Where in North Carolina is Mr. Kraft?
Can you figure out where Mr. Kraft is? See if you can find out where Mr.
Kraft has been.
Where in North Carolina
Is Mr. Kraft?
Teachers:
Mr. Kraft is at the Bethania Moravian Church cemetery in Bethania, North Carolina.
About the Church:
Bethania has the distinction of being the first planned community of Wachovia, not to take
anything away from Bethabara, the first settlement.
It was in the midst of the French and Indian War when Bishop August Gottlieb Spangenberg
arrived in Wachovia complete with orders to begin a new community and a name for it:
Bethania. On June 12, 1759, he and others rode out to Black Walnut Bottom three miles
northwest of Bethabara, and chose a site for the new town. Eight Moravian families were
selected to move to the new community, and because they expressed such a love for the
Moravian Church, eight families of war refugees living at the Bethabara mill were permitted to
settle in Bethania also. Before leaving Wachovia for the last time, Br. Spangenberg formally
organized the Bethania congregation on April 13, 1760.
On learning that Spangenberg had allowed “strangers” — non-Moravians — to move into
Wachovia’s first planned town, Count Nicholas Ludwig von Zinzendorf, the unquestioned leader
of the Moravian Church, pitched a furious tantrum — and died.
Perhaps because of its mixture of Moravians and newcomers, Bethania has always been a
congregation of, shall we say, dynamic ferment.
In 1771 a large two-story Gemein House was consecrated to replace the hastily erected 1760
building. By 1790 Bethania had 215 members, and bid fair to rival Salem as a hub of enterprise
in Wachovia. A large brick church was erected and consecrated in 1809 (it burned in 1942 but
was rebuilt). In 1822 Bethanians began buying the land on which their houses sat (35 years
before Salem began doing the same thing). A fire company was formed, a militia company was
organized (before Salem), an academy was opened. Why, in 1839 some citizens got the town
incorporated (evidently, though, they never acted upon it).
Most important for the Moravian Church as a whole, the Bethania congregation has been very
active in outreach. Bethania A.M.E., Olivet, Mizpah, King, and Rural Hall all trace their heritage
to the Bethania church “family.” And Bethania has been especially strong in mission endeavor,
with the World Mission Shop being only one token of its service.
Moravian Archives, 2002
How people were buried in Moravian cemeteries (Choir System):
Although this is a different church in Winston-Salem, it provides an example of how the people
are buried at Bethania Moravian Church.
“God's Acre, the historic section of the Hope Moravian Church Cemetery, has 1,070 graves.
Burial is by the choir system where burials are by gender. There is a section for boys, unmarried
men, married men, girls, unmarried women, married women, and paupers. This follows the early
Moravian custom of burial as done in Herrnhut, Germany, the place in Saxony where Moravians
found sanctuary from religious persecution on the estate of Count Nicholas Von Zinzendorf.”
- from http://www.hopemoravianchurch.org/History.html
Example of Choir System:
Women
Men
Ideas for Teaching:
1. Print off different gravestones and have students organize them chronologically by date of
birth or death.
Gravestone link: http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=cr&CRid=1221209
2. Provide each student with one gravestone and have them write a story about the person,
include three important historic events that occurred during the person’s lifetime. Gravestone
link: http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=cr&CRid=1221209
3. Use a map of Pennsylvania/Virginia/North Carolina, USA, and/or World to track the travels of
families. Where they were born, where they died, where they moved from, etc.
Gravestone link: http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=cr&CRid=1221209
Map of Pennsylvania/Virginia/North Carolina:
http://www.rare-maps.com/MAPS_PIC/OHIO-1875-NY-NJ-PA-OH-DE.JPG
Map of the United States:
http://www.bing.com/images/search?q=map+of+united+states&FORM=HDRSC2&adlt=strict#view=detail&id=9E1DF7A70F2702A609F67A6
C40CB33BC65163DB6&selectedIndex=3
Map of World:
http://www.bing.com/images/search?q=world+map+political+2012&qs=n&form=QBIR&pq=world+map+political+2012&sc=1-24&sp=1&sk=#view=detail&id=227496E6517C2FB2DB2A227528888221BCA00E53&selectedIndex=3
Possible people to look at:

Nathaniel Bibighause (Pennsylvania-NC)

Peter “Binkele” Binggeli (Switzerland-Pennsylvania-NC)

Christian Butner (NC-Tennessee-Indiana)

John Conrad (Pennsylvania-NC)

Anna Barbara Pfaff Grabs (Pennsylvania-NC)

Anna Barbara Dietz Hauser (Germany-Pennsylvania-NC)

Johann George Hauser (Pennsylvania-NC)

Martin Hauser (France-Germany-Pennsylvania-NC)

John George Keller (Germany-Georgia-NC)

Maria Margatetha Seitz Miller (Maine-NC)
4. Use the map of Wachovia to track the movement of a family members buried in the site (using
the find a grave link). For example, some family members moved from Bethania to Salem.
Some moved from Bethabara to Bethania, and then to Salem. If you start with early dates (those
born in the 1700s) and click on family members, you can see where they moved. The people
listed below were not buried in Bethania but were born there or lived there for a time. But, their
parents, siblings, or spouse is buried in Bethania.
Gravestone link: http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=cr&CRid=1221209
Map of Wachovia link: http://moravianarchives.org/history/wachovia-map/
Possible people to look at:

Adam Butner Jr. (Bethania-Salem)

Phillippina Christina Lash Conrad (Bethania-Pffafftown)

John Beroth (Bethabara-Bethania-Salem)

Ludwig Leinback (Bethania-Bethabara)

Sarah Hege (Bethania-Salem)

Isaac Nathaniel Kreeger (Bethania-Rural Hall)

Elisabeth Leinbach Ranck (Bethabara-Bethania)

Anna Johanna Ranck (Bethania-Salem)

Samuel Sachaues Schaub (Bethania-Bethabara)
5. Use one of the Revolutionary or Civil War soldiers and have student write about these
soldier’s experiences in the war. Boys could be the soldiers and girls could be their female
relatives (just use the find a grave link to find their relatives (mother, wife, daughter, sister).
They could write letters back and forth to each other.
Gravestone link: http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=cr&CRid=1221209






George Hauser II – Revolution
Johannes Hauser - Revolution
Michael Hauser – Revolution
Johann Samuel Strup – Revolution
Gaston Jacob Louis Helsabeck – Civil War
William Franklin Vogler – Civil War
Specific Historical Information on some of the People Buried in the Cemetery:
Peter “Binkele” Binggeli:
http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GRid=8848731
He was married 3 times. His first wife is buried in Bethabara, which
was the first settlement by the Moravians in what is now Forsyth
County. These two towns are about 2 miles away from each other.
Elisabeth Loliger Strub:
http://www.findagrave.com/cgibin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GSsr=961&GScid=1221209&GRid=45602168&
Andreas Volck:
http://www.findagrave.com/cgibin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GSsr=1001&GScid=1221209&GRid=18560578&
There is an entire biography attached to these links from Moravian Diaries.
Johann Samuel Strup:
http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GRid=45602507
He fought in the Revolutionary War. His last name has
changed over the years, as many other people of German
ancestry. Therefore, his daughter’s last name was spelled
Straub. She married a man named Johann Boehlow and
is buried in the Salem Moravian cemetery, which is in
Salem, now Winston-Salem. Salem was the third town
started by the Moravians in what is now Forsyth County.
George Hauser Jr.:
http://www.findagrave.com/cgibin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GSsr=361&GScid=1221209&GRid=37756750&
He fought in the Revolutionary War. The link provides a lot of detail. Unfortunately, the photo
on the website is not linked. But, below is a photo the SS Department was able to take.
Charts for possible use of plotting/mapping gravesites and/or math skills.
Grid 1
Name
Section
Row
Grave
Johannes Krieger
B
4
15
Johann Jacob Krieger
B
2
9
Johann Heinrich “John Henry: Krieger
B
2
13
Friedrich Krieger
B
5
15
Peter Pfaff
B
4
11
Christian Andreas Werner
B
4
14
Grid 2
The Men’s Plots
Name
Andreas Gross
Martin Hauser
Erhard Heckerdorn
Grave
41
4
21
Erich Ingebrestson
7
Abraham Jorde
43
Hans Martin Kalberlahn
6
Nathanael Kaske
38
Matthaeus Krause
19
Johan Heinrich Lentzer
9
Martin Luck
14
Stephen Meyer
18
Melchior Munster
17
Joannes Nagel
10
Carl Opiz
8
Hans Peterson
22
Christian Pfeffer
49
Johann Michael Sauter
Bernard Christopher Schill
31
47
Johannes Hans Schorr
Matthaeus Schropp
15
39
Peter Sehnert
37
Christian Gottfried Seidel
Abraham Straus
Jacobus von der Mark
Abraham VonGanmern
Samuel Wutke
5
16
50
33
11
Gerhard Zinn
29
Grid 3
The Women’s Plots
Name
Grave
Maria Margaretha Schaefer
Hauser
24
Link resources:
Anna Maria Frey Feiser
Christina Barabara Bohner
Krause
Henrietta Benedicta
Mucksch
42
Anne M Opiz
1
Elizabeth Palmer Peterson
23
Mary Rogers
3
Eva Schultz
27
Maria C Seidel
4
Anna Wagemann
47
Margaretha Zinn
51
About the church:
http://moravianarchives.org/history/congregations/bethania-moravian-church/
About the town of Bethania:
http://townofbethania.org/
A timeline of Moravian history:
http://www.moravianchurcharchives.org/timeline.php
Brief history about Moravians in Forsyth County:
http://moravianarchives.org/history/southern-province/
15
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