USA > Maine > Lincoln County > Waldoboro > History of old Broad Bay and Waldoboro, Volume 1 > Part 57
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2Philip C. Vogler, Memoirs, Archives, Moravian Church, (Winston-Salem, N. C.). 3Manners of the German Inhabitants of Pennsylvania (Phila., 1789.)
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To this pattern the Broad Bay Germans in nearly all re- spects rigidly adhered. The original church and ministerial lots and one of the school lots were in close proximity to one another at Meetinghouse Cove, thus making it easy for the minister to function in his twofold capacity, and a school system completely divorced from the church was vigorously resisted by them for twenty years after Broad Bay had become a town. Apart from a limited training they were in the main suspicious of education, for there were some at least who recalled that in the Old World some of the most learned men had been their bitterest enemies. There was in addition the conviction that too much schooling made boys lazy and engendered a superior attitude toward farm- ing. All these varied views were represented among Broad Bay Germans and were parts of the crazy-quilt pattern of education during the first half century in the settlement.
The first German colony at Broad Bay of which there is any detailed information was that of 1742. It was made up largely of Lutherans who were in the main young people, and were bent on perpetuating in the new world their most cherished institutions of church and school. Implicit in their contract with Samuel Waldo was the provision for both these needs, a minister and a schoolmaster, Mr. Waldo obligating himself to pay the former a yearly "salary of £70 sterling for ten years," and the latter a yearly "salary of £30" for the same period. In this way the colonists were assured, as they thought, of both church and school during the initial years of becoming established and adjusted. This school- master, the first at Broad Bay, was John Ulmer, a brave, resource- ful, competent, and highly intelligent man with a saving sense of humor even in the more dire and tragic situations of life. Ulmer's schoolmastering was limited to his earliest years in the settle- ment, for in the period of expansion following the Indian wars his rise to leadership and his accumulation of wealth led him to give up his earlier professional interests.
Possessed of plenty of initiative and of an eye ever casting about itself for the main chance, Master Ulmer brought to the wilderness with him in 1742 letters of commendation from his minister, his mayor, the judge, and the State Procurator of Entz- berg. Of these documents only the last seems to have been pre- served. Despite its prolix and florid legal style, it affords the most personal glimpse that we get of this first schoolmaster, and for this reason it is given here in full in what is obviously an abominably poor translation of the original document.
I, John William Fischer, State Procurator and Master of the Cellar, Entzberg Community, Cloister Maulbronn in the Dutchy of Würtem- berg, attest, so everybody may see, or wherever this is read; that the
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bearer of this, John Ulmer, schoolmaster here by the help of God, resolved with his kin to migrate to New England and quit Würtemberg.
If, as his superior, besides the testimonials given by the Minister, Mayor and Judge, by special affection, I wish to attest to his possession of excellent conduct and merit, apart; that during ten years he fulfilled his offices and services so diligently, unmurmuringly, and with a zealous spirit, that his true teaching, kept honorable, and his discipline renowned throughout the whole world; that the youths of the school at all times flourished and grew in the Divine word and grace, sufficiently brought forth, and the seed sown in sour wheat and with great patience and complaisance not only got to be blossoms, but splendid fruit also and on account of the twigs [fine conception of his teaching] he planted, the scholars as well as the parents, besides the church and school visita- tions, at his leaving laid before him a handsome gratitude as well as the assurance that in a lifetime he should not be forgotten.
Not less has he made himself useful in the ascis [excise] and tax service, and other occupations of penmanship. To me he was honest, and what I ordered him to do and trusted him with, he did with facility and integrity; he was honest to the heller [penny], and his uprightness will be an everlasting glory to him, and it is painful to lose this honesty, fine without exception, out of the Commune entrusted to me.
Since there is no means to prevent him from his intention, I wish from the bottom of my heart that this undertaking may be to a pros- perous and joyful end and future fortune, for the good works he left us, his faithfulness, his unadulterated doctrine, his good and God fear- ing laudable life and fine morals and conduct, cannot bring after them anything bad, but the good God will bring him and his, where he shall find bread again.
I recommend, therefore, the aforesaid John Ulmer, my past true school servant, to everybody, and beg that whoever may help him, may do so considering his good conduct, and this fine testimony, also to show him good will and assist him kindly in his welfare, accompanied with the assurance that whatever is entrusted to him will bear good fruit.
As a true statement, I have not only attested this with my own hand, but have put my seal of office thereon.
So done the 4th of May 1742. State Procurator and Master of the Cellar.
[Signed] FISCHER4
The translation of this document is so crude as to make meaning obscure in parts, but slow and careful reading leads to a comprehension of most of its detail. Here in the judgment and esteem of his contemporaries, based upon his ten years of service in Entzberg, is reflected the caliber of this first schoolmaster of Broad Bay, which leads justly to the inference that in a frontier community his capacities would rapidly push him into a larger sphere than that of desk and bench. All subsequent history proved such to be the case.
In these earliest days on the Medomak there could have been little thought of education. The single purpose of the colony
4Found among the papers of the late Andrew Ulmer of Rockland, Maine, and preserved by his son, A. H. Ulmer. Now in possession of Mrs. J. E. Greeley of Dover, Maine, who had the above translation made.
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was to survive. Its deep distress may be inferred from the fact that in the spring of 1743 it petitioned Governor Shirley in Boston to send a ship to remove it from "Eastern parts." The next year (1744) France declared war and unleashed her Indian allies on
AQUILA
MUSCAS
NON CAPTAT
The ULMER Family Crest
the Maine frontier. In 1745 the Louisburg campaign absorbed a large part of the colony, including the Ulmers, in Waldo's regi- ment for service at Cape Breton, the soldiers taking their families with them.
The following spring a considerable portion of the settle- ment was destroyed in an Indian attack. From 1746 to 1748 the
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soldiers and settlers drifted back to rebuild their homes and to begin life anew. The little schooling there was in these years set the pattern of education at Broad Bay for many years to come. It was casual in character and few children received its benefits, since children old enough to go to school were old enough to work, and this the most of them did from daybreak to nightfall the four seasons through. John Ulmer, however, did unquestion- ably look after the education of his own children and grand- children. There was no evidence of illiteracy in this family, for in such leisure as he had he gathered them around him in his own cabin with a few other children from the neighborhood, and here there was reading, spelling, simple arithmetic, and above all penmanship. This art is mentioned in the Procurator's testimonial and it was one in which Ulmer took especial pride. In consequence it survived as a tradition in the Ulmer family down into the third generation, the signatures and letters of the grandchildren being models of penmanship of exquisite beauty.
This little occasional school of John Ulmer's set the pattern of early education at Broad Bay. Here and there in the colony were other men and women, heads of families, who were not teachers, but who by the light of the winter fireside taught the catechism, verses of Scripture, the lines of dearly loved hymns, and passed on to their children their scanty knowledge of figures and reading, as well as their little skill in penmanship. This instruc- tion was imparted with few of the now common accessories of education; there being no chalk, blackboards, copybooks or texts, and few could afford paper or ink, although goose quills were available for all who had occasion to use them.
In the third German migration to Broad Bay (1752) there were two, possibly three, schoolmasters of the Reformed Church, and Hans Georg Hahn. This was a most substantial addition to the teaching profession in the settlement. After receiving their lots and having become settled on them, these masters, too, fol- lowed the method of Ulmer and accepted in their own homes the few pupils which were sent them. The next year (1753) there came the last and largest of the German migrations, which greatly augmented the number of children in the colony. In 1754 the storm of war broke and the people of Broad Bay were compelled to spend the next seven years in the five garrisons, or stockades. Life under such crowded conditions was difficult and such edu- cation as there was, was continued as a casual and desultory affair. Not until early in the next decade did Broad Bayers emerge from the stockades and assume a normal routine on the farms. For the first time the colony was freed from the Indian menace, and its first real period of expansion followed, during which edu-
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cation was free to develop the pattern which it followed down to the end of the century.
During this era of expansion there were at one time or an- other at least six men offering some schooling in the settlement. Living in various sections, each attended to the needs of the children in his own immediate area, but the groups gathering around each master were small, for only a few could afford the little leisure and the little money for schooling. Children were too important economically, and families were so poor that only the few favored ones were able to provide their young with a little instruction.
The language used was German and the curriculum was the same as in the Volksschule in the old country - only much less of it. Learning to read and to write, to use the simple processes of arithmetic through fractions, to commit the catechism to mem- ory as well as the old German hymns embraced about all there was, and all, in the judgment of many, that one needed to know. For his pains the schoolmaster was paid by his wealthier patrons in specie, and by his humbler ones in commodities and labor. Religious instruction varied according to the profession of the teacher and of his clients. The Lutherans, the Reformed, and the Moravians in their religious instruction taught and interpreted the doctrines of their own sects to their own little groups. This limited schooling of a limited number naturally produced a higher percentage of illiteracy in the second generation, which repre- sented a condition that was to carry on until the inauguration of a system of free schooling and compulsory attendance. In fact, these early wounds in the body politic left scars of illiteracy that were not totally effaced until the end of the nineteenth century.
The second of the early schoolmasters at Broad Bay was Hans Georg Hahn, the founder of the Hahn family in these parts. Hans Georg came to the settlement in 1752 with his wife, Bar- bara, and four sons, the eldest of which was under eight years. Pennsylvania had been Hahn's intended destination, but instead he landed in Boston, and hearing of a settlement of his fellow countrymen at Broad Bay, decided to proceed there. On arrival he found himself in a place as he describes it "where there was neither church or school," but there was a small group in the settlement with Moravian leanings, and this group was leaderless. Since Hahn already had a well-developed interest in the Moravian faith, he determined to tarry in the colony, and shortly became the leader of the Moravian group. In his own words he states: "I held services for them, performed marriages and baptized children. I also kept school for the children."
Hans George was not a teacher by profession, for car- pentry was his trade, but he was no ordinary carpenter. When
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he had finished with the rudiments of education provided by the Volksschule he continued to educate himself. As a carpenter he had worked on the buildings of the Moravian center at Herrn- haag, and here had had the chance to observe the forms of wor- ship and to draw inspiration from the serene and scholarly at- mosphere of the place. Here perhaps he developed the love of reading which made books a major interest and solace to the very end of his life. It was this reading, combined with good native intelligence, that made him the leader of the Moravian group in the early colony. From the first his cabin was a gathering place for the erweckte Seelen (awakened spirits). Here he exhorted them on the Sabbath and on weekdays as occasion offered, and held school for their children for a period of eight years. The location of Hahn's first home, which was his school, is not a mat- ter of certainty. His coming in 1752 would naturally place him in the Dutch or Gross Neck district and references in the Soelle Diary tend to confirm this assumption.5
Hahn's teaching was limited to the children of his Moravian followers and was of course deeply tinctured with the doctrines of that sect. His crusading zeal in religious and educational work made him perhaps the most hated man in the settlement, a fact which finally led him to the decision to abandon his work. We learn from his wife that "in 1757 we sold our place at Broad Bay, planning to move to the Brethren in Pennsylvania, but the people who had been accustomed to gather with us would not let us go."6 These simple words reveal how valued and vital Hahn's work was. He decided to stay and face it. He did just this, en- dured persecution and in the end prevailed over his foes. In consonance with Moravian practice, Hahn wrote a brief memoir of himself for use at his funeral service and for the permanent record of his church. Here it seems fitting that these brief words of his life and death should become a part of the record as a luminous sidelight on the history of Old Broad Bay. It follows:
I was born Feb. 1, 1718 at Ebersbrunn. When I was old enough I learned the trade of a carpenter of Balthaser Betz in Reweiler. In my twelfth year I partook of the Holy Communion for the first time in the Lutheran Church.
For four years I was partly at home and partly in Herrnhaag; I liked the latter place very much. I loved the Brethren there and was beloved by them. A bad kind of fever, which would not leave me there, forced me to return to my parents. There I remained about half a year. When I was well again I returned to Herrnhaag.
Work was very scarce in Herrnhaag and by the advice of the Breth- ren I again set out for home. On the way I met my old master who re-
5T. J. Stahl: N. E. Quarterly (Dec., 1939), p. 755.
6Margaretha Barbara Hahn, Memoir, Morav. Arch. (Winston-Salem, N. C.).
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joiced to see me and offered me work. In 1744, I married his daughter, Margaretha Barbara, and remained eight years longer in Reweiler, where I attended the Lutheran Church.
In 1752 we went to Broadbay in New England. At the place where we lived there was neither school nor church, so a group gathered around me of those who were concerned for their own and their chil- drens' salvation. I held services for them, performed marriages and bap- tized children. I also kept school for the children; until finally the Breth- ren, Sam Herr and Soelle, came to us as preachers.
In 1771 with several other families we travelled to Wachovia and arrived on Nov. 12, when the beautiful text of the day was: Cast all your care upon Him, for He careth for you. We supported ourselves for a year in Salem, and then moved to Friedberg, where for three years we lived not far from the Schoolhouse, and attended services often. In 1775 we moved to Friedland.
Here ended Georg Hahn's account of his own life, and the memoir is concluded by some unknown Moravian brother, who after Hahn's death added the following paragraphs:
At first he attended the services in Friedland, but finally drew away because of self-righteousness and self-esteem. He lived at home quietly and for himslf, reading much in his books and edifying himself in quiet. Yet he was always glad to be visited. Especially during his last illness it was evident that he placed his trust only in Jesus, his Saviour; he was often heard calling upon the Lord for grace and help and mercy. Once when asked whether he had anything against anyone, he answered: No, and added:
Where shall I turn, as mortal must? Oh, Jesus, Lord, in thee I trust!
And so he waited for his last moment, which came on Sept. 21, at three o'clock in the morning, when his soul passed into the hands of his Redeemer. His age was 70 years, 8 months and some days.7
In the afternoon the remains of our neighbor, Georg Hahn, were accompanied to their resting place in our God's Acre. He passed away yesterday morning about 3 o'clock.8
Another of Broad Bay's early schoolmasters was Georg Soelle. This missionary to the Moravians took up his residence in Broad Bay in 1762 and took over Hahn's duties as preacher and teacher, thus meeting the twofold duty of the German ministerial tradition. This same year a mission house was built for him on the shore of the Vogler farm, now the Davis Dairy farm, and here Soelle resided, preached, and kept school. The subjects of instruction were those already sketched, except that the religious part must have embraced much Moravian doctrine and church history. This school was a sizable one since all Moravians were impelled to send their children from a sense of religious duty, whether or not they were needed at home. With such children
"Diary of the Salem Morav. Cong. of Sept. 1788, Morav. Arch. (Winston-Salem, N. C.). 8Friedland Diary, Sept. 22, 1788.
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must be included those of a small group of Moravian sympa- thizers, and it is regrettable to add, the children of some of Soelle's Lutheran persecutors.
The first term of this school began December 20, 1762, "with our own and a few outside children and continued through the whole winter." The following year (1763) Soelle was moved to note: "Many people have come to me to get me to take their children into school. I have had some of them this winter includ- ing those of a man who is one of our principal enemies here."9 Generalizing from this latter fact, the conclusion is reached that the gall of some one Lutheran was exactly equal to the Moravian's Christian forbearance. This school continued to function for eight years and among those deriving their education from it were the young Romingers, Voglers, Seitenbergers, Orphs, Holzapfels, Heyers, Wagners, Seitzes, Hahns, Schumachers, Jungs, Kroehns, Kastners, and quite possibly the young Lutherans of either the Leisner or Reiser families.
Georg Soelle stands alone as the one pure spirit in the dark and evil days of our early religious history. He lived for Christ alone, and in a mystical relationship to him that in religious ex- perience is commonly associated with seeing visions and hearing voices. His memoir is long and made up largely of mystical ex- periences in the religious crises of his life, which to the modern reader can only appear strange and largely meaningless. Hence the memoir of this early schoolmaster which follows, includes the main details of his life with most of the mystical data omitted.
I was born Nov. 6, 1709, on the island of Erroe in Denmark .. . . In my twelfth year I was overcome with such fear of the dear God, such terror, that I went into the church, threw myself on the floor and with many tears besought God to forgive my sins; I lost my fear, and for twelve years went my own way with a feeling of security.
In 1734 I was in Odensee school, when I was overcome by new unrest. I felt the horror of sin. ... Once I saw a beautiful grapevine, with blood-red grapes from which my hands and feet became as red as blood. Another time it seemed that I was one of those who bore the body of the Saviour, and as it vanished from our hands I heard a voice call three times distinctly, "The Brethren have overcome!" Now at this time I had not heard a word about the Unity of Brethren.
In 1741 I was called as a Lutheran preacher and was ordained and spoke openly of the Grace that led a poor sinner to the feet of Jesus.
Soon thereafter in 1742, I met Brother Grasmann, and so learned to know the first member of the Unity, in whose conversation and fel- lowship my heart found good. ...
In 1747 my dear old Pastor, whose Deacon I was, went home in his 82nd year as a sinner redeemed by the blood of Jesus. This ended my
"Georg Soelle, Kurze Historische Nachricht von dem Häuflein in Broad Bay, etc., Morav. Arch. (Bethlehem, Penna.).
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service there, and as the Saviour had made it plain to me that I be- longed among his Brethren, I now decided to go to the Unity ....
On Oct. 26th, I reached Herrnhaag when the beautiful text for the day was: "I dwell among my people." I went on to Marienborn; was received into the congregation on Dec. 1st., and in April 1749, partook with them of the Lord's Supper. ... With other Brethren I went to Barby, where for three years my heart was at school, and I learned to know myself better, and the Saviour showed me much Grace.
In 1753 I was called to America, and on Sept. 14th reached Bethle- hem with some other Brethren, conscious of the Saviour who revealed himself in grace to us. From there I preached the Gospel of Jesus' suf- ferings and death in Oly, Lynn, Yorktown and Philadelphia. In 1760 I journeyed to New England; and in 1762 to Rhode Island, and from there to Broadbay, where I remained for eight years. In 1770 I moved with several families to Wachovia in North Carolina.
Succeeding paragraphs contain the details of Soelle's mis- sion in the Carolinas. A part of the last of these only, written by one of the Brethren, and containing the last details of the end of Soelle's life, follows:
On the last evening before his blessed home-going, that is on May 4, 1773, several of the Brethren visited him, and someone asked him whether he could see the Brethren who loved him dearly and had come to call on him? He answered: "I am very glad that the Brethren love me, but I am very weak and feeble in body, though strong in heart." So he talked on for more than half an hour about the blessings which his heart had found in the wounds of Jesus, speaking partly in English and partly in German as though he were addressing a large congrega- tion. Finally when the Brethren sang hymns for him, he joined in in a weak voice until the final moment approached. About eleven o'clock that night he passed gently into the arms of Jesus, as the last blessing of the congregation and of his choir was given in the words, "Into the peace of Jesus go with spirit, soul and body, thou brother of the Lord." He was in his sixty-fourth year.10
There was another early schoolmaster at Broad Bay, one who construed his duties very lightly indeed. In passing, a brief gesture of pedagogy on the part of "Doctor" John Martin Schaef- fer should be mentioned. When Doctor Schaeffer came to Broad Bay he was doubtless aware that he would be expected to mani- fest some interest in education. This fact confronted him with a problem requiring some thought. In the first place, there were his ministerial duties requiring some time and the minor obliga- tions of the office, which were well paid. Again, there was the medical phase of his work which entailed calls over a wide range of country, and was time-consuming but highly lucrative. Then there were always in a new settlement excellent openings for business ventures, which also might command large profits. Teach-
10 Memoir filed in Salem Morav. Arch. (Winston-Salem, N. C.).
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ing was time-killing and by comparison with other activities was unprofitable. Perhaps Mr. Soelle would collaborate with him and take over this phase of the parish work; the Doctor would un- doubtedly be able to send him a goodly number of Lutheran pupils, possibly on a per capita commission basis. Amid such possibilities we simply add an account of a courtesy call that Mr. Soelle once paid on his Lutheran colleague, and in Soelle's own words:
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