Put It Down!

 Here is an old fable with a valid point.

   A young Indian brave climbed to the top of the highrst mountain to prove his manhood. Up there he felt like he was standing on the roof of the world.

   Then he heard a small voice, looked down, and saw a snake at his feet. It was saying, "Please! Take me down the mountain with you. It's too cold for me up here. I'll die."

   "No," the brave said. "I know what you are. You are a rattlesnake. You will bite me and kill me."

   "No, I won't. I promise," the snake replied. "If you take me down off this mountain I will not bite you. I'll treat you differently than other people."

    The brave was convinced and took the snake down off the mountain. When he got to the bottom and put the snake down it hissed, coiled, and struck.

   The brave cried out, "You bit me! You promised you wouldn't. Why did you do it?"

   The snake laughed and said as it slithered away, "You knew what I was when you picked me up."

   That is just the way sin works. Something you know you should not be doing may be outright sin or leading you toward sin. You know it is not good for you. Don't think you can carry it around and get away with it. You know what it is and what it will do to you. Put it down!

John and Anna Baer

Ephrata's Early Days

Johannes (or John) Baer and his wife Anna raised their family on a farm south of the community called Ephrata during the mid-1700s.  The Ephrata community began in the early 1730s when Conrad Beissel, a charismatic and visionary minister, led his followers to establish a community in an unsettled area known to the Native Americans as Cocalico.  

Conrad Beissel drew a following not only among the Brethren but also from Mennonites and Lutherans.  He established a settlement anchored by the “Solitary,” celibate people who lived communally and adopted a strict ascetic lifestyle, sleeping little (on hard beds), eating sparingly (one daily meal of vegetables), and dressing in simple white robes.  Because of their outward resemblance to a monastic order, the community eventually became known as the “Ephrata Cloister.”  People attracted to Beissel’s vision moved to Ephrata.  Those who continued to live as families (called “householders”) farmed nearby and attended services in the Cloister chapel.

As time went by, other people moved into the area.  John and Anna Baer were a Mennonite couple (they were married in 1746) who lived and farmed south of the Cloister.  They raised their family on the farm.  John was called to be a preacher by the local Mennonite congregation (which met in homes during this era).

 The Cloister becomes a "Hospital"

After losing the battles of Brandywine and Germantown, General Washington sent wounded and sick soldiers west, away from the battle front.  Some of them arrived in places in Lancaster County, including the Moravian community of Lititz and the Ephrata Cloister.  The Ephrata community was asked – required, actually – to nurse the soldiers back to health.  The Cloister members housed and cared for as many wounded soldiers as they could, but the sheer number of soldiers overwhelmed them.  Others in the community stepped in to help, taking soldiers into their homes to convalesce.  Among those who did this were John and Anna Baer.

This decision was in keeping with their understanding of Jesus’s commands in the Gospels.  The Mennonites, as well as the Cloister members, saw warfare as a direct contradiction of Jesus’s call to love even enemies, and saw the Revolution as a violation of the New Testament command to honor the king.  But they also knew that Jesus called His disciples to demonstrate love by caring for the sick and meeting the needs of those suffering to the best of their ability.  Faced with this clear and obvious need, John and Anna acted despite the risk.

Typhus

The crowded conditions in Ephrata created a setting where contagious diseases could easily spread.  Typhus became epidemic within a matter of months.  Spread by body lice, typhus is a bacterial infection that causes fever and flu-like symptoms, followed by widespread rashes, delirium (as the brain is infected), and coma.  Given the lack of medical knowledge for treatment in the 1700s, the infection was frequently fatal.

Scores of people died of typhus during the winter and spring, soldiers as well as residents of Ephrata.  The soldiers were buried together in one place (located near the Ephrata High School), but the community people were buried in family graveyards.

Death Comes to the Baer Family

John and Anna certainly recognized the risk of infection when they agreed to care for sick and wounded soldiers.  But they saw the soldiers’ needs as more important than their own.  Typhus did in fact come into their home in the early months of 1778.  Both John and Anna contracted the disease.  Anna died on March 20, at the age of forty-nine.  John died on April 15, at the age of fifty-five.  Between their deaths, their youngest daughter Elizabeth also died.  She was six or seven years old.

In keeping with the custom of the time, the Baers were buried on their farm in an area with the graves of several of their children who had died in childhood.  (Anna bore thirteen children between 1746 and 1771.)

Later Developments

Over time, their graves were forgotten, as well as the story of their sacrifice.  During the late 1800s, an effort began in Ephrata to recognize the soldiers who died there in 1778.  This led to greater awareness of how the Ephrata community had cared for these soldiers.  In 1980, the farmer living on the farm plowed up the headstones of John and Anna Baer.  The headstones eventually made their way to the museum of the Historical Society of the Cocalico Valley.  Further investigation ended when developers bought the farm and built the Winchester Meadows mobile home community and the Ephrata Kmart in the early 1980s.

 (gravestone photos by Romaine Stauffer)

The Painting and the Plaque

In 2021, Good’s Store purchased the property after the Kmart store was closed.  The following year, Good’s Store relocated their Ephrata store to the former Kmart building, sharing the building with a new Dutch-Way Farm Market grocery store.

The Muddy Creek Farm Library and Museum, a local Mennonite historical organization established by Amos Hoover, approached the owners of Good’s Store with the idea of commemorating John and Anna Baer, since the store stands on the farm where they once lived.  After gaining approval from Good’s Store, Muddy Creek Farm Library commissioned a painting and a plaque to be displayed above the door leading into the store.

The painting, based on a photograph taken in the mid-20th century, shows the farmhouse, barn, and several other buildings, with a field in the foreground.  In the field are three gravestones, for Anna, Elizabeth, and John Baer.  (The photograph did not show any gravestones.)  The plaque beside the painting very briefly recounts their story.

In Commemoration

John and Anna Baer accepted the dangers associated with the typhus epidemic to take care of sick soldiers.  Their decision led to their own infections, which cost them their lives.  Their sacrifice, a response to a clear and present need in the community as well as a demonstration of their Christian beliefs, is well worth remembering. 

When you enter our Ephrata Good’s Store, look up at the painting, remember the story of John and Anna Baer, and be inspired to care for those with needs in your life today, even if it may cost you.

by Dan Zimmerman

Retoring Floral Law and Order

    Spring was a teaser this year, dancing in and out and throwing punches. Two days of ninty-degree weather in the last half of April were followed by a frost and a low of 29 that froze the blossoms of the fruit crops. This is the second year in a row that the peaches froze. Fruit will be expensive this year but those who will feel it most are the people who depend on the orchards for their living.

     April and the danger of frost is behind us. May has been cool so far but things are lush and green. Farmers are busy planting corn and families are planting gardens. Last year my garden shrank to one raised bed. Four cabbages and two tomato plants are growing in it. I will plant a few green beans in it soon. That's it.

    Without a large garden to tend, I have more time for yard work. last year I started working on improving the appearance of the place a little at a time. Today I cleaned up a flower bed behind the house that has been overgrown for years. It is home to a mixture of bulbs and perennials so there is always something blooming in it. The Snowdrops begin the show in late January and are followed by daffodils, hyacinth, lily of the valley, Bachelor Buttons, Blackeye Susan, and other things.

    The problem with some of these things is that they never learned to behave. They sneak long roots underground, pop up wherever they please, and illegal immigrants trail out across the border. The whole thing had grown into a mixture instead of tidy groups. Today I restored law and order. It was a shame to pull out flowers that are blooming but they were evicted to give breathing room for the rightful tenants of each space. It's no Longwood Garden, but it looks much better and is ready for mulch.

Lily of the valley in the foreground, blue flowers are Bachelor Buttons. Blackeye Susan between them are not blooming yet.

Spurge Power

   I don't do this often but today I am going to promote a product that beats all others.

   Years ago I planted wild violets along the edge of the front walk. They were supposed to stay there and be a nice tidy edge. Over the years they spread everywhere. They popped up in flower beds and in the lawn and spread and spread and spread as if they owned the place. Roundup might kill them but it would also kill the grass. Normal weed killers did not faze them.

   Last year some stretches of the lawn were purple with violets and they crowded out the grass. Digging them out was impossible. Then I saw a gardening article that promised a herbicide called Spurge would kill violets without harming the grass. It was expensive but I was desparate and ordered a bottle. I sprayed the violets and they slowly began to disappear. 

   I was anxious to see if the violets appeared again this spring. The strip along the front walk is blooming joyfully but the patches of the lawn that were purple last year are green this year. It worked!

   If you have a problem with violets in your lawn, you can get a bottle of Spurge in a hardware store or through Amazon. It's worth every penny.

Peter Miller and Michael Whitman

   The following story of Peter Miller and Michael Whitman has been told repeatedly as a beautiful example of the power of forgiveness. However, there is very little proof for much of the story which becomes more colorful as it grows. 

  This version of the story was written by Hiram E. Steinmetz and published in the 1901 Journal of the Lancaster County Historical Society; v. 6, no. 1, pages 46-49.

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The Story

Peter Miller was a minister in the German Reformed Church in his early life. "He was born in the district of Sautern, in the Palatinate (Chur-Pfalz) in 1709. He came to America as a minister of this church in 1730." He preached at various points. He served as pastor of Bethany Reformed Church, near Ephrata, and doubtless others in this section. 

He withdrew from the German Reformed Church and joined the Seven Day Baptists at Ephrata. He moved to their settlement and became their pastor. He resided there during the American Revolutionary War. He was a man who had an extensive acquaintance and was widely known. He enjoyed the personal acquaintance of General Washington, who visited Ephrata and the Cloister during the war. 

Peter Miller was a talented and highly-educated man. At the request of Thomas Jefferson he translated the Declaration of Independence into seven foreign languages, and helped in this way to explain to the world the reason for the American Revolution. 

Michael Witman [Whitman] also resided at Ephrata. He was a deacon in the German Reformed Church; the withdrawal of Peter Miller from the church greatly incensed Witman, who now secured an unenviable notoriety for his abuse of Miller and the Seven Day Baptists; on one occasion he struck Miller in the face, and on another occasion, he spit in his face. Miller endured it all with Christian fortitude. He never spoke a cross word to or against Witman for his shameful conduct. 

Witman kept one of the two hotels which were then in Ephrata, about a mile from the Cloister or Seven Day Baptist settlement. It was located on the site where the Eagle Hotel, in Ephrata borough, now stands. The other was the house lately purchased by Mr. T. A. Willson, and remodeled by him located, on West Main Street. 

There were possibly ten houses in the present limits of Ephrata borough at that time. On a winter evening two men came to the hotel of Witman for supper and shelter for the night. He was ignorant of the character of his guests, but was outspoken in his views in regard to the war, and spoke freely in favor of the British. "He was a Tory. He had been to Gen. Howard and offered his services." However, these two men were American spies. Witman entered the dining room, where the men were partaking of their evening meal. He sat on the window sill. He began to express his opinion. After proceeding at some length, the men sprang up and said we have to arrest you for treason to the American cause, or words to that effect. Witman escaped through the window, and, most singular, indeed, fled to the Seven Day Baptist settlement and hid in the Brothers' House, upstairs, behind a chimney, and remained there until the next night. This house was not locked, but kept open day and night, a fact possibly known to Witman. He then escaped to Zion's Hill, where he remained until, famished from cold and hunger, he surrendered. He was taken to General Washington. He was tried for treason, found guilty and sentenced to be hung.

As before stated, Peter Miller was personally acquainted with General Washington. Whether he was in communication with General Washington in reference to this matter is not known. However, after the death sentence was passed, Peter Miller arose early in the morning, took his cane and set out on foot, through the snow, to visit General Washington at Valley Forge, to intercede for the life of Witman. 

He was told that his prayer for his friend could not be granted. "My friend!" exclaimed Miller. "I have not a worse enemy living than that man." 

"What!" rejoined Washington. "You have walked sixty miles to save the life of your enemy? That, in my judgment, puts the matter in a different light. I will grant you his pardon." 

The pardon was written, signed by General Washington and handed to Miller, who at once set out for West Chester, fifteen miles distant, where the execution was to take place on the afternoon of the same day.

He arrived just as Witman was being carried to the scaffold, who, seeing Miller in the crowd, remarked: "There is old Peter Miller. He has walked all the way from Ephrata to have his revenge gratified to-day seeing me hung." 

 These words were scarcely spoken, when Miller waved the pardon and commanded them to halt. 

 We will not picture the scene that followed. It is said they embraced each other. They walked home to Ephrata together and remained firm friends. We will not attempt to describe the scene, tender, loving, pathetic, when Witman entered the home and he was restored to his family. His life was spared, but his property was confiscated and sold March 15, 1780, to Michael Diffenderfer, four tracts. The circumstances and environments were such that Witman did not remain long at Ephrata, but emigrated with his family somewhere to the West, where is not known. 

Thus, the curtain drops as to Witman, but Miller's noble act lives enshrined in many of the hearts and minds of the people of Ephrata, yea, wherever the narrative is read, being published in different works. Peter Miller died September 25, 1796, aged eighty-six years and nine months, and is buried at Ephrata. The hotel property of Michael Witman was sold by Michael Diffenderfer March 15, 1787. It was purchased by Col. John Wright. It remained in the family almost a hundred years.

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The facts

1.Hiram E. Steinmetz (1854-1918) drew his story from an earlier version published in 1856 in a promotional pamphlet for the Mountain Springs Hotel issued by the proprietor, Joseph Konigmacher (1805-1861) and printed by Joseph P. Chandler of Philadelphia.[1] Konigmacher was a trustee of the Seventh Day Baptist church at the Cloister and a self-promoting entrepreneur. He claimed the Peter Miller/Michael Whitman story was written by William M. Fahnestock MD (1802-1854) who died two years before the story was published. A well-known writer, Fahnestock, wrote a detailed description of the Ephrata Cloister in 1835 which made no mention of Michael Whitman.[2] The author of the 1856 story is questionable and it may have been written by Konigmacher himself.

The 1901 story written by Steinmetz does not match the 1856 story. It claims Whitman went to Philadelphia to offer his services to General Howe after (not before) his encounter with the spies. Howe rejected his offer and sent him home. In his absence, his wife betrayed him and he was arrested at West Chester on his way home. The 1901 story says Whitman surrendered at Ephrata and was taken to George Washington for trial. Other differences and errors in these stories destroy the credibility of both versions.

2. Peter Miller was the pastor of the Reformed Church in the Tulpehocken area of what is now Berks County. He went to Ephrata and joined the Seventh Day Baptists in 1735 after Conrad Beissel traveled to the Tulpehocken and preached there.[3] He succeeded Conrad Beissel as leader of the Cloister and is known to have mastered four languages--German, Latin, (Holland) Dutch, and English. He translated the Martyrs’ Mirror from Dutch to German for the Mennonites. One twisted version of the story says Peter Miller emigrated to Pennsylvania as a child with his parents. He was a fully educated single adult when he arrived in Philadelphia.

3. Peter Miller was a friend of Benjamin Franklin and corresponded with him on various matters. There is no proof he was personally acquainted with George Washington. One retelling of this story claims Peter Miller and George Washington went to the same school. Peter Miller was educated in a theological seminary in Heidelberg, Germany. The Seventh Day Baptists were ordered to care for the sick and wounded after the Battle of Brandywine but there is no record George Washington personally visited the place. The Moravian Brotherhood in Lititz was also ordered to care for the sick and wounded.

4. There is a record of Michael Widman, tavern-owner, who "absconded to the English from the county of Lancaster." His entire estate was seized on April 24, 1778, for the benefit of the State. His "Goods and Chattels" (belongings) were sold on May 1, 1778. [4]

   Lancaster County deed Q-433 clearly recites the law passed March 6, 1778, regarding the estates of traitors and states that when Michael Whitman failed to appear for trial on charges of treason on May 8, 1778, he was automatically convicted of High Treason. Therefore, the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania had the lawful right to claim and sell his estate. He owned four properties in Cocalico Township which were sold on public auction to Michael Diffenderfer on August 5, 1779, which were deeded to him on March 15, 1780. (Ephrata was in Cocalico Township at that time.) Diffenderfer sold two of the parcels of land to John Wright on March 15, 1787. The tavern was on one of those properties. [5]

5. That Peter Miller should arrive the moment the noose was going on Whitman's neck is a great stretch of the imagination. Whitman did not appear for trial and was not sentenced to be hung. In a letter to Timothy Matlack on July 27, 1781, Peter Miller wrote that Michael Whitman "received pardon without a previous trial." The penalty was confiscation of his property. George Washington did not sign a pardon for him.

   A pardon for Michael Witman is recorded in Lancaster County deed book R-527. It says Michael Witman, innkeeper, was held in the Lancaster County "goal" (jail), not West Chester, and petitioned the Council in Philadelphia to "take his case and that of his unhappy family unto our compassionate consideration and to extend mercy and pardon to him." The pardon was granted and signed by Joseph Reed, President of the Council (similar to governor), and sealed "with the seal of the State of Philadelphia" on January 21, 1779. The pardon granted Michael Whitman protection from harm but retained the fines and confiscation of his property for the use of the State. 

6. Peter Miller and Michael Whitman walking home together as friends ties a neat bow on the story but is also a stretch. There is no evidence to suggest that Peter Miller or George Washington played any part in Michael Whitman’s pardon.[6] His petition and pardon moved through legal channels, was sent to Lancaster, and recorded in the Lancaster County courthouse. The story originated in 1856, seventy-eight years after Whitman’s arrest, was supposedly written by a man who died two years before it was published, and contains too many errors to be repeated as truth.

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    This story has been retold and distorted so often it begins to resemble the fables of the cherry tree and Washington kneeling in the snow to pray at Valley Forge. As Mark Twain said, "I remembered more than I knew at the time."

    All that being said, it is true that the power of love and forgiveness is the way to conquer enemies and turn them into friends. There are many other true stories which can be told to teach that lesson.

[1] Pencillings About Ephrata, by A Visitor. (Philadelphia, J. B Chandler, 1860), p. 18-24.

[2] William M. Fahnestock, “An Historical Sketch of Ephrata,” Hazzard’s Register, vol. XV (Jan.-June, 1835), pp. 161-167.

[3] History of St. Johns (Host) Church 1727-1975, (St. Johns (Host) Church, 1976), 149-150.

[4] Pennsylvania Archives Sixth Series vol. 12, p. 285-297.

[5] Lancaster County deed FF-452.

[6] Der Reggebogge (The Rainbow), The Journal of the Pennsylvania German Society, Volume 36, no. 2 (2002).

Ephrata Cloister

The Bulls of Bashan

    Psalm 22 was written by David and contains many prophecies of the crucifixion of Jesus a thousand years before it happened. Verse12 says, "Many bulls have compassed me; strong bulls of Bashan have beset me." What are the bulls of Bashan?

   Bashan was an area east of the Sea of Galilee. The tribes of Reuben and Gad asked to be allowed to settle on that side of the Jordan river because of the fertile pastures for their cattle.(Numbers 32) Moses granted their request on the condition they help the other tribes conquer the land west of the Jordan River. The tribe of Manasseh, being the oldest son of Joseph, was  given a double portion of land on both sides of the Jordan River. The portion east of the Jordan River stretched across Bashan up to Mount Hermon and included what we know as the Golan Heights. Bashan was known for the large fat cattle raised there.

    Bashan was a rich but very wicked place. The pagan temple of Pan at Caesarea Philippi, was at the foot of Mount Hermon. Pan was the god of nature, goats, and fertility. A cave there was believed to be the entrance to the underworld and called the Gate of Hell. This is where Jesus declared, "I will build My church and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it." (Pantheism is a philosophy alive today rooted in the god Pan that believes everything in nature is God.)

   In Amos 4, the women who lived a luxurious arrogant lifestyle at the expense of the poor and in rebellion against God are called cows of Bashan. Amos warned that they would be caught with fish hooks and dragged away. 1 Chronicles 5:26 records that the tribe of Manasseh "increased mightily" and "went a whoring after the gods of the people of the land." The king of Assyria captured the tribes of Reuben, Gad and Manasseh, carrying them away as Amos had warned. The three tribes east of the Jordan were the first to be exiled and scattered among various countries.

   Putting all this together, “the bulls of Bashan” in Psalm 22 are metaphors for strength and belligerence.  The belligerent Jewish leaders who wanted Jesus crucified by the strength of Roman law and soldiers were like bulls of Bashan. They stood under the cross mocking Jesus while He was in agonizing pain, dying to provide a way for their sins to be forgiven.

 

Blooming Under the Snow

   This winter has been one for the books. The ground has been covered with snow and ice since the middle of December. Temperatures plunged to below zero repeatedly with wind chills of -20 on several occasions. Sunday morning church services were canceled three times due to snow. With ponds and lakes frozen solid for weeks, skaters enjoyed a longer season than usual for this part of the world. Last week the temperatures finally rose above freezing and continue to do so this week. The snow pack is slowly melting. 

    My Snowdrops are the first flowers to bloom and usually appear in January. They were buried under a snow drift. Had they come up? And if they had, were they frozen? I had to see. I grabbed a shovel and dug the snow off their spot in the flower bed. There they were! Up and blooming under the snow! Bravo! Now that the sunshine can reach them they will shoot up to herald the new spring that is just around the corner.

     The roots of the Snowdrops are firmly planted in the soil. When their time has come to grow and bloom, nothing can stop them, not even a heavy, cold snowdrift. I asked myself, can I grow and bloom under a heavy, cold burden? Can I sense and reach for the sun even when I can't see or feel it? 

    Life has its heavy burdens and cold seasons. If our faith in God is firmly rooted, we can grow and bloom in spite of the adverse conditions. We know the Son is there and reach for Him even though we don't see Him or understand what happened. 

  Job knew how to bloom under the snow. He said, "Behold I go forward, but he is not there, and backward, but I cannot perceive him: On the left had, where he doth work, but I cannot behold him: he hideth himself on the right hand, that I cannot see him: But he knoweth the way that I take: when he hath tried me, I shall come forth as gold" (Job 23:8-10). 

    The secret to blooming in the snow is trusting God, believing the Son is there even when we don't see Him. It is knowing one day all the burdens will be lifted and we will bloom in the Light.