Chapter 12: More Swiss Germans to Pennsylvania - The French and Indian War

Brinker’s Mill

Brinker’s Mill, above, became a refuge for many families during the French and Indian War.

The same religious wars between Protestants and Catholics that swept through Germany also caused civil war in Switzerland.   Anabaptists in Switzerland (known there as “Tauffer”) were ejected from the Catholic Cantons to the Protestant Cantons.  Then even the Protestant Cantons began to persecute the Tauffer.  The Swiss enacted Anabaptist Hunting laws that made it the duty of all Swiss to turn in any Anabaptists.  Those who were found were frequently tortured, killed, or shipped off into forced labor, leaving their families behind.

Andreas Brungger was born July 9, 1699 in Switzerland, on the banks of the Rhine River, in the Canton of Zurich, County of Rumikon, and Village of Elsau.  Both of his parents died before he became four years old, so he had a difficult time from the beginning.  Before his birth the “Reformed” Protestants, under the leadership of Ulrich Zwingli, took over the leadership of Zurich.  But the Reformed would not accept any version of religion except their own.  The Zurich city council held a number of public debates over the subject of adult baptism instead of infant baptism.  The opinions of the Anabaptists, who believed in adult baptism, were rejected and the Anabaptists were ordered to leave.  When they refused, the Anabaptist leader, Felix Manz, was drowned.  “Against the waters of baptism he sinned, so by the water he must die.”

Even though many of the Anabaptists were persecuted and killed, the Anabaptist movement spread throughout Switzerland.  The persecution of the Swiss Anabaptists would last for hundreds of years.  The Dutch sent an ambassador to Switzerland to complain about the treatment of the Anabaptists.  They were being hunted down and executed like animals.  The Dutch requested that the Swiss permit all of the Anabaptists to leave and offered refuge in Holland, or transportation to North America.  Queen Anne of England had offered to accept Swiss-Germans in the colony of Pennsylvania.  During this time the Cantons of Zurich and Berne (discussed later) embarked on a huge expulsion of the Anabaptists.  They were forced to sell their property and use the money to pay their transportation to America.

The Swiss kept strict records of who left and when.  The records in the Swiss Archives establish that Andreas and his family left Zurich Canton in 1734, arriving in Philadelphia June 28, 1735 on the ship Mary, one year before our ancestor Melchior  Detwiler, the “Amish Scout,” landed in the same port.  There were eight in the family who boarded the ship in Rotterdam, including our ancestor Jacob, who was then only six years old.  Sadly his younger sister Mary Elizabeth, age 4, died and was buried at sea.  When they arrived in Philadelphia, the authorities misunderstood the last name of Brungger and spelled it Brinker, so from then on Jacob was known as Jacob Brinker.

Jacob married Susannah Hinkle, whose parents were from Germany, and together they bought land in Sciota, Hamilton Township, Northampton County, Pennsylvania 24, miles north of where Andreas farmed.  Here, in a log cabin, their daughter Anna Margaretha was born in 1756, a year after they purchased the land.  The log cabin was across the road from Brinker’s Mill, which was built by Jacob and can still be seen today.Brinker’s Mill became an important point of refuge for the new community.  In 1763 Indian raids had become a big danger.  The people all moved into Brinker’s Mill for protection.  A petition was filed by the people at Brinker’s mill.  The petition reads:

“Petition of people at Brinker’s Mill to Mr. Horsfield, September, 1763:

“Petition:

“For soldiers to be placed at the Jacob Brinker Mill; the people have been driven from their homes, “to our desolate habitations,” so they could use the mill and almost forgot their woes but now, every day they are exposed to “the unmerciful hands of these savages just at our backs;” only one-half have guns, barely one charge of powder or lead; only God protects us;  Please place soldiers at the mill.

Signed

George Hartlief

John Jacob Sterner

John Learn [our ancestor. His son would marry Jacob Brinker’s daughter]

Johannes Margrets

Jacob Schmidt

Felix Weiss

Jacob Zewitz

Peter Boselt

Lorence Ramee

Peter Hussschmith

Conrad Jung

Jesse Washburn

Michael Buch

Johannes Mennier

Johannes Eidgeier

Johannes Kunel

Bartel Scheible

Jacob Brinker [our ancestor; builder and owner of Brinker’s Mill]

“Petitioners  - The neighbors that are now living or rather staying here at this present time.”

These people and their families were all huddled together in the mill.

Finally peace came to the area.  In that same year, 1763, unbeknownst to those living in the mill for protection, the Treaty of Paris was signed. The Treaty gave Canada to Great Britain.  But the peace was to be short-lived.  A revolution was brewing.

Link to next chapter. Link to chapter 1 below.