Story of the
Moravians IV
The Foresl
Was
Treated
As a
Friend
Wachovia settlers knew
value of the woods and
used their products with
skill and profit.
By
(lllMllt A. DAVIS
We cuslomurily think of the Mora¬
vians as a townspeople; and that they
were. But in Wachovia they built their
towns from a forest and we sometimes
overlook their dependence on that
forest.
When they came into the Yadkin
Valley in the late fall of 1753 they
found that the hickory was the most
common tree. It provided them with
their finest fire wood. From the nuts
they got an oil-rich food and they
crushed the hickory hulls with alum
and made a strong yellow dye.
The stick-straight yellow poplar,
with its soft but even-grained wood,
provided fine boards for their build¬
ings. "Often four or five logs for
planks.” they reported.
Black walnut, a tree of the bottom
lands, was the richest grained of the
Wachovia woods. In the early days it
was not an uncommon tree. Bethania,
the farming community established in
1759, was built in what the Mora¬
vians called the Black Walnut Bottoms.
The chestnut, another common tree,
was valuable for its mast, which men
ate and also used to fatten hogs and
even diced and dried and made do as
a substitute for coffee. This easily split
and weather-resistant wood was fa¬
vored for fence rails and for the shakes
they used to shingle their roofs.
The baker preferred ash wood for
his oven and the wagon maker prized
ash because it was strong and turned
well on a lathe. It was commonly
thought that ash kept snakes away.
In the late winter, when the sap
began to rise, the Brothers tapped the
maples and boiled sugar. This custom,
however, did not last. After 1764 it
was cheaper to buy sugar imported
from the West Indies. For this sugar,
as for the other things they could not
produce, they traded deer skins and
the products of their craftsmen.
There was a wide variety of oaks
in Wachovia and each had its special
uses. White oak was best for mast,
since its acorns were sweet. It was fa¬
vored by the potter for his kiln. Post
oak was a good wagon wood. Black
oak was used, along with w'hite oak,
in building. The sap of Spanish oak,
tapped in the spring, was used to make
vinegar. And willow oak was sought
by the tanner for its acid bark.
Red beech, a tree of the valleys, was
preferred by the distiller for his fires
and the cooper sought the water beech,
which drew well beneath his cutting
knife.
They made baskets from the creek-
side willows and they used the
shredded bark of the pap-paw for
cord. The bark of the alder and the
wood of the sumac bush were sources
of dye. From the berries of the forest
they made wine and. until they estab¬
lished their own orchards, they relied
on the persimmon, and wild plum, the
black haw and the wild cherry for
fruit. They were astonished that in
the Blue Mountains, as Spangcnberg
said. "Many hundreds of thousands of
wild apple trees, crab apples . . . grew
wild.”
The pines, of course, were impor¬
tant to them in making fine, flat boards.
They looked also to the sourwood trees
and their visitors, the wild bees.
In time they established an apothe¬
cary's shop in Bethabara. But in the
first days the floor of the forest around
them provided them with their drugs.
Curiously, the Moravians were dis¬
appointed by the lack of fine build¬
ing stone in Wachovia. "Even in the
mountains," Spangenberg said, "there
is not one-tenth as much stone as we
find everywhere in Pennsylvania.”
Sometimes, perhaps for the sporting
climb, they went to Pilot Mountain in
search of whet stones. Brothers Ett-
weir and Gummern climbed the pin¬
nacle of Pilot Mountain in April. 1763.
Most often, however, the Brethren got
their sharpening stones from "whet
stone hill,” which was located no more
than three miles from Bethabara.
Although they knew of traces of sil¬
ver and lead in Wachovia, the Mora¬
vians did not mine. Except for clay
and the quarrying of building stone
they did not dig into their land.
But they found excellent clays near
all their towns and they soon made
building brick, earthenware, tile for
their roofs (fearing fire, the Mora¬
vians distrusted wooden shingles) and
fine tile for their most ingenious and
effective tile stoves. On the day the
kilns were opened, neighbors flocked
to Wachovia to buy jugs, plates, plat¬
ters and the like by the wagon load.
They were handicapped, of course,
by many lacks. From the first they im¬
ported salt, sugar, coffee, glass and,
until their smithy was built, nails. One
of the most nagging lacks was the ab¬
sence of lime in Wachovia. Because of
that shortage they were compelled to
build with naked boards where they
would have preferred to have used
plaster. Oftentimes their wagons, re¬
turning from the coastal towns, were
loaded with sea shells which they
burned to obtain lime.
In their organized manner, a man¬
ner colored by their European back¬
ground. the Moravians prized the
forest and the wealth it provided them.
Even in the early days one Brother
was appointed as forester, and he
controlled the cutting of the trees on a
selective basis.
Two centuries ago on the American
frontier such conservation was un¬
heard of. To the first settlers the forest
was an enemy to be pushed back and
destroyed. But. to the Moravians the
forest was a friend; and they used the
forest well and profited in that use.
14
THE STATE, MAY 27. 196