| Notes |
In the very first years of the Eighteenth Century William Penn made it known throughout Southern Germany that he had established in America a new settlement, Pennsylvania, in which settlers would be guaranteed complete religious freedom. Taking advantage of the inducements offered by Penn, many of the Protestants of Southern Germany emigrated to Pennsylvania early in the Eighteenth Century, and during the first quarter of this century they came in rapidly increasing numbers and made settlements in the eastern part of the province.
By the year 1730 they had settled in Bucks and Chester Counties, westward to the Susquehanna River in such numbers that a fear was officially expressed that the country was becoming overpopulated and soon would be dominated by Germans. During the following twenty years (1730-1750) the tide of German emigration was diverted into York County which then included the present Adams County. The town of York is the oldest town west of the Susquehanna and was settled by Germans in 1729. Shippensburg is the second in point of age and was first settled in 1730 by Scotch Irish. It was not until 1750 and later that Germans in any considerable numbers began to locate in the North, or Cumberland Valley.
Cumberland County was formed in 1750 and included within its boundary the entire Valley from the Susquehanna to the Maryland line and from this time (1750) to the beginning of the War of the Revolution a very considerable number of Germans located in the Cumberland Valley. Authorities estimate that from the year 1727 to 1770 appproximately 30,000 immigrants from Germany entered the province of Pennsylvania and of these quite a number located in the Cumberland Valley.
With this tide of German emigration came the ancestors of the Thrush families, now widely spread through the United States. There is a family tradition in the line of Leonard Thrush that five adults of the name Dreisch came to America at or about the same time. The exact relationship of these five is not well established, but they are supposed to have been brothers and cousins. Two of these, so it is said, settled in the Cumberland Valley, one in Baltimore, and as to the other two, tradition is indefinite.
Corresponding with this tradition of five emigrants, we find in Penna. Archives, Series II, Vol. XVII, the names of five persons who came in 1750 within a period of six weeks to America and were qualified at Philadelphia. Proper identification of these five immigrants might confirm the family tradition.
1. J. J. O. Dreish qualified Aug. 15, 1750
2. J. Jacob Freisch qualified Aug. 24, 1750
3. J. Leon Reisch qualified Aug. 24, 1750
4. Joh. Conrad Reisch qualified Aug. 31, 1750
5. Jacob Frasch qualified Sept. 29, 1750
Inasmuch as the time of passage across the ocean in those days was uncertain and varied greatly, it would not be impossible for these five persons to have left Germany at or about the same time and to have arrived at Philadelphia at different times within a space of six weeks.
Jacob Thrush (J. Jacob Freisch) and Leonard Thrush (J. Leon Reisch) came on the ship "Brothers", Captain Muir, from Rotterdam last from Cowes. They took the required oath of allegiance in Philadelphia on Aug. 24, 1750 (Series II, Vol. XVII, P. 316).
It is known that Jacob Thrush and Leonard Thrush came into the Cumberland Valley in 1750, or very shortly thereafter, and that they settled in Hopewell Township.
Regarding the other three named immigrants, nothing is known and their names are given only because of historic interest.
Other German families that settled in Hopewell Township and were neighbors of Jacob and Leonard Thrush were the Seavers, Frys, Erickers and others.
To the English Magistrates and other officials of the Province of Pennsylvania the German pronunciation of Dreisch evidently was most perplexing and in their attempts to write the name in English, they obviously spelled the name phonetically and wrote in Trush, Frush, Trash, and it was so written for several generations. These variations in the spelling of the name may be found in the tax lists in the Militia Rolls for Hopewell and Lurgan Townships, Cumberland county, during the period of the War of the Revolution and subsequently thereto.
By the year 1790 the descendents of Leonard Thrush (Reisch) had adopted the uniform spelling Thrush, and under this name the various members are listed in the first U. S. Census taken in 1790. During this same period (1750-1790) the name was spelled in German Dreisch, Reisch, and is so written in German script in the very few family records that are now in existence. One of these records is in an old Bible that was the property of Leonard Thrush, who was a son of Leonard Thrush, the immigrant.
Leonard Dreisch (Thrush) and family were members of the original Lutheran congregation and ever since some of his descendants have been members of the Lutheran congregation in Shippensburg.
The "Old Dutch Church" built in 1778 or prior thereto and which was used jointly by the Lutheran and German Reformed congregations until 1812, stood upon the northeast corner of what is now known as the "Old Dutch Graveyard." The land of this graveyard fronts upon the "Old Baltimore Road," now Queen Street, for probably one hundred feet and extends westward along Orange Street to an alley. It was donated by Edward Shippen, the founder of the town, to the two German congregations for church purposes and for a burial ground.
In this old graveyard lie the remains of a number of the older generations of the Thrush family. Their graves are in the center of the plot. The marker all have disappeared and the exact location can not now be accurately determined. Several of the older citizens of the town tell me that within their recollection there was a row of Thrush graves across the yard at about the center of the plot.
The Thrush family were farmers and were among the very early German settlers in Hopewell Township, Cumberland County. Their neighbors were the Seavers, Frys, Brickers and others.
In 1765 John Jacob Frosh was granted a warrant for 200 acres of land--April 30, 1765. (See Penna. Archives 3rd Series, Vol. XXIV, Page 764).
May 27, 1782 Jacob Thrush was granted a warrant for 334 100 acres.
December 14, 1787, Barnet (Barnabas) Thrush and Leonard Thrush were each granted warrants for 200 acres of land. (See Penna. Archives, 3rd Series, Vol. XXIV, page 773). This land, or at least the last three grants, laid about four miles northeast of the present town of Shippensburg, between the Walnut Bottom Road, now the Molly Pitcher Highway, and the old turnpike leading from Shippensburg to Carlisle. The road running from the turnpike to the highway at Rehobeth, or Gravel Church, passes through this land. This land is now in Newton and Southampton Townships, Cumberland County, but originally this was Hopewell Township.
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The Thrush families of Pennsylvania are descended from immigrants who came in 1750 from the Upper Rhine in Germany.
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Darmstadt and The Lower Palatinate are mentioned in traditions of the various family lines, as the places from which the first of the family came to America. The family name in Germany was Dreisch. The name can be traced into Bavaria where the original spelling was Reisch. These various changes in the spelling of this family name from the ancient Bavarian Reisch to Dreisch and then to the more simplified English Thrush follows a natural evolution not uncommonly found in tracing the origin of German surnames.
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A family legend handed down through the generations holds that J. Jacob Reisch (Jacob Thrush ) was of Patrician birth, and of a family of considerable wealth.
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Jacob Thrush , (1715-1782), arrived Philadelphia, Pa, 8/24/1750, from upper Blue Rhine, Germany on "Brothers Ship", by way of Bavaria Throw Holland. He settled near Shippensburh, Pa. His 5 sons served Revolutionary war.
SOURCE: BettyJo Thrush-Paraday
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After settling in Cumberland Co., PA. the family became heirs to a considerable fortune, presumably form Jacob's father and one of the sons was sent back to Germany to look after the interests of the American branch of the family. As it turns out that son was lost at sea while trying to return to Pennsylvania. It is thought that son was Richard, as no records about him can be found following the Revolutionary War.
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Davis Uriah I | Born 1707
1712 - 1782 (70 years)