Toward the end of the Nineteenth Century (i.e., the 1800's), the Rev. Sanford H. Cobb became interested in the traces of German life to be found in New York. Though he was not a professional researcher, he found a lot of information in English publications about the Germans. He wrote the book, The Story of the Palatines, An Episode in Colonial History ”. Due to this work, he was asked to deliver a paper before the Wyoming Historical and Geological Society. This was entitled “ The Palatine or German Immigration to New York and Pennsylvania ”. This address was itself printed and a copy was made available to me by Jim Albin, one of the Directors of the new Germanna Association. The comments to follow here are from Rev. Cobb.
"Most of the historians of our Colonial period do not mention the German immigration which was so important to life in the colonies and later the United States. For example, Mrs. Lamb, in her history of the City of New York, devotes a short one-half of one page to the Germans and observes that the Germans bore the same relationship to the citizens of New York as the Chinese did to the citizens of the West Coast, i.e., they were a foreign culture that did not interact strongly with the dominant culture."
Cobb felt that most of the Germans came from the Palatinate, but he underestimated the contributions of the Germans from other parts of Germany. He is correct that a major percentage did come from the Palatinate and that the English adopted the name Palatine for all the Germans. Perhaps Cobb did err in ascribing idyllic characteristics to the land and the people of the Palatinate. The Palatine was unfortunate in that it lay close to France and was the victim of adverse actions by the French against it.
In 1685, the Palatine Elector, Charles Louis, died without issue which ended the Zimmern line of the Electorate and the succession passed to Frederick of the house of Newburgh. The king of France, Louis, thought he saw an opportunity to install his brother who had married the sister of Charles Louis. The claim was opposed by Holland, Austria, Bavaria, Prussia, and many of the smaller German states. Collectively they organized the Grand Alliance and prepared for war. Louis moved quickly and sent an army of 30,000 men to the Palatinate. The army commander was instructed to ravage the province with fire and sword and to make the land a desert. The invasion took place in winter and the army fully carried out the wishes of Louis. On one day, the Elector, standing on the walls of Manheim[sic], counted twenty-three villages in flames.
Some say that the French directed so much evil energy to the campaign because the Palatinate had given asylum to the Huguenots who left France after the revocation of the Edict of Nantes. I am not certain that this is the case though it would appear that Louis harbored very strong negative feelings toward the Palatinate. Perhaps he saw that he could not succeed in his original purpose and decided to vent his feelings as strongly as possible.
(10 Oct 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.