Charting the Unknown: Early Moravian Maps

Lenapehoking 

Lenapehoking, the homeland of the Lenape for millennia, included parts of present day New York, eastern Pennsylvania, New Jersey, and the Delaware Coast. Further west, the Susquehannock, Shawnee, Erie, and Iroquois peoples also had homelands in what is now Pennsylvania. Everything changed for these Indigenous peoples when the first Europeans arrived.

Contact with Europeans, including the diseases they brought, led to the rapid decimation of Native American populations. European settlers also shifted the dynamics of Indigenous lifeways, driving many to move westward. This forced migration put Indigenous groups at odds with each other both culturally and for basic resources. France, England, and Spain exploited this friction in their attempts to control the New World.

Even though the land of Lenapehoking was already occupied, British authorities offered land ownership to Europeans in order to exploit the rich resources of their North American Empire. By 1683, when William Penn began purchasing land from the Lenape, they were not in a political position to decline.

Pennsylvania’s geography played a major role in shaping America’s history as European settlers expanded west. Surveying land was necessary for the growth and survival of the early colonies, especially after the fraudulent 1737 Walking Purchase added over one million acres to Pennsylvania. The fight over land often became bloody as conflicts arose between Native Americans and the newly arrived European settlers.

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The Moravian Church was among the earliest recipients of land acquired through the Walking Purchase. In the early 1740s, Church officials began sending surveyors to survey the land and plot out towns, as well as missionaries to proselytize to the Indigenous peoples. The Moravian contributions to the surveying of Pennsylvania and North Carolina remain important today to historians, researchers, cartographers, and naturalists as they offer some of the earliest documentation of land use in the colonies during tumultuous times of war and unrest. 

An estimated 10 million Indigenous peoples lived in North America before the arrival of European colonizers. Many thousands lived in Lenapehoking, the vast homeland of the Lenape, who were the first inhabitants of eastern Pennsylvania and parts of New York, New Jersey, Maryland, and Delaware.  

The land that the Moravian Historical Society now occupies is part of the ancient homeland and traditional territory of the Lenape people. We pay respect to Lenape peoples past, present, and future and their continuing presence in the homeland and throughout the Lenape diaspora.

Charter Granted to Penn by the King 

On June 24, 1680, William Penn asked King Charles II  for a charter for land in America. The only available tract in eastern North America lay west of New Jersey, north of Maryland, and south of New York—an area that England had conquered from the Dutch in 1664 and that the King had given to his brother James, the Duke of York. After discussions, the King granted Penn’s request on March 4, 1681. In return, the Charter required Penn to deliver annually to the King one-fifth of all the gold and silver found and two beaver skins. Although Penn had proprietary authority over the colony, his power was not absolute. The Charter required that his laws be consistent with those of England. 

Tashawaylennahan, “Moses Tunda Tatamy,” and his family were granted permission from the Iroquois Council and the Pennsylvania provincial government to stay in the Lehigh Valley after the results of the Walking Purchase. The Lenape leader was a diplomat, translator, guide, and missionary for the provinces of Pennsylvania and New Jersey.

Although biographical information is scarce and often biased by European views of Indigenous peoples, scholars generally accept that Tashawaylennahan was born in southern New Jersey into the Unami branch of Lenape around 1695. Further research is needed to determine where he learned English, European policy, and politics. Tashawaylennahan moved into the Lehigh Valley in the early 1730s and began farming along the Forks of the Delaware. It is during this time that the historical record begins for this key figure in early Native American and European diplomacy.

Based on documents of the Philadelphia Yearly Meeting Records housed in the Special Collections at Haverford College, we can chronicle Tashawaylennahan’s contributions to negotiating peace during the French and Indian War.

Surveying was a respected skill in colonial society

In Pennsylvania, the authority to produce official surveys rested with the surveyor general. This was an appointed, prestigious, and influential post that included a seat on the Provincial Council. It was the job of the surveyor-general to deputize surveyors, check their work for accuracy, and ensure that no conflicts with existing European settler property claims were present. Native American rights were not recognized.

Pennsylvania surveyors, once deputized, were required to post a bond and take an oath of office as a guarantee of their skill and honesty. Some learned the skill as apprentices, others were taught in European universities before immigrating to the New World, and still others were self-taught. Important sources of information for surveyors included Geodesia: The Whole Art of Surveying and Measuring of Land Made Easy by John Love (1688) and The Practical Surveyor, or the Art of Land Measuring Made Easy by Samuel Wyld (1725). However, these two sources would not have been possible without the work of Edmund Gunter.

Edmund Gunter (1581-1626)

Edmund Gunter was an English clergyman, mathematician, astronomer, and inventor. His interest in geometry led him to develop a method of land surveying using triangulation. Gunter invented many surveying instruments, including the Gunter’s chain (1620), the Gunter’s scale (1623) to assist in numerical calculations, the crossbow quadrant (1623) to determine altitude, and a detailed description of a simplified astrolab known as the Gunter’s quadrant to tell time. All these instruments would be found in a colonial surveyor’s field kit. In addition to the instruments invented by Gunter, surveyors also used a magnetic compass, circumferentor, theodolite, level, and plane table. Drafting instruments such as the protractor, plain and diagonal scales, and the trigonometric table were equally important in completing the survey. 

Surveying was a seasonal task. In the field, surveyors often faced unpredictable weather and technical difficulties. The surveyor’s honesty and skill were routinely met with the unethical expectations of their patrons. Colonists demonstrated a willingness to forge survey warrants, offer bribes, or, in extreme circumstances, issue death threats to acquire or protect their land claims. 

Tools of the trade

Four Steps to Acquire Land 

European settlers who wanted to own land followed a legal process set up by the provincial government. The four-step process included entry, warrant, survey, and grant.

Entry was the formal act of notifying the government of the desire and reason to acquire land. Once accepted, the government issued a warrant which entitled the claimant to have the potential land surveyed. The survey was a precise, descriptive drawing of the land boundaries. After the surveyor-general reviewed the surveyor’s work for accuracy and signed off on it, a grant (patent) was made by the government. Once the land was purchased, a final deed was issued to the new landowner.

Quite often, people failed to execute all of the steps needed to properly acquire land. Many never bothered with this process at all: they simply took possession of the land as squatters, through false land claims, or by forcibly removing Native peoples from their ancestral homeland.

Town Planning: A Group Endeavor

Beginning in 1734, the prime directive of the Moravian Church was to build Moravian settlements globally in support of Count Zinzendorf's desire to propagate the community's teachings worldwide. From initial concept to actual settlement, Moravian communities were pre-planned by Moravian leaders in Herrnhut, Germany, and approved by Count Zinzendorf. 

Although plans of settlements do vary in detail, some common characteristics include a central square, the focal point of the Gemeinhaus and church to the community, and a God’s Acre (cemetery) located just outside the central community.

In 1735, Savannah, Georgia, was chosen as the site for the first Moravian settlement for missionaries to proselytize to the Cherokee and European settlers. This settlement did not last due to the low number of conversions and because of hostilities toward the Moravians by other European inhabitants. By 1740, a group of Moravians moved from Savannah to Nazareth, Pennsylvania. 

In December of 1741, Count Zinzendorf arrived in Pennsylvania to visit his congregants, purchase land, and plan out new Moravian towns. It was during this visit that Bethlehem and Nazareth began to become organized into a large-scale group endeavor known as the General Economy. Under the General Economy, all goods, produce, and labor were held in common, and the church owned all land, buildings, and shops. In return, members of the community received housing, food, and care from birth to death. Nazareth and Bethlehem were complementary settlements, with Nazareth supplying the agricultural products and Bethlehem serving the Moravians' industrial needs.

Friedensthal

On October 28, 1749, John Nitschmann and Henry Antes began to search out land to erect a large mill for the purpose of grinding grain into flour. On January 3, 1750, a deed was made out to Henry Antes for 324 acres of land “situated on the branches of Lehietan in the Forks of Delaware in Bucks County.'' Land was cleared and the foundation walls of the mill and farmhouse were begun. The mill was operational by mid-August 1750. The farmhouse was completed in the spring of 1751 and was 32 by 20 feet, two stories high, with four rooms. Additional buildings included a framed barn and three annexes for horses, cows, and sheep. 

Moravian mapmakers

Andrew (Andreas) Hoeger (August 14, 1714-?)

Andrew Hoeger was an architect, surveyor, and master builder from Nuremberg, Bavaria. He arrived in Bethlehem in April 1754. He was employed as a draftsman and superintendent of buildings in Bethlehem. In August 1754, he traveled with Peter Boehler to survey the Moravian Church’s North Carolina property. Returning back to Bethlehem by the end of 1754, Hoeger surveyed, drafted , and planned Lititz and the new Nazareth God’s Acre.

Among Hoeger’s best known maps are Bethlehem Tract with all Adjacent Lands 1755 and his 1754 map of Wachovia Tract in North Carolina. Hoeger produced many architectural drawings, which can be found in the collections of the Moravian Historical Society and the Moravian Archives in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania. 

His surviving works attest to his skills in surveying, drafting, building, and town planning. He held positions on numerous Moravian committees and for a decade participated in the growth of the Moravian settlements in Pennsylvania.

Hoeger's final days in Pennsylvania are a mystery.

He left Bethlehem on September 4, 1764, and never returned. A letter was received September 17, 1764, that spoke of his intentions upon leaving Bethlehem.

While this was the last known report of Hoeger in Pennsylvania,  Johannes Ettwein had a chance encounter with the wayward Moravian in Charleston. He wrote to Friedrich von Marschall in Bethabara on December 5, 1765.  [WachP 149,MAB]

Philip Christian Gottlieb Reuter (September 5, 1717 - December 30, 1777)

Reuter became an active member of the Moravian Church in 1738, after surveying the lands around the Moravian settlement of Herrnhaag. The church sent him to America in 1756 where he worked for two years making surveys, training other surveyors, town planning, and architectural tasks in Pennsylvania.

North Carolina

On July 21, 1758, he traveled to the Moravian settlement of Bethabara, North Carolina, where, for the next 20 years, he performed extensive map and survey work in this largely uncharted region.

Reuter served many roles in Salem. He had oversight of laying out the town, the building of houses, supervising the builders, and paying laborers. In the 1770s, he was appointed Salem’s forest keeper, waterworks manager, and roadmaster.

In 1773, Reuter requested and was appointed to a committee to construct the town’s first waterworks. This project was only the second municipal waterworks to be completed in the United States. The first waterworks in America was the Moravian-built system in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania.

The last three years of Reuter’s life were plagued with a debilitating disease that kept him from his work. Reuter died December 30, 1777, in Salem, North Carolina. 

While most of his time was spent in North Carolina, his contribution to Pennsylvania surveying is twofold. First, his notes on town planning and his maps are some of the most detailed of the region, and second, he taught noted colonial surveyor Georg Golkowsky the skills of surveying and town planning.