The German Settlement in Virginia is an area within the Catoctin Valley and bounded by Short Hill on the west to Loyalty Road on the east, the Potomac River on the north, and southerly to about Morrisonville. Lovettsville is the largest town in the Settlement and is also its historic center of economic activity.

The Virginia Germans were part of a migration of about 100,000 Protestants who came to British America between 1683 and 1775. They were fleeing years of war, conscription, ruinous taxes, and persecution. Initially, they sailed to Philadelphia, but lack of claimable land drove them southwest through Pennsylvania and Maryland along the Great Wagon Road and, after 1730, into the Shenandoah and Potomac valleys. They brought a distinctive culture with them, one that typifies the German Palatinate from whence most of the Virginia migrants came. They lived here as they lived in the Palatinate: simple homemade clothing, god-fearing, hard-working, frugal, and pragmatic. Farms were generally smaller than their English and Quaker neighbors, and they were generally disparaged by the wealthier Tidewater landowners. At the same time, they were respected for their care of the land and their properties. Like the Quakers, Germans in the area did not own slaves, perhaps due to their own long history of persecution in the Old Country and a firm belief in personal liberty.

There are two main north-south roads in the German Settlement, the Berlin Turnpike and the Mountain Road. Most east-west roads are well-traveled dirt or gravel roads and typically follow the many streams of the area. Most westerly roads end at the base of Short Hill. Travelers along Berlin Turnpike, Mountain Road, Irish Corner Road, George's Mill Road, Dutchman's Creek Road, Picnic Woods Road, and Morrisonville Road will find the best scenery and best examples of the charm of The German Settlement.

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Jim Stewart

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