Essex County herald. [volume] (Guildhall, Vt.) 1873-1964, 1876-02-05
THE PENNSYLVANIA DUTCH.
An Interesting sketch---Their First Settle
ment In the state and their History.

An Interesting sketch---Their First Settle
ment in the State and their History.
When the first Germans came to the
United States, correspondent tells us,
they sought out the most fertile lar dsin
the counties of Lancaster and Berks.
The present counties most extensively
settled are the above, and Schuylkill,
Lebanon, Dauphin, Northumberland,
Snyder, Columbia, Luzerne, and Le-
high. In these counties and in few
others they were the pioneers, and by
their industry as farmers they soon con-
verted the wilderness into fertile val
leys, and opened the way for other in.
dustries.
Agriculture was their natural calling,
and one may we'll suppose that their
early struggles in the wilderness were of
trying nature. Without outlets for
the products of the soil, except the COM
mon wagon tracks, their life was indeed
a tedious one. They were compelled to
haul their grain many miles over rough
mountain roads to Philadelphia, which
was almost the only market they then
had.
Up to 1910 things progressed slowly
among these people. But the discovery
of coal in 1920 now began to be utilized,
and taxed the brains of speculative men
to discover the means to develop the
vast riches that lay dormant under the
hills and valleys, upon which genera
tions of these Germans had plodded for
years without knowledge of the great
wealth that nature had placed in store
for them.
Spectators and capitalists now gath
cred from all parts of the country, and
managed to acquire wealth or to skim
the cream from the milk, leaving to the
original settlers merely the incidental
benefits.
Railroads next came to be a necessity
for quick and easy transportation of this
source of wealth, and the fertile brain of
the American mechanic soon devised the
means. About the year 1884 the first
wooden railroad was built in Carbon
county. and others followed. For
number of years the cars were hauled
over these roads by horses, and these
same German farmers in most cases fur
nished the teams, alternately working
upon their farms and driving on the
railroad. About the year 1888 the first
locomotives were brought from England
to do the work of the horses, and soon
after their use became general.
Here, then, one Of the sources of
revenue for the farmers was destroyed,
but happily for them the development
of the great coal industry had brought
such an influx of people that a very
large home market for their produce was
Immediately created, SO that what their
plodding conservatism lost to them they
partially regained in another field,
though through no means of their own.
Thus they have gradually grown wealthy,
until they have reached degree of ma
terial substantially gratifying to the
political economist.
Nowhere among these people has this
accumulation of wealth been of more
permanent nature, nor has it anywhere
of late made more rapid strides, than in
Berks county, where, through several
years past, the discovery has been made
that the geological structure is inter-
spersed with vast deposits of very rich
iron ore, extending almost over the
greater part of the county, and away into
the neighboring counties of Lehigh,
Bucks and Lebanon. The experience
of their brethren of the coal regions and
other surrounding circumstances have
had the effect to make these staid old
Germans estimate these sources of
wealth more highly, and cause them to
become more jealously watchful of their
interests, and outside spectators there
fore find it difficult to overcome them on
a bargain. While they seldom under
take to develop these ores themselves,
they are yet always ready to give leases
for the working of mines upon their
lands, by which the lessees are bound to
work any and all workable seams that
may be found upon the land, and to pay
the owner fifty cents for every ton of ore
mined. This, in most cases, secures
them large income without any risk or
trouble on their part. At the same time
they continue to cultivate their farms,
which secures them a double income,
and thus fills the measure of their ambi-
tion.
These descendants are Germans still
Through all these generations they have
preserved their customs, general charac-
J teristics, and language to remarkable
degree; even that phlegmatic nature,
, peculiar to the German race, distinguish
ing them to the present generation.
It is true their isolated condition here
, and the comparative freedom and unre-
, straint they have enjoyed under repubG-
can institutions could not fail to have
some effect upon them but the changes
, thus wrought are barely perceptible.
Indeed, they have remained far behind
their brethren of the mother country in
the intellectual progress of the nine
teenth century. Their original German
| language has degenerated into dialect
of their own. There are townships or
} sections of country whore few can be
found who con read xurita or s,1aak ono