Our Grandmother was Lillian Ava Hitt,
a direct descendant of Peter Hitt, member of the 1714 migration
of colonists to Germanna, Virginia.
Direct Descendants of Peter Hitt
1 Peter Hitt
2 John Hitt
3 John Hitt II
4 James William Hitt
5 Ludwell Hitt
6 James Lafayette Washington Hitt
7 George Thomas Hitt
8 Lillian Ava Hitt
Peter Hitt married Elizabeth Otterbach
the daughter of immigrant Johann Hermann Otterbach. Peter Hitt
and Johann Herman Otterbach were two of the heads of the twelve
pioneer families in the first colony (1714) from Nassau-Seigen,
Germany who immigrated to Germanna in Virginia. These colonists
were imported from Nassau-Siegen in 1714 by the royal Governor
Alexander Spotswood to start and operate an ironworks.
Until 1815 Nassau-Siegen, now a part
of Westphalia, West Germany, belonged to the House of Nassau from
Holland. The Counts of Nassau had large possessions in Germany
from very early times, perhaps as early as the age of Charlemagne.
Siegen, the hub city of this province, is situated on the river
Sieg, which flows into the Rhine from the east side. (B.C.Holtzclaw,
ANCESTRY AND DESCENDANTS OF THE NASSAU-SIEGEN IMMIGRANTS TO VIRGINIA
1714-1750, Germanna Record No. Five,( Culpeper, VA: The Memorial
Foundation of the Germanna Colonies in Virginia, Inc.,1964)) Siegen
is 49 miles east and slightly south from Cologne; 45 miles east
and slightly northeast from Bonn; and about 40 miles northeast
from Coblenz; all these distances measured in air miles.
Nassau-Siegen has always been rich
in iron ore, frequently very near the surface of the ground, and
there is evidence to show that there was active production of
iron in this principality from 500 B.C. to about 100 A.D., carried
on by early inhabitants, who were probably Celts. For some reason
this activity seems to have ceased during the early years of the
Christian era, possibly because the earlier inhabitants were driven
out by Germans. From the time of Charlemagne and the Franks, however,
there are numerous evidences of iron production by the so-called
forest smiths. That Nassau-Siegen was famous for the production
of iron even in the early years is evidenced by the fact that
in a Welsh poem of the 12th century, written by Geoffrey of Monmouth,
the home of the legendary Wieland the Smith of the Arthurian saga,
is located in the city of Siegen. There is a village in the south
of Nassau-Siegen called Wilnsdorf, which in the middle ages was
called "Wilandisdorf", or village of Wieland.
During the 13th century the iron industry
was revolutionized in Nassau-Siegen by the discovery that water
power could be used to operate the smelters and drive the hammers
that worked the iron further. The Count and the nobility were
at first active in founding such water-powered ironworks, but
they very soon passed into the hands of worker-owners, who banded
together in the Guild of Smelterers and Hammersmiths, The members
of this Guild mostly lived in the country near their plants, unlike
most of the members of others guilds who lived in the cities.
Due to a lack of water power in the dry seasons and to a frequent
scarcity of charcoal needed for heating the ore and pig iron,
the ironworks could not be operated continuously throughout the
year. Thus the ironworks owners nearly always farmed in addition
to their work in iron. Also the farmers frequently became part
owners of the iron works, through intermarriage. (B.C.Holtzclaw,
ANCESTRY AND DESCENDANTS OF THE NASSAU-SIEGEN IMMIGRANTS TO VIRGINIA
1714-1750, Germanna Record No. Five,( Culpeper, VA: The Memorial
Foundation of the Germanna Colonies in Virginia, Inc.,1964))
Three German groups of colonists came
to Virginia during Governor Spotswood's administration and settled
at or near what became Germanna. The first group consisted of
12 families numbering 42 persons, as shown by an order of the
Virginia Council, passed April 28, 1714. Included in this group
were some of our direct ancestors.
The settlers at Germanna in 1714 were
fairly well educated people by the standards of the time. Compulsory
schooling was introduced in Nassau-Siegen in the middle of the
16th century. All of this colony excepting Haeger and Holtzclaw,
were raised on farms, and undoubtedly farmed land owned by them
when they emigrated. Farm work was done by the women and children
and at special seasons by the men who were taught mining and iron-making.
The original Germanna settlement consisted
of a fort, furnished with two cannon, including ammunition, and
a road cleared to the settlement. This settlement not only served
as living quarters for these colonists who were to work in Governor
Spotswood's ironworks , but was also regarded as security for
the Virginia frontier from Indian attacks. It was located on a
peninsula on the south side of the Rapidan River, which is the
southern (more properly the western) branch of the Rappahannock,
nine miles above the confluence with the northern branch and 13
miles above the site of Governor Spotswood's iron works.
The twelve families of the 1714 colony
finished their work for Governor Spotswood in December 1718. Apparently
they felt that they were being imposed upon by the Governor and
wished to take advantage of the opportunities for bettering their
lot in their new country. Therefore, sometime in 1718 John Fishback,
John Hoffman, and Jacob Holtzclaw, the three members of the colony
who had been naturalized, made an entry of approximately 1800
acres of land in the Northern Neck of Virginia. There a settlement
was eventually founded which became known as Germantown. The colonists
probably moved to their new location sometime in 1719; however,
the actual patent for Germantown was not made until August 22,
1724, due to the death of Lady Fairfax. Germantown, which no longer
exists, was located in what is now Fauquier County, Virginia.
The Memorial Foundation of the Germanna
Colonies, Inc., Box 693, Culpeper, Va. 22701, established in 1956,
purchased the original site of Germanna Colony and has instituted
an archeological dig on this site. The Corporation owned 270 acres,
"Siegen Forest," of the original Germanna tract. That
acquisition of the property was made possible by the generosity
of one of the trustees of the Foundation. Approximately 100 acres
of this was given in 1969 to the State of Virginia for the erection
of the Germanna Community College. By authority of the Virginia
State Highway Commission, issued March 26, 1969, Virginia Route
#3 from Culpeper to Fredericksburg has been designated GERMANNA
HIGHWAY. This highway borders "Siegen Forest" and traverses
the area where the first colony of 1714 was settled by Governor
Spotswood.
The Foundation has published 13 different
Germanna Records containing a wealth of information on the colonists,
including much on the Hitts. All of the information included in
our genealogy on the Germanna Colony and our Hitt ancestry was
obtained from the Germanna Records and published information from
those records found at various Internet Websites hosting Germanna
Colony History.