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1. The
Old Country
At a point in European
history around 1100 A.D. when surnames were first required, it was common to
select a name indicating the person’s location or occupation. Thus John in England who lived where apple
trees grew became known as John Appleby.
Jacob in Germany who milled grain became Jacob Mueller. In our case, Heckmann was selected to
indicate a family living at the edge of the village. Today, “living on the edge” indicates a state of keen excitement,
as from danger or risk. As we shall
see, this certainly applied to our early ancestors.
The village of Mörzheim,
Germany, is nestled in a shallow valley just east of the Haardt Mountains and
about 12 miles west of the great Rhine River. The village was established in the year 724.
It is just south of the city of Landau in what is now the state of
Rhineland-Palatinate. In the period of
time we’re interested in, it was a part of what is known as the Palatinate (in
German, der Pfalz), one of the most fought over and devastated regions in world
history. France and the German states
battled over it constantly. The year 1674 was no
different. Young Ottilia Mangold had
married Georg Jacob Heckmann, our 7th great-grandfather, not long
before. But now the French were coming
again and she found she was pregnant with their first child. Reports were coming in that villages were
being burned to the ground. They
hurriedly got their things together and set off for the village of
Annweiler,
about 8 miles to the west and somewhat protected by the mountains. Annweiler was known as a safe haven for
refugees and the Heckmanns decided to go for it. They arrived safely and soon after, Georg Friedrich Heckmann was
born and on the 23rd of October was baptized at the Annweiler
Reformed Church. Records there mention
that the parents were in flight from war or plague and were lodging there
temporarily. The baby was not our direct
ancestor (his brother was), but this little story serves to illustrate the
environment of 17th century Europe.
For many years, the German states were a part of the Holy Roman
Empire. But, after Martin Luther’s
arrival on the scene, the “Lutherans” spread his teachings far and wide and no
area embraced them more than the Palatinate.
John Calvin and his Reformist followers were also welcome there and the
Palatinate became a focal point of Protestantism. The devastating Thirty Years War of 1619 to 1648 was about
politics, possessions and religions, and the Palatinate paid dearly for its
Protestant churches and beliefs. A
quarter of a century after the end of that dismal period, King Louis XIV
declared war on the Palatinate, and his troops again marched to the
Rhine River,
burning and pillaging as they went.
The Heckmanns had made a wise move. It’s not known how long the
Heckmanns stayed in Annweiler. The
Mörzheim Church book was destroyed in all the turmoil sometime before 1685 and
the earliest recorded births appear after that in the new book. We know that Ottilia and Georg Jacob had at
least six more children but we only know the exact baptism dates for the last
four, which took place in Mörzheim. So
they did return but somewhere in the meantime their son, our 6th
great-grandfather, Peter Heckmann was born, probably about 1682. Georg Jacob’s known family group looks
something like this: Family of Georg Jacob Heckmann Georg Jacob
Heckmann born 1648, died 19 Dec 1704 in Mörzheim, Germany,
married Ottilia Mangold born 1654, died
10 Jan 1733 in Mörzheim Children: 3.
Catharina Heckmann born 1684, died 27 Aug 1759, married 28 Jul 1707 to Hans Heinrich Zittel 4. Hans Jacob Heckmann b: 22 Dec 1686 in
Mörzheim 5. Anna Margaretha Heckmann born 22 Dec 1686
in Mörzheim, died before 1688 in Mörzheim 6. Anna Margaretha Heckmann born 12 Dec 1688
in Mörzheim, died about 1746 in Mörzheim 7. Andreas Heckmann
born 17 Jun 1691 in Mörzheim Tales were now circulating
about some people leaving for the New Land.
Apparently a fellow named William Penn was starting a colony across the
ocean and he was asking people to come and help settle it. The Queen of England was making it known
that she would help those who wanted to go to Pennsylvania. In 1709, along with all the other trials and
tribulations of living in the Germanic states, the winter was an extremely cold
one, colder than most people could ever remember. German peoples rushed to the ships to sail for England and the
Queen quickly became sorry she ever brought up the matter. The people were told to stop coming because
England was swamped by the large numbers.
Peter Heckmann in Mörzheim probably gave the matter more than passing
notice. He was in his late 20s by then,
but his father, Georg Jacob, had died in 1704 and the property had to be taken
care of. Besides, he had his eye on a
young lass named Margaretha Schaefer.
They were married on April 21, 1711 and settled down to raise a family: Family of Peter Heckmann of Mörzheim Children: 2.
Anna Catharina Heckmann born 20 Mar 1717 in Mörzheim married 30
Apr 1743 in Mörzheim to Conrad Gummel 6. Hans
Conrad Heckmann born 23 Dec 1724 in Mörzheim, died about
1798 in Loudoun Co., VA married about 1752 in Frederick Co., MD to Christiana _____ born
about 1730, died about 1772 married between 1773 – 1790 in Loudoun Co. to
Susanna _____ Even when the village of
Mörzheim was not being targeted by marauding armies, it was so close to the
larger town of Landau that its history and environment were largely dependent
on it. Landau became a bastion of the
French Kingdom. It became an almost impenetrable
fortress but that didn’t stop the forces of the German States or the Dutch or
the Swedes from trying to overthrow it.
It stood as a French Island in the middle of the German Palatinate. There were battles and skirmishes throughout
our period of interest, which unfortunately affected the hapless farmers of
Mörzheim and other surrounding communities.
Invading armies would enlist the farmers for support in their
battles. The farmers had no
choice. Horses were taken, livestock
were used, food was confiscated, and in some cases the farmers were expected to
fight on the side of the invaders. Some
of them fled to the forests to live off the land, but that was extremely
difficult to do. If the French were
driven out, they would reconnoiter another day, mount the battle again, swoop
down on the farmers and command their help, take control of Landau again, and
re-inhabit the fortified city for another 10 years or so. But it wasn’t just during the period we’re
talking about. The conflicts actually
go back several centuries and continued on up to the regimes of French King
Louis XIV, Napoleon, and the World Wars I and II. Mörzheim and the rest of the Palatinate were unfortunately
located in the thick of things. The
border with France, Alsace region, is but 11 miles away. As a result of this “I’ve got it, no you’ve
got it” shifting back and forth, maps of different periods show unique
combinations of French and German place names.
On a current map, the city of Zweibrücken (German for Two Bridges) lies on the
western Palatinate border with Saarland.
On a map of 1760, the city is labeled DeuxPonts (French for Two
Bridges). With all of these conflicts, it is difficult
to imagine villagers carrying on their daily lives. But somehow they did. Mörzheim was a
wine village. The Romans had introduced vineyards to the
village several centuries before.
Grapes were always an important crop, but the vineyards existed along
side the other crops and the livestock.
Today, the village is surrounded by vineyards, as are most of the other
villages in the area. It is the second
largest wine producing area in Germany. A German farm will not be
found isolated out in the country like they are in the United States. To this day, the farmhouses and barns are in
the village, generally on the perimeter so that if you go out the front door,
you are in the village streets. If you
go out the back door, you are in the fields.
But in the old days, the house and the barn were one and the same, the
family living with the livestock. The first child of Peter and Margaretha
Heckmann was Johann Conrad, born on December 24th, 1712. At this point it seems advisable to review
the naming practices of these families.
The first name, usually Johann but not always, was the religious or
Christian name in honor of a biblical figure.
The second name was the given name and the one that the person was known
by. In this case, the child would not
have been called Johann at all; everyone would call him Conrad. The same was true for girls. A common first, or Christian, name would be
Anna or Maria followed by the real name, Catharina, Elisabetha,
etc. Sometimes in documents the
Christian name would be omitted, as in our Peter who was most likely originally
Johann Peter. So Johann Conrad Heckmann was born, but he
was not our Conrad. Sadly, as
was so often the case in those days, the uncertainties of life caught up with
this little Conrad, and he died just after his first birthday, on January 15th,
1714. The rest of the children followed
in orderly fashion, Anna Catharina in 1717, Hans Jacob (honoring his
grandfather, no doubt) in 1718, Maria Margaretha in 1720, Elisabetha in 1722,
and the last child we know of, one Hans Conrad (old German spelling Chonrath)
Heckmann, our 5th great-grandfather,
on December 23rd, 1724.
What, another Conrad!? Yes, it
was not uncommon in the event of a child’s death to name a subsequent child in
his or her honor. It was done in the
case of Conrad’s Uncle, Hans Jacob, who had a twin sister, Anna Margaretha, who
did not survive for very long. Two
years later a new daughter was born and named Anna Margaretha again. Note that the second Conrad was born one day
short of exactly 12 years after the first.
This may well have been taken as a sign by the parents that the new
child was to be named Conrad, or even that the new baby was a reincarnation of
that first child born a dozen years before.
He was baptized on Christmas Day and the sponsors were Conrad and
Fronica Fichtenkampf, the same as for the first Conrad. Was Hans Conrad the last child? We don’t know for sure, but his birth is the
last one recorded for this family in the church records. Mother Margaretha was only 36 at that time
and didn’t die ‘til 1746. It’s possible
that father Peter died shortly after 1724.
There is no record of his death in the church records, but he certainly
wouldn’t have justify the family to emigrate or for any other reason. These people referred to as farmers were
actually toiling under a system called serfdom. They were serfs, who did not own their own property but leased it
from their Lord and Master who taxed them and whose permission was required for
such things as moving or marrying, etc.
They could be taxed on what they produced or if it were a bad year a
basic tax on the property would be levied anyway. Taxes were also imposed for special projects, such as a new water
duct or village well, for example. In
spite of how it sounds, the people were able to manage a decent living in most
times and this system was probably not the major reason per se
for the massive emigrations of later years.
Within this system, there were roughly 3 categories of peasants: a. About 2 to 5% had the big farms, of which
probably only small parts were owned by them and larger parts leased from a
Lord or church or a monastery. These
farmers had the important village positions, such as mayor, village judge,
etc. Innkeepers and millers were also
fairly well off. b. The largest group, 60-80% were the common
farmers who leased land, worked hard, and usually were able to have a modest
standard of living. Most of them had a
sideline such as smith, cartwright, cooper, tailor, shoemaker, etc. that was
often handed down from father to son. c. The third group was the day laborers that
worked for other farmers for day wages.
They were very poor and tended to have lots of children. Conrad’s older brother
Jacob would have been in line to take over the family property. Either that or it would have been divided up
between them. Either way, it would be
no bonanza for Conrad. After all the
wars and the hard times, people were gradually returning to the villages and
the populations were again increasing because the birth rate was high. Some Dukes and Princes even advertised in
Switzerland and other lands to come to their Duchy or State to till the soil. But as populations increased, crop production
did not, due to a lack of sufficient clover and fertilizer. Economic hardship became common. Serfdom was no picnic, but there’s no
denying the primary reason for the steady increase in emigration to America was
opportunity and the hope of economic improvement. It’s likely that stories coming back from the New Land were
beginning to sound better and better.
Relatives received letters telling how it could be done. William Penn’s agents periodically made the
rounds of the villages, recruiting young men to go to Pennsylvania. Agents for ship captains urged them to
emigrate and told them how the money could be raised if they didn’t have enough. Did Conrad Heckmann have
enough money to do such a thing?
Clearly, the answer is no. For
one thing, permission was required from the Lord and a 10% charge for manumission
was assessed. In other words, you had
to pay for your freedom to go. You had
to prove that you had no debts that would become a burden to the Lord after you
justify, and if you justify without permission your property and/or future
inheritance would be confiscated. In
addition, of course, money was needed for the boat trip down the Rhine River as
well as for the big ship for the ocean voyage.
Nevertheless, emigration from the German States continued to
increase. In the Palatinate the year
Conrad was born, a decree ordered the confiscation of property of those who
emigrated without authorization. It
didn’t seem to help, and decrees had to be issued again in 1752, 1764 and
1779. In 1752, the decree stated: “For some time now, it has
been observed with great displeasure that Palatines emigrated to Pennsylvania
and to other American States. This
decree orders that all recruiting for emigration, even in a disguised form, is
a punishable offense. Suspicion of
recruiting for emigration falls in particular on returnees who visit relatives
or are here on ‘business trips’. Such
suspects are to be accompanied by watchers at their expense. Authorities are to work against emigration
by warnings, threat of punishment, and by making it more difficult to acquire
money by the sale of personal property or by inheritance. Subjects are not allowed to cross the
borders of the Empire under the penalty of having their property confiscated.” -- Elector Karl Theodor By 1748, Conrad and his
oldest sister Catharina had been thinking about the New Land for quite some
time. One contributing factor might
have been that Thomas Schley, the local schoolmaster at the Reformed Church, had
emigrated in 1744. It is alleged that
he justify with up to 100 families of Calvinists (Reformists) and Huguenots
(French Reformists). This is probably
an exaggeration, but because of Schley’s position it might have been a large
group. He became a well known settler
in Frederick County, Maryland, helping to establish the town of Frederick and
building one of the first houses there.
There is no doubt that word would have gotten back to Mörzheim about the
possibilities in that Colony. Then
Margaretha, their mother, died in 1746, possibly contributing to their
unrest. And by now, brother Jacob had
married a girl from Wollmesheim just a mile or two down the road and he had
moved to that village. He wasn’t interested
in America. Conrad and Catharina had
very little money for such a venture.
How would they ever get permission to leave? In Richard Hofstadter’s
book, America at 1750 – A Social Portrait, he quotes writer Arthur
Young: “Men who emigrate are, from the
nature of the circumstances, the most active, hardy, daring, bold and resolute
spirits, and probably the most mischievous also”. Conrad, the youngest child, was probably all of that. Hofstadter says that the author “was
suggesting that the most venturesome or visionary, the most impatient and
restive under authority, the most easily alienated, the most desperate and
cranky, were the most ready to leave, giving at least the initial population of
the American colonies a strong bias toward dislike of authority.” One spring morning in that
year of 1748, when the sun rose over the Rhine as usual, it’s golden rays
slamming against the hills of the Haardt mountains to the west, the peasants
arose to greet the new day, milking their cows and tending their chores. Everything seemed normal as they bustled
around to their tasks. Normal except
for one thing: Two people who should be
there, were gone. Conrad and Catharina
had run away! |
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