It is often said that the First Germanna Colonies consisted of miners. In this note, I will examine the occupations of people living in Trupbach, from where three of the First Colony families came (the Rectors, the Fishbacks, and the Utterbacks). The time of our looking is the Eighteenth Century. The data comes from the church records, where the occupation of the father is often mentioned in connection with marriages, baptisms, and funerals. Trupbach itself had no church, only a Chapel, and the people went into Siegen, a few miles distant.
In the 1600's, one miner is mentioned. In the 1700's, two are mentioned (in 1780 and 1785). In the 1800's, twenty names are mentioned as miners, but this was a century after the Germanna people left. Trupbach did sit on some good underground ore beds, but until the steam engine came along, it was impractical to open those mines. It took too much power to pump out the water which seeped in, and to lift the ore and burden. So when our people left, Trupbach was not known as a mining town because the steam engine was not a practical device yet.
The occupation employing the most people was carpentry. Seven people, during the 1700's, gave this as their occupation. Included in this number were the two Fischbach sons, who came to Virginia. Their father, who was also listed a carpenter, was mentioned in 1683. Other carpenters in the village were Jost Schneider (1637), Veltin Schneider (1678), Johannes Otterbach (1704), Henrich Cursch (1736), Jacob Heide (17??), and Ludwig Jung (1806). All of these people lived in the same house, and where there is a name change, the man had married a daughter of the previous generation.
There was one wheelwright, one wood turner (1791), and three forge workers. Henrich Schneider was a forge worker in 1743, Philipp Schuss in 1786, and Michael Heide in 1786. A respectable water course flows by Trupbach, which furnished power for forge(s). The forge seems to be distinct from the blacksmith shop. No one is listed as a blacksmith in the 1700's.
Though it is hard to visualize a market large enough for the products, four generations of the Richters were clockmakers. They started with Christoffel in 1666, on to Johannes in 1704, then Herman in 1738, and the latter's son-in-law, Henrich Hoffman in 1773.
One concludes that the basic occupation of the inhabitants was farming. Farming kept body and soul together as we say. On the side, a few of the men are listed as having other occupations, but, after the carpenters and the clockmakers are removed, little remains.
In the next century, the Nineteenth, several other occupations are listed.
Certainly, from the occupations given here about the Trupbach residents, one would not conclude that the First Colony consisted of miners. I have asked if anyone could furnish proof that any member of the First Colony was a miner, or, in general, a mine worker, or a smelter of iron. No one has come forward with the evidence. Lt. Gov. Spotswood did write once in a letter that they were "
generally
miners". This could mean many things, but perhaps nothing more than that they had seen some mining done.
(08 Feb 01)
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.