Josua Harrsch

Joshua Harrsch aka Kettle Valley ( born July 30, 1669 Fachsenfeld, Baden- Württemberg, † June 24, 1719 in New Town, now Saugerties, Ulster County, New York ) was an Evangelical Lutheran pastor. Meaning he gained in the context of Germany's first mass emigration to North America.

Life and work

Joshua Harrsch was one of 23 children of Johann Georg Harrsch ( 1610-1675 ), Office Vogt in Laubach, later in Fachsenfeld, the first from his third marriage (∞ III. August 18, 1668 in Aalen ) with Elisabeth Leonhard († 1693). Harrschs mother 's second marriage was the schoolmaster in Beilstein Ulrich Eisenmenger. The family relationships - Harrschs father had 110 grandchildren - are known from his own hand Harrschs pedigree. Harrschs numerous half-siblings obtained as a pastor, priest women, bailiffs, surgeon or hospital clerk socially prestigious positions.

Studies and family formation

Harrsch attended high school Schwäbisch Hall, studied theology in the Orthodox Lutheran Wittenberg and graduated in 1695 with a dissertation on the word of God in creation. On June 19, 1695 exmatrikulierte in Wittenberg, came back home and put the theological faculty at Tübingen, a related, not identical, examination paper before. After ordination he married Sibylla Charlotta Winchenbach (1669-1713), this probably the daughter of the Reformed pastor in court Stetten, 1696 and was appointed parish priest in the three communities Eschelbronn, Mönchzell and Daisbach. The three locations were kurpfälzische fief under aristocratic rule. In 1704 he traveled incognito to London. No details are known about, be it that he courted the support of the party adversely affected by the Religionsbedrückungen of Elector Johann Wilhelm Protestant Palatines in England, it was that he discussed plans for a colony founding. English landowners possessed enormous, unexplored lands in North America that they would like to let settle with tax-paying tenants. Anyway, the write -facing Harrsch were certainly on behalf of such parties after his return in 1706, a small advertising leaflet out, possibly already under the pseudonym Kocherthaler that extolled the virtues of the province of Carolina. One can assume that this first edition, which is known to not have a copy, only modest effectiveness unfolded.

Emigration to New York

In March 1708 Harrsch and his family left his three municipalities and arrived with a group of emigrants from Kraichgau to London. The name Harrsch he passed and acted now only under the name Kocher valley (also Kocherthaler, de Kocher valley ). The English authorities approved a settlement in the province of New York. Kocher valley and his group reached the end of 1708 the Globe to New York and established in the spring of 1709 in the Hudson Valley at Quassaick Creek settlement Neuburg, today Newburgh. In the opening credits of his 1708 begun and continued until his death in church Paper, kettle valley first pastor of the German Church in New York called. However, it came in the Palatinate after the extremely cold and harsh winter 1708/1709 to a huge emigration movement. More than 11,000 people sought down the Rhine to Rotterdam in the Kingdom of Great Britain and wanted similar kettle valley group are located in the British colonies. Kocher valley little work was reprinted in 1709 in Frankfurt to meet demand three times and propagated with attachments. Kocher valley traveled to London, wrote petitions and an essay on the possibilities of wine production in America, the British government presented the situation of newcomers, and came last in the spring of 1710 with the newly appointed Governor Robert Hunter and 850 emigrant families with ten ships to New York back. These should be produced in the West and East Camps Camps on the Hudson about 80 km north of Newburgh tar and pitch for the needs of the British Navy, but this was out of gear. Kocher valley died after he had served for nine years on the central Hudson the Word of God, 1719 in New Town. The three daughters devoted her parents in 1742 following preserved grave inscription:

Works

• De / efficacia Verbi / Divini, In Actu / Primo, Wittenberg 1695th title page
• Officivm / Ministri Verbi / Divini, Heilbronn to 1696.
• Außführlich / and / cumbersome Report / From the famous country Creates / CAROLINA, / In / Engelländischen America / location. / On day given / From / cooker thalers. / Zweyter pressure. / [ Decorative ] Franckfurt on Mäyn find / / to bey Georg Heinrich Oehrling / / Anno 1709. [42 pages].
• Außführlich = and cumbersome / report / by the famous landscape / Carolina / / In the / Engelländischen America / location. / On day given / From / cooker thalers. / Third Printing. / / With an appendix / outd one / English authoris have been done Be = / description / and one on the Reyse then / nascent high Teutschen Auss Londen Benach = / rich confirmation / in addition to a country = Charte of / such Insul multiply. / [ decorative ] / Franckfurt on Mäyn find / / to bey Georg Heinrich Oehrling / / Anno 1709. [72 pages].
• Außführlich = and cumbersome / Report / From the famous country Creates / Carolina / In / Engelländischen America / location. / On day given / From cooker thalers. / Fourth Printing / / Has attachment / Zweyer Tight Lischen / authors have been done description / and a / auff the Reyse then nascent high Teutschen / outd Londen notification / addition / One country = Carte Carolina ver = / multi. / Franckfurt place on Mäyn / / to bey Georg Heinrich Oehrling / / Anno MDCCIX. [ 80 pages. ].