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Misc: Old Schuylkill Tales By Mrs. Ella Zerbey Elliott, 1906:
Part I  The Early Settlers : The Pennsylvania Germans
Where They Orginated : Pages 17-47

PART I
THE EARLY SETTLERS
THE PENNSYLVANIA GERMANS
Where They Originated.

The Pennsylvania Germans whose ancestors were exiled from their homes in the beautiful valley of the Rhine and Neckar by furious religious and political persecution are yet, after a lapse of many generations, bound by invisible ties to the land which has been consecrated and hallowed by the same blood which courses in their veins.

The early history of Germany and the frequent quarrels between the Romans and the German tribes is a familiar one. The Franks, Goths, Saxons and Alemanni finally became merged into one tribal relation and these occupied the lower course of the Shelt, the Emeuse and the Schwalm Rivers, west and in the lower Rhine region.  See Schwalm River again on this page.

The Palatinate was formerly an independent state of Germany,and consisted of two territorial divisions, the Upper or the Bavarian Palatinate and the Lower or Rhine Palatinate. The story of the Rhine Pfalz is one of great interest. In thatcountry dwelt the ancestors of the Pennsylvania Germans, twocenturies before persecution drove them from it. Nature waslavish to that valley. For more than a thousand years theRhine was the prize for which the Romans, Gauls, and Germans contended. There is no region of country on the globe that has witnessed so many bloody conflicts as the Palatinate on the Rhine. The Romans struggled for more than five centuries to subdue the various German tribes, only to leave them unconquered, and after the Romans withdrew the rich prize wascoveted by European nations. The Germans of the Rhine provinces suffered from the French as late as the Franco-German war, and the crimes committed in the Palatinate in consequence of religious intolerance, fanaticism, and political persecution are unparalleled in the history of human savagery. For thirty years the Palatinate was frequently ravaged by contending armies and the country became the theatre of war and a continuous conflict followed until peace came at the end of the thirty years, and the Palatinates were saved to Germany, but at what a fearful cost. The people were no longer compelled to worship God at the point of the sword, but their persecutions were not yet to end. The worst cruelties were yet to be inflicted on them. Passing over the period of religious persecution which shows the chief reasons for the emigration of the Palatinates to America we come to the date that led up to the grand Exodus of German Palatinates to Pennsylvania.

As early as 1614 three European travelers started from a point on the Mohawk River not far from Albany, New York, and proceeded up the Mohawk Valley about thirty miles, after which they came south to the Delaware River. Henry Hudson is believed to have been the first white man that came within the present limits of Pennsylvania, which was ruled over by the English.

In 1681 the British government made a grant to William Penn which included the boundaries of Pennsylvania, and one of his first acts was a treaty with the Indians, whom he recog-nized as the rightful owners of the soil. Penn made three visits to the Palatinate in Germany, and being a proficient German scholar, spoke the German language and had no dif-ficulty in inducing the Palatines to settle in his province in Pennsylvania.

Many who had no money for their passage were carried by mas-ters of vessels who depended upon them to work out the priceof the passage in a term of years. This species of servitudehad all the features of chattel slavery. The system of sel-ling emigrants was vigorously protested against by the German Quakers or Mennonites. The German settlers occupied all the counties south and east of the state along Chester and the lower end of Bucks county.

New York received a large German emigration in 1710. The Schoharie Settlers had internal difficulties and many left New York under the guidance of John Conrad Weiser and his son Conrad and settled in Pennsylvania. In 1739 Christopher Sauer began to publish a German newspaper at Germantown. Copies of it in existence now are considered invaluable as an encyclopedia of information. The Germans tilled their land, and Sauer's paper taught them to believe that the English were seeking to put restrictions on them as great as those which they had borne in the old country, and the English feared that the Germans would make the province a German province.

It was about 1754 when the largest influx of German immigrants came to this section of country, in what is now Berks, Schuylkill, Dauphin and Lebanon counties. The early settlers of the lower part of Schuylkill County, then a part of Berks, were mainly from the Palatines or the next genera-tion of those who came from there. When the first blood was shed at Lexington, the Germans espoused the cause of the American patriots in behalf of freedom. In May, 1776, before the adoption of the Declaration of Independence, Pennsylvania reported that five full companies enlisted from the Germans for immediate service. Every officer of this battalion was a German. It took the field and rendered con-spicuous service during the early part of the war. The German Battalion participated in the battle at Trenton in 1776 and sustained Washington at the ill-fated fields of Brandywine and Germantown and spent the terrible winter of 1777-1778 with him at Valley Forge. The deeds and sufferings of this German Battalion are a proud memorial of the part the German soldiers took in the Revolutionary War.

There is a belief among some people that the Hessian Mercenaries brought over by the British government to fight the Americans remained here after the war was over and that their descendants constitute a part of the element of Pennsylvania Germans in this section to-day. This is errone-ous. These men were under contract to return after the war was over. A few perhaps remained and made good citizens, but there was an intense hatred in some localities against the so-called Hessian soldiers. Some of it still lingers with the present generation. It should be remembered, however, that the Hessians were forced into the British service by the poverty stricken German princes, who sold them to the British like so many slaves. Their service was not volun-tary. Many of the Hessians deserted in large numbers, and found refuge among the German colonists in Pennsylvania and New York. Thirty dollars a head was offered in Europe by the British government for hireling soldiers to fight against the Americans, but the rulers of Holland and Russia refused to entertain the proposition.

The so-called "Pennsylvania Dutch" language is a misnomer; there is no such thing. The Dutch are designated in Germany as Hollandisch and their language is Holland Dutch. These people came from Holland immediate and settled mainly in New York. Unthinking people are apt to confuse the terms German and Dutch. The ancestors of the Pennsylvania Germans who came from the upper and lower Rhine regions spoke a dialect that is known as Pfalzisch and the people at the time of the great emigration from there were known as German Palatines. The dialect of the Pennsylvania Germans is an inheritance from these ancestors and, barring its English infusion, is substantially the same as when first brought over. Pennsylvania German has deteriorated through borrowing from the English. It is now a mixture of bad German and worse English, but the Rhine Palatinate and Rhine Pfalzisch still remain. The literature still in existence among local fam-ilies, the German Bible, German prayer book and Hymnal in the central counties of Pennsylvania, a number of them in Schuylkill, show that the parent speech has not been forgot-ten.

In the region in Switzerland embraced in the Canton of Gresous, the Pfalzisch dialect still exists that was used several centuries ago. The Pfalzisch dialect spread all over south Germany and the Pennsylvania German and the south German dialects agree in many particulars. No Schuylkill County descendants of German ancestry need be ashamed of the Pennsylvania German dialect.

EARLY HISTORY OF SCHUYLKILL COUNTY

Schuylkill County was formed by Act of Assembly, passed March 1, 1811, from portions of Berks, Lancaster and Northampton Counties. In 1818 a small area was added from Columbia and Lehigh. The county has an area of 840 square miles, with an average length of 30 miles, and an average width of 24 and a half miles. The county was named after the Schuylkill river. The word Schuylen is a Swedish one and means to hide. The tract on which Orwigsburg is located belonged to Lancaster county. In 1752 that part of the State was ceded to Berks County. Rev. Henry Melchior Muhlenberg narrates the history of the German captives, who were taken by the Indians during the years from 1755 to 1765. Johannes Hartmann lived in the forest, on a spot near where now stands St. Paul's Lutheran Church, Orwigsburg. The rec-ords of Zion's Kirche, (the "Red Church") in West Brunswick township, one and a half miles southeast of Orwigsburg, tell of the firing in 1755 by the Indians of the first log church just completed by the settlers; the massacring of the peo-ple and the laying of their homes in ashes. Those who could escape---among them Henrich Adam Ketner and his wife Katharine, who came there in 1755,--fled across the Blue Mountains into Berks county; subsequently returning with others they built the church and re-established their homes afresh. It was at this date that a frightful massacre oc-curred at the site of what is now Orwigsburg.

Daniel Deibert, born in 1802, published an early history ofhis forebears, who lived near the spot. William Deibert camefrom Germany to Philadelphia early in the eighteenth centu-ry, when his son Wilhelm was three years old. The latter with his brother Michael, when they came to manhood's es-tate, left their parents in Bern township, Berks county and in the year 1744 took up 300 acres of land in Manheim town-ship, Schuylkill county, now known as the Peale and Filbert farms. Nearly at the same time, the Deibert narrative states, "a few years earlier than my grandfather settled here, another German family came from Europe, the head of which was Johannes Hartmann and settled where Orwisburg now stands." Daniel Deibert's father, John, subsequently bought 144 acres of land in West Brunswick township, just below the old White Church, in the valley, which farm is still in the possession of the Deibert family and one of the most beauti-ful and prosperous in the county.

Daniel Deibert tells how, when he was a child four or fiveyears of age, his father and mother, while clearing the land, took the cradle and the three children with them and that he, the eldest, would keep the locusts and other in-sects from the baby in the cradle, while the elders worked. His grandfather, William, frequently told him stories of how the Indians molested the early settlers.

Christian Deibert a son, was married to Mary Elizabeth Miller, daughter of Andrew and Elizabeth Miller, nee Stout, and was a sister of Hannah Miller, who married Andrew Schwalm. A subsequent chapter is devoted to the romantic courtship and "mad ride" of Elizabeth Stout, their mother, wife of Andrew Miller. Christian and Mary Elizabeth Deibert lived on the Deibert homestead near Orwigsburg for many years.

The Hartmann family had two boys and two girls. They were a pious and religious family. One day in the fall of 1755 the father and his eldest son were to finish their sowing. Mrs.

Hartmann took their youngest son, Christian, to John Finscher's mill, near the P. & R. Railway and the Mine Hill Railway crossing, where Schuylkill Haven now stands, to have some grist done. When the father and the there children were eating their dinner a band of Indians, fifteen in number, headed by Hammaoslu (the tiger's claw) and Pottowasnos (the boat pusher) came and killed Hartmann and his eldest son, plundered the log house and set it on fire, carrying the two girls with them as victims into the forest.

When Mrs. Hartman and her son returned from the mill they found their home and out-buildings burned to the ground. The charred bodies of Hartmann and his son and a dog were dis-covered among the ruins, where they had been thrown into the fire by the mad savages, who performed in ghoulish glee the      (24)funeral dance around the flaming pile; but of the girls there was no sign.

They murdered the family of a man named Smith and took with them their little girl three years old. The girls were bare-foot and their feet became sore. The eldest of the Hartmanngirls grew lame and became very sick when they tomahawked her. They wrapped the feet of the two other girls with ragsand took them to their camp in the forest. Some hunters found the body of the eldest girl and buried her.

Several times, years after, children were reclaimed from the Indians. On such occasions Mrs. Hartmann went to see whether she could hear of her daughter. Once she went as far as Pittsburg, but could hear nothing. Thus nine years passedaway when word came that a great many captive white children had been taken from the Indians, and were in charge of Col. Bouquette, at Carlisle. Mrs. Hartmann journeyed thither atonce. The children spoke nothing but the Indian language and she did not recognize her child among them. Sad at heart she was about again to return home, when the Commander asked her if there was no hymn or lullaby which she remembered to have sung to her little girl during her infancy.

After some hesitation the mother began to sign "Allein und doch nicht ganz allein bin ich," ("Alone and yet not all alone am I") when a grown up swarthy complexioned Indian girl broke out from among the ranks and fell on her neck and kissed her. What a joyful meeting that was. The captive Sauquehanna (the White Lily), and with her, Koloska (the shortlegged Bear), Susan Smith and a sister of Martin Woerner, who lived on a farm at what is now Landingville, all returned home with their friends.

The mother's affection for her child, Regina, was returned at once by the freed captive, but it was not until MagdalenaHartmann had conveyed the exile to the brow of a hill, nearwhich stood their lowly home, the memory fully returned, and she exclaimed "washock!" "washock!" "The green tree," "the green tree," her memory had returned and she gave one evid-ence after another of the awakened recollections of the past and her mother's teachings.

John Finscher's mill, built in 1744, was burned and the family murdered about a year after the Hartmann massacre. From 1755-65, Indian massacres were frequent and the early set-tlers were obliged to often flee for their lives. Daniel Deibert says, "my grandfather William and his brother, Michael, saved their lives by fleeing over the Blue Mountains to their father's home in Bern township." They buried their farming implements, but in their haste did not mark the place and on their return could not find the cache. When the Schuylkill canal was dug they finally found their treasures, which had been supplemented in the interim with others. There have been rude cooking utensils found on the Peale and Filbert farms, Indian arrows and pottery, which shows that the Indians lived in that locality.

It is claimed by the descendants of Peter Orwig, that prior to the laying out of Orwigsburg in 1794-5, as recorded, oneGottfried Orwig and wife emigrated from Germany in 1747, and located upon a tract of forest land on what is now Kimmel's farm, and that Peter Orwig, was his grandson. If this claim     (26) is correct (there is no reason to doubt it) then Orwig set-tled in that locality before Hartmann or the Deiberts. It is probably true that there were others, too, in the vicinity, some of whom never returned after the Indian scare.

Among the Germans and Swiss who landed in New York in 1710 and settled in Livingstone Manor, there were twenty-three families who subsequently settled in the region of Tulpehocken, about fifteen miles from Reading. Among them were the families of Lorenz, John-Philip and Martin Zerwe or Zerbe, three brothers. On account of the bad treatment accorded them by the authorities in the dispossessing them of their lands, they left Livingstone Manor, N.Y., and settled in Schoharie Valley, where they lived ten years. There, after making many improvements to their homesteads, they were deprived of them through a defect in the title.

After enduring many hardships and privations, they traveled across the country to the Susquehanna river, where they built rude rafts on which they drifted down the stream to where the Swatara creek empties into the river, at Middletown. They followed this stream to near where Jonestown now stands and distributed thereabouts, settling near "Reith's Kirche."George Zerbe, Sr., who lived in Panther Valley frequently related the trials and difficulties these three brothers en-dured with others in New York State and their emigration to Pennsylvania. Their names, John Philip, Lorenz and Martin, occur among the list of taxables of male inhabitants over twenty-one years of age, 1711, in Livingstone Manor. He told of their nephew, Jacob Zerwe or Zerbe, whose name is also given in Rupp's "Thirty Thousand Immigrants' Supplement," as Jean Jacques Servier. They were all from Alsace and Lorraine, France, but subsequently removed to Switzerland, during the fierce struggles in the Palatines. Jean Jacques Servier came to America at the age of 29 in the ship Patience, Capt. Hugh Steel from Rotterdam, last from Cowes and qualified at Philadelphia, September 17, 1753.

In the list of taxables for the year 1772 in Pinegrove town-ship, then a part of Berks County, appear the names of Benjamin, Daniel and Philip Zerbe, descendants of the three first named and in the record of Jacob's Church, 1799, oc-curs the name of Johannes Zerbe, a son doubtless, of one of the above. George Zerbe, Sr., first settled near the site of Port Clinton, subsequently removing to Bender Thal. Three sons, Henry, Daniel and George, were the fruit of this mar-riage. Daniel took up a claim near Cressona, George removed to West Brunswick township where he located a homestead. Henry worked on a building of the new Court House, where he contracted malaria from the effects of a sunstroke and died after a six weeks' illness of typhoid fever. He left one son, Henry M. Zerbe, of Lewistown, Mifflin County, the late head of that branch of the family. Daniel died when still a young man, leaving a widow. George Zerbe, Jr., lived to a ripe old age and left three sons and several daughters. He was the father of the late W.M. Zerbey, of Pottsville.

George Zerbe had a retentive memory and related the story of the murder by the Indians of the two children of Frederick Reichelsderfer and the burning of their cabin. The killing of Jacob Gerhart, two women and six children, two of the children escaping by hiding under the bed clothes. The mas-sacre occurred in 1756. The story with others was told him by his father, George Zerbe, Sr. There were Indian troubles at the old mill at Landingville, built by Swartz in 1755, and also at the Boyer mill near Orwigsburg, built in 1770.

George Zeisloff, his wife, a son of twenty, and one of twelve, and a girl of fourteen they scalped, and killed their horses, carrying off their most valuable effects. Sometime later the Indians again troubled the early pioneers and carried off the wife and three children of Adam Burns. They murdered a man named Adam Trump and took his wife and sons prisoners, the woman escaping. In her flight she was pursued and one of the redskins threw a tomahawk at her which cut a deep gash in her neck. In 1775, near what is now Friedensburg, a neighbor from the Panther Valley went over to Henry Hartman's house and found him lying on his face in the doorway. He had been scalped by the Indians. Two men were found scalped on the State road to Sunbury and they were buried by the settlers who turned out to hunt the red fiends.

DEFENSE AGAINST THE INDIANS

The avowed object of the French and Indian War was to wipe out every white settler from the face of the soil of Pennsylvania. The Journals of Commissary Young and Col. Burd tell of a visit of inspection made the Indian forts, in 1758, and accompanying facts of deep interest. This chain of forts consisting of a system of over forty block-houses, stockades and log forts, with shelter for the women and children enclosed, reached from the mouth of the Delaware river to Fort Augusta, the outpost at Sunbury.

They afforded the settlers a refuge if they could reach thembut many were killed en route or died from exposure or pri-vation. One woman, Mrs. Frederick Myers, who was ploughing was shot through both breasts and then scalped. Her husband was found in the woods some distance away, scalped. A de-tachment of soldiers from Fort Lebanon took a ladder and carried the man to his wife and the neighbors buried both. The man had the one year old baby in his arms which he tried to save and which though scalped lived.

The Finscher family who lived at the mill at Schuylkill Haven, were massacred and also the Heims at Landingville and Everhards, at Pinegrove. Sculps, or Scalps Hill, was so called owing to the number of scalps taken by the Indians in that vicinity. It is believed that more than one hundred persons in this county and in this immediate vicinity were killed by the Indians.

Fort Lebanon, between Auburn and Pinedale, was erected by Capt. Jacob Morgan, in 1756; Fort Franklin, by Benjamin Franklin, Philadelphia, in 1756, on Bolich's farm, West Penn Twp; Fort Diedrich Snyder on top of the Blue Mountain and Fort Henry at Pinegrove; these were the defenses of Schuylkill County; Fort Allen near the Lehigh river, and Forts Norris and Hamilton, farther south, afforded protec-tion for the settlers of the lower counties. Fort Lebanon      (30) was later known as Fort William.  It was located on the farm of Lewis Marburger.

These forts were block-houses enclosed with a stockade oflogs. They were fortified and some of them had subterraneanpassages for short distances for escape in case of defeat.

WILL MARK HISTORIC SPOTS

It is the object of the Schuylkill County Historical Society to erect markers on the historic spots of these old block forts and on the sites of the early Indian Massacres if thelatter can be established. It has been so frequently asserted that, "as Schuylkill County was one of the later crea-tions of counties in the State it had no history. That its early history belonged to the counties of which it was first a part." This is a mistake. The occurrences narrated belong to the locality in which they existed, and Schuylkill County is rich in historical lore; the error has been that the ear-ly settlers neglected to transcribe the facts. From time to time parties have come to the region from other parts with the avowed purpose of creating histories of Schuylkill County. While the data of the compilations (already on rec-ord in the archives of Pennsylvania) is correct, little that is original has been added to these works beyond the lives of individuals of a later period who have been prominent  (and some of whom who have not,) in the business circles of the County. The histories have been compiled for advertising purposes and a certain sum secured the privilege of perpetu-ating the business or life history of a patron. It must not, however, be overlooked that many of the early settlers were husbandmen, or men not identified in pursuits that brought them prominently before the public. That the real makers of history in any locality cannot be those who merely visit it for purposes of gain, they must necessarily be of those who are identified with it, since much that is of interest is imparted and preserved only through scant written records and so largely through recollection and substantiated tradition.

Our mountain rocks, with engraved plates inserted will fur-nish markers for the sites of the Indian Forts, these Indiantales and the massacres. They should be erected as speedily as possible. It will not be many years before those who are still able to impart information on these subjects will have passed away. To mark all historic spots in the County and individually assist in every way possible those who are at-tempting to preserve our local history should be the aim of all who are able to assist in the matter.

EARLY REMINISCENCES

It is not altogether the aim or purpose of the writer to compile the data of the early chronological facts of the history of Schuylkill County, but rather to preserve the tales and reminiscences of the early settlers. To accomplish this properly it is necessary to draw upon recorded history to furnish the true facts as a foundation for the story teller's art and give the needed back-ground for the word-pictures. Those who are familiar with these tales may, per-haps, complaisantly imitate the example of the good Vicar of Wakefield and his family when Farmer Flamborough aired his old jokes and they gave them their due of mirth again. As for the critics, anyone can criticize. These stories were not written for critics to quibble at, but with the view of perpetuating the narratives as little pleasantries of the early days. With the thought that--"A little nonsense now and then is relished by the best of men" (and some women too)and no further apology, they are presented to the read-er.

HOW "OLD DRESS" SCARED THE INDIANS

The Indians in this section in the early days were a remnant of the Shawanese, Nanticoke and Delaware tribes. Three of the original six nations with whom William Penn made the treaty. The others being the Susquehannas, Hurons and Eries. There existed a continuous chain of Indian villages from the Delaware to the upper waters of the Susquehanna. One of the chain of war paths extended to Sunbury, where stood Fort Augusta, named in honor of a daughter of George the Second, who married the Duke of Saxony. Schuylkill County was not on the chain of war paths, but the savage marauders raided the locality as history shows.

Shamokin an Indian village stood on the present site of Sunbury, from which Shamokin afterward took its name.

The Indians that remained in this vicinity after the Indian War were not of one powerful tribe but included some Mochicans in addition to those indicated above. The Moravians father southeast made strenuous efforts to Christianize the red man, Rev. David Zeisburger converted Shekilling, the chief of the Delawares, and the county paid for their scalps. The war of extermination waged against them so reduced their number that those scattered beyond the pale of their tribal restrictions were considered harmless, but falsely as the settlers discovered to their undoing.

How "Old Dress" scared the Indians in the great Indian massacre just after the French and Indian War shows what a strategist can do if he has courage and is endowed with enough presence of mind. The Dress family lived in the Panther Valley (Bender Thal) on or near the farm now owned and occupied as a summer country home by Doctor B---, a leading Physician in the town of P-----, about six miles northwest.

The Indians had been friendly at first, but since success was beginning to crown the efforts of the hardy pioneers, there were mutterings of discontent among them, and they had upon one or two occasions shown their hostility, but no real depredations had been perpetrated as yet.

Murders had been committed farther south, defenseless womenand children were scalped or taken into captivity, their homes burned and their cattle driven away and the settlers were tortured beyond measure, but "Bender Thal" remained unmolested.

Word came one day that there was an uprising among the Indians and that they were headed for the Valley. The block stockade, Fort Lebanon, near what is now Auburn, had served upon several occasions as a place of refuge for the settlers when in danger of being attacked; and thither the now thor-oughly frightened pioneers in "Bender Thal" made their prep-arations to flee.

The women and children were gathered together and placed in charge of Zerbe; and Kemerling and Markel gathered the cat-tle to drive them to a place of safety. The Dress family formed part of the little caravan that turned toward the fort, but "Old Dress" was obdurate. He would not go.

He was the first settler to discover the rich farming land in that locality. He had spent several years in the "Thal" returning again and again to it and finally brought to it his wife and family. The Indians had given him the first kernels of corn which he planted as seed and in turn he had shown them how to fashion the rude farming implements he used, the iron for which he brought from the Pott furnace on Maxatawny creek. Once he had opened a great abscess for "Sagawatch" the chief of the mongrel tribe and dressed it with home-made salve. Not without some display of the necro-mancer's art, it must be confessed, for he knew he was pow-erless among them, and "Sagawatch" was cured. He had fre-quently treated their "boils" with which they were afflicted, the result of dirt and squalor and improper food, for they were a lazy set, and looking upon him as something of a medicine man, the Indians called the "Little White Father;" and believed, some of them, that he had supernatural powers.

It was only the week before that an apparently friendly sethad visited him. The mother had just completed the family baking in the huge Dutch oven back of the log cabin and on the plea of wanting a present from the "Little White Father" every one of the large brown well-baked loaves of bread had found their way into a sack with other things they managed to lay hands on, and the good wife had another batch of bread to make. In the meantime the family subsisted on pota-to "buffers," (a species of hoecakes made of grated potato and flour and baked on the hearth) until the leaven had raised and the new bread was again baked.

Just a glance at "Old Dress" would show that he was not a man to be trifled with. Short, stout, broad of girth, and with sinewy muscles that stood out like whip cords, he was the picture of health and alert activity. His face was smooth and red and as has often been said of men who wear that type of whiskers, around the face from ear to ear underneath the chin, it was easy to be seen he was a man of determination. He wore his hair, which was scant, for he was partially bald, all combed up after the fashion of those days into a single tuft on the top of this head. This tuft from long practice stood up straight. If anyone could circumvent the Indians, the settlers knew he could. There was little time for parleying and the women and children with their leaders were soon out of sight.

Dress made his way hurriedly to the hillside and screenedfrom view by some friendly bushes watched the approach of the redskins. They came some seated on their Indian ponies, the young braves running at the sides of the old men. Smeared with their war paint and with their war toggery on, beating their tom-toms and yelling like mad, they struggledup the defile.

He could not count them, although he at first tried. There was Sagawatch, too, the greasy villain and traitor. What could he do single handed against so many, with his one oldflint lock musket and home-made cartridges and Marie not here to help load.

He fingered the tuft of hair, his top-knot which he knew would soon be hanging with the other smoking and gory scalpsfrom the belts of the foremost of the band, and his mind wasmade up. Taking an extra hitch at this rusty brown linsey woolsey trousers and rolling up the sleeves of his yellow grey woolen shirt, he ran as hard as he could in the direc-tion of the oncoming murderous crew and in full view of them to the crest of the near-by hill. Screaming and yelling at the top of his voice and wildly gesticulating with his long bare arms and pointing with his fingers: "Come on, Boys," he yelled. "Here are the Indians." (Cum Buva, dah sin Sie, Die Incha.) He screamed until he was purple with rage and told one imaginary party, with the wildest of signs and commands, to close up the defile and prevent their escape, the others should file up the left and right and surround them, and the rest should follow him. "Sagawatch" the murderous "tuyfel" could understand German, he knew, for he himself had taught him many words in the current vernacular. And then still screaming as loud as he could and doubly gesticulating, he ran down the hill with all his might toward the red warriors, who thought they were being attacked by at least a battalion of soldiers under command of "Old Dress," and they showed the white feather and turned tail and fled as fast as they could in the direction in which they had come.

All night "Old Dress" watched at the single window of the little log hut. His blunderbuss and old musket ready, he would sell his life as dearly as possible, if they returned; but they never did.

Then the Kemmerlings, Zerbes and the others returned, "Old Dress" was quietly sitting in front of his cabin mending an old fish net. The cattle had all been recovered by him from their impounding in the clearings in the mountain fastnesses and returned to their rightful owners. The cows had been milked, the cream was ready for the good wives to churn and everything was going as usual. The Indians never molested the settlers again, even to this day "Old Dress" is a hero to the descendants of the families of the early settlers of "Bender Thal."

ElIZABETHS'S MAD RIDE

The Pennsylvania Germans, whose ancestors were exiled from their homes in the beautiful valley of the Rhine and Neckarby furious religious and political persecution, did not find life in their adopted home one on a bed of roses. The Miller and the Stout families originated in Alsace and Loraine. During the many fierce wars, in which these provinces were made a mere football by the contending forces of the Romans, Gauls and Germans, they migrated farther north to the Rhine Palatinate, which was then one of two divisions of an inde-pendent State of Germany. Again they migrated from the region of the Schwalm River to Switzerland from where they embarked for the United States of America in 1754.

The story of the Rhine Pfalz is one of great interest. Thereis no region or country on the globe that has witnessed somany bloody conflicts as the Palatinate on the Rhine. TheRomans struggled for more than five centuries to subdue theGermans only to leave them unconquered and when the Romanswithdrew, the rich valley was coveted by European nations.

The crimes committed in the Palatinate in consequence of religious intolerance, fanaticism and political persecution are unparalleled in the history of human savagery. And this region continued to be the theatre of conflict after the great exodus of the German Palatines, which took place in the last half of the eighteenth century.

The German emigrants to New York who had suffered untold miseries with internal difficulties in the Schoharie Valley, with regard to the settlement of their lands and the titles to them, had again taken wing; and many of them turned under the leadership of John Conrad Weiser and his son, Conrad, to Pennsylvania. It was about 1754-1756 when the large influx of the Pfalzisch Germans came to Pennsylvania and settled in Berks County, which has since been subdivided into Berks, Dauphin, Lebanon, Schuylkill and parts of other counties.  The Millers and the Stouts came over with the great exodus. The lands in the vicinity of the sites of Womelsdorf, Reading, Bernville, Tulpehocken and along the fertile Schuylkill Valley were soon taken up by the settlers. The families settled first near Tulpehocken, where both Andrew Miller and Elizabeth Stout were born, the former in 1756. The Stouts were represented in the five full companies that enlisted from the German settlers for immediate service af-ter the adoption of the Declaration of Independence, in 1776, and the Millers, too, had sons that took the field and rendered conspicuous aid during the early part of the war, at the close of which the two families with several others removed to Bear Creek, east of what is now Auburn, between the Blue Mountain and the Summer Berg.

John Lesher, brother-in-law of John Wilhelm Pott, operated aforge and small furnace on Pine Creek and there was another near the site of Auburn, and here the men of the Miller and Stout families worked when not employed on their farms. The women occupied themselves with the milking of the cows, churning and making butter and raising the hemp from which was spun the flax that afterward made the coarse, soft linen that formed the bed sheets, towels and linen underwear of the families, some of which is still cherished among their descendants as the most precious of heirlooms. They also manufactured on rude looms the coarse homespun cloths, dyed them with home-made colors and fashioned them into the clothes their families wore. Those were busy times, but not unhappy ones.

No more beautiful country exists anywhere than that included     (40)in the tract from Bear Ridge and the Summer Berg to the Old Red Church below Orwigsburg. All around were primeval for-ests. The silvery Schuylkill uncontaminated by coal washings glistened in the distance. The roads through the forests were mere bridal paths and the first slow, gradual taming of the wilderness, the rolling hills to the edges of the Blue Mountain, the advance from the low log cabins, the scat-tered, scratch-farms to the first dwellings and farms of greater pretentions as the rich country grew in wealth and ambition, made a picture that excites the liveliest imagina-tion.

It was past the noon mark on the sundial at the little low farm house on Bear Ridge, when Elizabeth Stout completed the chores for the morning. The milk in the spring-house was all skimmed, the log floor and huge hearth swept up with the birch broom, the linen bleaching on the meadow had been turned and wet anew, the blue delf china after nooning was washed and spread on the great mahogany dresser. Elizabeth's deft fingers soon bound up her abundant brown hair with the snood that confined it; she slipped into her short bright brown cloth skirt, red pointed bodice with surplice of bright green, a concoction of colors she had made with home-made dyes and fashioned and copied the dress from the pic-ture of a grand dame she had once seen.

Her sleeves just reached the elbow disclosing a pair of plump and shapely arms that would have been the envy of any city belle. Her stockings were bright red, knitted by her own nimble fingers. Her feet were encased in a pair of heavy shoes, for she must save the pretty low slippers adorned with the huge silver buckles that had remained among the few  relics of the struggle under General Washington at Valley Forge and which were given her by her father. She had worn the buckles at various times on her bodice, at her waist, and now on her slippers, which were safely encased in the saddle bags together with a new cream cheese and some brod-wurst tied firmly in snowy cloths and destined for a gift to the mother of the friend Elizabeth was about to visit.

The knotted a gay-colored 'kerchief about her bare neck and tied with its single plain black ribbon over her hair, the white turned back half hood and half sunbonnet or Normandy cap she wore; and adding the snowy white linen spencer for evening wear on her bosom and a few trinkets and necessaries to the little stock of clothing in the saddle bags, her preparations were complete. The black mare whinied when she saw her approach with riding paraphernalia in hand and per-mitted herself to be caught without any remonstrance.

What a picture Elizabeth was. One that Joshua Reynolds would not have disdained to copy. Just eighteen and above medium height, well-developed and yet with not an ounce of super-fluous flesh on her lithe form, well-rounded limbs and well-knit body. Large soft brown eyes, rosy cheeks, pearly teeth, smooth skin that the bright green and red in her raiment lighted brilliantly and harmonized with.

She was soon in the saddle and cantered off, waving her hand to her mother who sat at her spindle in a little building near the farm house, where the maid of all work was busily engaged in paring and stringing apples for drying and a lit-tle farther on her father with such scanty help as he could gather was with the yokels engaged in shocking the late corn. A few miles of swift riding along the ledge brought her to the river which was soon forded. There were no wandering nomads to disturb the peaceful soliloquy of the traveler. The Indians were quieted down, at least for a time, and Fort Lebanon, the old log fortress of defense against the red-skinned marauders, looked deserted as she cantered by.

Nature was lavish to that valley. The huge mountains were dim with the Fall haze and looked blue and golden and red-tinted in the bright rays of the sun. The early sumacs had turned blood red and the golden maples painted the landscape with their dying beauty and brilliant splendor. The horse sped easily along the path and Elizabeth aroused by the beauty of the scene broke into the well-known Lutheran hymn "Ein feste berg ist Unser Gott," and sang the words to the close, the mountains reechoing the song of praise of the German nut-brown maid. Then she dismounted and bathed her face in a running mountain stream. Shaping a cup from a huge wild grape leaf, she drank and gave the mare a loose rein that she, too, might slake her thirst. Drawing a small por-celain picture, that hung suspended about her neck by a nar-row black velvet ribbon, from her bosom, she adjusted her white Normandy cap and taking a sly peep at herself in the limpid water, she kissed the picture and mounted the mare who neighed with delight at the prospect of once more starting toward the bag of oats she knew awaited her. The picture was that of Andrew Miller and they were betrothed.

The sun was already hanging low in the horizon when they en-tered the heart of the forest through which their path lay. The great oaks cast gigantic shadows over the entrance but the fragrant pines were well-blazed and the pathway plain and Elizabeth was a brave girl and there was nothing to fear; but she well knew that they must make haste if they would make the clearing near the mill below the Red Church before dark, where her friend Polly Orwig lived and where the corn husking would take place that evening. And where she expected to see her affianced, Andrew Miller, who had assisted at the raising of the new barn as was the custom in those days, and the husking was given in honor of the new building.

Elizabeth kept the mare at as brisk a pace as she could through the tangled underbrush and morass. She thought of Andrew how sturdy he was, surely of all the suitors for her hand she had the finest, the best looking man and the best informed. They had been lovers from their childhood, companions always but this brotherly affection had deepened into something more intense, something that fairly frightened her when she recalled how he had looked when he told her of all the girls around and about the country she was the handsomest. But her mother had told her, "it was a sin to think of one's looks," and had promptly removed the high stool from in front of the dresser, in the top of which was a huge looking glass, when Elizabeth attempted to see for herself if there was any truth in the assertion.

The shadows grew longer, the squirrels and rabbits scampered hurriedly across the path, the late birds had sought their nests, and the occasional screech of the panthers and other wild animals added not a little to her apprehensions about the lateness of the hour and the little mare seemed, too, to be disquieted and nervous. The superstitions of the country arose in her mind and she knew that they were nearing a little clearing in the forest where lived a German refugee who was accused of witchcraft and who was said to have the power of turning himself into a white cat and at times the wood was filled with a gathering of the felines, who would fill the air with their snarling and screeching.

Hark! there was the sound she had often heard described but had forgotten about. A frightful yell. Surely the man would not hurt her. Had not her father carried him food in the ox sledge in the dead of winter that he might not starve and had he not always been kind to her when he came to borrow the few necessary things for his existence, which he never returned.

There it was again. Yes! and on that tree a white object with fiery green eyes. It was the witch, she dared not look again. There was a scream, a dull thud, she looked over her shoulder and saw a white cat perched on the haunches of the mare. Trembling with fear that each moment would be her last Elizabeth gave the mare the rein and leaning forward clasped her arms about her neck knowing full well that the little beast would do her best, she needed no urging and then she closed her eyes and prayed and prayed and waited.

On and on they sped. The soft green moss yielded to the hoofs of the mare and made the riding heavy. But Black Bess went as she never did before as if knowing her pretty mis-tress' life was the stake for which she was fleeing. From her nostrils came huge flecks of foam, her fetlocks and sides were wet with sweat and from her haunches dripped drops of livid red blood from the clawing of the white cat on her back.  Elizabeth could feel the hot breath of the creature but beyond an occasional unearthly yell and fresh clawing of the mare it made no effort to harm her. What a mad ride it was! Tam O'Shanter's was a mild one in comparison to it. Would the clearing never be reached? It seemed ages to the trem-bling girl and again she closed her eyes and prayed and fee-bly stroked the mare's ears. At length she heard a soft snort in response. The clearing was in sight, like a silvery rift in the clouds, a light in the gathering darkness. The Old Red Church would soon be arrived at, and the witches hated churches and perhaps------.

Just then a dark figure loomed up as they emerged from the wood. It was her betrothed, Andrew Miller, who came out to meet her. He caught the bridle of the exhausted and panting mare, the white cat gave a parting screech and disappeared in the wood and Elizabeth fell fainting into his arms. When she recovered he hinted at wild cats but the trembling Elizabeth would hear nothing of them. "Who ever heard of a wild cat acting that way?" said she. But being a sensible girl she consented to keep her adventure a secret until the morrow, for well she knew that the story of a witch so near would mar all the pleasure of the merry party.

The husking was a great event in a country bereft almost of entertainment for the younger people and it was the first one of its kind held in that part of the State. The trick of finding a red ear and then exacting a kiss from your partner was new to her and from the frequency with which Andrew exacted the forfeit she suspected him of having secreted some of the telltale Indian cereal on his person but he gave no sign.  And the supper, how good it was and how hungry they all were and how they enjoyed it!  Elizabeth left for home in the bright sunlight on the morrow accompanied by Andrew who walked all the way by her side. But not without Elizabeth's having first confided to Polly the story of her adventure with the white cat. Polly, too, decided it was a witch but thought the witch meant her no harm but good luck, as the wedding was to take place at Christmas. And a witch the white cat remained through successive generations as each in turn hands the narrative to the next.

Note: Andrew Miller and Elizabeth Stout were married December 25th, 1786. They raised a large family of boys and girls among whom was a daughter, Hannah, who was married to Andrew Schwalm in 1819, at Orwigsburg, and from whom are descended a large line of that name and other leading families residing in Old Schuylkill, Pottsville and elsewhere throughout the country. The John and Joseph Schwalm, Wm. E. Boyer, Frederick Haeseler and Wm. M. Zerbey families, are descendants of Andrew Schwalm and Hannah Miller. Elizabeth Stout was the great-great grandmother of the children of the present generation of the above mentioned. In the list of taxables, returned, Reading, Berks County, about 1780, oc-curs the name of Andrew Schwalm, Tulpehocken. At that date the area from between the Lebanon Valley Railway to the Blue Mountain was known as Tulpehocken. This district has since furnished the dimensions for several townships in Berks and Lebanon Counties. The name Tulpehocken does not refer to the mere post office or locality as it now exists but included the area to Womelsdorf. Andrew Schwalm, Sr., was the father of Andrew Schwalm the above.

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