As my family prepares to visit the Shenandoah Valley in Virginia in the fall of 2024, it seems a good opportunity to recall our deep roots in the area, particularly as so many reminders of our ancestors still remain in the form of homesteads, cemeteries, and other artifacts. By way of preview, this post begins the story of how our Paletine ancestors made their way from what is now Germany to New York, to Pennsylvania, and finally to Virginia. I am indebted to the work of the Hite Family Association and especially Elizabeth Madison Coles Umstattd's book, Hite Family Homesteads: Neckar to Shenandoah (Rev).
The first few posts will fill in a time period from this post I wrote years ago. Jost Hite (Heyd/Heydt) and his wife Anna Maria Merckle were from Bonfeld in what is now Germany. They joined Jost's father Johannes and stepmother Anna Maria Schultz to leave Germany and travel to the colonies. The emigrants sailed down the Rhine to Rotterdam, then to London, where the British were wondering what to do with the thousands of Germans fleeing Germany at the same for a new life. Some were sent back, others were sent to the West Indies, Ireland, or various colonies. They Hites were assigned to a group of about 3,000 headed for New York, where they were to be given a subsistence in exchange for working in camps set up to produce pine tar for British ships.
Jost's father and several young children did not survive the voyage. By the time the family reached New York, Jost's stepmother and Jost were each listed as heads of households, with no mention of Johannes. By October 1710, Jost, his wife and young daughter were headed off to the tar camps on the Hudson.
Jost Hite's family was assigned to East Camp at Livingston Manor (now Germantown), New York, just north of Rhinebeck and Kingston. On the other bank of the Hudson was West Camp. The names of those living in each camp are listed on a monument at St. Paul's Evangelical Lutheran Church, located in West Camp. The congregation was established by the Paletines in 1710.
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The family name is spelled Hayd, one of many variations. |
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On the West Camp list we find the name Traberin. Traber is an alternate spelling for Traver, with "in" designating feminine. Our Traver roots probably began here; see Traver House at end of story. We headed first to the East Camp location. Knowing that the monument was on the west bank and we were on the east, we did not know what to expect as we headed for the riverbank at Cheviot, and were delighted with what we found. |
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A sign marks the location of East Camp and a cemetery. |
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East Camp Cemetery. We have no known burials there. |
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| East bank of the Hudson in Cheviot, Germantown, NY |
Ultimately the tar camp enterprise failed. Although New York's governor reportedly went into debt to try to sustain the enterprise, it was a disaster. The Germans were essentially treated as indentures and many felt they had been cheated. Some stayed in the area, some moved to the Schoharie Valley of New York. The Hites are thought to have been among them. After trying to carve out farms in this new area, they learned that they would not be able to own the land. They heeded a call from the governor of Pennsylvania offering incentives to settlers and headed to the Philadelphia area. That will be the topic of the next post.
Before leaving New York, however, we'll take note of an historic homestead located in Rhinebeck and listed on the National Historic Register as the "Traver House." Recall that E. B. Manning married Josephine Traver, daughter of Freeman Traver. While the exact line of descent is unknown, it is highly likely that our Travers descend from the West Camp Trebers and had some connection to this house, built ca 1730 and expanded ca 1790. Located a mile up a quiet residential street, it is a lovely reminder of early German construction. See here more information.
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| Ca 1730 Traver House at 55 Wynkoop Lane, Rhinebeck, NY |
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