USA > Pennsylvania > Philadelphia County > Germantown > The settlement of Germantown, Pennsylvania, and the beginning of German emigration to North America > Part 15
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129 See Journal Penna. Magazine, Vol. II., p. 427, and Adelung's Life of Koster.
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The Settlement of Germantown.
were always awaiting and looking for the coming of the Millennium. There is a record at Ephrata that upon the seventh anniversary of their arrival, which they had pre- pared to celebrate with special effort, and while in the midst of their ceremonies, " a white obscure moving body in the air, attracted their attention, which as it approached, assumed the form and mien of an angel. It receded into the shadows of the forest and appeared again immediately before them as the fairest of the lovely." 130 They watched through the night, and the second night, without further disclosures. The third night the apparition was again present. They fell upon their knees, but alas, the pray- ers they uttered seemed to repel rather than to attract the ethereal divinity, and so " Kelpius and his brethren re- mained at the Laurea, wearing out the thread of life in re- tirement and patient waiting for the final drama they were to enact in the wilderness." The Chronicon Ephratense says that after the death of Kelpius, the tempter found oc- casion to scatter them and that " those who had been most zealous against marrying, now betook themselves to women again."
Johann Jacob Zimmermann, the original founder of this community of Mystics, was born at the village of Vaihingen, on the Entz, in the Duchy of Würtemburg, in 1644, and displaying great zeal in learning, was taken into the service of the Duke at the age of seventeen. He was then sent to the University of Tübingen, where he was graduated in 1664, as Master of Philosophy, and at once there became an instructor in arithmetic. He en- tered the Lutheran ministry, and, from 1671 to 1684, was in charge of the church at Bietigheim. He became, how- ever, profoundly impressed with the views of Jacob Boehm, whose influence upon theological thought has been most
130 Sachse's Pietists.
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Johann Jacob Zimmermann.
remarkable and extensive, and regarding the great comet of 1680 as a warning, he prophecied the near approach of the destruction of the world. Getting into controversy with the orthodox, and being accused of trying to elevate Boehm above the apostles, of teaching astrology, magic and cabbalism, he was tried and deposed from the ministry. From 1684 to 1689, he was professor of mathematics in Heidelberg University. He had the support of a promi- nent minister of state, but persisting in views regarded as peculiar, and maintaining that an invasion by the French was a visitation by the Lord, because of his persecution, he lost position and influence. He was the author of at least eighteen published works upon theology and astron- omy. He died on his way to Pennsylvania in 1693. Gottfried Arnold, in his Kirchen und Ketzer Historie, Vol. III., p. 913, describes Zimmermann as a very learned astrologus, magus, cabalista, and preacher, and says he was deposed because of his attachment to the doctrines of Boehm, and because in 1689, he published a tract on the extension of common love to the remaining Jews, Turks and heathen. On the 25th of the 10th month, 1694, his widow " was received gratis " into the corporation of Ger- mantown. 131
Henry Bernhard Koster, who from the exercise of the power of excommunication, would seem to have succeeded Zimmermann, was the son of Ludolph Koster, burgo- master and merchant at Blumenberg, where he was born in November, 1662. He entered the town school of his native city, and when the rector there, Vogelsang, became director of the grammar school at Detmold, Koster fol- lowed him and remained four years under his instruction. He was at the gymnasium at Bremen five years, studied law
131 Among his many descendants in Pennsylvania is Thomas Allen Glenn, the genealogist.
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The Settlement of Germantown.
three years at Frankfurt-on-the-Oder, and left the Uni- versity in 1684 in the twenty-second year of his age. He possessed much talent, which he used for his own advance- ment and for the instruction of youth. He was first tutor in the family of Aulic Counsellor Polemius, in Kustrin, and by instructing his pupils, not in the ordinary methods, but by attractive discourses, he became known to Privy Counseller Otto von Schwerin, at Berlin, who, in 1685, made him tutor to his three sons. Here he had the ad- vantage of a great library. From Walton's Polyglot he derived a fondness for the eastern languages and for the- ology. Conceiving a mistrust for the accepted text of the Hebrew Bible, he made a translation from the Septuagint version into the German. His patron had influence with the Prince of Brandenburg, and offered him an important position. But Koster declined to go to the court, where there were so many temptations to sin, and emigrated in- stead to Pennsylvania. He had been in the service of the Baron von Schwerin for seven years. Just before the ar- rival of the mystics in Pennsylvania there had occurred the division among the Quakers, caused by George Keith. When Koster began to preach in the English language he was attended by the Keithian separatists in large numbers. His success led him to entertain the hope of establishing a sect based upon his own peculiar views, and no doubt led ultimately to his separation from the community upon the Ridge. He bore an active part in the Keith controversy and caused great commotion among the Quakers. In 1696, taking with him six others, he went to the yearly meeting at Burlington, where there were in attendance about four thousand people and thirty preachers. He asked to be heard, but no attention was paid to him. Finally he insisted while one of their preachers was
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Henry Bernhard Koster.
speaking, and since the preacher had a weak voice, and Koster one which was loud and powerful, he succeeded in making himself heard, although all the preachers got upon the bench and tried to prevent him. He cried, " I raise my voice against you with the full witness of the word of God in order to oppose, out of the Holy Scripture. your blasphemous teaching, which is worse than that of the heathens of America, namely, the teaching of your spiritual Jesus, and that the body which Jesus had on earth disappeared in the clouds on his journey to Heaven." And he closed with, ". Now to-day has the light of the Scriptures appeared in the second American darkness, and its strength you shall learn, not only here in Burling- ton, but in all the colonies." He wrote an account of the affair called "History of the Protestation Done in the Publick Yearly Meeting of the Quakers at Burlington in the year 1696," published by William Bradford in New York, 1697. It is pointed out by Sachse that this work. of which, unfortunately, we have no copy, issued in both German and English, has the distinction of being the first book printed in the German language in America. Nor have we the exact title. Pastorius, in his reply, refers to it as " Advice for all professors and writers," and says Koster arrived here ". his heart and head filled with whim- sical and boisterous imaginations, but his hands and purse emptied of the money which our friends beyond the sea imparted unto him and some of his company." About this time, differing with Kelpius, he endeavored to establish a community, based upon a common ownership of goods, on some lands given to him in Plymouth, to be called " The True Church of Philadelphia or Brotherly Love." A house was built styled ". Irenia." or the house of peace. The attempt, however, failed, the people, who never num-
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The Settlement of Germantown.
bered more than four or five, scattered, and the land re- verted to the donor. He persuaded some of the Keithians to permit him to baptize them. He chose for the purpose the river near Philadelphia and made an address before a great concourse of people, wherein he sought to show that he had a right to baptize as the apostles did. Then he baptized one after the other and dismissed each with the words, " Go forth and do this all the days of thy life." But he had awakened the animosity of the Quakers ; he had become separated from the community on the Ridge, and the Keithians gradually drifted back into connection with the church of England. In December, 1699, he went from Pennsylvania to Virginia, and thence in Jan- uary, 1700, in a tobacco ship, to London, and soon after- ward to Amsterdam. At this time the Duchess Charlotta Sophia had a claim against the Duke Ferdinand of Cur- land, which Koster undertook to secure for her. He went to Stockholm in 1702, followed the King, who was with his army in Poland, and there in camp before Thoren, succeeded in compelling the Duke to pay a part of the money. For several years thereafter he taught languages at Hamburg. The Baron von Schaak, the Danish Am- bassador to England, at this time wanted a tutor for his sons and Koster was selected for the place, and he re- mained upon the estate of the Count as tutor for seven years. In 1724 he went to Berleburg, where he was un- der the protection of Count Casimir von Sayn and Wit- genstein. In 1735 he was teaching eastern and western languages in Hanover. He claimed to know and to un- derstand most of the languages of the world. But among them all his Holy languages were the Greek, the German, the Bohemian and the Hebrew, in which he at all times re- peated his prayers. He maintained stoutly that he would
THE SETTLEMENT OF GERMANTOWN.
CAVE OF JOHANNES KELPIUS. AS IT APPEARS IN 1899.
223
Johannes Kelpius Transylvanus.
never die, and he came pretty near keeping his word, since he reached the age of ninety-eight years, and re- tained his health and vivacity until the last. He died in 1749. His publications, in addition to those already men- tioned were five in number.132
Johannes Kelpius was born in 1673, at or near Denn- dorf, in Transylvania, and was the son of George Kel- pius, a clergyman. When he was only twelve years of age, his father died. Three friends of the family sent
Johannes Kelpins Tranhfrancs
him to the high school at Tübingen, and later to the Uni- versity, where he was graduated at the age of sixteen as Doctor of Philosophy and the liberal arts. He wrote a Latin thesis, " Theologia Naturalis, seu Metaphysicae Metamorphosis sub moderamine Viri M. Dan. Guilh. Molleri, pro summis honoribus, et privilegiis philosophicis legitime obtinendis, die 15 Jun, 1689. Altforfii." In 1690, together with his teacher, Dr. Johannes Fabricius, a celebrated theologian, he wrote a work in eighteen chap- ters entitled " Scylla Theologiae, aliquot exemplis Patrum et Doctorium Ecclesiae qui cum alios refutare laborarent fervore disputationis obrepti in contrarios errores misere inciderent, ostensa, atque in materiam disputationis pro- posita a Joh Fabricio. S. Theol. P. F. et M. Joh Kelpio.
132 Life of Hendrick Pannebecker, p. 107. Adelung's Geschichte der menschlichen Narrheit, Vol. VII., p. 86.
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The Settlement of Germantown.
THESE May Inform all Whom it might. Concerns That Mr John Kaighin of Hatfield in the Province of Welt new Jersey, hall, Lived with me (here under named ) a Considerable time, as a Dikople, to learn the Arts & Mysteries of Chymil try, Phyfick & the Atral Sciences, Whereby to make "more perfect Discovery of the Hidden causes of More result & uncommon Difenses, not jo enfily to Ge dikcovered by the Vulgar Practice. In all which he has been very Dilligent & fluchious, as well as. in the administration of the Medicines, & in the Various Cafee; Where his Judgment may be fatty depended, upor" all things. Jo far as he follows my Instructions And Hope he may in all things on/ wer the Confidence that may be repoled in him. Germantown Fear: 20, 1758.
The original of this early medical diploma is in my library.
The Lamenting Voice of the Hidden Love. 225
J.M.g The Lamenting Voice of the Hidden Love, at the time When the lay in Miery & for Jaken; and oprest by the multitude of Her Enerues Composed by one In Kumber.
Mich. VII 8 9 10 Rejoyce not against me Comune Enemy : when Ifall, Ihad arife; when I fait in darkies, the ford hall be a light unto me. I will bear the indignation of the LORD, Because I have finned against him until he plead my calle, & exe- cute judgment for me: he will bring me forthe to the light, & I had behold hus rightconfines. Then She that is mene energy hall feest, and hasne hall cover her which said unto me, Where is the LORD thy God? mine eyes full behold her : now /hall The be tradden down the mire of the streets
Hefter Signifies Secret, or Hidden, & Haman, multitude of troubles.
Penafylvania in America 1705
1. That Cumber is, here above, pel'd with a L'is not with a lihas its pecialier kenyon.
Title page of Witt's translation of the hymns of Kelpius.
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The Settlement of Germantown.
Altdorfii, 1690." The same year he wrote an essay upon the question whether it was fitting that a Christian youth should listen to the heathen philosophy of Aristotle. It was entitled : " Inquisitio an Ethicus Ethnicus, aptus sit Christianae Inventutis hodiernas, sive; An Juvenis Chris- tianus sit idoneus auditor ethices Aristotelieae. Resp Bal- thos Blosio Norimb. 1690."
Meeting with Zimmermann in Nuremburg, he became a convert and when only twenty years of age, started for Pennsylvania. After the withdrawal of Koster he became the head of the community on the Ridge. Of his work while here we have his Latin Journal of the voyage, a copy of a letter in German to Heinrich Johannes Deich- man, of London, September 24, 1697, a copy of a letter in German to Deichman, May 12, 1699, sent through Jan van Loevenigh, of Crefeld, a letter in English, in 1699, to Stephen Mumford, of Long Island, a letter in Latin to the Swede Rev. Eric Biork, a letter, October 10, 1704, in German to Maria Elizabetha Gerber, in Virginia, a letter in July, 1705, to Dr. Fabricius, in German, a letter in German to Deichman, July 23, 1705, and a letter of May 25, 1706, to Esther Palmer, of Long Island, in English. There is also a manuscript volume of hymns, now in the possession of the Historical Society of Pennsylvania, writ- ten in German, and translated into English, not very effec- tively, by Dr. Christopher Witt. Prefixed to this volume is a portrait of Kelpius upon canvas, by Witt and on the title page the hymns are said to have been written by one " In Kummer" thus concealing the initials of the author in an anagram. The volume is dated in 1705, and the por- trait, probably taken from life, is evidently contemporary with the book, and is believed to be the earliest extant por- trait painted in America. One of the hymns upon the sub- ject of Peacefulness, written, Kelpius says, as he lay in
THE SETTLEMENT OF GERMANTOWN.
Kelpie
PORTRAIT OF JOHANNES KELPIUS, BY CHRISTOPHER WITT, IN 1705. BELIEVED TO BE THE EARLIEST AMERICAN PORTRAIT IN OIL.
(OVER)
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Johannes Kelpius.
" Christian Warmer's house very weak, in a small bed, not unlike a coffin, in May, 1706," begins :
" Hier lieg ich geschmieget Erkrancket im Schrein Fast ganzlich besieget Von süssesster Pein."
and was to be sung to the popular tune of " So wunsch ich nun eine gute nacht." A musical score accompanies each of the hymns. He is also said to have written "Eine kuerze und begreifliche Anleitung zum stillen Gebet," which was translated into English and printed by Sower in 1763.
On the 24th of January, 1700, he was appointed, to- gether with Daniel Falckner and Johannes Jawert, agent for the Frankfort Land Company, but he declined to serve. He was impressed with the belief that he would not die, but be taken to Heaven bodily like Elijah. Being slight and delicate, he caught a severe cold, which ended in consumption and he died in 1708. Muhlenberg gives a strange account of his closing hours from the report of his friend, Daniel Geissler. For three long days and nights he prayed that body and soul might remain united and be transfigured. At last he gave up and said : " My beloved Daniel, I am not to have that for which I hoped. I have received my answer. Dust I am and to dust I must re- turn. It is ordained that I shall die like all the children of Adam." He then gave Geissler a sealed casket and told him to take it to the river Schuylkill and throw it into deep water. Geissler took it to the bank, but concluded to hide it until after the death of his master, and then examine the contents. Upon his return, Kelpius arose, looked him in the eyes sharply, and said, " Daniel, thou hast not done as I bid thee. Thou hast not cast the casket into the river, but hast hid it by the shore." Then Geissler, convinced of
228
The Settlement of Germantown.
his master's occult force, hurried to the bank and threw it into the river. It fell with flashes like lightning and peals like thunder. This story sounds very much like another version of the death of King Arthur, and the experience of Sir Bedivere with the sword Excalibur.
In one of his hymns Kelpius writes :
" Doch weil ich am Reigen Des Todes noch geh' Und kan nicht versteigen Die Englische Höh,"
which I translate :
" And since I am mortal Whom death will not slight, And cannot mount upward The angelic height."
This expresses a thought entirely contrary to the belief attributed to him by Muhlenberg, whose orthodox training sometimes prevented him from getting the measure ac- curately of the faiths of those not in the church.
Peter Miller, the Prior of Ephrata, who was more sym- pathetic, gave this account of him : Kelpius, educated in one of the most distinguished universities of Europe, and having had advantage of the best resources for the acquirement of knowledge, was calculated to edify and enlighten those who resorted to him for information. He had particularly made great progress in the study of ancient law, and was quite proficient in theology. He was inti- mately acquainted with the works of the rabbins, the heathen and stoic philosophers, the fathers of the Chris- tian church, and the reformers. He was conversant with the writings of Tertullian, St. Jerome, St. Augustine, St. Cyprian, Chrysostom, Ambrose, Tauler, Eck, Myconius, Carlstadt, Hedio, Faber, Osiander, Luther, Zwinglius,
229
Journal of Kelpius.
3.N.L. Arno, 694. "Septima fannais convites "à Did day in Franceman
Afus Himica Lembro Posting Daniel e Falknero, Daniele Latka Johanna Sectique, Lusod. wo Andermans et constitus final 40. siresten que reconfiti it alii convinti à gio in Germania procedente. active fome iter it in fueront.
Comuntam plar Nain nomine SARA MARIA BONE Sulla Capitanco Fohamis Tanero Anglo conduceban ego Septima Februari pro festem argenti. libris Anglicatis Uguas in navi YA! majus explveta, quam 13 ingreat in from religii anten ic na, quod erat 3 Prima Lec dies in Tameji fluvio Anglicano/ tranquilla transigelatin à s'offrir à me maximin par faul Grains. sante: vespri de origendis lectio concertation factories fur que colum in 9. 4. accendebat na
„ condi pacifico dejustus Zelum pro tevto con ton cinoffi via Jeelus feelerere cumularet Donce Maria California virginem Ethiopicam afaisant que pris De politie the virginis Evropred informaril volebet antequera confer fine Peering vero marburg his hof rate cur lotfidoraTERE
iestia fatalis irait. ¿ Meno prefaga, mala cuisine zu felici mihi grosfagiebat. Idem Falknerma de mabit. Vifitabamert primo a Milition Contenitorile Regis. Vi mento contrario of turbatents. frg arenafie admove lamur quas exagère volantes are here . Salutem quarentamus, qu'a y ja mais peridifet ifi Divi na Provoca fecisfet ut as conte mole ravin perforare volens fracture fuisfel iption. An- where he deportiva turbine tandoin forchamar i /y
Page from the Journal of Kelpius.
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The Settlement of Germantown.
and others, whose opinions he would frequently analyze and expound with much animation. He was also a strict disciplinarian, and kept attention directed inwards upon self. To know self he contended is the first and most es- sential of all knowledge. Thales, the Milesian, he main- tained, was the author of the precept, "Know Thyself," which was adopted by Chilo, the Lacedamonian, and is one of the three inscriptions which, according to Pliny, was consecrated at Delphos by golden letters, and acquired the authority of divine oracle.
It was supposed to have been given by Apollo, of which opinion Cicero has left a record. He directed a sedulous watchfulness over the temper, inclinations and passions and applauded very much the counsel of Marcus Aurelius : " Look within ; for within is the formation of good."
Kelpius has become widely and popularly known as " The Hermit of the Wissahickon."
Daniel Falckner, another of the emigrants of 1694, was born in Langen Reinsdorf, in Saxony, Nov. 24, 1666, and was the son of Daniel and grandson of Christian Falckner, both of whom were clergymen. He also was educated for the ministry. A description of the voyage Daniel falckner to America, from which we get much information, is be- lieved by Seidensticker to have been written by him. In 1698 he went back to Europe in an effort to bring another colony to Pennsylvania. While there he wrote a little volume published at Franckfurt, in 1702, a copy of which I have, entitled " Curieuse Nachricht von Pennsylvania in Norden America," in which he describes himself as a professor, burgher and pilgrim. He came back holding authority to represent the Frankfort Land Company, but
23I
Johann Seelig.
his efforts were not very successful, and it appears both from the statements of Pastorius and the court records that he was for a time given to indulgence. He married and separated from the community on the Ridge. His manner of life no doubt improved, since Sachse has shown that he later became pastor of the Lutheran congregations on the Raritan, and elsewhere in New Jersey, where he spent much time in botanical studies, and was living respected until as late as 1741. " Falckner's Swamp" in Mont- gomery Co., Pa., still bears his name.
Johann Seelig, a teacher and a bookbinder, was born at Lengo, Lippe Detmold, in 1668. Saur, in 1739, published in Germantown a little volume entitled " Ein Abgenoth- igter Bericht," the only known copy of which I have, wherein he tells of a certain Dr. Schotte, whose letters he prints, and who, he says, preached in 1687 with so much fervor that his hearers were astounded and " fell upon the earth and lay together in heaps as if dead." Schotte stretched out his arm as stiff as an iron bar, so that many men could not move it. He rode through the cities and to the universities of Europe and brought one hundred and forty-five people together, giving them each a distinctive name. Among them were many of the Pietists, Dr. Jo- hann Wilhelm Petersen, as Elias ; Spener, as Nicodemus ; Johann Heinrich Sprogell, as Philemon ; Daniel Falckner, as Gaius ; Johannes Kelpius, as Philologus ; Johanna Elea- nora Von Merlau as Sara ; the widow Schütz, as Susanna ; and Johann Seelig, as Pudens. Of Seelig's life in Pennsyl- vania all that seems to be known is that Kelpius was much attached to him; that, May 12, 1699, he wrote a long letter to Deichman, in London, couched in the mystic language of his sect; that he lived the life of a hermit eight miles from Philadelphia, where he bound books and taught the
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The Settlement of Germantown.
Ein Purges TRACTATLEIN von. den PURA Furter : ¿ sumer user. König : Reichen der PHILISTER Wab dieselbe in vem
MENSCHEN bezeichnen
Lichfaber Ver Deanfeit
1709. Mens Boli.
MS. volume by Sprogell in 1703 in my library.
233
Justus Falckner.
children, and that he died April 26, 1745, aged seventy- seven years.
Justus Falckner, brother of Daniel, was born Nov. 22, 1672, and in 1693 was a student in the University at Halle. We are told by Biorck that he left his home " to escape the burden of the pastorate." He wrote a number of hymns which are still preserved. In 1700 he came with his brother to Pennsylvania. He was ordained by Rudman in the old Swedes Church at Wiccacoe on Nov. 24, 1703, and from that time was pastor of the Holy Trinity Lu-
Justus Falckner
theran Church in New York, until 1723. In 1708 he published in Dutch a " Grondlycke Onderricht," a cate- chism, printed by Bradford, in New York, the only known copy of which is in the library of the Historical Society of Pennsylvania and which was long supposed to be the first Dutch book printed in America. He married May 26, 1717, Gerritje Hardick, and had three children.
Despite the earnest efforts of Mr. Sachse, who has given special attention to the subject, and of earlier writers, there is little definite information concerning the community upon the Ridge. Who composed the forty immigrants, be- side those named, we do not know. What they did and what was the manner of their lives is for the most part involved in hopeless obscurity. Though men of learning they seem to have given little attention to the affairs of this world, and to have fixed their patient expectations upon the rewards that were to come in the next, because of the self-denial exercised while here.
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