The University of Chicago
FOUNDED BY JOHN D. ROCK FELLER
Mennonites America
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USE ONLY
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MITTED TO THE FACULTY
OF THE
GRADUATE SCHOOL OF ARTS AND LITERATURE
IN CANDIDACY FOR THE DEGITE OF
DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPIN
!
Department of Histor;
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By C. HENRY SMITH
NITE PUBLISHING HOUSE
Scottdale, Pa.
1909




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1.
The University of Chicago
FOUNDED BY JOHN D. ROCKEFELLER
Mennonites of America
A DISSERTATION
SUBMITTED TO THE FACULTY
OF THE
GRADUATE SCHOOL OF ARTS AND LITERATURE
IN CANDIDACY FOR THE DEGREE OF
DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY
Department of History
By C. HENRY SMITH
MENNONITE PUBLISHING HOUSE
Scottdale, Pa.
1909
بكم
CHAPTER I
GERMANTOWN 1683-1708
The first permanent Mennonite settlement in
America was made at Germantown, Pennsylvania.
The first settlers came from Holland and
Relation of Germany, especially from the Lower
Rhine region along the borders of the two
Mennonites
to Quakers
countries-principally from the towns,
Crefeld and Kriegsheim. The story of
the early Mennonites in America is so closely inter-
twined with that of the Quakers that it may not be out
of place here to speak briefly of the early relation of
these two denominations in Europe. Even the most
casual student of their history must observe that they
had much in common in doctrine, practice and spirit.
As already indicated it is even suggested by some
historians that Quakerism may owe its origin to
Mennonite influence from Holland.¹ The opinion of
Robert Barclay on this subject has already been re-
ferred to.
1. Barclay, The Inner Life of the Religious Societies of the Common-
wealth, p. 77.
6063
4
MENNONITES OF AMERICA
Whatever their origin may have been, the English
Quakers very early in their history crossed over into
Holland and Northwestern Germany for the purpose
of extending their faith. They were wise enough to
begin their work where the soil had already been well
prepared for the reception of the Quaker doctrines of
non-resistance, non-swearing of oaths, and rejection of
infant baptism. And so we find their first evangelists
almost invariably beginning their efforts among the
Mennonites; and in Mennonite communities they
found their first proselytes.
2
One of the first of the Quakers to come to the con-
tinent was William Ames who visited Holland and the
Palatinate as early as 1655. Here he found his way to
many of the Mennonite strongholds. In company with
George Rolfe he visited Kriegsheim in 1657 where he
gained a number of Mennonite converts. And it is a
noteworthy fact that at a later time the entire Quaker
body at this place emigrated to Pennsylvania.³ Dur-
ing the same year Ames won for his faith also Judith
Zinspenning, of Amsterdam, who had been a member
of the Flemish Mennonite church. She was the wife
of Jacob Sewell, also a Mennonite, and the mother of
William Sewell, the well known Quaker historian.*
Caton who labored in Holland at the same time, says
he was well received everywhere by the Mennonites."
Stephen Crisp, another zealous Quaker, made a number
of trips to Holland and Germany between 1663 and
2. Pa. Ger. Soc., IX. 170.
3. Sewell, History of the Quakers, I. 260.
4. Ibid, II. 120.
5. Barclay, 250.
GERMANTOWN
5
er
1684, gained a few proselytes, visited Hamburg,
Embden, Friedrichstadt and Danzig, and set up a
meeting at Crefeld." In all of these towns the
Mennonites had large congregations.
Penn and Fox
in Germany
By far the most significant missionary tour, how-
ever, was that made in 1677 by a number of the Quaker
leaders, including Robert Barclay,
George Keith, Benjamin Furley,
George Fox and William Penn. On
July 26, this party landed in Briel, a
seaport town of Holland. From here they went to
Leyden accompanied by Jan Roelof, a Quaker, whose
father, Berend Roelof, had been a Mennonite preacher
at Hamburg, and thence to Haarlem, where they
attended a meeting consisting of Friends and
Mennonites." The travelers visited all the places
where meetings had been established and many new
towns where they hoped to gain new proselytes. The
tour included Amsterdam, Frankfort on the Main,
where Penn met a number of Pietists who had estab-
lished a society in that city, Kriegsheim, Cologne,
Embden and many other cities. At Amsterdam Penn
and Fox had a debate with the celebrated Mennonite
preacher Galenus Abraham. The story of this debate
is told very briefly but entertainingly by Sewell.
8
Galenus asserted that nobody now-a-days could be
accepted as a messenger of God unless he confirmed his
doctrine by miracles. Penn denied this and said miracles
at present are not necessary. Fox then also spoke something
6. Oswald Seidensticker, William Penn's Travels in Holland and Germany
in 1677, in Pennsylvania Magazine of History, II., 240.
7. Pa. Mag. of History, II. 250.
8. Sewell, II. 268.
6
MENNONITES OF AMERICA
to the matter; but he being somewhat short breathed, went
several times away which some were ready to impute to a
passionate temper but I well know that therein they wronged
him. This dispute was a troublesome business, for the parties
on both sides were fain to speak by an interpreter which
generally was performed so imperfectly that at last the
conference was broke off without coming to a decision al-
though many weighty arguments were objected against the
position.⁹
This tour of Penn's was full of significance for
the future settlement of Pennsylvania. To be sure, at
this time he was traveling merely in the interests of
the Quaker religion. But when a few years later he
was granted a large tract of land in the new world, and
when he sent his agents to the continent to secure
colonists, many of these persecuted Quakers, Mennon-
ites, Pietists, and other sects more or less limited in
their freedom of worship, felt a personal interest in the
enterprise.
Later Quakers
Among the
Mennonites
Penn was by no means the last of Quaker apostles
to visit the Mennonites. At Hamburg, Amsterdam,
Crefeld, Kriegsheim, Altona, in fact
wherever there was a Mennonite con-
gregation the Quakers got more or
less of a footing. The Mennonites
evidently often heard the Quaker
preachers gladly. The yearly meeting of London in
1694 reported from Holland that at Twist and Hoorne
there is found great openness and tenderness among the
people who desire to be visited and salute Friends and that
in some places is found good openness among the Mennists
(or Baptists) to hear the Friends tell the truth.10
9. Ibid, 277.
10. Bealing, Epistles of London Yearly Meeting. Baltimore, 1806.
GERMANTOWN
7
In 1709 Chalkley after a visit to Rotterdam, Haarlem,
Hamburg, Embden and other places said,
I know not that I ever met with more tenderness and open-
ness in people than in those parts of the world. There is a
great people there whom they call Menonists who are very
near the truth and the fields are white unto harvest among
divers of them spiritually speaking.11
In 1714 Story reported from Holland that he "met with
great kindness especially from a sect called Minists.
who in many respects resemble the Friends." These
people whenever he met with them tendered him "the
use of their meeting houses," and assisted him in his
labors "as far as they were able.'
"12 Thus we see that
the Mennonites and Quakers13 were by no means.
strangers to one another when Penn opened up Penn-
sylvania as an asylum for the persecuted of all lands
and where there was to be absolute freedom of wor-
ship. It was but natural that through his agents he
should first invite those with whom he had come into
such close personal contact, and who, he had reason
to believe, might easily be induced to cast their lot in
the new country.
The Mennonites at the close of the seventeenth
century still felt the heavy hand of persecution and
oppression upon them. The day of the
Persecutions stake and the rack to be sure was past,
but in Switzerland the followers of
Menno Simons were still sold as galley slaves or left
11. Chalkley, Journal, 99.
12. Story, Journal, 176.
13. Quaker preachers were not always received with open arms by the
Mennonite churches, however. Occasionally individual Mennonites
would join the Society but often a congregation as such would bar
the doors against Quaker preachers. See Pa. Mag. of Hist., II. 242.
8
MENNONITES OF AMERICA
to starve in prisons. In the Palatinate and other parts
of Germany they were allowed freedom of worship,
but their refusal to enter military service and to take
the oath often brought upon them great hardships, as
they often had to pay large sums of money for the
privilege of exemption. In Holland. and Northwest-
ern Germany, and especially in Crefeld, they enjoyed
practically most of the religious and civil rights granted
to other citizens.14 Even in the most tolerant countries,
however, the position of the Mennonites on the ques-
tion of war, the oath and the magistracy, was a source
of continual friction between them and the civil author-
ities, while their opposition to infant baptism, and to
the domination of the state churches brought upon
them the suspicions of the ecclesiastical hierarchies.
The lot of the Quakers on the continent as well
as in England was even harder than that of the Men-
nonites. Their aggressive zeal for the propagation of
their faith, their peculiar practices, in addition to their
refusal to enter military service and to take the oath-
two doctrines which they held in common with the
Mennonites-often brought them into trouble with
the authorities. On several occasions Penn wrote to
the authorities in behalf of his persecuted brethren.
In 1677 he petitioned the Elector of the Palatinate for
milder treatment of the Quakers at Kriegsheim, for
"tithes were exacted from them not only by the parson
of the village but also by the popish priests of Worms.
And the mayor of the town endeavored to restrain
their due liberty of religious meeting."15
14. Barclay, 78.
15. Sewell, I. 268.
GERMANTOWN
9
It was the desire, then, for fuller religious freedom,
and for exemption from heavy burdens of taxation and
civil obligations which they could not conscientiously
accept that led the first Mennonites and Quakers to
emigrate from Germany and Holland to Pennsylvania.
Crefeld, the home of the first colony, is a city on
the Rhine in Northwestern Germany, near the borders
of the Netherlands. This city had for many years been
an asylum for various persecuted sects in Germany.
It was from here also that the Dunkards came to
America some years later. The Mennonite congre-
gation had been in existence since the early part of
the century.
Jacob Telner
16
The individual who perhaps was most directly
concerned with the first emigration was Jacob Telner,
a Mennonite merchant of Crefeld, but
resident at the time in Amsterdam.¹
Telner, who had been in America some-
time between 1678 and 1681 in the interests of his
business, had business relations with the Quakers of
London and was on friendly terms with the leading
merchants of New York. He may thus be regarded
as a connecting link between Penn and the Crefeld
congregation.¹ It was no doubt largely due to his
influence that the enterprise was launched, partly per-
haps as a business venture but principally in order
that his brethren might enjoy greater civil and relig-
ious liberty.
Our knowledge of the history of the Crefeld colony
16.
Pennypacker in Pa. Ger. Soc., IX. 177.
17. Hazard, Register, VI. 183.
10
MENNONITES OF AMERICA
Crefeld
Purchasers
begins with May 10, 1682, when William Penn con-
veyed to Jacob Telner of Crefeld, Jan Strey-
pers, also a merchant, of Kaldkirchen, and
Dirk Sipman of Crefeld each five thousand
acres in Pennsylvania. On June 11, 1683, Penn con-
veyed to Govert Remke, Leonart Arets and Jacob
Isaacs Van Bebber, all of Crefeld, one thousand acres
each. These six, all Mennonites, constitute the orig-
inal Crefeld purchasers. All of these men with the
exception of Sipman and Remke finally found their
way to Pennsylvania. Colonization was the purpose
these purchasers had in view, and Penn stipulated
that a certain number of families should settle in
Pennsylvania within a specified time.
In the meantime a group of thirteen men with
their families, making thirty-three in all, nearly all
related to one another were gathered together for
the first colony. With the possible exception of one
or two families they were all from Crefeld, although
most of them were of Dutch ancestry. The names of
these men are Lenart Arets, Abraham Opden Graff,
Dirk Opden Graff, Herman Opden Graff, William
Streypers, Thones Kunders, Reynier Tyson, Jan Sie-
mens, Jan Lensen, Peter Keurlis, Johannes Bleikers,
Jan Lucken and Abraham Tunes.
On June 18, 1683, this little company had arrived
at Rotterdam whither they had been accompanied by
Telner, Sipman and Jan Streypers, three of the largest
purchasers. Passage had been secured for them
(on the Concord) through James Claypool, a Quaker
merchant in London. They were to sail July 6, but
owing to delay in Rotterdam they did not begin their
Maou
GERMANTOWN
11
19
voyage from London until July 24.18 The Concord
had other passengers besides the Crefeld emigrants,
for it was provisioned with "14 oxen, 30 (fasz) beer,
bread and water enough for 120 passengers." After
a voyage of ten weeks they reached Philadelphia on
October 6. One young woman had died on board the
ship, but this loss was more than balanced by the birth
of two children. Here we must leave this little band of
pioneers and turn briefly to the consideration of an-
other subject,-Pastorius and the Frankfort Land
Company.
The Frankfort Land Company was composed of
a number of Pietists in and around Frankfort on the
Main, who at different times had bought
Pietists about 25,000 acres from Penn for humani-
tarian purposes. The Pietists were not a
distinct religious sect. Pietism began among orth-
odox Lutherans and was a protest against the
formalism and dogmatism of the church at large. Its
chief exponent was Philip Jacob Spener, who was born
in 1635 in Alsace. He later studied at Strasburg and
in 1666 became pastor of a church in Frankfort on the
Main. It was here that he first began to discredit a
mere intellectual belief as a means to salvation and
to teach that a complete transformation of life was
necessary. He encouraged Bible study and the culti-
vation of the spiritual life. In 1670 he organized the
"Collegia Pietatis" which was merely a gathering of
pious souls for purposes of devotion. This was the
group of men with whom Penn had come in contact
in 1677.
18. Claypool Letter Book. Extracts in Pa. Mag. of History, X. 275.
19. Seidensticker, Bilder der Deutsch-Pennsylvanischen Geschichte,
p. 26.
12
MENNONITES OF AMERICA
Frankfort
Land Company
The result of this meeting was the formation of
the Frankfort Land Company, whose purpose was
to establish in the wilds of Pennsyl-
vania for themselves and others an
ideal retreat where they might devote
themselves, free and unhindered, more
exclusively to the cultivation of the religious life. The
original plan, however, was never carried out. Land
was actually purchased from Penn, as we have just
seen, but the company far from maintaining its original
ideals soon degenerated into a mere speculating enter-
Pastorius
prise. The agent for these Pietists was
Francis Daniel Pastorius, an accomplished
scholar and successful lawyer, who had
traveled much as a student, and practiced law in Frank-
fort, Worms, Mannheim and Speier, and it was at
Frankfort in the spring of 1682 that he met Spener.
Hearing much of Pennsylvania and of the proposed
scheme of the Pietists to buy large tracts of land for
colonization purposes, he was seized with the idea
of going to Pennsylvania himself to enjoy the quiet,
simple Christian life for which the new world seemed
to afford such ample opportunities.20 As agent for the
company Pastorius later purchased land for them from
Penn, and for seventeen years acted as their attorney
in Pennsylvania.
Soon after his appointment Pastorius left for
America. On his way to Rotterdam from which place
he was to embark for Philadelphia he visited Kriegs-
heim and Crefeld where he met many of the future
colonists. In Rotterdam he met Jacob Telner and
Benjamin Furley, Penn's agents in Holland. Telner
20. Seidensticker, p. 55.
GERMANTOWN
13
and such Crefeld purchasers as did not immediately
emigrate also engaged Pastorius to represent their
interests in the new world. Much of the land bought
by the Frankfort Company was located around what
was soon to be Germantown and many of the early
settlers bought their lands from this company. This
explains why Pastorius played such an important role
in the early affairs of the first Mennonite colony.21
Pastorius accompanied by several of the Crefeld
purchasers had left London early in the summer of
1683 and had arrived in Philadelphia, August 20, about
six weeks before the Crefeld colonists came.
These colonists did not remain long in Philadel-
phia, which was at that time a mere village, having
been founded only the year before. They
Germantown immediately set out in search of their new
Founded homes. Following, it is said, an Indian
trail, which is now perhaps Germantown
Avenue, they selected as their first dwelling place an
elevated spot between the Delaware and Schuylkill
rivers about five or six miles north of where the village
of Philadelphia then stood. This Indian path was lined
with laurel bushes. The surrounding region was a
21.
In religion Pastorius has been claimed by both Mennonites and
Quakers but as a matter of fact he belonged to neither denomination.
He was himself baptized a Lutheran in Germany, and had his two
sons, born in Pennsylvania, baptized into the same church. Being
a Pietist (See J. F. Sachse, The German Sectaries of Pennsylvania)
however, he no doubt felt himself very much at home with both
Mennonites and Quakers. During the early years of the German-
town settlement there was no Lutheran organization in the com-
munity and so we find Pastorius taking an active interest in the
religious affairs of the Quakers. His name often appears on the
records as a delegate to the Quarterly Meetings (See Abington
Records). There is nothing to show, however, that he took a similar
interest in the religious affairs of the Mennonites.
14
MENNONITES OF AMERICA
"very fine and fertile district with plenty of springs
of fresh water, being well supplied with oak, walnut
and chestnut trees and having besides excellent and
abundant pasturage for the cattle." 22 On October
24, Thomas Fairman, Penn's surveyor, laid out the
land for the colonists in a township afterwards called
Germantown or Germanopolis in honor of the nation-
ality of the colonists. On the next day they all gathered
together in the cave of Pastorius and cast lots for their
portions of land.23
Occupation
These early settlers were mostly mechanics and
linen weavers "and not given much to agriculture."
Consequently, instead of locating on large farms as
did the Mennonites on the Pequea some
years later, they established a village and
divided their time between the cultiva-
tion of the soil, which soon, however, became a
secondary occupation with them, and the industry of
weaving. The Opden Graffs, Arets, Tunes and Lensen
were all linen weavers, while Dennis Konders was a
dyer.24 In 1686 Abraham Opden Graff petitioned the
Governor's Council to grant him the Governor's pre-
mium for "the first and finest pece of linen cloth."25
Penn encouraged the linen industry and gave Telner
100 acres of Liberty land for his services in helping
to establish the colony.26
22. Letter of Pastorius, quoted in Pa. Mag. of Hist., IV. 90.
23.
Watson, Annals, II. 18.
24. Pa. Arch., Second Ser., XIX., p. 270.
25. Col. Rec., I. 194.
26. Pa. Arch. Second Ser., XIX. 256.
GERMANTOWN
15
As early as 1692 Richard Fraeme wrote:
The Germantown of which I spoke before
Which is at least in length a mile or more,
Where live High German people and Low Dutch-
Whose trade in weaving cloth is much-
Here grows the flax as also you may know
That from the same they do divide the tow.27
The village was laid out along one street 60 feet
wide with cross streets 40 feet wide.28 This street,
Fraeme says, was one mile long in 1692, and by 1748
when the famous Swedish Botanist Kalm visited Ger-
mantown it had grown to two miles. An old chron-
icler, writing in 1700, relates that at that time it was
lined on both borders with blooming peach trees.29 On
both sides were erected the first temporary dwelling
places by the settlers. Pastorius in March 1684, writes
that the community already has forty-two persons in
twelve families and each family has an estate of three
acres. Later, however, the village was resurveyed into
fifty-five lots of fifty acres each, running along both
sides of the main street.30
During the first few years the colonists were kept
busy clearing the land, opening roads, and raising such
grain as they needed for their sustenance. On October ·
22, 1684, William Streypers wrote to Holland:
I have been busy and made a brave dwelling and under it a
cellar, fit to live in, and have so much grain such as Indian
27. Old South Leaflets, Number 95.
28. See Pastorius letter in Pa. Ger. Soc., IX. 145.
29.
Watson, II. 46.
30. Pa. Ger. Soc., IX. 201.
16
MENNONITES OF AMERICA
corn and buckwheat that this winter I shall be better off than
I was last year.31
The temporary houses and caves were soon re-
placed by other and more substantial buildings. The
region abounded in sandstone and many of the
First settlers, before 1700, erected large and com-
Houses fortable stone houses, some of which are still
standing.32 These buildings cost considerable
time and labor in their erection, but were put up with-
out very much other expense. Several of the original
purchasers may have been men of means, but the actual
settlers for some time were poor men.
Pastorius in
1684 says,-
These honest people spent all their means on their journey
31. Streyper's in a letter to his brother. Quoted by Pennypacker in Pa.
Ger. Soc. Preceedings, IX. 72.
32. "Most of the old houses in Germantown are plastered on the inside
with clay and straw mixed, and over it is laid a finishing coat of
thin lime plaster; some old houses seem to be made with log
frames and the interstices filled with wattles, river rushes and
clay intermixed. In a house ninety years of age taken down, the
grass in the clay appeared as green as when cut. Probably twenty
houses now remain of the primitive population. They are of but
one story, so low that a man six feet high can readily touch the eves
of the roof. Their gable ends are to the street. The ground story
is of stone or of logs-or sometimes the front room is of stone and
the back room is of logs, and thus they have one room behind the
other. The roof is high and mostly hipped, forms a low bed
chamber; the ends of the houses above the first story are of boards
or sometimes of shingles with a small chamber window at each
end."
"In modern times those houses made of logs have been lathed
and plastered over, so as to look like stone houses; the doors all
divide in the middle, so as to have an upper and a lower door; and
in some houses the upper door folds. The windows are two doors
opening outwards and were at first set in leaden frames with outside
frames of wood."-Watson II. 18.
Since the above was written many of the old houses have dis-
appeared. Some of those still standing have since been remodelled.
GERMANTOWN
17
so that when provision was not made for them by William
Penn they were obliged to serve others.38
From Indian ravages and deadly disease, the two
most fatal enemies of so many of the early American
colonists, the Germantown settlement was fortunately
free. During the first winter there was only one death
and that was of the aged mother of the Opden Graff
brothers. While Abraham, who sent the news to Ger-
many, was sitting in his room with pen in his hand
an Indian squaw came into the room. Curious to know
what the writer was doing she took the pen in her
hand, whereupon Opden Graff took her hand in his and
traced the news of his mother's death across the page.
Thus was the news of the first death among the colon-
ists sent to their friends in Europe.34
Later
The colony once established, was soon increased
by fresh arrivals from Germany and Holland, influ-
enced to emigrate either by their friends here
or by Penn's agents in Europe who during
Arrivals all this time were busily engaged in securing
colonists for Penn's new province. For the
first ten or fifteen years the immigration was very
largely confined to those of the Mennonite or Quaker
33.
Among this number wholly or partially original are the Dirk Keyser
house built 1738; the Thones Kunder's home now No. 5109 Ger-
mantown Avenue; the Engle house built 1758; and the Rittenhouse
mansion on the Wissahickon built 1709. The Hiefert Papen home,
built in 1698 was torn down several years ago. For a discussion
on the old houses of Germantown see Jenkins, Guide book to His-
toric Germantown; and Keyser, Old Historic Germantown, in Pa.
Ger. Sec., Sec., XV. (C. H. S.)
Pa. Ger. Soc., IX. Pastorius letter p. 141.
34. Letter of Abr. Opden Graff written to friends in Holland 1684.
Translated and published by J. F. Sachse, in Letters Relating to
the Settlement of Germantown.
18
MENNONITES OF AMERICA
faith but soon after that the Reformed and Lutherans
predominated, with a sprinkling of Dunkards, and
many other denominations and sects. Germantown
is not only the first home of the Mennonites in
America, but the first home of the German race in
America. Especially was it the religious cradle of
German America. Here was organized not only the
first Mennonite church in this country but also the
first Dunkard,35 German Reformed,38 German
Lutheran,37 Moravian, and one of the earliest
Methodist congregations.
Among several other persons concerning whose.
religious affiliations we have no positive information
came, in 1684, these Mennonites,-Hans Peter Um-
stat, Isaac Jacob Van Bebber from Crefeld, and
Jacob Telner. The next year added to the list
Hiefert Papen, who is said to have built the
ñrst stone house in Philadelphia, and Klas Jansen,
and two families, Peter Shoemaker and Gerhard
Hendricks from the Mennonite-Quaker congre-
gation at
at Kriegsheim. Johannes Kassel, also
a Quaker convert, came from the same place during
the following year. In 1687 came Matthias Van
Bebber, son of Jacob Isaacs Van Bebber, the founder,
a few years later, of the Skippack settlement. In 1688
Dirck Keyser, who was a well known silk merchant
of Amsterdam, arrived by way of New York. In this
year came also William Rittinghuysen, the first
Mennonite preacher in America.
35.
Brumbaugh, History of the Brethren.
36. J. H. Dubls.
German Reformed Church. (Am. Ch. Hist. Series) 245.
37. H. E. Jacobs. The German Lutherans (Am. Ch. Hist. Series) 710.
GERMANTOWN
19
During the next fifteen years
next fifteen years were added a
number of names many of which have occupied a con-
spicuous place ever since that day, not only in the
annals of the Mennonite church but in the political
history of the commonwealth of Pennsylvania as

at 1
༢
The Dick Keyser House, built 1738
well. All came from Lower Germany and Holland.
They were, Hendrick Sellen, Hendrick Pennebecker,
the first German surveyor for the province,38 George
Gottschalk, Hans Neus, a silversmith, four families
38. For much of the detailed information on the early settlement of
Germantown I am indebted to the writings of S. W. Pennypacker in
the Proveedings of the Pa. Ger. Society, Vol. IX. Where other
references are not given I have drawn upon Pennypacker for my
facts.
20
MENNONITES OF AMERICA
from the Hamburg congregation, Harmen Karsdorp,
Claes Berends, Isaac Van Sinteren, and Paul
Roosen, Paulus Kuster, Paul Engel, Christopher
Schlegel, Evert In de Hoffen, Christian Meyer,39 Hans
Graff, 40 Cornelius Bom and Hendrick Casselberg, with
perhaps several others.
Other
In the meantime those of other religious faiths.
were continually finding their way into the new colony.
In 1694 Kelpius, a disciple of Jacob
Boehm, came over with a number of
Denominations followers. After remaining in German-
town for a short time they withdrew to
the lonely banks of the beautiful Wissahickon a few
miles to the west and there Kelpius became known as
the Hermit of the Ridge. With Kelpius came a party
of Lutherans who held their first services in America
in the house of the Mennonite, Van Bebber.42 There
were also a number of the Reformed denomination, as
well as several Quakers who for the most part had
been proselytes from the Mennonites in Crefeld,
Kriegsheim or other places. The Reformed, however,
did not organize a congregation until 1710.43
41
There seems to be considerable confusion in the
minds of writers on this subject as to the relation of
these various sects. This confusion
Relation of arises undoubtedly very largely from the
Various Sects fact that during the first few years while
the community was still small and most
of the denominations without preachers, the settlers.
39. Fretz, Moyer Family.
40.
41.
42.
43.
Rupp, Hist. of Lanc. Co., 133.
For discussion of this subject see J. F. Sachse, the German Sectaries
of Pennsylvania.
Pa. Ger. Soc., XI. 79.
Dubbs, History of the Reformed Church.
GERMANTOWN
21
irrespective of their religious affiliations often wor-
shipped in common. In 1686 a public meeting house.
was built which served as a place of common worship.
It was only as the different denominations grew, that
separate organizations developed. The Quakers built
their first meeting house in 1705, and thc Mennonites.
in 1708. There is much dispute especially concerning
the religious complexion of the original thirteen
families. What were they, Mennonites or Quakers?**
We have already noticed the close and intimate asso-
ciations between the two denominations on the conti-
nent. Whatever may have been the church relations
of the first settlers after they came to Germantown
there can be very little doubt that, with the exception
of Pastorius, they were originally of Mennonite
descent. According to Pennypackers who has made
a very exhaustive study of the family connections of
these people, the Opden Graffs were grandsons of the
Herman Opden Graff who as a delegate from Crefeld
signed the Dortrecht Confession of Faith in 1632.
Lensen was a member of the Mennonite church in
1708 and is the only one of the thirteen whose name
appears on the church roll at that time. Jan Lucken
has the same name as the engraver who illustrated the
Martyrs' Mirror of 1685 in Holland. A certain
Leonart Arets was a follower of David Joris who be-
longed to one of the Anabaptist sects in Holland and
who died at Basel in 1556. Tunes was a common
name among the Mennonite preachers of that time.
44.
The fact that the Mennonites never kept any church records makes
a thorough study of their early history extremely difficult, especially
on such a question as this.
45. Pennypacker, in Pa. Ger. Soc., IX.
22
MENNONITES OF AMERICA
•
William Streypers was a brother of Jan Streypers¹
who was an uncle to Hermanus Kuster known as a
Mennonite in 1708. The Streypers furthermore, were
cousins to the Opden Graffs. The wife of Thones Kun-
ders was a sister to Arets and a sister of the Streypers.
The wife of Jan Streyper was a sister of Reynier
Tyson. Keurles also was related to several of the
group. This leaves no doubt as to the faith of these
people before the coming of Stephen Crisp, the Quaker,
into Crefeld some time before 1683.
And yet some of them may have accepted the
Quaker faith before the emigration, but concerning
this question it is difficult to reach a definite conclusion,
We are certain, however, that a number of them
showed decided Quaker qualities soon after they
reached Germantown.
The fact that at first family ties, lack of preachers,
their common hardships and common interests made
it necessary for all to worship as one body
Common
irrespective of their individual religious be-
Worship liefs, makes it difficult to tell whether or not
the company represented more than one
religious faith. The first meeting seems to have been
in the house of Thones Kunders, whom the Quakers
claim as one of their members, and it is likely that this
and succeeding gatherings partook more of Quaker
than Mennonite characteristics. A number of the
46. See Streyper Mms. in Pa. Historical Soc. Lib., Philadelphia.
47. "Before their departure from Germany there had been a Friend's
Monthly Meeting held at Crefeld which was discontinued immediate-
ly after their departure, indicating that all or nearly all the full
body of members had gone."-Jenkins, Guide Book to Historic
Germantown, p. 18.
GERMANTOWN
23
colonists took an active interest from the very begin-
ning in Quaker religious affairs.
Among these was Abraham Opden Graff who lat-
er became one of the leading participants in the Keith
controversy. He left Germantown some time after
1704 for the Skippack, and consequently the records
of the Abingdon meetings make no mention of his
name. It is likely that at Skippack he was again
active in the Mennonite congregation, and he is buried
in the Mennonite graveyard at that place. The name
of his brother also, Derrick Up de Grave, is often found
on the Quaker records as a delegate to the Quarterly
meetings, as are also the names of Dennis (Thones)
Kunders, Leonard Arets, Reynier Tyson (1709) and
John Lukens (1705). During the first half of the
18th century the names of Conrad, Tyson, Lukens,
Streyper and Updegrave, all descendants of the origin-
al thirteen, often appeared on the records of the
Monthly Meetings. Many of these records it will be
Thones
'ILPA
平
​Kunders
Built before 1688.
House.
A part
still
of the original wall is
standing.
observed refer to a time long
after the Mennonites had
organized their congrega-
tion, and thus there can be
no doubt that the men
named had deserted the
Mennonite for the Quaker
faith. These men with the
arrival a few years later of
the Mennonite-Quakers from
Kriegsheim constituted the
first and for some time, the
strongest religious body in
Germantown.

24
MENNONITES OF AMERICA
This view is substantiated by a letter from Jacob
Gottchalk, one of the early Mennonite preachers.48
He says:
ร
The beginning of the community of Jesus Christ here at
Germantown who are called Mennonites took its rise in this
way, that some friends out of Holland and other places in
Germany came here together and although they did not all
agree, since at this time the most were still Quakers, never-
theless they found it good to have exercises together but
in doing it they were to be regarded as sheep who had no
shepherd and since as yet they had no preachers, they en-
deavored to instruct one another.
Whatever the religious faith, however, of the
larger part of the colony may have been during the
early years of the settlement, it must not be forgotten
that originally they had all been Mennonites and that
the leaders, Jacob Telner, Matthias Van Bebber and
others remained true to that faith and that soon many
other Mennonites came over. The Germantown
settlement in its inception after all, must be considered
a Mennonite enterprise.
Mennonites
Worship Separate
As the colony and the various parties grew in
numbers and wealth, the different sects began to
differentiate and crystallize into
separate organizations. We can
get a glimpse of the religious con-
ditions several years after the
settlement was made from a letter written on June 7,
1690, by Domine Rudolfus Varick, a Reformed pastor
visiting at that time in Pennsylvania. In writing to
Amsterdam he says,—
I came to a German village near Philadelphia where
among others I heard Jacob Telner, a German Quaker,
48.
Pa. Ger. Soc., IX. 220.
GERMANTOWN
25
preaching. Later I lodged at his house in Philadelphia. The
village consists of 44 families, 28 of whom are Quakers, the
other 16 of the Reformed church. Among whom I spoke to
those who had been received as members of the Lutheran,
the Mennonites, and the Papists, who are
very much
cpposed to Quakerism and therefore lovingly meet every
Sunday when a Menist, Dirck Keyser49 from Amsterdam
reads a sermon from a book by Jobst Harmensen.50
Although Varick's observations may not be
altogether reliable, yet this much can safely be
accepted, namely, that in 1690 the Mennonites had
withdrawn from the Quakers in worship; that they
must still have been few in number; that they were
still without a regularly ordained minister; and that
other denominations, which likewise were without
regular organization often met with them rather than
with the Quakers for worship. According to Jacob
Gotschalk, to whose letter reference has already been
made, these meetings were held in the house of Isaac
Jacob Van Bebber. In this year the Mennonite com-
munity was increased by more of their brethren from
Crefeld, who from "the first found it good or judged it
better for the building up of the community to choose
by a unanimity of votes a preacher and
and some
deacons."51 Accordingly William Rittenhouse was
chosen preacher and Jan Neus, deacon. These were
the first two officials of the Mennonite church in
America. On October 8, 1702, two other ministers
were elected-Jacob Gotschalk and Hans Neus.52
49. Keyser had not yet been ordained to the ministry.
50. Pa. Ger. Soc., XV. A translation.
51.
52.
Gotschalk letter. Pa. Ger. Soc., IX. 220.
This information is given in a letter written to Holland in 1773 by
Andreas Ziegler, Isaac Kolb and Christian Funk. These three
men get their information from the earlier Gotschalk letter.
Pennypacker found the letter in Holland and published it in his
"Hendrick Pennebecker."
26
MENNONITES OF AMERICA
First
Bishop
Thus far the church was without a bishop and
hence it was impossible to administer the sacrament of
communion or the rite of baptism. Soon
after 1700 a letter was written to the church
at Hamburg-Altona, from which several of
the brethren had come in 1700, asking that a
bishop be sent to them for the purpose of ordaining a
bishop for the American church. But no one in Altona
seemed to be willing to make the long journey, and
the authorities therefore advised the Americans that
if their selection could be made harmoniously, one of
their own ministers might install a bishop. One of
the four ministers from the Hamburg-Altona church
whose signature appears to this letter of advice was
Gerrit Roosen, a well-known preacher of that day53.
This advice seems to have been followed, for before
1708 William Rittenhouse had become the first bishop
of the congregation.
Log House
of 1708
In 1708 the congregation erected a building for
worship. As early as February 10, 1703, Arnold
Van Vossen had delivered to Jan
Neus in behalf of the church a deed
for three perches of land for a meet-
ing house. The house was not put
up, however, until 1708.54 It was a log structure
and stood until 1770, when it was replaced by
a stone building, which is still standing. The
spring of 1708 must have been a season
season of re-
newed life to the small brotherhood. On March 22,
J
three new deacons were elected-Isaac Van Sinteren,
Hendrick Kassel and Conrad Janz. On April 20, two
53. Brons, Ursprung, Entwickelung, und Schicksale der Mennoniten,
p. 224.
54. Pennypacker, in Pa. Ger. Sec. IX.
GERMANTOWN
27
new preachers-Herman Kasdorp and Martin Kolb,
were chosen. On May 9, Bishop Jacob Gotschalk,
successor to Bishop Rittenhouse, who had died in
February, administered the first baptismal services to
eleven applicants for church membership. On May
23, just two weeks later, all partook of the Lord's sup-
per. All this evidently took place in the little log
meeting house which had just been completed. Mor-
gan Edwards says that the membership at this time
numbered fifty-two5. He must be mistaken, however,
for he includes William Rittenhouse, who died several
An old bench and table in the
Germantown meeting house. Tradi-
tion says they were used by the school-
master Christopher Dock.
months before, and
Gotschalk in his let-
ter says that the con-
gregation numbered
forty-four members.
Edwards no doubt
included some who
had either died or
moved away from
Germantown before
May 23. The com-
munity continued to
grow. In 1709 others

came from the Palatinate so that by April 6, 1712, the
entire membership including the settlement on the
Skippack, counted up ninety-nine individuals.57
Many of the later arrivals at Germantown were
55.
55.
Gotschalk letter, Pa. Ger. Soc., IX. 220.
See Morgan Edwards, Material for a History of the Baptists, for
a complete list of members at that time. The list is also copied
by Cassel in Geschichte der Mennoniten.
57. Gotschalk letter, Pa. Ger. Soc. IX. 220.
28
MENNONITES OF AMERICA
an agricultural people and as the land about the village
was taken up it was inevitable that new lo-
Skippack cations should be sought for. Among the
Settlement fertile valleys that very early began to at-
tract attention as suitable for new settle-
ments was that of the Perkiomen, watered by the
beautiful Perkiomen creek which empties into the
Schuylkill about thirty miles above Germantown. The
Skippack is a branch of the Perkiomen flowing directly
through the middle of what is now Montgomery
county. It was on the banks of this stream that the
second Mennonite church in America was established.
On February 22, 1702, Matthias Van Bebber received
a patent for 616658 acres of land in what is now the
lower part of Perkiomen township, but
- was for
many years known as Van Behhs township. Most
of the early settlers wer. Mennonites from German-
town, or recently from Europe. Among the Mennon-
ites who bought land and located on this tract be-
tween 1702 and 1709 were Hendrick Pennebecker and
his brother-in-law, Johannes Umstat, Johannes Kuster,
Klas Jansen, Jan Krey, John Jacobs, Herman In
de Hoffen, Hermanus Kuster, Christopher Zimmerman
and Jacob, Johannes and Martin Kolb. In 1717 Van
Bebber gave one hundred acres to the congregation
for a place "to bury their dead as also for all and
every the inhabitants of said Township to build a
schoolhouse and fence in a sufficient burying place."59
58. Pa. Arch., Second Ser., XIX. 338.
59. In the early days burying grounds were frequently owned in com-
mon by several denominations. The same was frequently true of the
schools held in the Mennonite churches.
GERMANTOWN
29.
The house,60 however, was not built until about 1725.61
In the early development of Germantown there are
two events which deserve more than a passing notice
and which are of more than local significance. These
events are the protest against holding of slaves in 1688,
and the incorporation of the little village in the form
of a borough in 1691.
It is but fitting that the Mennonites who in the
old world were among the first of modern advocates
for entire liberty of soul, should in the
Protest against new be the first to raise their voice
Slavery
in public protest against the bondage
of the body. On February 18, 1688,
Gerrit Hendricks, Derick Op den Graff, Francis Daniel
Pastorius and Abraham Op den Graff met in the house
of Thones Kunders, it is supposed, and drew up, so
far as is known the first public protest against the
holding of slaves on record in America. This remon-
strance begins immediately with the reasons for their
opposition to "the traffick in menbody."
Those who hold slaves are no better than the Turks.
Rather it is worse for them,
them, which say they are
Christians; for we hear that ye most part of such
Negers are brought hither against their will and consent,
and that many of them are stolen. Now though they are
black, we cannot conceive there is more liberty to have
them slaves as it is to have other white ones. There is a
saying that we shall doe to all men licke as we will be done
ourselves: macking no difference of what generation, de-
scent or colour they are. And those who buy or purchase
60. Christopher Dock, the pioneer Pennsylvania schoolmaster, taught
school here for a number of years.
61. Bean, History of Montgomery County. 101.
•
Gor M
30
MENNONITES OF AMERICA
them, are they not all alicke? Here is liberty of Conscience.
which is right and reasonable, here ought to be likewise
liberty of ye body, except of evil doers, which is an other
case. But to bring men hither, or to robb and sell them
against their will, we stand against. In Europe there are
many oppressed for conscience sacke: and here there are
those oppressed which are of black Colour.62
The Mennonites of Europe evidently had inquired
regarding the Quaker practice of holding slaves, for
the protest adds-
This makes an ill report in all those countries of Europe
(Holland and Germany) where they hear off, that ye Quackers.
do here handel men, Licke they handel there ye cattle and for
that reason some have no mind or inclination to come
hither. But if they help to stop this robbing and stealing if
possible and such men ought to be delivered out of ye hands
of ye Robbers and set free as well as Europe. Then is
Pennsilvania to have a good report, instead it hath now a
bad one for this sacke in other Countries. Especially whereas
ye Europeans are desirous to know in what manner ye
Quackers doe rule in their Province and most of them doe
loock upon this with an envious eye, But if this is done well,
what shall we say, is don evil?
This document, which appears in the handwriting
of Pastorius, was carried by Derick Op den Graff to
the Quaker Monthly Meeting held at Dublin, (Pa.) on
“ye 30-2 mo of 1688." The Dublin meeting, however,
considered the matter of too great importance “to med-
dle with it here" and referred it to the Quarterly Meet-
ing. When the Quarterly Meeting came together at
Philadelphia the protest met the same fate. It was re-
commended to the Yearly Meeting, and that is the last
action taken upon it. The Quakers, in spite of the
62. Pa. Mag. of Hist., IV. 28.
Moll
GERMANTOWN
31
good service they later rendered in the cause of human
freedom, were not yet quite ready to declare in favor
of total abolition.
Both Mennonites and Quakers claim the credit
of the authorship of this document. The Quakers
maintain that it was sent to their Monthly and Quar-
terly meetings and that the original signers were all
Quakers. This latter portion of their claim can cer-
tainly not be substantiated.
It is true that Derick Op den Graff was a Quaker
in 1688, and that his brother Abraham was also in-
clined to accept that faith at the time, although he
later again identified himself with the Mennonites.
But on the other hand Pastorius, as we have already
seen, cannot be counted a Quaker, while Hendricks,
whose name heads the list of signers, remained true
to the Mennonite faith throughout his life.
But had all of them been Quakers at this time,
the protest would still have to be considered more of a
Mennonite than a Quaker document. In the first
place three of the signers had been brought up in the
Mennonite faith and owed their abhorrence of human
slavery to their German blood and to their Mennonite,
and not Quaker training. In the second place it must
be remembered that the Mennonites never held slaves,
but the English Quakers did. So late as 1696 the
Yearly Meeting of Philadelphia advised Friends to be
careful to bring their slaves to meeting and to have
meeting with them in their families. It must also
not be forgotten that the Yearly Meeting in 1688 re-.
63
63. Davis, History of Bucks Co., p. 795.
32
MENNONITES OF AMERICA
fused to act on the protest. It is perfectly clear that
this appeal was made to the Quakers against a practice
which was common among them, and that it was made
as a result of Mennonite influence. To the Mennon-
ites then, it would seem, should belong the credit for
uttering this first public protest against "the traffick
in menbody."
64
The incorporation of the village of Germantown
is of interest to the student of political science as
well as to the student of Mennonite
Incorporation history to the former because German-
of Germantown town was the first example in Pennsyl-
vania of the borough type of govern-
ment, the common form of local administration in the
later history of the province; to the latter, because it
is one of the few times that the Mennonites in America
had the opportunity to test the feasibility of non-
resistant principles when applied to the establishing
of a civil government. Here we have a group of men,
all of whom inherit the Mennonite prejudice against
the holding of civil office and the use of physical force
in any form whatever when applied to government;
they ask for separate incorporation which implies the
establishing of a complete list of civil officers, the ma-
chinery for the making of laws, and courts for execut-
ing them. Theory and practice were completely in-
consistent with one another, and it was inevitable that
an attempt to harmonize the two should end in failure.
The charter for the borough was obtained from
Penn in 1689 but did not go into effect until 1691. It
was granted to a corporation composed of a small
64. See Johns Hopkins Studies, V.
GERMANTOWN
33
body of men to whom was given a limited power of
government and opens with these words-
I, William Penn, Proprietor of the province of Pensilvania in
America under the Imperial Crown of Great Britian, by
virtue of Letters Patent under the great Seale of England
DO grant unto ffrancis Daniel Pastorius, Civilian and Jacob
Telner, Merchant, Dirck Isaacs Optegraff Linenmaker, Her-
man Isaacs Optegraff, Towne President, Tennis (?) (Den-
nis or Thones Konders) Abraham Isaacs Optegraff Linen
Maker, Jacob Isaacs, Johannes Cassell, Heywait Hapon
(Hiefert Papen) Coender Herman Bon (Cornelius Herman
Bom) Dirk Van Kolk, all of Germantowne, yeomen that they
shall be one Body politique and corporate aforesaid in name
etc.65
To these men was given the exclusive right of
managing the affairs of the village, of electing all
necessary officers and of admitting
such and so many persons into their corporation and society
and to increase, contract, or divide theire Joynt stock or any
part thereof.
as they shall think fitt.
The officers provided for by the charter were a bailiff,
four burgesses and six committee men. To these were
added later, a recorder, clerk, sheriff and coroner.
(“Leichenbeschauer.") A General Court was to “gov-
ern and direct all the affairs and business of the said
corporation." In the words of the charter they
shall have power to make, ordain, constitute and establish
so many good and reasonable Laws, Ordinances and Consti-
tucons as they shall deeme necessary and convenient for the
good Government of the said Corporacon and theire affairs,
and at theire pleasure to revoke, alter and make anew as occa-
sion shall require-And also to impose and set such mulets
65. See Pa. Arch., p. 111 for charter in full.
34
MENNONITES OF AMERICA
and amerciaments upon the breakers of such Laws and Ordi-
nances as in their Discrecon shall bee thought necessary..
:
The form of government here provided for, it will
be seen, was that of a close corporation. The corporate
members were granted the exclusive right of the
franchise, of legislation and of admitting new members
into the corporation.
The charter named the first officers. Francis
Daniel Pastorius was the first bailiff; Jacob Telner,
Dirck Isaac Op te Graaf, Herman Op te Graaf, and
Isaac Op te Graaf, Jacob Isaacs (Van Bebber),
"Tennis Coender" the first burgesses; and Abraham
Johannes Kassel, Heywart Haypon, Herman Bom
and Dirck Van Kolk the first committeemen. These
officials were to constitute the General Court. The
judicial functions were placed in the hands of
a Court of Record which was composed of the
bailiff and the two oldest burgesses, who as in-
dividuals were also to serve as Justices of the Peace.
This court was to be held every six weeks and was to
determine
all civill causes, matters, and things whatsoever arising or
happening betwixt the Inhabitants of the said Corporacon,
according to the Laws of the said Province and of the
Kingdom of England, reserving the appeal according to the
same.
Our chief interest for the purposes of our story is
centered in the proceedings of the Court of Record.
This court was by no means a useless institution,
though for several years it was concerned chiefly with
litigation relating to stray pigs, fences, and such other
trivial matters as are likely to become causes for dis-
pute between neighbors in a primitive settlement. The
GERMANTOWN
35
promptings of the non-resistant spirit were evidently
not always followed to their logical result, for in 1693
we find Pastorius, the Pietist, and Shumaker, the Quak-
er, asking in the General Court that "stocks for evil do-
ers" might be erected. Aret Klincken, a brother Quak-
er, delivered the stocks. In 1697 Klincken's house was
converted into a temporary prison house, and at the
same session it was decreed that all punishment im-
posed in the past should be annulled but for the future
all decrees were to be strictly enforced.
The first Court of Record" was held August 6,
1691, in the common meeting house which, as was the
custom in many places in early colonial times, served
the double purpose of a church building and a city hall.
Pastorius was bailiff, and Jacob Telner, Derick Opden
Graff and Herman Opden Graff as the three oldest
burgesses constituted the court. In addition to these
there were present, Isaac Jacobs Van Bebber, recorder;
Paul Wulf, clerk; Andrew Souple, sheriff, and John
Luken, constable. All of these with the exception
of the ever-present Pastorius, and the Sheriff were
either Mennonites or Mennonite-Quakers.
67
The rulings of the Court are not without interest
and throw some light on the every day life of the
settlement. The following extracts are characteristic
of much of the work of the Court and show that
•
$
66. For a brief discussion of the proceedings of the Court of Record
see Seidensticker, Bilder aus der Deutsch Pennsylvanischen Geschichte,
p. 55, and following. For a few extracts from the laws of the
General Court see Pa. Ger. Soc. Proceedings X. The complete
records of the Court of Record in the original German are now
deposited in the Pennsylvania State Historical Society Library in
Philadelphia.
67. By Mennonite-Quakers I mean those Mennonites who had turned
Quaker either in Europe or America.
36
MENNONITES OF AMERICA
occasionally even the Mennonites were inclined to
forget the letter of the law.
The first meeting was called to order by the
sheriff, who read the proclamation and saw that the
officers were properly installed.68 The Court fined
one Carsten for menacing Constable Luken, who at-
tempted to serve a warrant on him. The fine was
two pounds and ten shillings. The Court then ad-
journed.
December 21, 1692.-
Court adjourned by reason of the absence of some for
religious meeting over the Schuylkill.
October 25, 1694.-69
Jacob Isaacs70 and Albertus Brand were called into
court and told that because their fences were presented in-
sufficient each of them was finable six shillings.
March 7, 1695.—
Peter Keurlis was attested why he did not come when
the justice sent for him: he answered he had much work to
do whereupon he was further attested why he refused to lodge
travellers (?) Answer, he only intended to sell drink but not
keep an ordinary. Then he was attested why he did not sell
barley malt beer at 4d. a quart against the law of this pro-
vince? Answer, he did not know such a law. Lastly he was
asked why he would not obey the law of Germantown cor-
poration which forbids to sell more than a gill of rum or a
quart of beer every half a day to each individual? Answer,
they being able to bear more, he could or would not obey.
September 10, 1696.—
Overseers of fences reported as insufficient the fences
of Herman Opden Graff, Abraham Opden Graff, Isaac Jacobs
and others. But Herman Van Bom and Johannes Umstat
68.
69.
Both Quakers and Mennonites.
Of course elections were frequently held and the officers first named
were soon succeeded by others.
70. Van Bebber
GERMANTOWN
37
pretending they did not know the several fences in their
quarter refused to perform their duty.
July 9, 1700.-
Abraham Opden Graff and Peter Keurlis were sent for
to answer complaints made against their children by Daniel
Fallkner, but the said Abraham Opden Graff being not well
and Peter Keurlis gone to Philadelphia this matter was left
to next session.
John Lensen appeared in this court excusing himself
from serving as committeeman because his conscience would
not allow it, hereof the next General court shall consider and
make an order concerning like excuses.72
December 9, 1701.-
All the inhabitants of Germantown shall make their
fences good and lawful within three weeks and set posts in
the ground with their names upon both their side fences and
those which are behind the lots.
November 11, 1701.—
John Lensen gave over with the assent of the court
keeping an ordinary and Peter Keurlis promised in open
court to keep a good and regular ordinary in this town
whereof the town does allow.
December 28, 1703.-
Abraham Opden Graff73 did mightily abuse the bailiff
in open court wherefore he was brought out of it to answer
for the same at the next Court of Record.
December 8, 1704.
Hermanus Kuster fined ten shillings for not appearing
as a juryman.
April 18, 1704.—
71.
72.
Jacob Gaetschalck and John Lensen say they will not
Lutheran preacher.
"The General Court decreed that those having conscientious scruples
would be excused. Those not having but refusing were fined three
pounds."-Seidensticker.
73. Opden Graff seemed to be unusually quarrelsome. He was an active
participant in the Keith controversy and was much in public life
having twice been elected to the General Assembly. ·
74. Aret Klincken.
38
MENNONITES OF AMERICA
betray their neighbors, especially John Lensen, therefore the
court appointed in his room Leonart Arets." 75
October 3, 1704.-
Abraham Opden Graff sued David Sherkes for saying
that no honest man would be in his company.
Dirk Keyser Sr. and Jr. and Van Vossen were among
the jurymen. The Jury returned a verdict in favor of
the defendent.76
The last Court of Record was held December
11, 1706-7, and the last General Court on December
2, of the same year. Soon after the borough
lost its charter for want of an election to fill the
offices. The village was governed after this by the
ordinary laws of the township until finally absorbed by
the city of Philadelphia.
The loss of the charter was due largely to the
fact that the Mennonites had very little taste for civil
government. At first so long as the matter of local
government was hardly more than the regulating of
the family affairs of the brotherhood there seemed
to be little objection to the holding of office. Out of
eleven of the first officers named in the charter six and
probably seven were Mennonites while four of the
remaining five were Mennonite-Quakers. But the vil-
lage grew in numbers. Many came in who were not
in sympathy with Mennonite ideals. The making of
laws and the administering of justice became more
75. In a jury in a law suit.
76. It must be remembered that only such proceedings of the court are
here selected as concern the Mennonites and their relatives. They
were by no means the only source of trouble and cause for legal
proceedings in the little village.
GERMANTOWN
39
complicated. With the coming in of stocks and prison-
houses the Mennonites lost their desire for politics.
The offices were filled more and more by either Men-
nonite-Quakers or by the Quakers, who seem never
to have shared the prejudice of the Mennonites against
the holding of civil office. These two denominations
in theory held similar views in their attitude toward
the temporal power; both objected to the oath and to
war. The Mennonites, however, carried out the prin-
ciple of non-resistance farther than the Quakers and
maintained that it was wrong to use force against the
individual, and hence to be consistent no Mennonite
could hold an office which involved the use of physical
force in the execution of the laws. For this reason
we have here the unparalleled instance of a corporation
losing its charter because no one could be found to fill
the offices.
As early as 1701 Pastorius in writing to Penn said
that he could not get men to serve in the General Court
for "conscience sake" and he trusted for a remedy in
an expected arrival of immigrants." Hiefert Papen
had declined to be a burgess in 1701. In 1702 Cor-
nelius Siverts had refused to serve, and Paul Engle in
1703. John Lensen and Arnold Kuster declined to be
committeemen in 1702. Others declined to serve in
similar capacities. But why were not the offices filled
by non-Mennonites? The Mennonites in 1707 were
certainly outnumbered by those who were not in sym-
pathy with their civil and religious principles. The
charter it will be remembered put the government
into the hands of a close corporation. This corporation
77. Hazard, Register, I. 280.
40
MENNONITES OF AMERICA
began predominantly Mennonite, and although later
the Mennonites declined to serve as officials, they did
not hesitate to exercise the franchise. They and the
Mennonite-Quakers, who had never quite forgotten
their early training in Europe, held the controlling
vote and were very careful not to admit those into the
corporation who were opposed to their principles. The
offices were handed about to a group of men who from
year to year held the various positions of influence in
rotation. Although the Quakers held most of these
positions during the later years, yet the Mennonite
leaven was strong enough to control the political senti-
ment in the corporation. The loss of the charter was
due to Mennonite, not Quaker, influence.
The remaining history of the Germantown church
can be dismissed with few words. Immigrants contin-
ued to come to America, but most of them being agri-
culturists, they passed the first settlement by for more
promising locations on the Skippack or the Conestoga.
The congregation was never large and seems never to
have been in a prosperous condition. It continued,
however, for a good many years; but we get only
occasional glimpses of its life and activities. The old
log building was replaced by the present stone struc-
ture in 1770, and at that time the congregation num-
bered twenty-five." In a letter of October 27, 1796,
from Jacob Oberholtzer of Franconia tổ Abraham
Kolb of Germantown Township, he states that lots had
been drawn for ministers to serve the congregation
for the coming year. This indicates that there was
no resident minister here at that time and that only one
78. N. B. Grubb, the Mennonite Church of Germantown.
GERMANTOWN
41
preaching service per month was held.79 The congre-
gation finally became extinct but was revived again.
in 1863 under the pastorate of F. R. S. Hunsicker. It
is at present under the control of the General Confer-
ence Mennonites and has nineteen members.
Influence of
the Germantown
Congregation
Insignificant, however, as the later history of the
Germantown church may seem in itself, it has never-
theless indirectly exerted no mean
influence both upon the Mennonite
church at large and indirectly upon
the civil and religious history of
Pennsylvania. In the house of Van
Bebber was held in 1690 the first service of the German
Lutherans in America, and at least ten of the promi-
nent churches of Philadelphia including one Evangeli-
cal, one Presbyterian, two Episcopal and two Lutheran
were first organized in the early days in the little
Mennonite meeting house.80 Many of these congre-
gations drew heavily upon the Mennonites for their
membership.
In the civil and political history of Pennsylvania
also we find many names with which we have been
made familiar in the course of our story. In 1690
William Rittenhouse, the first bishop, erected on the
Wissahickon the first paper mill in America.81 Here in
1709 his son built a stone house, still standing, where
79. The original letter is in the possession of S. W. Pennypacker. The
facts here have been taken from a photograph of the original taken
by N. B. Grubb of Philadelphia. The letter contains the names of
twelve of the ministers of the Franconia District who were to
preach at Germantown during the year.
80.
81.
Per N. B. Grubb, pastor of First Mennonite Church of Philadelphia.
See "The Rittenhouse Paper Mill" by H. G. Jones in Pennsylvania
State Historical Library. The old mill site and the old Rittenhouse
"mansion" on the banks of the picturesque Wissahickon is now one
of the places of interest to the sight-seer in Fairmount Park.
42
MENNONITES OF AMERICA
in 1732 was born his great-grandson David,82 who
became a celebrated philosopher and astronomer of
his day, the respected friend of Benjamin Franklin and
Thomas Jefferson. He was a prominent member of
the Assembly during the Revolutionary war and was
appointed first director of the United States mint by
President Washington.83
Another prominent Mennonite was Heinrich
Pennebecker, many of whose descendants have become
well known in Pennsylvania history. He was the first
German surveyer employed by Penn in the province.
Among a long list of distinguished men bearing the
name Pennypacker is the recent governor of Pennsyl-
vania, and Isaac S. Pennypacker some time United
States Senator from Virginia.84 Space will not permit
to speak of the Keysers, Updegraves, Cassels, and
Van Bebbers but all of them could boast of a long
line of men who have occupied positions of trust and
influence in church and state.
82. D. K. Cassel, Family Record of David Rittenhouse.
:
83. William Barton, Memoirs of David Rittenhouse.
:
84. "Of the descendants of old Hendrick Pennebecker, 27 have been
lawyers, including three District Attorneys, one president of a
law academy and assistant editor of a legal journal, and five judges:
Isaac S., long a judge of the U. S. District Court, became Senator
from Virginia."-S. W. Pennypacker, in The Pennypacker Reunion,
1877. p. 31.
CHAPTER II
THE PEQUEA COLONY
The German immigration into Pennsylvania, and
especially Mennonite immigration, for the first twenty
years was not very large. The first settlers, as we have
seen, came largely from the Lower Rhine country.
But in 1710 began a second and much greater wave,
which during the next seventy five years was to bring
in round numbers nearly 100,000 Germans into the
province, and which was to form the basis of that
picturesque element of the population of Pennsylvania
which we today know as the Pennsylvania Dutch.
These people came from the Upper Rhine country,
the region called the Palatinate, including, roughly
speaking, the southwestern part of present Germany.
Among the first to arrive was a small colony of Men-
nonites who located on the banks of the Pequea, a
branch of the Susquehanna in what is now Lancaster
county.
In order to understand the causes of this steady
inflow of the Palatines it is necessary that we know
something about the conditions prevailing at that time
44
MENNONITES OF AMERICA
Unrest in the
Palatinate
in the land from which they came. During the greater
part of the seventeenth century there
had been much distress and unrest
among the people of the Palatinate,
due very largely to the wars and re-
ligious disturbances of the period. This region, situ-
ated as it was, on the borders between France and the
German states, in the very heart of Europe, was made
the battlefield for many of the great wars of the
century. Throughout the entire Thirty Years' War
the armies of the opposing parties played havoc with
the lives and possessions of the wretched Palatines.
The year 1638 marked the climax of their mi -y.
Rapine, plunder and fire were followed by famine a
pestilence. The people
tried to satisfy hunger with roots, grass and leaves; even
cannibalism became more or less frequent. The gallows and
the graveyards had to be guarded; the bodies of children
were not safe from their mothers. So great was the desola-
tion that where once flourished farms and vineyards, now
whole bands of wolves roamed unmolested.¹
The Thirty Years' War was followed not many years
afterward by the famous campaigns of Louis XIV,
who in 1688, in order to starve out his enemies, ordered
his generals to devastate the Palatinate, a command
which was carried out to the letter. This war was
2
1. Kuhns, German and Swiss Settlements of Pa., p. 9.
2.
The following extracts from Macauley refers to an incident in one of
these campaigns.
"The commander announced to near half a million human beings
that he granted them three days of grace, and that within that
time they must shift for themselves. Soon the roads and fields,
which then lay deep in snow, were blackened by innumerable mul-
titudes of men, women and children fleeing from their homes.
Meanwhile the work of destruction went on. The flames went up
..
THE PEQUEA COLONY
45
closed by the treaty of Ryswick in 1698, but it was
many years before the Palatinate recovered from these
devastations.
It was during this same time that the religious
question became a serious menace to the peace of the
province. The Treaty of Westphalia had provided that
each Prince was to determine the religion of his people.
Up to 1685 the Electors were either Lutherans or
Calvinists, but in that year a Catholic once more came
into possession of the Electorate. Then there began
a systematic policy of Protestant extermination.
Lutherans and Reformed, who were by far the most
numerous in the province, were deprived of their lands
and churches. Mennonites, Walloons, and Huguenots,
who had found a refuge in the Palatinate for many
years were now driven out of the land. It was con-
ditions such as these together with the impoverish-
ment of the country resulting from the many wars,
that paved the way for the great Palatine emigration
to America and other places during the first half of
the eighteenth century.
No attempt on a large scale was made, however,
by the people who were oppressed to leave their native
land until 1709. But during this year a perfect flood
of Palatines poured into London expecting help from
the English government to cross the Atlantic. Two
causes may be mentioned among others for this sudden
from every market place, every parish church, every country seat
within the devoted province. The fields where the corn had been
sown were plowed up. The orchards were hewn down. No promise
of a harvest was left on the fertile plains near what had been
Frankenthal. Not a vine, not an almond tree was to be seen on
the slopes of the sunny hills round what had once been Heidelberg.”
Macauley, III. 112.
46
MENNONITES OF AMERICA
desire at this particular time to seek homes in a new
country. In the first place the winter of 1708-9 was
unusually cold and severe throughout Europe, in-
creasing the distress and hardships of the poor people.
In the second place Queen Anne had for several years
been actively trying to get colonists for her unoccupied
possessions in America and had sent her agents to the
Palatinate for this purpose. This together with the
conditions previously described, may explain the sud-
den German inundation of the city of London in the
summer of 1709. The English government was at a
loss at first to know what to do with such a large
number of foreigners but made the best of the situa-
tion. Several thousand were sent to Ireland. Some
were sent to North Carolina; others to New York.
A few remained in England. Some died; others were
sent back to Germany. Many in after years found
their way to Pennsylvania.*
4
Thus far we have been speaking of general con-
ditions which affected all, and especially all non-
Catholics, alike. So much of a background is neces-
sary for an understanding of our story. But we are
concerned here only with the Mennonites and it is
to them that we now turn with special reference to
5
3. "It was so cold that the birds froze in the air and the wild beasts in
the forest." Löher, Geschichte der Deutschen in Amerika, p. 42.
4. The story of the German emigration of 1709 is told in detail by
F. R. Diffenderfer in the "German Exodus to England in 1709,"
in Pa. Ger. Soc. Proceedings, VII.
:
►
5. There are several good histories of the Palatinate, any one of which
will describe the condition of the country during this period. A
very good brief account of the general European background of
the Palatine emigration is found in chapter 1 of Kuhns, German
and Swiss Settlements of Pennsylvania. See also a letter written by
Benedict Brechbühl in 1714 quoted by Müller, in Geschichte der
Bernischen Täufer, Chapter 12.
THE PEQUEA COLONY
47
their experiences in the Palatinate and in Switzerland,
immediately before and after the emigration of 1709.
Swiss Mennonites
under Persecution
The Mennonites had still other reasons in addition
to those just named for leaving their homes in these
regions at this time. As we have
already seen up to 1685 they had
been at least tolerated in the Pala-
tinate. But in Switzerland through-
out the latter half of the seventeenth century they had
been severely oppressed. Because of their refusal to
bear arms and to take the oath, they were exiled, sent
to the galleys, robbed of their property, imprisoned,
and occasionally put to death. As a result of these
conditions many had found their way into the Palatin-
ate before 1709. The Swiss Mennonites were found
principally in the cantons of Berne, Zurich and Schaff-
hausen. All of these cantons tried to exterminate
them, but Berne was especially oppressive. And since
we know more about the Mennonites of Berne, thanks
to the labors of Ernst Müller, than we do about those
of the other parts of Switzerland, and since Berne
furnished a large number of the later Swiss immigrants,
it may not be out of order to relate briefly the experi-
ence in that canton of many who later became citizens
of Pennsylvania.
As just stated, the Bernese as well as other Swiss
Mennonites had been imprisoned and exiled all
through the latter half of the seventeenth and the first
part of the eighteenth centuries. Of special severity,
however, and of special importance for our story were
the persecutions of the years 1708-9-10-11. The Gov-
ernment had frequently imprisoned or banished those
48
MENNONITES OF AMERICA
whom they could lay hands on. But since they kept
back the wives and children of the banished ones, the
exiles naturally returned, in spite of the threats of the
authorities. Finally in 1709 it was decided to end the
matter by deporting all the prisoners then in custody,
about fifty-four in number, to America.
The prisoners were finally placed on board a ship
in charge of a certain Ritter, and on March 18, 1710,
the voyage began down the Rhine. Passports had
been secured from France and other states that bor-
dered the river. In the meantime the representative
of the Bernese government at the Hague was told to
secure- the necessary permission from the government
of the Netherlands to pass through that country and
to embark at Rotterdam. To gain permission for
transportation proved a difficult task. There were
many influential Mennonites in the Netherlands who
now, as they often had done before, interested them-
selves in their Swiss brethren. St. Saphorin, the Bern-
ese representative, instead of gaining the desired per-
mission was told by the States General
that the Mennonites (in Holland) had always proved them-
selves good subjects and that they (States General) therefore
could by no means lend a hand to the transportation of these
people to America; neither could they do anything that
6. In the meantime the Council had written to Zurich to learn how they
rid themselves of the Mennonites, whereupon they replied that they
had put a number to death; others they imprisoned; some were
forced into the armies in the war against the French while still
others were exiled from the land." Letter of Runkel, the envoy
of the Netherlands to Bern written in 1710, and quoted by Müller,
257.
7. For information regarding the Mennonites of Switzerland during this
period I have relied almost entirely on Ernest Müller's Gesch-
ichte der Bernischen Täufer. For the negotiations between Berne
and the Netherlands see Müller, p. 261.
Է
THE PEQUEA COLONY
49
might in any way be interpreted as sanctioning the Bernese
policy toward the Mennonites.
St. Saphorin hereupon turned to the English am-
bassador, Lord Townsend, in the hope that he might
use his influence in his, St. Saphorin's, behalf with the
States General. He described the desirable qualities
in the Mennonites as colonists. They were "very good
agriculturists, industrious, for the most part possessed
of some means," and since the transportation would
cost the English government nothing the advantage
must all be theirs. Townsend, however, influenced by
the Dutch Mennonites, decided against the request of
St. Saphorin. Since neither passports nor permission
for transportation were to be had, the proposed scheme
of Berne to get rid of the Mennonites had to be
abandoned.
Voyage down
the Rhine
But one shipload had already started down the
Rhine. Thirty-two of the exiles, the old and sick had
been left at Mannheim. The remaining
reached Nimwegen on April 6. Here
they asked permission to visit some of
their brethren in the city, which per-
mission was granted. They were now on free soil
and since the Lower Rhine was closed to Ritter and
his cargo he left his prisoners here and returned to
Berne. Among those who arrived at Nimwegen were
Benedicht Brechbühl, a bishop from Trachselwald,
and Hans Burchi from Langnau. These two men
appeared to be the leading men among the Swiss
Palatines at this time. Brechbühl later came to Penn-
sylvania and was one of the ministers from Conestoga
to sign the confession of Faith printed in 1727. The
50
MENNONITES OF AMERICA
arrival of the Swiss at Nimwegen is described by a
contemporary as follows:
Now they were free, for which we rejoiced with them
greatly and we showed them every manner of friendship
and love. After we had enjoyed ourselves together for a
day and they had gained much strength they departed. But
they could hardly walk, for their joints had grown stiff
through long imprisonment. Some of them had been in
prison for two years with great suffering, especially last
winter during the great cold, since their feet were fettered with
iron bands. I went with them several miles out of the town.
We embraced one another weeping and parted with a fare-
well kiss of peace. Thus they turned their steps toward the
Palatinate to search for their wives and children who were
scatterd there, as well as in Switzerland and Alsace, and
they did not know whither they had been sent. They were in
good spirits even in their sorrow, although all their posses-
sions had been taken from them. There were among them
one preacher and two teachers. They were a very sturdy
people by nature who could endure hardships, with long
untrimmed beards, with plain clothes, and heavy shoes shod
with heavy iron and large nails. They were very zealous in
serving God with prayer, reading and in other ways. They
were very simple in their bearing, like lambs and doves and
asked me how the church here was conducted. I told them
and they seemed very much pleased. But we could speak
with them only with difficulty. For they had lived in the
mountains of Switzerland far from villages and towns and
had little communication with other people. Thus their
speech is very blunt and simple and they could with difficulty
speak with others who did not use precisely their speech.
Two of them went to Deventer to see whether they could
support themselves in this land.8
Such were many of the men who later settled
Lancaster county.
8. Translated from Müller.
•
THE PEQUEA COLONY
51
This letter no doubt partly answers a question
which the reader may already have asked himself,-
Why did not these persecuted Mennonites eagerly
seize this opportunity of transportation to America
where already a goodly number of their fellow believ-
ers had built homes for themselves? This question
perhaps may not be difficult to answer if we remember
that the wives and children of these men had been
kept back in Berne. Furthermore, as St. Saphorin
said, they were extremely anxious, since Switzerland
was the cradle of Anabaptism, that their faith should
not be rooted out in that country. In addition to all
this we must not forget that this was their home land
which in spite of their sufferings remained dear to
them.
Many, including Brechbühl and Burchi went back
to Berne and were again imprisoned. The Bernese
government only redoubled its energies to destroy
them entirely. They were accused of refusing to bear
arms and to take the oath of allegiance. The civil
authorities, however, were still largely under the in-
fluence of the predominating church. The Mennonites
owe their bitter experience in Switzerland quite as
much to the intolerant spirit of the Reformed church
as to the suspicions of the civil magistrates. Melchior
Zahler in a letter written in 1710 relates that when
he was captured he was taken before the ecclesiastical
authorities of the parish and interrogated regarding
his belief on the following questions: Infant baptism,
the oath, the ordinance of the ban, bearing the sword
and concerning the office of the magistrate. Most of
the fines and confiscations were usually appropriated
by the Reformed church. At Hütwohl they used 500
52
MENNONITES OF AMERICA
Gulden of Mennonite fine money for building a new
church. In Roggwyl the money was used for church
bells. Zofingen built a hospital and poor house.
Continued
Persecution
at Berne
The persecutions continued. So relentless were
the Swiss in their cruel treatment of the Mennonites
that Townsend finally interceded in their
behalf with Queen Anne and suggested
to both the Anabaptists and Quakers of
England that they assist the persecuted
to get to America. The king of Prussia
invited them to settle in his own territory. The States
General interceded with the Bernese government for
a more liberal policy. Finally in 1711 those in prison
were allowed their freedom on condition that they
pay a fine and with their families and friends leave
their native country.
9
On July 13, 1711, four ships, loaded with several
hundred Mennonites and Amish began once more
their voyage down the Rhine. Müller
gives us a vivid description of these
Emmenthaler and Oberländer10 exiles as
they drifted down the river
Exiled
from Berne
and their homes disappeared behind the cathedral spires of
Basle and the wooded hills of the Jura. Seated upon the
chests and bundles which were piled up in the middle of the
vessels were the grey-headed men and women, old and weak.
On the sides were the young people watching with delight
and wonder the shifting scenery of the banks as they glided
by. Now hopeful, now troubled, they cast questioning
glances to the North and then with longing eyes they again
turned their faces to the South in the direction of their be-
9. In 1693 Jacob Amman headed a church division, since called the Amish
branch of the church.
10. The valleys in Switzerland from which they came.
THE PEQUEA COLONY
53
·
loved homes which they were leaving forever, the homes
which had so basely exiled them and yet the homes whose
green hills and silver tipped mountains they could not for-
get. And when overcome with sorrow some one began a
song which comforted them.
"O Herr, wir thun dich bitten, richt unser Herz und
Gemüth, nach deinem heiligen Wort, durch deine grosze Güt.
Zünd du in unserm Herzen eine reine Liebe an, thu für uns
wachen und streiten sonst mögen wir nit bestahn."11
Once beyond the Swiss borders they began to
leave the vessels at many of the cities along the Rhine
wherever there were congregations of their brethren.
And thus the Mennonites had all left before the ships
reached Holland. The Amish alone arrived at Amster-
dam. From these places they were finally scattered
throughout the various cities of Holland and North-
western Germany. Few of them started for America
immediately but judging from the similarity of family
names sometime during the next fifty years a large
number of these Bernese exiles and their children must
have found their way into Pennsylvania. Among this
group can be found representatives of nearly all the
names that have since become familiar in the history of
the Pennsylvania Mennonites. Among the most char-
acteristic of which are those of Burki, Gerber, Flück-
iger, Baumgartner, Gäuman, Neukomm, Wisler,
Haldeman, Shallenberger, Hauri, Schlabach, Blank,
Neuhauser, Meier, Reuszer, Steiner, Wenger, Streit,
Stähli, Stucki, Bauer, Hoffman, Brechbühl, Krähen-
bühl, Bieri, Rupp, Schenk, Fahrni, Äshleman, Eber-
sold.
But to return more directly to the emigration to
11. Müller, 304. Translated from the German.
54
MENNONITES OF AMERICA
First Palatinate
Immigrants
Pennsylvania and the Pequea settlement. The Bernese
exiles of 1709 and 1711, as we have
seen, were not the first of the Swiss
Palatines to seek new homes across
the Atlantic. The first to emigrate.
were among those who had come into the Palatinate
from Berne and Zurich many years before. Godshalk¹2
says that in 1707 several Palatines came to German-
town, among them Johannes, Jacob and Martin Kolb.
From a few scattered references and letters, our only
source of information, we learn that others followed in
the years immediately succeeding. On April 8, 1709,
a letter from the "Committee on Foreign Needs" at
Amsterdam states that nine or ten poor families from
near Worms had come to Rotterdam asking for help
to be transported to Pennsylvania. The committee
advised them not to go.13 They evidently reached
England, however, for under date of August 6, Jacob
Telner wrote from London that eight families had
gone to Pennsylvania and that there were six more
Mennonite families in London too poor to pay their
passage across. He asks the brethren at Rotterdam to
come to their rescue.14 It was during this year that
the Yearly Meeting of the Quakers at London voted
fifty pounds to help the Mennonites to get to Amer-
ica.¹ It is of these same people also no doubt that
Penn wrote to Logan who was then in Pennsylvania.
15
12. See the Godschalk letter quoted by Pennypacker in Hendrick
Pennebecker.
13. Scheffer, Mennonite Emigration to Pennsylvania, translated in Pa. Mag.
of History, II.
14. Ibid, II. 122.
15.
Barclay, The Inner Life of the Religious Societies of the Common-
wealth, p. 257.
.
THE PEQUEA COLONY
55
The latter is dated, "26th, 4th mo. 1709." Penn says,-
Herewith come the Palatines, whom use with tenderness and
love and fix them so that they may send over an agreeable
character; for they are a sober people, divers Menonists
and will neither swear nor fight. See that Guy uses them
well.16
All of these, whoever they were, no doubt reached
America safely and located somewhere near German-
town or on the Skippack.
The first notice that we have of the founders of
the Pequea colony is in a letter written from London
on June 27, 1710, by Martin Kendig,
of 1710
Pequea Colony Jacob Miller, Martin Oberholtzer,
Martin Maili, Christian Herr and Hans
Herr to friends in Amsterdam. They
were on their way to America and sent a letter of
thanks to the brethren in Holland for assistance
that the Dutch had rendered them.17 These were
likely of the earlier exiles into the Palatinate from
Zurich and Berne.18 The next appearance of the names
of these men is on a warrant dated October 10, 1710,
for a tract of ten thousand acres north of Pequea Creek
in what is now Lancaster county.19 The warrant is
drawn up in favor of John Rudolf Bundely, Martin
Kendig, Jacob Müller, Hans Graff, Hans Herr, Chris-
tian Herr, Martin Oberholts, Hans Funk, Michael
Oberholts and Weyndel Bowman "Switzers, lately ar-
rived in the province." The tract is to be located on
16.
17.
18.
Penn-Logan Correspondence, II. 354.
Entire letter in Müller, 366.
In 1731 in the church near Ebingen there was a Heinrich Kündig and
a Jacob Oberholzer. In the church at Thirnheim near Sintzheim
there was a Hans Herr, a Christian Herr and a Jacob Meili. All
of these no doubt were of the same families as the emigrants to
Pennsylvania. See Müller, 209, 210.
19. In the office of the Secretary of the Interior at Harrisburg.
56
MENNONITES OF AMERICA
"the northwesterly side of a hill about twenty miles
easterly from Conestoga near the head of the Perquin
Creek." For these ten thousand acres the purchasers
were to pay five hundred pounds sterling money, and
in addition one shilling sterling quit rent for every
hundred acres. On April 27, 1711, six thousand four
hundred and seventeen acres were distributed among
the purchasers.20 The remainder was divided among
later comers. It will be observed that in the first divi-
sion several new names appear, while those of Hans
Graff and Martin Oberholts are not to be found.
all these it is likely that Carpenter, (Zimmermann) 21
Funk and Bowman joined the Kendig-Meilin colony
at Germantown.
Of
Of the early incidents leading up to this settlement
and of the early life of the settlers we know nothing
above what we are able to glean from these land
records. It is to be supposed, however, that while in
England they met either Penn or his agents and there
contracted for their land. Since Germantown and the
surrounding country was already taken up by immi-
grants, they consequently turned their faces westward,
and traveling about sixty miles out of Philadelphia
they reached a rich limestone region along the banks
of the Pequea, in what was then Chester, but now
Lancaster county. Here they decided to put up their
first log cabins, in spite of the fact that they were in
the very heart of Indian territory and that with the
exception of a few scattered Scotch-Irish hunters and
20. For plot of original tract seé Old Rights, Lancaster Co., in office of
Secretary of Interior.
21. Many of those names were early Anglisized. Henry Zimmerman
came to Germantown 1701, returned to Germany and brought back
his family 1706.
THE PEQUEA COLONY
57
fisherman they were the only white men for many
miles around. Conyngham, a local historian, speaks
of this region one hundred and twenty years later as
a rich limestone country, beautifully adorned with sugar
maple, hickory and black and white walnut, on the border of
a delightful stream, abounding in the finest trout. . . . The
water of the Pequai was clear, cold and transparent, and the
grape vines and clematis intertwining, among the lofty
branches of the majestic button wood, formed a pleasant
retreat from the noon beams of the summer sun.22
Ke. "'s Mission
to Germa
As already said, we know very little about these
early days.23 The colonists evidently were well pleased
with their new home, for they im-
mediately decided to send for their
friends and relatives in the old
country.24 A voyage across the
ocean in those days was no small undertaking, and
consequently they agreed to cast the lot to decide who
was to carry the news to Europe. The lot fell on Hans
Herr, but either because he was their preacher whose
services could not well be dispensed with or for some
other reason, Martin Kendig offered to take his place.
Kendig succeeded in his mission and some time during
that year brought back with him Peter Yordea, Jacob
Miller, Hans Tschantz, Henry Funk, John Houser,
John Bachman, Jacob Weber, Christopher Schlegel25
22.
23.
Hazard, Register, VII. 151.
For some of the traditions of the early settlement see Mombert,
History of Lancaster County, p. 421; also an article by G. N. Le
Fevre in the "Home," Aug. 5, 1905, published at Strasburg, Pa.
24. The details of this story are a matter of tradition. See Rupp;
History of Lancaster County and G. N. Le Fevre in the "Home"
Aug. 5, 1905.
25. Schlegel had come to Germantown 1701. Pa. Ger. Soc., IX. 191. See
also Pa. Arch. 2nd. Ser., Vol. XIX. 56.
L
58
MENNONITES OF AMERICA
27
and others,20 most of them with their families. During
the next fifteen years many others took up land near
the Palatines. From the minute books of the Board
of Property and from other sources we learn that in
addition to those already named there were added to
the settlement before 1715 the following, most of them
heads of families,-Christian Brenneman, Hans Haigy,
Christian Hershi, Hans Pupather (Brubaker), Hein-
rich Bär, Peter Lehman,28 Benedictus Witmer, Mel-
chior Brenneman,29 Heinrich Funk, Michael Schenk,
Johannes Landes, Hans Huber, Isaac Kaufman,
Melchior Erisman, with others, sons of the first settlers
who had in the meantime reached the age of twenty-
one, and a very few more who were non-Mennon-
ites.30
During the next two years there were added
either from Europe or the Germantown settlement,
Jacob Hostetter, Jacob Kreider, Hans Graff,³¹ Bene-
dictus Venerich31, Jacob Böhm,32 Hans Faber, Theo-
dorus Eby³³, Heinrich Zimmerman and others.
31
The settlers from 1711 to 1717 came as individuals
and in small groups. But in the latter year there was
another wave of immigration including many of those
26. Rupp, History of Lancaster County, p. 81.
27.
28.
Pa. Arch. 2nd. Ser., XIX. See Index for well known Mennonite
names.
A minister in Oberpfalz in 1699. See J. Moser, Eine Verantwortung
gegen Musser.
29. See Müller, 201.
30. Mombert, History of Lancaster County, p. 422; Rupp, Thirty Thou-
sand Names, 436. Graff came to Lancaster county 1716. See Rupp,
History of Lancaster County, p. 15.
31. Name appears on the 1710 warrant.
32.
Father of Martin Boehm, one of the founders of the United Brethren
church.
THE PEQUEA COLONY
59
who had been exiled from Berne in 1710 and 1711.
These refugees, as we saw, were scat-
Wave of 1717 tered throughout the Palatinate and
other parts of Germany. They were
34
never in prosperous circumstances. The country was
wasted by wars. The churches were poor. They had
to gain a livelihood as best they could, often by the
help of their brethren in the Netherlands. Their num-
bers, furthermore, were continually increasing by fresh
exiles from Switzerland.33 At this same time came a
special invitation from King George I to settle the
lands west of the Alleghanies. The glowing descrip-
tion of the new country given by the king's agent
together with the promising reports of friends who had
already come across, as well as their own distressed
condition finally prevailed over the love for their native
land which had made these Swiss exiles so averse to
deportation several years previously. They had now
been absent long enough to be partly weaned from
their love for the hills and valleys of their beloved even
though cruel native land. Consequently, in February
of 1717 a number of elders, including Benedict Brecht-
bühl and Hans Burghalter, met at Mannheim and
decided to emigrate to Pennsylvania.35 The "Com-
mittee on Foreign Needs" which had been organized
some time before at Amsterdam for the purpose of
helping their needy brethren in the Palatinate, and to
whom these exiles now applied for assistance, dis-
33. See de Hoop Scheffer, in Pa. Mag. of History, II. 126; also de Hoop
Scheffer's catalogue of documents for list of Swiss letters in the
archives of the Mennonite church at Amsterdam.
34.
For glowing descriptions of the country as given by these agents and
the terms of settlement see de Hoop Scheffer in Pa. Mag. of Hist.,
II. 127.
35. Ibid, p. 132.
60
MENNONITES OF AMERICA
couraged the movement. They feared that if a pre-
cedent were once established there might be more
calls for money than they could supply. In spite of all
the endeavors, however, of the committee to check the
emigration it was reported to them on March 20
that more than one hundred persons had started. This
number was soon increased to three hundred. In spite
of their own refusal to render assistance, the commit-
tee nevertheless helped the needy ones across the
ocean. This was the history of the proceedings of this
committee for many years to come. They publicly
discouraged all attempts to emigrate but secretly
rendered assistance when called upon for help.
This year, 1717, must have been especially con-
ducive to emigration for we find that many others.
besides Mennonites came into Pennsylvania at this
time. In fact their great numbers began to excite
some alarm among the English, in the province. Gov-
ernor Keith fearing lest the English speaking popu-
lation might be outnumbered by the foreigners, recom-
mended that some steps be taken towards restricting
future immigration. The minute books of the Board
of Property contain many entries of land sold during
the year near the Mennonite settlement in the Pequea.
These newcomers were all "Relations, Friends or ac-
quaintances who are honest conscientious people."
Martin Kendig and Hans Herr were the richest and
the most influential members of the colony, and much
of the land for the new settlers was first taken up in
the names of these two men.37
36. Pa. Arch. 2nd. Ser., XIX. 679.
"Feb. 8, 1717."
37.
"Agreed with Martin Kendigg and Hans Herr for 5000 acres
of land to be taken up in several parcels about Conestoga and
THE PEQUEA COLONY
61
:
The Mennonite settlement occupied at this time
the southern half of what was then (in 1718) Cones-
toga township. The northern part of the township was
composed largely of Scotch-Irish and English. It
must not be forgotten that although what is now
Lancaster county has from that day to this been pre-
dominantly a Mennonite settlement yet by 1718 many
others besides Mennonites had found their way to the
community. The first assessment of the township was
taken in 1718,88 and the list of tax payers for that year
gives us a fair idea of the size of the Mennonite settle-
ment. These names, however, do not include all the
immigrants who had up to this time come into the
province, for several of their number had moved away
by this time, while others had not settled origin-
ally within the domain of what was then Conestoga
township. The list shows that in this immediate
neighborhood there were added by 1718 among per-
Pequea Creeks at 10 pounds ct. to be paid at the returns of the
surveys and usual quit rents, it being for settlements for several of
their countrymen that are lately arrived here." The warrant for this
land is signed on September 22, to the following:
Hans Moyer
Chr. Hearsay and Hans Pupather
Hans Kaiggy.
Mich. Shenk and Henry Pare
Hans Pupather
Peter Lehman
Molker Penerman
Henry and John Funk
Chr. Fransicus
350 acres
1000
64
100
400
44
700
300
500
550
150
66
200
Jacob Lundus and Ulrick Harvey
150
44
Emanuel Herr
500
Abr. Herr
600
46
Hans Tuber, Isaac Coffman and Melkerman
675
44
Mich. Miller
500
"
Minute Book of Board of Property, Pa. Arch. 2nd. Ser., XIX. 622.
Michael Shank
38. Ellis and Evans.-History of Lancaster County, p. -9.
62
MENNONITES OF AMERICA
haps others the following names: Joseph Stemen,
Isaac LeFevre,39 Hans Houre, Martin Bear, Henry
Kendig, Andrew Kauffman, Isaac Kauffman, 40 Jacob
Brubaker, Melchior Erisman, Hance Burghalter,"¹
Hance Neucommer, Jacob Landes,2 Hance Henry
Neff, Franz Neff, Felix Landes, Jacob Landes Jr.,
Martin Boyer, Hance Boyer, Benedictus Brackbill
[Brechtbühl] and Christian Schans.

Later
Arrivals
The wave of immigration in 1717 evidently re-
lieved the immediate pressure in the Palatinate and for
a few years there seem to have been few,
if any new arrivals in Lancaster county. But
soon they began once more to come. In 1722
Nicholas Erb43 and others arrived from
Europe and some time later settled on Hammer Creek
39. See Rupp, Hist. of Lancaster County, for good sketch of the life of
Isaac Le Fevre. Le Fevre was a Huguenot. In 1709 he was one of
the company that located in New York at New Paltz where the
name Lefevre is still very common. In 1712 he and his wife,
Catherine, daughter of Madam Ferree came to Lancaster County.
Here he became one of the largest landholders in the settlement.
Either he ог some of his immediate descendants joined the
Mennonites. There are many Lefevers and Le Fevres in the Menno-
nite church in the county to-day. See also History of New Paltz, by
Ralph Le Fevre.
40. See J. Moser; Eine Verantwortung, etc. This pamphlet contains
the names of many of the ministers in Switzerland who took part
in the trouble between Amman and Reist in the years 1693-1710.
Among them was Isaac Kauffman.
41.
42.
Müller, Geschichte der Bernischen Täufer, p. 200.
In 1717 three brothers, Rev. Benjamin, Felix, and John Landis, Swiss
Mennonites came to America from Mannheim on the Rhine whither
they had been driven from Zurich. Benjamin's descendants are
found mostly in Lancaster county. In 1718 the first assessment in
Conestoga township contained the names of Jacob Landis and Jacob
Jr. The name Jacob is probably a mistake. It should have been
Benjamin. D. B. Landis, The Landis Family, p. 12. Benjamin
located in East Lampeter township. Felix in 1719 received a patent
from London Company for 400 acres in Conestoga township.
John located in Bucks county but in 1720 took up 300 acres at the
junction of Middle and Hammer Creeks.
43. Alex. Harris, Biographical History of Lancaster County, p. 194.
:
THE PEQUEA COLONY
63
45
47
in what is now Warwick township. Christian Bam-
berger¹ and Peter Reist also located in the same
region. Each year brought a few more. Before 1727
we meet the following additional names of Mennonites.
who had come into the county,-Christian Mosser,
Samuel Hess, Abraham Burkhalter, Johannes Hess,
Joseph Buchwalter, Peter Baumgartner, Jacob Nüssli
who settled in Mt. Joy township,16 Hans Schnebele,
Jacob Guth, Jacob Beyer, Hans Jacob Schnebele,*7
Heinrich Musselman, Jacob Kurtz,48 John Ulrich
Huber, Johannes Lichty," Johannes Stauffer,50 Johann
Heinrich Bär, Jacob Weber, Heinrich Weber, Jo-
hannes Weber, George Weber, David Longenecker,5¹
Peter Eby, 62 Matthias Stouffer, Johannes Guth,
Christian Steiner, Adam Brandt,55 Simon König,50
Johannes Rupp,57 Philipp Dock,58 Rudolph Nägeli,5⁹
and Michael Eckerlin. There may perhaps have been
54
60
1,་:、.
44. Ibid, 62.
45. Ibid, 480.
46. Ibid, 425.
47.
48.
Müller, Geschichte der Bernischen Täufer, 225, 290.
Possibly Amish.
49. The name Lichti frequently occurs in Müller's book.
50.
Müller, 202..
51. Pennypacker, Hendrick Pennebecker, p. 16.
52. A relative to Theodore.
53.
Pa. Arch. Second Ser., XIX. 134.
54.
Müller, 277.
55. Possibly Amish.
56. Possibly Amish.
57. Müller, 277.
58.
Father of Christopher, the pedagogue who came to Germantown in
1714. This list of names is taken largely from Mombert..
59. See Brumbaugh, History of the Brethren, p. 161; also Moser, in
Eine Verantwortung.
60. Came to Germantown in 1725, to Conestoga, 1727. There he joined
the Mennonites but soon cast his lot with Beissel and became one
of the founders of the Ephrata movement.
64
MENNONITES OF AMERICA
others of whom no record has been preserved.61
In the meantime the original settlement on the
Pequea was spreading itself over the central portion of
what is now Lancaster county. The
Graff's Thal Herrs, Meylins and Kendigs as we have
seen were located on both sides of the
Pequea southeast of the present village of Willow
Street. The settlement soon spread across what are
now Conestoga, Pequea, West Lampeter, Strasburg
and Providence (northern part) townships. This re-
gion was soon taken up, however, and it became
necessary for those who desired large and cheap tracts
of land to locate on the outskirts of the original settle-
ment. Hans Graff was one of the first to begin a new
community. The story goes that sometime in the year
1717 while in pursuit of his stray horses he wandered
into what is now known as Graff's Thal in West Earl
township. He was so well pleased with the beauty
•
61. I have taken great pains throughout this treatise to insert the names
of the early immigrants who I was reasonably certain were Men-
nonites. This I have done for several reasons. In the first place
since the Mennonites kept no church records, one of the difficult
problems of the Mennonite historian is to ascertain who were and
who were not Mennonites. These names all appear in all histories
of the early settlers in these various localities and I have thought
it worth while here to place them within their proper religious affili-
ations. In the second place these names are still representative of
many Mennonite families throughout the country and may be of
interest to many Mennonites of today. The task was by no means
an easy one. In a few instances I may have been mistaken but very
few if any of those mentioned were other than Mennonite. I have
relied very largely for my information on family histories, letters,
lists of European Mennonites, local histories, naturalization lists,
controversial pamphlets, records on tombstones, family traditions
and my own personal knowledge of the Mennonite names of today.
By a careful process of elimination and comparison in the study of
these various sorts of evidence I have been able to make a fairly
complete and I think quite accurate list of at least the most prom-
inent of the early Mennonite immigrants.-C. H. S.
THE PEQUEA COLONY
65
#
and fertility of the surrounding country that he de-
cided to remove his family and belongings from the
Pequea to the new location.62 During the same year
he received a warrant for 1150 acres on what is now
Graff's Run, a branch of the Conestoga. Hans Graff
was soon followed by others,-Mennonites and non-
Mennonites. The preponderance of the names Groff,
Graff, and Grove in the cemetery of the Groffdale
Mennonite church, near the little station called Groff-
dale indicates that many of the descendants of old
Hans remained faithful to the church of his choice.
That he must have been a man of considerable in-
fluence in the community is shown by the fact that
three townships-the three Earls-now bear his name
although in an Angelicized form.
Weber's Thal
A little later, in 1724, another Mennonite settle-
ment was made about six miles east of Graff's Thal.
Here in what soon became known as
Weber's Thal, three brothers, John,
Jacob and Henry Weber bought from
the Penns about three thousand acres of land between
the Welsh Mountain near which some Welsh had
settled, and the Conestoga. With them was associated
Hans Guth a brother-in-law of one of the Webers.
These were joined soon after by the Martins, Schneid-
ers, Zimmermans and Ruths. These names are found
today almost exclusively on the oldest tomb-stones
in the graveyard of the Weaverland Mennonite church.
Fully two thirds of the inscriptions bear the names of
Weber or Weaver and Martin. This locality is un-
doubtedly the original home of nearly all the Mennon-
62. For this story see Diffenderfer, The Three Earls; and Rupp, History
of Lancaster County, p. 132.
66
MENNONITES OF AMERICA
66
63
67
ite Weavers found in America today. At the same
time settlements were being made in the west and
northwest. In 1717, John Brubaker and Christian
Hershey took out a patent
patent for one thousand
acres about two miles west of Lancaster city
in East Hempfield.
64. Here Brubaker erected
the first grist mill in Lancaster county near
the present Abbeyville.65 Later the tract of
land was divided, Hershey taking the northern half
and Brubaker the southern. In the north we have
already seen that as early as 1720 John Landes took
up land at the junction of Middle and Hammer Creeks,
which form a tributary of the Cocalico. A little
farther to the west Peter Reist, Christian Bomberger
and Nicholas Erb soon after became early settlers in
this region. Land was also purchased very early west
of the Conestoga in what was then Conestoga Manor
but now Manor township. A draft made of the manor in
1718 shows that land had been purchased before that
time by John and Abraham Herr, John Shenk, Michael
Shenk, Martin Funk, Michael Baughman and many
others. It is perhaps not necessary to proceed further
with these details. Enough has already been said to
show that the Mennonites were taking possession of
the land. It was not long until the richest portions of
the country were in their hands.
The year 1727 marks another epoch in the history
63. See Rupp, 124, and Diffenderfer, 26.
64. Pa. Arch. Second Series, XIX. 628.
65. Harris, 88. Brubaker had nine sons. John and Daniel later settled
in Elizabeth township, while Abraham went to Virignia.
66. Per. J. N. Brubaker, Mt. Joy, Pa.
67. See Landis Family, by D. B. Landes.
THE PEQUEA COLONY
67
of the immigration of Mennonites as well as that of
other Palatines.68 So many foreign-
Passenger Lists
Required 1727
ers came over this year that the
English Quakers again became
alarmed. The Provincial Council on
September 14, adopted a resolution which was em-
bodied into law to the effect that all masters of vessels
importing Germans and other foreigners should pre-
pare a list of such persons together with the place
from whence they came, and further that all such
immigrants should sign a declaration of allegiance to
the king of Great Britain and of fidelity to the Pro-
prietary of Pennsylvania. These lists begin with
September 21, 1727, and continue to the Revolutionary
war. They have since been printed by Rupp in his
"Thirty Thousand Names" and can also be found in
the Pennsylvania Archives publications.70 These lists
are of great value to any Pennsylvania German who is
interested in the study of his ancestry. They show us
that Mennonites continued to come to Pennsylvania
more or less irregularly up to the time of the Revo-
lutionary war. Not all of these immigrants, to be
sure, came to Lancaster county. Many settled in
Chester, Bucks, Berks and Montgomery counties.
Many of these early ship passengers bear names.
that sound familiar to the ears of the student of
Mennonite genealogy. The second ship to arrive
under the new law, the James Goodwill, which regis-
68. For the reasons for this emigration and for the efforts of the Com-
mittee on Foreign Needs to stem the tide of emigration see Scheffer
in Pa. Mag. of History II. 130.
69.
70.
Colonial Records. III. 282.
Pa. Arch Second Series, XIX. See Index for genealogical purposes.
Index, however, is not reliable.
68
MENNONITES OF AMERICA
tered on September 27, 1727, had on board Abraham
Ebersohl, Peter Zug," Ulric Zug,72 and Ulric Stauffer.
On September 30, the ship Molley brought over sev-
enty Palatines including Peter Gut, Felix Gut, Hans
Gut, Sr., Hans Funk, Martin Kendigh, Samuel Gut,
Samuel Oberholtz and Christian Wenger. On board
the Adventurer which arrived at Philadelphia on Oc-
tober 2, were Ulrich Pitscha, John Jacob Stutzman,
Johannes Kurtz, Ulrich Riesser, John Beydeler and
Hans Halteman.
74
73
These ships arrived usually in the fall during the
months of August, September and October. The first
vessel to arrive in 1729, the Mortonhouse, had among
other passengers Dielman Kolb, Uldric Root, Jacob
Crebil, Jacob Eschelman, Christian Longacre and
Hendrick Snevele. On August 11, 1732, among the
passengers on board the Samuel from London we
again meet many familiar Mennonite names, among
others those of Jacob Oberholtzer, Oswald Hostetter,
Hans Musselman, George Bender, Ulrich Burkhalter,
Jacob Gut, Jacob Albrecht, Michael Kreider, Jacob
Staufer, Jacob Gut, Andreas Shetler, Johannes Brech-
bil, Wendel Brechbiehl, Heinrich Ramsauer and Peter
Shellenberger. During the remainder of that autumn
there were added to the list,-Conrad Frick, Michael
71. Located in Milford township, Bucks county. See Battle, History of
Bucks county. He later joined the Ephrata Monks. See Chronicon
Ephratense.
72. Hartzler Genealogy, p. 329.
73.
The founder of the Mennonite Wenger family. See Wenger, Wenger
Family History.
74. Possibly an Amishman.
THE PEQUEA COLONY
69
Witmer, Lenhart Mumma, Christian Martin, Johann
Landis and Jacob Steli.75
ديدة
76
76
The Mennonites, it will be seen, came in small
groups during all these years. On September 21, 1742,
on the ship, Francis and Elizabeth, there were brought
over a large company of Amish and Mennonites,
among whom were the three Zug brothers, the ances-
tors of most of the Amish Zooks in this country. The
names of these men are,-Michael Kolb, Christian
Newcomer, Ulrich Neuschwanger, Jacob Yoder,78
Moritz Zug, and two brothers, Christian Jotter,"
Andreas Bachman, Johann Heinrich Schertz," Jacob
Kurtz, Jacob Guth,78 Johannes Gerber. On Sep-
tember 30, 1754, the ship, Brothers, arrived at Phila-
delphia with two hundred and fifty Palatines on board,
twenty-seven of whom are designated in the records
as Mennonites and seven as Catholics. Judging en-
tirely from the names themselves we may conclude
that the following were perhaps the twenty-seven
Mennonites, Jacob Brubaker, Franz Burghart, Abra-
ham Mellinger, Johannes Hershberger, Johannes
Eicher, John Jacob Brubaker, Michael Burckhart,
T
75. A large proportion of these names are of Bernese origin and their
duplicates can all be found in Müller's Geschichte der Bernischen
Täufer.
76.
Amish.
77. The name Schertz is not very common but where it is found in Illinois
and Ohio its bearers all belong to original Amish or Mennonite
families.
78. Rupp in his History of Religious Denominations says that by 1735
there were about five hundred families in Lancaster county, mostly
Mennonites.
79. It is not necessary to continue these names. Enough has been said
to illustrate the value of these lists to the student of Mennonite
immigration. Any one personally interested in the subject is re-
ferred to the sources mentioned.
I am not absolutely sure that all the names mentioned here were
those of Mennonites. But the exceptions, if any, are very few.
70
MENNONITES OF AMERICA
Christian Eicher, Johann Christian Witmer, Jacob
Detweiler, Johannes Frey, Peter Frey, Johann Jacob
Witmer, Abraham Strickler, Wilhelm Eschelman,
Heinrich Heistand, Jacob Kauffman, Jacob Huber,
Heinrich Graff, Valentine Noldt, Abraham Hackman,
Joseph Lemann. On October 1, of the same year the
ship, Phoenix, had on board twenty-five Mennonites,
including such names as Neuenschwander, Burck-
halter, Aeschliman, Newcomer, Brechtbühl, Burck-
hart, Hunsicker and Geyman. Later lists do not men-
tion the Mennonites specifically, but it is likely that a
few came each year as late as the Revolutionary war.
By about 1755, however, the steady inflow of immi-
grants from the Palatinate had practically ceased.
Secular
Life
We have thus far confined our attention to the
formation of early settlements. Let us turn now
briefly to a subject of more interest-the
secular and religious life of the people.
But to tell this story is not an easy task,
for these people left no record of them-
selves, except in the land offices and on their tomb-
stones. Of church records there is not a scrap. Our
story of these early days must be pieced together from
what we can glean from their land entries, family Bi-
bles, petitions for naturalization or military exemption
and an occasional letter to Europe preserved in Euro-
pean archives.
The first thing to notice is that these men, unlike
their brethren at Germantown, were agriculturists.
In their Swiss homes most of them had been small
farmers and dairymen.80 Consequently while the
Germantown settlement took the form of a village
80. Müller, 290.
THE PEQUEA COLONY
71
that on the Pequea was spread over large farms, vary-
ing in the first few years from two hundred to several
thousand acres in extent. Thus the problem of gov-
ernment was with them a simple matter. Although
the Mennonites were the first white settlers to come
to Lancaster county, and although they have ever
since far outnumbered all others in the rural districts,
yet they have always been ruled politically by others.
They never took to politics. The local government
was usually managed by their Scotch-Irish neighbors
who orgainzed and named the townships and filled the
various local offices. The Mennonites were a peace-
ful, quiet and industrious people, well satisfied with
their quiet life on the farm. They were willing to
leave the matter of government to the Scotch-Irish
whom they gradually dispossessed of such rich farms
as were not already in their hands. Today the de-
scendants of these Scotch-Irish are found almost alto-
gether in the southern township, a region in which
the soil is so poor that no industrious Mennonite has
ever located there. A glance at the county map will
indicate that with the exception of the three Earls
most of the townships bear Irish and English names.
Two of them only, Strasburg and Manheim, are
named for the places from which the German settlers
came. In the small villages and less conspicuous
localities, however, where places are more likely to be
named after some original settler, more German
names appear. Bareville, Beyertown, Eby's Post
Office, Groffdale, Herrville, Hess Station, Landis Val-
ley, Landisville, Martinsdale, Weaverland, Mast's
Post Office, Rohrerstown, Weavertown, Witmer Sta-
tion, Hertzler, Lapps, Brubaker, Neffsville and Good-
72
MENNONITES OF AMERICA
ville, all these names indicate that the Mennonites
have everywhere been pioneers in building up the
county.
Their industry very early attracted the attention
of travelers through this region. In 1744 one of the
delegates to the Indian conference at Lancaster de-
scribes their beautiful farms:
"They sow all kinds of grain,” he says, “and have very
plentiful harvests. Their houses are chiefly built of stone
and generally near some brook or stream of water. Thev
have very large meadows which produce a great deal of hay
and feed therewith a variety of cattle."81
Before the days of the railroad all this produce
had to be carried from the Conestoga region in large
heavy wagons. These were the famous Conestoga
wagons which were used not only to transport farm
produce from Conestoga to Philadelphia but in later
years when the fever of western emigration began,
they also became the means of carrying the emigrant
and his family across the mountains and down the
valleys to his new home.82 In more recent years on
the western plains the same vehicle but under a new
name, "The Prairie Schooner" has been used for the
81. Witham Marshes Journal, Mass. Historical Society, First Series; VII.
175.
82. Albert Cook Myers, of Moylan, Pa., a careful student of Pennsyl-
vania history, tells me that the earliest reference found to the Con-
estoga wagon is in 1716.
"In this wagon, drawn by four or five horses of a peculiar breed,
they convey to market, over the roughest roads, 2000 or 3000 pounds'
weight of produce of their farms. In the months of September and
October it is no uncommon thing on the Lancaster and Reading
roads to meet in one day fifty or one hundred of these wagons on
their way to Philadelphia, most of which belong to German farmers."
Benj. Rush, in 1789 quoted by Kuhns Swiss and German Settlements
in Pennsylvania, p. 98.
THE PEQUEA COLONY
73
same purpose. But the railroad has put an end to the
old Conestoga wagon. Nothing but an occasional
remnant of a few broken bows, an old wagon bed, or a
few ponderous wheels found in obscure corners in
Indiana, Ohio or Pennsylvania is left now to remind
us of the famous old wagon that was once so essential
to the well-being of these early pioneers.
The Mennonites, as we saw, were a country peo-
ple. They never took a liking to city life. And thus
it is that while the central portion of the county was
settled almost exclusively by Mennonites, Lancaster
city, in the very center of the county, was composed
largely of German Lutherans or Reformed, Scotch-
Irish, English, and children of Mennonite parents but
who had left the church of their fathers. It is only
within very recent years that members of the Mennon-
ite church have begun to find their way into the city.
A large percentage of the present inhabitants of the
city, however, trace their ancestry back to the early
Mennonite immigrants.
Relation
to Indians
With the Indians the Mennonites were usually on
good terms. We saw that at the time of the first settle-
ment the Indians were still found in the
immediate neighborhood of the colony.
Both Conestoga and Pequea Creeks were
named after the tribes of Indians found
along the banks of these respective streams. The
Conestoga Indians were early transferred across the
Conestoga to a reservation in the Manor where they
had a village bordering on the land purchased by some
of the early settlers. As early as June 8, 1711, Gov-
ernor Gookin visited these Indians and in a speech
to them said that Penn intended to present them with
j
74
MENNONITES OF AMERICA
83
a belt of wampum and that he required their friendship
to the Palatines settled near Pequea. The Indians
replied that since they were at war with the Tus-
caroras they did not think the place safe for any Chris-
tians. They were afraid furthermore that if any dam-
age should happen to these the blame would fall upon
them.
The Mennonites evidently felt no alarm and do
not seem to have been molested by the Indians during
the earlier years. But as the settlement grew they
found themselves encroaching upon the lands of their
red skinned neighbors. On November 2, 1717, the
Board of Property reported that
the late settlements on and near Conestoga Creek hath made
it necessary that the Indian fields about the town be enclosed
by a good fence to secure the Indians corn from the horses,
cattle and hogs of these new settlers that would otherwise
destroy it and thereby cause an uneasiness in those Indians.
It was not until the French and Indian war, from
1754 to 1763 that the Mennonites suffered seriously at
the hands of the Indians. The frontier line at this
time was run along the Susquehanna on the west and
the Blue Mountains on the north. This whole region
was occupied by the Germans, among them the Men-
nonites in Lancaster county and the Amish in Berks.
Just how many Mennonites were killed by the Indians
will never be known but from a few scattered refer-
ences we can make at least an estimate. A letter writ-
ten to Switzerland by Ulrich Engel, Christian Brech-
bühl, and Isaac Neuschwander under date of December
7, 1755, says that Hans Jacob König had left his wife
and three young children with Abraham Herr at Con-
83.
Colonial Records, II. 532-3.
84. Pa. Arch. Second Series, XIX. 626.
THE PEQUEA COLONY
75
estoga but that he, with a son, daughter and a servant
had settled on the frontier among the Indians at a place
called "Shamogen". Other families followed. The
Indians having warned them repeatedly that they had
trespassed on Indian territory, suddenly fell upon the
settlers, murdered six families and burned their houses.
Thirteen persons were killed, including König. His
son and daughter were carried away as captives.85
So great was the loss of life and property all along
the frontiers of Pennsylvania and Virginia where the
Mennonites had settled that in 1758 they found it nec-
essary to send to Holland for aid. They sent over two
of their number Martin Funk and Johannes Schneyder
with a letter dated September 7, 1758, written by
Michael Kaufman, Jacob Borner, Samuel Böhm and
Daniel Stauffer,-all Lancaster names. This letter
says that over two hundred families in Pennsylvania
had during a recent incursion in May lost all of their
property and that fifty of their number were dead. Of
course this number refers to all the frontiers-men who
suffered, but must no doubt include a number of Men-
nonites. The envoys succeeded in obtaining a contri-
bution of fifty pounds sterling and departed again for
America December 17, 1758.86
We have already seen that the Provincial author-
ities early became suspicious of the increasing number
of German immigrants. The privilege
Naturalization of naturalization without which no one
could enjoy the full rights of citizenship
85. Müller, Geschichte der Bernischen Täufer, 365. See also Rupp, Lan-
caster County 353, and Pa. Arch., First Series III. 194.
86. Pa. Mag. of History, II. 136. For the list of letters written at this
time to Amsterdam see de Hoop Scheffer's catalog of docu-
ments in the Amsterdam Mennonite Church.
76
MENNONITES OF AMERICA
87
was often very grudgingly conferred. In 1683 before
German immigration had begun it was provided that
all foreigners who had taken the oath of allegiance to
the king and to Penn were to be thereby to all intents
naturalized.98 This law was repealed in 1705 by Par-
liament, and from this time until 1742 naturalizations
were by private act. It often took years of petitioning
and waiting before the Assembly would grant the
rights of citizenship. The unnaturalized were under
many disadvantages. At first these disadvantages were
not so apparent and we find the Mennonites rather slow
in becoming British subjects. As early as 1691, how-
ever, Hendrick Casselberg and Clas Jansen of German-
town were naturalized. They were followed in 1698 by
Hans Neus, Paul Engle and others.89 Petitions by
others were sent to the General Assembly in 1706 ⁰⁰
and again in 1709.91 But it was not until September 29,
1709, that the Mennonites as a body in and around
Germantown were granted the rights of naturalization
and thus were given equal civil rights with their Eng-
lish neighbors.92 No Lancastrians seem to have been
naturalized until 1729.
90
The disadvantages under which the unnaturalized
were placed is very well stated by an entry which ap-
pears in the minute book of the Board of Property
87.
88.
89.
90.
Foreign here means non-English.
For a good discussion on Naturalization in Pennsylvania see Ameri-
can Historical Review, IX. 300 ff.
Pa. Ger. Soc. VIII. 189.
Colonial Records. II. 241.
91. Votes of the Assembly. II. 48.
92. Col. Rec., II. 493. The full list is given here including Pastorius,
Dirk Keyser, Kunders, etc. See also Statutes at Large, II. 299.
THE PEQUEA COLONY
77
under date of September 22, 1717. The entry is as
follows:
Martin Kendig, Hans Heer and Hans Funk with several
other of the Palatines, their countrymen having applied to
purchase land near Conestoga and Pequea Creek to ac-
commodate those of them who have lately arrived in this
province, who are their Relations, friends and acquaintances
and whom they assure the board are Honest and Conscien-
tious people. Their request being considered and the circum-
stances of those people in relation to their holding of Lands
in the Dominion of Great Britian were asked if they under-
stood the Disadvantage they were under by their being born
aliens, that therefore their children could not inherit, nor
they themselves convey to others the Lands they purchase
according to the laws of England which may in such case be
extended hither. They answered they were informed thereof,
before. However, inasmuch as they had removed themselves
and families into this province they were, not with standing
the said disadvantages willing to purchase lands for their own
dwelling. It was further said by the commissioners that it was
their business to sell and dispose of the proprietor's lands to
such as would purchase it yet at the same time they were will-
ing to let them know as they are aliens the danger that might
ensue if not in time prevented, also that some years ago a law
was enacted here and afterwards passed by the late Queen
Anne for enabling divers Aliens particularly named there-
in to hold and enjoy lands in this province and that the like
advantage might probably be obtained for those amongst
themselves that were of good report if a petition were pre-
ferred to this present assembly, when they sit to do business.
With this advice they seemed pleased and desired to be in-
formed when such a sitting of the assembly would be that
they might prefer a petition to them for such a law as is
above mentioned.93
Petitions for the above privilege were sent to the
Assembly, but this was just the time, it will be remem-
93. Pa. Arch. Second Series, XIX. 624.
78
MENNONITES OF AMERICA
bered, when Governor Keith was especially alarmed at
the German immigration, and it appears that no atten-
tion was paid to the demands of the petitioners. Keith
was followed by Gordon, who was more liberal, and it
was under Governor Gordon's administration that the
Mennonites of Lancaster county were finally permitted
to become British subjects and thereby acquire the
right to "sell and bequeath" their lands. Before
naturalization had been granted them
they were obliged to swear to the value of their possessions
and declare their religious views. They were denounced as
being peculiar in dress, religion and notions of political
government and resolved to speak their own language and
acknowledge but the great Creator of the Universe.95
96
The bill of 1729 was the result of a petition made
November 27, 1727, by "Wendal Bowman, Martin
Meiling and Benedick Hearsay in behalf of themselves
and others called Menists" asking permission to bring
in a bill "to enable them to hold lands and trade in the
said Province" which was presented to the House,
read and ordered to lie on the table. The year 1727
was another year however, of heavy immigration and
the petition was not immediately granted. It was dis-
cussed at various times during the following year and
finally on December 14, 1728, permission was given.
by the Assembly to present such a bill.97 In the mean-
time the Governor had made inquiry regarding the
general character of the petitioners. In his message
to the Assembly in 1729 he reported that these people
94. Or affirm.
95. Diffenderfer, Odds and Ends of Local History; in Lancaster County
Historical Society report on June 1, 1906.
96. Votes of the Assembly, III. 42, 45, 70.
97. Votes, III. 71,72.
THE PEQUEA COLONY
79
are principally such who many years since came into this
province under a particular agreement with our late honor-
able Proprietary at London and have regularly taken up
Lands under him. It likewise appears to me by good infor-
mation that they have hitherto behaved themselves well and
have generally so good a character for Honesty and Industry
as to deserve the esteem of this Government and a Mark of
its regard for them. I am therefore inclined from these
considerations to favor their request and hope you will join
with me in passing a bill for their naturalization.98
The bill was accordingly passed" but efforts were
made at the same time to discourage further immigra-
tion of Germans by providing for a levy of a head-tax
of forty shillings on every alien who should come into
the province. This was the last Mennonite petition
for naturalization except the one in 1742 when the
Amish of Lancaster county, as we have already seen,
asked for the right of naturalization, but a little later
the general law was passed which was made to cover
the cases of all aliens.100
Most of the Palatine immigrants in Pennsylvania
during the eighteenth century were poor people, and
the Mennonites were no exception. With the excep-
tion of Telner and Van Bebber of Germantown and
Herr, Kendig and Meilin of Pequea, all of whom
became owners of from one to six thousand acres,
the early settlers owned very little of this world's
goods when they landed at Philadelphia. And even
98. Votes and Proceedings, III. 100.
99. The names of all who were naturalized by this act are found in
Pennsylvania Statutes at Large, IV, 148. The list is made up
almost exclusively of Mennonites and no doubt contains practically
all the Mennonite male inhabitants of twenty-one years of age in
the county. The list contains one hundred and thirteen names.
100. For further legislation on naturalization and the dispute between the
assembly and Governor Thomas in 1741 see Votes and Proceedings
III. 451-3, 460, 466, 472, 488, 505, 515, etc.
80
MENNONITES OF AMERICA
these men are likely to be considered wealthier than
they really were. One thousand acres of wild land at
that time was by no means a fortune.101 The fact that
by 1745 the whole Pennsylvania colony of Mennonites
did not consider itself able to print the Martyrs
Mirror, and that in 1758 they felt obliged to ask help
from Holland to make good the losses from Indian in-
cursions shows that by that time they could by no
means be considered rich.
Redemptioners
During the period preceding the Revolutionary
war, and even later it was the practice of all emi-
grants, who did not have sufficient
money to pay their passage across the
ocean, to sell their services for a
number of years to some ship captain in return for
free passage. The captain then owned the labor of
the emigrant and could dispose of it as he saw fit.
Usually the services of such people was sold by the
captain at auction to the highest bidder soon after
the ship's arrival.102 The persons who thus sold their
101. The price of land in 1717 was ten pounds per hundred acres and one
shilling quit rent.
102. "Every day Englishmen, Dutchmen and High German people came
from the city of Philadelphia and other places, some from a great
distance, sixty miles and one hundred and twenty miles away and
go on board the newly arrived ship that has brought and offers for
sale passengers from Europe and select among them the healthy
persons such as they deem suitable for their business and bargain
with them how long they will serve for their passage money, for
which most of them are still in debt. When they have come to
an agreement it happens that adult persons bind themselves in writ-
ing to serve three, four, five or six years for the amount due by them
according to their age and strength. But very young people from
ten to fifteen must serve until they are 21." Gottlieb Mittelberger,
Journey to Pennsylvania, (1754), p. 26.
"The reason we (Lutherans) are invited to go to a distance here
and there are the following: Our German Evangelical inhabitants
for the most part came latest into this province. The English and
THE PEQUEA COLONY
81
services were called redemptioners. A large portion
of the immigrants into Pennsylvania were of this class
of settlers.
Jost
The number of Mennonite redemptioners was
perhaps comparatively small, because, although many
may have been poor, their friends who were already
here, if necessary, paid their passage money which was
to be returned later either in money or perhaps in
labor. But this was not always the case. There are
many family traditions which point to the fact that
Mennonites were occasionally sold as redemptioners,
sometimes to their own Mennonite brethren.
Yoder,103 the founder of a long line of Yoders, well
known in the Amish church today, bound his children
to service to help pay the passage money for the
family. Frederick Alderfer in 1734 was sold in
Philadelphia to a man who lived in Montgomery
county.104 The traffic in redemptioners was profitable,
and frequently ship captains would steal young chil-
dren or entice both children and grown people into
their vessels and then sell them on this side of the
water. Melchior Plank, an Amishman, an ancestor of
Bishop David Plank of Logan county, Ohio, was in-
German Quakers, the Inspired, the Mennonites, Separatists and other
such small sects came in first when the land was still cheap. These
selected for themselves the richest tracts of land and are now en-
riched. But in later years after the poor Evangelicals also found
their way and numerously came into this country also some perhaps
here and there still found good land. Most of them, however, had
to serve for their passage as men-servants and maid-servants and
afterwards shift with the poor land and eat their bread in the
copious sweat of their brows.' Muhlenberg in "Hallische Nach-
richten" II, 51.
103. An Amishman.
Berks County.
Landed at Philadelphia, 1744. Settled later in
104. See Heckler, History of Lower Salford Township, p. 220.
27
82
MENNONITES OF AMERICA
vited together with his wife by a ship captain on board
a vessel just ready to sail. They were both brought to
Pennsylvania and sold to a Mr. Morgan either in
Berks or Lancaster county. Philip Lantz, when a boy
of five was kidnapped in Europe and brought to
Baltimore. From here he was taken to Lancaster
county, where he was bound to Peter Yordy of
Lampeter township until he was twenty-one years old.
Lantz served Yordy until his time had expired and
then married one of his master's daughters.10 These
are only a few instances of this practice. No doubt
many of the early Mennonite settlers of Lancaster
county had similar experiences.
Church
Buildings
Concerning the church life of the Pequea colonists
we know even less than of their secular life. But since
they had at least one minister among them
in the person of Hans Herr, it is likely that
a church was organized immediately after
the settlement began. The meetings of
course were held for a number of years in private
houses. These houses at first were made of logs, but
as the settlement became older these were replaced
frequently by large stone buildings made from the
lime and sandstone with which the county abounded,
many of which stood for over one hundred years. In
1719 Christian Herr erected a large stone dwelling
house north of the Pequea which is still standing,
today the oldest building in Lancaster county.
Within the heavy walls of this old building was often
heard the message of the Gospel as it fell from the lips
105. See Egle, Notes and Queries, vol. III.
106
106. For a good description of this house see article in the "Home"
August 5, 1905, by George N. Le Fevre.
1
THE PEQUEA COLONY
83
of old Hans Herr, Benedict Brechtbühl, or some other
devoted preacher of the time.
The earliest settlement, as we saw, occupied the
tier of townships immediately south of Lancaster city.
The nucleus of the colony evidently was near where
the present Brick church stands near Willow Street.
From here to the east, west and gradually to the north-
west and northeast centers of worship with church
houses were gradually established. The settlement, as
we have seen, never extended very far to the south
because of the poor soil in that region. Wherever
centers of settlements were established, congregations
were organized. The congregation usually, of course,
preceded the meeting house by a number of years.
South of Lancaster city a log house was erected in the
region now called Byerland as early as 1747; another
at Millersville in 1756. These were both replaced later
by more substantial buildings. The so-called Stone
meeting house was put up in 1755 and was repaired
later. In the Strasburg region meetings were held
for many years in private houses. There is still
standing near Strasburg a house built in 1740 by John
Herr, the upper story of which was especially con-
structed for holding church services.108 The present
stone church in Strasburg village was erected in 1804.
Further south, in what is now Providence township, a
meeting house was put up as early as 1766. One mile
west of Lancaster city a log house was erected about
1730 on the tract of land purchased by Brubaker and
Hershey in 1717. In the northwestern townships of
the county one of the earliest houses to be erected was
the Hernley meeting house built in 1766, the land being
108. Still standing one-half mile south-west of Strasburg.
84
MENNONITES OF AMERICA
bought in 1745. The Landisville church, made of logs
in 1790, is still standing. The Chestnut Hill, Risser
and Erisman houses were all built before 1800. About
three miles east of Lancaster stands the Mellinger or
what was formerly the Lampeter meeting house which
replaced in 1884 a stone building put up in 1767. In the
northeastern part of the county the first log building
for worship was put up at Groffdale about 1755. The
Weaverland house was erected in 1766 and a part of
the walls are still standing. Farther east the Bow-
mansville church was erected in 1794.¹
These are a
few of the oldest buildings. Many others were
erected during the nineteenth century throughout the
county. There are at present fifty-one places of wor-
ship in the county.
109
Few of these old meeting houses are left. The
present buildings in the older centers are of the third
or fourth generation of meeting houses, the first being
of logs, the second usually of stone, and the third of
stone or brick. In the walls of most of them are in-
serted stone blocks with the date of the first stone
structure and a short inscription. The inscription on
the Strasburg church reads as follows:
Built by the
Mennonite Society
in the year of Christ
whom they worship
1804
Many of the later inscriptions have the word" old” pre-
109. Most of the information regarding these meeting houses has been
gained from personal observation and from Ellis and Evans' History
of Lancaster County, corrected from other sources.
THE PEQUEA COLONY
85
fixed to Mennonite to distinguish the main body from
the New Mennonites or Herrites who took their rise
in 1811.
Near each of these buildings were laid out the
earliest graveyards. The oldest cemetery in the county
is undoubtedly the one near the Brick church, between
the church and the old Christian Herr house. Here
lies buried old Hans Herr and perhaps others of the
early settlers. The earliest graves either were un-
marked or have long since lost all signs of identifica-
tion. The Mennonites were so much opposed to
publicity and outward display that for a time it appears
they were even religiously scrupulous against the use
of tombstones. The very earliest immigrants further-
more, may have been buried in some out-of-the-way
corner of their farms. The stones that were used to
mark their last resting places, if any were used at all,
were small and made of slate or sand stone and may
long ago have succumbed to the wear of rains and
frosts. Whatever the reason, it remains true that with
the exception of Hans Groff whose grave lies dis-
tinctly marked in the Groffdale cemetery, we are un-
able to locate with certainty the final resting place of a
single one of these early pioneers of Lancaster county.
The earliest grave with any record in the Brick church.
cemetery bears the inscription.
L. G.
1741
So far as I have been able to discover, this is the oldest
marked Mennonite grave in the county.
The Mennonites on the Pequea did not suffer for
86
MENNONITES OF AMERICA
Early
Preachers
want of preachers. Many of the early immigrants
were ministers. Old Hans Herr, the first
bishop, was followed by his son Christian,
Benedict Brechtbühl, Jacob Hostetter,110
Benjamin Hershey¹¹ and others. In 1725
a conference was held, but where is not known, of the
entire Pennsylvania church, including the congrega-
tions of Skippack, Germantown, Great Swamp, Mana-
tant and Conestoga, as the Pequea settlement was
then called.112 The purpose of the conference is not
definitely known but one of the duties of those present
was to subscribe their names to an appendix' which
had been added to the Confession of Faith which had
been translated into English in Amsterdam in 1712.
The Conestoga ministers present at this conference
were Hans Burghaltzer,118 Christian Herr, Benedict
Hirschi,¹¹ Martin Baer and Johannes Bowman.115
Among other ministers and bishops who lived during
the eighteenth century there have come down to us
the names of Benjamin Landis,116 Ben Schantz,117
Martin Boehm,118 Tobias Kryter,119 Friederich Kauf-
man,119
Hans Schantz,119 Christian Bomberger,120
110. Per. Abr. R. Burkholder of Willow Street, in New Era (Lancaster)
Feb. 1, 1905.
111. Ellis and Evans, History of Lancaster County. See Index.
112.
113.
Lancaster county was not organized until 1729.
Came in 1717 with Brechtbühl. See Gotschalk letter quoted by
Pennypacker in Hendrick Pennebecker.
114. Still living in 1770. See Morgan Edward's "Material for a History
of American Baptists" under Mennonists. Three brothers, Andrew,
Benjamin and Christian were all ministers.
115.
See Confession of Faith of 1727, printed by Bradford, Philadelphia.
116. Harris, History of Lancaster County, 360. Located four miles east
of Lancaster.
117. See Gotschalk letter in Hendrick Pennebecker by Pennypacker.
118.
Ordained by lot, 1756.
119. See Gotschalk letter.
120. In Hammer Creek District. Ellis and Evans. See Index.
THE PEQUEA COLONY
87
Christian
Burkholder,'
Burkholder,121 Henry Martin,121 Peter
Risser,122 Jacob Brubaker,123 and no doubt a host of
others who were faithful preachers of the Gospel in
their day, but whose names now if not entirely for-
gotten are preserved only in family traditions.
Relation to
Dunkards
Lancaster county like Germantown soon became
a center for the peace sects. The Mennonites were
followed by the Dunkards in 1724, and
by the Moravians some time later, who
settled in the region of Lititz. The
Dunkards in their early history usually
followed up the Mennonites in their wanderings.
They first associated with them in Crefeld, then fol-
lowed them to Germantown, and thence to Conestoga,
Oley, Great Swamp, and to many other of the early
centers on Mennonitism. This was due, no doubt, to
several reasons. The Dunkards, like the Mennonites
had an instinct for finding the best lands. They were
so much like the Mennonites in faith and practice that
they felt very much at home among them, and more-
over the Mennonites furnished good proselyting
material, and were a fruitful field for Dunkard mission-
ary zeal.
So great is the similarity between these two
denominations that we can but conclude that the
Dunkards must have borrowed many of their religious
practices and doctrines from the Mennonites. Both
reject infant baptism, oppose the bearing of arms and
the taking of oaths. Some of their religious practices.
are similar; the kiss of peace, the use of the prayer
121.
In Weaverland District.
122. In Root District.
123.
Ordained bishop in 1783 in East Hempfield. Ellis and Evans.
+
;
88
MENNONITES OF AMERICA
head-covering and bonnet for the women, and feet-
washing at the communion service.
There is much in the early history of the Dunkards
to bear out this proposition. Alexander Mack was
their founder. At first a member of the Reformed
church he became dissatisfied with the formalism and
ritualism of the Reformed religion, and with seven
others he left the church in 1708. During the year he
traveled among the Mennonites of Germany in the
hope of finding among them the people nearest to his
ideals of the Christian life. But learning that they
would not admit that immersion was the only true
mode of baptism he turned from them and was himself
immersed by one of the group which with him had left
the Reformed church.124 He then baptized by trine
immersion the rest of the group and thus became the
founder of a new church. They were soon driven to
'Crefeld and there gained several adherents among the
Mennonites. In 1719 they came to Germantown and
there again won over some of the Mennonites, among
them Peter Keyser, son of Dirk Keyser and for many
years a leading minister in the Dunkard church. In
1724, as we have seen, a party of them came into the
Conestoga region. This was purely a proselyting tour,
for having heard that "in the Conestoga country were a
number of awakened souls"125 they decided to go to
that locality. Starting one November day from Coven-
try on the Schuylkill where a congregation had been
established, they divided at the close of day into two
parties for the night. They had by this time arrived
in the Groffthal and Weberthal region, and on that
124. Brumbaugh, History of the Brethren, p. 38.
125. Brumbaugh, 161.
THE PEQUEA COLONY
89
night those afoot remained with Hans Groff and those
who rode spent the night at Jacob Weber's. The next
day the party again reunited at the house of Rudolf
Nägele, also a Mennonite. From here they visited
Conrad Beissel, who was soon to cause the Dunkards
much trouble.126 Beissel was a Pietist, who came over
from Germany in 1720, and at this time was leading a
hermit's life on the Conestoga. This little band of
enthusiasts left its mark wherever it went. A few days
later a congregation was formed on Mill Creek with
Beissel himself as the first preacher. There do not
seem to have been any Mennonites in this first group;
but it is likely that Rudolf Nägele joined them a little
later, for soon the meeting was held in his house in
Earl township where this first Dunkard congregation
in the Conestoga region worshiped for seven years.127
During the following years a number of familiar
Mennonite names are found among the Dunkards—
John Landes, Samuel Good, Henry Sneider, Peter
Zug, Henry Neff, Hans Graff128 and many others con-
cerning whose previous religious faith we know
126. "Once we visited Conrad Matthew at Germantown who advised us
to leave those regions because the people there lived in vanity and
to go to the Conestoga where the people lived in great simplicity and
which was like a new Switzerland to look upon. In August, 1727,
we moved there. For a while we adhered to the Mennonites bcause
their simplicity pleased us, but their mode of worship we could
never adopt ourselves.
..It is yet to be remembered that
these same good people (the first congregation of solitary brethren,
I think) had after the manner of that people a certain simplicity
and lowliness of life and the superintendent (Beissel) in spite of
the fact that he had had experiences in the world of vanity and
show could so thoroughly adapt himself to their ways that his
clothing, dwelling and household were fashioned on the poorest
scale." Chronicon Ephratense, p. 35.
127.
128.
Brumbaugh, 299.
Not the pioneer of Groff's Thal. Perhaps a son.
90
MENNONITES OF AMERICA
nothing but whose names bear almost certain evidence
that they were of Mennonite descent.129 In 1728
Beissel withdrew from the Dunkards and established
on the Cocalico Creek at Ephrata the well known
Seventh Day Baptist monastic community. Several
Mennonites also became involved in this movement,
among them Michael Eckerlin180 who was soon to
become one of the leading spirits and John Meylin, son
of Hans Meylin, the pioneer.181
The attempts in 1741 of Count Zinzendorf, the
Moravian, to unite the religious efforts in Pennsylvania
did not affect the Lancaster county Mennonites as it
did their brethren in Berks county. The Wesleyan
revival struck the county a little later and resulted in
the apostacy of Martin Boehm, a leading Mennonite
minister south of Willow Street. Boehm became one
of the founders of the United Brethren church and
later one of the pioneer Methodists in the region.
Mennonites not
Proselyters
The Mennonites, as has already been said, were
not a proselyting people and gained very few ad-
herents from other churches. The
Lutherans and Reformed were, during
the early years, without much church
organization and in that condition no
doubt would have fallen an easy prey to missionary
zeal among the other churches. Many of them found
their way into the Dunkard church, but few into the
Mennonite. On the contrary many Mennonites in later
years joined the Reformed and Lutheran churches.
A few of the Huguenots, however, who drifted into
129. See Brumbaugh, p. 307 for complete list of members up to 1770.
130. Pa. Ger. Soc. Proceedings, XV. 205.
131. Rupp, History of Lancaster County, p. 74.
THE PEQUEA COLONY
91
Pennsylvania from New York, such men as the Le
Fevers in Lancaster county and some of the De Turks
in Berks county, the Bertolets and Fahrnis, cast their
lot with the Mennonites. The entire number, how-
ever, that the Mennonite church received from other

From an old prin
Conestoga Wagon. See p. 163.
churches was much smaller than the number it lost.
Had it been able to keep its young men and women in
the church it might today possess the solid wealth and
influence of one of the very best counties in the state.
CHAPTER III
1
THE MENNONITES AND THE STATE
The purpose of this chapter is to show how in
America the non-resistant principles of the Mennonites
often came into conflict with the civil authorities, but
how, also, absolute religious liberty was finally se-
cured. The subject will be treated from the stand-
point of the civil powers, and I shall not discuss here.
the experience of the Mennonites in the application of
these laws. In this respect the Quakers and Mennon-
ites have in many instances had a common history,
and the two must necessarily be treated more or less
together.
Attitude toward
Civil Government
Misunderstood
No part of their creed has subjected the Mennon-
ites to more misrepresentation and misunderstanding
than their attitude toward the civil
authorities. They adopted bodily
the faith of the peaceful type of
Anabaptists, and that was a rejec-
tion of all civil and a great deal of
the prevailing ecclesiastical government as unneces-
sary for the Christian. The Non-resistant Anabaptists
of whom the Mennonites were the direct successors,
went no further, however, in their opposition to the
temporal authority than to declare that the true church

THE MENNONITES AND THE STATE
and the temporal powers had nothing in common and
must be entirely separate; not only must the state not
interfere with the church, but the true Christian must
be entirely free from participating in civil matters.
The temporal authority must needs exist since it was
instituted of God to punish the wicked, but in that
work the Christian had no hand. This position they
reached from a literal interpretation of the Sermon on
the mount where Christ taught his disciples among
other things to "love their enemies", and to "swear not
at all." Hence their position involved opposition to
the oath, holding of office and bearing of arms. This
often brought them into trouble with the civil author-
ities, and in Europe they seldom got exemption from
these civic obligations. This was one of the causes of
their emigration. Nor were they granted entire exemp-
tion in America without many years of struggle.
Anabaptist View
of the Sword
The earliest Anabaptist confession of faith drawn
up at Schleitheim in 1527, teaches very distinctly that
the use of the sword is ordained by
God to punish the wicked but no
Christian can wield it. As to the
right of the Christian to be a magis-
trate, this declaration states, "it was intended to make
Christ King and He fled and did not regard the ordi-
nance of the Father. Thus should we do, and follow
him and we shall not walk in darkness." Neither can
the Christian take an oath, for "Christ who teaches
the perfection of the law forbids to his people all
swearing whether true or false." This was the position.
taken by Menno Simons¹ and by all those Anabaptists
1.
See Menno Simons' Complete Works, Elkhart, Ind., Edition. Part II.
p. 301.

MENNONITES OF AMERICA
ho later were known as Mennonites. The Ana-
baptist movement was not confined to Germany and
Holland but soon appeared also in England. That this
view of the Christian's attitude toward the civil author-
ities had made some headway in the latter country is
evidenced by the fact that the earliest confessions of
faith of the Presbyterian, Anglican and Baptist
churches found it necessary to explicitly state that it
is not unlawful nor inconsistent for the Christian to
swear, bear arms, or be a magistrate. On the con-
2
2.
The following extracts taken from various Confessions of Faith and
other sources illustrate the prevalence of these ideas:
(a) "It is lawful for a Christian to be a magistrate or civil officer
and also it is lawful to take an oath so it be in truth and judgment
and in righteousness for confirmation of truth and ending all strife
and that by rash and vain oaths the Lord is provoked and this land
Article 49. Confession of Faith of so-called Anabaptists
in London, 1646,-See Schaff, Confessions of Faith of Baptists in
the Seventeenth Century, p. 46.
mourns.
(b) "We ought to pay tribute, custom, and all other duties.
Magistrates may be members of the church of Christ, retaining
their magistracy, for no ordinance of God debarreth any from being
a member of Christ's church. They bear the Sword of God; which
Sword in all lawful administrations is to be defended and supported
by the servants of God that are under their government, with their
lives and all that they have, according as in the first institution of
that holy ordinance."-Declaration of Faith of English people re-
maining at Amsterdam, printed 1611. See Schaff, p. 10.
(c) “A lawful oath is a part of religious worship wherein upon
just occasion the person swearing solemnly calleth God to witness
what he asserteth or promiseth."
It is lawful for Christians to accept and execute the office of a
magistrate when called thereunto."-Westminister Confession 1647.
(d) "It is lawful for Christian men at the commandment of the
magistrate to weare weapons and serve in the wars.
""
"We judge that Christian religion doth not prohibite, but that
a man may sweare when the magistrate requireth in a cause of
faith and charitie, so it be done accordyng to the prophet's teaching
in justice, judgment and truth."-The Book of Common Prayer of
Church of England. 1571 Edition.
(e) "The Sword-An ordinance of God, to punish the wicked.
The Christian can not use it." "Magistrate-It was intended to
make Christ king and he fled, and did not regard the ordinance of
THE MENNONITES AND THE STATE
95
tinent several peace sects borrowed a part or all of
these doctrines from the earlier Anabaptists or later
Mennonites. The most prominent of these, most of
whom followed the Mennonites to America early in
the eighteenth century, were the Moravians, Schwenk-
felders and the Dunkards.
His Father. Thus should we do and follow Him and we shall not
walk in darkness." "Oath-Christ who teacheth the perfection of
the law forbids to his people all swearing whether true or false."
Substance of the Schleitheim Confession of Faith 1527 as quoted by
Armitage in his history of the Baptists. This is the first Anabaptist
confession and was adopted by the Mennonites.
(f) In as much as we thus confess and cordially believe and be-
sides confess that no emperor or king may rule or command con-
trary to his word since he is the head of all princes and is the king
of kings and that unto Him every knee shall bow which is in heaven
in earth or under the earth, and as he has plainly forbidden us to
swear and points us to yea and nay alone, therefore it is that
we swear not by the fear of God, nor dare swear, though we must
bear and suffer so much on that account from the world.”. -Menno
Simons.
(g) "God has instituted civil government for the punishment of
the wicked and the protection of the pious, etc.”
"Regarding revenge whereby we resist our enemies with the
Sword, we believe and confess that the Lord Jesus has forbidden
his disciples and followers all revenge and resistance and has there-
by commanded them not to return evil for evil nor railing for
railing; but to put up the sword into the sheath, or as the prophets
foretold, beat them into plough shares, etc.'
""
"Regarding the swearing of oaths we believe and confess that
the Lord Jesus has dissuaded his followers from and forbidden the
same; that is, that he commanded them to swear not at all; but
that their "Yea" should be "yea," and their "Nay," "nay,” etc.—
Mennonite Confession of Faith, 1632.
(h) "And whereas many of us are now prisoners can not take
the oath of allegiance because we can not swear at all."-Anabap-
tists of Kent County, England in a petition to Charles II, 1660,
quoted in Tracts on Liberty of Conscience by Hansard Knollys
Society, p. 307.
(i)
Error 104.
"That Poedobaptism is unlawful and anti-christian and 'tis as
lawful to baptize a Cat, or a Dog, or a Chicken as to baptize the
infants of believers."-Part II. 28.
Error 158.
96
MENNONITES OF AMERICA
In England, on the other hand, by the close of the
seventeenth century the Quakers stood alone as ex-
Struggles of Quakers
for Exemption from
the Oath
ponents of the non-resistant doc-
trine. Here at the time when
Pennsylvania was settled they
had not yet gained any exemp-
tion from the oath. It was not
until 1689 that any concessions were made to their
"Tis unlawful for Christians to defend Religion with the Sword
or to fight for it when men come with Sword to take it away,
Religion will defend itself."-Part II. 34.
Error 159.
“'Tis unlawful for Christians to fight, and take up arms for their
laws and civil liberties."
Error 160.
""
Tis unlawful to fight at all or to kill any of the creatures for
our use, as a chicken or any on other occasion.'
Error 168.
"That 'tis unlawful for a Christian to be a magistrate but upon
turning Christian he should lay down his magistracie, neither do
we read after Cornelius was baptized (though he were a Centurion
before and a man in command and authority) that ever he meddled
any more with his band called the Italian band." Part II. 35.
Error 40.
"That tis not lawful for Christians to take an oath, no not when
they are called before authority and brought into court.” Part III.
14.-These extracts are taken from "Edwards Gangrena", a “Trea-
tise on the Sectaries of England and their Errors", published in
London, 1647.
(j) "For as much as the consciences of sundry men, truly con-
scienable may scruple the giving or taking of an oath, and it would
be noways suitable to the nature and constitution of our place (who
profess ourselves to be men of different consciences and not willing
to force another) to Debar such as can not do so, either from bear-
ing office amongst us, or from giving in testimony in a case de-
pending."
"Be it enacted by the authority of this present Assembly that a
solemn profession or Testimony in a Court of Record, or before a
Judge of Record shall be accounted, throughout the whole Colonie
of as full force as an oath."-Rhode Island Colonial Records, I. 181.
(1647).
(k) "For as much as experience hath plentyfully and often
proved yet since ye first arising of ye Anabaptists, about a hundred
years since they have been ye incendaries of Commonwealths, and
I
THE MENNONITES AND THE STATE
97
tender consciences. The Act of Toleration permitted a
solemn promise and declaration to take the place of
the oath of allegiance and abjuration. In 1696 Parlia-
ment passed an act providing a modified form of the
affirmation, which however was still objectionable to
the Quakers. This act was renewed frequently in later
years and was given a wider application, but it was
not until 1833 that the affirmation was made equal in
every respect to the usual oath.
Pennsylvania
Laws on the Oath
3
The law of 1696 was applied to Pennsylvania by
Queen Anne but withdrawn again in 1705. No provi-
sion was made in it for the Men-
nonites. The laws passed by the
colony of Pennsylvania very early
made it possible for those con-
scientiously opposed to the oath to substitute the
affirmation. The laws of England discriminated in
favor of the Quakers only, and it may be for this reason
that the Mennonites in 1706 petitioned the Provincial
Council that
"
ye infectors of persons in Maine matters of religion, and ye
troublers of churches in all places where they have bene and yet
they who have held ye baptizing of infants unlawful have usually
held other errors or heresies together therewith, though they have
(as other hereticks use to do) concealed ye same till they spied out
a fit advantage and opportunity to vent them, by way of question or
scruple and whereas divers of this kind have since our coming into
New England, appeared amongst ourselves, some whereof have (as
others before them) denied ye ordinance of magistracy, and ye law-
fulness of making war, and others ye lawfulness of magistrates and
their inspection into any breach of ye first table, which opin-
ions, if they should be connived at by us, are like to be increased
amongst us and so must necessarily bring guilt upon us, infection
and trouble to ye churches, and hazard to ye whole community.”—
It is ordered and agreed etc."-Mass. Rec., II. 85. (1644).
3. Restored again 1725. See Proud, History of Pennsylvania. II. 190
Col. Rec., II, 241.
4.
98
MENNONITES OF AMERICA
since they (with their predecessory for above 150 years past)
could not for conscience sake take an oath, the same provi-
sion may be made for them by Law as is made for those
called Quakers in this Province and that the said Law may
be sent home with the rest passed by the late Assembly in
order to obtain the Queens Royal approbation.
The Quakers who had control of the government of
Pennsylvania had a tender regard for the religious
scruples of the Mennonites and granted them all the
religious liberty they themselves enjoyed. In 1717 the
Council, alarmed at the large German immigration.
that seemed to threaten them, passed an ordinance to
the effect that all newcomers should take an oath of
allegiance to his Majesty and his Government. The
Mennonites, however, "who can not for conscience
sake take any oaths" are to be admitted "upon their
giving any equivalent assurance in their own way and
manner:" This provision evidently did not apply to
any of the non-resistant denominations except the Men-
nonites, for on November 4, 1742, a petition was re-
ceived by the council from the Amish demanding that
the oath be changed in the naturalization laws, since
they
though not. Quakers, are conscientiously scrupulous to taking
any oath, they can not as the Law now stands be naturalized.”
5. Col. Rec., III. 29.
6. Hazard, Register, VII. 151.
Conyngham the author of this article says that this petition was
written in 1718. Conyngham however is altogether unreliable in
almost everything he says about the Amish. His statement here is
not consistent with facts. It is altogether likely that this may be the
1742 petition referred to by Watson. See Watson, Annals, II. 109.
7. Without naturalization they could not bequeath their lands to their
children.
THE MENNONITES AND THE STATE
..99
8
The Assembly passed the desired legislation. From
this time on it appears that neither Mennonites nor
Amish had any occasion to petition for further civil
exemptions, until the time of the Revolution, after the
control of the government had passed out of the hands
of the Quakers and when all non-resistant sects found
it difficult to maintain a strictly neutral attitude to-
ward the war.
Maryland is the only state to mention the Men-
nonites by name in its constitution. Article 36
Maryland Constitution
Exempts Mennonites
in the Declaration of Rights
drawn up by the Constitutional
Convention of 1776 declares
that
·
the manner of administering an oath to any person ought to
be such as those of the religious persuasion, profession, or
denomination of which such person is one generally esteem
the most effectual confirmation, by the attestation of the
Divine being, and that the people called Quakers and those
called Dunkers, and those called Menonists holding it unlaw-
ful to take an oath on any occasion ought to be allowed to
make their solemn affirmation in the manner that Quakers
have been heretofore allowed to affirm and to be of the same
avail as an oath in all such cases as the affirmation of Quakers
has been allowed and accepted within this state instead of
an oath. And further on such affirmation, warrants to search
for stolen goods, or the apprehension or commitment of
offenders, ought to be granted or security for the peace
awarded and Quakers, Tunkers and Menonists ought also
on their solemn affirmation as aforesaid to be admitted as
witnesses in all criminal cases not capital.
8. Votes of Assembly, III. 505. The Records call them German Pro-
testants. They were not Quakers but were scrupulous of taking any
oath. Hazard calls them Omish (See Hazard Register V. 21) and
I am inclined to think that this is the petition quoted in Hazard
VII. 151.
BorM
100
MENNONITES OF AMERICA
In 1794 the General Assembly confirmed this
article and further enacted that Quakers, Menonists
and Tunkers when elected to any civil office might
substitute a simple affirmation for the usual oath.*
In 1797 a law was passed to the effect that before any
of the above mentioned were to be admitted as a wit-
ness in a court of justice
the court shall be satisfied by such testimony as they may
require, that such person is one of those who profess to be
conscientiously scrupulous of taking an oath.
Virginia
In Virginia there was less religious liberty before
the Revolution than in Pennsylvania and Maryland.
Here there was an established
state church which enjoyed many
civil and religious privileges that
were denied the other denomina-
tions. This church was sup-
Liberal toward
Mennonite Scruples
ported out of the common funds, controlled very
largely the education of the youth, and her priests
alone could perform marriage rites. Other denomina-
tions by the time of the Revolution were generally
permitted freedom of worship, but in addition to sup-
porting themselves they were compelled to help keep
up the established church.
The Shenandoah Valley, where the Mennonites
were located, contained comparatively few Anglicans.
Many of the early settlers were Dissenters, Baptists,
9. Kilty, Laws of Maryland, II. 1794, Ch. 49. See also Index under
Menonist and Quaker.
THE MENNONITES AND THE STATE
101
Presbyterians, Mennonites, Quakers and Tunkers.10
Here the established faith was especially unpopular,
and in the struggle for religious liberty in Virginia the
inhabitants of the Valley played a conspicuous role.
All the dissenting churches maintained a vigorous.
fight for exemption from the payment of tithes, and
for equal privileges to perform marriage rites among
their own number. The Mennonites and Quakers
furthermore were compelled to demand the additional
exemption from the oath and military service.
The Mennonites, as we have seen, came into the
Valley before the middle of the eighteenth century,
but some were driven back into Pennsylvania again
before 1758. They must have returned in considerable
numbers again before the Revolution, for we find in
the Records of the House of Burgesses for June 15,
1775, a petition
of the community of Christians called Menonists presented
to the House and read, setting forth that the petitioners hold
it to be contrary to the Word of God to swear in any matter
whatever so that they can not become witnesses in matters
of controversy depending in any court nor can execute the
office of Executor of any Testament, nor undertake the ad-
ministration of any intestate's estate whereby they suffer
many inconveniences, and therefore praying that they may
have the same liberty of affirming to the Truth of any matter
as is indulged to the people called Quakers, whose religious
persuasion that of the Petitioners nearly resemble.11
This petition was referred to the committee for
10. In 1780 a new marriage law making concessions to Quakers and
Mennonites was passed. See Henning, X. 362.
"There were not many church of England ministers in the Valley
and they had to ride far and charged exhorbitant prices. Wedding
parties often had to go to them."-Foote, Sketches of Virginia, 331.
11. Kennedy, Journal of the House of Burgesses, 217.
102
MENNONITES OF AMERICA
1
religion who were ordered to examine the matter and
report the same with their opinion thereupon to the
next house. Although there seems to be no record'
of any statute passed in consequence of this request
it is likely that the Mennonites were granted the same
privileges as the Quakers in this as in other matters.
of religious toleration.
The Mennonites were also among the first in the
state of Virginia to secure legal exemption from the
marriage laws. In 1780 the Assembly enacted that
any Menonist or Quaker minister might legally cele-
brate the rites of matrimony and
join together as man and wife those who may apply to them
agreeable to the rules and usage of the respective societies to
which the parties to be married respectively belong.12
The contracting parties were to secure marriage certi-
ficates from the proper civil authorities. Any clerk of
a Mennonite or Quaker meeting who failed to return
such certificate within three months was subject to a
fine of five hundred pounds of tobacco. Only four
ministers of each sect in each county were to be
granted licenses by the judge or elder magistrate to
perform marriage rites. This brought no hardship
upon the Mennonites, however, since at this time there
was only one settlement in the state and that a com-
paratively small one. The same act provided that no
persons of other denominations were to be joined to-
gether in matrimony without a lawful license or thrice
publication of bans in the respective parishes where
the parties to be married resided in accordance with
the provisions of an act passed in 1748.
12. Henning, X. 361, 363.
THE MENNONITES AND THE STATE
103
The three states mentioned were the only ones in
which Mennonites were found before 1800. After
1800 they spread rapidly into other states but nowhere
outside of Maryland, Virginia, or Pennsylvania, did
they find it necessary to repeat the struggle for the
right of affirmation. Many of the later states, in-
fluenced, no doubt, by the example of these older ones,
made provision either in their constitutions or by
statute for substituting a simple declaration or affirma-
tion for the usual oath wherever such oath is required.
The United States Constitution provides for the use
of the affirmation in the Presidential and other oaths
of office, an alternative which seems to have been in-
serted by the Convention without debate.13
Exemption from
Military Service
In the struggle for exemption from military ser-
vice the peace sects frequently encountered a more
vigorous opposition than in their de-
mand for the right of affirmation.
The objection to the oath was a
question which was of little interest
to others, but the refusal to bear arms in
time of war was a matter not so easily over-
looked and often misunderstood by their neigh-
bors and those in authority. In Pennsylvania
so long as the Quaker regime lasted, the Mennonites.
found no difficulty in practicing their peace principles.
In fact for the fifteen years immediately preceding the
downfall of the Quaker government in 1756 these two
denominations were forced to combine their strength
in a common fight for the maintenance of their peace
principles. These were the years of one of the Colonial
13. Elliot, Debates, V. 498.
↑
104
MENNONITES OF AMERICA
wars and of Indian incursions. The Assembly, in
which the Quakers were still in the majority, refused
to declare war against the Indians or provide for the
defense of the frontier. The larger part of the popula-
tion, including among the leaders, Benjamin Franklin
and Governor Thomas, were strenuously opposed to
the peaceful measures of the Quaker Assembly. The
Quakers although representing a minority of the popu-
lation yet were able to retain control of the Assembly
largely through their political alliance with the Ger-
man peace sects who shared the Quaker views on non-
resistance. We learn from a letter written by Dr.
William Smith in 1755 that the Quakers succeeded in
manipulating the German vote in such a way
as to elect assemblymen from the German
counties who were committed to the Quaker
principles of government. This was done largely
through the influence of Christopher Sauer the
Dunkard printer, who by means of his
his al-
manacs, newspapers and other German publications,
had secured wide acquaintance among the Germans,
and especially the non-resistant Germans-the Men-
nonites, Dunkards, Schwenkfelders and Moravians-
in the frontier counties.15 It was through fear of
military conscription and heavy taxes that the Ger-
man non-resistants were drawn to the side of the
Quakers in the struggle for the maintenance of their
peace policy. Just how generally and how effectively
the German vote was cast for Quaker assemblymen it
is difficult to tell, but the political broadsides printed
by Sauer and still preserved in the library of the
14. Votes of Assembly, III. 364.
15. Sharpless, Quakerism and Politics, p. 131.
THE MENNONITES AND THE STATE
105
Pennsylvania State Historical Society leave no doubt
as to the reality of the struggle between the peace and
war parties for the support of the German non-re-
sistants, who held the balance of power. Especially
is it difficult to tell just how much the Mennonites con-
tributed to the net result of this struggle. Documents
are not available and perhaps not extant from which
a conclusive judgment might be made. It is alto-
gether likely, however, that the Mennonite vote in
Lancaster county and perhaps in Bucks did much to
keep the Quaker assembly in power long after it had
fallen out of favor with the people at large.16 The
16. The following letter written to a politician in Bucks county in 1765
shows that even after the downfall of the Quaker regime the Men-
nonites were still a local political factor that needed to be reckoned
with.
"I went up lately to Bucks Court in order to concert measures
for their (i. e some friends) election, in pursuance of which we
have appointed a considerable meeting of Germans, Baptists and
Presbyterians to be held next Monday at Neshaminy, where some
of us, some Germans and Baptists of this place have appointed to
attend, in order to attempt a general confederacy of the three soci-
eties in opposition to the ruling party. We have sent up emis-
saries among the Germans which I hope will bring them into this
measure, and if it can be effected, will give us a great chance for
carrying matters in that county. Could that be carried, it would
infallibly secure our friends a majority in the House, and conse-
quently enable them to recall our dangerous enemy, Franklin, with
his petitions, which is the great object we have in view, and which
should engage the endeavors of all our friends at the approaching
election to make a spirited push for a majority in the Assembly,
without which all our struggles here will prove of little service
to the public interest.....If you knew thoroughly the methods
Mr. Franklin is taking at home to blacken and stigmatize our soci-
ety, you would perhaps judge with me that you never had more
reason to exert yourselves in order to overset him, which we can
only do by commanding a majority in the Assembly. I have seen
a letter lately from a person of character, that advises us of his
wicked designs against us. The little hopes of success, as well as
the difficulty of engaging proper persons for the purpose, has dis-
courged me from attempting a project recommended by some
friends of sending up some Germans to work upon their country-
Uor M
106
MENNONITES OF AMERICA
final break came, as we saw, in 1756, when the Quakers
lost their majority in the Assembly and that body im-
mediately voted to make war upon the Indians. From
this time on until the Revolution the Mennonites were
in constant fear lest they might be forced to violate
their religious convictions.
men. But that no probable means may fail, I have sent up some
copies of a piece lately printed by Sowers of Germantown, to be
dispersed, and which may possibly have some effect.
As I understand the Mennonites have certainly resolved to turn
out Isaac Saunders this year, though the only good member your
county has, I would beg leave to offer you and other friends
the following scheme, as the only probable chance, I think, you
have to carry the election and keep Mr. Saunders. If the scheme
is properly executed and can be conducted without danger of a
riot, I think you could infallibly carry your ticket by it.
Don't attempt to change any of your members save Webb. If
you can run Dr. Kuhn, or any popular German, and can keep Mr.
Saunders, you will do great things. As soon as your ticket is
agreed on let it be spread through the country, that your party
intend to come well armed to the election, and that you intend, if
there's the least partiality in either sheriff, inspectors, or managers
of the election that you will thrash the sheriff, every inspector,
Quaker or Menonist to a jelly; and further I would report it, that
not a Menonist nor German should be admitted to give in a ticket
without being sworn that he is naturalized and worth 50 pounds and
that he has voted already; and further, that if you discovered any
person attempting to give in a vote without being naturalized, or
voting twice, you would that moment deliver him up to the mob to
chastise him. Let this report be industriously spread before the
election which will certainly keep great numbers of the Mennonists
at home. I would at the same time have all our friends warned to
put on a bold face, to be every man provided with a shillelah, as
if determined to put their threats in execution, though at the same
time let them be solemnly charged to keep the greatest order
and peace.
Let our friends choose about two dozen of the most
reputable men, magistrates, etc., who shall attend the inspectors,
sheriffs and clerks during the whole election, to mount guard half at
a time, and relieve one another at spells, to prevent all cheating and
administer the oath to every suspicious person, and to commit to
immediate punishment every one who offers to vote twice. I'll en-
gage if you conduct the election in that manner, and our people turn
out with spirit, you can't fail of carrying every man on your ticket,
as I am well assured not a third of the Mennonists are naturalized,
I would submit this to your consideration. If its well thought of,
Maou
THE MENNONITES AND THE STATE
107
1
During the early stages of the Revolution there
was little of united action in preparing for the common
defense. Each colony mustered
Associators during its own militia, provided its own
arms and ammunition and in gene-
the Revolution
ral regulated its own affairs re-
gardless of what other colonies or the Continental
Congress were doing. Early in 1775 the Assembly of
Pennsylvania recommended that all able-bodied white
male inhabitants of the province "associate" for the
common defence. Those who would not join such
voluntary military organizations were called "non-
associators." Remembering, however, that many of
the people of Southeastern Pennsylvania
Pennsylvania were
Quakers, Mennonites, Dunkards and of other non-
resistant denominations, the Assembly on June 30,
1775, since
many of the good People of this Province are conscien-
tiously scrupulous of bearing arms further recommended to
the associators for the defence of their county and others,
that they bear a tenderly and brotherly Regard toward this
class of their Fellow subjects and Countrymen.17
To these conscientious people on the other hand it was
suggested that
they cheerfully assist in proportion to their abilities such
associators as can not spend their time and substance in the
Public Service without great injury to themselves.
take your measures immediately, I beg no mention may be made of
the author of this. I see no danger in the scheme but that of a
riot, which would require great prudence to avoid." Samuel Pur-
viance, Philadelphia, to Col. Burd, quoted by Thomas Balch, in
Letters and Papers Relating chiefly to the Provincial History of
Pennsylvania. (Phil 1885). 209. Quoted also in Hart's Source
Book, p. 127.
17. Votes of Assembly, I. 594.
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108
MENNONITES OF AMERICA
It will thus be seen that while the Mennonites were
excused from military service it was suggested that
they pay for the privilege.
There was much opposition from the various
military associations to this lenient policy of the As-
sembly. Many petitions soon came in complaining
that the people who were religiously scrupulous were
few compared to those who "made conscience a con-
venience." A very considerable share of the property
they said was in the hands of people professing tender
conscience in military matters.18 They were especially
opposed to the arrangement by which the non-com-
batants were allowed to make voluntary contribu-
tions. The proportion each was to pay they
said ought to be fixed. No doubt these contribu-
tions were not large, but the Quakers were out and
out opposed to paying at all. They objected as con-
scientiously to the supporting of war by money as to
the bearing of arms.19 The Mennonites were less con-
sistent. While they would not carry weapons them-
selves, they appear generally not to have objected to
supporting the cause by their means.
As a result of these petitions the Assembly re-
solved on Nov. 7, 1775, that all non-associators con-
tribute an equivalent to the time spent by the as-
sociators in acquiring military discipline.20 Ministers
and servants alone were excepted. In order that no one
might escape paying his just portion it was further
ordered on November 24, that the committee which
was appointed to adjust the accounts of the various bat-
18. Votes of Assembly, I. (Sep. 27, 1775).
19. Votes, I. 635.
20. Votes, I. (Nov. 7, 1775).
Mou
THE MENNONITES AND THE STATE
109
talions of associators, be directed to make particular
enquiry concerning the contributions made
by the people called Menonists, Amish Menonists and Sunday
Baptists (possibly the Ephrata Dunkards in Lancaster county)
in pursuance of the late House of Assembly on the thirtieth
of June last, and report to this house at their next meeting
how much of the said contributions has been paid.21
The Mennonites fearing that their position might
be misunderstood and that they might be forced to
join the associators sent (in
Mennonite and Dunkard conjunction with the German
Petition of 1775
Baptists) a petition to the As-
sembly in which they stated
definitely that although they could not conscientiously
take up arms in defence of their country, yet they had
always thought it their duty to pay tribute. The
petition was reported in the Assembly on November
7. In spite of its length it is given in full here in the
hope that it may throw some light upon the subject
under discussion.
An address or Declaration by divers persons in Behalf
of the Societies of Mennonists and German Baptists in this
Province was presented to the House and follows in these
words, viz.,
In the first place we acknowledge us indebted to the most
high God, who created Heaven and Earth, the only good
Being to thank him for all His great Goodness and Manifold
Mercies and Love through our Savior Jesus Christ who is
come to save the souls of Men, having all Power in Heaven
and on Earth. Further we find ourselves indebted to be
thankful to our late worthy assembly for their giving so good
an Advice in these troublesome Times to all Ranks of People
21. Votes, I. 653.
110
MENNONITES OF AMERICA
in Pennsylvania, particularly in allowing those, who, by the
Doctrine of our Savior, Jesus Christ are persuaded in their
consciences to love their enemies, and not to resist Evil, to
enjoy the Liberty of their Consciences for which, as also for
all the good Things we enjoyed under their Care, we heartily
thank that worthy Body of Assembly and all high and low in
office who have advised to such a peaceful measure hoping
and confiding that they and all others entrusted with Power
in this hitherto blessed Province, may be moved by the same
spirit of Grace which animated the first Founder of this
Province, our late worthy Proprietor William Penn to grant
Liberty of Conscience to all its inhabitants that they may
in the great and memorable Day of Judgment be put on the
right Hand of that just Judge, who judgeth without Respect
of Person and hear of him these blessed Words, "Come ye
blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you,
etc., what ye have done unto one of the least of these my
Brethren ye have done unto me," among which number (i. e.
the least of Christ's Brethren) we by his Grace hope to be
ranked; and every Lenity and Favour shewn to such tender
conscience, although weak, Followers of this our blessed
Saviour will not be forgotten by him in that great Day.
The Advice to those who do not find Freedom of Con-
science to take up Arms that they ought to be helpful to
those who are in Need and distressed Circumstances we re-
ceive with Cheerfulness towards all Men of what Station they
may be—it being our Principle to feed the Hungry and give
the Thirsty Drink. We have dedicated ourselves to serve all
Men in Every Thing that can be helpful to the Preservation
of Men's Lives but we find no Freedom in giving or doing,
or assisting, in anything by which Men's Lives are destroyed
or hurt. We beg the Patience of all those who believe we err
on this Point. We are always ready, according to Christ's
command to Peter, to pay the Tribute, that we may offend
no Man, and so we are willing to pay Taxes, and so render
unto Caesar those Things that are Caesar's and to Godd those
Things that are God's. Although we think ourselves very
weak to give God his due Honour he being a Spirit and Life,
and we only Dust and Ashes. We are also willing to be
subject to the higher Powers and give in the manner Paul
}
THE MENNONITES AND THE STATE
111
directs us: for he beareth the Sword not in vain, for he is
the Minister of God, a Revenger to execute wrath upon him
that doeth Evil. This Testimony we lay down before our
worthy Assembly and all other Persons in Government,
letting them know that we are thankful as above mentioned
and that we are not at Liberty in Conscience to take up
Arms to conquer our Enemies but rather to pray to God,
who has Power in Heaven and Earth, for us and them. We
also crave the Patience of all the Inhabitants of this Country
what they think to see clearer in the Doctrine of the blessed
Jesus Christ, we will leave to them and God, finding ourselves
very poor; for Faith is to proceed out of the Word of God,
which is Life and Spirit, and a Power of God and our Con-
science is to be instructed by the same, therefore we beg
for Patience, our small Gift, which we have given, we gave
to those who have power over us, that we may not offend
them, as Christ taught us by the Tribute Penny. We heartily
pray, that God would govern all Hearts of our Rulers, be
they high or low, to meditate those good Things which per-
tain to our and their Happiness. (Ordered to lie on the
table).22
As we have just seen, military exemption was
granted by the Assembly to all non-resistants on the
very day this petition was received. This provision
obtained throughout the war and was re-enacted later.
The Constitution of 1790 declared that "those who con-
scientiously scruple to bear arms shall not be com-
pelled to bear arms but shall pay an equivalent for
personal service." This article was preserved in later
constitutions and is a part of the fundamental law of
Pennsylvania today.
+
In Maryland there were comparatively few Men-
nonites before the Revolution. Their influence was
much less than that of their Pennsylvania brethren
and thus they met less opposition to their demands.
22. Votes of Assembly, I. 645.
112
MENNONITES OF AMERICA
Maryland Exempts
on Payment
of War Tax
But here, too, they had to resort to petition for all the
exemptions they enjoyed. The pe-
tition for freedom from military
service is not to be found any-
where in the published records,
but a resolution recorded in the
minutes of the Constitutional Convention of 1776
shows us what its contents must have been. Under
date of July 6, the following entry occurs in the
Journal on the reading of the petition of the "Society
of Mennonites and German Baptists:"
Resolved that the several committees of observation may
at their discretion prolong the time or take security for the
payment of any fine by them imposed for not enrolling in the
militia and may remit the whole or any part of the fines by
them assessed and it is recommended to the committees to
pay particular attention and to make a difference between
such persons as may refuse from religious principles or other
motives.23
The Mennonites were exempted from militia duty but
were under obligations during the war to pay a fine if
the local committee of observation saw fit to collect it.
These same provisions were re-enacted later. The
law of 1793 provided that “Quakers, Menonists and
Tunkers and all others who are conscientiously scru-
pulous of bearing arms and who refuse to do militia
duty shall pay a sum of three dollars annually." In
1811 a new act exempted Quakers, Menonists and
Tunkers between 18 and 45 years of age on payment
of five dollars annually. This would excuse them,
however, only from the militia musters in time of
peace. When called into active service all were com-
23. Am. Arch. 4th Ser., VI. 1504.
THE MENNONITES AND THE STATE
113
pelled to enlist. The law of 1834 says nothing about
fines but declares that all Quakers, Menonists and
Tunkers must submit to the commanding officer of
the district a certificate from a licensed preacher in
the Society who shall certify of their good standing
in their respective churches. This legislation con-
tinued practically unchanged until the time of the
Civil war.24
Virginia Liberal
in Military Laws
Virginia was exceedingly liberal in her militia
laws at first. In 1766 the Quakers were granted en-
tire exemption from all militia
duty,25 and in July, 1775, the same
favorable terms were extended to
the Mennonites.28 During the Rev-
olutionary war, however, there arose considerable
opposition among those who lived in Mennonite com-
munities to this liberal policy. The Committee of
Frederick County
Objects. 1776
Observation in Frederick county
presented a petition to the Con-
stitutional Convention on June 19,
1776, in which they set forth that
altogether they had a tender regard for the con-
scientious scruples of every religious society, they at
the same time thought it an injustice to subject “one
part of the community to the whole burden of govern-
ment while others equally share the benefits of it."
They suggested that all Quakers and Mennonites be
compelled to pay a sum of money assessed by the
24. Kilty, Laws of Maryland, II. 1793, Ch. 53; Ibid, 1798, Ch. 100;
Kilty, Harris and Watkins, Laws of Maryland, IV, 1811. Ch. 182.
Sec. 12, 44. 18; Ibid, 1812, Ch. 9. Sec. 2.
Hughes, Laws of Maryland, (1835) 1834, Ch. 251. Sec. 1.
25. Hening, VIII. 242.
26. Hening, IX. 34; also IX. 139.
પ
114
MENNONITES OF AMERICA
county court for failure to appear at the militia mus-
ters and that in case of active service they should be
drafted in the same proportion as the other inhabitants
of the county; if they refused to serve then they were
to furnish a substitute.27
This petition evidently had some effect, for in
October of the following year these suggestions were
embodied in a new law. Accord-
Militia Act During ing to this act Mennonites when
Civil War
drafted were to be discharged, but
were under obligation to furnish a
substitute who was to be paid for by a levy on the
membership of the entire church.28 This law remained
in force with practically few changes until the Civil
war. The Code of Laws in force in 1860 made no
direct mention of Mennonites, but provided for a
minimum fine of seventy five cents on all privates
who failed to attend militia musters or other meetings
required by law. This fine of course the Mennonites
paid each year. Virginia, however, under the pressure
of the Civil war soon resorted to more severe measures.
The militia act of 1862 exempted those who were pre-
vented from bearing arms by the tenets of the church
to which they belonged, only on the following condi-
tions: (1) that they pay to the sheriff of the county
the sum of $500, and the further sum of two per cent
of the assessed value of all their taxable property;
(2) that they take the oath or affirmation of allegiance
to the Confederate government; (3) in case they re-
fuse to pay the said fine then they shall be employed
in the capacity of teamsters or in such other character
27. Am. Arch. 4th Ser., VI. 1579.
28.
Hening, IX. 345. See also X. 314, 261, 417; XI. 18; XII. 24.
THE MENNONITES AND THE STATE
115
as the service may need which does not require the
actual bearing of arms; (4) and provided further that
all persons thus exempted surrender all arms which
they may own for the public use.29 This law was soon
succeeded and partially annulled by the Conscription
Act of the Confederate government in October of the
same year. The Constitution of 1870 finally provided
for militia exemption on payment of a fine, but no
musters are required in time of peace.
Many States Exempt
from Oath and
Military Service
Many of the newer states, influenced either by
the direct petitions of non-resistants or by the example
of the three states already named
have since provided either in their
constitutions or by statute for the
conscientious scruples of those
opposed to militia duty. Militia
service, furthermore, is now practically everywhere
placed on a voluntary basis and consequently there
is no longer any military question in this country for
the Mennonite. Even in the case of actual war it is
not likely that conscription acts will be necessary ast
was true in the late rebellion.
Thus far we have been concerned with the relation
of the Mennonites to the colonial and state govern-
ments. The Civil war brought them into
Conscription direct touch for the first time with na-
Act of 1864 tional legislation. During the early years
of the struggle the national government
found comparatively little difficulty in keeping
the armies supplied with men. After the first
flush of enthusiasm and patriotic ardor had spent
29. See Militia Act, March 29, 1862, in Acts of the General Assembly of
Va. 1861-2. (Richmond, 1862) p. 50.
116
MENNONITES OF AMERICA
itself, however, and it was seen that the war was to
be long and bloody, it became evident that the ranks
could not be kept full by volunteers alone. On March
3, 1863, an act was passed for the enrolling of the
national forces, one section of which provided for a
draft if necessary. There is no reference whatever in
this act to exemptions on religious grounds. On Feb.
24, 1864, a more stringent conscription act was passed.
Section 17 of this measure exempts in general terms all
the non-resistant denominations and reads as follows:
And be it further enacted, that members of religious
denominations who shall by oath or affirmation declare that
they are conscientiously opposed to the bearing of arms and
who are prohibited from doing so by the rules and articles of
faith and practice of said religious denominations, shall when
drafted into the military service be considered non-com-
batants, and shall be assigned by the Secretary of War to
duty in hospitals or to the care of freedom, or shall pay the
sum of $300 to such person as the Secretary of War shall
designate, to be applied to the benefit of the sick and wounded
soldiers: Provided, that no person shall be entitled to the
benefit of the provisions of this section unless his declaration
of conscientious scruples against bearing arms shall be sup-
ported by satisfactory evidence that his deportment has been
uniformly consistant with such declaration.30
Although these provisions are worded in general
terms, yet they are meant to apply to specific non-
resistant denominations, all of which had been send-
ing in petitions since the spring of 1863 asking for
exemption from compulsory service. This section was
as much debated in Congress as any other in the bill
and every particular provision in it was the result of
careful consideration both on the floor of the two
30. United States Stat. at Large, Vol. 13, Chap. XIII. Sec. 17.
THE MENNONITES AND THE STATE
117
houses and in the committee rooms. Without these
various petitions section 17 would never have been a
part of the act. The Quakers no doubt were the most
influential in securing the exemption. They were
better known than the other denominations, were the
most vigorous petitioners, and had some influence
among those in authority.31 But the Mennonites de-
serve no little credit for the final result. They had in
Thaddeus Stevens from Lancaster, who was then one
of the most prominent members of the Lower House,
a warm friend and staunch defender of their interests.
Being from Lancaster he was thoroughly acquainted
with their principles, and as a lawyer he did much of
the legal business for the Mennonites of the county.
These were usually Republican in their political beliefs
and voted solidly for Stevens. As a part of his con-
stituency he could not afford to lose their support.
Stevens did not take a leading part in the debates on
the floor of the House but in the committee room,
where after all the most of the legislation is made, he
was frequently consulted,32 and no doubt had consider-
able to do in the outlining of the main features of the
bill.
While this is not exclusively a Mennonite measure
yet it became the act under which Mennonites all over
the country were drafted into service in 1864. And
since Mennonites were to a certain extent responsible
for one section of the bill it may not be out of order here
to recount briefly its history in Congress. An analysis
31.
Senator Anthony and Secretary Stanton were of Quaker descent.
See Cartland, Southern Heroes, p. 129.
32. Congressional Globe, 38 Cong. 1st. session, Part I. See Index under
Army, bill (36).
118
MENNONITES OF AMERICA
of its history will help us also to understand what each
of the non-resistant denominations contributed to its
final form.
As early as December 16, 1863, a motion was
made to amend the army bill that had been passed the
previous spring.33 The old bill contained a $300 com-
mutation clause in accordance with which one could
pay $300 in lieu of actual service when drafted. Ac-
cording to the new bill this clause was to be repealed.
It was this proposed repeal that brought in the peti-
tions from the peace denominations. The first petition
to be introduced came on December 23, 1863, from the
Amana Society in Iowa. On January 6, 1864, a peti-
tion was read from the Quakers of Baltimore and New
York, who objected not only to the repeal of the clause
but to any exemption clause with a money fine at-
tached. As in former years they objected just as
seriously to the payment of money for war purposes
as to actual military service. Other petitions were
soon sent in by the Mennonites, Dunkards, Shakers
and Moravians.
A new bill had finally been introduced in the
Senate on December 16. The first mention of an ex-
emption clause appears on January 14, when Senator
Wilson moved that "all members of religious denomi-
nations conscientiously opposed to bearing arms, be
assigned to hospital service or pay $300." Harlan who
was afraid lest this might be made to cover many who
were not members of such denominations added the
clause "and are prohibited from doing so by the rules
and articles of faith of said religious denominations."
Doolittle then moved to amend by exempting "those
33. Congressional Globe, 38 Cong., 1st Sess. Part I. p. 37.
THE MENNONITES AND THE STATE
119
of good standing." The entire day was taken up in
discussing this. exemption clause and especially the
Quakers' objection to the payment of money. In order
to overcome these scruples it was proposed that this
exemption money should be applied to the care of the
sick and wounded. The bill was passed by the Senate
on the 19th with the following exemption clause:
1. Those religiously opposed to military service are to
be assigned by the Secretary of War to duty in the hospitals
or to the care of freedmen.
2. If they refuse to serve then they are to pay the sum
of $400 to be applied to the care of the sick and wounded.
3. Such persons are to be exempted from the draft
during the time for which they have been drafted.
The bill was brought to the House, read and dis-
cussed. Stevens immediately moved to reduce the
exemption money from $400 to $300. Schneck pro-
posed that the clause referring to the disposition of
the $300 be stricken out, whereupon Stevens spoke
in behalf of the Quakers. "I do not think," he said,
"that we ought to violate their religious belief." Mr.
Denning, chairman of the committee which drafted
the bill, explained the difficulty the committee had in
agreeing on the details of the exemption clause. His
statement contains several interesting facts and shows
that others in addition to those who took part in the
open debate in the House, were responsible for its
final form. He said, the committee in drafting their
amendment had before them petitions from Quakers,
Society of Ebenezer, Amana Society, Dunker, Shaker,
and Moravians.
There are also the Mennonites, he said, whose conscience
120
MENNONITES OF AMERICA
tells them to take no oath, to do violence to no man, to`take
patiently the spoiling of their goods, to pray for their
enemies, and to feed and refresh them when hungry or
thirsty.34 It was thought such a vast door would be opened
by admitting conscientious scruples as a ground of exemption
that the committee was in favor of rejecting it altogether.
From the best information we could get there are now about
500,000 non-resistants in this country, and if this principle is
once adopted there will be an active revival among all the
non-resistants soon and their ranks will be suddenly and fully
recruited, at least it was in view of the immense number that
might claim conscientious scruples as a ground of exemption
either truly or falsely, that induced the committee to oppose
conscientious scruples altogether.
Had it not been for Stevens and others who were sup-
ported by large non-resistant constituencies the clause
might have been omitted altogether.
But, continues Denning, upon consultation with members
upon this floor, particularly members representing non-re-
sistant constituencies we found that there is an earnest wish
so far as their respective districts are concerned, that some
amendment of this kind should be introduced into the bill.
The debate continued at intervals all through
January and far into February. On the tenth of the
latter month Creswell moved to amend the exemption
clause which was now section 17 of the original army
bill by the addition:
that no person shall be entitled to the benefits of the pro-
visions of this section unless his declaration of conscientious
scruples against bearing arms shall be supported by satis-
factory evidence that his deportment has been uniformly
consistent with such declaration.
34. Congressional Globe, 38 Cong. 1st Sess. Part I. p. 579.
THE MENNONITES AND THE STATE
121
The bill finally passed the House, was slightly
altered by the Senate, and with the exemption clause
as stated in the beginning of this discussion, it was
signed by the president on February 24, and thus be-
came the law of the land. How the Mennonites fared
under this law during the fall of 1864 is told in other
chapters.
Conscription
Acts of the
Confederacy
In the meantime the same subject had been up in
the Congress of the Confederacy. During the summer
of 1862 a new army bill was introduced.
During August and September a number
of the peace denominations of Virginia
sent memorials to the Congress asking
for exemption from service.35 The bill
which passed October 11, 1862, released from military
duty all persons
who have been and now are members of the Society of
Friends, and the Association of Dunkards, Nazarenes, and
Mennonists in regular membership in the respective denomi-
nations: Provided members of the Society of Friends, Nazar-
enes, Menonists and Dunkards shall furnish substitutes or
pay a tax each of $500 into the public treasury.30
We saw that in 1860 the militia code of Virginia,
the only state of the South in which Mennonites were
found, exempted them from the militia musters on the
payment of a minimum fine of seventy-five cents.
When Virginia seceded, however, and war broke out
this provision was annulled. In 1861 a draft was made
and several Mennonites were forced into the service.
35. See Confederate Congress Journal. H. R., V. 336, 379, 460. Also
Journal of Confederate Senate, 410. Both found in Senate Doc.
V. 26. 58th Congress, Second Session.
36. Va. Stat. at Large, 77.
122
MENNONITES OF AMERICA
Many others were imprisoned in Richmond for re-
fusing to serve.37 It is said that Algernon A. Gray
who was well acquainted with the Mennonites at
Harrisonburg had much to do with the release of the
prisoners and perhaps with the passage of the exemp-
tion clause in the act passed by the Confederate Cong-
ress in 1862.38 The Mennonite Confession of Faith
was placed in the hands of the Confederate officials
for the purpose of explaining the Mennonite position
on the question of war.
The law passed by the Congress in 1862 remained
in force for about twenty months. But the war began
to tell heavily on the ranks of the southern armies.
Every effort was put forth to send men to the front.
On December 8, 1863, President Davis suggested to
the Confederate Congress that the list of exemptions
be curtailed.39 In accordance with this suggestion a
new law was passed in the summer of 1864, removing
all exemptions on religious grounds.40 During the
rest of the war the Mennonites of Virginia suffered
many hardships.
With this exception, which must be explained on
the ground of the desperate straits in which the Con-
federate government found itself toward the close of
the war, the civil authorities in America have always
been very considerate of the tender consciences of
the Mennonites. It is true of course that frequently
their motives were misunderstood and that in a few
37. See article by L. J. Heatwole in Hartzler and Kauffman's History of
Mennonites, 210.
38. See Harrisonburg (Va.) Register for Aug. 13, 1885.
39.
Senate Doc., Vol. 30. 38 Cong. Second Session. 594 Journal of
Confed. Congress.
40. Va. Statutes at Large, 162.
THE MENNONITES AND THE STATE
123
cases they were rather severely dealt with in times of
war by those lawless elements for which in such times
no authority can be held responsible.
But before the law, when once their principles
were comprehended, they have always had a hearing.
They have many reasons to be thankful for free
America. Few nations have granted them such free
exercise of their religious faith. They have asked for
much and have received much. Exemption from mili-
tary service is the last privilege any nation is likely to
grant but in America that right is now recognized. In
Pennsylvania the Mennonites were fortunate in cast-
ing their lot with the Quakers and were granted equal
privileges with them. In Maryland their religious
tenets were recognized in the fundamental law of the
state. In Virginia during the rule of the established
church they were favored above all other dissenting
bodies.41 Today nearly every state in the union ex-
empts them from bearing arms and from taking the
oath.
But if the civil powers have been considerate of
Mennonite scruples, the Mennonites on the other hand
have not been undeserving of those favors. Although
no people have less to do with the state than they,
none are less of a burden to it. Practically none ever
resort to a lawsuit, except in defense and for that pur-
pose very seldom; few are ever brought before a
criminal or civil court. Taken all in all, there are few
people more industrious, frugal, thrifty, honest, peace-
ful and law-abiding than the Mennonites. Even
though their direct influence upon the course of Amer-
41.
See Foote, Sketches of Virginia, for objections of the Presbyterians to
concessions made to the Mennonites in the education bill of 1784.
124
MENNONITES OF AMERICA
ican history may have been slight, yet they have been
the very first of modern religious denominations to
stand for an ideal that may be called distinctly Ameri-
can-complete separation of church and state, and
universal peace. In conclusion we can not help quot-
ing what Dr. Benjamin Rush, signer of the Declara-
tion of Independence, said of the Lancaster County
Mennonites over one hundred years ago, in his Man-
ners of the German Inhabitants of Pennsylvania, "Per-
haps those German sects of Christians who refuse to
bear arms for the shedding of human blood may be
preserved by Divine Providence as the center of a
circle which shall gradually embrace all nations of the
Earth in a perpetual treaty of friendship and peace."
CHAPTER IV

BIBLIOGRAPHY
Source material, either in print or manuscript, for
the study of Mennonite history is meager. The Men-
nonites kept no church records and very often no
family records. Hence our knowledge about them
must be gleaned very largely from what their contem-
poraries incidentally said about them, from scattered
letters here and there preserved either in family Bibles.
or some of the European church archives, or from
such records as were kept by the civil authorities, of
land entries, and Mennonite petitions from time to
time for naturalization or for exemption from the
oath and military service. The fact, however, that the
Mennonites were pioneers both in Germantown and
in Lancaster county makes it possible for us to know
more about the early life of the first immigrants than
would otherwise have been possible. They were in
the very front of the great wave of German immigra
tion which poured into Pennsylvania during the firs
half of the eighteenth century, and for this reason the
have been given some general consideration by t
students of the early Germans in America.
By far the most exhaustive and thorough w
126
MENNONITES OF AMERICA
done upon the subject of Pennsylvania Germans is
that done by the Pennsylvania German Historical So-
ciety, the annual reports of which now cover seven-
teen large volumes (1891-1908). Separate volumes have
been devoted to the Lutherans, Reformed, Schwenk-
felders, Moravians, and Dunkards, but so far no com-
plete treatise on the Mennonites has appeared. Many
of the histories of these separate churches necessarily
contain references to Mennonites which are of con-
siderable value to the Mennonite historian, while vol-
ume nine is devoted almost entirely to biographical
and historical sketches by Samuel W. Pennypacker,
pertaining to the early history of the Germantown
Mennonites. The chapter on the founding of German-
town has been written from information which Mr.
Pennypacker has been gathering for years, and so far
as it goes is perhaps the final word on the subject.
Other works by Pennypacker, based largely on original
sources and family history are "Hendrick Penne-
becker," and "Annals of Phoenixville," both of which
contain much of Mennonite family history.
Professor O. Seidensticker's "Bilder aus
der
Deutsch-Pennsylvanischen Geschichte" (1886) con-
tains several chapters on the Germantown Mennonites
which have hardly been excelled by Pennypacker.
Two earlier sources for this subject which, however,
eed to be read critically and in some details discarded
ntirely, are the notices in Watson's Annals (1843),
d in Hazard's Register (1828) and (1831). Volume
IV (1906) of the Pennsylvania German Society pub-
tions contains a chapter on Germantown which
ludes several letters and other matters of interest
the Germantown Mennonites. Morgan Edward's

BIBLIOGRAPHY
127
"Material for a History of the American Baptists"
(1770) contains a brief sketch of the Mennonites at the
time and also gives a brief historical review of the Ger-
mantown church. The letterbook of James Claypool
the original of which is in the library of the Penn-
sylvania Historical Society, and extracts from which
appear in the Pennsylvania Magazine of History, Vol.
X, gives a brief account of the sailing of the Concord
in 1683. The Streiper papers in the library of the
Pennsylvania Historical Society include a number of
letters written by members of the Streiper family in
Germantown to relatives in the Netherlands. The
Pennsylvania Magazine of History, Vols. IV and V,
contain several helpful sketches. Also suggestive are
many of the family histories of the early Germantown
families, including those of Konders, Shoemaker, Kas-
sel, Keyser, Sauer and others. On the relation of the
Quakers and Mennonites in Europe we must rely for
our information on the journals of the Quaker mis-
sionaries themselves, including Fox's Journal, Sewell's
"History of the Quakers," Story's Journal and Chalk-
ley's Journal. The best general treatise on the subject
is found in several chapters of Barclay's "The Inner
Life of the Religious Societies of the Commonwealth,"
(London, 1876). The Pennsylvania Magazine of His-
tory, Vol. II, contains an article by Professor Seiden-
sticker on "Penn's Travels in Germany and Holland in
1677." For the facts regarding the relation of the two
denominations in Germantown we must rely largely on
family histories and traditions, and on the records of
the Abington Monthly Meeting, from which we can
learn something of the religious activities of such of the
128
MENNONITES OF AMERICA
early settlers as affiliated themselves with the Quakers
in their religious work.
On the early settlement of Lancaster county,
Rupp's "History of Lancaster County" (1844) is per-
haps still the best authority. Alexander Harris's
"Biographical History of Lancaster County" contains a
great deal of biographical material, on the whole fairly
reliable, of the early Mennonite families. The latest his-
tory of the county, by Ellis and Evans, has several ar-
ticles on the Mennonites. The one written by E. K. Mar-
tin on the general field of Mennonite history is perhaps
the best short treatise in English. The other is a short
sketch of the early churches and ministers in the
county written by Bishop J. N. Brubacher. All of
these county histories contain much valuable informa-
tion, but need to be critically examined, and the facts
often need to be modified from other sources of in-
formation. De Hoop Scheffer's "Mennonite Emigra-
tion to Pennsylvania," translated from the Dutch by
S. W. Pennypacker in the Pennsylvania Magazine,
Vol. II, contains many facts on the European phase
of the emigration to Lancaster county. Ernst Müller's
"Geschichte der Bernischen Täufer" is also valuable
for a comparison of European with Lancaster names.
Pennsylvania Archives, Second series, Vol. XIX, con-
tains many references to land entries made by early
Mennonite immigrants. Of equal value are the re-
cords catalogued "Old Rights, Lancaster County" in
the office of the Secretary of the Interior at Harris-
burg. Occasional notes can be found in Watson and
Hazard, as well as in the various volumes of Penn-
sylvania Archives, and "Votes and Proceedings of the
Assembly." For genealogical purposes much infor-
BIBLIOGRAPHY
$129
mation can be gained from Egle's "Notes and Queries,"
and from Rupp's "Thirty Thousand Names," which
contains a list of all the immigrants landed at Phila-
delphia from 1727 to 1776.
On the subject of the State and the Mennonites
nothing has been written. The only sources of infor-
mation are the occasional references to Mennonites
found in the Pennsylvania Archives, Votes and Pro-
ceedings of the Assembly (Pa.), Journal of Burgesses
(Va.), Constitutions and Statutes of Virginia, Mary-
land, and Pennsylvania, Colonial Records (Pa.), Con-
gressional Globe and Journal of the Confederate Con-
gress. On the Germantown experiment of self govern-
ment the chief source of information is the original
record book of the Court of Record, at present in the
possession of the Pennsylvania State Historical So-
ciety.
On the subject of Anabaptists a large number of
books have been written in the German language.
Among the older works are Heinrich Bullinger's "Der
Widertoufferen Ursprung, Fürgang, Sekten," etc.
(1561); Sebastian Franck's "Chronika" (1578); and
J. C. Fuesslin's "Beiträge zur Kirchengeschichte des
Schweitzerlands" (1741). Among modern treatises
are Ludwig Keller's "Wiedertäufer" (1880), “Die Re-
formation" (1885), and "Hans Denck" (1882); Emil
Egli's "Aktensammlung zur Geschichte der Zürcher
Reformation" (1879); and C. A. Cornelius' "Geschichte
des Münsterschen Aufruhrs" (1855). In English not
much has been written on the subject. Among the
books that have appeared are Richard Heath's "Ana-
baptism-From its Rise at Zwickau to its Fall at
Münster" (1905); and Belfort Bax's "Rise and Fall of
130
MENNONITES OF AMERICA
the Anabaptists"; A. H. Newman's "A History of
Antipedobaptism" contains an excellent bibliography
on the subject.
On later American Mennonite history, printed
and manuscript sources are also very meager. The
historian must depend for his information largely on
family histories, county and other local histories writ-
ten during the past twenty-five years from information
which is not always reliable. Two general histories
of the Mennonites of America have been written, one
by D. K. Cassel, and the other by Hartzler and Kauff-
Neither of these, however, are trustworthy ex-
cept for such history as has been made during the
present generation.
The best collection of Mennonite literature, which
is largely polemical, however, and of little value to the
historian, is to be found in the private library of John
F. Funk, of Elkhart, Indiana. The Pennsylvania State
Historical Society also has a number of books and
pamphlets writen by Mennonite authors in its library
in Philadelphia.
For the history of the church since 1865 the files
of the Herald of Truth, of Elkhart, Indiana, furnish
the most helpful source of information.
Many of these American sources mentioned in
this brief sketch need to be accepted with extreme
caution. To all this the student of Mennonite history
needs to add such information as he has gained from
personal observation in the localities named, special
investigation into family histories, deed books and land
surveys; and especially does he need to draw upon
his personal knowledge of the manners, customs,
habits, traditions, and characteristic names of the Men-
BIBLIOGRAPHY
131
nonite people. All of these will often help him to
settle points of fact which otherwise would remain
subjects of doubt in his mind.
The following list practically exhausts the ma-
terials, secondary and original, on the American Men-
nonites and includes some of the most important works
on the German and Swiss Anabaptists.
Asher, G. M. Historical Essay on Dutch Books and
Pamphlets Relating to New Netherlands.
American Historical Review. Vol. IX.
American Archives, Fourth Series. Vol. VI.
Acts of the General Assembly of Virginia, 1861-2.
Richmond, 1862.
Abington Records of Monthly Meetings of 1682-1746.
Original records are in Friends Meeting House
at Ogontz, Pa. A typewritten copy has been
made for the Pennsylvania State Historical So-
ciety library in Philadelphia.
Augusta County (Va.) Records. From 1745 on.
Albert, G. D. History of Westmoreland County,
Philadelphia, 1882.
Ausbund; das ist etliche schoene Lieder, wie Sie im
Gefängniss zu Passau in dem Schloss von den
Schweitzer Brüdern und andern recht gläubigen
Christen gedichtet worden. Elkhart, Ind., 1905.
Barclay, Robert. The Inner Life of the Religious
Societies of the Commonwealth. London, 1876.
Bean, T. W. History of Montgomery County. Phila-
delphia, 1884. The best history of the county.
Barton, William. Memoirs of the Life of David Rit-
tenhouse, L. L. D., F. R. S. Philadelphia, 1813.
Burkholder, Peter. Eine Verhandlung von der äuszer-
lichen Wassertaufe und Erklärung einiger Irr-
thümer. Harrisonburg, Va., 1816. A copy of this
pamphlet can be found in the private library of
132
MENNONITES OF AMERICA
Dr. John W. Wayland, of the University of Vir-
ginia.
Mennonite Confession of Faith, with nine
reflections. Translated from the German by Jo-
seph Funk. Winchester, Va., 1837.
Boehm, Henry. Reminiscences of Rev. Henry Boehm.
New York, 1875.
Brumbaugh, Martin G. A. History of the German
Baptist Brethren in Europe and America. Mount
Morris, Ill., 1899.
The Life and Works of Christopher Dock.
Philadelphia, 1908.
Brubacher, J. N. Brubaker Genealogy. Elkhart, Ind.,
1884.
Bower, H. S. A Genealogical Record of the Descend-
ants of Daniel Stauffer and Hans Bauer. Harleys-
ville, Pa., 1897.
Balch, Thomas. Letters and Papers relating chiefly
to the Provincial History of Pennsylvania. Phila-
delphia, 1855.
Brons, Anna. Ursprung, Entwickelung und Schick-
sale der Altevangelischen Taufgesinnten oder
Mennoniten. Norden, 1891.
Brodhead, John R. History of New York, Harper
Bros., 1853-1871. 2 Vol.
Borntreger, John E.
Eine Geschichte der ersten
Ansiedlung der Amischen Mennoniten und die
Gründung ihrer ersten Gemeinde im Staate Indi-
ana. Elkhart, Ind., 1907.
Bell, H. C. History of Leitersburg District. Leiters-
burg, Md., 1898.
Bartlaw, B. S. Centennial History of Butler County,
Ohio, 1905.
Bullinger, Heinrich. Der Widertoufferen Ursprung,
Fürgang, Sekten, etc. Zurich, 1561.
Bax, Belfort. Rise and Fall of the Anabaptists. Lon-
don, 1903.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
133
Beck, J. Die Geschichtsbücher der Wiedertäufer in
Oesterreich-Ungarn.
1883.
Butler County, Ohio, History of. Western Pub. Co.,
1882.
Cassel, D. K. Geschichte der Mennoniten. Philadel-
phia, 1890. This book consists largely of a com-
pilation of sketches written by Pennypacker for
other works, from various county histories, and
several original articles on individual congrega-
tions. The work is not well arranged, is decidedly
uncritical and fails to give proper credit for copied
articles.
The Kulp Family. Norristown, Pa., 1895.
The Cassel Family. Norristown, Pa., 1896.
Chronicon Ephratense. Lancaster, Pa., 1889. This is
a history of the community of Seventh Day Bap-
tists at Ephrata. It is translated by J. Max
Mark, D. D.
Bachman, Richard. Niclas Storch, 1880.
Colonial Records of Pennsylvania.
Cartland, F. C. Southern Heroes. Boston, 1895.
Congressional Globe, 38 Congress, Second session,
Part I.
Conrad, Henry C. Thones Kunders and his Children.
Wilmington, Del., 1891.
Chalkley, Thomas. Journal. Philadelphia, 1866.
Confession of Faith, Philadelphia, 1727. Printed by
A. Bradford. Contains the names of the Men-
nonite ministers then living in Pennsylvania.
Claypool. Letter Book. Original in the library of
the Pennsylvania State Historical Society.
Cox, W. W. History of Seward County, Nebraska.
Lincoln, Neb., 1888.
Campbell, Douglas. Puritans in England, Netherlands
and America. 1892.
Christianity Defined. A Manual of the New Testa-
134
MENNONITES OF AMERICA
ment Teaching. Hagerstown, Md., 1903. A doc-
trinal work published by the, Reformed Mennon-
ites.
Cornelius, C. A. Geschichte des Münsterschen Auf-
ruhrs. 1855.
Day, Sherman. Historical Collections of the State of
Pennsylvania. Philadelphia, 1843.
Davis, W. H. H. History of Bucks County. Doyles-
town, Pa., 1876. The best history of the county.
Contains many local sketches on the Mennonites
in the county.
Diffenderfer, F. R. The German Exodus to England
in 1709. Lancaster, 1897. Published in Proceed-
ings of Pennsylvania German Society, Vol. VII.
The Three Earls: An Historical Sketch.
New Holland, Pa., 1876. A brief account of the
settlement in Graffdale, Lancaster county, of
Hans Graff in 1717.
Odds and Ends of Local History. Pub-
lished in Proceedings of Lancaster County His-
torical Society, Vol. X. No. 6. Lancaster, 1906.
Dock, Christopher. Eine Einfältige und gründliche
abgefaszte Schulordnung. Germantown, 1770.
Diekhoff, A. W. Die Waldenser im Mittelalter.
Göttingen, 1851.
Döllinger, J. v. Beiträge zur Sekten Geschichte des
Mittelalters. Munich, 1890.
Dexter, H. M. The True Story of John Smythe. 1881.
Egle, W. H. Notes and Queries, Historical and Gene-
alogical. Harrisburg. From 1879 on.
Edwards, Morgan. Material for a History of the
American Baptists. Philadelphia, 1770. Very
rare. A copy in the library of the Pennsylvania
State Historical Society.
Ellis and Evans. History of Lancaster County. Phil-
adelphia, 1883. Contains article by E. K. Martin,
BIBLIOGRAPHY
135
on Mennonites and other material of value. But
few of the articles are altogether reliable.
Egli, Emil. Die Zürcher Wiedertäufer. Zürich, 1878.
Akten Sammlung zur Geschichte der
Zürcher Reformation. Zürich, 1879. 2 Vol.
Die St. Galler Täufer.
Eckhoff, A. In der neuen Heimath. New York, 1885.
Eby, A. Die Ansiedlung und Begründing der Ge-
meinschaft in Canada. Milford Square, Pa., 1872.
Eby, Ezra E. A Biographical History of Waterloo
(Ont.) Township. Berlin, Ont., 1895. A detailed
account of the earliest Mennonite settlements in
Canada.
The Eby Family. Berlin, Ont., 1899.
Eby, Benjamin. Kurtzgefaszte Kirchengeschichte der
Taufgesinnten oder Mennonisten. Elkhart, Ind.,
1868.
Erbkam, H. W. Geschichte der Protestantischen
Sekten. 1848.
Ellis, Franklin. History of Fayette County, Pa. 1882.
Fox, George. Journal.
Fretz, A. J. Wismer Family History. Elkhart, Ind.,
1893.
Funk Family History, Elkhart, Ind.
Foote, W. H. Sketches of Virginia.
1850.
Philadelphia,
Family Almanac. Mennonite Publishing Company,
Elkhart, Ind. 1870-. Contains many short bio-
graphical sketches of early Mennonites.
Frederick County (Va.) Records. From 1743 on.
Funk, John F. The Mennonite Church and her Ac-
cusers. Elkhart, Ind., 1878.
Futhey and Cope. History of Chester County, Penn-
sylvania, 1881.
Ferris, Benjamin. Original Settlements on the Dela-
ware.
Franck, Sebastian. Chronika. 1578.
136
MENNONITES OF AMERICA
Feestgave op Menno Simons (1892). Amsterdam,
1892.
Funck, Heinrich. Eine Spiegel der Taufe, mit Geist,
mit Wasser, und mit Blut. Germantown, 1744.
Funk, Christian. Ein Auffsatz oder Vertheidigung
von Christian Funk gegen seine mit-Diener der
Mennoniten Gemeindschaft. Germantown, 1785.
A Mirror for all Mankind. Germantown,
1809.
Fernow, -.
Documents Relating to the History
of New York.
Fuesslin, J. C. Beiträge zur Kirchengeschichte des
Schweitzerlandes. Zürich, 1741.
Grubb, N. S. The Mennonite Church of Germantown.
Philadelphia, 1906.
Gibbons, Phoebe Earle. Pennsylvania Dutch, and
Other Essays. Philadelphia, 1784. Largely de-
scriptive, but one of the earliest books on the
subject.
Growell, A. American Book Clubs.
Gnagey, Elias. The Gnaegi Family. Elkhart, Ind.,
1897.
Glaubensbekenntnisz der neuen Deutchen Baptisten
in den Vereinigten Staaten. Elkhart, Ind., 1877.
Gibson, John. History of York County. Chicago,
1886. The best history of the county.
Germantown Rath-buch, 1691 to 1706. The original
is in the library of the Pennsylvania State His-
torical Society.
Griffis, W. E. Influence of the Netherlands upon
England and America.
Brave Little Holland.
Hallesche Nachrichten. A translation. Philadelphia,
1881.
Heckler, James Y. History of Lower Salford Town-
ship. Harleysville, Pa., 1886.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
137
Herald of Truth.
Chicago and Elkhart, Indiana.
From 1864 to 1908.
Hening, W. W.
13 volumes.
Statutes at Large (Va.), 1619-1822.

Hazard, Samuel. The Register of Pennsylvania. Phil-
adelphia, 1828-1832. Volumes I and VII contain
many notices on early Mennonites. These are
not reliable. The article in Vol. I on the Amish
is altogether untrustworthy as to dates and most
of the facts.
Hartzler, J. S. and Kauffman, D. Mennonite Church
History. Scottdale, Pa., 1905. Contains a great
deal of valuable material never printed before on
the last fifty years of the history of the church,
but not reliable on the earlier events.
Hartzler, Sr., John. Hertzler Genealogy. Elkhart,
Ind., 1885.
Holcomb, W. P. Germantown, its Origin and Form
of Government. Johns Hopkins Studies, Vol. IV.
Hess, John H. Genealogy of the Hess Family. Lititz,
Pa., 1896.
Harris, Alexander. Biographical History of Lancaster
County. Lancaster, Pa., 1872.
Holdeman, John. History of the Church of God.
Lancaster, 1876.
1878.
Ein Spiegel der Wahrheit.
Lancaster,
Hunsicker, Abraham. Das Religions, Kirchen und
Schulwesen der Mennoniten. Milford Square,
Pa., 1862.
Henry and Fulton Counties, Ohio, History of. D.
Mason & Co., Syracuse, N. Y., 1888.
Herr, John. The True and Blessed Way. Lancaster,
1816.
Eine Kurtze und Apostolische Antwort.
Lancaster, 1819.
Erläuterungs Spiegel. Lancaster, 1827.
138
MENNONITES OF AMERICA
Heath, Richard. Anabaptism-From its Rise at
Zwickau to its Fall at Münster. London, 1905.
Jenkins, C. P. The Guide Book to Historic German-
town. Germantown, 1904.
Jones, H. P. The Rittenhouse Paper Mill. Manu-
script in the library of the Pennsylvania State
Historical Society.
The Levering Family. Philadelphia, 1858.
Keyser, Charles S. The Keyser Family.
phia, 1889.
Philadel-
Kalm, Peter. Travels in North America. London,
1812.
Kennedy, J. P. Journal of the House (Va.) of Burg-
esses, 1773-1776. Richmond, 1905.
Kilty, W. Laws of Maryland. Annapolis, 1800. 2
Vol.
Kilty, Harris, and Watkins. Laws of Maryland, 1799-
1818. Annapolis, 1818. 4 Vol.
Kercheval, Samuel. A History of the Valley of Vir-
ginia. Woodstock, Va., 1850.
Kuhns, Oscar. The German and Swiss Settlements
of Colonial Pennsylvania. New York, 1901.
King, Henry M. Religious Liberty. Providence, 1903.
Keller, Ludwig. Hans Denck. 1882.
Wiedertäufer. 1880.
Die Reformation. 1885.
Die Waldenser. 1886.
Klaasen, M. Geschichte der Taufgesinnten. 1873.
Kennedy, Robert P. Historical Review of Logan
County, Ohio. Chicago, 1903. Has a good article
on Amish of Logan county, by Bishop David
Plank.
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MENNONITES OF AMERICA
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MENNONITES OF AMERICA
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MENNONITES OF AMERICA
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