Council adopted a resolution requiring all masters of vessels importing Germans and other foreigners to prepare a list of such persons, their occupations, and place from whence they came; further, these immigrants should sign a declaration of allegiance and subjection to the king of Great Britain, and of fidelity to the Proprietary of Pennsylvania.

Such lists with names, over thirty thousand in number, may be found in print. 1 They are also of interest to the amateur researcher. These lists contain also the names of the vessels, captains, port from which last sailed, and date of arrival in Philadelphia. The lists are not too detailed as to the specific parts of Germany, or wherever, that these people hailed. Generally the names are of men, from age 16 upward, women of that day not being too able to write their names, a short-coming noticeable on the lists is they pertain to men, too, by reason of the familiar "[X]."

A number of the lists did state that the arrivals were from this, or that place, and, for a time toward the middle of the 1700's, the lists would state the number of Protestants and Catholics on board. But after 1754 practically no such information is given, probably due to the excitement prevalent at that time relative to the French and Indian War.

Catholics in Canada were suspected of trying to deal with the Germans living here, but the latter would have no commerce with the French Catholics, having too vivid recollections of their persecutions in France over many long years before.

The immigration through the port of Philadelphia by so many people of the same characteristics, and with much the same objects in life, soon crowded the sections more or less adjacent to that growing city. Penetration was not long in coming, through dense forests into Lancaster, Montgomery and Berks counties.

Wherever there was limestone or black walnut trees, there you would soon find some Germans either farming, or setting up a home prior to turning the soil, for they liked limestone. This for the reason it made fine stone for building homes and churches, as well as lime for fertilizer. Walnut trees growing in healthy stands were also a good sign of fertility of the soil.

Lands Quickly Taken Up.--Once the lands on the east side of the Susquehanna were well taken up, the movements went to the west, and to the north, York and Cumberland timber falling early under the axe of the pioneer farmer and woodsman. The spread was not long in coming, once the troubles with the Indians were controlled.

The Revolution was to prove that the Germans were loyal to the land they had come to populate and to cultivate. And if they fought against the principles and demands of the English crown, they did it alongside hardlaced and stiffbacked Presbyterians whose veins were filled with blood like that of the enemy they fought.

But you must give the Germans their due: they were not among the last to fight--but among the first. It was not the Mennonite who fought with ball and musket--he fought with the plow. Others of his countrymen who had no scruples about "bearing arms" were the ones who went out with Washington to wallop the would-be "tax-leviers."

Those who did not fight were self-sustaining and self-sufficient, and their efforts at farming and making warm clothing, and those who made shot and shell, contributed no little in making a revolution of the people an American independence indeed.

In this group of arrivals after 1710, there must be noted that a number of Pennsylvania Germans under the leadership of Jost Hite, moved down the Shenandoah Valley of Virginia, to settle the counties of Frederick, Rockingham and Shenandoah. The western part of North Carolina had a large number of such settlers emigrate from Pennsylvania. The French and Indian War was still simmering when some Pennsylvania Germans went to Ohio, to be followed by larger numbers at the close of the Revolution. Then to Indiana, Illinois, Missouri, Iowa, Kansas, Texas, California, etc.

People in those states to the west of us probably feel that they are "Westerners," but would it be improper to say that they are in a large sense "Western Pennsylvania Germans?" or "Pennsylvania Germans in the West?"
 

PIONEER IMMIGRANTS WERE FARMERS AND TRADESMEN

Farmers Were Kept Poor.--The Pennsylvania German farmers were good farmers by practically all standards. They were descended through thirty generations of tillers of the soil. All things being equal in their Old World haunts they would have been on the average well-to-do. But the wars kept them poor, or, if they were on the wrong side of the political or religious "fence" they again were likely to be mulct of what they had.

Travel, being what it was in those days, was expensive, and the more so because unscrupulous ship owners found they could get the price, either from the pioneer or some one who would pay for this passage.

Those who undertook to pay off their passage under a bond which sometimes took twenty years to redeem, would be termed "redemptioners." This took on a form of "white servitude" in the early days, and much of interest may be read about the subject.

Fine Soil Ready in Pennsylvania.--It has been pointed out that the situation greeting the newcomers was pretty nearly made to order. There was little barrenness; fertilization was not necessary in the same degree that it was in Germany, where tilling for many years required more attention.

The farmers were smart enough to rotate their crops; they grazed cattle for fattening and got back fertilizer quite precious. They fed their horses well, so that they could do twice as much work in a day as horses underfed; they were kept warm in winter, and were excused from doing extra work, such as dragging logs, or pleasure driving.

"Swiss Barns" Erected.--The early pioneers first cleared sufficient land to get a start on farming; then came an immense barn, well built, of the "Swiss" type. The first barns were built of logs. Later there were some of stone, then frame or brick. Interesting features of some of the barns included the stars on the sides and ends; also the ventilator designs obtained by omissions of bricks which formed the designs, or cut-outs in the odd shapes of hearts, diamonds, quarter-moons, clubs, etc.

Most barns were double-deckers, and allowed for threshing-floors, mows and lofts for storing hay. The complete barns had a granary on the upper floor, a cellar under the drive-way, in addition to the usual stalls for horses and cattle. They ranged from 50 to 60 feet wide, and 60 to 120 feet long, with an overhang of 8 to 10 feet beyond the stable doors.

Originally barns and houses had thatched roofs; in later years they were shingled, slated, or tinned. If painted, it generally was of deep red, for lasting qualities.

Lumber could be obtained on the spot; likewise good building stone might be found nearby, needing but the blows of the stone mason to dress them for use. But it might be a decade or two until they got around to the building of a substantial house.

Houses built by the pioneers were generally of logs, if the builder was pioneering some miles away from centers of population. These could be built in a few days after a clearing was made.

Two-story houses were the general rule at the outset, with the familiar two-and-a-half-story to follow. The first with pitched roof, and with cornices run across the gables and around the first story.

Types of Construction.--The English and Scotch fashion was to build the chimney at the gable-end, but the German style was to bring it right up through the center of the house. Most of them seemed to be spacious, with open fire-places in most rooms, and with deep-set window and door frames. Window weights were used quite early.

Travelers usually note on these older houses the odd inscriptions, verses, dates or initials found well up on the gable wall. This is a hangover from customs in Germany and Switzerland.

There are many variations held by people today as to the meanings of the decorations on barns, certain markings found here and there on houses and necessary outbuildings; even on cooking utensils, etc.

Gaudy Colors and Designs.--It will hardly suffice to say that the farmer liked to have his barn look attractive, and to be in good state of repair, as a sign of his progress and success; nor that his wife was odd, in that she had a lot of dishes with gaudy decorations of birds, flowers, alphabets, scenes and verses painted thereon; nor that the good housewife had these same decorations on her bed linens, and her furniture as well.

Most of the decorative schemes came from the Old World, a throw-off, or hand-me-down from ancient Persian and Chinese ideas. We are informed that German houses today have on their walls counterparts of many of the ideas expressed by our own native artists with a slight touch or blend of native instinct which do not in the least detract from the value or interest of the items in question.

The farmers were not alone the great builders. We had the well-known preachers and teachers; scientists and astronomers; inventors and many others. A catalog of German firsts in Pennsylvania is an imposing array of talent and accomplishment.


LANGUAGE AND EDUCATION AT FIRST NEGLECTED, THEN PROMOTED

German Language Remained with Newcomer.--Of the language and literature of the Pennsylvania Germans we had at best be brief--the students and scholars are still trying to define and settle the matter.

The remarkable thing about the "dialect" as it is called, is that there should remain so much of it in use today in sections where there is likewise an abundant use of English. Two hundred years ago there was every reason for them to continue using the only language they knew. With all the intermarriages of these people with English, Scotch and Irish families, the "Dutch" will "out."

From the days of their residence in Europe, until comparatively modern times they have been without the benefit of any grammar or book of guidance for the use of the "dialect" conversation on the street or in the home.

Early Printers.--The Pennsylvania Germans had printing shops in operation in larger centers of population almost as soon as they could get the material to set up shop.

Thus the press of Christopher Sauer had printed three editions of the Bible, complete, in little Germantown, before there was one edition of the same book printed in Philadelphia in English. A few years before his first Bible Sauer had printed a large hymn-book entitled "Zionitischer Wayrauchshugel," containing 654 hymns in 33 divisions.

Conrad Beissel and his Ephrata "Breuderschaft" were responsible for the publishing of a number of remarkable books for those times, including a complete translation of Van Bragt's "Blutige Schauplatz oder Martyrer Spiegel" in German from the Holland Dutch, at the Cloisters, at Ephrata. Fifteen men worked for three years to complete translations, make the paper and print and bind this massive work, up to that time about the largest single book published in the New World.

Education was at first frowned on by the farmers who thought their children needed little more than to be able to read and write and figure a little bit. In later years they found that education was the best bet, and with the exception of the Amish, most other denominations and sects have gone over to college education.