Pa•lat•i•nate (pəˈlæt nˌeɪt, -ɪt)
n.
n.
1. the. German, Pfalz. either
of two historic regions of Germany that constituted an electorate of the Holy
Roman Empire: one (Lower Palatinate or Rhine Palatinate) is now part of
Rhineland-Palatinate, and the other (Upper Palatinate) is now part of Bavaria.
2. a
native or inhabitant of the Palatinate.
3. (l.c.)
the territory under a palatine.
Random
House Kernerman Webster's College Dictionary, © 2010 K Dictionaries Ltd.
Copyright 2005, 1997, 1991 by Random House, Inc. All rights reserved.
Situated in Western Germany between lies the Palatinate. borders (from
the north and clockwise) the German Bundesländer North Rhine-Westphalia, Hesse, and Baden-Württemberg; then, it shares an international border with France, followed by
another Bundesland, Saarland, and international
borders with Luxembourg and Belgium. Centuries ago, this area was
an independent land that was known as "THE PALATINATE". In 2013 it is part of the modern German
state of Rhineland-Palatinate (Rhein-Pfalz). In the German language the
Palatinate is known as the PFALZ. The area had many names over
the years. Bayern. Rheinbayern, Bavarian Palatinate, Rheinpreussen,
Rheinbaiern, etc. The history of the Palatinate goes back 5,000 years, to the
time of the early Celtic settlers. Once known as a part of Gaul, it was conquered by the Romans,
who established a successful wine industry. With the collapse of the Roman
Empire, the area was invaded by German speaking Frankish tribes, and also other
Germanic tribes. Therefore, the population is a mix of cultures and peoples, as
is almost all of Europe - contrary to the thinking of some people. In the middle
ages the area was ruled by the "Counts
Palatine", and the country spanned both sides of the Rhine River.
The area was a part of the "Holy Roman Empire", established by
Charlemagne, and ended a thousand years later by Napoleon. The famous city of Heidelberg was once
the capital city of the Palatinate, until Napoleon removed the east bank
section from the Palatinate in circa 1803.
By the 1830s, life for the
"common people" up in the hills, who were not part of the wine
growing region, nor a part of the great intellectial communities along the
Rhine River, had changed very little in all those thousands of years. They had
been exposed to many wars over the years, which had impacted their populations
significantly. Some of the wars were political, and some religious. The larger
Rhineland area became a "hot bed" of religious conflict during the Reformation, with a population which became pretty evenly divided
between Catholic, Lutheran and Calvinist (mostly German Reformed). With the end
of the religious wars, all other faiths except those three were banned. The
religion of the population of the area we are concerned about in this project,
became almost entirely known as "GERMAN
REFORMED". Their many tiny villages, usually had only one church,
and almost always it was a German Reformed structure. Their religion and
occupations (most were farmers) dominated their lives until the coming of the
Industrial Age (and sometimes after). In the early 1700s there were so many
refugees up and down the Rhine River, that William Penn offered them homes in
his Pennsylvania lands. Many thousands migrated to America and elsewhere.
Additional refugees streamed into the Palatinate from Switzerland and the
Kingdom of Wurttemburg, some staying, and some moving on. Often these Rhine River
people were called the "Pennsylvania
Dutch".
Perhaps beginning in 1834, some of these Palatines were somehow motivated to migrate to
a remote area of Tuscarawas County, Ohio, which had
just been formed into townships. Here they could farm and worship as they
pleased, with their own kind, and be left alone by the world. One could almost
think of them as Amish in their appearence and behavior, and certainly in that
era they would have appeared the same! In modern times, the world's largest
concentration of Amish live in the next county to the west of Tuscarawas =
Holmes County. Also many Amish live in Tuscarawas County. In the townships of Jefferson, Bucks, Auburn, York, Salem, and Sugarcreek; Palatines poured in over
many years. They were joined by many other German Reformed, especially from the Kingdom of Wurttemburg, and Switzerland. Also a few Pennsylvania
Germans moved in, who were mostly Lutherans, some of whom had lived in America
for mnay generations (like the Pershings). Later Palatines settled in
the northern part of Tuscarawas County, and to the north in adjacent Stark County. Tuscarawas County was mostly opened up for large
scale settlement after the construction of the Erie Canal across New York
state, in 1825.
Tuscarawas County, Ohio is
beautiful! Very scenic! Also historic! It reminded the immigrants of their
former homes in the Palatinate and Switzerland, and they said so. However, as
scenic as this area is, much of the terain is a farmer's nightmare! It is very
hilly, the soil in the higher elevations is rocky (mostly flint). It is still
very forested in many areas. The farms are nothing like the huge farms that the
former citizens created in the Urbana, Indiana area.
History has not disclosed WHY a
group of these mostly Palatine pioneers, decided to move on, and WHY they chose
Wabash County, Indiana. We know that the History of Tuscarawas County (1884) states that DANIEL LOWER was the
"FIRST", and that "many of his neighbors and acquaintances
rapidly followed him". They did not migrate all at once. Daniel and his
"group of pioneers" probably numbered no more than 30 individuals,
most of whom were under the age of 30 years of age, and related to Daniel
Lower. They likely left in the summer of 1848, and took canal boats to Cleveland (the same route most of
them took to get to Tuscarawas County years earlier). From Cleveland they
"probably" went by Great Lakes boats to Toledo. After that, the St.
Peter's Church records say they "followed the Wabash-Erie Canal". On
foot? The bigger story is that some of the Palatines who had settled in Stark
County, also migrated shortly after them, and built their new lives in adjacent
Huntington County. Affiliated German Reformed churches were quickly built in Huntington (St.
Peter's), Bippus (St. John's)
and on the county line (St. Paul's, sometimes called Beldon), to join with German Reformed churches in Urbana (St.
Peter's), and the City of Wabash (St. Matthew's). These churches, after
a number of mergers, are now a part of the United Church of Christ, as they
apparently are also in Tuscarawas County.
Like the Amish, these Palatine
people kept to themselves for a couple more generations, and as in Tuscarawas
County, inter-married mostly with their own. However, the Industrial Revolution
had spawned an opportunity for the second and third generations to break away
from the farms, and from the lifestyle their ancestors had toiled in for
perhaps thousands of years. The immigrated Palatine people who had congregated
together for perhaps thousands of years, have - within the last one hundred
years or so - almost disappeared into "the great American melting
pot".
