We often think of the earliest European civilizations in terms of Jamestown or Plymouth Rock. These are early but not the earliest points of European civilization in America. One of the buildings I visited in the last week was the Palace of the Governors in Santa Fe, New Mexico. This is the oldest public building in the United States.
The " Palace " was built at just about the time of Jamestown. It was never an imposing building as we usually define our idea of grandeur, for it was literally built from mud in the form of adobe; however, with proper care this is a lasting construction method.
The early history of the southwest, as represented by Santa Fe and other early settlements, had some of the same elements of conflicts as occurred later in Virginia. In New Mexico, there was a conflict between the church and the state, with each claiming priority. At one point, the Father in charge, claiming he was the senior authority in the area, excommunicated the Governor and threw his chair out of the church. Later he imprisoned the Governor. Similar elements occurred in Virginia when Gov. Spotswood claimed he was the representative of the Crown who was the head of the church. He was opposed by Commissary Blair, who claimed he was the representative of the Archbishop and, as such, was senior to Spotswood. It has never been determined clearly why Spotswood lost his job as Governor, but most accounts say it was the result of Blair's opposition to Spotswood.
Returning to New Mexico, soon after Spain had conquered and colonized New Mexico, tales of wealth in the North drew explorers to New Mexico. Coronado led an expedition in 1540 into the area which includes today's New Mexico. No mines were discovered. In Virginia, one of the earliest activities of the original Jamestown settlers was to search for silver, which was reported to exist at the falls of the James River. Later, the Germanna colonies came into existence because of the belief that silver existed "near the Mountains." But again, no silver was found.
So, in very different locations and civilizations, we find similar motivations in silver and the church-state conflict.
On our way to Santa Fe, some Germanna history crept in. The airplane had a stop at the Cincinnati airport which is located in the middle of Germanna country, in Boone County, Kentucky. A party of Germanna citizens moved early in the 1800's to this area and was joined in 1813 by Rev. William Carpenter, who left the pastorate of the Hebron Lutheran Church in Virginia. Abraham Thomas, a Germanna resident, said that in 1782 the site of Cincinnati had only a few cabins, so we know the Germanna people were quite early.
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.