Continuation of the church affairs of the Germans in America. -Difficulties of the preaching office. -Salaries of the preachers. -Education of the same. -Lack of educational institutions for preachers and schoolteachers. -Of the ease of getting into the preaching office. -Preachers and schoolteachers are not formally inducted. -Preacher synods. - These are prohibited by the congregatlons. - The Germans in cities display now still more religious enthusiasm than those in the country.

The preaching office is indisputably one of the most beladen in the United States of North America, especially for this reason, because the preachers only seldom or never have their congregations and churches at which they are employed in an area close to each other, but rather almost always have to make very long trips from one congregation to another and for this reason find it necessary to keep the best and most expensive riding horses which they can use seldom longer than two years, for since they often have to travel a long way from one church to another and often in the week have several funeral sermons in the various congregations because each body is publicly buried, they are often not at home the whole week and the horses soon run themselves stiff. This was often the case with my preacher there, Pastor Miller, who had six congregations of which the smallest was sixty-four families strong. One thinks of the strenuous efforts of this man and his horse. In the worst weather the preachers have to make such trips also and no excuse is valid except one, when the roads are so snowed shut that it is impossible for a horse to get through; this, however, they have to prove afterwards with a written certification by a trustworthy man. Most of the preachers there die in their best years, but those of them who have first attained fifty years and are rather toughened, also become very old.

Several of the preachers require a yearly income in addition to the occasional perquisites; most of them, however, do not do this, but rather are satisfied with that which is gathered together annually for them in each of their congregations, to which each one gives his contribution as he pleases. One of the church council once annually has the task of gathering the salary of the preacher in the congregation and, with a written ledger of what each one gave, of paying the same to the preacher. In the latter case they should be doing better according to the report of both pastors Conrad and Jacob Miller. A preacher like Conrad Miller who has six prosperous congregations is often in very good shape for he had annually an income of 1000 dollars. Most of the country preachers have 5 to 800 annually, but young beginners who have only one or two congregations are commonly in bad shape for many years and many of them scarcely have 200 dollars. Such as these then help their colleagues who often have overloaded tasks; some of them also hold school.

The sermons are all done extemporaneously and no preacher dare make the smallest written note of his presentation and during the sermon let a written page be seen if he doesn't want to lose the trust of his listeners. The introduction and conclusion of the sermons consist usually of very long prayers which are taken out of the Davidic Psalms or are similar to the same.

One finds among the preachers here and there singly educated men especially among the emigrants from Germany to there, but all of them compromise themselves to preach the accustomed and prevailing church belief there and none of them dares in the least to come on as a reformer and like Bahrdt³⁵ to let a better light shine, but rather all of them think they have to adapt themselves to the people for the sake of bread; therefore the greatest orthodoxy prevails there too and with that it gets worse sooner there than better.

Often I heard from emigrated educated Germans the words: "It is to be wished that the lack of good preachers and schoolteachers would be offset through the arrival of native Germans." But through that only very little or nothing at all would be improved; as it is the preachers there are already Germans by birth for the most part, for among a hundred German preachers are here scarcely three native Americans.

Among the many German schoolteachers that I got to know there and as far as I have come, I made the acquaintance of only a single native American and he was employed in a corner or side school because he could neither sing nor play. He could read and write only a little, about as well as the miller Löscher mentioned in the fifth chapter of this writing; in addition he was a terrible drunkard.

So long as there is no law in existence there according to which approved educated preachers and schoolteachers have to be employed and as long as the preachers and schoolteachers are dependent on the whim of the farmers there, nothing would be helped in my opinion if even annually more of the most educated preachers and the most skilled schoolteachers from Germany would be sent there. For just exactly toward such is the American the most disinclined and if they would want to find bread there they would have to do like those already employed there and adapt themselves to the people.

Such a law, however, will not be given there as long as the United States of of America exist because all the churches and all the schools there are the property of the congregations; the real estate and other parcels of land are all bought by the congregations and the buildings, churches as well as schools they had built with their own money. And just for this reason the construction of theological schools and teacher seminaries would also be of little use, the plan for which several defenders of the German language there express, but which would also be very difficult to carry out.

There are no educational institutions for young German preachers and schoolteachers there, also not for the English. There are neither theological nor juristical schools in the German sense there. Young people who want to become preachers receive their education and their instruction in the sciences of this teaching office from individual preachers in cities and in the country. Several have obtained the necessary rudiments in languages in the schools there, but most of them not. Often they study only three months long, especially if they have a good gift of speaking, about three quarterhours long with skill and facility, speaking extemporaneously in front of the assembled congregation. Most of them in the beginning of their studies learn the sermons completed by their teachers and then give them in the church. In such a way they are able when they have studied four weeks to be helpful to their teachers and other preachers who have many tasks and to preach for them. If they study with a man who has the reputation of being a good preacher, and they then know how to make themselves popular with the farmers, they soon receive a parish too. If they then do as most preachers and marry a rich farmer's daughter, then they are already assured that the farmers will never make use of their freedom to dismiss them; it is then much easier to get one more and with time other congregations for which the father-in-law and the whole relation carry the burden. For the instruction the students there usually pay their teachers forty to sixty dollars.

Of the ease of getting into the preaching office there I saw many examples of which I want to share only the following here:

A young emigrant by the name of Bindemann,³⁶ a native of Berlin, where he served as a minor officer and was married to a sixteen year old girl from whom, however, he got a divorce because he lived with her in a very unhappy marriage, had emigrated to America in hopes of finding his fortune there. He brought a considerable sum of money along to Philadelphia where he took advantage of the first, the best opportunity to establish a tobacco business whereby, however, he proceeded very incautiously in that he gave credit to many alleged businessmen in the country for considerable sums and was taken. His capital was soon reduced to nothing through the fraud and other unforeseen circumstances. Then he perceived that it would go no further with his business, on that account sold the stock he had on hand to other businessmen, paid his debts and then had still sixty dollars cash. With that he went to the country and attempted to become a schoolmaster in Berks County where he accidently ran into a countryman, the Reformed Pastor Dechand, to whom he either lent his sixty dollars, I do not rightly recall anymore, or gave it to him to keep for him. Shortly thereafter Bindemann found his upkeep with a farmer whose children and several others from the neighborhood he instructed. Since this was not very far from his countryman, Pastor Dechand, he visited him often and let himself be persuaded for the sixty dollars to study with him and to devote himself to the preaching field. Bindemann himself told me this when he visited me the first time in the schoolhouse at the Moselem. I wanted to advise him to first test his intention but then I heard that he had already made up his mind and he had already made a formal contract with Pastor Dechand. Bindemann was a Lutheran and for that reason wanted to study with Pastor Dechand because he hoped as a Reformed preacher to get a parish more easily.

Since Bindemann visited me several times and stayed overnight twice at my place I had the opportunity to scrutinize his knowledge and talents rather precisely. He had a natural inclination to talkativeness, but often spoke incorrectly. But he was a man of straightforward understanding, as can be expected of people with his previous position. At Easter 1824 he started his studies and assured me that after four weeks he wanted to preach.

After six weeks one Sunday morning one of my neighbors came to me and asked whether I would like to accompany him to the Ziegel Church;³⁷ a schoolmaster was going to preach there. A schoolmaster? I thought, you'll have to hear him and because I had no church tasks on this Sunday I went along. When we came onto the gathering place the people were going into the church and the Reformed Pastor Dubs³⁸ came toward me in a friendly way with the words: "Why are you coming today?" The question astonished me, I answered, why do all the people who are here come to church? Oh, he said, you scared Mr. Bindemann. Bindemann? I asked and then Bindemann walked in front of me and said that he had already looked for me among those standing around and then admitted himself that he had gotten scared. Ei! I said, what is there in me that you can become scared? Dubs took the word and said: "I am the fault of everything, for when you came over the mountain there, I already knew you and said to my friend Bindemann: now watch out! one is coming there who will criticize in minutiae you and everything that you say today."

Then I said to both of them that I did not know at all, nor had I surmised that Bindemann would preach here which was really the pure truth too. Further I said that I considered it a joke what they had just told me, but that in case I was really frightening to Bindemann, I would rather at once turn around and go home. Then both of them grabbed me by the arm, went with me into the church and took me along into the preacher's chair.

Bindemann's presentation, contrary to all expectations, pleased me well and really better than many another from preachers who already were in the office a number of years. He had a very good demeanor and pronounced well which so many preachers there lack, also his presentation was free of all flattery, cordial and full of emphasis so that one could believe that Bindemann would become a virtuous preacher for America. Afterwards he preached in many churches in the country and also in the cities, also I heard on my return trip to the fatherland that he had already preached twice in Philadelphia. He had also, according to the custom there, already taken a farmer's daughter as a bride and will probably soon be employed as a preacher which had not yet happened as I took my departure from there.

In western Pennsylvania and the new states Ohio, Indiana, Illinois becoming a preacher is even easier, for there very many enter the office without the above-mentioned preparation.

Installations of preachers and schoolteachers as with us are not at all customary there. The preachers can make the entrance into their office festive to some degree through the inaugural sermon, but schoolteachers through nothing external. But when one of the farmers is elevated to the high church council and is received, this always takes place by means of a ceremony and festivity. Such a man, after the election takes place, stands in front of the altar, the preacher has a very long moving address about the great importance of such a person and the entire church council that consists of twelve persons. Then he goes in front of him, lays his hand on his head, consecrates him and prays long and powerfully for the new member that now is received into the number of the twelve.

The church council consists of farmers in the congregation, their titles are as follows: two advisors, two deacons, two builders, two almsmen, two elders and two financial secretaries. Their tasks two persons could take care of well, for they are of no regard.

All German protestant congregations in the United States (German-Catholic there are only a few) have ministeriums and synods which hold their conventions annually at a place and time decided beforehand. The former consist of the preachers of the same and oversee matters of faith and the inner affairs of the church. The latter consist of the preachers and delegates of the same and concern themselves with the external and economic affairs.

The Lutheran congregations, the most numerous by far, have three synods and ministeriums. The first are those of Pennsylvania and stretch over the state named and that of Ohio. The second in New York over the eastern states; and the third over North Carolina and the southern states. The count of all German congregations comes to eight hundred. Many in the distant western regions still have no preacher at all and help themselves as well as they can; even in western Pennsylvania this is still frequently the case. Heinrich Koch, once a citizen and businessman in Braunschweig, now in Centre County in western Pennsylvania, often ascends the pulpit and preaches in his congregation and of that example many are known to me there, also of tradesmen who preach there. After the sermon is ended the congregation then takes the offering and the offering goes to the preacher for his work.

About fifteen years ago so called circuit preachers were still sent into distant regions by the Ministerium in Pennsylvania in order to gather the scattered members into congregations. The funds for that were gathered through collections in the congregations. The enthusiasm for this undertaking, however, is completely extinguished; it takes place no more.

But the collections named were continuously gathered which the clerical Ministerium used for other purposes and this took place more often than was usually the case, regularly as though these collections had become a law. The ministerium continually named clerical offices, filled them with preachers, secretaries were gotten for them and so forth; the collected monies, as I heard, were used for that. Maybe this served a good purpose, only it came into being too fast. Often you heard the farmers complain: "We have to gather so many collections for the synod, where is the money going to? We do not have circuit preachers anymore." All at once one read in all the newspapers the following advertisement:

"A book just left the press and is to be had entitled:

The Defense of the free church in the United States

of North America; by Karl Gock."³⁹

Then it went on:

"Farmers up! Buy this book! and read what the clergy intends to do with you. They want to chain you in an iron yoke as it happened in my fatherland. Up farmers! Desist the German papacy, defend your freedom! You will do this as soon as you have read my writing, and I will rise to your head and defend the free church with my blood!" etc.

This caused a reaction like an electrical bolt. All the farmers, and I would well say all Germans who could read bought the Gock book; not only in all Pennsylvania, but also the book was sent to the most distant areas of the free states where German congregations were. Whole loads were sent to Ohio and Maryland.

Gock was a native Wurtemberger who only a few years before had emigrated to America, a man of great agility in speech but also, as showed itself later, of bad character. In the winter he held school, wrote books, for example arithmetic books and the like, had them printed and in the summertime he drove with horse and wagon around the country and sold them. From the above-mentioned work "The Defense of the free church, etc." he made much money, but he was a spendthrift and went about not once decently clothed, but often looked like a tramp; also he was a fraud, which I and others too could prove of him.

The book named, the defense of the free church, I read, but did not buy myself. In it he goes to work in a truly American way, uses the coarsest, most insulting expressions and invective and withal takes shelter in open lies. From a distance you can lie well, says an old German proverb, and for that reason Gock in America could call the clerical arrangements and affairs which take place in Germany a papacy and portray them as an iron yoke because in this no one refuted him; for the American constantly calls the Germans slaves and as it is imagines Germany to be nothing else than the place of the most terrible slavery.

The contenders with Gock made all kinds of efforts to refute him through speeches as well as public presentations and also through writings and books to bring another opinion to the public. The newspapers were for many weeks full of this story. Gock's antagonists publicly accused him of being a criminal and said that because of terrible crime in Germany he had escaped from jail and fled to America which they nonetheless also could not prove. Through that, however, Gock only became stirred up to enter the field against his antagonists even more terribly, for he berated them in the newspapers far more nastily than earlier and within the big mass won more and more applause. Many of the preachers used special expressions in their polemical writings against Gock. One, for example, (it was the Reformed Pastor Dechand) started his writing with the following words: "Gock, Gock! Beware! Now the bear is coming!" This had the consequence that he was then called bear everywhere by the farmers and one farmer asked him in a large company to explain himself clearly as to whether he was a pig bear or a dog bear. -Gock answered in the newspapers to all contentions: "Your bear I fear just as little as once my ancestor, the strong Samson, was afraid of such a one, and just as he slew a thousand Philistines with an ass's jawbone, so I will slay you all to the earth with a single goose wing." Because the books that were written against Gock were bought and read by only a few farmers, excerpts were made of them, printed and the preachers read them on occasion to their congregations. Even this availed nothing and remained without the desired success. When this nonsense had gone on for about six weeks, each congregation gave its preacher the charge: "either secede from the Ministerium and the Synod and keep to his congregation only or vacate the preaching office and four weeks hereafter clearly declare before the assembled congregation what he has decided to do."

Those preachers who were related to several parishoners through marriage soon decided to secede from the Synod; among whom Pastor Hermann the younger was the first in Berks County. This, of course, was looked down upon by the remaining members of the synod; but when the news came from Ohio state that many preachers there had lost their office and bread because they did not wish to secede from the synod, they followed the example of Hermann and others of their colleagues and each preacher declared publicly before his congregation that the clerical Ministerium and the Synod were completely annulled.

Much more was related in the newspapers about this occurrence; for example that since the people were not yet receptive enough for such kindnesses which one wanted to show to them, one had given in to the congregations out of love, and one was now determined to keep the better order of church business generally until later times and until everyone was first better persuaded of such kindnesses, acknowledged them as such, felt them and would approve of them and so forth.

On such weak feet stands everything in the United States of North America that has not become law through majority of votes and through other kinds of formalities. The state and the government generally do not mix into such. As long as the United States exist, it will not get better with the church matter, but in all probability even worse.

After the above briefly related strife was ended, a trustee said to some preachers: "May you have your meetings and consider how you may preach God's Word better and better, we have nothing against that, but we'll not be dictated to for we are the masters of the church; it's in our place to give orders and not yours, we want to keep our freedom and not become slaves; have your meetings, but keep to the old."

Thus I heard these people speak everywhere; they wish to have nothing against preachers having their conventions as before, but they should come together only for this reason, in order to discuss how they would better present God's Word.

The preachers also held their conventions soon again; although this was not to happen again, I nevertheless did not learn that it was complained about anywhere. But whether the delegates too went to the synod again, of that I heard nothing.

There prevails there as in general so also among the Germans a total toleration and freedom of belief. Each one can believe what he wants to, go over to another church, have his children baptized in the church he favors, etc. All the sects are tolerated. They debate, but do not persecute and hate each other on account of different convictions of faith. All the Christian sects of which there are a great number there and are constantly becoming more have Germans among them.

The Germans in the cities, especially in the port cities and predominantly in Philadelphia, exhibit much more external piety and religious zeal than the country dwellers. The preachers complain that their brothers who have come here in the last twenty years are very dissimilar to them in this regard and also do not want to get used to the service three times on Sunday. This takes place only in Philadelphia and the remaining large port cities. In some congregations the new arrivals are members at once and enjoy all the rights of the church, in others first after they have gone to Holy Communion, have a seat in the church and on this account let themselves be enrolled. The right to vote they receive only after three years have passed.

Source: Edited by Bryan Wright