George Frederick Helmer, I

GEDCOM Note

There is controversy over whether or not George Frederick Helmer I was killed or even fought at the Battle of Oriskany on Aug. 6, 1777, especially since he would have been 71 years old at the time. His son, Johann Frederick Helmer, was killed in the battle. Another, George Frederick Helmer II, was seriously wounded, and a third, Adam Frederick Helmer, became a legend for his heroic scouting contributions during the campaign. Whether or not he fought in the battle, his date of death has not been conclusively determined, adding to the scepticism.

Father Hans P(hilipp) Helmer, along with his wife and six of their children, are found on the 1709 London list of German imigrants from the Palatinate, an area in the lower Rhineland. Several thousand of these people, following years of warfare with France, came to England at the invitation of Queen Anne in 1709.

The Palatines were housed in tents outside London until about two thousands of them boarded ships in 1710 for passage to the American colonies. In exchange or work in the Hudson River camps, they were promised land. Because of the crowded conditions of the ships and because of the lack of sufficient provisions on some, some 446 of them died on the passage.

Upon arrival in America, they required government subsidy from 1710 to 1712 and the NY Palatine Subsistence List records those receiving a subsidy, including the Helmers, are found on this list.

The Helmers and the rest of the Palatines were without land until the Albany City Council, in September 1721, endorsed their petition to purchase land in the Mohawk River valley, forty miles west of Fort Hunter. The following month New York Governor William Burnet granted a license allowing the Palatines, in 1722, to purchase land from the Indians in the area where the West Canada Creek flows into the Mohawk River.

These lands were surveyed and, upon completion of the survey in 1723, deeds were prepared and were designated as the Burnetsfield Patent. Philip Helmer received lot number 25, a 100 acre lot north of the river and east of the West Canada Creek, next to Frederick Bell.

Research: book "Early Families of Herkimer County New York" by: William V.H. Barker,1986. Research: "Helmer Story" by Pascoe Williams, Johnsville, NY