Publications - Wachovia Historical Society

Moravians in Europe and America 1415-1865: Hidden Seed and Harvest

By Chester S. Davis

This is a popular historical account of the Moravian Church by journalist-historian Chester S. Davis. Written as a series of newspaper articles for the 500th anniversary of the Moravian Church in 1957, it was first published as Hidden Seed and Harvest by the Wachovia Historical Society in 1959.

Reissued in 2000 with the addition of 13 illustrations.
ISBN 0-9704493-0-5, 74 pages
$5.95 USD + tax

Salem’s Remembrances

Compiled and edited by Edwin L. Stockton, Jr.

A compilation of papers presented by seven Moravian Historians to the Wachovia Historical Society from 1898 to 1910. This is a charming and intriguing view from an earlier age of an even earlier age in Wachovia as these historians — John H. Clewell, Adelaide L. Fries, Emma A. Lehman, Julius A. Lineback, Bernard J. Pfohl, William S. Pfohl, and Edward Rondthaler — lived it.
203 pages
$8.95 USD + tax

The Wachovia Historical Society, 1895-1995

By Bradford L. Rauschenberg

A centennial account of the venerable historical Society, the oldest in North Carolina. Written in lively fashion by Brad Rauschenberg, a former president of the Society and a 30-year research and archeology employee of Old Salem, Inc. The volume contains copious appendices including a list of members from 1895 to 1995 and past presidents and board members.
ISBN 0-964-8872-0-7, 289 pages
$30.00 USD + tax

Historic Monographs Series, Winston-Salem in History

Thirteen Volumes, 1966 to 1977

Description

As part of the bicentennial commemoration, the city of Winston-Salem published a limited-edition collection of short historical monographs now available for sale at the Wachovia Historical Society.

The group of authors includes noteworthy historians, journalists, folklorists, and archivists who contributed to the city of Winston-Salem in numerous ways. The monographs are a rare collector’s item and a historical benchmark as they represent the views of its city-appointed committee at the time of the bicentennial. Want to read more?

In honor of the bicentennial, the Wachovia Historical Society contributed publication funds for a revised edition of the well-known Moravian historian Adelaide Fries’ monumental study, Forsyth: The History of a County on the March (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press,
404 pages, with co-authors Stuart Thurman Wright and J. Edwin Hendricks, 1976, originally published in 1949). The scholarly book has been re-issued by UNC Press as part of its Enduring Editions series. https://uncpress.org/book/9780807878507/forsyth/
Several websites offer up-to-date historical knowledge about many aspects of Winston-Salem’s history, such as https://www.digitalforsyth.org/ and https://www.cityofws.org/2642/African-American-Heritage-Initiative.

Monograph Summaries with Author Biographies

Volume 1: The Founders

Manly Wade Wellman, 1966, 42 pages.

The Founders covers the years 1766-1775 with a special emphasis on the women and men who made Salem their home, including the first enslaved Black Moravian, Brother Johannes Samuel.

The lively chronicle covers both mundane and sacred activities, whether visits by famous politicians such as Governor William Tryon, technological and medical innovations, illicit romances among young Moravians, or the christening of the first baby born in Salem on May 7, 1770.

Manly Wade Wellman was born in Angola, West Africa. In 1926, Wellman graduated from Wichita Municipal University and in 1927 received a Bachelor of Laws degree from Columbia University. From 1927 to 1934 he worked as a reporter for the Wichita Beacon and Eagle before embarking on a successful, lifelong career as a free-lance writer. Wellman wrote both fiction and nonfiction. His numerous books were written in the genres of biography, history (particularly Civil War and local history), folklore, science fiction, and travel, among others. In 1955 he was the recipient of the Edgar Allan Poe Award for nonfiction by the Mystery Writers of America, and in 1978 he was given the North Carolina Award for literature. Wellman was also nominated for a Pulitzer Prize.
Source: https://ncpedia.org/biography/wellman-manly-wade

Volume 2: The War Record

Manly Wade Wellman, 1976, 48 pages.

The War Record offers a vivid narrative from the pacifist beginnings of the Moravian community at Salem in 1753 to the Vietnam War, which ended only a year before the publication of the volume. With literary aplomb, Manly Wade Wellman, describes the gradual shift from informal Moravian militias formed in self-defense to the emergence of the Salem Light Infantry in 1831, which prepared the ground for Civil War battalions fighting union soldiers. Winston-Salem men and women fought and died in all subsequent wars, and the city’s industries and airport provided disproportionate labor and production in military industrial programs.

Volume 3: Education

Manly Wade Wellman and Larry E. Tise, 1976, 61 pages.

Education presents a detailed starting point for studying the complicated history of education and educational institutions in Winston-Salem. Before the emergence of public schools in 1839, Moravians, Methodists, and Quakers offered religious schools for boys, girls, and infants. Moravians also provided a short-lived literacy program for their enslaved workers until the North Carolina Assembly criminalized literacy education for Blacks in 1830. The authors sketch the origins and history of today’s institutions of higher learning in Winston-Salem until the era of desegregation: Winston-Salem State University, Salem College, the NC School of the Arts, Wake Forest University, and Atrium Health Wake Forest Baptist Hospital.

Larry Edward Tise, Ph.D., is an American historian, history executive, scholar, and author who has explored parallel careers in the world of history and has served in a variety of roles as a professional historian. In addition to stints as the executive head of state and national historical organizations, he has led in the establishment of standards of practice for the history community. His books and articles often reexamine inherited storylines from other eras and offer fresh interpretations on such conundrums as race and slavery in American history. Other books reexamine the careers of such figures as Sir Walter Raleigh, Benjamin Franklin, and the Wright brothers. He has also pioneered research in the world of prestigious international prizes and awards in science, technology, arts, and humanitarian concerns, creating an organization to gather data on and to formulate professional standards for internationally distinguished awards. Source: https://www.larrytisehistorian.com/biography

Volume 4: Transportation and Communication

Manly Wade Wellman, 1976, 50 pages.

Transportation and Communication captures the breathtakingly fast expansion of a far-reaching infrastructure network of roads, soon to be followed by railroads, street railways, and airports. Equally rapid was the development of the means of transportation. Beginning with the invention of ever more efficient wagons and coaches in the late 18th century, the city witnessed the arrival of buses, trains, trucks, cars, and airplanes in rapid succession in the modern era. Telephones and telegraphs began to change the speed of communication and banking transactions. While following national trends, Winston-Salem’s industrial base and the entrepreneurial spirit of its leading business families sped up these dramatic changes more so than in other regions of the state.

Volume 5: A City’s Culture. Painting, Music, Literature

Manly Wade Wellman and Larry E. Tise, 1976, 50 pages.

A City’s Culture chronicles Winston-Salem’s cultural roots in eighteenth-century Moravian music, its composers, and performers, and sketches the contributions of its successors in the arts, especially in literature, up until the city’s bicentennial year. Civic organizations and wealthy donors have always been a hallmark of the arts in the city and given their support to concerts, art exhibits, and theatre performances. The two authors pay special attention to the creation of its Arts Council, the first of its kind in the nation, and of the internationally recognized NC School of the Arts.

Larry Edward Tise, Ph.D., is an American historian, history executive, scholar, and author who has explored parallel careers in the world of history and has served in a variety of roles as a professional historian. In addition to stints as the executive head of state and national historical organizations, he has led in the establishment of standards of practice for the history community. His books and articles often reexamine inherited storylines from other eras and offer fresh interpretations on such conundrums as race and slavery in American history. Other books reexamine the careers of such figures as Sir Walter Raleigh, Benjamin Franklin, and the Wright brothers. He has also pioneered research in the world of prestigious international prizes and awards in science, technology, arts, and humanitarian concerns, creating an organization to gather data on and to formulate professional standards for internationally distinguished awards. Source: https://www.larrytisehistorian.com/biography

Volume 6: Government

Larry Edward Tise, 1976, 60 pages.

Divided into five distinct eras, the monograph Government covers the challenges, characteristics, and processes of the transition from Salem’s collectivist theocracy to governmental structures of the thriving but segregated industrial city of 1913. During the era of what the author has named the age of “democratic industrialists” (1880-1912), the consolidation of Salem and Winston (Salem’s contiguous neighbor to the north) was made legal in 1913 by vote of both towns. In the era spanning the years from 1913 to 1966, the monograph offers information on the community’s male leadership circle and the nuances of power and political control. Rarely seen elsewhere, industrial, and financial leaders of this veritable “company town” simultaneously held offices in political governance and social and cultural associations. Equally remarkable was the city’s strong Black leadership. According to the author, Winston-Salem’s Black community “stood among the first five in southern cities” (p. 51). In this detailed history, Larry E. Tise not only recounts the stories of leaders and benchmark events but also affirms the city’s “amazing capacity for change” (p. vii).

Volume 7: Industry/Commerce: 1766-1896

Manley Wade Wellman and Larry Edward Tise, 1976, 35 pages.

The monograph Industry/Commerce: 1766-1896 details the varied businesses and services abounding in Salem and Winston, including the arrival of King Tobacco. As the nineteenth century closes, Salem and Winston enterprises have garnered a national presence. The authors advance the theory that a Moravian work ethic and emphasis on economic self-sufficiency laid the foundation for all future economic growth, especially since several leading industrialists were intermarried with old Moravian families who had succeeded financially. As elsewhere, ante-bellum business success relied on the labor of enslaved workers, and later labor laws allowed for child labor. One of the best known successful Black businessmen was George Black (1879–1980), a Master Brick Mason, who arrived in Winston-Salem in 1889.

Volume 8: Industry/Commerce: 1896-1975

James Howell Smith, 1978, 67 pages.

James H. Smith organizes the nearly eighty years of Winston-Salem’s modern economic history into four distinct stages: Preparation Time (1896-1913); Good Years (1913-1929); Lean Years (1929-1941); and Era of Expansion (1941-1975). As the titles suggest, the years of 1896 to 1913 Winston-Salem’s transformation from an agrarian community to a leading manufacturing center of the South; prompted by the merger of Salem and Winston and the rise of a small group of young and energetic entrepreneurs, several companies were able to reach national prominence. During the recession (the so-called “lean years”), the city did not suffer as many others due to its well-designed infrastructure and type of businesses; World War II and the military-industrial complex prompted rapid growth and global expansion. James H. Smith pays special attention to the policies of corporate paternalism to minimize labor unrest and steer the Black and white workforce away from unionizing.

James Howell Smith, Ph.D., received his Ph.D. from the University of Wisconsin in 1968. He taught at the Wake Forest University History Department from 1965-2012 and offered the first African American History Course at Wake Forest. He opened doors for individuals from historically underrepresented communities, assisting in increasing professional, cultural and gender diversity on campus. One of his last projects brought together students from Wake Forest and Winston-Salem State University. Alongside Professor Suzanne Warren, he trained students in oral history techniques so that they could interview teachers, administrators and others involved in the desegregation process of the Winston-Salem Forsyth County Schools. Those interviews are now in the WFU Library Archives. In Winston-Salem, he served as a member of the Citizens Advisory Council in the public school system, a member of the Wachovia Historical Society and a founding board member of the local Big Brothers/Big Sisters.
Source: https://www.citizen-times.com/obituaries/act104478

Volume 9: Building/Architecture

Larry Edward Tise, 1976, 55 pages.

Four periods of architectural influence are described in Building/Architecture. The era identified as “Moravian Germanic Influence and Town Planning” (1752–1800) shaped the townscape of Salem. The next stages, named “Variations and Greek Revival” (1801– 1860) includes national trends and extended into early Winston. The third stage, “Town Patterns” (1861–1912) covers the architectural influence of the tobacco industry, the Winston boom and its styles in homes, churches, hotels, and government buildings. Finally, “Building and Rebuilding A City” (1913–1966), includes sections on the Twenties and the onset of city planning. The documentation is meticulous and extensive, and the volume is replete with photos and graphs. Larry E. Tise concludes that “a charting of the value of building permits in Winston-Salem since 1915 could easily be mistaken for a graph of the growth in the national economy” (p. 34).

Volume 10: The Churches

Larry E. Tise, 1976, 61 pages.

On the opening page of The Churches, Larry E. Tise defines his approach as social history, noting that “Church history, ideally, is much more than the listing of local churches, denominations, and interesting clergymen. It is also more than the statement of theological stances and credal differences. Churches in the Judeo-Christian tradition have served both religious and social functions. … The following sketch of Winston-Salem church history will, therefore, deal with the social as well as the religious dimension of religious development” (pages 3-4). On this theoretical foundation, the author charts Winston-Salem’s church history chronologically by social, cultural, and ethnic encounters between and within different denominations. For example, for the enslaved African American community, the sanctuary of the Black Moravian St. Phillips church provided an early haven, yet also marks the site of the Emancipation Declaration on May 21, 1865, by a Union Army cavalry chaplain.

Volume 11: Medicine

Robert W. Prichard, 1976, 49 pages.

From the arrival of Brother Hans Martin Kalberlahn, the first doctor among the first fifteen Moravian settlers in Wachovia, to the founding of the impressive hospitals and medical environment in modern Winston-Salem, this book is an inspirational history of medicine in Forsyth County. Robert W. Prichard covers the early doctors and apothecaries; the struggles of the early Wachovia towns with epidemics and the arrival of inoculations in the 18th and 19th centuries; the exceptional efforts to create the first Black Hospital by the African American volunteer Ladies Twin-City Hospital Association in the late 19th century, and the influence of Wake Forest University on the medical community.

Robert W. Prichard, M.D., gained recognition as a medical historian, leader in the training of pathologists, and as a humorist. He was one of the nation’s pioneers in understanding the hardening of the arteries, and one of the most honored teachers at the Bowman Gray School of Medicine. Dr. Prichard had been chairman of the Department of Pathology at Bowman Gray since 1973, and Director of Laboratories of the Medical Center since 1957.

Source: https://greensboro.com/honored-doctor-mentor-dies-at-71/article_111e3913-8130-52c7-
8c8b-a65ea75874b9.html?utm_medium=social&utm_source=email&utm_campaign=user-share

Volume 12: Publications

Larry E. Tise, 1976, 70 pages.

This intriguing exposé on the history of paper making, bookbinding, and the establishment of the newspaper “empire” in Winston-Salem begins with Moravian Gottlieb Schober’s paper mill, established in 1791, and Moravian John Christian Blum’s first edition of the Weekly Gleaner in 1828. As time progressed, the publication industry in the city witnessed a revolving door of diverse newspaper businesses. Besides political news and commentary, the publications included various juvenile, religious, educational, and even one short-lived upper class “women’s gossip” newspaper, which ran from 1899 through 1900 and was edited by female society writers.

Volume 13: The Character of the Community

Chester S. Davis, 1976, 28 pages.

The Character of the Community, the final and shortest monograph of the series, offers a theory of Winston-Salem’s uniqueness by connecting the city’s eighteenth-century Moravian beginnings to the civil rights struggles and labor riots after World War I, World War II, and in the sixties. Chester S. Davis juxtaposes the power structure of the leading industrialist families with that of the white and Black churches, noting in a memorable image that “the ministers found themselves in the uncomfortable position of snapping at the hands that fed them” (p. 24). On the other hand, the arts, educational institutions, and the widespread commitment to community service express perhaps the best of the Moravian founders’ ethos that is still visible today.

Chester S. Davis, Harvard University ’41, was a well-known reporter for the Winston-Salem Journal For more than thirty years. The author won a National Headliner Award along with several other state and national writing awards. Prior to his work as a journalist, Davis was a special agent with the FBI.
Source: https://hls.harvard.edu/today/in-memoriam-summer-2002-bulletin/

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