Chapter VI

GERMAN IMMIGRANTS IN SOME OF THE OTHER AMERICAN COLONIES.

Grant of Maryland to Cecilius Calvert.--Maryland designed as a
Refuge for Catholics.--Puritan aggression.--Religious Freedom
Proclaimed.--German immigration in the Province.--Maryland Germans
in the Revolution.--Germans settle in Virginia.--In the Shenandoah
Valley.--Also in North Carolina.--A Colony of Swiss and Palatines
found New Bern.--Graffenried’s Adventure with Indians.--The Indians
burn Lawson at the Stake.--“King” of the Palatines.--War between the
English and Indians.--German Colony in South Carolina.--Purrysburg
founded by Them.--Large German Settlement on Edisto
River.--Saxe-Gotha.--An Imposter.--Executed for Murder.--Salzburgers
Emigrate to Georgia.--Germans in other States.--Palatines settle in
Ireland.

New York received a large German immigration at an early day. The influences which operated to send many Palatines to Pennsylvania, were exerted in favor of New York to a very great extent. The British government was anxious to colonize that province, and when the great flood of emigration from the Palatinate began to set in, much of it was diverted to New York, through the influence of the English. The latter in numerous instances furnished the means to transport such as desired to emigrate. In that way New York received many thousands of German immigrants, most of whom came from the Rhine provinces, and settled along the Hudson river, and in the Mohawk valley. A German colony also settled in Schoharie county. The first German immigrants went to New York in 1710, and others came afterwards. The Schoharie colony became disintegrated a few years after its settlement, on account of difficulties with the local authorities, when many of them left New York under the lead of John Conrad Weiser and his son Conrad, and settled in Pennsylvania.

After the Weisers had led their colony to Pennsylvania, the emigration to the province of New York came very nearly to an end. The Schoharie colonists who came to Pennsylvania, wrote to their relatives and countrymen in the Palatinate, that they had at last found an asylum where they could rest in peace, and be secure in their rights, and advised all who contemplated emigrating to America to avoid New York, and come to Pennsylvania. Many who started from their homes in the Palatinate after that, with the intention of going to Pennsylvania, were diverted from their plans, and forced on ships bound for New York; but they were no sooner landed than “they hastened to Pennsylvania in sight of all the inhabitants of New York.”

The names of many towns in New York attest their German origin, such as Newburg, Rhinebeck, New Pfalz, Palatine Bridge, Herkimer (Hercheimer), named for General Herkimer, a distinguished soldier of the State of New York, and numerous other names.

NEW JERSEY.

New Jersey being situated between New York and Pennsylvania, necessarily profited by the immigration in the adjacent States, although there does not seem to have been that concerted effort to attract German emigrants to it, as there was made on behalf of the New York and Pennsylvania colonies, yet the State was continually receiving numerous accessions of German settlers. German Valley in what is now Morris county, was settled by them in consequence of an untoward event. A shipload of German emigrants sailed from a European port bound for New York, but adverse winds drove the ship out of its course, and when it finally reached American waters, found it most convenient to enter the port of Philadelphia, whence its passengers disembarked, and sought to make their way to New York overland, across the State of New Jersey. Their course led them into a beautiful valley, where they halted and made a permanent settlement, whence came the name, German Valley.

MARYLAND.

In 1632 the province of Maryland was granted to Cecilius Calvert by Charles I. Calvert was a Roman Catholic, and it was designed by him, to make his province a refuge for his co-religionists, without making it a distinct Catholic colony. In 1663, 200 Catholic colonists arrived in Maryland and made a permanent settlement. Soon thereafter a number of Puritans came and settled among them, who soon created strife by trying to enforce their peculiar tenets and practices upon their Catholic neighbors, which resulted in making things very uncomfortable for the intolerant Puritans, so much so, that they moved out of Maryland into Virginia.

Religious freedom was proclaimed in Maryland by the authorities, after which Quakers, German Lutherans, and other sects emigrated thither and made permanent settlements. Considerable numbers of German emigrants sailed direct from foreign ports to Maryland; many went there from New York where they had become dissatisfied with English rule, while Pennsylvania furnished a good many, and a few came from New England.

The Germans occupied certain parts of Maryland in the early days, to the exclusion almost of people of every other nationality. About the middle of the previous century, the larger part of the population of Frederick county, was either German or of German parentage. Like their kin in Pennsylvania those Germans continued the almost exclusive use of their native dialect for a long period after their settlement in Frederick county, and until a comparatively recent period, all religious services were conducted by them in the German language. At the outbreak of the Revolution, Maryland sent a German regiment of infantry in the field, and also a German company of artillery, besides numerous Germans enlisted in other organizations.

VIRGINIA.

Virginia began to receive Germans from the Palatinate, and from other parts of Germany as early as 1743. In that year a vessel arrived at Hampton Roads, which had sailed from a Holland port with 200 passengers on board, 100 of whom died on the voyage. Many Swiss were among the early settlers in Virginia. Germans from Pennsylvania also settled in Virginia during different periods, chiefly in the Shenandoah valley.

NORTH CAROLINA.

In 1719 at a time when the German Palatines were rushing to America, a large number of them were in London, awaiting assistance to enable them to take passage to some one of the American colonies. There was in London at that time a Swiss gentleman by the name of Christoph Graffenried. He met there one Louis Michel also a Swiss, who had spent some time in America, and was familiar with the country’s needs, and also its possibilities for colonists. The two conceived the idea of founding a colony of Swiss and Germans in America, and for that purpose secured a tract of land in North Carolina, between the Neuse and Cape Fear rivers, with the understanding that after they had paid for 5000 acres, they should obtain title to 100,000.

Soon thereafter two vessels with 650 Palatines and Swiss on board, were dispatched to North Carolina, where they arrived in December 1710; and they founded Newbern.

The following year the Tuscarora Indians began to make war against the English, and whites generally. Before the settlers had any intelligence of the designs of the Indians, Graffenried who came to North Carolina with the Swiss and Palatine colonists, started off on one occasion, with a land surveyor named Lawson, and a negro servant, to ascend the river Neuse in a boat to explore the country. They did not dream of any unfriendliness on the part of the Indians, so in the evening they tied their boat up near an Indian village, intending to spend the night with their savage neighbors. They found the Indians in a morose mood, manifesting none of their usual good will. Graffenried’s suspicions that their manner boded trouble, was increased, when he saw a large quantity of arms and ammunition provided by the Indians. He started away from the village with his companions, with the intention of ascending higher up the stream, but after they had reached their boat and were about entering it, they were surrounded by about 60 armed Indians, who took them back to the village, and brought them before the chief, who ordered that they should be kept under strict guard until the next day, when they were brought before a council to consider the question, as to what disposition should be made of them. The following evening, they were taken before the council, the deliberations of which lasted until the following morning, when an Indian made his appearance, with whom Lawson had some time previous a difficulty, and from whom the Indian did not get very good treatment. The Indian informed the council, that the whites had conspired in secret to destroy them; this so angered the savages, that they immediately condemned Graffenried and his two companions to death. The next day they were taken to the place of execution, where they were bound hand and foot, and left to lie on the ground. The Indians kindled a big fire, erected a cross which they decorated with flowers. In the painful position in which Graffenried and his companions had been placed, they remained all day and the following night. With sunrise the next morning, a multitude of Indians assembled, to witness the final act of the tragedy. An armed guard stood over the condemned during all that time. The principal Indians sat about them in a circle of two rows; behind them were about 300 Indians engaged in dancing, and yelling like so many devils possessed. Two executioners were detailed to carry out the decree of the council, who were painted so as to make as hideous an appearance as possible. In this extremity, a thought occurred to Graffenried. He turned to the principal chief, and asked what right they had to condemn an innocent man, and whether they were willing to hazard the execution of a king; pretending that he was the king of the Palatines. This ruse served its purpose, for a second council was held; Graffenried’s fetters were unloosened, but Lawson and the negro servant both suffered death at the stake.

Graffenried was kept in confinement for five weeks longer, when he was released, upon his entering into a compact with the Indians, that in the event of war between them and the English, that he would remain neutral as “king” of the Palatines, and would discontinue measuring and appropriating their lands.

In the war which followed, the Swiss and Palatine settlers, who were both known under the name of Palatines, remained neutral, and Newbern was saved from harm. The details of the foregoing account of Graffenried’s adventure is based on a letter written by him to the governor of the province, soon after its occurrence.

After the war between the Tuscaroras and the Indians, many other Palatines settled in North Carolina; the names of whose descendants abound numerously in that state at the present day.

SOUTH CAROLINA.

It is not known when the Germans first came to South Carolina, but it is known that in 1734 a number of emigrants from Salzburg arrived at Charleston and settled in the province, and about the same time 170 Swiss emigrants also arrived at Charleston under the lead of Johann Peter Purry, and founded Purrysburg on the Savannah river; the following year 200 additional Swiss arrived, and later a colony of Swiss and Palatines made settlement in the neighborhood of Orangeburg, which was founded about the same time. Their settlement was on the Edisto river, and the whole region on both sides of the stream in that neighborhood was originally settled by Germans, chiefly from the Palatinate, and Switzerland. Other Germans from parts in Germany further north settled in South Carolina. They founded a colony further inland from Orangeburg, and called it Saxe-Gotha. This became an important central point, from which the German settlement spread, which continued to gain large accessions until the Revolution.

In 1763 there came two ship loads of German emigrants from London to Charleston. They were poor, and the Colonial Legislature voted them 500 pounds, 200 muskets and ammunition, and settled them in the Saxe-Gotha district. The Germans monopolized this district, and continued to speak the German language long after it had ceased to be spoken elsewhere in South Carolina. A traveller who visited this district as late as 1850 wrote, that German was no longer spoken by the descendants of the early German settlers, but that the people retained their German Bibles, hymn-books, and observed many of the customs, festivals and holidays of their German ancestors.

* * * * *

There is said to have been a remote district in South Carolina in the first half of the last century, which had been settled by Germans, which had scarcely any communication with the outside world; where the people were without churches, or schools, who had fallen into such dense ignorance, that they were not far removed from a savage state. A Swiss came among them named Weber, who represented himself to be Jesus Christ; his wife the Virgin Mary, and another who came with him, as the Holy Ghost. This imposter hired a man to represent the devil, and he went about making converts of many simple souls who believed in him. He ordered that Satan be bound in chains and placed in a great cavern which existed in that neighborhood, which was accordingly done. He finally decreed that Satan should be put out of the world. The poor devil was placed in a featherbed, and covered with pillows and bed clothes, after which some of Weber’s followers smothered Satan to death. When the affair reached the knowledge of the authorities at Charleston, Weber was arrested, tried for murder; convicted and duly hanged. His wife, children, and ignorant dupes were pardoned by the Governor.

GEORGIA.

Very few Palatines, if any, went to Georgia direct from Germany in the early days, although considerable numbers went there from some of the other colonies.

In 1739 a fierce religious persecution began in the archbishopric of Salzburg. This persecution continued for many years, during which time more than 30,000 Protestant Germans left the archbishopric, and settled elsewhere. Some went to Prussia, some to Holland, and others went to England, who soon thereafter left for Georgia, where they settled permanently, and became a nucleus around which several thousand of the persecuted Salzburgers afterwards gathered.

TENNESSEE AND KENTUCKY.

Whatever German immigration went to the territory now embraced in the foregoing named states in the early days went to North Carolina and Virginia; Tennessee being taken from the first named state, and Kentucky from the latter. After the Revolution, and Tennessee and Kentucky were admitted as states, each received large accessions of German population. Many went to those states from Pennsylvania, Maryland and Virginia.

GERMAN PALATINES IN IRELAND.

About the years 1709-10, when many thousands of Palatines abandoned their native land, to seek homes elsewhere, the exodus assumed the nature, of what would in these days be termed a “craze.” Thousands left their homes in the Palatinate, without any well-defined idea where they would eventually land. The first consideration with them was to get away from their oppressors; the question with regard to their future was deemed of minor importance. Under such circumstances 5,000 Germans from the Palatinate found their way to England in the months of May and June, 1709, which number was increased by October to 13,000, comprising husbandmen, tradesmen, artisans, schoolteachers, and clergymen.

Those emigrants all came to London, and when the first lot arrived, they took the Londoners by surprise, for they came without any notice of their coming, and the first intimation which the citizens of London had concerning them was when they found about 5,000 Palatine men, women, and children under tents in the suburbs of their city. They seemed to be without any definite plans for the future, beyond the fact that they had been told in their own country, that settlers were wanted for the British colonies in America, and in pursuance of those representations they came to London, expecting that the British government would provide for them. England did take care of them; sheltering them about the city in empty dwellings, warehouses, barns, and wherever vacant places could be found. Good Queen Anne ordered tents to be pitched on Blackheath for their accommodation. A large majority of those people were sent to the British colonies in America.

Upon the petition of the Lord Lieutenant Governor of Ireland 3,800 of them were sent to Ireland and settled in the county Limerick, in the province of Munster, where many of their descendants are living at this day, the most prosperous and well-to-do farmers and tradesmen in Ireland.

The late Professor Rupp in his book of “The Names of 30,000 German Immigrants,” makes reference to the settlement of those German Palatines in Ireland, and states “that it is said” that some of them still speak a German dialect. The author visited the descendants of those people a few years ago, but found no trace of any German dialect; it has died out long ago; only the German names remain, some of which have become so changed in their spelling, as to make their German origin scarcely recognizable. Many of those people have intermarried with the Irish population, so that the present generation is more Irish than German. Those people are still spoken of as Palatines.

The migration of so many Palatines in the course of a few months and their sudden appearance in England, furnishes one of the most interesting episodes in the whole history of the German emigration from the Palatinate. Their reception, treatment and their disposition by the English Government, redounds much to its credit, generosity, and humanity, most of which was owing to the kindly disposition toward those people of Queen Anne.

While there was no settled purpose in the mind of the English authorities at first regarding the ultimate disposition of those people, the first impulse however was that they had to be provided for. The Palatines themselves were without any fixed purpose, but were inspired with the hope of eventually reaching America. Some of the young men among them enlisted in the British army; others scattered throughout rural England, while a considerable number of them sought service in London, and in some of the other cities and towns of England. The great majority however were disposed of in the way hereinbefore stated.

As proof of the magnanimity of the English people in their treatment of their unfortunate guests, Parliament, at the suggestion of the noble-minded Queen voted £24,000 for those who elected to go to Ireland, for transportation and subsistence. Those that were sent to the American colonies also had their transportation paid by the British government.

Among the foregoing mentioned Palatines, there were about 1,500 German Catholics, which is evidence going to show, that it was not alone religious persecution as has been often contended, that drove those people from their homes in the Palatinate, but that Protestant and Catholic alike left the devastated land of their birth, to improve their material, rather than their spiritual welfare.

Those in authority in England at that time were not as tolerant of other people’s religious views as people are in these days, and the government refused to send those of the Catholic faith to the American colonies, in consequence of which many of them renounced their religion rather than return to their desolate and ravished homes in the Palatinate, where such as were tenacious of their faith were sent under passports of the British government.