NOTES AND DOCUMENTS
The Professor Augustus J. Prahl Fellowship in German Fund
A memorial fellowship has been instituted at the University of Maryland
to honor the intellectual contributions and the memory of the late Augustus
J. Prahl, Professor of Foreign Languages Emeritus and former Associate
Dean of The Graduate School.
The fund, established by Dr. Prahl's friend and colleague, the late
Professor Dieter Cunz through Dr. Oskar Seidlin, Regents Professor of
German at The Ohio State University, will provide fellowships to excep-
tional and promising graduate students of German at the University of
Maryland who will have the distinction of being named Prahl Fellows.
Friends who may wish to contribute to this tax-deductible fund for the
Professor Augustus J. Prahl Fellowship in German may send their contri-
bution to the Office of Endowment and Gifts, University of Maryland,
College Park, Maryland 20742.
German Bible Subscribers in Western Maryland in 1819
Extant subscribers' lists and account books of early German printshops
represent a largely untapped source for local historians and genealogists.
Recently, the subscription book of the weekly Volksberichter in New
Market, Virginia, for 1808/09 was re-discovered after it was believed lost
for many years. The names revealed that very few of the subscribers were
German-born. Most were first and second generation American-born, some
even third generation.
A similar observation can be made from the advance subscribers' list
of a German folio Bible, Biblia, Das ist: Die ganze Heilige Schrift, printed
and published by Johann Bär in Lancaster, Pennsylvania in 1819.
This printed list was bound with all copies of the popular Bär Bible
that were ordered in advance. The names are arranged by states and
counties. A total of 1,575 copies were bought by 1,466 people through
advance subscription, a remarkable sales success for its day. Johann Bär's
agents, of course, concentrated on Pennsylvania where 966 customers were
found in 26 counties. Next came Ohio with 361 subscribers. The Ohio
listings are particularly important because they contain the German
spelling of surnames of numerous second and third generation migrants
from western Maryland and Virginia. Several of these names appear in
local records only in an anglicized form, e. g. Carpenter (Zimmermann),
McInturf (Muckendorf). A copy of the Ohio list was recently furnished
by our Society to the Ohio Historical Society in Columbus, Ohio, where
it is available to researchers.
Apart from scattered subscribers in New York (6), New Jersey (2) and
North Carolina (2), Bar's salesmen effectively canvassed western Mary-
land and adjacent Loudoun County in Virginia. No subscribers were
solicited in Baltimore and in the Shenandoah Valley. Altogether 105 Mary-
land and 24 Virginia names are listed for the three counties, Frederick,
Washington and Loudoun. They are reprinted here for genealogical
reference as transliterated and alphabetically arranged by Françoise Wust:
[ 57 ]
FREDERICK COUNTY
, MARYLAND
Johann Beisser
Thomas Bidel
Heinrich Bigli
Margareth Bossethe
Jacob Dirr
Henrich Dussing
Heinrich Dussinger
Jacob Dussinger
Henrich Ehalt
Jacob Ehalt
Daniel Heller
Georg Herb
Jacob Hoffman
Johannes Jung
Jacob Kauffman
David Keller
Heinrich Keller
Johannes Kepplinger
Philip Kiewer
Jacob Klein
Jacob Kocker
Philip Koller
Jacob Kollmann
Jacob Kugel
Johannes Lang
Heinrich Leider, jun.
Stoffel Michael
Christian Ostertag
Conrad Ostertag
Franz Ostertag
Andreas Paffenberger
Friederich Rau
Benjamin Rauthzahn
Benjamin Rautzahn, jun.
Georg Rauthzahn
Heinrich Rauthzahn
Jacob Rauthzahn
Ludwig Rauthzahn
Jacob Reiss
Heinrich Reist
Carl Schander
Georg Schaefer, Boonsboro
Christian Schaup
Jacob Schenck
Daniel Schindler
Heinrich Schlosser
Daniel Schmal
Andreas Schmidt
Johannes Schmidt
Christoph Summer
Aaron Sumann
Catharina Weil
Georg Weil
Peter Weil
Heinrich Werstler
Jacob Werstler
Daniel Wiljahrt
WASHINGTON COUNTY
, MARYLAND
Daniel Balmer
Friederich Bell
Jacob Bell
Adam Bergstrasser
Georg Bergtholl
Joseph Bergtholl
Peter Beyer
Jacob Biler
Jacob Brackunier
Samuel Brackunier
Jonathan Dubble, Funkstown
Magdalena Fassnacht
Jacob Fauz
Henrich Funck
Johann Gäling
Isaac Gerber
Jacob Gerber
Philip Haman
Peter Hammacker
Johann Hammann
Joseph Hammann
Johann Hensberg
Conrad Hildebrand
Johann Hoffman
Ulrich Huber
Jacob Keller
Jacob Keplinger
Georg Kessinger
Jacob Kessinger
Jacob Kitzmiller
Johann Mandibach
Henrich Masille
Mary Middelkauff, Hagerstown
Joseph Resch
Henrich Rohrbach, Sharpsburg
Abraham Rohrer
Michael Rudisill
Jacob Ruth
Jacob Schechter
Wendel Shechter
Daniel Schenck
Philip Schindel
[ 58 ]
Abraham Schmutz
Daniel Schwerdt
Johann Schneider
LOUDOUN COUNTY, VIRGINIA
David Aechslein
Henrich Aechslein
Friederich Arnold
Michael Arnold
Georg Bauer, Fairfax County
Michael Boyer, sen.
Henrich Heckman
Johannes Heckman
Michael Heckman
Peter Heckman, sen.
Peter Heckman, jun.
Jacob Kern
Jacob Philler
Samuel Prill
Henrich Riebsamen
Carl Sackman
Rev. Johann Martin Sackman
Samuel Sackman
Johannes Schäfer, sen.
Michael Schäfer
Johannes Schlötzer
Andreas Spring, sen.
Jacob Wack
Wilhelm Wolfahrt
Samuel Spickler
Yost Strack
Michael Theiss
[ 59 ]
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