Our Heritage

by Bernard W. Cruse, Sr.

from THE ANCESTORS AND DESCENDANTS OF JOHANN NICHOLAUS HEINRICH KRESS compiled and edited by Bernard W. Cruse, Jr. August 1999

Wars and Troubles

War has always been a ruthless game of rulers. Men killed is the unit of recording the score. Seventeenth century Europe (1600s) was deep in the chaos of such as deadly game. Among the few survivors is the stock which has greatly helped to build this area of Piedmont, North Carolina. Such were our forefathers. The memory of those gallant people who settled in this vicinity should ever be regarded as sacred. Their courageous hearts, their conscientious convictions of duty and their love of their Church led them to venture upon the dangers of a long voyage over the Atlantic and to endure the perils and hardships of a hazardous wilderness which greeted them upon their arrival in this country.

The circumstances, causes, and reasons which brought about this mass migration of these early settlers from their native homes in Europe to seek a home in the far west across the great Atlantic from all they once held dear were several and of great variety. We are told by the historians who have recorded these events over the years that the principal reason for leaving their homeland was to find a place to live where they could worship God according to their own convictions and rear their children in a land of freedom.

The Thirty Years War

The Thirty Years War (1618-1648) raged through Europe for more than a generation. During this dreadful conflict these people suffered the most. The great historian Freytag, describing the effects of the war on the country near Henneberg, in Germany, says, "In the course of the war, seventy-five percent of the inhabitants, sixty-six percent of the houses, eighty-five percent of the horses, and most of the cattle were destroyed." Mr. Freytag goes on to say that the Palatinate, the much traversed district along the Rhine River, suffered most and that this area did not reach the antebellum number until 1849, or two hundred years later. It was from this region, including the upper Rhine, Wurtemberg, Baden, Bavaria, and the Palatinate, that the people of this region and our forefathers came.

Each of us is familiar with the story of the landing of the Pilgrims from England at Plymouth Rock, but the story of the persecuted Huguenots of France, the German Palatinates of the upper Rhine, and the Salzburgers from the Alpine Districts of Austria, has never been fully written, and these stories have been but partially understood.

On September 25, 1555, the Treaty of Peace at Augsburg was signed. This agreement, or so called peace, was only a temporary compromise between the Catholics and the Lutherans. By its terms, equal rights were provided in the Empire for the Lutherans as well as the Catholics. No other group was recognized. The Catholics were not satisfied with this arrangement for peace, so the Jesuits started to stir up trouble and hatred among the rulers, the people, the authorities, and in the schools of higher learning against the Lutherans. The Jesuits induced Emperor Ferdinand to bring his army against the Protestants of Bohemia and destroy them. This was the beginning of the Thirty Years War. It was the duty of Ferdinand to protect the people of his realm, but he persecuted, robbed, murdered, and drove them from their homes and families and out of Germany. Some went to France. Others went to England, Sweden, Denmark, and other countries of Europe. Ferdinand, in his greed for power, attacked the commerce of Sweden and thus aroused Gustavus Adolphus. Word came to the Swedes that they were to be brought into the war as soon as Wallenstein, the commander of the Catholic army could get reorganized. King Gustavus Adolphus at once, to save his country and his Church, landed his army in Germany. The following year, 1631, Gustavus met the Catholic army under Count Tilley and destroyed it. Wallenstein had been relieved of his command in the meantime, but was recalled to give battle to the Swedes. For a year, Wallenstein moved his troops away and avoided battle with the Swedes, since he first wanted to strengthen his army, but in November 1632, Gustavus caught the Catholics under the command of Wallenstein at Luetzen. The Swedes marched into battle while the trumpeters played Luther's battle hymn, "A Mighty Fortress is Our God" and the soldiers sang, "O Little Flock, Fear Not The Foe" of which Gustavus was the author. The Catholics were defeated, but King Gustavus was killed. The war continued for sixteen years and ended in 1648 with the Treat of Westphalia. By this treaty, both the Lutherans and the Reformed people gained some religious liberty over the protests of the Pope at Rome.

Persecution

Following the Thirty Years War, a cloud of persecution hung over every Protestant Christian in Europe; much worse, more fierce, and more unrelenting than all the troubles and oppressions the Puritans ever suffered in their native England. The Catholic Church of Rome, which had long schooled its people on the doctrine of "death to heretics," took John Huss of Prague to a martyr's death. They tried to exterminate with "fire and sword" the Protestant Piedmontese in their homes in the peaceful valleys and mountains of Italy. No Protestant could live in peace.

The name "Huguenot" was a term or name given by the Catholics to the Protestant Christians who followed the doctrines of the Reformation (the Reformation began in 1517 with Martin Luther), and it is said that the term or name was first used near the city of Tours where the French Protestants gathered themselves for worship. It was during the reign of Henry II of France that these "Huguenots" increased and grew rapidly. Many of them had been driven out of their native Germany during the Thirty Years War. This much alarmed the Catholics, so they organized themselves into an army with the intention of exterminating the "Huguenots" and destroying all traces of Protestantism in Europe. This terror continued during the short reign of Francis II. He is called the "Imbecille Prince." Then his brother, Charles IX, took the throne. He is known as the "Bloody." It was during the reign of Charles that civil war broke out between the Catholics and the Protestants in France. Catherine de'Medicis was the wicked and ruthless mother of Charles IX, and it was during her time that the awful horrors of "St. Bartholomew's Night" came about. It was on August 24, 1572 that the Admiral Coligni and thousands of his fellow Protestant Christians met with a treacherous death. Historians tell and describe the event as "the massacre was continued in the city and throughout the kingdom for a week, and it is computed that from eighty to one hundred thousand were slain. The annals of the world are filled with narratives of crime and woe, but the massacre of St. Bartholomew stands without parallel." All those good people killed, and their only crime was that of being a Christian.

The Edict of Nantes

It was during the reign of Henry IV that these Christians were treated with a little kindness and favor. In 1598 he proclaimed an edict at the city of Nantes which gave these Christians the right of religious freedom. The Edict of Nantes brought peace for about 87 years and until the reign of Louis XIV.

Further Persecution

It was during the reign of this wicked, ruthless monarch in 1685 that the Edict of Nantes was revoked. The war and persecution broke out again. These Protestant Huguenots, finding themselves no longer safe and free in their homes or country, remembering the horrors and troubles of former years, resolved to leave their homes, farms and country over which such a hostile government had such an unlimited sway. They moved to Switzerland, Germany, Holland, England, and America. With their leaving, France was depopulated and deprived of thousands of her most useful, industrious, skilled, and wealthy citizens, and they carried with them their Protestant teachings and many of the finer and useful arts of France.

Louis XIV was not content with the persecution of his own people in France so soon after the revocation of the Edict of Nantes, so he started to spread his war of desolation into Germany, the little counties of Alsace on the Rhine, and the province of the Palatinate, which is no longer known in the geography of Europe. He tried to utterly destroy all people who might oppose him. He murdered old folks as well as women and children whose only crime was, in his view, "the sin of being a Protestant Christian."

War of the Spanish Succession

This conquest of the Palatinate was occasioned by the War of the Spanish Succession (1701-1714). Here is where our families lived in Germany. The War of Succession stands prominently as the instrument or cause on sending thousands of people to the American Continent.

King Charles II of Spain died November 1, 1700, leaving no heir in his immediate family as a successor to his throne. He was the last scion of the Hapsburg family that had ruled Spain for some two hundred years. In Austria the Hapsburg family had held the throne since 1273. Although distantly related, one of the sons of Leopold I, King of Austria, was the natural heir to the throne of Spain. This situation could have been settled without any difficulty had not Louis XIV of France, by intrigue and persuasion, induced by Charles II of Spain a short time before his death to make a will in which he gave or devised the throne of Spain to Philip, a grandson of Louis XIV of France. This giving away of the throne of Spain to a stranger agitated all of Europe and threw the entire continent into turmoil. It disarranged the system of equilibrium of power. Should this arrangement of power in the Bourbon family of France be allowed to stand, a new power would be thus established that could destroy all the small kingdoms of Europe, including the destruction of their independence, their freedom of religion, and their ways of life. Hence, all the nations of Europe became interested in the proper settlement of this vexatious state of affairs.

This vacant throne of Spain at that time presented a most tempting desire of the two claimants. Spain was in the enjoyment of her height of wealth and power. Her rule extended over the Netherlands, Naples, Sicily, most of America, and around the world. The throne of Spain was a valuable legacy of wealth and power to the fortunate successor of the deceased Charles II of Spain. It would have been a wonderful benefit to the entire world if this disputed inheritance could have been settled in a court of law as we settled wills and estates today. If a resort must be made to a conflict of arms, the persons immediately interested should have fought it out between themselves without dragging their unfortunate subjects into this bloody strife. This conflict raged in and over Europe for thirty years. King Leopold I of Austria had two sons. Joseph I was the older and heir apparent of his father's throne. Archduke Charles, the younger, was the legitimate heir of his kinsman, Charles II of Spain. Louis XIV of France had no living son, but he had two grandsons, Louis the Dolphin, who afterward became King Louis XV of France, and Philip, Duke of Anju, who later became Philip V of Spain. He was the legatee named in the will of Charles II of Spain. He succeeded to the throne of Spain after the war and bloody strife.

In this war, France enlisted the aid of Spain and the electorates of Bavaria and Cologne. The Emperor of Austria had the aid of the German states, the Netherlands, England, and Denmark. The battlefield was over the countries of Italy, Spain, France, Germany, and the Netherlands. After several years of strife, the Emperor of Austria died. In 1705 his son Joseph I took the Imperial throne. This did not hinder or stop the fighting. The war raged on both sides as fiercely as ever. The King of France, Louis XIV soon declined his claim to the Spanish throne and the new Emperor of Austria, Joseph I, died in 1711 leaving no children, so his brother Archduke Charles took the vacant throne of Austria. These events so changed and effected the issues in dispute that a speedy return to peace could be seen.

With these changes, Charles of Austria was not interested in the throne of Spain. He had now come into possession of the crowns of Austria, Hungary, and Bohemia.

The powers of Europe were next faced with more trouble. The Hapsburg family was to be dreaded as much or more than the Bourbon family of France with this new alliance of power. England and several of the European nations began to prepare terms of settlement of the conflict, but the settlement was delayed for a time because of a change in administration in England. All the issues in dispute were finally settled and adjusted in the Congress of Utrecht and Hastdt in 1713 and 1714. The agreement provided in substance that Philip would take over the Spanish throne with the proviso that France and Spain forever remain separate kingdoms. Thus ended a long and bitter conflict.

During the War of the Spanish Succession, Louis XIV carried his destruction into all of Germany, except Bavaria and Cologne which were allied with him. Louis XIV was a bigoted Catholic. The people of Germany were mostly Protestant. He had a twofold motive in mind, to destroy all Protestant people and to win the war so that his grandson would have the throne of Spain. He carried sword and fire, desolation and ruin wherever he went. Our forefathers had been living in peace for a period of time in the Palatinate on the Rhine, but they were now plundered of all their earthly possessions, driven in midwinter from their homes and country to seek a safe and friendly place to live. They found safety and shelter in the Netherlands, and from there, they went on to England. The Rev. Dr. Thornwall writes: "Private dwellings were razed to the ground, fields laid to waste, cities burned, churches demolished, and the fruits of industry wantonly destroyed, but three days of grace were allowed to flee the country, and in a short time," the historian tells us, "the roads were blackened by innumerable multitudes of men, women, and children fleeing from their homes. Many died from cold and hunger, but enough survived to fill the streets of all the cities of Europe with lean and squalid beggars who had once been thriving farmers and shopkeepers."

German Refugees and Queen Ann of England

Queen Ann held the throne of England of the time, and to her realm these Palatinates flocked by the thousands where they were kindly received. In her effort to provide for these poor Palatines, the good queen induced them to settle in her American colonies where all kinds and classes were needed. Thus, some were sent to the province of New York. Some were brought over by a Swiss Land Company by Christoph von Graffenreid and Franz Louis Michael to New Bern, North Carolina. Others found a home in South Carolina, mostly at Charleston, but others settled on the Congaree, Saluda, and Broad Rivers, while others are traced to Orangeburg and a few to the Savannah River. Every effort had been made by the good queen to safely located these unfortunate refugees. Extensive grants of land were made for their homes, farms, churches, and schools for the education of their children. These persecuted Protestants brought with the their Bibles, hymn books, and catechisms.

Although these first refugees, thousands of Palatinates who were sent to our shores by Queen Ann, none were sent directly to Pennsylvania, but later thousands moved into Pennsylvania. The area that is now known as Pennsylvania was granted by King Charles I of England to William Penn in 1681 in a payment of a war loan of 16,000 pounds owed Penn's father. This grant to Penn was the largest grant of land to any individual in the New World. It consisted of over 40,000 square miles of land. William Penn held absolute title in fee simple and held the power to create a political government of his own. Thus in a legal sense, this vast tract of land was not a settlement to any foreign power, since Penn himself was a British subject and owed his allegiance to the crown of England. The Germans who came to this country were known as foreigners.

William Penn was much interested in obtaining settlers for his vast holdings in Pennsylvania, so he personally made a trip to the upper Rhine country and the Palatinate in Germany seeking people who might come to Pennsylvania to live. Penn himself and his many agents spread the news that these suffering and oppressed Protestants could come to Pennsylvania where civil and religious freedom would prevail. Two years later, in 1683, under the leadership of a young lawyer by the name of Francis Daniel Pastorius, a colony of German Mennonites came to Pennsylvania and settled at Germantown. This was the beginning of a mass migration from the Rhine provinces that spread all over Pennsylvania to the south, to the west, and to all parts of the New World.

Rev. Henry Melchoir Muhlenberg, D.D., the great Lutheran preacher who came to Pennsylvania from Germany in 1742, sent his report to the University at Halle Mission Society, dated July 9, 1754, and he wrote: "Shortly before and at the opening of this century some Germans made the beginning by crossing the Great Atlantic and settling in this land of the west. They settled here and made use of the freedom which we enjoy here, undisturbed in matters of religion, according to the fundamental laws of the First Proprietary of this Province of Pennsylvania and William Penn. In the first period, namely, from about 1680 to 1708, some came by chance, among whom was Henry Grey, whose wife is said to be still living. He came about 1680. About the same time some low Germans from Cleve sailed across the ocean, whose descendants are still to be found here, some of whom were baptized by us, others still live as Quakers." Dr. Muhlenberg goes on to say, "In the second period, in the years 1708, 1709, 1710 to 1720, when the great exodus from the Palatinate to England took place, a large number of people were sent to New York by Queen Ann, not a few of them came to Pennsylvania. These got along with some devotional books, sermon books, Arndt's True Christianity, and hymn books which were provided by the Rev. Anthony William Boehm who was at that time the Court preacher at St. James in London. Even at that time, some people reached here who, although some of them may have had good intentions, they separated from our fellowship in Europe, for reasons unknown to us, they kept themselves separate here and lived by themselves. They had no concern for preservation of the pure Doctrine or the building of the necessary churches and the erection of good schools, much less did they attempt to purchase land for the buildings in the interests of their descendants, although they could have bought one hundred acres for the price which we now have to pay for half an acre. They allowed their children and grandchildren to grow up without the necessary instruction, omitting also the means of grace, the Word of God, and the sacraments. Most of them went over to the Quakers, whose religion as it is well known is here in the ascendant or with later arrivals, they joined other churches which have sprung up here, or they did not want to have anything to do with religion. At the end of this period a large number of the High Germans arrived who were real separatists. They brought along a deep seated hatred of or disinclination to the Doctrine and the constitution of kinds, whose recital would lead us too far astray. In the following period a large number of high German Evangelical Christians came from the German Empire, Palatinate, Wurtemberg, Darmstaedt, and other places." Also many families from New York came over here. These must have spread and settled in all parts of this province. Some of these brought preachers along or secured them accidentally such as Revs. Henckel, Falkner, Stoever, and others. Some of them died early and others were unable to cope with the work. Our brethren living in New York and New Jersey turned to Hamburg and Holland for help and secured some preachers such as Revs. Kochendahle, Justus Falckner, Berkemeyer, Knoll, Wolf, and Hartwich, some of whom died long ago, others, because of quarrels arising among them, have not been able to build up Zion. They also received books and assistance from Holland. 

At the end of this, and the beginning of the next period, a still larger number of Germans came to this country. These brought some schoolmasters with them or took up with some who came after them. These at first read sermons, but soon imagined they were able to officiate as ministers and dispense the sacraments, although they took poor care of the children. Thus, the province has been peopled more with Englishmen, Scotch and Irish, as well as German Lutherans and Reformed People.

It was with this latter group that our families came to America.

Continue to THE JOURNEY FROM EUROPE TO AMERICA