July 16 Friday morning 1st Colony Bus Tour
9:00 to 4:00 — 1ST COLONY BUS TOUR Departs from the Best Western Hotel. Lunch, with optional wine tasting, and a relaxing afternoon will be spent at the Rogers Ford Winery on a Kemper family farm.
The First Colony Tour will include a stop at Spilman Park in Culpeper County, where local historian Col. Perry Cabot will speak with the group. A visit to the Germanna Foundation's Hitt Cemetery in Fauquier County and a drive by several fine homes in the area built by Germanna families including the Martin house and cemetery are also planned.
Col. Cabot, co-chair of the Society for the Preservation of Culpeper History and expert on the Germanna settlement of the Little Fork area, has been busy over the years plotting the surveys and reviewing land records of the Little Fork community. Col. Cabot uses the latest technology to recreate plats from that time. He has found some similarities between the Germans at Germantown and the Germans in the Little Fork community. Among the families, Col. Cabot has discovered several "scalawags" whose stories should be shared as part of the history of the Little Fork.
The 1300 acres of land granted to Jacob Holtzclaw was located in the approximate center of the Little Fork community with the present day location of Jeffersonton on the land of Joseph Cuntze.
A few homes of the members of the Little Fork community remain today and were probably built in the 1730's. The Cuntze house is still standing and is occupied today by Woolam Nursery. The homes of Martin Fishback, John Fishback (Fleetwood) and Harman Fishback (Hebron) remain and are occupied today. The owners of Fleetwood state that the home was built in 1732.
Listed below are some family connections between the 1714 Germanna colonists who lived at Germantown in Fauquier County and those who settled in the Little Fork of Culpeper County later:
Johann Jost Cuntz/Joseph Coontz, Nierderndorf, nephew of Joseph Cuntze, 1714 immigrant
Hans Jacob Fischbach and wife, Anna Catharine Holdinghaus, Trupbach, nephew of Philip and Elisabeth Heimbach Fischbach, 1714 immigrants
Frederick Fischbach, son of Johannes/John and Agnes Haeger Fischbach, 1714 immigrants
Johann and Johannes Jacob Grimm/Crim, Oberschelden, sons of Elisabeth Spilman, sister of John Spilman, 1714 immigrant
Johann Jacob Heimbach/Hanback, Seelbach, cousin of John Jung, nephew of Elisabeth Heimbach Otterbach and ancestor of Cheryl Hanback Shepherd
Noeh/Nay, Johannes and his wife, Maria Clara Otterbach, Trupbach, niece of Hermann and Elisabeth Heimbach Otterbach, 1714 immigrants
Spielman/Spilman, James, the son of John and Mary Fischbach Spilman, 1714 immigrants
Otterbach, Johann Henrich, Trupbach, emigrated with his uncle, Johann Henrich Otterbach, and his aunt, Maria Clara Otterbach Noeh, also related to Elizabeth Heimbach Otterbach, the 1714 immigrant
Weissgerber/Whitescarver, Tillman and wife Anna Margarethe Cuntze, Niederndorf, Anna being a sister of Joseph Cuntze, the 1737 immigrant and the niece of Joseph and Anna Gertrud Reinschmidt Cuntze, the 1714 immigrants
Johannes Jung, Trupbach, the nephew of Jacob Holtzclaw
Hermann/Harman Bach/Back, Freudenberg, cousin of Georg Weidman/Wayman, Freudenberg
Hans Henrich Hoffman, Freudenberg, brother of the Moravian minister, Matthew Hoffman.
Other members of the community were Harmon and Johann Button, Hans Henrich and Johann Friedrich Mueller/Miller of Freudenberg. More research needs to be done to determine if there is any relationship between them and the other members of the Little Fork community.
We are working hard to insure that you will have a fantastic time this July!
Help us prepare your nametags so you can find others with similar interests. If you are researching a Germanna family, please be so kind as to provide us a list of your Germanna ancestor last names to help us better prepare for your visit. Please e-mail your ancestor last names and the names of any guests that will accompany you to foundation@germanna.org