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MORAVIAN GROUP RECALLS INDIAN MUSICIAN'S LIFE

Morning Call - Allentown, Pa. Author: LORNA WEIL, The Morning Call

Copyright Morning Call Oct 14, 1988

Joshua Jr. was described as "the most significant Indian musician in the Moravian mission program during its initial 70 years" yesterday during the 131st annual vesper of the Moravian Historical Society.

Aspects of his life were detailed by Dr. Lawrence W. Hartzell, professor of music theory at Baldwin-Wallace College, Berea, Ohio, for members and guests attending the vesper in the Nazareth Moravian Church. The society's board held its annual meeting in the morning at the Whitefield House Museum.

"While not the first Moravian Indian to take up performance on Western European musical instruments," Hartzell said, Joshua Jr. "unquestionab ly performed over a longer period of time than any other Moravian Indian and, as chapel musician, his performance was more influential in the daily, devotional lives of his fellow converts than any mission musician, white or Indian."

Following the massacre at Gnadenhutten in 1755, Joshua Jr. came to Bethlehem, where he was among the Mohicans to establish the mission called Nain on the west side of the settlement. "At age 17, he applied for and received admission to his first Holy Communion," Hartzell said.

In his early musical training in mission schools, Hartzell noted that "it is likely that John Antes (Moravian missionary and composer of secular and sacred music) and Joshua Jr. received their initial musical instruction together." He added that "Joshua studied both the spinet and organ when the Indians were stationed at Bethlehem between 1756 and 1758."

He said Joshua Jr. also built a spinet, which it is believed "went up in flames during the Gnadenhutten Massacre," and assisted Moravian missionary David Zeisberger in translation work that led to Zeisberger's "Delaware Hymnal."

Hartzell said Joshua Jr. "took his religious life very seriously."

The Rev. Arthur Nehring, president, announced that Volume 25 of the society's 'Transactions' will be forwarded to the membership next month. It includes the paper, "Moravians in New England," by Dr. Helmut Lehman, professor emeritus at Philadelphia Lutheran Seminary, and papers by the Rt. Rev. Edwin Sawyer an Dr. Mervin C. Weidner, both of Bethlehem.

Sawyer was elected vice president, and the Rev. John Morman, Coopersburg, and Mrs. Caspar Woodbridge, Bethlehem, were elected to the board of managers. Nehring was re-elected president. Re- elected vice presidents were the Rev. Robert Engelbrecht, Emmaus; Walter L. Peters, Mary Henry Stites and Robert Brown, all of Nazareth, and the Rev. Henry Williams, Bethlehem. Mrs. Gwyned Williams, Bethlehem was re-elected secretary, and Mrs. Walter Haupt, Nazareth, treasurer.

Re-elected to the board of managers were Reginald Banks, Mrs. F. Robert Huth, Charles Peischl and Robert Pharo, Nazareth; the Rev. Charles Eichman, Coopersburg; Frederick Koehler, Bath; the Rev. Vernon Nelson and Dr. David Schattschneider, Bethlehem, and Millard Rice, Bangor.

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