GERMANNA_COLONIES-L Archives

From: John Blankenbaker <>
Subject: (44)Germanna Colonies, History of
Date: Wed, 26 Feb 1997 15:38:04 -0500

Forty-fourth in a series of short notes on the Germanna Colonies

In August of 1716, a party of men formed from several parts of Virginia to
go over a pass recently discovered in the Blue Ridge Mountains. John
Fontaine joined in and left comments in his diary which is good because no
one else left any description of the trip. In this note I continue with
selections which give some idea of what Virginia was like. The assembly
point for the trip was Germanna. Fontaine left Williamsburg with Spotswood
and the trip to Germanna was very similar to the one described in the last
two notes. Five days of travel were required to reach Germantown.

At Germanna, Fontaine came down with a violent fever for which he took the
bark. From the symptons and the cure, he had, as many newcomers to Virginia
did also, malaria. The second day out from Germanna they had venison for
dinner in abundance, which they roasted on wooden forks before the fire.
Two days later they killed a bear and more deer.

The next day the troop was besieged by hornets which were very troublesome
to the horses. On September 2, a Sunday, they saw another bear but it being
Sunday they did not endeavor to kill anything. The next day, a thicket was
so well laced together that their clothles and baggage were much damaged. At
this point they were near the foot of the Blue Ridge Mountains. Progress
was very slow and they made only eight miles.

On the fourth, one of the horses was bitten by a rattlesnake. The sides of
the hills were so full of vines and briars that they had to clear a way for
men and horses. As they ascended, they killed four rattlesnakes. The camp
that night was called, familiarly, "rattlesnake" camp. The next day they
crested the Blue Ridge. They found marked trees marking a trail which they
presumed to have been made by the Indians. Over the mountains, they found
tracks and bedding places for buffaloes and elk. They found grapes very
good for the eating.

At the Shenandoah (they called it the Euphrates) they caught fish. Others
killed deer and turkeys. On the way home, at one camp, there were deer,
bears and turkeys. On Sunday, September 9, they killed three bears.
Fontaine could not easily eat bear and says it would have tasted better if
he had not known what it was. He did compare it to veal. On the next day
they were back at Germanna. At Germanna, Fontaine caught fish in the
Rapidan (he calls it as it was originally named, the Rappahannock). On
several occasions on the trip, Fontaine mentions large snakes which he
seemed determined to kill.

Because the First Colony of Germans arrived so late in the year, it was
impossible for them to raise any crops in 1714. To help them (and perhaps
avoid having to supply them with food), Gov. Spotswood had legislation
passed declaring there was to be no hunting by others within a five radius
of Germanna. Assuming the Germans took advantage of the game, they could
have been eating venison, bear, and turkey meat. They could also have
caught fish in the river. If they went farther afield they might have had
buffalo and elk. But it sounds as if they would not have lacked protein in
the vicinity of Germanna.

Both the First and Second Colonies would have encountered or met Indians.
As has been commented before, the Germans were the vanguard of civilization,
the western edge, living under primitive conditions. Basically, if they
couldn't grow it or make it themselves, they did without.

to be continued

John Blankenbaker
Beyond Germanna
PO Box 120
Chadds Ford, PA 19317
http://www.wp.com/germanna/

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