Meggan McCarthy

This class was both intense and rewarding given its short time frame. I knew almost nothing about Old Salem before the beginning of 2021. I had not really heard of the Moravian religion, although I have research interests in utopian settlements. I read Leland Ferguson’s book God's Fields: Landscape, Religion, and Race in Moravian Wachovia for Dr. West’s Material Culture class in the Spring 2021 semester, which helped immensely during the Maymester. 

There were certainly challenges in this course. As mentioned above, I knew almost nothing about this site and the people who lived there just a few months ago. I feel like just getting up to speed on the history of the community, its dates and the stories contained within the old village was difficult the first few days. By the end of the first week, after we had met virtually with Martha Hartley, Ben Masterson, and Joel Cook, some of the pieces to the story began to fall into place for me. Having never visited the immediate area, there was also a learning curve for me to just understanding the geography of Wachovia, and how it fit into the larger modern Winston-Salem region. 

We were also presented with an overwhelming number of sources and documents to absorb in a short period of time; that was probably one of the biggest challenges for me. I really thrive on digesting sources over a longer period of time- it helps me establish the major names and dates important to a project, as well as provide me with an understanding of the larger historical context. Another challenge that was especially difficult was the generalities of the project’s parameters. I like knowing what is expected and required of me to perform well in a course or project, it helps me focus on what is important, and allows me to not perseverate on the details that are unimportant but can bog down a project. Once it was established that horticulture and gardens were my topic, I became more at ease and was able to examine the sources that were relevant to me.

I learned (or actually re-learned) how much I enjoy researching gardens. I have not had as much chance to focus on gardens in my research recently, so it was nice to be able to return to a subject that I am passionate about. These spaces can be decorative, certainly, but they are also often necessary to a community’s survival. They are important components of the landscape that can be ignored in the history books but were significant parts of people’s lives. 

Lewis David Von Schweinitz, a Moravian known as a botanist and mycologist, catalogued the flora in a thirty-mile radius of the town in the 1810s through the 1820s, culminating in his work Flora Salemitana. The property that Von Schweinitz lived in while Administrator was built for Dr. Samuel Benjamin Vierling, the previous resident. The Doctor’s House (or the Vierling House), as it is known in Old Salem today, was constructed in 1802, and became Von Schweinitz’s home. He served as Administrator from 1812 to 1817, when he was called away by the Moravian church to perform his duties elsewhere. During the tenure of both Vierling and Von Schweinitz, there is evidence of medicinal gardens on the property.

Christian David, born around 1780, was purchased by the Wachovia Administration in 1805 for about $400 to labor at the distillery in Bethabara. The Administration moved him to the Schulman Plantation in 1817, and he is under the care of von Schweinitz by 1821. He is baptized in the Moravian church three years later and is ultimately named a sexton in St. Phillips Church. Theodore Schulz takes over as Administrator after Von Schweinitz and is responsible for Christian David for the rest of his life. Schulz has a house built for David in 1835, where we can assume he lived until his death in 1839. 

In unpublished research by Jon F. Sensbach, Christian David (or Davy) is noted as an important figure in the town of Salem and that he was responsible for tending to important garden spaces. Sensbach states that “Davy cultivated the garden and vineyards below the Vierling House.” In a letter between Von Schweinitz and Schulz discussing the transition of Administrator duties, it is noted that the vineyard consisted of 250 vines and was successful due to Christian David’s work on the site.  In this letter, Von Schweinitz also implores Schulz to continue to take care of Davy and allow him to live out his days at the Administrator’s home.

In the case of Christian David, his success as a gardener could have resulted in his ability to stay in the Moravian community in the last years of his life. As von Schweinitz implores Schulz to keep David at the Administrator’s home, he sites David’s ability to tend to the garden spaces and the vineyard.