Rau, A collection of upwards of thirty thousand - German ...

18
GENERAL INTRODUCTION
Frantz, Schnebele, Mosser, Fincher, Hubler, Martloff, Wolf, Händsche,
Weisser, Miess, Lebenguth, Motz, Noah, Winkelblecb, Zeuchmacher, &c
Prior to 1770, tlie wilderness of Pennsylvania was penetrated
beyond the Allegheny Mountains. Settlements were effected
within the present bounds of Westmoreland and other western
counties of this State. A number of German families had lo-
cated on the Monongahela as far up as Redstone, Brownsville,
Fayette county. Here settled the Weismans, Pressers, Vervalsons,
Belongs, Jungs, Martins, Shutts, Peters, Schwartz, Butters,
Cackeys, Abrahams, and others,* whom that devoted min-
ister of the cross, the Rev. John Conrad Bücher, visited in
German Reformed
November, 1768.— Col. Eec, IX., p. 508 ;
Messenger, May 24, 1854 ; Rupp's History of Berks Co., p. 459.
For names of many other Germans in Westmoreland county^
see the History of Western Pennsylvania, by the Editor.
* The first Germans in Western Pennsylvania, located in Greene
county. These were two brothers, the Eckerleins of Ephrata, who
left there and settled in the depths of the wilderness, in 1745. Chronicon^jffAra^ense,
pp. 158, 195, 197. Coi. Äec, V., p. 531. Prior to 1764,
Wendel Braun, and his two sons, and Frederick Waltzer, located four
miles west of üniontown.—Smith's Old Redatone, p. 25.
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