We set sail March 12, 1754, being my eleventh birth-day, and had a very prosperous voyage; for, without encountering a single heavy gale, we crossed the Atlantic in twenty-one days, which at the time was considered something approaching a miracle.
This matter-of-fact statement is the way John Heckewelder recalled the first of many journeys he would take in service of the Brethren or Moravian Church.
John Heckewelder was born in Bedford, England in the year 1743, he was the first child of Christine and David Heckewelder. Both his father David and his grandfather George Heckewelder had been born in Zauchtenthal, Moravia. They had been among the many Brethren that Christian David guided from that region, through the Carpathian Mountains, to Saxony and the Brethren’s village of Herrnhut. John’s parents had emigrated from Herrnhut to England where they worked in service of the Brethren’s Church.
There was a growing Brethren’s community in England during the mid-eighteenth century. Brethren’s fellowships sprang up in London and surrounding towns. True to their early heritage in Bohemia, the Brethren established schools throughout the region. These were soon regarded as some of the finest in the land.
Young John attended these schools as he grew up in England. This early education set the foundation for a man who is remembered today as one of the great chroniclers of the North American frontier. Heckewelder kept detailed journals of his travels, he made careful observations and documented what he experienced. Traveling from eastern Pennsylvania, across the Alleghany Mountains more than thirty times, he personally met some of the most influential Native and Colonial individuals of his day.
One early experience had set the stage for Heckewelder’s life. While attending the Brethren’s school in Fulneck, England, a Moravian bishop held a special prayer-day where he encouraged the students to seek a career in the mission fields. The bishop made such an impression that young John Heckewelder, along with several other boys, entered into a pact that they would make mission work their life’s goal. He remembered that event as he prepared to leave for America and that moment set the path of his future; what better way, but to hear it in John’s own words:
In January, 1754, I traveled on foot to London… and thence to Chelsea, my parents having received a call to America, whither I was to accompany them. The whole company, destined to sail for New-York in the Brethren’s ship Irene, Capt. Garrison, amounted to forty persons, including fourteen children, of whom I was the eldest. The day previous to our departure, Count Zinzendorf conversed with the individuals belonging to our company. I also was called in, Br. (Bishop) Spangenberg being present, when the Count began by inquiring what progress I had made in learning, one main object which ought to be, that I one day might be prepared for the ministry. In child-like simplicity I related my experience on the above-mentioned prayer-day, and informed him of the covenant into which several of us had entered. He then gave me his benediction, laying his hands upon my head and offering up a prayer, a circumstance which made a deep impression on my mind.
-Written by Seth Angel, Frys Valley Moravian Church
