Madison County Virginia USGenWeb Archives History - Books .....Chapter 1, The German Lutheran Colonists Near Germanna Virginia, 1717-1725 1908
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Book Title: History Of The Hebron Lutheran Church, Madison County, Virginia, From 1717 To 1907

History of the Hebron Lutheran Church, Madison County, Virginia, from 1717-1907.
By Rev. William Peter Huddle, Pastor. Henkel and Company, Printers and
Publishers, New Market, VA. 1908. Copyright 1907, W. P. Huddle. 

------------------------

Chapter 1.
The German Lutheran Colonists near Germanna, Virginia. 1717-1725.

The Germans have had no small part in the settlement, growth, and development of
this country. Their influence has been a considerable factor in determining its
social, political, and religious life. While the English, in point of time,
preceded them as colonists, yet they have equaled them in patient endurance,
heroic endeavor, and in loyalty to their adopted country. They have filled
prominent positions in church and state. They have contributed their part in
developing the resources, creating the wealth, and insuring the general
prosperity of this great nation. German blood flows today in the veins of a
large per cent. of our citizens. We have only to hear their names spoken to
recognize their German origin.

A large part of the early German colonists, as well as those German immigrants
who arrived in more recent years, were of the Lutheran faith. But the first
representatives of the Lutheran Church in the territory of the United States are
not to be found among the Germans, but among the Dutch colonists from Holland
who settled at New Amsterdam, now New York City, near the close of the first
quarter of the seventeenth century. Closely following them, came the Swedes who
settled along the Delaware River and built their churches. Then came the Germans
in small numbers, toward the close of the seventeenth century. In the next fifty
years great nnumbers had flocked to our shores, settling in New York,
Pennsylvania, Virginia, the Carolinas, &c. Among the colonies that sailed for
Pennsylvania, ther was one, small in numbers, poor in material wealth, but rich
in faith, which, after a disastrous voyage, was cast by the hand of Providence
upon the shores of Virginia, where it took root, grew, and became the first
permanent Lutheran settlement in the State.

Other colonists of the same faith followed a few years later. Together, they
established Hebron church a few miles east of the Blue Ridge, in the valley of
the Robinson River and White Oak Run, in what is now Madison County. For years
it has been known as the "Old Dutch Church." This however is a misnomer, for it
was the Germans and not the Dutch who built and worshiped in it. It has stood
successively in three counties, Orange, Culpeper, and Madison. And today after a
lapse of 167 years it still stands as a monument to the piety, industry, and
persistent efforts of these German Lutherans to establish a church of their
fathers in the new world. The congregation is known to have been in continued
existence for at least a hundred and seventy-four years, and is the oldest of
the Lutheran faith in Virginia and in the South. The original part of the
building is the oldest Lutheran church built, still used and owned by Lutherans
in the United States. It is older than the Trappe church near Philadelphia. The
"Old Swedes church" (1699) at Wilmington Delaware and the Gloria Dei(1700) at
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, are both older, and were built by Lutherans; but
they have long been in the possession of the Episcopalians. The history,
therefore, of this church building and congregation should be of much interest
to Germans and especially to Lutherans. 

It was in the year 1717 that a little band of German Lutheran emigrants [1] left
the shores of the Fatherland, and set sail with the hope of finding a better
country in the wilds of Pennsylvania. Their vessel stopped at London. There the
captain of the ship was imprisoned for debt for several weeks. By this delay,
part of the ship's provisions were consumed. What remained was insufficient to
meet the demands of the passengers and many died of hunger. The reset never
reached their intended destination. For after a trying and disastrous voyage in
which they were driven southward by a storm, twenty families, consisting of
about eighty persons, were landed on the Virginia coast-- strangers in a strange
land--where they were sold by the captain of the vessel to pay the cost of their
transportation. Governor Alexander Spottswood advanced the money, and they
became his indentured servants. They were settled by him on the south side of
the Rappahannock (Rapidan) River, near [2] Germanna, about twenty miles above
Fredericksburg, where he had established three years before  German Reformed
colony [3] from Nassau-Siegen, consisting of twelve families of forty-two persons.

The names of eight of them are known [3 1/2] They are Christopher Zimmerman,
Matthew (Michael) Smith, Michael Cook, Andrew Kerker, Henry Snyder, Christopher
Pavlur or Parlur (later known as Beller, Barler, and Barlow), Hans Herren Burger
(John Harnsburger) and John Motz. The other twelve are probably Conrad Amburger,
Balthaser Blankenbeker, Nicholas Blankenbeker, Matthias Blankenbeker, Michael
Clore, George Sheible, George Mayer, Michael Kaifer, Michael Holt, George Utz,
Zerichias Fleshman and Andrew Ballenger. The twelve [4] last named, together
with Nicholas Yager, John Broyles, Philip Paulitz, Henry Snyder, Michael Smith,
Michael Cook, were being sued [5] in the court of Spottsylvania County in 1724
for money which Col. Spottswood claimed was still due him for their
transportation. Three of them make the oath that they came into this country in
1717. It might be concluded that the eighteen sued came the same year. If this
is so, the number of families must have been at least twenty four, for five of
those known to have been of the 1717 colony had settled for their passage money
and the name of George Long would have to be included.

The particular localities in Germany from which they came have not been
determined positively. Efforts are now being made to solve the problem which we
hope will prove successful. From the naturalization papers of Nicholas Yager and
his son Adam, we are informed that the former was a native of Hesse and that the
latter was born near Dusseldorf in the Dukedom of Neuburg, Empire of Germany.
Now both Nicholas Yager and his son may have come with the first colony, but the
evidence seems to put their arrival a year later. In the Moravian Diaries, [6]
it is said that most of the colonists living in the neighborhood of Hebron
church in 1748, came from Wurtemburg. This may be true, but at that time there
were about eighty families. The first colonists were in the minority, and hence
the statement may or may not be evidence as to the province from which they
came. Rev. John Caspar Stoever's account of the Hebron congregation, as well as
a report printed at Weimar a few years later, states that they came from Alsace,
the Palatinate, and neighboring districts. It seems certain, therefore, that
they did not all come from the same province in Germany. The above statements
are indefinite, it is true, but they embody all the information we have been
able to get. 

The cause of their emigration to this country is found in these words, "on
account of the then well known severe persecutions." Not being able to determine
the provinces from which they came, the conditions under which they lived, civil
and religious, can be described only in a general way. At the close of the
seventeenth and the beginning of the eighteenth centuries, deplorable conditions
prevailed in Germany. The hardships and sufferings of the masses of the people
were almost too great for endurance. The wars of Louis XIV and that of the
Spanish Succession had well nigh exhausted Germany and especially those
provinces along the Rhine. In addition to the effects of the war, the
extravagance, cruelty, and despotism of the rulers, the contentions that existed
between the different confessions of religion, followed by intolerance and
persecution-- all these more or less were felt throughout Germany, --so that the
lot of her citizens became exceedingly hard to bear. The general misery became
so great that many Protestants--especially from the upper provinces of the
Rhine-- emigrated to America rather than continue to live under such conditions.
Among those who emigrated from Germany we find the colony of 1717.

Another Lutheran colony (and it may be colonies), consisting of forty families,
arrived between 1717 and 1720. These also had to pay the cost of their
transportation to Virginia by serving the English. And though they were
scattered during their servitude, when they became free most of them must have
settled in the neighborhood of their countrymen. There is some evidence of a
colony in 1718. Although January seems to have been an unusual month for vessels
to arrive, yet Frederic Cobler [7] makes oath that he came into this country in
this month and year. If his statement is true, others also must have arrived
that year. With him we would put Nicholas Yager, Philip Paulitz, John Broyles
(1), Jacob Broyles, and George Long [7 1/2]. All these may have arrived a year
earlier or later. There is positive evidence of a colony in Nov., 1719. The
following persons [8] made oath that they came into this country the above named
month and year: John Blowers, Meredith Helms, Godfrey Ridge, John Bell, Thomas
Jackman, Joseph Right, and John Broyles (2).

The first colonists, after their arrival in the wilderness near Germanna, went
earnestly to work to build rude huts, establish new homes, and provide a living
for themselves and families. It is said of them, as it is of the German Reformed
colonists, that they supported themselves in all quietness by agriculture and
cattle raising. According to tradition they were employed in Governor
Spottswood's iron mines. This, it seems certain, is true. Those familiar with
the management of blast furnaces in which charcoal is the fuel used, will
doubtless believe with us that they were employed part of the time in the
manufacture of iron and also raised a few cattle and farmed on a small scale.
BUt it seems that they did not prosper and that their lot was a sad and bitter
one. They were boor, and it was with difficulty that they could get the
necessaries of life. They had not only to provide for their families, but also
to return by service or money their transportation charges. The hardships,
temptations, and struggles through which they passed could not be written even
if we have full data. They could get no lands of their own and set up no
permanent homes. If their complaint was just they received hard treatement at
the hands of Col. Spottswood. Rev. John Caspar Stoever says that they underwent
great hardships during their first eight years. In 1724, they were having
trouble-- a number of them had been sued in the court of Spottsylvania County.
And these suits were pending for several months.

Tradition says that they at length became disgusted with the poverty of the soil
and their hard life in the mines, and determined to leave the Governor's lands
and secure land of their own. This determination to leave, no doubt, caused him
to institute proceedings against them, as he wished to retain them in his
service. On April 23, 1724, Zerichias Fleshman and George Utz laid a petition
[9] before the Colonial Council at Williamsburg in behalf of themselves and
fourteen other high-Germans then living near Germanna, in which they complain
that Col. Spottswood had unjustly sued them in the court of Spottsylvania County
for the non-performance of a certain agreement pretended to have been entered
into with him in consideration of money advanced them upon their transportation
into the colony. They claimed that they had performed and were ready to perform
any agreement made with him. He, they said, had refused to give them a copy of
the agreement for which they had asked; hence they, having been already sued,
applied to the Colonial Council in order to secure justice. An attorney, Mr.
Henry Conyers was allowed them to conduct their defense. As far as we have been
able to ascertain, the suits against three of them were dismissed: that against
a fourth was dismissed by the plaintiff, upon the consent of the defendant to
pay the fees of the clerk and sheriff. We have found no records of how the
others were finally settled. 

What provision, it may be asked, had these Lutherans to supply their spiritual
needs, during these eight years? Rev. Henry Haeger, the German Reformed minister
who had a congregation at Germanna and preached in the block-house, served his
own people and the Lutherans "in common." But after his removal to Fauquier
County about 1721, they had no minister as far as known. In the absence of
proof, we think it can safely be said that they had services in their homes
conducted by one or more of their number. These would consist of song, prayer,
scripture reading, exhortation and reading a sermon or selection from some
devotional work. 

Some writers have claimed that Rev. Gerhard Henkel was at one time pastor of
this colony. Of this, we have found no evidence we consider credible. The claim
may be true. But in all the references we have seen there are found statements
that cannot be true. Hence we must believe that while he may have visited and
preached for the people, he was not their pastor. Rev. John Caspar Stoever ought
to have known, and he says that he himself was the first pastor and that for
sixteen years they had been without public worship and a pastor. Sixteen years
date back to 1717.

The German Reformed and Lutheran colonists [10] sent Mr. Christopher Zollikoffer
of St. Gall in Switzerland, as their agent to Germany to secure an assistant
minister to Rev. Mr. Haeger and to collect funds to establish a church and
school. He carried with him to England a petition which was laid before the
Society for Propagating the Gospel in Foreign Parts, October 2, 1719. In it,
they asked the Society for the support of a minister. The result of this
petition which was not acted upon till March 18, 1721, was that the Society
refused to grant their request, but agreed to give them 25 copies of the Common
Prayer in the German language. Mr. Zollikoffer collected money and books in
Germany and returned about the fall of 1720. How the funds were used and what
became of the German Prayer Books, we have not learned. 

Did the Lutherans have a church in the place of their first settlement? There is
no evidence that they had. This is true of both the Lutherans and the German
Reformed. Certainly there was none in 1719. It is true, there existed the German
Parish of St. George [11] from 1717 to about 1720. This included an area
extending five miles on each side of the town of Germanna. Whether the Lutherans
were included in this area or not, we do not know, for the exact locality of
their settlement has not been determined. In all probability they were. The
General Assembly [12] of Virginia created the Episcopal Parish of St. George in
1720, when Spottsylvania became a county. An appropriation of 500 pounds was
made for building a church, courthouse, &c. This church afterward built by Col.
Spottswood was not a Lutheran, but an Episcopal church of the Parish of St. George.

[1] Acta-Historico-Ecclesiastica, Vol. III., p. 1094, Weimar, 1738. Virginia
Magazine of History and Biography, Vol. XIV., No. 2, p. 153.

[2] The Lutheran colony did not settle at but near Germanna. In 1732, Col. Byrd
saw there a baker's dozen of ruinous tenements where so many German families had
lived. Both colonies had moved; the German Reformed to Fauquier, the Lutheran to
Madison County. If the Lutherans had lived at Germanna, there would have been
more houses. 

[3] In April, 1714, this colony was settled at Germanna on the south side of the
Rapidan River in the Northeast corner of what is now Orange (then Essex) County,
about twenty-five miles above Fredericksburg. Their names were John Kemper,
Jacob Holtzclaw, John Spillman, John Martin, John and Herman Fishback, John
Hoffman, Joseph Cuntz (Coons), Jacob Rickart (Rector), Dillman Weaver, Milchert
(Melchior) Brumback, and Peter Hitt (Will Book A. Spottsylvania C.H., Va., pp.
69, 73, 74.) It is stated positively that this colony was German Reformed. Some
Lutheran writers have claimed that it was Lutheran. This is certainly a mistake,
as we know from having looked up the records at Spottsylvania and Orange
Counties, and also the Land Books at Richmond, Va. We do not hesitate to say
they were not Lutherans. And even if they were, they certainly did not assist in
the founding of the Lutheran church on the Robinson River. John Hoffman and
Jacob Holtzclaw of this colony did patent lands near the church not earlier than
Sept., 1728. The former resided in Madison County, and is known to have been a
Presbyterian (Calvinist) or German Reformed; the latter as far as we can
ascertain lived and died in Fauquier County. Certainly, he was a resident of
that county as late as 1747 (D. Book, Orange Co., No. 11, p. 83) Some of the
descendants of these colonists became members of Hebron church in later years,
but they were not among its founders. The Reformed colony left Germanna about
1721 and located at Germantown in Fauquier County. Rev. Henry Haeger, their
pastor, went with them to their new settlement where he continued his work and
where he died in 1737. For a full history of this colony, see Journal of the
Presbyterian Historical Society, Vol. II., Nos. 1, 2, 3, and the Kemper
Genealogy by Willis M Kemper.

[3 1/2] Court Order Book, 1720-1730, pp. 89, 107, 108. Spottsylvania Co., Va.

[4] Will Book A, Spottsylvania Co., p. 87.

[5] Virginia Magazine of History and Biography, Vol. XII., pp. 350, 351.

[6] Virginia Magazine of History and Biography, Vol. XII., p. 230.

[7] Will Book A, Spottsylvania County, p. 69.

[7 1/2] Court Order Book Spottsylvania County, 1724-1730, pp. 142, 352. Also
Will Book A, Spottsylvania County, p. 69.

[8] Will Book A, Spottsylvania County, pp. 68, 69.

[9] Va. Mag. of Hist. and Biog., Vol XII., pp. 350, 351.

[10] Perry's collections, p. 247 f. Journal of the Presbyterian Historical
Society, Vol. II., No 2., pp. 105, 107.

[11] Journal of the Presbyterian Historical Society, Vol. II., No. 2, p. 99.

[12] Hening's Statutes, Vol. IV., p. 78.

[13] Present State of Virginia, p. 59.



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