Gary Carl Grassl has comments in the current issue of "Der Kurier" (v. 16, n. 2 dated June 1998) from which I will quote. The remarks were delivered this spring on the occasion of the founding of the German-American Heritage Society of Virginia. Mr. Grassl, President of the Greater Washington, D.C. chapter of the German-American Society, gave the keynote speech.
Mr. Grassl has been very active in gaining recognition for the role of Germans in founding Virginia. He cited research which shows that the first medical doctor in America was a German. This pioneer, Johannes Fleischer, received his Ph.D. at the University of Frankfurt an der Oder, and his M.D. at the University of Basel, Switzerland. He studied medicinal plants in Germany and contributed to a German text book on plants. He came to America (called India then) in January of 1608 to see what healing plants he could find here. Very unfortunately, he succumbed within the year to the maladies that overtook so many of the original Jamestown settlers.
Mr. Grassl also discussed the Jamestown site and its physical evidence which is scarce. Almost all that remains of James Fort are footprints in the sand where the decomposed wood has left dark stains in the soil. Or, as the Germans say, "James Fort is gone with the wind." The only structures that remain from early Jamestown are the four ovens built by the German glass makers at Glasshouse Point. Unfortunately the National Park Service has identified the glass makers as "Dutch and Poles" which has confused the origins of the people.
The German-American Heritage Society of Greater Washington, D.C. has been instrumental in establishing a historical marker at the glass ovens which reads,
The first Germans to land in Jamestown, the first permanent English settlement in Virginia, arrived aboard the vessel "Mary and Margaret" about 1 October 1608. These Germans were glass makers and carpenters. In 1620, German mineral specialists and saw- millwrights followed, to work and settle in the Virginia colony. These pioneers and skilled craftsmen were the forerunners of the many millions of Germans who settled in America and became the single largest national group to populate the United States.
The historical research to support the application for the marker was put together by Mr. Grassl, then Vice-President of the Washington chapter.
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.