====================
The First German Settlement
-- IN —
NORTH AMERICA.
====================
THE FIRST GERMAN SETTLEMENT IN
NORTH AMERICA.
----------
HE 6th of "October is generally accepted by the German
Americans as the anniversary of the founding of their
first colony in this country. It was on this day in the
year 1683 that the good ship "Concord" arrived at Philadel-
phia with a number of families, who had left Germany to
escape religious persecution, and with the intention to found a
permanent settlement in the new colony of Pennsylvania, where
they could worship God in their own manner, unmolested.
They were, however, not the first Germans who came to America.
Already in the year 1608, but one year after the first settlement
of the English at Jamestown, some German mechanics came to
Jamestown, on special invitation, to carry on their trade. In
1623 at Albany and 1625 at New York, then New Amsterdam,
there were many Germans among the first Dutch settlers.
Peter Minnewit, the Dutch Governor of New York from 1626
to 1631, who purchased Manhattan Island, 22,000 acres, from
the Indians for 60 Dutch florins ($20), was a native of, and
had been a deacon of the Reformed Church at the city of
Wesel on the Rhine. From 1626 to 1633 the Swedes, by printed
circulars distributed in Germany, invited the Germans to join
them in their colonisation efforts in North America, and their
first expedition with two ships in 1638 was commanded by
said Peter Minnewit of Wesel, who had left the Dutch and
entered the Swedish service. Their settlements were on the
Delaware, and we find many German names among the first
settlers. The earliest Swedish historian of their American
colony mentions, that Germans accompanied the Swedes in
their emigration to America. John Printz, the Governor of
New Sweden from 1642 to 1653, was a German nobleman.
All these Germans, however, were in the minority in the
respective settlements, and freely intermingling with the mass
of the population, soon lost their identity.
26
The Germans who crossed the ocean in the ship Concord,
were all natives or had been residents of the town of Crefeld
and its vicinity; many among them were related to each other,
and all were united by the bond of sincere and deep religious
convictions, for which they had suffered much cruel persecution.
They belonged to the Quakers and Mennonites, harmless sects
as they were usually called, who seem to have by their passive
resistance exasperated the dominant religious authorities far
more, than the aggressive Puritan who wielded the bloody
sword in so many terrible battles, and offered praises and
thanks to the Almighty on a field soaked by the blood of his
fellow-men, slain in the strife for political and religious
supremacy.
The relation between England and Germany was in the
16th century very close. English actors gave regular Shake-
spearean performances on the stages of German theatres. Many
Englishmen were in the German, and many Germans in the
English State service. The English Quakers sent many mis-
sionaries to Germany. Penn was there in 1671, also in 1677.
Wm. Ames and George Rolf converted in 1657 the inhabitants
of Krisheim to the Quaker religion. Wm. Caton, Stephen
Crisp, Wm. Moore, Robert Barrlay, George Keith, Benjamin
Furley, Gertrude Diricks and Elisabeth Hendricks were ardent
missionaries in Germany. They were especially successful
among the Mennonites, who are nearest to the Quakers in their
religious tenets. The Pietists were also friendly to the Quaker,
and those who emigrated, generally joined the Quakers. The
Quakers were in Germany as in England and New England espe-
cially the object of assault by the rabble; the Government im-
prisoned and fined them, at the instigation of the churches
and ministers of the dominant sects, and a reward of five florins
was offered to informers who would tell of the existence of a
Quaker in the country.
In 1681 Penn acquired the proprietary right of the colony
of Pennsylvania, and in the same year published in Germany
the act of religious toleration in his new Province. His friends
in Crefeld, Krisheim and Frankfort resolved to seek refuge
from their persecutors by emigrating en masse to the new colony.
Several of them preceded the bulk of emigrants as an advance-
27
guard to locate the new settlement. On the 10th of March 1682,
and the 11th of June 1683, the Crefeld friends, namely: Jacob
Telner, Dirk Sipman, Jan Strepers, Govert Remke, Leuert Aret,
and Jacob Isaac van Bebber purchased 18,000 acres from Wm.
Penn at 40 shillings for each 100 acres, of his agent, Benj. Furly.
The Frankfort company about the same time purchased 25,000
acres. But few of the Frankfort people emigrated, their pur-
chase subsequently acquired more the character of a commercial
speculation, but they sent as their agent Daniel Pastorius, a
Doctor of several German Universities, a man of the most pure
and noble character, and superior in learning to any man who
then and for a long time thereafter resided in North America.
Pastorius left Rotterdam on the 4th of May 1683, and arrived
in Philadelphia on the 20th of August, accompanied by six
emigrants and the family of Isaac Dilbeck. He there awaited
the arrival of the ship Concord with the Crefeld friends and
in the meantime made preparation and. plans for the new settle-
ment. He erected for himself a temporary house 30 x 15 feet
and wrote above the door in Latin: "Parva domus sed amica
Bonis, procul este Prophani" (in English: "Small is my house,
the good are welcome here, the profane stay away,") which gave
William Penn, who visited him in his hut, great amusement
and he encouraged Pastorius, for whom he felt the highest
regard and warm friendship, to continue his building of
dwellings. Pastorius often dined with Penn and with the
Governor of the Province.
At last on the 6th of October the long expected Crefeld
friends arrived. They had sailed from Gravesend on the 24th
of July and had a pleasant successful voyage. Two days after
their arrival they agreed upon the site of their settlement,
which they called Germantown. They wanted to locate their
entire 43,000 acres they had purchased at the same place on
the Schuylkill river, but Penn only allowed them 5,700 acres,
and the next year by a re-survey took the 1000 acres, which
bounded on the river, away from them again. On the 24th of
October the survey of the lots was completed, on the 25th they
distributed the building-lots by drawing chances, and imme-
diately began to dig cellars and erect their dwellings. Each
dwelling was located in a small garden, bounding east and
west of the main street, 60 feet wide, leading through the
settlement. Although well provided with provisions, clothes,
and especially tools, ropes &c. when they left Germany in June,
it was a long time till they could, by the harvest of the fol-
lowing year, which was to be raised out of new, unbroken
ground, expect to reap sustenance for their frugal life. There
was suffering and privation, but still more christian fortitude,
reliance upon God, meekness and patience among these hardy
pioneers. Pastorius writes of these days: "It can not be written
enough, nor impressed enough on the minds of our wealthy
descendants, in what poverty and want, but also in what chris-
tian cheerfulness and untiring energy and industry Germantown
was begun. Before the cold weather had fairly set in, every
family was safely housed. The emigrants were mostly me-
chanics, such as tailors, shoemakers, carpenters, locksmiths,
especially weavers, but all understood farming also, as is the
custom in small country towns in Germany. Their industry
was so great that one year after their arrival they offered linen,
hosiery and cloth for sale at their store in Philadelphia, which
belonged to the Frankfort company and was in charge of Pasto-
rius, and which linen, hosiery and cloth was manufactured by
them out of flax and wool raised by them. They soon became
renowned for the quality of their goods, and in a book, entitled:
"A Short Description of Pennsylvania," published by Wm.
Bradford as early as 1692, George Frame sings in rhymes of
Germantown: —
"The German town, of which I spoke before,
Which is at least in length one mile or more,
"Where lives High-German people and Low-Dutch,
Whose trade in weaving linen cloth is much;
There grows the flax," &c.
But beside these household industries, Germantown had
also the first paper-mill ever built in North America. Wilhelm
Ryttinghuysen, who had a paper-mill at Arnheim, Holland,
was a devout Mennonite, and being oppressed on account of his
religion, emigrated with, his two sons, Claus and Gerhard, in
the year 1674 to New York. On the settlement of German-
town by his co-religionists he left New York and with his
sons settled at Germantown, where they soon after erected the
28
29
first paper-mill in the country. The property is still in the pos-
session of the family. I have some of the earliest paper
manufactured by them, and you can by personal inspection
verify its good quality. Wilhelm Ryttinghuysen, or Ritten-
house as the family was called, was a man of generous benevo-
lent disposition; he became the first bishop of the Mennonites
in America and was especially active in works of charity.
In 1705 the Mennonites purchased the ground for the erection
of their first meeting house in Germantown, "Wm. Rytting-
huysen becoming their preacher; he died 1708, His son Claus
died in 1734. Many illustrious men have come of this family,
the most renowned is David Rittenhouse, the great astronomer
and director of the first U. S. Mint in Philadelphia.
The history of Germantown records no exciting events.—
There was no rebellion, no factious fight of ambitious parties
to obtain the political control over the community, no Indian
massacre; there was no persecution on account of religious
opinions, Quakers, Mennonites, Lutheran, Reformed, Seperatist
or Mistics, such as Kelpius and his brethren in the Desert, and
others lived together in peace; there were no witches burnt,
no one was murdered or robbed, not even a theft is recorded
in the Court Record or Annals of Germantown. The Court,
which set every six weeks, often adjourned for having no busi-
ness to attend to. The proceedings were usually the recording
of deeds, &c., strayed cattle, broken fences. The first criminal
case was when Casper Karsten and his wife had threatened the
policeman and were fined two pounds; Pettinger was fined for
hitting another man's hog, and later for assaulting Johannes
Köster. The town prohibited the sale of more than ¼ of a pint
of rum or one quart of beer in a half a day to any individual, and
Peter Kemlis, who had license to keep a tavern, was fined for
violating this law and not providing sufficient accomodation
for travellers. A few more such trivial offences are all that
the records of Germantown show for the period of 17 years.
The Quakers of Krisheim soon followed our friends from
Crefeld; among them were the Hendricks, the Cassells, the
Shoemakers, who came in 1685. Mennonites then followed in
large numbers and settled in Germantown, and in the country
west of it. Among them were many whose names are very
30
familiar to us, but their names were by an order of the Lord
Proprietary anglicized, when they were naturalised as English
citizens; it was then that the name of Langeneicher was
changed into the well-known Longnecker, Ferne into Forney,
Neukomm into Newcomer, König into King, Baumann into
Bowman, Steinemann into Stoneman, Zimmermann into Car-
penter, Ried into Reed, Weber into Weaver, Burghalter into
Burkholder and afterwards Burke, Herr into Hare. This
was done so extensively, that the names of many of our old
families are no criterion as to their origin. This anglicising
of German names became for a time very common. The Jäger
changed into Hunter, Knecht into Knight, Gottwalter into
Cadwallader, Hinkel into Hinkley, Goebel into Gable, Huth
into Hood, Schott into Scott, Wehn into Wayne, Schürmann
into Shermann, Mohl into Moale, Schürholz into Sherwood, &c.
The Germans at Germantown were a deeply religious people.
In 1683 and '84 Win.
Penn preached to them in
the German
language in Tunes Kunders' House; they had their regular
meetings and took part in the monthly, quarterly and yearly
meeting of the province. The Mennonites worship in their
meeting house up to the present time, the Lutheran and
Reformed churches were built later. In 1701 the City Council
of Germantown erected the first public school, and the site
where the school was erected, is to this day used for school
purposes. Pastorius was from 1698 to 1700 the teacher of the
Friends' school in Philadelphia. He also conducted a night
school. In 1688 on the 18th of April, in meeting assembled
the Germans of Germantown issued their solemn protest in
writing against slavery. They condemned slavery in the
strongest terms and set forth its evils in the most eloquent
language. It was composed in the English language and
signed by Garrett Hendricks, Francis Daniel Pastorius, Dirk
Op den Græff, and Abraham Op den Græff. It was the first
protest against slavery ever issued in this country, and in
force of language leaves nothing to be wished for.
Daniel Pastorius was the first Mayor of Germantown; he
also held the office of a Justice of the Peace, City Registrar,
and was several times elected as a member of the General
31
Assembly of Pennsylvania. He died in December 1719 or
January 1720. His literary activity during his life was very
great. He wrote in the German, English, French, Italian,
Dutch and Latin languages, mostly however in English. We
have poems from him in all these languages; further, books
on Arithmetic, Geometry; Latin, French and English gram-
mars; Treatises on. Agriculture, Botany, Laws, Theology,
Ethics, History, Natural History and Church History.
Kot many of his books were published. The most im-
portant and best known is his "Full Geographical Descrip-
tion of the Province of Pennsylvania." (Frankfort and Leipsig
1700). Some of his books were published in Amsterdam,
New York and Philadelphia, He left in manuscripts one
large folio volume of 1000 pages, each page of about 100 lines
closely and legibly written in English; also, 14 quarto, 22
octavo and six smaller volumes, written in such small and
neat letters, that a magnifying glass renders good service.
LOUIS P. HENNIGHAUSEN.
 |