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EARLY
WESTERN SETTLEMENTS.
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EARLY WESTERN SETTLEMENTS.
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BY L. P. HENNIGHAUSEN.
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HE reader of American history describing the first settle-
ments of Ohio, Kentucky and Tennessee will be under the
impression, that these States were exclusively settled by
people of English and Irish origin. As a matter of fact they
were largely settled by people of German descent or German
birth. The whole upland or hilly region east of the Alle-
ghanies from the northeastern boundary of the State of New
York extending southeast to and including Georgia were first
settled and inhabited by Germans. They increased rapidly by
raising large numerous families and their descendants were the
main immigration over the Alleghanies into the new territories
wrested from France and the aboriginal Indians. We know
that the names of these early settlers have been anglesized by
the English historians so that we don't recognize in the name
of Daniel Boone the German Bohn, and in Hunter the Ger-
man Family of Jäger. Among the large mass of material
gathered by our Society bearing on these historical researches
I will add to-night a few extracts from letters and reports of
early German missionaries who visited these States in the be-
ginning of this century. Rev. Paulus Henkel of New Market,
W. Va., writes on January 19th 1812: „I made last October a
trip from New Market to the banks of the Ohio, above the
conflux of that river with the great Kanawha. As the winter
came in great severity I could travel but twenty miles from
home, where I gathered a small German congregation; I in-
structed the young people, and at Easter I confirmed 22 of
them, they took part together with 35 others in the holy com-
munion. We have also opened a German School, which is
instructed by an honest clever teacher. At the distance of
38
seven miles from there I gathered last winter another German
congregation, and about 60 took part in the holy communion;
among them 21 who had been instructed and on the preceding
day had been confirmed by me. In both places these religious
acts made a deep impression among young and old. On April
14th I crossed the Ohio river and travelled to New Lancaster,
I found there many Germans, from Virginia as well as from
Pennsylvania. I remained there 14 days. I confirmed there
14 young people who had been instructed by an excellent
teacher, Johannes Kemp. The day we celebrated communion
was a grand affair and will long live in the memory of the
inhabitants. I did not hare time or else I would have visited
several congregations, as it was, I preached only in one of the
Churches of the neighborhood. From there I travelled to
Chillicothe, 34 miles; then to Highland County 30 miles, from
there to Springfield 75 miles, from there 20 miles up the so-called
Mad river. This was the utmost limit where white people
live. I there had only 20 miles to the first Indian town.
I found many Germans there, with whom I had been acquainted
for many years. I preached most every day to the people,
sometimes in German, and sometimes in English, often in
both languages the same day. The people were in great
anxiety and fear of an expected invasion by the Indians and
were building forts and manned them with soldiers; notwith-
standing this, they attended in large numbers our religious
meetings. The so-called Church people suffer a great deal
from the German as well as English sects. The people are
too indifferent about German schools. Some of my old ac-
quaintances from the old settlements appeared indifferent in
religious matters. After I had remained in this neighborhood
eight days I went 50 miles down the Miami river. Here I
remained 14 days in a congregation and gave instructions to a
number of young people. The young people were all children
of German parents and in part raised in that way, but their
schooling was entirely English, and so I had to speak to them
in part German and in part English; I noticed however, that
they understood more of the German than of the English
language, as their parents at home conversed entirely in Ger-
man. From there I returned home again. The missionary
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intimates that he expects to make a tour through North and
South Carolina the same year.
The German Lutheran Synod of North Carolina, in the
year 1811, send a travelling preacher by the name of Robert
Johnson Miller to the western country, "we have his report to
the Synod. On the 18th of June 1811 he left Burke County
his home, preached twice in Wilkes County, twice in Surrey,
twice in Stokes County, to large congregations. From the 21st
to the 30th, he travelled through a wilderness, there were dif-
ferent sects, but only three lutheran families. Near Fincastle
he met six German congregations, each consisting of 25 to 30
families. He crossed the natural bridge and arrived on the
4th of July in Staunton. Here he complains that the Germans
are losing their language and religion. There were two German
lutheran congregations in Augusta County near Staunton. In
New Market he found a large congregation. He preached twice
to the people living on Sugar Creek. He then went into the
Mountains and preached every day from the 18th to the 29th
to devout hearers; he found everywhere Germans. On the
2nd of August he had crossed the Alleghanies and preached
near Lewisburg, the County seat of Greenbrier County, about
600 to 700 persons there attended his sermon. He passed through
Bendleton, Bath, Greenbrier, Monroe, Montgomery, and Wythe
Counties. He
found a small lutheran congregation on the
Jackson River. Six congregations in Wythe County. He then,
passed through Abingdon, Washington County to Sullivan
County in Tennessee, where he found several German congrega-
tions. He preached in Blountsville, on the 15th of September
he preached to a large attentive congregation in Love creek,
Tennessee. He then returned home and on the 4th of
November 1811 started on a tour to the South, he preached
on the third day in Rutherford County at the Court house,
on the 7th he crossed Broad and Green river and arrived at
Spartanburg, S. C. On the next day he passed the Congaree
and on the 9th the Saluda river and arrived in the evening at
Hard Labor creek. Here he preached on the 10th in a church
which was formerly German Lutheran which had turned into a
English methodist congregation. He found many Germans on
the Saluda river and Falls creek, on the 13th he preached 13
40
miles from Savannah, on the 18th he was on Falls creek, on
the 29th he went 40 miles south to the first German lutheran
church in South Carolina and found that they had all turned
into English. He returned to Saluda and preached on the 1st
of December to a very large German congregation. He preached
every day in that part of the country until the 9th of December
when he closed his mission. He deplores that every place he
visited, the German language was being lost, and with it the
Lutheran religion and ascribes it to want of German preachers
and teachers.
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