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History of the Church of the United Brethren in Christ, Virginia Conference

by A. P. Funkhouser

CHAPTER IV

GERMAN IMMIGRATION IN THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY

The well informed American knows that the United States is a nation of 48 states and more than 100,000,000 people. In some particular respects it is outranked, here by one country and there by another. Yet the substantial fact remains that in a massing of the fundamental features of national greatness, the American Republic stands first in what was styled, until 1914, the sisterhood of nations. In 1783 it was neither populous nor rich. To-day it is the wealthiest country on the face of the globe, the richest in natural resources, and the strongest in physical might.

It requires no far-reaching examination of the census returns to learn that among the Protestant bodies the Methodists and Baptists are easily in the lead. Next, but at some distance, follow the Presbyterians, Lutherans, Episcopalians, Christians, and Congregationalists. The denominations that are still smaller are more numerous, and it is among these that the one known as the United Brethren in Christ is classified. Yet it must be remembered that the larger communions, and many of the smaller as well, are made up of aggregations independent of one another. The census of 1890 enumerates 141 distinct religious organizations. Yet not one of the number is supported by the general government or by the government of any state.

A rapid survey of the America of 1752 will be of much interest. It was in that year that William Otterbein came to America after spending nearly four months in crossing the Atlantic on a sailing vessel.

There was not yet any political bond between the thirteen colonies that were to become the first members of the Federal Union. They were still a part of the British realm, and prospectively the most important part. The million and a half of inhabitants,—less than the present

population of the little state of Maryland,—were scattered a thousand miles along the Atlantic coast. There were very few indeed who lived more than seventy miles inland from the very shore itself. Only a few thousands were in the recently settled country west of the Blue Ridge. Philadelphia, Boston, and New York were the largest cities, and not one of the three was much more populous than Staunton, Va., is now. America was mainly an agricultural land. There was an active commerce by sea, but no industrial establishments which now would be considered worthy of any mention. There were only five colleges, and except in the New England section there were no free schools. In the other colonies schooling was looked upon as a private interest, to be purchased and paid for like a suit of clothes. America was a new country and in a general sense it was crude. Yet it was a prosperous land. Furthermore, the Americans already regarded themselves as a people distinct from any other. They had a higher level of intelligence than was true of England, and they had a higher sense of civic spirit than the inhabitants of the British Isles. They were proud of their local institutions, jealous of their political rights, and were convinced that the future held much in store for them.

But there was no multiplicity of religious denominations in 1752. Religion was free only in Rhode Island and Pennsylvania. The first of these colonies was founded by Baptists and the second by Quakers. Elsewhere the European practice prevailed and there was a state church, supported by public taxation. To a certain extent all adults were expected to attend its services. In two of the four New England colonies the state church was the Congregational, which under the name of Independent, ranked as the establishment in England during Cromwell's rule. In nine of the colonies the Church of England was in power, the same as in England itself. When the Hollanders founded New York they introduced their own national church, the Dutch Reformed, and it is in New York that this denomination has its chief foothold in America to-day.

The Presbyterian was the state church of Scotland, and the very heavy Scotch-Irish immigration, beginning in earnest about 1725, gave that sect a very strong following, particularly all along the inland frontier. The half-century, 1725-1775, witnessed a very large German inflow. In this way the Lutheran, the state church of the Protestant German monarchies, appeared in the Middle Colonies and in Maryland and Virginia. Nearly all this German element was from the upper valley of the Rhine, especially Switzerland and the Palatinate. And since the German Reformed Church was well represented in this very region, that denomination also came to America. Still other Germans were Moravians or were Mennonites of various branches.

The denominations we have named are substantially all that were represented in America of 1752. They originated in Europe, and with the exception of the Baptists, Quakers, Mennonites, and Moravians, they began there as state churches.

Several organizations very strong in America to-day were then quite unknown. This is conspicuously true of the Methodist Church, which began as a society within the Church of England, and did not become an independent body in America until 1784. It was unknown in 1752 and had little more than a thousand members in 1774. Alexander Campbell was not yet born, and consequently the church founded by him was still in the future.

It is in place to say something more about established churches. Two centuries before the birth of Otterbein it was strictly true that there was but one church in all Western Europe. This church was the Roman Catholic. There was a small wave of dissent, but it was the customary practice to hunt down the objector as though he were a wild beast. If emphatic persuasion would not silence his voice he was put out of the way as though a positive danger to society. Toward the middle of the sixteenth century, Henry VIII broke with Rome and within the borders of England he took the place of the pope as the head of the church. For a while there was no other conspicuous point

of difference between the Church of Rome and the Church of England. But within the latter body an influence sprang up which conformed its theology to the Protestant standard, while making little alteration in its ritual and its forms of worship, so far as outward appearance was concerned. Somewhat the same thing happened in Germany. Under the lead of Martin Luther a large portion of Northern Europe threw off all allegiance to Rome, and adopted the creed on which the Protestant Reformation had rested its cause. Yet the externals of worship in the Lutheran Church, as in the Church of England, were much the same as in the mother church. This is an illustration of the fact that mankind is far more prone to effect a change by steps and not by jumps. A large section of the Protestant world did not consider the change radical enough, and the Calvinistic creed was the result. Thus arose the Calvinistic churches; the Presbyterian in Scotland, the Independent in England, the Dutch Reformed in Holland, the German Reformed in Switzerland and the south of Germany, and the Huguenot, or French Protestant Church, in France.

Before the coming of the Reformation and for many years afterward, it was generally believed that no country should permit more than one church organization within its confines. The church and the civil authority were viewed as the twin pillars that supported the state. I! was plain that no state could endure if it were to tolerate any rival political organization inside of its borders. How, then, it was argued, could there safely be more than one standard of religious belief within a state? Religious dissent was viewed with anger and horror, just as anarchy and bolshevism are viewed in the political world to-day. But the spirit of that age was more than intolerant. It was cruel. The religious remonstrant was boycotted, both socially and religiously. This policy alone was severe enough in its practical effect. But if relatively mild measures did not effect the desired result, the heretic was burned at the stake, or was skinned and disemboweled in

the hideous belief that his torture in this world meant the salvation of his soul for the next.

The Church of Rome tried to stamp out Protestantism, root and branch. It nearly succeeded in France and more fully succeeded in some other regions. In Germany it was obliged to come to terms. An agreement was reached whereby each of the petty states into which Germany was then divided should choose between Catholicism and Protestantism.

Religious toleration was not by any means a first fruit of the Reformation. The early Protestants were themselves intolerant. Freedom of conscience was not recognized until torrents of blood had flowed on the battlefields of Europe. When brave, stubborn men fought other men as brave and stubborn as themselves, each party found at length that the only way out of the difficulty was to agree to live and let live. It was next found out that unity in political government and unity in church organization do not rest on the same base. It was gradually discovered that the assumed peril to the state in permitting more than one sect within its borders was a mere creature of the imagination. Nevertheless, toleration was resisted in Europe, inch by inch, year by year, and had not become generally accepted at the time when Otterbein sailed for America. And even after intolerance had lost the support of the civil arm of the state, its spirit survived in the form of animosity between sect and sect. Instead of presenting a united front against the manifold forces of evil, the Protestant churches scattered their energies by persistently firing into each other's ranks. This spirit has been waning a long while, yet it is a matter of common observation that it is still a force to be reckoned with.

Religious toleration grew out of the Reformation, although the non-Catholic churches persecuted freely and even severely, burning some of the more prominent offenders at the stake. The Church of Rome went further and resorted to wholesale massacre. The Huguenots of France were either murdered or had to get out of their native land

the easiest way possible. The government of England worried the Protestant non-conformists as well as the Catholics.

Crime perpetrated in the name of religion was the leading cause in the peopling of America. Thus were driven the Puritans to New England, the Quakers to Pennsylvania, the Catholics to Maryland, and the Presbyterians to the Middle Colonies.

The tragedy of the Thirty Years War, occurring in the first half of the seventeenth century, shook Germany to its foundations. Three-fourths of its population perished, and the country was set back one hundred and fifty years in its civilization. In this long drawn out contest religious and political ambitions were interwoven. But war continued to follow war at short intervals, and the Germans had a surfeit of strife that lasted until the full development of militarism since 1860.

On the left bank of the Rhine and adjacent to the frontier of France is the fine region known as the Palatinate. It is one-half the size of New Jersey and is justly called the garden spot of Germany. The Palatines, as the inhabitants are called, possess the steadiness, thoroughness, and industry that are characteristic of the German nation. They are good gardeners and are fond of flowers. John Fiske has remarked that in going from Strasburg to Rotterdam by way of the Palatinate, "one is perpetually struck with the general diffusion of intelligence, refinement, strength of character, and personal dignity."

One of the later episodes of the intermittent warfare of which we have just spoken was the devastation of this fertile province. Three times was it laid waste within twenty years, the last time,—in 1693,—with a ferocity which recalls the far more horrible doings of the German armies in Belgium and France in 1914-18. Dwellings were burned, orchards were cut down, wells were filled up, and cemeteries were violated. This havoc is justly regarded as one of the darkest pages in the history of Europe, although it has been cast into the background by the

diabolic infamies perpetrated during the recent war by the express command of the German government.

The Palatines were almost wholly Protestant at this time, and they suffered because they were not Catholics. But although their oppressors had the power to make them homeless and destitute, they could not make them recant. William Penn visited the Rhine and addressed the refugees in their own tongue. He invited them to go to his colony of Pennsylvania. A few of them migrated as early as 1683, and founded Germantown, then six miles from Philadelphia, but now a part of that city. One of the emigrants wrote back that, "what pleases me here is that one can be peasant, scholar, priest, and nobleman at the same time." Favorable reports like this were certain to induce further emigration. After 1702, and particular after 1726, the German emigration became heavy. It was the Palatinate that supplied the greater share of the comers from the valley of the Rhine, in the period, 1725-1775. A smaller share came from Switzerland. This little country did not suffer in the Thirty Year's war and remained prosperous. But Switzerland was feudalistic at that time and there was little real freedom for the mass of the inhabitants. The Swiss emigrated to better their condition, the Palatines to escape the tyranny and corruption of their new government.

The remaining portion of the German immigration to America was chiefly from Wurtemburg. Thus it will be seen that this German influx was almost exclusively from the upper part of the valley of the Rhine. Except for the few Moravians from Saxony, the north of Germany had no hand in the movement. The South Germans differ from the Prussians, who are not true Germans, but Germanized Slavs. Yet neither are the people of the upper Rhine typical Germans. The black hair and dark complexion they so frequently exhibit are due to a very extensive blend with an earlier and brunette population. This helps to explain why the Alsatians, though speaking a dialect of German, are so thoroughly French in sentiment.

When the Palatines began coming, the only settled por-

tion of Pennsylvania was the southeast corner. Here were the English Quakers, a sprinkling of Swedes, and the cluster of earlier comers at Germantown. The Scotch-Irish were also pouring in. When it came to a "showdown," there was no very cordial welcome for the deluge of strangers that bade fair to submerge the population already on the ground. The Scotch-Irish spoke English but were not meek nor easy to get along with. The Germans did not speak English and some of their customs were unfamiliar. (Nevertheless, they were from the industrial classes of Germany.) They were intelligent, moral, self-sacrificing, and most of them were religiously inclined. "No people in America were so subject to religious excitement as the Germans of the eighteenth century." They became so numerous in the colony that Benjamin Franklin began the publication of a German newspaper in 1734. Certain restrictive laws were enacted by the provincial government. One of these required all German immigrants to swear allegiance to the British government as a condition of their admission to the province. The records kept as a result of this act give the name of the ship, the port from which it sailed, the date of its arrival, and the names of its passengers. These records are therefore of much genealogic interest.

Entire counties of Pennsylvania, such as Lancaster, York, Berks, Bucks, and Montgomery, were occupied almost wholly by these German immigrants. The wave overflowed into the counties of Frederick and Washington in Maryland.

In 1727 began the peopling of "New Virginia," which name was then applied to the section of Virginia between the Blue Ridge and the Alleghanies. Along and near the Potomac this district was settled mainly by English and Scotch-Irish pioneers. But southward from Winchester, nearly to the line between Rockingham and Augusta, the German element was much in the lead. Augusta was founded by the Scotch-Irish and had at first almost no Germans at all. Of the two classes the Scotch-Irish were the

more venturesome, although the Germans liked plenty of elbow room on behalf of their descendants. So the former exhibited a strong propensity to sell out and get nearer, ever nearer, to the inland frontier. Their places were often taken by the Germans. By the operation of this tendency, the German blood in varying but generally large proportions, is now found throughout the great length of the Valley of Virginia.

Nearly all the German settlers arrived by way of Pennsylvania. A small number came across the Blue Ridge from the colony on the upper Rapidan founded by Governor Spottswood about 1710.

In 1775, one-third of the 300,000 inhabitants of Pennsylvania were of German birth or parentage. So far as they adhered to any church, they were of the German Reformed, Lutheran, and Mennonite faiths, the strength of the three bodies being in the order of their mention. As with all the border communities of that day there was much lapsing with respect to religious conduct. Many of the settlements were without pastors, houses of worship, or organized societies. There was much laxity in manners and morals, and consequently a great need of missionary effort. The German pastors were so few that they could seldom visit a frontier neighborhood oftener than once or twice a year.

In the early spring of 1748, Gottschalk, a Moravian missionary, speaks thus of the Massanutten settlement, situated on the South Branch of Shenandoah river just above the Luray valley: "Many Germans live there. Most of them are Mennisten (Mennonites), who are in a bad condition. Nearly all religious earnestness and zeal is extinguished among them. Besides them, a few church people live there, partly Lutheran, partly Reformed." Gottschalk was much hindered in his efforts by the opposition of the resident Lutheran pastor, and the prejudice aroused by stories circulated against the Moravians. In the fall of the same year two missionaries of this sect were journeying up the valley of the South Fork in what is now Pendleton county. They appointed a preaching service in the house of a Ger-

man living a few miles above where Brandywine now stands. The congregation was made up almost wholly of women and children. The men of the settlement were hunting bear in Shenandoah Mountain. The valley had been settled only about three years, and the style of living is described in the journal of these missionaries as primitive in the extreme. They did not hesitate to call it a near approach to savagery. By a much more recent writer it is thus described:

"The food, clothing, furniture and mode of life among the early German settlers were very plain and simple. They drank nothing but water and milk (sometimes garden tea), except Sunday morning, when they always had coffee. Meat was seldom eaten, and in their time it was considered something quite extra to have meat on the table. At dinner time only, did they have meat, and then the father would cut it in small pieces, give to each one of the family his allotted share, and with that they had to be satisfied. During the greater part of the year they had hot mush and cold milk for supper, and cold mush and warm milk for breakfast. It would have been considered extravagant to have the mush fried in fat. Soup, of different kinds, was much used. The plates from which they ate were made of pewter, and the cups from which they drank were earthen mugs. They used no table cloths. The father sat at one end of the table; the mother at the other. The children stood, sometimes sat, along each side of the table and ate their meal in silence: there was little talking at the table. Each one ate what was placed before him without murmuring. A blessing was asked before every meal by the father or mother. As soon as the children were old enough to understand the meaning, they were taught short prayers which they would pray in regular order, each one his particular and distinct prayer, commencing with the oldest and ending with the youngest. No carpets graced the floor but every Saturday it was scoured clean and white with sand and water. The furniture was as simple as the fare. On each side of the hearth a square block was made

stationary for a seat. Benches and home-made chairs with seats plaited with split hickory were used. Several beds and a few chests made up the principal part of the furniture. They lived in this plain and simple way but they were comfortable, and what is better still, they were contented."

By what has been set forth in the above paragraphs it is possible to gain a close idea of social and religious conditions in 1752 in the region now covered by the Virginia Conference of the United Brethren Church. It was a very new country. It was the American West of 1752 in just as real a sense as the line of the middle Missouri was the American West of 1860. In each instance there was much recklessness among the frontiersmen, and there was a falling away from the standard of active religious life in the homeland.

In closing this chapter our attention is called to the circumstance that, with the one exception of the Quakers, all the religious pacifists in colonial America were Germans. Was not the growth of these German sects profoundly aided by the social turmoil growing out of the religious wars of the seventeenth century? And did not this very turmoil engender among those who suffered from it a deep-seated antipathy to warfare? Perhaps the tenet of non-resistance, adopted by several of the German sects, was primarily a protest against efforts to advance the cause of religion by the use of military power. It was but a step further to object to political as well as religious wars.



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