Casper Shafer

Casper Shafer's house in Stillwater, New Jersey—the log cabin portion of the structure (left) was built 1742, the main stone section (right) . 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 ( 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). 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."

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.",

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." 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. 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. 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.