Catoctin clarion. [volume] (Mechanicstown, Md.) 1871-1940, 1886-02-11
GRACEHAM.
A Sketch Of its Early History.
BY JOHN w. JORDAN.

|
! As early as the years l734-35, mis-
sionaries of the Moravian Church were
found to be Iaboring in the American
Provinces of Great Britain, but it was
not until the founding OF Bethlehem, lin
l74l, that the Church may be said to
have been established there. Bishop
A. G. Spangenberg stands foremost
among the energetic and devoted men
employed in promoting the policy of
their Church for the extension Of the
Redeemer's Kingdom in America. Be
tween 1855 and 1862 he spent twenty
years of that period in the Provinces,
four of which (l747-5D he was ably as
sisted by the jealous young bishop, j..
G. F. Cammerhoff, from whose MINIS.
this paper has largely been compiled
Prior 70 Spangenberg arrival as Dr.
dina1i UuUAtis Fatrum Vlcarlus Gen.
erals m An,erica a Mission had been
commenced among the aboriglnes,
which he was instrumental in extend
ing, but it was for the religious!y des-
titute Germans scattered through the
Province that his sympathjes were
early enlisted and energies directed. In
the rural districts, particularly, they
were found to be without church Or
CARNATIONS, without places of worship
and without regular ministry. Very
soon, however, Moravian evangelists
were to be found as far north as Broad
Bay, in Maine, and as fa1 South as
Georgia; congregations were organized,
houses of worship erected, preaching
places established and schools opened,
We have in our collection map de-
scrbing the field of their operations
and routes of travel in the Middle Col
onies, entitled: "Reasse Chart dureh
Ptnmsylvanien ind andere angran=endc
P1orinzen, NIT Anmsrkung allcr eigen-
MumHchcn Landereycu, Wohnplatsen,
huchGn u. Schulhouse,m der Vere,a-
,qten Bruder,-auch e'mtyer danast con-
necttrende elnzelen Fami(len, acae auch
rerschisaenen HeyJerged ind Wegcei-
chsn.' From this We find the usual
route to Western Maryland frola Beth
lehem was via Macungy, past L'nge
Kaspars, Zieglcr's and Weiser's, to
Oley thence TO Reading, thence past
Rlehm's, through Muddy Creek to
Warwick, to Lancaster, over Wrlght's
Ferry to Crust Greek, thence to York.
and after passing Miller Hans and
Kitzmiler over the boundary into
Mary land. The objective points in
that Province were the German settle
ments on the Monocacy, west of The
Three Pines. and Grossvaters, Major
Oyle Plantation, Frederickstown and
George Gumpfs, near the Potomac
River.
Frederick County, in which mainly
labored the Moravlan missionaries, Wa
formed by an Act Of General Assembly
passed. June IL, I748-but which did
not become operative until December
10 following was named after Freder
ick, sixth and last Baron Baltimore.
Under this Act, it included the present
coun,ies of Montgomery, Washington,
Allegheny, Garrett and part of Car
roll. Its fertile plains and valleys
were settled by English, Irish and
Germans. The latter, who came from
the Palatinate and those who had fled
fron Pennsylvania for debt. were set
tied along the Monocacy and Catoctin
Creeks.
Bishop Cammerhoff, who made a
visitation to this district in the Au-
tumn of l747, IN letter to Zinzendort,
describes it as lying eighty miles south
of York-about forty miles long, ex-
tending from the Monocacy Creek
along the Little Blue Ridge (South
Mountain) southwest to the Potomac,
where "senlina generis humani vel
gesimi" Iive-that land sells for 95
stg. per one hundred acres-and that
the districts Of Monocacy, Antietam
and Conecocheague were under the
care of but one minister of the Church
of England, whose salary or clerical
tribute" from the first named district
alone is 10000 Tbs. of tobacco (40 Tbs.
each for males of all sects above sixteen
years of age,) equivalent to 97O0 Mary
land currency or 930O stg., land yet,'
he adds, "this man was imprisoned for
debt and died a drunkard in prison. ,"
About the same date Muhlenberg visit
ed the newly laid out town of Freder-
ick and neighborhood and endeavored
to prejudice the Germans against the
Moravians, and Schlatter celebrated
the Lords Sumner with milk (as he had