In a message dated 98-02-20 00:18:18 EST, you write:
<< X-Message: #6
Date: Wed, 18 Feb 98 19:18:04 PST
From: Tom Lincoln <lincoln(a)rand.org>
To: JDAHBARK(a)aol.com
cc: Carpenter-L(a)rootsweb.com
Message-Id: <199802190318.TAA25583(a)jaguar.rand.org>
Subject: Re: CARPENTER (Zimmerman) Switzerland>PA 1600s
Well... here goes...
The Zimmerman-Carpenters
4) Mary Carpenter (b. 16 Nov 1755), was the daughter of Jacob Carpenter
(3 Apr 1726 - 3 Dec 1772) and Elizabeth Herr (d. 17 Mar 1760) who were
married on 12 May 1746 and granddaughter of Heinrich Carpenter (born
Zimmerman) (7 Sep 1673 - 1750) and Salome Ruffner (bapt. 28 Dec 1675;
d. 1743) two redoubtable Swiss from the Bernese Oberland who had fled
their homeland for political reasons. hc @
1) Heinrich Zimmerman and his wife Anna Mogert were simple, hardworking
members of the Swiss landed gentry in the village of Wattenwyl, Canton
Bern, where their families had lived for many generations. It is
located in the shadow of the Jungfrau mountain range, with old home of
wood in the mountain style extending up green hills. An independent
parish 26 kilometers from Bern on the road to Thun, it had been for
some time under the control of Count Von Graffenried (who was to found
New-Bern in North Carolina in 1710). His castle looked down on the
village, its meadow land and orchards. The Zimmermans had four sons and
five daughters: Elsbeth (1672 - <1680); Heinrich (b. 7 Sep 1673); Hans
(b. 1675); Benedict (b. 1677); Anna (b. 1679); Elsbeth (b. 1680);
Barbara (b. 1683); Catherine (b. 1686); and David (b. 1690).
2) Heinrich was a large, powerful man, six feet tall, with black hair
and eyes and a dark complexion, leading to the nickname 'Der schwartzer
Heinrich'. In many respects he was the wild black sheep of the family.
Once old enough to wield a pike and use a sword, he gave his father no
peace until he gave his consent for his son to enroll as a mercenary
soldier for Louis XIV of France, positions recruited and provided in
part by Count Von Graffenried.
Louis XIV wanted troops badly, and Switzerland was willing to furnish
them, as he protected the Swiss against the Holy Roman Empire and
against Savoy. Following the alliance of 1658, between 6,000 and 15,000
men were enrolled in the French army, and by 1690 there were as many as
30,000. The king did not, however, always pay his debts, leading to the
famous battlefield confrontation: "Pas d'argent, pas de Suisse!". In a
further story, a Swiss, taunted for his mercenary position, asked a
Frenchman what he fought for. The reply: "I fight for honor". The
retort: "I fight for money. Each fights for what he has not got."
Heinrich was probably mustered out in 1696 at 23 following the peace of
Rijswijk [in which, among other things, Louis XIV recognized William of
Orange as king of Great Britain, and an agreement was reached that the
Palatinate, already boiling with Mennonite Protestants, would remain
Catholic]. Likely impressed with the importance of surgeons in war and
the portability of their skills, he apprenticed himself to a doctor.
About this time he fell in love with Salome Ruffner [or Rufener] (bapt.
28 Dec 1675, d. 1742) from the neighboring village of Blumenstein. [She
is also said to have been a widow, and the daughter of the Marquis de
Fontenoy, but this is highly unlikely.] Experience abroad also led to
political activity, and Heinrich allied with the small landowners and
town residents in an uprising against the ruling large land owners
(Bauerkrieg), including the Count Von Graffenried, which failed.
Thereafter he may have fled to Zurich to continue his medical studies.
Rufener, Rufiner, Raffinen
Familiennamenbuch der Schweiz gives Rufener as "old" citizens (i.e.
prior to 1800) in Blumenstein and Sigriswil (both BE). Rufiner have
been in Eyholz, Valais. The Swiss Genealogical Index [LDS# 1183607]
asserts that the Rufener family from Blumenstein first appears as Hans
Rufener in der Polern in 1535, and came earlier from Wallis. It is
asserted that they are closely related to Zen Raffinen zur Leuk, a
family with similar heraldic devices. The family flourished in
Blumenstein, with 30 baptisms between 1560 and 1600, then 90 between
1600 and 1650, and 150 from 1650 to 1700, spreading out to neighboring
towns and villages. Most are townsfolk, with numerous veterinarians,
physicians and officials among them. In the Bauerkrieg they were not in
the first ranks, but generally supported the uprising, led by those
with war expertise who had fought in France, such as Joseph Wenger (and
Heinrich Zimmerman.)
In 1698, with the permission and possibly the help of his family,
Heinrich went down the Rhine to Rotterdam and took ship for
Philadelphia, establishing himself in Germantown where there were many
Swiss settlers. From there he explored the surrounding country,
traveling up the Susquehanna to the present site of Harrisburg. In the
latter part of 1700 he returned home, where his family had made peace
with the government, and opened a practice of medicine, and, in 1701,
married Salome. His stories of the New World stimulated the formation
of an Emigration Society, and in 1703 two representatives were sent to
check out the situation in Pennsylvania, but their interest was
diverted to North Carolina by other speculators in London, and, to his
disgust, that group went on to found New Bern NC.
By 1706 the Zimmermans had two children, Emanuel and Gabriel. Once
again he participated in an unsuccessful uprising, and was forced to
flee, this time by night, leading his wife and children on horseback
toward Lake Thun. Just short of their goal they were pursued by two
Hussars on horseback, armed with sabers and spears, who overtook them
in a narrow defile. He dropped behind and held them off with a cudgel
and by throwing stones while the family gained a boat at the edge of
the lake. As he tried to join his family in the boat, one of the
Hussars caught up to him and grabbed his coat just as he was climbing
aboard, but Salome felled the pursuer with a well place blow from an
oar, and they made their escape. They first went to Zurich, but
attracted by Pennsylvania and fearing to remain in Switzerland, they
left for Philadelphia. They preceded the Bernese mentioned in a letter
from Penn himself, dated April 4 1710, which indicated that fifty or
sixty 'Swissers called Menonists' were then on their way from
Holland..." [ quote from C. Henry Smith.]
He established himself in the practice of medicine in Germantown, where
he bought a house and some land in the vicinity. He became friends with
Pastorius and Wistar, and the other founders of the German community.
As early as 1710 he acquired 200 acres of land in Lancaster County,
which he began to develop with the aid of two redemptioners, whose time
he bought. Two years later he bought 572 acres of land, partially
improved, from Christopher Franciscus, including a fine spring near
what is now Lampeter Square, and set four more redemptioners to work on
it, commuting the sixty miles to oversee the project. In 1717, having
Anglicized his name to Carpenter, and extended his holdings to 3000
acres of land, he moved to the Pequa in Lancaster County, now a fully
established German and Swiss community, where he again opened a
practice. However, he sent all of his sons back to Philadelphia to
study under Pastorius [one of the original Anabaptist Mennonites from
the Palatinate and the most brilliant scholar of the day in America, he
could read and write fluently in Greek, Latin, German, French, Dutch,
English, Italian and Spanish], where they learned both English and
German, which was unusual for that part of Lancaster, where only German
was spoken. The sons born in Switzerland, Emanuel (1702 - 1 Apr 1780)
and Gabriel (1704 - before 1776), were naturalized by an act of the
Assembly in 1729. They had six more children: Salome (1707 -1736),
Henry (d. 1773), Christian (1707 at Germantown, died Huntingdon Co.,
date unknown), Daniel (1718 in Lancaster County -1776), Mary (or
Marion) (b. 1720) {The "Carpenter Cemetery," also known as the Mary
Ferree graveyard is cared for by the Mary Ferree Society in Lancaster.
Buried there are: Daniel Ferree and wife Mary Carpenter, 1722-1750, Dr.
John Carpenter, 1737-1798 and wife Mary Ferree, 1743-1764.}, and Jacob
(1726-1772). In 1734 he received a patent for the 2700 acres of land
near Earlville and built a stone house there. Soon thereafter, his sons
built a grist mill and a saw mill on Conestoga Creek, which were
rebuilt in stone in 1768. When he died in ca. 1748 at about 75, he left
a very large estate.
Emanuel Carpenter married Catherine Line (d. 1785) and they had six
children. He started out as a surveyor and a scrivener (or notary) and
went on to be an arbiter on all matter of disputes among his neighbors.
He was a close friend of Benjamin Franklin, and together they recruited
teams of horses for the ill fated Braddock Expedition against Fort
DuQuesne in the French and Indian Wars. After the debacle, when many of
the teams were lost, they were both involved in claims and
counterclaims. He served 17 years in the Provincial Assembly, and in
1759 was appointed President Judge of the Court of Common Pleas of
Lancaster County by the Crown, an office which he held until 1776,
when, under the new Constitution, he was appointed Presiding Judge of
the Supreme Executive Council. He sided with the Revolutionaries. He
was among the guests at a dinner for George Washington at the Black
Bear Tavern in Lancaster in 1777, along with General Lafayette. For
this he dressed in rough clothing, and tied his gray hair back with a
thong.
3) Jacob Carpenter (1719 [Official Mennonite Soc. Date 1994] or 3 Apr
1726 - 3 Dec 1772) lived and died in Lampeter Township, Lancaster
County, where he was a surveyor and a farmer. He was elected to the
Provincial Assembly in 1765 and annually thereafter until his death in
1772. He was married first on 12 May 1746 to Elizabeth Herr, then
secondly on 21 Jul 1761 in the St. James Episcopal Church, Lancaster,
PA to Magdalena Miller (d. 1803), daughter of Martin and Magdalena
Miller.
I descend from there...
Any additions or corrections??
Tom ______________________________
>
Tom--If this is taken from a resource, may I have the citation? I would like
to add this info to my database. Thanks! Marilyn (descended from
Heinrich/Heinrich)