Chapter Four

Valentine was probably very much aware during these years in New York of the difficulties which his Palatine friends and companions in the Hudson River settlements were experiencing. He had heard of the conditions under which they were living, the presence of army units sent to maintain order, and the inadequate and irregular supplies provided for them.

It is probable that he and his family were fairing somewhat better than the people in the settlements during this time. When he had a job, and when he had some money in his pocket, there was food to buy in the shops of the town. That was not to say that his family was living in luxury. They had probably found simple accommodations in a poorer area of town, along with other immigrants and poor folks who were trying to survive in the city.

Valentine and Christina must have experienced the fear of their fellow citizens when they heard of a slave uprising in the city on April 7, 1712. A fire was started by slaves in the home of a Dutchman named Peter Van Tilburgh, and a band of armed slaves killed nine white men who rushed to put out the fire. Armed soldiers were sent to restore order, and thirteen slaves were hung, six others were tortured and killed, and still others killed themselves to avoid capture. Immigration to America had not removed the Presslers from the ever-present dangers of possible violence in their community.

In New York, Valentine and Christina had been blessed with a baby girl soon after their arrival. Less than three years later on December 4, 1713, another son, named Hans Georg (or Hans Jurie), was christened in the New York City Reformed Church. Sponsors, or godparents, for the child were Hans Juria Pechor and Elizabeth Roseboom.

On June 1, 1714, Johan Valentyn Bressler and wife Anna Christiana of the Hoogduidsche Kerk joined the New York City Reformed Church. Hoogduidsche Kerk was Dutch for "High German Church," the term High German having nothing to do with social class, but referring to a geographical location and a linguistic dialect in southern Germany, as opposed to Low German which was spoken in the flat lowlands of northern Germany. Valentine and Christina were trying to put down roots in their new land.

About 1715, Valentine perhaps found work with the Dutch farmers on Staten Island (which the English called Richmond). In that year he was listed as being in the North Company of Colonel Aug. Graham in the Richmond County militia. Although a fourth son was christened in the New York City Reformed Church on July 25, 1716, named Martinus and in the presence of godparents Johannes Keÿser and Elizabeth Kerlag, a fifth son and last child of Valentine and Christina was christened on September 8, 1717, in the Reformed Church at Port Richmond on Staten Island. The child was called Pieter, and his sponsors were Pieter Van Pelt and his wife Sara.

It was probably due to the fact that the Pressler family was living on Staten Island that they were not included in a list of Palatines then living in New York City and the Hudson River settlements which was published in 1717 in Germany by immigrant Ulrich Simmendinger, who returned to Germany and wrote an account of his experiences while in New York.

South Prospect of New York City in 1717 (Gloria Gilda Deák.  Picturing America, 1497-1899.  Prints, Maps & Drawings Bearing on the New World Discoveries and on the Development of the Territory that is now the U.S. (Princeton: Princeton University, 1988))

The older of Valentine's children were growing into young adulthood. On November 7, 1718, Anna Elizabeth Bresseler married in the New York City Reformed Church to John Kimbark of Jamaica, Long Island. In 1721 Valentine apprenticed his second son, Anthonius (Anthony), to one Theunis Montaine to become a weaver, and on April 21, 1723, his oldest son, Andries (Andreas) Preslaar married in the New York City Reformed Church to Antje (Annie) Wells, a native of Staten Island. Andreas, or Andrew as he later was known, and Annie moved from New York soon after their marriage.

After Anthony had finished his apprenticeship, he married Neeltje (Nellie or Cornelia), whose last name is unknown to us, probably about 1724-1727, and settled on the west side of the Hudson River in Ulster County. The baptisms of six of their children were recorded in the New York City Lutheran churchbook in the following years. Johan Matthias was baptized in 1728 at Qvassayk-kill in B. Mynder's barn with Johan Matthys Kienberg (Kimbark?) and his wife as sponsors). Andriantje was also baptized at Qvassayk-kill in 1730, while Mattheus was baptized in 1735, Thomas in 1737, Anna Margaretha in 1741, and Joseph in 1742.

It is probable that Anthony and Nellie had two other older daughters whose names were not recorded in the churchbooks: Rebekka (Rebecca), who was born at Old Man's Kill in Ulster County and married Michael Wighandt (Wygant or Weygant), a native of Newburgh, on November 2, 1747, and Catrina who married Juryyen (Urean or Jurie) Mekki (Mackey), a native of Old Man's Kill on September 22, 1749. Both of these marriages occurred at the First Reformed Church at Poughkeepsie in Dutchess County, across the river from Ulster County.

Old Man's Kill, or Creek, has been located as being at Marlboro Landing, just north of Newburgh. As previously stated, the Reverend Joshua Kocherthal brought a small group of Palatines to New York back in 1708, two years before the larger party of Palatines arrived. At least some of these immigrants settled at Quassaick Creek on the Hudson just north of the town of Newburgh, where nine of their number were given a patent of land in 1719 for 2,200 acres.

Michael Weigand was one of the patentees, and with his wife Anne Catherine, and children, Anne Maria, George, Michael, and Tobias, settled on 250 acres of this patent. Burger Mynder was another of the original patentees. He was listed in the 1726-1729 tax lists, and it was in his barn that Anthony's oldest son was baptized in 1728. On the tax rolls of 1724-25 was George Waggont (Wygant), and next to Tobias Wygant was Valentyne Breasure (believed to be Pressler); in 1726-29, when the clerk listed many men by their given names only, there was next to Geo. Wagagont (Wygant) a John Vantine (believed to be John Valentine).

This evidence shows that Anthony Pressler settled his family on the grant at Quassaick Creek, and suggests that Valentine was also living there and paying tax on a parcel of this land between 1724 and 1729. The original settlement by Kocherthal in Ulster County did not prosper in the long term, and by 1751 the original settlers had all sold their rights to the land and moved. Anthony, who had apparently purchased a tract of this land from one of the earlier settlers, must have found a degree of success and happiness there. Perhaps his wife's family lived nearby, which would have been another inducement to stay there.

Anthony remained in New York State, and within a generation or two, members of the family had moved to other areas of the state, and in some cases, the family name had evolved to Presley. In 1738, Anthony Pressler was in the foot company of Ulster County militia under the command of Captain Thos. Ellison, and twenty years later in 1758 at the age of 54 he enlisted, along with his twenty-one year old son, Thomas, in Captain Harsbrook's militia company for participation in the French and Indian War. The record of these latter enlistments are significant in that they give us the earliest physical description of a Pressler. Anthony and Thomas were both five feet six and one-half inches in height with brown hair.

Valentine had left the Palatinate in search of better opportunities. Once in New York, he had declined to follow his fellow immigrants to the Hudson River camps, preferring to find work in the city. Possibly finding that after a time he had not discovered his fortune there, or perhaps thinking that he had saved enough money to follow his son up the river to Ulster County and buy some land, he tried that route for several years.

Then, he tried another move. What prompted this next big move, we don't know, but possibly it had something to do with his wife. After the christening of her youngest child, there is no further mention of Christina in the extant records. She had endured a hard life and had born many children, which may have led her to an early death. If she died in New York City or in the Hudson River settlement, the loss of his soul-mate would have left Valentine with his teenage sons to finish raising. Perhaps this explains how he came to feel free to move south, perhaps to be near his oldest son, Andrew, or to continue the old search for a better life for his other sons.

Many, if not most, of the Palatines who had come to New York, had wanted to go to Pennsylvania in the first place. The publicity about Pennsylvania in the various German lands had been most effective. It was the province about which they had heard the most information. New York had been little known to them, and the British government had diverted them there for its own purposes. After their difficulties in the Hudson River settlements with the authorities and in obtaining titles to their own tracts of land, many of them wrote to their relations and friends in Germany and advised them that if they ever intended to come to America, not to go to New York, but to go to Pennsylvania.

William Penn had obtained in 1681 a patent for the province which would bear his name. He was a good salesman and promoter, and by 1685 the colony had more than 7,000 inhabitants. Only half of them were British, with the remainder being a variety of national and ethnic groups. In 1683 one Francis Daniel Pastorius, a lawyer of Frankfurt, obtained a grant of 6,000 acres of land east of the Schuylkill River and brought over a group of German Mennonites to found the settlement of Germantown. In the next few years more and more Germans arrived in the colony and established scattered settlements over much of southeastern Pennsylvania all the way to the Blue Mountains and west of Philadelphia and the areas of English and Welsh settlement.

By 1736 there were about 40,000 Germans settled in Pennsylvania, and the Assembly feared that their numbers would deprive the English of the political control they enjoyed. Many of these Germans became squatters because they were too poor to buy the land. Palatines from New York had begun moving to Pennsylvania by 1720 or earlier. In 1723 fifteen of these Palatine families, many from Schoharie, moved to the Tulpehocken (Womelsdorf) district just east of the Swatara Creek in Berks County. Other families from New York followed the settlers to Tulpehocken in that year and in subsequent years.

No record of the Presslers in Pennsylvania has been found to date. However, it is almost inconceivable that they did not travel through the colony, and more than likely live for a time there. It is likely that Andrew and his new bride heard about the opportunities that were being offered in Pennsylvania, and opportunities to them seeming to be sparse in New York, they journeyed south after their marriage. Perhaps they crossed New Jersey to the Delaware River and visited Philadelphia with its broad streets, large lots, and busy docks, stores, tannery yards, brick kilns, and blacksmith shops. Perhaps they chose one of the several roads which led inland to farms and land where they hoped they might find a place to settle. It is likely that they did not find opportunities that were within their means.

They soon settled across the Pennsylvania line in Cecil County, Maryland, in St. Stephen's Parish, which was in the southern part of the county below the mouth of the Susquehanna River and near the head of Chesapeake Bay. They remained in this area for at least seven to eight years, but there is no evidence that they ever acquired the land for which we believe they were searching. Perhaps Andrew worked for the English farmers in the area, or perhaps he worked as a blacksmith as we know he did in later years.

The children of Andrew and Anne Prisley were christened in the Anglican church of St. Stephen beginning with their daughter Christain on June 6, 1725. A son John Volintine was christened on January 9, 1726, a daughter Sarah in 1728, and a son Thomas on August 27, 1730. The records of these christenings were the first instances in which we find an anglicized version of the surname, the minister who recorded the events most likely being a native English speaker who "wrote it as he heard it." However, by the time of the christening of the next and last son, Andrew, on February 4, 1732/33, the surname was recorded as Presler. We can conjecture that this was probably the result of the presence of the child's grandfather, whose name was recorded in the churchbook as John Vollintine Presler.

Thus, within a short time of Valentine's presence on the Hudson north of Newburgh, he had arrived in Maryland to visit with, or to live near, Andrew and his young family. Presumably, Valentine had come with his younger sons, Hans Jurie, who was then about 19 years old, and Peter, who was then about 15 years old. It is likely that Martinus had died in childhood. Valentine was then about 63 years old, and the record gives us no indication of his whereabouts for the next ten years.

Perhaps during those years he was living with his sons in Maryland and working for others, or perhaps he spent some of these years living and working among his fellow Palatines in Berks County or some other area of Pennsylvania. It is likely that during those years his sons, John and Peter, had married and begun their own families, but no records so indicating have been located.

Perhaps like many of the German settlers in Pennsylvania, Valentine wrote to family members or friends back in Germany telling them about the agreeable and hospitable conditions he encountered in Pennsylvania. Again, we have no way of knowing.

Valentine's name (along with those of his two youngest sons) surfaces once more for a last time in the records of Maryland in 1742. In that year a petition was circulated for the creation of a new parish, to be called All Saints, through the division of Prince George's Parish. Among the signers of this petition were 23 German settlers, including John Valentine Presler, John Presler, and Peter Presler. On the same date a petition was circulated which sought creation of Frederick County from Prince George County.

Between 1721 and 1731 the English had moved into the area of what would eventually become All Saints parish and Frederick County, Maryland, settling on land beside the rivers and streams. After 1731 the Germans began to move into the area from Pennsylvania and to take up tracts of land in or near the hills which paralleled the Monocacy River and which reminded them of the rolling country of their native Palatinate.

The signatures of Valentine and his two youngest sons on this petition certainly suggest that they were living in the area of the Monocacy in 1742, but no other record in the area has been found with their names. The petition for a new parish was granted in November 1742, and the new county was created in 1748.

It is also unclear when Andrew decided to move his family from Maryland to Virginia, but sometime after the birth of his youngest child he moved to Amelia County, Virginia, southwest of Richmond. In 1745 Andrew Presley finally purchased 100 acres in western Brunswick County on the north side of the Roanoke River. In 1746 the western part of the county was formed into a new county called Lunenburg, and in February 1746, just six months after he had purchased the land and before sufficient time had passed to raise a crop, Andrew Breslar and Anne, his wife, sold the 100 acre tract, which was then in Lunenburg County, and moved again.

Back in Europe the situation of almost continuous warfare had continued. The War of the Spanish Succession had ended with the Peace of Utrecht in 1713 and the Peace of Rastatt in 1714. As a result of those treaties, the city of Landau in the Palatinate became a French city for the next one hundred years. There followed another period of several years of uneasy recovery for the Palatinate, but in 1734 the War of Polish Succession broke out. The Polish king, who was traditionally elected, died, and the result was that Austria, Sweden, Russia and France each attempted to have a candidate favorable to their interests elected. French troops again marched through the Palatinate and "allowed" its citizens to support them by payments of money, food, etc. As had so often happened in the past, the French ended up fighting, not the Poles, but rather the Austrians and the Russians on German territory.

Within a very few years another war, the War of Austrian Succession, began. Charles VI of Austria died in 1740, and Bavaria, Spain, Prussia, Saxony, and France agreed to partition the Austrian empire. French armies were once again on the march back and forth through the Palatinate. An exhausting war, with neither side able to claim victory, was waged until the Peace of Aix-la-Chapelle was signed in 1748. The promise once again of peace did not change the fact that the population of the Palatinate was exhausted and discouraged, and when word began to spread once more about a better life in America, and especially in Pennsylvania, the message fell on receptive ears.

The peak of German immigration to Pennsylvania was to occur between 1749 and 1754. During the first of those years, twenty-two ships with 6,000 Palatines landed at Philadelphia. It is perhaps significant to our story that on October 19, 1749 the ship Lydia docked at Philadelphia carrying several Pressler immigrants to Pennsylvania. They were three brothers, named Johann Georg Simon Pressler, Johann Nickel Pressler, and Johann George Pressler, along with their two sisters, named Maria Elisabetha Pressler and Anna Maria Pressler. They were children of Hans Georg and Eva Magdalena Pressler of the village of Niederhochstadt in the Palatinate, who had been born there between 1722 and 1735. They also had a younger brother named Johann Valentin, born in 1737, who had likely died.

Host Church, Berks County, Pennsylvania, from painting by Ralph Dunkelberger, 1894-1964 (Annette K. Burgert, The Hochstradt Origins of Some of the Early Settlers at Host Church, Berks County, PA (Myerstown, PA:AKB Publications, 1983))

The Presslers/Bresslers moved to Tulpehocken Township in northern Berks County in the area of the St. John's Reformed Church. This church, commonly known as the Host Church, had been founded by Palatine immigrants, and many of its early members with surnames such as Becker, Bender, Bogenreiff, Bortner, Ehly, Gamber, Gensemer, Jordan, Knoll, Kornman, Laux, Meyer, Motz, Müller, Reintzel, Rost, Schirman, Unruh, Wagner, Wilhelm, and Wolff had all come from the villages of Oberhochstadt and Niederhochstadt in the Palatinate. They had begun arriving in Pennsylvania in the early 1730s and had settled near each other in this community as each family arrived.

At a somewhat later date, in 1764, Simon Bressler of Tulpehocken paid for the passage of Nicholas Bressler, son of Joh. David and Margaretha Bressler of Niederhochstadt, and his wife, and for Philip Jacob Bressler who all arrived on the King of Prussia at Philadelphia. They were presumably relatives.

Another family of Presslers also arrived in Philadelphia in 1749. Johannes Bressler, son of Hans Valentin and Anna Catharina Presler of Niederhochstadt, along with his wife Eva Maria (Öhli) and his children settled in Strasburg Township of Lancaster County. Johannes was probably accompanied by his brother, Jacobus. Among the precious possessions of the Bresslers when they arrived in Pennsylvania was a family Bible that had been published in Nurnberg in 1716.

If these Bresslers/Presslers were the younger kinfolk of Valentine Pressler and his family, they did not meet each other in Pennsylvania. By 1749, the three sons of Valentine, Andrew, John and Peter, had arrived in North Carolina. There is no further record of Valentine. An old man by the standards of the times in the 1740s, he had lived a difficult life in a challenging time. It is not known if Valentine died in Maryland or Pennsylvania, or if he made the trip with his sons to North Carolina. There was a Preslar family burying ground in North Carolina not long after his sons arrived there, but the names of those interred therein is lost to history.

Perhaps he had not found all that he had hoped to find in America when he left Germany, but he had known the satisfaction of seeing his sons and daughters grow to adulthood. He had enjoyed at least some of his grandchildren. He, and they, were free-free to move about without having to deal with the petty authorities and rulers of Europe. If his goal in America was land ownership, then he was perhaps less than successful, but if freedom and opportunity for his children was his goal, then he was, indeed, a great success. He had established the Pressler family blood line in the New World. How extensive that line would grow, and what his descendants would accomplish in this newly developing society in America, he could not know.

It is tempting to imagine, that just as we first discovered this immigrant ancestor traveling somewhere along the Rhine looking toward the promise of a better life in America, so the closing chapter in his life might have been somewhere along the trail with his sons, still in search of a better future.

© 1997 Donald W. Presley.   Reproduction of this material for commercial purposes is prohibited without written permission of Donald W. Presley.  No claim is made to previously copyrighted material.  Elvis, Elvis Presley, and Graceland are registered trademarks of Elvis Presley Enterprises, Inc.

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