There is one more point on the errors and misrepresentations of Willis Kemper that I wish to make. Speaking of the first and second groups of Germans, Kemper wrote:
"The remarkable thing is that these Reformed and Lutheran brethren were dwelling together in harmony, and Pastor Hager was 'ministering to them in common.' This did not long last, as will soon be seen."
The first group, from the Nassau-Siegen area, was Reformed, while the second group was mostly Lutheran, who came from southwestern Germany and Switzerland. While individual people had their preferred choice in the matter of religion, it was not typical of the Reformed and Lutheran members to hold antagonistic views of the other religion, and there is no evidence this was so in this case. Willis continued:
"Perhaps the antagonism between the Reformed and Lutheran broke out; whatever the reason, certain it is that the Germans left Germanna and the members of the Reformed faith, 'our colony,' of twelve families, went north about twenty miles into the Northern Neck, into Stafford county, and engaged in agriculture; while the larger body, the Lutherans, soon after went west, also into the Northern Neck, on Robinson's River, into what is now Madison county. The latter seemed to have held on to the contributions from Europe. They built Hebron church, still in existence, and still have an organ and a communion set contributed by their European friends."
There are several errors and misrepresentations in this statement. First, the harmony has been changed to antagonism. Within a few years of the move to the Robinson River Valley by the Lutherans, they were joined by John Hoffman of the Reformed Germans. Two sons of Jacob Holtzclaw and a Fishback moved to the Robinson River also. This hardly supports the idea there was antagonism. At the time the Lutherans moved, the Robinson River Valley was not defined to be in the Northern Neck. Land there, at the time, was from the Crown, not from the proprietors of the Northern Neck.
The reason that Lutherans moved to land in Spotsylvania County, which included the Robinson River in its entirety, was that it was free. Kemper shows no evidence that he was aware of this fact, and, instead, seeking an explanation, he made up the fiction that the groups were antagonistic to each other. There were at least two reasons that the Lutherans did not join the Reformed that had nothing to do with religion. As noted, the land was free in Spotsylvania County. Second, there was a lack of land adjacent to the Reformed colony because others had taken up this land.
While it is true that both groups had made a joint appeal in 1719 or 1720 in Europe for money and a pastor, there is no evidence that anything was obtained as a result. The Lutherans alone in the 1730's did do extensive and successful canvassing in Germany, and from this they purchased a farm and built the Hebron church. Kemper mixes up the two appeals, one unsuccessful and one successful, and falsely accuses the Lutherans of keeping the money from the unsuccessful appeal (which probably raised nothing).
To summarize the history of the Germanna Colonies as written by Kemper, one would do better not to believe any of it. Unfortunately, he wrote at an early date, and it was picked up and repeated by following writers to the detriment of all of Virginia's early eighteenth century history.
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.