Most early history books on Washington Co., PA, refer to the Hupps, Bumgarners, and Teagardens as among the earliest land owners in the region. One historian, Crumrine, says that Everhart Hupp and George Bumgarner from Culpeper Co., VA, came together before 1769, when an old survey record cites land to Hupp. The land was on the north bank of the Ten Mile Creek near to the Monongahela River.
The origin of the Hupps is unknown, with some claims being made for Holland, for a location near the Swiss border, and for Bavaria. A large number today seem to live in the area of Baden-Wuerttemberg where so many of the Second Germanna Colony came from. The Ortssippenbuchen from this area list names which might have been the origin of the name Hupp. For example, the Diefenbach Ortssippenbuch lists a Hipp. If I remember correctly, the Ortssippenbuch for Oeberwisheim-Neuenbuerg lists several Hipps or similar names.
A possible tie to Neuenbuerg is interesting in that the wife of Everhart Hupp was Margaret Thomas, the daughter of Michael Thomas. Michael was the son of John Thomas and Anna Maria Blankenbuehler from Neuenbuerg. Perhaps this marriage harkens back to a tie in the "old country". I also believe that the "Teagarden" name can be found in this same area of Germany.
Everhart Hupp did not live in the Robinson River Valley. Instead, he lived in the area which became Rappahannock County; however, the distance is not far from the RRV. (This is one of the cases where the designation of Robinson River Valley does not exactly include the locations of the Second Colony and the extended or later families.)
So descendants of the Thomas and Blankenbaker families are to be included in those who moved to southwestern Pennsylvania. In the case of the Thomas family, this is even more positive for Michael Thomas, and many members of his family moved to southwestern Pennsylvania. Our best history of this move is given in statements by Abraham Thomas, the son of Michael. Abraham states that as a young boy, he and his brother drove a herd of sheep from Virginia to southwest Pennsylvania. He mentions that he had a sister already living there, which is presumably Margaret.
Several, but not all, of the people who moved to this area of Pennsylvania later moved to Kentucky going down the Ohio River. Abraham tells of his own experience in doing this. So not all of the people who left the original Germanna communities for Kentucky went by way of the Cumberland Gap. Some of them took the northern route by way of the Ohio River. (Abraham Thomas’ story is a matter of a public record and had been told here in part.)
(12 Jan 06)
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.