Colony came in the ship "Scott", of which Andrew Tarbett was the Captain, or Master.  This information, in more detail, was reported in the last issue of Beyond Germanna and will be covered briefly at my talks at Hebron Lutheran Church on September 20.


Nr. 178:

The Virginia Colonial Records Project makes many documents available which help explain the conditions under which our ancestors lived and worked.  Seldom are our ancestors directly mentioned by name (well, I am speaking of mine but perhaps you are a descendant of Blackbeard, the pirate, who is mentioned) but we can learn a lot about their life and times.  Consider the following document, the petition of Col. Alexander Spotswood to the King of England.

Spotswood's titles to his land were clouded and he appealed to the King for a clarification.  In doing so, he recounted his history in Virginia which was very involved with the Germans who were the labor in several of his enterprises, especially the Second Germanna Colony.  The First Germanna Colony was also involved but there were fewer people for fewer years and they were less active on his behalf (Spotswood wrote once that the First Germanna Colony people did nothing for him for the first two years they were here).  As Spotswood narrates his history, it is possible, especially in light of other evidence, to see our Germanna people involved and to imagine the labors in which they were involved.

In understanding this personal, first-person story, it is necessary to understand what Spotswood's objective was after he had been in Virginia for ten years.  His iron furnace was still in the future.  Furthermore, it was not clear that iron would be a success, either technically or politically.  So in 1720 he was banking on making his fortune in land, not in iron.  This is why, when he started construction of his Germanna home about 1720, that he located it at Germanna and not closer to where his iron mines were.  When the furnace was built, it was thirteen miles from his home.  At Germanna though, the center of mass of his land holdings was several miles to the west of Germanna.  Thus he chose to build, not on the basis of his iron mines but on the basis of his land holdings.  These holdings were extensive, most people say they amounted to about 85,000 acres.

However, the largest single tract to the west of Germanna was said to hold (in the patent itself) 40,000 acres.  I have plotted this tract and found it was significantly larger than the 40,000 acres claimed.  Sixty to sixty-five thousand acres is a much closer estimate.  Starting almost at Germanna, the land ran to the west of the present-day town of Culpeper.  Thus his land holdings were, in total, more than 100,000 acres.

When this "40,000" acre tract was settled (by the Second Germanna Colony), there had been a problem in finding enough people to make the settlement reasonably safe.  Germanna itself, in 1714, was said by Spotswood to be fifteen miles beyond the usual course of the rangers.  So the First Germanna Colony had been in a very exposed position.  It was judged that they would be safe based on the presence of the fort and the number of people.  About three and a-half years, later when the Second Colony was settled to the west of Germanna, their strength lay in the number of people which Spotswood said was seventy-odd.  So it was the availability of this large number of Germans who made it practical to settle the 40,000 acres.  It is a good question whether the Germans arrived by accident or by design.  I will be examining this question in my talks at the Hebron Lutheran Church a week from tomorrow (the 20th of September).

A copy of the petition appeared in Beyond Germanna in volume 9, number 4 issue, which came out the past July.


Nr. 179:

If you accept that looking a microfilm has almost the same excitement as looking at the original document, then the Colonial Records Project of Virginia is the place to go.  In August, I was looking at the microfilm of the map which Francis Louis Michel drew to document and to explain his explorations on the upper Potomac River.  To the Germanna people, this is a fundamental document because it became the basis of an enterprise in which the George Ritter Company and Graffenried were involved.  They were so excited that they petitioned the Queen for land for a colony in the Shenandoah Valley.  And they were accepted.  To start the colony, they sought people in Nassau-Siegen because they thought the first productive work of the colony would be mining silver.

European understanding of American geography was poor.  They seemed to confuse the colonies and referred to America as an island.  Of course, they had no good maps to guide them plus they were confusion caused by the errors of earlier explorers.  When Michel and Graffenried petitioned for land, William Penn, Lord Baltimore, and Lady Fairfax all protested that the land was an infringement on their rights.  Even today we cannot be absolutely positive as to which area Michel was referring when he described the land he wanted for their colony.  From the map which Michel drew, it would definitely seem to be the Shenandoah Valley as it clearly shows features of the Valley.

Willis Kemper, the author an early family genealogy on the Kemper family, was insistent that the First Germanna Colony left Germany with a definite purpose and objective in mind.  He was correct in one regard.  There was a purpose to their trip and there was a geographical objective.  Where Kemper erred was in his estimation of their destination and their objective in going.  He thought they were going to Germanna to work in the iron industry of Spotswood.  They actually were supposed to be going to the Shenandoah Valley to mine silver for the George Ritter Company in which Graffenried had a percentage of the action.

Even well intentioned and developed plans sometimes incur problems and it was no different for the First Colony.  After the First Colony got to London, they found that the George Ritter Company was broke and could not fund their trip to America.  But their determination and their spirit of cooperation saved the day.  They were willing to trade four years of labor for their transportation and they (with Graffenried's active assistance) found a buyer in the form of the agent for Virginia, Col. Blakiston.  He did not buy their services for himself, but he committed Lt. Gov. Spotswood of Virginia to subscribing to their offer.

Because of the new geographical direction for these Germans, the first Virginia Piedmont Germans, in any sizeable number, came into existence.  They proved to be good workers and Lt. Gov. Spotswood sought more Germans for a proposed enterprise on exposed western lands.  Or was he the lucky beneficiary of the accidental appearance of a large number of Germans?

These are questions which I will be exploring in my talks at Hebron Lutheran Church in Madison, Virginia, on Saturday, September 20, under the auspices of the Virginia Chapter of the Palatines to America.  (I think there are seats and food still available.)


Nr. 180:

The Colonial Record Project of the Library of Virginia makes available abstracts or notes on the items in its collection.  If you can access pages on the web (on the Internet), then you can obtain images of the cards in the index file.  If you select one for more study, they will download or send a file to your computer.  To see this, you need a TIFF viewer (this is just an acronym for Tagged Image Format File which is a standard method for encoding images).  If you do not have this program, you can download it from the library.  (I use the ability of my WordPerfect program to do this.)  After the file is converted, it can be read or printed as an image (picture).

The records from England which the library microfilmed and indexed are not available as images.  One can read the short abstracts of them as images.  But to obtain a copy of these documents requires an on-site presence at a microfilm reader.  On occasion I have selected documents to be copied or printed.  But there is a class of records at the library for which images of the original document are available.  In particular I refer to the early land patents (from the Crown) and the grants (in the Northern Neck).  You can transfer these files to your computer and then convert them to images.

Saturday night I did some research on the land patents and grants of Jacob Holtzclaw of the First Germanna Colony.  I was particularly interested in his 1300 acre grant in the Little Fork district of today's Culpeper Co., but a part of Orange Co. at the time.  By the water ways, it lies between the North Fork of the Rappahannock (Hedgman) River and the Hazel River.  The land between the North Fork of the Rappahannock and the South Fork of the Rappahannock, also called the Rapidan, is the Great Fork.  So the Little Fork is also a part of the Great Fork.

On September 27, 1729, Jacob Holtzclaw obtained a patent for 680 acres in this area when the land was thought to be outside the Northern Neck.  So he took out a patent from the King for this.  Later, ca 1748, he extended his holdings to the 1300 acres mentioned above, including the 680 acres, and took a grant from Lord Fairfax for this amount.  By then, the land was considered a part of the Northern Neck.  Many people did take out grants on land they had previously patented to make sure they had all the bases covered.  But whether one did this or not, the quit rents were now due to Lord Fairfax now, not the King.

Returning to the basic story, I downloaded the file which conveyed the image of the grant to Holtzclaw by Fairfax.  I converted the bytes into an image and read the essential information in the metes and bounds, the description by angles and distances of the outline of the tract.  I entered these into the DeedMapper (TM) program developed by a Germanna descendant, Steve Broyles, and plotted the area.  So sitting at my desk at home, I obtained a copy of the grant and used the data "to walk around" the perimeter of the tract.  Then I placed the tract on an overlay of the waterways and roads.  By the time I was done, it was well past my bedtime but I had hardly noticed the time as I was having so much fun.

Jacob Holtzclaw of the First Germanna Colony, besides being a school teacher, a reader at church, and a farmer, was also active as a land speculator.  He obtained many hundreds of acres and invited people from Germany to come and settle on these lands.  Not surprisingly, many of the people were neighbors or relatives from Germany.  I have mentioned most of these people here earlier.  They came from about 1730 to 1750.


Nr. 181:

When I was a boy, I lived in the Midwest.  If my father wanted to tell someone how to get to the farm from town (Apache), he would say fives miles west and a half-mile north.  Everyone knew then how to get there even if they didn't have an odometer on the car, truck or wagon.  One just counted off the roads, which occurred every mile, until the fifth road.  Then he would turn north and go about the required distance.  The mailbox name told which one of the two houses in the vicinity was the correct one.  Townships consisted of a square of six miles on a side for a total of 36 square miles.  Within one of these square miles, a farm might consist of the whole section of 640 acres or might be smaller, say the southwest quarter.  There was a naming or numbering system for the sections so that it was unique.

At the somewhat other extreme of regularity, there is the metes and bounds system.  This is what was used to describe Jacob Holtzclaw's grant that I mentioned in the last note.  In that case the property description started with two hickories near Little Indian Run and went from there north 51 degrees east direction for 254 poles.  One should have had a confirmation because there should have been a white oak on a "point".  The next course was north 12 degrees east for 78 poles to another white oak.  And so the outline of the property continues.  There was no absolute system; any two hickories on a water course called Little Indian Run would have provided a starting point.  Our eastern seaboard is a metes and bounds systems.

Prior to the creation of the Federal government and, for a short time thereafter, some of the colonies felt that their lands extended to the west an indefinite distance.  Connecticut had a claim to land in Ohio.  Virginia had the largest claim which included present West Virginia, Kentucky, parts of Ohio and land to the west of Ohio.  After the Union was established, the eastern colonies were asked to relinquish their western claims.  They did, but reserved land to use as bounty land for their Revolutionary War soldiers.  As a consequence of their parentage, some of the states west of the Appalachians use a mixture of land description systems.

Thomas Jefferson had hopes for an orderly expansion into the new territories.  He proposed surveying the land into square tracts, a radical idea for the time.  One of the objectives was to eliminate the squabbles that arose over conflicting claims in the metes and bounds system.  Many of the lawsuits of our early ancestors were on just this point.  Person A claimed person B was trespassing on his land and person B might counter sue with a similar claim.  But not only did claims overlap, claims often had voids or gaps between them.  Later someone might claim this land and want access to his new property.  The Land Ordinance of 1785 incorporated most of Jefferson's ideas.

Ohio was one of the new states which was to use this system of rectangular lines.  But because Virginia and Connecticut had claims there which they were insisted upon retaining for use as bounty land, several systems of describing land came into use.  Virginia continued with their metes and bounds system for the land they issued.

With some modifications in 1796, the rectangular coordinates were applied to a total of 30 states.  Along the way, especially in Ohio, special districts came into being.  For more information, see the Direct Line Software web page which you can access by clicking here on the URL http://www.germanna.com.


Nr. 182:

About twenty years ago, when I was starting in genealogy, I came across a lease that Spotswood made.  In it, the following phrases occurred: "in the fork of the Rappahannock River", "New German Town", "Nos. 18 and 19".  The date of this lease was 4 Feb 1728/9 and it was recorded in Spotsylvania Co.  The first two of these phrases were troublesome, as the only Germantowns that I knew were possibly Germanna and the Germantown which became the home of the First Colony (now in Fauquier Co., VA).  Neither of these locations were in the Fork of the Rappahannock.

Some time later, I found Spotswood's letter to Harrison in which Spotswood referred to the Second Colony with the phrase, "some seventy-odd Germans were settled upon the tract as free men in twenty-odd tenements, close together for purposes of defense."  Nothing indicated where these tenements were located.

And we know that Spotswood paid the transportation for 48 of the seventy-odd Germans.  Therefore they could be considered his servants, in which case he would be responsible for their tithes; however, the old parish of St. George had been created with a radius of five miles around Germanna to exempt Germans from the payment of tithes.  Therefore, the Second Colony of seventy-odd people was surely put down within this circle around Germanna so that Spotswood would not have to pay tithes for them.

At another time, while looking at a detailed map, I noticed a water course named German Run.  Being only two miles from Germanna, I could conceive that it was named with a reference to the First Colony; however, another water course, into which German Run flowed, was, at one time, named Fleshman's Run.  Now there was no one named Fleshman in the First Colony but there was a Cyriacus Fleshman in the Second Colony.

Bells started ringing.  Most often, a water course, with the name of a person, is named for someone of that name who lived beside it.  The location is in the Great Fork of the Rappahannock.  Of course, the locality would have been called some variation of Germantown if seventy-odd Germans lived there.  The mention in the lease of parcels 18 and 19 sounds as if they might have been taken from the twenty-odd tenements in which the Second Colony lived.  All these pieces fit together so well, that I concluded the general location had been found where the Second Colony first lived.

Not long after this conclusion, I gave a talk with these ideas.  A member of the audience, David Brown, came to me afterwards and said that he knew the area quite well as he used to walk over the land with his grandfather.  Once, he had asked his grandfather if there were any Civil War episodes there.  The grandfather said there had not been but there had been a group of people who lived there long before the Civil War.  David said he thought little about it until he heard my conclusions based on the concurrence of a few written records.  Then it dawned on him that his grandfather must have been talking about the Second Colony, though his grandfather did not know them as the Second Colony.  I asked David to tell his story to the audience and I was standing at the front observing the audience while he told his story.  Literally, jaws were dropping throughout the audience.

This only increased my resolve to explore the area.  So I arranged with some of the owners of the land for a survey party.  Some of them joined us as did members of the Center for Historical Preservation.  The results were encouraging and staff and students of the Center returned later for a more detailed survey.  Some evidence of eighteenth century habitation was found.

It would be nice to think that more exploratory work could be done.  Also it would be great to think that more substantial evidence could be found.  I have little doubt about the outcome.  As individuals, it would not be wise to enter on the land without permission.  The owners are not thrilled by the thought of a mass of people treading across their property.

Unfortunately, in my estimation, the name of Fleshman's Run has been changed to Field's Run.  This is unfortunate as Cyriacus Fleshman was one of the first settlers of modern Culpeper County, Virginia.  It very well may be that the Germans were the first settlers; I have heard of no better claims than these 1717 Germans.

I will be covering ground similar to this in my talks at the Hebron Lutheran Church this next Saturday.  I believe that space and food are still available.  If you are interested, call Monika Edick at (703)591-3656.


Nr. 183:

[I ran out of time last Thursday and did not get a note written.  On Friday and Saturday, I was at the very successful conference of the Virginia Chapter of the Palatines to America at the German Evangelical Lutheran Church, now located outside Madison, Virginia, and now known as Hebron Lutheran Church.  The following material is an experiment.]

Hans Matthias Blackenb�hler

Born 29 Dec 1684 in Neuenb�rg, Baden

Married 7 May 1714 Anna Maria Mercklin in Oberderdingen, W�rttemberg

(given as Johann Mattheus Blanckenb�hler, tailor)

Came to VA in 1717

Died ca 1763 in Culpeper Co., VA, leaving a recorded will

Children (named in will):

Hannes Jerg Blanckenb�hler
Christopher Blanckenb�hler
John Blanckenb�hler

[German research by Margaret James Squires.]

[See Note Page 9, Note 210 for more on this family.]

George Blankenbaker (spelling uncertain)

Born ?? Feb 1715 in Oberderdingen, W�rttemberg
[German research by Jean Strand]

Married shortly after 1740 Mary Gerhard, often given as Garrett

Probably died in 1745 or 1746 in Orange Co., VA

Children:

John Blankenbaker (spelling uncertain)

Christopher Blankenbucher

Born in Virginia after 1717

Married ca 1761 Christina Finks in Culpeper Co., VA

Died ca 1781 in Culpeper Co., VA leaving a recorded will

Children from Hebron Church Register:

6. Mary Blankenbucher
7. Catherine Blankenbucher
> 8. Ephraim Blankenbucher
9. Ludwig (Lewis)Blankenbucher
    Jonas Blankenbucher
    Margaret Blankenbucher
    Sarah Blankenbucher
    Elizabeth Blankenbucher
    Hannah Blankenbucher

John Blankenbaker (spelling uncertain)

Born in Virginia after 1717

Married ca 1752 Mary Margaret Utz in Culpeper Co., VA

Died ca 1801 in Madison Co., VA leaving a recorded will

Children:

John Blankenbaker, Jr.
Elizabeth Blankenbaker
Barbara Blankenbaker
Mary Magdaline Blankenbaker

[Corrections will be much appreciated if errors are detected. Also comments on the format will be appreciated.  George Durman and I are working on creating a web page of Germanna descendants and this is a trial start.]


Nr. 184:

One thing that I learned at the PalAm conference at Hebron Lutheran Church this past weekend was that Klaus Wust should have a new book out within the year, perhaps within months.  I always recommend his works and I understand that this book will look at the backgrounds of German emigration in the early eighteenth century.

At one time I examined the impact of the 1709 emigration on the emigration in the following decade.  There is no doubt but that it had a definite influence in encouraging people after 1709 to come.  Until 1709 there had been very little emigration from Germany.  Starting in the 1680's, there were the Mennonites, who settled Germantown outside Philadelphia and whose numbers were augmented through the years, but these were not a large number.  A non-Mennonite group, perhaps of about one hundred people, left in 1708 and settled on the Hudson River, not far above New York City.  Then in 1709 there were the large numbers of Germans who made their way to London.  Probably they numbered more than ten thousand.  These 1709 people served as an advance guard in paving the way for others to come.

After they left, then their neighbors became better aware of the possibilities.  "If Johann und Maria could do it, then I can do it."  To examine this question in more detail, I looked in Hank Jones' books, The Palatine Emigrants of New York 1710, and used the geographical index of place names with respect to the homes of our early Germanna ancestors who started leaving in 1713, 1717, and in slightly later years.  What I found showed that the Germanna people had been preceded by significant numbers of people from their localities in 1709.

For the First Colony people of Germanna, I used the place name of Siegen which is usually used in conjunction with the surrounding villages.  Altogether, I found about 200 people who had left in 1709 from the region around Siegen.  This region was a little more than fifteen miles in radius around Siegen, perhaps less.  For any one square mile, the chances were excellent that an individual had left.  Since the range of knowledge of someone who stayed extended for many miles, probably everyone who did not go in 1709 was aware of someone who had gone.  Even more probably, they were aware of several individuals who had left.  The chances that one of the these emigrants was a relative was fairly highly.

Some of the villages mentioned include Oberfischbach, 5 mi. west of Siegen; Netphen, 4 mi. northeast; Wilnsdorf, 5 mi. southeast; Zeppenfeld, 7 mi. south; Salchendorf, 6 mi., south; Oberholtzklau, 6 mi. northwest; Anzhausen, 5 mi. southeast.

Emigrants include:

  1. Jacob B�hr of Oberfischbach.  When baptized 17 Nov 1678, his sponsor was Joseph Cuntz at Oberfischbach.

  2. Peter Giesler of Oberfischbach.  Within his family there are mentions of Peter and Johann Fishbach of Oberholtzklau.  Peter Giesler married Anna Lucia, d/o Hermann Hoffman.

  3. Johann Friderich H�ger, b. in Netphine as s/o Johann Henrich H�ger.

  4. Johann Henrich Haeger of Anzhausen (see Maria Hagerin in Jones).

(more later)


Nr. 185:

Continuing in the list of names of emigrants from the Siegen area in 1709,

  1. Catharina Heyl of Wilnsdorf.

  2. Herman Hoffman of Oberfischbach.

  3. Johann Eberhard Jung (Jones: "the association of names on lists suggests this man may have been a Siegen family".)

  4. Henrich Ohrendorff of Oberfischbach.

  5. Henrich Schramm of Wilnsdorf.

  6. Hyeronimus Weller of Zeppenfeld.  There are mentions of the family at Oberfischbach.  A sponsor of Weller's sister was Agnes Holtzklau at Salchendorf.  Hyeronimus Weller married Anna Julian, d/o Jacob Cuntz.

  7. Johannes Zeller who married, at Siegen, Anna Catharina Herber.

Also 107 people emigrated from the Nassau-Dillenburg region in 1709.  Dillenburg is located 15 miles southeast of Siegen.  There are also several mentions of Burbach, 10 miles south of Siegen, as being the home in 1709 of emigrants.

Some of the names and places above are familiar to students of the First Germanna Colony.  But even in the case of similar, or the same, names, no claim for a close relationship is made with the exception of the H�gers.  Johann Friderich H�ger, above, is known to be the son of Rev. Henry Haeger of the 1714 Colony.  Also Johann Henrich Haeger, above, was a nephew of the Sr. Rev. Haeger and a first cousin of the Jr. Rev. Johann Friderich H�ger.  Thus, in this case, the desire for reuniting the family was probably a major motivation for the trip in 1713.

It is interesting to note that some of the place names and the surnames of the First Colony people are echos of each other.  Whether the village was named for the family or the family for the village is not clear.  In the case of Fischbach, which means "fish brook", the name would seem to be for a geographical feature.  The surname probably arose from living in or at Fischbach; however, the name Fischbach, which describes a common situation, is probably not unique.

By 1713, when the First Colony left the area of Siegen, there would have been much discussion of the emigration of this number of people in 1709.  In that time, there would have been time for letters to be sent back to Germany.  Thus Rev. H�ger in Germany had probably heard from his son in New York.  One reaction probably went along the lines of, "If they can do it, I can do it."

Also, the emigration of just one individual from a village was rare.  Mutual support was provided by more than one person.

Next time, we will look at some of the emigrants from the regions of the Second Colony.


Nr. 186:

In the last two notes, a number of emigrants from the Nassau-Siegen region in the year 1709 were noted.  These early people influenced emigration in later years.  Because so many of the Second Germanna Colony people came from Northern Baden and W�rttemberg, I also examined "Palatine Families of New York 1710" (by Hank Jones) for references to villages in this region.  The search was probably incomplete because it was necessary to search by each village and I probably missed some.  Here is a sample though:

Johannes Kugel, Berhard Zipperle, Johannes Keyser, and Georg Lapp came from Unter�wisheim.

Simon Vogt, Johann Michael Wagelin, Johann Jost Hayd, and Sebastian Wimmer's widow were from Bonfeld.  Jost Hite, as he was later to be known in Virginia, had married Anna Maria Merckle, the daughter of Abraham Merckle.

George Mauer and Anna Maria Benderin were of related families from Mosbach.

Also, Johann Georg Nerbel, Ulrich Danler, Andreas Ehlig, and Christian Eigler were from Mosbach.

Anna Maria Mullerin and Magdalena Schwawerin came from Massenbach.

As evidence of the influence, in 1717, one of the emigrants that year was Abraham Merckle, the father of Jost Hite's wife.

Since the villages of many of the 1717 emigrants have been learned since I did this research, a new search would probably find more.  All of the villages above are in the midst of the homes of many of the Second Colony emigrants.  I did no research in the region that was specifically known as the Palatinate (the home of the Palatines).  A few of the Second Colony people did come from the Palatinate.

The word Palatine has two meanings.  English people used it to mean all Germans.  This practice started at the time of the 1709 emigration, when so many of the Germans came from the Palatinate.  In writing about Virginia, the Rev. Hugh Jones in his book (printed 1724) referred to the Second Colony as "Germans or Palatines".  In this sense it was interchangeable with the word, German.  More specifically, the Palatinate was only one region in the land which was to eventually become Germany.  Unfortunately, it did not always refer to exactly the same area, as the Palatinate grew or shrank, phenomena typical of many of the regions in Germany.  As an example of how principalities did change, Baden is noted as having extremes of area from a thousand square miles to more than ten thousand square miles.

This confusion over where the boundary lines ran is even worse than the problem we have with counties here in America.  In order to provide a stable reference point for filing information, I believe it was decided to use the boundaries as of 1872 (I may be in error a few years) as reference marks.  Thus I could say that my Blankenbaker ancestors emigrated from Baden (now a part of Baden-W�rttemberg); however, at the time they left, they said they were from the lands belonging to the Bishops of Speyer, who were Catholic.  Early in the nineteenth century these lands were ceded to the civil authorities and today we refer to Baden.


Nr. 187:

Recently we discussed compiled emigration lists within the colonies and states.  Bill Hoffman (6364 Cliffside Drive, Florence, KY 41042; Whoff81908@aol.com) did his homework and came up with a list of Germanna Immigrants to Northern Kentucky.  We will regard this as a tentative list but it does look as though Bill has done his homework.

(Bill Hoffman's research and data; my formatting.  GWD)


GERMANNA IMMIGRANTS TO NORTHERN KENTUCKY

NAME PARENTS COUNTY TO
WHICH MOVED
YEAR
 
Elias HOFFMAN Nicholas HOFFMAN
Elizabeth ?
Kenton County 1806
Wife:
Hannah BLANKENBAKER
Henry BLANKENBAKER
Elizabeth ?
   
 
Zachariah HOFFMAN Frederick HOFFMAN
Katherine ?
Kenton County 1816
Wife:
Catherine ?
?
?
   
 
Solomon HOFFMAN Jacob HOFFMAN
Barbara SOUTHER
Boone County
(Buried: Boone)
1806
Wife:
Elizabeth TANNER
Frederick TANNER
Mary ROUSE
   
 
Ambrose HOFFMAN Henry HOFFMAN
Elizabeth BLANKENBAKER
Hamilton County 1810
Wife:
Christina HOFFMAN
Nicholas HOFFMAN
Elizabeth ?
   
 
Robert HOFFMAN Nicholas HOFFMAN
Elizabeth ?
Hamilton County
(Buried: Springfield
Township, OH)
1806
Wife:
Barbara ?
?
?
   
 
Henry Ricus HOFFMAN Nicholas HOFFMAN
Elizabeth ?
Hamilton County
(Buried: Wayne Town-
ship, Butler Co., OH)
1830
Wife:
Mary GOOD
?
?
   
 
John STONESIPHER ?
?
Kenton County 1806
Wife:
Mary HOFFMAN
Nicholas HOFFMAN
Elizabeth ?
   
 
John SWINDLE Timothy SWINDLE
Rebecca CREES
Boone County 1806
Wife:
Hannah WEAVER
Peter WEAVER
Elizabeth ?
   
 
Samuel ROUSE Mathias ROUSE
?
Boone County 1806
Wife:
Mary M. WEAVER
John WEAVER
Barbara KAIFER
   
 
Jacob ROUSE Mathias ROUSE
?
Boone County 1806
Wife:
Anna WEAVER
John WEAVER
Barbara KAIFER
   
 
Josiah HOUSE Michael HOUSE
Susanna ZIMMERMAN
Boone County 1806
Wife:
Fannie ZIMMERMAN
Frederick ZIMMERMAN
?
   
 
Jacob HOUSE Mathias HOUSE
Mary Margaret ?
Boone County 1806
Wife:
Susannah TANNER
Christopher TANNER
?
   
 
Christopher ZIMMERMAN John ZIMMERMAN
Ursula BLANKENBAKER
Boone County 1810
Wife:
Mary TANNER
Christopher TANNER
?
   
 
Frederick TANNER Christopher TANNER
?
Boone County 1810
Wife:
Mary ROUSE
Mathias ROUSE
?
   
 
Jonas YAGER Joshua YAGER
?
Kenton County 1815
Wife:
Sarah McKINSEY
?
?
   
 
Daniel ROUSE Michael ROUSE
Mary SWINDLE
Kenton County 1820
Wife:
Jane McClary SCALES
William SCALES
?
   
 
William CARPENTER William CARPENTER
Mary WILHOIT
Boone County 1813
Wife:
Mary AYLOR
Henry AYLOR
Barbara CARPENTER
   
 
Ephraim TANNER Frederick TANNER
Mary ROUSE
Boone County 1806
Wife:
Susannah HOUSE
Matthew HOUSE
Mary Margaret ?
   
 
Michael AYLOR Henry AYLOR
Barbara CARPENTER
Boone County 1811
Wife:
Sarah BOUGHAM 1
Mordecai BOUGHAM
Eve BAUMGARTNER
   
 
Herman WAYMAN George WAYMAN
Catherine YOUNG
Kenton County 1795
Wife:
Elizabeth CLORE
Peter CLORE
Barbara YAGER
   
 
Adam CLORE Peter CLORE
Barbara YAGER
Kenton County 1797
Wife:
Margaret CRISLER
?
?
   

(Additions and corrections are welcomed.  In Bill's list, I made one addition, by giving Timothy Swindle's wife.  John BLANKENBAKER)

(The data in the above table is, for the most part, taken from Bill Hoffman's research.  There have been, however, some changes to Bill's original material, made necessary by documented corrections from interested Germanna researchers.  We have made footnote references to the changed data, which you will find below.  Web Page Manager)

1 Bill Hoffman had Michael AYLOR's wife as Sarah VAUGHAN, with no parents given.
  Change made Oct. 2, 1997, from material provided by Sally Baughan;
  See Ref. 1 in Note Nr. 191 below.

(We have reformatted John's post to the Germanna Colonies Discussion List, in order to put his data into a table for these web pages.  Web Page Manager)


Nr. 188:

Recently we have been looking at migration patterns in America and from Germany to America.  Within Europe there were migration patterns also.  The reasons vary slightly.

The Thirty Years War, from 1618 to 1648, was a major cause of relocations during the century before our ancestors came to America, but there were other reasons also.  Prior to the start of this war, Austria had a large Lutheran population.  The Emperor of Austria (and I hope I am using the correct title) was Catholic and wanted to reclaim Austria for the Catholic faith.  His actions were a reason behind the start of the war, but it soon involved all of Europe and turned from a religious war to a political war.  During the course of the war, some nations shifted sides.  Little was settled by the war, but there were serious impacts in the economic arena.

Parts of Germany, particularly of the citizenry, had suffered serious impacts.  Major areas were reduced to one-third of the prewar population due to death from pestilence and starvation.  Areas along the Rhine were especially bad.  The rulers faced a sharply reduced economic vitality.  Farms stood idle and houses were vacant.  Without people, tax collections were off.  Word went out that farms and homes were available.  This led to many people migrating to take advantage of this situation.

With the end of the war, political regions took on the religious hue of their rulers who varied in their tolerance of other religions.  Austria became solidly Catholic and other religions were shut down.  If you wished to remain Lutheran, the only recourse was to leave the country.

Within Switzerland, another force was at work.  Though the Cantons had been little affected by the Thirty Years War, there was an internal war which had been going on for more than a century between the state and the Reformed Church on one hand and the Anabaptists on the other hand.  The Anabaptists were persecuted severely and sometimes expelled from the country.

With all of these forces at work, major shifts in the population, on a comparative basis to previous years, took place.  Many of our Germanna ancestors were involved; however, looking back now, it is not clear always why any one individual or family moved.  Those who came from Austria, such as the Blankenbakers, may have moved for religious reasons.  Those who came from Switzerland may have been caught up in the Anabaptist turmoil.  Several of our Germanna families have some ancestors from Switzerland, including the Harnsbergers, the Willheits, and the Zimmermans.  Or the reason may have been economic.

There are some patterns in the movements.  Mostly the new residents came from the east or from Switzerland in the south.  From Ansbach, came the K�fer (Kaifer), the Utz, and the Greys (Crees).  There is no evidence that there was any connection among these families.  The Motz family came from Anspach.  Two families came from Mittelfranken, the Blanckenb�hler (for the second stage of the migration) and the Bechk family.  The Fleshman family, at least Cyriacus Fleshman, came from Saxony.

Since several of the previous families are among my ancestors, maybe that is the reason I have lived such a nomadic life (born in Oklahoma, lived then in Oregon, California, Massachusetts, New Jersey, New York, California again, and then Pennsylvania).


Nr. 189 & Nr. 190:

(Note from Web Page Manager: We have combined these two Notes in order to ensure continuity.)

This note starts the family of Hans Jacob Richter, a member of the First Germanna Colony who came to Virginia in 1714.

1. Hans Jacob RICHTER  (Generation 1)
Born 1674 in Trupbach, Nassau-Siegen, Germany
Married 17 Jan 1711, Elizabeth Fischbach at Trupbach
Left Germany in 1713, arrived in Virginia in 1714
Died ca 1728/29 at Germantown (now Fauquier Co.), Virginia
Elizabeth married secondly John Marr
Children (of Jacob and Elizabeth):
2. John Rector
3. Henry Rector
4. Harmon Rector
5. Jacob Rector

2. John RECTOR  (Generation 2)
Born 1 Dec 1711 at Trupbach
Married first Anna Catherine Fishback
Children:
6. John, ca 1733 - 1773
John Rector, #2, married second Catherine (Taylor) Robinson
The mother of the next three children is probably Catherine
7. Henry, 1 Mar 1736 to 1782
8. Daniel, ca 1738 to 1 May 1814
9. Jacob, ca 1740 to 1779
The following seem to be definitely Catherine's children
10. Charles, 24 Apr 1742 to ?
11. Catherine, ca 1744 to ca 1790
12. Elizabeth, ca 1746 to ?
13. Benjamin, 1748 to 1808?
14. Frederick, 16 Jul 1750 to 18 Sep 1811
3. Henry Rector  (Generation 2)
Born ca 1720 probably at Germantown
Married Anne Robinson
Died 1799 Fauquier Co., VA (estate distribution shows children)
Children:
15. John, ca 1745 to 1775
16. Jacob, ca 1745 to 1795
17. Catherine, ? to 1799
18. Agnes, ? to 1793
19. Hannah, 1750 to 1816
20. Dinah, 1745 to 22 Feb 1841
21. Nancy Ann, ca 1760 to ?
22. Sally,
23. Moses, ca 1761 to ca 1804
24. Elijah, ca 1763 to 1828
25. Spencer, 1765 to 1793
26. Winifred (f), ? to 17 Sep 1809
4. Harmon Rector(Generation 2)
Born ca 1718 at Germanna (possibly Germantown), Virginia
Marrried before 1743, wife's name is unknown
Left will in Fauquier Co., dtd 23 Sep 1782, probated 28 Sep 1789
Will names "my children", "my three sons", "son Harmon, Jr."
Executors were sons-in-law, John Martin and Tillman Weaver
Based on research of John Alcock and others, children are:
27. Harmon, Jr., bef 1743 to after 1800,
28. John,
29. Henry, after 1745 to 1829,
30. Elizabeth, ? to after 1795,
31. Caty,
5. Jacob Rector(Generation 2)
Born ca 1723 at Germantown, VA
Married 1749 Mary Hitt
Moved to Rowan Co., NC ca 1787, later to Grayson Co., VA
Will dtd 31 Jul 1810 and filed in Grayson Co. names children:
32. Peter, 1 Nov 1749 to ca 1821
33. Nancy, deceased when father's will written, left family
34. James, 22 Aug 1754 to ca 1839
35. Jesse, 26 Dec 1759 to 22 Jan 1843
36. Bennett, 10 Mar 1767 to after 1816
37. Elizabeth, 5 Nov 1769 to 1855.
Notes on Hans Jacob Rector family.  Not all researchers agree on the structure of the families or the dates.  In particular, recent research has shown that:
#2. John was married twice;
#3. Henry married Anne Robinson;
Uriah was not a son of #4. Harmon;
while #4 Harmon did have a son named John.

Sources: Larry King's "Rector Records" and research (by John Gott and John Alcock), reported in "Beyond Germanna".  Comments are invited.


Nr. 191:

Recent notes have elicited several comments.

(Ref. 1)Sally Baughn has corrected the record as it pertains to Eve Baumgartner who married Mordecai Boughan/Baughan/Vaughan.  Sally was very modest in her recital and used the pronoun, "we", where it might have been more appropriate to use "I".  Her voyage of discovery was told in Beyond Germanna in the volume 3, number 4 issue.  Her search had taken her far and wide until she was able to make an important connection.  In note 187 here, which lists immigrants to Northern Virginia, correct the wife of Michael Aylor to Sarah Boughan, the daughter of Mordecai Boughan and Eve Baumgartner.

Sally asks if the parents of Mary Zimmerman (who married Mordecai Boughan, Jr,. as his first wife in 1801) are known.  I would draw attention to the family of John Zimmerman (1737-1819), the son of John Zimmerman, who married Ursula Blankenbaker.  John, Jr., was married three times and I do not know how the children divide among the wives.  One child was Mary, born ca the time of the Revolution, who has not been given a husband.  Based on the name, Mary, the age, and the lack of an assigned husband, this Mary is a strong candidate.

Ann in Kansas (Abaugh9618@aol.com) asks about Maximilian and Uriah Rector.  Larry King's "Rector Records" does not even list Maximilian, and assigns Uriah as a son of Harmon (number 4 in the notes here).  In Beyond Germanna, v.9, n.3, Tommie Brittain presents circumstantial evidence that Uriah and Maximilian were brothers.  They probably had another brother, John, at whose marriage (to Chloe McPherson), Maximilian was a witness on 29 September, in Botetourt Co., VA.  In the same issue of Beyond Germanna, John Alcock relates his searches among the "loose papers" in Fauquier Co., VA, where he found the lawsuit of John Peyton Harrison against Uriah Rector in 1784.  Uriah was the youngest son and heir at law to John Rector who had been "killed by thunder" before John made a deed for sale of land to Harrison.

Harmon's will mentioned three sons, but he only named one, Harmon, Jr.  Some people had assigned Uriah to Harmon, but they failed to note that two John Rectors had been merged into one John.  When split apart separately, the new John had to be assigned to Harmon based on a record which named a son of Harmon as John (this point was shown by John Alcock).  It was Barbara Vines Little who found that one John Rector should be split into two men.  Her research is given in Beyond Germanna, v.8, n.2.

While mentioning these modern day researches, much of it started with the findings of John K. Gott who found the lawsuit which made it clear that John Rector (#2) was married twice.  The lawsuit was reported in BG:2:1.  An analysis by John Alcock was published in BG:6:6.

There is a moral to be drawn from all of this research.  Most everyone had been happy with the reported structure of the Rector family.  There was not much evidence of any problems.  Almost accidentally, evidence was found to the contrary.  You have to ask, "When the evidence is all in family X, how will it change?"  Perhaps it is best to remember that every assignment up your tree has a probability attached to it.  More work should be done on improving these probabilities rather than collected sheer numbers of ancestors.


Nr. 192:

John Millbank and Mary Barlow

Mary Barlow was a granddaughter of the early Germanna pioneer, Christopher Barlow.  Though the spelling as Barlow is English, the name was originally more like Purlur in German, but evolved toward a known English name.  This is a common practice.

On 10 April 1773, at about her sixteenth birthday, Mary married John Millbank in Culpeper Co., VA.  Their first child, Eleanor, was born 16 April 1774.  Mary was confirmed at the Hebron Church (known then as the German Evangelical Lutheran Church) on Easter Sunday in 1776 as Mary Millbanks (on a few occasions, marriage preceded confirmation).  Two more children were baptized in the church, Elizabeth born on 27 April 1777 and Charles born on 26 May 1778.

It is believed that John Millbank may be the John Millbank tried for robbery at Old Bailey in London and sentenced to death.  The sentence was commuted to transportation for life.  He was brought to America aboard the ship Scarsdale.  In similar cases, the person is sold as an indentured servant to pay the transportation costs.

The appearance of men under the sentence of transportation for life was not unusual.  George Hume, well known in the Germanna community, arrived under such a condition.  He was a second cousin of Alexander Spotswood and several of his descendants married Germanna people.

Returning to the Millbanks, in 1784 John Millbank bought 87 acres of land from Henry Samuel Delph in the forks of the Rapidan and Robinson Rivers, though he sold it the next year to Henry Blankenbaker.  Another land transaction occurred in 1786.  In the 1787 tax list, John Millbank owned four horses, two cows and no slaves.

John and Mary moved to Scott Co., KY ca 1806.  He appears on the tax list with property on Eagle Creek in 1808.  Records were lost in the courthouse fire of 1837.  He was on the 1810 and 1820 census in Scott Co.

The will of John Millbank was proved 17 March 1828.  The date and place of death of Mary are undetermined.  She was living in 1836 when she applied for a pension.  She was named in the will of her brother, Joseph, written in Pendleton Co., KY in 1845 and probated in Boone Co., KY in 1849.

Mary applied for a pension in Scott Co. in 1836, saying her husband was a "salir on Virginia line" during the Revolution.  No military record was found and the pension was denied.  Perhaps John had been a sailor as his three companions at the Old Bailey trail were seamen.

Research on this story was by Ellie Caroland on behalf of William Sherman.  One reference book which she mentions is Peter Wilson Coldham, "English Convicts in Colonial America: Middlesex, 1617-1775" published at New Orleans by Plyanthos in 1974.

Extensions of the Millbank story would be welcomed.


Nr. 193:

There is a book by Rev. H. Max Lentz entitled "Lutheran Churches in Boone Co., Kentucky" which was published in 1902, in York, Pennsylvania.  Rev. Lentz states that the first church in the Boone Co. area was a Baptist church.  The remarks here are confined to Hopeful Church, the daughter of the German Evangelical Lutheran Church in Madison Co., VA (Hebron Church).

The Rev. William Carpenter, then pastor at Madison, Virginia, made a journey to Kentucky in 1804.  His journal now before us records the expense at eighteen pounds, or say ninety dollars, but he is silent as to the object of his visit.  As several families from Virginia moved here the year afterward, we are, no doubt, right in assuming that he came to Kentucky on a tour of investigation, and that those who came twelve months later came with his approval and likely at his suggestion.

[Lentz quotes Rev. D. Harbaugh, who, in his history of Hopeful Church, says, "On the 8th of October 1805, the following brethren and sisters left Madison, VA, viz: - George Rouse, Elizabeth Rouse, John House, Milly House, Frederick Zimmerman, Rose Zimmerman, Ephraim Tanner, Susanna Tanner, John Rouse, Nancy Rouse, and Elizabeth Hoffman.  They, with their families arrived in Boone Co. the 25th of November 1805."]

As soon as the brethren had erected their cabins, they resolved, though destitute of a good pastor, to hold religious meetings in private homes.  The first meeting was held at George Rouse's, at the close of 1805, or at the beginning of 1806.  The meetings were conducted in the following manner: after a suitable hymn, one of the brethren offered prayer, after which Ephraim Tanner read a sermon, selected from Rev. Schubert's sermons.  After the sermon, the exercises were conducted in the German language and kept up regularly, unless Providentially prevented, every Sabbath for nearly eight years, or until October 1813.

When Ephraim Tanner wrote father Carpenter for advice, he sent them a constitution and advised them to organize a church, when they did January 6, 1806.  We (Lentz) have the old German constitution with its signatures of the fathers before us.  Rev. H. in his discourse translates it entire and we give his excellent translation.

(to be continued in following notes)

[Please note that these are Rev. Lentz' opinions and that he is quoting Rev. Harbaugh.  The statements should be subject to scrunity.  These comments were brought to my attention by Ellie Caroland and appeared in Beyond Germanna in vol. 4, issue 3.  John BLANKENBAKER]


Nr. 194:

(The translation of the Constitution for the Hopeful Church in Boone Co., KY follows:)

We, the undersigned, living in Boone County, State of Kentucky, members of the Evangelical Lutheran and Evangelical Reformed Church, unite in the following articles of agreement for our government: -

1. We will unite in the establishment of public worship in our midst, according to the Protestant faith, and by God's help we will continually uphold it.

2. We will unite in the erection of a small house, which shall be regarded as a union house of worship, in which we will unitedly worship God.

3. One of us, for whom it is most convenient, shall give an acre of ground upon which said house shall be built.  And this acre of ground, with all that shall be built thereon, or that pertains to it, shall forever belong to this united congregation and their successors; so that he who gives it shall not have the power to sell it to any other person.

4. To prevent discord and offenses, no one shall be permitted to conduct public worship in the house owned by us, unless he is a regular Lutheran or Reformed minister.

5. We will assemble ourselves every Sabbath or as often as circumstances will permit, and by reading a sermon and with singing and prayer we will strengthen one another when we have no pastor.

6. We will unite in inviting a worthy minister, at least once a year, or oftener if possible, to preach the word of God to us, according to the foundation of the prophets and apostles, and administer the holy sacraments; for which we will reward him according to our ability.

7. It shall be the duty of each one belonging to his congregation to lead an orderly, Christian, and virtuous life; to abstain from all gross sins, such as cursing, swearing, card playing, drunkenness, and all such ungodly actions.

8. Should any one be guilty of any of the above sins, which may God in his mercy prevent, then the remaining brethren shall have the power and it shall be their duty to deal with him according to the directions of our Savior: Matt. xviii. 15-17.

The above articles shall remain unchanged until all the members, or at least a majority of them, shall deem it necessary to alter or amend them.

Adopted on the 6th day of January 1806,

George Rouse
John Rouse
Fred. Zimmerman
John Beemon
Daniel Beemon
Ephraim Tanner
John House
Michael Rouse
Jacob Rouse
Simeon Tanner

(to be continued)


Nr. 195:

Two of the signers of the Hopeful Church in Boone Co., KY in 1806 were Daniel Beemon and John Beemon.  The Beemon family appears in the Hebron Church records of Culpeper Co., VA (now Madison Co.).  Probably the original name was B�hme (Boehme) but the origin of the family is obscure.  A Harman "Bahmer", who witnessed a deed from Matthew Smith to Jacob Barler in 1747, may have been the father of Daniel Beemon who was born about 1750-55, perhaps in Culpeper Co., as his first child appears in 1777.  In civil records, the name often appears as Beemy.  Note that an association with the Barler (Barlow) is present in the marriage of the later generation.  There may be deeper significance to these associations than is known now.

Starting with Daniel Beemon, whose name appears in the Hebron Church constitution in 1776 as B�hme (written by another person who listed all the names), a family of nine children is shown in the records as born to Daniel and Nancy.  She was associated, it would appear, with the families of Barbara Yager Clore Chelf.  Barbara Yager married first Peter Clore and, when he died, second Phillip Chelf.  It is a possibility that Phillip had a first family.  The exact position of Nancy in this complex is uncertain but that she came from the group can hardly be doubted.  Based on the Hebron records, the nine children of Daniel and Nancy (?) Beemon were:

Susannah, b. 28 Sep 1777.  She married 2 Feb 1797 Daniel Barlow.
John, b. 31 Dec 1779.  He married Margaret Zimmerman.  John and Margaret moved to Boone Co., KY.
Joshua, b. 14 Feb 1781.
Catherine, b. 4 Feb 1783.  She married Aaron Barlow on 28 April 1801.
Nancy, b. 28 Jul 1785.
Rosina Beemon, b. 27 Dec 1787.
Daniel, b. 22 Oct 1790.  Moved to Boone Co., KY.
Mary, b. 13 Dec 1795.
Anna, b. 18 Jan 1799.

It appears that the sons, John, and his wife, and Daniel, moved to Boone Co.  in the first wave of immigrants and were signers of the Hopeful Church constitution.  It also appears that John's younger brother, Daniel, at the age of 15, moved with his brother to Boone Co. and was permitted to sign the church constitution.  The father, Daniel, was still appearing in Madison Co., VA records for he sold 180 acres to Samuel Carpenter on 4 Oct 1808.  But this is the last record in Madison Co. and B.C. Holtzclaw speculated that a major portion of the family may have moved to Boone Co. shortly after this time.

This short sketch on the Beemons is intended to help sort out the Beemons in the early Boone Co. records.  Notes on the Beemons appeared in Beyond Germanna, vol. 4, issue 5.  More work on the Boone Co. people is needed.  One of the things that we have seen so far is the families which immigrated to Boone Co. were highly related.  Tracing some of these relationships is important.

Did you notice the mention, a couple of issues back, of the journal or diary of Rev. Wm. Carpenter?  Wouldn't it be fun to find this and bring it to life again?  It may still exist.  The best place to start a search would probably be in the Lutheran archives.


Nr. 196:

On October 5 (1997), it was my pleasure to attend a lecture by the historian Dr. Robert A. Selig under the auspices of The German Heritage Society of Greater Washington, D.C.  The presentation by Prof. Selig discussed the Royal Deux-Ponts regiment which fought in the cause of our Revolution.  As the name might imply, the regiment was in the service of France.  The enlisted men though were almost exclusively German while the officers were of a mixed nationality.  During the American Revolution, the Royal Deux-Ponts regiment was a part of the French expeditionary forces in America.

A recently discovered illustrated journal kept by one of the enlisted men in the Royal Deux-Ponts regiment gives us considerable insight into the activities of the regiment.  For example, the regiment landed in Newport, Rhode Island, in the summer of 1780.  Previously recorded comments by the officers of the regiment described the Americans as "cold and aloof".  Or as one lieutenant put it, "the people were little disposed in our favor and would have preferred at that moment, I think, to see their enemies arrive rather than their allies."  But Georg Daniel Flohr, whose journal has been preserved, thought that he "got along well with the inhabitants".

Clearly, there was a difference of opinion by the New Englanders toward the French, as represented by the officers, and toward the Germans, as represented by the enlisted men.  In part, it was due to the difference in religion.  It also was related to the role of the French in activities in North America from about 1750 to the time of the Revolution.  Near Suffern (New York), Flohr records, "the inhabitants would ask you if you wanted to stay with them and promised to hide you until the French were gone."

As the troops marched south toward the action, they marveled at a country where "all inhabitants are wealthy and well.  One does not see a difference between the rich and poor."  Here "one does not see a difference between the Sunday clothes and their workday clothes", and women were "always dressed like ladies of the nobility".  Flohr wondered how they could be so wealthy when they didn't seem to work.  It appeared to him that the answer was in the abundance of land and the institution of slavery.  Naturally conditions such as this were a great temptation to desert.

Others had noted the lack of such a sharp distinction between the poor and the wealthy.  Flohr showed his appreciation of the egalitarian character of American society where a citizen would talk to everybody, whether he is rich or poor.  Another description was that the Americans had put behind his ancient prejudices and manners.  Americans could say, "We have no princes for whom we toll, starve and bleed."

In passing through Pennsylvania, Flohr reported that more than one third of the regiment was welcomed by friends and relatives who had emigrated there.  He writes about Pennsylvania, "when you closed your eyes and listened, you could think you were in the Palatinate."

While the regiment was in American, the percentage of men of German origin who deserted was much larger than the percentage for French nationals.  This shows in another way why there were so many Germans in the colonies.  After the initial ones came, they sent word back to Germany.  Based on Flohr's comments, one can imagine the letters they were writing.


Nr. 197:

At one time, a Michael Rouse generated a list of children christened at Hopeful Lutheran Church in Boone County, Kentucky (see Beyond Germanna, v.5, n.1).  With the usual "buyer beware" warning, I am giving the parents who had children before 1826.  The theory behind this date is that the parents were immigrants to Boone Co. and were not born in Kentucky.  (Earlier we saw that a first group signed a constitution in 1806.)  The parents, and the dates, and the first child are:

Benjamin and Anna Aylor, Staunton, b. 10 Feb 1815
Joshua (and wife) Beemon, Abraham, bapt. 23 Jul 1814
John and Peggy Beemon, Alpha, b. 28 July 1807
Rev. William and Mary (Aylor) Carpenter, William Henry, b. 30 Jul 1815
Jeremiah and Julian (?) Carpenter, William Eli, b. 9 Feb 1819
Augustus and Francis Carpenter, Malinda, b. 12 Mar 1824
Lewis and Jemima Crigler, Lucinda, b. 10 Oct 1818
John and Magdalena Floyd, Michael, b. 2 Mar 1817
Samuel and Susannah I (Holtzclaw) Floyd, Jacob, b. 13 Dec 1821
John and Frances Holsclaw, Sarah Ann, b. 18 May 1824
John and Milly House, Anna, b. 17 Mar 1815
Abraham and Julianna Rouse, William Caleb, b. 13 Sep 1822
Julius and Polly Rouse, Elizabeth, b. 25 Oct 1822
Lovel and Eliza Rouse, Franky, b. 3 Oct 1824
John and Nancy Rouse, William, b. 18 Aug 1814
George and Elizabeth Rouse, Sarah, b. 30 Jan 1814
Joel and Tabitha Rouse, Elizabeth, b. 17 Dec 1815
William and Rosina Rouse, Jemima, b. 27 Mar 1817
Elisha and Juliana Rouse, Valentine, b. 6 Aug 1817
Jeremiah and Nancy Rouse, Lucinda, b. 10 Dec 1820
Ephraim and Susanna Tanner, Joshua, b. 11 Jun 1815
Simeon and Elizabeth Tanner, Julianna, b. 31 Aug 1815
Moses and Elizabeth Tanner, Sarah Ann, b. 19 Apr 1816
Benjamin and Anna Tanner, Julia, b. 30 Dec 1826
Frederick and Rosina Zimmerman, Nancy, b. 27 Jul 1817

These names are presented as possible immigrants to Boone Co. from Madison Co., VA.  On analysis, some of them have been given before.  Some of them went with their parents as children and perhaps do not merit separate listings.  Interestingly, some of the people we have already listed as early immigrants to Boone Co. do not show on this list.


Nr. 198:

Robert England, who lives in Hebron, Kentucky, sent me a copy of the "History of the Evangelical Lutheran Congregation of Hopeful Church, Boone County, Kentucky", written by the Rev. David Harbaugh.  Written in 1854, it had been prepared for the forty-eighth anniversary of Hopeful Church.  Not surprisingly, a few of the earliest members were still living.  At the time of the founding in 1806, the county seat, Burlington, consisted of a few houses, a log court house and a log jail.  Covington consisted of a farm and orchard.  Cincinnati had two brick and two frame houses with a number of log cabins.

On the 8th of October 1805, George Rouse, Elizabeth Rouse, John House, Milly House, Frederick Zimmerman, Rose Zimmerman, Ephraim Tanner, Susanna Tanner, John Rouse, Nancy Rouse, and Elizabeth Hoffman had left Madison County, Virginia.  They made good time in their travels as they arrived on the 25th of November 1805.

The males in the above group signed the first church constitution which bears the date of January 6, 1806.  This constitution was signed by ten persons, all males.  The five men who came in 1805 were signers, but Michael Rouse, John Beemon, Jacob Rouse, Daniel Beemon and SimeonTanner also signed.  The discrepancy between the list of those who came in 1805 and the signers had puzzled me but Rev. Harbaugh says the last five names signed later.  He identifies them as ones who came subsequently.

Services were held in German even though the Rouses, Tanners and Zimmermans had been among the earliest of the Germanna settlers, almost 90 years earlier.

For eight years they were destitute of a pastor.  Rev. Carpenter from Virginia visited them twice during this time.  In October of 1813, Rev. Carpenter moved to Boone County and became their pastor.  He preached in German, generally once a month.  By this time they had constructed a log cabin church.  They adopted a new constitution in January of 1815.

In 1823 a new Log Church was built.  It was in this church, in the year 1824, that he first preached in the English language.  It is said that he had been willing earlier to preach in English but he was bitterly opposed by some of the members.  About the year 1832, when Rev. Carpenter was approaching his proverbial three score and ten years, he urged the Rev. Jacob Crigler to consider moving to Boone County.  Part of his argument ran that Crigler's old father-in-law and Crigler's two brothers and their wives were members at Hopeful.  Rev. Carpenter did die in 1833 and, in the following year, Rev. Crigler did come.  Shortly thereafter a brick church was built.  Rev. Crigler preached in both German and English, usually giving two sermons a month.  By the end of his pastorate in 1842 he was preaching only in English.  He was succeeded by the Rev. John Surface of Ohio.

***************
I did not make my intent clear in the last note when I gave some of the couples who had children baptized at Hopeful Church in the early years.  While I gave only one child per family, this was the earliest one for whom there was a record at Hopeful.  This may not have been the oldest child in the family.  As some of you pointed out, in some families there were older children.  The baptisms were not until Rev. Carpenter came.  By then some families had several unbaptized children and they had them all baptized at the same time.  But my list was intended to show who some of the early families who immigrated to Boone County were.  They may not have been in the first wave of emigrants but they were early.  There may have been other individuals who were early but who do not show up as having a child baptized.
***************


Nr. 199:

Recently, a number of names have been proposed as the early emigrants from Madison Co., VA, to Northern Kentucky.  The impression may have been created that the group which went in 1805 was the first people to go.  This is not correct.  In the "Garr Genealogy", there is a list of marriages taken from the records in the court house at Burlington, Boone Co., Kentucky.  This book lists marriages from only three counties as separate lists.  These counties are Madison and Culpeper in Virginia, and Boone in Kentucky.  Presumably, Boone County seemed very significant to the Garrs.  The marriages and the dates are:

Michael Crisler m. Betsy Corn, 4 Oct 1813
David Crisler m. Nancy Bean, 21 Sep 1809
Nathan Clore m. Peggy Peak, 16 Dec 1800
Nellie Clore m. Beverly Ward, 28 Oct 1799
Jemima Crisler (d/o Leonard) m. Reuben Glore, 28 Apr 1806
Elizabeth Crisler m. Abraham Powell, 27 Jul 1807
John Souther m. Sally Wilhite, 5 Dec 1807
Lewis Crisler m. Polly Zimmerman 18 Aug 1806
Allen Crisler m. Fanny Conner, 23 Mar 1804
Peggy Crisler (d/o Leonard) m. Thomas Griffing, 23 Apr 1806
Ann Yager m. George Corn, 11 Apr 1803
Silas Crisler m. Polly Shaver (Shafner?), 26 Sep 1808
Ann Chrisler (Crisler?) m. Lewis Conner, 5 Jul 1803
Elisha Crisler m. Elizabeth Rouse, 1 Jan 1810
Joshua Crigler m. Sally Conner, 10 Dec 1810
Nellie Crisler (d/o Lewis) m. William Conner, 14 Mar 1812
Caleb Wihoit m. Nancy Aylor, 7 Dec 1812
Oliver Glore m. Polly Howlet, 3 Jun 1812
Joshua Souther m. Elizabeth Wilhite, 4 Mar 1811
John Crisler m. Malinda Mitchell, 21 Aug 1815
John Crisler m. Leanna Zimmerman, 14 Jan 1811
Jacob W. Souther m. Betsey Stansifer, 7 Oct 1814

Apparently, without detailed checking, fourteen of these people were Garr/Gaar descendants.  The name Crigler in the list might be a mistake for Crisler.  Glore is an alternative spelling of Clore.  The name Stansifer is probably Stonecypher or its variants.

The earliest of these people may have been the incentive for Rev. Carpenter to make his first visit.

The set of names which has been put forth so far is in need of detailed analysis.  More names will perhaps turn up in time.  (The only point I have decided is that the Crislers liked succotash.)


Nr. 200:

David Shultze, a farmer and surveyor who lived in Montgomery County, Pennsylvania, just outside Philadelphia, kept a journal of his daily activities.  This note reviews his activities in the year 1750 (using the new style calendar in which the New Year starts on January 1).  His surveying activities are not mentioned.

January. 4-5: Threshed grain.
        [It is a surprise to modern people, especially those who have farm experience,
        that threshing occurs in the winter.  Harvesting grains took place in the
        summer, but threshing was a winter activity.  The grain was stored in the
        barn.  Threshing, by use of a flail, and winnowing took place in the winter.]
January 9: Made a log sled.
        [Many farmers did not have a wagon.]
January 11: Winnowed grain.
        [Had to wait for a windy day to winnow.]
January 13: Manured the stables.
        [I would understand this better if he had said "de-manured" the stables.]
January 15: the first lamb was born.
        [Early!]
January 15, 16, 18, 19, 20: Cleared forest.
January 22, 23: Finished threshing wheat and got 87 bushels in all.
        [There would be a surplus for sale.  How many acres did this take?  Three?]
January 24: Butchered a calf.
        [Probably consumed as fresh meat, perhaps some traded to a neighbor.]
January 25: Hemp plucked.
        [I am not familiar with the processing of hemp.]
January 26: Carried firewood.
        [Perhaps he used the log sled.]
January 29: Cut wood.
        [No chain saws here, old fashioned crosscut saws and axes.]
January 30: Nailed clapboards on.
        [Perhaps he was putting a finishing touch on the house.]
January 31: Butchered the old sow--only 104 pounds of meat.
February 3: Manured the stables.
February 5,6,7: Finished threshing grain.
February 10: Butchered a calf.
February 13: Oats threshed, also on the 19th.
February 24: Manured the stables.
February 27: Cleansed oats.
February 28: Threshed grain.
March 1: Threshed oats.
March 3: Cleansed 16 bushels (oats) for seed.
March 6: Made reals (rails) for fencing.
March 7: Wood carried, etc.
March 8,9: Cut rails of wood.
March 10: Cleaned the stables.
March 13-17: Made rails.
March 20, 22, 23: Kitchen garden fence repaired.
March 24: Plucked hemp.
March 26: Made rails.
March 28, 29: Sowed 100 perches with flaxseed.
March 30,31: Two more quarters of flaxseed sown.

(to be continued)

 


(To see John & Eleanor Blankenbaker's May, 2000, and May, 2002, Germany and Austria photos, click here.)

(To see maps of villages in Germany and Austria from which our Germanna ancestors immigrated, click here.)


(This page contains the EIGHTH set of Notes, Nr. 176 through Nr. 200.)


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(GERMANNA History Notes, Copyright © 1996, 1997, 1998, 1999, 2000, 2001, 2002, 2003, 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008, 2009 John BLANKENBAKER.)

(GERMANNA History Web Pages, Copyright © 1996, 1997, 1998, 1999, 2000, 2001, 2002, 2003, 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008, 2009 George W. DURMAN.)

This material has been compiled and placed on this web site by George W. Durman, with the permission of John BLANKENBAKER.  It is intended for personal use by genealogists and researchers, and is not to be disseminated further.


Index Links to All Pages of John's GERMANNA NOTES and Genealogy Comments
INDEX Links to All Pages of John's GERMANNA NOTES
Pg.001-Notes 0001-0025
Pg.002-Notes 0026-0050
Pg.003-Notes 0051-0075
Pg.004-Notes 0076-0100
Pg.005-Notes 0101-0125
Pg.006-Notes 0126-0150
Pg.007-Notes 0151-0175
Pg.008-Notes 0176-0200
Pg.009-Notes 0201-0225
Pg.010-Notes 0226-0250
Pg.011-Notes 0251-0275
Pg.012-Notes 0276-0300
Pg.013-Notes 0301-0325
Pg.014-Notes 0326-0350
Pg.015-Notes 0351-0375
Pg.016-Notes 0376-0400
Pg.017-Notes 0401-0425
Pg.018-Notes 0426-0450
Pg.019-Notes 0451-0475
Pg.020-Notes 0476-0500
Pg.021-Notes 0501-0525
Pg.022-Notes 0526-0550
Pg.023-Notes 0551-0575
Pg.024-Notes 0575-0600
Pg.025-Notes 0601-0625
Pg.026-Notes 0626-0650
Pg.027-Notes 0651-0675
Pg.028-Notes 0676-0700
Pg.029-Notes 0701-0725
Pg.030-Notes 0726-0750
Pg.031-Notes 0751-0775
Pg.032-Notes 0776-0800
Pg.033-Notes 0801-0825
Pg.034-Notes 0826-0850
Pg.035-Notes 0851-0875
Pg.036-Notes 0876-0900
Pg.037-Notes 0901-0925
Pg.038-Notes 0926-0950
Pg.039-Notes 0951-0975
Pg.040-Notes 0976-1000
Pg.041-Notes 1001-1025
Pg.042-Notes 1026-1050
Pg.043-Notes 1051-1075
Pg.044-Notes 1076-1100
Pg.045-Notes 1101-1125
Pg.046-Notes 1126-1150
Pg.047-Notes 1151-1175
Pg.048-Notes 1176-1200
Pg.049-Notes 1201-1225
Pg.050-Notes 1226-1250
Pg.051-Notes 1251-1275
Pg.052-Notes 1276-1300
Pg.053-Notes 1301-1325
Pg.054-Notes 1326-1350
Pg.055-Notes 1351-1375
Pg.056-Notes 1376-1400
Pg.057-Notes 1401-1425
Pg.058-Notes 1426-1450
Pg.059-Notes 1451-1475
Pg.060-Notes 1476-1500
Pg.061-Notes 1501-1525
Pg.062-Notes 1526-1550
Pg.063-Notes 1551-1575
Pg.064-Notes 1576-1600
Pg.065-Notes 1601-1625
Pg.066-Notes 1626-1650
Pg.067-Notes 1651-1675
Pg.068-Notes 1676-1700
Pg.069-Notes 1701-1725
Pg.070-Notes 1726-1750
Pg.071-Notes 1751-1775
Pg.072-Notes 1776-1800
Pg.073-Notes 1801-1825
Pg.074-Notes 1826-1850
Pg.075-Notes 1851-1875
Pg.076-Notes 1876-1900
Pg.077-Notes 1901-1925
Pg.078-Notes 1926-1950
Pg.079-Notes 1951-1975
Pg.080-Notes 1976-2000
Pg.081-Notes 2001-2025
Pg.082-Notes 2026-2050
Pg.083-Notes 2051-2075
Pg.084-Notes 2076-2100
Pg.085-Notes 2101-2125
Pg.086-Notes 2126-2150
Pg.087-Notes 2150-2175
Pg.088-Notes 2176-2200
Pg.089-Notes 2201-2225
Pg.090-Notes 2226-2250
Pg.091-Notes 2251-2275
Pg.092-Notes 2276-2300
Pg.093-Notes 2301-2325
Pg.094-Notes 2326-2350
Pg.095-Notes 2351-2375
Pg.096-Notes 2376-2400
Pg.097-Notes 2401-2425
Pg.098-Notes 2426-2450
Pg.099-Notes 2451-2475
Pg.100-Notes 2476-2500
Pg.101-Comments 0001-0025


INDEX Links to All Pages of John's GENEALOGY COMMENTS

(As of 12 April 2007, John published the last of his "Germanna Notes"; however, he is going to periodically post to the GERMANNA_COLONIES Mailing List in the form of "Genealogy Comments" on various subjects, not necessarily dealing with Germanna.  I'm starting the numbering system anew, starting with Comment Nr. 0001.)

Pg.101-Comments 0001-0025