Some writers have claimed that the First Germanna Colony was recruited by Graffenried at the request of Lt. Gov. Spotswood for the purpose of mining iron ore which he had discovered. There are at least three errors in this statement.
There was no known iron in the vicinity of Fort Germanna when the Germans arrived. Later there was, but that was a few years down the pike. Had there been iron ore when the Germans arrived, Spotswood would not have settled the Germans at an appreciable distance from it. This later iron ore was thirteen miles away from Fort Germanna. If the ore been known when the Germans came, they would not have been settled thirteen miles away from it.
When I was first introduced to Germanna history, most of what I read was published by the Germanna Foundation. The claim they made that the Germans had been imported to mine iron ore, and that they were settled thirteen miles away from this ore, just did not make sense. It did not make sense to Brawdus Martin in this century either. His answer was to manufacture and to publish false evidence showing that the "first" Germanna had been located at the mines. He should have recognized, of course, the problem lay with the original claim which was false.
Also, the claim that Spotswood had found iron ore is not justified or supported by any evidence. This latter claim is usually made to support the concept that Spotswood had asked Graffenried to recruit miners when he returned to Europe. What we do have as real evidence is that Graffenried started recruiting these people in 1710, before he had met Spotswood, and that, when he returned to England and found the Germans there, he advised them to go home to Germany. This does not support the idea that Graffenried was recruiting for Spotswood.
What we do have as evidence are deeds in Essex County showing land sales in 1713 to Spotswood, Graffenried, and others. And we have written testimony by Graffenried that this land was thought to contain silver. There was written testimony in Virginia by several people who believed in the silver mine. This silver mine was only a few miles from Fort Germanna and is the reason that Fort Germanna was located where it was. The projected silver mine is the reason that the Germans were even in Virginia.
Why were the Germans not actively working this silver mine? It was not established who would own the silver, if, indeed, silver were found. Would it belong to the Crown, or would it belong to the developer of the mine, or would it be split? Customarily, the Crown reserved the gold and silver that could be present on a tract of land. The patents that were issued were quiet on this subject. Spotswood was trying to obtain a reasonable split of the metals between the developer and the Crown. Until the division of the metals was defined, he would not allow any work at the mine.
(13 Apr 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.