For the first two years that Fort Germanna was occupied by the Germans, Alexander Spotswood said that they did nothing to benefit him or his partners. This is not exactly true, as the Germans were the settlers which permitted Spotswood to patent the Germanna Tract. This was done 31 October 1716 through a third party, William Robertson, who transferred title to Spotswood a month later. Spotswood hoped to be able to lease the land to the Germans when their service was ended.
The official duties of the Germans were to be Rangers, protecting the frontier from unwanted incursions of Indians. There is no evidence that any trouble with the Indians developed while the Germans were living at Fort Germanna. The Germans had to clear land so that they could grow food. They were responsible for getting their own food by either agriculture or hunting. During these first two years, the Germans did nothing that could be said to be mining. They left testimony that they did begin mining and quarrying in March of 1716(NS) and continued this until December of 1718. Incidentally, this testimony does establish that Johann Justus Albrecht came with the Germans that he had recruited.
From a letter of Spotswood to Col. Nathaniel Harrison, from the statement of John Fontaine, and from the Germans' testimony, we can deduce that Spotswood set the Germans to work on the silver mine in March of 1716. At time of the trip across the mountains later that year, John Fontaine’s diary shows that the Germans had been working on the silver mine, but that the results were disappointing. Spotswood’s letter to Harrison says that in late 1717 Spotswood set the Germans to work looking for iron ore. This was not an intense endeavor, as Spotswood said that only sixty odd pounds Sterling was spent on the endeavor, but apparently the search was successful as Spotswood and his partners patented the Iron Mine Tract in February of 1720(NS).
The four years that the Germans had agreed to work to pay the balance of their transportation costs that they could not pay were concluded in the summer of 1718. At this time they made an entry for 1805 acres of land in the Northern Neck. Moving in the summer time would have been a very poor time to move while moving in the winter would permit them to clear some land in order to grow some food in the following summer. Coupled with their statement that they worked at mining and quarrying until December of 1718, it is probable that they moved to the Northern Neck at the start of the year 1719(NS). The Rev. Haeger may not have moved at this time, as the move, the clearing of the land, and the building of temporary shelters would have required hard physical labor which he probably could not perform due to his age and health.
(28 Oct 04)
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.