NOTES AND DOCUMENTS
Bartgis Family Came from Kleinich near Bernkastel
A recent check of name lists of emigrants from the Rhenish Palatinate
and the Moselle region compiled by Friedrich Krebs from state and munici-
pal archives in that area yielded information on the father of the Mary-
land printer Matthias Bartgis (see Report XXXII, SHGM, 25-30).
Michael Bärtges, a tanner by trade, son of Matthias Bärtges of Kleinich
(Kreis Bernkastel), and himself of Kleinich, was granted permission to go
to Pennsylvania on May 14, 1748, by the Sponheim authorities. Bärtges
and several others were allowed to leave " in order to perfect themselves
in their chosen trades." His brother, Johann Georg Bärtges received a
similar authorization on April 27, 1748. This record should finally settle
the question as to whether Bartgis was of French or German stock. Dr.
Dieter Cunz proved to be right in assuming that the Moselle area near
the Luxembourg border might be the Bärtges home country. (See Mary-
land Germans, 170.)
Maryland German Items in 18th Century Newspapers
Pennsylvanische Bericht, November 1, 1752.
A report received from Annapolis, dated September 28, states that on
Monday last Captain Stiel, Ship Patience, arrived with 260 Germans
at Pätomeck (Potomac) but they have been transferred to this place
now.
Philadelphische Correspondent, March 8, 1785.
A list of redemptioners who fled from the ship Capellen tot den Pol,
Captain Hermann Ryding, Baltimore, October 3, 1784:
Johann Jacob Gnawen, German, 34 years old, tailor.
Johann Martin Schmidt, German, 36-38 years old.
Johann Henrich Diehl, German, 28-30 years old, laborer.
Friedrich Elb, German, 26-28 years old, sugarbaker and seaman.
G. R. Ulrich von Castel, German, 36-38 years old.
Also, Philip Ernst Brendel, German, and his wife Catharine Barbara
escaped from the ship North America, Capt. T. de Haas, Baltimore.
Baltimore Intelligencer, January 26, 1799.
This issue carries an advertisement in German in which Samuel Saur
announces that he will again publish a German newspaper, Baltimore
Postbote. Subscriptions were accepted by N. Tschudy and J. Schulz
" in der Marktstrasse."
Schlegel-Slagle Family History
The families of German colonial immigrants have proved a most re-
warding and fascinating object of genealogical research in recent decades.
While family historians considered themselves fortunate in the past if they
could trace the lineage to a known immigrant ancestor, the cooperation of
researchers on both sides of the Atlantic has more recently enabled Ameri-
can families to link their findings with those of European genealogists. An
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excellent example of the results to which a serious commitment to family
history can lead is the well documented work:
The Single Family in America Descended from The Schlegel van
Gottteben Family of Germany. (Baltimore, 1967, Copyright by
A. Russel Slagle.)
The eminent Austrian genealogist Karl Friedrich von Frank contributed
the story of the remarkable Schlegel family of Germany whose place in
the history of German intellectual development needs no introduction here.
Christoph Schlegel von Gottleben was one of the pioneer settlers of Ger-
mantown, Pennsylvania. The Germantown Rathsbuch of December 1700
records his election as constable of the young community. William B.
Mayre and A. Russell Slagle (a member of the Executive Committee of
the Society for the History of the Germans in Maryland since 1958)
have compiled all available facts pertaining to the large Slagle clan in
Pennsylvania, Maryland and beyond.
As any good genealogy should, the Schlegel-Slagle work transcends the
confines of family interest and portrays the lives and times of men and
women prominent in many walks of life. It is a valid case study for the
cultural cross-fertilization that occurs when the scion of a great European
family brings to his new country not only the determination to build farms
and mills but carries along much of the spiritual heritage and transplants
it firmly into new ground. The early period of German migration to Penn-
sylvania was marked by the presence of numerous men of learning and
attainment. They provided the first leadership for the masses of Palatine,
Swiss and Suabian peasants who followed them in ever growing numbers
during the first half of the 18th century.
Of particular interest to Maryland readers will be the section on the
Baltimore branch of the Slagles. They followed the pattern that was set
by one of the streams of German on-migration from eastern Pennsylvania.
They moved to Baltimore from York County where the Slagle homestead
was located in Berwick Township.
The translations from the German records were mostly the work of the
late Professor George Althoff Bingley (1888-1966), for many years a dis-
tinguished member of our Society and himself a descendant of the York
County branch of the Slagle family. The inclusion of the German original
of the Schlegel records as they appeared in 1965 in the Senftenegger
Monatsblatt für Genealogie und Heraldik enhances the value of this hand-
some volume as a source book both for American and German research.
Colonial Contributions of German Settlers
Charles Francis Stein, Jr., author of the History of Calvert County,
Maryland (Baltimore, 1960), who served our Society as a Treasurer for
three decades, is not only interested in historic data but has attempted
to point out social and economic factors in connection with German settle-
ment. In his address " The Germans of Colonial Maryland " on the occa-
sion of the 74th Annual Dinner of our Society Stein noted:
"The German settlers introduced and developed the three great devices which
made possible the development of America out of wilderness territory. These three
German contributions, (1) the so-called Kentucky Rifle (really developed in Penn-
sylvania) , (2) the log cabin, and (3) the covered (conestoga) wagon, were abso-
lutely essential to the winning of the west.
" The ' rifle' was largely a product of the German settlers of Lancaster County,
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Pennsylvania. The German rifle makers were possessed of amazing craftsmanship.
These rifles were able to shoot with great accuracy. In the American Revolution
the British soldiers, mostly armed with smoothbore muskets were utterly astounded
by the deadly accuracy of the rifle fire of the German regiments. The German rifle
was not only of vital importance to the success of the War of the Revolution, but in
the years thereafter was the decisive factor in the conquest of the vast western
territories.
"The log cabin, which became the traditional home of the pioneer, was a de-
velopment akin to the Swiss chalet. The log cabin was unknown in England,
although half-timber construction, a combination of logs and mud or plaster was
much used there.
"Likewise the conestoga wagon or covered wagon is the traditional wagon of
middle Europe. It was not only unequalled for the transportation of merchandise
or household articles, but in addition was a most efficient defense in time of danger.
The pioneers crossing the great plains of America, when attacked by Indians,
arranged their covered wagons in circular formation, thus providing an effective
shelter on all sides. The covered wagons of the pioneers were really mobile forts. It
is said that the use of covered wagons in warfare between the settlers and the
Indians was borrowed from military procedures developed in Germany and Bohemia
in the Hussite Wars of the Fifteenth Century. Actually we know that the covered
wagon was used by Teutonic nations from time immemorial."
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