*[Der Apfel faellt nicht weit vom Stamm.]
It always fascinates me to know why individual families, who might have a choice as to where they settled in America, did choose Virginia, in particular, in the Germanna area.
Let’s take a specific case. Andreas Gaar and his wife Eva Seidelmann came in 1732 to Pennsylvania and the first winter he lived in Germantown, now a part of Philadelphia. Within about a year of arrival, he moved down to the Robinson River Valley (RRV). What was wrong with Pennsylvania, if anything? He did not have to move. So far as we know, he knew no one in the RRV. Or did he?
We do know that the ship that he arrived on also brought Johann Christian Schultz, a Lutheran minister. Now at that time, Schultz was about the only ordained German Lutheran minster in Pennsylvania. Andreas was of a religious turn and perhaps he sought out Schultz to attend services. Schultz was holding services at several places.
At about this same time, Johann Caspar Stoever had agreed to become the minister of the Lutherans in the RRV. There was a problem since Stoever was not ordained. (His son in Pennsylvania was acting as a minister and the son was not ordained. In fact, the son relinquished the congregations he had to Schultz when Schultz came.) So the RRV congregation sent Stoever, Sr., and George Scheible up to Pennsylvania to seek ordination for Stoever, Sr. They found Schultz, who agreed to ordain both father and son and to marry the son, all in one day. Not long after this, Schultz returned to Germany on a fund-raising trip. This left Stoever, Jr., as the only German Lutheran minister in Pennsylvania.
Because Andreas Gaar knew Schultz (they had traveled together for several weeks on the same ship and they both came from the same region of Germany), Gaar may have attended the ordination services and the wedding for the Stoevers. At least, he was probably aware of them. So it may be that when Schultz returned to Germany, Gaar decided to move to where there was a Lutheran minister. And so he moved to the RRV.
This seems to make sense to me and it does give me a reason for the move of the Gaar family to Virginia. I don’t know of any other reason they might have had for moving.
*[The apple doesn’t fall far from the tree.] (Or the English say, “Like father, like son.”)
(27 Mar 07)
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.