Borders Done Well

The 18th century Moravians of Pennsylvania and North Carolina accomplished a noble goal. That being the maintenance of their spiritual, ethnic, artistic, and intellectual boundaries, borders - without alienating themselves from communities outside the Moravian orbit.  

Men Only

As the Bethlehem, PA, Moravians pondered establishing the Wachovia (their 100,000 acres in NC) they recognized the dangers of clearing a wilderness. For that reason they did not wish women to be involved in phase one. They sought men that were experienced in wilderness living.

This meant that the Wachovia's population was entirely male from 1773 -1775. *

*Thorp, Moravian Community

Recovering the Moravian past is key to the Moravian future.

Early Moravian Passion

It is said that an individual or a group will be remembered by what they are passionate about. What was the overriding passion of the former Moravians (18th century and early 19th century)? The answer is bringing the Good News of Jesus Christ to the end that a person received the New Birth.

A group of twelve men was sent from Bethlehem, Pennsylvania to North Carolina. Their mandate (was) to revitalize Christianity in North Carolina by introducing inhabitants to the new birth. 

The effect of the common experience of the new birth was the creation of an environment where various ethnicities and social groups could meet, live and worship in harmony. 

"Moravian itinerants delivered a simple message that sought to appeal to the maximum number of people, regardless of their ethnicity or sectarian affiliations: by embracing Jesus Christ one can be 'reborn'."  

Hope's Promise: Religion and Acculturation in the Southern Back Country, S. Scott Rohrer, p. 16.

The Gemeinhaus at Bethabara

Bethlehem and Salem were notable congregation towns. The practice of life in general and the faith in the congregational towns was parochial, stringent, and well documented. Both Bethlehem and (Old) Salem are living history experiences.  Thus most people today think of the Moravians of old in those terms.

The reality is that in the Wachovia (the 100,000 acres of Moravian land in North Carolina) 50 percent of the Moravian population lived outside the congregational towns. The largest settlement of Moravians up to the War Between The States was not Salem but Friedberg, NC. 

Image - Worship pattern of the Moravians, in Bethlehem, on the Sabbath and Sunday - in the 1750’s?

Sabbath

6 AM     - The Morning Blessing - no sermon

11 AM   - Sabbath lovefeast of the children

12 PM   - Sabbath lovefeast of the entire congregation

2 PM     -  Liturgy for Widowers, Widows and children

8 PM     - Congregational service with a sermon based on the Daily Text

9 PM     - The night blessing

Sunday

6 AM      - The Church Litany

11 AM    - English service with sermon

1 PM      - Suckling children’s service

1:30 PM - Children’s service and then a sermon

2 PM      - Reading of the Gemein Nachrichten (congregational news)

7 PM      - song service with sermon

8 PM      -  Litany of the Life and Sufferings of Jesus or the Hymns of the Wounds of Jesus followed by the evening blessing.

Adapted from the Bethlehem Diary (Moravian Archives) June 30, 1752.

George and Suzanne Moravian Missionaries

George and Susanne Partsch were and are fine representatives of the early Moravians. Allow me to tell you something about them.   

Susanne Luise Eller was born in Budingen, Germany in the year 1722. Her father, Johann, died before she was born.

Susanne’s troubles began when her mother married a violent man, before she turned seven years of age. The court removed her from her mother and step-father to be placed with the Bailiff Schubert and his wife in Meerholz. Susanne remained with the Schuberts until she was eighteen. 

Having left home she was employed as a cook for a government official. It was at this time in her life that she came to know the Christian Moravians at nearby Herrnhut. In due course she was received into the congregation in 1744. 

Within the year, she married her husband, twenty-five year old George Partsch, a fellow Christian and Moravian. They were joined in wedlock on the same day as were twenty-three other Moravian couples from the congregation. 

George and Susanne joined the Second Sea Congregation, which included as passengers the other twenty-three newly married couples. They set sail on the ship “Little Strength” to New York on November 26, 1744. The voyage took eighty-seven days and ended successfully when the ship anchored safely off Staten Island.

The group arrived in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania on December 6, 1744. 

In January of the next year, Susanne and George were assigned to the Moravian community in Nazareth. 

Now meet another couple Samuel and Mary (click here)

The Life of Early Moravian Christians 4/4

On November 18,1755, the congregation elders requested that George and Susanne leave Nazareth and join the Indian Mission near Lehighton, PA. They honored the request and Susanne served as the cook for the group of fifteen plus an infant. 

Life was to change dramatically six days after their arrival. The missionaries were finishing their evening meal and at once the settlement’s dogs began barking. This was clear warning of approaching strangers. Soon the Moravian missionaries heard voices and footsteps outside. One of the missionaries, Martin Nitschmann, opened the door and was shot dead on the spot. A volley of musket balls were fired into the dwelling, killing or grazing four more men. 

The remaining missionaries ran up the stairs to the attic. One woman, Susanna Nitschman, was shot on the stairs. She fell backwards and was captured by the attackers. 

The rest of the group barricaded themselves in the attic with furniture. Not able to get past the barricade the assailants fired their guns into the floor of the attic and up at the roof. Their final act was to set the house on fire. Only five missionaries survived that night. Susanna Nitschman died several months later, still in captivity. 

Susanne and George both jumped out windows separately and made it to safety. However neither knew if the other had survived until a chance meeting the next day. The attackers, twelve Shawnee Indians, proceeded to raid the food, butchered sixty cattle and set all the buildings on fire in the settlement.

After escaping the fire, Susanne Partsch ran toward the Lehigh river. She hid herself in a hollow tree until the next morning. She came upon George who had just returned from warning the inhabitants of another settlement. Adapted from Lehigh Valley History. 

Heroic Moravian Christians ....

Susanna Louisa (Eller) Partsh was born in 1722 - John George Partsch, who she married in Germany in1743, was born in 1719. Both were early Moravians. 

George and Susanna had four children in 12 years. 

George died in 1765 at the age of 46 in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania. 

Susanna died in 1795 also in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, at the age of 73.

"Knock Knock" - "Whose there?"

Old Moravian Cemetery - Bethlehem, PA

There was no double about it. 

When the gravedigger had partly filled in Thomas Utley’s grave he heard three distinct knocks coming from the coffin below. He quickly called a number of the brethren to the spot. They decided to reopen the coffin for if they failed to do so an unfounded “talk” would be the result. After it was taken up and reopened and a careful inspection made they found no sign of vitality in brother Utley and decided he was very dead. 

The coffin was again lowered, but as the grave was filled in they all again heard the knocking. After agreeing that Claus Collyn must have used green lumber in making the coffin and that the ground pressure caused the knocking, it was considered a closed subject. However, this was in 1771 and in those days of much superstition it is safe to surmise that the ghost of Thomas would be around for a long time. --Lititz Public Library