Our Mennonites of Lancaster County;  [Surnames Relevant: Herr,  Brenneman, Brubaker  ( Kundig and  Bar) ]ld, tdT
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Herr **Brenneman**Brubaker
[European Born Wife] Kundig
[European Born Wife] Bar
Table of Contents this Page:
  • Why Our Mennonites are Our First Germans in America 
  • Mennonite precense in Penna
  • Mennonite Interaction with Our Non Mennonite Directs
  • OUR Mennonites of Penna and THEIR Pennsylvania
  • Conestoga Settlement Survey Map 1717 [Chester, now Lancaster County] with names of settlers and identification of our direct lines amongst them
  • Description of Dress of the Mennonites and of Hans Herr himself 
  • Account of the frontier of 
  • Penna on Mennonite Arrival
  • The 1719 Hans Herr House  revealing the style of home preferred 

  • Related Pages 
    WithinTheVines:
  • Lancaster& our Lancaster 

  • Countians

  • History of Penna and also
  • Our Surnames of Penna
  • A Brief History of Why Our Mennonites are Our First Germans in America

     Hans Herr , our first direct American immigrant in the Swope and Allied lines thus far discovered was a Mennonite Bishop and is surely among our oldest immigrants at time of arrival, being in his 7th decade at the time of passage with his wife, born Barbel Kundig,  about 4 years his junior. The spiritual leader of his people, the group with whom Hans and Barbel  came was a close knit one with longstanding European connection. Barbel's nephew was  the Martin Kendig who brokered the land deal with Penn, and he became land agent for the Conestoga Settlement of our Mennonites, discussed below. The   Mennonites, our first German Immigrants and  the first of any of our direct ancestor immigrants in the German heavy Swope ascendancy , [The Howard ascendancy lacking any German surnames at all] caused them to leave  Europe with grateful hearts, pleased to forge into the furthest and unsettled reaches of the Pennsylvania frontier involving the Conestoga Valley of then Chester, and now Lancaster County. By 1717 more of our Mennonites of Europe were waiting to join their brethren of Lancaster. Included in this second group joining our Herr ancestors are our Brenneman forebears. All our Mennonites belong to the Swope and Allied Ascendancy group. See  Conestoga Settlement Survey 1717 with names of settlers and identification of our direct lines amongst them, which includes all of our direct line Mennonite forebears. 

    Our Mennonites were part of an anabaptist tradition with roots in Switzerland & Germany, predating the Amish who splintered off from them. Involved in anabaptist doctrine was a refusal of carnal warfare, a shunning of wordly possesions, and central was the refusal of baptism until the age of cognizance, usually around 12 years of age,  when other protestants [and catholics] experience first communion. The concept of refusal of infant baptism was heretical to both non anabaptist protestants and catholics alike, occuring in an era when infants who died before baptism were commonly buried seperately from their parents. Mennonite children were seen as swine dirtying the streets, Mennonite men as impossible subjects who preferred jail to the wars ravaging Germany  for which they were felt needed and in which their conscience would not allow involvement, the group as a whole seem often to be considered  an unwelcome pestilence. First practising in Switzerland and the Palatinate of Germany in the 1520s, as a group  Mennonite anabaptists  had suffered vigorous persecution which, in the worst scenarios, involved  torture, death by  drowning, beheading and burning at the stake, confiscation of properties, expulsion from villages sometimes in the dead of winter and without shoes on their feet,  and, in the best of scenarios,  the outlaw of their religious practise and the threat of imprisonment in rebellion of the law, absence of  legal recognition of marriage, the ban on funerals in the faith, and social stigmatization .  The Mennonite experience in Germany and Switzerland is discussed in much detail in  The Europeans Within The Vines  portion of this website . 
     

    This page  offers a brief introduction to a  group of devout spiritualists among our forebears, a composite sketch of their history, a description of the land they settled as first white settlers, and one amongst them:  Bishop Hans Herr,  the Moses of his beleaguered people. 


     



     
    The Mennonites of Pennsylvania; Arrival and General Pennsylvania History 
    William Penn befriended the Mennonites and encompassed them in his remarkable, revolutionary experiment involving all creeds living together in peace. He extended invitation to this beleaguered faith group of Germany and Switzerland, suggesting they find religious peace and fiscal prosperity in his colony. See the Mennonites of Europe to understand the grievous conditions under which our Mennonite forebears suffered and for which they gratefully accepted William Penn's invitation. 
    The first Mennonites in Pennsylvania involved Germantown  in 1685, the result of a visit in 1678 by a wealthy Mennonite merchant with a view of establishing a colony on the Delawarefootnote 2 . Germantown,  now part of metropolitan Philadelphia was, at the time of its settlement just outside Philadelphia; Its  settlers are well documented and amply studied.  In the spring of 1707 Martin Kolb emmigrated, and he soon settled at Skippack-Kolb was one of the first Mennonite preachers in America, likely instigating further immigration.   Soon after Kolb's arrival  our direct ancestor,  Mennonite Bishop Hans Herr  , along with  his small band of followers involving 9 Mennonite families, left London [June 29, 1710 on the ship "Mary Hope"3 ] and arrived in Philadelphia [23 Sep 1710 7 ] from which they walked to the far reaches of the Penna frontier to settle their land grant in then Chester [now Lancaster] County, being the first white settlers of the region. The year of their arrival varies from 1709  to1711, is most often presented as 1710, and  the specific month and date of departure and arrival are not disputed [see footnote 1a/1 for explanation and understanding of the calendar confusion]. By " the spring of 1717 some 300 Palatine Mennonites were in Rotterdam to embark for Pennsylvania  .... they received financial support from the Dutch Mennonites" 1" On Nov. 22, 1717, Martin Kendig [nephew to Hans Herr's wife Barbel KUNDIG]  and Hans Herr obtained warrant for 5000 acres of land along Mill Creek and Conestoga for  some of their Brethren who had lately arrived from Switzerland."3 These brethren arrived 1717 , lately from Germany/Switzerland and arriving from Rotterdam. Amongst them was   our direct Melchior Brenneman.  With this group a stream of German immigration set in which continued almost without interruption until the second half of the 19th century. By 1732, 3,000 Palatine Mennonites had arrived in America. By 1773 the immigration lists showed over 30,000 Palatine names, mostly non- Mennonite. The Mennonites in America of Palatine origin numbered circa 150,000 souls in 1935, of whom 35,000 were living in Lancaster County alone".1

    Mennonite interaction with our non Mennonite surnames

    Among the early Mennonite families  are the GROFFS or GRAFFS [GRAEFF and GROVE], the descendants of whom soon intermarried with our non Mennonite Swope and allied cousins  of the Lancaster county region also present from Lancaster's earliest years but arriving just behind the Mennonites to the region. One well known  among them was Johannes or Hans Graff, famous Indian Trader, arrived apparantly in 1704, and who may or may not have been father to our ancestor John Swope's 2nd  wife Elizabeth GROVE. There is a Johannes Greff  present at that marriage in Lancaster County, the guest list of which does not mention relationships to the bride and groom and does not further identify this gentleman in attendance , although the "Swope Book of Remembrance" did address the possible and known relationships of those present -those relationships and mention of John Graff Indian Trader are replicated in the guest list present as part of the Swope Line within the Vines study. 

    Many Mennonites arriving in the 1710 group or the subsequent 1717 group  were with our directs John SWOPE [non mennonite and above mentioned] and John LINE [non mennonite and John Swope's first father in law] being among  the first foreigners naturalized in the new County of Lancaster in 1729/30 and in which document the authorities wrote all were present 1700-1717 and held land by 1729. John Line was the father of John Swope's first wife, our direct ancestor Dorothea LINE, and he, too , is to be found in the guest list of John Swope's second marriage to Elizabeth GROVE.


    Footnote 1a/ 1 Date Confusion and its Likely Causes:
    Our Mennonite forebears pertained to a group of emmigrants who together shaped their future. Much calendar confusion occurs in the studies of these Mennonites, [the calendar was changed later in the 17th century and some sources seem to account for it and others not is my only conclusion to the variance in dates].  Sources vary in presenting the arrival of this group from 1709 to 1711, with 17103, 7  the most frequent date provided for the arrival of their ship the "Mary Hope" . The Ship Mary Hope  did arrive on Sept 237, having left London  June 29,3 although the year is found in variance .
    The time frame variance may relate to the confusion of dating involved in the pre 1752 universal  calendar change. The arrival of Hans Herr is often given as 1709/10 with the march to the frontier occuring shortly after.  It is assumed the Mennonite history Page has accomodated for the necessary readjustment to date necessitated by the 1752 universal calendar change, and seems to align well with the general history of the Mennonites and the forebears among them provided at other sources as provided in the ancestor pages Within The Vines and the footnotes therein, but noone seems to remark in the literature IF they have accomodated dates to the change, or if they have not. [The Ebys of Switzerland prepared by Alice Neff and  linked from within the very well studied  Neff Family History  reports:  ìAs early as 1709, large numbers of Mennonites from Germany had moved to Holland where they received aid from their wealthy Dutch counterparts. Most of the early emigrants sailed from the ports of Amsterdam and Rotterdam then on to an area near London, England, where they remained until their number was sufficient to fill a boat. An interesting letter dated June 27, 1710, in London from emigrants under such a circumstance was signed by Martin Kendig, Jacob Muller, Martin Oberholtzer, Martin Maile (Mylin), Christian Herr and Hans Herr. These men had gone to America upon the encouragement of William Penn his agents. Their ship the Maria Hope, arrived on September 23, 1710, in the port city of Philadelphiaî

    On  to Our Mennonites of Penna, Their Pennsylvania, Map of the Conestoga Survey 1717-18 -identifiation of our directs among them
    On  to An Account of the Land's Appearance on Arrival of our Mennonites:
    To Top of Page


     
     
    Our Mennonites of Pennsylvania, Their Pennsylvania

    Our Mennonite forebears pertained to a group of cohesive emmigrants who worshipped together, escaped together, built a new world together, and whose descendants continued to intermarry in the new world, just as they had intermarried in Europe. 
    Ten Mennonite men purchased 10,000 acres from William Penn  in October of 17103,  [the survey occured  Oct 23, 1710 ] with some sources suggesting without firm evidence that the survey was done while yet they were in Europe. [see link for names of the men involved in the survey which include our direct ancestor and the group's spiritual leader Bishop Hans Herr] .   In the Spring of 1711 [some accounts state 1709/10 [see calendar confusion ] , seven of those men travelled to their frontier grant,  with their families3,  to establish homes north of Pequea Creek, among them Bishop Herr; Many  accounts remark they set off at once for Pequea and with no delay.  At the time of their sojourn,  the  region to which they removed was part of Chester County, one of the original three shires of Pennsylvania, but  since 1729 this region is to be found in Lancaster County, formed that year from Chester. Thus, these immigrants pertained to Chester for the first 18+ years of their Pennsylvania residency, although they are inextricably linked with Lancaster County history. The 10,000 acres  surveyed for them in  Oct was divided among them on Aprl 21, 17113 and lies " in  what is now know as West Lampeter Township" 4 " , "on both sides of Pequea Creek, and extended from the present borough of Strasburg westward beyond Willow Street " To get to their land grant the families, including our direct Hans Herr [in his 70s] and his wife Barbel, [in her 60s]   " followed an ancient Native path called the 'Great Conestoga Road', which passed within yards of the site on which, eight years later, the 1719 [Hans Herr] House would be built.....   The first Mennonites who settled in what became Lancaster County passed through Germantown on their way west and continued to associate with the Mennonites there throughout the colonial period. The 'Conestogoe' Settlement of Mennonites (so called because of its location near the Conestoga River), however, was remote from most other settlements in Pennsylvania.The nearest neighbors of the Conestogoe Mennonites were the Conestoga people, an indigenous group [remnant tribes of the once powerful Susuehannocks]  who held legal title to a 'Manor' between the Little Conestoga Creek and the Susquehanna River, about five miles to the west of the Mennonite settlement. The closest European settlement was about twenty-five miles to the south-south east. This was called the 'Nottingham Lots':  lands granted by Pennsylvania, but including a number of tracts in what is now Maryland."2

    "In the spring of 1717 some 300 Palatine Mennonites were in Rotterdam to embark for Pennsylvania  .... they received financial support from the Dutch Mennonites" 1" On Nov. 22, 1717, Martin Kendig [nephew to Hans Herr's wife Barbel KUNDIG]  and Hans Herr obtained warrant for 5000 acres of land along Mill Creek and Conestoga for  some of their Brethren who had lately arrived from Switzerland."3 These brethren arrived 1717 , lately from Germany/Switzerland and arriving from Rotterdam. Amongst them was   our direct Melchior Brenneman.
     

    "  In 1719, Christian Herr , son of the Bishop Hans Herr,  built  the home that has come to be known by his father's name, the Hans Herr House, the oldest dwelling pertaining to the Conestoga Mennonites, and, as it also served as a place of worship in the early days, it is the oldest surviving Mennonite Church in America....The county seat of Lancaster County was established at the newly-created town of Lancaster [1729]. By 1733 a 'Kingís Highway'  from Philadelphia and Chester to Lancaster was completed, replacing the Great Conestoga Road as the main route to the west. The original Mennonite settlement, once centered on the 'main drag', was now a backwater. But for ten years or more, virtually anyone passing to the west of the Province would have walked under the shadow of the 1719 House. " 2


    Conestoga Township
    Survey 1717
    CLICK IMAGE FOR 
    LARGER PRESENTATION
    Image from 
    Charles D.  Breneman's 
    "A History of the Descendants of 
    Abraham Brenneman" 
    published Elida, Ohio by
    The author, c1939. Page vi. 
    Cites A H Gerberich 

    It is through the marriage of Melchior Brenneman's  [arrived 1717] grandson Christian Brenneman to Bishop Herr's [arrived 1710] great Grandaughter Anna HERR  that both the Herr and Brennemn Mennonite immigrants are direct to this writer and I have not yet found documentation to prove or disprove that it is this generation that marks abandonment of Mennonite tradition in our direct lines.    However, Mennonite practise was certainly abandoned by the next, as Christian and Anna Herr Brenneman's  daughter Elizabeth BRENNEMAN lies buried with  her husband John QUICKEL in a Lutheran/Reformed cemetery bearing the name of  the father in law  who had donated land for, and so founded Quickelís Church, a Lutheran And Reformed congretional building also called Zion Church. Quickel's was the first Church  in the  Conewago Settlement, excluding the Mennonite meeting house which  also served as home to the immigrant Herrs. Reformed and Lutheran, still at odds in Germany,  intermarried in the colonies without prejudice in general...but marriage outside the Mennonite faith with either could lead to shunning and the removal of a child from the will of a Mennonite parent.
    John and Elizabeth [Brenneman] QUICKEL's dtr Annie QUICKEL  married Michael BENTZ of York, York Co, Penna at Christ Lutheran in York, and their daughter Maria Elizabeth 'Mary' BENTZ was mother in law to Judge Samuel McCurdy Swope , a Presbyterian Elder, and pictures of Mary  with her Swope son in law and daughter are in Swope family possesion. Judge Swope's wife Annie STAIR is well remembered by the older members of the Swope family of Gettysburg, now  in their 9th decades of life. [E  R S Frazee and M B Frazee, her husband] 

    On  to An Account of the Land's Appearance on Arrival of our Mennonites:
     To Top of Page


    An Account of the Land's Appearance on Arrival of our Mennonites:
    1. Account of Arrival of Madam Ferree [Marie Warembourg] and what she viewed
    2. Description of the region on Hans Herr's arrival
     
    The following is relevant to our direct Mennonite Herr & Brenneman ancestors, though the subject is Huguenot Marie Ferree [nee Marie WAREMBOURG though she sometimes appears as Mary WARENBUER/WARRIMBERE] She is of interest  as a collaterol in the data base, her children marrying into other of our direct line families. She probably arrived in the Peguea Valley around 1712, although some accounts give a less likely  date of 1709. Despite the inability to firmly affix a date to her arrival there,  it occured nearly contemporaneously to  the arrival of our Mennonite Herr ancestor Bishop Hans [1710] , and about 5 years prior to our mennonite Brenneman forebear Melchior [1717].  Rupp, in his ìHistory of Dauphin and Cumberland Countiesî etc, describes the arrival of Madam Le Fiere [Ferree] and her party to the Pequea valley-Marie's  land was located along the Pequea creek about 55 miles west of Philly, and was part of the 10,000 acres granted by William Penn to Martin Kindig [nephew to Hans Herr's wife] and other agents of the Mennonite colony,  with which was associated Hans Herr  and among which families are included that of Melchior Brenneman  both above mentioned.  This excerpt regarding her arrival offers a glimpse at the Pennsylvania of our first direct German arrivals, themselves bound for the unsettled frontier of their Pennsylvania, first immigrants to what is now Lancaster County, and now just an hours drive from Philadelphia.  Of diametric interest  is  our Howard ascendancy in which appears our  direct ancestor James Logan -James was surveyor general and secretary to William Penn,  a man whose influence can not be underestimated  in the period of Pennsylvania's history during which arrived our Swope allied Mennonite forebears; James Logan's precense in,  and influence upon others found in the Within the Vines database  creates  interesting interface in this period of Pennsylvania history. He was the most powerful Pennsylvanians and  Logan's interactions with the native Americans greatly affected the ability of a westward and northward expansion in Pennsylvania;   Without his involvement, our Mennonite's history could well have been interrupted and exceedingly different.
     
     Rupp [ left unchanged from the original]  in his ìHistory of Dauphin & Cumberland Countiesî:
    ìIt was on the evening of a summerís day when the Hugenots reached the verge of a hill commanding a view of the valley of Pequea; it was a woodland scene, a forest inhabited by wild beasts, for no indication of civilized man was near; scattered along the Pequea, amidst the dark-green hazel, could be discovered the Indian wigwams, the smoke issuing therefrom in its spiral form; no sound was heard but the songs of the birds; in silence they contemplated the beautiful prospect which nature presented to their view. Suddenly a number of Indians dared from the woods; the females shrieked, when an Indian advanced, and in broken English said to Madam Ferre:'Indian no harm white;white good to Indian;go to Beaver-our chief-come to Beaver'. Few were the words of the Indian. They went with him to Beaverís cabin, and Beaver, with the humanity that distinguished the Indian of that period, gave up to the immigrants his wigwam. Next day he introduced them to Tawana, who lived on the great flats of Pequeaî

    At the time of the Ferree settlement in his dominions Mary Le Fiere took a present from Pennís agent to Tawana, and thus secured his friendship, according to Edward Spangler in his History of the Spangler Family.

    Top of Page
    Physical Description of the The Mennonites and Hans Herr Among them
    [also describes the land on their arrival] :
    Bishop Hans Herr is described as  "of medium height, with long grey hair curled under at the ends and parted in the middle, Heavy brows, dark hazel eyes, aquiline nose, mouth rather small with heavy lips,complexion florid,with full beard covering the face, the whole lighted by a countenance in which sweetness and austerity were gracefully blended. Clad in the coarsest homespun, his feet shod with wood, he at last arrived in the far-off land in which some strange prophecy told him he and his People would be prosperous and happy, however poor when arriving. ( C.H. Martin, paper read before the Lancaster county historical society, 1925)....A very quaint account of them says  the sect came from a German Palatinate, at the invitation of William Penn.

    "The men wore long red caps on their heads. The women had neither bonnets, hats, nor caps, but merely a string passing around the head to keep the hair from the face. The dress both of female and male was domestic, quite plain, made of coarse material, after an old fashion of their own. Soon after their arrival at Philadelphia they took a westerly course, in pursuit of a location where they could all live in one vicinity.

    "They selected a rich limestone country, beautifully adorned with sugar-maple, hickory, and black and white walnut, on the border of a delightful stream abounding in the finest trout. Here they raised their humble cabins. The water of the Pequea was clear, cold, transparent, and the grape-vines and clematis inter-twining among the lofty branches of the majestic buttonwood formed a pleasant retreat from the noon-beams of a summer sun....Rupp, who wrote in 1844, though commonplace and sometimes tiresome, alone, of all the earlier chroniclers of this people, has put us under obligations for the scanty details he has preserved in an historical form of the early colony. "On the 23d of October the land was surveyed and divided among the Meylins, Herr, Kendig, and others of the company. Having erected temporary shelters, some set about it and put up dwellings of more durableness. Martin Kendig erected one of hewed walnut logs on his tract, which withstood the storms and rain, the gnawings of the tooth of time, for more than one hundred and ten years, and might, had it not been removed in 1841, and its place taken up by one of more durable materials, have withstood the corroding elements for generations to come. They now began to build houses and add new acquisitions of lands to their first possessions. To depend upon their Indian neighbors for provisions was useless. The Indians depended mainly upon game and fish. Of course, the supplies of provisions were scanty, and what they had they were under the necessity to transport from a distant settlement for some time, till the seeds sown in a fertile soil yielded some thirty, others fortyfold. Fish and fowl were plenty in the wilds. The season of their arrival was favorable around them, they saw crowned the tall hazel with rich festoons of luscious grapes. After they had been scarce fairly seated they thought of their old homes, their country, and friends. They sighed for those whom they left for a season. They remembered them that were in bonds as bound with them, and which suffered adversity, and ere the earth began to yield a return in kindly fruits to their labors, consultations were held and measures devised to send some over to their Vaterland to bring the residue of some of their families--also their kindred and brothers in a land of trouble and oppression to their new home--into a land where peace reigned and abundance of the comforts of life could not fail. They had strong faith in the fruitfulness and natural advantages of their choice of lands; they knew these would prove to them and their children the home of plenty. Their anticipations have never failed.î5

    To The Hans Herr House [Describing the Life and Home of the Mennonites] 
    To Top of Page

    The "Hans Herr" House [Describing the Life and Home of the Mennonites]

    This is edited somewhat, and is taken from the original found at ìDescriptive Narrative provided by the Tour Center of the Hans Herr House presented in the Comprehensive pages of ìPioneers and Patriarchs,  Pennsylvania Dutch History, Genealogy and Culture, ~ Swiss Mennonite and German Palatine Immigrants~ . The reader is encouraged to follow the link given to the original presentation and additional information at those pages. It reads in part [with far more information at the original site]:

     "Their first homes were built of the logs left when they cleared the forest for their fields. .. [in 1719] Christian Herr built the first stone house in the community. It reflected his Germanic background, having a stube, kuche, eck bank, kachelofen, and other features typical of homes in the Palatinate and Switzerland. Christian, his wife, seven children, his eighty-year old father Hans (after whom the museum is named), and his mother Elizabeth all lived in the house. Since both Christian and Hans were ministers, the house also served as, a place for worship services. ....The datestone over the door is original to the house and bears Christian's initials and the date. .... The Herr house has been restored and furnished to show the period of 1719 to 1750. The kuche has a very large fireplace which is located in the center of the house. The fireplace itself was not used for heat but provided access to the kachelofen, which warmed the stube. Unlike the English settlers, who used a large fire in the fireplace for heating and cooking, the German settlers used the oven for heating and used only small fires for cooking. a hearth raised around two feet above the floor level. The fires were built on this kind of hearth was much more convenient and safer than the English colonials' floor level hearths. The wooden fire crane in the fireplace is original and was used to hold pots over the fires. There is a local story that one night the Herrs had a hunting party of Indians take refuge in their kitchen in front of the fireplace. Lancaster County was settled peaceably and the Mennonites got along well with the local Conestoga Indians. The house has a root cellar, where they stored turnips, cabbages, apples, onions, smoked meats, and apple cider. Cider was the main drink of the early settlers. Apples were so important that many farms had as many as 150 apple trees. They did not eat potatoes in the early 18th century because they thought potatoes were poisonous The small room next to the kitchen was used for storage of food items and tools. Nearly every room of the house provided storage space, since the house was the only building on the farm. One Pennsylvania German farmer near here kept a horse collar and harness, a crosscut saw, and old lumber in his bedroom.

    The stube is located behind the kitchen fireplace. Because of the kachelofen it was the warmest room in the house and the center of family Elderly members of the family sometimes slept in the stube; we think- this is where Hans and his wife Elizabeth slept. In this house the stube also acted as the place of worship. Here the members of the Mennonite community gathered every second or third Sunday. Today all Mennonite groups meet in church buildings but the Amish continue to meet in homes for worship. The minister did not preach from a pulpit but used a simple table. On the table are Christian Herr's family Bible, two Ausbunds, and a Martyrs' Mirror. The Martyrs' Mirror is a book containing many stories about the Anabaptist martyrs during the time of the Reformation. .... The Ausbund is a hymn book. The first Ausbund was printed in 1564 Keith songs which were sung by the Anabaptists while in prison. The Ausbund is still in print and is used by the Amish in their services. It is the oldest Protestant hymn book that has been in continuous use until today, Christian Herr's Bible was printed in 1738 in Basle. He must purchased it on one of his trips back to Philadelphia to sell flour. The journey to Philadelphia took around two days in good weather. When Christian died in 1750, the Bible was part of an inventory done of his possessions. At that time it was worth the same amount of money as two cows.

    The strange object standing on the table near the books is a rush light. These used the stem of a bullrush or cattail which had been soaked in fat or grease. When lit they provided a flame free while Candles were quite expensive. Although smoky and smelly, they were [text trails here]

    The kammer was the master bedroom for Christian and his wife Anna. They slept on a rope bed, with a straw mattress, and a feather bed on top for warmth. The Germans used feather beds and the English used wool blankets. In that room is a chest which was used by a German family that emigrated to Lancaster County in 1737. In order to identify their trunk once they got to Philadelphia, they put a label inside the lid with their four names and the date of 1737. The label has remained inside the lid for over 250 years immigration by a family of four, It proves the trunk was used for In the early years after arrival, the Mennonite settlers had very little furniture.

    Often the chest they used for immigration was the largest item of furniture in their house. But they prospered and by 1750 many had schranks for their clothing. However the schrank itself was not so valuable as the clothing that was kept in it. 1750. ...the insulation used [in the home] : pieces of wood wrapped with rye straw. This was a tradition brought from Germany and does a good job of insulating the house. The rye straw was used because it was bitter to rats and mice and they would not chew on it.

    The children slept in the first attic, which also served as a storage area. The second attic above it was just for storage. ......

    The second attic was heated by an iron five-plate stove, fed by a small fireplace. Hot coals from the fire were put in the stove, which radiated heat into the attic. The children would have slept on beds similar to that of their parents, probably as many as three or four shared a bed. Despite the stove it still got quite cold in the attic during the winter because there was no insulation..... ì


    Annotated From Descriptive Narrative provided by the Tour Center of the Hans Herr House presented in the Comprehensive pages of ìPioneers and Patriarchs,  Pennsylvania Dutch History, Genealogy and Culture, ~ Swiss Mennonite and German Palatine Immigrants~
    The reader is encouraged to access the link  for additional information and full text.
    [permission for use requested 031503]

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    Footnote 1
    The time frame may relate to the confusion of dating involved in the pre 1752 universal  calendar change. The arrival of Hans Herr is often given as 1709/10 with the march to the frontier occuring shortly after.  It is assumed the Mennonite history Page has accomodated for the necessary readjustment to date necessitated by the 1752 universal calendar change, and seems to align well with the general history of the Mennonites and the forebears among them provided at other sources as provided in the ancestor pages Within The Vines and the footnotes therein, but noone seems to remark in the literature IF they have accomodated dates to the change, or if they have not.
    [ The Ebys of Switzerland prepared by Alice Neff and  linked from within the Neff Family History  reports:  ìAs early as 1709, large numbers of Mennonites from Germany had moved to Holland where they received aid from their wealthy Dutch counterparts. Most of the early emigrants sailed from the ports of Amsterdam and Rotterdam then on to an area near London, England, where they remained until their number was sufficient to fill a boat. An interesting letter dated June 27, 1710, in London from emigrants under such a circumstance was signed by Martin Kendig, Jacob Muller, Martin Oberholtzer, Martin Maile (Mylin), Christian Herr and Hans Herr. These men had gone to America upon the encouragement of William Penn his agents. Their ship the Maria Hope, arrived on September 23, 1710, in the port city of Philadelphiaî

    footnote 2
    "As a result of Penn's visit to the Mennonite brethren in the Palatinate, Jacob Telmer, a wealthy Mennonite merchant of Crefeld, became interested in the welfare of  the Swiss brethren who had come down the Rhine, and came to America in 1678 with a view of establishing a colony on the Delaware. This resulted in the landing of 13 Mennonite families, consisting of 33 persons, on Oct. 5, 1683. This was the beginning of Germantown. The names of these settlers would indicate that they were from Holland or the lower Palatinate. For a more detailed account of these settlers see Pennypacker's "Settlement of Germantown....We now come to the first Mennonite  settlement within the present limits of Lancaster County by Hans Herr and his little band of followers. They left London June 29, 1710 on the ship "Mary Hope" and arrived in Philadelphia in September. They set out at once for Pequea where land was surveyed for them on Oct. 23, 1710, and divided among   them on April 21, 1711. This land lay on both sides of Pequea Creek, and extended from the present borough of Strasburg westward beyond Willow Street and contained 10,000 acres which were divided as follows: beginning on the west side, Martin Kendig 530 A.; Martin Mylin 265 A.; Christian Herr 530 A.; Martin Kendig 264 A.; John Herr 530 A.; John Bundely 500 A.;  Christian Franciscus 530 A.; Jacob Miller 1008 A.; John Funk 530 A.; Martin Kendig 1060 A. The balance of this tract was divided later from 1710 to 1717, and the settlement increased rapidly. For a more detailed account of these settlements and other  data relative to the Swiss and Palatinate settlers in Lancaster County see "Eshleman's Annals.""3

    footnote 4
    The 10,000 acres settled by Hans Herr and others  "were  divided as follows: beginning on the west side, Martin Kendig 530 A.; Martin Mylin 265 A.; Christian Herr 530 A.; Martin Kendig 264 A.; John Herr 530 A.; John Bundely 500 A.;  Christian Franciscus 530 A.; Jacob Miller 1008 A.; John Funk 530 A.; Martin Kendig 1060 A. The balance of this tract was divided later from 1710 to 1717, and the settlement increased rapidly. For a more detailed account of these settlements and other  data relative to the Swiss and Palatinate settlers in Lancaster County see "Eshleman's Annals." "3



    SURVEY CONESTOGA TOWNSHIP SURVEY 1716-1717
    Image from Charles D.  Breneman's  "A History of the Descendants of Abraham Brenneman" published Elida, Ohio by The author, c1939. Page vi. 
    Cites A H Gerberich
    Notations in red from this author and represent
    Christian Herr Tract, site of Hans Herr House
    Abraham Herr's tract [brother to Christian, like Christian, son of Hans Herr. Son Rudolph lived in Manor Twp as adult asnd raised Anna, his dtr there]
    Melchior Brenneman [his grandson Christian, son of Christian, married Anna Herr, dtr of Rudolph,  grandaughter of Abraham, ggdtr of the Bishop]


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    Sources for This Page:
    1. Mennonite Encyclopedia, Mennonite Publishing House, Scottdale, PA, 1957, transcription

    2.  Webpage of The 1719 Hans Herr House & Museum . Mennonite history and the Conestoga settlement of Lancaster

    3 Hoover, Harry M. The Huber-Hoover Family History. Mennonite Publishing House. Scottdale, PA.1928.

    4 History of Neff's Grist Mill .Written by Albert R. Spencer Great Grandson of John Neff II, Builder of the Mill . From Neff Times webpages

    5."History of Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, with Biographical Sketches of Many of its Pioneers and Prominent Men". Originally published in Philadelphia by Everts and Peck in 1883. Chapter XXVI. The Mennonites. From Online Database Library [ancestry.com] Lancaster County, Pennsylvania History.

    6. Descriptive Narrative provided by the Tour Center of the Hans Herr House presented in the Comprehensive pages of ìPioneers and Patriarchs,  Pennsylvania Dutch History, Genealogy and Culture, ~ Swiss Mennonite and German Palatine Immigrants~

    7. Pal Project Pennsylvania page from The Palatine Project. [Gary T. Horlacher webmaster]

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