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The submitter has given permission to the USGenWeb Archives to store the file permanently for free access. *********************************************************************** OH-FOOTSTEPS-D Digest Volume 99 : Issue 565 Today's Topics: #1 Church Records From Tuscarawas Cou [MWilli1008@aol.com] #2 Church Records From Tuscarawas Cou [MWilli1008@aol.com] ------------------------------ X-Message: #1 Date: Fri, 30 Jul 1999 07:46:15 EDT From: MWilli1008@aol.com To: OH-FOOTSTEPS-L@rootsweb.com Message-ID: Subject: Church Records From Tuscarawas County Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii" Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Section 17 Diary of the Congregation at Sharon and Gnadenhutten In the Year 1840 to 1841 By Rev. Herman J. Tietze August 1840 Continued August 9th. I drive with young John Blickensderfer to Sharon. Few came to church today; this and the disclosure yesterday make me sad; I feel very depressed and spiritless and sick in the body. From Bro. and Sr. John Blickensderfer, where I spent noon as I frequently do, I go to Bro. Abraham Hursh, who lives in this neighborhood. He is very sick with bilious colic. I afterward drive to Dover and take John Blickensderfer along in order to give him instruction there, along with the others. Having arrived, I hear with pleasusre that the long awaited Bro. Charles Blech, from New York, has safely arrived. I asked him to preach for me, to which he also agrees, in the English. Bro. Christian Bleck conducted the burial (wholly in English) the funeral sermon was held afterward in the church. There were many friends who attended the body from Dover. Before Bro. Blech again goes to Dover, I ask him to arrange for an account, for me, of a Christian library for lending to our brethren and sisters with the American Tract Society. 21st. Since I am pretty well rested again, I go to Dutch Valley in the afternoon to visit the single brother Martin Keller, Jr., who was seriously injured in the face by a horse which was made wild by a swarm of bees. I also visit Bro. and Sr. Benj. V. Lehn, both of whom were lying down, he from an injury to his leg. In the evening I spoke with the single brother, Amos M. and now believe I have taken up the matter of the card playing with pretty much all of those who were involved. Sunday the 23rd. Children's festival in Sharon. English serman. Then an address to the children, lollowed by lovefeast. A heavy rain keeps us in the church for a while. After we both ate at Diensts, we have singing again in the church at 3 P.M., with the young people. We then drive to Dover, chiefly for the purpose of speaking with Bro. Jac. Blickensderfer about submission of his daughter, Hannah, as difficulties are preventing her from coming to us. Then on the 24th we visit with the other brothers and sisters. We then drive to Goshen and visit the Meyers brothers, Jac. and Frederick, in whose valley we had never been. A very stony road thither. 25th I speak with Charles Huebner about his offensive conduct and relation with the sister, his sister-in-law, for it seems as the parents were unable or did not want to look after him more closely. In the afternoon and evening we visit close by, with Jon. Taylors and Isaac Blickensderfers and Andreas, the shoemaker. 27th. I drive to Muddy Run Valley for a funeral. Little Elizabeth von Lehn was buried in Sharon. In the afternoon, I visited in Dutch Valley with the very sick Spl. v. Lehn, a sister of Benj. v. Lehen, and prayed with her. He himself, as well as Martin Keller, is again improving. I also had a long conversation in the evening with Mr. Schaber about his sons who belong to us; he promised to keep a sharp eye on them. Bro. Jac. Blickensderfer of Dover visits us and brings his daughter Hannah to her Aunt Sally Blickensderfers in Gnadenhutten, but wishes that she might enjoy instruction from my wife in music and from me in other sciences. He has completely broken up his housekeeping and is moving on his piece of ground by the sawmill. Before the last meeting, sister Tietze became sick with the fever. Several of tje brethren and sisters who had spoken to me before excluded themselves from the festival and from the meetings. Yes. Francis Walter, whom i had approached in regard to his offensive and illegel works on Sunday, worked on his porch quite openly to the offense of many. 14th. Visited at all the fever sick people, of whom there are always more. Old Sam Romig engages me for the burial of an outside friend, Oerter, in Trenton. 15th. I drive to Trenton to widow Oerter's house, prayed there, and drove to the church after internment. 16th. At 4 o'clock in the aftern on the Gnadenhutten Committee came to me as was arranged, all except Bro. Rehemel who has the fever. We find cause to deplore the situation which stares at us from many a symptom and the occurances of our congregation, and that we need to shoulder a part of the blame ourselves, and that we have not watched and maintained closely enough the observances of our congregational ordinances. My proposition to read them once to the adult members of the congregation some Sundy and to ask the younger ones for their signatures, which indeed has not occurred since 1824, meets the approval of the others. I would have gladly availed lmlyself of the advice of the Committee brethren earlier and have used their judgement and knowledge, with the individuals, and not two of them, namely, our old father David Peter and Bro. Christian Blickensdefer been so distressed that it was unthinkable for them. Even now I was sorry that we do not have a full attendance on account of Bro. Rehmel's attack of fever, the more so, as the malcontents appear to stand in the right. (saying) that only a few of the Committee agree with the steps taken by me in regard to the card playing. The most revolting was the building of Francis Walter, as to whom I took the opportunitty, the same as the others, to bring up for discussion the complaints brought to me about his disregard for the Saboth. Instead of arguing and insolenses. I could more easily overlook the insulting personal things he said in anger about me in the sight of four eyes, than what the brethren of the Committee imparted to me now, how he expressed himself enexcusably to others, even before young people and children,difficult business of visiting in the whole place in order to get from each one's mouth his own opinion. All to whom I spoke, and among them those whom the unprincipled man boasted of as belonging to his party would not own it and most of them cleared thenselves to my satisfaction. In the afternoon the Lutheran minister, J. A. Buttner and his wife, of Canton visited us a short while; for me, an agreeable acquaintance. Unfortunately my wife lay violently sick with the fever which she probably brought on herself yesterday by anger and vexation;( for although she was in another part of the house she could not help hearing the object calime(?) which befell as unsparingly as it did me) 233rd. I then ride into Fox's Valley. I visit at Tschudys, where the old uncle is sick and uncommonly candid with me; farther, to Samuel Fry's and old Jesse Waltons. Sister Walton had just recovered from a long sickness, she seemed to get very much pleasure from the visit, and I heard from her that she and her husband celebrated their golden wedding last January, but only in their family. This day I had to change my stockings at Mr. Phil Ranks as I got into the water till over my knees while riding through the canal (the foot-bridge is not longer to be crossed.) I was no more fortunate on the way back. 24th. In the evening, after I helped dig 20 bushels of potatoes in the school lot, I visited with the very sick widowed sister Miksch. October 1840 16th. At 10 o'clock I get an appointment to hold the funeral at noon in Sharon of the child of a stranger who died of scrlet fever in Muddy Run. Went first to Benj. Blickensderfer and then (he went by foot over the hill to the third) to Mr. Martin Keller where we discussed fully and in detail the plan of the Sunday School. Sunday 18th. English preaching in Sharon. Afterwards the brethren deliberate on the bringing in of the Sunday School. I was thrown into not a little embarassment by the requirement of holding an English burial, of which I had heard nothing until I came to the church, as I do not have the gift of preparing to speak while on the road, and least of all in the English language, in which I have never yet spoken without manuscript. Hence I explained to them that they might bring the corpse at 3 o'clock in the afternoon so that I should have a short time for preparation. At 3 o'clock I accompanied the funeral of the child at Lock 15 in Trenton, (it was the child of the Lock tender, Ericson). 21st. We drive to Sharon in the afternoon where the Sunday School teachers and Superintendent meet me after 4 o'clock for planning the school regulations. We stayed with Bro. John Blickensderfer over night in order to visit a number of Sharon brthren and sisters the next day. December 1840 Dec. 1. In the afternoon Benj. Keller gets me for the baptism of a new-born babe (it arrived too early) of his sister Betsey Meyer, as they feared it might soon die, so we rode over the frozen ground, and I came back to Gnadenhutten for the evening meeting, dead tired. 3rd. In the afternoon the child, Benj. Meyer, baptized by me the day before yesterday, was buried in Sharon. The Lutheran minister Buttner is present. In the evening sister Tietze is of great assistance to me in the singing school in the kitchenll, where on account of the great addition of school children no good order could be kept. I hope the learning of notes will frighten most of them away again. 10 o'clock at night, by moonlight and over frozen road, I drive home. 11th. We both visit with the seriously ill sister, Barbara Fromm. ______________________________ ------------------------------ X-Message: #2 Date: Fri, 30 Jul 1999 14:01:11 EDT From: MWilli1008@aol.com To: OH-FOOTSTEPS-L@rootsweb.com Message-ID: <8652f8bb.24d34267@aol.com> Subject: Church Records From Tuscarawas County Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii" Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Section 18 Diary of the Congregation at Sharon and Gnadenhutten 1840 - October 1841 By Rev. Herman J. Tietze August 1841 11th. I go to Newcomerstown, partly on a visit to the brethren and sisters there partly on business. Many children there are sick with diarrhea, whooping cough, and measeles. Also 2 of Bro. and Sr. Foxes children, the first (oldest) one is very sick. Late in the evening Bro. Aaron Bussinger brings me to his daughter Henrietia, who is suffering from unusual cramps; I spoke with her and pray in the presence of a number of neighbors. 13th. Bro. and Sr. Jac. Blickensderfer, Sr. of Dover came to us in Gnadenhutten to remain for the congregational festival on the 15th. 15th. Early even before breakfast, I am called to Bro. and Sr. Lewis Peters, where little child been sick and consumption for a long time, and was even now dying. I offer a prayer at the bed for release from her suffering and she passes away after a few hours. In the evening the Thanksgiving Liturgy, at the beginning of which I baptized our little daughter, Lucy Adelaide. 16th. At 2 P.M. the funeral of little Emma Peter in Gnadenhutten. 117th. Above in the Gnadenhutten churchland I have inside fences built in order to cut the 12 acres into 3 equal fields with an entrance and porticulles for each one. The end of Rev. Tietze's Diary -------------------------------- End of OH-FOOTSTEPS-D Digest V99 Issue #565 *******************************************