Gerhardt Walrath and Anna Maria Reffi

Gerhardt Walrath
7th Great Grandfather
b. abt 1670, Runkel, Hesse-Nassau, Germany
d. abt 1720, on board ship returning from England to America

Anna Maria Reffi
7th Great Grandmother
b. abt 1674, Germany
d. Stone Arabia, Herkimer County, New York Colony

Gerhardt Walrath and his family were German Palatines who fled Germany because of the destruction of crops by invading French armies, and the icy cold winter of 1708-09. The Walraths, along with over 15,000 other Palatines, left their homeland and traveled west to the Rhine River, and then down the Rhine into the Netherlands. As the number of German refugees increased, the Dutch decided to send them to England. In late summer 1709, the Walraths arrived in London, along with thousands of other Germans.

Queen Anne of Great Britain was sympathetic toward the German Palatines, and allowed them to stay in England. However, as their numbers grew, the Board of Trade and Plantations prepared a plan to send them to America, where the Crown promised them free land after they worked off their passage by producing naval stores. The Germans were also forced to pay rent for their property.

In America, the Germans were divided into five camps. The Germans were to produce tar from the trees, but they were unsuitable. In 1711, the English conscripted German Palatines to fight the French in northern New York. Upon their return, the Palatines discovered that their families had nearly starved in their absence.

In the fall of 1713, the Germans reached Schenectady. The Mohawk, part of the Iroquois Confederacy, helped the German Palatines throughout the winter, in which they earned their trust. After negotiating with the Mohawk, the Germans were given permission to move further west in the valley. In the spring of 1714, with the help of Mohawk Indians, the Walraths, along with about 150 other families moved to Schoharie, located 40 miles west of Albany. The Germans who settled here were very poor to start out with. At Schoharie, they grew corn, potatoes, and ground beans to get through the following year. Life was harsh, and families sometimes went two or three days without food. Eventually, multiple villages in the area sprang up, more food was grown, and thus life improved and people no longer starved. But, the New York governor, Robert Hunter, had threatened the Germans not to move to Schoharie, or he would see it as rebellion.

In 1715, Hunter sent an agent, Adam Vrooman, to Schoharie, to make deeds for the Palatines, although the Mohawk had granted them the land. The Palatines were resistant, and the land that the Germans had settled on in Schoharie was taken away and granted by Hunter to seven landlords. The German deputies were stripped of their titles, and the promise of free land by Queen Anne was ignored. Hunter authorized a warrant for the German's leader, Johann Conrad Weiser's arrest, after Vrooman complained of mistreatment while in Schoharie, but Weiser escaped. This brought an uproar, and the Germans rebelled. They drove out the sheriff who was sent from Albany, and became increasingly hostile to the government.

After five years of hostility between the Germans and the New York government, the German Palatines decided to send representatives to appeal to the Board of Trade in London. The community sent three men to represent them: Johann Conrad Weiser, Wilhelm Scheff, and Gerhardt Walrath. Hunter and his allies worked on a compromise to prevent the men from leaving. Because Hunter had threatened to arrest Weiser, the three commissioners decided to leave from Philadelphia instead of New York. They departed the city in 1718, but fell into the hands of pirates in the Delaware Bay. They lost their personal money, but not that of the colony. They were released and left without money and suitable clothing.

The ship stopped at Boston for more supplies. The commissioners finally arrived in London and found that Queen Anne had died. The new monarch, King George I, was not interested in their case. Hunter had sent agents to England, who portrayed the Germans as rebels and enemies to the Crown. Progress was slow for the representatives. During this time, Gerard Walrath grew tired and embarked for home, but died at sea. Later, Weiser and Scheff were imprisoned for debt. They wrote for help, but their letters were intercepted. Finally, word reached Schoharie and the community collected money for their redemption. After months of waiting, their debts were paid. In July 1720, Weiser and Scheff petitioned to the Board of Trade.

By this time, Hunter had resigned as governor and took a position in Jamaica. The newly commissioned Governor of New York, William Burnet, was ordered to grant land to the Germans. In 1723 he completed what was called the Burnetsfield Patent, whereby 100 heads of families received about 100 acres each on the north and south sides of the Mohawk River west of present-day Little Falls.