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.
