III

THE LAND OF PROMISE
Settlers in Pennsylvania

Arrival at Philadelphia must have been a relief  to the Bolenders and Shinkles, even though they faced new challenges.  A vivid account of the landing of passengers in the harbor of Philadelphia is given in a report by the Rev. Henry M. Muehlenberg.  He writes: 

 

"After much delay one ship after another arrives in the harbor of Philadelphia. One or more merchants receive the lists of the freights and the agreement which the emigrants have signed with their own hand in Holland, together with the bills for their travel down the Rhine and the advances of the 'newlanders' (emigrants to the New World) for provisions, which they received on the ships on account (credit). Formerly the fare for single was six to ten louis d'ors.  But now it amounts to fourteen to seventeen louis d'ors.  After the health officer checks for infectious diseases, the new arrivals are led  in procession to the City Hall and there they must render the oath of allegiance to the King of Great Britain."

 

"We subscribers, natives, and late inhabitants of the Palatinate upon the Rhine and places adjacent, having transported ourselves and families into this providence of Pennsylvania, a colony subject to the Crown of Great Britain, in hopes and expectations of finding a retreat and peaceable settlement therein, Do solemnly promise and engage, that we will be faithful and bear true allegiance to His present Majesty, King George the Second, and his successors, kings of Great Britain, and will be faithful to the proprietor of this Province;  and that we will demean ourselves peaceably to all His said Majesty's subjects, and strictly observe and conform to the Laws of England and of this Province to the utmost of our power and the best of our understanding."

 

"After this is accomplished they are brought back to the ship. Then announcements are printed in the newspapers, stating how many of the new arrivals are to be sold as 'indentured servants'.  Those who have money are released. Whoever has well-to-do friends seeks a loan from them to pay the passage, but there are only a few who succeed.  The ship becomes the market-place. The buyers make their choice among the arrivals and bargain with them for a certain number of years and days.  They then take them to the merchant, pay their passage and their other debts and receive from the government authorities a written document, which makes the newcomers their property for a definite period."

 

New settlers continued to come in spite of all the hardships.  Historians have said that those who survived the hardships pushed ahead without complaining.  After serving their few years for repayment of their voyage debts, they became successful farmers.  Pennsylvania flourished, evidence of the perseverance of these early pioneers.  About one half of the Palatine immigrants to the colonies settled in Pennsylvania.  In the early wave of immigration, the first settlement of German immigrants was Germantown, just north of Philadelphia.  By the 1750's most were locating in Lancaster and Berks Counties.  The majority of them came as 'indentured servants' and it was said of them, "When these people served out their time, they were just as poor as when they arrived."  The  period of service required to pay off the transportation debts took about five years.   As conditions in Pennsylvania improved for them, they began to prosper, due in part, to the influence of William Penn.

 

Shunning an easy life, William Penn, son of a wealthy British  admiral, became a Quaker missionary.  From his father, Penn had inherited a claim to L16,000 ($80,000) that his father had lent to King Charles II.  The King, reluctant to part with that much money, paid off the debt in 1681 by giving Penn a large portion of land which he named Pennsylvania (Penn's Woods) in honor of his father.

 

William Penn considered his colony (one of the thirteen) a 'Holy Experiment.'  He treated the Indians fairly, trying to protect them in their dealing with settlers and traders.  He wrote a series of descriptions promoting his colony, Pennsylvania.  These circulated throughout England and  the European continent, attracting many settlers, including Germans.

 

William Penn, a gentlemen, believed in brotherly love but didn't believe in war.  He was given a 'Charter of Proprietorship,' which gave him freedom to draft the first laws of a moral plan which provided freedom of conscience for all.  He thus maintained an environment inviting to Europeans fleeing from tyrannical monarchies, wars and religious persecution.  This experiment in idealism worked well until after Penn's death, when leadership passed to his sons who failed to hold the same philosophies.  Conditions gradually began to change.

 

Other benefits in Pennsylvania attracted German settlers.  New immigrants who homesteaded there received 50 acres of land.  The fertile soil provided the type of farming to which the German peasant farmers were already accustomed.  Clearing the land provided the logs to build new homes.

 

In the book, The Story of the Conestoga, 1750--1850, p 78, one early traveling visitor described the homes he observed being built: 

 

"These dwellings are made with the trunks of trees, from twenty to thirty feet in length, about five inches in diameter, placed one upon another, and kept up by notches cut at their extremities.  The roof is formed with pieces of similar length to those that compose the body of the house, but not quite so thick, and gradually sloped on one side.  Two doors, which often supply the place of windows, are made by sawing away a part of the trunks that form the body of the house.  The chimney, always placed at one of the extremities, is likewise made with the trunks of trees of a suitable length; the back of the chimney is made of clay, about six inches thick, which separates the fire from the wooden walls.  The space between these trunks is filled up with clay which isn't always airtight.  The homes are rather cold in spite of the large amount of wood which is consumed during the winter.  The doors move upon wooden hinges, and the greater part of them have no locks.  In the night time they push them to, or fasten them with a wooden peg.  Four or five days are sufficient for two men to finish one of these houses, in which not a nail is used."

 

A house-raising was an enjoyable time of hard work when the neighbors pitched in and helped build a new home.  The women helped to prepare the hearty meals to keep the men satisfied.  German farmers often attached a stable and cow barn to the house.  In the cooler weather the heat from the animals help heat the house.  Farm animals were valuable and well cared for.  Basements, dug in the earth, provided cool storage for food including vegetables, milk and butter.  Where limestone was available, more permanent homes replaced the log cabins.  As the 18th century progressed, more and more homes were built of brick.

 

The Germans brought their Old World skills and traditions in preparing foods such as sausage, scrapple and smoked or pickled meats.  Their pigs ran loose in the woods, eating acorns and roots, and in nine months they were big enough for slaughter.  The first cold period in December, the German neighbors gathered together to butcher the pigs.  They sharpened their knives to kill, clean and butcher the hogs for the winter months ahead.  Hams, shoulders and bacon were soaked in brine before being hung in the smokehouse over a wood fire.  Vension, bear and pork were preferred over beef.

 

One colonial writer in Colonial Records, iv p 315, described the Germans as follows: 

 

"The Germans were principally farmers.  They depended more upon themselves than upon others.  They wielded the mattock, the axe and the maul, and by the power of brawny arms rooted up the grubs, removed saplings, felled the majestic oaks, laid low the towering hickory; prostrated, where they grew, the walnut, poplar, chestnut--cleaved such as suited the purpose, into rails for fences--persevered untiringly until the forest was changed into arable [tillable] land.  They were those of whom Gov. Thomas said, 1738:  "This province has been for some years the asylum of distressed Protestants of the Palatinate, and other parts of Germany;  and I believe it may be truthfully  said, that the present flourishing condition of it is in a great measure  owing to the industry of those people;  it is not altogether the fertility of the soil, but the number and industry of the people, that makes a country flourish."

  

The Germans retained their language and customs at least through the first and sometimes the second generation.  Many of the descendants remaining in Pennsylvania are still known today as Pennsylvania Dutch (Dutch being a corruption of Deutsh--German).  The immigrants in the eighteenth century belonged to various Christian groups.  The Protestant included Lutheran, German Reformed and Moravian.  Some immigrants were Catholic, and quite a number were Anabaptists such as Mennonites, Amish and Brethren (Dunkards).

Germans were prominent in the development of such colonial industries as blacksmithing, harness and saddle making, shoe making and in the manufacture of woolens and paper.  The chief industry, farming, was successful because both men and women were hard workers.  The women helped in the fields in the summer months. The women not only cooked and kept house, but also spun wool and flax.  They wove a mixture of wool and flax into cloth, known as 'linsey-woolsey,' which was popular for clothing because of its warmth.  Spinning wheels were as necessary in a farmhouse as tables, chairs and beds.  During the long winter months farm families, in their log homes lighted by candles and warmed by the fireplace, manufactured all kinds of objects from bone buttons to leather breeches and hemp string bags.

 

Wheat and corn were also widely grown in Pennsylvania.  Corn was a principle crop, easily cultivated and giving good yield under the rough frontier conditions.  Nutritious and tasty when prepared in a variety of ways, it also provided excellent fodder for the livestock.  In the form of corn liquor it was easy to store and transport.

 

 Peter Bolender had many skills as a farmer, saddlemaker, blacksmith and a distiller.  In 1750, when Peter Bolender arrived, 95% lived in the country and only 5% lived in the villages.  About 90% of the farmers made their own clothing.  Buckskin was commonly used in the 1700's but as deer populations diminished, flax and wool came into more common usage.  Out of necessity, almost every home had a large garden, making the family self-sufficient.  Beyond their own needs, the farmers sold produce from their gardens and the excess from their field crops.

 

The Bolenders' and Shinkles' German Reformed Pastor, Rev. Waldsmidt, died in 1786.  The Berks County estate papers give some insight into what could be found in a typical Pennsylvania Dutch home.  The inventory taken Oct. 25, 1786, showed that this country pastor had what was probably typical possessions for a  farmer of the time.

 

·        several horses

·        many cows

·        sheep

·        hogs

·        horse collars

·        saddles

·        bridles

·        one horse whip

·        large wagon

·        plow

·        hay-forks

·        wooden shovels

·        hoes

·        axes

·        wooden rakes

·        brooms

·        10 ton hay

·        44 bushel wheat

·        40 bushel rye

·        30 bushel oats

·        3 bushel buckwheat

·        hand saw

·        coffee mill

·        spinning wheel

·        sauerkraut cutter

·        wooden funnel

·        copper kettle

·        iron pots

·        earthen pots

·        instrument to make fire

·        iron lamps

·        pewter plates

·        brass candlestick

·        house clock

·        a cane

·        a man's hat

·        an old gun

·        half bushel onions

·        two bushel dried apples

·        half bushel dried peaches

·        8 bushel Indian corn

·        50 head of cabbage

·        10 bushel of turnips

·        75 bushel of potatoes

·        7 bee hives

·        1 muskrat trap

 

Fish and game were plentiful and could be hunted without fear of the Indians, who were friendly from the beginning.  Having a variety for a healthy diet enabled the settlers in Pennsylvania to avoid a period of famine or sickness such as other colonies experienced.

 

As new villages were formed in the colony, they each had their own schools and churches.  Schools among the Germans were run by the churches.  The colony gave land for these.  Michael Schlatter provided curriculum for the German Reform Church Schools.  In the colonies, the school curriculum was nicknamed the '3-R's': 'reading,' 'ritin' 'n 'rithmetic' (reading, writing and arithmetic).

 

All did not run smoothly for the German immigrants however.  Some problems were encountered.  In the book,

The Great Wagon Road, we find:

 

"As much as the Germans contributed to the frontier's growth, however, other settlers resented them. As early as 1729, William Penn's sons wrote to Secretary James Logan in Pennsylvania, recommending that the Pennsylvania Assembly pass a law prohibiting further immigration by the Palatines.  They promised to have King George II uphold it.

 

Even Ben Franklin was disturbed by the newcomers.  He wrote in 1751:

 

"Why should the Palatine farmers be allowed to swarm into our settlement, and by herding together, establish their language and manners, to the exclusion of ours?  Why should Pennsylvania, founded by the English, become a colony of aliens, who will shortly be so numerous as to Germanize us, instead of our Anglicifying them, and they will never accept our language or customs?"

 

But the German people had become too enmeshed in the growing fabric of colonial life to be halted.  Today, in a 1990 census, one out of four Americans claim to have German ancestry.

  

The Bolender and Shinkle families lived near the edge of two adjoining counties, Heidelberg Township in Berks County and Cocolico Township in Lancaster County.  According to church records, the Bolenders and Shinkles attended the Allegheny German Reformed Church.  One record stated it to be Hain's Reformed, but other records indicate that the children were baptized at the Allegheny Church.  The pastor was Rev. John Waldschmidt, 1724-1786, who came from Dillenburg, Germany and pastored several churches in the area.  The services were in the German language.  His records state that a 20 mile journey between churches may have taken as long as seven hours.  This must have been under the worst of conditions at times with severe winters or muddy dirt roads.

 

Rev. Waldschmidt kept records of baptismal and marriages.  Included in this book are photocopies of his original handwritten records in German.  His handwriting is nearly illegible to me.  Of course, I am unfamiliar with the German language. Almost all the children of the Bolenders and Shinkles were baptized by him.  Peter Bolender and his wife, Maria Barbara (maiden name uncertain), had four children, three daughters and a son. Maria Juliane, born June 22, 1755, Stephen, born October 9, 1756, Catherine, born June 2, 1765 and (Anna) Elizabeth, born 1768 or 1769.  Stephen is my third great grandfather.

 

Things would not always remain the same for the colonies.  Changes were coming which would directly affect the future of the Bolender and Schenkel families.