Germantown, North Carolina
Germantown is an unincorporated community in Hyde County, North Carolina. It is at the intersection of Swindell Rd. (NC-1141) and NC-1140. Germantown is approximately 52.66 miles east-southeast of Greenville, North Carolina, 44 miles southeast of Williamston, North Carolina, and 240.4 miles south-southeast of Washington, D.C., at an elevation of 1 meter. Germantown is also known for having a lot of German Americans.
Germantown, Philadelphia
Germantown was founded on October 6, 1683, by German settlers: thirteen Quaker and Mennonite families from Krefeld. Today the founding day of Germantown is remembered as German-American Day, a holiday in the United States, observed annually on October 6. On August 12, 1689, William Penn at London signed a charter constituting some of the inhabitants a corporation by the name of "the bailiff, burgesses and commonalty of Germantown, in the county of Philadelphia, in the province of Pennsylvania." Francis Daniel Pastorius was the first bailiff. Jacob Telner, Derick Isacks op den Graeff and his brother Abraham Isacks op den Graeff, Reynier Tyson, and Tennis Coender were burgesses, besides six committeemen. They had authority to hold "the general court of the corporation of Germantowne", to make laws for the government of the settlement, and to hold a court of record. This court went into operation in 1690, and continued its services for sixteen years. Sometimes, to distinguish Germantown from the upper portion of German township, outside the borough, the township portion was called Upper Germantown.