Samuel Kirkland

By J. M. Hochstetler

Samuel Kirkland by Augustus Rockwell

I’ve previously blogged about the Moravian missionaries to the Lenape tribe in the 18th century and two of the most well-known were included in my Northkill Amish Series co-authored with Bob Hostetler. Samuel Kirkland was a Presbyterian missionary to the Native Americans whom I encountered while doing research on the American Revolution, and he’s referred to in my upcoming release.

Kirkland was born on December 1, 1741, in Norwich, Connecticut. His father, a minister and graduate of Yale, was of Scottish descent. Samuel developed an interest in Indians during his school days at Eleazar Wheelock’s Indian Charity School in Lebanon, Connecticut—which later moved to New Hampshire and became Dartmouth College. It was there that he began to learn the Mohawk language and become interested in missions to the Native Americans. He also met Joseph Brant there, a Mohawk who allied with the British during the American Revolution and led raids against both whites and Indians loyal to the Americans.

Joseph Brant by George Romney

Kirkland entered the College of New Jersey, later Princeton University, in his sophomore year. He began his missionary work in 1764 during his senior year, 8 months before graduating in absentia in 1765. He traveled on foot 200 miles to Seneca territory in central New York during winter, enduring much hardship and danger with his 2 Seneca guides. Kirkland was quickly accepted into the tribe and was formally adopted by the sachem. His first mission lasted a year and a half, during which he learned the language and drafted an initial plan for teaching and preaching. He eventually became fluent in several Indian languages.

In 1766 Kirkland returned to Lebanon. He married Jerusha Bingham, Eleazar Wheelock’s niece, on September 20, 1769, and purchased a small farm near Stockbridge, Massachusetts. They had several children, with one of their sons, John Thornton, becoming president of Harvard College. Because of a disagreement with Wheelock, Kirkland cut ties with him and in 1770 and was ordained by the Scottish Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge. He became a missionary to and a trusted friend of the Oneida and Tuscarora, two of the tribes of the Iroquois alliance called the Six Nations, who were located at the western end of the Mohawk River Valley. He and his family lived among them for the next 40 years.

Washington meets the Oneida

During the American Revolutionary War Kirkland moved his family back to Stockbridge for safety while he served as chaplain to American troops. Unlike the nonresistant Moravians, who encouraged their disciples to remain neutral in times of war, Kirkland advocated for the Iroquois to take the side of the Americans. Because of the personal loyalty and affection Skenandoah, an Oneida chief, held for him, the Oneida and Tuscarora did so. Although the other 4 tribes of the Six Nations fought on the side of the British, many Oneida warriors served in General George Washington’s army. This division within the Iroquois confederacy resulted in tragedy. A highly destructive conflict broke out in the Mohawk Valley as the opposing sides conducted raids against the white settlements and the Iroquois villages. Joseph Brant was one of the native leaders fighting for the British.

Kirkland is considered by many to be the peacekeeper between the Iroquois and the settlers after the war at a time the settlers didn’t make any distinction between their former native allies and those who had been enemies. A wave of migration from New England also brought an influx of people eager to acquire land, with many moving onto Iroquois lands before they were purchased by the state. Kirkland played a key role in organizing land purchases from the Oneida on behalf of New York State, thus maintaining the peace. Because of his diplomacy, Kirkland received a commendation from Washington and was rewarded by a congressional land grant in 1785. This was enlarged in 1788 by a joint grant from the Oneida nation and the state of New York, and in 1793 Kirkland founded the Hamilton Oneida Academy for young Indian and white men in the new town of Kirkland. The school became Hamilton College in 1812.

Kirkland maintained good relations with the Iroquois all his life. In 1790 the Italian explorer Paolo Andreani visited him and noted that Kirkland had collected basic word lists of over 200 languages and that the members of his congregation abstained from hunting and other work on Sundays. Andreani also described the Sunday services Kirkland conducted using translated psalms. Kirkland died on February 28, 1808, and was buried at his home in Clinton, New York. It’s a testimony to Kirkland’s character that in 1816, as Chief Skenandoah was dying at the age of 110, he said that he wanted to be buried next to his good friend Reverend Kirkland, and his wishes were fulfilled.

It’s heartening to learn that so many Christian missionaries truly loved and cared for the native peoples they ministered among. They made many sacrifices to work faithfully in the Lord’s harvest fields and are an example to us today. My church supports many foreign and local missionaries who endure hardships and make sacrifices in their ministry. We also send out several groups on missions trips every year. If you’re a member of a church, do you know in which countries or local areas your congregation supports missions workers? Please share, and let’s celebrate those who are called to be missionaries today!

~~~

J. M. Hochstetler is the daughter of Mennonite farmers and a lifelong student of history. She is also an author, editor, and publisher. Her American Patriot Series is the only comprehensive historical fiction series on the American Revolution. Book 6, Refiner’s Fire, releases in April 2019. Northkill, Book 1 of the Northkill Amish Series coauthored with Bob Hostetler, won Foreword Magazine’s 2014 Indie Book of the Year Bronze Award for historical fiction. Book 2, The Return, received the 2017 Interviews and Reviews Silver Award for Historical Fiction and was named one of Shelf Unbound’s 2018 Notable Indie Books. One Holy Night, a contemporary retelling of the Christmas story, was the Christian Small Publishers 2009 Book of the Year and a finalist in the Carol Award.

Rebecca Protten: A Zeal for Taking the Gospel to Slaves

Rebecca Freundlich Protten, a woman of African and European descent, was born in 1718 on the island of Antigua. It is suspected that she was kidnapped and sold into slavery on the Caribbean island of St. Thomas. She learned of Christianity from her Dutch Reformed master. She was freed at age 12 by his family after he died.

Rebecca Freundlich Protten

By Kandymotownie - Own work, CC BY-SA 4.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=69900113

Once freed, Rebecca’s heart’s desire was to share the grace and salvation of Jesus Christ, especially with the enslaved peoples of St. Thomas. She traveled the dusty roads and up and down hilly terrain in the humidity to reach the slaves in the evenings when they returned from the fields. She also reached out to the women who were abused by their masters.

She worked with Moravian missionaries who taught the equality of men and women in the ministry. She also preached at meetings at a church called “The Path,” where enslaved Africans would come to hear her preach, often against the wishes of their masters who feared a revolt. Yet this didn’t keep them from coming to hear her preach and hear of freedom from sin through God’s amazing grace. Rebecca, herself, went through persecution from local church authorities who questioned her teaching the slaves.

When she was eighteen, Rebecca sought out the German Moravian missionary, Freidrich Martin, who’d arrived on St. Thomas for a deeper education of her faith. Martin was impressed by her skill in teaching. He later said there was “nothing in her other than a love of God and his servants.” 

Map of West Indies in 1732. {PD}

Around the age of 24 in 1742, she traveled to Germany with Martin and her first husband, Matthaus Freundlich. They brought their two-year-old daughter, Anna, with them. Matthaus died on the trip to Germany where he was returning due to his ill health, especially under the persecution they encountered as they spread the Gospel to the slave community on St. Thomas. Shortly after Rebecca arrived in Herrnhut, Freidrich Martin had to return to the mission on St.Thomas. In 1744, Rebecca’s daughter died and she was essentially left alone but was taken to a Moravian commune there.

In Herrnhut, she met her second husband, Jacob Protten, a biracial educator who was also a part of the Moravian church. They married in 1746. Rebecca gave birth to another daughter, whom she also named Anna. Sadly, the child died in infancy.

With the church’s blessing, in 1756, they traveled to the Gold Coast in the country of Ghana where they opened a school for biracial children.

Jacob Christian Protten

By Kandymotownie - Own work, CC BY-SA 4.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=69900094

Though Rebecca had no surviving children, she taught the children of others at the school for seventeen years. She became a widow for the second time in 1769 and remained in Ghana for the rest of her life until she passed away in 1780 at the age of 62. Near the end of her life, the Moravian missionaries had desired her return to St. Thomas, but she wasn’t well enough to make the trip.

Rebecca ran her course well with zeal for the Gospel. She did not walk the easy road and left a lasting legacy behind. She’d sown the seeds of Afro-Protestantism in the Americas that began in the West Indies and still reverberates throughout the African-American Christian community today. Perhaps this is why she is hailed as the “mother of modern missions.”

Kathleen Rouser is the multi-published author of the 2017 Bookvana Award winner, Rumors and Promises, her first novel about the people of fictional Stone Creek, Michigan, and its sequel, Secrets and Wishes. She is a longtime member in good standing of American Christian Fiction Writers. Kathleen wanted to be a writer before she could even read. She longs to create characters who resonate with readers and realize the need for a transforming Savior in their everyday lives. She lives in Michigan with her hero and husband of thirty-some years, and the sassy tail-less cat who found a home in their empty nest. Connect with Kathleen on her website at kathleenrouser.com, on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/kathleenerouser/, and on Twitter @KathleenRouser.

Secrets and Wishes

More than fists fly after a fight between Philip and Zeke. When their widowed parents, Maggie Galloway and Thomas Harper meet, they begin a prickly acquaintance. 

Independent Maggie has placed in a national baking contest and wants to open a bakery to provide a future for her and Philip. Grieving and disorganized Thomas seeks to bring up his unruly brood in Stone Creek, and grow his pharmacy business in peace.

After he becomes gravely ill, Maggie is enlisted to nurse him back to health, and takes his children in hand. She eventually helps Thomas organize his shop. As friendship blossoms so does mutual affection. They team up to defeat a charlatan whose dangerous elixir brings tragedy to Stone Creek.

Humiliating circumstances force Maggie to consider leaving town. Thomas wants to offer her an alternative, but is he too late to declare his love to the angel of mercy who has captured his heart?

Henry Melchoir Muhlenberg

Henry Melchoir Muhlenberg

Back in January at the beginning this series on 18th century German settlers in Pennsylvania, I covered Conrad Weiser, one of the most remarkable and influential figures in colonial history. Today we’re going to take a look at another remarkable man who had considerable impact on the history of both Pennsylvania and this country, his daughter Anna Maria’s husband, Heinrich Melchior Mühlenberg. Known today by his anglicized name, Henry Melchior Muhlenberg, he’s considered to be the patriarch of the Lutheran Church in the United States.

Muhlenberg was born on September 6, 1711, into the devout Lutheran family of shoemaker Nicolaus Melchior Mühlenberg and Anna Maria Kleinschmid. He grew up in the German Electorate of Brunswick-Lüneburg, also known as Hanover, and attended a classical school, at which he was taught Latin. After his father’s death, a local minister taught him to play the organ, developing in him a lasting love of music.

Church in Trappe, PA, where Muhlenberg served.
Founded after 1742, not in 1712 as labeled.

Family friends soon recognized Muhlenberg’s talents and abilities and used their connections to gain his entrance to the University of Göttingen. He studied theology and with two other men founded a charity school that eventually developed into an orphanage. From there he went to the Halle Institutions, the center of the pietistic movement in what is now Germany, to complete his studies in languages and music. After ordination in the Lutheran Church in 1739, Muhlenberg taught at an orphanage and also served as assistant minister at a church near the estate of Count Nikolaus von Zinzendorf, a Lutheran minister and a leader in the pietistic movement who held certain Moravian beliefs.

At that time most of the Lutheran churches in Pennsylvania had been founded by lay ministers. Three congregations that had no church building or pastor appealed to officials at Halle to send them pastors who had a formal education. One of Muhlenberg’s former instructors, the son Halle’s founder, persuaded him to answer this call, and in 1742 he sailed for America.

The Muhlenberg's home in Trappe

His voyage was a stormy one, and when he arrived he was quickly drawn into upheavals of a different kind. He discovered that the Philadelphia congregation that he was to lead had split. Some members followed Zinzendorf, who had recently arrived in America and was winning many converts to the Moravian Church. Some members had joined Muhlenberg’s other congregation at Providence, now led by Valentine Kraft, a minister who had been relieved of his church offices in Germany. Meanwhile, Muhlenberg’s third congregation had fallen under the leadership of a man known simply as Schmed, who turned out to be an alcoholic and an imposter.

Muhlenberg held impeccable credentials, however. He had been licensed as the official Lutheran missionary to America not only by Halle, but also by the King of England, who ruled Hanover. After presenting his credentials to the two congregations under Kraft and Schmed, he ousted them and took over leadership. Zinzendorf, however, presented a greater obstacle since he was not only an ordained Lutheran minister, but also a highly respected man of standing in society and the church. Muhlenberg adamantly opposed Zinzendorf’s goal of uniting all Christian denominations under the Moravian standard. And ultimately Zinzendorf was also forced to defer to Muhlenberg’s authority.

Peter Muhlenberg

Muhlenberg was married in 1745 to Anna Maria Weiser, the daughter of colonial leader Conrad Weiser, the commissioner of Indians affairs for Pennsylvania. In 1748 he convened the Lutheran Ministerium of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia, composed of six Swedish and German pastors and twenty-four lay delegates. Under his guidance they organized a synod and prepared a book of common prayer that was used into the nineteenth century. He also worked on a hymnal published in 1786.

Muhlenberg’s motto was Ecclesia Plantanda (let the church be planted). During his 45-year ministry he traveled from New York to Georgia, almost single-handedly establishing new churches and bringing together existing ones to build an American Lutheran church that served the German immigrants flooding into America in the second half of the eighteenth century. He brought in and trained new ministers from the colonies as well as recruiting ministers from Europe. He settled disputes with enormous tact, firmness, and spiritual power. He ministered not only to the German settlers he was assigned to, but also to colonists from the Netherlands and Britain, preaching in German, English, Dutch, and Latin as needed and adapting his preaching to appeal to his audiences.

Gotthilf Heinrich Ernst Muhlenberg

Poor health eventually forced Muhlenberg to retire. He died at his home in Trappe, Pennsylvania on October 7, 1787. That same year the Lutheran and German Reformed Churches together founded Franklin College, with his son Henry Ernest as president. Muhlenberg was buried behind Augustus Lutheran Church in Trappe, Pennsylvania, where he served for many years, and where Anna Maria and their son Peter were later interred next to him.

Muhlenberg’s influence extended into the following generations. His and Anna Maria’s eleven children all lived to adulthood and many held important military, political, academic, and church positions. Their oldest son Peter, became a pastor, a major general in the Continental Army during the American Revolution, and a U.S. Congressman. His bio will be the subject of my November post. Another son, Frederick, was also elected to Congress and served as the first Speaker of the House. Henry, Jr. pastored the Zion Lutheran Church at Oldwick, New Jersey. Gotthilf Heinrich Ernst, a scientist, became the first president of Franklin College, now Franklin and Marshall. The Muhlenbergs’ daughter Elisabeth married a future general in the army, Francis Swaine. Maria Salome married Matthias Richards, who was later elected to Congress. Eve married Emmanuel Shulze, and their son John Andrew became the governor of Pennsylvania.

Although I greatly admire major historical figures like Muhlenberg, it occurs to me that these men were very often absent from the home while pursuing important responsibilities. Do you ever wonder about the influence their mothers and wives had on their children—and on them—influence that historians generally neglect to mention? I do, and I’m wondering what you think about this subject. John and Charles Wesley acknowledged the great influence their mother, Susannah, had on their lives and faith. Are there other mothers and wives of famous men or women, whether mentioned in the history books or not, that you think must have exercised great influence in the lives of their husbands and children? Please share your thoughts!

~~~

J. M. Hochstetler is the daughter of Mennonite farmers and a lifelong student of history. She is also an author, editor, and publisher. Her American Patriot Series is the only comprehensive historical fiction series on the American Revolution. Northkill, Book 1 of the Northkill Amish Series coauthored with Bob Hostetler, won Foreword Magazine’s 2014 INDYFAB Book of the Year Bronze Award for historical fiction. Book 2, The Return, releases April 1, 2017. One Holy Night, a contemporary retelling of the Christmas story, was the Christian Small Publishers 2009 Book of the Year.

In Memory of Golden Keyes Parsons

July 19,1941 - February 16,2017

It's with great sadness that we say good-bye to our friend, fellow writer, and fellow blogger, Golden Keyes Parsons. Golden has been a part of Heroes, Heroines, and History since its debut in 2013. She wrote her last post for the blog in December of 2016. Through the years she has entertained and enlightened us with a variety of posts from the Civil War, to holiday's meals, to Texas history. For so many Golden has been an inspiration as well as an encourager with her words and her writing. Her kindness has reached across states to touch so many lives. HHH bloggers and readers will miss Golden and her contributions.

In memory of Golden Keyes Parsons we are reposting one of her first blog contributions with our group.


                                        The Moravian Church and Moravian Sugar Cake

By Golden Keyes Parsons


When my French Huguenot ancestors came to this country in 1737 after fleeing religious persecution in France, the freedom to practice their religion was of the highest priority. Louisa Clavell landed in

Philadelphia, a widow with two sons, after her husband was washed overboard on the ocean voyage from Amsterdam, Holland. He had all of their money in his possession when he was lost at sea. 

After acquiring a planter and a button maker to take her sons as apprentices, Madame Clavell followed her fellow passengers into the Schuylkill Valley of Pennsylvania and eventually remarried. Her sons joined her after serving their appointed times and acquired land in that beautiful valley.

First Church Building in 1762

Some 17 years later, in 1754, after initially coming to this country, a number of settlers in the area where they settled, Bushkill County, sent a petition to Synod of the Brethren, or Moravians, asking that organization to send a minister to them who could preach the "Gospel of Jesus Christ to them pure and unadulterated like the Apostles of old." Several men, including my direct ancestors, Franz Clewell and George Clewell signed the petition. The Moravians did so, and the gospel was well received in the area, culminating in the building of a church building in 1762.

Moravian Church today in Scheoneck

It is not surprising that the Clavells were attracted to the Moravian Church as their basic tenets were similar to the French Huguenot beliefs for which their fellow believers had lost their lives in France - justification by grace alone through faith.

On a research trip to Pennsylvania for the last book in my series about my ancestors, we were able to go to a reunion of the Clavell family, The traditions of the family are cherished and carefully preserved. That I have a copy of the genealogy of the family is a miracle in itself as I was not even aware of this rich heritage until I started researching for the series. 

I could go on and on about the history of the Clavells and the Moravian Church in this area of Pennsylvania. Our trip was absolutely glorious and I read every tidbit I could find and took hundreds of pictures. My husband was very patient! But one thing I brought back and have enjoyed so much was a recipe for Moravian Sugar Cake. At the reunion the buffet was full of several different varieties of the signature dish. I could have eaten my weight in it. It is a cross between yeast bread and cake. Here is the recipe I've enjoyed. And I hope you will too. 

MORAVIAN SUGAR CAKE

1 large or 2 small potatoes, boiled, peeled and mashed. Or you can use instant potatoes or leftover mashed potatoes.

1/2 cup solid shortening

1/2 cup sugar

2 large eggs, beaten

2 packages dry yeast

3/4 cup warm water, reserved from cooking potatoes (or just warm water if using instant potatoes)

4 scant cups sifted all-purpose flour

1/2 tsp salt

1 stick melted REAL butter

About 1/2 cup light brown sugar (I usually end up using much more.)

Ground cinnamon - to taste

1. Grease one 11x7x2 pan, plus one 8" square pan, or three 8" square pans

2. Place 1/2 cup hot mashed potatoes in a large bowl. Add shortening and sugar and combine. Add beaten eggs and combine. Set aside.

3. In a separate medium bowl. dissolve yeast in lukewarm potato water. Add sifted flour and salt and combine. Mix yeast mixture into potato mixture. It will resemble bread dough. Place batter in large bowl, cover with a damp cloth and let rise in a warm place until doubled in bulk, 20-30 minutes.

4. Pat dough out in prepared pans to 1/2" thick. Cover with damp cloth and let rise again in a warm place for one hour.

5. Preheat oven to 375 degrees F

6. Make indentations in dough with a wooden spoon handle or your finger about every inch and a half or so. (I use my fingers :) and fill the holes with the melted butter. Crumble a generous amount of brown sugar over the top and sprinkle with cinnamon. Bake for 20 minutes or until a toothpick inserted comes out clean. Great as a dessert or with coffee in the morning. Enjoy!

Conrad Weiser

Conrad Weiser Statue

Conrad Weiser is one of the most remarkable and influential figures in colonial Pennsylvania history. Beginning at the age of 17, he served variously as a diplomat and interpreter for his fellow Germans and the Indians, Pennsylvania’s Indian agent, and colonel of the militia. A close friend of powerful Indian and colonial leaders, he was also a faithful husband and father of 14 children, a farmer, a tanner, a founder of the town of Reading, a monk at the Ephrata Cloister, a leader in the Lutheran Church, a promoter of Moravian missions, a hymn-writer, and a woodsman. He appears several times in Northkill and the forthcoming The Return, Books 1 and 2 of the Northkill Amish Series, coauthored by me and Bob Hostetler. I’ve been fascinated by Weiser since I first discovered him while researching the series.

Conrad Weiser was born November 2, 1696, in the German principality of Wurttemberg. After his mother’s death, his father, Johann Conrad Weiser, migrated to America in 1710 with his children and settled on the New York frontier. At the age of 15, Conrad went to live with their Mohawk neighbors at the Indian Castle at the mouth of the Schoharie River in order to learn the language of the Iroquois so he could serve as a go-between for the German community. Under the guidance of the Mohawk chief, Quagnant, Weiser acquired a keen knowledge of the Iroquois language, religion, and social customs and was soon in almost constant demand as an interpreter and negotiator.

Weiser married Anna Eva Fegg on November 22, 1720 and in 1729 moved his family to the Tulpehocken Valley in present-day Berks and Lebanon counties in Pennsylvania, where many Germans from New York were migrating. After they settled on 200 acres near Womelsdorf, Weiser soon became a close friend of Shikellamy, a powerful chief of the Oneidas who had been sent to the area by the Iroquois to rule over the Delaware and Shawnee nations. Shikellamy became a frequent guest at the Weiser home and insisted he serve as interpreter for all negotiations with the provincial officials.

Weiser's signature

Recognizing Weiser’s value, in 1731 the governor placed him in charge of all Indian affairs for the colony. Weiser worked closely with Shikellamy to keep the frontier peaceful and was deeply involved in the implementation of Pennsylvania’s Indian policy, which recognized the dominance of the Iroquois over all other Indian nations in the colony. Weiser was predominantly responsible for negotiating every major treaty between the colonial settlers in Pennsylvania and the Iroquois Nations from 1731 until 1758. He convinced the Six Nations to take no part in the quarrels between the French and the English. This long-standing friendship eventually resulted in the other Indian nations withdrawing their allegiance from the French as well, which contributed greatly to France’s eventual defeat. Weiser’s courage and good will impressed the Iroquois so much that they named him Tarachiawagon, Holder of the Heavens.

When war first broke out along the frontier, Weiser was chosen to be the commander of the local militia. Pennsylvania soon formed a provincial militia and built a line of outposts, and in 1756 Weiser was commissioned as lieutenant colonel in command of the 1st Battalion, Pennsylvania Regiment, which was responsible for manning the line between the Delaware and Susquehanna Rivers. He held this post until he retired 1758. That same year General John Forbes’s expedition to Fort Du Quesne forced the French to abandon and burn this great stronghold. Weiser was instrumental in negotiating the 1758 Treaty of Easton, which ended the great majority of Indian raids in eastern Pennsylvania.

Ephrata Cloister

Anna Eva bore Weiser 14 children, seven of whom lived to adulthood. Although a Lutheran, Weiser joined the monastic community of Ephrata Cloister between 1735 and 1741, intermittently withdrawing from family and political life to live there. He eventually became disillusioned with the Cloister’s leader, however, and returned to the Lutheran Church. He helped found Trinity Church in Reading, and his daughter Maria married Henry Melchoir Muhlenberg, a leading minister of the Lutheran Church in Pennsylvania. Weiser also actively promoted the missions the Moravian Church established to the Indians in Pennsylvania and Ohio.

Conrad Weiser Homestead

A major landholder, farmer, tanner, and businessman, Weiser remained active in local affairs until the end of his life. He served as a magistrate for Lancaster County and helped to found the town of Reading in 1748 and Berks County in 1752, which he served as its first justice of the peace. He established a general mercantile in Reading, the first in the community, and built a home there in 1758 after turning the management of his farm over to 2 of his sons. He died at his farm on July 13, 1760, at the age of 63.

Weiser’s influence was so great that after his death relations between the colonists and the Indians rapidly began to decline. The most fitting tribute to this remarkable man was given by an Iroquois leader speaking to a group of colonists: “We are at a great loss and sit in darkness … as since his death we cannot so well understand one another.” How different might the relations between the new United States and the Native Americans have been if he had lived long enough to serve through the Revolution!

Unfortunately, no known portaits of Weiser survive. However, you can visit the Conrad Weiser Homestead at Womelsdorf, managed by the Pennsylvania Historical Museum Commission, which interprets his life and preserves the restored structures and graveyard. The park contains statues of Weiser and Shikellamy as a memorial to Weiser’s great friendship with the Indians.

What is your favorite era in history to read about, and who is your favorite real-life hero of that era?

~~~

J. M. Hochstetler is the daughter of Mennonite farmers and a lifelong student of history. She is also an author, editor, and publisher. Northkill, Book 1 of the Northkill Amish Series coauthored with Bob Hostetler, won Foreword Magazine’s 2014 INDYFAB Book of the Year Bronze Award for historical fiction. Book 2, The Return, releases in Spring 2017. Her American Patriot Series is the only comprehensive historical fiction series on the American Revolution. One Holy Night, a contemporary retelling of the Christmas story, was the Christian Small Publishers 2009 Book of the Year.