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Casper Shafer

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American businessman

Casper Shafer's house in Stillwater, New Jersey—the log cabin portion of the structure (left) was built c.1742, the main stone section (right) c. 1750. The architecture is typical of colonial-era and early American houses built by the Palatine German emigrants who settled in the Paulins Kill valley.

Casper Shafer (c. 1712— 17 December 1784) was among the first settlers of the village of Stillwater along the Paulins Kill in Sussex County, New Jersey, United States. A successful miller and early tavern owner, Shafer later served in the first sessions of the New Jersey Legislature during the American Revolution. During these sessions, New Jersey had become a newly independent state, established the first state constitution, ordered the state's last Royal Governor deposed and arrested, and actively supported and financed the Continental Army.

Biography

Early life and emigration

Shafer was born in 1712 in the Rheinland-Pfalz in present-day Germany. He was among tens of thousands of German Palatines who escaped conditions of war and poverty in southwestern Germany throughout the eighteenth century and journeyed up the Rhine River to Rotterdam seeking passage to the New World. From Rotterdam, Shafer emigrated to the American colonies aboard the ship Queen Elizabeth commanded by Alexander Hope, and entered Philadelphia on 16 September 1738. At some time after 1741, Shafer married Maria Catrina Bernhardt (1722–1794), the daughter of Johan Peter Bernhardt (d. 1748). Shafer, his father-in-law, Johan Peter Bernhardt, his brother-in-law John George Wintermute (1711-1782), and their families settled along the Paulins Kill in northwestern New Jersey circa 1742. Over the next few decades, more German Palatine families settled here, and this settlement became the village of Stillwater.

In New Jersey

During the first year the conditions were spartan, and the settlers shared a log cabin located over a large stump which served as the family's table. Shafer's four children were all born in Stillwater—Peter (1744–1799), Margaretta (1745–1815), Abraham (1754–1820) and Isaac (1760–1800).

A few years after settling, Shafer erected a rudimentary grist mill along the Paulins Kill approximately 900 yards north of the site of the surviving larger mill he built in 1764. This first mill ground out three-to-five bushels of flour per day." In later years, Shafer built a saw mill, oil-mill and tannery at the site. To assist in the agricultural and industrial work, he acquired several African-American slaves, many of whom remained property of his descendants well into the 19th century. Shafer also established large orchards on his property in Stillwater, mostly of apple trees that were later described as growing to "a majestic size, some of them attaining to over three feet in diameter at the butt." When Sussex County was established in 1753, the first session of the Court of General Sessions granted licenses to Shafer and a few other early residents to operate taverns.

Casper Shafer (1711–1784) constructed Stillwater's second mill in 1764 replacing a small mill 900 yards north of the current site. After an 1844 fire, the mill was reconstructed.

Each year, Shafer would navigate down the Paulins Kill and Delaware River by flatboat "carrying flour and other produce down to the Philadelphia market" and returning with "such goods as the wants of the country in its primitive state seemed to demand.", The pattern of trade in the region was focused toward Philadelphia, and for several years Shafer did not have any knowledge of English coastal cities in Newark Bay. The local Munsee (a Lenape phratry) informed him of a town they called Lispatone—that is, Elizabethtown (present-day Elizabeth, New Jersey)—which he had not heard of. According to Schaeffer, "he journeyed in that direction some fifty miles over the mountains and through the almost trackless wilderness, until he finally arrived at the veritable town...where he commenced trading in his small way. And thus he was the pioneer in opening a profitable and important commercial intercourse between the south eastern sea-board, and that part of New Jersey." It was not until 1756-1757 that a military supply road built by Jonathan Hampton during the French & Indian War opened up a connection for trade between Elizabeth and Morristown with the northwestern frontier.

In 1775, Shafer was a member of the Committee of Safety for Sussex County, and was charged with raising £10,000 to "purchase arms and ammunition and for other exigencies of the Province." The following year, Shafer, Thomas Peterson and Abia Brown represented the County in the Provincial Congress whose session began at Burlington on 10 June 1776 establishing the government as the former colony became an independent state, deposed and imprisoned the Royal Governor, William Franklin, and established the state's first constitution. In August, the Provincial Congress met in Princeton and transformed into the state's first Legislature. According to Snell, on several occasions Shafer would rise to his feet exclaiming his dissent in German, saying "Das ist nicht recht! Das ist nicht recht!" (trans. "That is not right! That is not right!") and positing his argument in his adopted English. He represented the county for the next three years, and was described as "faithful in his attendance at the various meetings at Princeton, Trenton, Burlington and Haddonfield. His vote is recorded on almost every question, and always in favor of the most vigorous and aggressive measures for carrying on the war."

Death and legacy

The gravestone of Casper Shafer in Stillwater Cemetery

Casper Shafer died on 7 February 1784 in Stillwater. Shafer disagreed on matters of doctrine with the German Reformed and Lutheran clergy who supplied the local church, the "Dutch Meeting House" (now a presbyterian congregation), and in his last years became cordially acquainted with Presbyterian clergyman Rev. Ira Condict (1764–1811). Condict, who would later become President of Queen's College (now Rutgers University) had been called to serve the nearby Presbyterian congregations at Upper Hardwick (now Yellow Frame Presbyterian Church) and at Sussex Court House (now Newton). Shafer requested that Condict perform his burial service, but because the German clergy objected to Condict using the church building, Condict eulogized Shafer from the church's front steps. Casper Shafer was buried in the Stillwater Cemetery. His tombstone reads:

C. S.
In memory of
Casper Shaver, who
departed this life Dec.
the 7th, 1784, in the 72
year of his age.

On 10 December 2009, the grist mill built by Casper Shafer, and operated after his death by his son Abraham, was listed as the Casper and Abraham Shafer Grist Mill Complex on the state and National Register of Historic Places. The site is currently maintained by the Ridge and Valley Conservancy, a nonprofit organization dedicated to local environmental protection and historic preservation. It is frequently open for public visitation and educational events.

References

  1. During the 18th century, the surname Shafer is also spelled Shever, Scheffer, Schaeffer, Schafer, Shaver, and other permutations in various original documents. Although, among his descendants and within the historical record, Shafer is the more common spelling. See Armstrong, William C. and Armstrong Michael. Pioneer Families of Northwestern New Jersey. (Baltimore, Maryland: Clearfield Publishing, 1996 edition), 217. Note that with a German name, the German pronunciation of v is equivalent to an English f, which allows the two letters to be interchangeable.
  2. For histories of the Palatine emigration, see: Knittle, Walter Allen. (1937). Early Eighteenth Century Palatine Emigration: A British Government Redemptioner Project to Manufacture Naval Stores. Philadelphia: Dorrance; Statt, Daniel. (1995). Foreigners and Englishmen: The Controversy over Immigration and Population, 1660–1760. Newark, Delaware: University of Delaware Press; and Olson, Alison. "The English reception of the Huguenots, Palatines and Salzburgers, 1680-1734: A Comparative Analysis," in Vigne, R. and Littleton, C. (editors). (2001). From Strangers to Citizens: The Integration of Immigrant Communities in Britain, Ireland and Colonial America, 1550-1750. Brighton England/Portland, Oregon: The Huguenot Society of Great Britain and Ireland and Sussex Academic Press.
  3. Rupp, Israel Daniel. (1875, 1898). A collection of upwards of thirty thousand names of German, Swiss, Dutch, French and other immigrants in Pennsylvania from 1727–1776. Philadelphia: Leary, Stuart & Co. : 120. Internet Archive-Open Library in partnership with University of Pittsburgh Library System. Retrieved 14 March 2013
  4. Despite the inscription on Bernhardt's tombstone claiming that he arrived in North America in 1731, it is likely a mistake. Bernhardt and his family did not emigrate until 1741 according to Rupp, supra at 145-146; and Schaeffer, infra at 26.
  5. Wintermute had married Margaretha Elisabetha Bernhardt, the older sister of Shafer's wife. See Wintermute, Jacob Perry. (1900). The Wintermute Family History. Columbus, Ohio: The Champlin Press : passim. Internet Archive-Open Library in partnership with Brigham Young University-Harold B. Lee Library. Retrieved 14 March 2013.
  6. Chambers, Theodore Frelinghuysen (Rev.). (1895). The Early Germans of New Jersey: their History, Churches and Genealogies. Dover, New Jersey: Dover Printing Company. Internet Archive-Open Library in partnership with Rutgers University Libraries. Retrieved 14 March 2013.
  7. ^ Schaeffer, Casper (M.D.) and Johnson, William M. (1907) Memoirs and Reminiscences: Together with Sketches of the Early History of Sussex County, New Jersey. Hackensack, New Jersey: privately printed. Internet Archive-Open Library. Retrieved 14 March 2013.
  8. ^ Snell, James P. (compiler). (1881) History of Sussex and Warren Counties, New Jersey, with Illustrations and Biographical Sketches of Its Prominent Men and Pioneers. Philadelphia: Everts & Peck. Internet Archive-Open Library in partnership with Rutgers University Libraries. Retrieved 14 March 2013.
  9. Shafer's history as a slaveowner is discussed at length in: New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection, Historic Preservation Office (2003). "Casper Shafer Slave Quarters (901 Cedar Ridge Road)" in the Historic Resources Plan for the Proposed Stillwater Historic District (ID#4144) (2003).
  10. Shafer's descendants, most frequently, Abraham Shafer, appear in the manumissions, slave sales, and slave birth records of the Sussex County Clerk's Office in Newton, New Jersey. See Genealogical Society of New Jersey. "Warren and Sussex County Slave Births, 1804-1833" in Genealogical Magazine of New Jersey Volume 54, Nos. 2 and 3 (May/September 1979).
  11. Edsall, Benjamin Bailey; Tuttle, Joseph Farrand (1853). The First Sussex Centennary. [sic] Newark, New Jersey: The Daily Advertiser: 27. Internet Archive-Open Library in partnership with Harvard University Libraries. Retrieved 14 March 2013.
  12. "Guide to Military Trail". National Park Service brochure. Retrieved 8 March 2013.
  13. Skemp, Sheila. (1990). William Franklin: Son of a Patriot, Servant of a King Oxford: Oxford University Press. : 211.
  14. Frusciano, Thomas J. Rutgers Leaders, Rutgers History – Ira Condict: Queen’s College President Pro Tem, 1795 to 1810", originally published as "Leadership on the Banks: Rutgers' Presidents, 1766-1991" in The Journal of the Rutgers University Libraries 53:1 (1991). New Brunswick, New Jersey: Special Collections and University Archives, Rutgers University Libraries.
  15. New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection – Historic Preservation Office. (1 December 2011) New Jersey and National Registers of Historic Places – Sussex County Archived 22 January 2015 at the Wayback Machine. Retrieved 8 March 2013.
  16. "National Register Information System". National Register of Historic Places. National Park Service. 9 July 2010.
  17. State of New Jersey. Transcript of the State House Commission Meeting (11 December 2000). Accessed 8 March 2013. Quote: "MR. McGLYNN: Item No. 24 is the Stillwater Grist Mill site, Block 3306, Lot 12, and Block 3203-A, Lot 1.02, Stillwater Township. The New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection, Green Acres Program, requests approval to enter into a five-year lease with the Ridge and Valley Conservancy, a nonprofit conservation organization, for the preservation and restoration of the Stillwater Grist Mill site in Sussex County."

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