[En route with fifteen Moravian brothers from Pennsylvania to North Carolina, 1753.]
Oct. 20. We started at five o'clock. At once a considerable mountain arose before us. We had to help faithfully by pushing our wagon. Before daybreak we reached the top. We heard that we would find no house for twenty miles, but water every three or four miles. Several brethren went hunting but returned empty handed. We took our dinner at a creek and we heard that Jacob Mueller lived in the neighborhood. The road grew very narrow and the wagon could not turn out. We camped on "Shanidore" Creek.
Oct. 21. In five miles we crossed the "Shanidore." We camped close to the bank and observed Sunday. Bros. Loesch and Kalberland were not well so we bled them. For a treat in the afternoon we had tea to drink. Two Germans from the upper valley stopped and stayed the night with us.
Oct. 22. Some of the brothers went to a plantation where we are will help thresh today. They returned with eleven bushels of oats. It is said that we are two hundred miles from this point to Williamsburg. We had difficulty in finding water and were compelled to travel five miles during the night. The horses were completely fagged out and we had to help push the wagon. We arrived late at Thom. Harris's plantation where we bought feed for our horses and pitched our tent. The people were very friendly and lodge strangers very willingly. [Perhaps the brothers were at Harrisonburg.]
Oct. 23. We started at daybreak. We had bought a small barrel of milk but it broke and we lost all. Two miles farther we bought some meat and went six miles farther to the North River (of the Shenandoah) where we ate our dinner. In the afternoon we traveled straight south.
Oct. 24. We had a difficult time crossing the Middle Branch due to the high banks. Farther on we came to Augusta Court House, a little town of some twenty houses, surrounded by mountains on all sides. The whole district is settled by Irish. [They should have said Scots-Irish]. Immediately the bad roads begin. In the fork in the road here, the right-hand road goes to Carolina. The road ran up and down continuously and we either had to push the wagon or keep it back with ropes which we had fastened to the rear. There was plenty of water but we could not buy feed for the horses since the people had none.
Oct. 25. We continued our journey. In the evening we pitched our tent on a height and we had to fetch our water from a considerable distance. We found a free negro, who is a blacksmith, and he shod one of our horses. He and his wife, born in Scotland, were very friendly to us and she baked some bread for us. They had met some Moravians before and read some of our material. The blacksmith understood German very well. Our tent served us well as it rained all night. Several of the brothers had breakfast with the negro who considered it an important event to have several ministers with him. On the way in the day we had several hills which required our help to ascend and to descend. That night we were soaked by the rains which got into the tent.
Oct. 27. The road was very bad, constantly going up and down hill. The country is very beautiful and fruitful. We had to unload half of our baggage because it is impossible to ascend the mountain with the whole load. The road was slippery and horses fell many times. We traveled along the summit of a mountain but it was difficult to get water and food. We had our first turkey for dinner.
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.