Page News & Courier
Heritage and Heraldry
Development of the "Massanutten Tract" - a German-Swiss Colony
Article of October 23, 1997
There were numerous Germanic influences that made possible the German and Swiss immigration to the Valley inevitable.
As early as 1669, German-born John Lederer entered the Shenandoah and dared fur trade in an unknown and "untamed" region. Following his efforts and explorations, Lederer made his accounts well known through publication that was received by the German and Swiss people.
The second most significant explorer was also of German-birth. Franz Louis Michel explored and mapped the middle and northern Shenandoah Valley in 1709, leaving suspect of a silver mine somewhere in the area that became known as Massanutten. Interestingly, Michel did not mingle with the British, but rather first purchased land in the French Huguenot settlement of Manakin Town.
Michel's work, in turn, was exploited by Baron Christopher von Graffenried upon his release from the Tuscarora by Governor Alexander Spotswood. Whether a concocted hoax or not, Graffenried appears to have seen an opportunity for yet another Swiss colony, like his colony of New Bern in North Carolina, and exploited the tale of the silver mines in the Blue Ridge. Though Graffenreid's attempt to coerce Spotswood did not totally succeed, Spotswood had been interested in iron mining for sometime prior and favored the idea of using the knowledge and skill of the well-known ironworker of Germany. Upon this initiate, Graffenreid cooperated with Spotswood in exporting Germans from the Nassau-Siegen district, who would later comprise a large part of the population of the Germanna colony.
It is important to note that Spotswood, from Germanna, initiated his own exploration into the Shenandoah Valley with the "Knights of the Golden Horseshoe." Though nothing concrete remains of Spotswood's reasoning, it is important to note that he entered the Valley opposite Massanutten, possibly in the hopes of exploring the prospects for the earlier proposed venture by Graffenreid.
With Jacob Stover (Stoeber), the long sought after hope of opportunity arose. Though his appeal for a colony named "Georgia" west of the Blue Ridge as far as the present day site of St. Louis was not agreed to by England, he did receive over ten-thousand acres of land in 1732 to distribute to German immigrants that had already begun to arrive or had resided in the Shenandoah Valley since at least 1726.
The Massanutten settlement, once initially settled, continued to fill with German immigrants well into the years prior to the American Revolution. Some of these German and Swiss immigrants arrived late due to their self-imposed indentures to people in England to pay for their passage to the colonies.
Despite the interaction of some with the English, the colony of the Massanutten tracts remained isolated for years, preserving the ethnic identity of the Germanic people that resided therein. Nevertheless, the German and Swiss settlers did need to communicate in order to vote and voice their opinions through representatives in political positions. Furthermore, the same was to hold true in the courts and trade. Interaction with British speaking people was inevitable.
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