[PRCo] Re: Penn Pilot

[John Swindler]

Hi Don 
 
Another state employee with interest in local history once commented that in early years, Pennsylvania was one-third English; one-third German; and one-third Irish Presbyterian or Ulster Scot.  The Penn family settled the German's between the two English speaking groups to keep them from fighting with each other.  Hence Germantown in the Philly area.  
 
But early on the Ulster Scots decided the neighborhood was getting crowded and moved west - maybe it was a Celtic thing - and the Germans expanded into Lancaster County.
 
Fred III can provide additional information because he attended the Bangor Episcopal Church in Churchtown dating to 1722 - Ephrata Cloister wasn't settled until 1732.  Welsh immigrants started the Bangor church.
 
John
> From: galtfd at att.net> To: pittsburgh-railways at dementia.org> Date: Wed, 25 Jun 2008 00:25:31 -0700> Subject: [PRCo] Re: Penn Pilot> > On 24 Jun 2008 at 22:16, Fred Schneider wrote:> > > I had no idea that you had family in this area.> > > > The amazing thing about this county is that it was probably about > > half half English and half German at the time of the revolution. > > There were a lot of Germans that had land from the Penns. Most of > > our Germans didn't come to the United States until they got fed up > > with wars in the 1850s.> > > > My great*6-grandfather Robert Galt was an Ulster Scot who settled in (then) > Chester (now) Lancaster County early in the 18th century.> > Some 200 years later a story developed some authority in historical circles > that his arrival had taken place in 1709. The printed source for this was a > church history written some 50 years earlier, drawing presumably on family lore > that doesn't seem to survive in any other form.> > Now, you will note that 1709 would put him a year earlier than the Mennonites, > hence the first settler in the county. Problem is, the earliest record of him > is his signature on a petition from about 1720. And nobody got around to > patenting any land until Robert's son, son-in-law and grandson a number of > years later still.> > So it is my somewhat reluctant surmise that the Scotch-Irish decided to steal a > march on the Deutsch on the occasion of the latters' bicentennial, and put > forth Robert as their champion on essentially no evidence whatever.> > Fact remains, our family dates back to before the formation of Lancaster County > and continued to farm there within my own lifetime. And I've enjoyed a number > of visits there.> > Don> Writing from way out west> > 
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