The story of the Pennsylvania Germans
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Title: The story of the Pennsylvania Germans
embracing an account of their origin, their history, and their dialect

Author: William Beidelman

Release date: January 26, 2026 [eBook #77784]

Language: English

Original publication: Easton: Express Book Print, 1898

Credits: Carla Foust, Charlene Taylor and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net (This file was produced from images generously made available by The Internet Archive/American Libraries.)

*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE STORY OF THE PENNSYLVANIA GERMANS ***

THE PALATINATE
OF THE
RHINE
DURING THE PERIOD OF
THE LARGE PALATINE
EMIGRATION TO AMERICA

The Story
of the
Pennsylvania Germans

Embracing an account of their Origin, their History, and their Dialect.

BY

WILLIAM BEIDELMAN

OF THE NORTHAMPTON COUNTY BAR, AND MEMBER OF THE PENNSYLVANIA GERMAN SOCIETY.

EASTON, PENNA. EXPRESS BOOK PRINT. 1898.

Copyright 1898.
By William Beidelman.

All rights reserved.

DEDICATED

To the descendants of those Germans who many generations ago were exiled from their homes in the beautiful valleys of the Rhine and Neckar in South Germany on account of fierce religious, and still fiercer political persecution.

So waren wir und sind es auch,
Das edelste Geschlecht,
Von biederm Sinn und reinem Hauch,
Und in der Thaten Recht.

Goethe.

PREFATORY NOTE.

This book has been suggested to the author, by reason of several visits made by him among the people of the Upper Rhine country in South Germany, whence emigrated the ancestors of the Pennsylvania Germans. Much that the reader will find herein contained is familiar history; but it is believed that there are some Pennsylvania Germans, who may find some things in this unpretentious volume concerning their ancestors and their history, with which they may not be altogether familiar. It is for them that this book has been primarily written.

There are not many people who do not share in the sentiment, which unites one to the history of his race, his kinsmen, and the home of his fathers. This sentiment is rooted deep in the affections of most if not of all people, but with the Germans it is pre-eminent.

The Pennsylvania Germans, whose ancestors were exiled from their homes in the beautiful valleys of the Rhine and Neckar, by fierce religious, and still fiercer political persecution, are yet after the lapse of many generations bound by invisible ties to the land which has been consecrated and made hallowed, by the same blood which courses in their veins.

The aim of the author has not been to tell anything especially new, but rather to bring together in concise form, an account of the origin, history, and dialect of the Pennsylvania Germans; the causes which led their ancestors to emigrate to the province of Pennsylvania, together with other information identified with their story.

For much of this information the author is indebted to Zimmerman’s “History of Germany,” Bayard Taylor’s “History of Germany,” Henri Martin’s “History of France,” Proud’s “History of Pennsylvania,” Watson’s “Annals,” Nebenius’ “Geschichte der Pfalz,” Eckhoff’s “In der Neuen Heimath,” “Hallischen Nachrichten,” and to other sources.

Certain magazine and newspaper writers are responsible for much misinformation, which prevails among certain people concerning the Pennsylvania Germans,—especially with regard to their dialect. Not many years ago an article appeared in the “Atlantic Monthly,” wherein it was asserted that “Pennsylvania Dutch” was not German, “nor did they expect you to call it so.” The same author afterward perpetuated this misinformation by embodying it in a book. It is scarcely necessary to contradict such manifest error; if it were necessary to do so, the examples of the Pfälzisch dialect contained in this volume, and their comparison with Pennsylvania German will refute conclusively all such erroneous contention.

In this volume the Pennsylvania Germans are spoken of as Germans, because that is the only designation which is justified by reason of their race, their history, and their speech.

THE AUTHOR.

Easton, Pa., 1898.

CONTENTS.

CHAPTER. | | PAGE.
I. | Introductory.—Earliest known German Tribes.—Their Contact with the Romans, Franks, Goths, Saxons and Alemanni, | 1
II. | The Palatinate (German Pfalz), | 15
III. | The Devastation of the Palatinate, | 22
IV. | The Province of Pennsylvania, | 35
V. | German Emigration to Pennsylvania, | 40
VI. | German Emigration to other American Colonies.—Palatines settle in Ireland, | 59
VII. | The Quakers and the Proprietors, | 76
VIII. | The Pennsylvania Germans in History.—In the Revolution, | 81
IX. | The Pennsylvania German Dialect.—Its English Infusion.—Pfälzisch and Pennsylvania German Compared, | 102
X. | The German and Dutch Languages | 123
XI. | Schools, Churches and Religious Sects, | 129
XII. | Social Life and Customs, | 138
XIII. | Life in Pennsylvania in the Early Days of its Settlement.—Courts and the Administration of Justice.—Early Legislation, | 156
Appendix A., | Examples of Pfälzisch, South German and Pennsylvania German Dialects, | 179
Appendix B. | Vocabulary, | 195

Appendix C.

Brief Personal Sketches of English, German, and Palatine Rulers from 1682 to 1770, the period of the great exodus of German Palatines to Pennsylvania,

212

Appendix D.

A Chronological Table of all the reigning princes of the Palatinate, from the first Elector in 1147, until 1801, when the Electorate became extinct,

225

Appendix E. | Glossary, | 232

THE STORY OF THE PENNSYLVANIA GERMANS.

CHAPTER I.
INTRODUCTION.

Earliest Known German Tribes.—The Cimbrians and Teutonians.—Their Invasion of the Roman Provinces.—They defeat the Romans.—They invade Gaul.—Romans begin the Conquest of the Germans.—The Struggle Continues More than Five Centuries.—Decline of the Roman Power.—Barbarous Condition of the German Tribes.—The Four Chief German Tribes.—Development of the Alemannic Race.—The Franks defeat the Alemanni.—Founding of the Palatinate State.—Conrad of Hohenstaufen, Its First Elector.—Extinction of the Electorate.—The Alemanni an Important Constituent of the First German Empire.—The Alemanni the Progenitors of the Pennsylvania Germans.

In telling the story of the Pennsylvania Germans, a brief review of the German race in Europe, beginning with the earliest authentic accounts of it, will enable us to trace the movements of the various tribes during successive periods, until we find an important branch of the original stock settled in the region of the Upper Rhine, in the South of Germany, whence the ancestors of the Pennsylvania Germans emigrated.

The German race is an important branch of the Teutonic stock, which constitutes a chief group of the races comprising, the Indo-European or Aryan family.

It is not known where the original home of the Indo-Europeans was. A vast amount of literature has been produced on this subject by ethnologists, and other investigators, with varying views, only to leave the question of man’s birthplace in dispute and doubt. The weight of the more recent and best evidence on the subject seems to locate his original habitat, at some point, “somewhere on the southern slope of the vast chain of mountains which extend in an almost unbroken line from the northern coast of Spain eastward to the Himalayas, and from our present knowledge the western rather than the eastern extremity of this chain, is that which offers the higher probability of having been the cradle of the species.”

The period during which the dissemination of the species of the human race began, is also shrouded in the gloom of prehistoric times. The first authentic accounts of certain German tribes, locates them in the region of the Baltic Sea, as early as the middle of the fourth century, B. C. It appears that adventurers from the south of Europe visited the shores of the Baltic at that early period in search of trade, and there found numerous tribes of a fiercely savage and warlike people, who proved to be German tribes.

It is believed that soon after their discovery on the shores of the Baltic, some of them began to migrate from their homes, and spread throughout other parts of Europe. It was not, however, until several centuries after their first discovery, that any accurate knowledge of those people was gained.

About the beginning of the second century B. C. two barbarous German tribes, known as the Cimbrians and Teutonians, came down from the north of Europe, and made a descent on the Roman provinces. Their coming was unheralded, and they came in such overwhelming numbers, as to bring dismay to the Romans. History informs us that the fierceness of the invaders, made the Roman power impotent with terror to resist them for a time.

The unwelcome visitors claimed that they had been driven from their homes, on the shores of the Baltic and North seas, by the inundation of their settlements, and that they were in search of new homes. That they came to stay was not doubted, because they brought with them, their wives and children, and all their personal effects.

The Romans after they recovered from the consternation into which they had been thrown, by the precipitous descent upon them by the invading savages, raised up an army against them, to resist their further advance, but were defeated in a great battle, fought in the north of Italy. After this battle the invaders marched into Gaul, destroying everything in their way, leaving nothing but ruin and desolation in their trail. It has been estimated that the invading tribes numbered 200,000. After being absent about ten years, they returned, when they again met the Romans in battle, and were defeated.

From this time on, other German tribes began to make incursions into the Roman provinces, which brought them into frequent conflict with the Romans who were very aggressively engaged at that period in extending their dominion by conquest. After having brought the greater part of Gaul under their sway, they began the conquest of German territory. The Romans soon learned, that they had a formidable people to deal with, who were in possession of the greater part of Central Europe, and who made fierce resistance to their advance. After a struggle which lasted for many years, the Romans succeeded in establishing themselves in that part of Europe, bounded by the Danube on the south, and by the Main on the north. Beyond that region, the Romans could not penetrate, although they kept the struggle up for more than five hundred years. The struggle only ceased with the decline of the Roman empire, after which the Germans lost no time in recovering the territory, which the Romans had deprived them of during the long struggle.

The Germans not only recovered the region between the Danube and the Main, but pushed forward toward the south, as far as Switzerland, making the area re-occupied by them German territory, which has remained German ever since.

THE GERMANS DURING THE PERIOD OF THEIR CONFLICT WITH THE ROMANS.

The German tribes with which the Romans were in conflict during the early centuries of our era, were numerous, and besides fighting a common enemy, were frequently at war with each other. Their prowess in war was great, and if they had been united at all times, it is not believed that the Romans could ever have succeeded in crossing the Rhine, or to have been able to penetrate as far as the Danube. The frequent quarrels among them weakened them, and encouraged the Romans to keep up the struggle for their subjugation.

We are indebted to the Romans for all that we know of the early history of the various German tribes.[1]

One would suppose that the German tribes who had a common origin, connected with ties of blood, religion and habits, with a common destiny, would have lived alongside of each other in peace, with a common enemy constantly in sight threatening their conquest. But when we consider that those people were still savages in the early centuries of our era, and that scarcely more than a generation ago, their civilized descendants engaged in frequent bloody wars with their own kinsmen, it ought not occasion much surprise, that their savage ancestors indulged in similar pastimes many centuries ago.

At the close of the fifth century, when the Roman power was broken, and its legions began to withdraw from German territory, they left behind not a few of their civilized arts, which the Germans acquired during several centuries of contact with them; but notwithstanding, the Germans were still a fierce and savage people in their habits, and mode of life. They had not yet learned to live in towns and villages; the country occupied by them was an unbroken wilderness, through which roamed “wild animals, only a little more savage than the German tribes themselves.”

It is remarkable, how few names of German leaders during five hundred years of conflict with the Romans, are preserved in history, while the names of Roman heroes confront us on every page. Among the few German names which we come across, are the names of Hermann, the first great German leader, who destroyed the Roman legions under Varus; Ariovistus, chief of the ancient Suevi, who invaded Gaul in the first century before the Christian era; Marbod, who at the head of the Suevi and Marcomanni, won numerous battles over the Romans; Theodormar, an Alemannic chieftain; Alarich, who led the Goths into Rome, and Geiserich, king of the Vandals. The poverty of German names may be owing to the fact that the Romans were the chroniclers of all the events that have come down to us from those days to the present, and were more concerned about the fame of their own heroes, than of that of the Germans.

INFLUENCE OF ROMAN CIVILIZATION ON THE GERMANS.

During the wars for the subjugation of the Germans the latter profited by their contact with the Romans. They acquired some of their habits and customs, and it has been asserted that those civilizing influences extended to the speech and laws of their conquerors. While the Romans were bent on conquest, they were also civilizers. Wherever they succeeded in establishing themselves, they were prompt in introducing their civilization; so that when they left the Germans in undisputed possession of their country, after a lapse of centuries, they left the impress of their civilization upon them, which became a valuable acquisition, upon which the Germans began to build a civilization of their own, which was destined to outgrow that of their tutors.

The military stations of the Romans grew into German towns and cities. Everywhere along the Rhine, and throughout Central and Southern Germany are numerous prosperous cities whose names attest their Roman origin. The Romans built roads in the conquered territory, which connected with highways that led to Rome, so as to bring all parts of the subjugated country in easy communication with the Roman capital; streams were spanned by stone arched bridges, whose enduring piers and foundations still remain, to be pointed out to the tourist at the present day.

It can thus be seen how the influences of Roman civilization helped the Germans, to rise from their barbarous condition, to a higher state. The Germans were apt scholars, and long before the middle ages, they had outstripped many other people, in many of the civilized arts.

The tribal names hereinbefore mentioned, began to disappear soon after the struggle between the Romans and the Germans began. Different tribes became united with each other from various causes; often no doubt for mutual aid and protection; while small and weak tribes were absorbed by larger and stronger ones.

About the close of the third century A. D. or the beginning of the fourth, all tribal names had disappeared from history except those of the Alemanni, Franks, Saxons and Goths; all other names had merged into these four; although many tribal characteristics continued, chief among which was that of speech. It is claimed by certain philologists, that the dialects of some of those early German tribes can yet be traced, in some of the numerous dialects spoken by the common people in certain parts of Germany at this day. When it is considered that there are people living in the mountainous region of Switzerland, who after the lapse of more than a thousand years since their progenitors dwelt in the same region, still speak a corrupted Latin dialect, the foregoing claim may be entitled to some credit.

THE FRANKS, GOTHS, SAXONS AND ALEMANNI.

After the various tribal names became merged in the four mentioned, a national formative process was begun by each, which resulted variously during a century or more. The Franks were the most progressive, and soon overran Gaul, and laid the foundation of the kingdom of France. They occupied at this time the region of the lower course of the Scheldt, the Meuse, and the region west of the Rhine. They did not, however, separate at once from all connection with the other German tribes, but maintained a geographical union with them for several centuries, until they finally became separated, during the process of the formation of the European nations.

The Goths during about the same period were scattered over a large area north of the Danube, from which they made frequent incursions into the Roman provinces, against which the declining Roman power could make but little resistance. The Saxons at the same time dwelt along both sides of the Elbe, extending northwest to the North Sea, and west as far as the Lower Rhine. Their name is preserved in the Saxony of to-day. The Alemanni were chiefly of Suevic origin, but they embraced many other German tribes, as their name, Alemanni—all men, or men of all nations—indicates. In the third century of our era, they occupied the region from the Main to the Danube, from whence they were driven by the Romans, but which territory they recovered after the Roman empire began to decline. They not only re-established themselves in the country from which they had been driven, but extended their dominion as far as the Rhine and beyond, including Alsace and part of Lorraine. Southward they pressed forward, until they occupied the greater part of South Germany, and Eastern and Northern Switzerland.

At the end of six hundred years, from the time of their first contact with the Romans, the triumph of the German races was complete, after which they were never again disturbed by a Roman foe. The Alemanni remained in the region of the Upper Rhine country, where they developed into the race, from which sprung the progenitors of those Germans, who many centuries afterwards found their way to Pennsylvania.

The Roman writers regarded the Alemanni as the largest, and most formidable of all the German tribes. They constituted a league of different German races against which the Romans struggled in vain, and when the latter ceased to offer much resistance, the Alemanni themselves undertook the part of conquerors. About the close of the fifth century they met an army under Clovis, the first French king, in battle, on a field not far from the present city of Cologne, in which they were defeated, when they withdrew to Southwestern Germany where their descendants are living at this day. During the whole period of German history, from the founding of the first empire, the Alemanni constituted a very important element, and for many centuries maintained an influential and independent political existence.

With the coming into existence of the princely family of Hohenstaufen, in the twelfth century, whose members furnished a long line of kings and emperors to Germany, the political state of the Palatinate was founded, with Conrad of Hohenstaufen as the first prince invested with the Electoral authority by his brother, the Emperor Frederick I. The Palatinate as a distinct hereditary sovereignty, continued for nearly seven hundred years, until in 1801, when it became extinct, and its territory went to the adjoining states in Germany, except Rhenish Bavaria, which yet remains to remind us, of the dignity of a once influential principality. During the continuance of the old state of the Palatinate, its people spread to Baden, Wurtemberg, Swabia, Bavaria, the Tyrol, and parts of Switzerland. All of these states contributed to the German emigration to Pennsylvania, and all practically spoke the same dialect, which came down from the Alemanni, and which students claim to be the best type of old High German, as it exists in German literature from the eighth to the eleventh century.

Down to the time when the Romans quitted Germany, there had been no successful attempts made to nationalize the German races, notwithstanding the greater part of Europe had fallen under their sway. Soon after this period, the races began to coalesce, and lay the groundwork from which the European nations began to be evolved. The Franks, who conquered Gaul, founded the kingdom of France about this time. The Alemanni who were established in Southwestern Germany and who had maintained their independence long before that period, also began the formation of a national existence with a hereditary chief at the head. Later they constituted the most powerful political division of the first German empire, which dates its existence from 843, with the Treaty of Verdun.

FOOTNOTES:

[1] According to Bayard Taylor’s “History of Germany” the German tribes, during their early contact with the Romans were settled, east of the Rhine, except two or three small tribes, which are supposed to have crossed that river and settled between the Vosges and the Rhine, from Strasburg to Mayence. The greater part of Belgium was occupied at that time by the Eburones and Condrusii, to which were afterwards added the Aduatuci. At the mouth of the Rhine dwelt the Batavi, the forefathers of the Dutch. A little eastward of the Rhine, on the shores of the North sea, dwelt the Frisii, where they still dwell in the province of Friesland; and beyond them, about the mouth of the Weser, lived the Chauci.

What is now Westphalia was inhabitated by the Sicambrians; the Marsi and Ampsivarii lived beyond them, towards the Hartz, and south of the latter the Ubii, from the Weser to the Elbe, in the north was the land of the Cherusci; south of them were the Chatti, the ancestors of the modern Hessians; and still further south along the headwaters of the Main were the Marcomanni. The Hermunduri were settled in what is now Saxony, with their kindred, the Chatti, who were called Suevi by the Romans. Northward toward the mouth of the Elbe, dwelt the Longobardi (Lombards); beyond them, in Holstein the Saxons; and north of the latter, in Schleswig, the Angles.

East of the Elbe were the Semnones; north of them dwelt the Vandals, and along the Baltic coast the Rugii; between these and the Vistula were the Burgundiones, and a few smaller tribes. In the extreme northeast, between the Vistula and where Königsberg now stands, was the home of the Goths, south of whom were the Slavonic Sarmatians, who afterwards founded Poland.

The German tribes enumerated constituted all the tribes with which the Roman power contended for five centuries, few of which have their names preserved in history. It will be seen later on in this volume how all the names of the German tribes disappeared, and were merged into four principle ones.

CHAPTER II.
THE PALATINATE,—(GERMAN PFALZ).

Palatinate as an Independent State of Germany.—Erection of the Electorate.—Division of the Palatinate.—France Takes a Portion.—Its Restoration to Germany.—Present Rhine Palatinate.—Ancestors of the Pennsylvania Germans.—Exodus of German Palatines to Pennsylvania.—The Rhine Palatinate the Battleground of all Europe.

The Palatinate was formerly an independent state of Germany, and consisted of two separate territorial divisions, respectively called the Upper, or Bavarian Palatinate, and the Lower, or Rhine Palatinate. The Bavarian Palatinate now forms the northern part of the kingdom of Bavaria. The Lower, or Rhine Palatinate was situated on both sides of the Rhine, bounded by Wurtemberg and Baden on the east; Baden and Lorraine on the south; Alsace and Lorraine on the west. It extended north as far as the cities of Treves and Mainz.

In the twelfth century the Palatinate was erected into a hereditary monarchy, as already stated, which was ruled by electors of the old German empire, until about the middle of the seventeenth century, when the two territories were divided, and the Upper Palatinate became united with Bavaria; while the Rhine Palatinate continued in the possession of the original dynasty. During the eighteenth century, the two districts were again united under the elector Charles Theodore, who afterwards also became king of Bavaria.

During the French Revolution, France took possession of that part of the Palatinate on the west bank of the Rhine, but after the fall of Napoleon in 1815, that part was again restored to Germany. Prussia and Hesse-Darmstadt received a part, but the greater part fell to Bavaria. This part constitutes the present Rhine Palatinate, as is shown on the map of Germany, and is bounded by the Rhine on the east; Prussia and Hesse-Darmstadt on the north; Alsace-Lorraine on the south and west. It forms a Regierungsbezirk of Bavaria, with Speyer for its capital.

After 1801, the Rhine Palatinate ceased to exist as an independent state, and its territory was divided under the terms of the Treaty of Luneville, by which Napoleon dictated, that the Rhine should thenceforth be the frontier of France. By the terms of that treaty, the territory comprising the Rhine Palatinate was divided between Hesse-Darmstadt, Baden, Leinigen-Dachsburg, Nassau; France taking all west of the Rhine. This partition of the Palatinate remains undisturbed at this day, with the exception of that part which fell to France, which was transferred back again to Germany, after Napoleon’s downfall, as stated.

There is nothing in all German history, which possesses a greater interest, than the story of the Rhine Pfalz. In that beautiful country dwelt the ancestors of the Pennsylvania Germans two centuries ago, before persecution drove them from it. A journey through the valley of the Upper Rhine at the present day will suggest the inquiry, why a people should wish to leave so fair an estate. Nowhere has nature been more lavish in bestowing its bounties, than in that fair land. There, are to be seen, the most highly cultivated fields; vine-clad hills; enchanting scenery; ruined castles, that tell of a once feudal dignity and glory. The valley of the Rhine is indeed “the garden of Germany,” if not of all Europe. The causes however which led to the enormous emigration from the charming Rhine nigh unto two hundred years ago were irresistable. They are written in fire and blood.

For more than a thousand years, reaching far back into the earliest times, the Rhine was the prize for which the Romans, Gauls and the Germans contended. There is no region of country on the globe, of equal extent, that has witnessed so many sanguinary conflicts as the Palatinate of the Rhine. It is there where the Romans struggled for more than five centuries to subdue the fierce German tribes, only to leave them unconquered at the end of that time. After the Romans withdrew, the Palatinate continued to be the battlefield of rival races and of nations. The many strategic points along the stream made it always a rich prize to be coveted by European nations when at war with each other, which was nearly all the time. No matter what nations were engaged in war the scene of their conflict was almost invariably transferred to the Upper Rhine country.

From no nation did the Rhine provinces suffer more, than from the French. The battles of the incessant wars of the French monarchs, were almost invariably fought in the region of the Rhine. As late as the Franco-German war, if it had not been for the promptness with which the German troops marched to the frontier, where they met the French army: defeated it, and drove it back upon French territory, the operations of that war would have once more taken place in the Rhine country.

The crimes committed in the Palatinate, in consequence of religious intolerance, fanaticism, and political persecution, are unparalleled in the history of human savagery. They make the blackest pages in the history of the whole world.

The German Palatines, at an early day, embraced the tenets of the Reformation; so did the people of most of the other German states. This exercise of freedom of thought in matters pertaining to religion, soon brought them in collision with the German emperors, who continued to adhere to the Roman Catholic faith. The See of Rome determined to crush out heresy everywhere, and judging from subsequent events, it would seem as if the Palatines had been selected as the special victims upon whom to inflict the fullest vengeance of the Catholic princes. The latter manifested the greatest zeal, in seconding the injunctions of the papal authority. The religious contentions followed soon after Martin Luther’s protestation against the Church of Rome, and they continued for more than one hundred years. They were waged with a cruelty and ferocity compared to which the crimes of the Turks in later years against the Christian Armenians pale into a mere shadow.

During the Thirty Years’ War the Palatinate was frequently ravaged by contending armies. Both the Protestants and Catholics, in South Germany, were among the first to take up arms in defense of their religion, which made the Palatinate the theatre of war at once, and it continued the scene of many of its most important conflicts until peace came at the end of thirty years. Even when the war was transferred for a time to Bohemia and elsewhere, the Palatinate did not get a respite, for it was then invaded by a Spanish army under Spinola in 1620, and again in 1645 the armies under Turenne and Conde, invaded the Palatinate and each time it was devastated.

When peace came at last with the Treaty of Westphalia, by which Protestantism was saved to Germany, but at a fearful cost, the Palatines retired from the contest, believing that their persecutions had now come to an end. The war left them in a frightfully impoverished condition. Their land had been turned into a desert, their substance wasted, a great part of the population had been destroyed, while those who were left, had declined morally and mentally to such an extent, as to require very many years for them, as well as of all Germany to recover from the demoralization, as the result of the Thirty Years’ War.

With the end of the war, the Protestant Palatines gained religious freedom; it was no longer sought to compel them to worship God at the point of the sword, in violation of the dictates of their conscience. But there was not yet peace for them. Their persecutions were not yet to end. The echoes of the clashing of arms of the Thirty Years’ War had scarcely ceased, when the tramp of the invader was again heard, and it was not long before the unfortunate Palatines learned, that the worst cruelties were yet to be inflicted upon them.

CHAPTER III.
THE DEVASTATION OF THE PALATINATE.

Death of the Elector Philip Wilhelm.—Louis XIV. seeks the Electorate for His Sister-in-law, the Duchess of Orleans.—He invades the Palatinate.—Louvois the King’s Secretary of War.—His atrocious Order.—Burning of a Score of Cities and Towns in the Palatinate.—The Palatinate overrun and Devastated by the French.—William III. of England succors the Palatines.—Imperial Germany also acts.—Persecutions By Louvois, Tesse, and Duras.—Heidelberg sacked and Burned.—Its Inhabitants expelled.—Peace and the Treaty of Ryswick.—The War of the Spanish Succession.—German Emigration to America begins.—Causes of German Emigration.

We have now reached a period in the history of the Palatinate, when a recital of the events which transpired there, will show the chief reasons for the large emigration of the Palatines to America, of whom the province of Pennsylvania received by far the larger number.

Upon the death of the Elector Philip Wilhelm, in 1688, John Wilhelm, his eldest son, became the lawful successor to the Electorate. Louis XIV. of France undertook to usurp the Electorate for his sister-in-law, the Duchess of Orleans.

In the autumn of 1688, there began a chapter in the history of the Palatinate which has no parallel in the history of the world, for savage brutality, and the atrocities perpetrated by the French soldiers, with the approbation, and under the direction of the French monarch. The invasion of the Palatinate was attended by such monstrous crimes, that a belief in them taxes the credulity of mankind, notwithstanding the barbarities of the Turks in these later days. No war was ever waged with such ferocity, as characterized the French attempt to subjugate the Palatinate.

In September, 1688, Louis entered on his campaign of invasion, and in less than two months from that time, the whole of the Palatinate was overrun by his soldiers, under Louvois, Bouffiers, and Marshal de Duras. The whole country was pillaged, and made desolate; towns and cities were laid in ashes, and more than one hundred thousand of the inhabitants murdered. The descent of the French troops into the Palatinate came unexpectedly, and was made with such suddenness, as to give no chance to arrest the progress of the invaders. After Louis had set up the claims of the Duchess of Orleans, and promised to sustain her pretensions by force of arms, the German government determined to sustain the lawful elector’s just claim. But the imperial government was weak, without being prepared to come speedily to the aid of the lawful prince, while the Palatines were able to make but feeble resistance against the invaders, who soon overwhelmed the people, and more than a score of beautiful cities and towns, fell into the hands of Louis’ ferocious soldiers, to which they applied the torch, and the sword to the inhabitants, none of whom were spared,—not even the women and children.

The spirit which controlled the soldiers of the French king can be judged, by the order which Louvois made to his subordinates in command: to “seek people in the country capable of setting fire to houses at night, in order that places too remote to be reached by troops, might nevertheless submit through fear, to the levy of contributions.”

While the work of destruction was going on, the crafty Louis succeeded in involving the imperial government, under an incompetent prince in a war with Austria. To still further make the German government impotent to succor the Palatines, Louis succeeded in creating a war feeling against the German ruler, on the part of the Hungarians and the Turks, who threatened to invade the very heart of Germany. Those conditions compelled the imperial government to devote its attentions to the threatenings of Hungary and Austria, while the Palatines were left to take care of themselves. Being too weak to resist the overwhelming power of the French soldiers, they fell an easy prey to their ferocity, notwithstanding they made a heroic struggle in defence of their homes and firesides.

While the Palatines on both sides of the Rhine, had thus fallen under the cruel yoke of the French sovereign and his brutal tyranny, and those who still remained for victims of the fury of the French soldiers, were ready to surrender in hopeless despair, there came a ray of shining hope from England, which promised relief to the Palatines who had escaped death at the hands of the brutal minions of Louis XIV.

James II. of England had just then abdicated the English throne and fled the country, when William of Orange was made king of England. Soon after his accession, this generous prince began to turn his attention, to the suffering and persecuted people of the Palatinate. His first step towards their relief was a declaration of war against Louis. William soon found his efforts seconded, by the greater part of Europe entering into a league against the French king. When the Palatines learned what the English king intended doing for their relief, their rejoicings were unbounded, and they gathered new hope, and new courage in their efforts to break the French power. At the same time there were many happenings in Europe, which caused fresh complications; all of which operated against Louis. England, Holland, Spain and the Scandinavian states all combined against him. With such an array of force united against the French tyrant, the imperial government of Germany was aroused to new action, in defence of the Palatinate, and it began to look as if Louis was doomed. He was undaunted, however, and prepared to enter on several new campaigns with renewed vigor. Notwithstanding his crimes in the Palatinate, he was able to raise large accessions to his army in Germany. The threatening attitude of the European powers, made Louis more cautious in his future movements, and he decided on a defensive war in the Palatinate thenceforth, while he in order to head off the English king in his determination to relieve the Palatines, hastened to take steps to invade Ireland, as the best means by which to embarrass William. In this new enterprise Louis found that he needed more troops than he had at his disposal; for a large portion of his troops were required to garrison the places in the Palatinate which had already fallen into the hands of his soldiers. But the cruel genius of so great a monster as Louis, did not require much deliberation to find a way out of the difficulty. The scheme entered upon by Louis and his generals, has been characterized by an eminent French historian, as one which has “sullied with an ineffaceable stain the reign of Louis the Great.”

For an account of the atrocities perpetrated in the execution of the scheme determined upon, we will here let the French historian, Henri Martin, tell the story:

It was impossible to furnish garrisons to all places recently conquered, or rather invaded, without renewing with more dangerous consequences, the mistake of 1672. The advanced posts of Wurtemberg had already been abandoned—somewhat precipitately in January, 1689. Louvois counselled the king, utterly to destroy the cities that could not be held, so that the posts from which the king’s troops should retire might henceforth serve no one. Louis after some hesitation, gave his signature to this expedient, worthy of Tartar conquerors. They began with the trans-Rhenish Palatinate. Laudenberg and Heidelberg were burned, after the inhabitants had been warned to leave with their families, their cattle and their furniture. The castle of Heidelberg, the residence of the Elector-Palatine, was sapped and blown up; its beautiful ruins are still to posterity a living testimony of Louvois’ fury. The mills, the bridges, all the public buildings, were torn down; the whole city was set on fire. Tesse, the executioner of this infernal work (he was nevertheless one of the leaders of the dragonades) had not the heart to see more, or drive the unfortunate inhabitants from among the ruins of their city. He left with his soldiers. The citizens extinguished the conflagration behind him, and called to their aid the German troops, who fortified themselves in the ruins of the castle. On the news of this, Louvois became furious that Heidelberg had not been entirely burned and destroyed, ordered that Mannheim should not only be burned, but that not one stone should be left on another, (March, 1689). Of the new conquests beyond the Rhine, Philippsburg alone was preserved. As to the countries on the left bank, the French contended themselves at first with dismantling the cities and blowing up the fortifications belonging to the Palatinate, and the electorates of Mayence and Treves, save Mayence which was made an important stronghold. But when the hostile forces began to threaten Mayence, the chief of the French army of the Rhine, Marshal Duras, proposed to the king and the minster a frightful resolution, namely, to destroy, not only the burghs and villages which might facilitate an attack on Mayence, but all the towns in the neighborhood of the Rhine between Mayence and Philippsburg. The fatal word given, Duras became terrified at it himself, and wished to recede from what he had proposed. Louvois did not allow his prey to be thus snatched from him! He caused the king to order the Marshal to consummate the deed! Speyer, Worms, Oppenheim, Bingen Frankenthal were condemned to the flames. Franchises and privileges were offered to the magistrates for such as would be willing to emigrate to Lorraine, Alsace, Franche-Comte, with means of transport for their household goods. Those who should refuse might transport their goods to fortified towns belonging to the king, but not among enemies. Thus even the consolation of taking refuge among their countrymen was refused them. This was monstrous; its exaction worse. It is only too easy to conceive all the license and rapacity of the soldiers must have added to those of desolation.

It had been desired that the celebrated cathedrals of Worms and Speyer, as well as the episcopal palaces, and the effects that the inhabitants had not been able to carry away, but had been collected there be saved, but the fire reached the churches, and burned whatever could be burned (end of May, beginning of June). This beautiful country which the middle ages had adorned with so many religious and military monuments, presented only a mass of smoking ruins, as if a new Attila had passed over Gaul and Germany. One hundred thousand unfortunates driven from their homes, in flames, demanded vengeance from all Germany, from all Europe, and raised against the great king an indignation, still more general than that which had been raised against the French refugees. The people of the Rhine whom nature has attached by so many ties to France, vowed a long and implacable resentment against its government, which was to be extinguished only with the monarchy of Louis XIV. in the presence of a new France.

One other historian in speaking of the cruelties perpetrated by the French soldiers says: “The elector beheld from his castle at Mannheim two cities and twenty-five towns in flames, where lust and rapine walked hand in hand with fire and sword.” Another records that while the burning of cities and towns was in progress, and the country was being turned into a desert, the defenceless inhabitants begging for mercy on their bended knees, were stripped naked and driven into the fields in mid-winter, where they perished in the snow from hunger and cold.

The atrocities here recounted raised the indignation of all the rulers of Europe to the highest pitch, and resolved on an offensive and defensive treaty against the French, and determined that they would not lay down their arms until the French king was humbled, and all his conquests taken from him. Affairs in Europe favored the scheme of the princes now allied against Louis, because the latter was beginning to have much more on hand than he was able to attend to. He had the war of the Spanish succession on hand; he was bent on restoring James II. to the throne of England, all of which enterprises weakened him in the Palatinate, because many of his troops had to be withdrawn from there, because they were needed elsewhere, while the German princes entered with renewed vigor on the work of expelling the French armies from German soil. Such were the conditions in the fall of 1689. The German troops wintered in the Palatinate, although that country had been made almost inhabitable by the ravages of the French armies. The French remained in Alsace and Lorraine during the winter. When spring opened the war in the Palatinate was renewed with still greater ferocity on the part of the French. Here let the impartial French chronicler again tell the story:

Louvois was not yet satiated with devastation. After the loss of Mayence, he would have gladly inflicted the fate of Worms and Speyer on a much more illustrious city. He proposed to the king to burn Treves. Louis when the question had arisen of annihilating the towns on the Rhine, was at first fascinated by the kind of terrible grandeur that such a destruction of power manifests; but the remorse was not slow to awaken in his soul; he recoiled before the new outrage. Louvois warmly repulsed, returned to the charge. Some days afterwards he audaciously declared to Louis, that he had taken the responsibility on himself and had sent the order. The king transported with rage, raised his hand against the minister. Madame Maintenon threw herself between the two; Louis commanded Louvois to hasten to countermand the order, or his head should answer for a single house burned. The order had not gone; Louvois had sought to compel assent of the king by announcing the thing done.

It would seem therefore that the enormity of the crimes committed by his soldiers was at last beginning to make an impression on his cruel heart. The following year, in 1690, the war along the Rhine was renewed, and carried on with varying success. The ravages of the French soldiers continued, wherever there was anything left to ravage and destroy. New horrors continued to be enacted. Heidelberg was again sacked in 1693, and once more given up to the flames. This time the entire population was expelled, and the people left without clothing or provisions. There was no letting up of these outrages by the French until the year 1697, when peace came with the Treaty of Ryswick in September of that year, to which France, England, Spain, the Netherlands, and Germany were parties.

From this time on, the Palatinate ceased to be the special object of vengeance of the French, but it continued to be the battlefield of other European wars. It will be seen how difficult it was for the Palatines to repair the ruin wrought by the soldiers of Louis XIV. The Palatines despaired of being ever freed from the horrors of war, or the tramp of invading armies. They began to look for homes elsewhere. Many of them had scattered to other parts of Germany; some went beyond, and sought homes in Holland, and in other parts of Europe. The new province of William Penn was brought to the attention of the troubled Palatines, and it was not long before the exodus across the sea began. The wars which still continued to ravage the Palatinate, stimulated the emigration to America.

The war of the Spanish succession broke out in 1701, and continued until the peace of Utrecht in 1713. During the continuance of that war the Palatinate was repeatedly overrun by hostile armies, and the land laid waste. It was during those years, that the emigration from the Palatinate to Penn’s province began in earnest, and by the end of the war many thousands had found new homes in Pennsylvania, who formed a nucleus around which many thousands more gathered in the coming years.

In 1715 Louis XIV. died. Frenchmen have embalmed the memory of this great butcher as “Le Grande Monarch,” but the rest of the world execrates his memory, for the crimes of his soldiers in the Palatinate, perpetrated by his approval. He was succeeded by Louis XV., who in turn plunged France into a new war with Saxony, Russia and Austria. In 1740 a general European war began, which involved the Austrian succession. It continued for eight years, when it came to an end with the Treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle. In 1750 war broke out between Prussia and Austria, which involved England and France. During all these wars, the Palatinate furnished their camping grounds and battlefields. No sooner had the people started to repair the ruin made by hostile armies, than their fields were again laid waste by a new war.

We now understand what the causes were which led to the great exodus of German Palatines to America. Life in their own country became intolerable and Penn’s province offered them an asylum.

CHAPTER IV.
THE PROVINCE OF PENNSYLVANIA.

Penn’s Grant.—Its Extent.—Penn visits His Province.—Makes Laws for its Government.—Prior Explorations of the Dutch.—Dutch and Swedish Settlements.—First White People who set Foot on Pennsylvania Soil.—Colony passes under English Control.

There is a pretty well authenticated account of three European travelers, who in 1614 started from some point on the Mohawk river, not far from Albany, N. Y., thence proceeded up the Mohawk valley a distance of about thirty miles, after which they changed to a southerly course, through an unbroken forest, to the headwaters of the Delaware river, and thence following down the course of that stream a distance of nearly three hundred and fifty miles, through a trackless wilderness to Delaware Bay. Those travelers are believed to have been the first white men that ever set foot on the soil of the present State of Pennsylvania. It is recorded that Cornelius Hendrickson, in command of one of the vessels of the West India Company, while exploring the country along the Delaware river, met those three men the following year, some distance below where the city of Philadelphia now stands. Hendrickson’s vessel was the first one that had ascended the Delaware river as far north as Pennsylvania up to that time, although Hendrik Hudson, engaged in the Dutch service, had as early as 1609 ascended the waters of the Delaware as far as the state of that name.

The Dutch immediately upon the reports of the explorations of Hudson and Hendrickson, laid claim to their discoveries, and dispatched vessels to America with officers who were instructed to establish sovereignty over the new possessions in the name of the Dutch government. Attempts to colonize the new possessions were also made simultaneously, which were attended with some success. The civil authority over the colonies on the Delaware was thereafter exercised by the Dutch, whose chief seat of government was at New Amsterdam (New York). There were but few accessions to the settlements for a long time, until in 1638 when a company of Swedes, including some Finns arrived, and established themselves permanently among the Dutch, after which the colony was alternately ruled by the Dutch and Swedes, until 1655 when the Dutch authorities came over from New Amsterdam, and took possession of the Swedish settlement, as well as the settlements made by the Dutch. In 1664 the English captured New Amsterdam, when the colonies on the Delaware passed under their control. Subsequently, in 1674 the Dutch recaptured their American colonies, and after holding them for a short time, they were again transferred to English rule; after that the colonies on the Delaware within the present limits of Pennsylvania, continued to be ruled over by the English, until the proprietary government was established under William Penn.

In 1681 the British government made a grant to William Penn of a “tract of land in America lying north of Maryland; on the east bounded by the Delaware river; on the west limited as Maryland, and northward to extend as far as plantable.” Such were the boundaries of Pennsylvania as defined by the charter of Charles II. of England to William Penn in 1681. The grant to Penn was made in liquidation of a claim of his father against the government, of sixteen thousand pounds, to which he fell heir, after his father’s death.

In 1682 Penn visited his province, remaining nearly two years, during which time he instituted a government for its regulation; planned the city of Philadelphia, and laid the foundation of a future mighty commonwealth. He established a civil constitution, and formulated a code of laws, which guaranteed civil and religious freedom to every inhabitant within the limits of his province. Some of the most beneficient features of Penn’s code are still preserved, in the Declaration of Rights in the present Constitution of Pennsylvania.

After Penn had laid the foundation of civil government for his province, he put forward schemes for its colonization. One of his first acts was a treaty with the Indians, whom he recognized as the rightful owners of the soil. He did not pretend to make any title to lands before he procured the relinquishment of the Indian title by treaty and purchase. The treaties made by Penn with the Indians were sacredly kept by him, and they stand out in honorable relief, when contrasted with a century of violated treaties, broken promises, and bad faith of the United States Government, in its dealings with the various Indian tribes.

After Penn had acquired honest title to the Indian lands, he offered them for sale in blocks of 5,000 acres for 100 pounds. This was at the rate of ten cents an acre reckoned at the present value of money, for the choicest land in Pennsylvania. Persons who brought servants with them on coming here, were entitled to 50 acres for each servant, and after the expiration of their term of service, the latter were also entitled to 50 acres of land. Such as desired to rent land, were charged one penny per annum for each acre rented. Such liberal terms upon which to acquire land, gave a great stimulus to emigration, and it was not long before the great stream of humanity from the old world, began to flow into Pennsylvania at a rapid rate, and continued to flow with little abatement for upwards of three-quarters of a century.

CHAPTER V.
GERMAN EMIGRATION TO PENNSYLVANIA.

German Quakers arrive.—They found Germantown.—Penn’s Return to England.—Visits the Palatinate.—William III. Dies.—Queen Anne ascends the Throne.—Her sympathies with the persecuted Palatines.—Tide of Emigration from the Palatinate begins to flow toward Pennsylvania.—Queen Anne’s Liberality.—Emigrants sold for the Cost of their Passage.—Known as Redemptioners.—Terms of their Sale.—German Hostility to Proprietors.

It has already been seen how all the conditions were ripe for a speedy settlement of Penn’s province. The same year in which Penn arrived, there was quite an accession to the few settlers who had preceded him. The next two years about fifty vessels arrived bringing settlers from England, a few from Holland, and German Quakers from the Palatinate, who founded Germantown.

After Penn returned to England from his first visit to his province, he visited Germany and there proclaimed to the persecuted Palatines, the great opportunities awaiting those who would emigrate to the land of promise in America. This was Penn’s third visit to the Palatines; his first visit having been made in 1671, when he was on a religious pilgrimage, preaching the tenets of the Quakers, whose society as a religious sect had been recently founded. He again visited Germany in 1677 on a similar mission making many converts, with whom he continued in communication subsequently to his visits. Penn was a proficient German scholar; spoke the German language fluently, and his preaching to the Germans, and his intercourse with them was in their own tongue, so that he had no difficulty in cultivating the most intimate personal relations with them. The German converts to Quakerism had learned to honor and trust Penn; so that when he came among them on his third visit to proclaim to them, and their kinsmen in the Palatinate, his province in Pennsylvania, where he had already established civil and religious liberty, they did not hesitate long to exchange their desolate homes in the land where their ancestors for more than a hundred years, had been the victims of the fiercest religious and political persecution, that was ever inflicted on any people in the world’s history. The offer of an asylum in Penn’s province came at an opportune time. The Palatines were longing for some spot on earth, where they could go and live in peace, freed from their cruel oppressors. Penn pointed to his province in America, as the solution of the problem which confronted them. He wanted colonists, and the Palatines wanted to leave their desolate and ruined homes, in the land of their birth. Under such circumstances the start of the emigration from the Palatinate to Pennsylvania was easy. The first emigration began while William III. was king of England. We have already learned how his sympathies went out to his suffering Protestant brethren in the Palatinate, when he came to their rescue, while they were struggling against the barbarities of the French king. He died in 1702, when Queen Anne succeeded him. Anne was a zealous Protestant, and inherited William’s sympathies for the persecuted Palatines. Her sympathies in this respect, were no doubt emphasized by the fact that her cousin, Frederick V. was at that time the ruling Prince Palatine. For these and other reasons the Palatines became the subjects of special consideration of the English sovereign. Queen Anne evinced the most tender regard for them, and when the tide of emigration from the Palatinate had set fairly in, the generous Queen assisted numerous Palatines to America, from her own bounty, some of whom no doubt came to Pennsylvania. The memory of Queen Anne deserves to be gratefully cherished by Pennsylvania Germans by reason of the generosity bestowed by her upon their persecuted kinsmen.

Other causes operated to stimulate the German emigration to Pennsylvania during the first half of the eighteenth century. Interested parties who had visited the colonies, returned to their homes in Europe, and gave the most glowing and exaggerated accounts of the newly found paradise, so that many who had been living in comfort at home, disposed of their effects, often at a sacrifice, and rushed to the nearest seaport, and embarked for America, frequently to regret it. Many who had no money to pay for their passage, were carried by masters of vessels, who depended for their compensation for transporting them across the ocean, on their chances of selling them, for the price of their passage to some purchaser for a term of years. Many Palatines, some Dutch, and a few of other nationalities found their way to America, and to Pennsylvania by those means. After such immigrants had redeemed their freedom by honest service, many frequently remained with their masters for a while longer, until they were able to set up for themselves. It was not an unusual occurence for the servant after he had served his term, to marry his master’s daughter. Some of these servants however would gain their freedom sometimes, by running away from their masters.

This species of servitude, and the selling of emigrants for their passage had not a few of the features about it, of involuntary chattel slavery, and it was characterized at the time as the “German Slave Trade.”

There were agents in Rotterdam, Amsterdam, and probably other European seaports, who made it a business to entice people to go to America, with the promise of having their passage paid, and employment given them on their arrival. Those immigrants were known officially as “Redemptioners,” and their term of service depended on the value of their services, in the particular occupation in which they were employed. A skillful workman usually gained his freedom in three years, while others were compelled to serve six or seven years. Children continued in this involuntary service usually until 21 years of age.

The Rev. H. M. Muhlenberg in the “Hallischen Nachrichten,” gives an account of the manner in which this traffic was conducted. A vessel that had been long expected, arrived in the harbor of Philadelphia in mid-winter, and after it had anchored in the stream, one after another of the intending purchasers went on board, and examined the list of human freight, and the terms upon which each soul could be bought, which list was furnished the master of the vessel at the port in Holland whence he sailed. The list set forth the price of each emigrant’s passage, and other incidental expenses in bringing him here.

In the earlier days the price of passage, for each adult was from 6 to 10 Louis d’or, (a French gold coin worth 20 shillings); but at the time of which Muhlenberg wrote, the price had advanced to 14 and 17 Louis d’or, for each person. Before the vessel could anchor in front of the city, it was visited by a doctor to ascertain whether there was any contagious disease on board, after which the immigrants were all marched to the Land Office, where they were made to take the oath of allegiance to the King of Great Britain. They were then taken back to the ship, where they were kept under restraint, until publication could be made of the arrival of the vessel, and the number of passengers that were for sale to pay for their passage and other charges. When the time for the sale arrived, the purchasers were on hand. The latter went among the newcomers, looked them carefully over, and when one was found that suited the purchaser, he took him to the seller, paid the charges, and then took him to the Government office, where he bound himself in writing to serve for a specified term.

The young people of both sexes, were the first to go; old people, and those physically defective were difficult to dispose of. If however they had healthy children, their passage was added to that of the children. The latter found ready purchasers, but had to serve long terms by reason of the additional cost. The parents were then set at liberty. If any of the newcomers had friends to pay for their passage, they also were give their freedom.

It sometimes happened that a master had no longer use for a servant purchased by him, or that he was unsuitable for the needs of the master, in which case the redemptioner was advertised for sale for the remainder of the original term of service.

In the “Pennsylvania Staatsbote” of Aug. 4, 1766, appeared the following: “A German female servant is for sale. She has five years to serve.” In the Pennsylvania Gazette in June, 1762 appeared the following advertisement: “To be sold. A likely servant woman, having three years to serve. She is a good spinner.”

In the Pennsylvania Staatsbote of December 14, 1773 is found: “To be sold. A Dutch apprentice lad, who has five years and three months to serve; he has been brought up to the tailor’s business. Can work well.”

Occasionally these servants were put up at public auction, and knocked down to the highest bidder. In Christoph Sauer’s newspaper, published at Germantown of date of February 10, 1754 appeared the following advertisement: “Rosina Dorothea Kost, nee Kaufmann, born in Waldenberg, who arrived at Patapsco, November 12, 1753, desires to let her brother-in-law, one Spohr of Conestoga know through the medium of this paper of her sale at public vendue.”

Rosina evidently hoped that her brother-in-law would come forward, and redeem her, if the foregoing notice should be brought to his attention. It is hoped that he may have done so.

The sale of children of old and decrepid parents, often worked great wrongs. It not infrequently separated children from their parents, who never saw them again, because they became scattered among strangers, and people of different nationality from themselves, speaking a different language. For a people in whom the sentiment of the home, and family is as strong as it is with the Germans, this was an almost unbearable cruelty.

The system of selling immigrants for the cost of their passage, only came to an end after a vigorous protest was made against it, in which some of the religious sects led, notably the Mennonites. They scattered the intelligence of the horrors of the “German Slave Trade,” throughout the European seaport towns, whence most of the emigrants sailed for the American colonies. The Palatine elector, Karl Theodore, also drove the unscrupulous agents of the masters of vessels, who were engaged in recruiting emigrants, out of the Palatinate.

The owners of vessels found the business of transporting emigrants to the colonies in America, to be sold for their passage a profitable one, but for the unfortunate victims of the system it must have possessed little romance. The fate of the so-called redemptioners did not differ very materially from that of any other system of involuntary serfdom, except that the term of their servitude was limited, and was self-imposed.

While the system of selling emigrants for the cost of their passage was profitable for ship-owners, the cupidity of the latter often got the better of their business judgment, by overcrowding their vessels to such an extent, that many passengers died on the voyage in consequence of sickness, and disease breaking out among them, as a result of bad food, and worse sanitary conditions. It has been said of one small vessel that left a Dutch port, with 400 passengers, that arrived at Philadelphia with only 50 of them alive. An ocean voyage in those days was an undertaking to be dreaded under the most favorable conditions possible; but the emigrant ships were horrible to make the long and tedious voyage in. One chronicler denominated them as “destroying angels,” and judging from the mortalities on them, they were properly designated. The emigrants were packed in between decks, where they were deprived of all pure air, so that after a long voyage of many weeks and often of many months, their quarters became a scene of filth, horror, and lamentations. It has been stated that in the year 1738 not less than 2000 passengers died while crossing the ocean.

Those who sailed ships in those days were cruel taskmasters. An emigrant was of very little account, beyond the price for which he could be sold if brought alive to some port in the colonies. Beyond that the masters of ships had no interest in them. Those who were able to pay for their passage in advance, received even less consideration from those who sailed ships, than those whose passage depended on their sale upon their arrival in America, because no further pecuniary advantage could be derived from the former, while the compensation for transporting the latter across the ocean, depended upon bringing them alive and well into some American port, while it did not matter to the ship-owners, whether or not the former arrived alive or not. As a matter of fact, the ship-owners were in pocket, if the emigrant who paid for his passage in advance, died early during the voyage.

In 1765 the Provincial Assembly was appealed to, for the purpose of interesting it in providing legislation, which would result in mitigating the horrors of a sea voyage in an emigrant ship. There was slight improvement after that, but it was not until as late as 1818, when the Legislature of Pennsylvania enacted more stringent laws regulating the importation of German and other emigrants, that any practical improvement was brought about.

With regard to the so-called redemptioners, they were not less esteemed than their more fortunate countrymen, who were able to pay for their passage to America, and with very few exceptions, they became useful and substantial citizens; and many of their descendants in these days are filling honorable stations in every walk of life.

We have seen on what liberal terms colonists were invited to the province of Pennsylvania by its founder; but those liberal terms were afterwards restricted, when a change of proprietors came. William Penn died July 30, 1718, and his three sons, Thomas, Richard, and John succeeded him as his heirs, and assumed control of affairs. After that the lands were surveyed, and settlers were expected to pay liberally for the land upon which they had settled, but the newcomers were ignorant of the new conditions, and relied on the earlier promises, so that upon their arrival, they paid little attention to the new mode of procedure to obtain land, but merely went in search of some favorable location; settled thereon, and proceeded to make the necessary improvements. Their disregard of the new regulations to obtain land, brought them in collision with the agents of the proprietory government.

The kindly regard which Penn had for his early German colonists, was now succeeded by the indignation of the agents of the new proprietors. James Logan the Colonial Secretary, wrote in 1725 concerning the great influx of German emigrants, and their unscrupulousness about complying with the rules of the Land Office, in the following ill-tempered strain: “They come here in crowds, and as bold indigent strangers from Germany, where many of them have been soldiers. All these go on the best vacant lands, and seize upon them as common spoil.” Logan complained that they rarely approached him on their arrival for the purpose of purchasing land, and when their right to occupy it was challenged, they sought to justify their action, by stating that it had been published in Europe, that colonists were wanted, and that they had been solicited to come; and came in pursuance of those representations, without bringing with them the means with which to pay for any land.

The new proprietors who succeeded the benevolent and pacific Penn, were governed by wholly different motives, from those that controlled him. Instead of seeking the welfare of their fellow men, the first consideration with them was the promotion of their own personal interests. It may be said however to their credit, that they did not molest, or try to dispossess any of the newcomers, who had settled on land in violation of the regulations of the land office. More pacific counsels prevailed, and by skillful diplomacy on the part of the proprietors they succeeded after a few years, to get a settlement out of the newcomers for the land occupied by them, after they had accumulated enough money for that purpose.

The great tide of German immigration to Pennsylvania continued for many years. A few came near the close of the seventeenth century, but with the early years of the eighteenth it began in earnest, and continued for three quarters of a century. By the time of the Revolution their numerical strength, made them a powerful factor in determining Pennsylvania on the side of independence.

Authorities differ with regard to the number of Germans in Pennsylvania prior to the Revolution. The late Prof. Haldeman, in his “Pennsylvanisch Deitsch,” places their number in 1763 at 280,000. The natural increase for the next ten years without any increase by immigration,—which however still continued during that period,—would make their numbers in excess of 300,000 immediately prior to the Revolution. Against these figures we have the estimate of C. D. Ebeling, a German geographer who contributed the accounts of America, in “Busching’s Erdbeschreibung,” who makes their number in 1790 only 144,660. While the figures given by Prof. Haldeman may be too high, those by Ebeling are manifestly too low. It is quite likely that the true figures are somewhere between the two. The population of Pennsylvania in 1752 has been fixed at 190,000, of which 90,000 or nearly one-half were estimated to have been Germans. Adding to those the natural increase, and the number of Germans arriving during the succeeding 25 years, as gathered from the reports of masters of vessels, it would seem as if the statement was warranted, that the number of Germans in Pennsylvania immediately preceding the Revolution numbered not less than 200,000. Governor Thomas the proprietary Governor places them in 1747 at 120,000.

During the period of the largest emigration from the Palatinate, which was from about 1730, to 1750, a period of twenty years, the ships crossing the Atlantic, “plied between Rotterdam and Philadelphia with almost the regularity of a ferry.”

Rotterdam was the chief port from which the emigrants embarked, and the shipping and other resources, to transport the people across the Atlantic were overtaxed to such an extent, that those under whose direction the business was conducted, sought to discourage emigration by various expedients, among which was the circulation of the most horrible accounts about the hardships and sufferings of the emigrants on the voyage across the ocean. The following is a specimen of the distressing tales circulated to turn back the tide of Palatines, heading for the land of promise in Pennsylvania:

“We learn from New York that a ship from Rotterdam, going to Philadelphia, with one hundred and fifty Palatines on board wandered twenty weeks at sea. When they finally arrived at port they were nearly all dead. The rest were forced to subsist on rats and vermin, and were all sick and weak.”

Even this horrible tale of suffering at sea, had no effect to deter people from undertaking the voyage, so they continued to come as fast as ever. It may be stated that the foregoing tale was only a slight exaggeration of the real truth, of the hardships of an ocean voyage on an emigrant ship in those days.

Notwithstanding the apprehension felt at one time, about the danger of the large German immigration in Pennsylvania to British ascendency in the colony, Lieutenant Governor Thomas in 1738, when appealed to, regarding some restrictions against the continued large German immigration, opposed any such measure, and gave the following substantial reasons for refusing to give his sanction to any scheme looking to a restriction of immigration:

“This Province has been for some years the Asylum of the distressed Protestants of the Palatinate, and other parts of Germany, and I believe it may with truth be said, that the present flourishing condition of it is in a great measure owing to the industry of those People; and should any discouragement direct them from coming hither, it may well be apprehended that the value of your Lands will fall, and your advance to wealth be much slower.”

This appeal of the Governor, to the cupidity of the English members of the provincial council had the desired effect, and no further efforts were made to put any restriction on the immigration of German Palatines.

The German settlers occupied all the counties south and east of the Blue Mountain, except Chester and the lower end of Bucks; Delaware not being then organized. Philadelphia contained very many of them, and constituted an important element in commercial and political concerns. In later years they spread to the counties beyond the Blue Mountain, where their descendants still live.

The German Palatines were excellent judges of the soil. They came from a fertile region in their native land, the soil of which was in many respects similar to that of the limestone valleys of Pennsylvania. The chief occupation of the ancient Upper Rhine provinces was in those days, and still remains that of farming. In the valleys of the Rhine and Neckar, the cereals of oats, rye, wheat, etc., are still grown abundantly, while the hillsides are covered with vineyards.

When the Palatines came to Pennsylvania they instinctively seized on the fertile lands in the limestone valleys, leaving the less fertile, hilly, and mountainous regions to others that came after them. The lands settled upon by the Germans were heavily timbered, and it required severe toil to shape them into farms, but they preferred them to the more open and sparsely timbered lands, because the latter were less fertile, though susceptible to be made into farms at much less expense of labor, and of money.

The wisdom of the Germans in the selection of lands is seen at this day, in the magnificent farms occupied by their descendants everywhere in the fertile valleys of Southeastern Pennsylvania. It is not believed that there is a region of country anywhere on the globe of equal extent, that possesses greater agricultural wealth; such well-tilled fields; palatial farm houses; immense barns; picturesque and varied scenery, and a more contented pastoral life, as is the inheritance of the Pennsylvania German farmers.

CHAPTER VI.
GERMAN IMMIGRANTS IN SOME OF THE OTHER AMERICAN COLONIES.

Grant of Maryland to Cecilius Calvert.—Maryland designed as a Refuge for Catholics.—Puritan aggression.—Religious Freedom Proclaimed.—German immigration in the Province.—Maryland Germans in the Revolution.—Germans settle in Virginia.—In the Shenandoah Valley.—Also in North Carolina.—A Colony of Swiss and Palatines found New Bern.—Graffenried’s Adventure with Indians.—The Indians burn Lawson at the Stake.—“King” of the Palatines.—War between the English and Indians.—German Colony in South Carolina.—Purrysburg founded by Them.—Large German Settlement on Edisto River.—Saxe-Gotha.—An Imposter.—Executed for Murder.—Salzburgers Emigrate to Georgia.—Germans in other States.—Palatines settle in Ireland.

New York received a large German immigration at an early day. The influences which operated to send many Palatines to Pennsylvania, were exerted in favor of New York to a very great extent. The British government was anxious to colonize that province, and when the great flood of emigration from the Palatinate began to set in, much of it was diverted to New York, through the influence of the English. The latter in numerous instances furnished the means to transport such as desired to emigrate. In that way New York received many thousands of German immigrants, most of whom came from the Rhine provinces, and settled along the Hudson river, and in the Mohawk valley. A German colony also settled in Schoharie county. The first German immigrants went to New York in 1710, and others came afterwards. The Schoharie colony became disintegrated a few years after its settlement, on account of difficulties with the local authorities, when many of them left New York under the lead of John Conrad Weiser and his son Conrad, and settled in Pennsylvania.

After the Weisers had led their colony to Pennsylvania, the emigration to the province of New York came very nearly to an end. The Schoharie colonists who came to Pennsylvania, wrote to their relatives and countrymen in the Palatinate, that they had at last found an asylum where they could rest in peace, and be secure in their rights, and advised all who contemplated emigrating to America to avoid New York, and come to Pennsylvania. Many who started from their homes in the Palatinate after that, with the intention of going to Pennsylvania, were diverted from their plans, and forced on ships bound for New York; but they were no sooner landed than “they hastened to Pennsylvania in sight of all the inhabitants of New York.”

The names of many towns in New York attest their German origin, such as Newburg, Rhinebeck, New Pfalz, Palatine Bridge, Herkimer (Hercheimer), named for General Herkimer, a distinguished soldier of the State of New York, and numerous other names.

NEW JERSEY.

New Jersey being situated between New York and Pennsylvania, necessarily profited by the immigration in the adjacent States, although there does not seem to have been that concerted effort to attract German emigrants to it, as there was made on behalf of the New York and Pennsylvania colonies, yet the State was continually receiving numerous accessions of German settlers. German Valley in what is now Morris county, was settled by them in consequence of an untoward event. A shipload of German emigrants sailed from a European port bound for New York, but adverse winds drove the ship out of its course, and when it finally reached American waters, found it most convenient to enter the port of Philadelphia, whence its passengers disembarked, and sought to make their way to New York overland, across the State of New Jersey. Their course led them into a beautiful valley, where they halted and made a permanent settlement, whence came the name, German Valley.

MARYLAND.

In 1632 the province of Maryland was granted to Cecilius Calvert by Charles I. Calvert was a Roman Catholic, and it was designed by him, to make his province a refuge for his co-religionists, without making it a distinct Catholic colony. In 1663, 200 Catholic colonists arrived in Maryland and made a permanent settlement. Soon thereafter a number of Puritans came and settled among them, who soon created strife by trying to enforce their peculiar tenets and practices upon their Catholic neighbors, which resulted in making things very uncomfortable for the intolerant Puritans, so much so, that they moved out of Maryland into Virginia.

Religious freedom was proclaimed in Maryland by the authorities, after which Quakers, German Lutherans, and other sects emigrated thither and made permanent settlements. Considerable numbers of German emigrants sailed direct from foreign ports to Maryland; many went there from New York where they had become dissatisfied with English rule, while Pennsylvania furnished a good many, and a few came from New England.

The Germans occupied certain parts of Maryland in the early days, to the exclusion almost of people of every other nationality. About the middle of the previous century, the larger part of the population of Frederick county, was either German or of German parentage. Like their kin in Pennsylvania those Germans continued the almost exclusive use of their native dialect for a long period after their settlement in Frederick county, and until a comparatively recent period, all religious services were conducted by them in the German language. At the outbreak of the Revolution, Maryland sent a German regiment of infantry in the field, and also a German company of artillery, besides numerous Germans enlisted in other organizations.

VIRGINIA.

Virginia began to receive Germans from the Palatinate, and from other parts of Germany as early as 1743. In that year a vessel arrived at Hampton Roads, which had sailed from a Holland port with 200 passengers on board, 100 of whom died on the voyage. Many Swiss were among the early settlers in Virginia. Germans from Pennsylvania also settled in Virginia during different periods, chiefly in the Shenandoah valley.

NORTH CAROLINA.

In 1719 at a time when the German Palatines were rushing to America, a large number of them were in London, awaiting assistance to enable them to take passage to some one of the American colonies. There was in London at that time a Swiss gentleman by the name of Christoph Graffenried. He met there one Louis Michel also a Swiss, who had spent some time in America, and was familiar with the country’s needs, and also its possibilities for colonists. The two conceived the idea of founding a colony of Swiss and Germans in America, and for that purpose secured a tract of land in North Carolina, between the Neuse and Cape Fear rivers, with the understanding that after they had paid for 5000 acres, they should obtain title to 100,000.

Soon thereafter two vessels with 650 Palatines and Swiss on board, were dispatched to North Carolina, where they arrived in December 1710; and they founded Newbern.

The following year the Tuscarora Indians began to make war against the English, and whites generally. Before the settlers had any intelligence of the designs of the Indians, Graffenried who came to North Carolina with the Swiss and Palatine colonists, started off on one occasion, with a land surveyor named Lawson, and a negro servant, to ascend the river Neuse in a boat to explore the country. They did not dream of any unfriendliness on the part of the Indians, so in the evening they tied their boat up near an Indian village, intending to spend the night with their savage neighbors. They found the Indians in a morose mood, manifesting none of their usual good will. Graffenried’s suspicions that their manner boded trouble, was increased, when he saw a large quantity of arms and ammunition provided by the Indians. He started away from the village with his companions, with the intention of ascending higher up the stream, but after they had reached their boat and were about entering it, they were surrounded by about 60 armed Indians, who took them back to the village, and brought them before the chief, who ordered that they should be kept under strict guard until the next day, when they were brought before a council to consider the question, as to what disposition should be made of them. The following evening, they were taken before the council, the deliberations of which lasted until the following morning, when an Indian made his appearance, with whom Lawson had some time previous a difficulty, and from whom the Indian did not get very good treatment. The Indian informed the council, that the whites had conspired in secret to destroy them; this so angered the savages, that they immediately condemned Graffenried and his two companions to death. The next day they were taken to the place of execution, where they were bound hand and foot, and left to lie on the ground. The Indians kindled a big fire, erected a cross which they decorated with flowers. In the painful position in which Graffenried and his companions had been placed, they remained all day and the following night. With sunrise the next morning, a multitude of Indians assembled, to witness the final act of the tragedy. An armed guard stood over the condemned during all that time. The principal Indians sat about them in a circle of two rows; behind them were about 300 Indians engaged in dancing, and yelling like so many devils possessed. Two executioners were detailed to carry out the decree of the council, who were painted so as to make as hideous an appearance as possible. In this extremity, a thought occurred to Graffenried. He turned to the principal chief, and asked what right they had to condemn an innocent man, and whether they were willing to hazard the execution of a king; pretending that he was the king of the Palatines. This ruse served its purpose, for a second council was held; Graffenried’s fetters were unloosened, but Lawson and the negro servant both suffered death at the stake.

Graffenried was kept in confinement for five weeks longer, when he was released, upon his entering into a compact with the Indians, that in the event of war between them and the English, that he would remain neutral as “king” of the Palatines, and would discontinue measuring and appropriating their lands.

In the war which followed, the Swiss and Palatine settlers, who were both known under the name of Palatines, remained neutral, and Newbern was saved from harm. The details of the foregoing account of Graffenried’s adventure is based on a letter written by him to the governor of the province, soon after its occurrence.

After the war between the Tuscaroras and the Indians, many other Palatines settled in North Carolina; the names of whose descendants abound numerously in that state at the present day.

SOUTH CAROLINA.

It is not known when the Germans first came to South Carolina, but it is known that in 1734 a number of emigrants from Salzburg arrived at Charleston and settled in the province, and about the same time 170 Swiss emigrants also arrived at Charleston under the lead of Johann Peter Purry, and founded Purrysburg on the Savannah river; the following year 200 additional Swiss arrived, and later a colony of Swiss and Palatines made settlement in the neighborhood of Orangeburg, which was founded about the same time. Their settlement was on the Edisto river, and the whole region on both sides of the stream in that neighborhood was originally settled by Germans, chiefly from the Palatinate, and Switzerland. Other Germans from parts in Germany further north settled in South Carolina. They founded a colony further inland from Orangeburg, and called it Saxe-Gotha. This became an important central point, from which the German settlement spread, which continued to gain large accessions until the Revolution.

In 1763 there came two ship loads of German emigrants from London to Charleston. They were poor, and the Colonial Legislature voted them 500 pounds, 200 muskets and ammunition, and settled them in the Saxe-Gotha district. The Germans monopolized this district, and continued to speak the German language long after it had ceased to be spoken elsewhere in South Carolina. A traveller who visited this district as late as 1850 wrote, that German was no longer spoken by the descendants of the early German settlers, but that the people retained their German Bibles, hymn-books, and observed many of the customs, festivals and holidays of their German ancestors.

There is said to have been a remote district in South Carolina in the first half of the last century, which had been settled by Germans, which had scarcely any communication with the outside world; where the people were without churches, or schools, who had fallen into such dense ignorance, that they were not far removed from a savage state. A Swiss came among them named Weber, who represented himself to be Jesus Christ; his wife the Virgin Mary, and another who came with him, as the Holy Ghost. This imposter hired a man to represent the devil, and he went about making converts of many simple souls who believed in him. He ordered that Satan be bound in chains and placed in a great cavern which existed in that neighborhood, which was accordingly done. He finally decreed that Satan should be put out of the world. The poor devil was placed in a featherbed, and covered with pillows and bed clothes, after which some of Weber’s followers smothered Satan to death. When the affair reached the knowledge of the authorities at Charleston, Weber was arrested, tried for murder; convicted and duly hanged. His wife, children, and ignorant dupes were pardoned by the Governor.

GEORGIA.

Very few Palatines, if any, went to Georgia direct from Germany in the early days, although considerable numbers went there from some of the other colonies.

In 1739 a fierce religious persecution began in the archbishopric of Salzburg. This persecution continued for many years, during which time more than 30,000 Protestant Germans left the archbishopric, and settled elsewhere. Some went to Prussia, some to Holland, and others went to England, who soon thereafter left for Georgia, where they settled permanently, and became a nucleus around which several thousand of the persecuted Salzburgers afterwards gathered.

TENNESSEE AND KENTUCKY.

Whatever German immigration went to the territory now embraced in the foregoing named states in the early days went to North Carolina and Virginia; Tennessee being taken from the first named state, and Kentucky from the latter. After the Revolution, and Tennessee and Kentucky were admitted as states, each received large accessions of German population. Many went to those states from Pennsylvania, Maryland and Virginia.

GERMAN PALATINES IN IRELAND.

About the years 1709-10, when many thousands of Palatines abandoned their native land, to seek homes elsewhere, the exodus assumed the nature, of what would in these days be termed a “craze.” Thousands left their homes in the Palatinate, without any well-defined idea where they would eventually land. The first consideration with them was to get away from their oppressors; the question with regard to their future was deemed of minor importance. Under such circumstances 5,000 Germans from the Palatinate found their way to England in the months of May and June, 1709, which number was increased by October to 13,000, comprising husbandmen, tradesmen, artisans, schoolteachers, and clergymen.

Those emigrants all came to London, and when the first lot arrived, they took the Londoners by surprise, for they came without any notice of their coming, and the first intimation which the citizens of London had concerning them was when they found about 5,000 Palatine men, women, and children under tents in the suburbs of their city. They seemed to be without any definite plans for the future, beyond the fact that they had been told in their own country, that settlers were wanted for the British colonies in America, and in pursuance of those representations they came to London, expecting that the British government would provide for them. England did take care of them; sheltering them about the city in empty dwellings, warehouses, barns, and wherever vacant places could be found. Good Queen Anne ordered tents to be pitched on Blackheath for their accommodation. A large majority of those people were sent to the British colonies in America.

Upon the petition of the Lord Lieutenant Governor of Ireland 3,800 of them were sent to Ireland and settled in the county Limerick, in the province of Munster, where many of their descendants are living at this day, the most prosperous and well-to-do farmers and tradesmen in Ireland.

The late Professor Rupp in his book of “The Names of 30,000 German Immigrants,” makes reference to the settlement of those German Palatines in Ireland, and states “that it is said” that some of them still speak a German dialect. The author visited the descendants of those people a few years ago, but found no trace of any German dialect; it has died out long ago; only the German names remain, some of which have become so changed in their spelling, as to make their German origin scarcely recognizable. Many of those people have intermarried with the Irish population, so that the present generation is more Irish than German. Those people are still spoken of as Palatines.

The migration of so many Palatines in the course of a few months and their sudden appearance in England, furnishes one of the most interesting episodes in the whole history of the German emigration from the Palatinate. Their reception, treatment and their disposition by the English Government, redounds much to its credit, generosity, and humanity, most of which was owing to the kindly disposition toward those people of Queen Anne.

While there was no settled purpose in the mind of the English authorities at first regarding the ultimate disposition of those people, the first impulse however was that they had to be provided for. The Palatines themselves were without any fixed purpose, but were inspired with the hope of eventually reaching America. Some of the young men among them enlisted in the British army; others scattered throughout rural England, while a considerable number of them sought service in London, and in some of the other cities and towns of England. The great majority however were disposed of in the way hereinbefore stated.

As proof of the magnanimity of the English people in their treatment of their unfortunate guests, Parliament, at the suggestion of the noble-minded Queen voted £24,000 for those who elected to go to Ireland, for transportation and subsistence. Those that were sent to the American colonies also had their transportation paid by the British government.

Among the foregoing mentioned Palatines, there were about 1,500 German Catholics, which is evidence going to show, that it was not alone religious persecution as has been often contended, that drove those people from their homes in the Palatinate, but that Protestant and Catholic alike left the devastated land of their birth, to improve their material, rather than their spiritual welfare.

Those in authority in England at that time were not as tolerant of other people’s religious views as people are in these days, and the government refused to send those of the Catholic faith to the American colonies, in consequence of which many of them renounced their religion rather than return to their desolate and ravished homes in the Palatinate, where such as were tenacious of their faith were sent under passports of the British government.

CHAPTER VII.
THE QUAKERS, GERMANS, AND THE PROPRIETORS.

Quakers Emigrate to America.—Their Hostility to the Proprietors after Penn.—Indian Outbreaks.—Quakers refuse to bear Arms.—Defence of their Own Homes left to non-Quakers.—Quakers oppose the Formation of a Militia.—Penn’s sons Forsake Quaker Faith.—Attitude of the Germans.—Christoph Sauer’s German Newspaper.—Its Influence.—Controls the Germans.—Their Influence is a menace to English Rule.—Their Influence in Politics.—Sauer’s partisan Appeals to the Germans.—Asserts English intent to enslave Them.—English fear a German Colony.—War between France and Great Britain.—Efforts to stop German Emigration.—Taxing Emigrants.—Fails to have any effect on Emigration.—They continue to come.

During the first half of the eighteenth century, the influence of the Quaker element predominated, and it can scarcely be said that it was always exerted for the best interests of the province after Penn died. The German Quakers never cut much of a figure in the affairs of the colony; it was left to the English Quakers to concern themselves about its domestic affairs. The latter at their former home in England owed their origin to a revolt against English religious thought, in consequence of which they became the subjects of much persecution. After many of them had emigrated to Pennsylvania, where they were assured of religions freedom, it was not long before they arrayed themselves in opposition to the civil power.

The peace of the new province was often threatened by foes from within and from without. The wars between England and France frequently threatened the peace of all the colonies, and the Indians were a menace to the settlers all the time. They would start out on frequent raids, among the inhabitants, and would sometimes perpetrate cruel massacres, against which it was of the highest importance to guard, by an efficient militia, the organization of which the Quakers opposed to a man. The Indians knew that the civil authorities could not rely on the Quakers for any armed assistance, because they were opposed to war, and the bearing of arms. This left the defence of the colony to the non-Quaker population, and to the civil authorities to which the Quakers refused loyal support. The Quakers were an embarrassing influence in the Colonial Assembly, to which they were frequently elected by the aid of the German votes, especially of those in Northampton county. It has been said that the organization of this county, was primarily, for the purpose of divorcing the German vote from Quaker control, in behalf of whose candidates it was usually cast, in obedience to the influence of the Quakers of Philadelphia and Bucks counties.

The Quaker opposition to the organization of a militia, to protect the province against the Indians and the French, who were making war on the border, while the defence of their own homes was left to the poorly armed non-Quakers, was such a perversion of common sense and of justice, as to embitter all classes against a people whose religious tenets could justify such rank injustice and selfishness. This attitude of the reputed mild-mannered Quakers, brought them into unfriendly relations with most of the other colonists in Pennsylvania, as well as into hostile collision with the proprietary government. The Quakers had not much respect for the sons of the original proprietor. Penn’s sons were in control at this time, and it is interesting to note, that none of them remained in fellowship with the Quakers after their father’s death. After his death all the proprietary governors were non-Quakers, and this fact no doubt, had the tendency to increase the spirit of insubordination, of the Quaker element against the civil authority.

For the sake of the truth of history, it must be remarked, that the Germans who had not much affection for English rule, too often took sides with the Quakers in opposing the English, and thereby frustrated designs of the lawful authorities, intended for the general welfare.

In 1739 Christoph Sauer began to publish a German newspaper at Germantown, which gained a large circulation among the Germans, and controlled their political actions entirely, which was often in opposition to the ruling class.

The Germans however when the security of the province was threatened by the French, or the homes of the settlers were menaced by their savage foes, were always among the first to take up arms in defence of both; while their Quaker neighbors not only refused to take up arms, to defend the homes of the colonists when threatened by hostile savages, but opposed the creation of a militia for that purpose.

It is difficult to reconcile this attitude of the Quakers towards the civil authorities, and their refusal to perform their obligations to the government which was ever ready to protect them, with the duties of good citizenship, which was one of the tenets of their faith. Their disregard of some of the most important civil obligations, seem to contradict the teachings of the sect, of a rigid morality, unbending personal integrity, and living a simple and sincere life, of all of which they were marked exemplars.

The Quakers were however, foremost in the work of many reforms. They entered their protest early against the infliction of the death penalty, for the commission of minor offences such as larceny, etc. The mild laws laid down by Penn for the government of his province, and the satisfactory results springing therefrom are the best proofs of their utility. The Quakers were also the first to raise their voice against slavery in the colonies, although it required the teachings of more than two hundred years, and at the end a prodigious civil war, to wipe that institution from our American system.

While the Quakers in Penn’s province in the early years of its history could not always be commended for their fidelity to the constituted authorities, yet they deserve much credit for many commendable virtues.

CHAPTER VIII.
THE PENNSYLVANIA GERMANS IN HISTORY.

Political Influence of the Germans.—Not an office-holding Class.—War between England and France.—German Indifference.—Efforts to Anglicize the Germans.—The Germans During the Revolution.—Favor Independence.—Germans Organize.—Prominent in Furnishing Troops.—Mainstay of the Army.—Germans a unit for Independence.—They raise a Battalion, before Independence is Declared.

While the Germans never had any particular affection for English rule, they nevertheless were always loyal to the authorities, notwithstanding they were strong enough during several decades before the Revolution, by making an alliance with the Quaker element to have wrested the colony from British control. Such an alliance would not have been difficult by reason of the well-known hostility of the Quakers to the proprietary rule. But the Germans never had any ambition in that direction. They cared little for political power, being content to cultivate their fields, and enjoy the blessings of civil and religious liberty, which was denied them in the land of their birth. They did not aspire to political honors, and their names seldom appear in the official lists of the provincial government. Their almost exclusive use of the German language, also disqualified them from holding office. They however by reason of their numbers exerted an important influence in the colony, especially in the election of members of the Colonial Assembly, as well as with regard to other elective officers, inasmuch as their votes were in all cases cast as a unit for a single favorite candidate. The only issue raised at the elections in those days was the one, whether the representative of the proprietory government should succeed, or the opposition candidate should carry off the honors. The latter usually won, wherever the German vote predominated. Sauer’s German paper was the only newspaper circulated among the Germans for many years, and it controlled their political actions throughout. It was conducted on similar lines to those of the partisan newspapers of to-day. It was thoroughly anti-English in sentiment, and indulged in vehement appeals to the prejudices of the Germans by making them believe, that it was the purpose of the English to enslave them; compelling their young men to become soldiers, thereby bringing up the horrible recollections of the military bondage from which they fled in their native land. Sauer’s paper taught the Germans to believe, that the English were seeking to put burdens upon them, as great as those which they had borne in the old country. The inculcation of such beliefs, coupled with their numerical strength alarmed the English, and caused them to fear, that the Germans would at a time not remote, give them not only laws of their own making, but make the colony a German province.

The English distrust of the Germans was heightened by the fact that about the middle of the eighteenth century, while Great Britain was at war with France for the conquest of Canada, the Germans were reluctant, and in some instances absolutely refused to serve as soldiers, manifesting no small amount of hostility to the British cause; while the French looked to them for aid and encouragement in their struggle with the British. The Germans made no secret of their sentiments, that it did not matter much to them under whose authority they lived, so long as they were not molested in the enjoyment of their property, and their personal freedom.

But later when the conditions had changed, and the French became the aggressors, in threatening the colonies by making war against them, the Germans made up for their former indifference, by enlisting in large numbers to defend the colonies against their hereditary enemies.

Various schemes were proposed to overcome the influence of the Germans by the English. Among other things it was suggested, to disfranchise them, from having any voice in the election of members of the Colonial Assembly, pending a period during which they should be taught the English tongue. For that purpose it was proposed to support Protestant ministers and school teachers among them, to the end that they should become English. The schemes suggested were never carried into execution; so the Germans failed to become Anglicized, and the descendants of thousands of them continue to be German at this day.

To arrest the coming of so many Germans in some degree, the Assembly passed a tax of twenty shillings a head on each newcomer, but it had no effect in preventing them from coming.

The large influx of Palatines gave James Logan, the secretary of the province much apprehension and annoyance. He feared that their numbers would in time result in the colony being lost to the British crown. Logan’s apprehensions were prophetic! All the colonies were wrested from the crown in later years, and no people rendered more invaluable services in that behalf, than the Germans of Pennsylvania.

The prejudice of the English against the Germans was shared by even so eminent a statesman and philosopher as Benjamin Franklin. From a letter written by him to Peter Collinson an English botanist and natural philosopher, in 1753, it would seem as if the latter had been also apprehensive about the large German immigration in Pennsylvania, and had conveyed his views to Franklin in a letter to which the latter replied as follows:

“I am perfectly of your mind, that measures of great temper are necessary touching the Germans, and am not without apprehensions that, through their indiscretion, or ours, or both, great disorders may one day arise among us. Those who come hither are generally the most stupid of their own nation, and as ignorance is often attended with great credulity, when knavery would mislead it, and with suspicion when honesty would set it right; and few of the English understand the German language, so that they cannot address them either from the press or pulpit, it is almost impossible to remove any prejudice they may entertain. The clergy have very little influence on the people, who seem to take pleasure in abusing and discharging the minister on every trivial occasion. Not being used to liberty, they know not how to make modest use of it. They are under no restraint from ecclesiastical government; they behave however, submissively enough at present to the civil government, which I wish they may continue to do, for I remember when they modestly declined intermeddling with our elections; but now they come in droves and carry all before them, except in one or two counties. Few of their children in the country know English. They import many books from Germany, and, of the six printing houses in the province, two are entirely German, two half German, half English, and but two are entirely English. They have one German newspaper, and one half German. Advertisements intended to be general, are now printed in Dutch, (German) and English. The signs in our streets, (Phila.,) have inscriptions in both languages, and some places only in German. They begin of late, to make all their bonds and other legal instruments in their own language, (though I think it ought not to be), are allowed good in courts, where the German business so increases, that there is continued need of interpreters, and I suppose in a few years, they will also be necessary in the Assembly, to tell one-half of our legislators, what the other half says. In short, unless the stream of importation could be turned from this to other colonies, as you very judiciously propose, they will soon outnumber us, that all the advantages we have, will, in my opinion, be not able to preserve our language, and even our government will become precarious.”

Some of the adverse criticisms in the foregoing letter are manifestly unjust; but as they were made to harmonize with English sentiment, there may have been an element of policy in them, as Franklin was at that time an attache of the proprietary government, and supplicant for royal favor. The letter also bears on its face its own contradiction in some essential particulars. The statement that the Germans “import many books from Germany,” which they are presumed to have read, does not bear out the statement that they were “the most stupid of their nation,” which contradiction is emphasized by the fact, as asserted by Franklin that out of the six printing houses in the province, the English had only two; the Germans two, and the remaining two were half German, and half English.

A people among whom printing houses, books, and newspapers abound, can safely be accredited with a fair amount of intelligence, although they may have obtained the inspiration of their knowledge from German books and German newspapers.

There is no doubt that Franklin thought better of his German fellow-citizens and compatriots, when in less than a quarter of a century later they stood shoulder to shoulder with him in the cause of American independence.

THE GERMANS IN THE REVOLUTION.

When the first murmurings of discontent, which later culminated in open revolt, were heard throughout the colonies, the Germans of Pennsylvania were among the first to place themselves in harmony with those ideas, which determined the colonies in favor of independence. Even some time before separation had been determined upon, the Germans were active among their countrymen in their efforts to promote that step. It required a great deal of resolution on their part to espouse such a policy at that time, with the formidable influences opposed to them. The government of the colonies was in the hands of the royal representatives of the British crown; these sustained intimate personal and social relations with leading colonists, some of whom supported the royal authority, while others were resisting British aggression, but were not decided in favor of separation at that early stage. The English ties of blood no doubt kept many patriots from favoring extreme measures, before independence was declared, but the Germans were not influenced by any such considerations. They had inherited a fierce hatred of oppression in their native country, and they had no sympathy with a temporizing policy, and declared in favor of independence long before the events of Lexington and Bunker Hill.

The Germans of Pennsylvania exerted a potent influence, not only in bringing their own colony to the side of independence, but they were actively employed in influencing their countrymen in the other colonies to take a similar step. They put themselves in communication with the German settlers everywhere, and urged upon them to espouse the cause of separation and freedom; and by the time that the first gun of the Revolution was fired, the Germans in all the colonies were in line against the British government. In Pennsylvania they became the mainstay in furnishing troops to fill the quotas of its regiments, and from their ranks came many officers who gained honorable distinction during the war. Many had been soldiers in their native country, where they fought against oppression, while others inherited the spirit of freedom from their fathers, who had felt the hand of persecution in other lands.

The historian has faithfully chronicled the distinguished services rendered by all classes during the Revolution, with the exception of the invaluable services of the Germans of Pennsylvania; their services have been dismissed with curt brevity. Even Bancroft in his history of the Revolution passes them by in the following words: “The Germans who constituted a large portion of the population of Pennsylvania were all on the side of freedom.”

The importance which was attached to the influence which the Germans might exert, in the event of hostilities between the colonies and the British crown is shown, upon the occasion when Franklin appeared before the British ministry, urging the repeal of the Stamp Act, and of other oppressive measures. He was asked how many Germans there were in Pennsylvania at that time. He replied that not less than one-third of the population, and probably more, as he had no means to tell accurately. He was then asked whether any of them had served as soldiers in the European wars; to which he replied, that they had not only been soldiers in Europe, but that many of them had served in the colonial wars. The ministry also wanted to know whether the Germans were as much dissatisfied with the stamp tax, as the English born citizens; to which his reply was that they were even more hostile to it. If this colloquy had any significance at that time, it must be construed to have meant, that the English had a wholesome dread of the Germans in the event of an open rupture, between the mother country and her colonies. Whatever the moving cause may have been, the Stamp Act was repealed.

As early as 1772 the German residents of Philadelphia, who at that time exercised a controlling influence in business and civic affairs, organized an association under the name of “The Patriotic Society of the City and County of Philadelphia.” The purpose of this society was to make ready for the struggle which the Germans regarded as inevitable. In 1774 after the threat had been made by the British ministry, of closing the Boston harbor, and indicating the intention of a resort to force, to crush the revolutionary spirit manifested by the Massachusetts patriots, a meeting was called by leading Germans of Philadelphia to consider the threatening situation, at which meeting a “Correspondence Committee” was appointed, the duty of which was to correspond with the Germans of other colonies, urging upon them to organize, so as to be ready for the conflict, which to their minds could not be much longer delayed.

In the Provincial Assembly which was held in the same year, to consider the condition of affairs, the German element was strongly represented, and their views received earnest and careful consideration. Among the Germans who occupied seats in that convention were such prominent representatives as Christopher Ludwig, George Schlosser, Adam Hubley, Jacob Barge, from Philadelphia; Matthias Schlauch, Moses Erwin, Joseph Ferree, and George Ross, from Lancaster county; Christopher Schultz, and Jonathan Potts from Berks county; Peter Keichlein and Jacob Arndt, from Northampton county, and Casper Weitzel from Northumberland county.

In the convention which met in January following, the Germans were still more largely represented. This convention declared in favor of the utmost resistance, against any further British insolence and tyranny, and issued a call for a Colonial Congress.

The Germans residing in the colonies of New York and North Carolina, were undecided at first with regard to taking sides, before the actual breaking out of hostilities, until they were appealed to by their kinsmen in Pennsylvania by means of correspondence, and also by messengers sent among them, to urge them to go with the Germans of the rest of the colonies. A pamphlet was written and published by the “Correspondence Committee,” which was especially designed for the Germans of New York, and North Carolina, in which it was set forth, that the Germans of Pennsylvania had learned with satisfaction, that the people without regard to race, creed, or former nationality; whether rich or poor, had given their unqualified approval, to the acts of their Congress, and that the Germans especially, everywhere were taking measures, to have the militia put in shape, and were forming new military organizations, so that they should be ready to march wherever they should be needed in the event of war, and urging upon those Germans that could not enlist for any reason, to contribute to the patriot cause according to their ability.

The pamphlet went on further to state, that they were grieved to learn, that there were numbers of Germans, in various parts of New York, and many in North Carolina, who were indifferent to the cause for which their kinsmen had enlisted and were preparing elsewhere. That the efforts of the Germans in Pennsylvania proved successful is not doubted, for after the first shedding of blood at Lexington, there were no Germans in any of the colonies, that did not espouse the cause of the patriots in behalf of freedom.

In May 1776 before the adoption of the Declaration of Independence the Continental Congress determined to raise a battalion for immediate service, and called upon Pennsylvania and Maryland to furnish four companies each. On July 17, following Pennsylvania reported—not only with the required four companies—but with five full companies, enlisted from the Germans. The greater number of the Maryland companies raised for this battalion were also recruited from the Germans. Every officer of the battalion was a German. Soon after its formation it took the field, and rendered conspicuous service at a critical period during the early part of the war.

As there are no doubt many descendants of the rank and file of this battalion, still living throughout Pennsylvania and Maryland, the names of its commissioned officers are here given: Colonel, Nicholas Hausseger; Lieut. Col., George Striker; Major, Ludwig Waltner; Adjutant, Louis von Linkendorf. The Captains and Lieutenants of each company follow in the order of their rank: (1) Daniel Burkhard, Friederich Rollwagen, George Habacker; (2) Philipp Grebel, Johann Lora, Christian Meyers; (3) George Hubley, Peter Boyer, Johann Laudenberger; (4) Heinrich Fister, Karl Balsel, Michael Boyer; (5) Jacob Bunner, Wilhelm Rice, George Schafer; (6) George Kieport, Jacob Kotz, Adam Smith; (7) Benjamin Weiser, Jacob Bower, Friederich Heiser; (8) W. Heiser, Samuel Gerock, Wilhelm Ritter; (9) Daniel Woelper, Bernhard Hubley, Philipp Schrader.

There was one piece of ill-luck which came to this battalion. Some complaint was made against its Colonel, under the pressure of which he resigned and afterward turned traitor to the cause of the patriots. His successor was Baron von Arendt, who afterwards resigned on account of ill-health, after which Major Waltner succeeded to the command. In the following September the battalion was ordered to join Washington’s army.

The cause of the patriots did not look very promising at this time. The British had possession of New York; New Jersey was wholly defenceless; Philadelphia was threatened, and a large and influential party of Tories was watching for an opportunity to strike the patriots in the rear. The leaders were disheartened, Washington’s army was not much more than a ragged mob of undisciplined, “uncouth, intractable ploughboys and farmers.” Many of the German officers had experience as soldiers in their native country, and they became useful in helping to establish discipline, and in making the army fit to fight.

The German battalion participated in the affair at Trenton in December 1776, which inspired the army with confidence, and the people with hope; it was at Princeton; with Washington at the ill-fated fields of Brandywine and Germantown, and spent the terrible winter of 1777-1778 at Valley Forge. The deeds and sufferings of this German battalion furnish a proud memorial of the German soldiers of the Revolution, and it is hoped that some one with the laudable inclination, and access to such of its history as may be yet preserved, will give to the world a faithful account of its heroic deeds, on many a battlefield of the Revolution. Many German soldiers also served in other commands, and it is a matter of history that Washington greatly relied on their fidelity, no matter in what situation they were placed. If we will scan the lists of company, regimental and brigade officers of the commands from Pennsylvania, we will find them bristling with German names.

It is generally believed that the German Quakers, Mennonites, and Moravians held entirely aloof from the struggle for independence, on account of their religious faith against bearing arms. This is no doubt true of all those who remained loyal to their sect, but there is authority for the statement, that not a few young Quakers, and Mennonites, did enlist and fight with the patriots for freedom. All such however either voluntarily withdrew from their church, or were shut out from all fellowship with it.

Before the Revolution many German Catholics had settled in Pennsylvania, and they were prompt in enlisting on the side of freedom, and their blood mingled with their Protestant compatriots on many a sanguinary field of the Revolution.

In the German Catholic emigration to America, may be found an argument showing that the direct cause of the great exodus of Germans to America was not altogether the result of religious persecution, but rather the desire to get away from the incessant European wars and its desolations. It was not an unusual thing during the later years of the German emigration, for the Protestant and the Catholic, to cross the ocean in the same ship, and upon their arrival settle in the same neighborhood, and in later years fight side by side in the cause of civil liberty.

The just tribute to which the Germans of Pennsylvania are entitled for their invaluable services, during the Revolutionary War has never been duly chronicled, and it may be hoped that with the revival of interest in their history through the Pennsylvania German Society, that some chronicler will some day do them full justice.

GERMAN MERCENARIES.

There is a popular belief among some people, that the Hessian mercenaries brought here by the British government to fight the Americans, remained here after the war was over, and that their descendants constitute a considerable element of the Pennsylvania Germans of to-day. Comparatively few remained here after the war, because the British government was under contract to return such as escaped the casualties of the war, after it was over. The few that remained made good citizens, as they made the very best soldiers against the Americans, and whenever it was practicable to do so, they were put in the most responsible places by the British commanders. The intense hatred at one time, against the so-called Hessian soldiers, some of which still lingers with the present generation is very unjust, because they did not volunteer to fight against the Americans, but they were forced into the British service, by the impecunious German princes who sold them to the British like so many slaves. The Hessian soldiers would sometimes take a notion to desert, and they invariably found refuge among some of the German colonists. A considerable number of them were left behind from time to time on marches, on account of sickness or wounds; these always found a ready welcome among the German settlers; few of them ever found their way back to their native land.

While all the German mercenaries are known as Hessians, they were not all subjects of the Landgrave of Hesse-Cassel, although the larger portion of them were furnished by that prince. The first contingent of German mercenaries was made up as follows: The Landgrave of Hesse-Cassel, furnished 12,104; the Duke of Brunswick 4,084; Prince of Hesse 663; Prince of Waldeck 670, a total of 17,521, for which the several princes received $30 for each man. Later there were additional troops furnished by the German princes, some of whom came from Anspach-Bayreuth, and Anhalt-Zerbst. Authorities do not agree as to the exact number of mercenaries furnished by the German princes. The German historian Frederick Kapp, who is said to have investigated the question closely, places the entire number at 29,166. Kapp informs us that 17,313 returned to their native land after the war, which would leave 11,853 unaccounted for in America. From this number there must be taken the casualties of war, which must have been exceedingly large, because they had to do their campaigning in a new, and for a great part in a wild country, in some parts of which pestilential fevers carried the soldiers off much faster, than the bullets of the enemy. There were none of the sanitary conditions of an army in those days, to guard the health of soldiers, which prevail nowadays. Military surgery had made little progress, so that the percentage of deaths among the wounded was much larger than it is in modern times. From these conditions a calculation based on the casualties of our Civil War, will enable one to form an approximate idea of the casualties of the Hessian soldiers in the Revolution. According to such an estimate, the losses of the Hessians from all causes could not have fallen short of 5,000, leaving less than 7,000 who remained in America, some of whom settled in the Canadian provinces, but the majority of them settled in the states of New York, Pennsylvania, Maryland, Virginia, North, and South Carolina.

It is interesting to note, that appeals were made by the British government to some of the other European sovereigns for hireling soldiers, to fight against the Americans, besides the German princes herein mentioned. Holland and Russia were both appealed to, but their rulers refused to entertain the proposition. Frederick the Great was also approached upon the subject of hiring his soldiers, but he not only declined the tempting offer of $30 a head for them, but he prohibited, any of the hireling soldiers of the other German princes, to go through his territory on their way to the seaports, whence they were to embark for America.

CHAPTER IX.
THE PENNSYLVANIA GERMAN DIALECT.

Pennsylvania German a dialect of South Germany.—German vs. Dutch.—Confusion of Terms.—Dialect Corrupted, but still Vigorous.—Germans Tenacious of their Dialect.—Progress of English among Them.—No Prospect, that the Dialect will become soon Extinct.—Has no Literary Merit.

Pennsylvania German is a legitimate dialect of South Germany, which has suffered, and become corrupted, by the introduction of English words, and idioms. There are still many thousands of people in Pennsylvania, who speak no other language. They are found in nearly all the counties of Pennsylvania, lying east and south of the Blue Mountain, and in some of the counties beyond, where their ancestors took up their places of abode, when they first came to the province of Pennsylvania, some of whom arrived as early as the last years of the seventeenth century.

There is a widespread misconception concerning the Pennsylvania Germans, which is not altogether confined to the illiterate classes of English-speaking people. There are those who entertain the belief, that the Pennsylvania Germans are of Dutch extraction, and that their dialect is a confused jargon, having no relation to any legitimate language. This mistaken notion entertained by untrained people is no doubt largely due, to a confusion of the terms, Deutsch and Dutch, and also because the Pennsylvania Germans are frequently spoken of erroneously, as the “Pennsylvania Dutch.” All Germans in their own language are designated as Deutsch; the Dutch are designated in German as Holländer, and their language as Holländisch. Uneducated people are apt to confuse these terms, which leads to the erroneous conception before referred to.

The ancestors of the Pennsylvania Germans emigrated from the region of the Upper Rhine, and from the valley of the Neckar in South Germany. The dialect spoken in that part of Germany is known as Pfälzisch, and the people at the time of the great German emigration from there, were known as German Palatines. The dialect spoken by the Pennsylvania Germans at this day, is an inheritance from their ancestors, and barring its English infusion, it is substantially the same as when first brought here.

By eliminating the English words taken up by Pennsylvania German, the dialect approaches the Pfälzisch, spoken by the common people in South Germany very closely. There are many expressions, words, and idioms common to both that are indistinguishable, and for the purposes of colloquial intercourse the two dialects meet on common ground, without any serious embarrassment.

There is a shade of difference in the pronunciation, accent, and inflexion of words between the Pennsylvania German and Pfälzisch dialects and similar differences are noticed, in different German communities in Pennsylvania, the result no doubt of Germans, speaking various dialects settling in the same neighborhood, and each contributing certain peculiarities to the common speech. But as the Pfälzisch largely predominated in the early days of German emigration to Pennsylvania, it is that dialect which has given to the Pennsylvania German its controlling characteristics. In support of this view the following from Professor Marion D. Learned’s “Pennsylvania German Dialect,” may be cited: “Pennsylvania German, in borrowing from the English to enrich its vocabulary, has by no means forfeited its birthright and become a pitiable hybrid of bad German and worse English, but on the contrary, has perpetuated in their pristine vigor the characteristics of its venerable ancestor, the Rhine Frankish, specifically Rhine Palatinate, “Rhinepfälzisch.”

When it is considered, how environment influences all conditions, extending to physical characteristics, as well as to the speech of men, the continued similarity of the dialect of the Pennsylvania Germans and that spoken in South Germany seems remarkable after their separation for a period of upwards of two centuries. But we must not forget the influences and conditions that surrounded the Germans in Pennsylvania for many generations after their coming here; which operated to keep the Pfälzisch dialect alive in Pennsylvania down to this time. The greater portion of the German emigrants were fairly well educated when they came here. They brought with them educated clergymen who preached to them in their native language, and school teachers, who taught their children in their mother tongue. Education was never neglected by the Germans, and they built churches and school houses whenever they found it practicable to do so. The German schools were continued in Pennsylvania until a comparatively recent period; German newspapers still circulate extensively in nearly all of the German counties, not a few of the people still read their German Bible, and German Prayer Book, while the Gospel is yet preached in German from more than a thousand pulpits every Sunday throughout the rural districts of southeastern Pennsylvania. In view of such conditions and surroundings, there can be no surprise that the Pennsylvania German dialect should still flourish in its “pristine vigor,” after its separation from its parent speech for more than a century and a half.

It is not believed that the day of its extinction is near. A large majority of the school children in the country districts of half a score of the wealthiest, and most populous counties in the State, speak the dialect, not only outside of the school room, but very frequently inside. The children do all their thinking in German; all their little affairs are discussed by them in their native dialect, so that it can scarcely be otherwise than that they should grow up, and continue almost as thoroughly German as those that preceded them, making almost exclusive use of their German dialect, for all purposes of colloquial and familiar intercourse.

It may be asked whether the English schools do not make any progress towards Anglicizing the German children? The answer is that they do, but the progress in that direction is slow. While the German school children get a smattering of English, it also becomes a prolific means of still further corrupting their native speech, without acquiring much pure English.

When the German schools in Pennsylvania gave way entirely to altogether English schools, it was believed by many, that it would speedily result in Anglicizing the Pennsylvania Germans; but forty years’ experience does not prove that it has been an unqualified success.

The German-speaking children in the public schools, are laboring under great disadvantages alongside of their English-speaking schoolmates. The latter have an intelligent appreciation of their studies, while the training of the German child is little more than merely mechanical. The German children begin to learn their letters in a language which they do not understand, and by the time that they begin to have some intelligent comprehension of their studies the English-speaking children have outstripped them in the race for knowledge. The question occurs whether it was altogether wise to take away from exclusively German-speaking children their German schools, and compel them to pursue their studies in a language to which they are strangers.

The early Anglicization of the Pennsylvania Germans cannot be looked forward to with much confidence, no matter how much the extinction of their dialect may be desired. It is yet by far too vigorous to hope for its early disappearance.

The tenacity with which the Pennsylvania Germans have clung to their dialect for so many years, is not without its parallels among other people. Take for example Wales, a country which contains an area much smaller than that embraced by the German counties of Pennsylvania, with less population; separated from England by only an imaginary boundary; having been in political connection with Great Britain for six hundred years; with English as the official language; the language of culture; of commercial intercourse; and with English schools almost everywhere; yet more than one-half of the people of Wales in the cities and towns speak the Welsh language, while in the rural districts the Welsh language is spoken almost exclusively.

Switzerland furnishes another example. Out of the 22 cantons of the Swiss republic, with a population of over three millions of people, German is spoken by the people of 16 cantons; French by those of 5; Italian by the people of only 1. Although German is the principal language spoken throughout Switzerland, and is the language of official intercourse; its various people having lived near neighbors for centuries, and under the same government for a long time, yet each race has maintained its linguistic integrity to this day.

There is a region in Switzerland embraced in the canton of Grisons, where there exists a group of Romansch dialects, which have come down from the days of the Roman empire, when the region in which those dialects still exist was a Roman province known as Rhaetia. The canton in which those dialects prevail, has an area of about twice the size of one of the largest counties of Pennsylvania, with a population of about 90,000, surrounded on all sides by neighbors the greater portion of whom speak German, yet those people, whose ancestors were “shepherd-peasants” when Rome was mistress of the world, continue to speak corrupted Latin, after the lapse of more than a thousand years. Unless the Pennsylvania German dialect is less tenacious, it may continue to be spoken for several centuries.

During the earlier years of the German emigration to Pennsylvania, large numbers of Palatines settled in the province of New York. Those chiefly located along the Hudson river; in the Mohawk valley, and in Schoharie county. The Dutch and English had preceded them. Each race maintained its own language for a while; the Germans being weakest in point of numbers, their dialect was the first to disappear, but the Dutch being much more numerous, they held on to their dialect vigorously for a hundred years, and it did not wholly disappear in the Mohawk valley, until some time during the first half of the present century.

While the prospects for the early disappearance of the Pennsylvania German dialect are not very promising, it will necessarily become more debased every year. With the abolition of German schools, few of the young people will learn anything of literary German, and while many will continue to use the dialect, they will be continually taking up more English words, because they will find their own vocabulary growing more deficient in words to express their thoughts. Forty years ago the Pennsylvania German dialect was of much better quality than it is to-day. It was not then yet as far removed from literary German as it now is; it still retained at that time some of the advantages of the German schooling of those who spoke it. Since then many good German words have dropped out of the dialect, and their places have been supplied by English words. This debasement of the dialect will increase from now on.

The present century has been fertile in inventions and discoveries; every branch of the arts and sciences made wonderful progress; many new things were unfolded, which required the coinage of new words, for which the Pennsylvania Germans have no German equivalents; so they draw on the English to supply the deficiency. So when they speak of the telegraph, electricity, the telephone, or any other new discovery or invention they add the technical names employed to their vocabulary.

So long as the Pennsylvania German confines his conversation to his personal concerns, and talks about his horses, his cows, his crops, his fields, and his family or his domestic affairs, his German vocabulary is generally sufficient, and he draws very little on the English. It is only when he enters the domain of politics, or undertakes to discuss some abstruse philosophic problem, that he interlards his speech with impure German and probably worse English, making a patois, that would paralyze a Heidelberg professor if he came within range of it.

Pennsylvania German makes no pretensions to any literary merit, and it has none, yet it has answered the needs of the people speaking it for a long period of years, and it is not doubted that it will continue the speech for colloquial intercourse of many thousands of people in Pennsylvania for many years to come. It were far better if English could be made to take its place for all purposes, but with the knowledge we have of the tenacity with which a people will cling to a language or to a dialect, often under the most adverse conditions, we are made to believe, that the day of its disappearance is very remote. Its tenacity is one of the proofs of its quality, and while it has no literary merit in the sense of High German, it is yet wonderfully resourceful in expression, and capable of the sublimest pathos. Whoever is familiar with Harbaugh’s “Gedichte in Pennsylvanisch Deutscher Mundart,” will testify to the fact that it is capable of awakening the tenderest emotions of the human heart.

THE ENGLISH INFUSION.

Since the abolition of the German schools, Pennsylvania German has suffered much by the English infusion into the dialect. Before that time the infusion was not nearly as great. Words which approach nearest to pure German have suffered the most in having their places usurped by English. The man of middle life who is familiar with the dialect will remember when it contained many pure German words, and many others nearly pure, some of which are yet heard occasionally spoken by the older people, but with the generation now coming on all such words have been superseded by English, and too often by worse English relatively, than the quality of the German the places of which it has taken. It is not more than a generation and a half ago, since the following words, and many more equally good were in common use by Pennsylvania Germans, but which have since then almost entirely disappeared from the dialect: Zum beispiel (for example), billige’—billigen (approve), ei’richte’—einrichten (arrange), überi’schtimme’—übereinschtimmen (to agree), schtimzettle (ballot), dampkessel—dampfkessel (boiler), ausser (besides), g’schäft—geschäft (business), handel (dealings), koffer (trunk), gerechtichkeit (justice), geniessen (enjoy), genau (exact), entschuldigen (excuse), ausführe—ausführen (execute), ausklären (explain), erwarten (expect), wahl (election), öffentlicke versteigerung (public vendue), gewalt (force), betrug (humbug), in der that, wirklich (indeed), inwennig—inwendig (inside), bares geld (cash), dreten—treten (kick), vollständig (complete), liebes brief (love-letter), einsam (lonesome), nachricht (notice), genunk—genug (enough), g’falle’—gefallen (please), einfach (plain), langsam (slow), studire’—studiren (study), eichhörnche’—eichhörnchen (squirrel), klug (smart), rauche’—rauchen (smoke), sicher (sure).

This list could be extended so as to reach hundreds of words, which would prove a much better quality of the dialect in the past, than it now is and how it is growing more debased by being robbed of legitimate German words, which are its rightful inheritance. This is manifestly the result of the abolition of German schools, and the closer relation to English teaching and English speaking. Foreign-born Germans coming to this country and settling in English-speaking communities, notwithstanding their German training, will pick up many English words in a comparatively short time, which they mix up in their German speech, although they are thoroughly conversant with their German equivalents. It would seem as if the Pennsylvania German’s temptation should be still greater to draw on English to enrich his vocabulary because it is really deficient in expression, while the newly-arrived German’s vocabulary is adequate for all purposes, yet he is given to the use of English words in almost the same degree as the native born Pennsylvania German. The tendency of all Germans to take up English in their native speech is shown by the fact that those who live on the borders of an English settlement employ more English words, than those who live more remote from English-speaking people.

Pennsylvania German dialect writers vary greatly in the number of English words which they employ. Some do not make use of more than 1 German word to 300 of English, while others make use of 1 to every 25. One dialect writer translated an English poem of 600 words without the use of a single English word and the entire translation is in the vernacular of the Pennsylvania German.

Humorous dialect writers make use of the largest percentage of English words, not because they have no German equivalents, but they think that it increases the ludicrous features of their productions.

EXAMPLES OF PENNSYLVANIA GERMAN, AND PFÄLZISCH COMPARED.

The word “Pfälzisch” strictly speaking applies only to the “Pfalz,” or the region formerly embraced within the limits of the old state of the Palatinate, but inasmuch as the Pfälzisch dialect has spread all over South Germany, and even beyond, it has given character to some of the other German dialects, so the use of the word is justified in speaking of the South German dialects generally.

In spelling and pronunciation, Pennsylvania German and Pfälzisch agree in many particulars. With regard to some of the consonants, both use them interchangeably. The Pennsylvania German will frequently give t, the sound of d; b, of p; v, of w, and vice versa. So will the South German. For example: Both will say dode, for todt (dead); dochter, for tochter (daughter); draurig, for traurig (sad); dhier, for thür (door); deich, for teich (a swale); bloge, for plage (to vex); blanscht, for pflanzt (planted). They will also confuse the letters f, v, and w, in similar fashion. The letters k, and g are made to suffer in the same way, as for example in k’scher, for geschirr (harness). The South German says “nit” for nicht, while the Pennsylvania German will substitute e, for i, and make it “net.”

There are very many imperfect German words in use both in Pennsylvania and in South Germany, of which the following are a few examples: The word “grumbeera” (potatoes) is in universal use by the Germans in Pennsylvania, and is heard every where in South Germany and east as far as Austria. It is a corruption of a good German word, “grundbirn.” The latter word is however rarely used by German-speaking people, the word “kartoffeln” being preferred. “Beera,” for birnen (pears); “pershing,” for pfirsich (peach); “hinkel,” for hühner (chickens) are all terms common to both dialects. The Germans of Pennsylvania have the word “pattereesel,” or pattereesli, for rebhuhn (partridge). This word seems to come from the French perdrix, and is believed to have been brought to Pennsylvania by Alsatians during the early German emigration. The word is heard in Alsace and German Lorraine. The Germans corrupted the French word by giving it its diminutive form, by adding the suffix “eesli,” a custom which prevails largely among Germans, as for example: For hund (dog), they have “hundli,” for mädchen (girl), they make maedli, and very many other similar diminutives. The Germans of Alsace and Lorraine have lived neighbors to the French for so long a time, that their speech has acquired a considerable number of French words and idioms, which have become much corrupted.

Some of this corrupted French was no doubt brought here by German emigrants who came from the borders of France.

There are a number of other words in use by the Pennsylvania Germans which cannot be traced to any German origin. The Germans living along the Delaware river always speak of that stream as the “reffeer.” This term cannot be traced to any German origin, and is most likely a corruption of the French riviere for river. Pennsylvania Germans also speak of a river as a “rewwer,” or “revver.”

There are certain words in use by Pennsylvania Germans that are wholly misapplied, and which have no relation to the sense in which they are used. This is the result of a misconception of what certain things were, which they found when they came here, and with which they were not familiar. They associated those with things they heard mentioned in Germany, believing that the two were the same and in that way misapplied certain terms.

The term “pomeranze” is an example of this misapplication of terms. The Pennsylvania Germans make use of this word to designate a “tomato,” while the word is the German term for an orange. In some parts of Pennsylvania the word pomeranze has been corrupted into “gomeranze” or “gumeranze.” The German for tomato is liebesapfel. The manner in which the P. G. have fallen into the error of designating tomatoes as pomeranze has been explained in this way. In the days of the Palatine emigration tomatoes were unknown in the Palatinate, but oranges were known there, but their use was confined to the rich and well-to-do. When the Palatine peasants came to Pennsylvania, they found tomatoes, and mistook them for pomeranze (oranges)—hence the erroneous designation of tomatoes, which still remains. There are other similar misapplication of terms.

The following expressions were heard in South Germany, and a note made of them at the time: At Speyer: “Na ich denk net” (no I think not); “ich will ’mohl sana” (I’ll see); “was hen sie don g’doon” (what have you done); “ich will ken koffee” (I don’t want coffee); “ich nem en achtel wei’” (I take an eighth of a liter wine). The Pfälzer drop the final n, in words like nein, stein, wein, making them nei’, wei’, and so on. The Pennsylvania Germans do the same to a very large extent.

At a Volksfest, not far from Speyer was heard: “Ich wase net;” “es is fier uhr, bal’ zeit fur erfrischung (refreshment);” “ich nem e’ bissel wurst;” “geb mir e’ halb liter bier;” “ich glaab nit os getreide (wheat) guth g’rode is, wie letscht johr.” Children playing at Heidelberg: “Wu is dei’ balla (where is your ball);” “hasht en ferlora?” “sehn ’mohl dort de geilla (horses).” Strolling through a narrow street a woman followed a cat out of house, when she was accosted by one of her neighbors, who said “dort geht dei kats,” to which she replied: “Ja die kats schpringed immer zum finschter naus, ich kan sie gar net im haus halte.” That such German should be heard within the very shadow of the great University at Heidelberg, must shock the erudite writers of magazine and newspaper articles, who have made the discovery that Pennsylvania “Dutch,” is a mere jargon, bearing no relation to any known language.

South Germany is not alone however, in the kind of idiomatic German here mentioned. The following was heard in classic Dresden. A lady made some inquiry of a police officer about a railway train, to which he replied: “Na,—wid mit em pferdebahn geh’, oder mit em electrische-bahn?” She answered: “Es is mir gans einerlei.” Question. “Gehen sie nach Berlin?” Answer. “Ja.” The officer replied: “Den nemmen sie besser den zug os dort dro’wa schteht.”

It may be some satisfaction for a Pennsylvania German to know that there are people who speak a German dialect, compared to which his own may make some pretensions of being classic. He can have his pride gratified in that respect, by a visit to the extreme southern part of Baden, and the adjoining cantons in Switzerland. For example, in a weingarten at Neuhausen: “Ne’ für den scha’ i’ ne’; er zahlt ni’, (für ihn arbeit ich nicht, er bezahlt nicht);” “ne’ i’ ha’ ni’ (no I have not);” “ge’sht mid nach Scha’haus’ i’ bin zurick vor siev’ uhr (gehen sie mit nach Schaffhausen, bin wieder zurick bis sieben uhr); ich gla’ es net (ich glaube es nicht).” It will be noticed that the foregoing examples of Swiss patois, are much inferior to Pennsylvania German. The dropping of final consonants and frequently of entire final syllables, is exasperating to those not accustomed to it.

In the foregoing comparison of the Pennsylvania German and Pfälzisch dialects, the mode of spelling has been generally followed, which will produce the sound with which Pennsylvania Germans are familiar, according to English pronunciation. This is deemed necessary, because by spelling Pennsylvania German words on the basis of literary or High German, would make them unintelligible to Pennsylvania German readers, who have no knowledge of literary or High German.

The reader will find an extension of comparisons of Pennsylvania and South German words in the Appendix to this volume; together with their High German, and English equivalents.

CHAPTER X.
THE GERMAN AND DUTCH LANGUAGES.

Old Dutch the Basis of all Germanic Languages.—The Separation of Dutch and German.—The two Grew Wide Apart.—Affinity of Dutch and English Languages.—The Saxon Dialect.—Literary High German.

Before the revival of learning in Europe, the German and Dutch languages pursued the same lines; but after that period they began to separate, and have since developed into two distinct languages.

The German language is spoken by the people of the German empire; by about 60 per cent. of those of Austria, and of about 71 per cent. of those of Switzerland. The Dutch language is spoken by the inhabitants of the Netherlands, and it is claimed to be identical, with only slight differences, with the Flemish language spoken by the Low German inhabitants of Belgium.

There was a time when Old Dutch embraced the whole of the Teutonic, or Germanic race, and when the Dutch language included the Teutonic, or German language in all its forms. During the Middle Ages, there was little difference between the various Teutonic forms. Changes began to develop with the revival of learning in Europe, about the fifteenth century. After that time, Modern Dutch and Modern German became divorced, and the differences which at first separated them, continued to increase during a period of more than four centuries, until at this day they have grown wide apart. The changes which have taken place in their spelling, pronunciation, phonology, and inflection of words, resulted in two distinct languages, each with a history of its own, and two nations with little or no homogeneity.

When the two languages began to pursue divergent lines, the Anglo-Saxon and the Dutch seem to have continued on parallel lines for a long period, so that the affinity between those two languages is even greater, than that which exists between the German and Dutch. The Dutch language of to-day bears a striking resemblance to the same language as it existed for three hundred years, beginning with the twelfth century, during which period the German pursued nearly the same lines. Learning was at a low ebb during those years, and the development of all languages from their ruder forms to that of a more cultivated was slow.

After the separation of the German and Dutch languages, the former was composed of numerous dialects, many of which still continue in their modified forms, but a few of them disappeared, while others became widely separated from their conditions during the Middle Ages. One of the principal dialects was of Saxon origin. It made more progress in traveling away from Old Middle Dutch, than any of the other dialects, and in the course of time it became the favorite dialect of the more cultivated classes, and writers began to make use of it for literary purposes. Other German dialects found very little difficulty in adjusting themselves to it, so that German authors, historians, and poets adopted it, and it was thus that it became the literary, or High German language of all German speaking people. A chief influence which gave great emphasis to the making of the Saxon dialect the literary language of all Germans, was on account of Martin Luther selecting it for his translation of the Bible. That gave it its pre-eminence over all the other numerous dialects, and it will no doubt continue, for all time the means by which Germans everywhere throughout the world, will express the thoughts of their inspiration, in poetry, music, and song.

Specimens of the same text, showing the affinity of the English, Dutch, and German Languages.

ENGLISH.

1. In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God and the Word was God. 2. The same was in the beginning with God. 3. All things were made by him; and without him was not anything made that was made. 4. In him was life; and the life was the light of men. 5. And the light shineth in darkness; and the darkness comprehended it not. 6. There was a man sent from God whose name was John. 7. The same came for a witness, to bear witness of the Light, that all men through him might believe.—St. John, chap. 1. V. 1-7.

DUTCH.

1. In den beginne was het woord, en het woord was bij God, en het woord was God. 2. Dit was in den beginne bij God. 3. Alle dingen zijn door hetzelve gemaakt, en zonder hetzelve is geen ding gemaakt, dat gemaakt is. 4. In hetzelve was het leven, en het leven was het licht der menschen. 5. En het licht schijnt in de duisternis, en de duisternis heeft het niet begrepen. 6. Daar was een mensch van God gezonden, wiens naam was Johannes. 7. Deze kwam tot een getuigenis, om van het licht te getuigen, opdat allen door hem gelooven zouden.

GERMAN.

1. Im Anfang war das Wort, und das Wort war bei Gott, und Gott war das Wort. 2. Dasselbige war im Anfang bei Gott. 3. Alle Dinge sind durch dasselbige gemacht, und ohne dasselbige ist nichts gemacht, was gemacht ist. 4. In ihm war des Leben, und das Leben war das Licht der Menschen. 5. Und das Licht scheinet in der Finsterniss, und die Finsterniss haben es nicht begriffen. 6. Es ward ein Mensch von Gott gesandt, der hiess Johannes. 7. Derselbige kam zum Zeugniss, das er von dem Licht zeugete, und das sie Alle durch ihn glaubten.

The following version from Caedmon, on the Creation, is a specimen of Anglo-Saxon in King Alfred’s time, about A. D. 885.

Nu we sceolan herian heofon-rices weard, metodes mihte and his mod-geponc wera wuldor-faeder swa he wundra gehwaes ece dryhten cord onstealde.

LITERAL ENGLISH VERSION.

Now we must praise the guardian of heaven’s kingdom, the Creator’s might, and his mind’s thought, glorious Father of men, as of every wonder he, Lord eternal, formed the beginning.

CHAPTER XI.
SCHOOLS, CHURCHES, AND RELIGIOUS SECTS.

Early schools in Pennsylvania.—German Schools.—Churches, and Religious Sects.—Lutherans Predominate.—German Reformed Numerous.—Swedish Lutherans.—Moravians, and other Sects.

With the founding of Penn’s province, and the organization of a civil government for it, there was established a moral code in which the principles of the Quaker sect furnished the groundwork; but it was not the purpose of Penn to exclude persons of any religious sect, from participation in the new political regime which he had set up. He opened wide the doors to people of different mind and faith from himself. The only conditions imposed were, that all who came should be peaceably disposed, and loyal to the government which was erected by him. To that end schools and churches were established at a very early day; first by the Quakers; then by the adherents of the Anglican church, and the Germans soon followed in their footsteps.

The German emigrants embarking for America were often furnished with religious books, chief among which was “Arndt’s Wahres Christenthum,” which not many generations ago was found in the family of almost every Pennsylvania German, and it no doubt still serves the purpose of offering consolation to many German readers. Ministers often accompanied the emigrants on the same ship, as also did school teachers. The latter would frequently read printed sermons, and prayers to the people when the supply of ministers was short.

By far the larger portion of the German emigrants who came to Pennsylvania were Lutherans and German Reformed,—the Lutherans predominating. There also came German Quakers, Mennonites and later German Catholics, Dunkers, Schwenkfelders, Moravians, and a few minor sects.

The Lutherans and German Reformed embraced the tenets of the Reformation in their native country at an early day, and when they began to emigrate to Pennsylvania, they brought with them the germs of their religious convictions, which were soon planted in the new soil, where they grew into flourishing churches.

There were however Lutherans within the limits of Pennsylvania before the granting of the province to Penn, and before the Germans came here. About 1638 a small colony of Swedes made a settlement a short distance from where the city of Philadelphia was afterwards founded. Pastors were sent to them from Sweden, who organized a Lutheran church, where its members were worshipping God according to their conscience, when their countryman Gustavus Adolphus was fighting for religious freedom in Europe.

Dutch Lutherans from Holland, established a church at New Amsterdam (New York), a few years prior to the founding of the Swedish church near Philadelphia. The Holland Lutherans were the subjects of much persecution in their new home, on account of their non-conformity with the Calvinistic religion, which was chiefly in vogue. After the English captured New Amsterdam from the Dutch in 1664, they gained religious freedom.

The Lutheran Church however did not become an organized religious hierarchy until Melchoir Muhlenberg was sent to America, upon application to the Lutheran pastors in London, to look after the Lutherans in the colonies. He arrived in 1742, and immediately proceeded to organize the church by which he earned the title of the “Patriarch of the Lutheran Church in the United States.” He was highly educated, and while pastor in New York, he preached three times every Sunday in as many languages viz: German, Dutch and English.

John Peter Gabriel Muhlenberg, son of the former, born in Montgomery county, Pa., became even more distinguished than his father. He was clergyman, soldier, and statesman. He went to Woodstock, Va., to preach in 1772, where he was serving a Lutheran Congregation when the Revolution broke out. One Sunday after the services were finished, he threw off his gown in the pulpit, displaying a military uniform; read his commission as a colonel, and ordered the drums to beat for recruits. He served with distinction during the war; rose to the rank of Major-General; served in Congress after the war, and was elected to the United States Senate from Pennsylvania in 1801. He died near Philadelphia Oct. 1, 1807.

The Lutherans compose an evangelical body of Christians who have as a basis for their creed the Augsburg Confession.

The german reformed church, in the United States owes its origin to the Reformed churches of Switzerland and Germany, of which Zwingli and Calvin were the most prominent leaders. Rev. Michael Schlatter was to the Reformed Church in the United States and Pennsylvania, what Muhlenberg was to the Lutheran. He was sent here by the Synod of Holland in 1746, and with his coming the Church began its organized existence as a united ecclesiastical body; although such eminent clergymen as Johann Philip Boehm, and George Michael Weiss preceded him several years, preaching to various Reformed congregations in Pennsylvania.

The Reformed Church is Calvinistic, and the Heidelberg Catechism is the only confession of faith recognized by it.

Mennonites.—This sect arose in Switzerland in 1525. It was named for Menno Simons, the founder of the sect, whose members differ in matters of religious belief from some of the other evangelical churches, among other things in opposing infant baptism, the taking of oaths, accepting civil offices, and bearing arms. They suffered great persecution in Switzerland where the sect had its origin. After Penn offered religious freedom in his new province, they emigrated to Pennsylvania, where they formed a society at Germantown as early as 1683.

Dunkers.—The doctrine of the Dunkers is similar to that of the Mennonites, only differing with respect to baptism, with regard to which they believe in trine immersion. They are also known as German American Baptists; but they call themselves Brethren. They arose in Germany about 1709, and after being much persecuted they emigrated to Pennsylvania during the first quarter of the last century.

Schwenkfelders.—Hans Kasper von Schwenkfeld was born in Silesia in 1490. He was in the service of the Duke of Leignitz, when he embraced the Reformation; but later took issue with Luther, concerning his teaching with regard to the Lord’s Supper. He denied that there was any change in the elements employed in the sacrament. He founded a church, which would conform to his ideas, which brought him in conflict with the Reformers, whose antagonism drove him from his home to Strassburg, where he was tried for heresy and banished. Most of his followers emigrated to Pennsylvania in 1734.

Moravians.—This sect takes its name from one of its principal seats in the fifteenth century, which was Moravia. Its official name is the Unitas Fratrum. The martyrdom of John Huss, gave rise to the church, and was founded by his followers at Lititz in Bohemia in 1457. Its fundamental doctrines are in harmony with other evangelical churches.

They began to arrive in America in 1735, and established a colony in Georgia; and in 1740, they came to Pennsylvania, and founded Bethlehem and several other places; the former continuing its chief seat in the United States.

Catholics.—Among the emigrants to Pennsylvania in the last century were numerous German Catholics. As an ecclesiastical body they do not differ from their English-speaking co-religionists. The Roman Catholic Church antedates all other Christian churches. Catholics claim that Christ conferred special attributes on Peter, making him the rock on which the church is built. The primary of Peter as one of the apostles is perpetuated in the Pope of Rome, who as Peter’s successor “enjoys not merely a pre-eminence of honor, but a real, immediate jurisdiction over the entire church, and over each of its members.”

Minor Sects.—There were other minor sects among the early arrivals: Mystics, who believe in a pure, sublime and wholly disinterested devotion, who claim that they have direct intercourse with the divine Spirit, and that they gain a knowledge of God and of spiritual things by the natural intellect, and as such cannot be analyzed or explained. Separatists who dissent from all sects, and refuse to conform to any church government. Inspirationists, who believe that inspiration extends to the very words and forms of expression of the divine message. All these were represented in the early German emigration.

Methodists.—During the period of German emigration into Pennsylvania, no German speaking Methodists came here, because Methodism had not gained any foothold among the Germans at that time, although since then it has spread largely among the Pennsylvania Germans. Methodism did not make its appearance in the province of Pennsylvania until long after George Whitfield, who led the advance guard of Methodism in the United States came here to preach the new tenets of the sect. Its first organized existence in America dates with the building of the famous old “John Street Chapel,” in New York in 1763, which is believed to be the first Methodist church erected in the Western Hemisphere. There are other religious sects among the Pennsylvania Germans, but they are off-shoots of other denominations, and had no existence among the early emigrants. There are numerous descendants of Pennsylvania Germans who after they became Anglicized, joined other evangelical denominations, such as the Presbyterian, Episcopal and other churches.

CHAPTER XII.
SOCIAL LIFE AND DOMESTIC CUSTOMS.

The German Home.—German Hospitality.—Consideration for Strangers.—Inherited Traits and Customs.—Mode of Living.—Folk Lore.—Teutonic Myths and Legends.—Holidays and Religious Festivals.—Christmas.—City and Rural Life.—German Politeness.

When the large stream of German emigration poured into Pennsylvania, chiefly from South Germany, it found none of the conditions here by which the emigrants had been surrounded at home. The new order of things made certain changes in their mode of life necessary, but so far as the new conditions would permit, they retained their inherited traits, social and domestic customs, nearly all of which have come down to the present generation. In some instances they have borrowed from their English-speaking neighbors, while the latter have in return borrowed largely, from the predominant German element.

But in the main, the social customs and domestic habits brought by the ancestors of the Pennsylvania Germans from the fatherland were continued, and remain to this day with little change, both among the latter and their kinsmen in the Rhine country.

The resemblance of these customs and habits are most striking, among the Germans in the rural districts of Pennsylvania, and among the peasantry of South Germany, for the simple reason that the fixed habits, and traits of a people, are longest preserved by the great body of the rural population.

A marked characteristic of all Germans everywhere, is their “home life.” Nowhere do we find such cheerful sunny homes, as among the Germans. No matter how humble the home, or how poor the family may be, the first consideration always is, to live for home and family where cheerfulness, and affection reign supreme. That these virtues prevail among other people there is no doubt, but the Germans are believed to excel in this respect.

The German mode of living is simple, plain and economical; heightened by a friendly hospitality. With regard to these traits the Pennsylvania Germans retain their racial characteristics. There is a single domestic virtue universal among them, which serves to illustrate their character in this respect, and to prove their disinterested friendship. They always receive and entertain strangers with generous hospitality. If one should come among them unexpectedly at meal time, an extra seat is at once provided, and the stranger asked to join the family at the table. These invitations are never perfunctory, but are extended in the hope that they will be accepted. Should the stranger be overtaken by night, a spare bed is always provided for such occasions. These characteristics have been the subject of frequent remark, by people traveling among the Germans in the rural districts of Pennsylvania.

In connection with the subject of the Pennsylvania German’s spare bed, a kind word may be in order for the traditional feather bed which seems to be an indispensable feature of every Pennsylvania German household. The often derided feather bed is a distinctive German institution, and is found everywhere in Germany at this day, in winter and summer. No matter what the season, the feather quilt is found neatly folded at the foot of the bed ready for use, in case the emergency calls for it, so that its existence to-day in Pennsylvania is an honest inheritance from the ancestors of the Pennsylvania Germans, who brought the custom with them when they first came here, and where it has held its own ever since, as one of the settled household institutions.

While the Pennsylvania Germans retain many of the customs of their kinsmen on the other side of the Atlantic there is one particular in which the former have made a wide departure. In Germany the peasantry are all crowded in small villages, in striking contrast to the Pennsylvania farmers who live on their large well-tilled farms, in palatial farm houses which tell of opulence and luxury. In Germany the peasantry are living in small dorfs, where the houses are all built of stone most of which are several centuries old; situated on narrow streets, so as to take up as little of the valuable ground as possible; the houses are often situated in such close proximity to the cows, pigs and hens as to make it appear as if all belonged to the same household. This last condition is however an exception to the rule, for as a general rule the German peasant homes, are clean and wholesome, although furnished in the plainest manner. The first floors are frequently of stone; carpets are rarely seen in the houses of peasants, and even among the higher classes, floors are usually painted; kept scrupulously clean; and ornamented with rugs.

The universal passion of the Germans for flowers and other ornamentation is often shown by the poorest peasants, but their almost constant employment in the fields, prevents them from indulging their instincts in that direction to any great extent, but they neglect no opportunity to do so, whenever it is possible.

The German instinct for flowers is strongly exhibited by the Pennsylvania German women. There are not many, who do not find time to give some attention to their cultivation. The yard of nearly every Pennsylvania German farm house bears testimony to this fact. There are few houses in rural Pennsylvania the surroundings of which are not more or less beautified by flowering plants, often of the choicest kinds; while the poorer people are often content, with a few roses; the fragrant honeysuckle; and sometimes the unpretentious dahlia and sunflower, are made to attest their love of the beautiful.

There are certain kinds of labor performed by the German women in their native country, which are also performed by German women in rural Pennsylvania. They attend to the milking, look after the poultry, and attend to the garden, in addition to their regular household duties. They also assist not infrequently at certain kinds of work in the fields. These customs still prevail largely in Germany, but it is a satisfaction to note, that the custom is growing into disfavor in Pennsylvania more every year, and it is to be hoped that the chivalry of the Pennsylvania German farmers will soon relegate the practice wholly to the rear, as a custom out of consonance with the spirit of the times.

There are many articles of diet peculiar to the Pennsylvania Germans to which most people have been strangers until they acquired the knowledge from them. For instance,—“Scrapple” (P. G. pan-haas), which the “Standard Dictionary” defines as an “article of food made by boiling meal or flour with scraps of pork, chopped hog’s liver, and kidneys, and seasoning, and served in fried slices;” then adds that it originated among the “Pennsylvania Dutch.” It did not originate among the “Pennsylvania Dutch” because in the first place there are no such people, and in the next place it is a common article of food in the Rhine Pfalz, whence the early German emigrants brought it to Pennsylvania.

The origin of the word “pan-haas,” (English pan-hare, or pan-rabbit), is a puzzle, but it probably belongs to that class of slang words, of which “welsh rabbit;” “blind robin,” and the like are specimens.

“Sauer-kraut,” a dish at one time associated with things vulgar and regarded as not “good form” to eat by the more aesthetic people, has forged its way to the front, until it has acquired a very respectable standing. It is of purely German origin, and supplied the larder of the Hessian soldiers as one of their chief articles of diet when they embarked for America during the Revolutionary War. “Schnits and knepp.”—sliced apples, and dumplings, cooked with pork, is another purely German dish, for which the Pennsylvania Germans are indebted to the fatherland. The so-called “Dutch cheese,” is merely the “Mainzer käse,” of Germany, so named after the city of Mainz on the Rhine. “Smear-case,” from the German “schmier-käse,” is also a native of the Pfalz. There is an endless variety of articles of food, and their manner of preparation for the table in vogue among the Pennsylvania Germans, which are inheritances from their ancestors who brought the art with them, when they emigrated to Pennsylvania.

The custom of feasting at funerals among the Germans in Pennsylvania, has been a subject of much comment by English-speaking people, also prevails in Germany to a limited extent. It is there confined to a few simple refreshments for guests, especially for those who come some distance to attend the funeral. The somewhat extravagant feasts prepared by the Germans in Pennsylvania on the occasion of funerals, may be the result of their greater ability to provide liberally for their guests; but there is no doubt that the custom is the outgrowth of the disposition of good-will, and benevolence so characteristic of the Germans everywhere. Relatives are always invited to attend funerals by the Pennsylvania Germans, and they often come long distances, to manifest their sympathy on such occasions, and it would be regarded a great breach of civility and of friendship, to send the relatives away, without inviting them to partake of the hospitalities of the house of mourning; and to refuse to accept such an invitation, would be regarded an equal breach of decorum toward the bereaved family.

The similarity of the domestic customs of the Pennsylvania Germans and their Palatine kinsmen, are exhibited in many ways; but it does not stop with their social habits and domestic customs. Much of their folk-lore, legendary romances, and Teutonic myths, which have come down the ages, and which are the inheritances of all German-speaking races are alike. The Rhine traditions being the most recent are best preserved.

The resemblances can be traced in many of the usages and beliefs common to both; in their religious observances, and manner of worship; agricultural festivals; customs at weddings; the “home-bringings,” courtship, making acquaintances; old-fashioned methods of work; neighborly gathering of friends to aid in certain kinds of work, called by the English-speaking people a “bee,” such as a husking bee; a barn raising bee, and the like, which is called by the Pennsylvania Germans in their dialect a “frolic” which would seem to indicate that they borrowed the term from the English, but it is more likely that it is a corruption of the German word “fröhlich,” because on such occasions all hands are gay, jovial, and make merry, which is usually heightened by “liquid refreshments,” followed when the work is done by a great feast. Among the common beliefs, more particularly among the less informed are certain superstitions; belief in fairies, and hobgoblins, and ghosts; lucky and unlucky days; the influence of certain planets on the elements, upon which subject they have a vast amount of weather lore; belief in the curative power of magic; “pow-wow” and the like. These and many more are superstitions, customs and beliefs, not altogether handed down traditionally, and communicated from generation to generation, but most of them have been preserved in the literature of folk-lore of which the Germans have produced the larger part. The word folk-lore comes from the German Volk, people, and Lehre learning. So that the traditions of peasants, and uneducated people, are merely the result of that which was at one time believed by all classes.

Even at this day much of the ancient folk-lore is found to exist, and rigidly believed in by some of the most intelligent people, as well as among the rudest and most uncultivated people. How many people are there who would care to start on a long sea voyage on a Friday; or go unattended through a lonely graveyard on a night of inky darkness?

Many church and festal days, observed in the Pfalz, are still complied with by the Pennsylvania Germans; although the tendency with regard to their observance is growing feebler every year. The man of middle life will remember the time when such days as Good Friday, Ascension Day, Whitsuntide, and other church days were rigidly observed by attending religious services in the morning, and spending the remainder of the day in social recreation, by visiting friends and relatives, and in other similar diversions.

Those days are still devoted to similar enjoyments in Germany. A great deal of this social recreation in Germany takes place in wine halls; beer and music gardens on all festal occasions as well as on Sundays. The Germans are a church-going people on Sunday mornings, but the afternoons are devoted to recreations, which as a general rule lead to the music gardens, where beer and wine are dispensed. This mixing of beer, music, and religion on Sunday is one of the things which few of our American Sabbatarians can understand, because they view it from the standpoint of what they see of drinking in their own country. And it must be admitted, that it is seriously doubted, whether a quiet and orderly Sunday could be had in this country, if the same freedom were allowed. If the doors of the saloons in this country were thrown wide open as they are in Germany from eleven o’clock in the morning until eleven at night, drunken revels would follow with almost absolute certainty, while such a thing as drunkenness is almost wholly unknown in South Germany. The people there drink scarcely any spirits, but confine themselves to beer, and light wines. This is not true of the North German states, for there the people drink spirits, and a good deal of drunkenness prevails. The Germans as a rule drink moderately. The whole family goes to the beer garden, or the wine hall, and a liter of beer suffices for all, and they will spend an hour or more over that quantity, while the American style of drinking would in the same length of time produce more or less intoxication by reason of the quantity consumed, much of which is due to the habit of “treating” which does not prevail in Germany. A German familiar with the American custom with regard to drinking expressed the difference between the two countries tersely when he remarked: “In Deutschland trinken die leute bier, aber in Amerika saufen sie es.”

Christmas is the great religious festal day of the Germans, as it has become with most Christian people everywhere within recent years. With the Pennsylvania Germans it always held first place, as it has with their kinsmen across the sea, from whom the former inherited all the essential characteristics of its observance, such as the merry-makings, family re-unions, and other social recreations. Christmas is especially a German holiday. To them it is largely due that the day has been shorn of its early ascetic character, and has been succeeded by a day of sunny cheerfulness, and general good-will. The Germans have surrounded it with much poetic sentiment, in addition to its religious aspect; and while the domestic sentiment is always uppermost with them, it is at Christmas that this sentiment is most strongly exemplified. With Christmas eve the festival commences with them. All Pennsylvania German children look forward to that evening with great anxiety. That is the evening for the “Bellsnickle” to put in his appearance in hideous disguise to look after naughty boys and girls, and when he distributes his gifts in the shape of nuts and cakes by throwing them on the floor, woe to any youngster who dares to pick any of them up, for if he attempts to do so, he will be sure to get a sound whack on his back with a whip which this fright of the children carries with him. The “Bellsnickle” is a purely German character, and does not seem to belong to any other people who have not derived the character from the Germans. The name is supposed to come from the words “peltz” skin, or a furred coat, and “nickle,” a dirty person, as the make-up of the character resembles such a combination.

To offset the Bellsnickle there is the patron saint of the little children, good Kriss Kringle, from the German Christ-kindlein—Christ child—who brings the children happiness with their “Weinacht-gaschenk” a word which conveys a much more poetic sentiment than the commonplace English phrase of “Christmas present.” Most of the Christmas stories which delight children so much, come from the Germans.

The Germans have many holidays. Sometimes the most trivial event furnishes the occasion for a festal day. The birthdays of their princes, and distinguished soldiers and statesmen, are made interesting events in the lives of the people themselves, by the elaborate manner in which they celebrate them. Among the Germans the birthday of every member of the family is observed in some way. This custom prevails to some extent among the Pennsylvania Germans, but it is mainly confined to the celebration of the birthdays of aged people, especially of parents, grandparents, and of young children. The Moravians still continue the custom of celebrating the birthdays in some form, of all the members of their families.

The hard lives of the early German immigrants in Pennsylvania, had the effect to dispel much of the cheer of the happy homes, which still surrounds the firesides of their kinsmen in the Rhine country; and in these days the Pennsylvania Germans have acquired the universal contagion of Americans, of the mad rush after wealth, which robs them of many of the sunny pleasures of the Germans in their native land, about which Americans know very little.

If the emigrants that come from Germany in these days, should seem to negative the conditions of the happy German homes herein mentioned, the reply is, that they are not intended to embrace the Germans that come from the eastern part of Germany where the land is poor and the people still poorer. Very few emigrants come from the region once embraced in the old state of the Palatinate to the United States in these days, and the few that do come do not make the change to improve their temporal welfare, but to escape military duty, or the possibilities of war, which is a continual menace to the peace of Germany. While the German peasants in the Rhine country are not rich, and enjoy but few of the luxuries of the Pennsylvania German farmers, they have an abundance of the actual necessities of life; live comfortably, and are more contented and happier than any other people in the same walk in life, in the whole of Europe, and even possibly in this country.

A striking characteristic of the Germans in their own country is one of politeness, much of which they soon forget after they come here, and their Pennsylvania German kinsmen, do not any longer cultivate that trait very assiduously; but in this respect they are not behind the rest of their countrymen in democratic America. It is also true, that there is often as much genuine friendliness concealed beneath the rougher exterior of the average American, as there is in the more polished manner, and outward semblance of the profusive manifestations of friendship of the German, or Frenchman. It is a fact however that Europeans generally are politer than Americans.

Nowhere does one meet with more courteous consideration, affability and manifestations of good-will, than among the Germans in their native country. This is true with regard to their daily intercourse, and upon all informal occasions, and it’s heightened in their intercourse with strangers.

The urbane manner, and considerate courteousness of the Germans is called by them “Gemüthlichkeit.” It is said that the word has no equivalent in the English language. It is this “gemüthlichkeit,”—good nature, kindly disposition, and affability which controls every action of the German’s daily life. No matter whether you negotiate with the kellnerin for a glass of beer, or you meet the zimmermädchen that takes care of your room at the hotel, it is always “guten morgen,” or “guten tag,” and upon your departure from a place the salutations of adieu, “lebe wohl,” “auf wiedersehen,” are showered upon you in such an earnest manner, that you must believe that it is all meant. Traveling on a railway train, a stranger enters the coupe in which you are seated, he will always greet you by wishing you good day, after which he may become absorbed in a book, or as he frequently does, may enter in conversation with you; and on his departing he will invariably wish you a “glückliche reise,” and “sehr fiel vergnügen.” “Ich danke sehr,” and “ich bitte,” are continually heard in recognition of the most ordinary courtesies at every turn, all day long. Should you call on some newly-made acquaintance, you are always received with: “Herzliche wilkommen.” Men upon meeting often take off their hats to each other, especially if they have not met for some time; and on meeting a peasant when traveling in the country, he will always take his hat off to a stranger, and bid him the time of day.

With all this excessive politeness, there is also sometimes great rudeness, but the latter is a rare exception, and is usually confined to military officers, who seem to monopolize all the boorishness and bad manners in Germany. They seem to think that in order to prove their chivalry, that they must needs make themselves offensive by their rudeness.

CHAPTER XIII.
LIFE IN PENNSYLVANIA IN THE EARLY DAYS.

Poverty of early Settlers.—Lack of Houses to live in.—Some made their Homes in Caves at First.—Food was Plentiful.—Game was Abundant.—Lack of Roads.—Country a dense Forest.—Only Indian Trails to get from one Place to Another.—Early Roads Projected.—Wild Animals numerous and Destructive.—Early Iron making.—The Crime of Horse Stealing.—Health of new Settlers.—Courts and Penalties.—Early Laws.

As has already been learned, German emigration into Pennsylvania began with Penn’s first visit to his province, but the great tide of emigration did not set in, until the beginning of the eighteenth century.

Penn was an early reformer in England, with notions of his own concerning both spiritual, and secular matters, which were considered at that time as heretical, visionary, and impractical. In his new province in America, he was not hampered with any of the traditions of European governments, with their arbitrary rule, religious persecution, and political oppression. He was free on this side of the Atlantic, to give a practical turn to his schemes of an ideal government which should be a religious and temporal paradise.

His notions of government involved entirely new ideas, and were not at all consonant with the times in which he lived. He did not believe in much governmental restraint, but believed that a people were best governed who felt the restraints of government the least. On this basis he undertook to lay the foundation of civil government for his province.

People who beheld the elements with which he would have to contend, despaired of his success in forming a government of law and order, with the material at hand. As in all new countries there were among the people whom he found here, the idle, the vicious, and the depraved, to say nothing of the incongruous elements, of people of different nationality, language, customs and manners. His task must have seemed a formidable one; but he succeeded as the framers of no government ever succeeded before him, nor since.

The German emigrants on their coming here found a beneficient government on their arrival, and they were rid of the fearful persecution from which they had been made the sufferers in their native land, yet they had an appalling task before them, in making for themselves homes in the forest wilderness, to which they had come. But they were free men for the first time in their lives. The wrongs of their cruel oppressors no longer beset them by day, nor haunted their dreams by night. Most of the emigrants were very poor and had to make their new start in life, with nothing but stout hearts and willing hands. Many on their arrival at Philadelphia had not the means to procure shelter and it could not be procured very often at any price, so that not a few made their temporary homes in caves along the shores of the Delaware river, which had been previously occupied by native Indians. It is said that the first white child born of English parents at Philadelphia, was born in one of those caves. John Key, who became an honored citizen, and who lived a long life of usefulness, had such a humble birthplace in 1682. He died in Chester county in 1767.

It was not long however before the early arrivals were provided with more substantial dwellings, for in less than two years after Penn had laid out his ideal city, it contained 300 houses built of wood; affording a fair degree of comfort.

After that more substantial buildings began to be erected of brick brought from England, some of which still remain standing, well preserved to testify to the thrift and enterprise of the settlers two centuries ago.

The mode of living at first corresponded with the early means of shelter, and pretty much all except the few rich, shared the same conditions. After the newcomer had succeeded so far as to be able to live under the roof of his own modest log cabin, he had made an enviable start, and soon forgot his earlier privations, while the recollections of his wretched condition in his native land, made him happy and contented in his new home. After he succeeded to a log cabin, a horse, cow, plow, axe, saw, and a table of rough hewn timber, a bedstead and bench in keeping, he regarded himself on the high road to fortune, and was happy in the contrast between his condition in his new home, and his former home in the desolate Palatinate. With the few primitive household goods, clothing aptly corresponded. Woolen fabrics were unknown. The clothing of the new settlers consisted of home-made cloth, woven from tow, made from flax grown on the virgin soil. Their apparel was neither rich nor gaudy, and did not admit of much change of dress, which was chiefly confined to a shirt, trousers, and coat. In warm weather the shirt and trousers sufficed; in cold weather an additional top coat was worn for protection. Shoes were made to last a long time, and were only worn when absolutely necessary. Cobblers traveled through the country, among the settlers and mended their shoes; in that way procuring a livelihood.

The foregoing observations apply only to the rural population in the early days. In Philadelphia the residents fared better. That city soon developed into a prosperous commercial town, and it remained for many years the chief mart in Pennsylvania, to which settlers came to trade from all parts of the province.

Most of the early settlers in Pennsylvania took to farming on their arrival as soon as they were able to do so, because they were trained to that occupation at home, and it also brought them the quickest return, and surest employment.

But to make farms in those days was no easy task. It was necessary first to subdue the wilderness, which was an unbroken forest everywhere. There were no roads, and to travel from one part of the country to another was a difficult undertaking. The Indian trails furnished the only means to get through the forest, which in many places was practically impenetrable. There were innumerable streams to be crossed, without bridges. The building of roads of course received early attention, but its progress must necessarily have been slow, owing to the nature of the country through which they had to be built, and the making of them did not keep pace with the constantly increasing population.

In 1686, four years after Philadelphia was founded, a road to Trenton was projected. This was done no doubt to bring the settlements already existing in southern parts of New Jersey in easy communication with Philadelphia. In 1729 a road was laid out to Lancaster; by that time many thousands of settlers had located between the latter place and Philadelphia, with no direct means of communication. Before that time people traveling between those two places had to go in a round about way, by Chester; and the projected road to Lancaster was not built until 1733. A road from Philadelphia to Upper Milford township in what is now Lehigh county, was built about the same time. From that time on, many roads were projected and built throughout eastern Pennsylvania.

Before the building of roads was begun the farmers had no need for wagons, so that horses were made the chief vehicles for the purposes of transportation, while the shoulders of the stalwart farmers were made to perform similar service. Road building through the dense forest was not easy. Large trees had to be felled, and the roadway cleared of stumps and brush. After roads were thus opened, many farmers at first improvised wagons, by making wheels out of the butt ends of large trees. Untanned hides furnished materials for harness. Settlers during the early years of their coming here lived far apart, so that they could not be of much service to each other, and when winter came on, all communication between them practically ended, until the following spring.

The early settlers surely found no earthly paradise when they first came here, and their descendants who to-day occupy the rich and highly cultivated farms which their ancestors hewed out of the primeval forest, cannot realize the poverty and privations of the first comers to Penn’s El Dorado; yet they were content, because they were no longer the victims of a ferocious soldiery, whose crimes made their lives intolerable in the land of their birth.

The great discomforts and privations of the earliest settlers were of not long duration. It did not take those that came first long to get a fair start, and they soon acquired an abundance of the most urgent necessities, which they were ever ready to share with their newly arrived countrymen. There does not seem to have been at any time any great scarcity of food, for it seems that the streams and forests supplied that in abundance. Penn on the occasion of his first visit to his province, wrote to a friend in England: “Of food there is an abundance, and of the best quality.” One newly arrived emigrant wrote: “Wild pigeons come in clouds, and frequently fly so low as to enable one to knock them down with a stick. Wild turkeys are so large and fat; some of them weigh 46 pounds. Some that weigh as much as 30 pounds are sold for a shilling. A deer can be bought for two shillings and six pence. The streams are full of fish, and so they are in New Jersey. The Indians often bring in seven or eight deer at a time; of geese, ducks, wild swan, and pheasants there are plenty.”

In 1750 the farmers complained to the government, that the bounty offered for the destruction of squirrels, was an injury to them, because laborers, instead of helping in harvest, would go squirrel hunting, because they could make better wages thereby, than by working in harvest.

According to an act of the Colonial Assembly, the government paid a bounty for each dozen crows, blackbirds, and squirrels, one shilling and six pence. Even at that price those destructive creatures did not seem to diminish, so that in 1754 an appeal was made to the Assembly to compel every settler to destroy a certain number of them, for which he was to receive certain compensation, and in case anyone failed to destroy his share, he was to forfeit a pro rata penalty. It was hoped by such means, to save the farmers’ corn after it was planted and came up, which the crows, blackbirds, and squirrels destroyed. Deer were also so numerous as to become very destructive of the grain after it came up in the fall. Foxes and muskrats were also very destructive of poultry, and wolves were very numerous and would sometimes destroy entire flocks of sheep. The farmers were never without their guns; it was customary for them to carry them wherever they went. These animals had their homes in the dense forests which were inaccessible on account of the lack of roads. Farmers frequently lost their horses if allowed to stray away in the endless wood. The dense forests made horse-stealing an easy occupation for the lawless, and it constituted one of the chief crimes of the early days of the settlement of the province, as the forests made a convenient hiding place for them with their prey. During a period of three years after Northampton County was organized, nine horse thieves were tried and punished in that county, while a great many more escaped arrest. The punishment prescribed at that time for horse-stealing, was public whipping, which did not have the effect to deter the lawless from committing that sort of crime. The field of operation of the horse-thieves was so large and their chances of escape so great, that they carried on their occupation with little hindrance. The extent of the evil was so great, that the citizens petitioned the Assembly to create the death penalty for the crime of horse-stealing.

The horse-thieves seem to have had a monopoly of crime. For a new country there was none of that lawlessness which has characterized the new frontier settlements of our western domain. The “tough citizen” of our western frontier had not then yet been developed. He seems to have made his appearance later, and is especially, an American product, unique in his character, without a rival, or counterpart in any other part of the world, outside of the United States.

After agriculture had made a fair start other industries began to attract the attention of the more wide-awake settlers, who had cast their lot with the future of Penn’s province. As early as 1696, only 14 years after Penn laid out his ideal city on the Delaware, the question of making iron began to be discussed, and in 1726 a German by the name of Kurtz gave the matter a practical turn, by the erection of a furnace.

A firm named Grubb Bros., also built a furnace and iron-works about the same time in Lancaster County. By the time of the middle of the eighteenth century, the province of Pennsylvania had made much progress in agriculture and the industrial arts, and its boundless resources and great hidden wealth, began to attract great attention, when many persons of wealth in England and Germany, were attracted hither, who began the development of the iron, and other resources, and establish various industrial enterprises, to meet the growing needs of the province.

In those early days, the traffic in spirituous liquors as a beverage was already a perplexing question. The manufacture of the product became a profitable industry soon after the settlement of the province, and the early settlers were not exempt, from the craving for some artificial stimulant, which has been implanted in mankind ever since Noah planted a vineyard among the hills of Ararat, and became “drunken” on the fruits thereof. The excessive use then, as it always has been, brought along with it its attendant evils. In 1721 a convention of leading citizens was held at Philadelphia, to consider the question, of restraining the traffic in strong drink, and to encourage the use of light beer instead, as being less injurious. It would seem from this proposition, that the German citizens sought to introduce, and enforce the custom of beer drinking which then prevailed in their native land and which still continues, instead of the vise of spirituous liquors as a beverage, which are vastly more injurious. In South Germany at this day, the people confine themselves almost exclusively to light wines and beer, with the result that an intoxicated person is scarcely ever seen in that part of Germany.

In 1733 the owners of certain iron works petitioned the Legislature, to enact a law prohibiting the traffic in strong drink in the neighborhood where their works were operated, as it was injurious to the management of their industries; but asked that the sale of beer and cider be permitted.

Unlike most new countries the province of Pennsylvania was singularly exempt from many of those diseases with which new countries have to contend, and outside of the few small towns which existed in the early days there were no doctors, and the obstinate Quakers did not seem to think that there was any need for them, and did not encourage their coming. They seemed to have had nearly or quite as much aversion to doctors as they had to lawyers. One Quaker wrote in 1690 concerning the needs of the colony: “Of lawyers and doctors I will make no mention as the country is very peaceable and healthy.” This complacent Quaker probably changed his mind about doctors, when later malignant fevers, and the smallpox broke out among the settlers, which resulted in very many deaths. In later years Philadelphia had a visitation from the yellow fever which carried its citizens off by hundreds. As late as the middle of the last century, Philadelphia did not have a single paved street, and until 1793 the water for culinary, and other household purposes was obtained from wells which could not be saved from becoming polluted, by surface drainage. After Philadelphia had been scourged by the yellow fever well water fell into disfavor, and the Schuylkill and Delaware rivers were drawn upon for water.

COURTS AND THE ADMINISTRATION OF JUSTICE.

During the early years after the founding of the province, there were no courts. The Quakers who were then in control discouraged them, as they also did lawyers, and all litigation. One of the first laws passed by the Colonial Assembly, was one to prevent litigation. It was not until 1701 that courts were considered necessary. In that year a Court House was built at Philadelphia, which answered for the whole province. The justices appointed to preside over the courts, were empowered to make final settlement of all disputes.

The business of the courts in those days, was conducted with great formality and solemnity. The judges wore three-cornered hats, and when they returned from court to their homes, the constables with the emblems of their office led the way. The judges on the bench wore a grave and serious aspect. The common folks in attendance were inspired with great awe. It is needless to say that things in this respect have changed since then. In those days judges were the appendages of royalty, while in these later days, the people make and unmake them at their pleasure.

The penalties inflicted on offenders against the law were peculiar, and in many cases revolting; savoring more as viewed at this day, of primitive savagery, than that of a criminal code of a civilized people. Malefactors for certain offences were branded in the hands with red hot irons; others had their ears cut off, or were nailed fast by their ears to the whipping post; or sentenced to a certain number of lashes, while others for more trivial offences were made to stand in the pillory for a specified time. The pillory was usually erected in the market place, and the sentence usually carried out on market days. Watson in his “Annals” says that upon such occasions the price of eggs usually advanced for obvious reasons. The penalties here enumerated were dealt out to persons found guilty of crime, without regard to rank, station or sex.

In Christoph Sauer’s newspaper of date of March 16, 1775, an amusing incident is related, as having occurred at Easton. A man was sentenced to receive a certain number of lashes, for having stolen an axe. The sheriff, who was not inclined to inflict the punishment, offered four dollars to any one who would perform the duty for him. No one came forward to perform the job, when the culprit’s wife came along, and undertook to perform the task. She laid on the number of lashes decreed, with all her might, after which she added one more, remarking at the same time that the last one was for the occasion when her husband boxed her ears. She was paid her four dollars by the sheriff, and the law was vindicated. Sometimes a malefactor’s entire property was forfeited; sometimes only a fine was imposed, and if the condemned was unable to pay it, he was put up at public auction, and sold to the highest bidder to serve a certain length of time, which was governed by the price bidden. This latter feature of the law remained in force until 1786, while the whipping post was not abolished until 1790.

EARLY LEGISLATION.

The first Colonial Assembly of Pennsylvania met at Philadelphia January 10, 1683, and was of course dominated by Penn, and his co-religionists. Some queer laws were proposed, and some of them were enacted, and put in force. One legislator wanted a law passed to encourage matrimony; another sought to make it unlawful for any one to wear more than two kinds of clothing. One kind was prescribed for summer, and another kind for winter.

It was made unlawful for any one to introduce, or frequent “stage plays,” and the penalty was fixed at ten days’ imprisonment at hard labor in the house of correction, or forfeit twenty shillings. It was also made unlawful for any one to play cards for amusement, under a penalty of five shillings, or in default of payment, imprisonment in the house of correction, at labor five days.

The price of ale and beer at a public house, was fixed at two pennies a Winchester quart.

A law was passed, changing the names of the days of the week, “according to Scripture,” making them first, second, third, etc., instead of the “heathen names,” Monday, Tuesday, etc. The names of the months were similarly changed.

Any one convicted of lying in conversation, was to suffer a penalty of half a crown for each offense, or in default of payment suffer three days imprisonment at hard labor. If such a law were in force in these days the revenues therefrom would soon create a surplus, and the government would not be embarrassed by a deficit.

Any one found guilty of speaking derogatorily of the sentence, or judgment of any court, or of speaking disrespectfully of a judge, was to be fined at the discretion of the court.

Any one found guilty of stealing hogs a third time was to receive thirty lashes, and be banished from the province.

It was made the duty of parents to have their children taught to read and write, by the time they were twelve years of age; then taught some useful trade, for neglect of which, the parents were fined five pounds for every child so neglected.

UNJUST CRITICISM OF PENNSYLVANIA GERMANS.

The Pennsylvania Germans have often been made to suffer by calumnious reports concerning them, by reason of the prejudice, and oftener perhaps of the ignorance of a certain class of writers for the press. A number of years ago, an editorial appeared in the Public Ledger, defending them against the aspersions and mendacious misrepresentations of a Yankee scribbler for a newspaper who said: “The immigrants came over here with their priests, a fragment of the middle ages, uneducated and uncultivated. What is the consequence? We see before us the petrifaction of a social and mental condition which has long since disappeared from Germany. We behold a picture of the dark ages.”

It is remarkable that such dense ignorance should have existed anywhere, even among only half educated people, at any time within the present century concerning a people, who have always occupied an honorable and conspicuous place in the history of their state and country; who to-day number not less than a million and a half of people, many of whom are filling some of the highest stations in every walk of life. All that is necessary to put to shame such base libellers as the foregoing is to point to the long line of Pennsylvania’s German Governors, and to the men of the same blood in our halls of legislation, on the bench, at the bar, in the pulpit, among the men eminent in the sciences, among the educators, business men and financiers, not only in Pennsylvania, but wherever the Pennsylvania Germans and their descendants have spread.

The following extract from the editorial of the Ledger is just as timely now as when first written, in case there are still any people as ignorant and misinformed, as the one who wrote the foregoing libel:

“No one familiar with the German farmers of Pennsylvania need be told that this is a stupid and ignorant libel. Its author has either never traveled through our state, or has maliciously misrepresented what he saw. So far from our German farmers being on a level with the serfs of one hundred and fifty years ago, they are vastly in advance of cotemporary German and French farmers, or even of English farmers of similar means. On this point we need go no further for authority than to Mr. Munch, the fellow laborer with Mr. Herder in the late campaign, who though hostile in politics to our German farmers in general, was forced, during his tour through Pennsylvania, to admit their sterling worth. Mr. Munch is an experienced and practical agriculturist, and not merely a speculative man of letters, so that his judgment on such a question is worth that of a score of visionary, ill-informed, prejudiced, disappointed demagogues or partisan editors. After eulogizing the picturesque natural features of the landscape of our German counties, praising the excellent taste which has preserved the woods on the hill sides, and extolling the appearance of the farms, this gentleman adds significantly that he found the people of a genial, solid and respectable stamp, enviably circumstanced in comparison with the European farmer, and very far superior in intelligence and morals. It is time that the truth should be spoken, and justice done to our German population. We are willing to go as far as any one in testifying to the value of books, newspapers and schools; we are willing to admit that our German farmers, as a class, have cared less for these things than they ought; but we are not silly enough to say that a man is necessarily a bad farmer, a disorderly citizen, or a profligate husband because he does not speak English, is not crammed with book-learning, or does not take in a half a dozen journals. Our German farmers prove the reverse. Whether a denizen of a state be valuable to it on account of what he annually adds to the realized wealth of the community, or for his faithful obedience to the laws, or for his sacredness with which he preserves the family compact, our German farmers certainly merit as much as any other class for the practice of either of these virtues, or indeed for the harmonious exercise of them all. Even their intelligence is underrated. As Mr. Munch of Misso, has said, they are a ‘genial, solid and respectable stamp;’ there is no false mental glitter about them; in a word, they are rather men of sound judgment, than brilliant rhetoricians, or one-sided ideologists. All persons who have had transactions with our German farmers, love to respect the excellent sense they display in the ordinary concerns of life. * * * *

In many particulars, German farmers surpass even the people of New England, who of late have put in a claim, it would seem to be the ne plus ultra in all things. The German farmers understand, or if they do not understand they observe the laws of health, better than even the rural people of Massachusetts; and the result is that they are really the finest race of men, physically, to be found in the United States. In certain favorable localities of Kentucky, or on the frontier, where from being a dominant caste, or from the immediate vicinity of the unpeopled wilderness, the inhabitants live a half nomad life, there are as fine, perhaps finer specimens of men to be seen; but there is nowhere in America, an agricultural population, the members of which personally till the soil, that has such thews and sinews, such a healthy development, or such generally prolonged life, as our much abused “Pennsylvania Dutchmen.” To be plain, if some of our crotchetty, one-idead dyspeptic, thin cadaverous, New England brethren would emigrate to our German counties; follow for a generation or two, the open air life of our German farmers; and last of all marry into our vigorous anti-hypochondrical German families, they would soon cease to die by scores of consumption, to complain that there were no longer any healthy women left, and to amuse sensible people with such silly vagaries of Pantheism, or a thousand and one intellectual vagaries which are born of their abnormal physical conditions.”

In these somewhat desultory and digressive pages, the author sought to tell the “Story of the Pennsylvania Germans,” but he realizes that the task has been but imperfectly performed. If however he has succeeded in encouraging some one else with the energy and inclination to undertake the task on a more extended scale, he will be amply paid for all the time and labor which this volume has cost him. The story of the Pennsylvania Germans has never been told, and is only partially chronicled in these pages. It still remains for some faithful chronicler to give them their proper place in the history of their State, and of the nation, in behalf of which they rendered invaluable services at the birth of the Republic.

APPENDIX A.
EXAMPLES OF PFÄLZISCH, AND SOUTH GERMAN DIALECTS.

The following poem, in the Pfälzisch dialect, is from Professor Franz von Kobell’s “Gedichte in Pfälzisch Mundart.”

(Franz von Kobell, was born at Munich in 1803, and died there in 1882, where he had been Professor of Mineralogy, in the University of Munich for many years. He was also a poet of considerable distinction.)

’S Lob vun Binge’.

Die herrlichsht’ Gegend am ganze Rhei’
Dess is die Gegend vun Binge’,
Es wachst der allerbeschte wei’
Der Scharlach wachst bei Binge’.

Die g’schick’schte Schiffleit’, die mer find’t,

Dess sin die Schiffer vun Binge’,
Un’ sicht mer in Meens, e’hübsches Kind,
Wo is es her? Vun Binge’.

Ke’ Loch is uf der ganze’ Welt
So berühmt wie des vun Binge’,
Ke’ Thorn so keck in’s wasser g’stellt,
Wie der im Rhei’ bei Binge’.

Die Mäus’ vum Bischof Hatto, sich!

Sin g’schwumme’ bis noch Binge’,

Ke G’schicht’ war je so ferchterlich,

Wie selli dort bei Binge’.

Un’ die heilig’ Hildegard die war
Halt aach drheem in Binge’,
Un war Aebtissen dort sogar,
Dess alles war in Binge’.

Es is e’ wahri Herlichkeit
Dess liebe kleene Binge’,
Mei’ Vater and Mutter un’ all mei Leut’
Ja mir sin all’ vun Binge’.

In the foregoing poem there is not a single word that is not identical with Pennsylvania German except the word “keck” (bold, or saucy) in the third line of the third stanza, and the author can recall that word being used by Pennsylvania Germans a generation and a half ago, but it seems to have dropped out of the dialect, in recent years.

The word “Loch” in the third stanza, has reference to the so-called “Bingerloch,” or “Hole of Bingen,” which derives its name from the narrowing of the Rhine near Bingen, to a dangerous rocky channel; and the “Thorn” in the same stanza, refers to the famous “Mouse Tower,” which received its name from the legend, concerning the cruel Bishop Hatto of Mainz, who as the legend tells us burned a number of people in a barn, during a famine, and who was afterwards attacked by swarms of mice, when he took refuge in the tower on the rock in the middle of the river, and was there devoured by the mice, that followed him thither. This is one of the many legends of the Rhine, preserved in a volume of “Legends of the Rhine,” by H. A. Guerber, and is as follows:

BINGEN.—THE RAT TOWER.

In the year 914, when Hatto was Bishop of Mainz, a protracted rain entirely ruined the harvest, occasioning a terrible famine from which the poor people suffered sorely. As they were perishing from hunger, they finally applied to the bishop, whose granaries were filled to overflowing with the produce of the former, more favorable years. But the Bishop was cruel and hard-hearted and utterly refused to listen to them until at last they so wearied him by their constant importunity, that he bade them to assemble in an empty barn, where he promised to meet them on a certain day and hour to quiet all their demands.

Almost beside themselves with joy at the promise, the people hastened to the appointed spot, gathering there in such numbers that the empty barn was soon quite full. Anxiously they watched for the bishop, whom they greeted with loud cries of joy, as soon as he appeared. Their acclamations were however soon changed into blood-curdling cries of distress, for the cruel prelate after bidding his servants fasten the doors and windows so that none could escape, set fire to the building and burned them all, declaring they were like rats and should perish in the same way.

This wholesale massacre ended, the bishop retired home, sat down before his lavishly spread table, and ate with as healthy an appetite as usual. When he entered the dining room on the morrow, however, he stood still in dismay, for during the night the rats gnawed his recently finished portrait out of the frame, and it now lay an unseemly heap upon the floor. When he stood over it his heart filled with sudden nameless terror, for he fancied it was a bad omen; a servant came rushing into the room, bidding him to fly for his life, as a whole army of hungry, fierce looking rats were coming that way. Without waiting for his usual escort, the bishop flung himself on his messenger’s steed, and rode rapidly away. From time to time he nervously turned his head to mark the gradual approach of a dark line, formed of thousands of rats, animated by the revengeful spirit of the poor he had so cruelly burned.

Faster and faster Hatto urged his panting steed, but in spite of all his efforts, he had scarcely dismounted, entered a small skiff and rode out into the Rhine, ere an army of rats fell upon his horse and devoured it. The bishop shuddering with fear, rowed with all his might to his tower in the middle of the Rhine, where he quickly locked himself in fancying that he had escaped from his hungry foes. But the voracious rats having disposed of his steed, now boldly swam across the Bingerloch to the tower, and swarmed up its sides, seeking some crevice through which they could get at their foe. As they found none, they set their sharp teeth to work, and Hatto quailed with dread as he heard them gnawing busily on all sides. In a very few moments the rats had a thousand holes through which they rushed upon their victim.

Southey, who has versified this legend, which he calls “God’s Judgment upon a wicked Bishop,” describes their entrance thus:

“And in at the window, and at the door,

And through the walls, helter skelter they pour,

And down from the ceiling, and up through the floor,

From the right and the left, from behind and from before,

From within and without, from above and below,

And all at once to the bishop they go.

“They have whetted their teeth against the stones,

And now they pick the bishop’s bones;
They gnawed the flesh from every limb,
For they were sent to do judgment on him.”

Ever since then, that building in the Rhine has been known as the “Rat Tower.” Tradition relates that the bishop’s soul sank down to the nethermost hell, where it is ever burning in a fire far hotter, than that he kindled around the starving poor. At sunset a peculiar red glow may be seen over the tower, and this, the people declare is only a faint reflection of the infernal furnace, to warn all mankind against cruelty to God’s poor.

POEM IN SOUTH GERMAN DIALECT.

The following is a characteristic poem in the South German dialect, taken from the “Fliegende Blätter,” a humorous periodical, published at Munich:

E’ Frühling’s Poesie.

Wan die Beem un’ Hecke
Gans voll Veggle hucke,
Un’ die Deckel-schnecke
Aus de Häuser gucke
Dann isch’ Frijohr worre.

Wan die Schlee bliehe
Un’ die Veilcher kumme,
Wann die Keffer fliehe
Un’ die Imme summe,
Dann isch’ Frijohr worre.

Wann die Fresch un’ krötte
Ihre junge hortzle,
Uffem Wiesebodde
Wie besoff’ umporzle
Dann isch Frijohr worre.

Wann die junge Mere
No’ de Buwe gucke
Un’ vor alle Dere
Omds die Alte hucke
Dann isch Frijohr worre.

A POEM IN THE PENNSYLVANIA GERMAN DIALECT.

The following from “Gedichte in Pennsylvanisch Deutscher Mundart” by the late Rev. Heinrich Harbaugh, is an excellent example of Pennsylvania German dialect, showing the sublimity, and deep pathos of which the dialect is capable:

HEEMWEH.

Ich wees net was de Uhrsach is—
Wees net, warum ich’s du:
’N jedes Johr mach ich der weg
Der Alte Heemet zu:
Hab weiter nix zu suche dort—
Kee’ Erbschaft un kee geld;
Un doch treibt mich des Heemgefiehl
So schtark wie alle Welt;
Nor’d schtärt ich ewe ab un geh,
Wie owe schun gemeldt.

Wie nächer dass ich kumm zum Ziel,
Wie schtärker will ich geh,
For ebbes in mei ’m Herz werd letz
Un dhut m’r kreislich weh.
Der letschte Hiwel schpring ich nuf,
Un eb ich drowe bin,
Schtreck ich mich uf so hoch ich kann
Un guck mit luschte hin;
Ich seh’s alt Schtee’haus dorch die Beem,
Un wott ich wär schun drin.

Guk wie der Kicheschornschtee’ schmokt—
Wie oft hob ich sel g’seh,
Wann ich draus in de Felder war,
’N Buwele jung un klee’
O, sehnscht die Fenschterscheiwe dort?
Sie guk’n roth wie Blut;
Hab oft cunsiddert, doch net g’wisst,
Dass sell die Sunn so dhut.
Ja, manches wees’n Kind noch net—
Wann’s dhet, wär’s ah net gut!

Wie gleich ich selle Babble Beem,
Sie schtehn wie Brieder dar;
Un uf’m Gipple—g’wiss ich leb!
Hockt alleweil’n Schtaar!
’S Gipple biegt sich—guk, wie’s gaunscht—
’R hebt sich awer fescht;
Ich seh sei’ rothe Fliegle plehn,
Wann er sei’ Feddere wescht;
Will wette, dass sei’ Fraale hot
Uf sellem Baam ’n nescht!

O, es gedenkt m’r noch gans gut,
Wo selle werri Beem
Net greeser als ’n Welschkornschtock
Gebrocht sin worre heem.
Die Mammi war an’s Grändäd’s g’west,
Dort ware Beem wie die;
Drei Wipplein hot sie mitgebrocht,
Un g’sa’t “Dort blanscht sie hie.”
M’r hen’s gedhu’—un glaabscht du’s nau—
Dort selli Beem sin sie!

Guk! werklich, ich bin schier am Haus!—
Wie schnell geht doch die Zeit!
Wann m’r so in Gedanke geht,
So wees m’r net wie weit.
Dort is d’r Schap, die Welschkornkrip,
Die Seiderpress dort draus;
Dort is die Scheier, un dort die Schpring—
Frisch quellt des wasser raus;
Un guk! die sehm alt Klapbord-Fens,
Un’s Dheerle vor’m Haus.

Alles is schtill—sie wisse net,
Dass ebber fremmes kummt.
Ich denk, der alte Watsch is dodt,
Sunscht wär er raus gedschumpt;
For er hot als verschinnert g’brillt
Wann er hot’s Dheerle g’heert;
Es war de Träw’lers kreislich bang,
Sie werre gans verzehrt:
Kee’ G’fohr—er hot paar Mol gegauzt
Nor’d is er umgekehrt.

Alles is schtill—die Dheer is zu!

Ich schteh, besinne mich!

Es rappelt doch en wenig nau

Dort hinne in der kich.

Ich geh net nei—ich kann noch net!

Mei’ Herz fiehlt schwer un krank;

Ich geh’n wenig uf die Bortsch,

Un hock mich uf die Bank;

Es seht mich niemand, wann ich heil,

Hinner der Drauwerank!

Zwee Blätz sin do uf däre Bortsch,
Die halt ich hoch in Acht,
Bis meines Lebens Sonn versinkt
In schtiller Dodtes-Nacht!
Wo ich vum alte Vaterhaus
’S erscht mol bin gange fort,
Schtand mei’ Mammi weinend da,
An sellem Rigel dort;
Un nix is mir so heilig nau
Als grade seller Ort.

Ich kann sie heit noch sehne schteh,
Ihr Schnuppduch in d’r Hand;
Die Backe roth, die Aage nass—
O, wie sie doch do schtand!
Dort gab ich ihr mei’ Färewell,
Ich weinte als ich’s gab,
’S war’s leschte Mol in däre Welt,
Dass ich’s ihr gewe hab!
Befor ich widder kumme bin
War sie in ihrem Grab!

Nau wann ich an mei’ Mammi denk,
Un meen, ich dhet sie seh,
So schteht sie an dem Rigel dort
Un weint, weil ich wek geh!
Ich seh sie net im Shockelschtuhl!
Net an keem annere Ort;
Ich denk net an sie als im Grab;
Juscht an dem Rigel dort!
Dort schteht sie immer vor mei’m Herz
Un weint noch liebreich fort!

Was macht’s dass ich so dort hi’ guk,

An sell End vun der Bank!

Weescht du’s? Mei’ Herz is noch net dodt,

Ich wees es, Gott sei Dank!

Wie manchmal sass mei Dady dort,

Am Summer-nochmiddag,

Die Hände uf der Schoos gekreizt,

Sei Schtock bei Seite lag.

Was hot er dort im Schtille g’denkt?

Wer mecht es wisse—sag?

Verleicht is es’n Kindheets-Draam,
Dass ihn so sanft bewegt;
Oder is er’n Jingling jetz,
Der scheene Plane legt!
Er hebt sei’ Aage uf juscht nau
Un gukt weit iwer’s Feld;
Er seht v’rleicht d’r Kerchhof dort,
Der schun die Mammi helt!
Er sehnt v’rleicht nooch seiner Ruh
Dort in der bessere Welt!

Ich wees net, soll ich nei’ in’s Haus,
Ich zitter an der Dheer!
Es is wol alles voll inseid,
Un doch is alles leer!
’S is net meh heem, wie’s eemol war,
Un kann’s ah nimme sei;
Was naus mit unsere Eltere geht
Kummt ewig nimme nei’!
Die Friede hot der Dodt geärnt,
Das Trauerdheel is mei’!

So geht’s in däre rauhe Welt,
Wo alles muss vergeh!
Ja, in der alte Heemet gar
Fiehlt m’r sick all allee’!
O, wann’s net vor der Himmel wär,
Mit seiner scheene Ruh,
Dann wär m’r’s do schun lang verleedt,
Ich wisst net, was ze dhu.
Dock Hoffnung leichtet meinen Weg
Der ew’gen Heemet zu.

Dort is’n schee’, schee’, Vaterhaus,
Dort geht m’r nimmeh fort;
Es weint kee’ guti Mammi meh’
In sellem Freideort.
Kee’ Dady such meh’ for’n Grab,
Wo, was er lieb hat liegt!
Sell is kee’ Elendwelt wie die,
Wo alle Luscht betriegt;
Dort hat das Lewe ewiglich
Iwer der Dodt gesiegt.

Dort find m’r, was m’r do verliert,
Un b’halt in Ewigkeit;
Dort lewe unsre Dodte all.
In Licht un ew’ger Freid!
Wie oft, wann ich in Druwel bin,
Denk ich an selli Ruh,
Un wott, wann’s Gott’s Willie wär,
Ich ging ihr schneller zu;
Doch wart ich bis mei’ Schtindle schlägt
Nor’d sag ich—Welt, adju!

PENNSYLVANIA GERMAN AND HIGH GERMAN COMPARED.

A comparison of Pennsylvania German with High German, will prove the quality of the former. For that purpose, Goethe’s Erlkönig is given, and also rendered in Pennsylvania German.

Erlkönig.

Wer reitet so spät durch Nacht und Wind?

Es ist der Vater mit seinem Kind;

Er hat den Knaben wohl in dem Arm,

Er fasst ihn sicher, er hält ihn warm.

“Mein Sohn, was birgst du so bang dein Gesicht?”

Siehst, Vater, du den Erlkönig nicht?

Den Erlkönig mit Kron’ und Schweif?

“Mein Sohn, es ist ein Nebelstreif.”

“Du liebes Kind, komm’, geh mit mir!

Gar schöne Spiele spiel’ ich mit dir!

Manch’ bunte Blumen sind an dem Strand;

Meine Mutter hat manch gülden Gewand.”

Mein Vater, mein Vater, und hörest du nicht,

Was Erlkönig mir leise verspricht?

“Sei ruhig, bleibe ruhig, mein Kind!

In dürren Blättern säuselt der Wind.”

“Willst, feiner Knabe, du mit mir geh’n?

Meine Töchter sollen dich warten schön;

Meine Töchter führen den nächtlichen Reih’n

Und wiegen und tanzen und singen dich ein.”

Mein Vater, mein Vater, und siehst du nicht dort

Erlkönigs Töchter am düstern Ort?

“Mein Sohn, mein Sohn, ich seh’s genau,

Es scheinen die alten Weiden so grau.”

“Ich Lieb’ dich, mich reizt deine schöne Gestalt,

Und bist du nicht willig, so brauch’ ich Gewalt.”

Mein Vater, mein Vater, jetzt fasst er mich an,

Erlkönig hat mir ein Leids gethan!

Dem Vater grauset’s, er reited geschwind,
Er hält in den Armen das ächtzende Kind,
Erreicht den Hof mit Müh’ und Noth;
In seinem Armen das Kind war todt.

PENNSYLVANIA GERMAN FORM.

Wer reit so schpote dorch Nacht un Wind?

Es is der Vater mit seim Kind;

Er hat den Bu woll in seim Arm,

Er fascht ihn sicher, er halt ihn warm.

“Mei Soh, mei Soh, was bischt du so bang dei G’sicht”

Sehn’scht, Vater du ken Erlkönig net?

Der Erlkönig mit Kron’ un Schweef,

Mei Soh, es is en Newel schtreefe.

“Du liewes Kind, kum geh mit mir!

Gar scheene Schpiele schpiel ich mit dir!

Manch’ fiel-fart Blume sin am Schtrand

Mei Muter hat manch’ guld’ne G’gleed.”

Mei Vater, mei Vater, un heerscht du net,

Was Erlkönig mir schtille verschprecht?

“Sei ruhig, bleib ruhig, mei Kind

In der Blätter merwelt der Wind.

“Wilscht feiner Bu, du mit mir geh?

Mei Döchter solle dir abwarte schee,

Mei Döchter feih’r’n den nachtliche Danz

Un schockle un Danz’n un singe dich ei.”

Mei Vater, mei Vater, un sehnscht du net dort,

Erlkönig’s Döchter am dunkle platz,
“Mei Soh, mei Soh, ich seh’n es ganau
Es scheme die alte Weide so gro’.”

“Ich lieb dich, mich ziegt dei schee Muschter

Un bischt du net willig, so brauch ich g’walt.”

Mei Vater, mei Vater jetzt fascht er mich ah,

Erlkönig hat mir en wee’s ge-dhu.

Dem Vater fürcht’s, er reit g’schwind
Er halt in ’em Arm dess seif’ziches Kindt
Erreecht den Hof mit Meeh un Noth
In seim Arm dess Kindt war dodt.

In rendering the “Erlkönig” in Pennsylvania German no English words are employed, and only such words are used, as are in daily use by people speaking the dialect. Harbaugh in his poems makes use of a number of pure German words, such as are rarely used by Pennsylvania Germans at this day, but in the main he followed the Pennsylvania German usages.

It will also be observed that in the foregoing examples of the Pfälzisch and South German dialects, that both approach closely the spelling, accent, and phonology of the Pennsylvania German, which attests their intimate relationship.

APPENDIX B.
VOCABULARY.

The following vocabulary contains numerous Pennsylvania German words and idioms, with their Pfälzisch, High German, and English equivalents. The Pennsylvania German words are spelled, on the High German basis wherever it could be done without sacrificing the Pennsylvania German sound; where that could not be done, the plan of Pennsylvania German dialect writers has been followed, as near as their diversified spelling would admit of. The Pfälzisch words are taken from South German dialect writers, chiefly from Kobell’s “Gedichte in Pfälzischer Mundart,” and Ludwig Schandein’s “Gedichte in Westricher Mundart,” both of which books were written, and published in South Germany.

A.

| P. G. | Pfälzisch.
| Ah, | Ah,
| allenig, | allenig,
| allegebott, | allegebott,
| anne’geh, | anne’geh,
| anner, | anner,
| appel, | appel,
| artlich, | artlich,
| alleweil, | alleweil,
| awer, | awer,
| ängsterlich, | ängsterlich,
| High German. | English.
| Auch, | Also,
| allein, | alone,
| jeden augenblick, | every moment,
| hin gehen, | to go there,
| ander, | other,
| apfel, | apple,
| sonderbar, | wonderful,
| ebenjetzt, | even now,
| aber, | but,
| ängstlich, | afraid.

B.

| P. G. | Pfälzisch.
| Backoufe, | Backoufe,
| ball, | ball,
| baam, | baam,
| beem (bame), | bam,
| batsche (im wasser), | batsche,
| babbere, | babbere,
| bass uf, | bass uf,
| beer, | beer,
| beerebaum, | beerebaum,
| bibi, bibiche, | bib’che,
| buchele, | buchele,
| bissel, | bissel,
| blabbere, | blabbere,
| blo, | blo,
| blosbalk, | blosbalg,
| bollere, | bollere,
| bu, | bu,
| buwe, | buwe,
| buddle, | buttle,
| High German. | English.
| Backofen, | Bakeoven,
| bald, | soon,
| baum, | tree,
| bäume, | trees,
| waten, | to wade,
| schnell schwetzen, | rapid talk,
| pass auf, | take care,
| birne, | pear,
| birnebaum, | pear tree,
| kleines huhn, | little chicken,
| buchlein, | small book,
| wenig, | little,
| eilig blabbern, | idle talk,
| blau, | blue,
| blasebalg, | bellows,
| poltern, | make noise,
| büblein, | boy,
| knaben, | boys,
| flasche, | bottle.

C.

| P. G. | Pfälzisch.
| Christ owet, | Christ owet,
| Christel, | Christel,
| clafeer, | clavier,
| High German. | English.
| Christ abend, | Christmas eve,
| Christiana, | Christian,
| clavier, | piano-forte.

D.

| P. G. | Pfälzisch.
| Dabber, | Dabber,
| dahl, | dahl,
| dambnudle, | dambnudle,
| dochterle, | dochterle,
| deheem, | deheem,
| deiwel, | deiwel,
| deel, | deel,
| dir, | dir,
| der wu, | der wu,
| dichel’che | dichel’che,
| dings, | dings,
| dodte-lad, | dodte-lad,
| darmlich, | darmlich,
| dreckich, | drecket,
| dummele, | dummele,
| dun’er, | dun ihr,
| drick’le, | trickele,
| der wo, | der wo,
| der zwett, | der zwett,

High German.

English.

| Geschwind, | Hurry,
| thal, | dale,
| dampfnudle, | dumpling,
| tochterlein, | little daughter,
| daheim, | at home,
| teufel, | devil,
| theil, | part,
| dir, | your,
| der welcher, | that who,
| tuchlein, | small cloth,
| dinge, | things,
| tode-lad, | coffin,
| taumlich, | dizzy,
| schlammig, | muddy,
| eilen, | hurrying,
| thut ihr, | do you,
| trockenen, | to dry,
| der welche, | which one,
| der zweite, | the second.

E.

| P. G. | Pfälzisch.
| Ebber, | ebber,
| ebbes, | ebbes,
| eche, | eche,
| eifrig, | eifrig,
| ehnder, | ehnder,
| egens, | egens,
| e’letzig, | e’letzig,
| elle-bohe, | elle-boh’,
| eme, | em’,
| er’beere, | er’beere,
| emol, | emol,
| end, | en’,
| ent, | ent,
| High German. | English.
| etwer, | some one,
| etwas, | something,
| eiche, | oak,
| eifrig, | industrious,
| früher, | sooner,
| eigens, | own,
| vereinzelt, | single,
| ellbogen, | elbow,
| ihm, | him,
| erdbeere, | strawberry,
| einmal, | once,
| eine, | one,
| ende, | end,
| ente, | duck.

F.

| P. G. | Pfälzisch.
| Flicke, | flicke,
| fraa, | fraa,
| fremm, | fremm,
| frog, | froh’,
| High German. | English.
| flicken, | mend,
| frau, | woman, wife,
| fremde, | stranger,
| fragen, | ask.

G.

| P. G. | Pfälzisch.
| Gackere, | gackere,
| galje, | galje,
| gale, | geel,
| g’for, | g’for,
| geh, | geh,
| geloffe, | geloffe,
| gedu, | gedu,
| gelle, | gel’,
| g’nunk, | g’nunk,
| glawe, | glaw’,
| glei, | glei’,
| gro, | gro’,
| geblanzt, | geplanzt,
| grumbeere, | grundbeere,
| gummera, | gurken,
| High German. | English.
| gackern, | to cackle,
| galgen, | gallows,
| gelb, | yellow,
| gefahr, | danger,
| gehen, | to go,
| gelaufen, | walked,
| gethan, | done,
| gelt, | is it not true?
| genug, | enough,
| glauben, | believing,
| gleich, | soon,
| grau, | grey,
| gepflanzt, | planted,
| kartoffeln, | potatoes,
| gurken, | cucumbers.

H.

| P. G. | Pfälzisch.
| Hensching, | han’sche,
| hab, | hann,
| ha’mer, | ha’mer,
| ha’wer, | ha’wer,
| hell, | hel’,
| hem, | hem’,
| herr jeh, | herr jeh,
| he’wel, | he’wel,
| hickele, | hückele,
| hinkel, | hinkel,
| hucke, | hucke,
| hochzich, | hochzich,
| hunne, | hunne,
| hunnert, | hunnert,
| huscht, | hascht,
| heemzu, | heemzu,
| High German. | English.
| handschuh, | gloves,
| haben, | to have,
| haben wir, | have we,
| hafer, | oats,
| hölle, | hell,
| Herr-Jesus, | Lord Jesus,
| hügel, | hill,
| hemde, | shirt,
| hückeln, hupfen, | to hop, or leap,
| huhn, | chicken,
| sitzen, | to sit,
| hochzeit, | wedding,
| unten, | below,
| hundert, | hundred,
| hast, | have,
| heim zu, | homeward.

I.

P. G.

Pfälzisch.

| Is, | is,
| is’m, | is’m,
| iwer, | iwer,
| iw’rig, | iw’rig,
| ich frog, | ich frog,
| High German. | English.
| ist, | is,
| ist ihm, | is he,
| über, | over,
| übrig, | left over,
| ich frage, | I ask.

J.

| P. G. | Pfälzisch.
| Johr, | Jahr,
| jarelich, | jährlich,
| jauchze, | jauchze’,
| junghaet, | junghaet,
| jud, | jud,
| High German. | English.
| Jahr, | year,
| jährlich, | yearly,
| jauchzen, | to shout,
| jungheit, | newness, or young
| jude, | jew.

K.

| P. G. | Pfälzisch.
| Kawfe, | Kaufe,
| kapp, | kapp,
| kenne, | ka’,
| knopp, | knopp,
| kohle, | kohle,
| krapsche, | krapsche,
| kreisch, | kreisch,
| krott, | krott,
| kumm’rad, | kummerad,
| High German. | English.
| kaufen, | to buy,
| mütze, | cap,
| kein, | none,
| knopf, | button,
| kohlen, | coal,
| zusammen raffen, | to grasp,
| schrei, | yell,
| kröte, | toad,
| kamerad, | comrade.

L.

| P. G. | Pfälzisch.
| Laab, | lab,
| lappes, | lappes,
| lebdag, | lebdah’,
| lehne, | lehne,
| lefze, | lefze,
| ledig, | lerig,
| letz, | letz,
| lewendig, | lewendig,
| lutzer, | lutzer,
| High German. | English.
| laub, | loaf,
| muthloser mensch, | spiritless man,
| lebenzeit, | lifetime,
| leihen, | to loan,
| lippen, | lips,
| leidig, | tiresome,
| verkehrt, | wrong,
| lebendig, | alive,
| laterne, | lantern.

M.

| P. G. | Pfälzisch.
| Maad, | mad,
| mäd, | mäd, or mere,
| maha, | maha,
| mag, | mag,
| mais’che, | mais’che,
| manch’, | manch’,
| meh’, | meh’,
| mehner, | mehner,
| millich, | milch,
| munder, | munder,
| High German. | English.
| magd, | maid,
| mädcher, | girls,
| magen, | stomach,
| magen, | may,
| mäuslein, | little mouse,
| manig, | many,
| mehr, | more,
| milch, | milk,
| munter, | active.

N.

| P. G. | Pfälzisch.
| Näz, | näz,
| nau, | nau,
| ne, | ne,
| net, | net,
| newel, | newel,
| newe, | newe,
| newe naus, | newe naus,
| nexe, | nexe,
| ne-wer, | ’ne-wer,
| nix, | nix,
| nochber, | nachber,
| nix batte, | nix batte,
| High German. | English.
| faden, zwirn, | thread,
| nun, jezt, | now,
| nein, | no,
| nicht, | not,
| nebel, | mist,
| neben, | at the side,
| neben aus, | out at the side,
| necken, | to tease,
| hin über, | the other side,
| nichts, | nothing,
| nachbar, | neighbor,
| nichts nutzen, | does no good.

O.

| P. G. | Pfälzisch.
| Oftmole, | oftmal,
| oufe, | oufe,
| ostera, | ostera,
| owet, | owend,
| owwe, | owe,
| High German. | English.
| oftmals, | oftentime,
| ofen, | stove,
| ostern, | easter,
| abend, | evening,
| oben, | above.

P.

| P. G. | Pfälzisch.
| Paad, | pad,
| pann, | pann,
| parre, | parre,
| persching, | persiche,
| pishbere, | pishbere,
| protzig, | prozig,

pattereesel,

perdreesel,
(heard in
Lorraine)

| High German. | English.
| pfad, | path,
| pfanne, | pan,
| pfarrer, | parson,
| pfersiche, | peach,
| wispern, | to whisper,
| mürrisch, | peevish,
| rebhuhn, | partridge.

R.

| P. G. | Pfälzisch.
| Rappele, | rappelle,
| rechele, | rechele,
| reckel’che, | reckel’che,
| reche, | reche,
| reff, | reff,
| reh’ert, | rehe’,
| roll duwak, | rool dawak,
| roppe, | roppe,
| runner, | r’under,
| High German. | English.
| rappeleln, | rattle,
| rechnen, | reckon,
| röcklein, | small coat,
| rechen, | rake,
| futter behälter, | manger,
| regen, | rain,
| rollen tabak, | roll tobacco,
| rupfen, | to pluck,
| hereunter, | down here.

S.

| P. G. | Pfälzisch.
| Sag, | sah’,
| shank, | shank,
| sheckig, | sheckig,
| schunke, | schinke,
| schlosee, | schlosee, hagel,
| schlippe, | schlüppe,
| seller, | seller,
| sellemol, | sellemol,
| sehne, | seh’,
| sin un schand, | sin un scha’,
| siwe, | siwe,
| schtrump, | schtrump,
| schproch, | schprach,
| schun, | schon,
| schtee, | schtee’,
| schtiwel, | schtieb’l,
| schmeisse, | schmeisse’,
| schlofe, | schlafe,
| schornschtee, | schornschtee,
| schträle, | schtriegel,
| schpell, | steck-nodel,
| High German. | English.
| sagen, | say,
| schrank, | cupboard,
| gefleckt, | speckled,
| schinken, | ham,
| hagel, | hail,
| schlüpen, | to slide,
| jener, | that one,
| jenerzeit, | that time,
| sehen, | to see,
| sünd und schande, | sin and shame,
| sieben, | seven,
| strumpf, | stocking,
| schprache, | language,
| schon, | already,
| stein, | stone,
| stiefel, | boots,
| werfen, | to throw,
| schlafen, | to sleep,
| schornstein, | chimney,
| kamin, | comb,
| stecknadel, | pin.

T.

| P. G. | Pfälzisch.
| Triweliere, | triweliere,
| tu-wock or duwack, | tabak,
| tadele, | tadele,
| tanze, | tanze,
| teivel, or deivel, | teufel,
| High German. | English.
| qualen, | to torment,
| tabak, | tobacco,
| tadelen, | to censure,
| tanzen, | to dance,
| teufel, | devil.

U.

| P. G. | Pfälzisch.
| Uf, | uf,
| un, | un,
| unne, | unne,
| High German. | English.
| auf, | up,
| und, | and,
| unten, | under.

V.

| P. G. | Pfälzisch.
| Vechel’che, | vechel’che,
| verretsche, | verrätsche,
| verbunne, | verbunne,
| verwische, | verwische,
| verschreckt, | verschreckt,
| High German. | English.
| vöglein, | small bird,
| klatschen, | to slander,
| verbunden, | joined,
| erwischen, | to catch,
| schrecken, | scared.

W.

| P. G. | Pfälzisch.
| Witt du, | witt du,
| wollen’er, | wollen’r,
| wore-et, | woret,
| wu, | wu,
| High German. | English.
| wilst du, | will you,
| wollt ihr, | will you,
| wahrheit, | truth,
| wo, | where.

Z.

| P. G. | Pfälzisch.
| Zamme, | zamme,
| zipple, | zipple,
| zwee, | zwee,
| ze zwett, | ze zwett,
| zeitig, | zeitig,
| High German. | English.
| zusammen, | together,
| zipfel, | tip-top,
| zwei, | two,
| zu zwett, | both,
| reif, zeitig, | ripe.

APPENDIX C.

Brief sketches of the rulers in England, Germany, and the Palatinate from 1682 to 1770, the period of the great exodus of German Palatines to Pennsylvania.

KINGS OF ENGLAND. 1660-1820.

Charles ii.: King of England, was born May 29, 1630, and died Feb. 6, 1685; lived four years after he made his grant of Pennsylvania to William Penn. He was son of Charles I. who was tried for treason, and executed at Whitehall in January 1649. Charles was not a good king. Dr. Brewer, one of his biographers, says of him, that he was a good-natured, shrewd, and witty; but indolent, selfish, and insincere. His profligacy was scandalous, and his extravagance frightful. The duke of Buckingham, one of his favorite companions, wrote a mock epitaph for him after his death, which was as follows:

Here lies our mutton-eating king,
Whose word no man relies on;
He never said a foolish thing,
And never did a wise one.

James ii.—Charles II. was succeeded by his brother James II., a zealous Roman Catholic. His right to the throne was disputed by the duke of Monmouth, but the latter was taken prisoner and beheaded. James suspended the statutes which had been passed against the Catholics, which angered the Protestants, who invited his son-in-law William of Orange to become their king. The prince of Orange accepted the invitation; came to England in November 1688. James raised an army against him, but was defeated near the river Boyne in Ireland July 1, 1690, after which he fled to France where he died in exile.

William and Mary.—James was followed by his daughter, and her husband who reigned jointly as William III. and Mary II. from 1689 until December 27, 1694, when Mary died, after which William reigned alone until his death which occurred in 1702.

One of his biographers describes William as a man of middle stature, slender, delicate, subject to asthma. He was plain in manners, reserved, cold, and inflexible. His judgment was sound, his courage intrepid, his penetration most acute, and the greatest general of his age.

We have seen in these pages, how he made war against Louis XIV., the French king, in order to succor the persecuted Palatines. England made great progress under his rule, and William and Mary will always be remembered as among the best of English sovereigns.

Anne.—After the death of William III., Anne, the second daughter of James II., came to the throne of England. She was born February 6, 1665, and died August 1, 1714, after a reign of 12 years. She has been described by one of her biographers, as having been of good natural capacity; but not well educated; her temper was mild; her manners coarse; her disposition affectionate, and her charity unbounded. This last virtue agrees with the statement that many Palatines came to America, and to Pennsylvania as the result of her benefactions.

George i.—After Anne’s death in 1714 George I., elector of Hanover, and duke of Brunswick, was crowned king of England. He was in the line of succession to the British throne, by reason of being a great-grandson of James I. He was also a cousin of Queen Anne. He was born March 28, 1660, reigned from 1714 until he died June 12, 1727. He has been described as having been of middle size, his countenance and expression, and his whole appearance undignified. He was sensible and industrious; plain and simple in his mode of life after the manner of the Germans; and grave, and heartless. He had no love for England when he came to the throne, and never acquired any. He was profoundly ignorant of the English language, and of England’s laws and its history. It is said of him that he never learned to speak the English language with any degree of accuracy.

George ii.: son of the former, succeeded to the throne in 1727, and reigned until 1760, a period of a little more than 33 years. He was born at Hanover, Nov. 10, 1683; and died Oct. 1760. His predelictions for Germany were quite as strong as those of his father. In personal appearance, he was low in stature, carried himself very erect; had prominent eyes; a high nose, and receding forehead. He was reserved and cautious in his manner, violent, and obstinate, covetous and mean. He was a soldier and had no other accomplishment.

George iii., who followed George II. to the British throne, was a grand-son of the latter, having been born June 4, 1738. He was a son of Frederick Louis, prince of Wales. He reigned from 1760, until Jan. 29, 1820, when he died.

Americans have a better knowledge of George III. than any of his immediate predecessors, because he was on the British throne during the Revolutionary War. As all the grievances of the American colonies were charged against his account, the American youths have learned to know him in history as a wicked tyrant, although the real tyrants were his ministers, against whom the greater indignation should at all times have been directed. The British ministry had much more to do with shaping the British policy, with regard to the American colonies both before, and during the war than the king had. George III. suffered much on account of the infirmities of his mind. It gave way five times during his reign viz: in 1764, 1788, 1801, 1804, and the last time in 1810, after which the full vigor of his mind was never restored.

It is said of him, that when in full possession of his faculties, that he was a man of great courage, and steadiness of purpose; was temperate, faithful and conscientious; religious, moral, and benevolent; but bigoted and obstinate. His court was a model of decorum, and his domestic life irreproachable.

GERMAN EMPERORS.

Leopold i., was born June 9, 1640; died May 5, 1705. He was emperor of the Holy Roman Empire, from 1658 until 1705. The empire was also called the German-Roman Empire. The name “Holy Roman Empire,” is the result of the theoretical pretensions, that the German emperors, were the representatives of the ancient Roman emperors, who asserted authority over all the nations of Western and Central Europe. The empire comprised all the German-speaking people, but so far as any exercise of imperial power was concerned, it was more the outward show and trappings of an empire, than one exercising and maintaining its authority as such.

All the European nations during the centuries of the first German empire were incessantly at war with each other, and the German government was feeble in asserting its imperial authority, while certain of the German states were continually at war, with one nation or another, other of the German states, were fighting among themselves. To meet all the exigencies of war which were constantly rising Leopold was wholly unfitted. He was a weak and incompetent prince, and many of the ravages of the French armies in the Palatinate during the last half of the seventeenth century, were largely the result of his incapacity. He was neither soldier, nor statesman, and chaos ran riot in Germany during his long and miserable reign.

Joseph i., Leopold’s son, succeeded to the throne of the empire after the death of his father. He was born July 26, 1678; crowned emperor of Germany in 1705, and reigned until his death, which occurred April 17, 1711. He was involved in the war of the Spanish succession.

That war also involved France, during the reign of Louis XIV. The latter grew tired of the war, and offered to relinquish his claims and end it. As an inducement for Germany to make peace, Louis offered the emperor to restore Alsatia and Strasburg which had been taken from Germany several years before. This offer Joseph rejected, and it is a remarkable fact that Germany was not able to recover Alsatia and Strasburg for 160 years thereafter; not until it was returned to its ancient owners as spoil of the Franco-German war in 1871, although Louis offered to return it as a condition of peace in 1710. The emperor Joseph was no improvement on his father as a ruler.

Karl vi., the pretender to the throne of Spain, and second son of Leopold I., became emperor of Germany after the death of Joseph I., in 1711. Karl was elected to the imperial throne, as all German emperors were in those days. He issued a decree about 1714, known as the “Pragmatic Sanction,” establishing the succession to the throne of the German empire for his dynasty.

Karl was born Oct 1, 1685; died Oct. 20, 1740. He reigned 29 years, during which time there were the usual happenings of war, diplomatic intrigue, without any exhibition of statesmanship, or the least progress in advancing Germany to the rank of even a second-rate nation. Up to this period Germany as a nation can scarcely be said to have a history as such, and at no time could the German empire lay claim to the exercise of authority over all the states which were theoretically under its sway.

Maria Theresa. With her coming to the throne the real history of Germany may be said to begin. She came to the throne after the death of her father, Karl VI. by virtue of the pragmatic sanction. She was born May 13, 1717; died Nov. 29, 1780. With her reign began a vigorous administration of the affairs of the empire. It has been said of her that: “Since the death of Maximilian II. in 1576, Austria had no male ruler so prudent, just and energetic as this woman.” Five years after her coming to the throne her husband Francis I. died, when his eldest son succeeded to the title as “Emperor,” but he was only emperor in name, so long as the empress lived, for she kept the conduct of affairs in her own hands.

Bayard Taylor, in his “History of Germany,” says of her: “Maria Theresa, like all the Hapsburgs, after Ferdinand I., had grown up under the influence of the Jesuits, and her ideas of justice were limited by her religious bigotry. In other respects she was wise and liberal; she effected a complete reorganization of the government, establishing special departments of justice, industry and commerce; she thought to develop the resources of the country; abolish torture, introduced a new criminal code,—in short, she neglected scarcely any important interests of the people, except their education and their religious freedom. Nevertheless she was always jealous of the presumptions of Rome, and prevented as far as she was able, the immediate dependence of the Catholic clergy upon the Pope.”

Maria Theresa was an empress of great ability, and during her reign, the German states made great progress in many of the useful arts, and industries. Her usefulness came to an end with her death in 1780, and the first German empire ceased to exist in 1806, when Francis II. abdicated as its last emperor.

PALATINE ELECTORS.

Philip Wilhelm.—This prince who was born in 1651, became the elector of the Palatinate in 1685, and continued to rule for three years when he died. During his short reign the Palatinate was comparatively free from the ravages of contending armies. The rapacity of Louis XIV. gave the poor Palatines a brief respite; but their misery was not long postponed, for the French king made war again upon them immediately upon the accession of Philip Wilhelm’s successor.

John Wilhelm.—With the death of the former prince, his eldest son, John Wilhelm became the ruling prince Palatine. He was born in 1658, and came to the electorate in 1688, and continued, until his death in 1716. It was during his reign, that the beautiful Palatinate was made a desert, by the armies of Louis XIV., in his efforts to usurp the electorate for his sister-in-law, the duchess of Orleans. He was a weak prince, and resided away from his dominion for a great part of the time of the French occupation of the Palatinate. He established himself at Düsseldorf, from whence he feebly directed the operations against the French hordes who were engaged in devastating the Rhine provinces.

Charles Philip.—This prince was a brother of the former, and became elector in 1717. He was born in 1661, and his reign ended with his death in 1742. Louis XIV. died two years before the reign of Charles Philip began, so the latter was spared the ordeal of defending the Palatinate, against the ravages of the French soldiers, although his dominion continued to be overrun by the soldiers of other European nations at war with each other. Charles Philip was a fair sort of a prince, and tried to restore the Palatinate to some of its ancient splendor, and made some progress in that direction. He restored the castle of Heidelberg in a great measure, and built the beautiful castle at Mannheim, and lived there during a part of his reign.

Charles Theodore.—This prince belonged to a collateral branch of the line of Palatine electors, and was born in 1724; came to the electorate in 1742, and continued his rule until 1799, when he died. He was a noble prince, highly educated, and devoted to the fine arts. Numerous monuments of his reign remain around Heidelberg, and the beautiful bridge over the Neckar is one of them, which is pointed out to the tourists by the citizens of Heidelberg with great pride at the present day.

In 1777, Charles Theodore inherited the throne of Bavaria, and then removed his court to Munich. He continued however in the electorate of the Palatinate until his death, when he was succeeded by Maximilian Joseph, who continued in the electorate only two years, when it became extinct, by virtue of the terms of the treaty of Luneville, which was dictated by Napoleon; whereby France received all of the Palatinate, on the west bank of the Rhine, and Baden received the greater part of it, situated on the east side. That part of the Palatinate on the west bank of the Rhine taken by France was ceded back to Germany, after the downfall of Napoleon in 1815. Maximilian Joseph was the last ruling Palatine elector. He came to the electorate in 1799, and in 1802 to 1803 he transferred his rights to the newly established electoral House of Baden. In 1806 he became King of Bavaria.

There were other princes in the direct line of descent of the Palatine electors who kept up the title for a number of years after the electorate was abolished, but none ever reigned, and the line is now extinct.

APPENDIX D.
A CHRONOLOGICAL TABLE OF ALL THE REIGNING PRINCES OF THE PALATINATE.

1. Conrad of Hohenstaufen.—He was the first prince invested with the electoral dignity. He was raised to the honor by his brother the Emperor Frederick I. (Barbarossa); was born in 1127; died in 1195.

2. Henry the Guelph.—Son of Henry the Lion—duke of Brunswick; became Pfalzgrave of the Rhine after Conrad. Born in 1169; died 1227.

3. Henry the Younger; married Mathilda of Brabant; born in 1194; died 1214.

4. Louis i., duke of Bavaria, was made elector by the German emperor for distinguished military services, although Henry the Younger’s father was still living, and was the rightful heir of Conrad of Hohenstaufen.

5. Otho, the Illustrious, son of Louis I. followed the latter; he was born in 1206; died 1253.

6. Louis ii., the Severe, son of Otho I., married Mary of Brabant, whom he had beheaded without cause in a fit of jealousy.

7. Rudolph i., son of Louis, at the beginning reigned in common with his brother Louis of Bavaria, who afterwards became emperor. He divided his lands, and retained the Palatinate of the Rhine, while his brother kept Bavaria.

8. Adolphus the Just, became invested with the electorate by his uncle emperor Louis, in 1320. He was born in 1300; died in 1327.

9. Rudolph ii., next succeeded to the electorate.

10. Rupert i., the Elder, reigned according to the will of his uncle, in common with his brother, and for the deceased brother Adolphus. He was the founder of the University of Heidelberg in 1346, and he also built the Rupertina Chapel of Heidelberg castle. He was born in 1309; died 1390.

11. Rupert ii., the Hard-hearted, son of Adolph, came next to the electorate. He was an impetuous soldier, who participated in most of the numerous wars, which distracted the peace of Germany in his day.

12. Rupert iii., surnamed the Good, and on account of his love of justice, called Justinian; the only son of Rupert II. He was popular with all the German princes, who elected him king of Germany in 1400. He built the Rupert’s building in the castle of Heidelberg. He was born in 1352; died in 1410.

13. Louis iii., surnamed the Bearded, was the ancestor of the Heidelberg line of princes. He was patron of Conrad of Constance in 1414, and confined Pope John XXIII, for a long time in the Rudolph building a prisoner. Born in 1376; died in 1437.

14. Louis iv., surnamed the Candid, came next and reigned 12 years. He was born in 1424; died 1449.

15. Frederick i., the Victorious, brother of Louis IV. became elector at the latter’s death. German affairs were in a greatly disturbed condition, when he came to the electorate. He became arrayed against the emperor, and likewise the Pope; but he triumphed over all his enemies, and his name lives in history as one of the most eminent of all the German princes. He was born in 1425; died in 1476.

16. Philip, the Sincere, son of Louis IV. succeeded Frederick I. He was a prince who was devoted to the sciences, and who labored for the welfare of the people over whom he reigned. Born in 1448; died in 1508.

17. Louis v., surnamed the Pacific; was so called because he labored unceasingly, at the meetings of the diets of the German empire, to pacify all the princes who differed in their religious opinions. He was the son of Philip; and was a great disciple of peace; he nevertheless prepared for war by constructing important fortifications of the castle of Heidelberg. He constructed the Louis building of the castle, and connected the grand rampart, the Louis tower, the watch tower, and the big tower, by subterranean passages. His reign was a comparatively pacific one, and lasted 36 years. It was during his reign that Martin Luther launched his Reformation, and nailed the 95 theses on the church door of Wittenberg; and was excommunicated by the pope from the church of Rome. Louis was born in 1478; died 1544.

18. Frederick ii., the Wise, was a brother of Louis V. His reign lasted only six years; but he improved that time by completing the fortifications of the Heidelberg castle, and built the new court in connection with it. He was born in 1482; died in 1550.

19. Otho Henry, the Magnanimous, was next to obtain the electorate. He received his name because of his generosity in protecting the arts and sciences; and it was he who built the most beautiful architectural monument of the castle of Heidelberg,—the Otho-Henry building. He was born in 1502; died in 1559.

20. Frederick iii., the Pious, had an uneventful reign, excepting the religious contentions, in consequence of the Reformation. Born in 1515; died 1570.

21. Louis vi., son of the former, reigned 15 years, from 1559 until 1576. Born in 1539; died in 1583.

22. John Casimir, brother of the former, came to the electorate in 1576. He was a chivalrous prince; much esteemed by his subjects. He built the first Big Tun, in the cellar of the Heidelberg castle. Born in 1543; died 1592.

23. Frederick iv., son of Louis VI., reigned 18 years, during which he erected the splendid Frederick’s building with its new chapel in the castle. Born 1574; died 1610.

24. Frederick v., surnamed the Patient, married Elizabeth Stuart of England, grand-daughter of the unfortunate Mary, Queen of Scots. He made many fine architectural additions to the castle of Heidelberg; among them the palace of Elizabeth, and its magnificent gate which is still admired in the grandeur of its ruins by thousands of tourists each year. Frederick was elected king of Bohemia in 1619, but soon after he was defeated in a great battle near Prague by the emperor Ferdinand, and thereby lost his crown, when he fled to Holland, where he died without ever returning to the castle of his ancestors. Born in 1596; died 1632.

25. Charles Louis, surnamed the German Solomon, returned to his hereditary lands in 1649, as heir to the Palatinate. He restored the castle which had been almost ruined by the ravages of the Thirty Years’ War, and made himself useful in re-establishing prosperity to the Palatinate, which had been severely afflicted, and he soon succeeded in making the rich soil of the valleys of the Upper Rhine, and Neckar bloom again like a garden. He was a noble prince; born in 1617, died in 1680 while on his way from Mannheim to Heidelberg in an orchard in the village of Edingen.

26. Charles, his only son and heir succeeded him. He died without issue and his sister married to the duke of Orleans, brother of Louis XIV. of France, who made pretensions to the electorate, and was supported by Louis. Her unjust claim was the signal for the unfortunate war, which brought the ruin and desolation to the Palatinate, the details of which have been recounted in these pages.

Sketches of the Palatine electors, 27, 28, 29 and 30 have already been noted among the sketches of the counts Palatine, who reigned during the period of the German emigration from the Palatinate to America.

APPENDIX E.
GLOSSARY.

Aduatuci, a German tribe formed out of the fragments of the Cimbrians and Teutonians.

Aix-la-Chapelle, Treaty of. A treaty which ended the war of the Austrian Succession, in October, 1748.

Alsace, a province of the German empire, a part of which was conquered by France in the Thirty Years’ War, and the whole ceded to France in 1791. The whole was ceded back to Germany in 1871, as a result of the Franco-Prussian war.

Alemanni, a German race of Suevic origin, which occupied the region from the Main to the Danube, in the first part of the third century A. D., afterwards extending to the Rhine, including Alsace, and part of Eastern Switzerland.

Ampsivari, a German tribe described by Tacitus, which continued until the fifth century A. D., when it became merged in the Franks.

Anne, Queen, succeeded to the throne of England in 1702, upon the death of William III.

Aryan, a Sanscrit word, applied to all nations who speak a language mainly derived from the Sanscrit, or ancient Hindoo, as the Greek, Latin, Gothic, English, German and all kindred tongues.

Arendt, Baron von, a patriot and German soldier, of the Revolution.

Attila, a famous king of the Huns, whose conquests in Europe were a terrific marvel, leaving ruin and desolation in his trail, in consequence of which he was called the “Scourge of God.” He died in 453 A. D.

Austrian Succession, War of. The emperor Charles VI. had no male heirs, and he sought to get all the powers concerned to accede to the Pragmatic Sanction, by which the Austrian possessions were to go to his eldest daughter Maria Theresa. The elector of Bavaria, Charles Albert, never gave consent to the pragmatic sanction, and when Charles the VI. died, he claimed the Austrian throne, as being next in line of succession. A desire seized the European powers to break up the Austrian state, and divide its dominions among them. Great Britain was the only European nation which came to the aid of Austria. After eight years of war, Maria Theresa was confirmed as empress of Austria.

B.

Batavi, a German tribe, which took sides with the Romans, and enlisted in its armies, against the rest of the Germans. They became ultimately merged in the Salic Franks.

Barbarians, foreigners; people whose names have “Bar” prefixed to them, signifying son of.

Bingen, a city of Germany, in Hesse, situated at the junction of the Nahe with the Rhine.

Boehm, Philip, an early German Reformed preacher in Pennsylvania.

Boufflers, a marshal of France under Louis XIV., born January, 1644; died August 20, 1711.

Brainard, David, a missionary among the Indians, born at Haddonfield, Conn., April 20, 1718; died at Northampton, Mass., Oct. 9, 1749.

Brandywine, Battle of. A battle fought on the creek of that name in Pennsylvania, during the Revolutionary war, at which the Americans under Washington were defeated by the British under General Howe.

Burgundians, a German tribe, which settled in Gaul, and founded the kingdom of Burgundy in the fifth century.

C.

Calvert, Cecilius (Lord Baltimore). The first proprietor of Maryland; born about the year 1605; died at London Nov. 30, 1675.

Chauci, a German tribe, first mentioned by Strabo, living about the shores of the North Sea, on both sides of the Weser. They disappeared in the fifth century, becoming merged with the Saxons.

Chatti, a powerful German tribe, some of whom left their abode in the region of the Main, and became absorbed by the Salic Franks. Those who remained, were the progenitors of the Hessians.

Cherusci, a German tribe, dwelling in the time of Caesar, west of the Elbe, about the middle Weser. Their name disappeared in the fifth century, when they became a constituent part of the Saxons.

Cimbrians, an ancient German tribe, inhabiting Northern Germany at an early day. With the Teutons as allies they invaded the Roman provinces in 113 B. C. They were afterwards “virtually exterminated,” by a Roman army under Marius.

Clovis, born about 465; died at Paris Sept. 8, 511. He was the founder of the Merovingian line of Frankish kings.

Conde, Prince de, born at Paris 1621; died at Fontainebleau, France, Dec. 11, 1686. He was a celebrated French general during the reign of Louis XIV., and took an active part in the devastation of the Palatinate.

Condrusii, a German tribe, occupying a part of Belgium, when they became first known. Their name disappeared from history at an early day.

D.

Dunkers, a sect of German American Baptists, called by themselves Brethren, founded in Westphalia, in 1708, by Alexander Mack.

Duras, de, a French general under Louis XIV.

E.

Eburones, a German tribe occupying a part of Belgium at the time the Romans first made their acquaintance.

Erlkönig, the subject of Goethe’s well-known poem. In German legend, a “goblin or personified natural power who haunts the Black Forest. He is particularly addicted to destroying children.”

F.

Finns, the natives of Finland, a colony of whom made settlement on the Delaware river within the present limits of Pennsylvania, as early as the year 1637.

Flemish, a Low German language of which the Dutch is a type.

Frederick, The Great, born at Berlin Jan. 24, 1712; died at Sans Souci near Potsdam Aug. 17, 1786. King of Prussia, and one of the greatest generals and statesmen of his time.

Franche-Comte, an ancient government of Eastern France. It was at one time a part of the old kingdom of Burgundy, but was annexed to France more than two hundred years ago.

Franks, the name assumed, in the third century A. D. by a confederation of German tribes, a branch of which founded the Merovingian monarchy, under Clovis (481-511).

Frankenthal, a town in the Palatinate, destroyed by the soldiers of Louis XIV.

Franklin, Benjamin, an American statesman, diplomat, philosopher, and author. Born at Boston, Mass., Jan. 17, 1706; died at Philadelphia April 17, 1790.

Frisii, a German tribe, on the North Sea, and the progenitors of the present race of Friesians in Friesland.

G.

German: Origin, of name unknown; is said to be neither of Latin, nor of German origin; claimed to be most probably Celtic.

“German Slave Trade,” a name contemptuously applied to the custom of selling German emigrants for the cost of their passage.

Germantown, a former borough of Pennsylvania, now a part of the municipality of Philadelphia. Founded by German Quakers in 1683.

Goths, a powerful Teutonic tribe, forming two historical divisions of the Visigoths, and Ostrogoths; branches of them settled early, in the present Servia, and Bulgaria; while others founded monarchies in France, Italy, and Spain. They became merged later into other races.

Graffenried, a Swiss colonist, in North Carolina, who helped to found Newbern.

H.

Hatto, Bishop, archbishop of Mainz; died about 970. According to a German legend, he was eaten alive by mice as a punishment for having burned to the ground a barn full of people during the time of a famine.

“Heemweh,” a characteristic poem by the late Rev. Heinrich Harbaugh in the Pennsylvania German dialect.

Heidelberg, a city in Baden, Germany, situated on the Neckar 12 miles from its junction with the Rhine at Mannheim. It was for many years the seat of the Palatine electors, and contains the famous castle built by them. Its ruins are said to be the most imposing in Europe.

Hendrickson, Cornelius, a navigator in the service of the Dutch East India Company, who explored the Delaware river, as far as the present site of Philadelphia in 1614.

Hermunduri, a German tribe, a branch of the Suevi. It is believed that they became the Thuringians.

Hessians, are the natives or inhabitants of Hesse in Germany. In this volume, the name is employed to designate the hireling soldiers which the Landgrave of Hesse-Cassel, and certain other German princes sold to the British government, to fight against American independence.

Hohenstaufen. The name of a German princely family, which has furnished the sovereigns to the first German empire, 1138-1254; also for a long period the Palatine electors, were supplied by the same family. The dynasty became extinct in 1268, when Conradin, the last of the line, was executed.

I.

Indo-European, applied to the languages of India and Europe, which are derived from the prehistoric Aryan language; also applies to the people or nations who speak those languages.

Inspirationists, a religious sect, some of whom found their way to Pennsylvania at an early day.

K

Key, John, the first white child born at Philadelphia, after Penn had laid out his city.

“King of the Palatines,” Graffenried one of the founders of Newbern, N. C., saved his life, after he was condemned to be burned at the stake, by pretending that he was “king of the Palatines.”

L.

Lawson, Samuel, a companion of Graffenried, whom the Tuscarora Indians burned at the stake.

Lexington, a city 11 miles from Boston, Mass. It is the scene of the first bloodshed of the American Revolution, April 19, 1775.

Longobardi, an early German tribe, known later as the Lombards, who founded the kingdom of Lombardy, which was overthrown by Charlemagne in 774.

Lorraine, a region on the border between France and Germany, formerly an independent duchy, conquered by France in the 17th century. The German part of it was ceded to Germany in 1871, in consequence of the treaty between France and Germany after the Franco-German war.

Lothaire, king of Lorraine, died 869.

Louis XIV., surnamed by the French, “Le Grand”—(the Great). He was born Sept. 5, 1638; died at Versailles Sept. 1715. The devastation of the Palatinate, by his soldiers, under his direction and approval, will always cause his memory to be execrated, throughout the civilized world.

Louvois, Francois, Marquis de, born at Paris Jan. 9, 1639; died July 16, 1691. A noted French statesman, minister of war under Louis XIV. and one of the chief instruments in the devastation of the Rhine provinces, 1666-1691.

Luneville, Treaty of. A treaty which the First Napoleon dominated, and in which most of the powers of continental Europe participated. It was concluded Feb. 9, 1801. By its terms France received all the territory on the west bank of the Rhine; Tuscany was ceded to Parma; and the Cisalpine, Ligurian, Helvetic, and Batavian republics were recognized. The end of the “Holy Roman Empire,” soon followed this treaty.

M.

Maintenon, Francoise d’Aubige, was born in prison at Niort, France, Nov. 27, 1635; died at St. Cyr near Versailles April 15, 1719. Her parents were in prison for political offenses when she was born. She became the second wife of Louis XIV. and is said to have exercised great influence over him with regard to his religious bigotry and his persecutions in the Palatinate.

Mannheim, a city of Baden, situated at the junction of the Neckar with the Rhine. It was founded in 1606; was destroyed during the Thirty Years’ War; rebuilt, and became the capital of the Palatinate in 1720.

Mainz, a city on the Rhine, and capital of Rhine-Hesse.

Marcomanni, a German tribe, branch of the Suevi. Drusus in his campaign found them on the middle and upper Rhine stoutly resisting his advance. They disappeared from history as a separate tribe in the fourth century.

Marsi, a German tribe, mentioned by Strabo, which dwelt in the region about Saxony, at the commencement of our era, which disappeared as a distinct tribe after the campaign of Germanicus.

Melac, a French officer under whose immediate direction Heidelberg was sacked and burned.

Mennonites, a religious sect founded in Europe in the 16th century. To escape persecution many of them emigrated to Pennsylvania.

Michel, Louis, a Swiss colonist in North Carolina who assisted in the founding of Newbern.

Muhlenberg, Heinrich Melchoir; born at Einbeck Prussia, Sept. 6, 1711; died at Trappe, Pa., Oct. 7, 1787. A German clergyman, and chief founder of the Lutheran Church in the United States.

Muhlenberg, John Peter Gabriel, son of the former, born at Trappe, Pa., Oct. 1, 1746; died near Philadelphia Oct. 1, 1807. He was a Lutheran clergyman, Major-General in the Revolutionary army; member of Congress, and United States Senator from Pennsylvania.

Mystics, a name common to several religious sects some of whose members came to Pennsylvania with the early German emigration.

O.

Oppenheim, a town in the province of Rhine-Hesse, 11 miles southwest of Mainz. It was one of the towns destroyed by the French soldiers.

Orleans, Duchess of, sister-in-law of Louis XIV. for whom the latter tried to usurp the Palatine electorate after the death of the elector Philip Wilhelm, which resulted in the war which devastated the Palatinate, and drove thousands of the inhabitants from their homes.

P.

Palatinate, a former German state, which ceased to exist as an independent state in 1801.

Pfalz, the German term for the Palatinate.

Pfälzer, an inhabitant of the Palatinate; and German term for Palatine.

Philippsburg, a town of Baden which suffered much from the wars of Louis XIV.

Purrysburg, a town in South Carolina, founded by German emigrants from the Palatinate early in the 18th century.

Penn, William, founder of Pennsylvania, who gave the province its first code of laws; born in London Oct. 14, 1664; died in England, July 30, 1718. He was a son of Admiral Sir William Penn. He was carefully educated, studied at Oxford; was converted to Quakerism, after which he was expelled from the university. He was repeatedly imprisoned, for preaching the Quaker doctrines, but continued in his faith to the end. After his father’s death, he inherited a claim against the British government of 16,000 pounds, on account of which Charles II. gave him the grant of Pennsylvania.

Q.

Quaker, one of a religious sect founded by George Fox, in England about the year 1650. The sect suffered much persecution in England which resulted in very many of them emigrating to Pennsylvania.

R.

Redemptioner, as applied to emigrants who were sold for their passage upon their arrival at American ports, one who redeemed his freedom by a term of service.

Reformation, specifically the religious movement commenced by Martin Luther, in the early part of the 16th century, which resulted in the formation of the various Protestant sects.

Rhenish Bavaria, the present Rhine Palatinate, with Speyer as the capital.

Roman Empire, founded about 500 years before the Christian era, and embracing at one time nearly the whole civilized world. It began to decline about the fifth century of our era, and later was compelled to give up nearly all its conquests of many centuries.

Ryswick, Treaty of. At the treaty signed at Ryswick, a village in Holland, Sept. 21, 1697, between France on the one side, and England, the Netherlands, Germany, and Spain on the other, by which Louis XIV., among other things, recognized William III. as king of England, thereby abandoning the cause of the Stuarts. As William III. had espoused the cause of the Palatines, against whom Louis had carried on a frightful war of devastation for many years, and as Germany was a party to the treaty, one of its conditions was that Louis was to withdraw his armies from the Palatinate.

S.

Sauer, Christopher, the pioneer printer of German newspapers in the United States. He began the publication of a German newspaper at Germantown, Pa., in 1739, which continued to be printed many years, exerting a great influence among the German settlers in Pennsylvania.

Salzburgers, refugees from the archbishopric of Salzburg in Austria, who emigrated on account of religious persecution. Many of them found their way to Georgia, and South Carolina.

Saxe-Gotha, an early German settlement in South Carolina, named from the principality in Germany, whence the first settlers came.

Saxon dialect, a dialect which came from a Low German dialect, and developed into the present literary or High German.

Schwenkfeld, Hans Kasper: Born in Silesia 1490; died in New Ulm, Germany, 1561. A German Protestant Mystic, persecuted by the Lutherans; founder of a sect of Schwenkfelders, or Schwenkfeldians, who emigrated to Pennsylvania in the 17th century.

Semnones, a German tribe, and a principal branch of the Suevi. Their name disappeared from history, at the end of the second century.

Separatists, a sect of religionists, who refuse to conform to, or be governed by any church or its forms.

Sicambrians, a powerful German tribe, in ancient times, which afterward became merged in the confederation of the Franks.

Spanish Succession, War of, a war arising out of the disputes about the succession in Spain on the death of Charles the II., which lasted from 1701 until 1714. It was fought between Louis I., emperor of Germany on the one side, and Louis XIV. of France, and his allies on the other. The emperor of Germany, and the king of France, each claimed the right to name the successor.

Speyer, the capital of the Rhenish Palatinate, situated at the junction of the Speier with the Rhine. It was totally destroyed by the French in 1689.

Suevi, is the collective name of a German people, known to Cesar, who describes them as the largest, and most warlike of the German tribes. In the fifth century the Suevi appeared as neighbors and allies of the Alemanni, with whom they acted as one people. They settled in the region of the headwaters of the Danube, where their name is still preserved in Swabia.

T.

Tesse, a French General operating in the Palatinate, afterward a Marshal of France; born 1651; died 1704.

Teutonians, a German tribe who with the Cimbrians, defeated several Roman armies, near the end of the second century B. C., but were defeated, and nearly destroyed, by Marius, at what is now Aix, France, in 102 B. C. They afterwards settled near the Lower Elbe.

Thirty Years’ War. A religious, and political war, which involved Germany, and other countries in Europe, and continued from 1618, until 1648. The struggle was begun between the Roman Catholics and Protestants, for the ascendency both religious and political. The immediate cause of the war was the result of the persecutions of Protestants by Ferdinand, when he became king of Bohemia. Protestant churches were closed in some places, and pulled down at others. Disturbances and persecutions of Protestants soon spread into Germany, and elsewhere. Protestant and Catholics alike armed, for the coming conflict, which continued for thirty years; coming to an end with the treaty of Westphalia, Oct. 24, 1648.

Tilly, a famous German general in the Thirty Years’ War, serving in the Imperial army. He was born in Belgium in February, 1559; died from a mortal wound received in a contest with Gustavus Adolphus, April 30, 1632.

Tory, one who during the Revolution, adhered to the British crown.

Trenton, Battle of. A victory gained by the Americans under Washington, over the British and Hessian mercenaries, Dec. 26, 1776.

Turenne, a celebrated French marshal; born at Sedan, France, Sept. 11, 1611; he devastated the Rhine provinces in 1674, and was killed by a cannon ball, while on a reconnoissance, near Sasbach, Baden.

Treves, a city in Rhenish Prussia, on the Moselle, noted for its Roman antiquities.

U.

Ubii, a German tribe, first mentioned by Caesar, who found them situated on the right bank of the Rhine, north of the Taunus region; their principal place was where the Cologne of to-day stands. They became ultimately merged in the Franks.

Utrecht, Treaty of. By this treaty the war of the Spanish succession came to an end, in 1713, between France on the one side, and Great Britain, the Netherlands, Savoy, and Portugal on the other. By it, Philip V. of France was confirmed as king of Spain, and France recognized the Protestant succession in England; Prussia was recognized as a kingdom, and Great Britain received Newfoundland, Nova Scotia, etc., in North America.

V.

Vandals, a German tribe, which made its first appearance in middle and southern Germany, in the first half of the fifth century. They ravaged Gaul, Spain, and North Africa, etc., and in 445, they ravaged Rome, doing much damage to treasures, art, and literature. They founded a kingdom in Africa with Carthage as its capital.

Verdun, Treaty of. A treaty made at Verdun, France, in 843, between the French emperor Lothaire, and his brother Ludwig the German. By this treaty, Lothaire was confirmed as emperor, and received Italy, and in general the region west of the Rhine and Alps, and east of the Rhine, etc.; Charles the Bald obtained the region west of Lothaire’s dominions, and Ludwig the region between the Rhine and the Elbe, which formed the nucleus of the first German empire.

W.

Weber, an imposter, who was executed at Charleston, S. C., for murder in the early days of the settlement of that state.

Westphalia, Treaty of. This treaty was concluded in 1648, and ended the Thirty Years’ War. Among the conditions of that treaty, the electoral house of the Palatinate received the Rhine Palatinate; and religious freedom was guaranteed, thereby saving Protestantism to Europe and to the world.

William III., King of England, 1689-1702.

Wolf, George, a son of a German emigrant from the Palatinate, and Governor of Pennsylvania 1829-1835, and founder of the Common School System of that state.

Transcriber’s note

Typos fixed; non-standard spelling and dialect retained.

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Table of Contents

- The Story of the Pennsylvania Germans

- DEDICATED

- PREFATORY NOTE.

- CONTENTS.

- CHAPTER I. INTRODUCTION.

- FOOTNOTES:

- CHAPTER II. THE PALATINATE,—(GERMAN PFALZ).

- CHAPTER III. THE DEVASTATION OF THE PALATINATE.

- CHAPTER IV. THE PROVINCE OF PENNSYLVANIA.

- CHAPTER V. GERMAN EMIGRATION TO PENNSYLVANIA.

- CHAPTER VI. GERMAN IMMIGRANTS IN SOME OF THE OTHER AMERICAN COLONIES.

- CHAPTER VII. THE QUAKERS, GERMANS, AND THE PROPRIETORS.

- CHAPTER VIII. THE PENNSYLVANIA GERMANS IN HISTORY.

- CHAPTER IX. THE PENNSYLVANIA GERMAN DIALECT.

- CHAPTER X. THE GERMAN AND DUTCH LANGUAGES.

- CHAPTER XI. SCHOOLS, CHURCHES, AND RELIGIOUS SECTS.

- CHAPTER XII. SOCIAL LIFE AND DOMESTIC CUSTOMS.

- CHAPTER XIII. LIFE IN PENNSYLVANIA IN THE EARLY DAYS.

- APPENDIX A. EXAMPLES OF PFÄLZISCH, AND SOUTH GERMAN DIALECTS.

- APPENDIX B. VOCABULARY.

- APPENDIX C.

- APPENDIX D. A CHRONOLOGICAL TABLE OF ALL THE REIGNING PRINCES OF THE PALATINATE.

- APPENDIX E. GLOSSARY.
- Transcriber’s note
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