John Blankenbaker's Germanna History Notes

Note 1938

John Wesley Garr started a book in 1844 of Garr/Gaar Genealogy with some points of general history.  It was finished and published in 1894 by his son, John Calhoun Garr.  Two points of general history on which the book errs are:

It is claimed that the title deed for the Old Dutch Church was made in 1720.  Actually, the land belonged to the King until 1727, when it was first patented to Andrew Kerker.  A deed to the benefit of the church was not made until late in the Eighteenth Century.  The result of the 1720 date error is to imply a settlement in the Robinson River Valley several years (five is the best estimate) before it did occur.

The Garrs also thought that the pipe organ in the church was a gift of Gustavus Adolphus, the King of Sweden, and that it was made at Lutzen, Sweden.  Perhaps the reason that the King of Sweden is mentioned is that Protestants in Germany revere the King of Sweden for his intervention in the Thirty Years' War on their behalf.  The place of manufacture was actually Lititz in Pennsylvania and the church purchased the organ from the builder, David Tannenberg.

The most serious errors in the general history of Germanna, which have been widely copied by other authors, were made by Willis Kemper, who, with Harry Lynn Wright, published the book, " Genealogy of the Kemper Family ", in 1899.  This was one of the first attempts at a history of the Germanna Colonies, especially the First Colony, and, unfortunately, Willis Kemper was in error on many points.

Kemper's basic premise was founded on Spotswood's erroneous statement, quoted earlier, pertaining to the newly discovered iron ore.  Kemper wrote,

"Spotswood discovered evidences of iron ore in the district toward the Blue Ridge."

There is no evidence to support this contention, and there is a lot which says it is false.  Spotswood admitted that the " newly discovered iron " was in fact " old iron ore ".  Spotswood never claimed, or even hinted, that he had found iron.

Kemper wrote his history by starting at the end, and then trying to find evidence that supported his ideas.  When he could not find the evidence, he simply made outrageous claims.  For example, Kemper observed that some Germans came from Nassau-Siegen, a region where there was iron mining.  He concluded, falsely, that they came because of their knowledge of iron mining.  Hence, there had to be iron mines in Virginia.  Actually they were recruited for their knowledge of mining, but not of iron.

(1) Contrary to what Kemper claims, the first patent of Spotswood for land with iron on it was issued in 1720.

(2) Though Spotswood had some initial interest in the Germanna area, it was for silver, not iron.

(3) When the silver mine failed to produce silver, Spotswood prepared to abandon Germanna.  At the start of 1716, he was actually building a home for himself at Fort Christanna, about 15 miles from today's North Carolina line.

(4) Fort Germanna was not located close enough to the 1720 iron mines and its eventual furnace to be realistic.  There was a distance of 13 miles between the two.