By Edward Spannaus
Local histories tell us that the inhabitants of the German Settlement were intensively loyal to the cause of freedom during the Revolutionary War, with almost every man of military age volunteering to fight on the Patriot side. It is also reported that many served in Armand’s Legion, where the German language was used.
We have no reason to doubt the loyalty of the German settlers (after all, they had no attachment to what most colonists viewed as the “mother country,” Great Britain). However, finding documentation of their service is another question. Not only were many Revolutionary War records lost or destroyed, but German names were seldom recorded accurately by English-speakers.
When we first started researching Revolutionary War soldiers from the German Settlement around 2010, we identified 12 to 15 soldiers with some certainty.[i] Some of these had moved out of this area to Ohio and other locations after the War. We had many other leads that we have followed up over the years.
Recently, we found a good number of Revolutionary War soldiers from the German Settlement in another location – Bedford County, Pennsylvania.
This was not exactly a surprise, but for the number of them. We found 13 soldiers who had previously been residents of the German Settlement in Loudoun County– and we are still looking for more. They are listed below.
We knew about some of these from research done 10-15 years ago, when we were looking at Bedford County; these included names such as Biegel, Diehl, and Koontz. A number were names that we had come across during the last year’s research on the Earl of Tankerville and his tenants. Notable among these were Henry Horne, a Hessian soldier who deserted, came to Loudoun, and then joined the American side in the Continental Army.
Another discovery involved Nicholas Border, whose name I had come across a number of times in researching old land records, and which baffled me. Border owned the property which was later owned by A.T.M. Filler, which we know today as “Linden Hall” farm on the Berlin Turnpike, just north of Lovettsville. It turns out that “Border” was not English, as the name suggests, but was actually Nicholas Baader, a German settler.
We first learned of the Bedford connection from David Koontz, an officer of the Bedford County Historical Society, who was descended from a number of “Lovettsville”/German Settlement families. The then-President of the Lovettsville Historical Society, Tom Bullock, and I travelled to Bedford in April 2013, where Tom gave a presentation to the Bedford County Historical Society on Loudoun County families who had moved to Bedford County. In September of 2013, Koontz and Gillian Leach from Bedford gave a presentation “From Loudoun to Bedford” to the Lovettsville Historical Society.
Koontz identified three reasons why German settlers migrated to Bedford County:
- Economic: the German settlers in Loudoun County were unable to buy land at the time,[ii] and the German settlers also felt themselves at an economic disadvantage in the slave-based Virginia economy.
- Cultural: At that point in time, the German settlers in Loudoun County owned few if any slaves (that changed over time as they became more “Americanized”), and Pennsylvania had begun to abolished slavery in 1780 – the first state to do so, according to Koontz.
- Political: they wanted to get back above the Mason-Dixon Line in Pennsylvania, where German-Americans had much more political influence than they did in Loudoun County and Virginia.
Some of the families from the German Settlement whose members relocated to Bedford County were: Axline/Exline, Biegel/Bügle, Brill, Counts/Koontz, Diehl, Giese, Harclerode, Hickman, Lutz, Ott, Ritchie, Shoemaker, Smith, and Zembower/Sandbower.
Revolutionary War soldiers
Here are the Revolutionary War soldiers whom we have found so far, who are buried in Bedford County but who had lived in the German Settlement in Loudoun County at some point. (This list is only of those buried in present-day Bedford County. In the late 1700s, Bedford County was much larger; we will look at the counties that split off from the original Bedford County in our next issue.)
Biegel, Karl (Charles Biegle) b. 1750 Loudoun County VA; served in 4th PA Regt., Continental Line 1778-80; moved to Bedford Co., PA. by 1800, where he died in 1808.
Border, Nicholas (Baader). b. 1735 in Berks County PA; resided and owned property in German Settlement (now Linden Hall on Berlin Turnpike); Served as Private in VA militia, recognized for military service by SAR; d.1820 Bedford Co. PA.
Diehl, Samuel b. 1740; family leased land from the Earl of Tankerville near present-day Lovettsville in 1763; Private, enlisted twice in PA militia; moved to Bedford Co. PA by 1784, where he died in 1828.
Filler, Frederick b. Montgomery Co. PA, near Trappe; enlisted 1776 in the Maryland Regiment of the Flying Camp, also served in German Regiment; lived in Loudoun County and married Nicholas Border’s daughter Catherine around 1783; died 1797 Bedford Co. PA.
Horn, Henry (Heinrich Horne) b. 1758 Hesse-Kassel, Germany; served in Knyphaussen Regiment as a “Hessian”; captured at Trenton on Christmas Day, 1776; in 1777 escaped and joined 3rd PA Battalion, Continental Line; 1778 joined Pulaski’s Legion; came to Loudoun Co. VA, and enlisted in 4th VA Regt.; returned to Loudoun after the War and leased and then purchased land in the German Settlement from the Earl of Tankerville; in 1798 removed to Bedford Co. PA, where he died in 1840.
Morgart, Peter b. 1758 NJ; moved to Loudoun Co. VA in 1765; served in Loudoun Co. Militia under Capt. Richard Speer and Col. George West; d. Bedford Co. PA.
May, John A. b.1753 Loudoun Co. VA; married Sophie Exline; Sgt. in 6th PA Regt, Continental Line; d. 1826 in Bedford Co. PA
Miller, Christian Christopher b. 1704 Baden-Württemberg, Germany; reported to have married Eve Elisabeth Ernst of Loudoun Co. VA in 1739; wagoner in French-Indian War; Private/wagoner in 2nd Pennsylvania Battalion; d. 1788, Bedford Co. PA
Miller, Elias b. 1763 Loudoun Co. VA; Pvt. In Bedford Co. PA Militia, in Continental Service; d. 1848 Bedford Co. PA.
Mower, Andrew (Mauer) – b. 1752 Bucks Co. PA ; served as Pvt., Northampton Volunteers, Capt. Van Etten’s Company (PA); moved to Loudoun Co. VA after the War; listed in 1787 census in area just east of present-day Lovettsville; also owned a lot in Berlin (Brunswick) MD; moved to Bedford Co. PA in 1794-97 period, where he died in 1813.
Shoemaker, Joseph (Shumacher) b. 1759 PA or VA; resided Loudoun Co. VA; married Elisabeth Axline, daughter of Adam Exline of Loudoun Co.; served in Va Line and 1st Regt. Continental Artillery as Matros/Private; removed to Bedford Co. PA, where he died in 1833.
Smouse, Johannes b. 1721 Germany; resided Loudoun Co. VA and married Mary Wohlfrom (Wohlforth?); moved to Bedford Co. PA by 1784, where he died in 1794.
Henry Whetstone (?) b. 1751; reported to come from Loudoun County to Bedford County, and to have served in Revolutionary War in Bedford County militia; children and grandchildren married into Brill, Diehl, Koontz. and Smouse families; buried at Friends Cove Cemetery, Bedford Co. PA
[i] The results of our early research were presented at a lecture in 2011. See here. The LHS project to document Revolutionary War soldiers in the German Settlement was initiated in 2010, with assistance from members of the Ketoctin Chapter of the DAR, and with the help of Dr. Donald Cooper of the Loudoun County Patriot Project.
[ii] As we showed in the Tankerville series published in 2024.