Some of these children were very young when Frederick died.  Judith remained unmarried for a few years, and then married George Bourn, by whom she had one child who died in infancy, George Bourn, who died 12 May 1836.  Judith, still living in Jessamine Co., died 29 Jun 1844.

On 25 Jun 1839, in Green Co., Illinois, Morton Zimmerman, William Zimmerman, and John Coiner applied to the state of Virginia for bounty land on the service of the late Frederick Zimmerman.  The land claim was rejected.
(to be continued)
(19 Mar 01)

Nr. 1120: (Continuing the Rev. War Pension application for services by Frederick Zimmerman.)

Before Judith Bourn Zimmerman had died in 1844, two of her children, and a son-in-law, applied to Virginia, from Green Co., IL, for bounty land on the service of the late Frederick Zimmerman.  The claim was rejected.  (See Rev. War Land Grant Claims, Box 58, Virginia State Archives.)

In 1855, Morton Zimmerman applied for a pension.  At this time the only living children of Frederick and Judith Zimmerman were Sally, William, and Morton.  Heirs of the deceased children were:

1. Jane P. Jennings:
   1. Benjamin (Berryman?),
      
   2. Maryanne (m. Morton McCarver),
      
   3. Huldah (m. Simpson S. White),
      
   4. Theodore.
      
2. Fanny Dinwiddle:
   1. James (m. ____ Prophet),
      
   2. Elen,
      
   3. William.
3. Augustus Zimmerman:
   1. John Barnett,
      
   2. Ambrose Dudley,
      
   3. James,
      
   4. Frederick A.,
      
   5. Riland T.D.
4. Nancy Coiner:
   1. Martin,
      
   2. James B. (m. Catherine ____),
      
   3. Elizabeth,
      
   4. Robert,
      
   5. Archibald.
5. Judith Combs:
   1. Georgeann (m. Green Seay).

In sending this information along, Gene Dear noted that descendants had added minor extensions to the basic pension data.

I believe that this exhausts the data that I have on the Rev. War soldiers.  As you have noted, Gene Dear supplied much of the information.  Over the course of time, he supplied several items.

####

I do not believe that I have any Rev. War ancestor from the Germanna community; however, I offer a story of a Rev. War ancestor of mine.  Not only was he at Yorktown, but his wife, who had gone to war with him, was at Yorktown also.  How many of you can say you had a G...Grandmother at Yorktown when the British surrendered?
(20 Mar 01)

Nr. 1121: The Germanna Colonies came into existence as the result of the desire by Christoph von Graffenried and Franz Michel to recruit miners for a silver mine in the Shenandoah Valley of Virginia.  These two men, then in London, were working for George Ritter and Company, a stock company headquartered in Bern, Switzerland.  They hired another man, Johann Justus Albrecht, to do the recruiting and instructed him to go to Siegen in Germany where he was to purchase tools and to hire miners.

Albrecht seems to have gone to Siegen very promptly but he encountered some difficulty in recruiting the miners.  As a promotional tool, he signed an agreement with the Protestant pastors in Siegen, in which they were to receive monies from the mines.  Presumably, in return he expected their help in finding and encouraging people to go.

Within the year, Albrecht was back in London, where he wrote a Charter for a mining company to find and produce silver and gold in America.  Apparently, he was trying to sell shares in this venture even, though it is not identified as associated with George Ritter and Company.  Communication with Graffenried, who was in North Carolina, was probably slow and erratic, and perhaps less than clear.  Either late in 1712 or early in 1713, Albrecht went back to Siegen and suggested it was time to go to America.  The forty-odd Germans that he assembled paid their own way to London, but they understood that funds would be available there to finance the rest of the trip.

In the late summer, or perhaps the early fall of 1713, the Germans were in London, but Graffenried, who was to have the funds to pay for the rest of the trip, was not there.  In the face of his uncertain arrival, the Germans sought work to support themselves.  Perhaps about October, Graffenried did arrive in London.  There was a mutual surprise by each of the parties, Graffenried and the Germans.  Graffenried wrote that he had not asked them to come to London.  The Germans were sorely disappointed that Graffenried was not able to live up to his word.

Graffenried's initial reaction, in his own words, was that he advised them to go home.  The Germans saw it differently, because from their standpoint they had no homes to which they could return.  In their minds, they had to go on, as they saw no future in England.  With just their own money, they did not have the necessary funds to pay their transportation to America.  But they did volunteer that they would work for four years to pay the part of their transportation that they could not afford.

With this as a bargaining tool, Graffenried visited people in London, including Nathaniel Blakiston, who, as the agent for Virginia in London, was well acquainted the Lt. Gov. in Virginia, Alexander Spotswood.  He knew that Spotswood had a fractional interest in a mine that was thought to contain silver.  Spotswood had not proceeded with this mine because the share that was to go to Queen Anne had never been specified.  Blakiston, on the assumption that this question would be resolved shortly, decided to commit Spotswood to paying the 150 pounds sterling that would be required, in addition to what the Germans would contribute, for their transportation costs to America.
(21 Mar 01)

Nr. 1122:

When the people from Siegen arrived in Virginia in 1714, Spotswood had already been told they were coming.  He paid the one and fifty pounds sterling, and put a plan into action that he had formulated a couple of years earlier, when the Indian unrest in North Carolina had left an uneasy feeling in Virginians.  Spotswood put the Germans into a simple fort that was beyond the frontier of English civilization.  By this means he was providing a barrier to Indian incursions in this region.  Because of the public duty the Germans would be providing, he obtained the Council's approval to defray some of the expense.  He did not publicly enter into the record that this location, in a horseshoe bend of the Rapidan River, was about four miles from land in which he owned a fractional interest.  This land was on Mine Run on the south side of the Rapidan River.  Mine Run derives its name from the fact that the land along it was thought to contain silver ore.  Spotswood did not give the Germans permission to dig at the site because the rights of the Crown were not defined.  For at least two years or longer, the German farmed and built roads and bridges.

Spotswood was looking for ways to establish his personal economic base.  An Indian trading company was established and he was an investor in this, but it was not of a significant size.  As he looked around, he saw that the basis of wealth in Virginia was land, as the Byrds and Beverleys had shown.  Robert Beverley even invited him to join a land partnership.  With the intent to acquire land, Spotswood set up a western exploration trip in 1716 to explore land to the west of Germanna, up to and beyond the Blue Ridge Mountains.  The trip was even set up as an official venture of the Colony so that costs could be reimbursed.  As a consequence, Spotswood and Beverley identified and staked out land amounting to more than 60,000 acres.

Because of the exposed position of this land, a large group of people was needed to settle as a body on it.  The Germans at Germanna had been a success, a very good success, as keepers of the peace.  Spotswood wanted to duplicate this on the 60,000 acres, but more Germans were not coming to Virginia.  He started talking to the captains of the ships which called at Jamestown, and, in the spring of 1717, he had an occasion to talk to Andrew Tarbett.  Tarbett, at the time, had no ship, since the pirates had taken and burned the one he had.  When he got back to England, he became the master of the ship Scott.  Very shortly thereafter, a group of Germans appeared in London looking for transportation to Pennsylvania.  Tarbett promised to take them as they wished, but, knowing there was a need for the Germans in Virginia, he took them to Virginia against their wishes.  In this way, these Germans became the indentured servants of Spotswood, and his partners, and they were settled on the 60,000 acres.  Among the projects they were given was the raising of naval stores, which were needed in England.

So, in 1718, Spotswood's personal economic base was to be founded on land.  Already he knew that the first group of Germans would be leaving, since their four years of service would be up in 1718, and they had purchased land elsewhere.
(22 Mar 01)

Nr. 1123:

The first group of Germans had been looking around in the district surrounding Germanna.  They found iron ore and brought it to Spotswood�s attention.  At about the time the second group of Germans came, Spotswood received a letter from Sir Richard in England, who wanted Spotswood to search for iron ore with the objective of establishing an "iron works".  This would have been about the beginning of 1718 (NS).  Spotswood replied that he would have his Germans look, and, of course, it was not difficult to find something of which they were already aware.  Still, Spotswood did not deviate from his main thrust which was to acquire land.  He added iron as another possibility, but only as a possibility.

The first group of Germans left Germanna about January of 1719 (NS), to go to their own land in the Northern Neck, which became known as "Germantown".  With money from partners, and with labor that probably came from England, Spotswood built an iron furnace, but it did not go smoothly.  William Byrd could tell the Board of Trade in November of 1721 that iron could be cast in Virginia, but that they could not make bar iron.  A small shipment of cast iron was sent to England in 1723, and a more significant shipment was made in 1724.  By then, Spotswood felt confident enough that he could go to England to pursue the titles to his lands and to find a wife.  Before he left, he gave instructions to his agents to continue the lawsuits against the members of the second group of Germans to recover the monies he had spent on their transportation.  Spotswood remained in England about five years, while his iron furnace was sending a modest stream of iron to England.

Probably in 1725, the second group of Germans left their homes along the north bank of the Rapidan River, just above Germanna, and moved to land of their own.  Most of them went to the Robinson River Valley, but a few moved only a few miles to the southeast of Mt. Pony.  They obtained a generous quantity of free land, as a result of the legislation that had been by initiated by Spotswood to reduce his own costs of acquiring land.

By 1725, most of the Germans were living on land of their own, and were independent of Spotswood or others.  They viewed one of their most pressing problems as that of obtaining ministers.  While the first group had brought a minister with them, the Rev. H�ger, the second group was located at some distance from him.  Rev. H�ger was old and the number of years remaining for him could not be many.  So, all of the Germans felt the need for ministers.  As there were few ministers in the colonies who could speak German, attention was focused on Germany.  The second group went so far as to send two of their members to Germany to seek a minister, but they were unsuccessful.

Even before the second group had moved to their own lands, they were joined by friends and relatives, usually from the same villages from which the original second group had come.  This same phenomenon occurred also with the first group, but it did not commence until later.  Whereas the second group had been given as about 80 people in 1717/18, it had reached the number of 300 by 1733, due to the new people from Germany, as well as there being more births than deaths within the group.  Apparently, both groups were feeling better about the situation in Virginia.
(23 Mar 01)

Nr. 1124:

Starting about 1730, there was a growth in both the first and second groups by new members from Germany, or from other German colonies, especially from Pennsylvania.  These additions never abated, even up to the time of the Revolutionary War.  During that war, a few non-German additions were made to the groups from the British auxiliaries; however, by this time, descendants of many of the original families had moved to other colonies, especially southward at first, and then to the west.  In the Germanna home area there were several pockets of settlements.

Perhaps the smallest settlement, in terms of the number of Germans, was the Mt. Pony group.  Because they were so few, they quickly adapted to the surrounding English civilization.  For example, Christopher Zimmerman became an officer in the militia within ten years, and all of the Germans were inclined to the Anglican church.

At Germantown, the site of the first permanent homes of the first group, the settlers were landlocked on three sides by the large claims of "King" Carter.  No expansion in those three directions was possible.  Across the Rappahannock River, in the Little Fork, land was free.  Jacob Holtzclaw and John Fishback acquired land there quite early.  John Hoffman acquired land in the Robinson River Valley and moved to it.  Other members of the group acquired land to the north of Germantown.

The majority of the second group acquired their land "at the mountains", around present day Madison, Virginia.  There were several very large claims between Germanna and the Blue Ridge Mountains, and they had to jump over these.  Even though the English were also quick to come into this area, there was enough land available to allow expansion for quite a while.  For example, John Hoffman kept expanding over a period of years until he had more than 3,500 acres, all in one parcel.

Life quickly settled down into farming.  Though many of the individuals were trained in other occupations in Germany, they were principally farmers in America.  As time went by, they built better and larger homes.  The one problem that they all faced was having a church.  In the early 1730�s, Rev. H�ger died, and the first group was without a minister.  They tried to obtain one from Germany, or from another colony, but the small size of the group worked against them.  At Germantown, Jacob Holtzclaw was a reader.  In the Little Fork, John Young was a reader.  At Mt. Pony, they joined with the Anglicans.  In the Robinson River Valley, they had no minister for about sixteen years, and were very anxious to obtain one.  When Johann Caspar St�ver, a schoolteacher, visited the community, they saw an opportunity, and convinced him to become their minister.  He went to Pennsylvania to be ordained.  They found it would be difficult to support him, and to pay their tithes, required by law, to the Church of England, so they sent St�ver and two members to Germany to raise money.  As a consequence of the success of the trip, they were able to build a church and keep a minister on a permanent basis.
(24 Mar 01)

Nr. 1125:

We have covered a lot of history in the last few notes.  Perhaps it is time to go back and look at some of the details in more depth.

First, why did the first group of Germans, who left Germany in 1713, leave?  What were their motivations?  They surely saw the potential for something better in America, but what did they see?  The answers are not clear.

We do know that a large number left from the region around Siegen in 1709, including the son of a couple who were to leave in 1713.  It had not been appreciated that so many had left then, until Hank Z. Jones did his monumental study of the 1710 Palatines to New York.  He and his research assistants found the homes of many of these people in Germany (and changed the face of research into German origins).  Many reasons have been advanced for the mass migration of 1709 from Germany, and most of them can be discarded; however, we should look at them, since many of these reasons continue to be given.

One of the most popular reasons proposed is religion.  Now, it is true there was a group of people for whom this was important, namely the Anabaptists who were living in Switzerland, Alsace, the Palatinate, Baden, and perhaps W�rttemberg.  They were severely hampered in the exercise of their religion, and in their daily living.  These people were a minority, and not very many came in the 1709 group.  The majority of these people could more typically be described as one individual was described � born a Catholic, married in the Reformed church, and an elder of the Lutheran church.  Descriptions of the emigrants in 1709 make it clear that they brought no religious books with them, in the form of Bibles, hymnals, or prayer books.  They had their religious principles, but these were minimized while they were in the process of getting to America.

A dispatch from Holland, in June of 1709, reported that the Palatines, both Protestants and Catholics, seemed to agree with each other very well, with many mixed marriages.  The report went on to say they were "fleeing not so much for religion" as for other reasons.

In later years, particularly in the last century, it became popular to say that one ancestor�s left for religious reasons.  This seemed like a noble purpose, which made the ancestors look better.  In fact, more of our German ancestors came because their fellow citizens didn't want them to stay, than came for religious reasons.  Town Councils, who were having to support families, saw emigration as a cheaper alternative.  The Town Councils paid the emigrants' way to America.

I did draw an exception to the Anabaptists earlier.  They were severely restricted in the practice of their religion.  They could not have a church building.  Not more than twenty could meet at one time.  They could not recruit new members.  Even as pacifists, they had to serve in the Army.  They could not own land.  They had to pay special taxes.  And, in Switzerland, they were in danger of being thrown in jail.  (It could be argued, justifiably, that there would not have been a Germanna had the Swiss not been putting the Anabaptists in jails and exporting them from Switzerland.)
(26 Mar 01)