John D. Loucks

Johann Dietrich Loucks

• Other Names: Johann Diedrich (John Richard) LAUX
• General Notes: Part of the Palatine (German) Emigration to New York state. in 1709
• Immigration: 1709 Schoharie,Tryon Co,NY 1
• Moved: By 1716 Stone Arabia,Tryon Co,NY 1
• Naturalization: 1716 New Albany,Tryon Co,New York 1 1
• Religion: 24 Oct 1743 Elder German Reformed Lutheran Church, Stone Arabia

Children of Mary Catharina Starring and Johann Dietrich Laux aka John Richard Loucks:

1. Joost LOUCKS b: BEF 29 SEP 1709 in Rotterdam, Holland
2. [--?--] LOUCKS b: ABT 1711 in Schoharie, Schoharie County, NY
3. John Adam (Johann Adam) LOUCKS b: 28 DEC 1715 in Scoharie, Scoharie, New York
4. Hendrick D. LOUCKS b: 1716 in Stone Arabia, Montgomery, NY
5. Wilhelm (William) LOUCKS (LAUX, LAUCKS) b: ABT 1718 in Stone Arabia, Montgomery, New York
6. Elizabeth LOUCKS b: ABT 1718 in Stone Arabia, Montgomery, New York
7. Catharine Elizabeth LOUCKS b: 20 MAR 1719 in Stone Arabia, Montgomery Co., NY
8. Maria Catharine (Catharina) LOUCKS b: 10 MAR 1720 in Stone Arabia, Montgomery County, NY
9. Dietrich (Richard) LOUCKS b: 1724 in Stone Arabia, Montgomery County, NY
10. Johann George LOUCKS b: ABT 1725 in Stone Arabia, Tyron County, NY

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Johann Dieterich Laux/Loucks immigrated to New York from Germany in 1709, and from the pitch camp to Schoharie about 1715, and by 1716 was in Stone Arabia with his young family. He stayed there until his death in 1751. He was naturalized in New Albany, New York in 1716.

Notes

https://www.werelate.org/wiki/Person:Johann_Loucks_%281%29

Born: PROBABLY in Gravenwiebach, Ger. (near Wetzler). Early researchers give 1681. It is also thought that he was born about 1689 in Illstein, Pfalz (Bavaria), Germany. This is then changed to Idstein! Helene Mooty, in her book on Andrew Wellington Finck and his ancestors, cites her Louck source as Elaine Loucks Restad, 244 Glen More Drive, Coraopolis, PA 15108. She has published a Loucks Family Genealogy. Information on Johann and possible father, Thonges Laux, appears highly speculative.

Name: Elaine Restad says that "Johann was prefix used, and Most Palatine men went by their second name or a combination of thetwo names. Johann Dietrick Laux is referred to almost always as DIETRICH LAUX. There is a possiblity that Dietrich was the son of the shepherd Johann Thonges Laux. This family was based in Gravenwiesbach."

Record: " Dietrich was in New York in 1710 as his name is on the lists of those Palatines receiving subsistence from Gov. Hunter in return for their work on the naval stores project in the West Camp area of NY. In this list, he is first listed as having one dependent under the age of 10; in the second list there are only two adults." This is again from E. Restad based on the Subsistence List. She says his name is not in the Simmendinger Register.

From the second survey in Mohawk Valley, 1733: Dietrich was given lots 35, 74, and 75, each of 100 acres.

From http://wc.rootsweb.ancestry.com/cgi-bin/igm.cgi?op=GET&db=kareoleso...

John D. Loucks with his wife, came from Illstein, Germany, in 1709, and settled on a tract of land comprising about 12,700 acres, later known as Stone Arabia, Tryon Co., NY.

They migrated to America direct from Holland, sailing from Rotterdam July 15, 1709; and they settled at West Camp, NY, on the Hudson River, about 92 miles north of New York City. These emigrants were under contract to the British Government to produce ships' stores. This enterprise was found to be impracticable and unprofitable for the Government; so they were kept in the various camps for several years, being supported partly from grants secured from the Government by Governor Hunter, who was then the provincial Governor.

Gradually the Palatines drifted away from the camps, seeking homes in the river valleys. There was a large migration to Schenectady, and from there to Schoharie in the autumn of 1712. Evidently Johann Dietrich Laux was one of those who migrated to Schoharie about this time; for we find that when Johann Dietrich and Maria Starring Laux's son, Johann Adam, was born on December 28, 1715, they were living in Schoharie. Most of the Palatines established their homes in the valleys of Schoharie County and along the valley of the Mohawk River.

A few years later they moved up the Mohawk valley to Stone Arabia on the north bank of the Mohawk River, obtaining a patent on 12,700 acres of land. This patent was granted October 19, 1723. The family of Johann Dietrich Laux were among these settlers because the births of five of their children from 1716 to 1724, are recorded in the church records of the Lutheran Trinity Church and the Dutch Reformed Church of Stone Arabia. Johann Dietrich Laux's signature began in 1734 to included with the signatures of the Patentees of the Stone Arabia tract to quit-claim deeds.

Both Johann and Maria died in Stone Arabia; their dates of death have not been discovered.

from McBrier Book: 1. Immigrated in 5th party of Palatines from Germany, embarked from 03 July 1709 to 10 Jul 1709 sailing from Rotterdam on 15 Jul 1709. Settled in West Camp, New York (p. 11)

THE LAUX OR LOUCKS FAMILY

The German home of the LAUX family was in Hesse Darmstadt, now a part

of Hesse Nassau, in the neighborhood of the ancient town of Wallau.

This area is called the Palatinate, which was the garden spot of

Germany. However, the Thirty Year's War and the Wars of King Louis

XIV had ravaged and desolated the palatinate of the Rhine. Where

once were fields of grain and vineyards and contented villages,

nothing was left but the blackened ruins of cities, towns and

hamlets. Famine and pestilence was prevalent.

To flee from these horrors became the thought of thousands, who had

given up any hope of ever seeing Germany the abode of peace again

where men might reconstruct homes, rear families and make a living.

Also, the Wars of King Louis the XIV had been directed particularly

against the Palatinate because it was the home of thousands of his

Protestant subjects, who'd fled from his tyranny, both before and

after the revocation of the Edict of Nantes. His desire was to see

them completely destroyed, which he almost accomplished. In 1708 and

1709 30,000 Palatines left the valley of the Rhine and went to London

where the kind-hearted English Queen Anne had invited "the distressed

Protestants of Germany to make homes in her American Colonies.

Among the group of Palatines were three cousins, Phillip, Nicholas

and Valentine Laux and their families. Of these suffering, starving

and almost naked Palatines many were sent back to the Rhine in a

heart-broken condition. Several thousand were sent to Ireland where

they made homes in the County of Limerick. ThoUsands more perished

at sea while on shipboard from fevers and lack of food and drink.

Among four thousand Palatines which left England in ten vessels on

Christmas Day in 1709 were Phillip, Nicholas and Valentine Laux and

their families. After a perilous voyage of nearly six months, they

arrived in New York on June 14, 1710. Of the four thousand who left

England, seventeen hundred died at sea. Among them were Valentine

Laux and his wife. The remaining 2300 were encamped in tents on

Nutting Island, now known as Governor's Island.

In the late autumn about fourteen hundred were taken to Livingston

Manor, about one hundred miles up the Hudson River. The widows,

sickly men and orphaned children remained in New York where they were

treated shamefully. The children were taken from the remaining

parentand were arbitrarily apprenticed by Governor Hunter to the

citizens of New York and New Jersey. Many of these orphans never saw

their fathers or mothers again.

Arriving at Livingston Manor were Phillip and Nicholas Laux. Also,

Valentine's four children--Johann Jacob, Abraham, Elizabeth Catharina

& Elizabeth Christina Laux--ended up there. Valentine's oldest son,

Johann Jacob Laux, who'd married Anna Elisabeth Stemler 29 Oct. 1709

at Wallau, died there prior to 24 June 1711. His widow md. (2) 26

June 1711 at West Camp, Livingston Manor, New York THOMAS EHMANN,

widower of Schornbach in Wurtenburg, Germany.

Since it cost Queen Anne a considerable amount of money to send the

impoverished Palatines to the American Colonies, the emigrants were

expected to reimburse the government for the 10,000 pounds they'd

spent getting them there. The government set up a contract with them

to manufacture naval stores, such as making tar, pitch and raising

hemp in America. However, the plan proved to be a failure, for the

forests and soil in that region were not adapted to the production of

naval stores. Thus, the condition of~'the Palatines again became

desperate for the necessities of life.

Still the Palatines were men of honor and were willing to carry out

the terms of their contract, but in a region where their labors would

be rewarded by sure returns. Also, they showed their loyalty to

Queen Anne by enlisting in the military expedition (French & Indian

War--also called Queen Anne's War from 1709-1713) against Canada in

1711. One-third of their able-bodied men served in that campaign

with the promise that they would receive wages the same as the other

soldiers and that their families would be taken of while they were

gone. Also, the arms they carried and fought with would be given to

them on their return. After serving with great bravery and credit in

this expedition, in which quite a few of them lost their lives, the

survivors returned home to find their families in a famished

condition. No food had been given to them by the Colonial Governor

Hunter as he'd promised during their absence. Despite the

government's promises made when they enlisted, the rifles they

carried during the battles were also taken away from them.

Knowing that they had been unjustly wronged and mistreated, the

Germans remembered that, while they'd been waiting in London for

transportation to the American Colonies, a group of Indians from the

Mohawk Valley, who pitied their forlorn condition, told them they

could have lands in Schoharie when they came to America. Remembering

this, they petitioned Governor Hunter, when he visited their village,

if they could settle in Schoharie on the lands promised them by the

Indians.. In a great fury, he insolently refused, saying, "Here is

your land where you must live and die."

Determined to break away from the injustices inflicted on them and

from the spot where nothing but treachery and starvation seemed

eminent if they remained, one hundred and fifty families, among them

Phillip Laux's family, made their preparations late in the year 1712

and started for Schoharie, about sixty miles northwest of Livingston

Manor. With their women and little children, they had to make their

way through a roadless wilderness without horses to draw or carry

their belongings. So they harnessed themselves to crudely construct

ed sledges on which they loaded their baggage, children and the sick

and then dragged them the best they could through the snow which

covered the region they traveled through. Often they encountered

long stretches of snow three feet deep. After three weeks of much

hardship and suffering from exposure to the intense cold, they

reached their destination.

After their arrival there, famine stared them in the face and, had it

not been for the charity of the friendly Indians, who showed them

where to gather edible roots and herbs, all of them would have

perished. But their indomitable courage and enegery enabled them to

survive their dreadful plight and a year later they had made

improvements on their land and had houses to live in.

For the next ten years, more Germans left Livingston Manor for the

Schoharie Valley where they flourished. This caused vindictive

animosity by Governor Hunter and his associates at Albany, so they

set out to destroy what the Germans had accomplished. Due to

defective titles cunningly contrived by unscrupulous land agents, the

Germans lost their lands and improvements. Once more the victims of

injustice, the Germans left the scene of their unrequitted labors to

found new, and this time, permanent homes in more hospitable regions,

the majority going to the Mohawk Valley where they soon became

properous and where their descendants are found today. Among them

are many of the descendants of Phillip Laux.

As for the German families who remained at Livingston Manor, they

endured the hardships the governor inflicted upon them. But that

didn't keep them from trying to better themselves. When they heard

Sir William Keith, Baronet and governor of the Province of

Pennsylvania, extole the opportunities in his province as well as the

protection afforded the pioneers, they were willing to risk their

lives and property to locate within the borders of Pennsylvania.

So, in 1773 thirty-three families made the dangerous trip to

Pennsylvania. Led by a friendly Indian, they started out with their

meager household goods packed on horses or on their backs and headed

over an Indian trail for the headwaters of the Susquehanna River in

southern New York. They traveled over mountains, valleys and through

forests until they reached the headwaters of the Susquehanna River.

Here they constructed rafts upon which they placed their women and

children and household goods. Under the most thrilling and

adventurous experiences, they floated down the river for about two

hundred miles to the mouth of Swatara Creek (south of Harrisburg,

Pa.). Here they met the men who'd driven their cattle and horses

along the river bank.

From the Swatara, they followed its windings until they reached the

beautiful New Lebanon Valley and came to the source of the

Tulpehocken Creek. (Tulpehocken is an Indian word that means "Land of

Turtles.") This beautiful stream winds through the valleys and among

the hills for seventy-five miles and empties into the Schuylkill. It

was along this stream and in the northwest section of what's now

called Tulpehocken Township that the Germans settled.

Five years later more German families migrated from New York to the

Tulpehocken settlement. Among these were Abraham Laux, Elizabeth

Catharine Laux and her husband, Michael Schauer, and Elizabeth

Christina Laux and her husband, John Van Hoosen. In German the

surname is spelled LAUX, but the English interpreted it as Loucks or

Laucks, which is the way it's spelled today in the United States.

JOHANN VALENTINE LAUX, the father of Elizabeth Christine Laux, was

born at Wallau, Hessna-Darmstadt, Prussia (now Germany), the son of

Hans Laux and Anna Catharina Ruhl, the daughter of Henrich Ruhl and

Elizabeth Schneider, the daughter of Lorentz Schneider of Medenbach.

Hans Laux and Anna Catharine Ruhl were md. 8 Nov. 1681 at Wallau.

Wallau is 10 kilometers south-east of Weisebaden, Germany. Although

the church books begin in 1658, most of them are in poor condition

and some are partially destroyed.

“Louks Genealogy - Johann Dietrich Loucks <Archive.Org>

References

• McBrier, Edwin Merton. 1940. Genealogy of the Loucks family, beginning with Johann Dietrich Loucks, and his descendants in direct line to Joseph Loucks, fourth generation, and all his known and traceable descendants to date. New York: J.S. Swift. https://archive.org/details/genealogyoflouck00mcbr.
• from Jean Alden. Jean Alden, P.O. Box 22614, Sacramento, 95822 DHH 12-22-00
• The Palatine Families of New York Vol. 1-2 Abbrev: NY Palatines Author: Henry Jones Publication: 1985 Page: Vol 1 pg 536
• http://wc.rootsweb.ancestry.com/cgi-bin/igm.cgi?op=GET&db=kareoleso...
• https://www.werelate.org/wiki/Person:Johann_Loucks_%281%29