I've been found out; at least one of you has detected that I am not a historian. I admit I like history. (When I was in a one room school, there was plenty of free time to use as you wished. A favorite activity of mine was reading the history books.)
When I started reading about Germanna and its history, I was struck by the inconsistency of the statements which were being made. I decided that I would have to dig a little deeper to find the true story. At first, little did I realize how erroneous much of the history was. It was not a case of applying a band aid, surgery was required.
Here are examples of statements that do not hang together. Willis Kemper makes the statement that the Germans were settled on the Germanna tract by Spotswood to work his iron mine, build his iron furnace, and make iron. The major problem with this statement is that the Germanna tract is thirteen miles away from the iron furnace. It just does not make sense that Spotswood would place the workers at a distance of thirteen miles from their work. Also, Spotswood, in a letter, said two years after the Germans arrived that they had done no work for him in that two years. This also makes Kemper's statement very dubious.
One man, Brawdus Martin, realized how inane Kemper's statement was. His, Martin's, solution to this was to relocate Germanna to be at the furnace site. In order to try and prove his point, he actually manufactured false evidence which he presented in the minutes of the old " Society of Germanna Colonies ". (In the academic world, a researcher would be removed from his position with disgrace for such an action; however, it appears that Brawdus Martin is going to have a visitor's center named after him by the Memorial Foundation of Germanna Colonies in Virginia.) This was a case of error piled on error.
How did Kemper's line of thought get started? Kemper made the observation that the First Germanna Colony came from a region known for its iron work. Eventually, Spotswood was the owner of an iron mine and furnace. Therefore, Kemper said, it must be the case that Spotswood imported the Germans to do this work. Though the first two statements were true, it does not follow that Kemper's conclusion is true.
How can one tell this? The best way is to read what Spotswood himself said. He is clear that, by the time the Germans left Germanna, only the mines had been developed and this work did not start until about 1717. There was no furnace even as late as 1719 or 1720. Another man who had a lot to say on the topic was Christopher de Graffenried. Much of what these gentlemen said is available in book form. The books may not be in every library but they are obtainable through interlibrary loans. In addition, there are many original documents. While most of these are in England, microfilms of many are available at the Library of Virginia.
We gratefully acknowledge the work of John Blankenbaker who published over 2,500 Germanna History Notes via the Germanna-L@rootsweb.com email list from 1997 to 2008. We are equally thankful to George Durman (Sgt. George) for hosting the list and republishing the notes via rootsweb.com.