In accordance with the suggestion of Ernst Flender, property owners in the area of Germanna were contacted by the officers of the Germanna Foundation and one of them, with a desirable piece of property, agreed to sell land to the Foundation . This tract of 270 acres was located on the south side of state highway 3, between the highway and the Rapidan River. The purchase price of $10,000 was met by the generous gift of Ernst Flender of stock worth about $16,000.
Mr. Flender was born in Siegen in 1888 and his ancestry includes families allied to, or in common with, the members of the First Germanna Colony. He came to New York in 1915 and founded the Argentine Trading Company, but he was soon active in banking, investment, and stocks.
" Germanna Record Nine " credits him for the existence of the Germanna Foundation , the purchase of the land at Germanna (sometimes called Siegen Forest), and for research on the ancestry of the families from the Siegen area. His work made possible the book, " Ancestry and Descendants of the Nassau-Siegen Immigrants to Virginia 1717-1750 ".
His generosity was motivated by the personal satisfaction arising from assurance that the first home-site of his national kinsmen from Nassau-Siegen was preserved. Dr. Charles Herbert Huffman, the first president of the Germanna Foundation , was especially appreciative and grateful for Mr. Flender's personal interest, for his counsel, and for his continual promotion and generous support of the Foundation .
Recent notes here have told of the activities of Germanna related activities of another person whose efforts are a marked contrast to the accomplishments of Ernst Flender. One could wish the name of Ernst Flender was the one to be honored by a Visitor's Center.
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.