Background to the American Revolution: The German immigration begins

The Pennsylvania Dutch: Rihm; Revised Chapter 8 from 400 Years in America

This is an edited version of Chapter 8, from my book 400 Years in America, as background for the Marker Dedication Honoring Pennsylvania Revolutionary War Patriots, which I will be reporting on next weekend from Harrisburg, PA. One of our ancestors being honored, Daniel Rihm/Ream/Reeme, is the grandson of immigrant ancestor Eberhard Rihm, whose immigration is described below.

Colonial America was a destination for Europeans from many different countries.  While our English and Dutch ancestors were pushing west and north from the shore of New England and Manhattan, some of our German and Swiss ancestors were crossing the Atlantic for Pennsylvania’s wilderness.

Rihm Family

Eberhard Rihm and his wife Anna Elizabeth lived in the Palatinate, today part of Germany.  The Palatinate accepted Protestantism during the Reformation and became the leading Calvinist region in Germany.  During the Thirty Years War this area was ravaged by violence and turmoil.  Armies from Britain, German and France caused great harm and instability.   Queen Anne invited residents, called Palatines, to settle in America.

In 1681 William Penn, an Englishman and a Quaker, founded the Colony of Pennsylvania and guaranteed freedom of conscience and freedom of religion to all who immigrated there.  Many German Protestant refugees fled to Pennsylvania and were welcomed by Penn.  Penn particularly invited those from the Palatinate, that region of Germany bordering the Rhine.  Once settled they were known as Pennsylvania Dutch.

Eberhard and Anna Rihm heard of the opportunities in North America.  Eberhard was a baker in Germany.  In 1718 they and their four young children, including our ancestor Jacob Rhim, left their German homeland and sailed for “Penn’s Woods”.  Jacob had been born June 24, 1713 in Leimen and was only five at the time he boarded the ship.   

Eventually Eberhard obtained a patent from William Penn dated February 24, 1724.  The patent gave Eberhard a grant of 200 acres along a branch of the Conestoga River called Cocalico Creek, named after the local Indian tribe.  The land patent stated that the acreage included an Indian settlement by the name of Cocalico, and also stated that Eberhard had the permission of the Indians to settle there and could pay money down on the land.

Eberhard and his family moved to the land, located in the north-eastern part of Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, in the summer of 1724.  Eberhard drove his wagon through the thick primeval forest and stopped under a large oak tree.  There they pitched their tent until they could cut down enough trees to build a rude log cabin.  A good spring was located nearby.

The family lived by themselves for several years among the Indians.  It is reported that the nearest neighbors were twelve miles away, to the north along Mill creek, near the present site of Newmanstown.  The children grew up playing, hunting and fishing with the friendly Cocalico Indians.

Within a few years other settlers began to arrive.  The Muddy Creek Church was established in 1728, and the first church building constructed in 1733.  Both Lutheran and Reformed pastors served from the same church.  In 1732 the Ephrata Cloister was founded near the homestead.

In 1735 Jacob, now age 21, married Anna Christina Heller, who had emigrated with her family from Mattstall, Bas-Rhin, Alsace.     

By 1750 Eberhard’s holdings had grown to 900 acres of rich Pennsylvania farmland. That year Eberhard began to give his land to his sons.  One of his sons, Tobias Rihm, laid out a portion of his land into building lots, and called the town “Zoar.”  Today it is known as Reamstown.  The name was changed sometime before the Revolution.  Buildings in the town were used to house the wounded following the Revolutionary War Battle of Brandywine, fought September 11, 1777.  Some of the dead from this battle are buried in the Reamstown cemetery.

The first regional cemetery was Ream’s Cemetery, adjoining Reamstown on the south. Here can be found the gravestones of Eberhard and his wife Elizabeth.  The English translation of those German- inscripted stones is as follows:

Here rest the bones of very honest dear old grandfather, John Eberhard Rihm, born 1687 in Europe, married in the year 1712, came to America, where his family of 10 increased to 150 souls.  Died August 22, 1779.  Age 92.

Here lies buried of Eberhard Rihm, his wife, Elizabeth, nee Schwab, born in Europe at Diren, the 10^th month of October 1692.  In marriage she lived 49 years, 7 months, 18 days.  Passed away the 4^th of March 1761, her age 68 years, 4 months, 22 days.

Twenty – two of Eberhard and Elizabeth Rihm’s sons and grandsons served in the Revolutionary War.  There are many spellings of Rihm, including Ream and Reeme.  Over the years the various members of the family would change the spelling of their last name to distinguish them from the other branches of the family tree.  

The great great great granddaughter of Eberhard Rihm, Mary Eleanor Reeme, would move to Ohio as a teen age girl where she would meet her husband, Benjamin Franklin Knepper, the great great grandson of Wilhelm Knepper. Benjamin would walk from Pennsylvania to Ohio at the age of 17.  The Knepper’s represent the first Anabaptists in our line to come to America,  though there would be many to follow.  In the next chapter we will go back to Germany to learn how Wilhelm Knepper found his way to Penn’s Woods in 1729.