John Blankenbaker's Germanna History Notes

Note 1329

First, I am going to give some quotes from W. W. Scott's book, " A History of Orange County, Virginia ", which was originally published in 1907.  Mr. Scott had impressive credentials as State Law Librarian, Member of the State Historical Society, and State Librarian of Virginia.  He is quoted quite widely.  The first quotation is:

"Rev. Henry Haeger was their [the Germans] pastor.  He was a man of much erudition, lived to a great age, and died in 1737.  These colonists were induced to leave their homes in Germany by the Baron de Graffenried, acting for Governor Spotswood who was then making preparations to develop his iron mines in the vicinity of Germanna, and this business enterprise of the Governor was the sole cause of their coming to America."

The second quotation is acknowledged by Scott to be from Willis Kemper in the " Kemper Genealogy ", but is uncritically accepted by Scott.

"They [The members of " Our Colony "] did not leave their homes not knowing where they were going, nor because they were compelled to.  They were engaged to go, and knew where they were going, and what they were to do.  They came from one of the thriftiest and most intelligent provinces of Germany; they were master mechanics, and were an intelligent, progressive set of people."

This last quotation is essentially the fifth paragraph of the History page of the Germanna Foundation web site.  Perhaps the Foundation should acknowledge that they are taking the statements from Scott with only trivial alterations.  Scott reports the data without any critical analysis.

We can see, by a comparison to the writings of Kemper, that he was the source for the information in this paragraph (see page 14 of " Kemper Genealogy ").  So, the Foundation and Kemper stand together, though the Foundation does not acknowledge that Kemper, via Scott, is their source..

Let's see if Kemper has any evidence for his statements.  It is doubtful, based on the written statements of Albrecht, Michel, and Graffenried, that the Germans knew where they were going.  The recruiter in Siegen, Albrecht, in the Shareholder's Book that he wrote, mentions one place, South Carolina.  Michel was not sure whether "his mines" were in Virginia, Maryland, or Pennsylvania.  Graffenried wrote to the people in Siegen from North Carolina.  Graffenried did have a letter, from Queen Anne in 1710 when he visited Lt. Gov. Spotswood, which said that the Governor was to provide land for the group.  At this time, though, Graffenried and Spotswood did not know where the mines were, and in which political jurisdiction they would lie.

The Germans seem to be expecting that, if they got to London, Graffenried would take them on to their final destination.  They thought they had only to go to London.  That was their destination.  Beyond that, their destination was uncertain.
(09 Jan 02)