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Uniting Faith and Family: The Leinbach Legacy within the Moravian Church of North Carolina

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52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks

Week 13

March 25 - March 31, 2024

Worship

 


My Leinbach ancestors on my paternal side of my family tree came to Colonial America during the 1700s to escape religious persecution in their home country as they were part of the Reformed Church. This movement became common in Germany after the Protestant Reformation, a 16th century theological movement in Western Christianity movement in Europe that posed a religious and political challenge to the papacy and the authority of the Catholic Church. Following the start of the Renaissance, the Reformation and Martin Luther’s “’95 Theses” of 1517 marked the beginning of Protestantism. Among other groups that arose in the years following the Reformation was a sect of Protestant worshipers known as Moravians. The Moravian church was founded in the 18th century but traces its origins to the Unitas Fratrum (Unity of Brethren) of the 15th century Hussite movement in Bohemia and Moravia. German Pietism in the late 17th century increased the unrest among the underground Protestants and many Brethren fled to Protestant Germany. Among those profoundly influenced included many nobles and a young count, Nickolaus Ludwig, Graf von


Zinzendorf. Adhering to the tradition of Bohemian Brethren he led a group  in 1722 of whom he settled on his estate in Saxony where he founded Herrnhut as a Christian community. A devout Lutheran, Zinzendorf tried to keep the refugees within the state church. His aversion to apparent sectarianism was overcome when he realized he faced the remnant of a church older than his. He reluctantly helped them revive their own tradition. As a result, Herrnhut became the mother community of the Moravian church.

In 1740 the Moravian group eventually went to Pennsylvania and founded Bethlehem and Nazareth. Zinzendorf’s interest in Pennsylvania led him to spend 14 months in Pennsylvania (1741-1743) and saw a haven from possible suppression at home and set up a program patterned after that of Europe. Although his plan of church union with the Lutherans failed, Zinzendorf successfully established the Moravian church in the new world. August Gottlieb Spangenburg later led a group of Moravian church members in 1741 to establish a community in North Carolina.

A prototype for about 20 settlements in Europe, the British Isle, and America. These exclusive Moravian villages were characterized by Christian fellowship groups, daily worship featuring both vocal and instrumental music, boarding schools, and concentration on foreign and domestic evangelism. They supported themselves and their projects by thriving handicraft industries.



For about a century, only church members lived in Bethlehem, Nazareth, and Lititz in Pennsylvania, and later in Salem (present-day Winston-Salem) in North Carolina. However, the church remained small because of European control and the founding of closed communities. Moravians from Bethlehem founded the first of the North Carolina churches in 1753.


During the American Revolutionary War, it was noted that: as a church the Moravians were generally pacifists and non-jurors, but by no means of a single mind. Even as non-aligned, non-combatants, they differed among themselves on which side they hoped would win. In the end the overwhelming majority accepted the American victory as providential. Their pacifism, even officially, was not absolute. They accepted war as inevitable, but claimed exemption for themselves, not because they considered themselves better than others, but because of their dedication to the special task of evangelism and mission. The Moravian Pacifism during the Revolutions seems to have been an attempt not just to keep their members out of war, but also to maintain an other-worldly lifestyle, centers of which were exclusive settlements. The latter was a losing cause already before the Revolution. In fact, the settlements of Bethlehem, Nazareth, Lititz, Hope, Bethabara, Bethania, and Salem, as centers of production and places of healing, helped the colonial cause far more than they would have, had most of the men, instead of only a few, been in the armed forces.


The Moravians from which I descend, the Leinbachs, relocated to the Wachovia Tract in what became Forsyth County in North Carolina, including Bethania under the leadership of Count Zinzendorf. Johannes Leinbach, a deacon of the Brethren in Pennsylvania, chose this relocation as he felt that his family was straying too far from the original doctrines of the church and “the world was getting too bad.”  In 1765, he and his family traveled down the


long “Great Wagon Trail” to be “as near as possible to the Brethren.” As a side note, today I live just south of that famous route in North Carolina along the “Great Wagon Trail.” Johannes had brought plenty of help from Pennsylvania to build small log cabins and to clear land for “growing turnips.” In addition to his wife, Anna Elisabeth Kleiss and two daughters, five of his sons had also traveled there to settle. But, by the winter of 1766, Johannes at the age of 52 fell gravely ill. On March 14th of 1766, just ten months after he relocated to North Carolina, Johannes Leinbach died quietly in the one-room cabin he and his children had built. He was buried on a hill near his home, a place he had selected himself.




Johannes Leinbach was appointed a Deacon in the Moravian church while in Pennsylvania, but he succumbed to death in 1766 in the North Carolina area not long after he settled there.

Bethania was founded as a farming community for the Wachovia district. Unlike the first Moravian settlement at Bethabara, three miles away and its layout was carefully planned. Moravian leaders patterned it after German model with commonly owned forests and farms. They pounded the pegs for the central lots and streets that are still seen today on June 30, 1759. Main Street was first cut 10 days later.





Bethania remains the only town with this pattern in the South, and unlike the other original Wachovia villages, it is still an independent city with a large Moravian population.

The present-day Moravian church adheres to its original principle of the Bible as the only rule of faith and practice. It subscribes to both the Apostles’ Creed and the Nicene Creed but does not have a distinct creed of its own, believing that the various Protestant confessions have already established the chief articles of the Christian faith. The litany used at the Easter sunrise service summarizes the church’s main beliefs. Worship is liturgical and follows the traditional church year. The Lord’s Supper is celebrated about six times a year and in some areas, monthly. German chorales figure prominently in the hymns used. Strongly Christocentric, the Moravian church emphasizes the suffering of Christ during Holy Week, preceding Easter.

Today the town of Bethania stands as a historical tribute to those who relocated from Pennsylvania to create a southern settlement reflecting their religious ideals. The Bethania Moravian Church still stands and across the street is the second wooden “Germain Haus,” a combination church, meeting hall, and community center built in 1770. It was witness to history in the Revolutionary War. Lord Cornwallis and his troops had taken up residence in the Hauser home, which still stands, with the British encampment not far away.




Farming in North Carolina, as the Leinbachs’ did, was limited during colonial years due to a number of geographical, transportation,  and climate issues As a result, the goal of the early farmer in North Carolina was more likely to be the sustenance of life on a family farm rather than the accumulation on a plantation.




The five sons of Johannes Leinbach: Johann Gottlieb, Ludwig, Abraham, Benjamin, and Joseph who came to North Carolina clearly faced that reality. Each son took a wife, raised a family, and attempted  to make farming his means of livelihood. While some fared better than others, none could be said to have prospered.

Four of the brothers sold their inherited land to two of their brothers-in-law, their sisters remained in North Carolina with their husbands. Anna, Johannes’ widow remained in Bethania, North Carolina until her death in 1803. Abraham retreated back to Pennsylvania but then returned to North Carolina although keeping a distance between his family and the rest of the Wachovia Brethren, but in 1790 he and one his sons died from influenza leaving his widow with ten children ranging from age one to twenty-one years. She eventually remarried and remained in North Carolina. Benjamin, the fourth brother eventually sold his land to his brother-in-law and severed his relationship with Unitas Fratrum (the Brethren). Only Joseph, the youngest son, appears to have lived his entire life on the original tract of land purchased by his father and maintained his ties with the Brethren.

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