German Footprints in America: Four Centuries of Immigration and Cultural Influence

304 Pages·2022·16.321 MB·English

by  Sudie Doggett Wike

German Footprints
in America
Also by Sudie Doggett Wike
Women in the American Revolution
(McFarland, 2018)
German Footprints
in America
Four Centuries of Immigration
and Cultural Influence
Sudie Doggett Wike
McFarland & Company, Inc., Publishers
Jefferson, North Carolina
All maps courtesy of Glenn McCroskey
ISBN (print) 978–1 -4766–8 575–5
ISBN (ebook) 978–1 -4766–4 518–6
Library of Congress and British Library
cataloguing data are available
Library of Congress Control Number 2021062283
© 2022 Sudie Doggett Wike. All rights reserved
No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form
or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying
or recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system,
without permission in writing from the publisher.
Front cover: Three generations of German immigrants at an Ellis Island
inspection station in the early 1900s (National Park Service)
Printed in the United States of America
McFarland & Company, Inc., Publishers
Box 611, Jefferson, North Carolina 28640
www.mcfarlandpub.com
For Americans,
especially those 46 million with German heritage,
including my husband,
Sidney Wike,
our children,
Martha Wike and Sid Wike, Jr.,
and our grandchildren—
Sid’s children, Abi and Miles Wike,
and Martha’s children, Christopher and Katie Lyne

Table of Contents
Acknowledgments ix
Introduction 1
1 England Sends German Metallurgist to America 15
2 German Immigrants to Jamestown 20
3 German Immigrants to Massachusetts Bay Colony 25
4 New Netherland, New Sweden and New Jersey 29
5 Protestant Reformation and the Thirty Years’ War 41
6 Germans Flee Rhineland for America 50
7 Jamestown Welcomes a German Explorer 56
8 Quakers Migrate to Penn’s Colony and Delaware Valley 65
9 German Protestants Migrate to Colonial America 83
10 France vs. England Conflict: Phase I Glorious Revolution 91
11 Phase II: War of Spanish Succession: Queen Anne’s War 99
12 The Great Exodus of the Palatines and Conrad Weiser 105
13 Phase III: War of Austrian Succession: King George’s War 116
14 Phase IV: French and Indian War and Bouquet’s Royal
Corps 123
15 Pontiac’s War, Bouquet’s Regiment and the Delaware
Indians 137
16 Germans and S cots-Irish Migrate to Virginia: Hite vs.
Fairfax 150
17 Germans in Colonial Maryland, the Carolinas and Georgia 155
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18 The Great Wagon Road and the Carolina Road 169
19 Quaker and German Longhunters and the Wilderness Road 177
20 American Revolutionary War Soldiers of German Descent 184
21 Germans Begin Migrating to Kentucky, Ohio and the
Old Northwest 191
22 The Revolution of the 1848-ers 199
23 German Influx: Indiana, Illinois, Michigan, Wisconsin
and Minnesota 205
24 Go West, Young Man: Louisiana, Oregon, California
and Texas 219
25 Americans of German Heritage During World War I 225
26 World War II German Rocket Scientists Immigrate to USA:
127 Exceptional Men—by James Evans Lyne 232
27 Interview with a Contemporary German Immigrant 243
Appendix: Chronology: The Germans in America 247
Chapter Notes 251
Bibliography 265
Index 273
Acknowledgments
Special thanks go to my husband, eye surgeon Sidney
Wike, MD, for repeatedly reading the manuscript of Ger-
man Footprints in America. Appreciation also is expressed
to our son, Attorney at Law Sid Wike, Jr.; daughter Mar-
tha Wike, PhD, East Regional Psychologist for Children’s
Services, State of Tennessee; and her son, our grand-
son, Christopher Lyne (who is working on his PhD in
aerospace engineering at Urbana, Illinois), for carefully
reading and critiquing parts of this book. In fact, the
encouragement of our whole family is greatly appreciated.
A warm t hank-you goes to Christopher’s father, university
professor Evans Lyne, who has an MD degree as well as a
PhD in aerospace engineering. Not only did Dr. Lyne write
this book’s chapter on World War II involving 127 excep-
tional German scientists and Operation Paperclip, but he
also critiqued the entire manuscript. I am indeed grateful
for the enthusiasm of family friend Myra Orr who, when
this manuscript was in its early stages, kindly scrutinized
the entire first draft while wielding her schoolteacher’s
red pencil which she, as promised, did not hesitate to use.
Another t hank-you is for the late Dr. John Gaines, profes-
sor emeritus of King College, for sharing his knowledge of
European history and for offering the use of books from
his personal library. Kudos also to Glenn McCroskey, who
drew the maps for this book. Another special t hank-you is
extended to Dylan Lightfoot, an editor at McFarland. This
nonfictional history, German Footprints in America, sim-
ply would not have materialized without his encourage-
ment and guidance.
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