"In researching for this lecture," the Rev. Vernon H. Nelson, archivist at Bethlehem's Moravian Archives, said yesterday, "I realized that I must give more attention to Georgia. Really, Bethlehem began there."
On Feb. 3, 1735, ten Moravian men - a motley group of masons, weavers, carpenters, gardeners and gamekeepers - boarded a vessel called the Two Brothers in London and set sail for Savannah, Ga., Nelson said.
Led by Augustus G. Spangenberg, those southern-bound Moravian pioneers eventually migrated to Bethlehem.
Also among the 30-some passengers who braved the rocky 9 1/2 -week voyage was the Anglican missionary John Wesley, founder of the Methodist church, and Gov. Oglethorpe, the English philanthropist and Parliament member who founded Georgia in 1732.
Oglethorpe, Nelson said, intended the state to be a haven where "poor, unfortunate, hard-working people could start over."
Wesley kept a journal during the trip, detailing his daily contacts with the Moravian travelers. "He was on his way to serve as pastor in an Anglican church in Savannah and became deeply interested in, and was influenced by, the Moravian colonists.
"When they arrived, the parsonage had not yet been vacated, so he lived with them for a time, and later, after he returned to England, he continued to correspond with Count Zinzendorf (the Moravian who gave Bethlehem its name) and Spangenberg," Nelson said.
"That contact was important. If Wesley hadn't met the Moravians, the Methodist church might never have been founded," Nelson told a gathering in the library of the archives. His topic was "The 250th Anniversary of Moravian Work in America."
In Georgia, the Moravians met Tomachachi, chief of one of the Creek Indian tribes they would teach and witness to during their stay in Savannah. There, Spangenberg and his companions cleared the land, planted crops and built temporary buildings, supporting themselves by doing construction work in the developing city.
Later that same year, a second group of eight women and 17 men, led by Bishop David Nitschmann, was dispatched from London to join the others. Spangenberg and Nitschmann left Georgia the following year, bound for Pennsylvania, where, at the request of Count Zinzendorf, they were to meet with a group known as the Swantfelders. The German followers of Casper Swantfeld had earlier been persuaded to forego the Georgian settlement in favor of the older colony of Pennsylvania.
In Bethlehem, the Moravians found "a right field for missionary service among the non-secular Germans and the Indians." They initiated a communal living arrangement, "directing the entire economy for service to the Lord," and reported to Zinzendorf that the arrangement was a success.
Little time passed before the rest of the Moravian settlers migrated north to escape the pressure put upon them to "fight or die" if the British of the Carolinas and the Spaniards of Florida entered into battle, making the middle ground of Georgia an unfortunate "buffer zone."
Evangelist George Whitfield offered free passage on his ship to any of the Moravian pacifists who wished to leave the area. Those travelers came to Nazareth, where they built the Whitfield House, an orphanage for black children.
Nelson said the Moravian Archives holds important documentation concerning the Georgia work, including a letter copy book, 1736-1741, which belonged to John Brownfield, an English merchant's agent who, like Wesley, encountered the Moravians during the first cross-Atlantic voyage.
Brownfield joined the Moravians and worked as a bookkeeper for the Bethlehem Moravian group. He is buried in God's Acre, the cemetery on Market Street in Bethlehem.
The Southern Georgia Conference of the United Methodist Church isplanning to celebrate the Moravians landing in Savannah on April 7-8. On those days, Nelson said, a marker will be put at the site of the Moravian Indian School along the Savannah River by United Methodists as an expression of gratitude to the Moravians. An Easter concert, a landing pageant, and a picnic in the park where John Wesley's statue is located are also planned.
The next archives event, a lecture on the consecration of Bishop Nitschmann presented by theRev. Henry Williams, will be March 1.