USA > Maine > Lincoln County > Waldoboro > History of old Broad Bay and Waldoboro, Volume 1 > Part 41
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Ettwein preached to the people that afternoon and spent the next two days visiting the families in their cabins. On this occasion they renewed their pleas that they should not be aban- doned by the Church and that the mission be continued and be expanded into a permanent church. On May 28th, Ascension Day, Ettwein preached again and soon after the sermon took a sloop for Boston accompanied by Soelle and Michael Jung. Soelle was accompanying the young man to Bethlehem to enter him in the service of the Church. Ettwein's visit to Broad Bay did not lead to a permanent church; but it did have far-reaching consequences in Broad Bay history, modifying basically the destiny of a con- siderable number of families.
On his way back to Broad Bay, Soelle found Pastor Schaeffer in Boston on the point of leaving for Europe. This doubtless caused him no regret, although as the only ordained minister in the settlement, he well knew that he would be plagued by those of all faiths with "church agenda." He arrived at Broad Bay on September 28th and was received by his own people with child- like joy. He was not long in discovering, however, that he was facing an entirely new situation, one which laid a heavy load of responsibility on him for the rest of his years in the settlement. While Bishop Ettwein had been at Broad Bay, he had talked to the people somewhat about North Carolina and the new Moravian settlement there. Soelle observes in his letter17 to Bishop Seidel at Bethlehem:
That stuck in the people's minds, so that they all with the excep- tion of two families, had one and the same thought, namely, to sell everything, to migrate thither and to settle in that community. They did not dare to speak in his [Ettwein's] presence for they did not know one another's thoughts. Afterwards they talked it over with one another, and ... in case it would be permitted by the Church, they decided to sell and make early preparations for leaving. I did not know at first what to say to this, as I knew their inward and outward circumstances. For the time being I advised against it.
Soelle concludes with a plea for the prayers and advice of the brethren in Bethlehem that he might be able to guard the flock amid their errant aims.
16Report of Bro. Ettwein's trip through New England and his visit to Newport, Broad Bay, etc. ... in May and June 1767, Morav. Archives (Bethlehem, Pa.). 17Letter of October 6, 1767, Morav. Archives (Bethlehem, Pa.).
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The section of North Carolina that interested the Broad Bay Moravians was the present Winston-Salem district. Here the Church had acquired a grant of a little less than 100,000 acres. On November 17, 1753, the first settlement, Bethabara,18 was founded. The whole tract was called Wachovia, a name derived from the valley of the Wachau in Austria, which was the patri- mony of Count Ludwig Zinzendorf.19 Here by settling and taking up all contiguous territory the Moravians were able to establish the same communal social system as at Bethlehem, with churches, schools, and a uniformly disciplined environment for the rearing and educating of their children. The impossibility of such a social organization was one of the major obstacles to the development of a Moravian community at Broad Bay, where the lands of the faithful were scattered in separate lots throughout the planta- tion. Communal organization was possible for them only on the basis of a large land area exclusively their own.
In the meantime the question continued to be agitated among the members of the mission, and Soelle's cautious advice to pro- ceed slowly did not satisfy his flock. On November 2, 1767, the impetuous Hahn directed a letter to Bishop Ettwein in Bethlehem setting forth their difficulties arising from the land distribution and the needs of their children. He urged Ettwein to make the arrangements necessary to enable them to start their prepara- tions at once. In a letter to Ettwein of the same date, Soelle admits that his efforts to persuade them against such a move had been in vain; he admonishes the Bishop in the following language: "Now dear Brother, you will place this matter before the Con- ference, since I neither can nor will have a hand in the affair, for I do not understand the situation ... you have brought the idea to them, hence may the Saviour give you grace that you may advise what is good for them to do."
Despite the unsettled condition which he was now facing, Soelle continued his active work among the people. Schaeffer's absence added heavily to his mission work. A glimpse of his labors during the spring of 1768 is given in a letter to Bishop Nathanael Seidel under the date of April 2nd of that year:
From outside the people come in masses to hear the preaching to an extent that the house cannot hold them. I entreat the Saviour to accept of some as a recompense for his suffering. I proclaim the word to them with grace and feeling .... Some seem moved who formerly were ras- cals, and have resolved never to turn from these meetings; they say that they had never known before that there was such a thing. One wept for some days whereever he went and the people mocked him; but he
18 Meaning the House of Passage.
19G. B. Bernheim, History of the German Settlement and of the Lutheran Church in North and South Carolina (1872).
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continues to pursue his own course, and attends the meetings regularly with his whole family. Another was punished by his father because he attended the meetings. He reproached his father saying: "You have done me a wrong that you have not had me learn to read. A poor man am I, but I would be willing to give a hundred pounds, if I could read. You will not make me turn away from these meetings, for what I feel no one can take from me." It would have been better if the father had pun- ished his own godless life. Through the winter I have had much bap- tizing to do, even the children of our enemies. This I am glad to do for them, but with their weddings they are a burden to me, and yet I can- not do otherwise. Gladly am I everything to everyman in order to win a few. In the case of the baptizings I go into some of their houses, since the people may not come to the meetings at the Mission. I have used this opportunity to scatter the good seed, which is what I am eager to do.
The motives for the migration of the Moravians at Broad Bay were varied. Some desired the communal life characteristic of the Church's organization; some desired to escape the bitterness which had developed in the Broad Bay environment; others de- sired their children to grow up in a religious milieu conducive to the ideals entertained by their parents, and there were some who sought worldly betterment in a milder clime and on a richer soil. Soelle, who knew their economic condition, realized that their lot in North Carolina would not be much different, and in con- sequence maintained throughout a strictly neutral attitude. The status of the proposed migration in the summer of 1768 is repre- sented by Soelle in a letter to Ettwein20 as follows:
The families which have decided to migrate later this year in No- vember, for there are no ships which go to Wilmington any earlier, are, Adam Schumacher who has five children; Michael Seitz who has three little children; Georg Hahn has no children of his own, only an adopted girl; David Rominger, he has no children except two that are grown up, who will not go with him. It is still a question whether his wife will go, because she is not well, and who perhaps prefers to remain with her children who are married here. His are unmarried. She, however, is con- tented if he goes and she cannot go with him. The fifth is Kroehn ... who has only three children. These are all determined to go if they can sell their farms. Two have already been visited by purchasers, but they were not able to raise the money immediately. That is the hub of the matter.
They would all like to be able to go at the same time. That how- ever, depends on their selling, for when one is ready he cannot wait for another to sell. . . .
There are still three more who are more questionable, namely Michael Rominger, Jacob Reid, and Vogler's wife. He has a heart that has something of the Saviour in it, and he would feel very badly if he had to remain behind, and yet perhaps this is the Saviour's will. I can- not say for I do not know what He has in store for this place, and the Mission stands on Vogler's land.
20Soelle to Ettwein, Aug. 27, 1768, Morav. Archives (Bethlehem, Pa.).
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The three last mentioned families, especially the two of which I heard when I was leaving, will also go, if Michael Rominger can get what people owe him. Rominger has four children, Reid five and Vogler eight. There are two more families which have thought of going, but since their poverty is so great and their children numerous, each has seven or eight naked and helpless little ones, their courage fails them.
The first group of Moravians, made up of six families, left Broad Bay on August 26, 1769. Soelle describes their leave-taking the evening before as "deeply moving and blessed."21 They pro- ceeded by sloop to Boston, where, after being confronted with many unnecessary difficulties, they secured, on September 17th passage on a schooner bound for Wilmington. Disaster overtook them off the Virginia coast where their ship was wrecked. The captain, seeing there was no chance of saving his ship, beached her so successfully that all the passengers were able to reach the shore; and most of their baggage was saved, although two families lost everything. They reshipped for Wilmington and from there proceeded inland via Cross Creek,22 reaching the Bethabara settle- ment in detachments on November 8th, 11th, and 14th. The first group to arrive was made up of David Rominger and his son, Philip; John Michael Seitz, his wife Elizabeth, his four children and his wife's sister, Juliana Rominger, later to become the wife of Jacob Friedrich Lagenauer; also Anton Kastner, his wife, Gott- liebe, and one child. On the eleventh came Georg Hahn, his wife Barbara, and their adopted daughter; Peter Kroehn, his wife Elizabeth, and their three children, and the five Schumacher chil- dren with their stepmother, Sophia Wohlfahrt. The third and last group to reach Bethabara on the 14th was Adam Schumacher and his stepson, Jacob Wohlfahrt. This first migration totalled about twenty-eight persons.
That part of the Wachovia tract to be settled by the Broad Bayers was known as Friedland. The site is six miles from the city of Winston-Salem in a southeasterly direction from the city and a short distance from the highway leading from the city to High Point. There is still a Moravian congregation there with church, parsonage, and graveyard. Of this first migration only the Kroehn family was among the founders of Friedland. Georg Hahn settled near Friedberg. Seitz was in Bethabara for a number of years; Kastner was for a while the manager of the Bethabara farm; Schumacher bought a farm northwest of Salem, and David Rominger lived in Bethania, after the death of his wife and son led him to change his plan of taking up a farm in Friedland.23
21Letter to John Ettwein, Oct. 12, 1769, Morav. Archives (Bethlehem, Pa.). 22Now Fayetteville.
23Ms. Address loaned by Adeliade L. Fries, Archivist, Morav. Church South (Winston-Salem, N. C.).
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In a communication to Ettwein under date of October 12, 1769,24 Soelle announced that eight more Broad Bay families were planning to migrate. He also pointed out that at no time had interest in spiritual affairs risen as high at Broad Bay, and that the people there were clamoring that a Brother be sent to replace him in case he was withdrawn. Soelle's heart was clearly in his work, and the interests of the mission were uppermost in his mind. For eight years he had labored there with improving prospects, and during this time he had, as he said, aimed not to be a burden to the people. They had merely provided him with food and fuel; his clothes for the most part had been presented to him by his Lord.
Conditions at Broad Bay Mission through the winter of 1769-1770 are revealed in letters sent to Ettwein by Soelle in the spring of 1770, and the relevant excerpts follow:
Since I hear that a sloop is lying in the Narrows bound for Boston, I am writing you these few lines in haste. . .. It is still winter here. Snow covers the whole land, and it freezes every day just as at Christ- mas. . . . The river is still closed. . . . If you have received word by letter, you will know that some people here have written to the Church that a Brother be sent here in case it should happen that I might be relieved. . .. There are many here who are planning to follow those who last year moved to North Carolina, and they are determined to leave in the autumn in case they can sell their lands this spring. Their purpose has been considerably stimulated by an Englishman who came here, who had been in North Carolina, and who told them much, among other things that the Brethren were all living by themselves together. . . . They are now planning to incorporate this settlement into a town. Schaef- fer is also back and, so far as he can, creates trouble as formerly. The people have divided into three groups.25 Some have accepted him again; others cleave to their schoolmaster; and others come to our meetings, many from a love of the truth, and many because in coming here it does not cost them anything .. . . Round about in this district the stirrings of grace increase among the English. For this reason I have wished that a church might come into being here. After all that has taken place it might in the course of time come to stand as firm as a rock. Of the land over around Fort Halifax26 I have twice written you. Since that time a couple of our people have inspected it. If I knew you had not received my letters I would write you again about it. ... My dear Sehlheim has died, but the dear old wife is still living so far as I know. ... Be so good and greet dear Michael Jung, and tell him that his father is still living and is beginning to have different thoughts. He comes regularly to the meetings now.
Soelle's letter to Ettwein of May 12th is of interest since among other things it shows the degree to which migration of the Broad Bay Moravians to the Kennebec was considered. In an earlier letter Soelle had indicated that a survey had been made in that region by two of his flock. In the following he makes clear the outcome of this plan:
24 Morav. Archives (Bethlehem, Pa.).
25 Lutheran, Reformed, and Moravian.
26A migration to Kennebec lands was at this time under consideration.
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A certain man, named Euer has recently moved here from Boston. He formerly lived on the land there on the Kennebec, but because he became involved in a matter of conscience, he sold his plantation and moved to Boston. He wanted to go to Philadelphia. To his regret this plan failed to materialize, and he intends to live here. He says the Doc- tor's27 land is very good, but it is six miles back from the river so that one cannot do much with lumbering. The Plymouth Company and Dr. Gardiner are now devoting all their energies to getting the land settled . . . that the people are moving in there quite generally. I believe that is the reason that our people cannot sell their land. ... According to a suggestion in your letter of Feb. 1st, I here made the proposal that the people should move over there. However, they have no interest or desire to do so. If there were a settlement of the brethren there, then they would go, for they want to live near a Moravian group in order that they and their children may share in the advantages of such pro- pinquity, and withdraw from the noise and madness of the world. That was their answer. Their longing is towards Carolina, but still the poor souls see no way. If they are to get there they feel that they must sell their stock and abandon their land.
By August the situation at Broad Bay had reached its final crystallization. On the 8th, Soelle wrote to Ettwein as follows:
Eight families have resolved to follow those of the year before, and before the letters reached here on July 30, some had already sold their land. The others are expecting purchasers any day, of whom many will come they say, for the English are going to buy the whole east side up to Medamuck Falls, whereever they can acquire land. We are accord- ingly hoping that we can leave here by the middle of September. They wish me to go with them and for that I have the consent of the dear Lord in my heart. There are still some families left which cannot go this time but expect to leave next year. They will stick together with those here who go to the mission services. The House will be preserved for that which it was built. The English still come here frequently to the meetings, to whom up to this time I have spoken with power and grace.
Think it over, dear Brother, in the Saviour's presence whether you should not have a brother sent here this winter for the sake of those who will be left here and for the English. Among these latter there are many souls hereabout who have ears. Since the letters came they will sell everything which has been holding them here. This applies also to many of Schaeffer's people. Should the purchasers come there are many who would certainly like to sell. In such a case I should wish that you were here.
On September 5, 1770, Soelle wrote his last letter to Ettwein from Broad Bay. The excerpts which follow outline the situation existing on the eve of departure:
It is already late and early tomorrow morning the person is leaving who is to take this letter with him. Hence I must be brief in my last letter from this place. The schooner has been lying three days in the
"Dr. Sylvester Gardiner, the leading promoter in the Plymouth or Kennebec Company.
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Bay, which is to take me and seven families to North Carolina. . . Many here in the district are sorry that I am leaving. I am sorry too. I think there will be several more from here who will migrate next year. In the meantime they will use the Mission House for their edification as far as possible. A widow has bought this place who is a quakeress.28 The House, however, does not belong to her. In the meantime could a brother only visit her, it would be good, and if he were an Englishman or half English it would be better. .
You cannot imagine the difficulties which occur in connection with the leaving of these poor people. There are seven families which have sold everything and placed themselves on the omnipotence of God. It is a question now whether three of these families will not have to re- main behind. All that I can do is to lay my entreaties before Him.29
The journey from Broad Bay to Salem, North Carolina, lasted nine weeks. For fifteen days they were at sea in what Soelle described as "a hard and dangerous journey, much worse than the one from Europe." In Brunswick they lay for eight days. In the harbor at Cape Fair where they took refuge from bad weather they saw a brig stranded on the shore. At Cross Creek on the overland journey to Winston-Salem the wife of Philip Vogler died of yellow fever and was buried at this place. Here they were compelled to remain for three weeks before it was possible to secure wagons to continue the journey.30
On November 6th, Soelle reached Bethabara with five fami- lies: Philip Vogler with his nine children; Heinrich and Susanna Lauer and their daughter, Eva; David and Margaret Kuebler; Michael Rominger with his wife Catherine, and five children, and Georg Williard. On December 31st Friedrich and Salome Kuentzel with their four children, and Jacob and Elizabeth Ried with five children came to their journey's end. This migration may be conservatively estimated at about forty souls. Of the Vogler family one son, John, later returned to Broad Bay; and in 1784 married Ruth Perkins of St. George to continue the Vogler name in Waldoborough. Another son, Samuel, settled at Shiloh in the southwest part of Wachovia and became an active Lutheran. The father and the other seven children were among the founders of Friedland. A grandson, John,31 eventually became one of the more famous American cabinetmakers and silversmiths and built for himself a beautiful colonial home in Wachovia which today is one of the lovely landmarks of that town.
During the next few years additional families drifted in from Broad Bay, among them Friedrich Hahn and his wife Gertrude, John Jacob Hein and his wife, Jacob Rominger and wife Barbara,
28 Possibly a reference to Prudence Chapman of Pownalborough.
20 Soelle to Ettwein, Morav. Archives (Bethlehem, Pa.).
30 Soelle's letter to Nathanael Seidel, Sept. 5, 1770, Morav. Archives (Bethlehem, Pa.).
31T. J. Wertenbaker, The Old South (N. Y., 1942), p. 179.
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and possibly Georg and Jacob Lagenauer. Bernhard Kuentzel and his family came in 1772 but returned to Broad Bay the next year, and David Holzapfel and his wife Catherine, who had been among Soelle's supporters at Broad Bay, came and settled near Friedland but never joined that congregation. All in all, Broad Bay lost about one hundred souls in this migration. The majority of these emi- grants purchased a tract of land in the southeastern part of Wach- ovia, and had it laid out so that each family might have a long narrow farm of about two hundred acres, with all the houses at the same end of the farms, so that they might face the same road and form a sort of long straggling village within easy reach of a central house of worship. This entire tract on the south fork of Muddy Creek was surveyed for them on November 20, 1770. In addition to the farms, thirty acres were set aside for the meeting- house, parsonage, schoolhouse, and graveyard.
During the spring and summer of 1771, the Broad Bayers worked at building their houses; and family after family moved into their new homes in the Friedland district. On July 21st they organized their parish and signed "The Brotherly Agreement." This document, written in the German language and preserved in the Salem archives, contains a preamble which translates as follows:
We, the undersigned, moved from Broad Bay in New England to Wachovia in North Carolina, in order to be a church of the Unity of Brethren, to build ourselves up with them in doctrine and in life, to bring up our children for the Lord, and to lead a peaceful and quiet life in all righteousness and honor. To this end we have bought land for farms, and have so laid it out that we can live in a little village not far from each other. We have also found it good at the very beginning to agree together on certain points, so that our close association may not be, for our harm, but for the furtherance of our above mentioned intentions.
There follows hereafter the seven points of agreement signed by Peter Kroehn, Philip Vogler, Johnn Friedrich Kuentzel, Micel Rominger, Jacob Rominger, Peter Fiedler, Jacob Ried, Jacob Lauer, Andreas Lauer, George Williard, and Melchior Schneider. All these signatures are old Broad Bayers except Peter Fiedler, who came from Berks County, Pennsylvania. He married Eliza- beth Kroehn, who had been born at Broad Bay. On December 19th, in the year 1771, at a love feast at Friedberg it was officially made known that thereafter the new settlement would be known as Friedland, but the old name was hard to down, and to this day "Broad Bay Township" is the name of one of the official divisions of Forsyth County. The old name disappeared in Maine only to be perpetuated in a distant southern state. By the turn of the century (1800-1802) the resident Moravian clergyman serving
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the community was Jacob Wohlfahrt who, as a youth, had been in the first migration from Broad Bay thirty years before.
The curtain should not be drawn on this scene of content- ment and peace without one last word concerning the Shepherd of the sheep. Long years of labor amid the hardships of the frontier had affected Soelle's health; and when he left Broad Bay in the autumn of 1770, he was a weak and broken man. Nevertheless he took up his labors in the new field and preached the word until the very last which fell on May 4, 1773. Of the end of this sincere and self-effacing apostle of Christ, Bishop John Ettwein wrote to the missionaries in Barbados: "On May 4th, our dear Brother Soelle, a faithful and cheerful witness, entered into the joy of our Lord; he was still preaching on the 2nd of May in a neighboring settlement; on the 3rd, he came home ill; on the 4th he preached and sang almost unceasingly of the great mystery re- vealed by God in the flesh, and in the evening he departed this life."32 He lies buried in the Broad Bay cemetery at Friedland among his old Broad Bay parishioners into whose wilderness he had originally brought the light.
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