John Blankenbaker's Germanna History Notes

Note 939

The post office issued stamps honoring specific musicians.  If the people on the stamps were to answer a roll call, the response would be, "Ya", "Ya".

Here are three names from architecture:

• Walter Gropius,
• Mies van der Rohe, and
• Richard Neutra.

Other occupations:

• Do you think of Thomas Nast as a first generation German?  Well, I didn't, but he was.
• Alfred Stieglitz was a well known photographer.
• Caspar Wistar, who came before 1700, put a lot of hot air into his work, since he was a glass blower.

Quite a few Germans turned to baseball:

• Starting at the top we have Ford Christopher Frick, Commissioner of Baseball for many years.
• Henry Louis Gehrig needs no introduction.
• Kenesaw Mountain Landis was prominent as a jurist before he took the leadership of baseball.  Landis is a good Mennonite name.
• Then we have George Herman Ruth and Edwin D. Snider.
• Charles Dillon Stengel never did master the English language.

Tell me, had you thought of these people as German?

One industrial field where the Germans were outstanding was breweries.  The names there need no introduction as we all recognize Anheuser-Busch (the largest in the world), Miller, Coors, Stroh's, Heileman, and Pabst.  In 1887, the proceedings of the newly formed Master Brewers Association of American were conducted entirely in German.  This condition lasted in its entirely until 1901 and then was phased out gradually.

In other sports, Amelia Earhart and Jack William Nicklaus are of German descent.  Also, we have the Unser family in auto racing.

In the clergy, we have many examples:

• The earliest known book on school management in America was published by a Mennonite in 1770.
• Since the clergy and the lay people are hard to distinguish in the Anabaptist tradition, we include here the names of Hershey, Hoover, Kraft, and Rittenhouse.
• The first Lutherans came in 1638 to 1655, under the aegis of the Swedish branch.
• German Lutherans were founding churches as early as 1700 in Pennsylvania.
• No less than six Muhlenbergs make the list.
• The Henkel family was especially prominent as Lutheran clergy.  Records show more than 100 clergy from this family and six of them made the list.  This, incidentally, is a near Germanna family because there were so many marriages with the Germanna Teter family (from Schwaigern).
• The Moravians can count several people who made contributions to American life.
• Perhaps the most famous German Reformed member was Michael Schlatter who was an ardent patriot during the Revolution.

A name I heard a lot as a youth was Billy Sunday, otherwise known as William Ashley Sunday (Sonntag).

I will close with a Lutheran name, John Caspar Stoever (Stöver), who was in the Robinson River Valley.
(28 Jul 00)