After Francis Louis Michel had reached Bern on 1 Dec 1702, he started his second trip to America on 14 Feb 1703. That he should leave again so soon seems strange but the reason that he had come back to Bern was probably to report to his partners. From this time on he was clearly associated with two people, John Rudolph Ochs and George Ritter, in a scheme to establish colonies for Swiss citizens somewhere in America. From the short stay in Bern, from the nature of the activities in Virginia, and from the history of the events in the Canton of Bern, it possible to conclude that Michel had the idea of establishing Swiss colonies in America before he left on his first trip to America. We know that he had wanted to visit Pennsylvania during his first trip but the travel conditions and his health deterred him. The second trip, now commencing, had Pennsylvania as a primary objective.
Though Michel, Ritter, and Ochs had no thoughts at this time of becoming involved with Germans, before events played themselves out, they would be involved with two parts of the Germanna Colonists. One part was with the First Germanna Colony and the second part was the contingent from Freudenberg who emigrated in 1738. In 1738, Ochs had rented the ship Oliver to take a colony of Swiss and Germans to Virginia for a colony to be established by Robert Byrd. Though the Freudenberg contingent was not a part of this colony, they signed on to use the Oliver as their transport to America. This latter involvement was accidental but the involvement with the First Germanna Colony was deliberate and deep. The further development of that story will take several notes to explore.
Perhaps it would be worthwhile to note why citizens of the Canton of Bern may have been interested in establishing colonies for Swiss citizens. For more than 150 years, the combination of the Reformed church and the civil authorities had been persecuting the Anabaptists in the Canton. Death had been dealt to thousands, but one of the favorite methods for dealing with them was to export them forcibly to other countries. This was still a tactic that was used in the 1700's, and, in fact, Graffenried got his start in the colonization business by undertaking a contract with Bern officials to take a number of Anabaptists to somewhere outside Switzerland. It is not clear whether Michel, Ochs, and Ritter had the Anabaptists in mind when Michel went off to America. Perhaps they saw the Anabaptists as a source of people for the colonies, but perhaps they thought the Swiss in general would like to relocate.
The activities of Michel, Ochs, and Ritter were formalized in the George Ritter and Company business. It was this company which hired Graffenried who recruited the German miners that constituted the First Germanna Colony. None of this would have happened without the trips of Michel to America.
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.