Forwarded to the AMREV-HESSIANS-L mail list by an interested subscriber who has the benefit of the PML service: From: "Nelson R. Sulouff" <zuli@sprintmail.com> Sent: Sunday, January 23, 2005 10:25 AM > ============================= > Source: PABERKS-L@rootsweb.com > Subject: Re: [PABERKS] Re: Wicklein Church records > > Hello Elida, > > Your question about moving from Berks Co. into York Co. toward the end of the 18th C. gives me opportunity to be expansive, and I am so full of research information I must take care to restrain myself! > > My immigrant ancestor, Johannes Zulauf, was a Hessian soldier captured in 1779 and held POW in Reading until the end of the Revolutionary War in 1783. Just as the war was ending he married a local girl, Maria Margaretha Spahr, and they went to houskeeping in Robeson Twp. This couple, an ex-POW and a 16-year old girl, the youngest daughter from a family of seven children, probably were not flushed with money and were pretty much starting their farm life together from scratch. Robeson Twp. tax records do not disclose ownership of any Zulauf property in Robeson Twp. for the years 1783-1792, so I suspect this new family actually lived with another family in the township, more than likely with a Wicklein family or a Spahr family. In Jan 1792 Zulauf bought a 142 acre farm in Newberry Twp., Northern York Co., by paying only Twenty Pounds Six Shillings into the Receiver-General's Office of Pennsylvania. The amount Zulauf paid was added to an amount paid earlier by Charles West at the granting of the Warrant, which Warrant evidently had never been paid off. In other words, Johannes Zulauf picked up a real bargain in a very astute deal, something like picking up property for taxes these days! > > I figure there were three main reasons Zulauf decided to make the move to territory opening up west of the Susquehanna River. First, he caught a real bargain for a sizeable amount of farmland. Second, farmland east of the Susquehanna in Berks and Lancaster Counties was becoming so subdivided among sons of the German farmers that farmland was crowded and expensive, and Zulauf found he could afford enough land west of the Susquehanna so that subsequent subdivision among his sons into fair-sized farms was a viable solution. Third, German farmers recognized the benefits of good limestone farmland and there were many who crossed the Susquehanna River from the late 18th C. and into the 19th C. to spread out across the limestone land now included in the counties of York, Perry, Snyder, Juniata and Mifflin. As it turned out, the soil on Zulauf's York Co. farm was stony and the arable soil was rather shallow, so ten years later he joined those German farmers who were migrating further westward and bought 200 acres of good limestone land on the banks of the Tuscarora Creek in what is now Juniata Co. > > It is my opinion that few German farmers who crossed the Susquehanna ever returned eastward as your ancestors did. Those who did return to Lancaster or Berks Co. often had compelling reasons such as coming into family property that was vacated by a close relative, or because of pressing social needs wanting to be close together with immediate family members east of the river. I cannot speak about roadbuilders who may have crossed the Susquehanna in pursuit of their work and then returned eastward again. > > You asked about roads in the area. Zulauf's farm was located directly southwest of a major ford that crossed the Susquehanna River just south of Harrisburg. (At this date there were no bridges across the river near Harrisburg.) His farm was virtually at the hub where farmers migrating westward out of Berks and Lancaster Counties headed not only to the west and northwest (as pointed out above), but also headed southward from there toward good farmland in Maryland and the valleys of Virginia. > > I am sure Zulauf's move to York Co. had nothing to do with building roads, per se, but perhaps as a result of new roadbuilding and road improvements his move to York Co. was facilitated. > > I think that is enough dissertation for now, so I will force myself to quit. > > Happy hunting, > > Nelson R. Sulouff > ////////////////////////// > ----- Original Message ----- > From: Elida > To: PABERKS-L@rootsweb.com > Sent: Saturday, January 22, 2005 10:47 PM > Subject: Re: [PABERKS] Re: Wicklein Church records > > Hi, > Do you have any idea why your family moved from Berks to York Co. in 1792? > I have a similar case in my family, but they moved by 1790. And then they > were back in Berks later. > Did it have anything to do with road building do you think? Maybe the road > down to Baltimore? > Thanks, > Elida