The Blooming Grove Colony

Feature Story August 2005
The Blooming Grove Colony
The colony of 1804 comprised the following named person: John and Gottlieb Heim, Leonard Ulmer and family, Leonard Staiger and family, John George Waltz and family John George Kiess and family, David Young and family, Wendel Harmon and family, Michael Gross and family, Michael Burghardt and family. In 1806 came Christopher Kiess, George Kiess and Michael Waltz with their families. From this time emigration was prohibited for ten years after which John Heim returned to Germany and brought out the families of Christian Heim, Jacob Heim, Frederick Schafer, John Wagner, Jacob Guinther, Jacob Streile, Abraham Schiedt, Jacob Kurtz, John Kurtz, Ulrich Stabler, Abraham Wolf, and Michael Stroble. Other families came also from time to time. Some became converts with the Dunkers, but many only settled near by and intermarried.
Previous to this time the traffic in human souls by the “Newlanders” as depicted by Gottleib Mittelberger (an organ builder from Wurtemburg) known to us as the “Redemptioners,” had been broken up. Thousands of children too young, or parents too old for use as servants had perished from starvation and exposure after being turned adrift at Philadelphia. But the emigration agents, or as they would now be called, “promoters” or “steerers” worked up parties of colonists in the interest of ship owners, and Wurtemburg, Germany continued to be one of the most fruitful fields until as late as 1835.

THIS INFORMATION IS TAKEN FROM THE BOOK, “BLOOMING GROVE” WRITTEN IN 1901 BY JOSEPH MCMINN OF WILLIAMSPORT, PENNSYLVANIA. THE BOOK WAS PUBLISHED BY SCHOLL BROTHERS PRINTING COMPANY OF WILLIAMSPORT, PENNSYLVANIA.
The book may be purchased from the for sale page in this web site.

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