Johann Christian Garlock

The following was taken from a history written by Emma Garlock Papworth in 1924:

Johann was born and reared in the shadow of the great university, where he became a student and later in the cause of the Reformation, which at that time was going on under Martin Luther.

Germany was in a religious war in the home, and the French armies under cruel King Louis XIV were burning and destroying the country in the awful Thirty Years War. For a long time the Palatines had been contemplating another home, and asked England for help, which Queen Anne promised.

About 1700 came the crisis when life had become unbearable, and along the western line of Germany the people, with Jan Christian Gerlach at their head, gathered at Mannheim to take ships for England. Among them were Conrad Gerlach, who afterward died at sea, and Peter Gerlach, his wife, two sons and two daughters, as found in old London records of the landing of the Palatine emigrants at St. Catherine and Deptford, England.

In 1710, Jan Christian is mentioned as Captain in the directory of New York in which Peter Gerlach's family is also mentioned, but the the name was exceedingly common in Germany. Many of the name came over and went into Pennsylvania.

The Rhine is not a large river, but wide enough at Mannheim for boats to come up and take their cargoes for the ocean, and there gathered the emigrants for the trip to England. When these sorrowful people left their homeland with its steep river banks cut into terraces and carefully planted to grapes, little did they know that in the future their new home would be on the banks of another river almost identical with the Rhine, since the American Colonies were just becoming extended along the Hudson River from the earlier settlements in New York, New Jersey and the Carolinas. And few of them had ever heard of the colonies.

Among the Palatines were people from the North, where the climate is severe in winter, and from the South, where the climate was semi-tropical; some were light and some were dark (which perhaps accounts for the dark strain in the Garlock line).

Macauley, the historian, in speaking of the Palatines, says, "The French Commander in 1707 announced in mid-winter to nearly one-half million people that he gave them three days in which to vacate that strip of land between the Black Forest and the western line of Germany". (The same country that was fought over in the last war of 1918.) Soon the roads and fields were blackened with innumerable men, women and children, with only what they could carry in their arms. Many died, but enough were left to fill the streets of London with hungry and heartsick people, who had been thriving farmers and shopkeepers along the Rhine, from Newied, Heidelberg, Mannheim, and Rotterdam.

Among them came Jan Christian Gerlach and his wife, Ann Margarete and their children: Elias, age fifteen, Theobald, age eight, and Anna Margaretha, age ten. This was when the cold was so bitter that birds died on the wing and beasts died in the fields. The roads were filled with 30,000 emigrants who were washed along the shores of England - the largest single emigration the world has ever known.

Queen Anne did what she could to shelter and feed them by putting up 1,000 tents back of Greenwich on Blackheath, London, but many wandered the streets in their wretchedness, Jan Christian being one of the few who could pay for feed and shelter. In 1908, in the First World War, these shelters were still standing in London, called "Palatine Houses". When Robert Livingston, Governor General of New York and New Jersey, came to London to ask for colonists to help him fight the hostile Indians, bringing with him five Indian Chieftains - heads of the Five Nations. When they saw the wretched Palatines, the Indians said, "Let these people come across the water and we will give them the Valley of Schoharie", which seemed a happy solution to their troubles.

They left for the new world, making an agreement to work for their passage, to the amount of 300 pounds each by making tar for naval stores. After five months in open boats, when many died from sickness and exposure, they finally reached New York. They spent their first winter on the east bank of the Hudson River in Livingston Manor, living in huts and caves such as they could contrive for themselves.

The next spring began the manufacture of tar, but since those who were to instruct knew nothing themselves about it, and the trees not being the right kind, the project failed with bitterness on both sides. All this time, Robert Hunter was feeding them on bread and beer from England, as per agreement. One pathetic item among the bills sent the first spring into London was for two hundred coffins, as at this time a terrible sickness broke out and hundreds died. Pastor Kokerthel wrote in his daily record, "Another of my children gone home today". Finally, Queen Anne tired of the matter, and the Lords of Trade refused to pay the bills, until Robert Hunter, after keeping them out of his private means for two years, died a brokenhearted and poor man.

All this time, the emigrants were clamoring for their "Valley of Schorrie", and would not be put down. After spending some time in the Schooley Mountains, they were told they were to shift for themselves. In the southern part of New York and northern New Jersey is a barren rocky table land; here they stayed awhile and then decided to leave. They found a home for themselves in Schohorie. There they lived for a while in caves as they could, with some aid from England as tools, which were mostly guns, axes and hoes. There was considerable difficulty keeping them in hoes, as they persisted in chopping out the underbrush with them, as nearly all had been vine dressers and knew no other tool. Through all this period, John Christian Gerlach was a leader, as is shown by his name being five times on petitions for land; also first Magistrate.

First Petition, 15 Feb 1715: To his excellency, Robert Hunter, Esq., Capt. General and Governor in Chief of Provinces New York and New Jersey in Council. The humble petition of: John Christian Gerlach, Deiderich Capelman and Wilhelm George. Humbly Pray: Whereas there is a certain small peace of vacant and unappropriated woodland on the east side of Schoheres Creek in ye county of Albany, containing about 150 acres which your petitioners are inclined to purchase from the native Indian proprietors for a church. Do therefore most humbly pray that your Excellency will be graciously pleased to grant a Lycence unto your said Excellency's petitioners to purchase the said one hundred and fifty acres of vacant woodland from said native Indian owners. And your petitioners as in duty bound shall ever pray, etc.....Albany ye 10th Feb 1715/16. Signed John Christ. Gerlach.

Other petitions were as follows:

1715 Feb 10 - To purchase 150 acres in Schohorie.

1722 Feb 12 - Land on the north of Canada Creek.

1722 Mar 07 - Warrant of Survey petitioned.

1722 - 12,700 acres at Stoneraby.

1755 - 100,000 acres petitioned by Philip and John Christian Gerlach.

1795 - Warrant of survey granted for same.

From what is recorded, it is evident that Jan Christian was a preacher. In 1723, the Stoneraby Patent was granted, and the two churches were built side-by-side, where the people worshiped in peace and harmony. These two churches were the first established in the Mohawk Valley. This part of New York is said by genealogists to have been ages ago the outlet of the Great Lakes which empties their vast waters through all that valley into the ocean instead of the St. Lawrence, as it now does.

Besides the scheme of making tar, the Lords of Trade saw a chance to furnish England with ship masts from the pine forests where the trees stood two hundred feet high, and where the extraordinary richness of the soil covered the pines with grapevines in which there was a wealth of wine. One of John Christian's "dorps" (40 families of farmers) raised the first wheat in New York State, in a small enclosure called Indian Castle, sowing it in close rows and cultivating it with only a hoe, gathering and shelling it by hand. From a skipple (peck) of seed they gathered sixty-two bushels of wheat. At this time, potatoes were unknown, being brought into the colonies by Sir Walter Raleigh.

In 1718, they had some horses and possibly cows, for history says that at this time, some of the emigrants went down the river into Pennsylvania, driving their horses and sending their families by boat, but waiting three months for the river to rise enough to take the trip.Three years later, a number of horses came back, being fourteen months on the way, and were found in the old "clawvery wye" (clover way) in Schohare Valley where the clover grew up to their thighs. In this valley, the emigrants lived twelve years, and in that time, Jan Christian was again Dorp Master, First Magistrate and Scout to Stoneraby. Holes in the bluffs rising above the valley like a wall, show caverns dug into them by these people, where they lived the first winter.

At the end of this time, these persecuted Palatines were again obliged to leave, and the wonderful Schoharie Valley promised the by the Indians, they never got. In this period where born to Jan Christian other children, Nicholas, born on the Mohawk River, a second Han Christian who, in 1762, was an Ensign and again in the Revolution, and a daughter who named her boy Gerlach Meyer, and Philip about 1732.

Records in the Albany Library of Elias and his wife Anna Catrin, Volmer, Leobold and Anna Margret are found, but nothing more relating to Jan Christian is found until 1755, when a petition is made by Jan Christian, Elias and Phillip for 100,000 acres of land which was granted in 1759 by his Majesty King George III, and called the Royal Grant, located 50 miles west of Schenectady. But very little more will ever be learned of those days before the war, as churches were burned by the Tories and Indians, seeming to want to destroy everything relating to those days. The grandchildren of the old man married, and the names of more early settlers are found: Dunckels, Heslors and HORNINGS. Somewhere in old homes are records in letters and various papers, which would tell a lot of that period. In colonial times, in all the colonies (Virginia, the Carolinas and New Jersey) a man's standing was reckoned by the land he owned, and this was the largest grant ever given in York State.

Jan Christian's farm in 1718 was about three miles southeast from Schoharie Village, later owned by Adam Vrooman.

Somewhere in Stonerabia graveyards, Jan Christian and his wife are probably lying, since there are a large number of graves, but that historic spot is the most neglected of all the old New York graveyards. Stones are there, but fallen, and the graves of those brave pioneers are unfenced and a wallow for hogs and cattle, a disgrace to the State of New York.

Sleep on, old man, sleep on, your work well done, and though you lie in a grave unhonored and unknown, your epitaph as the years roll on shall be written in the lives of the men and women who bear your name, remembering:

"We can make our lives sublime,

And departing leave behind us

Footprints on the sands of time".

Again, they left for Stoneraby, and there they spent another terrible winter living on roots and wild potatoes, which the friendly Indians showed them how to gather, and waiting for Indian corn to be raised to thatch their roofs. Here they established their churches, Lutheran and Reformed, side-by-side. Since these people were very religious, every child was baptized and every marriage and death recorded. This land was bounded on the east by Canada Kill, on the south by Mohawk River, on the west by Ontario Lake and on the north by the wilderness of Canada.

In 1723, a warrant of 12,700 acres at Stonerabia was issued to John Christian and others for 300 pounds ($500.00) in Indian goods, which John Christian paid and signed his name in good English. One hundred acres to be given to each of the following persons: Warner Digert, William Vocks,

William Nelose, Bertho Richards, Berth Picard for his son, John Lawyer, Johannes Schnell,

John Christian Gerlach, Andries Feink, Jacob Schnell, Marden Dellinback, Henrich Frey,

Johannes Croanse, Adam Enigen, Teobald Gerlach, Johannes Emigen, Elias Garlock,

Siefferreinas Deigert, William Copernell, Christian Feink, Andries Peifer, Johannes Engolt,
Marden Seibert, Simon Erchart, Han Deterick Casselman. On this land they seemed to live in comfort for about twenty years. In that period, other Gerlachs appear in the record, and other children are born to John Christian.
In 1755, a petition for a hundred thousand acres has on it the names of John Christian, Elias and Philip Gerlach; it was called "Lipps", and it took four years to survey the land. At this time,

John Christian was 88 years old, and no further mention is made of him in histories until 1764, when his Will was probated in New York City.

By this time, the Indians were so cruel and life was so difficult, they were again driven out, but some of the name must have remained, as a long line of them were born in Palatine and Canajoharie. Church records show many Gerlach children later on.

The following went into the Revolutionary War from the Palatine District as First Regiment Minute Men: George A. Garlock, George Garlock, George W. Garlock, Adam Garlock, Jacob P. Garlock, Ensign Christian Garlock (1763), Charles Garlock, Henry Garlock,.

    Again, with weary heart but undaunted courage, they seek new homes.  These people were always quiet and industrious, godly men and women only demanding their rights.  For years there was a saying "stubborn as a Schoharie Dutchman".  Theirs was the quality that emptied the chests of tea into the Boston Harbor.  

Like a narrow ribbon of green in the Schoharie Valley, twenty miles long, two to three miles wide, between a high bluff on one side and Vroomans Nose on the other, with the Schoharie River running through. Here was where the horses came back after being gone three years. As I sat waiting at the top of the bluff where John Christian's farm was in 1718, about two miles from Schoharie Village, it seemed to have changed very little in the two hundred years; except for the Holstein cattle lying under the trees, it would seem as though the country had stood still. Almost all the buildings were very old. Wells with a bucket to draw water and everywhere the white gravestones of the little family burying grounds. As I passed through this country so full of records of long ago, I thought of how the Palatines with John Christian as leader were the first white people in those parts, and how they broke through the forest fifteen miles from Livingston Manor in the winter weather to reach Schoharie on foot.
Of the settlers in Schoharie, none spoke anything but German until 1750, when they no more said "Skipple" and adopted more of the English words, though for many more years their dialect was called "Mohawk Dutch", a mixture of German, French, Indian and Dutch; a speech as abusrd as its cousin, "Pennsylvania Dutch", and said by early writers to be untranslatable, and now passed away.
In a militaty letter dated 17 March 1711, to Governor Hunter, a mark on Jan Gerlach's back is described: "It is a mole of the size of a cherry, of very brown color, with a pretty thick hair growing from its center. Whence it is evident he is only "pigeausse" (loosely translated, seems to mean "only a half-breed". Jan Christian was a "North Country" man, and very dark. In later years, there are often found here and there descendants of his who are very dark with deep-set eyes and a wide and high forehead, and a characteristic of many is a prominent nose; all of which is what scientists call a "throwback"). This is the only time the histories ever refer to him lightly. History says he was an "extraordianry man, and dealt fairly with the Indians". What greater tribute could be given any man?
After wandering like the Israelites forty years in the wilderness in search of the promised land, he died leaving his sons to continue the fight for home and liberty, in the War for Independence, which came in after-years.
In 1924, one Peckham tells that a member of his family has been in every war of this country commencing with his Great Grandfather in the Revolution and Oriskany and Cherry Valley; his grandfather in the Civil War; his father in the Spanish War, and his son of eighteen in the World War. That was the heritage left by the Garlocks who conquered the Mohawk Valley.
Courage, honesty and industry, Johann Christian was the standard-bearer, and from one ocean to another, and from the Big Lakes to the Gulf, the unusual name is found, and they will "carry on".
"Tis only noble to be good,
Brave hearts are more than coronets,
Simple faith than Norman Blood".
In Bergen County, New Jersey, in the farthest northern part are the Scholey and Ramapo Mountains, bleak and barren, inhabbited by wild animals and rattlesnakes. In 1925, there was a colony of people living in caves in mountains, as ignorant as those who dwell in the mountains of Georgia. They were said to be a mixture of Hessians and Indians, superstitious and suspicious of any outsider who may wander up there. Only once or twice a year they went into the valley to exchange furs and the little they raised, for meager supplies.
Somewhere in that locality in 1710, when New Jersey was a part of New York, the Palatines formed a church, sometimes spoken of as "Our Island Church", and other times as "Our German Meeting Place", at Rumback. There the Garlocks took their babies to be baptized long before Stonearbia was dreamed of, and there they came back in old age, fifty years later, and are lying in their long sleep. Tombstone records tell of another John Christian, evidently a son of the first John Christian. This little church was not on an island, but was in the fork of a river, and the first church of the Palatines in America. (New Jersey History).
Here are buried Peter and wife, and children of Conrad with many Wannamakers, each being sponsors for the children of the other. The Wannamakers later went into Huntington County, New Jerset and settled.
From here -- about 1755-- is an interval in which nothing is found of the Garlock line. In that time, George P. Garlock's parents and himself are born, but the very earliest records of Stonearby were lost, and Palatine Village, older than Stonearby, are also lost. What is collected proves that we are descended in a direct line through Philip from John Christian. George P. was born in Palatine on land which was a part of the Jersey Feld Patent and passed from father to son, and in 1925 was in possession of Benjamin Garlock of the 6th generation.
Another farm mentioned in Chancery Court records at Albany NY in 1820 gives the description as being on "Bowmans Creek at the intersection of the road" and is near Buell, where he died in 1836.
Then name appears in very many forms, but about 1800, it becomes by custon GARLOCK. Gerlach and Garlock sound the same when spolen by a German.
1710 - Gerlach, Gerlagh, Gerlack.

1714 - Gerlachin (Feminine ending in German).

1723 - Jurry Kurligh, Pitter Kerligh.

1726 - Michaes Kerlach, Elias Kehrlac

1733 - Peter Geerlach.

1758 - Henry Goerloh, Charles Garlogue, Elsie Garlock, Harry Garlof, Peter Gurlach, Peter Gerlag, Gurlagh.

1778 - Catherine Garlick.

1927 - Garlock (Present form).

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