Stay in Philadelphia and experiences there. Trip into Berks County and short stay in the town of Oley

Before we took our things into the city, they were first looked at by the officials on board the ship. Beds, articles of clothing and household goods were free; other things, however, that we wanted to sell there had to be declared. For the Viennese pianoforte that I brought along from Hamburg, I had to pay twenty dollars, and for several pieces of fine linen, muslin and linen cloth, something over five dollars. The piano-forte there became a burden to me, for I had to have it transported far into the city to the customs house where it was looked at and from there again to another house, where it was set up and tuned and was to stay until it was sold. All of this was accompanied with depressing costs.

As I walked next to my wife into the city to find a German innkeeper, with whom we would lodge until further circumstances would provide for us, we first went for a walk a little bit, and looked at many noteworthy things in this city, for we had the name, the street and house number of such an innkeeper on paper and believed that we could not fail to find him. We really did find the street and the house too; but the innkeeper did not live there anymore, for the people in the house did not understand us nor we them. Then we asked each person whom we ran into on the street for a German innkeeper, but all of them shook their heads and many said in reply: "understand not!" [versteh not] So we walked an hour long up one street and down the other, and because evening came and in most houses the light was already burning, we became distressed and my wife started to cry bitterly and to lament that we now would have to spend the night on the street. Finally a man came towards us from catticornered across the street who asked us in our own language whether we were looking for someone. We lamented our circumstances to him and he told us that we had talked to several Germans shortly before and questioned them, who acted, however, as though they could speak no German. There were many Germans there, he said, who were ashamed of their mother tongue and wanted to speak no German word. He showed us then a sign in the distance and said that in that house lived a German innkeeper named Heinrich c with whom we could lodge. That was North Third Street.

Schröder, a native Hessian, took us with the stipulation that we would pay him five dollars a week for room, bed and meals three times daily and since I could not make a cheaper deal with him and he would not accede anything, I accepted

The most eye·opening and grisliest was to me the miserable so-called high German language here, mixed with many English parts, and containing coarse and heavy expressions never heard in my fatherland, as for example:¹

Schröder: Old man! from what kingdom are you?

I: From the duchy of Braunschweig.

Sch: What were you there?

I: Schoolteacher.

Sch: (pointing to my wife) Is that your person?

I didn't understand right away and wanted to ask the meaning and intention of his talk, but he blurted in and asked further:

Sch: Whether this old lady, that you have with you, is yours?

I: Yes, she is my wife.

Sch: Sit.

Because Schröder pointed to the chair, I understood thereby that this last meant this much: sit down. When we had sat down, we were asked about many things by the many German guests gathered there, but seldom did we understand their questions right away, for all of them spoke the Swabian or Palatine or Hessian dialect, mixed with many English words, the latter of which occurs because these people must also constantly speak the English language, since they have doings daily with so many who either understand no word of German or do not want to speak it. The few emigrants from Niedersachsen either adopt the dialect of these German-Americans, or, what is far more frequently the case, they learn the English language with great enthusiasm and soon, and then no longer want to speak their mother tongue.

After about an hour of conversation with Schröder and his German guests, the cook called from the hallway, "Supper! Supper!" Then Schröder brought us to the dining room and twenty persons gathered at the table; some already were eating, some came after us and some once we had already eaten; they were strictly Germans, for the most part artisans and craftsmen whom Schröder was boarding; among the late arrivals were two from Berlin, one a goldsmith, the other a locksmith, who just recently had taken work there; when these two heard me speak, they both sat down next to us and they as well as we were happy as if close relatives met unexpectedly far away.

The appealing table, set with so many gourmet foods, caught us by surprise and amazed us; never had we seen anything comparable in our fatherland, never had a meal tasted so fine to us as this first one in Philadelphia which followed directly upon the long abstinence from the usual foods. Here it was really necessary to exercise great caution, so as not to overload the stomach. One need not wonder at all why so many young people from Germany generally become sick shortly after landing in America, for the chief reason for it is without a question because they ruin their stomachs directly after their arrival. More follows about the appealing tables of the Americans and the reaction of it on their health.

The day after our arrival I went to the president of the German Lutheran Synod, Dr. Hellmuth,² first preacher at the German Lutheran Michael's and Zion Church in Philadelphia, to whom I had a letter of commendation to transmit. This eighty year old man gave me a friendly reception and was happy to see a fellow countryman (for he was a native of Helmstedt); he excused himself because of the weakness of his advanced age, because of which he was not able to do anything for me, and referred me directly to the two German Lutheran school teachers Müller³ and Schmauch;⁴ both were native Württemberger, which was immediately recognizable from their speech. Further Dr. Hellmuth referred me to Pastor Demme,⁵ who on the next Sunday was to have the inaugural sermon in his place, but to whom I did not go. Pastor Demme, as I heard afterwards, was a native Braunschweiger who studied law in Germany and had been a preacher in the country in Pennsylvania for several years. The following Sunday I heard his inaugural sermon. He is a very good speaker and preaches with much fire and also has very much support. He preached on I Cor. 4:2: "Moreover it is required of stewards that they be found trustworthy." The service was extraordinarily festive and especially for this festivity there were printed hymns sung, of which each participant was handed a printed copy upon entering the church. Since it might not be without interest to read the printed hymns used in America at such a celebration, and I still have in hand the several pages that were handed to me upon that occasion, I will let them have their small place here.<sup>6



*</sup>This is probably supposed to be: "Let us this fortune see," because otherwise the stanza would not rhyme.

In Philadelphia services were held three times each Sunday in the German Lutheran as well as the German Reformed churches, morning, afternoon and evening by light, and during my stay there I went to this Zion's Church each time and found a considerable attendance during the day as well as the evening. There one values much of the externals of religion. Except for dire need, there is not work done on Sundays; no woman takes a darning or needle instrument into her hand; no business man may do the slightest buying or selling, also no games, no music and dance are allowed; all of this is against the law and forbidden by severe punishment. No games may be played for money at all, neither in cards nor in any other way; whatever is won through games is spent in common. Card playing is done very little there, because a kind of disapproval rests upon it, and every tavernkeeper that tolerates cardplaying on his premises is thought of by observers not to be of a very good profession. That is the way it was with Schröder; from all quarters I heard of him the opinion: Schröder is a tolerable enough man, but one has to complain of the fact that he tolerates nasty cardplaying. It made no difference that he took his cardplaying guests into a room off to the side of his house, it was known far and wide in the city that he tolerated cardplaying and this was a loud complaint. Schröder himself admitted to me that he would have given up cardplaying long since if he were not still tolerating it for the sake of the many German immigrants who are mostly all given passionately to cardplaying as they arrive there and would only gradually and with time get away from it. There was another German tavern in close proximity and if he did not allow his boarders and guests some playing, then they would leave him and go there. To this ground of reason I could find no further objection.

This tavernkeeper Schröder with his wife, a native of the Palatinate, emigrated to America only several years ago and were at that time not able to pay their passage, but rather each had to do service three years long; then they worked into the fourth year for themselves and through it got so much together that they bought this nice hotel and now live in a very happy status. There is really no land on the whole earth where most of the craftsmen and every other worker-if he is not a spendthrift and a lazybones-can get status and wealth easier and faster than in the United States of North America, if he emigrates there in his youth when he is still able to strip off the German skin and to pull on an American. Of this I found very many examples in Philadelphia.

One may wonder less about what many travel writers tell of knavery which they have experienced in this city and also in other places in the United States if one remembers that nothing grates more against the character of Americans than when a foreigner plays the great master there and is surrounded by servants who practically worship him and who are not allowed to come into his living room except to wait on him. Something like that the American hates to a high degree, for he is generally used to sitting down at table even with the least of his servants and workers and eating out of one platter. In no way do I approve of it when the American pulls one over on such an illustrious one, for it is and remains wrong when he does it. But he says: this man does not know how to get rid of his money and we have to help him do it. The American, however, calculates more for his efforts and the energies of his employees that such an illustrious foreigner necessitates than for the provisions themselves, because such a one and his following necessitate three times the service and effort as three times as many other guests who are acquainted in American ways and customs; this one has to bear in mind, for all work and business are paid four to six times more than in Germany.

It is and remains incontestable truth that there is no country on the earth where the tradesman can get his own acreage, status and also wealth with greater ease than in North America, I will again repeat; but one must advisedly add to that: if he can properly Americanize himself, to which more belongs than many think, and more than I previously thought. Further on I will speak more thoroughly about this.

The two Vallstedter with me who emigrated with my support found their accommodation and very good jobs within two days in Philadelphia. H. entered into work with a carpenter and cabinet wares dealer and R. with a butcher and each earned twenty dollars a month. S., the Glückstädter, went to a rich uncle, the brother of his dead father, who had lived in America for some time and accumulated much money and stayed with him for several months and since he could not Americanize well this relative gave him 2000 dollars and in addition paid his passage for him and S. went back to Germany. H. had a brother in Philadelphia who emigrated to the United States a few years before him, married in Philadelphia and was a rich man; he sent his brother to school immediately, had him instructed in the English language, after that had him study medicine and now he is already a practicing physician in this city. The earlier mentioned musician K. from Orau in Saxony had to fend for himself in direst straits half a year long, but then took up station in Baltimore,- where he, if he keeps on, can have not only his good livelihood but can also save up money for his old age.

These examples too teach that each tradesman there not only easily finds a livelihood and work, but also earns four to five times more and with half the work lives much better than in Germany.

Every evening during my stay in Philadelphia these young people came and visited me in my quarters, and despite their unjust and vituperative treatment of me on our journey, I made not the least accusation to them, because I noticed that they felt their expressed injustice. They and other young emigrants too, with whom I spoke, were also amazed at nothing more than at the tasteful and richly set tables of the Americans and the good taste of the food; the one counted twenty-eight, the other no less than thirty-two foods on his table, whereby I gave the advice each time to be cautious and temperate.

German workers, but only tradesmen, are eminently attractive there and are sought after, because a good German can get more done than three of the best native Americans. But above all they like the German chambermaids there especially if they are handy in the kitchen. During my short stay in Philadelphia a very large group of cases came to my attention of poor German girls who had to do service for their passage two or three years and soon after or even before the end of these servant years were married to well-to-do, indeed rich citizens, not rarely to gentlemen (the illustrious ones).

In the pretty city of Philadelphia I stayed for fifteen days, in part because I had to wait for my things on board the ship Ocean that could not be unloaded earlier; in part too because I first wanted to sell my Viennese forte piano but could not do so for a price that would have left me without debit; finally because I could not decide which road to choose and which career I should take up to earn my bread. After I got all of my belongings finally secured in Schröder's tavern, I went into the country, first to the city of Germantown, for since this means as much as city of Germans, so I thought, it must at least consist of Germans for the most part, since it was founded exclusively by Germans; I found, however, that it was German only in name, for I could barely make the innkeeper whose inn I entered and from whom I sought information as to whether someone might need a German schoolteacher if only for a short time or whether there might be another way to earn my bread there understand- barely I say, since he poured me a glass of whisky when I asked for a small glass of brandy, and that he did not understand. On the street I still found an old man who could understand me and could show me the way to the pastor. From this latter I heard then that the German language there generally was very near its decline, that up to a year ago in the German schools both languages, the English and the German, were taught, but that this was now done away with too and the children in the schools of Germantown now received instruction only in the English language; he had been preaching alternately in English and in German for many years, and he had been asked several times to preach only in the English language. He said I would not find German schools in which only German was taught in a vicinity of twenty miles. In most country schools both languages were taught and the school teachers had to be able to give instruction in the English as well as in the German language; in many, however, the German language had been given its departure long since and instruction was given only in the English language.

This news brought me very great uneasiness. My plan and intention was first this: to buy a light wagon and a horse in Philadelphia in order to travel with my wife and the most needed things to Ohio state, to leave the nonessentials in Philadelphia until I would have found a way to earn my bread and then have them sent with the mail or by some other means; but I was advised against this because with winter approaching it would have been an unsure undertaking fraught with danger and instead I was advised rather to take a teaching post somewhere in Pennsylvania for the coming winter, for the time was just right, because the schools in the country and in the towns were soon to begin again. While I considered this with Pastor Becker⁷ and bemoaned my uneasiness into which I was brought by his news, he advised me to try Berks County first which from there was the next area where there were still many purely German schools. When I pulled my papers out of my pocket, I discovered that among the scattered and very distant living persons to whom my letters of introduction were directed, two lived in Berks county, namely an estate owner, manufacturer and innkeeper named Luther, a native German and very rich man who emigrated there in the time when there was a great lack of people of his position in America and attained great wealth as a manufacturer of coffee mills, and further a preacher named Jacob Miller,⁸ who was not a native German, but descended from German parents who had emigrated. First I went to the Luther named who lived fifty English miles from Germantown, and I was amazed as I came to his spacious plantation and saw his great holdings. His total acreage lay in a great plain, his buildings were comparable to those of a splendidly built court of a nobleman in Germany, and thus I found the most big farms to be. As I stepped into Luther's house, he came out of a room towards me in the hall, led me with a friendly manner into the house and welcomed me. When I thereupon handed him my letter of recommendation, he read it through with attentiveness and put a glass of brandy in front of me. I took this opportunity and sought from him also orally advice and help and promised wherever possible to be helpful and command my best. But he coldly excused himself and said that he had already wasted so much kindness and good deeds on so many of his German countrymen who had repaid him with ingratitude that he therefore decided to leave it alone in the future. Upon repeating my requests he directed the conversation always to other things and remained with it all imperturbably cold. For that reason I took leave of him and went on in order to give Pastor Jacob Miller in Falkner Swamp my recommendations, but because I left in deep thought about the dashing of my expectations by Luther (for from this man I had expected much in complete confidence probably caused in me by his name) I missed the right road; and because evening had already descended, I went into a hotel, had my evening meal there and stayed overnight. The meal was prepared immediately after I ordered it and within ten minutes at the most the table was overloaded with coffee and at least twenty-eight other foods. In general I found the tables in the country to be set even more delectably than in Philadelphia. After the meal I went into the guest room and it made a highly repulsive impression on me when I found the boards and tables in there totally occupied and possessed by people. Some had lain themselves on them, others sat on them and used the benches and chairs as footstools. They talked the whole evening, but constantly in the English language of which I only understood several words now and then. I could only half understand the German dialect in which several of them addressed me several times and for that reason I went to bed early. The next morning I paid a quarter dollar (eight Groschen of our money) for supper and drink in addition to sleeping quarters and it was subsequently always so much. When I took into consideration the many delicacies and my good appetite at the time, I found this price to be very cheap. But soon thereafter I heard too that one could do even better if he allowed himself cold eats, which I then frequently did and then I paid only twelve cents (about four Groschen). Before I took leave of the innkeeper, I asked the same whether a pastor named Miller lived in the vicinity? "Yes," he said, "he lives two miles from here." He showed me the way there and in an hour I was in Pastor Miller's dwelling, but it was not the right Pastor Miller, for the one I was looking for was named Jacob Miller, and this one was named Conrad Miller.⁹ The latter was also not at home, but on a visit to his brother Jacob Miller who was ill. This I was told by a young preacher who also just arrived to visit Pastor Conrad Miller and thereby I also found out that on the day before I could very well have stopped in at Jacob Miller, because I must have come by his house in the Falkner Swamp. Upon my question as to the name of the town where we were, he replied that it was Oley. Then I wanted to return at once in order to speak to the brothers Miller both at one time if possible, but they did not want to let me go until I had first eaten lunch. Nowhere previously had I been so excellently waited on as here with the farm owner, business man and iron manufacturer Heinrich Spang who forty years ago emigrated poor to America, and now owns a plantation of 600 acres (900 Magdeburg acres) of land, of which no finer is to be found in Pennsylvania,in addition to a large storehouse, a foundry, a wrought iron and blacksmith works, with whom Pastor Conrad Miller, a bachelor, lives, that is, not in the house of the elder Heinrich Spang, but in the dwelling of the oldest son of the same name that stood in front of the store. This dwelling stirred great awe in me and put me into great wonder and amazement. All of the rooms, even the kitchen, were painted in the most beautiful way and the wooden floors of the house were almost all covered with colorful woolen rugs. Even the steps were not forgotten. In the visitors' room hung paintings of the entire family in life size, all chastely and beautifully appointed. Everything was arranged in the most comfortable and splendid way. After the meal I wanted to get started immediately with my trip to the Falkner Swamp vicinity to meet with the brothers Miller, but that was as yet unthinkable. Spang Senior, who came to his son at the end of the meal, first took me along to his dwelling which was just as splendidly furnished and even more spacious. After I had looked around there, they took me into the dining room again. The table was set with many refreshments and the old man got a bottle of Madeira wine which both of us emptied at his biscuit table. He wanted to show me others of his houses, of which he had eight on his plantation, but I didn't dare stay any longer, but hurried with rapid steps on my way to Falkner Swamp. Meanwhile dusk overtook me a little too early when I saw several young well-dressed men in front of a large beautiful house who asked me before I even got close enough to them in good German where I yet wanted to go so late. This sound of the pure high German mother tongue I had not heard for long, and one can imagine how pleasant it was to my ears. We were soon in conversation as though relatives had met and when I told them that I was looking for the dwelling of Pastor Miller they thought that I need not be in a hurry to get there, since I had to go only four to five minutes yet to get to his dwelling. With accents of inmost sympathy and friendliness they asked me to first enter there since a pastor lived here too. Although I immediately wanted to excuse myself because of the darkness, it was all of no use, for they offered to accompany me afterward to the dwelling of Pastor Miller. In the hall an old noble man approached me who extended his hand in a friendly way and led me into the room; it was the Reformed preacher Hermann the elder.¹⁰ The old man sensed right away that I had to be from Hannover or Braunschweig, also that I could not be in America very long, etc. Tonight you will get no further, he said, we will not let you go and should Pastor Miller live even closer, we have you here for now. The previously mentioned persons were young people who studied with him and who were intended for the ministry; all of them sat around me, and I had to tell them many things of Germany. The one had this, the other that to ask. Then they brought me into the dining room, where the table was set with the most delectable foods, at which I had to eat alone however, because the supper was already past. After the meal our discussions and stories began anew and went on until after midnight; only then did we go to bed and at 9 the next morning, after breakfast, the old Preacher Hermann accompanied me until close to the door where Pastor Miller Iived. Pastor Hermann studied in his youth at the University of Halle, ·and shortly thereafter emigrated to the United States, where he found a position immediately and conducted his office since then in various congregations; also his eldest son has been called as preacher in various congregations for many years already.

The two pastors Miller I met while still together, and after I presented my letters of introduction and other witnessed documents to them, they both counseled me to apply to the vacant position of organist and school teacher at Lebanon, both offered me letters and recommendations also to their acquaintances there, also to the preacher there, who had much influence in his congregation. But I thought I would have to forego this because I was afraid I would fail the test of playing the organ. Pastor Jacob Miller, who had a nice English pianoforte, asked me then to play several chorales for him on the same and assured me subsequently that I would surely pass, for many are employed there who cannot play as well, because only seldom do organists find their way there and such are very sought after. But because of my innate modesty I could not agree to make an audition of organ playing in a city church, and would rather take a lesser position in the country, if these gentlemen believed that perhaps soon an opportunity were to be found and both of them believed that. Pastor Conrad Miller also offered to look for a dwelling for me and my wife in his proximity because the stay in Philadelphia was too expensive; on account of this he gave me the advice to stay two days yet with his brother during which he would probably arrange a dwelling for me. After two days I went to Oley, where Pastor Conrad Miller had arranged a dwelling with the previously mentioned Heinrich Spang, into which I could move immediately and in which I was to live half a year rent-free. Almost beside myself with joy I hurried to this Spang to express my thanks and then to take my way quickly to Philadelphia; but this did not go so quickly as I thought for everyone desired me to stay in his company at least a day yet. I did that then too and then hurried to Philadelphia to bring my wife the encouraging news. Two days later, Spang sent a driver who was to bring my things and us to Oley. Oley is fifty English miles distant from Philadelphia and the way there for the most part hilly and rough. For that reason I was much concerned for my Viennese pianoforte, which could easily have been damaged during this indelicate ride, and left many of the rest of my belongings preferably behind in Philadelphia, in order to protect this instrument well. We also brought the same completely undamaged to Oley; Mr. Spang the younger was fond of it and he purchased it from me for 120 dollars. But I should not have sold it so hastily, for several weeks thereafter a man from Reading (a city of the county five English miles from Oley) offered Mr. Spang 150 royal dollars for it again, for which, however, he did not want to sell.

When we arrived in Oley, Spang had already arranged for dry wood to be delivered for us, and barely were we off the wagon than we had to come into his dwelling where we were served in the best way; he would not have it that we bring our things into the house ourselves, but rather ordered his people to do it. On the next day in the very same house a sale was held and at this opportunity we bought all the missing household goods and generally made do in order at least to live there the whole winter through. Here too I made the discovery, as I had been doing in general up to now as far as I had come, that the German language is near its decline, which distressed me; here too one hears only the Word of God from the pulpit still in the German language; in colloquial use it is gone long already; in the Oley German schoolhouse a joiner had lived for a year, w`ho rents it and has opened his shop in the spacious schoolroom; here and there a rich farmer has a house teacher who teaches his children only in the English language and to write and count in English. Some lesser people permit their children to participate in this instruction in wintertime one, at most two months, but the largest portion of the children of the latter are not instructed at all until about six weeks before their confirmation by the preacher. Even Heinrich Spang the younger permits instruction for his children only in the English language in writing, arithmetic and music. Along with it, of course, they speak the German language but they can neither read it nor write it. Spang's many workers, who are all German by birth, constantly speak English among themselves and they have difficulty with German. The German dialect, here as in general where I previously heard the German language, is Palatine and Swabian mixed with parts of English. The only exceptions are educated people of German descent or immigrant Germans from Niedersachsen and of these again the preachers.

Here in Oley I made the acquaintance of many German preachers who oflen visited Pastor Miller, among others the two Reformed preachers Dechand¹¹ and Antiken;¹² both were immigrant Prussians and both first chose the preaching profession in Pennsylvania. Pastor Dechand had already lived many years in the state of Ohio where I too had thought of going and therefore could give me information about much that I wished to know; Pastor Antiken, however, who had traveled as a portrait painter and had stayed for an extended time not only in the state of Ohio, but had journeyed through the collective United States, was in a position to share with me an extensive knowledge of very many noteworthy things which he did too, for he conversed with me often for many hours alone. Yet he counseled me not to travel further, but rather much more to stay in Pennsylvania because he preferred this state to all the rest.

The Germans living in Oley were for the most part Lutherans and Reformed and had a common church in which once every fourteen days regular preaching was held alternately in addition to burials and other extraordinary events; that is. if on one Sunday the Lutheran pastor Miller had preached, then after fourteen days the Reformed pastor Dechand would preach. I found this to be the case in many places, and because each preacher there in the country only preached once every four weeks regularly in each of his congregations, this set-up was very good and could have remained so for many years. But the Lutherans wanted their own church for themselves for which the foundation was laid during the time of my stay in Oley and just close by the church already existing there which was very pretty and roomy.¹³ Pastor Miller told me that at the request of his congregation he went from house to house along with several of his church councilmen a short time ago to record in writing what each of the members would contribute to the building of a new church; and the above-named Heinrich Spang who was also a member of the church council there would immediately subscribe that for the building of this church he would give 1000 dollars and on the same day yet 5000 dollars were subscribed; for two other rich farmers did not want to fall back of the example of Spang and each one likewise subscribed 1000 dollars. Before I left America I saw this church which had been consecrated, and the beautiful building and the splendor of the same caused me amazement. About the building style of the churches and about the services and so forth I will further relate in a special chapter.

After we had lived about fourteen days in Oley with Spang, Pastor Miller came home one evening from a trip of church business and barely had he put his horse in the stall than he came into my dwelling and said that the teaching position at the Moselem Zion Church in the Richmond parish, one of his congregations, was vacant and counseled me to apply for the same; next Sunday, he said, he would preach there and then I could make the audition which pertained to organ playing and singing. The church mentioned was fourteen English miles distant from Oley and on that Sunday Pastor Miller had to preach first at Long Swamp which was twelve English miles further away and lay in another territory. Spang the younger was so genteel as to offer me his own riding horse which I took and rode to the Zions Church at the Moselem. The service was to start at 2 in the afternoon, and I was there a quarter of an hour earlier; the big assembling place at the church and the schoolhouse bristled with people and horses; following the example of other riders I tied my horse to a tree (which is very easily accomplished because on each of the many trees at such places and also at the buildings cramp irons with rings are to be found for this purpose) and then went into the schoolhouse to speak with the schoolteacher there, whom I found sick with fever at the hot stove. He was a native Swabian and, in America for six years. His wife too was native to Swabia. He then asked me immediately, as soon as he heard that I had been a schoolteacher, to take over the singing and playing at the service for him, which I gladly promised. Then Pastor Miller entered too, relaxed a little with a lighted cigar, and told me that an additional schoolteacher had arrived who had also requested an audition to sing and to play, which caused a fright to pass through my extremities, especially when I heard that this person had been a schoolteacher in Pennsylvania for ten years and had played the organ and that his brother had been organist and schoolteacher at this church not too long ago; it was the schoolteacher Auge¹⁴ from the New Jerusalem Church not far from there, a native of the principality of Lichtenstein. Pastor Miller soon noticed that I was distressed and asked whether I would rather play and sing before or after the sermon. I chose the latter and he assigned me the hymn "Now thank we all our God!" and whispered into my ear: "You should thank the dear God even before you are chosen, just be courageous and without any fear at all and sing boldly with your playing." Upon entering the church he slapped me on the shoulders again with the words: Schoolmaster at Moselem Church!"

Auge played the organ¹⁵ very simply and I noticed at once that he was not especially good, whereby I got a little more courage and was glad that I let him play first; nonetheless he had a good voice for singing. After the sermon I sat on the organ bench and played with a far fuller touch than Auge, but could only do a very simple interlude.¹⁶ Nevertheless contrary to all my expectations I found approval. As a postlude I played a march, the only one I could play, but thereupon was so surrounded by people that after a little while I could no longer see the staves and also could not move on account of the crowd and therefore had to stop before it was time. Then I saw this Auge standing in the front of the church at the altar where the whole church council and Pastor Miller were gathered. Pastor Miller motioned me to come also and said to me that the present council in the name of the Moselem congregation had named me their schoolmaster for a year; if I did not want to stay any longer I had to give notice to the congregation three months beforehand, and if the congregation did not want to retain me that would likewise be made known to me three months in advance. Now I was schoolmaster at the Moselem-Zion Church in Richmond parish in Berks County. It was further negotiated that I should receive from each schoolchild that actually came to school a half dollar school money for each month; for playing the organ and leading the singing at the service I was to have pure grain, each one giving, however, according to his means; wood they would always deliver as much as I needed; the thirty acres of virgin land which lay adjacent to the schoolhouse I could use as I saw fit, also the same with meadows and garden with fruit trees on the whole planatation. Then I was asked when the congregation should pick me up at Oley, ad the following day was determined. Pastor Miller and I then rode in God's Name back to Oley again.

Source: Edited by Bryan Wright