Early Ephrata Cloister sources shed new light on religious tensions within Meylin, Funk, Bear, Groff, Landis, and Good families of Lancaster County, Pennsylvania. T unnoil in Conestoga by jane Evans Best ,. onrad Beissel precipitated the first religious crisis others, like Henry Good (?GFl), fluctuated back and forth, in Conestoga, the area whose rains flow into the reluctant to make up their minds and hearts. Conestoga River and its branches in Lancaster The creation of Ephrata as a distinct religious com­ C County, Pennsylvania. This article tells the story munity provided new opportunities for vocational choice, of the effect of this crisis on families in that area, and the artistic expression, and communal living. Here was turmoil created by Beissel's charismatic personality and promised physical and emotional security for the widow, religious teachings before and after the creation of the and orphan, bread for the poor, escape from routine, and Ephrata Cloister in 1732. It will show that this community the opportunity for free spirits to march to a different provided some of its residents a sense of ownership and drummer. While Beissel's excesses and personal weaknesses satisfaction to the end of long lives. After the initial provoked many to grumble, revile him, and leave, many turmoil, it eventually maintained good relations with its returned time after time and received forgiveness and open neighbors. arms. Beissel was one of many factors in a spiritual awakening Contemporary records reveal these pioneers as multi­ among various religious groups, including Pietists, 1 that dimensional individuals whose acts leap from the dusty had begun in Europe and spread to the pockets of pages. They reacted to their lot in life with a combination immigrants who were beginning to construct a new life in a of strengths and weaknesses which we today find all too strange land. Freedom of religion offered by William Penn familiar. They traveled long distances and visited each other was a new and heady experience for these pioneers, and much more than we might have expected. They revealed many were willing to taste and see for themselves how these emotions and feelings in their writings, even if the only new options could meet their needs. Forced to choose documents that have survived are their wills. Some left between these new concepts and their traditional family behind examples of the earliest fraktur writings in North and religious values, some, likejann Mayle (?ML2722.1), America, which are still valued today for their beauty and rushed to new patterns of thinking and living. Some, like grace. Preacher John Bear (?ML5821.33), reinforced the concepts of their ancestors and died in the Mennonite faith, while 1Donald F. Durnbaugh, European Origins of the Brethren (Elgin, Ill.: The Brethren Press, 1958), p. 32- The Pietist was a person who studied God's Word and sought -to order his or her life by it. 2Brother Kenan's Notebook, Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission, Harrisburg, Pa,; Register and Death Record, pp. 38-39, Julius Sachse Collection, Free Library of Philadelphia, Philadelphia, Pa, Copies of both handwritten mss. at Ephrata Cloister Museum, Ephrata, Pa. JTheil eman J. Van Braght, Martyrs Mirror (Scottdale, Pa,: Mennonite Publishing House, 1951), pp. 1110-1112; Jane Evans Best, "A Bear Saga: The Birmensdorf Connection," Pennsylvania Mennonite Heritage 11 (Apr. 1988): 31-38. 4Clyde L. Groff, Walter B. Groff, and Jane Evans Best, The Groff Book, vol. 1: A Good Life in a New Land (Ronks, Pa.: Groff History Associates, 1985), pp. 2, 3, 287-289. 5John L. Ruth, "Hans Muller, Tracking the Elusive Palatinate In 1745 the Ephrata Cloister in Ephrata, Pennsylvania, published Immigrant," 17th National Conference, Palatinates to America, 18- Urstandliche und Erfahrungs-volle Hohe Zeugniisse ... by Conrad 20 june 1992 (Strasburg, Pa.: Pennsylvania Chapter of Palatines to Beissel, although his name does not appear in the book as author. This America, 1992), p. 23, 28. vase with flowers was an illustration on the half-tide page, Mystische 6Sandra Mackenzie Lloyd, Historic Structures Report, Wyck und Erfahrungs-volle Episteln ... House, Vol. 1 (Dec. 1986), pp. 37-41. Pennsylvania Mennonite Heritage 2 january 1993 At the Ephrata Cloister Museum in Ephrata, Pennsylvania, the Saal (right) was built in 1741 as a house of worship, and the Saron (left) was tin 1743 as a house for married householders living separately. The latter building was remodeled in 1745 to accommodate the sisterhood. Sigmund Landert was the master carpenter in charge of construction. One of the primary sources used in this article is Brother On March 2, 1661, an illegal Anabaptist meeting for Kenan's Notebook, kept by Jacob Funk (?ML2675.5) and worship was held in Steinsfurt, Germany. Among those others. His sister Veronica Funk (?ML2675.1) (Sister attending were Hans Mayle (ML27) and his son, probably Efigenia) was a fraktur artist in charge of the Schreibstube Hans (ML272); Martin Mayle's (ML23) son, probably (writing room); the volume of sample alphabets, called the Jacob (ML236); Oswald Bar (BA12) and his wife, Elsi ABC Book, was her work. She also contributed several Lamprecht (ML58); Heinrich Beer, probably their son hymns to the Ephrata collection. 2 His brother Samuel Funk ML582; Michael Mayer (MAl), his wife and daughter, (?ML2675.2) (Brother Obadiah) was a papermaker and who later married Heinrich Beer (ML582); Jacob Groff artist who may have been the scrivener of many of the book (GR3); Hans Jacob Groff (GR5); Rudolf Landis (?LS326); plates done at the Cloister. Marx Oberholtzer (?OA269); and Jacob Nussler (Nissley?). 4 Meylin Connection Katharine Meili (ML26) married Heinrich Funck (FH1) and several of their fourteen children moved to the As I have peered into the past through the windows Anabaptists in the Palatinate. Heinrich Funck (ML263) is opened by investigating one pioneer family after another, I probably the Heini Funck from Mettmenstetten who have become increasingly convinced that the key family in emigrated to Alsace by 1661, and then became an early Lancaster County history and its background in Anabaptist minister in Hasle, near Burgdorf, Canton Bern, Germany and Switzerland was that of descendants of Jacob Switzerland, by 1670. He and his wife were imprisoned in Meili (ML) of Birmensdorf, Canton Zurich, Switzerland. the "Orphanage" in Bern, their property confiscated and In 1610 Hans Meili (ML2) was an Anabaptist teacher sold, and their children placed under a warden. He was and leader whose property at Tagerst, Stallikon, Zurich, taken to the French border, whipped and branded, and by was confiscated in March 1640. He and his sons Martin 1672 had found his way to the Palatinate.5 (ML23) and Hans (ML27) and their wives were im­ In 1688 Hans Millan (?ML272) was the original owner prisoned at Oethenbach, Zurich, on several occasions for of lot 17-W in Germantown, Pennsylvania, and in 1691 their faith. His sister Barbara Meili (ML5), imprisoned in petitioned as a Quaker for naturalization. 6 His son 1639, had a daughter Elsi Lamprecht (ML58) who married Matthias (ML2722) lived on lot 4 in the Cresheim area of Oswald Bar (BA12), an Anabaptist. 3 Germantown about 1700, and his grandson John was In 1647 Hans Meili (ML27) was banished from Canton probably Jann Mayle (ML2722.1), Brother Amos at the Zurich, and in 1650 he and Hans Muller (?MR15) were Ephrata Cloister. Jann Mayle was one of the earliest invited by the Barons von Venningen to move from Alsace Brethren (Dunker) converts in 1723, and in 1739 sold the to Diihren, Germany. tract of land he had warranted in 1737 (and on which the Pennsylvania Mennonite Heritage 3 january 1993 Cloister was constructed) to four members of the Ephrata Two householders at the Ephrata Cloister had daughters Cloister. who married men named Meily. Rachel, daughter of The Hans Groff (E and ?GR343) who purchased lot 1 in Michael Miller (d. 1785), married George Meily who died 1704 in Cresheim was the father of Jacob Groff (E 1), who I in 1797. Catherina, daughter of Johan Nicholaus Zerfuss believe was the early Groff associated with the Cloister and (1720-1784), married Samuel Meily, a clockmaker who the father of Jacob Groff (Ell), the clockmaker from died in Lebanon Township in 1802. Both were sons of Lebanon, Pennsylvania. Martin Meily (probably ML2216.1) who in 1724 re­ Martin Meili (?ML2361) was probably the Marten quested land to make bricks and tiles in present Lancaster Mely recorded with Jacob Miller (?ML2311 and MR1521) County. and Hans Weber (WB28) in Friedrichstadt, Germany, in Included in this article are biographies of three Meylin 1693 and 1694, and also the gunsmith who made a rifle in descendants who were associated with the Ephrata com­ Germantown in 1705.7 He apparently served as a scout for munity: Brother Amos,Jann Mayle (?ML2722.1); Brother new opportunities, returning to Germany to spearhead the Kenan, Jacob Funk (?ML2675.5); and Mennonite Preacher emigration of Mennonite families in 1710, and in 1728 he John Bear (?ML5821.33). Other members of their families, led the naturalization effort. On M ay 16, 1715, Martin as well as Groff, Landis, and Good families, are also Meilin, Christian Herr, Dir~k Jansen, Petter Shoomaker, discussed. and Francis Daniel Pastorius were witnesses to the deed Alpha-numerical designations after names of individuals transferring lot 1 in Cresheim from Hans and Susanna refer either to the ML outline at the end of this article or Groff to Gerhard Rittenhuysen. 8 other genealogical outlines of the author. The presence in 1724 in Coventry Township, Chester County, Pennsylvania, of John Meilin (?ML2722.1), Hans Events before 1732 Milin (?ML2215), Jacob Milin (?ML2215.3), Marcus The next two sections give a chronological narrative of Overholt (?OA2692), and Jacob Overholt (?OA2693) events at the Ephrata Cloister and identify some of the indicates a relationship between that area and early persons involved according to my genealogical outlines.