The recent discovery of a 3 x 6 ½” 1867 Moravian communion hymn book in the attic during the restoration of the Heinrich Herbst house in Old Salem is a fine example of the evolution of hymnals for different purposes. The selections in the newly found volume were probably taken from the 1851 hymnbook of…
The Young Men’s Missionary Society was organized in 1840 and began with specimens and information about natural history and cultural practices collected by a world-wide network of Moravian missionaries. This collection grew with the same kind of specimens and information from Salem and surrounding areas. Existing records show that at the time of the merger…
By the end of the eighteenth century there were three pipe organs in Wachovia built by David Tannenberg, an astonishing number in the new nation. In the summer of 1998, the great organ built in 1800 for Home Moravian Church and dismantled in 1913, was exhibited at the Gallery at MESDA (Museum of Early Southern…
October – November 1780 During the Revolutionary War, Moravians in Wachovia were under extreme pressure from the North Carolina colonial government and British troops, and neighbors were almost evenly divided in their loyalties to crown and Continental Congress. Religious, industrious, peaceful, and not takers of oaths, the Moravians asked only to be left alone in…
In Memoriam: Mary Jane Brothers Smith Two days after attending the May meeting of the board of directors of the Wachovia Historical Society, Mary Jane was stricken with an acute illness that led to her death June 1, 2002. Her like will not come to us again. For those who knew her, little need be…
In his Centennial History of Calvary Moravian Church, 1893-1993, the late Hamilton C. Horton writes: As it worked out, Winston-Salem’s Old City Hall (located where the Reynolds Building is today) was being razed. Louis Owen, a member of Home Moravian Church and the Traffic Manager of Reynolds Tobacco Company bought the clock and gave it…
In planning the town of Salem, Wachovia Administrator Frederic William Marshall wanted to be sure he got it right. He sent to Moravian towns all over the world to get diagrams of their streets, main buildings, etc. (They are still in the Archives). He took the best ideas from all of these, adapted to the…
We have great respect for those pioneers who literally carved the early Wachovia settlements of Bethabara, Bethania, Salem, Friedberg, Friedland, and Hope out of the wilderness. How much were they able to accomplish, how much labor did it take, and how much they had to know to accomplish all they did! Sometimes, though, it is…
Home Church stands at the northeast corner of Salem Square as it has done since 1800. Unlike the other public buildings in Salem, its narrow side faces the street, and its long sides extend backward. The Brothers House, etc. all have their long side to the street. Home Church’s positioning does not strike us as…
This article by Richard Starbuck (1947-2020), former Archivist of the Moravian Church, Southern Province, was published on February 13, 2015, in the Winston-Salem Journal. For many years, Mr. Starbuck was editor of The Wachovia Tract as well as the Treasurer for WHS. This Saturday, Feb. 14, commemorates a special occasion in the history and heritage…