Germantown Settlement.—On March4, 1681, a royal charter was issued to William Penn for the province of Pennsylvania, and on March10, 1682, Penn conveyed to Jacob Telner, of Crefeld, Germany, doing business as a merchant in Amsterdam; Jan Streypers, a merchant of Kaldkirchen, a village in the vicinity of Holland, and Dirck Sipmann, of Crefeld, each 5,000 acres of land, to be laid out in Pennsylvania. On June11, 1683, Penn conveyed to Gavert Remke, Lenard Arets and Jacob Isaac Van Bebber, a baker, all of Crefeld, 1,000 acres of land each, and they, together with Telner, Streypers and Sipmann, constituted the original Crefeld purchasers.

The present generation is indebted to former Governor Samuel Whitaker Pennypacker, LL.D., of Pennsylvania, at one time presiding judge of the Philadelphia Court of Common Pleas, and senior vice president of the Historical Society of Pennsylvania, for important information on the settlement of Germantown, and directly to his book, “The Settlement of Germantown, Pa., and the Beginning of German Emigration to North America,” a valuable historical compilation, now out of print. “The settlement of Germantown, in1683,” he writes, “was the initial step in the great movement of people from the regions bordering on the historic and beautiful Rhine, extending from its source in the mountains of Switzerland to its mouth in the lowlands of Holland, which has done so much to give Pennsylvania her rapid growth as a colony, her almost unexampled prosperity, and her foremost rank in the development of the institutions of the country.”

From the pages of his book we learn that the “Concord,” which bore the Germantown settlers to our shores, was a vessel of 500tons, William Jeffries, master. She sailed July24, 1683, from Gravesend, with the following passengers and their families:

Lenard Arets, Abraham Op den Graeff, Dirck Op den Graeff, Hermann Op den Graeff, William Streypers, Thonas Kunders, Reynier Tyson, Jan Seimens, Jan Lensen, Peter Keurlis, Johannes Bleikers, Jan Lucken and Abraham Tunes, all Low Germans. The date of her arrival was October6,1683.

The three Op den Graeffs were brothers. Herman was a son-in-law of Van Bebber; they were accompanied by their sister Margaretha, and their mother, and they were cousins of Jan and William Streypers, who were also brothers. The wives of Thonas Kunders and Lenard Arets were sisters of the Streypers, and the wife of Jan was the sister of Reynier Tyson (Theissen). Peter Keurlis was also a relative, and the location of the signatures of Jan Lucken and Abraham Tunes on the certificate of the marriage of the son of Thonas Kunders with a daughter of William Streypers in1700 indicates that they, too, were connected with the group by family ties. “It is now ascertained definitely,” writes Governor Pennypacker, “that eleven of these thirteen emigrants were from Crefeld, and the presumption that their two companions, Jan Lucken and Abraham Tunes, came from the same city is consequently strong. This presumption is increased by the indication of relationship and the fact that the wife of Jan Seimens was Mercken Williamsen Lucken.”

Pastorius had sailed six weeks earlier and had arrived in Philadelphia August20, 1683. Governor Pennypacker has traced with remarkable minuteness the movements of the first concrete German settlement, and his invaluable work should not be allowed to slumber in a few surviving copies, now selling as high as$50 as literary curiosities, on the shelves of a few large libraries, but should be reprinted and made accessible to a larger reading public. The influence of this settlement in later generations is discussed elsewhere. (See under “Pastorius.”) The history of the “Concord” is given in Seidensticker’s “Bilder aus der Deutsch-Pennsylvanischen Geschichte” and valuable information is contained in “The German Element in the United States,” by Albert B.Faust, (Houghton Mifflin Company), who has done more than any other American author to gather the scattered records of German immigration, culture and influence and to present them within the convenient compass of two volumes.

Thonas Kunders’ house, 5109Main street, Germantown, is the only house of the original settlers that can be accurately located. Thonas Kunders was a dyer by trade. His death occurred in the fall of1729. He was the ancestor of the Conard and Conrad families. Among his descendants is included Sir Samuel Cunard, founder of the Cunard line of steamships. Here the first meeting of the Society of Friends in Germantown was held, and it was from the members of this little meeting that a public protest against slavery was issued early in1688. Following is a summary of Germantown events:

• 1683—August 16—Pastorius reaches Philadelphia.
• 1683—October 6—Thirteen families from Crefeld reach Philadelphia and settle Germantown.
• 1688—First protest against slavery issued here.
• 1690—First paper mill in America established here.
• 1705—First portrait in oil painted in America, made in Germantown by Dr.Christopher Witt.
• 1708—First Mennonite meeting house in America built in Germantown.
• 1719—February 17—Death of Pastorius.
• 1732—April 8—David Rittenhouse born at Germantown.
• 1743—First Bible in America in a foreign tongue printed in Germantown by Christopher Sauer.
• 1760—Germantown Academy founded.
• 1764—Sauer begins publication of first religious magazine in America.
• 1770—First American book on pedagogy published.
• 1772-73—First type ever cast in America made in Germantown.
• —(“Guidebook to Historic Germantown.”)