The Somerset herald. [volume] (Somerset, Pa.) 1870-1936, 1893-10-11
SOMERSET. Pa. WEDNESDAY. OCTOBER IL. 1893
How a Branch of the Seventh
Day Baptlsts Was Founded.

Day BaptIsts Was Founded.
From the Lancaster Inquirer.
About the year 1900, Peter Lehman, a
descendent of the Amish Of Somerset
county, visited Ephrata and there aequir-
ed knowledge of the Ephrata church
music. Soon after he became pastor Of
the Seventh Day Baptist Church at
Snow Hill, in the southern portion of
Franklin county, Pennsylvania, now
known as the nunnery. lie at once in
troduced the church music there and be-
gan making arrangements to found re-
ligious institution upon the monastical
order. At first there were only four in
mates, single men and women, who
agreed to become members Of the socie-
ty, TO work for their board and clothing
and to abide by the rules.
The number rapidly increased but at
no time exceeded forty. The men titled
large farm and operated a fourishing
mill. The women sowed fax, spun flax
and woTe and made linen and wooden
cloth. Implicit obedience was required
to all the regulations, both as to the relig-
ious services and the secular duties of
the institution. The observance of the
Seventh Day began with services on Fri
day evening, and continued all of Satur-
day, but Of course on the First Day, or
Sunday, ordinary vocations were pursued.
Some of the inmates were exceedingly
severe in their devotional exercises, and
finally one of them, an extremist, be-
came so radical as to sleep always on a
hard bench with billet Of wood for his
pillow, ready to be aroused for midnight
devotions. He lost his life through too
severe punishment of the body in deny
ing himself sufficient food to maintain
life.
The present nunnery building at Snow
Hill is really group Of buildings erected
at different periods. They were built Of
brick, low and rambling in appearance,
with quaint dormer windows rising out
of the roof and surmounted by an an
cient belfry. The interior consists Of
maze of rooms through which it is al
most impossible for stranger to find his
way. The original cloister was built in
1914, the chapel in 1886, the Brother
house in 1899 and the Sister house in
1915. There are thirty-thrse sleeping
rooms, many of them of narrow and
contracted quarters, and nine sitting
rooms. In the dining room and chapel
the brothers and sisters sat at different
tables and in different pews. At twenty
minutes before a. m, summer and win
ter, the bell Of the eloister summoned all
to their morning deyotions in the chap
el. Interspersed with the secular duties
at the nunnery were classes in history,
music and theology, to the study Of
which all applied themselves diligently,
under the administration of Peter Leh-
man as prior or father. The government
of the nunnery was patriarchal, with no
written rules or regulations. There were
no VOWS Of celibaey taken, yet any who
married had to leave the eloister, and the
unwritlen laws in such and kindred
matters were as inyiolable as those Of
any monastery in Europe.
The music st the nunnery was the
most peculiar and beautiful feature of
the society. The branches here and at
Ephrata had fully q thousand hymns
and a different tune to each hymn. 1t
is generally supposed that one Of the
first collections Of manuscript music ex-
lists at the nunnery. Some of the manu-
scripts are maryels Of beauty and artistic
penmanship, the result Of many years
of toll by the inmates, both in this coun-
try and in Europe. The brilliantly illu-
manuscripts would be art treas
ures to the antiquarian could access be
gained to them. The music as rendered
by the trained choir after ten or fifteen
years of daily study of the art, was a
marvel of beauty and sweetness 1t was
sung mainly in five parts, viz: cir, coun-
ter, tenor, treble, upper bass and lower
bass. Some Of the brothers and nuns
were sufficiently skilled to sing the sixth
part. The hymns were all written IN a
treble tone, or for the female voice. The
evening service Of song was held in the
small, low-roofed chapel, indented in the
walls of which are copies in ancient Ger
man text Of the Lords Prayer and other
inscriptions, now almost obliterate1 by
the ravages Of time. Travellers often
came from afar to hear the sweet tones,
and as in the monasteries of tie old
country, wayfarers always found a refuge
there.
Now all is changed at Snow Hill. The
marks Of decay and ruin are everywhere
apparent about the buildings. OF the
monastical society only two aged MEM
bers remain-Obed Snow wberger and Eliz-
abeih Ritter, whose long and peaceful
possession Of this religious home b as re-
Gently been imperiled by process Of law.
OF course the secular branch Of the
Snow Hill Society was larger than the
monastical, for very few were willing to
undergo the lonely life of priyatiOn at
the nunnery, and the secular members
soon spread over all the surrounding
country and became prosperous farmers
They still cling rigidly to the observance
of the Seventh Day, and pursue their
ordinary yOcations on Sunday. They
built themselves church on the nun
merry farm, and their annual meetings are
held there, to which from many miles
around they come in large numbers with
their families
Sunshine comes, no matter how dark
the clouds are, when the woman who il
borne down by woman's troubles turns
to DIR. Pierce's Fayorite Prescription. II
her life is made gloomy by the chronic
weaknesses, delicate arrangements, and
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