^, .-^^ a 0^ v^^"V .-V xoo,, -^.^ v-^^ -^ '\^' '^^^ '^^'" ' ^^' ,^^'' \0 c> "^.s" >'^ V V\ ., ' ' oo^ The Story of the An E History By Sanford H. Cobb New York & London G. P. Putnam's Sons 1897 t\ Bj transfer Pi3 '^ L. '— ''^ Copyright, 1897 BY G. P. PUTNAM'S SONS Entered at Stationers' Hall, London TEbe Itniclierbocher prces, flew fiork TO THE CHILDREN OF THE PALATINES MY OLD PARISHIONERS IN THE HIGH-DUTCH CHURCHES OF SCHOHARIE AND SAUGERTIES PREFATORY NOTE. MANY letters, received since the fact be- came known that the pubhcation of this Story of the Palatines was con- templated, render it proper to state, by way of preface, that the book is purely historical and in no sense genealogical. The sole attempt has been to narrate, in as brief compass as was consistent with the value and interest of the facts, the story of a people. The tracing of the lines of family descent did not come within the scope of such a narrative. To do that for all the Palatines would be work for more than a lifetime ; and were it done, the record thereof would be out of place in a book designed for the general historical student. Nor has any attempt been made to transfer to these pages the name-lists of the several immigrations. The Docjimentary History of vi Prefatory Note New York contains the list of those who came in 1 708 with Kockerthal, and also some names of those settled at the two Camps. The Penn- sylvania Archives contain lists of over thirty thousand names of those who came to Penn- sylvania. These lists have been published by Rupp, who also gives names of Palatines on the Hudson in 1 71 1. Beyond these the author does not know of other lists accessible in this country. Nor is he aware that any lists have been preserved in London of the immigrations to North Carolina and Virginia, and of that to New York in 1710. Of this last company Rupp's list of Palatines on the Hudson is a very incomplete record, as many of the people died on the voyage, and many on Governor's Island, while about three hundred settled in the city of New York. Such lists, however, are not needed for the purpose of this work. The addition of them to the present volume would swell it beyond reasonable limits, and defeat the chief aim of its writing, viz. : the giving to the general stu- dent of American history an account, not now widely known, of one distinct and unique ele- ment in our colonization, which some historians Prefatory Note Vll have entirely ignored and others have treated with undeserved reproach. The short collection of Palatine names, given in Note I. at the end of the volume, is designed only as a specimen list, taken almost at ran- dom, to illustrate the permanency of the Pala- tine stock, and the changes of form which many of the names have suffered. S. H. C. CONTENTS. CHAPTER I. Introduction II. The Palatinate. 20 III. The Exodus 59 IV. The Experiment 103 V. The Failure 148 VI. The Promised Land 201 VII. The Dispersion . 258 Notes . 305^ Index . 3^3 Maps : I. The Palatine of the Rhine ... 20 II. The Palatine Settlements of the Hud- son, Mohawk, and Schoharie , 148 III, Palatine Settlements in Pennsylvania . 258 THE STORY OF THE PALATINES CHAPTER I INTRODUCTION THE reasons for writing this Story of the Palatines are several. Chief among them are these three : that it has never been written in its fulness, or with proper regard to its historic importance ; that much of the little which has been written about it abounds in misunderstandings and misstatements ; and that the story truly told is one of such intrinsic interest and bears such relation to colonial history as to make it worthy of regard by every student of American society and institutions. 2 The Palatines That which by most people, who know any- thing about the Palatine Immigration, is sup- posed to be alluded to in any reference to that people, is merely the incoming of the large company which landed in New York in the early summer of 1 7 lo. They made the largest body of emigrants coming at one time to this country in the colonial period. There were nearly three thousand of them, and they were perhaps at once the most miserable and most hopeful set of people ever set down upon our shores. But they were not all. A small band had preceded them to New York ; about the same time as their own coming, a company of seven hundred had gone to North Carolina, and another company to Virginia ; and in later years they were followed by many thousands of their countrymen in the Palatinate, the vast majority of whom found settlement in Penn- sylvania. These various immigrations make in reality one story, having, as they do, one source and bound together by a common im- pulse, constituting a distinct episode in colo- nial history well worthy of study, and quite unique in its interest and character. Introduction 3 Of these immigrations there are many scat- tered notes of mention in Colonial Records, and many incidental and fragmentary allusions in local histories, sketches, and biographies. But of the movement of these people as a whole, with the statement of its causes and the singular experience to which a large por- tion of them came in America, no full or con- nected narrative has yet appeared. Much of the brief mention accorded to it is with the evident assumption that the movement was insignificant and possessed of no features v/orthy of special comment, save the almost unparalleled poverty of the immigration of 1 710. The allusions to these people are apt to lay particular emphasis on that condition. They are most frequently called "the poor Palatines." So to some writers they seem to stand in the history as representative only of pauperism, to be dismissed from discussion so soon as possible with scant measure of cour- tesy or respect. Thus Mrs. Lamb turns them out of court with the following contemptuous paragraph : " These earlier German settlers were mostly hewers of wood and drawers of water, differing materially from 4 The Palatines the class of Germans v/ho have since come among us, and bearing about the same relation to the English, Dutch, and French settlers of their time as the Chinese of to-day bear to the American population on the Pacific coast." With this disparaging comment we may con- trast the words by which Macaulay describes the same people : " Honest, laborious men, who had once been thriving burghers of Manheim and Heidelberg, or who had cultivated the vine on the banks of the Neckar and the Rhine. Their ingenuity and their diligence could not fail to enrich any land which should afford them an asylum." Such contemptuous regard as that of the language first quoted is surprising to one who has made even a slight study of the story of these people, in which are conspicuous other features than their poverty,—some worthy to engage the positive interest of every student of American history, and others fit to compel the hearty respect of all lovers of truth and manliness. It is a story of severe and unde- served suffering worthily borne ; a story of the stubborn and unyielding attitude of men who, Introduction 5 for home and faith, endured an almost un- equalled fight of afflictions, until at last they conquered peace, safety, and freedom. As such, the Story of the Palatines challenges our sympathy, admiration, and reverence, and is as well worth the telling as that of any other co- lonial immigration. We may concede that their influence on the future development of the country and its institutions was not equal to the formative power exerted by some other contingents. Certainly, they have not left so many broad and deep marks upon our history as have the Puritans of New England, and yet their story is not without definite and per- manent monuments of beneficence towards American life and institutions. At least one among the very greatest of the safeguards of American liberty—the Freedom of the Press —is distinctly traceable to the resolute bold- ness of a Palatine. But to create interest in their story it is not necessary to assert a superiority of influence. The historian is like the geographer in that the smaller items, the minor lines and points of description, claim from him fully as accu- rate, though not as extended, presentation as 6 The Palatines those which are more important. The coast- Hne upon the chart is not complete until it in- dicates each bay or cove wherein a skiff can float, and every rock or bar on which a keel may grate. A river map is not finished which fails to trace the course of any affluent, though it be so small that the deer can cross it at a bound. The lover of nature looks with differ- ent, and yet equal, interest on the little brook, tumbling riverward down the rocks and be- neath the forests of the Catskills, and on the broad bay at the river's mouth, on which the navies of the world might ride. Indeed, it is likely that the beauty of the former will en chain his eye more strongly than the grandeui of the latter. Certainly, he would deny that, in order to enlist his regard, the lovely moun- tain stream must put on the majesty of the sea.