GERMANNA_COLONIES-L Archives

From: John Blankenbaker <>
Subject: (556)Germanna Colonies, History of
Date: Tue, 02 Mar 1999 07:26:26 -0500

The five hundred and fifty-sixth note in a series on the Germanna Colonies

We might try a generalization as to what goes wrong with history. In the
beginning, when events are fresh in everyone's mind, there seems to be no
need to write anything down. We all know it. Before long, we do not all know
it. More and more, the remembrance is not first hand but lore is created to
fill the need for information. As the lore is made up, there is a tendency
to embellish the facts. Especially, where one's own family and friends are
concerned, the story may become very embellished.

In the last note, after the origins of the organ at Hebron Lutheran Church
had been lost due to the death of the original participants, later
generations mixed some facts with fancy. There was the vague remembrance of
the money which had been raised in Europe and somehow the King of Sweden was
added to the story.

When Lewis Fisher of the Germanna group died, he said that his estate in
Germany, should it ever be recovered, was to be divided among all of his
children. Over the course of the next century, he became a Baron who owned
Hanover. When you start making up your "facts," you may as well do a good
job of it.

The second major Germanna genealogy was "Genealogy of the Kemper Family in
the United States" written by Willis Kemper and Harry Wright and which was
published in 1899. There are many examples of how history is reported
incorrectly in this book. Kemper did try to locate some original documents
and he succeeded in finding some. He misinterpreted a lot of what he found
and he made up a lot of his facts. Following notes will look at this early
history.

The immigrant ancestor of the Virginia Kempers was Johannes who was born in
1692. No marriage record is known for him in Germany and he is believed to
be a bachelor when he came to Virginia. To my knowledge, no record in
Germany states his occupation. His father was identified as a church elder
and his grandfather Kemper was said to be a smith (blacksmith). For these
statements, I am using the genealogy reported by B. C. Holtzclaw who had the
assistance of people in Germany.

Here is what Willis Kemper says about these individuals. The father is a
skilled mechanic and employed about the (iron) mine in some way. He was a
worker in iron, a blacksmith by trade, and perhaps had charge of the tools
about the mine. His sons, John (the immigrant) and Henry, followed in their
father's trade and were employed about the mine. John, especially, was
evidently a skilled miner and it was this that brought about his emigration
to America. These claims are the only "evidence" that Willis Kemper offers
(see page 9 of the book) and they are not confirmed by Holtzclaw's
statements. On the whole, it seems that Kemper has made up a lot of history
which is not supported by documented facts. If anyone knows of documentation
on the subject, please speak up. I can only report what I find, or don't
find, in Kemper's book.

John Blankenbaker, PO Box 120, Chadds Ford, PA 19317
Beyond Germanna, A Newsletter/Journal of Germanna Information
http://www.germanna.com/
http://homepages.rootsweb.com/~george/johnsgermnotes/germhis1.html
http://www.inficad.com/~genelea
http://www.pretext.com/mar98/shorts/short3.ht

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