Volume 12 , Issue 10

Early German Emigrants of Augusta, VA

I found this history book about the Early Western Augusta Pioneers of Virginia over at Ancestry.com. Here is some of the information concerning "The German Families of Augusta" for those genealogy and family tree researchers with some German ancestors that landed in the Augusta county, Virginia area.

It begins, "One might ask what caused the German families of Augusta to leave their native Vaterland and undertake such a hazardous adventure as a trip across the ocean to American in the early 1700's. The answer lies in the culminating factors of almost constant recurring warfare, the constant drain of taxation imposed by their royal rulers to keep up with the grandeur of the court of Louis XIV in France, the incessant struggle of the Catholic element against the protestants, and not the least, that the entire valleys of the Rhine, the Neckar,a nod the Main Rivers had been set aflame by the fiery speeches of William Penn preaching the new religion of brotherly love, and the glories and the abundance of freedom in the New World."

It also states, "? There was nothing but praise for settling in Pennsylvania, while there was nothing but condemnation against settling in New York. The way that England had practiced the boldest deception and intrigues upon the early emigrants who were landed on Governor's Island and later transferred to Livingston Manor was soon broadcast throughout the entire Palatinate. As a result the German emigration to New York State soon came to a halt."

The section of Germany known as the Palatinate lies along the Rhine, the Nekcar, and the Main Rivers. In 1700 its principal cities were Pforsheim, Heidelberg, Mannheim, Frankenthal, Worms, Spire, Alzey, Baccarach, Bretten, Lauteren, Masbach Newstadt, Oppenheim, Simmeran, STromberg, and Ladenberg.

The Rhine was the highway along which the refugees fled the Palatinate, and it became clogged with every type of vessel that could boast a mast and a sail. The exodus down the Rhine lasted for the six moths from May through October each year. The trip down the Rhine to Rotterdam in the Netherlands lasted from three to six weeks. They had to pass some twenty to thirty customhouses on their way down and each one exacted its fee. The resources of many were exhausted by the time Rotterdam was reached.They were sometimes held in the Netherlands for one to two months. From Dutch ports they were transferred to some English port, where they usually experienced another delay sometimes lasting several months, while waiting to be passed by the customhouse or waiting for suitable winds.

The ships that brought over these people were small sailing vessels from 63 feet to less than one hundred feet long. Their tonnage was from one hundred to three hundred tons. The voyage to America took up to three months or longer to reach Philadelphia. Upon arrival in Philadelphia there was usually another long delay before they took the Oath of Allegiance to the Crown of England before the city council.

The great majority of these Germans first settled int he counties of Lancaster, Lebanon, Barks, York, and those immediately surrounding Philadelphia. The Germans in the Valley of Virginia came across the Potomac above Harper's Ferry from Maryland and Pennsylvania. The Shenandoah Valley lay next beyond through the narrow neck of western Maryland. There were a few who came from New Jersey and New York. A few came from the east Virginia counties of Spotsylvania, Orange, and Madison; and also a few, doubtless, from the German settlements in North Carolina.

The fact is emphasized that the Germans of the Valley of Virginia are descended almost entirely from the emigrants of the early eighteenth century; people who left the Fatherland, not for economic reasons alone, but largely because of religious persecution, political oppression, or military outrages. Such forces always move the best classes - people who at such times are seeking most of all liberty of conscience, health of the stet, and safety for the morals of home and family. The German pioneers of the Valley, like their neighbors the Scotch-Irish, were such a people.

This research also has a list of names of "Soldiers of the VArious Early Wars (colonial, Indian and Frontier Wars), starting on page 401.
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