Catoctin clarion. [volume] (Mechanicstown, Md.) 1871-1940, 1922-09-28
CONTINUED from last week)
CHAPTER Xxx
The Journey Ended

Inc Journey EndeO
a2SS%s NE of the first roads in this
ZBSAE section led from the Schuyl-
N&SN kill Ford, where Reading is
located, to Weiser's place, and
on by Rehrersburg to Sunbury. On
this road they travelled that afternoon
in the same manner as the day before,
passing several homesteads and some
forts and block-houses, necessitated by
the incursions of the Indians, these
settlements being on the frontier.
Some of these forts were the residen-
ces of the settlers, with walls of stone
two feet and more in thickness, strong
doors of double inch boards pegged to-
gether, and small, square portfolios for
windows, and had capacious, arched
cellars, in some of which there were
springs that supplied the refugees
with water.
At one of these forts Mr.. Weiscr
had only a few years before organized
company of some three hundred men,
who marched towards the Susquehan-
ma, to repel the invading forces of the
French and Indians. He narrated
some of the string Incidents of those
times to the captives in his wagon, as
they drove along through the now
peaceful and, for time, safe country;
the road sometimes bordered with
fields in which the crops were grow
ing, and then passing through
stretches of dense forest. Some of
the earliest churches of that section
of country were also seen; generally
small log-buildings, sometimes with
an adjoining cemetery; in one Of which
Mr.. Weiser said, seven members of the
church were buried in one day, hav-
ing been murdered by the Indians the
day before.
Passing through Heidelberg, they
saw the building which had been
erected some years before, as Mo
ravian church and schoolhouse, which
reminded Marie very much of the
church and schoolhuose a few miles
from the Monocacy river in Maryland,
to which her parents, with their chill
dren, had fled for refuge, just before
she was taken captive by the Indinas.
Farther on they stopped a while at
a spring which Mr.. Weiser wanted to
show them as d natural curiosity.
He told them it was called the Sink
ing Spring, because the water rose and
disappeared in the same basin. A
few miles beyond it they reached the
Schuylkill Ford, at which Reading
had been laid out by the Penns, about
ten years before, taking its name from
the city of Reading in Berkshire, Eng
land. 1t was as yet only a small
town, but there was an inn, at which
they stopped for refreshments, after
which they continued their journey,
passing through Obey, where there
was another church and schoolhouse.
Farther on they came to the farm Of a
settler who was friend of Mr.. Wei
ser's, where they spent the night.
Making an early start the next day,
they pressed on as rapidly as possible,
Mr.. Weiser thinking they might be
able to reach Bethlehem by evening.
AS the sun was setting, however, when
they arrived at Maguntsche-now
Emmaus--and the horses were pretty
we'll tagged out, it having been a
warm day, he concluded to stop there
over night, and go on to Bethlehem,
eight miles farther, the next morning,
There We're as yet only few scat
tered houses, at some little distance
from the Moravian church and school
house, and at one of these, the farm
house of Mr.. Sebastian Knauss, one of
the principal landowners in that vi
cinity, with whom Mr.. Weiser was
acquainted, they were Hospitality en-
tertained. Some of the neighboring
settlers, and the pastor of the congre-
CATION, who had seen the arrival of
the travellers, came during the evening,
and were much interested in the ac-
count given them by Johann, in the
German language, of the experiences
of the captives, ,and especially in the
story Of Marie's capture, of which they
had heard not long after it took place.
Crossing the Lehigh mountains the
next morning, they arrived on the
south bank of the Lehigh river, op-
posite the Moravian settlement of
Bethlehem. AS they were approach
ing the inn on the south side of the
river, built and conducted by the Mo
ravians, and named the Crown Inn,
and were directing their view to the
buildings on the rising ground beyond