[First, I’ll add an additional note of George Flohr’s observations on America.]
The German soldiers in the French regiment fighting for the Americans against the English could not understand why the Americans were revolting. It seemed to the Germans that the Americans were leading the good life. Back in Zweibrücken, the Duke kept one thousand horses in his stables and thousands of hounds in the kennels to hunt deer, bears, pheasants, and rabbits in the royal forests. He spent 14 million guilders on his castle at Karlsberg in the year 1790. This was all paid for by the subjects. On the contrary, taxes were low in America, and there were great freedoms.
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Returning to the Hebron Communion Lists, which was where we first found Georg Flohr, we can find another family who was present about the same time. Again, the name of this family does not have wide recognition in the Germanna community. The family name is Schad , and the members were Friedrich and Catharina, the parents, and the son Philip and the daughter Catharina. That the children were given indicates they were confirmed, and hence of a certain age, perhaps in the neighborhood of sixteen or more, when they first appeared. Their first appearance was in 1804, and the last was in 1806. During this time, they were present at six communion services.
The date 1804 is a clue to the reason they were there. The church bought an organ in 1802, and Friedrich was the kapellemeister, or the person in charge of the music. As such, he would also have been the organist. On weekdays, he was the schoolteacher, according to W.P. Huddle, who wrote a history of the Hebron Church; however, he did not stay long, probably because the church could not afford to pay his salary.
I have heard, and perhaps others can confirm or correct me, that Friedrich Schad was a British auxiliary who chose to stay in America. I know very little about him before or after his short stay in the Robinson River Valley. I would welcome contributions here.
In the 1800’s, Hebron Church was faced with difficulties. The services were still conducted in German, but the community was less and less German. The audience to which services in German would appeal was dying. The old timers who had been raised on the German language were becoming nonexistent. A few new people were coming into the community who spoke German, but the losses were outnumbering the gains.
Rev. Carpenter started about 1787 and attendance was very good at first. On the average, each year saw fewer people attending church. It must have been discouraging to him. It is said that he was willing to preach and administer communion in English, but the elders of the church were opposed; however, after he left, English started coming into use on the typical pattern of one Sunday a month in English, then two Sundays a month, then three Sundays a month, until
only
English was used.
(18 Sep 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.