Johannes Miller � The Journey to America

by Richard Miller

In the spring of 1709, as the ice started to break up on the Rhine River, an amazing thing began to happen. 15,000 Palatine Germans, the largest single group of people to ever immigrate to another land, packed up their belongings, said good-bye to their friends and family, and traveled to the port of Rotterdam, Holland. From Rotterdam, they hoped to be transported to London, England, and eventually to America, where they expected to obtain their own land.

Not all of the original group of 15,000 made it to America. Some of them stayed in England, some were sent to Ireland, and many died along the way. The Catholics among them, unless willing to convert to Protestantism, were sent back to Germany. A group of about 2,800 were sent to New York as part of a plan to manufacture tar from pine trees for the British government. My 6^th Great-Grandfather, 21 year-old Johannes Muller, was part of the group that would be sent to New York.

On July 1, 1710, Johannes Muller landed on Governor�s Island in New York, after a grueling 15-month journey from his home in Rittershausen, Hesse, Germany. His trip to America included several stops along the way, spending months in Holland and then England, before finally arriving in New York. Since then, there have been ten generations of his descendants born in America. Johannes came to New York as part of an exodus of 15,000 German refugees, known as the German Palatine migration. The German Palatines were people who lived along the Rhine River Valley, and the story of their exodus out of Germany has been well documented. Because of this, it is possible to create a time line of the life of Johannes Muller; from when he left Germany in March, 1709, to when he landed on Governor�s Island in New York in 1710, to when he finally had a place to call home along the southern banks of the Mohawk River in 1725.

Johannes Muller was not our only ancestor to leave Germany during the great Palatine Migration. No less than six (and probably more) of our Great Grandparents came to America as part of this group. Johannes Muller�s future wife, Anna Maria Jacobi, was first married to Johann Henrich Hager in Germany in 1702 and they made the same journey to America with their newborn son, Henry. Her husband would die in 1711, and she would marry Johannes on September 29, 1711. Also, our direct ancestors Johan Jurgh Kast with his wife Anna Margaretha Feck and their five children, as well as Hans Phillip Helmer with his wife Elizabeth Mockler and their ten children, came to America in the same group as Johannes. Typically, these families that left Germany together, stayed together once they arrived. And often, their children grew up and married into each others families. In 1783, Margaret Kast, the granddaughter of the Helmers and Kasts, married Andrew Miller, the grandson of Johannes Muller.

Timeline of Johannes Muller:

November 1687 � Born in Rittershausen, Hesse, Germany

February 1709 � Left home in Rittershausen, Germany for Rotterdam, Holland

March 1709 � Arrived in Rotterdam

May 1709 � Left Rotterdam, sailed for London, England

May 27, 1709 - Arrived in Walworth, England

January 20, 1710 � Left London, delayed in several English ports.

April 10, 1710 � Finally left England, sailed for New York aboard the Baltimore

July 1, 1710 � Arrived in New York, quarantined on Governor�s Island

November 1710 � Taken to West Camp near Livingston Manor

September 29, 1711 - Married Anna Maria Jacobi (widow Hager)

December 1712 � Escape to Schoharie

April 1725 � Burnetsfield Patent

July 1749 � Letter written to Germany

November 19, 1687 to March 1709: Rittershausen, Germany

Johannes Muller was born November 19, 1687 [1] in Rittershausen, a small village located in northeastern Hesse, Germany. In the eighteenth century, the city-states and principalities that would later become Germany would not join together into a republic until 1871. As far as his nationality was concerned, Johannes was a Hessian. For many generations, the Mullers (sometimes spelled Moller or Mahler) were born and raised in this town, in the hills east of the Rhine River. Johannes Muller�s father (born about 1655), grandfather (born about 1628) and great-grandfather (born about 1600) were all named Johannes Muller, and their various baptisms, marriages and deaths have been recorded in the church books of the Lutheran church in Rittershausen. [1]. Johannes�s mother, Agness Kesseler, came from the village of Ewersbach, which is located less than two miles down the road from Rittershausen.

Today, the Rhine area is a beautiful river valley, with great forests and hillsides dotted with hundreds of small villages. However, during the late 17^th Century, the Rhine River valley was a much different place. Located between the rival powers of France and the German states, the Palatinate was a dangerous borderland, and the scene of constant hostilities. The Thirty Years' War (1618-1648) began with an attempt to wipe out Protestantism in the Rhine Palatinate. The inhabitants were subjected over and over again to brutal and thorough pillage. The annihilation of the population was prevented because the residents fled from the armies at the rumor of their approach, taking only necessary belongings and what animals that could be hastily driven away. The population would return to their burned and pillaged farms, rebuild their homes and live a wretched subsistence until the next campaign came their way. During this time, due to death or emigration, the Palatinate would lose 75% of its population.The suffering continued even after the Thirty Years� War ended. In the 1660�s, the bubonic plague would sweep across the valley and kill thousands. Some cities would lose half their populations to this disease.

Then, in 1674, the French army retreating across the Palatinate inflicted terrible devastation. The Rhineland was reduced to a desert to prevent the enemy's army from finding anything on which to subsist. After a period of rebuilding, Louis XIV of France moved to take possession of the Palatinate, which caused a new war between France and the allied nations of Spain, England and Germany. The French army moved into the Palatinate to prevent it from becoming a source of supply for the allied armies. Fire was set to everything, every hamlet, every country seat. The grain fields were plowed under and the orchards cut down, castles and churches were all destroyed.

After a short reprieve, the War of the Spanish Succession began. In 1704, the Duke of Marlborough and Prince Eugene led the English, Dutch, Danes and Germans through the Rhineland to the Battle of Blenheim. Three years later the French, under Marshall Villars, drove their opponents up the Rhine and occupied the country as conquerors. Beginning in 1707, his armies swarmed across the Palatinate destroying homes, barns and villages and demanding contributions from each town.To make matters worse, the winter of 1708 was one of the coldest winters in over 100 years. Barrels of wine and other spirits froze, wood would not burn out doors, and birds, cattle and human beings froze to death. The mills would not function and this caused a shortage of bread everywhere.

In his book, Becoming German: The 1709 Palatine Migration to New York (2004), Philip Otterness makes the case that while continual warfare and brutal weather were certainly factors, the Palatines left mainly due to poverty. The principalities carefully regulated migration requiring people to petition the government before they could leave. In the petition, they are required to state the reason for leaving. Several of these petitions still exist and 62 from the villages of Nassau-Dillenburg are located in their archives. �The sixty-two petitioners invariably listed Armut � poverty � as the reason they wished to emigrate, defining it as the inability to feed their families.� Otterness, Becoming German p. 23. The petitioners did not mention warfare or bad weather as causes, but poverty. This is an important distinction, because some historians see the Palatines as pitiful refugees, escaping the brutality of war, while others see them as peasant opportunists bent on acquiring free land. Often, their petitions were approved because they were so poor and in debt, that they were not able to pay their taxes, and therefore not a benefit in the eyes of the government. Conversely, officials would often not approve the petitions of productive citizens and if those people wanted to leave, they would have to leave secretly.

1708: The Palatine Migration

The migration of the Palatines from Germany to America occurred in three separate waves, with our ancestor Johannes participating in the second wave of the migration. The first group of people left Germany in 1708, under the leadership of Reverend Joshua Kocherthal, and included only 58 people. Because of their small numbers, the first wave occurred without much notice. In a very organized manner, they traveled to England and petitioned the Queen for mercy from their oppression. When they arrived in London, the refugees were described as,

in a deplorable condition, having suffered under the calamity which happened last year in the Palatinate by the invasion of the French�poor Lutherans, come hither from the Lower Palatinate, praying to be transferred to some of your Majesty�s plantations in America. Cobb, The Story of the Palatines (p. 63)

Reverend Kocherthal�s petition received approval from the Queen, and on May 10, 1708, they were made British subjects, and he was ordered

to settle them on the Hudson�s River, where they can be made useful in the production of Naval Stores and as a frontier against the French and Indians. Cobb, The Story of the Platines

With support from the Queen, they sailed for New York in October 1708 on the ship "Globe," arriving in New York City after nine weeks at sea. The first Palatine settlement in New York was at the mouth of the Quassaick Creek, near present Newburgh, New York. Governor Lovelace, on behalf of the Queen, allotted 500 acres of land for church purposes, 200 acres for Reverend Kocherthal's family, and 50 acres to each additional person.

After successfully settling his first company of emigrants in America, Reverend Kocherthal returned to England, and in 1709 began organizing a second group of Germans to make the trip to America. With the expectation of attracting another group similar to the first, he printed up a small book, to be referred to by the Germans as �the Golden Book�, which detailed the benefits of America, how the Queen had paid for their passage, how they had been given their own land, and how well they had been received in America. In the winter of 1708-9, this book was read or discussed by most of the people in the Palatinate. At the same time, other pamphlets were distributed inviting the Palatines to come to the Carolinas. Also, William Penn made two trips through the region, trying to persuade the Palatines to immigrate to his new province of Pennsylvania. Other English-American agents of Colonial landlords also solicited immigrants for their overseas plantations in America.

Then something entirely unexpected happened. As the ice began to break up on the Rhine River, 15,000 people from hundreds of villages throughout Germany sold whatever they owned, gave up birth rights, risked arrest, left their homes and families and started traveling to Rotterdam, with the intent of joining Reverend Kocherthal�s next group. They made this commitment being too poor to afford the journey to America, and some had to renounce their right to return.

The Palatines expected that Queen Anne would provide transportation for them as she had done for the first group. With the first group, the Queen felt it her Christian duty because the oppressed Palatines were mostly Lutherans, of the same faith as her husband, Prince George of Denmark, whose death in October 1708 caused her great sorrow. The second group, being much larger, presented the Queen and her government with a difficult challenge.

February 1709: Leaving Home

In February 1709, 21 year-old Johannes Muller left his home in Rittershausen, (possibly traveling with his cousin Johann Kesseler) and began the trek down the Rhine valley towards Rotterdam, Holland. While some of the refugees had secured approval from authorities to leave their homeland, Johannes did not. He left the Palatinate without permission, as stated in the Nassau-Dillenburg Petitions, "Joh Muller, Joh Muller's widows 2nd son, unmarried and without release, emmigrated from Rittershausen in Amt Ebersbach in 1709� Jones, The Palatine Families, Vol II (p 661).

The port of Rotterdam was where the Palatines believed that Queen Anne would help them secure passage to London. Johannes decided to escape the deplorable conditions at home, and to join up with the next group of emigrants who were then being organized by Reverend Kocherthal. In the spring of 1709, thousands of fellow Palatines were leaving as well, traveling down the Rhine, sneaking through the dark to small, open boats that carried them away from their homeland. Some of them built rafts of logs to sail down the Rhine to Rotterdam, a voyage that would take four to six weeks, with fees and tolls to be paid along the way. �The emigrants did not leave gradually in small groups, waiting for news from the first arrivals before others prepared to leave. Instead, the migration was sudden, large and concentrated over only a few months.� Otterness, Becoming German p.25

They worried constantly about being stopped and detained or turned back by the authorities. The Hollanders along the route to Rotterdam, many of them distantly related, were also sympathetic and contributed food, clothing and money. Eventually, about a thousand people a week were arriving at Rotterdam. Some of them died along the way, but enough survived the trip to fill the streets of Holland with lean and squalid beggars.

While waiting for an English ship to take them across the North Sea and English Channel, the Palatines camped in miserable conditions on the levees of Rotterdam. The shacks they made, covered with reeds, were the only shelter they had from the elements. The Burgomaster of Rotterdam took pity on them and appropriated 750 guilders for distribution among the destitute. The Palatines were arriving in increasing numbers at the rate of nearly a thousand per week. On June 14, 1709, James Dayrolle, British resident at the Hague, informed London that if the British government continued to give bounty to the Palatines and encourage their migration, �half of Germany would be on their doorstep�. The immigrants were coming so fast it was impossible to care for them. The overwhelmed British tried to turn back many of the Palatines, especially the Catholics, and by late July refused to honor commitments to support the German arrivals. The thousands of returning Catholics finally put an end to the flow of emigrants. Upon their return, they let others know that Catholics were not welcomed in England, and were able to describe the deplorable conditions in the London camps.

June 1709 to January 20, 1710: Waiting in London

After several months of waiting in Rotterdam, Johannes was finally able to board a ship, and set sail for London. The first of the emigrants began to arrive in May of 1709. By the end of June their numbers amounted to an unmanageable seven thousand people. A group of several hundred were immediately sent off to plantations in Ireland, several hundred more were taken to North Carolina, Virginia and the Caribbean. The Catholics among them were given the opportunity to convert to Protestantism, and those that would not (about 1,500), were sent back to Germany. Some of the refugees found employment on English farms and decided to permanently settle in England.

The Palatines arrived in London and then waited several months for a ship to cross the Atlantic. Queen Anne, in order to deal with this influx of impoverished people, issued them 1,600 tents for their use at encampments formed at Blackheath, Greenwich and Kensington and Tower Ditch, and allowed nine pence each day for food. Despite the generosity of the crown, the Palatines continued to have problems sustaining themselves. Some of them were reduced to begging, a task usually carried out by the married women. Many children born in the encampments died.

At first, Londoners found the Germans and their customs interesting, and trips to the German camps on the outskirts of town became a popular pastime. But, the longer the Palatines waited in England, the worse their condition became. They had to depend on alms and charity to survive. The poor of London regarded them as competition for food and wages. A charity drive started to help the poor Germans �filled the London poor with great indignation�. Shopkeepers feared that their wares would not be sold with the continued presence of the poor Palatines. Mobs of people began attacking the Palatines with axes, hammers and scythes. The upper classes became alienated from them, fearing they were spreading disease and fever. The Germans were reported to be �so crowded together that they were offensive to one another as well as those who visited them�. Otterness, Becoming German p. 40. The perceptions people had of the German emigrants had changed from one of �industrious workers fit to populate the colonies�, to �vagrant destitute people living off the charity of the Queen�.

Unexpected Gift from the Mohawk Indians in London

Legend has it that while the Palatines were encamped in London, Peter Schuyler, then Mayor of Albany brought five Mohawk Indian Chiefs to London to meet the Queen. During one of their daily tours of London, the Chiefs �saw and pitied the wretched condition of the people.�[2] As a result, one of the Chiefs, unsolicited and voluntarily, presented the Queen with a tract of his land in Schoharie, New York, for the use and benefit of the distressed Germans. Later on, the Palatines would insist this story was true and that this generous gift became their dream. They had a place with a name on it that they could call their own and from then on, they would be �on their way to Schorie� as they pronounced Schoharie.

January 20, 1710 to July 1, 1710: From London to New York

A deal was struck, and a contract was drawn up, whereby the Palatines would be transported to America, and they would, �settle in such place as was allotted to them�, and they would engage in making �turpentine, rozin, tarr and pitch� for the English Navy. The profits from their work would be used to pay back the government for the cost of their transport to America. After their labor had repaid the government, �they would be given five pounds each and forty acres of land for each family�. Cobb, The Story of the Palatines

Johannes Muller was among a group of over 2,800 refugees who were crowded aboard 10 small ships and finally set sail for America on January 20, 1710. Or so they thought. There were problems about compensation of the owners of the vessels, and the fleet was delayed at the port of Plymouth, England for three months. The ships sailed back and forth, from port to port, until the ship owners were finally paid, and the fleet was able to set sail for America on April 10, 1710. Although they were initially full of optimism, the voyage would prove to be extremely difficult.

The trip to America was longer than usual, and due to disease and starvation, many of the passengers died during the trip. Almost daily, the others witnessed the bodies of deceased friends and family members being cast overboard into the sea. Thomas Benson, a doctor serving on the Lyon of Leith, reported that all 330 of its passengers were sick at one time or another on the voyage. From a letter written by one of the refugees, we can get an idea of what conditions were like aboard the ships:

and thus we traveled by day and night. Some starved. The largest and smallest [oldest and youngest] of us rotted and some lost wife and child. When they would take us up to the church place [the deck of the ship] it was to toss us by arm and leg into the sea [he is referring to the dead bodies being thrown overboard]. There we would swim [float] on the water and the fish would come to gobble us up. � William V.H. Barker. [6]

Probably because of the low fee paid for each passenger, the ships were overloaded with people to make the trip profitable for the captains:

The people are packed into the big boats as closely as herring�not counting the immense amount of equipment, tools, provisions, barrels of fresh water, and other things that occupy a great deal of space. Gottlieb Mittelberger Journal [6]

Many of them suffered from the foul odor and vermin; some below deck could neither get fresh air nor see the light of day. Under such conditions, the younger children died in great numbers. Soon, the fleet was ravaged by �ship-fever�, now known to be typhus, which was transmitted by fleas and body lice. �Thus, for example, there are so many lice, especially on the sick people, that they have to be scraped off the bodies�. [6] Upon arrival in New York, there were so many sick and dying Palatines that the illness was to become known as �Palatine fever.�

Some of the passengers kept journals or later wrote letters about their experiences which were used to document the difficulty of their journey. I have included portions of several of these journals:

�the indescribable filth, the emaciated, half-nude figures, many with the petecial eruption disfiguring their faces, crouching in the bunks, or strewed over the decks, and cumbering the gangways � Some were just rising from their berths for the first time since leaving Liverpool, having been suffered to lie there all the voyage, wallowing in their own firth, - Immigration and Commissioners of Emigration of New York, Friedrich Kapp. [6]

Here is reprinted a portion of the journal of one of the passengers, Gottlieb Mittelberger where he describes the deplorable conditions on the ship:

During the journey the ship is full of pitiful signs of distress- smells, fumes, horrors, vomiting, various kinds of sea sickness, fever, dysentery, headaches, heat, constipation, boils, scurvy, mouth rot, and similar afflictions, all of them caused by the age and the highly-salted state of the food, especially of the meat, as well as by the very bad and filthy water, which brings about the miserable destruction and death of many. Add to all that, shortage of food, hunger, thirst, frost, heat, dampness, fear, misery, vexation, and lamentation as well as other troubles. All this misery reaches its climax when in addition to everything else one must suffer through two to three days and nights of a storm, with everyone convinced that the ship with all on board is bound to sink. In such misery all the people on board pray and cry pitifully together. All the while the ship, tossed by storms and waves, moves constantly from one side to the other, so that nobody on board can either walk, sit, or lie down and the tightly packed people on their cots, the sick as well as the healthy are thrown every which way�

Among those who are in good health impatience sometimes grows so great and bitter that one person begins to curse the other, or himself and the day of his birth, and people sometimes come close to murdering one another. Misery and malice are readily associated; so that people begin to cheat and steal form one another. And then one always blames the other for having undertaken the voyage. Often the children cry out against their parents, husbands against wives and wives against husbands, brothers against their sisters, friends and acquaintances against one another.

Children between the ages of one and seven seldom survive the sea voyage; and parents must also watch their offspring suffer miserably, die, and be thrown into the ocean, from want, hunger, thirst, and the like� It is also worth noting that children had either measles or small pox usually get them on board the ship and for the most part perish as a result� the water distributed in these ships is often very black, thick with dirt, and full of worms. Even when very thirsty, one is almost able to drink it without loathing� towards the end we were compelled to eat the ship�s biscuit, which had been spoiled for a long time even though in no single piece was there more than the size of a thaler that was not full of red worms and spider�s nests.

When at last after the long and difficult voyage the ships finally approach land, when one gets to see the headlands for the sight of which the people on board had longed so passionately, then everyone crawls from below to the deck, in order to look at the land from afar. And the people cry for joy, pray, and sing praises and thanks to God. The glimpse of land revives the passengers, especially those who are half-dead from illness. Their spirits however weak they had become, leap up, triumph, and rejoice within them. Such people are now willing to bear all ills patiently, if they can only disembark soon and step on land.
- Gottlieb Mittelberger [6]

The first ship, to arrive, the Lyon, sailed into New York harbor on June 13, 1710. Governor Hunter�s ship and several others arrived the next day. The ship our ancestor Johannes boarded has still not been identified, but it arrived about July, 1710. One of the ships, the Hubert, which carried the tents, tools and weapons, tragically ran aground on the east end of Long Island on July 7^th. The passengers all made it safely to land, but the stores and provisions were all lost. The last ship did not arrive until August 2nd. A letter from Governor Hunter dated October 24, 1710, stated that of the 2,814 Palatines who had started the trip, 446 had died before the end of July, however, thirty babies had been born on the way. Johannes had finally made it to America, a trip that lasted 15 months.

July 1, 1710 to November 1710: Quarantined on Governor�s Island

The Palatines� dream of their own land in Schoharie would, once again, be delayed. Due to the numerous cases of disease and sickness, the immigrants were separated from the inhabitants of New York under orders of quarantine. Governor Hunter reported that the people were in a �deplorable and sickly condition�. When they arrived in New York, the Palatines numbered about 2,800 people in a city with a population of a little over 7,000. They were settled on Nutten Island (now Governor�s Island), where temporary huts were built for them. Here they stayed for five months while arrangements were made for a permanent settlement. During this time, another 250 Palatines died.

Even though the Germans were convinced they would soon be sent to their land in Schoharie, Governor Hunter had other locations in mind. Shortly after he arrived, Governor Hunter sent �a surveyor with skillful men to survey the land on the Mohaks river, and particularly on the Skohare�. The man Governor Hunter sent was Mr. Bridger, the foremost authority England had for making tar, with some men, to scout out different sites for locating the tar-making project. One site being considered was Livingston Manor just up the Hudson River. Another possible site was the Mohawk River Valley west of Schenectady past Little Falls. The last place considered was the Schoharie Valley. Livingston Manor on the Hudson was the site recommended by the surveyor, Mr. Bridger, and the Governor began making plans to move the Palatines to Livingston Manor.

November 1710 to December 1712: The Naval Stores Project � Marriage � 1st Miller Child

In the beginning of the 18^th century, England was the dominant naval power in the world. For many years, England had been searching for new sources of �Naval Stores� (tar and pitch used to seal ships hulls) for its vast number of ships. At this time, Sweden had a virtual monopoly on the production of tar and pitch and they were able to charge very high prices, and England was actively looking for alternatives.

The Governor of New York had been enthusiastic about the �inexhaustible quantities of tar in the New York forests�, and said �there is enough for all Britain and it will be capable of making Great Britain the mart of all Europe for Naval Stores.�[2] In order to motivate the colonists to begin producing pitch and tar, the Queen offered premiums to the colonists for its production, but the colonists were still unresponsive to the need for Naval Stores. When a solution to the problem of what to do with the Palatine refugees was being discussed, it became apparent that:

For some reason, the colonists have not been moved to the manufacture of the desired stores, nor had the offered premium been able to attract them from their fisheries and farms. Here in London sits this great company of Palatines, seeking asylum and occupation. There in the colonies are vast forests of pine, whose shapely stems and resinous gums wait only for the woodman�s axe and the tar bucket. [2]

The Palatines had been transported to America at the expense of the crown and with the agreement that they would work on the Naval Stores project until such time as their debt had been repaid. Land on the Hudson River, surrounding the large estate of Lord Livingston, with vast forests of pine, was chosen as the best location of the production of tar and pitch. The Palatines argued aggressively against the Livingston Manor, wishing instead to be settled on their promised land on the Schoharie River. Under threat of being sent back to Germany or imprisonment, they finally agreed to be sent off to Livingston Manor to work off their indenture. But in their hearts they intend to be there only for a short period of time, and eventually to settle in Schoharie:

I ask Mr. Kockerthal how his people behave. He tells me all are at work and busy, but manifestly with repugnance and merely temporarily; that the tract intended for them is in their mind a land of Canaan. It is a dangerous time to settle (in Schoharie) [due to the attacks by the French and Indians - RKM] and they are willing to have patience for two years. But they will not hear of tar-making. Cobb, The Story of the Palatines

In October and November, the Palatines began moving from Governor�s Island to camps along the Hudson River. Eventually, there would be seven villages established near Livingston Manor, four on the east bank of the Hudson River called �East Camp� and three villages on the west bank, called �West Camp.� Johannes and his family were located in the West Camp as evidenced by his sponsorship of his relative, Johann Kestler [actually Kesseler] for naturalization at Schoharie. This is documented in the West Camp Lutheran Church book [8]. Later, the villages of East and West Camp would combine into one town named Germantown.

In addition to producing much needed tar and pitch, settling the Germans on the frontier would make a �convenient barrier between H. M. subjects and the French and their Indians�. The Palatines were expected to be the first line of defense against the French from their attacks against New Yorkers and English settlers on the Hudson River.

On September 29, 1711, Johannes Muller married Anna Maria (Jacobi) Hager. Their marriage ceremony was performed by the Reverend Joshua Kocherthal, the same man who helped organize the Palatine�s trip to America. Anna Maria was recently widowed, her husband Johann Heinrich Haeger died in 1710. In a letter she wrote, Anna Maria tells her family in Germany, �during harvest time my husband died after a short illness, being well at noon and dead in the evening.� The marriage of Anna Maria Jacobi and Johannes Muller would produce eight children, and she had one child from her previous marriage. The occasion of their marriage is recorded in the �Hunter Ledger�, a diary regarding the Palatines kept by their overseer, Governor Hunter. A notation is made on September 29, 1711, indicating the marriage between Anna Maria Jacobi Hager and John Muller. Soon after, in 1712, Anna Maria and Johannes had their first child, a daughter, whose name is unknown.

Naval Stores � Indentured Servitude

For two years, the Palatines worked at the production of Naval Stores. In the spring of 1711 they began the work of felling and preparing nearly one hundred thousand pine trees. Roads were constructed to bring tar to the banks of the river. Coopers made barrels and cauldrons were made ready.

I think it would be interesting to mention how the tar and pitch were processed from pine trees and get an understanding of what the Palatines were doing for two years while living along the Hudson. First, the bark is stripped from the pine trees. The wound would then trigger the production of gum. Over a period of two years, the trees would be barked periodically to further stimulate gum production. This is important because with a lead time of two years, the project could not possibly become profitable until the second year at the soonest. After the trees are saturated with gum, they are then felled, and cut into smaller pieces for burning. The wood is stacked in piles and slowly burned in an earthen kiln. Tar seeping from the burning wood drips onto the kiln floor and flows down a drain into a barrel. The tar is then boiled in large cauldrons until the liquid evaporated. The resulting pitch was used to caulk ships hulls and decks. While waiting for the barked trees to start producing enough gum for making tar, a limited amount of tar was produced from pine knots that were collected by the Palatine children.

On May 23, 1711, the men hiked 6 miles from their camps and began barking trees, spending weeks at a time in the forests and away from their families. Even though they started arriving at the camps in November 1710, they had to wait until spring to start working on the trees. One reason the Palatines resented making tar was that they were farmers by trade and they were still dreaming of farming their own land along the Schoharie River. Another reason is that the tar-making process is very similar to making charcoal. In Germany, charcoal burners were mysterious figures who lived in the forests, and occupied the lowest level of the social scale.

There began to be delays in funding from England. But, Governor Hunter was committed to the project and used his personal funds to keep it alive. The Palatines complained that the food they received was poor quality and too little, and that the huts they had been given were too cold in the winter. They looked upon their lives here as virtual bondage, and their work as slavery. To make matters worse, the quantities of tar and pitch they were producing were not enough to make the project profitable.

There are several theories as to why the project was not successful. First, the species of pine that grew in the forests along the Hudson was White Pine, and was not conducive to producing the same quality of pitch as the Longleaf Pine, found only in the south. Secondly, the process the Palatines were taught to girdle and debark the trees was not efficient, and resulted in valuable resin falling to the ground. Thomas Sackett was a local farmer who persuaded the Governor (who understood nothing about the tar business) that he (Sackett) understood everything; and �after being put in charge of production, proceeded with great energy and confidence to have his hundred thousand trees barked in the wrong way�.

There was also a change of government in England, and the new leaders had different priorities that did not include the Naval Stores experiment on the Hudson. Whatever the reason, the failure of the project was hastened by the fact that despite his continuous pleading with the Queen, Governor Hunter�s numerous requests for reimbursement went ignored. As a result, the Governor went into bankruptcy, and soon after, the crown lost interest and would have nothing more to do with the project.

The end result of the entire Naval Stores project was that the only tar produced by the Palatines was from the pine knots collected by the children. Sadly, all the work done, the thousands of barked trees, the clearing of roads, building bridges, making barrels and cauldrons never produced any tar. By the time that the trees were ready to be felled and cut for the kilns, Governor Hunter�s personal finances were completely drained, and despite the Governor�s instructions to remain in the camps, the Palatines began making arrangements to purchase land from the Indians along the Schoharie River.

December 1712 to 1725: Escape to �Schorie� � Life in Fuchesdorf � Four More Millers

In the winter of 1712, about fifty rebellious families walked from their tar making camps in Livingston Manor, to the Schoharie Valley. The others joined them in the spring, making a total of between five and seven hundred people who moved to Schoharie from their camps on the Hudson. 

In the same year in March 1713, did the remainder of the people proceed on their journey, and by God�s Assistance travell�d in a fourtnight with sledges thro� the snow, which there covered the ground above 3 foot deep, cold and hunger, Joyn�d their friends and countrymen in the promised land of Schorie.

They founded seven �dorfs,� or farming villages, along the Schoharie Creek.  Next to Smith�s Dorf was Fuchesdorf named after the settler, William Fuchs, (afterwards anglicized to Fox). Fuchesdorf was located at the junction of Fox�s Creek with the Schoharie, and was the village in which Johannes Muller and his family lived. Fuchesdorf ended up being the center of the Schoharie settlement and it was here that the first mill was built, freeing the people from carrying their grain to Schenectady, 40 miles round trip.

For several years, the Palatines prospered in the seven villages in Schoharie. In 1713, one member of their group, Lambert Sternbergh, brought a �spint of wheat from Schenectady� [7, p. 8] and when planted, it grew well. They began to accumulate livestock and had good relations with the local Indians:

Now the new inhabitants soon began to think themselves well off. By their industry, and great fertility of the soil, they soon got plenty to eat- wore moggisins � buckskin breeches and jackets of leather, which they plentifully obtained of the Indians. Nine of them owned the first horse, which was a gray. All was well now; they had no law to fear. Brown, A Brief Sketch of the First Settlement of Schoharie by the Germans (p. 9)

At this time, 1718, a census was taken of the German families in New York. A total of 394 families was tallied, included 170 families in the �Seven Townships� in Schoharie. While living in Schoharie, Johannes and Anna Maria had four more children; Conrad born 1715, Daughter #2 born 1718, Frederick born 1721, and John born 1724.

But their days of peace and prosperity were to be short-lived. Once again, tragedy would come to the Palatines, but this time due to their own stubbornness. Around 1720, in an effort to establish his claim to the Schoharie land, and to show that a settlement had been started, and improvements had been made, Nicholas Bayard came to the Schoharie settlement and,

�issued an order that every householder should bring to him the boundaries of his possession, and be issued a deed in the name of the Sovereign.� Cobb, The Story of the Palatines.

But the Palatines did not believe he was an agent of the Queen, and thought this was a trick to bring them under the control of the land holders. To this day, there are some who say the Germans were correct and Mr. Bayard was in truth acting fraudulently. But, after years of living free the settlers saw no reason for this order and becoming quite angry, proceeded to surround the house where Mr. Bayard was staying.

On the next morning, they arose all like one man-surrounded the house of Smith, some weaponed with guns, some with pitch-forks, women with hoes, and others with clubs, demanding Mr. Bayard alive or dead. On refusal, fired sixty balls through the roof of the house, which was all the ammunition they had. Night came on and they left the house. Brown, A Brief Sketch (p. 10)

In the middle of the night, Mr. Bayard escaped to Schenectady, 20 miles away. He decided to give them a second chance to obtain their deeds. From the safety of Schenectady, he sent a message to the Palatines that if any man should appear, and acknowledge him as the King�s Agent, �with the gift of one ear of corn�, he would be issued a �free deed and lasting title of all his possession.� Mr. Bayard waited, but no one appeared. After a period of time, he went to Albany and, with the help of Governor Hunter, was able to legally transfer the entire property to seven men known as the �Seven Partners of Schoharie�, and went back to England.

Unknown to the Palatines, the land the Mohawk Chiefs had gifted them, and the Queen of England had promised them, their Land of Canaan, the Schoharie, had been sold to these seven businessmen, known as the Huntersfield Patent. Because the land was not legally their land, the Palatines were now viewed as squatters, and conflict was inevitable. These Seven Partners demanded that the High Sheriff in Albany go out to the settlements and tell the Palatines they needed to leave. Below is a narrative of what happened when Sheriff Adams arrived:

When the sheriff began to meddle with the first man, a mob of women rose, of which Magdalene Zee [Zeh] was captain.  Sheriff Adams was knocked down, and dragged through every mud-pool in the street; then hung on a rail and carried four miles, thrown down on a bridge, where Magdalene Zee took a stake out of the fence, and struck him in the side, such that she broke two of his ribs and he lost one eye. Then, she pissed in his face, let him lie, and went off.  Knowing that discretion is the better part of valor, the wounded Adams made off for Albany. For a good time to come, the men of Schoharie stayed away from that city, sending women instead, but not forever. After things cooled, the partners had a sheriff�s posse waiting and a group of visiting Palatines were seized and jailed. Brown, A Brief Sketch (p. 10-11)

By 1723, after sending three of their men on a futile trip to England to make an appeal to the Queen, the Palatines were finally resigned to the fact that the land they had been living on was not theirs, and would never be theirs, and they began to split up. A third of the families went south with Conrad Wiser for new settlements in the Tulpehocken Valley in Berks County, Pennsylvania. Another third of the original settlers were able to buy or lease the Schoharie land from the Seven Partners, and having made peace with the patentees, lived a quiet life. The remaining third, of which Johannes was a part, went to the Mohawk River valley, where the new Governor, Governor Burnet (Governor Hunter died in London in 1720), made arrangements to establish a new settlement northwest of Schoharie on the Mohawk River called the Burnetsfield Patent.

1725 to 1757: The Burnetsfield Patent � German Flats � Three More Millers

After living in Schoharie for thirteen years, Johannes once again packed up his belongings, and set out for his own land on the Burnetsfield Patent. This area would later contain the cities of Illion, Herkimer and German Flats.

In 1722, land on both sides of the Mohawk River was purchased from the Indians by the Palatines who were granted a license to purchase by Governor Burnet. The land extended westward from Little Falls to Frankfort and consisted of 9,186 acres. Palatines began moving into the area in 1723, the deed being issued in April, 1725, known as the Burnetsfield Patent. Ninety-two persons were named in the patent, each receiving 100 acres with an annual quit-rent of two shillings and sixpence. This was on the condition that each grantee cultivated at least three acres of every fifty acres within three years. Jeptha Simms believed that many of these families were from the third immigration of Palatines who arrived from Holland in 1722. Among the names that will later appear in Fairfield history are Petre, Helmer, and Kast. Also in this group was Johan Jost Erghemar, father of General Nicholas Herkimer. Diffenbacher, This Green and Pleasant Land

On April 30, 1725, a patent was issued for lands on the Mohawk �twenty-four miles westerly from Little Falls, on both sides of the river, to William Burnett (the Governor) and others (the Palatines).� [9].Johannes Muller and his wife drew Lot #43, a long, thin parcel of 100 acres on the south side of the river. His cousin, Johannes Kesseler, with whom he began his journey fourteen years earlier, drew Lot #45. Maria�s son from her fist marriage, Henry Hager drew a lot directly across the river from Johannes and Maria. After settling in their new homestead, Johannes and Anna Maria had three more children; Henry (our direct ancestor) born 1726, Isaac born 1729, and Elizabeth born 1732.

1749: The Letter

Wonderfully, there still exists a letter dated July 10, 1749, in which Anna Maria and Johannes write to their families in Germany. Per an email from author Henry Z Jones (The Palatine Families of New York 1710), the original letter was located in the Hessen State Archives in Wiesbaden, Germany but may not have survived World War II. In this letter, the Mullers mention the journey to America, their marriage, their children, and their land. The first half of the letter is written by Anna Maria to her family, and the second half is written by Johannes to his family:

"Our greetings first! Dearest brother and all friends together with their families! Since I Anna Maria from Germany have been in America, I could never find the opportunity to report a few things about my life and situation. But since a good Palatine friend, Stephen Franck by name, a neighbor of ours, is traveling to the Palatinate and has some business in your area, I could not hesitate to look up you friends to learn how you are doing. Let you know that we have arrived in 1710 in New York after a long and troublesome journey, and then, during harvest time my husband died after a short illness, being well at noon and dead in the evening. The infant boy born to us in Germany, Heinrich Hager by name, has married here [Henry Hager married Anna Petrie in 1730 - RKM] and has 11 living children. I have remarried in 1711. My husband, Johannes Muller by name, still living by the grace of God, comes from Rutershausen, district office of Ebersbach, by whom in peaceful matrimony together we had 5 sons [they are Conrad, Frederick, John, Henry (our direct ancestor) and Isaac - RKM] and 3 daughters, [2 names unknown, and Elizabeth - RKM] which the Lord up to this time has kept alive. Of them, 4 sons and 2 daughters are married.

Also, I wish to report that, even though the move to and the start in this country was hard, God blessed us nevertheless. He has given us our own land, bread, cattle and food so we may live, and we cannot be grateful enough to the Lord. We have no desire to return into your forsaken Egypt; but rather would that you could be with us. However, nobody can be told what to do, for the journey is very troublesome and subject to many discomforts; and life and death are not very far apart from each other.

I have learned that the princely house of Nassau has died out except Nassau-Ditz. I would like to find out from you, dearest brother-in-law, who rules over the principality, and whether things are still as rough as they were then. As far as I am concerned, we are, compared to the taxes in Germany, a free country. We pay taxes once a year. These taxes are so minimal that some spend more money for drinks in one evening when going to the pub. What the farmer farms is his own. There are no tithes, no tariffs; hunting and fishing are free, and our soil is fertile and everything grows. I have 100 acres from the crown and bought another 100 acres.

Dear brother Johannes Jacob, Hellmes, Jacob, and step-brother Ebert Jung, and my dear brother Hans Henrich Muller, I would like to know how long my mother has been dead [his mother Angess Kesseler died May 5, 1723 - RKM]. And all you brother-in-law, let us know by letter who is still alive, how your families are, and how you are feeling, which we dearly would like to know. This Franck, should he not come and see you personally, will show you a way where to deliver the letter.

Dear cousin Hans Jurg Muller, son of Thomas Muller, I would like to know whether you live, how you do, and to whom you are married. This let me know. We have now not seen each other in 40 years. I would like to be with you for 3 or 4 weeks to hug you and tell you good night. To write more about this would be too much and difficult to express. I wish you and Franck could meet to talk over several things. Now I close and wish you all 1000 Good Nights. I, my wife, and children send 1000 times greetings to all of our good friends who we know, and may God bless you. Your most respectful brother-in-law and friend�

Johannes Muller

Barnetsfield, Province of New York, County of Albany, 10 July, 1749

P.S. I ask you again, for God�s sake, to be surely interested enough to send me a letter, otherwise my letter was in vain, and I still will know nothing about you.

P.S. Conrad Muller and his wife died in New York, a son is still living. Hartman and Dan. Busch are also deceased. Dear brother-in-law, tell my brother in Ruttershausen about this letter, so he may write to me." Jones, The Palatine Families (p. 662-663)

1757-1758: The French and Indian War in German Flats

One of the purposes of settling people this far out from the larger populations in the city of New York, was to establish a buffer on the border between lands claimed by France and lands claimed by England. This region was in constant dispute and the site of many battles (sounds exactly like the Palatinate in 1700 when France was invading Germany). In 1757, French raiders from Canada attacked the settlers on the north side of the Mohawk River (Johannes� home was located on the south side of the river).

In November, 1757, occurred the raid of M. de Belletre, whose force, composed of 300 Indians and Canadians, came up the Black River valley, and emerging from the mountain forests, fell without warning on all the Palatine settlements on the north side of the Mohawk. They made a clean sweep, burning every building � alike the houses of the people and the barns stuffed with the gathered crops, while most of the stock, horses, cattle, sheep, and swine were killed. Some of the people were slain and nearly one hundred carried off as prisoners. The majority of the people saved themselves by flight, crossing the river and seeking refuge in the fort on the south side. The enemy did not pursue, but busying themselves with the work of destruction, retired at nightfall with their booty and their prisoners, satisfied for that occasion. Cobb, The Story of the Palatines (p. 278-279)

The next year, in April 1758, another group of French attacked the settlements on the south side of the river. This time, the settlers were warned, and General Herkimer was able to gather a majority of them behind the defenses of the fort. The attack on the fort failed, but the invading French and Indians were able to kill thirty of the Palatines and destroy their homesteads.

In the following year, the French government in Quebec collapsed which brought a period of peace to the region. The Palatines were able to rebuild their houses and barns, many of the captives returned to their families and a level of prosperity came back to the people on the Mohawk River.

The Revolution

While the story of Johannes Muller was probably over by the time of the Revolutionary War, the story of German Flats was not. You may wonder which side the Germans were on; were they British Loyalists or were they Patriots? A majority of the Palatines chose to fight against the British. However, there were a few Tories among them who invariably moved north to Canada.

By the time of the War of Independence, the Palatines were quite ready to throw off the yoke of English dominance, and those that were able, joined in the fight. This war would bring on another period of devastation for these people. The Mohawk Valley was known to be a fertile area that provided wheat and grain to the Continental Army. During 1778, the British Army passed through the valley and burned it all to the ground. This event is now called �The Burning of the Valley� and reenactments of it are performed each year.

Following the American victory at Saratoga, but prior to the official signing of the peace accords, General George Washington and a group of officers made a tour of the Mohawk Valley in July, 1783. He stopped at General Herkimer's house on July 26th, and continued up the south side to Fort Herkimer, where he spent two nights. Fort Herkimer no longer exists, but its site was very close to the Miller house. General Washington looked over the carrying place at Little Falls and remarked that a canal for military and commercial reasons should be built around the rapids. Later, in 1808, the Erie Canal would be constructed alongside the Mohawk River.

The End?

In Nathaniel Benton�s The History of Herkimer County (1856), there are several chapters of biographies of the first settlers in the towns along the Mohawk River. Because the Millers had left the area two years before the book was written, Johannes Muller did not get a full biographical sketch as did some of the other land owners. He did, however, get briefly mentioned, and I have copied the paragraph below.

�I should not omit to mention the name of Miller, or neglect to say, in this place, that the descendants of Johannes, the patentee, have until the year 1854, retained the ownership of the whole or some portion of the lot [Lot #43 of the Burnetsfield Patent, 100 acres - RKM] granted to their ancestor. But the last proprietor of the name parted with the remnant of a patrimony held in the family more than one hundred and twenty-five years; where sire and grandsire had sported their youthful pastimes, and, when maturer years had cast the burthen upon them, where they had toiled and endured in obedience to the high command. Earned by a long and tedious pilgrimage in search of a �haven of rest�, and consecrated by the sufferings endured through two long and cruel wars, the title has now passed to a stranger, and the �home-farm� is now divested of all the interesting incidents that have been clustering around its hearth-stones through five generations.� Benton, The History of Herkimer County p. 129

The last of my direct ancestors to live in German Flats, was Peter Miller (Johannes Muller�s great-grandson), who was born there in 1802. He moved away sometime before 1830, as he was raising a family in Bethany, Genesee County, New York in 1830, and by 1838 had moved to Hartford, Trumbull County, Ohio. Following the construction of the Erie Canal, which eliminated the monopoly the Mohawk Valley held on selling wheat to the city of New York, the area experienced an economic recession and many of the original settlers relocated. Since Benton�s book mentions �five generations� living on the property �until the year 1854�, evidently a fifth generation of Millers, retained at least a portion of the land of Lot #43 until 1854.

The last dated source referencing in the life of Johannes Miller was the letter which he and Anna Maria wrote to family members in Germany, dated July 10, 1749, Johannes being 61 years of age. It is very possible that he lived much longer than this, and if so, he probably participated in the French and Indian War attacks of 1757 and 1758, when he was 70 years of age. As of yet, there has been no will or church document discovered, nor grave-site located, which would give us information concerning the death of Johannes Miller. Further research will be necessary to discover when and how his life came to an end.

Final Note: In March, 2008, I contacted the Herkimer County Historical Society, asking for any information on the location of Johannes Muller�s gravesite or any deeds or wills they may have on file. They responded that people of that time were usually buried on their own property, and that most of the burial sites have been lost over time. They also mentioned that the western Mohawk Valley was devastated and burned in both the French and Indian War and the Revolution. In the Burning of the Valley in 1778, nearly three-quarters of the homes were destroyed. Also, in 1804, the Herkimer Court House was burned and all of the records located there were destroyed.

Sources:

[1] Jones, Henry Z. The Palatine Families of New York 1710 Volumes I & II (1985)

[2] Cobb, Sanford H. The Story of the Palatines: An Episode in Colonial History (1897)

[3] Benton, Nathaniel History of Herkimer County: The Upper Mohawk Valley (1856)

[4] Knittle, Walter A. Early Eighteenth Century Palatine Emigration (1937)

[5] Barker, William V. H. Early Families of Herkimer County New York: Descendants of the Burnetsfield Palatines (1986)

[6] http://mohawkpalatines2.blogspot.com/2006/12/1710.html

[7] Brown, John M. Brief Sketch of the First Settlement of the County of Schoharie by the Germans (1823)

[8] West Camp Lutheran Church Book

[9] The Burnetsfield Patent

[10] Dieffenbacher, Jane This Green and Pleasant Land 

[11] Otterness, Phillip Becoming German: The 1709 Palatine Migration to New York (2004)