Heidelberg Township
Heidelberg
township was so called by the first settlers, after the capitol of
the country whence many of them had emigrated to America. It was
named after Heidelberg, a city of south Germany, in the duchy of Baden,
and the seat of a town and district bailiwick, at the foot of the Kaiserstuhl,
on the Neckar, about twelve miles above it confluence with the Rhine, at
Manheim.
When settlements were
commenced by the Germans, they scattered themselves in the midst of the
Indians, who complained much to government, of the "foreigners," that their
corn had been destroyed by those people's creatures Sassoonan or
Allummapees, at a council held at Philadelphia, in the Great meeting house,
June 5, 1728, complained bitterly of the intrusions by the Germans at Tulpahoca,
(Heidelberg.) In addressing secretary Logan, he said "He was grown
old, and was troubled to see the christians settle on lands that the Indians
had never been paid for-they had settled on his lands for which he had
never received any thing. That he is now an old man, and must soon
die, that his children may wonder to see all their father's lands gone
from the, without his receiving any thing for them, that the christians
now make their settlements very near them, and they shall have no place
of their own left to live on. Col. Rec. iii. p. 338.
A few years after this
complaint by Sassoonan, Thomas Penn purchased the Tulpehocken lands, now
forming Berks and Lebanon counties. At the time of Penn's purchase,
1732, and ten or fifteen years later, the tawny sons of Tulpahoca had a
cluster of Indian villages, north of the present site of Wommelsdorf, under
the Kittatiny or Blue Mountain.
About the year 1707, 1708,
1709, thousands of Germans were oppressed by Romish intolerance, many of
whom, to the number of three thousand or more, on a proclamation of Queen
Ann, of England, 1708, went from the Palatinate to Holland, and were thence
transported to England. They encamped near London. About this
time, the colonists of New York, looked to the mother country for aid to
repel the incursions of the French. in 1710, Cols. Nicholas
and Schuyler, accompanied by five Sachems, or Indian chiefs, had returned
from America to England, to solicit additional forces against Canada.
While at London, the chiefs in their walks in the outskirts of London,
saw the unenviable condition of the houseless and homeless Germans; though
Indians, they were moved by human woe and suffering, commiserated their
destitute condition, and no doubt, being informed of the yearnings of the
Germans' aching hearts for a country free from persecution, one of them,
unsolicited and voluntarily, presented the Queen a tract of his land, in
Schoharie, New York, for the use and benefit of the distressed Germans.
About this time, Colonel
Robert Hunter, having received the appointment of the Governor, for New
York, and sailing for America, brought with him not less that three thousand
of these Germans, or Palatines, to the town of New York, where they encamped
several months; and in the autumn of 1710, many of whom were removed at
the expense of Queen Ann, to Livingston district; others settled in the
city of New York, some in Germantown, others elsewhere.
Those who were removed
to Livingston's District, or Manor were required, in order to repay freightage
from Holland to England, thence to New York, to raise hemp, and manufacture
tar. In this business they did not succeed; however, they were released
in 1713, from all claims upon them for freightage across the Atlantic.
One hundred and fifty
of the families, willing to avail themselves of their present from the
Indians, made to Queen Ann, for their use, moved in the spring of 1714,
through a dense forest to Schoharie, west to Albany, and seated themselves
among their Magua or Mohawk neighbors and friends, the Indians. On
their arrival, they were wholly destitute, both of food, and the implements
of husbandry. Their sufferings, for some time, were very great.
Their neighbors, the Indians had not laid up any provisions for themselves;
and of course had none to spare, to supply the wants of their white brethren-depending
entirely upon Nature's store-house--believing that their hands were ot
made to perform manual labor, other than hunting and fishing.
Having, however, neglected
to comply with the formalities of the law of New York, and improving lands
without the full consent of Government, the titles to their lands were
defective, and as a consequence, they were involved in new difficulties.
After much vexation, and many fruitless efforts to secure to themselves,
what was intended for them by the Indian present to Queen Ann; some having
heard of unoccupied lands in Swatara and Tulpehocken, in Pennsylvania,
united, and left Schoharie, wended their faces in a south-western direction,
and traveled through the forest, till they reached the Susquehanna river,
where they made canoes, freighted them with their families, and some household
goods, floated down the river to the mouth of the Swatara creek, thence
they worked their way up, till they reached a fertile spot on Tulpehocken
creek, where they settled amidst the Indians, in the spring of 1723.
Their cattle they drove by land. Here they commenced the world anew,
with some disorder. Weiser, who joined them afterwards, and knew
them well, says:-"Es war niemand unter dem Volk der es regieren konnate;
ein jeder that was or wollte; and ihr starker Eigensinn hat ihnen bis auf
dies Stunde (1745) in Wege gestanden." There was none among the people
who could govern them; every one did as he pleased; their obstinacy, to
this day, (1745) has been much against them. There were thirty-three
families of them at Tulpehocken in 1728. The names of some of the
are still preserved in the Provincial Records. There are given below
as then spelled: Johannes Yans, Peter Ritt, Conrad Schitz, Paltus
Unfs, Toritine Serbo, Josep Sab, Jorge Ritt, Gotfrey Filler, Joannes Claes
Shaver, Jo Hameler Ritt, Johan Peter Pacht, Jocham Michael Cricht, Sebastian
Pisas, Andrew Falborn.
These expected in 1728,
fifty families more, "who, if they might be admitted on certain conditions,"
would come and settle among them at Tulpehocken. In 1729, there was
an important accession. Among these were Hoehns, Fischers, Lauers,
Anspachs, Badtorfs, Spickers, Crists, Cadermans, Noacres, Begenguths, Conrad
Weiser and his sons-the latter settled near Womelsdorf.
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In 1756 the following were assessed and returned as taxables of
Heidelberg township, many of whose descendants are still the owners of
the lands first possessed by the first settlers. Heidelberg then
embraced upper and lower Heidelberg, having since 1830, been divided.
LIST
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History of Berks and Lebanon Counties
by I Daniel Rupp (1844)
© Brenda Creasy