German Palatines
The German Palatines were early 18th-century emigrants from the Middle Rhine region of the Holy Roman Empire, including a minority from the Palatinate which gave its name to the entire group. They were both Catholic. Towards the end of the 17th century and into the 18th, the wealthy region was invaded by French troops, which resulted in continuous military requisitions, widespread devastation and famine; the "Poor Palatines" were some 13,000 Germans who migrated to England between May and November 1709. Their arrival in England, the inability of the British Government to integrate them, caused a politicized debate over the merits of immigration; the English tried to settle them in England and the Colonies. The Palatine settlements did not prove to be viable in the long term, except for those settled in County Limerick and County Wexford in Ireland and in the colony of New York in British North America. In Ireland, less than 200 families remained after the original settlement in 1709, they maintained their distinctive culture until well into the nineteenth century and Palatine surnames are now diffused across the country.
The largest concentration of descendants of Irish Palatine residents lives around Rathkeale, Co Limerick. The English transported nearly 3,000 German Palatines in ten ships to New York in 1710. Many of them were first assigned to work camps along the Hudson River to work off their passage. Close to 850 families settled in the Hudson River Valley in what are now Germantown and Saugerties, New York. In 1723, 100 heads of families from the work camps were the first Europeans to acquire land west of Little Falls, New York, in present-day Herkimer County on both the north and south sides along the Mohawk River. Additional Palatine Germans settled along the Mohawk River for several miles, founding towns such as Palatine and Palatine Bridge, in the Schoharie Valley. Throughout the Nine Years War and the War of Spanish Succession, recurrent invasions by the French Army devastated the area of what is today Southwest Germany; the depredations of the French Army and the destruction of numerous cities created economic hardship for the inhabitants of the region, exacerbated by a rash of harsh winters and poor harvests that created famine in Germany and much of northwest Europe.
The migrants came principally from regions comprising the modern Länder of Rhineland-Palatinate and northern areas of Baden-Württemberg along the lower Neckar. During the so-called Kleinstaaterei period when this migration occurred, the Middle Rhine region was a patchwork of secular and ecclesiastical principalities and counties. No more than half of the so-called German Palatines originated in the namesake Electoral Palatinate, with others coming from the surrounding imperial states of Palatinate-Zweibrücken and Nassau-Saarbrücken, the Margraviate of Baden, the Hessian Landgraviates of Hesse-Darmstadt, Hesse-Homburg, Hesse-Kassel, the Archbishoprics of Trier and Mainz, various minor counties of Nassau, Solms and Isenburg. What triggered the mass emigration in 1709 of impoverished people to England was the Crown's promise of free land in the American Colonies. Parliament discovered in 1711 that several "agents" working on behalf of the Colony of Carolina had promised the peasants around Frankfurt free passage to the plantations.
Spurred by the success of several dozen families the year before, thousands of German families headed down the Rhine to England and the New World. The first boats packed with refugees began arriving in early May 1709; the first 900 people were given housing and supplies by a number of wealthy Englishmen. The immigrants were called "Poor Palatines": "poor" in reference to their pitiful and impoverished state upon arrival in England, "Palatines" since many of them came from lands controlled by the Elector Palatine; the majority came from regions outside the Palatinate and, against the wishes of their respective rulers, they fled by the thousands down the Rhine River to the Dutch city of Rotterdam, whence the majority embarked for London. Throughout the summer, ships unloaded thousands of refugees, immediately their numbers overwhelmed the initial attempts to provide for them. By summer, most of the Poor Palatines were settled in Army tents in the fields of Blackheath and Camberwell. A Committee dedicated to coordinating their settlement and dispersal sought ideas for their employment.
This proved difficult, as the Poor Palatines were unlike previous migrant groups — skilled, middle-class, religious exiles such as the Huguenots or the Dutch in the 16th century — but rather unskilled rural laborers, neither sufficiently educated nor healthy enough for most types of employment. During the reign of Queen Anne, political polarization increased. Immigration and asylum had long been debated, from coffee-houses to the floor of Parliament, the Poor Palatines were brought into the political crossfire. For the Whigs, who controlled Parliament, these immigrants provided an opportunity to increase Britain’s workforce. Only two months before the German influx, Parliament had enacted the Foreign Protestants Naturalization Act 1708, whereby foreign Protestants could pay a small fee to become naturalized; the rationale was the belief that an increased population created more wealth, that Britain’s prosperity could increase with the accommodation of certain foreigners. Britain had benefited from French Huguenot refugees, as well as the
Frey House
Frey House is a historic home located at Palatine Bridge in Montgomery County, New York. It was built in 1808 and consists of a double-pile, center-hall-plan main block with a 1 1⁄2-story, stone kitchen wing added in 1882, sun porch dated to 1931. On the property are a five-bay garage, 19th-century lime kiln, the Frey family cemetery, it was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 2002. Media related to Frey House at Wikimedia Commons Historic American Buildings Survey No. NY-367, "Frey House, State Route 5, Palatine Bridge, Montgomery County, NY", 2 photos, 2 data pages, supplemental material
Webster Wagner
Webster Wagner was an American inventor and politician from New York. Wagner was born near New York, he developed a wagon-making business with his brother James. The business had folded by 1842 due to the Panic of 1837. After serving as an employee for the New York Central Railroad, Wagner invented the sleeping car and luxurious parlor car, he perfected a system of ventilating railroad cars. His inventions were first used on the NY Central and spread to other lines, he founded the Wagner Palace Car Company, located in New York. Several legal battles with the Pullman Company failed to put his partners out of business, he was married to Susan Davis, they had five children. He was a Republican member of the New York State Assembly in 1871, he was killed in a rail accident while returning from Albany to New York City when two trains of the New York Central and Hudson River Railroad collided in between the Kingsbridge and Spuyten Duyvil stations in The Bronx, two weeks into his sixth Senate term, on January 13, 1882.
The Webster Wagner House at Palatine Bridge was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1973. White, John H. Jr.. "America's Most Noteworthy Railroaders". Railroad History. 154: 9–15. ISSN 0090-7847. JSTOR 43523785. OCLC 1785797. Webster Palace Car Company Accident at Spuyten Duyvil "Wagner, Webster". Appletons' Cyclopædia of American Biography. 1889. Finding Aid to Webster Wagner Wagon-making Papers, 1837-1842 at the New York State Library, accessed January 5, 2016
Anthony Dimond
Anthony Joseph "Tony" Dimond was an American Democratic Party politician, the Alaska Territory Delegate in the United States House of Representatives for many years. Dimond was an early champion of Alaska statehood. Dimond was born in Palatine Bridge, Montgomery County, New York and attended Catholic schools, taught school in Montgomery County, was a prospector/miner in Alaska before studying law and beginning practice in Valdez. Dimond's political experience includes: US Commissioner in Alaska, he served as a Delegate to the Democratic National Convention in 1936 and 1940. He died on May 1953 in Anchorage. A Roman Catholic, Dimond was a member of organizations such as the Elks and Eagles, his secretary, Bob Bartlett became a United States Senator from Alaska. Today, November 30 is celebrated by the State of Alaska as "Anthony Dimond Day." In Anchorage, A. J. Dimond High School and Dimond Boulevard, a major thoroughfare, are named after him. In 1940, when President Franklin D. Roosevelt was considering making Alaska an international Jewish homeland, Dimond was the main force behind defeating the effort.
Dimond Center. United States Congress. "Anthony Dimond". Biographical Directory of the United States Congress. Anthony Joseph Dimond at Find a Grave Anthony Dimond at 100 Years of Alaska's Legislature
Palatine Bridge, Salford
Palatine Bridge is a wrought-iron road bridge in Greater Manchester. Opened in 1864 and rebuilt in 1911, it crosses the River Irwell between Manchester. A bridge between Chapel Street in Salford and Hunts Bank in Manchester was first proposed in 1858, as a means of improving road links between Salford and Manchester Victoria station, each separated by the River Irwell; when the Lancashire and Yorkshire Railway applied to Parliament to build a railway link between Salford station and Victoria, Salford Corporation opposed the bill, citing the township's poor access to Victoria Station. The railway company was forced by parliamentary committee to compensate the Corporation to the tune of £25,000, to be used to improve the aforementioned transport links; the land required on Chapel Street for the Salford approach to the proposed bridge was donated by Samuel Brooks, who as part of the deal insisted that a 150 feet abutment was built on the Salford bank of the river, to improve the rateable value of nearby properties.
Designed by W. Radford, Palatine Bridge comprises a single span, built from twelve wrought-iron box girders attached to stone abutments. Fixed to these girders, wrought-iron road joints support iron covering plates, which themselves support the pavements and road surface, the latter formed from 4 inches granite cubes; the gradient 1 in 30. The bridge parapets are cast terminate in stone blocks. W. and J. Galloway supplied the ironwork, while A. Pilling supplied masonry; the total cost was about £20,000. Toll-free, the bridge was opened on 24 August 1864 by the ex-mayor of James Worrall. By 1908 the bridge's condition had deteriorated to a point where the ends of some of its corroded girders could be "turned up like bits of tin." There was some argument as to. A bill sent to Parliament by Salford, to enable it to undertake the work required, contains a clause forcing Manchester to contribute half the cost, but this was struck out by a parliamentary committee. Repairs and strengthening work were made by Heenan and Froude of Newton Heath.
Victoria Bridge, Manchester Blackfriars Bridge, Manchester Albert Bridge, Manchester Notes
Marriage
Marriage called matrimony or wedlock, is a or ritually recognised union between spouses that establishes rights and obligations between those spouses, as well as between them and any resulting biological or adopted children and affinity. The definition of marriage varies around the world not only between cultures and between religions, but throughout the history of any given culture and religion, evolving to both expand and constrict in who and what is encompassed, but it is principally an institution in which interpersonal relationships sexual, are acknowledged or sanctioned. In some cultures, marriage is recommended or considered to be compulsory before pursuing any sexual activity; when defined broadly, marriage is considered a cultural universal. A marriage ceremony is known as a wedding. Individuals may marry for several reasons, including legal, libidinal, financial and religious purposes. Whom they marry may be influenced by gender determined rules of incest, prescriptive marriage rules, parental choice and individual desire.
In some areas of the world, arranged marriage, child marriage and sometimes forced marriage, may be practiced as a cultural tradition. Conversely, such practices may be outlawed and penalized in parts of the world out of concerns of the infringement of women's rights, or the infringement of children's rights, because of international law. Around the world in developed democracies, there has been a general trend towards ensuring equal rights within marriage for women and recognizing the marriages of interfaith and same-sex couples; these trends coincide with the broader human rights movement. Marriage can be recognized by a state, an organization, a religious authority, a tribal group, a local community, or peers, it is viewed as a contract. When a marriage is performed and carried out by a government institution in accordance with the marriage laws of the jurisdiction, without religious content, it is a civil marriage. Civil marriage recognizes and creates the rights and obligations intrinsic to matrimony before the state.
When a marriage is performed with religious content under the auspices of a religious institution it is a religious marriage. Religious marriage recognizes and creates the rights and obligations intrinsic to matrimony before that religion. Religious marriage is known variously as sacramental marriage in Catholicism, nikah in Islam, nissuin in Judaism, various other names in other faith traditions, each with their own constraints as to what constitutes, who can enter into, a valid religious marriage; some countries do not recognize locally performed religious marriage on its own, require a separate civil marriage for official purposes. Conversely, civil marriage does not exist in some countries governed by a religious legal system, such as Saudi Arabia, where marriages contracted abroad might not be recognized if they were contracted contrary to Saudi interpretations of Islamic religious law. In countries governed by a mixed secular-religious legal system, such as in Lebanon and Israel, locally performed civil marriage does not exist within the country, preventing interfaith and various other marriages contradicting religious laws from being entered into in the country, civil marriages performed abroad are recognized by the state if they conflict with religious laws.
The act of marriage creates normative or legal obligations between the individuals involved, any offspring they may produce or adopt. In terms of legal recognition, most sovereign states and other jurisdictions limit marriage to opposite-sex couples and a diminishing number of these permit polygyny, child marriages, forced marriages. In modern times, a growing number of countries developed democracies, have lifted bans on and have established legal recognition for the marriages of interfaith and same-sex couples; some cultures allow the dissolution of marriage through annulment. In some areas, child marriages and polygamy may occur in spite of national laws against the practice. Since the late twentieth century, major social changes in Western countries have led to changes in the demographics of marriage, with the age of first marriage increasing, fewer people marrying, more couples choosing to cohabit rather than marry. For example, the number of marriages in Europe decreased by 30% from 1975 to 2005.
In most cultures, married women had few rights of their own, being considered, along with the family's children, the property of the husband. In Europe, the United States, other places in the developed world, beginning in the late 19th century and lasting through the 21st century, marriage has undergone gradual legal changes, aimed at improving the rights of the wife; these changes included giving wives legal identities of their own, abolishing the right of husbands to physically discipline their wives, giving wives property rights, liberalizing divorce laws, providing wives with reproductive rights of their own, requiring a wife's consent when sexual relations occur. These changes have occurred in Western countries. In the 21st century, there continue to be controversies regarding the legal status of married women, legal acceptance of or leniency towards violence within marriage, traditional marriage customs such as dowry and bride price, for
Palatine, New York
Palatine is a town in Montgomery County, New York, United States. The population was 3,240 at the 2010 census, the highest since the 1820s; the name is derived from the Palatinate in the Rhineland, the homeland of the Germans who were the earliest European settlers of this region. The Town of Palatine is located on the north side of the Mohawk River in the northwestern part of the county. Settlers in this area in the mid-18th century were German Palatines, ethnic Germans from the Palatinate. Suffering from French raids in their native territory, they had become refugees. Queen Anne of England arranged for the transport of several thousand Protestant Germans to the colony in 1710 and later; the Germans built the Palatine Church in 1770. It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1973; the Town was formed in 1788 after the American Revolutionary War from the "Palatine District" in the newly organized Montgomery County. In 1797, part of the town was used to form the town of Salisbury.
The formation of other towns that were in adjacent counties further reduced Palatine. The town of St. Johnsville was created in Montgomery County. According to the United States Census Bureau, the town has a total area of 41.7 square miles, of which, 41.2 square miles of it is land and 0.5 square miles of it is water. The Mohawk River forms the south town line, the north town line is the border of Fulton County, New York; as of the census of 2000, there were 3,070 people, 1,135 households, 812 families residing in the town. The population density was 74.5 people per square mile. There were 1,233 housing units at an average density of 29.9 per square mile. The racial makeup of the town was 97.82% White, 0.62% African American, 0.26% Native American, 0.52% Asian, 0.07% from other races, 0.72% from two or more races. Hispanic or Latino of any race were 0.49% of the population. There were 1,135 households out of which 31.5% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 57.7% were married couples living together, 9.0% had a female householder with no husband present, 28.4% were non-families.
24.5% of all households were made up of individuals and 12.1% had someone living alone, 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.64 and the average family size was 3.10. In the town, the population was spread out with 26.4% under the age of 18, 7.2% from 18 to 24, 26.7% from 25 to 44, 21.3% from 45 to 64, 18.4% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 39 years. For every 100 females, there were 92.7 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 91.1 males. The median income for a household in the town was $33,415, the median income for a family was $40,284. Males had a median income of $27,745 versus $22,978 for females; the per capita income for the town was $17,416. About 6.9% of families and 11.5% of the population were below the poverty line, including 18.1% of those under age 18 and 7.3% of those age 65 or over. Big Nose – A landmark at the town line in the southeast part of Palatine. Along with "Little Nose" on the opposite bank of the Mohawk River, it marks a place called "The Noses."
Christmans Corners – A location in the north part of the town. Cook Corners – A hamlet south of Stone Arabia on Route 10 at the intersection with Dillenbeck Road. Location of Salem United. Methodist Church of East Stone Arabia and Historical site of School Number 6. Cranes Landing – A former community in the western part of the town. East Stone Arabia – A hamlet east of Stone Arabia. Location of Salem United Methodist Church of East Stone. Arabia. Historical location of School Number 6. McKinley – A location in the southeast part of the town; the Van Wie Farmstead was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 2011. Nelliston – The Village of Nelliston is on the Mohawk River, opposite Fort Plain, New York. Palatine Bridge – The Village of Palatine Bridge on the Mohawk River, opposite Canajoharie; the Frey House, Palatine Bridge Freight House, Webster Wagner House are listed on the National Register of Historic Places. Palatine Church – A former community in the northwest part of the town. Stone Arabia – A hamlet on Route 10, northeast of Palatine Bridge.
Home to a large Amish community. Location of the Trinity Lutheran Church and Cemetery and the nearby Reformed Dutch Church of Stone Arabia. Site of Fort Paris. Early Palatine history Official Website
