Bigotry stained the souls of many of our country's founding fathers long before the first crate of tea was tossed into the Boston Harbor.  By 1773 German immigrants represented the second largest ethnic group in the colonies but faced prejudice and intolerance at the hands of those with English roots.  It was a time when the institution of slavery was widely accepted and the fear of losing one's culture to another was 

Founding father, statesman, inventor, and publisher Ben- jamin Franklin wanted German immigrants to abandon their culture and embrace that of Britain.

widespread. 

            At the outbreak of the Seven Years' War in 1754, Benjamin Franklin drew up his "Plan of Union" in order to organize a common defense among several colonies against the French and hostile Indian nations.  He authored "A Plan for Settling Two Western Colonies in North America."  In it, he cast doubts on German immigrants' loyalty to the British.  In 1760 he asked, "Why should Pennsylvania, founded by the English, become a colony of aliens who will shortly be so numerous as to Germanize us instead of our Anglifying them?"

            Later, at the onset of the Revolutionary War, he questioned the willingness of the German immigrants to fight against the British. 

            The majority of English colonists shared his views.  Yet when war broke out, Franklin was quick to threaten the British with the famed ferocity and mercilessness of colonial combatants descended from the Huns.

            There were many people of Germanic ancestry whose religious practices forbade

Many local citizen-soldier's graves can be identified by a grave-marker and 13 starred United States Flag showing  their service in the Revolutionary war and the banner  they fought under.

them from participating in war or killing.  These were the same sects that challenged the institution of slavery with public protests as early as 1688.  But hidden in the segregated streets of Philadelphia and on the farms in the surrounding hills were warriors willing to go into battle to protect their families and homes.  Heinrich Ohl was one of them.

            Ohl was born in Marlborough Township, Philadelphia County, in 1753.  He grew up on his parents' farm near Hoppenville and attended the Old Goshenhoppen Reformed Church in Woxall.   He married Margaret Sitzman in that same church on January 16, 1776. 

            On August 8, 1776, just one month after some of those who discriminated against him had inked their signatures on the Declaration of Independence, Ohl volunteered for the Continental Army.  He was discharged in October as troops on both sides prepared for winter quartering.

            Heinrich re-enlisted the following May and was commissioned as a Second Lieutenant.  After marching his company to Swedesford on the Schuylkill River in early September, he was sent back home to raise new recruits.  He quickly accomplished his assignment and, in just a few days, was leading his raw band of would-be soldiers towards the ford.

            Along the way, near the village of Trappe, they encountered George Washington's army returning from a bitter defeat at the Battle of Brandywine.  The loss of more than 1,000 soldiers in the Chester County conflict had taken a toll on Ohl's commanding officer, Captain Shively.  He feigned an illness to avoid further combat.  Ohl immediately seized the opportunity to take command and received a promotion to First Lieutenant.

            The combination of weary soldiers and raw recruits was a recipe for the confusion that led to defeat for the Continental Army at Germantown on October 4, 1777. 

            Lieutenant Ohl and his company of Pennsylvania Militia marched back with General Potter's brigade across the Schuylkill into Chester County.  Heinrich was discharged along with his company at the end of November.

            One month later he re-enlisted again.  This time in the company of his Marlborough Township neighbor, Captain Adreas Reid.  The newly formed group marched from the township toward the city of Philadelphia.  Along the way they joined up with the regiment commanded by Colonel Frederick Antes, of Frederick Township.  They would all become part of the Pennsylvania Militia under the command of Major General John Armstrong. 

            Their job would be to guard the roads from Philadelphia to Valley Forge during the army's winter encampment of 1777-1778.  It was during that stay that another German immigrant, Major General Friedrich von Steuben, molded Washington's group of rag-tag soldiers into a fighting unit.  In the face of the most deplorable conditions Steuben told General Washington that "no other European army would hold together in the face of such hardships."  It became a turning point in the war.

            In January of 1778, Lieutenant Heinrich Ohl and his company were dispatched to the lower part of Bucks County to apprehend some Tories who were stealing from colonists loyal to the Revolution.  He spent the next two years in Lower Bucks and Philadelphia counties keeping the Tories in check.  He retired when his commission expired in May 1780.

            Heinrich and his family moved to Northampton County in 1785.  In 1804 he moved to Columbia County to oversee the land of another Marlborough Township friend and neighbor, General John Hiester.  There he lived among others of German ancestry in the Liebenthal Valley until his death in 1840.

Most of the German immigrants of the time were, in fact, pacifists.  The attitude of those who did fight was summed up well in an item published in the "Philadelphia Public Ledger" in 1918.  It read "…let me tell you that Beelzebub himself is a mere tyro in his profession as compared with what the Pennsylvania-German will do with 'Schrecklichkelt' (frightfulness) – not because they love war, but because they love peace."

Benjamin Franklin eventually changed his bigoted feelings toward non-Anglo people and slavery.  As we approach the 250th anniversary of our nation's founding, we are reminded that the sin of bigotry is that it ever existed.