Lititz, PA I (8/15/2023)

Tuesday, August 15, 2023

In front of the Best Western Nittany Inn in Milroy, PA:

Babe Ruth Baseball Goose notes that
Mifflin County won the World Series
in 2016 and played but lost in 2018

Babe Ruth Baseball Goose: rear view

Lititz Historical Society Museum is
housed in the Christian Schropp House (1793)

Spearheads and arrowheads attest that the indigenous
people were here back to 10,000 years ago

In Lancaster County, the area may have initially been a hunting ground, but became home to the Susquehannock people. They were at war with the invading Iroquois from 1664-1675 and were decimated, and continued to decline until they are now considered extinct. 

Lamplighter cart (19C) to light and
extinguish the town's gas lamps

In 1742, Count Nicholas Ludwig von Zinzendorf of Saxony, Germany, the leader and organizer of the modern day Moravian Church, was searching for a tract of land to establish another community similar to Bethlehem and Nazareth. While preaching, he inspired John Klein, who allowed a church and a Gemeinhaus (to house a Moravian pastor, school, and meeting place) to be built on his property. In 1755 Klein transferred his land to the Moravians for a small annuity. Zinzendorf suggested the name of Litiz (now Lititz) after a castle in Bohemia where followers of the martyred Jan Hus found refuge. Lititz was a closed Moravian community until 1855.

Tamiko with two inlaid-wood clocks
(c 1900, by Rudolph Carpenter)

Inlaid-wood clock detail

Furniture including a Chippendale lowboy
created in 1987 by Dr Reyer Swan in his
basement, and a Moravian star in the cabinet

The Sutter Room with artifacts belonging to
General John Sutter, who retired to Lititz in 1871

General John Sutter was a Swiss immigrant who became a Mexican citizen, then a US citizen, who founded Sacramento, CA. He is known for Sutter Mill, the sawmill he was having constructed when an employee discovered gold flakes in the South Fork American River. The incident led to the California Gold Rush of 1848-1855.

Pretzel tins

We had a guided tour of the Johannes Mueller House (1782)

Study room for reading the Bible (KSS)

A woven coverlet and candlabra (KSS)

A locally made cupboard ... (KSS)

... is distinguised by its "bat" hinges (KSS)

The cap for Moravian women has
a peak over the forehead

A cradle with bars and cloth straps
to keep the baby from falling out! (KSS)

The rope beds had a lattice work of
rope to support the mattress, and could
be tightened with a bed wrench or key;
the mattress was a sack filled with straw

Shaped cookie cutters

Drying herbs (KSS)

The two "paddles" are part of a gadget to
wave away flies from the dinner table (KSS)

Upstairs was a room for all the children of the family

Another room for the apprentices was over the workshop

Johannes Mueller was a flax dyer; the house had the tools
for preparing flax to be woven into thread,
as well as to be dyed in different colors

Mueller's son-in-law was also the town postmaster
and used this cabinet in the workshop

We had lunch at the Appalachian Brewing Company

Next: Lititz II.