Siegen Forest Trails Archives | Germanna Foundation

Germanna Foundation Supports Rapidan River Clean-up

August 5, 2015 By Germanna

For the past few months, the Germanna Foundation facilitated the clean-up efforts of another area non-profit group called StreamSweepers. StreamSweepers is a youth job corps program focusing on river restoration. Each summer about a dozen area young adults are trained and paid a stipend to go out on our area rivers to perform ecological assessments and trash removal. The group is set to finish cleaning the entire Rapidan River this summer, a project which started two years ago. This is the first time an entire river valley in the Commonwealth of Virginia has been cleaned!

First the “Sweepers” perform an ecological assessment by looking at variables such as bank height, bank geometry, bank cover, buffer and more. They then return to the river to remove all the trash they find using canoes and people power, which means digging tires and floating their trash out to various locations along the river, and then removing and properly disposing of it.

The Germanna Foundation provided Rapidan River access to the group from our Visitor Center / Siegen Forest property. The sweepers removed more than 100 tires from the stretch of the river near Germanna alone, along with other trash including rugs, cans, bottles, televisions, tarps and even a playground slide.

All told, StreamSweepers removed more than 300 tires this summer along with hundreds of pounds of other trash from the Rapidan from Raccoon Ford to Elys Ford. They will complete their ecological assessment report which will be available on their website this fall.

Although their work was sometimes very hard and dirty, they reported enjoying the company of the bald eagles which are generally in view every day along with all sorts of other creatures including eels, herons, large schools of fish, beavers, turtles, snakes and even some rather large carp! It looks like the river is teeming with life and we are grateful for their efforts to encourage a healthy ecosystem.

The group has expressed their appreciation for Germmana’s support of their efforts as it is critical to have partners who allow access to the river to get this work done. On a quick side note, two of the Sweepers are Germanna Community College students.

Dedicatory Prayer for Siegen Forest

September 11, 2013 By Germanna Leave a Comment

As a member of the Germanna Foundation, I hope that you hold in honor the stewardship we have been entrusted in caring for Siegen Forest, the 179-acre remnant of the original settlement, now covered in hardwoods which provides a valuable riparian buffer to the Rapidan River.

As I testified before the Fauquier County Board of Supervisors in support of protecting the Chief Justice John Marshall birthplace in Germantown, conservation of historic lands helps us touch the hearts of people learning to embrace their heritage.

“We have to be creative in helping the rising generation learn from the past and help them on their own journey of exploration. We don’t preserve our forest to raise trees. We preserve our forest to raise men and women of character.”

I hope that you will find inspiration in the Dedicatory Prayer of Siegen Forest I have included below, which was delivered at the Germanna Foundation’s first picnic in 1957.

Adapt this prayer to your own family’s use and remember those in previous generations who prayed for us.

Marc Wheat
President, Germanna Foundation

Dedicatory Prayer for Siegen Forest

Almighty God our Father:

Thou who through countless ages hast been the refuge and mighty fortress of those who trust in Thee; Thou who dost guide the course of history by Thy mighty hand, so that in spite of the errors and blindness of sinful men, “all things work together for good to them that love the Lord”; Thou who, above all else, didst grant the great gift of Thy Son, Jesus Christ, who died for us, that we through Him might have eternal life in Thee:

We thank Thee on this day of commemoration of the distant past for all the blessings, that Thou hast bestowed upon us; we thank Thee especially for the courage and faith of these our ancestors who settled in this place, whom Thou didst guide across the waters to a distant land, to whom Thou gavest hope and sustenance and final prosperity in their new home, and who have left their heritage to us their descendants in this good and blessed land of America.

As we dedicate this tract of land on which they first dwelt, we pray that Thou wilt bless us, their descendants, and the organization that perpetuates their memory; we pray that Thou wilt especially bless our benefactor, who hails from our remote fatherland of Siegen and who enabled us to possess this original home of our ancestors in Virginia; and we pray that our organization may grow and thrive in future years, accomplishing good in our land and furthering Thy kingdom.

Grant above all that we, the descendants of this group of pioneers, may exemplify in our own lives the virtues of honesty, thrift, independence, and sturdy faith in Thee, our Heavenly Father, which enabled them to overcome difficulties and plant a home in the wilderness; that we may perpetuate these virtues in ourselves and our descendants; that we may be loyal to Thee in all that we do or say; that Thou mayest be first in our hearts and lives; that we may never forget that Thou art our Creator, Preserver, and Redeemer; and that this spirit of faith and love and loyalty to Thee may pervade our whole national life, so that we may preserve our souls and escape the manifest punishment which comes to peoples and nations that forget Thee.

Yea, more, we pray that men everywhere may come to Know Thee, to love Thee and to do Thy will, so that they may dwell together in peace and amity; that the spirit of the gospel may leaven the lump of humanity; that the kingdoms of this world may become the kingdoms of God and His Christ; and that Thy kingdom may come quickly.

These blessings we ask in the name of Jesus Christ, our Lord. Amen.

Dr. Benjamin C. Holtzclaw
Rhodes Scholar, Professor of Philosophy and Dean of the Graduate School, University of Richmond
Sunday, July 21, 1957

Preserving Our Land

September 11, 2013 By Germanna Leave a Comment

By J. Marc Wheat

The following prepared testimony was presented on April 15, 2011 before the Fauquier County Board of Supervisors in Warrenton, Virginia, under the agenda item “A Work Session Regarding Germantown with Marc Wheat, President, Germanna Foundation.” Thanks to the financial and volunteer support of the members of the Germanna Foundation, the Foundation can safeguard our fragile heritage wherever it is threatened.

Chairman Graham, distinguished members of the Fauquier County Board of Supervisors, I am Marc Wheat, here today in my capacity as president of the Germanna Foundation to thank Fauquier County for recently recognizing portions of the Germantown settlement as eligible for listing on the National Register of Historic Places.

I thought in light of this recognition it would be good time to begin a regular dialogue regarding mutual goals for documenting and preserving this unique element of Virginia heritage located in Southern Fauquier County.

The Memorial Foundation of the Germanna Colonies in Virginia, Inc. was chartered in 1956 to preserve the heritage of the earliest organized settlements of Germans in colonial Virginia in 1714 and 1717 under the auspices of Lt. Gov. Spotswood.

The Germanna Foundation owns Salubria, the home of Governor Spotswood’s widow and ancestral home of Robert E. Lee, located in Culpeper County; the cemetery of Revolutionary War veteran Peter Hitt in Northern Fauquier County; and 179 acres of the original settlement at Germanna in Orange County called “Siegen Forest.”

The Germanna Foundation promotes the linkages with Fauquier County to our members, and often conducts programs to make Fauquier residents aware of their heritage through the colonists at Germantown.

Germanna Foundation Trustee Paula Johnson represents us on Fauquier County’s Civil War Sesquicentennial Committee, and we are regular participants in Heritage Days.

During our annual homecoming during the third weekend of July, we bring bus tours to the John Marshall birthplace, and lunch here in Warrenton or at wineries on land that once belonged to Germanna’s people.

We have hosted several events here in Warrenton, most recently two lectures on the character of Robert E. Lee.

The colony of Germans settling at Germanna in 1717 was Lutheran. They resettled in what is now Madison County and built the famous Hebron Lutheran Church in 1740, where they played an important role in the adoption of the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution.

The 1714 colony comprised 42 people (I descend from ten of them) of the Reformed faith, and we know from contemporary documents that they taught theology to their young people by means of the Heidelberg Catechism.

It is this small group of faithful people who removed to modern-day Fauquier County and formed a tightly-knit community called Germantown by about 1721.

At this little settlement were families bearing the names of Brumback, Coons, Fishback, Haeger, Hitt, Hoffman, Holtzclaw, Kemper, Martin, Rector, Spillman, and Weaver.

Descendants of this first European settlement in what is now Fauquier County included noteworthy pioneers in American history:

Members of Fauquier’s Black Horse Cavalry and Mosby’s Rangers;
Founders of the Republic of West Florida, the Republic of Texas, and the Republic of California; and
Five State governors: James S. Conway, Elias N. Conway, Henry Massie Rector, William Fishback, and James Lawson Kemper. Kemper was a governor of Virginia, famous for being the Confederate general wounded in Pickett’s Charge at Gettysburg.

If I could ask you to refer to Woodford Hackley’s map of Germantown that we include in Germantown Revived (Germanna Record Number 2), note that the village was laid out in long, narrow 100 acre strips that were probably allocated among the family heads by lot. What is fascinating is to examine aerial photography of Germantown, and see that tree lines of today along property lines correspond to the same property lines neatly laid out by German immigrants nearly 300 years ago.

I ask the Board of Supervisors to share our concern regarding the “For Sale-Industrial Zoned Land” signs present south of the railroad tracks on the east side of Midland Road. This area has compound layers of significant history including:

American Indian settlements
Lots 1 through 4 of the 18 Germantown settlement tracts of land
The 250 acre Thomas Marshall farm where Chief Justice John Marshall was born. There is a Fauquier County park at the location of the Thomas Marshall homestead, but there are other colonial Germantown structures yet to be preserved, but with archaeological remains likely evidenced by mid-19th century plats.

The Germanna Foundation would very much like to continue to work with Fauquier County to engage in discussions with the property owner on the advantages of conservation easements or acquisition.

We have a close relationship with the Virginia Outdoors Foundation, the Department of Historic Resources, and many private groups that would like to save this important land for future generations.

When we speak about preservation of these historic resources, we don’t mean lock them up so that no one can enjoy any use of the property.

At our 179 acre “Siegen Forest,” much of it is covered in hardwoods and provides a valuable riparian buffer to the Rapidan River. But we have built a visitor center that houses our staff of three, a modest museum, and a library.

We sponsor Boy Scout Troop 199, and have hosted events focused on Boy Scouts, Girl Scouts, and 4H.

We have to be creative in helping the rising generation learn from the past and help them on their own journey of exploration.

We don’t preserve our forest to raise trees. We preserve our forest to raise men and women of character.

Just such a man who was born in Germantown was John Marshall, our greatest Supreme Court Chief Justice. I commend to your study the report from Fauquier County Parks and Recreation entitled “John Marshall Birthplace Park Visioning Exercise.”

Preserving land zoned for industrial development and safeguarding it for future generations of men and women of character is a high calling for the Fauquier County Board of Supervisors.

Preserving this land would also do honor to a man buried in Germantown, the Reverend Johann Henrich Haeger, pastor of the Germanna Colony and a native son of the German village of Anzhausen in the Siegerland.

At the age of 69, having already retired from the pastorate due to ill-health, Pastor Haeger made the momentous decision to leave the Siegerland forever in the hope of establishing a new community in America.

After wintering in England, the hopeful group of Siegerlanders prepared to set sail for America. Undoubtedly, Pastor Haeger administered Holy Communion to his flock, asked God’s blessing for the dangerous transatlantic crossing, and prayed that He would prosper their families and their descendants in the New World.

And, God did prosper those who came to America and settled at Germantown.

Could Pastor Haeger, from the little village of Anzhausen, have ever hoped that over 250 years later his descendant, Apollo 11 Astronaut Buzz Aldrin, would remember God’s blessings by becoming the first man to take Holy Communion on the surface of the Moon?

Thanks to the generosity of our members, the Germanna Foundation stands at the center of a far-flung community of memory and hope.

With members in the United States, Germany, Canada and Australia, the Germanna Foundation keeps green the memory of deeds past to inspire the exploration of tomorrow’s New Worlds.

We are enriched more than you know by the support and friendship of the people of Fauquier County across time and space.

At our homecoming the Germanna Foundation holds the third weekend of July every year, we remind each other of our mission as interrelated families in the words of one of America’s greatest poets, T.S. Eliot, and I would like to share it with you:

We shall not cease from exploration
And the end of all our exploring
Will be to arrive where we started
And know the place for the first time.