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UNDERCURRENTS OF GERMAN INFLUENCE IN MARYLAND

ALBERT B. FAUST

he Society for the History of the

Germans in Maryland celebrates to-

night the twenty-fifth anniversary of its

foundation. It is but natural to pause a

moment and reflect upon what has been

done before passing on to renewed endeav-

or. What has the Society been able to ac-

complish in the first quarter century of its

existence? The answer can readily be given.

The Society has rescued from oblivion

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 cul-

tural development. To speak more specifi-

cally, the Society has shown that the eco-

nomic foundation and commercial prosperi-

ty of the city of Baltimore was dependent,

vastly and indispensably, upon German set-

tlers, many of whom trekked from Pennsyl-

vania, others came from over the sea, and

were founders of families prominent in the

annals of the city. The Society has called

attention to the German pioneers of Western

Maryland, in the Counties Frederick,

Allegany, and Washington. Hagerstown,

once the westernmost settlement, perpetu-

ates the name of the original settler,

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 agricultural

prosperity of the Commonwealth of Mary-

land. 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 pretensions 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 docu-

mentary, unembellished account of the

activities of a charitable institution, the

"Deutsche Gesellschaft" extending through

a period of over one-hundred and twenty-

five years. Founded primarily for the pur-

pose of extending relief to the poor German

immigrants landing at the port of Baltimore,

the "Deutsche Gesellschaft" did not confine

its attention to almsgiving, but twice in its

history rose above local affairs to the de-

fense of human rights and freedom against

enslavement 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 sys-

tem; the second time was within our own

generation, when it vigorously opposed the

brutal treatment of immigrants, German and

others, 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 So-

ciety, with personal danger to themselves

waged a war to the knife against this fiend-

ish traffic and tyranny, and rested not until

the offenders were struck down by the arm

of the law.

UNDERCURRENTS

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Another noteworthy monograph was

that of Hermann Schuricht, on the history of

the German element in Virginia, published

by the Society in 1900. While this contained

the marks of rapid and pioneer work, it be-

came the inspiration for a large number of

excellent studies that soon appeared in the

Virginia Magazine of History and Bio-

graphy, as those of Wayland on the Ger-

mans in the Valley of Virginia, establishing

beyond any doubt that the Germans were

the first permanent settlers in the then west-

ernmost part of Virginia, the Shenandoalh

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 com-

ing generations, they have given a worthy

example, which to imitate becomes the priv-

ilege of those who become members 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 accom-

plishment.

In approaching the theme selected for

tonight, "Undercurrents of German Influ-

ence in Maryland," a word of explanation is

necessary. A stock such as the German in

this country, rapidly assimilated in a popula-

tion not essentially dissimilar in blood and

aspirations, 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, limit-

less 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 population is like the warm

Gulf Stream, flowing for a time independ-

ently, meeting the cold stream from the

north, spreading out fanlike in the expanse,

tempering the waters and producing a won-

derful effect. Distant lands become habit-

able, human life starts instantaneously, pros-

perity reigns supreme wherever the current

appears.

The question is often asked, can you

sum up briefly what has been the German

contribution in the history of the American

people? My answer is, the German element

has contributed four things, blood, brawn,

brain, and buoyancy 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 esti-

mate of the principal European stocks com-

posing the American people, which I pre-

pared for my book on the German element,¹

was based on the census of 1900. Bringing

the calculation down to the present time,

i.e., using the census of 1910 as a basis, and

taking account of all elements, my results

are as follows:

TOTAL WHITE POPULATION IN THE

UNITED STATES IN

1910

81,731,957

100%

English (including Scotch & Welsh,

about 3,000,000)

24,750,000

34.3%

German (including) Dutch, about

3,000,

21,600,000

26.4%

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Irish (including Catholic and Protes-

tant)

15,250,000

18.6%

Scandinavian (Swedish, Norwegian,

Danish)

4,000,000

4.9%

French (including Canadian French)

4,000,000

4.9%

Italian (mostly recent immigration)

2,500,000

3.1%

Hebrew (one half recent, Russian)

2,500,000

3.1%

Spanish (mostly Spanish American)

2,000,000

2.5%

Austrian Slavs (Bohemian, Mora-

vian, Slovac, etc.)

2,000,000

2.5%

Russian Slavs and Finns, (one tenth)

1,000,000

1.21%

Poles (many early in 19th, century)

1,000,000

1.2%

Magyars (recent immigration)

700,000

.8 %

Balkan Peninsula

250,000

.3 %

All others²

181,957

.2%

This table shows us all the main tributaries

that have flowed into the sea of American

population. The two largest streams are the

English and the German, the first 30.3 per-

cent, and the second very little less, 26.4

percent of the white population. The

German element makes the Germanic stock

predominate in the American people, since

we have for the Germanic stock 67.6 per-

cent, for the Latin and Celtic 23.1 percent,

the Slavic 5 percent, all others 4.3 percent.

Does the population of Maryland con-

tain 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 percent of the total foreign stock of

Maryland (296,012), and about 11 percent

of the total (1,295,346) population of Mary-

land. This represents the most recent immi-

gration only, while Maryland's German

blood is also of the older immigrations,

reaching 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 coun-

ties. The large cities, especially the seaports,

usually attract the immigrant, because of the

greater opportunities they offer. The city of

Baltimore in 1910 had 26,021 persons born

in Germany, and 96,557 of German parent-

age. This was 45 percent of the total number

(211,913) of foreign parentage residents of

the city, or about 17 percent of the total pop-

ulation of Baltimore. If we should add to

this the old immigrations, we should get

about 40 percent of the population of Balti-

more as of German blood. In general it may

be said the German contribution to the pop-

ulation 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 excep-

tion to the rule. In fact in the earliest wars

they appear to have contributed more than

their just proportion. In the year 1776 Con-

gress voted to establish a German regiment,

four companies to be levied in Pennsyl-

vania, four in Maryland. To put Maryland

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on the same basis as the more populous

Pennsylvania seems to indicate that the

Germans in Maryland were far more numer-

ous than is generally supposed. Other indi-

cations 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 Frederick-

town was ordered by the House of Dele-

gates to translate into the German language

the proceedings of the Committee on

Federal Constitution, and to print 300

copies to; be equally distributed in Frede-

rick, Washington, and Baltimore counties.

The matter of the German population in this

early period ought to be thoroughly looked

into, perhaps the German population was

just as large proportionately as in Pennsyl-

vania, i.e., one third of the total number. In

succeeding 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 for-

ever memorable in the naval history of the

Spanish-American war.

The second contribution of the German

element was brawn, i.e., sound bodies capa-

ble and ready to do hard work. Probably the

greatest achievement of the American peo-

ple 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 Atlantic 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 brid-

ges, 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 permanent

settler who achieves the lasting victory by

building permanent homesteads. For two

centuries they earned the reputation of being

the most successful farmers in the United

States. Were the German settlers of Mary-

land an exception to this rule? No; from the

early decades of the eighteenth century 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 settle-

ments ever farther westward.

The contribution of brain is seen in the

application of scientific method in manufac-

turing and in engineering. All those indus-

tries which required special training, as the

chemical, the refining of foods (as sugar and

salt), canning, brewing, the building of

bridges, 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 lithographing, her great smok-

ing tobacco factories, her canneries. There

have also been noteworthy engineers. It is

probably not known to many persons that

the old harbor protections were designed 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 receiving his technical training. His

father had come to America in 1810 from

Thuringia. W. D. Wiegand was constructing

engineer of the Vulcan works in South Bal-

timore between 1850-1860, and some

notable harbor improvements were com-

pleted by his company during this period,

such as the "Seven Foot Knoll Light House"

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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 mat-

ters. Here the influence has come in two

ways, firstly through the immigrants them-

selves, and secondly through American stu-

dents who studied in Germany. The average

Pennsylvania German immigrant was a pea-

sant 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 Christopher

Dock, the founder of a model school; and

above all, Franz Daniel Pastorius, founder

of Germantown, where individuals rose not

alone above their contemporaries in scholar-

ship. I am told there were printers and pub-

lishers in Fredericktown in the eighteenth

century and early nineteenth, and there were

some also in Baltimore. This is a most pro-

mising field for investigation.

But while we must admit that the Penn-

sylvania 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 periods,

before 1830, and after 1848. When they

were wise, they left farming to the German

peasant, and became founders of newspa-

pers, musical societies, and schools. Their

private schools were of a higher standard

than the public schools around them, and of

these Baltimore had quite a number. Their

influence on the development of education-

al standards was enormous. They not only

educated boys and girls destined to become

influential in their community, but their suc-

cess, 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.³ 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 direction of Pastor Scheib, and

with the assistance of an able staff of teach-

ers, it undoubtedly introduced better meth-

ods of teaching than existed in the public

schools. Learning by rote, the memorizing

of inferior textbooks, was replaced 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 interest

and efficiency of the reaching of natural sci-

ence. The teaching at the public schools at

this time was mechanical, and the equip-

ment 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. Johannes, and others, num-

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UNDERCURRENTS

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bering 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 estimated

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 fam-

ilies saw the advantage of sending their chil-

dren 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 sev-

eral bilingual German English branches,

and thereby cut at the roots of the German

private schools of Baltimore. Yet their use-

fulness in the educational history of

Baltimore ought not to be forgotten, and

might furnish the subject for a most valu-

able and attractive study by the Society for

the History of the Germans in Maryland.

Another interesting chapter 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 Penn-

sylvania 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 in

the history of education in Baltimore, an

event of national importance, was the foun-

dation of the Johns Hopkins University in

1876. It was a Gernan influence brought

into America by American, not a German.

The great work of President Gilman is

known to is all. What he did was to trans-

plant the German University idea upon

American soil. The emphasis was laid upon

graduate work, investigation, the pursuit of

truth for its own sake; the University's

motto became: "The truth will make you

free." The students and professors alike

were to be a body of research workers, the

students were not to be conspicuous in num-

bers, but were to be a picked lot, ripened by

a foregoing college course, before which

they night 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 Universities, Gilder-

sleeve, 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 Hopkins

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 develop-

ment of their graduate departments, to

develop the spirit of independent scientific

research in every department 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 big,

but as a great university. Now this celebra-

tion, which I attended as delegate from

another university, no mention was ever

made, even by implication, that this univer-

sity idea was developed directly from Ger-

many, yet emphasis was laid on statistics

showing at the number of American stu-

dents attending German universities had

decreased. Was it too obvious to mention no

fair-minded person could dispute for one

moment that the American postgraduate

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university as initiated by Johns Hopkins and

adopted successively by every leading Ame-

rican university was a German importation.

The principle that the best teacher is the in-

vestigator, not the mere trainer, not the per-

son that forces facts down the throats of un-

willing pupils, this is not the traditional

American but the German 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 remained true to her

ideals, and she showed it again when an

undergraduate degree was required for

admission to the medical school. Very re-

grettable 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 convoca-

tion, March 22, 1904, a group of representa-

tive German professors were invited and

honored by the University of Chicago, and a

celebration instituted which was called

"Recognition of the Indebtedness of

American Universities to the Ideals of Ger-

man Scholarship."

The Kindergarten is the lowest rung of

the educational ladder. This is also a Ger-

man 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 districts of the city. This is also a sub-

ject worthy of investigation and report in

this Society.

A fourth contribution of the Germans

in America is what I choose to call buoyan-

cy. It is exhibited in the Joy of living, and in

the love of music and art. European travel-

ers in the United States during the eigh-

teenth and first half of the nineteenth centu-

ry 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 them-

selves, 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

country, 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 residents of Mary-

land still remember that Christmas was at

one time not regarded as a principal festival,

the giving of gifts, cheer-bringing Christ-

mas 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, ac-

cording to the French custom, was then the

main festival, and the eggnog 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, orchestral clubs, and

Turnvereine supported and enhanced many

a local and national festival. The Germans

of Baltimore were true to their national

traits. The German "Liederkranz" was the

earliest but one of the Männerchöre in the

country (the Philadelphia Männerchor was

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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 succeed-

ing years. While Baltimore has not been the

center of German musical influences, still in

the manufacture of musical instruments

Baltimore has made a splendid record, and

the history of this industry should be duly

written down. The German music master,

and the teacher of drawing and painting,

who brought the love of his art into Ameri-

can homes, has played a wonderful part in

the uplift 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 Ger-

man descent—William H. Rinehart. 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 farm-

ing. 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 conceptions dwelt

in the realm of the classical and the nude.

Rinehart remembered 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

scholarship which bears his name at the

Maryland 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 institution for

more than twenty years, who 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 directions of Ericsson,

executed the plans for the first Monitor. He

was subsequently director of the State

Normal Art School in Boston, and in 1883

accepted the appointment of director of the

Maryland Institute. When Professor 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 winners. When Baltimore was

burned in 1904, the Maryland Institute's art

rooms and entire collection of models were

totally destroyed. The director was not dis-

heartened; he rose to the occasion and start-

ed 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 comforted him

upon his deathbed. The General Assembly

of Maryland conferred upon him the unusu-

al honor of memorial resolutions, recogniz-

ing him as a public servant and benefactor.

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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 overesti-

mate or glorify unduly achievements of the

past, but to give them their just and accurate

tribute and historical setting. The archives

of German 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 thorough-

ly searched, and whatever can be brought to

light should be rescued while still it can.

Some interesting 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 resident in Balti-

more county called my attention to a place

called "Soldier's Delight." This, he told me

on good authority

was a corruption of

"Seller's Delight." A migratory German,

coming 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.

Nevertheless 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 "Seller'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 soldiers while

making a stand against the Indians.

The subject of the extent and impor-

tance of the German settlements in Western

Maryland during the eighteenth and nine-

teenth centuries has scarcely been touched.

These sturdy farmers of Frederick and

Washington Counties were staunch defend-

ers of American liberty against the Tories in

1775, as the Englishman Smyth found out to

his sorrow.

They made their district a gran-

ary, they had a famous glass factory, they

established printing presses, schools, and

churches, which undoubtedly contain valu-

able records not yet thoroughly exploited

for historical purposes. Studies such as that

on the history of the Knownothing Party in

Maryland,

point the way to valuable contri-

butions. In this connection be it remem-

bered that the story has never been written

of the independent German newspaper

called "Der Wecker," edited by the able Carl

Heinrich Schnauffer, succeeded in 1854 by

Franz Sigel and Wilhelm Rapp, the first and

for some time the only newspaper in Mary-

land that dared to hold up the standard of the

new Republican party.

The history of the Turner organizations

in Baltimore during the epoch of mobs and

fighting fire engine companies, can no

doubt be found in the contemporary German

and English newspapers of 1850-65.

Perhaps the Turnvereine of Baltimore have

preserved their records. The files of the

"Deutscher Correspondent" and of other

German newspapers in Baltimore, I am

sure, will reveal much interesting historical

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 his-

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UNDERCURRENTS

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tory of the industries of Baltimore in which

Germans have been influential, including

the shipping, should be written; the begin-

nings have been made.

The obituary 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 pro-

minent Germans and men of German blood

in the United States. The obituary records of

the German historical societies in various

parts of the country can aid such a work

enormously by keeping up very carefully

their obituary 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 opportunity. 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 close-

ly in a bond of sympathy 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.

The German Element in the Untied States. Boston:

Houghton Mifflin Co., 1909. Vol. II, p. 27.

This does not, of course, include the colored

population, which in 1910 was as follows:

negroes 9,827,765; Indians 265,683; Chinese

71,531; Japanese 72,157.

Confer. Der Deutsche Pionier, Vol. II, pp.

204ff. Also The German Element, II, 241-245.

"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 re-

tained an excellent memory, is the authority for

the story of the origin of "Soldier's Delight."

The name Söller survives among descendents

who spell their names variously as Sollers,

Sellers, Soellers. My first informant was

Charles Lleberknecht of Baltimore County.

The Baseman, Bennett, Worthington families.

See Smyth's Tours, Vol. II, p. 274ff. (London

edition, 1784).

By L. F. Schmeckebier, Johns Hopkins

University Studies on Historical and Political

Science, 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.

Notes

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