We have been looking at the importance of tobacco to Virginia and to England. We looked at the problems of growing tobacco, and the ever expanding need for land to grow the tobacco. We saw that by 1710 most of the land had been taken up in the Tidewater region. Attention was now focused on the land to the west. We saw that a major push was made into the Piedmont lands, which was spurred by the arrival of the Germans, who were willing to live there. They could take some comfort in the fact that were several tens of them. The first colony, of more than forty people of all ages, was barricaded behind a post fence of a substance to be able to withstand musket balls. The Second Colony, perhaps of about 80 people, was farther west, without any barricade, with each house separated by about one-half mile from its nearest neighbor. Neither colony experienced any trouble with Indians.
The time span from the First Colony's settlement, in 1714, until the Second Colony was in their permanent homes "at the mountains", was only about eleven years. "Civilization" had advanced about forty miles in this time period. The phrase "at the mountains" was used by the Germans themselves to describe where they lived, and it meant "at the Blue Ridge Mountains". (At the time, the Blue Ridge Mountains were not called that.)
One of the difficulties of living so far west was the isolation from the markets. When the Second Germanna Colony moved, in 1725, to their homes in the Robinson River Valley, there was no store within a hundred miles. Not only was it difficult to buy anything, it was difficult to sell anything. The major thing for which there was a market was tobacco. Of a necessity, most everyone grew this. It is recorded that Rev. George Samuel Klug was not home once because he had gone to Williamsburg to sell his tobacco (he was paid in tobacco). So we see that the simplest of things could take a long time.
A few years later, it was recorded in the Shenandoah Valley that the men were not home because they gone over the mountains (i.e., over the Blue Ridge) on business. This is one of the reasons that there was a social intercourse between the Valley people and those on the eastern side of the mountains. And, then, people such as Rev. Klug went west over the mountains to preach, conduct confirmation classes, and to hold communion. It just wasn't easy living at that time for anyone. Anyone who is of the do-it-yourself frame of mind might have had fun, because that was the nature of life then.
Returning to the initial theme, the Germans played a major role in the western expansion of civilization (as we call it). They happened to arrive at a time when there were forces in favor of the western expansion. Their characteristic ability to live on the frontier made the expansion a success.
(21 Jun 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.