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UNDERCURRENTS OF GERMAN INFLUENCE
IN MARYLAND
PROF. ALBERT B. FAUST*
The Society for the History of the
Germans in Maryland celebrates tonight
the twenty-fifth anniversary of its foun-
dation. It is but natural to pause a
moment and reflect upon what has been
done before passing on to renewed en-
deavor. What has the Society been
able to accomplish in the first quarter
century of its existence? The answer
can readily be given.
The Society has rescued from ob-
livion the names and records of noble
pioneers in American history, it has
searched for and discovered the traces,
south of Mason and Dixon's line, of
that sturdy Teutonic stock, which has
contributed to the people of the United
States more than one-quarter of their
blood and no less to their economic and
cultural development. To speak more
specifically, the Society has shown that
the economic foundation and commer-
cial prosperity of the city of Baltimore
was dependent, vastly and indispensably,
upon German settlers, many of whom
trekked from Pennsylvania, others came
from over the sea, and were founders
of families prominent in the annals of
the city. The Society has called atten-
tion to the German pioneers of Western
Maryland, in the Counties Frederick,
Allegany, and Washington. Hagers-
town, once the westernmost settlement,
perpetuates the name of the original set-
tler, Jonathan Hager, who held a seat
in the Colonial Assembly of provincial
Maryland.
As in Pennsylvania so in Western
Maryland the German stock before the
Revolutionary War founded the agricul-
tural prosperity of the Commonwealth
of Maryland. The Society has searched
archives and church records, made
available historical materials, and its
reports and publications are to be found
in every library that makes any preten-
sions to storing adequately the sources
of American history.
Certain monographs published by
members, or under the auspices of the
Society, are especially noteworthy, and
first among these should be named that
of the revered president of the Society,
Mr. Louis P. Hennighausen, entitled
"History of the German Society of
Maryland." It is a documentary, un-
embellished account of the activities of
a charitable institution, the "Deutsche
Gesellschaft," extending through a pe-
riod of over one hundred and twenty-
five years. Founded primarily for the
purpose of extending relief to the poor
German immigrants landing at the port
of Baltimore, the "Deutsche Gesell-
schaft" did not confine its attention to
almsgiving, but twice in its history rose
above local affairs to the defense of
human rights and freedom against en-
slavement by powerful forces. Once
this occurred in the eighteenth century
and early nineteenth, when the Society
made its fight against the evils of the
Redemptionist system; the second time
was within our own generation, when
it vigorously opposed the brutal treat-
ment of immigrants, German and oth-
ers, by tyrannical oyster dredgers, who
reduced their kidnapped laborers to a
kind of peonage from which there was
no escape except by death. A number
of brave men, among whom was the
president of this Society, with personal
danger to themselves waged a war to
the knife against this fiendish traffic and
tyranny, and rested not until the offend-
ers were struck down by the arm of the
law.
Another noteworthy monograph was
that of Hermann Schuricht, on the his-
tory of the German element in Virginia,
*Address delivered by Professor ALBERT BERNHARDT FAUST,
of Cornell University, at the
twenty-fifth anniversary of the founding of the Society for the History of the Germans in
Maryland, February 21, 1911.
[5]
published by the Society in 1900. While
this contained the marks of rapid and
pioneer work, it became the inspiration
for a large number of excellent studies
that soon appeared in the Virginia Mag-
azine of History and Biography, as
those of Wayland on the Germans in
the Valley of Virginia, establishing be-
yond any doubt that the Germans were
the first permanent settlers in the then
westernmost part of Virginia, the Shen-
andoah Valley.
For the many positive results they
have obtained, and for the spirit in
which the work was undertaken, that
of just pride in their racial stock and
enthusiasm in their task, the founders
and investigators of the Society for the
History of the Germans in Maryland
have earned the gratitude of coming
generations, they have given a worthy
example, which to imitate becomes the
privilege of those who become mem-
bers in the next quarter century. It
remains to be seen whether they will
bestir themselves and carry the work
so ably begun by their fathers onward
to a high standard of accomplishment.
In approaching the theme selected
for tonight, "Undercurrents of German
Influence in Maryland," a word of ex-
planation is necessary. A stock such
as the German in this country, rapidly
assimilated in a population not essen-
tially dissimilar in blood and aspira-
tions, may be compared to a current in
the sea. The rivers from all lands flow
into this sea of population, some bring
salt, some rich vegetable and mineral
deposits, some bring the precious gold.
All is absorbed and all becomes the
property of the vast, limitless ocean.
Yet the sea has currents that flow in
many directions, some bring the icy
waters from the north, others oppose
the frigid flow with the heat of the
torrid zone. To which of these can the
German current be compared? It seems
to me the German influence in the popu-
lation is like the warm Gulf Stream,
flowing for a time independently, meet-
ing the cold stream from the north,
spreading out fanlike in the expanse,
tempering the waters and producing a
wonderful effect. Distant lands be-
come habitable, human life starts in-
stantaneously, prosperity reigns su-
preme wherever the current appears.
The question is often asked, can you
sum up briefly what has been the Ger-
man contribution in the history of the
American people? My answer is, the
German element has contributed four
things, blood, brawn, brain, and buoy-
ancy to the American stock. Each of
these can be felt in the history of the
American people. Their full signifi-
cance will become more comprehensible
through illustration.
First, it is blood which the Germans
have contributed. A careful statistical
estimate of the principal European
stocks composing the American people,
which I prepared for my book on the
German element,* was based on the
census of 1900. Bringing the calcula-
tion down to the present lime, i. e.,
using the census of 1910 as a basis,
and taking account of all elements, my
results are as follows:
Total white popula-
tion in the United
States in 1910.. .81,731,957 100 %
English (including
Scotch and Welsh,
about 3,000,000) . 24,750,000 30.3 %
German (including)
Dutch, about
3,000,000 ...........21,600,000 26.4 %
Irish (including
Catholic and Prot-
estant)
.............
15,250,000 18.6%
Scandinavian (Swed-
ish, Norwegian,
Danish) ............
4,000,000 4.9%
French (including
Canadian French) 4,000,000 4.9%
Italian (mostly re-
cent immigration) 2,500,000 3.1%
*The German Element in the United States, Boston, Houghton, Mifflin Co. 1909, Vol. II, p. 27.
[6]
Hebrew (one - half
recent, Russian). 2,500,000 3.1%
Spanish (mostly
Spanish - Ameri-
can) .................
2,000,000 2.5%
Austrian Slavs (Bo-
hemian, Moravian,
Slovac, etc.) .... 2,000,000 2.5%
Russian Slavs and
Finns (one-tenth) 1,000,000 1.2%
Poles (many early
in 19th century). 1,000,000 1.2%
Magyars (recent im-
migration)
........
700,000 .8%
Balkan Peninsula.. 250,000 .3%
All others*............ 181,957 .2%
This table shows us all the main
tributaries that have flowed into the sea
of American population. The two larg-
est streams are the English and the
German, the first 30.3 per cent, and the
second very little less, 26.4 per cent of
the white population. The German ele-
ment makes the Germanic stock pre-
dominate in the American people, since
we have for the Germanic stock 67.6
per cent, for the Latin and Celtic 23.1
per cent, the Slavic 5 per cent, all oth-
ers 4.3 per cent.
Does the population of Maryland
contain a similar German tributary?
The census of 1910 gave as the number
of persons born in Germany who were
resident in Maryland in the census year
36,652. Those of German parentage,
including those born in Germany and
those whose parents were born in Ger-
many numbered 135,325. This amounts
to 45.7 per cent of the total foreign
stock of Maryland (296,012), and about
11 per cent of the total (1,295,346)
population of Maryland. This repre-
sents the most recent immigration only,
while Maryland's German blood is also
of the older immigrations, going back
into the eighteenth century. If the
calculation included this, the German
blood in Maryland would probably be
found in excess of the general average
of 26.4 per cent.
The population of Baltimore contains
a larger percentage of Germans than
the counties. The large cities, especially
the seaports, usually attract the immi-
grant, because of the greater opportuni-
ties they offer. The city of Baltimore
in 1910 had 26,021 persons born in
Germany, and 96,557 of German par-
entage. This was 45 per cent of the
total number (211,913) of foreign par-
entage resident of the city, or about
17 per cent of the total population of
Baltimore. If we should add to this
the old immigrations, we should get
about 40 per cent of the population of
Baltimore as of German blood. In gen-
eral it may be said the German contri-
bution to the population of the whole
state of Maryland is equal or above the
general average for the country.
The contribution of blood was made
also in another sense, namely in blood
that was spilt on the battlefields of the
nation. The Germans of Maryland were
no exception to the rule. In fact in the
earliest wars they appear to have con-
tributed more than their just propor-
tion. In the year 1776 Congress voted
to establish a German regiment, four
companies to be levied in Pennsylvania,
four in Maryland. To put Maryland on
the same basis as the more populous
Pennsylvania seems to indicate that the
Germans in Maryland were far more
numerous than is generally supposed.
Other indications of the large German
population in the Colonial period are
found in certain acts of the Assembly
of Maryland, which ordered the laws to
be printed also in the German language,
so that all colonists might understand
them. Another record is that of 1787,
when the printer of Fredericktown was
ordered by the House of Delegates to
translate into the German language the
proceedings of the Committee on Fed-
eral Constitution, and to print 300
copies to be equally distributed in Fred-
erick, Washington, and Baltimore coun-
*This does not, of course, include the colored population, which in 1910 was as follows: negroes 9,827,763;
Indians 265,683; Chinese 71,531; Japanese 72,157.
[7]
ties. The matter of the German popu-
lation in this early period ought to be
thoroughly looked into, perhaps the
German population was just as large
proportionately as in Pennsylvania, i. e.,
one-third of the total number. In suc-
ceeding wars the Germans contributed
their fair share. In the war of 1812
the names of Stricker and Armistead
shone forth, while the name of Schley
will be forever memorable in the naval
history of the Spanish-American war.
The second contribution of the Ger-
man element was brawn, i. e., sound
bodies capable and ready to do hard
work. Probably the greatest achieve-
ment of the American people during the
eighteenth and nineteenth centuries was
to wrest a great wilderness from the
clutch of a savage race and from the
hostility of wild nature, and transform
this vast area extending from the At-
lantic to the Pacific into habitable land,
capable of cultivation and productive of
rich harvests. For this it was necessary
to fell the forests, plow the land, build
roads, construct bridges, and found
cities. In this work, requiring physique,
endurance, persistence, and skill, no
other element did better work than the
Germans. They were the type of per-
manent settler who achieves the lasting
victory by building permanent home-
steads. For two centuries they earned
the reputation of being the most suc-
cessful farmers in the United States.
Were the German settlers of Maryland
an exception to this rule? No; from
the early decades of the eighteenth cen-
tury they migrated from Pennsylvania,
and being offered lands on liberal terms
they put their spades into the ground
on the banks of the Monocacy and
founded the agricultural wealth of the
colony, extending their settlements ever
farther westward.
The contribution of brain is seen in
the application of scientific method in
manufacturing and in engineering. All
those industries which required special
training, as the chemical, the refining
of foods (as sugar and salt), canning,
brewing, the building of bridges, man-
ufacture of musical and optical instru-
ments, printing and lithography, were
well-nigh monopolized by German
brains and energy. In these, Baltimore
also had her quota, particularly in her
German chemical works, her piano
manufacturing, printing and lithograph-
ing, her great smoking tobacco fac-
tories, her canneries. There have also
been noteworthy engineers. It is prob-
ably not known to many persons that
the old harbor protections were de-
signed by a man of German blood with
the ancient German name of Wiegand.
William Daniel Wiegand was born in
Baltimore in 1822 and was educated
first in the Zions-Schule before receiv-
ing his technical training. His father
had come to America in 1810 from
Thuringia. W. D. Wiegand was con-
structing engineer of the Vulcan works
in South Baltimore between 1850-1860,
and some notable harbor improvements
were completed by his company during
this period, such as the "Seven Foot
Knoll Light House" in Chesapeake Bay.
While engaged on the iron work fur-
nished by his firm for the construction
of Fort Carroll in the Patapsco River,
he was associated with Robert E. Lee,
destined to become commander-in-chief
of the Confederate forces.
The most obvious influence of the
German brain has been in educational
matters. Here the influence has come
in two ways, firstly through the immi-
grants themselves, and secondly through
American students who studied in Ger-
many. The average Pennsylvania Ger-
man immigrant was a peasant in his
home country, and peasants are not
overfond of school. It must be admitted,
therefore, that the ordinary German
farmer of the eighteenth century was
not above his surroundings in learning.
Still he was not below the existing level
either, and there were instances, such
as those of Christoph Sauer, who
printed the first complete Bible in
America; of Henry Miller, the printer
of the Continental Congress; of Chris-
topher Dock, the founder of a model
school; and above all, Franz Daniel
Pastorius, founder of Germantown,
where individuals rose not alone above
their class, but outranked their con-
[8]
temporaries in scholarship. I am told
there were printers and publishers in
Fredericktown in the eighteenth century
and early nineteenth, and there were
some also in Baltimore. This is a most
promising field for investigation.
But while we must admit that the
Pennsylvania Germans as a whole were
better farmers than scholars, Pastorius
himself regrets the disadvantage of
being a scholar when the farmer or
weaver is of greater service, there were
many German settlers of a later day
who reversed the type. These were the
Latin farmers, who knew more Latin
than was good for farming; they were
the refugees of the revolutionary pe-
riods, before 1830, and after 1848.
When they were wise, they left farming
to the German peasant, and became
founders of newspapers, musical socie-
ties, and schools. Their private schools
were of a higher standard than the pub-
lic schools around them, and of these
Baltimore had quite a number. Their
influence on the development of educa-
tional standards was enormous. They
not only educated boys and girls des-
tined to become influential in their com-
munity, but their success, due to better
methods, spurred on the public schools
to greater efforts. I refer to a group
of private German schools, including
the Zions-Schule, Knapp, the Wacker-
Schule, and the Reinhardt-Schule for
girls.
It was about 1870 when they were at
the prime of their influence.* The
Zions-Schule, incorporated in 1836, at
this time had over 800 pupils, with
sixteen teachers, drawing salaries of
over $14,000 annually. Under the di-
rection of Pastor Scheib, and with the
assistance of an able staff of teachers,
it undoubtedly introduced better meth-
ods of teaching than existed in the pub-
lic schools. Learning by rote, the mem-
orizing of inferior text-books, was re-
placed by "Anschauungsunterricht,"
and the training of young minds to
think independently. A large quantity
of charts, instruments, stuffed birds
and animals, museum collections and
laboratory apparatus added to the inter-
est and efficiency of the teaching of
natural science. The teaching at the
public schools at this time was mechan-
ical, and the equipment was inadequate.
The Knapp-Schule, founded in 1853,
had about 700 pupils in its best period.
The Wacker-Schule, founded in South
Baltimore in 1851, had about 400 pupils
in 1870. Besides these there was the
Diesterweg-Institut in East Baltimore
with an attendance of about 250. Then
there were a large number of German
Catholic Schools, the Alfonsus, St. Jo-
hannes, and others, numbering about
600 pupils. Two good German schools
existed for girls, the Reinhardt-Schule,
founded in 1861, which, like the Zions-
Schule, offered also a higher curricu-
lum; and the Küster-Schule. It is esti-
mated that in 1870 the total number of
pupils in attendance in the German
schools was over 5,000. Most of the
pupils, to be sure, were of German
blood, but many American families saw
the advantage of sending their children
to the German private schools, particu-
larly was this true of the girls' schools.
For about twenty years their influence
continued at the best. By about 1890
the public schools had improved, they
gave good instruction free of all tuition
fees, established also several bilingual
German-English branches, and thereby
cut at the roots of the German private
schools of Baltimore. Yet their useful-
ness in the educational history of Balti-
more ought not to be forgotten, and
might furnish the subject for a most
valuable and attractive study by the
Society for the History of the Germans
in Maryland. Another interesting chap-
ter is the history of the Tome's School
at Port Deposit, now one of the best
preparatory schools for boys in the
country. Mr. Tome belonged to that
German stock which migrated from
Pennsylvania to settle in Maryland. The
materials for a biographical sketch of
Jacob Tome, the founder, could still be
obtained with ease at present.
The most striking German influence
*Confer. Der Deutsche Pionier, Vol. II, pp. 204ff. Also "The German Element in the United States,"
Vol. II, pp. 241-245.
[9]
in the history of education in Balti-
more, an event of national importance,
was the foundation of the Johns Hop-
kins University in 1876. It was a Ger-
man influence brought into America by
an American, not a German. The great
work of President Gilman is known to
us all. What he did was to transplant
the German University idea upon Amer-
ican soil. The emphasis was laid upon
graduate work, investigation, the pur-
suit of truth for its own sake; the Uni-
versity's motto became: "The truth will
make you free." The students and pro-
fessors alike were to be a body of re-
search workers, the students were not
to be conspicuous in numbers, but were
to be a picked lot, ripened by a fore-
going college course, before which they
might not enter the university proper,
i. e., the graduate department. Almost
all of the earlier faculty members of
the Johns Hopkins University had taken
their doctor's degrees at German Uni-
versities, Gildersleeve, Remsen, Adams,
Morse, Haupt, Wood, Warren, Ely,
Renouf and Williams. At the twenty-
fifth anniversary celebration in 1901,
the presidents of Harvard, Yale and
Michigan alike yielded to Johns Hop-
kins University the crown for her
pioneer work in establishing graduate
work upon a firm foundation in the
United States. President Eliot's words
were: "The creation of a school of
graduate studies, which lifted every
other university in the country, forced
them to put their strength into the de-
velopment of their graduate depart-
ments, to develop the spirit of inde-
pendent scientific research in every de-
partment of human knowledge." James
B. Angell, the veteran president of
Michigan, called attention to the same
feature; he spoke of men and not of
buildings as making a university, and
characterized the Johns Hopkins not as
a big, but as a great university. Now
at this celebration, which I attended as
a delegate from another university, no
mention was ever made, even by impli-
cation, that this university idea was de-
rived directly from Germany, yet em-
phasis was laid on statistics showing
that the number of American students
attending German universities had de-
creased. Was it too obvious to men-
tion?—for no fair-minded person could
dispute for one moment that the Amer-
ican postgraduate university as initiated
by Johns Hopkins and adopted succes-
sively by every leading American uni-
versity was a German importation. The
principle that the best teacher is the
investigator, not the mere trainer, not
the person that forces facts down the
throats of unwilling pupils, this is not
the traditional American but the Ger-
man method of higher education, in
fact this German university idea, has
a hard struggle for recognition in most
parts of the country even at the present
day. As a graduate of Johns Hopkins,
and a native of Baltimore, I am happy
to record that Johns Hopkins has re-
mained true to her ideals, and she
showed it again when an undergraduate
degree was required for admission to
the medical school. Very regrettable it
is, that the same standard of admission
was not adopted for the technical school
recently established. The University of
Chicago has been more generous in its
acknowledgment of German influence
on the graduate school. At the fiftieth
convocation, March 22, 1904, a group
of representative German professors
were invited and honored by the Uni-
versity of Chicago, and a celebration
instituted which was called "Recogni-
tion of the Indebtedness of American
Universities to the Ideals of German
Scholarship."
The Kindergarten is the lowest rung
of the educational ladder. This is also
a German institution founded by the
friend of children, Friedrich Fröbel.
German ladies in Baltimore have
founded Kindergartens and have been
particularly active in the social service
of the free Kindergarten in poor dis-
tricts of the city. This is also a subject
worthy of investigation and report in
this Society.
A fourth contribution of the Germans
in America is what I choose to call
buoyancy. It is exhibited in the joy of
living, and in the love of music and art.
European travelers in the United States
[10]
during the eighteenth and first half of
the nineteenth century were appalled by
the gravity, melancholy and monotony
of American social life. Mrs. Trollope,
returning to England after four years'
residence in America (1827-31), wrote
that she had never seen a population
so totally divested of gayety, and she
quotes a German woman as saying:
"They do not love music and they never
amuse themselves, and their hearts are
not warm, at least they do not seem so
to strangers; and they have no ease, no
forgetfulness of care and of business,
no, not for a moment." Conditions
were undoubtedly better in the South
than in some other sections of the coun-
try, but even there a change has been
wrought, and in this the German immi-
grations that came after 1848 have
played an important role. Old resi-
dents of Maryland still remember that
Christmas was at one time not regarded
as a principal festival, the giving of
gifts, the cheer-bringing Christmas tree
and the toys for the children did not
form a bright spot in the life of every
child young and old. New Year's day,
according to the French custom, was
then the main festival, and the egg-nog
drunk was perhaps the climax of the
day and season. The Germans made of
Christmas the joyful, merry, kindly,
bountiful epoch in the year, when peace
and good will are impressed most
deeply on the hearts of all mankind.
From the earliest period also they were
fond of frolics, "Folksfeste," and joined
in every local celebration with vim and
gusto. Their singing societies, orches-
tral clubs, and Turnvereine supported
and enhanced many a local and na-
tional festival. The Germans of Balti-
more were true to their national traits.
The German "Liederkranz" was the
earliest but one of the Männerchöre in
the country (the Philadelphia Männer-
chor was founded one year before, in
1836), and the first joint concert of
these two societies may be looked upon
as the forerunner of the great triennial
musical festivals of succeeding years.
While Baltimore has not been the cen-
ter of German musical influences, still
in the manufacture of musical instru-
ments Baltimore has made a splendid
record, and the history of this industry
should be duly written down. The Ger-
man music master, and the teacher of
drawing and painting, who brought the
love of his art into American homes,
has played a wonderful part in the up-
lift of the American people. His work
was not one of adequate rewards, and
fame rested not upon his labors, but
his service was unspeakably great.
There were many such teachers in
Maryland.
The revival of the classical style in
American sculpture found one of its
best representatives in a Maryland boy
of German descent—William H. Rine-
hart. The grace and purity of his work
lend distinction to the early history of
American art, and a rare artistic charm
to the city of Baltimore, where his works
can best be studied. Rinehart's father
was a German farmer in Carroll county.
An accident, the opening of a quarry
in the neighborhood, gave the boy a
chance to try himself at stone-cutting,
which was far more to his liking than
farming. Removing to Baltimore, he
plied his trade ten to twelve hours a
day, and every night spent several hours
at his favorite studies in the Maryland
Institute. Mr. W. S. Walters took an
interest in him, and enabled him, to take
a trip to Italy. There he learned the
art of Canova. He spent most of his
life in Italy, for at that time America
was no place for sculptors whose con-
ceptions dwelt in the realm of the clas-
sical and the nude. Rinehart remem-
bered his early struggles, and wishing
to aid young sculptors who might be
handicapped as he had been through
the lack of means, he founded a scholar-
ship which bears his name at the Mary-
land Institute. This Rinehart scholar-
ship has since then been of real service
to a number of most promising young
sculptors, who were enabled to spend
several years of study in Italy on this
foundation.
The Maryland Institute cannot be
named without the mention of Professor
Otto Fuchs, the director of the institu-
tion for more than twenty years, who
[11]
raised the standard of the school to one
of first class efficiency. Otto Fuchs was
born in Prussia, and came to America
at the age of twelve, in 1840. He
studied civil engineering, and was long
a teacher at the Cooper Institute in
New York, subsequently draftsman in
the United States Coast Survey, and
during the Civil War, under the direc-
tions of Ericsson, executed the plans
for the first monitor. He was subse-
quently director of the State Normal
Art School in Boston, and in 1883 ac-
cepted the appointment of director of
the Maryland Institute. When Profes-
sor Fuchs took charge, the school had
about 250 pupils; under his guidance
the number grew to 1400. Hans Schuler
was one of his pupils and prize win-
ners. When Baltimore was burned in
1904, the Maryland Institute's art
rooms and entire collection of models
were totally destroyed. The director
was not disheartened; he rose to the
occasion and started at once to gather
subscriptions for a greater art school,
a modern building in a better location,
with an improved equipment and a
larger endowment. While carrying out
this great purpose he undermined his
health, but the certainty of success com-
forted him upon his death-bed. The
General Assembly of Maryland con-
ferred upon him the unusual honor of
memorial resolutions, recognizing him
as a public servant and benefactor.
In conclusion I wish to say a word
in regard to what might still be done
by the Society for the History of the
Germans in Maryland, in emulation of
what has been done in the past. The
work is by no means finished. A new
epoch ought to be initiated after these
several years of quiescence. The work
should be undertaken in a scientific
spirit, without ever an attempt to over-
estimate or glorify unduly achieve-
ments of the past, but to give them
their just and accurate tribute and his-
torical setting. The archives of Ger-
man churches in Baltimore and the
counties of Maryland, the records of
singing societies and of schools, of
Turnvereine and of various social clubs,
should be thoroughly searched, and
whatever can be brought to light should
be rescued while still it can. Some in-
teresting studies are now being made on
the Germans in Catonsville,* and I am
sure that any amount of good material
lies concealed in unsuspected places.
For instance, a short time ago a resi-
dent in Baltimore county called my at-
tention to a place called "Soldier's De-
light." This, he told me on good au-
thority† was a corruption of "Söller's
Delight." A migratory German, com-
ing from the Susquehanna Valley, was
struck by the similarity in character of
a stretch of land on the northern branch
of the Patapsco River, to his home
"Frieschen" near Mt. Meissner in
Hessen (east of Cassel). He bought
the 2,000-acre tract of what proved to
be poor land. Some chrome was found
there, but not as abundantly as scrub
oaks and beautiful wild flowers. Never-
theless he loved it. The contiguous
better land was owned by old American
families‡ who wondered at the fancy of
Söller and his persistence in retaining
it, to eke out a poor living there.
Knowing how he liked it, they called it
Söller's Delight. The name gradually
suffered corruption, and now it appears
as Soldier's Delight on all maps, and
curiously enough a legend sprang up
that Soldier's Delight had been the
scene of an encampment of white sol-
diers while making a stand against the
Indians.
The subject of the extent and impor-
tance of the German settlements in
Western Maryland during the eight-
eenth and nineteenth centuries has
scarcely been touched. These sturdy
farmers of Frederick and Washington
Counties were staunch defenders of
*Catonsville Biographies," by George C. Keidel, Assistant Librarian, Library of Congress, Washington, D. C.
†Dr. Thomas C. Worthington, who died in 1897 at about 75 years of age, but who always retained en excellent
memory, is
the authority for the story of the origin of "Soldier's Delight." The name Söller survives among
descendants who spell their names variously, as Sollers, Sellers, or Soellers. My first informant was Mr. Charles
Lieberknecht, of Baltimore county.
‡The Baseman, Bennett, and Worthington families.
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American liberty against the Tories in
1775, as the Englishman Smyth found
out to his sorrow.* They made their
district a granary, they had a famous
glass factory, they established printing
presses, schools, and churches, which
undoubtedly contain valuable records
not yet thoroughly exploited for his-
torical purposes. Studies such as that
on the history of the Knownothing
Party in Maryland,† point the way to
valuable contributions. In this connec-
tion be it remembered that the story
has never been written of the indepen-
dent German newspaper called "Der
Wecker," edited by the able Carl Hein-
rich Schnauffer, succeeded in 1854 by
Franz Sigel and Wilhelm Rapp, the
first and for some time the only news-
paper in Maryland that dared to hold
up the standard of the new Republican
party.
The history of the Turner organiza-
tions in Baltimore during the epoch of
mobs and fighting fire-engine com-
panies, can no doubt be found in the
contemporary German and English
newspapers of 1850-65. Perhaps the
Turnvereine of Baltimore have pre-
served their records. The files of the
"Deutscher Correspondent" and of other
German newspapers in Baltimore, I am
sure, will reveal much interesting his-
torical material, many sidelights on
manners and customs, especially upon
the struggle the German element was
obliged to make ever and ever again
against nativism. The history of the
industries of Baltimore in which Ger-
mans have been influential, including
the shipping, should be written; the be-
ginnings have been made.‡ The obitu-
ary record of leading German and
German-American citizens of Baltimore
and Maryland has not been kept up by
this Society. This is really a first duty,
as well as a privilege, that ought not
be neglected. Some time in the future
there may be published a cyclopedia
of prominent Germans and men of
German blood in the United States. The
obituary records of the German his-
torical societies in various parts of the
country can aid such a work enormously
by keeping up very carefully their obit-
uary records, and by preparing bio-
graphical sketches of men prominent in
the past.
The Society for the History of the
Germans in Maryland needs active
workers and a new start. There is
much to be done, no lack of opportu-
nity. The example of the past twenty-
five years of the Society's work can
furnish inspiration for the next quarter
century. The old guard have done well,
and the new should take up the burden.
Especially is this desirable in epochs
when nativism and narrow prejudices
rule, and people of German blood are
by the force of circumstances brought
together more closely in a bond of sym-
pathy and understanding. It becomes
all the more important that the records
of their stock be carefully kept for the
benefit of succeeding generations as an
evidence of their work and their worth
in the upbuilding of the American
nation.
*See Smyth's Tour, Vol. II, p. 274 ff. (London edition, 1784.)
†By L. F. Schmeckebier. Johns Hopkins University Studies in Historical and Political Science. Baltimore,
April-May, 1899.
‡See the good pioneer articles of Edward F. Leyh and Charles F. Raddatz in the Publications of the Society
for the History of the Germans in Maryland.
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