Pennsylvania Chapter, Palatines to America

Selected Photographs, III

In 1727, Johann Caspar Stöver, Sr. and his son Johann Caspar Stöver, Jr. landed at Philadelphia. The son undertook the role of minister for several congregations even though he was not ordained. The father worked his way to North Carolina where he became a school teacher. In 1733, the father undertook to become the minister for a congregation of Lutherans located on the east side of Blue Ridge Mountains in Virginia. The Senior Stöver went to Pennsylvania where he was ordained by Johann Christian Schultz. At the same time the son was also ordained and the son married. Within a year the father was on fund raising trip to Europe. The son continued his active ministry in eastern Pennsylvania and in northern Maryland and Virginia. The village shown here is Annweiler in the Palatinate where Stöver senior had been a school teacher.

The farm in Germany, about 20 miles southeast of Heidelberg, where Hans Herr was living when he emigrated with other Mennonites in 1709 is known. Unterbiegelhof was an estate farm with several families living on the farm. The house (and barn) shown here was probably there in 1709 and the home of the Herr family. Several Mennonites left this area for Pennsylvania where they arrived in 1710 and settled west of the present town of Strasburg. This was the start of the Pennsylvania “Dutch” country.

The homes of our ancestors were often vastly different from what we imagine. This view in the village Östheim is a “historical monument”  to the past. The old walled village with its watch towers remains and is little altered. At the core is a large church. Surrounding the church, within the walls, are many homes like this one. The “windows” were open spaces which could be shuttered. The streets were pathways with steps and not roads for carts. Some of the space enclosed in buildings like this was underground.

This is the church in the small village of Schainbach where Johann Christian Schultz, a 1732 immigrant to Pennsylvania, was born. Rev. Schultz did not remain long in Pennsylvania but went back to Germany. While he was here, he ordained both Stövers and performed the marriage ceremony for the son. The interior of the church here is very small and the nave consists of the part on the left. Notice the door in the side, a typical entry way, which serves to illustrate the size. Instead of a clock on the tower, there is a sundial.