Excerpts from
Rev. Muhlenberg's Journal
Greenwich, Warren County, NJ
available on microfiche at CU-Denver Library Special
thanks to Brian Cole for sharing this information with us.
"...But because divine
service had
been appointed for tomorrow morning in
Greenwich, where I was to confirm the young people, I promised, God willing, to visit him [a former major
named Arndt, then a justice of the peace in Easton- BDC] next Tuesday.
Toward evening I set out with my
travel companion [Gottfried Klein - BDC] and re-crossed the Delaware to his home in Greenwich. I caught cold
again as a result of getting wet
today and having no opportunity to change my clothes.
July 2, [1770 - BDC] Monday. Early in
the morning the young people came
again for instruction. At eleven o'clock we went to the church. I preached on the words of institution of
the Lord's Supper, whereupon I
examined the fourteen persons, had them renew their baptismal vow and pledge faithfulness, laid my hands upon
them, and gave them Holy
Communion. This seemed to make a deep impression on young and old
people because, as they said, they had never
experienced anything quite like it in this place.
[Memorandum. On Monday, July 2, 1770,
I Muhlenberg confirmed the
following persons in Greenwich, opposite Easton: (1) Jacob Schipman, son of Matthias
Schipman, 20 years old (2) Wilhelm Moelich, 17, son of the
late Gottfried Moelich (3) Philip Fasbinder, 22, son of Jacob
Fasbinder (4) Maria Catharina Klein, 16,
daughter of Gottfried Klein (5) Maria, 16, daughter of Matthias
Schipman (6 and 7) Rebecca and Johanna,
daughters of Johannes Hennershits (8) Catharina, 16, daughter of Martin
Holtzhauser (9) Elisabeth, 15, daughter of
Theobald Scherer (10) Sophia Dorothea, daughter of
Michael Christian (11) Anna Euphronica, 16, daughter of
Philip Klein (12) Anna Margaretha, 19, daughter of
Jacob Fasbinder (13) Maria Catharina, 15, daughter of
Philip Op (14) Maria Catharina, about 17,
daughter of widow Fein.
Spent the rest of the day visiting the
schoolmaster and several other
families once again. In the evening we had a terrible storm with heavy lightning and thunder. He that
keepeth Israel graciously protected us so
that no harm befell us...
[Theodore G. Tappert and John W.
Doberstein, translators, The
Journals of Henry Melchior Muhlenberg (Philadelphia: The
Muhlenberg Press, 1958), 450-451]."