Using a Culpeper County historical map, German Run was found. It flowed into Field's Run, which used to be named Fleshman's Run. (The renaming of geographical features is a problem. For example, Meander Run became Crooked Run.)
Fleshman's Run set off bells because Cyriacus Fleshman was a prominent member of the second group of Germans, the ones who came in 1717. This immediately suggested that German Run and Fleshman's Run were the site of the homes of the 1717 group of Germans. The pieces started to fall into place. Going back to Spotswood's letter to Col. Harrison, he said the seventy-odd Germans were settled in twenty-some homes. The Spotswood lease to Byrn mentions lot numbers 18 and 19. This suggests that New German Town, in the Great Fork, was indeed the home of the 1717 Germans and gives a reason for a location which was called New German Town.
The only uncertainty in the location was the extent of it. Spotswood said the Germans were closely settled for their protection. Did this mean a compact village-like arrangement? At first, the assumption was this. Using the geographical features of Fleshman's Run and German Run, I contacted property owners in the area and arranged with some of them for permission to walk over the ground. Some of the owners, people from Mary Washington College, and I explored possible sites. (It was a very exciting day for me.) Later, Prof. Sanford of the College explored more with his students and may have found an eighteenth home site.
I described my conclusions in a talk to about one hundred people at another time. Following the talk, David Brown came up and said that he knew the land very well that I was talking about. He went on to say that as a young man he walked over the ground with his grandfather. David asked his grandfather if there were any Civil War sites around. His grandfather said there weren't any but there had been a settlement in the area before the Civil War but it was gone before the War. David hadn't asked his grandfather any more questions but the talk I had just given brought back the memory of his grandfather's statement. David went on to say that his grandfather might not have understood the true nature of the settlement but surely he was referring to the homes of the 1717 Germans. Interestingly, the residents of the area refer to the run as Fleshman's Run, not as Field's Run which is a modern name. (It seems a shame that a little bit of history is being lost by the change of the name. Cyriacus Fleshman may well have been one of the first settlers of Culpeper County.)
Events since that time have shed more light on the locations of the homes. What Spotswood described as "closely settled" was not quite as close as I had imagined. Thanks to Joy Stearns, we have more information.
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.