Where in North Carolina is Mr. Kraft?
Can you figure out where Mr. Kraft is? See if you can find out where Mr. Kraft has been.
Where in North Carolina
Is Mr. Kraft?
Teachers:
Mr. Kraft is at the Bethania Moravian Church cemetery in Bethania, North Carolina.
About the Church:
Bethania has the distinction of being the first planned community of Wachovia, not to take anything away from Bethabara, the first settlement.
It was in the midst of the French and Indian War when Bishop August Gottlieb Spangenberg arrived in Wachovia complete with orders to begin a new community and a name for it: Bethania. On June 12, 1759, he and others rode out to Black Walnut Bottom three miles northwest of Bethabara, and chose a site for the new town. Eight Moravian families were selected to move to the new community, and because they expressed such a love for the MoravianChurch, eight families of war refugees living at the Bethabara mill were permitted to settle in Bethania also. Before leaving Wachovia for the last time, Br. Spangenberg formally organized the Bethania congregation on April 13, 1760.
On learning that Spangenberg had allowed “strangers” — non-Moravians — to move into Wachovia’s first planned town, Count Nicholas Ludwig von Zinzendorf, the unquestioned leader of the Moravian Church, pitched a furious tantrum — and died.
Perhaps because of its mixture of Moravians and newcomers, Bethania has always been a congregation of, shall we say, dynamic ferment.
In 1771 a large two-story Gemein House was consecrated to replace the hastily erected 1760 building. By 1790 Bethania had 215 members, and bid fair to rival Salem as a hub of enterprise in Wachovia. A large brick church was erected and consecrated in 1809 (it burned in 1942 but was rebuilt). In 1822 Bethanians began buying the land on which their houses sat (35 years before Salem began doing the same thing). A fire company was formed, a militia company was organized (before Salem), an academy was opened. Why, in 1839 some citizens got the town incorporated (evidently, though, they never acted upon it).
Most important for the MoravianChurch as a whole, the Bethania congregation has been very active in outreach. Bethania A.M.E., Olivet, Mizpah, King, and Rural Hall all trace their heritage to the Bethania church “family.” And Bethania has been especially strong in mission endeavor, with the World Mission Shop being only one token of its service.
Moravian Archives, 2002
How people were buried in Moravian cemeteries (Choir System):
Although this is a different church in Winston-Salem, it provides an example of how the people are buried at BethaniaMoravianChurch.
“God's Acre, the historic section of the HopeMoravianChurchCemetery, has 1,070 graves. Burial is by the choir system where burials are by gender. There is a section for boys, unmarried men, married men, girls, unmarried women, married women, and paupers. This follows the early Moravian custom of burial as done in Herrnhut, Germany, the place in Saxony where Moravians found sanctuary from religious persecution on the estate of Count Nicholas Von Zinzendorf.”
- from
Example of Choir System:
Women /
Men
Ideas for Teaching:
1. Print off different gravestones and have students organize them chronologically by date of birth or death.
Gravestone link:
2. Provide each student with one gravestone and have them write a story about the person, include three important historic events that occurred during the person’s lifetime.Gravestone link:
3.Use a map of Pennsylvania/Virginia/North Carolina, USA, and/or World to track the travels of families. Where they were born, where they died, where they moved from, etc.
Gravestone link:
Map of Pennsylvania/Virginia/North Carolina:
Map of the United States:
Map of World:
Possible people to look at:
- Nathaniel Bibighause (Pennsylvania-NC)
- Peter “Binkele” Binggeli (Switzerland-Pennsylvania-NC)
- Christian Butner (NC-Tennessee-Indiana)
- John Conrad (Pennsylvania-NC)
- Anna Barbara Pfaff Grabs (Pennsylvania-NC)
- Anna Barbara Dietz Hauser (Germany-Pennsylvania-NC)
- Johann George Hauser (Pennsylvania-NC)
- Martin Hauser (France-Germany-Pennsylvania-NC)
- John George Keller (Germany-Georgia-NC)
- Maria Margatetha Seitz Miller (Maine-NC)
4. Use the map of Wachovia to track the movement of a family members buried in the site (using the find a grave link). For example, some family members moved from Bethania to Salem. Some moved from Bethabara to Bethania, and then to Salem. If you start with early dates (those born in the 1700s) and click on family members, you can see where they moved. The people listed below were not buried in Bethania but were born there or lived there for a time. But, their parents, siblings, or spouse is buried in Bethania.
Gravestone link:
Map of Wachovia link:
Possible people to look at:
- Adam Butner Jr. (Bethania-Salem)
- Phillippina Christina Lash Conrad (Bethania-Pffafftown)
- John Beroth (Bethabara-Bethania-Salem)
- Ludwig Leinback (Bethania-Bethabara)
- Sarah Hege (Bethania-Salem)
- Isaac Nathaniel Kreeger (Bethania-Rural Hall)
- Elisabeth Leinbach Ranck (Bethabara-Bethania)
- Anna Johanna Ranck (Bethania-Salem)
- Samuel Sachaues Schaub (Bethania-Bethabara)
5. Use one of the Revolutionary or Civil War soldiers and have student write about these soldier’s experiences in the war. Boys could be the soldiers and girls could be their female relatives (just use the find a grave link to find their relatives (mother, wife, daughter, sister). They could write letters back and forth to each other.
Gravestone link:
- George Hauser II – Revolution
- Johannes Hauser - Revolution
- Michael Hauser – Revolution
- Johann Samuel Strup – Revolution
- Gaston Jacob Louis Helsabeck – Civil War
- William Franklin Vogler – Civil War
Specific Historical Information on some of the People Buried in the Cemetery:
Peter “Binkele” Binggeli:
He was married 3 times. His first wife is buried in Bethabara, which was the first settlement by the Moravians in what is now ForsythCounty. These two towns are about 2 miles away from each other.
Elisabeth Loliger Strub:
Andreas Volck:
There is an entire biography attached to these links from Moravian Diaries.
Johann Samuel Strup:
He fought in the Revolutionary War. His last name has changed over the years, as many other people of German ancestry. Therefore, his daughter’s last name was spelled Straub. She married a man named Johann Boehlow and is buried in the Salem Moravian cemetery, which is in Salem, now Winston-Salem. Salem was the third town started by the Moravians in what is now ForsythCounty.
George Hauser Jr.:
He fought in the Revolutionary War. The link provides a lot of detail. Unfortunately, the photo on the website is not linked. But, below is a photo the SS Department was able to take.
Charts for possible use of plotting/mapping gravesites and/or math skills.
Grid 1Name / Section / Row / Grave
Johannes Krieger / B / 4 / 15
Johann Jacob Krieger / B / 2 / 9
Johann Heinrich “John Henry: Krieger / B / 2 / 13
Friedrich Krieger / B / 5 / 15
Peter Pfaff /
B / 4 / 11
Christian Andreas Werner / B / 4 / 14
Grid 2
The Men’s Plots
Name / Grave
Andreas Gross / 41
Martin Hauser / 4
Erhard Heckerdorn / 21
Erich Ingebrestson / 7
Abraham Jorde / 43
Hans Martin Kalberlahn / 6
Nathanael Kaske / 38
Matthaeus Krause / 19
Johan Heinrich Lentzer / 9
Martin Luck / 14
Stephen Meyer / 18
Melchior Munster / 17
Joannes Nagel / 10
Carl Opiz / 8
Hans Peterson / 22
Christian Pfeffer / 49
Johann Michael Sauter / 31
Bernard Christopher Schill / 47
Johannes Hans Schorr / 15
Matthaeus Schropp / 39
Peter Sehnert / 37
Christian Gottfried Seidel / 5
Abraham Straus / 16
Jacobus von der Mark / 50
Abraham VonGanmern / 33
Samuel Wutke / 11
Gerhard Zinn / 29
Grid 3
The Women’s Plots
Name / Grave
Maria Margaretha Schaefer Hauser / 24
Anna Maria Frey Feiser / 42
Christina Barabara Bohner Krause / 15
Henrietta Benedicta Mucksch / 34
Anne M Opiz / 1
Elizabeth Palmer Peterson / 23
Mary Rogers / 3
Eva Schultz / 27
Maria C Seidel / 4
Anna Wagemann / 47
Margaretha Zinn / 51
Link resources:
About the church:
About the town of Bethania:
A timeline of Moravian history:
Brief history about Moravians in ForsythCounty: