/yi?// ca.1' /' dnS y ®¥ tttitBijIttanta^Ip^rman $S>mitin. PROCEEDINGS AND ADDRESSES AT YORK, OCTOBER PA., 14, 1910 Vol. XXI. (rt/ VH.i PUBLISHED BY THE SOCIETY v.Zt 1912 EDITION 600 COPIES Ipublicatfon Committee JULIUS F. SACHSE, LITT.D. DANIEL W. NEAD, M.D. E. B. BUCKENHAM, M.D. J. Copyrighted 1912 BY The Pennsylvania-German Society Pressof The NewEra printing Company Lancaster, Pa. 1427084 TABLE OF CONTENTS Contents 3 Officers of the Society 4 Minutes of the Meeting at York 5 Address of John E. Roller, Esq 6 Report of the Secretary 23 Report of the Treasurer 27 Electionof Officers 27 New President's Address 35 Toasts 37 Obituaries 61 fl>Cttn0?lVattia: The German Influence in its Settle- ment and Development : A UniqueManuscript by Rev. Peter Miller (Brother Jabez) together with Beissel's 99 Mystical Proverbs. Part XXIII. The Wayside InnsontheLancaster Roadside, between Philadelphia and Lancaster, by Julius Fried- rich Sachse. Guide to the Old Moravian Cemetery of Bethlehem, Pa., 1742-1910, by Augustus Schultze. \ 111 : OFFICERS OF THE SOCIETY FOR 1910-1911. President: Prof. Henry E. Jacobs, D.D., S.T.D., LL.D. Vice-Presidents : Robert C. Bair, Esq. B. F. Fackenthal, Esq. Secretary: Prof. George Taylor Ettinger, Ph.D. Treasurer : Julius F. Sachse, Litt. D. Executive Committee Terms Expire 1911. Naaman H. Keyser, D.D.S. William K. T. Sahm, M.D. Term Expires 1912. Abraham S. Schropp. Terms Expire 1913. Rev. Theodore E. Schmauk, D.D., LL.D. Rev. Nathan C. Schaeffer, Ph.D., D.D., LL.D. Terms Expire 1914. Rev. L. Kryder Evans, D.D. J. E. Burnett Buckenham, M.D. Terms Expire 1915. Daniel W. Nead, M.D. Hon. Maurice C. Eby. REPORT OF THE PROCEEDINGS OF THE Pennsylvania-German Society AT ITS TWENTIETH ANNUAL MEETING Held at York, Pa. On Thursday, October 14, 1910 ^"HE Executive Committee of the Society held its regular quarterly meeting in the parlor of the Colonial Hotel, York, Pa., at seven o'clock, on Thursday evening, October 13, 1910, for the transaction of business. Morning Session. The twentieth annual meeting of the Pennsylvania- German Society was held in the Parish House of Christ Lutheran Church, York, Pa., Friday, October 14, 1910. The Local Committee, of which Robert C. Bair, Esq., one of the Vice-Presidents of the Society, was the Chair- 6 The Pennsylvania-German Society. man, had made such excellent arrangements that the large gathering of members and their friends at once felt thor- oughly at home. The meeting was called to order at 10.30 a.m., by the President of the Society, John E. Roller, Esq., of Har- risonburg, Virginia, after which the Divine Blessing was asked by the Reverend G. W. Enders, D.D., pastor of Christ Lutheran Church, York, Pa. Dr. E. T. Jeffers then extended a most cordial welcome to the members of the Society on behalf of the city of York and its people. On account of the lateness of the hour the response of Dr. Theodore E. Schmauk on the subject "The Twentieth Anniversary of our Society" was postponed until the dinner in the evening. Address of John E. Roller, Esq., of Harrisonburg, Virginia, as President of the Pennsylvania- German Society. In the very latest issue of the North Carolina Booklet, a little magazine published by the North Carolina Society of the Daughters of the Revolution, a reference is made to the German settlement in Orange County, of that State, which may be read as illustrative of the character of the German settlement throughout the South. "The German Settlement, or Dutch, as it was uni- versally called by others of the County, was not large and it was segregated by its language and by the habits of the people themselves. They took little or no interest in public affairs, and had their own churches and their own preachers, who preached to them in the German language." These settlers, says the historian, came from Lancaster, Chester, York, and Bucks and Berks counties, Pennsyl- President's Annual Address. 7 vania, and while the migration began as early as 1745 it was at its flood tide from 1750 to 1775. Some of these settlers were careful enough to bring with them certificates of character, from their friends and neighbors, and one of these certificates, which is still preserved by a family in the South as a precious heirloom, is from "their friends and neighbors, inhabitants of the townships of Heidelberg and places adjacent, in the county of Berks, in the Province of Pennsylvania," to the effect that "they are of a sober, honest, peaceable, and good behavior, and are about to depart, in the good esteem of the neighborhood." It is stated, also that the chief cause of this migration to the South was the French and Indian War from—1750 to about 1755, the date of Braddock's defeat, which on ac- count—of the activity of the Northern and Western In- dians had vastly increased the migration from Pennsyl- vania and from the Valley of Virginia. It is said, also, that there was a severe winter in 1750- 51, and that a ki—lling frost which had come unexpectedly, at an early date it may—be possible that some of you antiquarians remember it had also helped to induce or had determined some of these immigrants to go south- ward. The fact that this quiet settlement, "segregated" as the writer says it was, by reason of its godliness, and faithful observance of the duties, which they owed to their church and their God, exerted a profound influence upon its neighbors and associates is found in the further statement that "These newcomers found the inhabitants about their colony grossly ignorant of the essentials of the Christian religion. They knew something of the form of godliness but nothing of its power: they thought that religion con- sisted only in the practice of its outward forms." So that 8 The Pennsylvania-German Society. we find that even the early Baptists of that region adopted a rite of "christening," or "devoting" their children as they called it, which was thus performed: "As soon as cir- cumstances would permit, after the birth of the child, the mother carried it to the meeting, when the minister, either took it in his arms, or laid his hands on it, thanked God for His mercy, and invoked a blessing on the child, and at the same time, it received its name. This rite, which by many was satirically called a • dry christening,' prevailed not only in the Sandy Creek Association, but in other parts of the South." — — But returning to our subject the fact remains, also, that until the treaty of Fort Stanwix, and that of Gren- ville, coming after the power of the Northern and Western Indians had been broken, at the battle of Fallen Timbers, by the force under "Mad" Anthony Wayne, and had made the country beyond the Appalachian Mountains safe for settlement, the tide of immigration of the German element, as well as of the Scotch Irish, was Southward, even to a point as distant as Pensacola, on the Gulf. It is true that many Germans had preceded these settlers in Virginia and the other States southward. There were Germans at Jamestown in 1607, and while that gascon and braggart, Captain John Smith denounces them as " the damned Dutch," and proceeded to kill them all off, in his "True Relation" as he called it, yet the fact remains that one of that element had sufficient influence with the Virginia company of London to secure Smith's recall never to return to Virginia, and that the very men whom he says "perished miserably" because of their alleged affront to his dignity, were still alive and well, when the new Council came in. That these men were no mere artisans and laborers without education, save President's Annual Address. 9 enough to "make potash," and "grow tobacco," as they were known to be skilled to do, is proven by the fact that one of them was learned enough to write a letter in Latin describing the affairs of the Colony to John Pory, the Secretary of the Company, and afterwa—rds, speaker of the First House of Burgesses of Virginia the first popular representative assembly that ever sat in America. But the language which Smith applied to the Germans of the Jamestown Colony is quite mild when compared with the language which the English Secretary applied to the French glass makers of the Colony of whom he said, " a more damned crew, hell has never vomited." A noted colony of Germans had preceded the settlers from Pennsylvania, even in North Carolina. The story of the colony of de Graffenried and Michel, at Newberne, between the Trent and the Neuse, on the coast of Carolina, is one of deep interest. The destruction of the colony by the Tuscaroras, and the capture and carrying away of the two great leaders of the colony, is one of the romantic stories of American history. How de Graffenried made his escape from the Indians by claiming that he was the " King of the Palatines," and by securing the interference of Governor Spotswood of Virginia, who announced to the Indians that he would slay men, women and children, without mercy and without regard to number, if harm should come to their captives, is a truthful romance of great interest. The only point at which it touches the immigration of the German—s from Pennsylvania southward is in fact that Spotswood having found that some of the settlers at Newberne were—soldiers who had fought under his com* mand in Europe had declared himself to be their staunch friend and ally, and proceeded very generously to invite io The Pennsylvania-German Society. them to Virginia. But he says, also, that "upon their arriving here, just at a time when the Tuscarora Indians had departed from the treaty they had made, I did both in compassion for those poor strangers, and in regard to the safety of the country, place them together upon a piece of land several miles outside of all of the other inhabitants," where he built them a fort and expected them to serve as a protection to the rest of the colony. It is not within the scope of my address here to-day to do more than to refer to the knightly John Lederer, the first white man who ever looked upon the beautiful valley of the Shenandoah, west of the Great Mountains. The credit of his advance cannot be taken from him, nor from the people of his blood, by the splendor and glory of the march of Spotswood and his knightly cavalcade of " the Knights of the Golden Horse Shoe " to the same region, a half a century later. It is a painful thing to tell that this "modest and in- genious hero " and "pretty scholar," instead of receiving applause and a generous welcome upon his return, was met with affronts and reproaches, and it is even said that " the malice of the people improved to such a general animosity that he was not safe in Virginia from the outrage of the people, drawn into the persuasion that the public levy of that year went all to the expense of his vagaries." Forced by " this storm " he left the state never to return. It would be an interesting thing indeed, if it could be positively determined and known, as to who were the first, of that great and shining host, to begin this movement from Pennsylvania into Virginia, and through the Caro- linas, following the great and beautiful valleys of the mountainous region, to the southward. Was it Maria Elizabeth Gerber, to whom Kelpius, in