Edited Letters Between Michael Hillegas and Jacob Kriebel: 1822–1840

Abstract

Edited Letters Between Michael Hillegas and Jacob Kriebel1822–1840 Sally K Francis (bio), Dale E. Schmolinsky (bio), Benedikt Schreiner (bio), and L. Allen Viehmeyer (bio) This local history examines the struggles and triumphs of two nineteenth-century American families as described in 12 letters written between 1822 and 1840 and exchanged between Michael Hillegas and Jacob Kriebel, situating them as second-generation German immigrants and Ohio pioneers within the socioeconomic conditions of rural nineteenth-century Ohio and Pennsylvania. Land ownership and successful harvests were a focal point of each letter, attesting to the importance of location in these new lands. Topics of discussion found throughout the letters include: weather conditions, crops, livestock, family health, births, deaths, and religious issues. Additionally, some historical information is provided in each letter, such as canal construction and the presence of disease, namely cholera. Similar to many people who immigrated to North America in the early eighteenth century, the Kriebel and Yeakel (or Jäkel) ancestors of two of the authors of this article fled their homelands in Harpersdorf, Silesia (now Poland), and went to the estate of Count von Zinzendorf in Saxony, Germany. They were in search of religious freedom that had eluded them since the Protestant Reformation. In his 1904 memoirs, Adm. Winfield Schley observed, “The first [End Page 26] instinct for individual independence the world over has usually taken form in a defense of primitive faith, of right to pray in our own hearts in our own way.”1 The Yeakels followed the teachings of Caspar Schwenckfeld, a Silesian nobleman and radical reformer, who was born about 1489 and was thus a contemporary of Martin Luther who had been born six years earlier in 1483. Schwenckfeld was especially concerned about the interpretation of the Eucharist. Denying the real presence of Jesus in the bread and wine, he advocated a spiritual understanding of communion. In 1526 he suggested a cessation of the sacrament of communion until all reformers agreed on its interpretation and practice. Schwenckfeld was declared a heretic and spent the remainder of his life hiding in exile. In the 1720s, several hundred followers of Schwenckfeld still lived in Silesia (formerly Germany, now Poland). Under pressure to convert to Catholicism, they petitioned the emperor for religious tolerance but were unsuccessful. First, they fled to Saxony on foot, leaving behind most of their wealth such as looms, livestock, and homes because the journey was about 18 hours long. They remained on Count von Zinzendorf ’s estate in the village of Berthelsdorf, Saxony, for eight years, until they were forced out in the spring of 1734. Then they crossed the Atlantic Ocean on the St. Andrew and landed at the Philadelphia dock on September 22, 1734. Although they intended to settle together, they settled individually or in very small groups throughout what is now Montgomery County, Pennsylvania. Today, three Schwenkfelder churches survive. David Yeakel, a Schwenkfelder, and his son Hans Heinrich arrived in Philadelphia on the St. Andrew along with 40 other Schwenkfelder families2 as exiles from Silesia seeking religious freedom.3 In about 1798, David Yeakel’s great-granddaughter, Anna Yeakel, married Michael Hillegas.4 [End Page 27] Click for larger view View full resolution Fig. 1. Anna Yeakel Hillegas’s pedigree chart (Chart developed by Sally Francis at Rootsmagic.com) The Hillegas family was likely to have been French Huguenot; they were members of the Reformed Church.5 The Huguenots had been permitted freedom of worship by the Edict of Nantes in 1598, which also admitted them to public employment and gave their children access to schools. When the edict was revoked by Louis XIV in 1685, hundreds of thousands of Huguenots fled to Switzerland, the Palatinate, Germany, the Netherlands, and ultimately to America to escape further persecution. The Hillegas family had been residents of the Franco-German Alsace province prior to going to the Palatinate of Germany.6 After fleeing the Palatinate, Johann Friedrich Hillegas, his wife, Elisabetha [End Page 28] Barbara Triegels, and several of their children arrived in Philadelphia on the William and Sarah on September 12, 1727,7 and settled in the Goshenhoppen Valley soon thereafter. On the same ship were his sister Barbara and his...