Always, I am amazed at how little there was in the estate inventories of the Eighteenth-Century citizens. I have before me the inventory of Christian Herr, son of Hans Herr. These two men came in 1710 with their families and settled in the “Pennsylvania Dutch” country. In fact, they were the start of the German settlements in the interior of Pennsylvania. Christian Herr was a Mennonite minister, a farmer, an orchardist, and a distiller, who prospered in America.
The most valuable thing in the 1750 inventory was cash of more than 130 pounds. In addition, he had lent 25 pounds for which he had notes. The next most valuable item was linen cloth worth 40 pounds. Selecting those things which pertain more closely to agriculture, there were two stills worth 36 pounds, one apple mill, a cider press, two plows and a harrow, two old wagons (worth in total to 4 pounds, which meant there could have been but a little iron in them), a chain, single tree, flax break, hoes, forks, one wind mill (?), one young mare worth 14 pounds, a timber chain, a cross cut saw, scales, one horse collar and other harness, carpentry tools, 24 hogsheads (barrels), 14 bags, 141 pounds of hemp, one cow and a heifer, one grind stone, one axe, and old scythes. All items in the house and on the farm were valued at more than 352 pounds and this did not include any slaves. While some of our Germanna had more valuable estates, the total for them was usually inflated by the value of slaves.
Since he was an older man, Christian may have cut back some on his farming. Probably he had given up clearing land by this time. He had only one horse which may have been used for riding and a cow plus a heifer. How he obtained the power to pull the plow and the wagons is not clear. Perhaps he concentrated on the orchard and planted only a small measure of grains, gardens, and flax.
I have a small measure of identification with Christian at whose house I am a docent. Incidentally, I will be there this next Saturday (the first Saturday of each month is usually my day to lead tours there). The house itself is called the Hans Herr House, even though it legally belonged to Christian (do a Google search on Hans Herr House). It was built by the community and served as a Mennonite Meeting House for more than a century (it is the oldest extant Mennonite meeting house in the Americas). To accommodate a large number of worshipers, it was an abnormally large dwelling. In the Eighteenth Century, the Mennonites met in homes, not in churches, as do the Amish even yet today.
I am amazed at how little our ancestors had for farming. If they were to come back today, they would be amazed (and probably totally unbelieving) at the methods and tools in farming today.
(31 May 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.