Recent questions here have touched on why our Germanna forebears turned from their original faiths to alternatives. Quite aside from any questions of practice and theology, which I am not addressing, a major reason was the lack of pastors in the Lutheran and Reformed faiths.
The First Colony tried to find a replacement for Rev. Häger who was growing old. As Marc Wheat recently pointed out, there weren't too many Reformed ministers in America. Therefore the search for a replacement for Rev. Häger turned to Germany where they advertized. And they were unsuccessful. When Rev. Häger died, the community went without a German pastor.
The Second Colony needed a minister and they sent two people to Germany about 1725 to find a Lutheran pastor. They were unsuccessful. They converted a school teacher, John Caspar Stöver, into a minister to solve their problem. On the fund raising trip to Europe in the mid to late 1730's, they were lucky to have hired an assistant to Stöver.
When Rev. Franck resigned from the Hebron Lutheran Church in 1778, the church appears to have been without a regular minister for about nine years. This was not their choice. And, when they did get a minister, it was a local man, William Carpenter. Actually this was probably a wise decision as he stayed for many years in the community.
The common problem was a lack of ministers. There was no source at first except in Germany. It was many years before a regular supply of pastors was developed in America.
On the other hand, the Baptists were almost entirely home-brew. It was easier for a man to undertake the calling of a Baptist minister than it was to become a Lutheran or Reformed pastor. This meant there were more Baptist churches available to attend. If your regular Lutheran or Reformed Church is without a minister, you might be inclined to attend a Baptist Church.
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Nancy Dodge sent a copy of an old Wayland record which is to be found in a book
entitled, "
Vollsändiges Margurger Gesang-Buch
" which had been printed at
Germantown, PA in 1770. In the front, is this inscription,
"John Wayland His Book
God give him grace therein to Look
Not to Look But Understand
that Learning is Better than House and Land
for when House and Land is gone and Spent
then Learning is Most Ex[c]ellent.
"John Wayland was born the 25th of March
in the year of our Lord one Thousand
Seven Hundred & Fifty Four."
In the rear is this inscription,
Dieses Gesang-Buch gehöret Mir
Johannes Wayland
Den 7 Aug Yhr. 1792"
The book is in the Rare Book Collection of Randolph-Macon College and was intended for use in Lutheran worship services. The Waylands were early Germanna pioneers.
We gratefully acknowledge the work of John Blankenbaker who published over 2,500 Germanna History Notes via the Germanna-L@rootsweb.com email list from 1997 to 2008. We are equally thankful to George Durman (Sgt. George) for hosting the list and republishing the notes via rootsweb.com.