| Birth |
1661 |
Switzerland [1] |
| Sex |
Male |
| Eby ID |
00044-3335 |
| Person ID |
I12394 |
| Last Modified |
29 Apr 2004 |
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| Children |
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| Group Sheet |
F3397 |
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| Notes |
Hans (John) (Alecander Harris, of Lancaster, Pennsylvania) Graff, "a native of Switzerland, born in 1661, was one of the first pioneers of Lancaster County, who settled in it as early as the year 1717 when the district in which he chose his future home was but a howling wilderness inhabited by Indians. He belonged to the pious but persecuted sect of religionists in Europe, the Mennonites, against whom the sword of intolerance was unsheathed; and it was to escape the destruction that seemed to threaten the devoted followers of Simon Menno, that the subject of our notice was induced, together with his co-religionists, to select some place in the New World as a place of refuge. About the year 1695 Hans Graff fled from his native home in Switzerland and went to Alsace, now a German province, where he remained until he emigrated to America and settled at Germantown, Pennsylvania. Here he remained but a short time. Induced by the glowing descriptions of the fertility and excellence of the soil of the Pequea Valley, he moved thither and chose it as his abode, unless one more adapted to his taste should come to his knowledge. In his wanderings through the new territory he met with a finely timbered district which place he selected as his final abode in the new country. Returning to his home at Pequea he disposed of his effects and immediately took up his journey for the place which he had chosen as his new home and abode. Here he erected a cabin under a large white oak tree, in which he, his wife and family spent the first winter. In the following spring he took out a warrant for a large tract of land on which he soon erected a more commodious dwelling together with the necessary outbuildings. Fortune favored him, and it was not long till his prosperity was noticed by others of his countrymen who came and settled in the same locality, and in this manner the beginning of a flourishing settlement was formed. Old Hans Graff led a mercantile life for many years. His many customers were the Indians, to whom he sold milk, vegetables, blankets and other articles of merchandise which he purchased in Philadelphia and obtained in exchange for furs and other objects of trade for which he always secured a ready cash sale. In this way Hans Graff gained a considerable fortune, and by the time Lancaster County was organized into a separate county he was already the most independent and influential of its citizens. The township in which he had selected his abode was named Earl (Graff) in honor of him, as one of its most respected inhabitants. Of his numerous family only six sons attained the age of manhood, the rest died in infancy. The names of those six were..." |
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| Sources |
1. [S1] Vol I A Biographical History of Waterloo Township and other townships of the county : being a history of the early settlers and their descendants, mostly all of Pennsylvania Dutch origin..., Ezra E. Eby, (Berlin, Ontario, 1895), 719 [View page(s) from the 1895-96 edition]
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Region of Waterloo