BETHABARA MILL

Road to Salem by Adelaide Fries

Based on account by Anna Catharina Antes Kalberlahn Reuter Heinzmann Ernst

Page 75

On another day Martin took me to the mill, where we found the' same crowded conditions as in Bethabara. Refugees had been permitted to cut down trees in the neighboring forest, and had built eight log cabins in a row, the back walls of the cabins forming one side of the stockade. The other three sides were built of boards, for a saw-mill had been erected for our own convenience, and it was possible to saw the boards, and less trouble than to use palisades. Neighbors seldom took the trouble to haul away boards, but the grist-mill, the only one in a radius of many miles, was used by a great many persons. "They have built a very large bin in Bethabara," said Brother Kapp, the miller, "and I have sent thither a large amount of flour, so that if we are besieged both places can be fed."

Page 78

This distressed Brother Spangenberg, who had selected the site for Wachovia, and had directed its development from Bethlehem, but was paying his first visit to the village of Bethabara since its founding. Doubtless this made him the more ready to accept the proposal of Michael Hauser, Sr., one of the mill refugees, who did not wish to return to his farm and asked that the Moravians would begin a second village, not too far from Bethabara, and allow him and his family to settle there. He discussed the matter with the Bethabara Brethren, and several of the men stated that they would be glad to join in the movement to establish a second Moravian village. On June 12th Brother Spangenberg, his wife, and several Brethren, rode to what they called the Black Walnut Bottom, and there they selected a suitable site, about three miles from Bethabara, on the road that led by the mill. Lots were laid off there on the 30th of the month, and the name of Bethania was given to the new village.

Page 93

The year 1761 made little difference in my life. The Cherokee war continued, and additional cabins were built at the mill to give the refugees more room. Poor Henry Benner's house was pillaged again, but as he and his family were here for the fourteenth time they were not in danger

Page 162

Brother George Soelle is truly what he calls himself, 'a free servant of the Lord/ On one of his missionary tours in that direction he heard of the Broadbayers, went to see them, was made welcome, and was asked to come again. In spite of the distance from Bethlehem he made repeated visits and finally became pastor of a group of interested men and women. Last year I heard that a company of them were speaking of leaving New England and coming to Wachovia, of which Brother Soelle had told them."
We had heard nothing more about this plan, but in November, 1769, it was reported that a company from Boston had reached Wilmington and was coming to Bethabara by way of Cross Creek. That proved to be true, and they reached us on November the 9th.
They had left Boston in the middle of August, but their schooner ran aground off the Roanoke and two families lost all their goods, though no lives were lost. In another schooner they reached Wilmington, where many of them had been ill, and some were still having fever. They were housed in the tavern until some of the cabins at the mill could be repaired for them.
A few days later more arrived, and several of them also had fever. As they were being escorted to the tavern one of them, a Mrs. Hahn, asked, "What is the text for today?"
"Cast all your care upon Him, for He careth for you," was the answer, and the good woman rejoiced greatly that she was among the Brethren, as she had long desired to be, and that she had reached us on a day which had so auspicious a text.
Shortly after their arrival there was a conference between our leaders and the leaders of their party, and it was decided that two families should stay at the mill, where the men could work; that two should go to Bethania; and that the rest should move into the partly finished houses in Salem, where the men could be employed in building.
"I had been hoping that we could move into one of those houses until our own was built," I confided to Christian, and again he counseled patience, pointing out that the additional help would make building go faster.

HOUSE BUILDING

Page 129

"How can we build frame houses?" asked Triebel, the practical. "We have no saw-mill in Salem, and to haul all the lumber from Bethabara will be troublesome and expensive."

"I mean the sort of frame house that is used in parts of Pennsylvania," said Brother Marshall. "Where good wood is scarce, as it is here, the trunks of the trees are used for the large timbers and the smaller pieces serve well for the laths. See—" and taking up his pencil he drew a small design. "Here are the heavy uprights, squared, with grooves on opposite sides. These heavy timbers, the height of the wall, are set two or three feet apart. Then small pieces of wood, of the correct length to extend from one groove into another, are used as laths, which need not be uniform or finished, only relatively of the same size. These laths are chipped at each end to fit into the grooves; then each is wrapped in a mixture of straw and clay to form a cylinder of the proper diam- eter, and each cylinder in turn is slipped into the grooves and ressed down. If the work is well done the result is a solid wall, the thickness of the uprights and as warm as a wall of brick."

"Are such walls permanent?"

"They should be protected by extra wide eaves, and for a two- story house there should be a narrow roof set between the first and second story."

"What about the house roof?"

"It can be made in the same way, but must be covered with clapboards, tile, or shingles; and the inside walls can be made with smaller cylinders, of the straw-clay mixture, to keep them from being too thick. What do you think, Brother Rasp?" for Brother Melchior had been saying nothing as he studied the little sketch thoughtfully.

"I think it can be done," he said. "Give me a stone foundation, and on it we can build such a wall as this, and if or when the clay shows signs of washing out we can cover the outside with clapboards or with good lime plaster."

"It will certainly solve the timber problem," said Christian, when he told me of the conversation, "and I had wondered what we would do for suitable logs for houses."

"And log houses would not look well on the main street of a town," I added, at which Christian laughed, though I saw that he felt the same, as the artist in him naturally would.

So the first houses were built of framing and straw and clay, on a foundation wall of rough stone; and the ceremonial foundation stone was laid at the very bottom of the wall.