A Day With Friends!

What a full Monday! First a friend over for a quilting session, and then a hike through historic Bethabara before heading over to Muriel’s for our monthly bee meeting. It was non stop, go –go –go all day!

I had a blast with Lisa and Shelby over yesterday ----

Even with the often “out-picking” of stitches when we just could not get placement right. The first time it was because I had enlarged a pattern to a scale we “thought” we wanted, but the pattern already had really tall rows, and it extended beyond the capacity of the machine to stitch it in the allowable area given…so all that had to be picked out – and then…well…

Operator error all the way around! we decided that the left side of the quilt was cursed..LOL

But we beat it into submission and this is the quilt as it came off the machine!

It turned out so nice, in spite of my bad spacing and stopping and starting and oops, that end of the border got folded over -----and we had a great time!

I’ve lived Near Winston Salem for almost 4.5 years now. And you would think that being the history loving kind of girl that I am that I would have searched out every nook and cranny of old Salem kind of history that there is around here, and it’s just not been so. There are still secrets left to be discovered and uncovered. When Lisa said that she and Nane were going hiking before our bee meeting, and did I want to come too – my first thought was “5:30pm?! How HOT is it going to be?!” But I can sweat like the best of them in good company, and I decided it would be worth it ----after all it was only 86 degrees and about 86% humidity to go with it!

The trail starts out fully paved…we crossed under the highway and began our way down the green belt.

There had been a lot of flooding due to recent heavy rains and that was still evident ---

crossed a creek on a rickety bridge that looked like it had floated away in the flood and found itself lodged against a tree --- and we began to climb to higher ground ---This is called, “Who needs a stair master, baby?!”

We found ourselves at the back side entrance to a very special cemetery.

You can read more about Bethabara park HERE.

Bethabara is the 1753 site of the First Moravian settlement in North Carolina.

When I first visited old Salem and learned a bit about the Moravian tradition, it was interesting to me that men and women are not buried side by side, but men in one section, and women in another.

A bit about “God’s Acre” with the help of Wikipedia:

Moravians believe strongly in equality, even in death; therefore, every stone in a God's Acre is a recumbent stone with the same proportions and made of the same material so that no one person stands out among the stones. The Communion of Saints is continued even on the graveyard as it reflects the continuity of the congregation. In addition, the deceased are buried by choir; to the Moravians, these were the living groups into which the Congregation was originally divided to meet the needs of the members according to their age and station in life. Originally men and women sat in their choir groups in church at worship. The burial by choir in God's Acre also reflects the way the members of the congregation sat as a worshipping community so that visually and symbolically the Congregation continues in the graveyard.

Along with being separated by gender, there are also sections for people of different age and marital status. The typical configuration has sections for infant girls and infant boys, girls and boys, single men and single women, and married men and married women. The deceased are buried in their section in the order they have died. Smaller God's Acres may combine the infant and children sections. Some larger God's Acres, such as the one for the Salem Congregation in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, may also have separate sections for those who are cremated, as their remains take up less space than those who are buried with their bodies intact. This section is also organized by choir.

We walked the rows, of men, of women of children –and pondered their lives – what it must have been like to be among the first settlers in North Carolina in the 1700s.

Annaros Schmidt, denat 1759

Anna Maria Opizan –died the same year she was born.

((As a mother who buried her own infant daughter –this really tugs at my soul.))

H Martin Kalberlan was born in Norway in 1722

When the Moravians settled the area, they called the place Wachovia --

More Wiki:

The name "Wachovia" is the Latin form of the German "die Wachau." "Die Wachau" was chosen as the name of the North Carolina Moravian tract, to honor Count Zinzendorf, Moravian patron and bishop whose family estate was located in the Wachau region northwest of Vienna, along the Danube River between the towns of Melk and Krems. The Moravians most likely felt that the landscape in the back country of North Carolina, with its nearby mountains, local waterways including the Dan River, the Yadkin River, Town Fork Creek and three forks of Muddy Creek, and its fertile land with abundant forest, resembled the Wachau region in central Europe.

At some point, the born and died descriptions were in English, instead of German.

Sara G. Fogle

This stone belongs to the first Moravian Missionary to Greenland in the 1700s.

This large pillar marker is next to his headstone.

The style of the letters on Gottlieb Strehle’s marker caught my eye.

Born 1756 in Pennsylvania, Departed in 1818 in Bethabara.

Anna Catherine

It’s the aged 54 y’rs, 8 mo’s & 16 da’s that has me a bit pondersome.

That is awful close to my own age. What was her life like? Was she happy? It says “in Memory of Our Dear Mother” She is listed with two last names, is the first one her maiden name, or – was she twice married in her life time? Don’t you wish you knew?

It was just a very humbling walk through a very sacred space ---and I was glad for the time out to wander freely this historic spot.

On our way back to our cars so we could make it to our Bee meeting ((Albeit all sweaty and panting!)) we came across this little traveler trying to get from one side of the path to the other ----Hello, little turtle! Thank you for sharing your beautiful walk with us!

The three day weekend is now over, life gets back to normal and errands and to-do list are to be resumed as soon as I hit send on this!

Happy Tuesday, Everyone!