[In 1753, fifteen Moravian brothers left Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, for their new home in North Carolina. They traveled with a team and wagon to carry supplies and goods. This trip duplicates the routes and the troubles that many of our Germanna people would have encountered as they moved to the Carolinas and Georgia about this same time.]
Oct. 12, still in Pennsylvania. We rose at four o'clock and after the morning worship we breakfasted at five. At six o'clock we left. In eight miles a dead tree happened to fall on our horses which caused considerable commotion, but the horses and the brother riding one of them were unharmed. Today we shot several pheasants, quails, and squirrels. We pitched our camp one mile before the Susquehanna River. Made a fire, cooked supper, appointed the night guards, and spread our blankets and slept. The next day we crossed the Susquehanna at Harrisburg. Our first destination was York, thirty miles beyond. It was getting difficult for the horses, so the brothers had to help push the wagon. That night we pitched our tent because a thunderstorm was expected. We got the storm but then we got up at midnight and continued on our way.
Oct. 14, a Sunday. We pitched our tent four miles beyond Carlisle in order not to be an eyesore to the Irish Presbyterians. We spent the day in attending to our personal needs. Monday, we started on our way at three o'clock. We had moonlight and a good road with about eighty miles to go to Frederickstown (Winchester). For twelve miles though we had no water. The tongue of our wagon needed fixing and the blacksmith was very expensive. That night we stayed at Col. Chamber's mill at Chambersburg. On the 14th Bro. Grube led the morning worship and we continued on our way at four o'clock. On the way we bought ten bushels of oats from an Irishman. We passed out of Pennsylvania and have only six miles to go to cross Maryland. We have encountered a lot of Irish people. Late in the day we came to a German tavern where we bought some hay and had our dinner.
On Oct. 17 we continued our journey at five o'clock. In two miles we reached the Potomac which we forded though we had great difficulty in getting the wagon up the opposite bank. On the 18th we reached (Winchester) which consists of about sixty houses, poorly built. Beyond the town we stopped and bought some bread and corn. We soon reached Jost Hite's mill. One of the brothers visited plantations to buy bread and oats but found little. We were out of horse feed. On the 19th we rose at six o'clock but we had not had much sleep because of smoke. In a mile we stopped to have some bread baked for us. Some of the brethren bought bread and hay from Christian Neuschwanger and brought it to the "great road." In a short while we came to George Bauman's mill. We bought oats but had to wait for it to be threshed. Germans to whom we talked told us that the road was very bad beyond the Augusta Court House. We had many visitors come and see us that evening. We had lost a sack of oats but some of the brothers found it and brought it up.
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.