Continuing from the last note, trying to find hints of what the occupations of the 1714 German men might have been:
Herman Otterbach of Trupbach was a Fuhrmann when his son, Philipp, was christened in 1692. My German to English dictionary says that "Fuhrmann" means “carterer” or “wagoner”. I would take it that this would be a person who transported goods. He might have been carrying oak bark to the tannery, or wood to the place where charcoal was made. This later item would have been the biggest freighting job, for fifty pounds of wood were needed to smelt one pound of iron. B. C. Holtzclaw wanted to make Herman Otterbach into a dealer or middleman of iron products, but I believe this is saying something that is not implied by the word “Fuhrmann”. In any case, there is nothing to suggest that Otterbach was a miner. Also, he lived in a village, Trupbach, which was very agricultural, and not iron oriented.
No occupation is given in the Germanna Records for Jost Kuntze. His brother Christian was a toolmaker and was admitted to the guild as a toolmaker.
No occupation is known for Peter Heite/Hitt.
Also, no occupation is known for Johannes Spielmann.
The occupation of Johann Henrich Weber is unknown. There were two sons, Johannes, of about 20 years of age, and Tillman, who was only 14 when he arrived in Virginia.
Melchior Brumbach, Henrich Martin, and Johannes Kemper were all from Müsen. All were unmarried (no marriage records in Germany known) and none of them have a listed occupation. The grandfather of Johannes Kemper was a smith and his father was a church elder, but this was probably not an occupation but a service to the community.
Originally, Johann Justus Albrecht had been sent in 1710 to Germany to recruit miners. He seems to have some problems in recruiting and perhaps he settled for skilled men of various occupations and/or laborers. In his descriptions to Christopher Graffenried of his work, he described the men as miners to show that he had fulfilled his function. Graffenried accepted this definition and repeated it. This is what Blakiston and Graffenried told Spotswood. Spotswood wanted to convey the same impression to his supervisors, the Lord Commissioners of Trade.
When you look for the evidence that the men were miners, I do not find it. I have asked on this list before if anyone could furnish any evidence that there was one miner among the men and no one has come forth with a suggestion.
(14 Oct 02)
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