"The Lutheran pastors, Muhlenberg, Brunnholtz and Handschuh, in reporting the religious condition of the German immigrants to Halle, in 1754 divide the history of the immigration into five periods. The first was from 1680-1708; the second, from 1708 to 1720. Of the later they say: 'In the years 1708, 1709, 1710 to 1720 when there was a great movement from the Palatinate to England, and a large number of people were sent thence to New York, under Queen Anne, not a few came from the same source to Pennsylvania also." They were largely people of a religious character, and brought with them Arndt's "True Christianity" and volumes of sermons and Prayer Books, besides the ponderous Bibles so familiar to their descendants among the heirlooms of their fathers; but, according to this report, their neglect to provide for themselves churches and ministers bore bitter fruit in the relative religious indifference of the next generation. Towards the close of the same period, they note the arrival of members of such communities as the Tunkers, Mennonites, Schwenckfelders, etc., of whom we have more accurate information elsewhere. The third period is from 1720 to 1730, with a large immigration from the Palatinate, Wurtemberg, Hesse-Darmstadt and other districts, as well as of many New York Palatines. Among them, there seemed more religious earnestness; but their extreme poverty prevented them from securing sufficient pastors. At the close of this period and the beginning of the next, from 1730 to 1740, a still more extensive immigration followed. This immigration moved in successive waves, representing different religious denominations. with some marked exceptions, it may be said that the communities composed of separatists from the State Churches came first; then came the Reformed; then the Lutherans; then the Moravians. The Reformed pastor Weiss reports in 1731 no less than 15,000 members of his church in Pennsylvania. Twenty years later Rev. Michael Schlatter estimated the entire population as 190,000, of whom 90,000 were Germans and 30,000 Reformed. Dr. J.H. Dubbs claims that up to the middle of the last century(1700's), the Reformed were by far the most numerous religious body in the Province. The Reformed Classis of Amsterdam in 1751, wrote the Pennsylvania was probably a Pella or Zoar, whence the godly might escape from the calamities threatening the Old World, and add that thousands of immigrants, chiefly from the Palatinate and Switzerland, and the majority of them adherents to the Reformed faith, have already taken refuge there." tbc ==== PENNA-DUTCH Mailing List ==== Abbreviations---PD=Pennsylvania Dutch, PMH=Pennsylvania Mennonite Heritage magazine, MFH=Mennonite family History magazine, MRJ=Mennonite Research Journal, LMHS=Lancaster Mennonite Hist. Society. This and more list info at: http://members.aol.com/PennaDutch/pennadutch.html