People Archives | Germanna Foundation

Hilary Duff discovers she is a Spotswood descendant

June 13, 2018 By Germanna Leave a Comment

On a recent episode of the TLC TV series, “Who Do You Think You Are?”, actress/singer Hilary Duff found out that her 7x great-grandfather was early colonial Virginia Lt. Governor Alexander Spotswood!

Here at Germanna, we knew about this early on but were unable to say anything as we did not know what material they’d be using.

It was great to see Spotsylvania County (“Spotswood” in Latin) mentioned in the show, and, if you thought the story the TV series told of Spotswood defeating the famed pirate, Blackbeard, was fascinating, join us at our conference on Saturday, July 14 in Culpeper, VA, as Kevin Duffus will be doing a presentation on Blackbeard’s Last Battle, which took place 300 years ago this year.

• Kevin Duffus, Blackbeard’s Last Battle
The notorious pirate Blackbeard stands among the best-known figures of early colonial American history, yet no one still knows who he really was. To this day, his identity, his origins, and his motivations for committing acts of piracy remain in contention. Did he hail from England, Jamaica, or the Carolinas? Was his surname Teach, or Thatch, or something else entirely? Was he an undistinguished common sailor suddenly thrust into command of a pirate ship? Was he a former Royal Navy sailor and an aristocratic, Anglican slave-owning planter who inexplicably turned Jacobite and pirate? Or was he a mariner on a salvage mission lured to piracy by a mob of looters, and who later became a pawn in an attempted political coup in proprietary North Carolina? These conflicting interpretations have provoked hostile debate. At stake are the credibilities of monolithic institutions and museums, the reputations of researchers and authors, the financial stakes of publishers, and the future of a popular historical narrative. History carved in stone is never easily disconfirmed, especially when history’s icons have been sculpted and burnished by centuries of myth and folklore. For more than 45 years, award-winning research historian Kevin Duffus has followed the wake of the notorious pirate’s journey through history. Along the way he has discovered significant clues and pivotal waypoints in the Blackbeard records that point to a startling conclusion—one that many scholars do not want the public to know.

Watch the “Who Do You Think You Are?” episode here: https://www.tlc.com/tv-shows/who-do-you-think-you-are/

According to Wikipedia, Hilary Duff is an American actress, singer, songwriter, businesswoman, and author. She began her acting career at a young age and quickly became labeled a teen idol as the title character of the Disney Channel television series Lizzie McGuire. Duff has appeared in numerous films, with leading roles. As a singer, she has received platinum and gold certifications for her albums and has sold an estimated 15 million records since her debut in 2002. Duff’s success in both acting and music has led to her becoming a household name and as such as created merchandise such as dolls, clothing, and fragrances.

Lt. Gov. Spotswood has a very close connection to the Germanna story as he was instrumental in bringing the Germanna colonists to Virginia and had the first group of colonists build Fort Germanna. These colonists now have descendants all across America.

Anna Jarvis, the Germanna Descendant who Founded Mother’s Day

May 7, 2018 By Germanna Leave a Comment

Anna Jarvis, the founder of Mother’s Day, devoted years to gaining national recognition for a day to honor mothers, as a fulfillment of a dream held by her own mother—Ann Marie Reeves Jarvis.

Ann Marie was born in Culpeper in 1832, the daughter of Josiah Washington Reeves and Nancy Kemper Reeves, whose Kemper ancestor Johannes had come to Virginia in 1714 as one of the original Germanna colonists whom Lt. Governor Alexander Spotswood settled at Fort Germanna along the Rapidan River frontier.

Ann Marie’s father was a Methodist minister who was transferred in 1843 from Culpeper to Philippi, now in West Virginia, when she was a girl.

Ann Marie married Granville Jarvis, a successful merchant, and was mother to eleven children, but only four reached adulthood.

She organized Mother’s Day Work Clubs to improve health and sanitary conditions for families in several towns.

When war broke out and the western part of Virginia broke away and formed the new state of West Virginia, Ann Marie Jarvis urged her Mother’s Day Clubs to declare neutrality and provide aid to both Confederate and Union troops. For many years after the war, she spoke of her dream to have a day in which Americans would honor mothers.

After her husband died, she moved to Philadelphia, where she died in 1907.

Her daughter Anna Jarvis (1864-1948) began her campaign for the creation of a national Mother’s Day on the first anniversary of her mother’s death. She gained the support of the Philadelphia philanthropist John Wanamaker, and by 1909 there were unofficial Mother’s Day observations in 45 states.

Official recognition began to follow, and in 1914, President Woodrow Wilson approved a resolution adopted by both houses of Congress recognizing Mother’s Day.

To read the full story on the founding of Mother’s Day, read this article by Germanna Foundation Trustee, Katharine Brown, Ph.D.

This Mother’s Day, we not only honor our mothers and grandmothers, but remember the legacy our female immigrant ancestors left behind.

Elsbeth (Elisabeth) Heimbach Fischbach was the daughter of Johannes Heimbach of Trupbach, and his wife Clara. Elsbeth is a real grandmother to First Colony descendants as several First Colony
families descend through her children:

Anna Elizabeth, who married John Jacob Rector
John Fishback
Harmon Fishback
Maria Els, who married Melchoir Brumback
Maria Elisabeth, who married John Spilman

Anna Barbara Schon is one of the matriarchs of the Second Colony. Married three times, she immigrated to Virginia with her third husband and children from all three marriages.

Anna Barbara first married Hans Thomas Blanckenbuhler in 1680; married second to Johan Jacob Schluchter in 1691; married third Cyriacus Fleischmann in 1697. Other families that descend from Anna Barbara through the marriage of her children include Merklin, Thoma, Kaifer, Broyles, and Weaver.

Today we pay tribute and remember the legacy and sacrifice our mothers and foremothers made.

Click here to donate to our Mother’s Day Tribute Campaign and make the donation in honor or memory of a mother who is special to you.

We’ll add their names to the Germanna Honor Roll of Mothers.

You can honor their memory and leave your legacy this Mother’s Day by making a donation to the Germanna Foundation in their name, and remember the Germanna Foundation in your estate plans and will as well.

By including the Germanna Foundation as a beneficiary in your will, you will help us preserve Germanna’s history and heritage for future generations.

You can also name the Germanna Foundation as a beneficiary of your life insurance policy or your retirement plan (such as a 401(k), 403(b), IRA, or other pension plan). By naming the Germanna Foundation as a beneficiary, you maintain complete control over the plan while living, but at your passing the plan passes to the Germanna Foundation free of both income and estate taxes.

The Germanna Foundation can be named as a primary beneficiary for part or all of the assets in the plan, or as a contingent beneficiary, or as a beneficiary at the death of your surviving spouse. Please ask your insurance agent, your employer, or the financial institution managing your retirement plan for the proper forms.

Please consult with your attorney or personal financial advisor regarding the legal and tax benefits of all estate and planned gifts!

By making a planned gift in the form of cash, securities, real estate, or other assets, you will be investing in the continuation of the Germanna Foundation’s vital work to preserve Germanna history for years to come. If you choose to make this kind of gift, you will become a member of our Germanna Legacy Society.

And, by including the Germanna Foundation in your estate plans, you will honor and protect Germanna’s history for the next generation, and generations to come!

For more information on planned giving with the Germanna Foundation, call us at 540-423-1700.

Thank you for honoring Mother’s Day with your gift and for consideration of including the Germanna Foundation in your estate plans. Together we not only honor our mothers and grandmothers, but also remember the legacy our female immigrant ancestors left behind!

Who Were Germanna’s Founders?

March 13, 2018 By Germanna Leave a Comment

The inspiring history of the Germanna colonies lay nearly forgotten for 200 years.

Threads of awareness emerge in the historical writing of professor William J. Hinke c. 1920, in an inquiry to President Calvin Coolidge from Müsen, Germany, in 1927 about descendants of the 1714 emigrants from that village, in the Reformed Church’s commemoration of its 220^th anniversary at Germanna in 1934, and in the annual Picnic Parties of Germanna descendants that R. Brawdus Martin, a Kemper descendant, organized from 1949-1955.

From Brawdus Martin’s group emerged the two principal founders of our Germanna Foundation, the respected Charles Herbert Huffman and John Walter Wayland.

Both men held doctorates from the University of Virginia, and were professors at Madison College in Harrisonburg, Virginia, now James Madison University. Wayland’s many published books included the textbook from which all Virginia schoolchildren learned their Virginia history for many decades.

In a wonderful roundabout way that involved Dr. Huffman’s letter of congratulations to the Nikolaikirche (St. Nicholas Church) in Siegen upon its restoration after World War II bombing damage, this scholarly duo were connected with Ernst Flender, a successful banker in New York who was a native of Siegen.

Mr. Flender became so interested in saving and telling the story of the Germanna colonies that he provided the know-how to create a non-profit organization incorporated in the Commonwealth of Virginia, The Memorial Foundation of the Germanna Colonies in Virginia, Inc. That is still the official name of what we all call the Germanna Foundation today.

Next, Mr. Flender provided $10,000, a very large sum in the 1950s, to enable the Foundation to purchase the 270 acres of the original Fort Germanna tract along the Rapidan River. This they named Siegen Forest. It is the site of the R. Brawdus Martin Fort Germanna Visitor Center today.

At its first annual meeting in November 1956, the original board (Huffman, Wayland, Flender, Border Stanley, Trammel Fishback, Frank Switzer, and Jesse Boyd Carpenter), expanded their membership to add Benjamin C. Holtzclaw, Professor of History and Dean of the Graduate School of the University of Richmond, who was an experienced genealogist.

Holtzclaw, Huffman, and Wayland became a dynamic trio that researched and published half a dozen books that became the foundation of the Germanna Record series that now numbers 21 volumes.

Holtzclaw’s Germanna Record No. 5: Ancestry and Descendants of the Nassau-Siegen Immigrants to Virginia, incorporates documentary research by Ernst Flender’s brother Emil Flender in Germany, and remains an invaluable resource today.

And so it is that today, on Founder’s Day, March 14, Germanna salutes its founders, and especially R. Brawdus Martin, Charles Huffman, John Wayland, and Benjamin Holtzclaw who made it possible for us to discover our own proud Germanna heritage and tell the story of the Germanna immigrants to Virginia’s frontier in 1714, 1717 and beyond.

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Consider making a donation in honor of our founders and Founder’s Day to support the continuing work of the Germanna Foundation.

Remember the Germanna Foundation in your will and estate plans.

Become a member or renew your Germanna Foundation membership.

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More information about the Germanna Foundation’s history can be found here:

Germanna Record #17: The First Fifty Years of the Germanna Foundation

Germanna Descendant in NSA’s Hall of Honor

December 12, 2017 By Germanna Leave a Comment

Parker Hitt, a 3rd great-grandson of Peter Hitt and Elizabeth Otterbach, through Germanna Colonists Harmon Hitt and wife Mary Weaver, is in the National Security Agency’s (NSA) Hall of Honor for being a pioneer in cryptology. Here is the write-up about him on NSA’s website:

NSA/CSS Hall of Honor
The Hall of Honor was created in 1999 to pay special tribute to the pioneers and heroes who rendered distinguished service to American cryptology.

Colonel Parker Hitt

Then-Captain Hitt, just before World War I, authored The Manual for the Solution of Military Ciphers. Published in 1916, this was the first work of its kind in the United States in 100 years and laid the foundation for the nation’s impressive cryptologic achievements during the 20th century.

Born in 1878, Colonel Hitt attended Purdue University, but enlisted in the Army during the Spanish American War. In 1899, he received a commission as an infantry officer and was posted to the Philippines.

Recognizing the importance of new communications methods, Colonel Hitt applied for a two-year detail to the Signal Corps. While teaching at the Army Signal School, he researched and wrote his groundbreaking manual on military ciphers.

Colonel Hitt, knowing the U.S. Army field cipher was insecure, designed a more secure system as a replacement in 1914. In 1917, the Signal Corps widely adapted Colonel Hitt’s cylindrical device, and it remained in service the better part of three decades.

During the period of tension with Mexico, which culminated in Pershing’s Punitive Expedition, Colonel Hitt and his wife, Genevieve Young Hitt, “moonlighted” to solve intercepted messages. He gained a well-deserved reputation as one of the Army’s most talented codebreakers, and General Pershing selected him to be a member of his staff when the American Expeditionary Force (AEF) deployed to France in 1917.

As a Senior Signal Officer with the AEF during World War I, Colonel Hitt oversaw the compilation of a highly effective code that replaced an awkwardly translated French coding system that was being used by American forces. He also supervised units that intercepted sensitive German communications with impressive results.

In retirement during the 1940s, he was an informal liaison between the Army and members of the American Cryptogram Association but was anxious to serve in the war. Colonel Hitt returned to active duty from 1940 to 1944 as a corps area Signal Officer.

At a time when the nation had no formal cryptologic service, Parker Hitt’s innovative work documented concepts and principles that would be used to protect U.S. military communications for decades. His work also directly influenced William and Elizebeth Friedman, who referred to him as the “father of modern American cryptology.”

Colonel Parker Hitt died in January 1971 at age 93.