1783

The babies this year were:

010309 Elizabeth Christman (b.1783)
020304 Jacob I. Christman (b.1783)
030304 Maria Elizabeth Christman (b.1783)

February

Col. Willett assembled his troops at Fort Herkimer to capture Fort Oswego from the British. He did not know that a treaty of peace had been signed.

Peace & Full Circle

“Early in 1783 the French ship “Triomphe” entered Delaware Bay and went up the river, with bells clanging and sailors shouting, to Philadelphia. She brought the news that Great Britain had signed a treaty of peace in Paris in November 1782. This was a preliminary treaty. All hostilities ceased. The United States of America was a new, free and independent nation, recognized by the British Crown.

At Newburgh, New York, on April 19, 1783, the eighth anniversary of the Battle of Lexington and Concord, General George Washington held simple ceremonies symbolizing the end of the long war for the Continental Army. In his speech Washington declared that “happy, thrice happy, shall they be pronounced hereafter, who have contributed anything at all, who have performed the meanest, most menial office, in erecting this stupendous fabric of freedom and empire on the broad basis of independency; who have assisted in protecting the rights of human nature and establishing an asylum for the poor and oppressed of all nations and religions.” Those words were meant for all those who listened to their Commander-in-Cbief that day under the trees be- side the Hudson. The future of the new nation was in their hands.

Washington's Visit

Now, Washington this summer (1783) could go on his 750 miles (round trip) inspection trip of the Mohawk Valley battlefields, fortifications and farm lands which supplied the food and rich resources for his Continental Army. It was a “thank you” trip. And well it should be! As he passed through the German Flats area on the north side of the Mohawk, he must have thanked the women and children who through their hardihood tilled the land and grew the crops after their husbands and fathers had been killed during the war. Think of it - 13 Snells were killed, 10 Foxes, 9 Petries, 7 Kellers, 8 Timmermans, 14 Bellingers, etc., all from Snells Bush or nearby settlements - just a fraction of the whole number killed in all the Mohawk Valley.

It is nice to think that Gen. Washington visited the Zimmermans and Timmermans as he passed through their farms on the way to Fort Herkimer and Fort Stanwix, and shook hands with Lieut. Henry Timmerman who was severely wounded at the Battle of Oriskany, August 6, 1777.

We do know for sure that Washington visited the Van Alstyne home in Canajoharie, where the Sullivan-Clinton Expedition started in 1779 and which ravaged the Iroquois Indian country, breaking the back of the Iroquois Confederacy aiding the British. He was entertained there on August 1, 1783; his hosts were Col. and Mrs Samuel Clyde. Col. Clyde was the commandant of the Fort Plain garrison at that time.

The Van Alstyne house, also known as Fort Rensselaer because it was built of stone, was the favorite meeting place of the Tryon County Revolutionary Committee of Safety. Of the 31 recorded meetings, 16 were held there on the eve and during the Revolution.

At this place Gen. Nicholas Herkimer, the hero of the Battle of Oriskany, received his commission as Brigadier General of the Tryon County Militia on September 5, 1778 by act of the New York (State) Legislature.

Washington went as far as Lake Oneida to thank the Oneida and Tuscarora Nations for aiding the Americans in their struggle for independence. He decorated Chief Kusic of the Tuscaroras, his faithful Indian guide throughout the war, with a beautiful medal, large in size and to be worn around his neck, through an act of the Continental and later, Congress of the United States.

The Tuscarora Nation was given land near Niagara Falls in 1801 as a tribute for aiding the American cause (along with the Oneidas.) The other Iroquois Nations fought with the English. The Tuscaroras, at the time of the Revolution, had no home. They were helped by the Oneidas when the English drove the Tuscaroras out of North Carolina in 1713. No wonder they despised the British!

Washington returned to Newburgh on the Hudson where he received word of the final treaty, signed at Paris on September 3, 1783, acknowledging the independence of the United States. After continued celebrating, the army was disbanded, but not before they tried to make Washington king. The noble patriot spurned the proposal indignantly. He bade his officers and men an affectionate farewell and retired to Mount Vernon, followed by the thanks-giving of a grateful people.

I think the year 1783 closed like an American officer noticed on the day Cornwallis surrendered to Washington at Yorktown, October 19, 1781 - “The allied officers and soldiers could scarcely talk for laughing, and they could scarcely walk for jumping and dancing and singing (and praising the Lord) as they went about.” – Snell-Zimmerman-Timmerman Reunion

Newburgh? - Very Interesting

Newburg ...just happenes to be where Josha Haarsch (Joshua Kocherthal) had gone to make that first settlement with the little group from Landau that began the entire Palatine Immigration, bringing Johannes Christmann, and Johann Jost Herchheimer, and John Weiser, and all of the other brave and courageous Palatines to this country to begin with.

An amazing full circle.

The Reception of Tories returning after the War

“The restoration of peace between the former colonies and the crown did not restore internal tranquility within the borders of the upper valley. The surviving inhabitants awoke, not as from a pleasing dream, whose thought, if so it may be called, had run riot in elysium, but to the sad and woeful reality of slaughtered relatives, ruined habitations, wasted fields, and a devastated country. When they first went abroad from the blockhouses, forts and places of refuge, would they not remember the hand which had inflicted the wrong and been made the instrument of a cruel and tyrannons chastisement The Indiana, those who were known to belong to the hostile clans of the Iroquois, could not safely pass through or sojourn in the country. Not a few of them, who ventured upon the hazardous exploit, forfeited their lives.

The men who had been almost abandoned by the country, during the whole war; and particularly during the harrasing campaign of 1780, to their own resources and exertions, felt it to be no wrong to shoot an Indian, when and wherever they met him, in peace or war.

But the most sore trial the survivors were put to, and the greatest cause of irritation they had to suffer, was the return of the tories after the peace, claiming a restoration of their forfeited estates, and compensation for property destroyed and taken for public use during the war. A unanimous feeling of resistance to this claim pervaded the whole valley, and, for several years after the war, he must have been a bold and resolute man, who would visit the country a second time on such a mission. If one of these Mohawk tories got out of the country on his first visit after the peace, without meeting with some disagreeable interviews with the German population, he was a lucky man.” – Nathaniel S. Benton

The Remaining Christmans Born in the Fourth Generation

030205 Catherine Christman (b.1784)
010504 Jacob Christman (b.1785)
020305 Joseph Christman (b.abt.1785)
010310 Maria Christman (b.1786)
030206 Maria Elizabeth Christman (b.1786)
020306 Catherine Christman (b.abt.1787)
030402 Johan Jost Christman (b.1787)
010505 Anna Christman (b.1788)
030207 Barent Christman (b.1788)
010311 Gertraud Christman (b.1789)
020307 Frederick Christman (b.1789
030403 Andreas Christman (b.1789)
030208 George Frederick Christman (b.1790)
020308 William F. Christman (b.abt.1792)
030404 John Christman (b.1792)
030405 Samuel Christman (b.1793)
030209 Henrich Christman (b.1793)
020309 Anna Christman (b.1795)
030406 Daniel Christman (b.1795)
030305 Catherine Christman (b.1796)
030407 Maria Christman (b.1797)
020310 Sara Christman (b.1799)
030408 Elizabeth Christman (b.1799)
030409 Daniel Christman (b.1800)
030410 Ann Christman (b.1802)
030411 Henry Christman (b.1804)

This is the generation where the family simply grew so large that they lost touch of one another.

The spirit of the living creature was in the wheels

Ezekiel 1

1Now it came to pass in the thirtieth year, in the fourth month, in the fifth day of the month, as I was among the captives by the river of Chebar, that the heavens were opened, and I saw visions of God.

2In the fifth day of the month, which was the fifth year of king Jehoiachin's captivity,

3The word of the LORD came expressly unto Ezekiel the priest, the son of Buzi, in the land of the Chaldeans by the river Chebar; and the hand of the LORD was there upon him.

4And I looked, and, behold, a whirlwind came out of the north, a great cloud, and a fire infolding itself, and a brightness was about it, and out of the midst thereof as the colour of amber, out of the midst of the fire.

5Also out of the midst thereof came the likeness of four living creatures. And this was their appearance; they had the likeness of a man.

6And every one had four faces, and every one had four wings.

7And their feet were straight feet; and the sole of their feet was like the sole of a calf's foot: and they sparkled like the colour of burnished brass.

8And they had the hands of a man under their wings on their four sides; and they four had their faces and their wings.

9Their wings were joined one to another; they turned not when they went; they went every one straight forward.

10As for the likeness of their faces, they four had the face of a man, and the face of a lion, on the right side: and they four had the face of an ox on the left side; they four also had the face of an eagle.

11Thus were their faces: and their wings were stretched upward; two wings of every one were joined one to another, and two covered their bodies.

12And they went every one straight forward: whither the spirit was to go, they went; and they turned not when they went.

13As for the likeness of the living creatures, their appearance was like burning coals of fire, and like the appearance of lamps: it went up and down among the living creatures; and the fire was bright, and out of the fire went forth lightning.

14And the living creatures ran and returned as the appearance of a flash of lightning.

15Now as I beheld the living creatures, behold one wheel upon the earth by the living creatures, with his four faces.

16The appearance of the wheels and their work was like unto the colour of a beryl: and they four had one likeness: and their appearance and their work was as it were a wheel in the middle of a wheel.

17When they went, they went upon their four sides: and they turned not when they went.

18As for their rings, they were so high that they were dreadful; and their rings were full of eyes round about them four.

19And when the living creatures went, the wheels went by them: and when the living creatures were lifted up from the earth, the wheels were lifted up.

20Whithersoever the spirit was to go, they went, thither was their spirit to go; and the wheels were lifted up over against them: for the spirit of the living creature was in the wheels.

21When those went, these went; and when those stood, these stood; and when those were lifted up from the earth, the wheels were lifted up over against them: for the spirit of the living creature was in the wheels.

22And the likeness of the firmament upon the heads of the living creature was as the colour of the terrible crystal, stretched forth over their heads above.

23And under the firmament were their wings straight, the one toward the other: every one had two, which covered on this side, and every one had two, which covered on that side, their bodies.

24And when they went, I heard the noise of their wings, like the noise of great waters, as the voice of the Almighty, the voice of speech, as the noise of an host: when they stood, they let down their wings.

25And there was a voice from the firmament that was over their heads, when they stood, and had let down their wings.

26And above the firmament that was over their heads was the likeness of a throne, as the appearance of a sapphire stone: and upon the likeness of the throne was the likeness as the appearance of a man above upon it.

27And I saw as the colour of amber, as the appearance of fire round about within it, from the appearance of his loins even upward, and from the appearance of his loins even downward, I saw as it were the appearance of fire, and it had brightness round about.

28As the appearance of the bow that is in the cloud in the day of rain, so was the appearance of the brightness round about. This was the appearance of the likeness of the glory of the LORD. And when I saw it, I fell upon my face, and I heard a voice of one that spake.

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