We have very few artifacts that had been in the possession of our immigrants. Henry Huffman, younger brother of John Huffman, and resident of the Robinson River Valley, brought a bottle which had words and pictures on it, which implies that he was a master carpenter. The date on the bottle is 1735 AD. The words are, “Vivat dass Lehrbarhandwerch der Zimmerleuth.” This is reasonably translated as “Long live the skilled handicraft of the carpenter.” A flower is on the front of the flask-like bottle with the words and the date, while images of carpentry tools are on the reverse side. The dimensions of the bottle are 14.6 centimeters in height, 9.2 centimeters in width, 4.1 centimeters in depth (5.7 inches by 3.6 inches by 1.6 inches). The first impression of the bottle says it is black in color, but actually it is a deep purple. A picture of the bottle was given in Beyond Germanna on page 716. The bottle was, in the year 2000, in the possession of his descendant David Beatty. Dr. Beatty’s father bought it at an auction of his father-in-law’s effects. His father-in-law was Albert Huffman. David Beatty lived in Jeffersontown, Kentucky.
It is a safe conclusion that Henry Huffman was a carpenter who probably obtained his “Master’s” degree in 1735 at about the time he was married.
His brother, John, appears also to have been a carpenter. When the Lutheran congregation in the Robinson River Valley built a church for their new minister, Johann Casper Stoever, they hired John Huffman for nine days of carpentry in building the house. For this, they paid him one pound, two shillings, and six pence. John Huffman was born in 1692 so he was only 21 when he emigrated to America. This would not have been time enough to have completed the training for a carpenter which had three stages, apprentice, journeyman, and master. However, he could have studied and worked enough so that he could be considered a carpenter.
Looking now at the occupations of some of the members of the 1714 immigrants, we know that Hans Jacob Richter was admitted to the Guild of Steelsmiths and Toolmakers as a toolmaker.
Heinrich Haeger was a minister in the German Reformed Church.
Hans Jacob Holtzklau was a school teacher.
Johann Hermann Otterbach was a "Fuhrmann", which Ernest Thode in his German-English Genealogical Dictionary translates as “freight handler, carrier, carter”.
Notably lacking in the records is any mention of the emigrants as “miners”. If we were to be truthful, we whould stop referring to the 1714 immigrants as "miners".
(28 Aug 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.