The "Second Company".
Before David Nitschmann, the "Hausmeister", left London, after the sailing of the first Moravian company for Georgia, he presented to the Trustees a series of propositions, the acceptance of which would open the way for a large increase of Moravian emigration.
The proposals were, in brief, that the Trustees should give credit to the Moravians to the extent of 500 Pounds sterling, which, deducting the 60 Pounds advanced to the first company, would provide passage money and a year's provision for fifty-five more of Count Zinzendorf's "servants", the loan to be repaid, without interest, in five years, and to bear interest at the usual rate if payment was longer deferred.He also suggested that the money, when repaid, should be again advanced for a like purpose.
In addition he requested that each man of twenty-one years, or over, should be granted fifty acres near Count Zinzendorf's tract.
The Trustees were pleased to approve of these proposals, and promised the desired credit, with the further favor that if the debt was not paid within five years it should draw interest at eight per cent.only, instead of ten per cent., the customary rate in South Carolina.
During the summer, therefore, a second company prepared to follow the pioneers to the New World.On the 5th of August, 1735, two parties left Herrnhut, one consisting of three young men, and the other of thirteen men, women and children, who were joined at Leipzig by Jonas Korte, who went with them to London.On August 8th, five more persons left Herrnhut, under the leadership of David Nitschmann, the Bishop, who was to take the second company to Georgia, organize their congregation, and ordain their pastor.
This David Nitschmann, a carpenter by trade, was a companion of David Nitschmann, the "Hausmeister", and John Toeltschig, when they left Moravia in the hope of re-establishing the Unitas Fratrum, and with them settled at Herrnhut, and became one of the influential members of the community.When missionaries were to be sent to the Danish West Indies, Nitschmann and Leonard Dober went on foot to Copenhagen (August 21st, 1732), and sailed from there, Nitschmann paying their way by his work as ship's carpenter.
By the same handicraft he supported himself and his companion for four months on the island of St.Thomas, where they preached to the negro slaves, and then, according to previous arrangement, he left Dober to continue the work, and returned to Germany.In 1735, it was decided that Bishop Jablonski, of Berlin, and Bishop Sitkovius, of Poland, who represented the Episcopate of the ancient Unitas Fratrum, should consecrate one of the members of the renewed Unitas Fratrum at Herrnhut, linking the Church of the Fathers with that of their descendents, and enabling the latter to send to the Mission field ministers whose ordination could not be questioned by other denominations, or by the civil authorities.David Nitschmann, then one of the Elders at Herrnhut, was chosen to receive consecration, the service being performed, March 13th, by Bishop Jablonski, with the written concurrence of Bishop Sitkovius.
The three parties from Herrnhut met at Magdeburg on August 13th, proceeding from there to Hamburg by boat, and at Altona, the sea-port of Hamburg, they found ten more colonists who had preceded them.
Here also they were joined by Christian Adolph von Hermsdorf, who went with them to Georgia as "a volunteer".Apparently Lieutenant Hermsdorf wanted the position of Zinzendorf's Agent in Georgia, for the Count wrote to him on the 19th of August, agreeing that he should go with the Moravians, at their expense, but saying that if he desired office he must first prove himself worthy of it by service with and for the others, even as the Count had always done.If the reports from Georgia justified it, the Count promised to send him proper powers later, and to find a good opportunity for his wife to follow him.Rosina Schwarz and her child, who had come with them to Hamburg to meet her husband, returned with him to their home in Holstein; and on account of Rosina Neubert's serious illness, she and her husband reluctantly agreed to leave the company, and wait for another opportunity to go to Georgia.In 1742 they carried out their intention of emigrating to America, though it was to Pennsylvania, and not to Georgia.
The "second company", therefore, consisted of twenty-five persons:
David Nitschmann, the Bishop.
Christian Adolph von Hermsdorf, a volunteer.
John Andrew Dober, a potter.
David Zeisberger.
David Tanneberger, a shoemaker.
John Tanneberger, son of David, a boy of ten years.
George Neisser.
Augustin Neisser, a young lad, brother of George.
Henry Roscher, a linen-weaver.
David Jag.
John Michael Meyer, a tailor.
Jacob Frank.
John Martin Mack.
Matthias Seybold, a farmer.
Gottlieb Demuth.
John Boehner, a carpenter.
Matthias Boehnisch.
Maria Catherine Dober, wife of John Andrew Dober.
Rosina Zeisberger, wife of David Zeisberger.
Judith Toeltschig, Catherine Riedel, Rosina Haberecht, Regina Demuth, going to join their husbands already in Georgia.
Anna Waschke, a widow, to join her son.
Juliana Jaeschke, a seamstress.*
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* Fifteen of these colonists were originally from Moravia and Bohemia.
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During an enforced stay of three weeks at Altona, the Moravians experienced much kindness, especially at the hands of Korte and his family, and Mrs.Weintraube, the daughter of a Mennonite preacher, who had come from her home in London on a visit to her father.
By this time the Moravian settlement at Herrnhut was coming to be well and favorably known in Holland, and every visit won new friends, many of whom came into organic fellowship with them.A few years later, when the Unitas Fratrum was confronted by a great financial crisis, it was largely the loyalty and liberality of the Dutch members that enabled it to reach a position of safety.
