Monthly Programs -- 2013

January 17     - Bring In Your Treasures and Share.  Mechanical Gadgets theme: from egg beaters to  boring machines. Jack Armstrong, Moderator   (see below)

February 21   - Glimpses of the Goschenhoppen Region as it Once Was – A Then and Now Pictorial

                        Journey. Aaron Heckler

March 21        - Darius Berky, World Explorer from the Goschenhoppen Region, Rev. Bob Gerhart

April 18          - Inner Workings of the Old Mills, Robert Wood, (How mills of all types actually functioned)

May 16           - Whatsoever Ye Do, Do It as Unto the Lord, The diary of Moravian Missionary Teodor Schulz, 1785 – 1844.

June 20          - Annual On-Site Meeting.  The Speaker’s House, home of Frederick Muhlenberg, in

                        Trappe, with a side trip to Augustus Lutheran Church.  Tour guided by Lisa Minardi,

                        President of The Speaker’s House.

August 9 & 10 - 47^th Annual Goschenhoppen Folk Festival at the Antes’ Plantation, Colonial Road, Frederick, PA

All programs held at 7:30 pm in the 2nd floor Meeting Room of Red Men's Hall,

Rts. 29 & 63, Green Lane, unless otherwise noted.

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May 16, 2013 

Moravian Missionary Theodor Schulz

Subject of Goschenhoppen Historians’ Meeting

The May meeting of the Goschenhoppen Historians will feature an illustrated presentation “Whatsoever Ye Do, Do as Unto the Lord: The Diary of Moravian Missionary Theodor Schulz, 1785 – 1844,” by Del-Louise Moyer. Ms Moyer is the research coordinator for the Free Library of Philadelphia’s Henry S. Borneman Pennsylvania German Collection. Among the many thousands of items in the Borneman collection is the diary kept by Theodor Schulz from the age of fifteen in 1785 to 1844. Born in East Prussia in 1770, Schulz apprenticed himself to the administrative office of the Count of Lehndorf where he learned estate management, agriculture, and accounting. While at the Chancery he was befriended by a member of the Moravians at Königsberg and was admitted to the Moravian community in 1795.

In 1799 Schulz, accompanied by three other young Moravians, sailed to Pennsylvania as the first step en route to mission posts in Surinam. An interesting footnote to history is Schulz’s description of their ship’s quarantine at Mudfort, just north of Chester on the Delaware River. That summer saw a resurgence of the horrific Yellow Fever epidemic of 1793 in Philadelphia that killed over 10% of the population of America’s largest and most populous city. All incoming ships were quarantined until medically declared free of the contagion. After several days in Philadelphia where they eventually disembarked on the 6^th of August the four made their way to Bethlehem, the Moravian’s American headquarters.

For the next four months they traveled throughout eastern Pennsylvania visiting Moravian communities from Lititz and Lancaster to Emmaus and Nazareth, passing through the Goschenhoppen region on several occasions. It is during this period that the Schulz diary is of such great importance for local historians. Schulz extensively recorded what personally interested him: the contemporary landscape, customs of the land, architecture, crops, commerce, weather, and the daily and spiritual life of all the Moravian communities he visited. It was also during this time that Theodor Schulz married Susanna Catharina Elisabeth Loesch, by lot, a rather unique Moravian custom. Apparently, the Moravians drew lots for many purposes, among them the choice of marriage partner. It was seen as an unbiased way to “seek the will of God” without human interference.

The Schulzes and the three other missionaries, two of whom were now married as well, did sail for Surinam on the 12^th of December. Due to Susanna’s poor health the Schulzes returned to Bethlehem after only six years in Surinam. Theodor then served as pastor and educator to sparsely settled areas around Bethlehem for the next 15 years from 1821 until his death in 1850 he was administrator of the Moravian Wachovian land holdings in North Carolina and business manager of Salem, North Carolina where he is especially remembered for his beneficial influence on missionary works among the Cherokee of that region.

Ms Moyer’s presentation chronicles an iconic individual who while living his life in the service of God, nonetheless left behind a trove of detail of contemporary life on three continents. Her presentations are always well presented and visually captivating. She authors a blog on the Free Library of Philadelphia’s website (http://libwww.freelibrary.org/blog Note: look under the tag: Pennsylvania German Collection) that showcases some of the more unique and interesting items in the collection. The meeting will be held Thursday, My 16, 2013, at 7:30 p.m. at Red Men’s Hall, the Historian’s headquarters located at 116 Gravel Pike (Route 29) in Green Lane. The public is welcome and refreshments will be served during an informal get-together at the close of the meeting. More information can be obtained at 215-234-4119.          

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