The Beginning of the German Element in York County, Pennsylvania

219 Pages·1916·10.539 MB·English

by  Abdel Ross Wentz

lPenn6^l\>ania:
THE GERMAN INFLUENCE
SETTLEMENT AND DEVELOPMENT
IN ITS
H
marratfve anO Critical Ibistor^
PREPARED BY AUTHORITY OF
THE PENNSYLVANIA-GERMAN SOCIETY
PART XXVI
THE BEGINNINGS OF THE GERMAN ELEMENT
IN YORK COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA
PUBLISHED BY THE SOCIETY
publication Committee.
JULIUS F. SACHSE,I,itt.D.
DANIEL W. NEAD, M.D.
J. E. B. BUCKENHAM, M.D.

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ffieoinninos of the
German Blement In J^ork Countie
Pennsylvania
BY
ABDEL ROSS WENTZ, B.D., Ph.D.
ProfessorofHistory in Pennsylvania College, Gettysburg, andCuratorof the
HistoricalSociety oftheEvangelical LutheranChurch in the
United StatesofAmerica
Part XXVI. of a Narrative and Critical History
Published by
The Pennsylvania-German Society
LANCASTER, PA.
IQ16
Copyrighted 1916
BY THE
iPenns^IvaniasOermanSociety.
Pressof
TheNewera printingCompaht
Lancaster, pa.
.
CONTENTS.
Table of Contents 5
Foreword 6, 7
—
Chapter I. —The First White Men in the County . . 9-20
Chapter II. The First Settlers 21-36
—
Chapter III. The First Settlement 37-68
—
Chapter IV—. Other Early Settlements 69-95
Chapter V. ^Whence the Germans Came and Why 96-123
— .
Chapter VI. Outstanding Characteristics 124-147
—
Chapter VII. The Limestone Soil 148-174
—
Chapter VIII—. Their Place in Pennsylvania History . 175-185
Chapter IX. Their Place in General American His-
tory 186-196
—
Appendix A. Letter of Samuel Blunston 197-202
—
Appendix B. Signers of Letter to Maryland 203, 204
—
Appendix C.—Inventory of Jacob Welshover's Estate . 205-207
Appendix D. Bibliography 208-217

FOREWORD.
^^^Bj^HE sources usually determine the stream. The
m m beginnings of a movement generally contain a
M I I
prophecy of its later development. For that
I
^^^^^ reason it has been thought worth while to
make a study of the origin of the present Ger-
man element in York County. The position of Pennsyl-
vania in the affairs of the nation and the position of York
County in the affairs of the state, make it profitable to
investigate the earliest beginnings of the strongest ele-
ment in the county. The study has been fruitful for it
has dealt with virgin soil.
It has not been possible in a single monograph like this
to trace the history of these settlements beyond their very
beginnings. Nor has the attempt been made to follow out
all possible lines of investigation, such as the economic, the
sociological, the political, the industrial, the religious, and
the linguistic. To set forth the full history of the Ger-
mans in the county will require a series of volumes. The
present treatise is merely a study preliminary to such a full
presentation of their history. It has been regarded as
sufficient to show in this treatise how those German settle-
ments took their beginnings, and to set forth such char-
acteristics of the original settlers and such features of the
original settlements as will enable the reader to understand
8 The Pennsylvania-German Society.
the relation of this element to the subsequent history of the
county, to the general movement of Germans in this coun-
try, to the colonial history of the state of Pennsylvania,
and to the general course of events in our national history.
Our study therefore has barely covered two decades and
has in no case carried us beyond the middle of the eight-
eenth century. But this brief span of years lies in the
most important because the most formative period of our
history.
The York County with which we deal is the county as
bounded on the map of today. Other geographical ex-
pressions also are used with their present-day significance.
An effort has been made to weave the body of the text
into the form of a continuous narrative and so far as pos-
sible to relegate to the footnotes all references to sources,
all allusions merely incidental, and all details not directly
relevant. Specific acknowledgment of all sources is made
at the places where they are used and these are also col-
lated in the Bibliography (Appendix D). The Blunston
letters that are quoted or referred to are always found
in the " Miscellaneous Manuscripts of York and Cumber-
land Counties, 1738-1806" (see Bibliography) unless
otherwise indicated.
Gettysburg, Pa.,
April 30, 1914.