History

“According to my understanding of the matter, the first German settlers of Washington County came from the Rhine Palatinate. They came to the United States in the summer of 1833, from the vicinity of Durkheim, a little city of some 6,000 inhabitants, located in the gap of the Valley of the Isenach a small stream flowing through the Hardt Mountains, and distant due west from Heidelberg about twenty miles. This is indeed an interesting region. Lord Thomas Babington Macaulay, years ago, while standing on the Geisberg, eminence a spur of the Black Forest just south of Heidelberg= and from which vantage he surveyed this beautiful and interesting landscape pronounced it the 'garden of Europe.'

The emigration of the Peters brothers to the United States was brought about in this wise. In 1832 there arose in the Palatinate and through the southern section of Germany a somewhat famous commotion among the peasantry, by which a demand was made of the then ruling authorities for a larger measure of liberty for the people. It was doubtless a preliminary symptom of the greater commotion that took place sixteen years later, in 1848, and which led to an actual and somewhat remarkable outbreak but which was crushed with a relentless hand by Emperor William, recently deceased, who as Crown Prince made himself famous as a soldier by the energy and skill with which he made an end of the movement of '48. That insurrection furnished the inspiring cause for emigration to the United States to Carl Schurz and General Franz Sigel- the latter of whom subsequently distinguished himself in our civil war in the military service of this country, while the former became famous, somewhat in the war, but more particularly in the civil service of the country, first in the United States Senate, afterwards as a Cabinet officer during the administration of President Hayes.” (Source: Ohio History, Volume 2, pp 52-53)

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