The Military Hospital at Lititz - 1778

 

Editor’s Note: Bishop Matthäus Hehl served the Lititz congregation and surrounding areas from 1756 to 1784. During that time he maintained a personal history of the congregation, separate from the official congregational diary, which narrated events of the time. This history is preserved in two bound volumes, now held securely in the Provincial Archives in Bethlehem. In 2014 the entire manuscript was translated into English from the original German by Pastor Roy Ledbetter. What follows here are excerpts drawn from Hehl’s history for the year 1778, when the Brothers’ House was turned into a hospital for Revolutionary War soldiers. They have been selected and edited to focus on physical conditions in Lititz and the impact the hospital had on the externals of community life. Another story which remains to be told is of the deep spiritual struggles the congregation endured during this time.

 

Summary of the most Notable Occurrences in the Congregation in Litiz for the Year 1778.

This year that was distinguished by so many oppressive circumstances and threatening dangers but also by the gracious daily help and many unnoticed shieldings by our Dear Lord was also a year of special grace.

From the 19^th December of last year until the 28^th August of this year there was a hospital of ill and wounded soldiers, up and down [in number], in the Single Brethren’s House – [inserted at the foot of the page:] Of these more than 100 men died here and were buried in a corner of our acre field set apart for this – and also various officers and doctors quartered here and there in the family houses here. The Single Brethren and Boys with their shops were housed in the School and Store House and other places in the meantime, only the out buildings and the kitchen of the Brethren’s House remained accessible to them. The weaving and the smithy and their common table were able to be continued.

Soon after the field hospital moved in, an infectious illness tore through the little settlement, continuing from January until the Spring and leaving few houses untouched. The Single Brethren were affected the hardest, as in 8 different places 15 Brethren and Boys lay very ill, and this made nursing them very difficult. Especially this illness carried off 5 of our Brethren and Sisters, namely on the 23^rd January Br. Johann Jacob Schmick, on the 27^th of the same month the Married Sister Catharina Blickensdoerfer, the 31^st of the same month the Single Br. Heinrich Oerter, the 7^th February Single Br. Christoph, and on the 9^th February the Married Br. Peter Ricksecker, Senior, also the Society Member, the Married Man Jacob Blickensdoerfer on the 20^th January.

And further, the close presence of these soldier people, and the contact and familiarity with them, which many people had, especially the young, which could not be prevented nor defended against, exercised such a destructive and corruptive influence upon the spirits and the hearts and had such wicked results, that we will mourn for a long, long time and have to seek for a long time to cure it. But our Dear Lord and Savior also concerns Himself with this from time to time with inward healing of the damages wrought and sometimes to separating those who are incurable, as during this time, two were given the advice to leave, the Single [Brothers] Johann Miker and John Weinland, and two went their own way, Gottlob Jungmann and Christian Ricksecker.

Our Choir Festivals were omitted, except for the Single Sisters Choir, who solemnly held their Festival on the 4^th May with great blessing, as in their Choir House and life they had been molested the least. This may be attributed to the precision and strict regulations of our good friend, Dr. Allison [Francis Alison, Jr.], as chief of the commanders here, who had taken the Single Sisters’ House into his special protection, and all together he has offered us much assistance, so that our Congregational life would be neither offended nor hindered by his people. 

 

 

During [January] one officer and doctor after the other came requesting quarters here because of the hospital, [and] we helped them as much as we could. Thus they were housed and quartered with Paynes, Tannebergers, Blickensdoerfers, Geitners, and Clauses, as well as the entire house of the Tschudys, which was standing empty, mostly for the whole time, until the Hospital was removed in 8 months.

We received news from Bethlehem on the 7^th and 8^th of April, there was in the works a suggestion to the War commanders that all of Litiz be evacuated and taken to be used as a general hospital. For which reason the Brethren in Bethlehem had through their own deputation made a remonstrance with General Washington and been directed to Dr. Shippen as general director of the hospitals, with the comforting word that on their part no one should be disturbed or molested in their property without the most pressing need. Their supposition was that because with Bethlehem we make one family, the inhabitants of Litiz could more easily be given quarters in Bethlehem and places like that.

Directly after this we addressed ourselves on the 9^th to Dr. Shippen in Mannheim, where he is stationed. [We presented] a written request and described our circumstances. The same day we received the favorable answer from Dr. Shippen as our letter was delivered: that he entertained a very high opinion of the Brethren’s Society and would do his best not to burden the Congregation if no terrible circumstance intervened, which might make that necessary, this did not seem to be in prospect at this time. If however more places were needed here than the hospital already has, he would always confer with the Brethren and consider how and in what way help were to be had.

Shortly after these Days the Test Act was delivered, named in the previous year, and made more pointed, to swear allegiance to the States and to abjure the King and his heirs and successors, the refusal to do this brought with it the very hardest punishments: the loss all together of all official protections and civil freedoms, and in the case that it were executed even prison and finally the confiscation of all property and to be subject [to] expulsion from the country, which terrible law horrified and shocked us and many thousands in the land. We thought however during this to be silent as always and to depend on the help of the Lord and patiently to wait and see how this [law] would be carried out on us.

Directly after this act was published, the actual carrying out of these penalties [took place] upon various people in Northampton County, affecting 12 of our Brethren in Emmaus because they refuse the oath of abjuration and were put in prison in Easton. For this reason, during Passion Week, Br. [HCA] Schweinitz came from Bethlehem to Lancaster to appear before the Council to intercede and achieved so much that the prisoners were released on probation. Although this situation lasted into September and was finally only relieved when this law stopped all together in November. [inserted in right margin:] And 10 men in Lebanon were also affected, including 2 of our own.

During [June] the Field Hospital in the Brethren’s House was filled more and more with sick and wounded although as many as could be were daily dismissed and went away. Daily more and more died. In the meantime the good discipline of the officers prevented us being disturbed in our Congregational life or the quiet of the Settlement being disturbed.

But what made this month and the following times especially difficult was that it brought the experience right at the beginning of the month, that (indeed according to the very strict law of the land, that all white, grown persons had to take the Oath of Submission and Abjuration, or face graduated punishments of Prison, confiscation of property and finally expulsion from the country. This was to be executed the beginning of June.) a number of our Married Brethren and 5 or 6 Communicant Single Brethren and quite a few of our Young People took it upon themselves, without consulting their Laborers, without great necessity, and with no consideration of the assistance we had been promised because of our Petition to the Assembly and the public declaration of the sense of the Congregation, as they thought, in order to secure their own situations pro forma to take the Test Act and to get themselves a certification, to which the officers and soldiers quartered here contributed a great deal.

This procedure then not only occasioned much sorrow and offence to the other Brethren and Sisters in the Congregation, but also occasioned an offensive appearance among our good neighbors who are of like mind with us in this matter.  Soon hereafter, several Brethren were called up to militia service. When they appeared on the Bail Day in order to get themselves excused from this, the first thing they were asked, was whether or not they had taken the Test Act, and when they were able to answer “No, they had not”, they were not interrogated any further at all. But the call-up still remained and it came to pass that nothing was expected of them at all. On the contrary then, one of our Older Boys, Gottlob Jungmann, as an apprentice in the Brethren’s House Weaving Room, who himself wanted to become a Soldier, went and of his own accord enlisted and departed from us on the 12^th.

On August 2^nd Br. Matthäus was in Lancaster and on the 3^rd Br. William Henry came here with him to speak to the hearts of those Brethren who had so frivolously taken the Test Act, to consider their hastiness so that they could recognize their misstep and own up to it. On the 6^th the 10 men from Lebanon came back through here after a two month captivity in Lancaster because they had refused to take the oath, having been completely freed by the court.

On the 28^th was the long-desired event, when the Hospital left our Single Brethren’s House, which it had occupied for 8 months, and during the following days the House and the quarters [they had occupied] in the Settlement were completely emptied to our great relief. While they were here 110 of the men died and were buried. In the evening a liturgy of thanksgiving was held with the Brethren, and in this it was wished that before the house is occupied again, it needs to be thoroughly repaired and cleaned and that the Savior might cure from the ground up all the harm that the Choir has suffered during this time.

On September 11^th we received the troubling news from Bethlehem that they had just received a summons on the Married People’s Choir Festival that all the Brethren in Bethlehem, Nazareth, etc, must present themselves in Allentown before the Justice of the Peace and take the Test Act. This was indeed reversed by the intervening of the Speaker of the Assembly in Philadelphia but then as a matter of fact right after that was executed even more sharply upon 10 Brethren in Emmaus, among those affected was our Br. Franz Boehler, who were in fact taken prisoner to Easton. This troubling occurrence as well as the frightening consequences that weigh us down here and affect many things in the communal fellowship here, occasioned Br. Matthäus on the 17^th to go to Bethlehem for a Provincial Elders’ Conference on the matter of the Test Act. He was accompanied by Br. Christian Heckewaelder from Salem [NC], who had just arrived here a couple of days before with the same concern and on account of pressing danger.

After the Single Brethren’s House had been thoroughly cleaned, repaired and whitewashed throughout this whole month and thoroughly cared for courtesy of the voluntary service of the Single Sisters, all of the Brethren who had been scattered moved back into the house with all the equipment for their professions. That same evening they moved into their sleeping hall again with a solemn liturgy and on Sunday the 27^th the Worship Hall was consecrated with a Lovefeast as if anew.

When Dr. Allison left here at the end of the month to follow the Army, he asked that we might grant his wife and 2 children shelter here until he could find convenient [Eng] quarters where he was and could come get them, which we willingly granted in consideration [Eng] of the service he has rendered us and his friendliness.

December the 1^st was the longed-for “Day which the Lord has made, let us rejoice and be glad in it with thanksgiving” from the Watchword for today, in as much as the resolution of the Assembly appeared in the newspaper for the first time and we noticed it, namely that “all those who had missed taking the Test Act or did not want to take the Test Act, could neither vote nor be voted for, nor be admitted to certain offices, but otherwise would enjoy all civil privileges and the punishments previously attached to refusal of the Test Act would from now on be omitted and done away with.” Praise and thanks be to God! Thus now we are made equal to those who thought that by taking the oath they would gain some advantage or privilege.

On the 24^th we had blessed Christmas Vigils with the Children and the Adults, with a general Lovefeast and then after that lovely Christmas holy days, especially in the Choirs. On the 31^st we closed the old year most blessedly with penitence, prayer, praising, thanks and adoration.