Mining in Imsbach / Palatinate, Germany in the mid 1700s
According to a web sites I read about Imsbach, there were a variety of mines located near the village of Imsbach.
Not all mines were played out or forgotten after the Romans had left. Around the year 835 it is known that the brothers Werner and Philipp von Bolanden had mines in this area.
Under an old High Rock Castle ,which is north of Imsbach on Thunder Mt., is believed an to be an old Roman mine which may have served German tribes even earlier than it had the Romans. . In fact, there is a legend that the steps to the castle had been made of silver which had been mined in this area.
At some time period the family of Hohenfels [Hohenvels] became the "gentlemen" [lords] of this area who must have gained some measure of wealth... from these mines..... There is a grave plate tells us of a Heinricus de Hohenvels who died 28 Oct 1329 and was buried at the High Castle Rock. From the seal [Wappen] of the Hohenfels [Hohenvels] of Falenstein of Pfalz , Imsbach gained it's seal. The villages seal is divided in half. The upper half has a field of blue water with a waterwheel. The lower half is with a silver background with a green wave bare which represents the "water course".
The High Rock Castle of Hohenfels was destroyed in 1351.
See the history of the Palatinate [Pfalz] area.
See an excllent Web Site on Imsbach: http://home.t-online.de/home/Mueller-Oliver/imsbach.htm
According to the latest documents, there have been found some 60 different kind of minerals near High Rock Castle Two of the most important were copper and silver. Then came the Age of Iron and iron was, also, found near High Rock Castle, and it made the lords of the area even wealtheir. Not until 1921 did the mining of the last of the various minerals come to a halt.
Conrad Pfaff's son, Johann Philipp Pfaff, was born in 1733 in Imsbach. As an adult, Johann did not follow his father into the green pastures, as a shepard or pig herder, but took up the life as a minor..... probably, before he moved to Moersfeld where he is listed as a minor.
