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Palatine German Immigration to Colonial America
The area of Rhineland-Pfalz, also called the Rhineland Palatinate or "Palatines" (Rheinland-Pfalz had been ravaged by the Thirty Years War in the late 1600's and early 1900's. Many of the original inhabitants of the region had been killed in the war or from disease and starvation so immigrants from Southern Germany and Switzerland settled in the area. Many of these were followers of Huldrych Zwingli, the Conservative Swiss Protestant Reformist, and Jacob Amman, or Anabaptist (Mennonites, Quakers and Amish), mostly from the region of Thun around the Canton of Bern Switzerland.
By the time Jakob Ammann began preaching about 1690, there was already movement to go abroad, to the French-speaking Jura, then under the Bishop of Basel, to the Canton of Neuchatel, which was then a possession of Prussia, and to the Alsace under the King of France. The Anabaptists, or Täufer (Re-Baptized), had been in Switzerland since the Reformation, with a continuing persecution by the State and the Reformed Church. A large emigration had left around 1671 and settled in the Palatinate in Germany, an area which includes the cities of Mainz, Kaiserslautern, Coblenz and Trier. Mennonite settlers began arriving in the Palatinate area from Switzerland as early as 1671. Three years later, in 1674, after the devastations of the Thirty Years War, Prince Karl Ludwig, the Palatinate ruler offered limited religious liberty to Swiss Mennonites to settle on his wasted farmlands and help to restore them to productivity.
Some converted to the more common Lutheranism of Germany. And When the English Protestants where fighting the Catholics, they wanted to populate the American colonies with Protestants, Queen Anne offered incentives for Protestant immigrants. The first German Mennonite and Quaker settlers arrived in America in 1683, with thirteen families from Krefeld, Germany establishing Germantown as an enclave northwest of Philadelphia. William Penn signed a charter for the community in 1689. More German’s would soon follow with news of open fertile lands.
One might think King of Prussia, Pa was named as a German settlement, but not so. Quaker immigrants from Wales. William and Janet Rees, founders of nearby Reeseville and clever branders, in 1969 converted a cottage into a coaching inn along the road from Philadelphia to the west, where German settlers headed west to Ohio would stop on the route, naming it the “King of Prussia” after for King Frederick II of Prussia (Frederick the Great) a clever bit of advertising. In 1974 the Rees family hired James Berry to manage the inn, which thereafter became known as "Berry's Tavern". And gained further notoriety when General George Washington visited the tavern on Thanksgiving Day in 1977 while his Continental Army was camped at nearby Valley Forge.
In 1938, one of the ships carrying immigrants from the Palatine, “The Thistle”, left from Rotterdam via Plymouth England, for Philadelphia in command of Captain John Wilson. There were 300 passengers aboard. Many early German settler families across America can trace from this ship and others to follow, like the “The Lydia” in 1943. They settled the open lands to west from Philadelphia in York County, Pennsylvania, which is now known as Amish Country. Some stayed there, but many headed west to find fresh land in the opening wildernesses western Maryland, Virginia (becoming West Virginia) and Ohio.
They became part of what is known as the "Auswanderung" emigration. It was an arduous journey down the Rhine River to Rotterdam and a long sail to England and America. They were essentially farmers and came to America looking for their own lands. From Pennsylvania, after the Revolutionary war, they headed west with the expansion of America's territory. Today, the German Wine Road, a popular tourist area cuts through the Palatine Region from the town of Bad Durkheim, a short distance from the American military bases of Kaiserslautern and Ramstein Air Base, and one of the Frankenstein castles. More Germans would come during the American Revolution, hired as “mercenary soldiers”, the Hessians, from Hesse Germany, and many of them would eventually toss off their uniforms and stay, making contact with the other German communities who had come before.
Passenger list for the ship Thistle Sept. 19, 1938
Daniel Draichler, Wilhelm Bischoff, Isaac Ommell, Valentin Heiss, Jacob Kener,
Abraham Stetler, Jacob Sligh, Thomas Reigh, Johannes Gers, Daniel Schneider,
Lorentz Gutt, Andreas Neumann, Henrich Becholdt, Johann Keller, Jacob Carle,
Christian Lutz, Caspar Lutz, Jacob Cloder, Johannes Hedrigh, Johannes Cron,
Jacob Meyer, Elias Zoller, Michael Thiel, Michael Friess, Johannes Friess, Martin Rimm, Johannes Krismm, Jost Freueller, Johannes Con, Bernhart Smith, Melchior Smith,
Conrad Ruhmle, Christian Lotter, Paul Shiffer, Berhart Shiffer, Paulus Shiffer, Sr., Philip Kuhn, Valentin Wildt, Jacob Bender, Christian Brechbull, Johannes Schlighter, Christian Stettler, Peter Habacker, Henrich Brightbill , Georg Elias Amendt, Peter Fonderburgh,
Valentin Fonderburgh, Johan Ada Schneider, Joseph Keller, Johan Georf Lotz, Johannes Weinmuller, Jost Birkenstock, Georg Michel Grotz, Johan Leonhart Muller, Hans Georg Mayer, Joh. Jacob Schulmann, Conrad Weymiller, Andreas Mendung, Johan Simon Friess,
Caspar Kuhner, Hans Martin Biller, Hans Jacob Pfarr, Jams Adam Leidy,
Michael Underkoffer, Martin Mansperber, Johan Hermann Schaffer,
Joh. Hen. Riemenschneider, Herry Bartholom. Shaffer, John Rudolph Auchenbach,
Michael Hubach, Andreas Hannewalt, Johan udwig Muller, Johan Conrad Ziegler,
Johan Peter Schneider, Nicholaus Freitag, Elias Nicolas Bender, Jacob Nicolas Bender,
Johan Philip Schmeltzer, Dietrich Six, Johan Frank, Georg Gunther, Peter Gunther,
Wendel Lentz, Johannes Wiest, Hans Meyer, Ulrich Segen, Johann Rudolph,
Jocob Kallady, Georg Mattheis Weller, Jacob Hubach, Michael Strobel, Hans Schmauss, John Mich. Geisselmann
Sources: Palatine Auswanderung Museum