layed, and did not take place until after the twentieth of
November.^'
^ Vide unpublished manuscript minutes of the Philadelphia Presby-
tery, case of Charles Tennant and others of the same period.
^ Date from Boehm*s report to Amsterdam S3mod, November, 175a
• Hazard's Register^ vol. xv, p. 201.
*• Vide foot-note 67.
v> Boehm: reports to Amsterdam ^y nod.
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2^2 The German Sectarians of Pennsylvania.
''HEN, finally, artangements were completed,
Peter Miller was ordained in the old Button-
wood meeting-house, as the Presbyterian
church was called, which then stood at the
I south-east corner of Market street and Bank
alley, the officiating ministers being Rev.
Jedediah Andrews, Rev. William Tennant
and Rev. John Boyd."
om the day of his arrival the young minister
officiated among the Germans in Philadelphia and German-
town, and to such of the Reformed in the Skippack valley
as refused to accept the ministrations of Johann Philip
Boehm, and promised to supply them until the return of
Rev. George Michael Weiss," who had gone to Germany in
in May, 1730, for the purpose of collecting funds for the
stniggling congregations in Pennsylvania.
From this intercourse with the Skippack congr^ation
Miller came into conflict with Boehm, and disputed the
latter's right to exercise ministerial functions because of
his lack of any regular ordination. Some of this corres-
pondence is said to be still in existence. Upon the other
hand, Boehm seems to have doubted Miller's orthodoxy
and cautioned his people against the new arrival.
Rev. Peter Miller is described as being a man of good
stature, with a kindly face and friendly manner. He was
open-hearted toward those to whom he took a liking, and
was modest and genial, upon which account strangers
always tried to get an introduction to him and sought his
society.^*
He was a man of much learning and had a good theologi-
cal training. His disposition, in addition to the simplicity
and kindness of his character, was open, afPable, familiar.
" Vide Hazard's Register^ vol. xvi, p. 254.
" Boehm 's reports to Amsterdam Synod.
** Vide Acrelius: New Siveden^ p. 374.
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The Organizing of Congregations. 233
easy of access and agreeable in conversation. A British
oflBcer, who visited Ephrata after the Revolution, describes
Peter Miller as ^' a judicious, sensible, intelligent man : he
('had none of that stiffness which might naturally have
" been expected from his retired manner of life, but seemed
"easy, cheerful, and exceedingly desirous to render us
" every information in his power." ^*
Almost immediately after his ordination Peter Miller ^
visited the scattered congregations in the Province, and
was called upon to take regular charge of the Tulpehocken
8IGNATURB TO A LBTTBR WSITTBM TO BENJAMIN FRANKUN.
Origina] In American Philosophicml Society.
church, together with the union congregation of Lutheran
and Reformed, which had been formed by the Germans
living in the valley of the Cocalico and the Bucherthal.
This congregation was known as Die Evangelische Ge-
meinde an der GogaUico (the evangelical congregation on
the Cocalico). Both. of these charges — viz., the Tulpe-
hocken and the Cocalico— were organized into congrega-
tions by Johann Philip Boehm, a devout schoolmaster of
the RdFormed faith, as early as October, 1727, the Tulpe-
hocken church having thirty-two communicants and the
Cocalico congregation thirty-nine communicants on their
list,^ while the same service was done for the Lutherans a
^ Edinburgh Magazine; also American Museum, Vol. vi, pp. 35-40.
^ Boehm's Report to the Synod of Holland. Unfortunately the names
of these communicants were not given.
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234 '^^^ German Sectarians of Pennsylvania.
year or two later by Rev. Caspar Stover. When Johann
Miller came into this territory Boehm strenuously objected
to his invading his field of labor. His protests proved
without avail, as they had two years previously, when
George Michael Weiss had taken the congregation away
from Boehm. This action of Miller opened up the old
feud,'^ which, however, ended in the discomfiture of Boehm,
and the new-comer was installed in the circuit^® consisting
of the following congt^ations : Tulpehocken, Cocalico
(Muddy Creek), Weisseichenland (White Oak)^ and Lan-
caster city. This circuit was then known as the Cones-
toga Churches.**
It must be rembered that the Tulpehocken region, as
Well as the upper end of the Conestoga valley, was settled
almost entirely by Germans of the Lutheran and Reformed
faiths.
ENTION has been made of the Evangelical
R congregation on the Cocalico. When it
R was determined to build a church for their
uses a site was selected about six and a half
^ miles northeast of Ephrata, and a log church
was raised on a commanding knoll in what is now Breck-
nock township, beyond the Bucherthal. This congrega-
tion, in church annals, is known as the Muddy Creek
(Moden creek^ Mode crik^ etc.) church, and is still a union
church where Lutherans and Reformed worship upon alter-
nate Sundays. The Lutheran pastor at present writing
(May, 1899) is Rev. G. B. Welder; the Reformed minister
is Rev. S. Schweitzer.
The old record book of this congregation, like nearly all
" Boehm: Reports, November 5, 1730.
" There were seven churches in the Conestoga circuit; the other three
were known as Quittaphilla (Berg-kirch)^ Swatara and Donegal; these
were served by Mr. Conrad Templemann.
^ In Penn township, Lancaster county.
* Boehm : Reports, February 13, 1733.
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The Reformed Congregation ^^Cocaltcoy 235
the early Lutheran church registers in Eastern Pennsyl-
vania, was started by Pastor Johann Casper Stover. The
title-page, in his peculiar chirography, bears the date of
17331 aod sets forth that this "Church book and Protocol
for the Evangelical Latheran congregation on the Cocalico'*
was started by him, and that the early records were partly
extracted and copied by him from other books and then
continued by him. A fac-simile of this title-page appears
upon the following page. It is in this register that we find
the earliest evidences of Rev. Peter Miller's parochial acts.
Thus, upon the first page, under date of January 20, 1730
(O. S.)» we find that he baptized a daughter of George
Wendel Biigle. This entry further shows that soon after
his ordination the young pastor itinerated in the rural
districts. Another entry, dated February, 1733, notes the
baptism of a daughter of Leonhardt Miiller.
The same folio notes acts performed by Rev. Johann
Caspar Stover, Rev. Johann Christian Schultz and school-
master Zartmann. A reduced fac-simile of this interesting
folio is shown on page 237.
As the Reformed element increased in the vicinity a new
congregation was formed®* within the valley of the Cones-
toga, and had its place of worship about a mile and a
quarter southeast of the Ephrata settlement.® The church
became known as the Reformirte Gemeinde Cocallico in
Conestoken^ and is still a flourishing congregation within
" The earliest entry in its register is the baptism of Henry Kaflroth,
son of Gerhard Kattroth and his wife Mary, baptized December 7, 1738,
and their daughter, Mary Elizabeth, baptized October 4, 1740.
" The present church is a building of unhewn stone. It stands, as it
were, in the midst of the old God*s acre. It was erected in the year 1817,
supplanting the first church. This primitive building was a log structure
with a dirt floor. The material of the old building was purchased by a
man named Pasnacht, who carted it to about one mile east of Greenville
and converted it into a dwelling house, for which purpose it is still used.
—Rev. D. C. Tobias, History of Bethany Charge,
» Title from the old Kirchen ProtocolL
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236 The German Sectarians of Pennsylvania.
Jotuxk'
TITLS-PA6B OP THB COCAUCO (MUDDV CRBBK) OIYJKCH KBGUTBB.
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An Old Church Register. 237
PAC'SIMILB OP COCALICO (MUDDY CREBK) CHURCH RBGISTBR SHOWING BARLnST
PAROCHIAL ACTS OF RBV. PBTBR MILLER.
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238 The German Sectarians of Pennsylvania,
the bounds of Ephrata borough, under the name of Bethany
church."
This congregation and church were established several
years after the building of the Muddy-creek church. The
movement was stimulated by the fear that the religious
enthusiasm manifested in the valley would tend to lead
more of the Germans of the Reformed faith into the fold
of the Beisselianer, This congregation was always a strictly
Reformed church ; it was never what was known as a union
church.
Rev. Peter Miller ministered to this congregation in
addition to his charges at Tulpehocken, Muddy-creek,
White Oak and Lancaster. His name appears among the
list of early pastors who served the congregation, and from
some of these entries we should infer that he occasionally
preached for them even long after he entered the Ephrata
community, for the entries read : " Peter Miller Jaibetz"
(Jabez), the latter being his monastic name as prior.®*
These congregations, together with several others within
that part of the old county of Lancaster, were e\ddently
served with fidelity by the young pastor until his strange
conversion to the Sabbatarian doctrine as advanced by
Conrad Beissel. It was while the young pastor was itiner-
ating among the people of his faith that BeissePs attention
was first drawn to him.
Pastor Miller, who is said to have shown a leaning
towards the Separatist movement before he left Germany,
and he naturally became interested in the activity of Beissel,
who had settled, as it were, within the bounds of one of his
parishes. The study of the situation by these two religious
leaders— -one impetuous, the other of a retiring disposition
** The corporate name of the church, under the-present charter granted
November 21, 1861, is **The German Reformed Bethany Church of £ph-
rata township.**
** Extract from records, through kindness of Rev. J. C. Hiillhorst,
pastor.
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Brother LamecKs AccaunL 239
— must have been a mutual one, each from his own stand-
point The sequel of our story discloses the victor.
According to Brother Lamech, "the Superintendent
" [Beissel] after he had heard that two young preachers
" had come into the country, who stood in good repute as
"to their character, and also thought well of his work,
"aware of his own inability, in view of the important
" work before him, thought in his foolishness \^Albemheii\
" that his work would be better carried out if God would
" provide one of these young preachers for him, for which
"also he often bowed his knees before God. This led to
"important matters. For the Superintendent soon after
"found occasion to make a visit to Tulpehocken with
"several of his disciples, where he was received by the
" teacher and elders with the consideration due to him as
" an ambassador of God ; while on his return the teacher
"and C[onrad]W[eiser] an elder accompanied him over
" the mountain for six miles. The result of their visit to
" Tulpehocken was that the teacher, the elders, and several
"others withdrew from the church; whereupon a vener-
"able Pietist, by the name of Caspar Leibbecker [Leut-
** becker], took the teacher's place in the church."
Of Conrad Weiser the Chronicon states that he was " a
man who had received from God remarkable natural gifts
and sound judgment, and therefore carried great weight
with him into whatever sphere he might turn, whether
that of nature or of the church. He was the teacher's
[Rev. Peter Miller's] main stay, for they were on intimate
terms together, which death itself did not destroy."
In the meantime Conrad Weiser again visited the Super*
intendent in his solitude in the settlement According to
the records, " during this visit he was so enmeshed by the
Philadelphian * little strength' that wisdom finally drew
him into her net" The allusion here made refers to the
eighth verse of the third chapter of Revelation.
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240 The German Sectarians of Pennsylvania.
The result of this conference was that before the month
of May was over Beissel went again to the Tnlpehocken,
and with Weiser's aid removed all remaining objections as
to re-baptism from the minds of the clergyman and others of
his flock. The culmination was reached upon the last Sab-
. bath in the month of May. It was a beautiful spring day ;
all nature was clad in its pristine verdure and seemed to smile
a blessing on the sacred rite which was enacted in the valley.
Local tradition mentions both the Tulpehocken and Mill
Run * as the scene of this remarkable ceremony, where the
pastor, schoolmaster, three elders with their families, and
several members of a Reformed church voluntarily entered
a Sectarian body.
The pastor, Rev. Peter Miller, has left the following ex-
planation of what was perhaps the most important step in
his long life :
*' Having officiated among the Germans several years, I
" quitted the ministry and returned to a private life. About
"that time our small state [the Ephrata Community] was
" in its infancy : I never had any inclination to join with it,
"because of the. contempt and reproach which lay on the
" same ; but my inward conductor brought me to that criti-'
" cal dilemma, either to be a member of this new institution,
" or consent to my own damnation, and so I was forced to
" chose the first. We were incorporated with said congre-
"gation in May, 1735, by holy baptism. When we were
" conducted to the water, I did not much differ from a poor
"criminal under sentence of death. However, the Lord
" our God did strengthen me, when I came into the water ;
"and then I, in a solemn manner, renounced my life with
" all its prerogatives without reservation, and I found by
" experience in subsequent times that all this was put into
" the divine records ; for God never failed in his promise
" to assist me in time of need."
" MiU Run, a tribatar>' to Tulpehocken creek, in Lebanon county.
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Recall of Boekm. 241
^HAT this hejira caused considerable tumult in ^
the infant communities in the Tulpehocken
valley, as well as at Muddy Creek and the Con-
estoga country, may well be imagined, and much
feeling was engendered against the seceders.
Some laid the delusion of their pastor and church officers
to witchcraft and sorcery upon the part of the Beisselianer;
others went still further, and suggested demonology or the
direct intervention of the Evil One. The most cool-headed
of the Reformed congregations who had remained steadfast
proposed civil prosecution against the Sabbatarians for
hetrodoxy and for invading their territory.
In this effort they were seconded by the members of the ^
Cocalico [Bethania?] and Muddy Creek congregations, who
had also lost their pastor by Miller's defection. No local
magistrate, however, could be found to take action, as all
charges apparently fell as soon as it was learned that Con-
rad Weiser, the oflBcial Indian interpreter, was a leader
among the seceders.
The faithful members of the Reformed congregation '^
forthwith sent for Pastor Boehm to take charge again of
the churches abandoned by Miller, congregations which he
had founded. Upon receiving the message of Miller's de-
fection, Boehm inmiediately returned to his old charges
and held his first service at Muddy Creek church on May
"» 1735-
Boehm, in his reports of this period to the Amsterdam
Synod, writes:*'
" '* Und hat dieeer Miller Tulpehocken an aelbiger Zeit (1730) an dch
gezogen, fur welchen fidschen Geist ich de often gawamet. Sie blieben
aber, ala Yerfurte einfaltige Menachen an ihn hangen. Bia endlich der
betmg wofur ich ale forthin ao getraulich gewamet an den Tag gekom-
men, und dieaer Miller zn der wiiaten siebentager Tumpler Secten o£fent-
lich ubergegangen iat, und aich zu Canestoka in monat April, 1755, hat
Tnmpeltanfen laasen, und hat bei zehn Pamilien Reibrmirt und Lutherisch
aua der Gemeinde Tulpehocken mit sich genomen, die thaten wie er."
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242 The German Sectarians of Pennsylvania,
"And this Miller at the same time (1730) drew [the]
Tulpehocken [church] to himself, against whose false
spirit I frequently warned them; but they continued to
adhere to him like misguided silly people.
" Finally, the fraud against which I warned them so
honestly and continuously has come to light, and this
Miller publicly went over to the dissolute Seventh-day
Tumpler sect and had himself baptized Tumplerwise in
the Canestoka, in the month of April, 1735. He took out
ten families. Reformed and Lutheran, from the Tulpehocken
congregation, who did as he did.*'
That Miller's conversion to the Sabbatarian fold was not
a matter of sudden impulse would be inferred from another
of Boehm's reports, dated October 18, 1734." He there
states :
"About two yean* ago* he [Miller] together with one of
his elders, whom he had installed at Goschenhoppen, went
into the house of one of the Seventh-day Tumplers, where
they were received as brothers and permitted the host to
wash their feet And this," adds Boehm, " is the truth.'^
The most curious incident connected with the Tulpe-
hocken revival took place a day or two after the immersion
of the converts. It was an act which stands unique in our
Pennsylvania church history. This was nothing more or
less than a solemn auto-da-Ji^ held within our grand Penn-
sylvania-German county of Lebanon. Nothing could be
more foreign to our thoughts, and yet such is the fact. Who
the Inquisitor-General was upon this occasion tradition fails
to record. Conrad Weiser, however, appears to have been
the chief familiar, while his assistants with torch and forks
" Ungefahr vor zwei jahr ist er mit einen seinen Bldesten, den er in
der Gemeinde zu Goschenhoppen eingesetzt hat in ein haus yon einen
siebentager Tumpler gegangen, und sie lieaen aich ab Bruder griiaaen,
und von ihn die fus»e waschen, und dass ist die Wahrheit.
■• 1732.
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An Auto^a-fi in Pennsylvania.
243
{mtsi'gabeln) were made up of plain every-day German sett-
lers of the beautiful Tulpehocken. It is true there was no
human victim with San Benito and Caroza; but the scheit-
erhaufen burned just as brightly and was fed by the same
fuel as if it had been in Seville under a Torquemada of
days gone by-
The scene was in front of Godfrey Fiedler's house,** and
was brought about as follows : After the baptism of the
converts, it was proposed to destroy, as heretical, all devo-
tional literature of the old faith which was not in accord
^m
StafSffSK
Â¥m%m
mSSk
•jmm f
n §imii ii t 9mmiif0
t>ttrtt3o(|iatm gmbfg
Ittjtetif^uni/
pHMNt 9tftf ftCpiQCC 9M W0 SHP aNf IV
with the new departure. To accomplish this act of tem-
porary aberration, all the German devotional books in pos-
session of the various families were gathered and taken to
Fiedler's house, and among them were a number, if not all,
from Peter Miller's little library.
It appears that upon the appointed day, Peter Miller,
Conrad Weiser and others assembled at this lowly cabin,
and there solemnly condemned the books and ordered
them to be burned upon the scheiterhaufen. These libri
•• At or near Wotnelsdorf.
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244 ^^ German Sectarians of Pennsylvania,
herettci consisted of the Heidelberg Catechism ; Luther^s
Catechism, both the larger and smaller ; the Psalter, and
a number of time-honored devotional books which for ages
had been held sacred in the Fatherland.
Among the proscribed books was a copy of Amdt's Paror
dies GirtletHy a noted German devotional book." This, ac-
cording to the belief of the peasantry, was protected by
divine interposition from both fire and flood. Many cases
_«« are quoted in print, as well as in
l>f# eftt»fiii« ^ tradition, of the miraculous
M^ preservation of this book; and
•iBitiicI some persons present objected to
MfQi^''&M(d9 '*" ^°^ '^^^\f^.^ as the Lord
^9««%«wfv «^««%*«%»f« would not allow it to be con-
t|rl|ll«ctti|ctla/ ^"»«^' 'T^^y ''««' however,
overruled, and our Paradies Gart-
lein was thrown with the others
to be destroyed. A heap of dry
brush was prepared in front of
wm^^mSmmmm Fiedler's house, all ready to ignite
** when the proper time arrived for
it to feed upon the sacred literature.
It was a strange procession that filed out of the humble
cabin of Godfrey Fiedler, headed as it was by the late pastor
and chief elder of the Tulpehocken congregation. Next
followed the Schulmeister^ carrying an armful of the con-
demned books, as did others of the participants. When
they arrived at the improvised pyre the kindlings were lit
and the dry brush was soon ablaze. At the proper moment
the various books were solemly consigned to the flames by
Weiser, the schoolmaster and others, with the invocation :
" Thus perish all priestcraft"
When the fire had died down the ashes were scattered to
*^ For a description of this book see German Pietists^ PP* 3> 4-
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A Miraculous Preservation. 245
the four winds, and the party, who now considered them-
selves entirely cut oflE from the faith of their forefathers,
returned to the cabin. Thus ended the first solemn auio^
dorfi in Pennsylvania of which we have any record. That
it was not the last one will appear in the course of our story.
In connection with this burning of the devotional books,
there is yet another tradition which relates to the copy of
Parodies Gartlein. On the morning after the ceremony,
it is said that a member of Fiedler's family passing the ash-
heap and partly consumed boughs saw a square block among
the embers. On picking it up it proved to be the identical
Parodies Gartlein thrown into the pyre on the day before,
and which had been under discussion before the ceremony.
There it was, unscathed, while all others were consumed.
It is true it was charred on the edges ; the leather cover was
shrivelled and black, and the clasps almost burned to a crisp ;
yet they held the leaves together, and not a page of the print
was destroyed. It was but another instance of the miracu-
lous preservation of this remarkable prayer-book.
When this fact became noised about the country, the
simple-minded settlers at once attributed its preservation
to Divine interposition, and it was soon quoted with the
other remarkable instances of preservation from fire and
flood — stales which were prevalent in the Fatherland.
Be this as it may, the book was evidently clasped when
thrown into the blazing heap, and by some means it fell
short or was diverted, so that instead of falling into the
vortex of the fire, it fell among the embers forming the
outer circle of the pyre, and was thus saved from destruc-
tion. Among the peasantry, however, the miracle story
was believed, and the demand for the book in after years
became so great that an American edition was printed by
Christopher Sauer. For some reason the Germantown
printer was never able to immune his output from fire and
flood, as was claimed for the German edition.
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246 The German Sectarians of Pennsylvania.
As the reports of the Tulpehocken awakening, with the
defection of so many prominent churchmen and Uie destruc-
tion of the devotional literature spread over the country, they
aroused the greatest indignation among the clergy of the dif-
erent denominations. Several highly colored accounts of
the occurrence were sent to Germany, where certain pastorals
were issued, warning candidates who contemplated emigra-
tion against going to this country : a policy both short-sighted
and erroneous, as it was just the want of such r^^ar clergy
that led to the peculiar condition in Pennsylvania.
Letters were also written to various pastors in the Prov-
ince not to concern themselves about the matter, as it was
only a Strohfeuer. At the same time the fear was expressed
in Germany of a possible introduction into Pennsylvania
of the Bllerian heresy {die Ellerianischen Secie zu Rons-
dorffim Herzogthum Berg), How groundless this fear was
is shown by the fact that no trace of this sect appears in
the history of our State.
FEW weeks after the auto-^Uirfi^ Beis-
'sel made another visit to Tulpehocken,
with the intention of forming the con-
verts into a new congregation, with
Peter Miller as elder. When this pro-