The Rhineland
The historic Rhineland lies along both banks of the Middle Rhine. It lies east of Germany’s border with France, Luxembourg, Belgium, and the Netherlands. During the mid-1700s, millions of Germans from the Lowlands migrated to America. These people essentially came from the North Rhine area and include (today) the northern states (Bundesländer): Schleswig-Holstein, Hamburg, Lower Saxony, Bremen, North Rhine-Westphalia, Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania, Saxony-Anhalt, and Brandenburg.
The common port of entry in the United States was Philadelphia. An examination of the early counties in Pennsylvania reveals individual families and religious congregations seeking free land in America.
From 1682 to 1776, Pennsylvania was the central point of emigration from Germany, France, and Switzerland. Penn's liberal views and the illiberal course of the government of New York toward the Germans induced many to come to this Province. In the first period of twenty years, from 1682-1702, comparatively few Germans arrived: not above two hundred families. They located principally at Germantown. They were nearly all Plattdeutsch (Low German) from Cleves, a Duchy in Westphalia, and arrived in 1683–1685. Leaving their native country at that time, they providentially escaped the desolation of the French war of 1689, which laid waste to the city of Worms, near which town they resided, and ravaged the country.
Germans in Pennsylvania
Francis Daniel Pastorius, born at Sommerhausen in Franconia, Germany, on Sept. 26, 1651, arrived at Philadelphia with his family in the ship
America, Captain Joseph Wasey, on Aug. 20, 1683. He was accompanied by a few German emigrants: Jacob Schumacher, George Weitmueller, Isaac Dilbeck, his wife and two children, Abraham and Jacob; Thomas Gasper, Conrad Bacher, alias Rutter, and an English maid, Frances Simpson. Other families soon followed Pastorius.
Collections of georgiapioneers.com
(Quakers - Pennsylvania Books)
1. Concord Meeting, Westmoreland County
2. Providence Quaker Meeting, Fayette County
3. Redstone Meeting, Fayette County
4. Westland Quaker Meeting, Washington County
5. Quaker abbreviations (Encyclopedia of Quaker Genealogy by Hinshaw)
6. Philadelphia Meeting from Encyclopedia of Quaker Genealogy by Hinshaw
7. Wrightstown Marriages
8. Falls Meeting from Encyclopedia of Quaker Genealogy by Hinshaw
9. Falls Monthly Meeting Marriages
10. Richland Marriages
11. Burlington Meeting from Encyclopedia of Quaker Genealogy by Hinshaw
12. Salem Meeting from Encyclopedia of Quaker Genealogy by Hinshaw
First Settlers of Germantown, Pennsylvania
Pastorius located where he laid out Germantown the same year in which he arrived in Pennsylvania. Pastorius first settled in Germantown on October 12th, 1683. He brought thirteen families into the town. In less than five years, some fifty houses had been erected.
1702-1727 Early German Emigration
Between forty and fifty thousand persons left their native country during the ravages of the troops and bloody persecutions of Louis XIV.
Germans and other Protestants emigrated to the English colonies in America. In 1705, several German Reformed Protestants fled to a town in Rhenish Prussia, where they remained some time before going to Holland. In 1707, they embarked for New York. But the strong winds carried its passengers into the Delaware Bay. Determined, however, to reach the place for which they were destined to have a home among the Dutch, they took the overland route from Philadelphia to New York.
Collections of georgiapioneers.com
1. A Collection of Upwards of Thirty Thousand Names of German, Swiss, Dutch, French and others. Immigrants in Pennsylvania from 1727 to 1776 with a statement of the names of ships, whence they sailed, and the date of their arrival in Philadelphia by I. Daniel Rupp.
2. The Beginnings of the German Element in York County, Pennsylvania by Abdel Ross Wentz.
3. Pennsylvania-German Pioneers
4. German and Swiss Settlements of Colonial Pennsylvania
5. The German Emigration from New York into Pennsylvania, Part 1 & 2
6. German Newspapers of Lebanon County
7. The German Settlement Society of Philadelphia, and its colony, Herman, Missouri
8. The Hessians and other German Auxiliaries of Great Britain in the Revolutionary War
9. The Penn Germania, Vols. 1 & 2
10. The Pennsylvania-German in the Settlement of Maryland
11. The Pennsylvania-German, Vols 1-10
12. The Pennsylvania-German, Volume 10, Part
The Germans in North Carolina
A popular settlement during the mid-1700s was in western North Carolina — and in the eastern Tennessee counties of Blount, Caswell, Greene, Spencer, Sevier, Sullivan, Washington, and Wayne. Interestingly, land that was once along the North Carolina border became part of the State of Franklin in April of 1784 when North Carolina voted to give Congress 29,000,000 acres of land to help relieve debt. Presumably, this included the later-formed Jonesborough, Tennessee.
Collections of georgiapioneers.com
(Books)
1. German Settlements of Lutheran Church in North and South Carolina by G. D. Bernheim.
Tennessee Germans
Many Germans settled in Pennsylvania while others trekked southwestward into North Carolina, Kentucky, Tennessee, Virginia, and Indiana. A popular settlement during the mid 1700s was the State of Franklin, formed in 1784, which included the Eastern Tennessee counties of Blount, Caswell, Greene, Spencer, Sevier, Sullivan, Washington, and Wayne. Interestingly, land that was once along the North Carolina border became part of Franklin. The vote was to give Congress some 29,000,000 acres to help relieve debt.
Presumably, this included (later formed) Jonesborough, Tennessee.
Some German names in Sullivan County, Tennessee are: Netherland, Loudermilk, Bachman, Buckellen, Baugh, Beachboard, Torbitt, Pimberton, etc.
Collections of georgiapioneers.com
1. Sullivan County, Tennessee Wills & Estates 1838-1915
Germans in South Carolina
Germans began migrating to South Carolina in 1674, settling in Charleston, Orangeburg, and the Dutch Fork.
Collections of georgiapioneers.com
(Books)
1. Vessels which went to South Carolina: 1741 Transport; 1752 Ann Galley; 1752 Richard and Mary (went to Orangeburgh)
Orangeburg County Collection:
1. Index to Orangeburg District Intestate Records 1819
2. German Swiss mentioned in the Orangeburg Society Newsletter
3. Some Images of the Dantzler Plats
4. Orangeburg, SC Books
5. Orangeburg, History
6. St. Matthews 1818 Tax List
Collections from Orangeburg Historical Society
7. Loose Legal Papers 1730-1801
8. Index to Plats 1735-1852
9. Members of Willow Springs Baptist Church
(Lexington County Collection:)
1. Index to Lexington County Estates 1865-1900
2. Culclasure and Inabinet Families
3. Estate of Adam Keitt, witness: N. C. D. Culclasure
4. Wills and Inventories 1776 to 1818
5. Deeds 1798-1805
Richland County Collection
1. Wills 1787-1864
2. List of Settlers at Dutch Fork
3. Land Records 1785-1865
4. Loyalists in Dutch Fork during the American Revolution
Germans in Shenandoah Valley of Virginia
The Germans landed in Pennsylvania before traveling along the Great Wagon Road and settling in the Shenandoah Valley of Virginia. The great valley encompassed the counties of Shenandoah, Rockingham, and Frederick. They were known as the Valley Dutch farmers who established rich agricultural communities, built distinctive limestone architecture, and accounted for a majority of the local population by the American Revolution.
Collections of georgiapioneers.com
(Books)
1. German Settlements in Indiana by William A. Fritsch
2. The German Element in the Shenandoah Valley by John Walter Wayland
3. Shenandoah County Wills and Inventories 1772-1789
4. Frederick County Wills 1743-1802
Collections of georgiapioneers.com
1. Shenandoah County Wills & Inventories 1772-1789
2. Books: Shenandoah Valley and Shenandoah Valley: German Element
Germans in Indiana
Among the early inhabitants we find men with German names, evidently Germans from Alsace-Lorraine, who had immigrated with the French. When the English tried to seize this wild country in which the Indians were still on the warpath, Virginia sent General George Rogers Clark with an army west over the Ohio to take possession of it for the United States. Among his troops there were many German Americans, one of whom, Captain Leonard Helm, was over the Ohio to take possession of it for the United States. Among his troops there were many German Americans, one of whom. Captain Leonard Helm was appointed commander of Ft. Vincennes and agent for the Indians of the Wabash valley. When an English force under Colonel Hamilton came south to re-capture Vincennes, they found Helm in command of the fort with but one soldier, the French inhabitants having fled. Butler, in his " History of Kentucky," relays how Captain Helm, at the approach of the English, bravely placed a loaded cannon before the entrance of the fort and upon their coming within hailing distance, commanded them to halt, emphasizing his demand by brandishing a firebrand andshouting that he would shoot if they came nearer. Hereupon, the English proposed a parley in which they agreed that Captain Helm and his men should have free passage from the fort with their arms. With these words of the journal, the young Indiana government announced itself in the territory. In 1800, the civilized population totaled 5,651 souls, while large hordes of Indians roamed about in this wild country. In the year of 1811, when Chief Tecumseh and his brother, the Prophet, encouraged by the British in Canada, stirred up the Indians against the white settlers in the territory, Governor Harrison held conferences with the Indians striving to pacify them, but when it was obvious that the Indians were determined to go on the war-path, he gathered troops and with his little army of 910 men, of whom 213 were militia from Vincennes, Corydon and other places along the Wabash, and marched against the Indians. Coming upon the Prophet's town in the neighborhood of the present city of Lafayette on the morning of November 7th, 1811, he was attacked by the Indians, and the battle of Tippecanoe ensued. This was the first battle in the second war with England, General Harrison dispersing the Indians and destroying their stronghold.
Among the men who distinguished themselves in this battle were two officers, whose names plainly indicate their German ancestry. One was Captain Geiger, who with his men conducted himself bravely to the last. The other. Colonel Luke Decker, commanded part of the militia. When the Legislature met in Vincennes, the assembly passed a vote of thanks to Colonel Decker and his men for the valor with which they had fought for their homes and firesides. Luke Decker, who lived in Knox County, not far from Decker's Station, was a man of great energy and versatility and held several prominent positions in the new territory. In a fight with Indians on the Mississinewa River, December 12, 1812, Lieutenant Waltz of Captain Markel's company was killed and praised for his valor in the reports of his superior officers. In the year 1796, some Swiss citizens of the Canton Waadt, attracted by a German traveler's vivid descriptions of the country, organized a company to buy land on the Ohio River and cultivate private vineyards. They bought a large tract of land in what is now Switzerland County and founded the town of Vevay on the Ohio River in Indiana. In 1810, considerable wine was made here while the women of the colony wove straw hats, which they sold to Cincinnati merchants and to the boats passing on the Ohio River. This was the first settlement of the Swiss; later we will mention others. In the year 1816, after the separation of the state of Indiana from Illinois, the Constitutional Convention assembled at Corydon, where the new capital of Indiana had been transferred. The convention opened on June 10th, and the first constitution of the state was adopted, and Indiana became a state of the Union on December 11, 1816.
New Harmony, Indiana
In a fertile valley on the lower Wabash River about sixty miles from its confluence with the Ohio River, lies the town of New Harmony. Under the government of Duke Charles Eugene of Württemberg, Germany (by the grace of Napoleon I, the rulers of this German province are now kings), who had established the Karlsschule, the alma mater of the great German poet Friedrich Schiller, who lived in the rural village of Iptingen, near the city of Maulbronn, an active and intelligent weaver by the name of Johann George Rapp. Besides weaving, he cultivated a few acres of land for a wine press. During his leisure hours, he read the Bible. Becoming intensely imbued with communistic ideas, he began to preach in his twenty-fourth year, urging the return of the customs.
Lutherans in Georgia
Lutherans to Georgia A prime example is one of the Lutheran element who came to America with their ministers, Reverend John Martin Bolzius and Reverend Israel Christian Gronau who left Salzburg, Austria ca 1733. The Jerusalem Lutheran Church in Ebenezer, Georgia (Effingham County) served as a home for the Austrians for generations. The record book of this church was written in the German language. Although the original survived, it is not easily legible.
Collections of georgiapioneers.com
1. Ebenezer Town Map
2. Auspurg Emigrants
3. Kaufbeuern Emigrants
4. Kemten Emigrants
5. Leutkirch Emigrants
6. Liebrach Emigrants
7. Lindau Emigrants
8. Lindaus Emigrants
9. Memmingen Emigrants
10. Nordlinger Emigrants
11. Effingham County Wills 1829-1935
12. Effingham County Appraisements 1827-1865
13. Effingham County Marriages 1757-1845
14. Effingham County Plats 1783-1800
15. Effingham County Militia Records 1774-1838; 1794
16. New Jerusalem Church Minutes, etc. (written in German)