The Baltimore County union. [volume] (Towsontown, Md.) 1865-1909, 1885-02-07
A Fine Old Family.
Foraey's Proqress. Philadelphia.

in the United States, especially among
those who have made no effort to pre-
serve records of descent, or to retain
wealth and power in the direct line,
that can trace their antecedents through
nearly two hundred years, of more in
tense respectability in this country,
with stronger indications of previous
centuries of seignorial rights in the
mother country, than can the Groffs of
Lancaster county, Pennsylvania.
The name is a corrupt Anglicized
spelling, adopted only in the last CEN
tury, of the German title Graf, the
English of which is Earl. The family
have from time immemorial been stern
adherents to the faith of the Memo
mites, German sect, founded by Simon
Memo, Catholic reformer of Luther's S
time, or little later, and one holding
many very peculiar tenets.
1t has been asserted by those wise in
matters of genealogy, upon founda-
ton of family tradition as support, that
the religious prosecutions of the six
teenth century deprived this family of
their estates and rank, and that they in
order to defeat, as far as possible, the
aim of their prosecutors, substituted for
their family name their rightful title,
that they might thus convey to future
generations a proof of their claim to
noble blood.
The founder of the American branch
was Johannes Graf (English-John
EarD, who being exiled from his native
principality on the borders of Switzer-
land, fled to Alsace, and thence to
America, to escape further persecution.
He took up, under the peculiar privi-
leges of the time, in 1903 wide History
of Lancaster County,, in that garden
spot of Pennsylvania, vast tract of
land, since named Earl Township, and
containing Earlville and Earl Creek or
Groves Run, all called for him in the
English translation of his name. He
had six sons, and as each generation
was probably equally well represented,
the right of primogeniture was totally
disregarded, the original estates came
to be considerably divided up.
This family never gained any politi-
cal prominence because of the peculiar
restrictions of their religious belief,
which forbade them to take up arms, to
seek or to accept political preferment,
or even to vote. Each generation ap-
peared upon the stage of life, lived un-
eventually, and died on'the ancestral
acres without repute save in the section
where they dwelt. Exclusive with the
exclusiveness of their sect, striving to
keep themselves "unspotted from the
world" but, doubtless, all unconscious
ly to themselves, finding in this unag.
gressive spiritual pride natural vent
for their aescetically suppressed pride
of race. Still, they were always "lords
bountiful," and dispensers of hospitality
in their own community, and especially
among their own sect. But in 1868,
the representatives were reused from
their indifference to pride of descent
by an advertisement which appeared ir
most of the prominent newspapers o.
our leading eastern cities, to the effect
that if the heirs Of the shortest anC
most direct line of the Croft family
could prove their descent, they would
probably inherit vast landed estates in
Germany, valued at 100000 o
dollars, the German branch having be
come extinct. The advertisement wa
the enterprise of an astute lawyer o
Baltimore, who, having noticed th'
legal announcement in the foreign pa
pers, and hoping to turn it to his owl
advantage, had thus given it American
publicity. Communications were re
ceived by him from different parts 0
the country, signed variously, Croft
Graft, Graef, and even Grove, and
] contribution was raised among those
most interested to defray the expenses
of tour of legal investigation. Subse
quent events proved beyond a doub
that the lineal descendants of Johan
mes Graf were the only true representa-
tives, in a direct line, of the German
family, but, of course, the German
Government could recognize no righ
of inheritance in family having nearly
two hundred years of citizenship il
another country, and the vast propert,
went to the Crown.
The family crest had been ignored
perhaps with fanatical zeal suppressed
until practically destroyed, on accoun
of the contempt for worldly honors o
any sort that their faith required then
to show; and, strange to say. SO grea
was their indifference to such things
both by inheritance and training, tha
no effort whatever was made by then
to ascertain its character from the Ger
man branch in the late Investigations
This same aescetic, almost austere spirit
prevented them from taking advantag
ofthe opportunities they might so easil.
have commanded for worldly culture 0
any sort, and it even extended to
comparative indifference to extenslv
intellectual cultivation. But they hav'
always been characterized i'll every gen
Grafton by moral force, tenacity, almos
obstinacy of purpose, great strength o
will, and lofty integrity. 1t is not, Q
! course, their shame, but it is certainl