Link to Snyder/Sharpsteen migration maps
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Johannes (b. 1681) and Anna Elizabetha Lahmeyer (b. 1682) Snyder
Key words: Johannes Snyder, Johannes and Anna Elizabetha Snyder, Anna Elizabetha Lahmeyer Snyder, Anna Elizabetha Meyer Snyder
Johannes Schneider married Anna Elizabetha Lahmeyer on 12 Jan 1702. They were from the town of Huttengesass, Germany.1 In 1703 they had twin sons, Johannes and Johann Jost. The second twin died five weeks after birth. In about 1705 they had another son named Johann Jost who was christened 6 Jan 1706 (married Magdalena Flagler). In 1708 another boy named Balthazar Eisenach was born, but died at an age of eight days.2
This was a very turbulent time in the Palatinate with the War of the Spanish Succession raging through that part of Europe. The areas along the Rhine and Main Rivers were devastated with many homes and towns destroyed. Queen Anne of England offered for Protestants in the area to be resettled in the American colonies and over ten thousand refugees traveled down the Rhine to Rotterdam. From there they traveled to London where in the summer of 1709 they awaited ships to take them to America.
At about this time, Johannes and Elizabetha had twins:
Christina b. c.1709, m. Edward Diamond
Catharina b. c.1709, m. Henry Busch
Link to Snyder/Sharpsteen migration maps
The London Board of Trade formulated a plan to locate the Palatines along the Hudson River in the colony of New York for the purpose of manufacturing naval stores for the British government. Ten ships with the capacity of 3000 arrived late in 1709 and the refugees boarded. They lived under poor conditions and many died of disease caused by poor sanitation.3 Johannes and Elizabetha probably sailed on the Hartwell and settled in the village of Annsbury which was located along the Hudson in an area called "East Camp", which was part of 6000 acres purchased from Livingston and known as the "Livingston purchase". Each colonist was allocated a small lot on which to build a cabin and plant a small garden.5
In the summer of 1711 about 100 000 trees were "barked" to cause pitch to accumulate. However, due to lack of experience, the wrong kind of pine tree was stripped. The colonists barked mostly white pines which did not produce much tar and turpentine as compared to the hard pines used in the southern colonies. Thus many thousands of trees were destroyed to produce only about 200 barrels of tar. The Palatines did not like the work of making naval stores and felt that their contract had been misrepresented. By the fall of 1712 the project had basically collapsed.6
Johannes and his family moved south from the East Camp to the town of Rhinebeck in an area purchased by Colonel Beekman. Each head of household had to pay "one scheple of wheat" (about a peck) per acre as annual rent. When the man who signed the lease died, the property reverted to Beekman.7 Eventually they moved to the neighborhood of Fishkill in the South Ward of Dutchess County where "Jans" (Johannes) Snyder appears on the tax lists in 1718/19.8 Their family consisted of three children who were probably Johann Jost (b. c.1705) and the twins Christina and Catharina.9 The two daughters probably met their spouses and were married in Fishkill.
Johannes died sometime after 1753 in Dutchess County.
This information is freely
available under a
Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 License. On the web, a link to this page would be helpful.
Comments? Questions? Contact Steve Baskauf
References:
1. J. Max Anderson. 2006. A History of Johann Jost Snyder and Anna Magdalena Elizabetha Flagler of Palatine Immigrants to America in 1710. Salt Lake City, Utah. p. 2.
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