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Henrich Dickhaut from Dudenhofen - Biography
A Hessian Soldier's Odyssey
Note:
Johann Anton Muth, Carl Friederich Salomo Friderici, Johannes Schnur,
are
mentioned in this story... nlp
Originally published by the Rochester Genealogical Society,
Rochester, N.Y.
A Hessian Soldier's Odyssey -
Henrich Dickhaut from Dudenhofen
by Johannes Helmut Merz
Copyright 2005
When the thirteen American colonies revolted against the rules of King George III of
England, instead of listening to the concerns of the colonists, the King decided to
take action to suppress the Revolution. Being short on troops and manpower, he called
on his German relatives to help him out. A total of six German dukes, landgraves, and
princes obliged, and signed contracts to supply the necessary number of well trained
German regiments.
The bulk of these troops came from George's brother-in-law, Frederick II, the Landgrave of Hessen-Kassel, who had married George's sister Marie, and from the
Landgrave's son Prince Wilhelm IX, from Hessen-Hanau. Consequently, all those German
auxiliary soldiers were commonly called the "Hessians", which title stuck to this
day, but not as much as a derogatory term anymore. Modern historians have contributed
to establish the true identity of those often maligned participants of the American
Revolution, those so called "Hessian Mercenaries", a term, completely untrue in most
cases.
The relationship between Prince Wilhelm IX with his father Frederick II. was not a
good one. The Hessian Landgrave had secretly converted to the Catholic religion,
which caused his wife Marie and son Wilhelm to separate from him. With the support of
King George, the young prince was installed as the ruler of Hesse-Hanau, a small
principality on the river Main, just east of the Free city of Frankfurt. When his
uncle George needed troops for America, the prince offered him a full regiment of
soldiers, plus a complete Artillery Corps. The Erbprinz Regiment was shipped out and
left the garrison city of Hanau on the 15th day of March 1776, the artillery unit
following two months later, for their long journey to Quebec, Canada,
the Erbprinz arriving there on the 2nd of June, just in time to relieve the beleaguered city from the American attackers.
The principality of Hesse-Hanau consisted of the city of Hanau itself with the surrounding area, and a number of enclaves all around. Looking at a map of the 18th
century, those enclaves looked like islands surrounded by other jurisdictions. The
whole of Germany was like a giant quilt, there was no Germany, citizens of the next
town were 'foreigners". But all spoke German, different dialects perhaps, easily
distinguishing certain regions.
Dudenhofen was part of an enclave south of the city of Hanau, which had a total of
about ten villages, the largest being Babenhausen, These were mostly farming communities with some very small local trades. The area surrounding was under the
political umbrella of the Catholic church in Mainz. To get from Hanau to
Babenhausen-Dudenhofen, you were crossing foreign territory and needed documentation. Otherwise pretty poor, the value to the prince was in its
manpower. The enclaves produced many young men, strong and healthy for military service.
A few years back the Dudenhofen town historian, who is also the curator of the old
church records, wrote a letter to me, explaining that from the village of Dudenhofen
a total of 28 men served in the troops which were employed in America during the
American Revolution, 25 of them served in the Hanau Regiment Erbprinz and Artillery
Corps, 2 in the Hanau Chasseurs, and one in the Hanau Free Corps. Of those, a total of 12 men did not come back to Dudenhofen, they remained
in America, and the town historian was curious what had happened to those men. One of them was Johann Henrich Dickhaut of the Artillery, and my investigation,
supported by a number of very active descendants of this soldier, resulted in a most incredible story about his amazing life in the New World.
Johann Henrich Dickhaut was born on 11. February 1754 in Dudenhofen as the fourth
child of the Dudenhofen schoolmaster Franziskus Dickhaut, and his wife Johanette
Dorothea nee Warenkoenig. Franz as he was called was schoolmaster for 43 years, his father Johann Leonhard Dickhaut was the first
schoolmaster of the village for 33 years before him. Johann Henrich was supposed to
take over the same position after his father's retirement. However, those carefully
laid plans did not work out, he had to serve his prince, and after some militia and
home training was finally ordered to report for duty to the Hanau Artillery Corps
under Captain Paeusch, in March 1776 just before departure time. However, the Artillery did not leave with the Regiment Erbprinz in March, but was ordered to wait
for further instructions, and spent the time in training.
According to the Journal of Captain Pausch, which just recently was translated once
again by Bruce E. Burgoyne, and published by Heritage Press, Inc., the Artillery
Corp's journey to Canada began on the 15th day of May 1776, and not before
19. August the city of Quebec was reached. At the time of arrival, instructions were received to continue upstream to Three Rivers
(Trois Riviere). From this point on the Artillery men, leaving the ships, continued with smaller
boats to Chambly and awaited their equipment. All the companies were distributed to a number of infantry regiments in different locations. The men,
and this should include our cannoneer Dickhaut, had survived the long journey in good health and were ready for duty with the exception of one man,
who was reported sick with scurvy, but is now recovering.
The following weeks until early October the men were trained on English cannons in
preparation for real action, which was to follow very soon. The Americans were still
in possession of a large part of Lake Champlain, and posed a threat to Canada. On
Oct.11th, the British took on the Americans in the famous sea battle of Vancour Island, which, when it was over, the British claimed victory, with the Hanau
artillery under Pausch earning their first honors during the battle. Following the
fighting on and around the Lake Champlain, orders were received to return to winter
quarters in Canada. The Hanau Artillery stayed around Montreal until the next summer.
In June of 1777 the Burgoyne army assembled at Fort Chambly, planning to fight their way south to Albany, NY., to split the colonies in half and put an end to the
Revolution. There is plenty of literature available to illustrate every detail of
this for the British so unfortunate affair, needless to repeat General Burgoyne's
problems here, we only want to explore the misfortunes of our Henrich Dickhaut.
His Artillery company under Lt. Bach was ordered by General Burgoyne to accompany Lt. Col. Baum and his Brunswick troops to Bennington on the
12th of August, to secure provisions and horses from that location. This expedition
turned out to be a terrible mistake, the Brunswickers were ambushed by a rebel force commanded by General Stark, and suffered heavy losses, and
most were taken prisoners. The Hanau artillery did not fare any better, Henrich Dickhaut was wounded and taken prisoner. With him several of
his comrades. This was on the 16th of August 1777.
A few days later, Henrich escaped from the hospital were he was brought as a prisoner, and the next thing, we find him in Steinrabi, now called Stone Arabia,
an old German community in the Mohawk valley of Montgomery County, New York State. If you look at todays maps you'll find Nelliston
and Palatine Bridge instead. This German speaking village had several churches, one of them the Palatine Lutheran Trinity Church of Stone Arabia. They also must
have had a German speaking or teaching school, because the next thing we know, Henry as he is called now, is the schoolmaster of this school. How do we know?
The church records tell us that on 16 August 1778, exactly a year after his capture
at Bennington, he married. The entry in the church book says:
Johann Heinrich Dickhaut, born in the County of Hanau, presently schoolmaster in
Stone Arabia, married Anna Catherina Teigert, eldest daughter of Petrus Teigert of
Stone Arabia. (F.H.L.film 0017471 088-002, and Film #829 Michigan State Library)
A former comrade from his company also made it to Steinrabi, Johann Anton Muth, married in same church a few months later, the record says, that on 3.Nov.1778 he
married Margaretha, the oldest daughter of Abraham Eckert of Steinrabi.
This village of Stone Arabia most certainly welcomed those escaped Hessians, there
are quite a few additional marriages listed between soldiers and the daughters of
local citizens. However, the strangest discovery was the story of the acting minister
of the church, a Carl Friederich Salomo Friderici, who was the priest performing
weddings, baptisms, and other church functions between Dec.7. 1777 to May 4, 1780.
As it turned out, he was also an escaped Hessian soldier, a chasseur of the Hanau
Chasseur Corps who deserted from his troops sometimes in 1777. We know of one involvement of Hanau Chasseurs in the near area, the siege of Fort Stanwix, and
Battle of Oriskany, that summer. It must have been at one of those places were the
Chasseur Friderici decided that this was against his will and the will of his God,
and started a new life in Stone Arabia, marrying, baptizing and preaching. This is what the minister who came after him had to say:
"This man was not a regular Lutheran Minister. I know very little about him, except
that he kept very orderly and complete records while at Stone Arabia, in a neat and
legible hand."
Recent research did not reveal what became of this man. (Note: He went to Pennsylvania and continued as a preacher, JHM)
On 29.Jan.1779 the records show that a little daughter of Henry and Anna Catherina
Dickhaut was baptized, born on the 22.January. She was named Veronika and the witnesses were Joh. Nicolaus Ecker, and Veronika Teigert. This shows that the two
former comrades Dickhaut and Muth were also close friends. Ecker was the brother-in-law of Anton Muth.
We don't know exactly when Henry and his young family left Stone Arabia, probably
after 1783, but they next appeared in Philadelphia, where on December 29, 1785 their
fifth child, a son named Daniel was born. A statement of the University of
Pennsylvania says that Henry Dickhaut was employed as a schoolteacher at their Grammar school from 9 May 1785 to 2 June 1786.
What happened after we don't know, but the census done in 1790 shows him still living
at Cherry Street, between the 3rd and 5th Streets in Philadelphia. Records of the
German Lutheran Aid Society declare him to be a paid up and respected member.
It was during this time that he contacted his old family in Dudenhofen, Hessen, and
succeeded in convincing his older brother Johann Georg, and youngest sister Anna
Clara, to come to Philadelphia. According to Passenger and Immigration lists both of
them arrived in 1791 on the ship "Pallas", coming from the port of Amsterdam, Holland.
We have not followed the trail of those two relatives of Henry, they apparently remained in the Philadelphia area, except we know that Anna Clara was married in 1793
to a George Schlicht at the Swedes Church in Philadelphia. Later family researchers
erroneously assumed that the Dickhaut's were of Dutch (Holland) origin and started to
spell their name "Dickhout", because their ship had started out from Amsterdam in Holland.
Henry and his family left Philadelphia, again we don't know the exact date, but it
has been established that he moved to the village of Manlius in Onondaga County,
just a few miles southeast of today's Syracuse, N.Y. Although no documentation
has been found, it is said that Henry Dickhaut opened the first permanent store in the village's first frame building in 1795. His son Johannes was born there
on April 4, 1796, and William Peter on September 10th, 1797.
It was there when Henry heard of the proclamation of Lt. Governor Simcoe of the newly established Province of Upper Canada, promising free land in the
Province for former loyal soldiers of the King to settle upon. Consequently he traveled to the seat of the Provincial land agency in Niagara-on-the-Lake,
and submitted his petition July 8, 1797 as follows:
"To His Excellency Peter Russell, Province of Upper Canada" -
The petitioner served as a sergeant in the Artillery in the German Regiment called
Erbprinz Hessen Hanau in the American War. That being wounded and taken prisoner
in 1777 he was kept in confinement til the close of the war. That your petitioner's
family consisting of a wife and seven children are now in the State of New York,
and that being very desirous to remove with them into this Province, your petitioner
humbly prays Your Honour would be pleased to grant him such appropriation of
land as Your Honour may seem meet to be confirmed to him on his return to the
Province with his family which he apprehends will be early next spring.
Niagara, 8. July 1797, signed Henry Dickhaut.
His application was granted under the condition that if he comes into the Province
with his family, he will get a land grant of 500 acres. Dated July 29th, 1797.
The industrious man he was, during his wait for his land to be approved, he made
another application on the July 1797 for a town lot in Niagara, then called Newark,
saying he wishes to erect a distillery in town. No approval has been found for this
undertaking, it seems that the powers to be were not exactly in favor of this.
In Spring of 1798, Henry with his wife and seven children, came to Canada and settled
in Bertie Township, near the Lake Erie shoreline in the Niagara District. However,
this is not where his land grant was, he apparently had enough money to buy land in
Bertie Ts., an area which already was settled by many former Hessian soldiers and
other Germans from the nearby States of New York and Pennsylvania. It seemed that Henry was content
to stay for the rest of his life in an area where many of his former friends and
comrades had settled. Johannes Schnur of his hometown of Dudenhofen, and Anton Muth, who also moved up from Stone Arabia. His own 500 acres which
were granted to him by the Governor, were situated in the new Township of Vaughan, north of Toronto, and was only much later settled by Henry's son
William Peter, the last one who was born in Onondaga County in 1797. He cleared the land and lived on this farm until he died in 1886.
Henry lived with his wife and children in Bertie Township, near Fort Erie just across
from the American city of Buffalo, until he disappeared from the scene in 1804. Descendants had been searching for his last resting place for ages. His wife Anna
Catherina had moved to her son William Peter to the Township of Vaughan, she died 25 Nov 1830 and was buried at the Edgeley cemetery near Maple,
Ontario, where her gravestone is now embedded in a memorial wall of early pioneers.
But where did Henry go, that was the question on the minds of so many family researchers, until one day not long ago the
diligent search of archives brought to light a document, which at least explained his disappearance. The document was
an affidavit found in the Public Archives of Ontario, dated the 18th October 1811
which stated:
"Personally appeared before me, Thomas Dickson, Esq.,
being one of His Majesty's
Justices of the Peace in this District:
Dorothea Dickhaut, daughter of the late Henry Dickhaut and wife of Jacob Seip, who
duly sworn deposith and saith, that her father Henry Dickhautlate of the Township of
Bertie in the Province of Upper Canada departed his life on the eight day of March in
the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and four at a place called the
"Trap", about eighteen miles from Philadelphia in the United States of America."
Sworn before me at Queenston, 18.Oct.1811,
signed Thomas Dickson, J.P.
It seems that Henry Dickhaut left Bertie Township either late in 1803 or early 1804
and traveled to Philadelphia presumably to visit his brother and sister, and perhaps
to find a better standard of living, perhaps thinking of taking up teaching again,
who knows? Nothing is recorded, and nothing has been found indicating why he went to Philadelphia.
Some recent research by determined descendants have found that the place called "Trap", also known as the "Leap", was a favorite for those trying to end their lives
by their own hand, by a leap down from the Trap, and one starts to wonder about
Henry. Only 50 years old, was he sick, or full of regret, not happy with his life,
or full of guilt? The biggest question of all, did he jump himself, or perhaps -
was he.........pushed? We will never know.
This was the story of a man, a former "Hessian soldier", who, when his Prince in 1776 called him to do his duty, did not dream of what would lay ahead of him.
He had no idea.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Johannes Helmut Merz, John to most of us, is a native of Hanau am Main in Hesse,
Germany. He grew up and was educated in the City of Konstanz on Lake Constance in
Bavaria. In 1942 the war in Europe was entering its' third year when John was drafted and assigned to an infantry unit. He served in
France, Denmark and Italy, where at Monte Cassino he was captured by U. S. forces.
Now a prisoner of war, he was shipped to Norfolk, VA and later to a POW camp in Colorado.
John was released in March 1946 and returned to Hanau. It was time to get on with his
life. He married and started his family. In 1957 he emigrated to Canada where he
worked as a truck driver, but soon started his own business of manufacturing wooden
pallets. He sold the business in 1969 and worked as a real estate agent until he was forced to retire in 1985 for
health reasons.
Since his retirement, John Merz has become an internationally known authority on the
German troops who fought in the American Revolution. He has written three books on
the subject, and a fourth, "Hessian Soldiers of the American Revolution" is on the
way. By the way, the Rochester Genealogical Society has donated a copy of each of John's books to the
Rochester Public Library.
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