In Gresten, Österreich (Austria, literally, Eastern Empire), one often sees a sign which says, "Eisenstraße," which means Iron Street. Gresten-Land, the larger region around the market town of Gresten, was the center of a well organized iron industry. Some people did the mining, others made the charcoal, and the output from the foundry was worked with large water powered hammers, which were centered at Gresten town using the water power of the Kleine Erlauf River (Little Erlauf River). All of the workers in these industries needed food, so yet other people worked in agriculture.
The food had to come to where it could be distributed as to its need. The ore and charcoal had to move to the furnace. The cast iron had to move to the hammers. A well-developed system of roads existed to move all of these goods. Many of those roads, often through the hills, have been preserved. Today many of them are paved and serve as an extensive network of bicycle and walking trails. Collectively, they are known as "Proviantweg" or the provisions road. The roads wind through the hills, and in some cases are the only access to a farm. Therefore, autos may be present on some stretches.
We walked over some portions, some that are very rich in history. Very frequently, along the way one will encounter historical markers that are the counterparts of the roadside historical markers we have in the States. The other thing that one is apt to find are chapels, usually devoted to a Saint, and prompted by an event in history. The chapel that was most interesting to us was on the farm Gseng, which had been the home of the farmer who was the leader of the rebelling farmers in 1597. The story of the rebelling farmers and the reaction of the authorities was told in words and pictures in the chapel.
Some of the markers have no great import. One innocuous one pertains to a "Heuwagon" (pronounce it aloud) which is made available for fun by the Familie Scheiblauer. This name of the family is of some interest to me because there is a Scheiblau farm not more than a quarter-mile from the Plankenbichl farm, where, apparently, the ancestors of the Blankenbaker family lived. If one remembers that the Scheibles lived in the same village in Germany as the Blankenbakers did, and both families came at the same time to Virginia, then one pays attention to things like this.
St. Wolfgang Chapel marks the farm which has the oldest record in Gresten history. The farm was without a formal name; it was merely noted that someone lived on Grästenberg (literally, Grästen Mountain) in 1274. It is from around these years that the first written records have been preserved. There is an earlier history which may go back to the Romans around the time of Christ. The Romans were in the neighborhood then, not more than 15 miles away.
(23 Jun 00)
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.