(lass Book Fff %3 FRIEDENSTHAL ITS STOCKADED MILL, NORTHAMPTON COUNTY, PA. 1749-1767. }?^. ft^^c^ WYW% r t T*7 T\ \/V/^l IffZX A SETTLEMENT OF THE MORAVIAN (ECONOMY, Near the Barony of^Tazareti^.Northain-ptori Co Ifuxii " -* i . m$km%>i |\Y\ ! '"■;••,-"'"■'■' *JI /-. '■ \ MEADOW # • ■& *L -4> ^ A £ & ^ <* ' ' '" mr V^^/", ' ■«*■'** .; . a! ' TATA M V'S LAND- SWi eyerf 5> Geor 9 * >) i ,,o sz?«>,s Gol^yt-fs/cy J^'. Friedensthal STOCKADED MILL A MORAVIAN CHRONICLE, 1749-1767. THE REV.. WILLIAM C REICHEL, AND CONTRIBUTED BY JOHN W. JORDAN. WHtTEFIELD HOUSE, NAZARETH, PA.: Printed for the Society. 1877. , fa I? 3 INTRODUCTION. The within historical paper was written by the late Professor William C. Reichel, at the instance of one of a company of ladies and gentlemen, — many of them lineal descendants of those whose names occur in the narra- tive ; but all lovers of the olden time, of olden memories, and of "Old Dutch Government Java," — who proposed to meet in August of 1875, at Friedens- thal, in Palmer Township, Northampton County, to pass a day of social pleasure on the site of a Moravian Economy which had its seat there when Pennsylvania was still a Province of the British Crown. Owing, however, to inclement weather and to other causes, the "field-day" was deferred until the autumn of the following year. When that time came the illness of the author and his subsequent death in October 187G, caused its indefinite post- ponement. The paper is strictly authentic in all its details, and hence may be justly regarded as a valuable contribution to the history of the early Moravian Settlements. Treating of this people, it treats of one portion of the German element of the population of Pennsylvania, — that element, which, though held in low esteem by the Proprietary Governors despite the high regard in which they were held by old Proprietor Penn, has proved itself to have been mighty in rearing the solid structure of our Commonwealth. John W. Jordan. September, l ^77. ; ) %^H i Friedensthal and its Stockaded Mill. A MORAVIAN CHRONICLE. 749-I767. For those who are read in the history of the Moravian move- ment in the Province of Pennsylvania, the spot, on which we are gathered so informally this summer-afternoon, on the greensward and in the shade of trees, has irresistible attractions It is the site of a primitive Moravian settlement. One hundred and twenty-six years ago, the 13th day of January last, the fall of the first tree at the axe-man's hand, as it awoke echoes in these woods, told of the occupation of the white man and of his purpose to build him here a home. It was, however, not for a cabin, — not for a straggling hamlet, nor for a town with dusty streets, that tree after tree was here sent headlong to the ground. The olden time Moravian settlement had its type in none of these. It was fashioned after an old-world type; after a model brought by the Brethren from the fatherland, and which, we have reason to believe, they loved to perpetuate, in the hope that peradventure through its presence, the memories of ancestral homes might be kept green in the hearts of their children and of childrens' children far down the stream of time. There are those living who well remember "Old Nazareth,'' Gna- denthal and Christian's Spring, as they were some sixty years ago. Then already, it is true, they were decadent; and yet, despite all that the march of time, new modes of thought and new generations of men were doing to erase it, they bore on the faces of them the birth-mark which unmistakably proclaimed their Moravo-Silesian parentage. Theirs was the type of the olden time Moravian settle- ment. A quadrangular area enclosed within solidly built structures 4 FRIEDENSTHAL of wood and stone; on one side stabling and stalls for horses, horned cattle, sheep and swine; on the second a spacious barn and shelter for wains and carts; on the third a row of shops, — a shop for the baker, one for the cordwainer and weaver,— a house for the curing and storing of flax, a smithy and a cider-press ; and on the fourth the dwellings of the hard-working people who inhabited the forest oasis, — large, lumbering structures of log or of frame and " brick- nogged," — invariably hip-roofed, and one of them sure to be capped with a turret in which swung a bell, that rang out over hill and dale and down into the deep wouds every day, at sunrise and at sunset, its sweet summons to the house of prayer. Verily it needed but a moat and a drawbridge to have transformed these granges into impregnable strongholds. On the ground on which we are met there stood until the close of the last century a Moravian settlement of this kind, comprising within its limits a plantation and plantation-buildings, a dairy, and a mill for the grinding of bread. Thirty-five years ago its demolition was completed, and, saving the well in the barn-yard, there is no vestige of it left. Great, then, in view of this utter annihilation, is, I ween, the debt of gratitude we are owing to the early annalists of our Church, who, with exemplary providence, committed to writiug day by day, or week by week, whatever of moment occurred in their little world; thus enabling us after the lapse of more than one hundred yeirs, to hold pleasant converse to-day with the men and women who once peopled this peaceful vale. Now the origin, rise and growth of Friedensthal were on this wise. The expenditure of time and labor incurred annually by the Brethren at Nazareth in transporting the bulk of the harvests of the Barony to the Bethlehem mill for grinding, (the mill that was built at Christian's Spring in 1747 being of very limited capacity 1 ) had in 1749 grown to be so grave, as to move their head men to take speedy steps for closing this drain upon their resources. The erection of a mill near at hand, fully appointed for the conversion into bread of all the grain grown on the three plantations, to wit: Nazareth, Gnadenthal and Christian's Spring, or "the upper places," 1 The lower story of the structure was a grist, and the upper a saw mill. AND ITS STOCKADED MI J J.. 5 as they were called in the days of which we write from a Bethle- hem standpoint, — was, very naturally forsooth, suggested as the readiest solution of the problem. Now to this solution the Breth- ren began to apply themselves on the 28th of October, 1749, as on that day, John Nitschmann 1 (a brother of Anna Nitschmann, the gifted daughter of old Nitschmann the wagonwright) and Henry Antes, both of Bethlehem, repaired to Nazareth to make a survey of the ground with an eye to the erection of a second mill. Fail- ing to find a desirable site on the springs of the Menakes within the precincts of the Barony, they turned their footsteps eastward, and coming to the banks of this charming stream, which the Van Bogarts from Esopus named the Bushkill, and which the Scotch- Irish called Lefevre's Creek after Johannes Lefevre, whose meadows, distant a short mile to the south of us, were irrigated by its waters as early as 1745; — coming to this charming stream, Nitschmann and Antes, we read, selected this spot for the site of the projected improvement. Now their choice involved the purchase of a parcel of 324 acres of land, which was held by William Allen of Philadelphia. It had been conveyed to Allen by Lawrence Growden, Jr., in August of 1740, and was a portion of a great tract of 5,000 acres which old Proprietor Penn granted by indenture bearing date October 25th, 1681, to Lawrence Growden, then of St. Austell in the County of Cornwall, and his heirs forever, under a yearly quit-rent of fifty English shillings, — and which the said Lawrence Growden was pleased to make over to his grandson, the above Lawrence Grow- den, Jr., of the parish of St. Merryn, Cornwall, by indenture bear- ing date October 26th, 1687. Negotiations with Mr. Allen for the purchase of this tract were finally concluded, when, on the 3d of January, 1750, he made deed of the 324 acres — " situate," as the instrument recites, " on the branches of Lehietan in the Forks of Delaware in Bucks County," to Henry Antes, — the consideration being <£324 lawful money of 1 John Nitschmann was born in 1703, at Schonau, in Moravia. Immigrated to Herrnhut in 1723, where he became the private tutor of Christian Eenatus von Zinzendorf, whom he also accompanied to the University at Jena. In 1741 he was consecrated a Bishop, and came to America with a colony of 120 immigrants in 1749. Here he was President of the Directing Board until 1751, when he re- turned to Europe. Deceased at Zeyst, May 6, 1772. 6 FEIEDENSTHAL the Province. In 1752. Mr. Antes conveyed the tract to the then three joint proprietors of the Moravian estates in this country. By these it was transmitted forward in the legitimate channel. Having thus secured a site for a new plantation and mill, the Brethren, on the tenth day alter the execution of Allen's deed, sent up five of their young men from Bethlehem to begin the clearing of the land. And soon the " chopping" bustled and grew warm with the hum of industry, although the mereury at times fell to zero. There was logging, grubbing, burning of grubs and hauling of stones from the quarries with ox-teams ; and scarce was the frost out of the ground, when, on the 1st of April, Andrew Schober, 1 master mason in the Moravian Economy, arrived on the scene of action with a corps of" men-at-arms" and began to lay the found- ation walls of the mill and farm-house. From the mother settle- ment there were sent bricks for the fire-places as well as joists for the flooring, which joists had been cut and sawed on the Mahoning. Auxiliaries, whenever needed, were drafted from the brotherhood at Christian's Spring; and thus efficiently seconded, Mr. Antes saw the work which had been entrusted to him, hastening, with reason- able dispatch, towards completion. The mill was of his planning, he being both a millwright and a miller of many years' experience. It was furthermore his last effort, in the capacity of an architect and master-builder, to aid the Moravians, as in the autumn of the year of which we write he seveied his connection with that people, returning to his farm and mill on the Manatawny, in that beautiful region of country which stretches back from the present borough of Pottsgrove, Montgomery County. 2 1 Andrew Schober, from Neuhofmansdorf, Moravia. Immigrated to Pennsyl- vania with the "Second Sea Congregation," 1743. Deceased at Bethlehem, July, 1792. Descendants of the name living in Philadelphi i and North Carolina. 2 Mr. Antes materially assisted the Moravians in the founding of Bethlehem, planned and superintended the construction of the first mills, aqueduct and ferry at that place; and built the mills at the Mahoning Mission and at Christian's Spring In the autumn of 1752 he accompanied Bishop Spangenberg to aid and advise in locating a great tract of land in Western North Carolina for a projected Moravian settlement. Being one of the three proprietors of Moravian real estate in the Province, during the tenure of that estate by joint tenancy, his name is en- rolled in the annals of our people alongside of the names of Joseph Spungenberg and David Nitsehmann, the wagonwright. Antes died on his farm in July of 1755. Several of his children united with the Moravians. Ann Margaret, a AND ITS STOCKADED MILL. 7 In the second week of August, 1750, the mill was completed and put in running order. It was located on the left bank of the creek, about one hundred yards north of the spot on which its successor dow stands; was a substantial limestone structure with a frontage of 34 feet towards the south and a depth of 48 feet, and had four rooms. 1 It was furnished with an overshot water-wheel and one run of stones; the latter were cut by Peter May in his quarry on the Neshaminy and were delivered at the " Kill" at a cost of £9 10s currency. The mill-irons were wrought at the iron works of Messrs. Win. Logan & Co., Durham. The time being now come to festively inaugurate this so auspi- ciously finished piece of the millwright's handiwork on its career of promised usefulness to the race of bread-eating men, the twenty-first day of August was fixed as the day for a fitting demonstration. Its principal feature was a social repast or love-feast which was spread on the upper floor of the mill, and of which all who had contributed towards the mill's erection, partook. Bishop Cammei- hof, who at this time was at the head of the Brethren's movement in North America, presided on the occasion. It was a joyous one for many reasons; none the less, we ween, as the rolls of wheaten flour which the happy feasters dipped into their generous coffee, were made from the first grist that was ground for the Moravians by the waters of the Bush kill. These rolls had been baked by Sister Antes, and were, typically speaking, immaculate. Thus then, was the new mill inaugurated on its career of usefulness, on the 21st of August, 1750. The dwelling or farmhouse, meanwhile, was still in the hands of the carpenters, being in fact, not ready for occupancy until the Spring of 1751. It stood directly east of the mill, was built of logs, 32 by 20 feet, was two stories high, and had four apartments. 2 daughter, was the mother of the late B. H Latrobe, C. E., of Bal'imore, the archi- tect of the Capitol at Washington. Catherine, in 1796, married Simon Snyder of Northumberland, the Governor of the Commonwe 1th between 1808 and 1817; John Henry, was sometime sheriff of Northumberland County, and John, the youngest son, went as a missionary to Abyssinia. While in Egypt, as is well known to readers of Moravian history, John Antes was rather roughly handled by some wandering Arabs. 1 In 1758 the mill was valued at £800 P. C. In 1758 it was valued at £80 P. C. 8 FRIEDENSTHAL A flaring frame barn and three annexes, one for the horses, one for the cows, and one for the sheep, with a total frontage of 88 feet towards the south and a depth of 30 feet, eventually flanked the dwelling on the east. The Moravian enterprise at the "Kill" having lost its respon- sible head when Mr. Antes, early in the month of September, set out for his home, Abraham Miller of Gnadenthal was ap- pointed to temporarily succeed him. Hereupon he was domiciled with Ma^dalena his wife in a room in the mill. His instructions were to keep a sharp eye on the workmen and to screen the infant plantation from the rude gaze of passing idle or impertinent curiosity. 1 The custodianship of the Millers terminated on the 27th of April 1751, a date which marks an epoch in our narrative, as on that day the dwelling on the "Kill" was occupied, the settle- ment received the sweet name of Friedensthal, which, being inter- preted, is the Vale of Peace ; and the completion of a fifth im- provement on their lands at Nazareth permitted the Moravians to congratulate themselves on their successive triumphs in an Amer- ican wilderness. From this memorable 27th of April, 1751, until the 1st of April, 1764, Friedensthal was an integral part of the great Moravian Economy; that institution or polity, under which our forefathers were pleased to live, as being well adapted to their straitened cir- cumstances and likely to prove efficacious in holding the members of their brotherhood together by an almost indissoluble tie— with- out a tie of which character, there could be neither unity of action nor any reasonable hope of success in what they sought to accom- plish. The Moravian Economies, (lor there were several phases of them), have been variously understood by readers of Moravian history, and very erroneously by such as thought they found their parallel in the communistic movement of Fourier and later re- formers of his school. The Moravians were not communists in the current acceptation of the term. Their settlements were not phal- 1 Abraham Miller, prior to uniting with the Moravians, resided on Richland Manor in the Great Swamp, ami was a Dunker or German Baptist In April of 1752 he severed his connection with the Brethren and settled on a tract of land four miles south of their school-house in Dansbury or Lower Smithfield. Here in April of the following year, while felling timber, he was killed bya falling tree. AND ITS STOCKADED MILL. 9 ansteries. The members of their Economies voluntarily, and only after they had been made acquainted with their requirements, con- tributed the labor of tiieir hands toward the furtherance of the re- ligious enterprises of their Church, — nothing more; while the Church, in turn, obligated herself to provide these her workers with the necessaries of life, — nothing more. There was, therefore, no common treasury as among the primitive Christians; no appropriation of goods and chattels of the individual ; no compulsion — no vows; and finally, no bar to the withdrawal of a member from a partnership, upon his signifying his reluctance to longer continue the reponsibilities which he had once felt free to assume. On the morning of the 27th of April, 1751,— to take up anew the thread of this narrative, — there was quite a stir at the " Kill," as preparations were in progress toward welcoming the expected Brethren and Sisters who were to be housed in the now completed and furnished dwelling. At nine o'clock, the first arrivals, among which were the officials of Nazareth, Gnadenthal and Christian's Spring, were announced, and an hour later, arrived the little com- pany of men and women for whom this day was a memorable one in the calendar of their lives. In the absence of Brother Cammer- hof, who was confined to his room at Bethlehem by a malady which proved fatal on the day following this festive occasion, Brother John Nitschmann, his colleague, conducted a short religious service, introduced the future inhabitants of the settlement, named it Frie- densthal, and finally pronounced it a dependency or " filial" of Nazareth. The following were the four couples who were settled at the "Kill," and the first members of the newly organized branch of the great Moravian Economy, of which we are writing : John Wolf- gang Michler and Rosin a his wife ; Rudolph Christi (now Crist) and Ann Mary his wife, with their infant son John Jacob; John Michael Miicke (now Micke) and Catharine his wife; and Matthew Krause and Christiana his wife. Michler was appointed chaplain of the household ; the mill was given in charge of Christi, for whose convenience an apartment had been snugly fitted up in the mill building, aside of the great water-wheel which sang young John Jacob's lullaby many a time to the relief of dame Christi, as often as she was elbow-deep in domestic duties and could ill afford 10 FRIEDENSTHAL to have her attention diverted to another channel ; Miicke was ap- pointed farmer, and Krause was given him as an assistant. 1 In this way, then, was the Moravian Vale of Peace peopled ; and being peopled, it unwittingly set about making history, the loose euds and fragments of which it has been the writer's en- deavor to collect and weave into a coherent web. The 324 acres of land on which the Moravians began Friedens- thal, as we have seen, was an L shaped tract with the longer limb stretching eastwardly from the Barony some 390 rods — full 200 1 John Wolfgang Michler, a native of Wiirtemberg, a linen-weaver by trade, sailed in the "Little Strength" in the autumn of 1743, and was settled at Nazareth in 1744. He was ordained a deacon in 1762, and labored in the rural churches. Michler left descendants by sons and daughters. One of his sons was Nathaniel, proprietor of the Jacobsburg Inn, among the pines and scrub-oaks of Bushkill, as late as 1809— father of the late Hon. Peter S. Michler of Easton, father of Brevet Brig. Gen Nathaniel Michler of the U. S Army. Rudolph Christi, a native of Wiirtemberg, miller and farmer, sailed in the Os- good, Win. Wilkie, master, in the autumn of 1700, and was residing at Bethlehem when he received his appointment to Friedensthal. He died at Gnadenthal in May of 1763. Christi left descendants by sons and daughters. One of his six children was John Jacob Crist, who became a resident of new Nazareth in 1772, dying at that place in April of 1805, — father of John Jacob Crist Jr., who died in the borough of Nazareth in November of 1862, — father of Win. Crist and Richard Crist, — Richard Crist being father of Francis Crist. John Michael Miicke, a native of Upper Silesia, n cooper by trade, sailed in the "Little Strength," and was settled at Nazareth. The last twenty-five years of his life were spent at Gnadenthal, where he died in 1786. Miicke left descendants through sons and daughters. He had four sons : Peter, John, Lewis and Matthew- Lewis died in 1837 at the residence of his son Lewis Jr., at Wardsburg or Tria, situated on the old "through-route" to the Wind Gap in Plainfield township. He reached the great age of 84 years, and is well remembered as having been a diligent knitter of men's mittens and hose in the evening of his life Lewis Jr. reached the age of 84 years and died at Wardsburg, in 1871 He is best recalled by the name of "Squire Miicke," having held the scales of justice in Plainfield for a full half century. Lewis Jr., was the father of several sons, one of whom is John Micke, of Easton, merchant, — father of John W. Micke, of Easton. Matthew Krause, a native of Silesia, husbandman," sailed in the " Little Strength," and was settled at Nazareth. Having been ordained a deacon, lie was thereupon transferred to Bethabara, N. C, in 1755 There he died in 1762, and left descendants through sons and daughters One of his sons was Matthew Krause, Jr., who died at Christian's Spring in 1808, — the father of John Samuel Krause, watchmaker and silversmith, who died at Bethlehem in 1815, — father of Matthew Krause, merchant, who died at Bethlehem, in 1865, — lather of J. Samuel Krause of Bethlehem, merchant; and of Mary E., wife of Granville Henry of Boulton AND ITS STOCKADED MILL. 11 rods beyond the east branch of Bushkill. In the angle of this L were the lands of their next neighbor, Johannes Lefevre, of the Lefevres of Esopus. At his house Surveyor Scull and Wni. Par- sons had headquarters, when in May of 1752 they began to lay out the town of Easton. The relations existent between the Mo- ravians and the Huguenot were those of amity and peace; occasion- ally, however, interrupted, as for example, in July of 1759, when the latter was pleased to 'dog" two of Friedensthal's swine to death ; a lesson which farmer Hancke was instructed to improve in the right direction by looking well to his fences for the future. 1 North of the Moravian iract stretched so called "Barrens," as yet vacant, and on the south lay two tracts held by that arch-spec- ulator in Province territory hereabouts, His Honor Mr. Chief Justice A 1 It'ii. - Finally a tract of 315 acres, which backed up against the extreme ea terly line of the Moravian L was held and farmed in Indian fa hion by the well-known Delaware chieftain Tatamy, the Pd- tamy of Loskiel, the Dadamy of Conrad VVeiser, and the Moses Linda Tatamy of the Colonial Records/ 5 1 In 1774 the Lefevre tract was held in part, by John Van Etten, Lefevre h ing, as is said, removed with his family to South Carolina; and in part by A idrew Stocker. In 1785 Frederick Dield held the bulk of the old farm, and subsequently, and (within the memory of some here present) the Searles, both father and son, surveyors. The Lefevre homestead, a double log-house, is well remem- bered by Ebenezer Searle, of Bath, surveyor. 2 The "Barrens," as far as they touched the head line of the Moravian Tract, were held in 1774, in part by Robert Matthews and Peter Kiichlein, and in 1785 by Martin Kindt, Peter Ehrich and George Stocker. Andrew Stocker and Michael Stocker occupied a part of the Allen lands in 1776. 3 Count Zinzendorf interviewed Tatamy on his plantation in July of 1742. When David Brainerd began his missionary labors in the Forks of Delaware, in the early Summer of 1744, he employed Tatamy in the capacity of interpreter, and in July of 1745 admitted him by the rite of baptism into the fellowship of the Christian church, naming him Moses. " He was well suited for the work of an interpreter" writes Brainerd, " in regard of his acquaintance with the Indian and English language, as well as with the manners of both nations." Writes Thomas Penn to Governor Hamilton in October of 1760: "I forget whether I ever men- tioned that Tatamy took a patent for land in the Forks of Delaware several miles to the north of Easton. I suppose him to be the same Tatamy now employed in Province affairs, a circumstance which should be m^de use of to show his sense of his having purchased it. I believe it was with the privity of the Delaware Indians." In 1776 the Tatamy tract was held by George Stecher, next by John Stecher, and in 1855 in part by Valentine Werkheiser. 12 FRIEDENSTHAL Tat's Gap, a pass over the Blue Hills at the head of Tat's Gap- road in Upper Mount Bethel, perpetuates the name of this dusky worthy of Provincial times. The east branch of Lehietan or Bush- kill, however, has lost its quondam name of TYitamy's Creek. From the status of their neighborhood it will be rightly inferred that the Moravians of Friedensthal, at the beginning of their Economy had no reason to complain of being inconveniently crowded ; in fact, such was not the case until years after the erec- tion of Northampton County, in as far as their domain bordered on those undesirable 11,000 acres of land which the Proprietaries in 1737 had incorporated in their Manor of Fermor or the Dry- lands. This was the region of country which Count Zinzendorf, soon after his return to Germany, in a letter written to Spangen- berg, pronounced waste, desert and worthless. The Moravians, in this sequestered corner of the "Forks," were in fact almost utterly cut off from the rest of the world, there being but one King's road by which they were directly linked to its din and turmoil, — to wit: the highway which led to the upper Ulster-Scot or Hunter's Set- tlement on Martin's Creek, in Lower Mount Bethel. In December of 1754, it is true, there was laid out by order of Court, a second King's road, " leading from Friedensthal past the Nazareth lime- kiln, below Christian's Spring saw-mill and brewery, to a certain place where the Brethren intend to build a saw-mill 1 on the western- most branch of Menakes on Nazareth land." To Nazareth and Bethlehem, however, and not to the great world without, did the Friedensthalers look for fellowship, and hence their isolation was practically immaterial. There are those living who have heard the fathers tell of a footpath by which the residents on the "Kill" were wont to journey to Nazareth, whether on Sundays or holy days, on their way to the house of God at Ephrata or the Hall — or on week days on matters of secular busi- ness. This path led through the heart of a piece of noble wood- land and then across great meadows, past limestone quarries and the site of the old Indian town, bringing you, after a charming half-hour's stroll, to the hospitable doors of the " great house on the hill." Many a time did Spangenberg, Boehler, Seidel, Graff, Lembke, Grube and other worthies of the Church, pass and re- 1 This mill was never erected. TOWN OF NAZARETH, /arc/ out between. OlcLNciztzreihancl . A lizare th ffcdl t/i Jcox y //77. f > - • *l If3 I r TT~* /**■?•*•!•%£'-•.. Mil Iff! Mb 8. Villa (/< ' JScfltt^rc. C.WarcltLiLS IfoustS *// G. <7>v. for t/n use o/t/tc ftis « J3 a ran In Nor tli am COMPRISING ITS SCALE OF RODS. 7^T07-rv jSztr^eys by CGReviier, a?- 7D-r ■7*". >/:„ V,v/'.i&' 8R fcgggfe # g^ ; %^^m DESCRIPTION AND CONTENTS OF THE LAND AT Christian's Spring, Gnadenthal, Acres. Roods. Perches. 1600, O, O, 1010, 3, O, TOTAL, S09S Acres, w Dates of trie Fouiaclaiicm or the Five iVloi'cCviaia S ettlenaeiais. Nazareth,.. J743. Gnadenthal oi-Vale of Grace, 1745. Christian's Spring 174S. Friedensthal ..r Vale of Peace, \749. Th e Rose 175?. NAZARETH, SHOWING HOW IT WAS DIVIDED IN 1785. Loods. Perch 2, IO O, 14, Acres. Roods. Perches. Nazareth, (including "The Rose") 1866, 2, IO, Friedensthal, 61J 1 Rood, 24 Perches. AND ITS STOCKADED MILL. 13 pass by this sylvan walk in the discharge of their official duties ; — perhaps to bring tidings from abroad with the latest instalment of "Periodical Accounts"— perhaps to announce a death in the brotherhood, or to look after the spiritual condition of the Frie- densthalers ; perchance to read them a homily or peradventure a fraternal lecture! And as for Bethlehem, — with it they were in close connection by way of the great King's road, leading " from the Bethlehem line N.N. E., quite to Nazareth 2840 perches," as was ordered by the Court of Quarter Sessions held at Newtown, in Bucks County, in March of 1745. The members of the household rose with the lark, — (in winter before the lark} and having broken their fast on frugal fare, re- paired, each to his daily toil. At 9 o'clock a bell that was hanging in the yard called them to lunch ; — when the shadow of the index on the sun-dial at the mill marked the hour of twelve, they met for the noonday meal ; — at two post meridiem, for a cup of coffee and bread or rolls, — and at sunset for the evening repast. A hard- working people they were ! And the saying ascribed to then), which has come down to us as a tradition — " Wenn nur gegessen, geschafft war' bald," savors strongly of waggery. Before proceeding to review the personal and local details of the Friedensthal Economy, it is in place to state, that its history em- braces two periods ; — a period in which the industries of peace, both at the mill and on the farm were pursued without molesta- tion, — and a period of unrest, rife with rumors of war, when non- combatant members would fain have turned their plowshares and pruning-hooksintoswords!— but could not. Who is there that would give to mill-life or farm-life one thought? Does not mill-life merely bring us face to face with that clannish people which loves to locate its strongholds in shadowy places on the border of some romantic stream, among willows and alders, through whose quivering foliage the sun-beams by day and the moon-beams by night flicker fitfully against the walls of the mill ; a long square shouldered pile of logs or stone, with flaring gable and a peaked cock-loft, — whence dan- gles a rope like a hangman's — and at whose side there is hung a ponderous wheel, with its periphery humid and dark and green with slimy moss, which in summer rolls round slowly, and thought- fully, and mournfully, as though life were a burden too grievous to be borne ; — in winter, a huge motionless thing like some Arctic 14 FRIEDENSTHAL giant in the repose of death,— its floats and buckets covered with frozen foam and splendent with ice-spears. As for the miller, — or the whole race of millers, — are they not the men who grow prematurely gray because of their sinning in the article of toll ? — Are they not the men who hold fellowship with spiders which project geometrical diagrams into the nooks and corners of the dusty mill, not from a love for science, but to beguile innocent flies? Are they not, - Christians through they profess to be — priests of the mysteries of Ceres? Are they not the men who bob for eels in dark nights with dark lanterns— who catch the poor little fishes in brooks — who love the lazy hum of the waterfall and the kingfisher's rattle, and the very tremor and quiver of the floors under their feet, and all things strange and weird, — and who when not consulting the sun-dial or weathercock, or discerning the face of the heavens listlessly, with but half of their bodies visible to their fellow-crea- tures in the doorway over head, may be seen with great goggles riding a buhrstone by way of a hobby; --and who, when they steal silently out of their crazy and shaky old mills to mingle with the race of articulate men, look white all over, as if just arrived from the region of perpetual snow? The Friedensthal mill, under the management of Brother Ru- dolph Christi and his successors, proved a valuable acquisition to " the upper places," and gladdened the hearts of the men of the Barony. It was also a convenience for the neighbors, and we read that for the year ending June 1, 1755, there was taken toll of grain as follows, to wit: Toll of wheat, . . 154 bushels, rye, . . 185 " buckwheat, . . 42 " " Indian corn, . 37 " The price of wheat at the time was 3s. 6d., or 47 cents, and that of the other cereals a proportionate figure. For the same year there were ground for the " upper places" and for Bethlehem, 631 bushels of wheat, 286 of rye, 87 of buckwheat and 76 of Indian corn. In November of 1758 a second run of mill-stones, cut near Fort Allen, was added to the mill-works. The brethren who con- ducted this lucrative branch of industry, for the benefit of the Economy at Friedensthal, during Moravian Proprietorship, were the following; to wit: AND ITS STOCKADED MILL. 15 Rudolph Christi, first on the rolls ; — he dying, as we are disposed to believe, within a six months after entering upon his duties, was succeeded by Hartmann Verdries, (1751-1756) —the same Hartmann who had been one of the first landlords of "The Crown," and who ex- changed his position here, for that of host at " The Rose," in the late summer of 1756. Verdries was subsequently some time miller at Bethlehem. He died in Frederick Co., Maryland, i:i 1774. Philip Transou, (Thirty-pence), a Palatine, (1756-1760), was our third miller. He had acquired the art of milling at Bethlehem, and pursued the same avocation at Lititz, Lancaster Co., on his removal to that settlement in April, 1762. Hartmann Verdries took charge of the mill for a second time in 1760. Harmanus Loesch, a son of John George and Philippine Loesch and a native of Tulpehocken, which being interpreted is " the land of the tortoise" in old Berks, ran the mill between 1762 and 1765. In the last named year lie was succeeded by Daniel Oesterlein, a Wiirtemberger from the once imperial city of Ulm, and a locksmith by trade. But nevertheless, he administered the concerns of our mill acceptably for a full lunar year. Oesterlein and his wife Elizabeth, and infant son, together with the two Brand- miller's, were the sole inhabitants of Friedensthal. when, in the spring of 1767, it passed into the hands of a tenant. He died at old Nazareth, where he spent the remainder of his life, in 1768. Harmanus Loesch succeeded Oesterlein, and ground the last grist with which the Moravians were concerned, on the 25th of March, 1771. The mill property then passed into the hands of strangers. He died at Bethlehem in 1791. These, then, were the men who furnished the inhabitants of the Barony with the staff of life; the men who, like Joseph, when in the plenteous years the earth brought forth by handsful,- -gathered, into the mill, corn as the sand of the sea, very much, until they left numbering, — for it was without number, —and who, when their Brethren cried for bread, opened the storehouse at the mill and filled their Brethren's sacks with food. It behooves us, in the next place, to record the names, in their suc- cession, of the men who furnished the members of the household at Friedensthal with spiritual sustenance. 1 6 FRIEDENSTHAL Michler was succeeded in the Chaplaincy in the autumn of 1754 by Brother John Munster of Zauchtenthal, Moravia, and Rosina, his wife. Munster was succeeded by Joseph Midler and Verona his wife, — the same Miiller, who, as we read in "A Red Rose from the Olden Time," periodically practiced minor surgery and the art of phlebotomy at that ancient Inn. Miiller was succeeded in 1758 by John and Elizabeth Schneider, both born Moravians, and Schneider in 1764 by John Brandmiller from Basel, and Mary his wife. This was the last clerical couple domiciled in the so-called "Gemein-haus" at Friedensthal. Dur- ing Brandmiller's incumbency there was printed and published at Friedensthal, for the use of the American congregations, the edition of the standard collection of " Scripture Texts," prepared by the heads of the church in Saxony, for all its congregations and mis- sions for the year 1767. The printing was done in Roman char- acters, —and probably with the press and type that had been for- warded to Bethlehem in the autumn of 1761, from the lumber- rooms of the Lindsey House, Chelsea, Kensington Division of the Hundred of Ossulstone, Middlesex, England, --where Zinzendorf and his fellow- helpers some time sat in high council, directing the world-wide movements of the Church, and giving audience to the ambassadors of the Great King, even from the ice-bound fiords of Greenland and the remotest Indies. What disciple of Faust and Gutenberg executed this first specimen of the typographer's art done in Forks Township, this deponent knoweth not,' 1 Since writing the above, this deponent has found a copy of the rare libretto, (an octavo of 60 pages), in the library of the Moravian Archives at Bethlehem, entitled "Die taglichen Loosungen der Briider Gemeine fur das Jahr 1767," and bearing the imprint : "Gedruckt bey Bethlehem in der Fork Dellawar, by Johann Brandmiller, MI >CCLXVII." The head-piece on the first page is < iposed (if heraldic charges and crests peculiar to the armory of the sovereigns of Great Britain, subsequent to tin- accession of James I — showing, among others, the fleur- de-lys, the crown, the [rish harp and the rose and thistle of the Tudors. John Brandmiller was born on the 24th of November 1704, in Basel, of parents who were members of the Reformed Church. In his 1 1th year lie was indentured to his uncle, a printer by trade — disliking the craft, and chafing under the close con- finementto which he was subjected, the adventurous lad went out into the world to seek his fortune. A year of wandering, in the course of which he worked his way up the Rhine to Amsterdam, and bitter experiences, brought him at the ex- AND ITS STOCKADED MILL. 17 We would justly subject ourselves to the charge of partiality for mills and millers, were we to pass over in silence the labors of those inmates of the Friedensthal Economy, who, as tillers of the soil and herdsmen, contributed very materially to its historic develop- ment. But here the reader must be cautioned against falling into a grave error, as he would inevitably do, — were he from premises of his own conception, — to conclude that when the Brethren pur- chased the Growden Tract, they designed to add one more to their grain- groicing plantations. It was a mill-site they needed and not a farm ; and when they came into possession of a desirable one, as we have seen, they very thoughtfully resolved to utilize the adja- cent acres in what manner time and experience might demon- strate as most feasible. From divers specific surveys, drawn by that clever Moravian draftsman, George Wenzeslaus Golkowfsky, a native of Brobeck, Principality Teschen, Upper Silesia — (he im- migrated in 1753, subsequently to 1762 was made bookkeeper-gen- eral for the Barony, with headquarters at Christian's Spring, and died at Nazareth in Dec. of 1813) — from divers surveys of "old Gully, as he was called by men still living — we learn that while the longer limit of the Moravian L on Bushkill was a plantation of scrub-oak — the very heart of the Growden Trad, bristled with brush and sapling — and there was comparatively little heavy timber piration of that time, to reflection ; and he turned his steps homeward. Having served out his apprenticeship, we find him subsequently, in the year 1735, set- tled in lite and tlie head of a family in Basel. About this time he heard of the Brethren's movement, and in 1738 was induced to visit Herrnhut. The impres- sion here made upon him, confirmed him in his resolution to unite with the Mo- ravians, and on the following year he removed with his family to Herrnhaag, near Frankfort-on-the-Main. There he was admitted to church-fellowship. In 1741 he accompanied the first colony of Brethren to Pennsylvania, and after a six- months sojourn in this country, sailed for the continent With his wife he re- turned in 1743, settled at Bethlehem, and was appointed steward — he being the first to fill the stewardship at that place. In 17i~> he was ordained a deacon of the Church. His appointments in the ministry were at Swatara, Allemangel, and Donegal successively. Occasionally he itinerated in the rural districts, after the manner of the Brethren of that day and traveled as an evangelist to the Walloons of New Pfaltz and Esopus on the Hudson, and the German settlers in Western Virginia. His last appointment was at Friedensthal. In 1768 he was recalled to Bethlehem and retired from active life. Thrice, he relates in his autobiography, he narrowly escaped death by drowning in the Rhine — and it was a singular coin- cidence that the lifeless body of the old Schweitzer should have been found in the mill-race at Bethlehem in the morning of August 16, 1777. 2 1 8 FRIEDENSTHAL to indicate the presence of fat land underfoot. In May of 1757, a parcel of 134 acres resting on the headline of the first purchase and on the head line of the Barony, was added to our domain — it being patented to the Brethren by the Hon'ble, the Proprietors, Thomas Penn and Richard Perm, by patent bearing date, May 21, of that year. This tract was known as the " Dam-Tract" not, (as some might erroneously suppose) because the soil was stubborn and perplexingly interwoven with grubs and scrub-oak— but because within its precincts, in the days of Henry Antes, the waters of the Bushkill were collected into a reservoir for feeding the mill-race. Thus Friedensthal territory was increased to 460 acres. At a later day, finally, there was added a very unsymmetrical parcel of 166 acres, which followed the serpentine windings of the Lehietan to the north of the " Dam-Tract ;" — nameless, although, forsooth it wedged itself into the very heart of that region of cis-montane Northampton — which is designated most persistently by early sur- veyors as ''•plains or barrens, covered with scrub-oak, up to the Blew Hills: , The prospect here, it must be confessed, was certainly a cheerless one (from the husbandman's point of view), and lest the men of Friedensthal should lose heart, there was given them a t ,enerous slice of baronial land, touching the Growdeu Tract on . s south- west corner. These 40 acres constituted the "grain-farm" for Friedensthal during the time of its Economy. For the rest — there were fine stretches of made meadow along the Bushkill — and green swales in among the scrub-oak of the " Dam-Tract" — all of which were used in the grazing of cattle and the pasturing of sheep, branches of industry which were most profitably conducted. Yet the stout hearts and the strong hands of the Wiirtembergers had to contend with many an obstacle — before the acres began to bud and unfold as the rose, and before there grew up for them a vine and a fig-tree. And these are the names of the Wiirtembergers and others with their wives, who dwelt here as tillers of the soil, as herdsmen, and as keepers of sheep : John Stoll, (1751) with Anna, his wife, from- Oettingen, hus- bandman, subsequently Cur many years saw-miller at Bethlehem and host of " The Crown," and the maternal grandfather of our late esteemed Bro. Andrew G. Kern. AND ITS STOCKADED MILL. 19 Ludwig Stotz, a Wiirtemberger from Lauffen, husbandman, and Johanna, his wife. Peter G'otje (1754-1755) from Holstein, cordwainer, and Bar- bara, his wife. (Born 1716 at St. Margaretta, Holstein — died March, 1798.) John Andrew Kremser, and Christina, his wife, sometime heads of the bureau of agriculture, and members of our Economy from 1753 to 1767; — outliving it, therefore, by three years, when in February of 1767 the old Silesian husbandman died in harness in the farm house. He was the father of John Kremser, the landlord of the Nazareth Inn, the second " Rose," in the last decade of the last century — and father of Charles Kremser of Bethlehem, cedar- cooper, now in his 78th year. 3fatthew Hancke and Elizabeth, his wife, superintended the farm between 1756 and 1763. In 1764 we find the Hanckes settled at Gnadenthal. (Born 1707 in Upper Silesia, died January, 1785, at Nazareth.) Other members of the Friedensthal Economy, hus- bandmen, and handicraftsmen, in the interval between 1754 and 1764 were the following, to wit: Peter Mordick, (1754) a Holsteiner, born 1716, died May, 1783, (at Naza-' th,) and Magdalene, his wife. Paul 1 itsche, from Moravia, carpenter, and Rosin a, his wife. Matthew Withe, from Moravia, and Ann Mary, his wife. George Crist, from Moravia, and Ann Mary, his wife. George Volck, (1758) of the Volcks of Allemangel on the springs of Antelauna, in old Berks, but a native of Di'irustein, near the erst imperial city Worms, and Tobias Demuth, a youth of sixteen summers, last from Alle- mangel. In January of 1764, our population were constituted as follows : Chaplain, Brandmiller ; miller, Loesch, wife and daughter Christina ; assistant miller, Oesterlein, and wife ; the two Fritsches; Christian Werner, a widower; Jacob Rubel, and Catharine his wife; David Kuntz, and Mary Elizabeth, his wife, and their infant son, John David. It would be gratuitous, indeed, to enlarge upon the delights of farm life as it glided by in this " Vale of Peace." Are not the charms of that life immortal in the rhapsodies of Homer, and decked with the unfading flowers of song in the Doric pastorals of 30 FREEDEjSTSTHAL Theocritus. And yet, for our forefathers here, it v;as not purely idyllic. There was much hard work to be done. There was the Tract at the Dam ! There were gum-trees growing on its eastern margin, to be felled and riven for firewood, and curled maples on the banks of the Bushkill, whose timber was coveted by the gun- stock-maker over at the Spring. There was the sweat of the brow in the harvest field, as well as the song of the lark in the dewy- meadow on a fine May morning. There were wrong headed young steers to be broken into docile "Bucks" and " Brights," 1 and now and then the majestic bell-wether, just as he was about to lead the way for the flock into the fold at eventide, startled as it were by some unholy remembrance, would turn tail on the barn-yard and fly as if on the wings of the wind for the swales on the Tract at the Dam with his panic stricken wives and little ones at his heels. It may delight the heart of the statistician to learn that the fol- lowing items, bearing on the status of the Friedenstha'l farm, have at different periods been gleaned from the very highest authorities extant. In 1754 there were on the farm, of meadow, 13 acres — of arable land, 21 acres. Five acres of the latter were in rye, sowed at the rate of one bushel per acre — five acres in wheat, sowed at the same rate — one acre in barley, sowed at the rate of two bushels per acre — six acres in oats, sowed at the same rate — two acres in flax, sowed at the rate of two bushels of flax-seed per acre — two acres of buckwheat, sowed at the rate of one bushel per acre, and one and one half acres in turnips. The yield of the farm for the following year, (1755), was as follows: Of hay, 8 loads; Of aftermath, 3 " Of wheat, 4 " yielding 80^ bu. of grain ; Of barley, 1 " " 27 « Of oats, 5J " " 235 Of flaxseed, 5 \ bushels ; Of buckwheat, 17 bushels. On the 31st of December of the same year there were in their stalls in the great stable — 4 milch cows; 27 head of young cattle, yearlings and three-year-olds — 1 yoke of* oxen, and 3 horses. For the year ending June I, 1755, there were consumed at 1 " October 15, 1752. Cash paid steward at Friedenstluil for two Brethren who learned two oxen to go., £2." Diaeonate's Ledger, D. AND ITS STOCKADED MILL. 2.1 Friedensthal lif4 gallons of Matthiessen's (horn 1712, died at Naz- areth 1796) beer, from the brewery at Christian's Spring— equiva- lent, it has been estimated by an expert, to fifty gallons of modern lager. This is but one of a number of similar records testifying to the habitual sobriety of its people. The Tract at the Dam being well adapted for pasture and for naught else, it was customary to summer the Bethlehem flock, as well as the sheep kept at the " upper places," within its precincts. Thus it happened that there fell in the month of June annually, at Friedensthal, the festival of sheep-shearing — than which there was none more joyous in the agricultural calendar of the Barony. It was preceded by sheep- washing — and we are not far from the very spot, which a century ago, resounded with the wail of heart- broken ewes as they emerged with dripping fleeces from the pool, to gather to their sides the lambkins from whom, they had been for a time so cruelly separated. Now the shearing of sheep here was altogether done by female labor — chiefly by our great-grandmothers and their sisters contemporaneous of Bethlehem, — a custom of which their great-grand-daughters and sisters contemporaneous should be proud, in as far as it prevailed long, long ago — at least a hundred years before the era of weak backs and poor man's plasters ! In April of 1761 there were 140 lambs at Friedensthal — in June of 1762 there were 213 ewes, and of lambs a proportionate number. The yield of the farm for the year ending 31st of May, 1763, was valued at ,£43, currency; and finally, when on the 31st May, 1764, there was an assessment made of the effects of the Econ- omy, the stock in the mill was rated at =£14-1-1, and the stock on the farm at £1 72-1 6-3, currency. Bidding a final adieu to these bucolic and pastoral scenes, we are now, in the right course of this narrative, brought face to face with that period in the history of Friedensthal which was rife with the rumors of savage warfare, and in which its non-combatant members would fain have turned their plow-shares and their pruning hooks into swords, but they could not ! We have come to the times of the so-called " French and Indian War," in which there was brought, by an invisible foe, swift destruction upon the frontiers of the Province — confounding the wisdom of its law-givers — bring- ing to naught the councils of its rulers, and threatening, at one time, to wrest its noble domain from the Crown of England. 22 FRIEDENSTHAL Whether might else than the accumulated wrongs at the hands of the white man under which the Delawares and their cousins, the Shawanese, were chafing, spurred them on to take the hatchet and the war-path at the solicitation of French emissaries, may, perhaps, never be known. Braddock's defeat in July of 1755, was the pre- lude to the invasion of the unprotected frontiers — desultory, fur- sooth, in its character, but, none the less bloody, fatal and desolating. The settlement on John Penn's Creek below Sunbury, was sacked on the 18th October. The great cove on the Conecocheague shared the same fate on the 3rd of November; and two weeks later the camp fires of the savages blazed along the line of the Blue Hills from the Susquehanna to the Delaware. But when on the morning of the 25th November, intelligence of the destruction of the Gnadenhiitten mission made men's hearts quail, the settlers of this part of the Province first realized that the enemy was at their door. Then followed in quick succession the affair at Hoeths 1 at the springs of Pocopoco, the attack on Brod head's, 2 and the precipitate flight of the inhabitants of trans-montane North- ampton, to the Moravian settlements on the Barony of Nazareth. They came like hound-driven sheep, a motley crowd of men, women and children, — Palatines, most of them, with uncouth names; some, as we read, " with clothes not fit to be seen of man- kind;" and some with scarce a sufficiency of rags to cover their nakedness. So, on the 29th of January, 1756, there were 253 of these houseless refugees at Nazareth, 52 at Gnadenthal, 48 at Christian's Spring, 21 at "the Rose" and 75 here at Friedensthal. Of this number 226 were children. The winter of 1755-6 was not only the darkest in the annals of the Province, but also in the annals of American Moravian history. A flourishing mission had been irreparably ruined, involving a heavy pecuniary loss, and the loss of precious lives, — and it seemd at this crisis, — now that their plantations were become frontier-posts, as though the seal of doom had been set upon all their earthly hopes and aspirations. Brad- 1 Frederick Hoeth, baker, from Zweibriicken. Immigrated in 1748, and is registered with his wife Johanette, among the members of the Philadelphia con- gregation in 1749. In 1750 he purchased 700 acres ol land on the Poo Creek, in Long Valley in Upper Northampton, now Monroe, Co., and removed thither with his family in 1752. He and his wife were surprised and killed by the Indians, December 10, 1755. Tli- ;iitack at Culver's near Brodheads. a* *6 . r, AND ITS STOCKADED MILL. 23 dock's defeat failed to move the Proprietary government to a sense of the danger that was imminent, and so, when the Indians in- augurated their bloody orgies, they tomahawked, and scalped and burned as they listed. But in December of '55, at the eleventh hour, Governor Morris hastened to put the Province on a war-foot- ing. Then it came to pass that the defence of the " back parts" of Northampton and Berks was committed to worthy hands. Hastily throwing aside the philosopher's gown, and donning the soldier's martial cloak, Franklin hurried hither to the scene of action, to run a new career. He was twice at Bethlehem; and, acquainting himself, while there, with the critical posture of the Moravian settle- ments, and cognizant of the importance to the Province at large of their integrity — made such disposition of the military under his command as to afford them some means of defence, if not to insure their safety. Turning to the annals of Friedensthal Economy, we find the first arrival of fugitives chronicled on the 13th of December, '55 and special mention made of a poor Palatine who had barely escaped from the hands of the murdering savages near Hoeth's. It was late in the night when word was brought him that Hoeth's had been cut off. There was not a moment to be lost — and so, taking his helpless wife upon his shoulders, as she lay in bed (she had but lately given birth to an infant) he fled for his life. On the 21st a fugitive brought the report to the farm that the fol- lowing night had been fixed upon by the Indians, for a simul- taneous attack upon the five plantations on the Barony. Brother Nathaniel Seidel of Bethlehem, who, so to say, was in command at the " upper places " since the breaking out of hostilities, with his headquarters at Christian's Spring, thereupon took precautionary steps to avert a surprise, and, there being two companies of riflemen at Nazareth, he posted Lieut. Brown of Captain Sol. Jenning's com- mand of Ulster-Scots, with 18 men, at Friedensthal. There was, however, no need of their presence, — or perhaps the enemy, aware of their presence, or seeing that they were foiled, desisted from their premeditated attack. It was a sad Christmas, forsooth, the Christ- mas of 1755, for the Christmas-loving Moravians— this dwelling in the midst of alarms in a horrible place. The sun of that memor- able year went down in blood ; and when a new sun rose in the morning of the 1st day of January, 1756, it was in a sky ail lurid 1.0FC. 24 FKIEDENSTHAL and dun — hung with heavy clouds along the northern horizon. The savages were again holding high carnival. They sacked New Gna- denhutten, (Weissport), — invaded the plains adjacent to the Barony — and overran the foot of the mountain between the Lehigh and the Delaware. Ascending columns of smoke marked the progress of the destroyers. It was now that there was a new influx of fugitives into the "upper places," and the second week of January there Mere in the Friedensthal mill — seventy-five pitiful objects, men, women and children, to wit : George Minier, wife and seven children. Philip Bossert, wife and seven children. Jacob Stechert, wife and seven children. • 2r ■ Michael Koster, wife and five children. Adam Engler, wife and four children. Leonard Beyer, wife and four children. William Lerch, wife and three children. Peter Schaefer, wife and three children. Martin Kindt, wife and three children. Frederic Ziegler, wife and two children. William Stuber, wife and two children. Hans Michel Walcker, wife and two children. George Webb and Magdalene his wife, she being the relict of Bro. Abraham Miller — the same who, as we have seen, was the custodian of the improvements on the Kill, and whose fate has been here- tofore related. 1 On the 6th of* January, Bro. Seidel agreed with four refugees at Friedensthal, to watch for the coming month at that place — ai the rate of £1-4-9, for the four per week, and food and lodging. The names of these guardians (thanks to the recorder), are Michael Biittler, John Biittler, Jacob Engler and John Schutterling. There were additional outlays for hired help of this kind at the Economy, in the course of this eventful year 1756. refugees returned to their homes after a few days sojourn — other* were remaining at the mill, far into the month of May. During their stay pro- vision was made by the Moravians not only for their temporal, but also for their spiritual wants -they met for worship in the mill — such as were able assisted in the labors of the farm. Finally they were also recipients of the charitable offer- ings forwarded to Bethlehem, bj the members of the "Friendly Association" in Philadelphia. AND ITS STOCKADED MILL. 25 On the loth of January a company of refugees at Bethlehem set out for the mountains, to look after their farms and cattle. Among them was Christian Boemper, a son of Abraham Boemper, of Beth- lehem, silversmith, and son-in-law oi" Frederic Hoeth— and Adam Hold, his servant, a Redemptioner. The party, and some soldiers who escorted them, fell into the hands of the Indians, near Schupp's mill, Hold alone escaping, with a seveie flesh wound in the arm, which eventually cost him the loss of that limb. 1 The killed, according to Capt. Trump, were Christian Boemper, Felty Hold, Michael Hold, Laurence Kunckle, and four privates of his com- pany, then stationed at Fort Hamilton, (Stroudsburgh). Andrew Kremser, in a letter, dated Friedensthal, January 22d, alludes to this sad affair, and gives us also additional information of great interest in the following words: "Yesterday there came to us three men from the mountain, whose parents are here with us. They report that the bodies of the eight were found, and buried by the soldiers. Christian Boemper's body was stripped quite naked — of Culver they knew nothing. Our dogs make a great noise every night 'till 12 o'clock, and run towards the island, which is very bushy ; and not without ground, I am inclined to suspect." We glean from the Peun'a Gazette— one Mulhausen, a Palatine, while breaking flax on the farm of Philip Bossert in Lower Smith- field, was shot through the body by an unseen Indian, receiving a wound, which, it was feared, would prove mortal. One of Bossert's sons running out of the house on the report of the gun, was shot by the enemy in several places, and soon died. Hereupon old Philip appeared on the scene of action, and exchanged shots with one of the attacking party, striking him in the small of the back, a reception 1 John Adam Hold was a native of Hanau, on the French border, where he was bom in September of 1737. After the affair at Schupp's mill, the wounded man was taken to Bethlehem, where, on the 29th of January, the arm was amputated by Dr. John M. Otto. Here he was admitted to the Brethren's house, was a mem- ber of their Economy eleven years, and in January of 1767, removed to Christian's Spring. There he died in 1802. Despite the loss of his left arm, Hold in time be- came an expert axeman, and he is known as the man who cut down the thickest tree in the Weissthal, on the Barony. The late Bro. Samuel Reinke told the writer that he had a very vivid recollection of Adam Hold — that he was a short, thickset old man, and that whenever he came from the Spring to Nazareth, he was accom- panied by two large dogs. 26 FKIEDENSTHAL that sent the savage oft*' 1 howling." He himself, however, received a fleshwound in the arm. At this juncture some of Bossert's neigh- bors came to the rescue, and the five remaining Indians (for there had been a Avar-party of six) made off. Miilhausen was taken to the Friedensthal mill, where he received surgical treatment at the hands of Dr. Otto, 1 whose professional services were in great demand at this time, far beyond the Moravian horizon. But the poor man was beyond help, and on the 3d of March he breathed his last. The burial service of our church was read over the remains, by Brother Graff, as they lay in the mill — and there upon they were removed by the widow, for interment in a neighboring graveyard. The Moravians of olden times, as a people, it is well known, con- scientiously scrupled bearing arms -and in an Act of Parliament, entitled "An Act for encouraging the people known by the name of Unitas Fratrum, or United Brethren to settle in his Majesty's Colonies in America," passed at Westminster, on the 10th day of March, 1748, in the reign of the second George— they were con- ditionally exempted from doing military service in any of his Majesty's Colonies or Provinces in that hemisphere. But they were far from scrupling to defend themselves against the violence of wicked men. Franklin forsooth, when on his way from Bethlehem to Fort Allen to discharge an old rusty swivel or two, that he had planted on that maiden fortification of his, by way of Leyden jars, comments in accordance with the bent of his philosophical mind on the posture of our forefathers, after the following manner : " I men- tioned my surprise to Bishop Spangenberg at finding the brethren who kept watch, armed, knowing that they have obtained an Act of Parliament, exempting them from military duty, — and I thought to myself, in face of facts, that they had either deceived themselves or Parliament." Be this as it may, the commander-in chief at the "upper places" called a council of war at Friedensthal on the 9th of 1 John Matthew Otto was born in Meiningen, 9th November, 1714. Studied medicine and surgery at Augsburg. Immigrated to Pennsylvania and arrived at Bethlehem in July of 1750. For thirty-six years he was physician and >urgeon of the Brethren's settlements. < >n L7th September, 1753, he married Joanna Sophia Magdalene Dressier. She dying 20th February, 1776, he was mat 3econdtime, 28th October, L778, to Maria Magdalen Schmidt. The daughter of his son, Joseph Otto, married I >r. II. B. Smith of Nazareth, the father of Rev. Henry 1. Schmidt, Gebhard Professor in Columbia College, New York, and of Edward Otto Smith, merchant, of Philadelphia, Dr. Otto died . -it Bethlehem, 9th A.ugust, L785. CO D O cd X '"- e ■- X d > «J X h AND ITS STOCKADED MILL. 27 March, al which it was resolved to stand vigilantly on the de- fensive, and to stockade the place. As there was no time to lose, timber for the piles was commenced to be felled on the third day after the council,— and before the expiration of the month, the Frie- densthalers, with the assistance of the young men of Christian's Spring, had completed the work. It enclosed the mill, the dwell- ing, the barn and the stabling over ihe way. Commissary General of ye musters, James Young, has left us a description of this piece of Moravian engineering— though, forsooth, he treats it rather cavalierly, we ween, when he writes in his report to Gov. Morris, under date of June 25, briefly, as follows : " It is a large but slight stockade about 400 feet one way, and 250 the other, with lot" houses at the corners for bastions." Whether this rude fortifi- cation was retained as long as those at Nazareth and Gnadenthal, is very questionable. Among the refugees domiciled in the Whitefield House, at Nazareth, at this date, there was a family of Culvers, to wit : Ephraim, the father; Elizabeth, his wife; Ephraim Jr., and four daughters. They had been for years attached to the Moravian domestic mission in Lower Smithfield, to which township they had moved in 1751, and when on the invasion of that township in the second week of December last, prudence became the better part of valor, the Culvers fled. It was a narrow escape for the miller and his family — as, on looking back, when but a few miles on their flight, they saw both mill and dwelling wrapped in flames. It being well known to the Brethren, that Satan finds work for idle hands to do, young Ephraim Culver was put to "miller Verdries." Thus our little Economy received an increase in its population of one. But, in 1769, we find this Culver at Bethlehem, occupying, as baker, the large stone house in which the late John F. Wolle conducted a store for the benefit of the Moravian Society. We have thus rehearsed the most trying period for the Brethren, in the course of the so-called "French and Indian War," which was protracted into the spring of 1758. It may here he stated that on the 24th August, 1756, the shingled roof of the dwelling in Friedensthal took fire from sparks from the bake-oven, and had not Lefevre's people lent helping hands, it was thought that the entire settlement would have been laid in ashes. 28 FRIEDENSTHAL While visiting in the spring of 1871, at the house of the vener- able Philip Boerstler, whose farm lies a short mile west from here, the writer learned the following tradition, which has been pre- served in the Boerstler family from the days of the grandfather, John Boerstler, only son of Jacob Boerstler, who immigrated from the Palatinate in 1724 — settled in Oley and there in 1727 married Catharine Peter. It relates to these turbulent times. Pointing in the direction of the lowland which stretches out to the south of his farm — and which in the earliest surveys of the Barony, in the surveys of Renter and Golkowfsky is called "The Long Meadow" or " The Meadows," pa/r excellence, — pointing thither as we were taking a cooling draught from the " Indian Spring," near his door- way, " There," said Philip, " at the base of that limestone ridge which bounds the meadows on the south, ran a trail between old Nazareth and Friedensthal — and on that trail, one of our minister- ing brethren, in the times of the Indian war, escaped. with his life from the deadly aim of an Indian's rifle as by a miracle. It was the custom of our brethren to make the tour of the settlements on the tract — dispensing words of cheer or ghostly comfort to men whose hearts were failing them amid the harrowing uncertainties in which they lived. Thrice had the passing evangelist been marked by the lurking savage in his covert on the ridge, and thrice did the- painted brave pass his fingers across the notches in his tally, which reminded him that there was but one scalp lacking of the needed twelve, to insure him a captainship in his clan. The love of glory fired the dusky warrior's bosom, but he hesitated to perpetrate the foul deed, for in his intended victim he recognized the man whom he had once heard speaking words of peace and mercy and forgiveness, in the turreted little chapel on the Mahoning. But when the coveted prize was within his view for the fourth time, casting from him the remembrance of better things, and calling upon the Evil Spirit to smite him a paralytic, should he quail in taking aim, the frenzied Delaware drew a deadly bead upon our brother, and almost saw himself a chieftain — when lo! his rifle fell to the earth, and the brawny limbs and the keen sight lost their cunning for those of an im- potent." "And what was the subsequent fate of this so marvel- lously thwarted savage?" 1 asked. "He became a convert," replied Philip, "and a helper at the mission." "And did you AND ITS STOCKADED MILL. 29 learn the evangelist's name?" I questioned — said Philip, " Fries, or Grube, I believe." 1 The precautions which, as we have seen, were taken to secure Friedensthal against a surprise from the " enemy Indians," as they are called in the old records, were only intermitted toward the close of 1757. There were repeated alarms and rumors — and then serious apprehensions that there would be a repetition of the barbaric horrors of the winter of 1755-56. In the third week of March, 1757, the stewards of the "upper places" were cau- tioned to keep vigilant watch — to reset the shutters on the houses, and to secure the gates of the pallisades with strong fastenings. About the same time Warden Schropp, 2 on learning that the setting of the watches might no longer be done with- out the Governor's special leave, petitioned his Honor, Gov. Denny, to sanction tlie appointment of our miller "Thirty Pence," to be overseer of the watch at the Friedensthal plantation." There was certainly need of this new care — for on the 24th March, 1 The following stanza from a rhythmical narrative of the event that occurred at Nazareth during the month of November, 1756 — lends credence to the substance of this piece of tradition of the olden ime. "Der Feind schwiirmt taglich um uns 'rum, Und wollt uns iiberfallen; Der Arm wurd ihm in Schiessen stumm, S'Gewehr musst ab warts fallen." 3 Matthew Schropp from Kaufbeuren, circle of Swabia, Bavaria, and Ann Mary, m. n., Thomet his wife ; immigrated with the " Second Sea Congregation" in 1743 He was ordained a Deacon in 1748. Warden at Bethlehem, Nazareth, and Bethabara, N. C, where he deceased in 1767. Descendants are numerous — most of those now present through a daughter married in 1781 to William Henry of Lancaster, then settled at Nazareth. 3 " But being sensible that this cannot be done regularly without the Governor's special leave, or rather his orders. We hereby request your Honor to authorize the said Watch under your Hand and Seal, and to appoint George Klein and Johann Ortlieb, in Bethlehem; Godfried Schwarz, in Christiansbrunn Plantation; Abraham Hessler, in Gnadenthal Plantation; Nicholas Shafier, in Nazareth Plan- tation ; and Philip Transue, in Friedensthal Plantation, overseers of the said Watch, and Henry Frey to be chief overseer of the Watches in the tour last above mentioned Plantations &c." " By the Hon'ble Wm. Denny, Esqr. Lt. Gov'r. Capt. Gen'l, and Com't in Chief of ye Province of Penn'a and Co'tes of N., K. and S., upon Delaware. "To George Klein and John Ortlieb, of Bethlehem, in ye Co'ty of Northamp- ton, Greeting : ''Whereas. — Ye Moravian Brethren, seated within ye Forks of Delaware, have by their arldress of ye 14th of this Inst., March, represented to me y't in ye time of ye late Ravages, Murders and Devastations committed by ye Indians upon Inhabitants in ye back parts of this Prov., they ye s'd Moravian Brethren, were obliged for their Defence and Safety of themselves and many of their neighbors, who resorted thither for y't purpose, to fortify and secure the several of their set- tlem't w'th Stocadoes, and to place and to keep therein Military Watches ; and 30 FRIEDENSTHAL David Heckewelder, 1 father of John Heckewelder, missionary to being desirous to continue ye same till the apprehensions of further Mischief from ye s'd Indians and our declared enemies ye French are over, they have humbly besought me to grant my Commission (amongst others) to you, ye s'd Geo. Klein and John Ortlieb, to be Overseers or Captains of ye Military Watch, w'ch the said Brethren propose, at their own expense, to continue to keep at Bethlehem at"d ; and I having, with ye Provincial Council, taken into consideration the necessity, utility and advantage of such a Military Watch for ye safety, protection and De- fence, as well ye s'd Moravian Brethren as other ye Inhabitants of y't part of ye Prov.; and Reposing special Trust and Confidence in your Ability, Loyalty, Courage and Fidelity, I have, and by these presents in witness of ye powers in ye behalf to act, do constitute, authorize and appoint you ye s'd Geo. Klein and John Ortlieb, to be ye Captains or Overseers, jointly, or either of you, severally, of ye Military Watch, to be kept and continued by ye s'd Brethren at Bethlehem, af 'd ; Giving and hereby Granting, as well unto you, ye s'dCap'ns or Overseers, as to ye rest of s'd Military Watch, full power and authority to take and use arms, and by force of arms to repel, pursue, apprehend, size, take, hold and destroy all such In- dian and enemies who shall commit or attempt to commit any hostilities within this Prov. "And you are, by all opportunities and means in your power, to gain all ye In- telligence you can of ye motions, strength and designs of any Indian or other En- emies who shall appear in your part of ye prov., and upon obtaining any such material Intelligence, immediately to send me full information thereof, from time to time, this Commission to continue. "Have appointed and Commissionated ye following persons to lie Capt'ns or over- seers of ye watches to be kept and continued in ye respective places herein after stated, that is to say, Godfried Schwarz, at Christian Brunn plant'n, Abram Hessler, at Gnadenthal plant'n, Nidi's Schaffer, at Nazareth plant'n, and Philip Trentsou, ai Friedensthal plant'n, and Trust and confide in your Ability, Loyalty, Courage and Fidelity, and judging you fitly qualified for ye purpose, Have and by these pr'ts do in virtue of ye power in ye behalf to me given, hereby constitute, authorize and appoint you ye s'd Henry Frey to be Chief Capt'n or overseer for ye superintend- ing and better ordering of ye Military Watches at ye s'd Several plant'ns of Chris- tian Brunn, Gnadenthal, Nazareth, Friedensthal, And ye s'd watches and Capt'n thereof are hereby required to be subordinate to and strictly to observe and obey your orders and directions in ye premises, giving full power and authority to take, seize amies with ye assistance of ye s'd Military watches or any of you, by force of amies to repel. "As you are carefully to obey and observe my Orders and Instructions from time to time, and those of ye Gov't and Com't in Chief of ye s'd Prov. for ye time being. " Giving, &c. "6 Separate Commissions, to wit: "1st to George Klein and | forBethlehem John Ortlieb. i "2d to Godfried Schwarz, in Christian's Brunn. "3d to Abram Hessler in Gnadenthal. "4th to Nicholas Shaffer in Nazareth. "5th to Philip Trentsou in Friedensthal. " 6th to Henry Frey, to he Chief Captain or overseer of Christian's Brunn, Gnadenthal, Nazareth and Friedensthal." In June of 1756 Captain Inslee, Ensign Inslee and twenty-four men were stationed in the Mill. 1 David Heckewelder, a a itive of Moravia, whence he emigrated to Herrnhut. Labored in tin- service of Ins church in Bedfordshire and Yorkshire, England, in the interval between L742 and 17o4. Together with Ins wife and children, he sailed for Pennsylvania in March, and arrived at Bethlehem in April of 17~>l In 1759 he was called to enter the Moravian Mission on St. Thomas, \Y. 1. He died on (he island of St John in 1760. AND ITS STOCKADED MILL. 31 the Delawares, who was residing in an apartment in Nazareth Hall (then not fully completed) reported that he had found, not a stone's throw from the house, suspended from a sapling in the woods, an Indian token wrought from swan's feathers — a token such as served to mark the chosen site of a rendezvous for warriors, when about to strike a blow. In April the savages were again at work in the townships of Lehigh and Allen. " We are in the utmost consternation and confusion, and expect daily to be murdered by the Indians" — is the burden of the petition for military protection, presented to the Governor in behalf of these harrassed townships, by Frederic Al- temus, James Kennedy and others. And so it came to pass, that in the first week of May, our mill was once more filled with fugi- tives. It was one of this number who brought the sad intelligence that Webb's place had been burned last Sunday by some Indians led on by a Frenchman. Webb's wife, Abraham Miller's widow, and her son Abraham, were taken prisoners. This statement was confirmed a few weeks later by the lad, who had effected his escape. Under date of 22d August, of the year we are reviewing > Warden Schropp reported to the Governor : "In Friedensthal mill they all have arms, and are constantly on the guard and watch by turns." This was no more than three weeks before the high- handed outrage perpetrated by some of Tadeuskund's subjects up at Keller's in Plainfield, where, one day while Joseph Keller was plowing for a neighbor, there came a war party of Delawares, en- tered Keller's castle, laid hands on his wife and three sons— but considerately enough, left a babe in the cradle untouched, the little thing being, doubtless^ deemed by them unavailable property, under the circumstances. Subsequently to this, no event, to our knowledge, occurred on the borders of the Barony, which was calculated to fill its inhabitants with dread of Indian forays, for the immediate present. A spirit of lawlessness, however, it would appear, seized hold of others than Indians during the prevalence of the protracted war, or rather, succession of marauds which we have been considering. They became demoralized — as the saying is — and some of the demoralized neighbors of the Moravians were moved, in August, of L756, lo invade and sack the orchards of that industrious 32 FRIEDENSTHAI. people. Now by these orchards, stocked as they were with the choicest grafts — grafts of " early harvest," of the "summer greening," and of "spitzenbergers," both red and white, — our forefathers laid great store — as on their yield they depended alto- gether for their winter's supply of dried fruit, and conserves of apples, — now the latter was locally called "apple-butter," — probably because of its proving an economical and yet appetizing sub- stitute for the "Goshen" of those days — prime Goshen was made at Christian's Spring — and this apple-butter was stored away in earthen crocks, as capacious almost, as the oil-jars of the treach- erous guest of Ali Baba — and then entrusted to the " master of the cellar" (Kellermeister), for safe keeping. But when the crop of apples on the Barony was in a fair way of failing in conse- quence of these inroads on the orchard, there was posted a word of caution to the trespassers in the Friedensthal mill, as well as in the smithy at the Spring and in " The Rose."' You may read it, ver- batim et literatim in the volume of the chronicle entitled "A Red Rose from the Olden Time." What mishap befell the bell that from the first rung out its summons for the Friedensthalers, we have failed to learn — and the " reminder" thrown out by its presiding officer in the course of the sessions of a little council held at Nazareth on the 15th of Sep- tember, to wit: " The bell at the nursery needs looking after, lest it share the fate of the Friedensthal bell," remains an unsealed riddle for this deponent, even unto the present day. Friedensthal received a respectable accession to its population (which, by the way, exceeded a baker's dozen) in May of 1758. Three families of Delawares, sixteen souls all told, were permitted to plant on its domain. Bishop Spangenberg tells us who they were in a " List of Indians," with remarks appended, which he prepared for George Croghan in September following. " They were In- dians of Tadeuskund's party who came in from the Susquehanna country after Gov. Morris's proclamation of a cessation of arms. The Commissioners providing for them, they were located here as neutrals, and all the time while they lived by Bethlehem, in Saucon Township, where the Tavern is, gave us unspeakable trouble. We applied to the Governor, to the Assembly, and to the Commissioners to have them removed — for we did not like these guests — but in vain. At last in the spring, they returned to the AND ITS STOCKADED MILL. 33 Susquehanna, and then Nicodemus, Zaccheus, Nathaniel and Jon- athan begged a little piece of land to plant, which we gave them at Nazareth and Friedensthal." These vagrants were tolerated on their lands by the Brethren till the time of the fall-hunt. Mean- while there was light work given them to do on the farm, and Chaplain Grube of Gnadenthal, ministered to them weekly in things spiritual, for they had been instructed in the tenets of the Christian religion at the Gnadenhuetten mission. Full four years of tranquility passed, and we have come, in the course of this history, to the summer of the year 1763, the summer of that memorable year, in which the Indian people of the then western country conspired under Pontiac, the Ottawa, in a mighty effort to reclaim their ancestral seats from the English, and drive the hated intruders into the waters of the great Salt Lake. This movement on the part of their western brethren, awakened memories of old wrongs in the bosoms of the Indians east of the Alleghanies — and they unburied the hatchet. It was feared that the horrors of the autumn of ] 755 would be re-enacted. Isolated settlements along the frontiers again became the scene of barbarities — and when it was learned that the enemy was maraud- ing on the south side of the Blue Mountains, the Moravians in Northampton trembled for the safety of their homes. It was in- deed a critical time. The pallisades were reset around the houses of their women and children, and on their farms guards were set, and guard-houses built — and old cutlasses and blunderbusses fur- bished up, and no preparation neglected that might insure a suc- cessful repulse of the dreaded invaders. Once more, and for the last time in its history, the inhabitants of this peaceful vale, girded on baldric and sword and took buckler, for the defence of their firesides. The mill-wheel stood motionless — the long rope dangled listlessly from the cockloft— the click of the shuttle in the weaver's room was mute, and the cobbler's lapstone gathered moss as it lay neglected under his leather-seated bench ! In the first week of October fell that well-concerted maraud into Northampton, 1 in which a war-party of Delawares struck a quick but fatal blow at Stenton's in Allen township, killing and wounding eight persons. Plundering Andrew Hazlitt's farm-house, and tomahawking his 1 See " Brief Account of Murders by the Indians and the Cause thereof, in Northampton Co., Pa., Oct. 8, 1763," by Jos. J. Mickley, Philadelphia, 1875. 34 FRIEDENSTHAL wife and two children, they fired old Philip Kratzer's barn, waded the Lehigh at the so-called " Indian Falls" above Siegfried's Bridge, and in Egypt of Whitehall, murdered and burned at Mickley's, Schneider's and Marx's. There were twelve in the party, says " old Schneider," who saw them cross the river at the Falls, from the roof of the house he was shingling that October morning. An influx of fugitives into the Moravian settlements followed this bold foray, and on the 9th of October, the Friedensthal mill was crowded with Ulster-Scots from Allen and Lehigh. But the threatened storm blew harmlessly over, and before the expiration of the month, our brethren here met in their chapel for the giving of thanks to their Divine protector for deliverance from death. 1 We are drawing towards the close of this history. In the spring of 1762, the social and financial tie which had bound the Moravians in this country iu one body politic for full twenty years, was abro- gated by the so-called General Economy. This measure involved important changes, and marks an epochal point in the history of our people, in as far as they were then put into a condition to pre- pare themselves for progress in new directions. This change of the General Economy was, in fact, the first stepping-stone in the passage toward the shore of New Moravianism, on which we stand. But in order, so to say, to temper the wind to the shorn lamb, or lessen the rude shock that would be the inevitable concomitant of so radical a change, the Commissioners who had been appointed to effect it. saw fit to sanction the establishment of separate Economies at Bethlehem, Nazareth, Christian's Spring and Friedensthal. These continued for a longer or shorter period of time. That at Friedensthal dissolved in March of 1764. Its dissolu- tion, however, brought with it no material change of inhabitants. When, in the summer of 1766, however, it was found that the maintenance of the farm under existing circumstances was a source of financial loss to the Church, the Brethren looked round for a tenant. They found one in Dorst Alleman,a, native of the Canton of Berne, Switzerland, but prior to 1761, settled in Lancaster Co., and attached to the Moravian settlement Hebron on the Quitope- 1 One item more for the man of statistics. In an assessment of Moravian pro- perty made in May of L763, the Friedensthal mill is valued al £800 currency, and the dwelling, barns and stalls together, at £475. (Ledger E, Beth. Diae.) AND ITS STOCKADED MILL. 35 hille (just without the limits of the present Borough of Lebanon). Having covenanted with the Brethren to take the farm on "thirds," and having purchased the stock, to wit: horses, cattle and swine, valued at <£71-17 — Grain in the bin valued at =£23-8-2, and the standing crops, both summer and winter, valued at X28-14-6, Alleman and Verona, his wife, occupied the farm house on the 50th March, 1767. Ten days before, Chaplain Brandmiller vacated his apartments, and on the 11th April, the Oesterleins fol- lowed him. Loesch, however, remained at the mill, and conducted its affairs for the Brethren, until the Spring of 1771. On the 20th April of that year " the 500 acres of land at Naza- reth, called Friedensthal," so we read, "including the farm-build- ings and mill, were sold by Nathaniel Seidel, Proprietor, to one Samuel Huber of Warwick township, Lancaster County, for the sum of £2,000, Penna. Currency." And so the Yale of Peace passed into the hands of strangers. These are the brief chronicles of Friedensthal and its stockaded mill. Had the writer's lot been cast among the men who lived in the first decade of our century — men who delighted to tell of the olden time — had he been privileged to interrogate, among others, Knottel Kaske of Ephrata, and Berg Kaske of Schneppenthal, as, with fellows of like kidney, they sat sipping cordial of anise and carraway at Balzer Vognitz's over at the springs — had he been permitted to ransack that grotesque and arabesque pile of buildings at " old Nazareth," into which, so to say, as into the lumber-room of some baronial hall, there was thrown the cast-away furniture of the Moravian Economy — ancient men and women of diverse nation- alities and races and tongues — diminutive men in black velvet skullcaps, and dressed in livery of sober brown, reticent excepting touching the matter of the olden time, whose footsteps were noise- less as they forever paced the dingy corridors — their arms behind them, with the air of men hopelessly striving to solve a problem — being devoid of relish for the pleasures of this world save the drinking of coffee and the smoking of tobacco from long-shanked pipes; — diminutive women, robed in short gowns of homespun and with bald caps of the whitest muslin, who flitted noiselessly to and fro, and who, when not spinning or knitting, gathered in the cor- ridors to brew coffee in quaint-looking braziers — women who were reticent except touching the matter of the olden time, — negroes and 36 FRIEDENSTHAL AND ITS STOCKADED MILL. negresses, natives of Congo and Dahomy, — some of whom remem- bered the festivities attendant upon the coronation of the second George — who spoke the German of Lusatia, and wondered how they had come hither — some of the blood-royal in the land of the oil-palm and gold, around whose gray heads there hovered an in- effable nimbus, as they joined in the songs of their adopted Zion, — and who were reticent, save touching the matter of the olden time — had the writer, or some antiquary, been privileged to ran- sack the lumber-rooms of that grotesque and arabesque pile, verily, he believes there would have been no end to the writing of this book of the chronicles of the stockaded mill. In the course of a visit to Nazareth in May of 1871, I felt an irresistible drawing to this place, it having been one of the scenes of my boyhood's life at school, forty years ago. It was on that occasion that I learned the following facts, which may serve as a sequel to my history. The present mill was built in 1794, by Jacob Eyerie, of Nazareth, a son of Jacob Eyerie, a native of Wiirtemberg, blacksmith, who immigrated in 1753. In it was sold by Anna Maria Haneke, the administratrix de bonis non of Jacob Eyerie the younger, to Joel Weiss. Weiss renovated and converted into a dwelling, the old stone mill. He dying, the mill and adjacent lands were sold by his executors to Abraham Heller and Philip Correll. Some thirty years ago, Heller sold the mill to Clewell and Albright, by whom it was demolished, its stones and timbers transported to Stockertown, and then built up into a mill, long known as Wood- ring's mill. That mill took fire and burned down in 1866. Isaac Ackerman bought the mill-property here, from Joseph and Edward Heller, sons of Abraham Heller. Ackerman sold it to George Spier. Spier sold it to Charles Mann, who occupies it at the date of this writing. 1 August, 1875. 1 Information from Peter Heller, aged 50, a son of Abraham Heller, who as- sisted at the demolition of the old Moravian Mill. LB S '08