When our German ancestors came to the New World, seeking land and freedom, they encountered many difficulties. Few letters had warned them of inflation and the difficulty of securing good agricultural land. The available land tended to be in the back country where the threat of war was present. Some of the older immigrants who had been here the longest did comment in the Pennsylvania German press on the increasing difficulties. How did the newest of the immigrants succeed?
It helped to have money. Letters home to Germany emphasized that land, natural resources, and freedom were abundant in Pennsylvania, but one needed to bring a lot of money to succeed. One immigrant wrote to friends and family in Switzerland and a few lines were published by the town council of Bern who wished to stem the exodus from Bern,
Whoever wishes to go to the New World
Should be sure to take a sack of money
And a strong stomach
So he can withstand the demands of the ship.
Many of the immigrants who succeeded the best in Pennsylvania did bring money with them. There was a direct correlation between wealth in Germany and the amount of land owned later in Pennsylvania. Peter Lohrmann, a Schwaigerner who settled in Germantown (Pennsylvania), had a well-stocked farm and bountiful harvests. He purchased servants from Schwaigern when they arrived in Philadelphia, which had enabled them to finance their trip. But Lohrmann had left Schwaigern with almost 1,300 guilders when the typical Schwaigerner had left with less than 200 guilders. About half of the immigrants had to finance their trip by agreeing to become bonded servants to whomever paid for their ships passage. These people had the hardest time in succeeding.
What were some of the tools and techniques that people did use? They did use the sense of community that they had had in Germany. While they were typically scattered in the New World, from Pennsylvania to the Piedmont of North Carolina, they did retain this sense of community. The earliest immigrants had settled together before the land was taken up. Later immigrants had more of a challenge to find land.
Looking at the Germanna Colonies in detail, the First Colony all took up contiguous land. In fact, it had been one parcel which they subdivided. But almost immediately they encountered a problem in acquiring more land because Robert "King" Carter took up the land on three of the four sides of the original Germantown patent. This forced the original group to go farther afield. One area they expanded into was the Little Fork across the Hedgman (Rappahannock) River. Much of the land they acquired here was sold to the second wave of immigrants. But a third wave of immigrants, about 1738, had to go farther to find land. John Frederick Miller bought his first land in southern Virginia. Another immigrant, Hyman Critz, who came with Miller, moved with Miller, but apparently these were the only two Siegeners in the area. In these actions, a strong spirit of community was exhibited where the earliest people were able to help the later arrivals. Apparently, Miller and Critz had received help in their first years from those already here, but they had to move farther out when they wished to expand their operations. This was a very typical pattern.
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.