David Nitschmann News Today

Between the Delaware and the Lehigh rivers, their waters define the region. And getting across them has been a project for some time.

Moravian missionaries were active in a transatlantic approach to the spiritual unity of Moravian communities scattered throughout the Caribbean islands and maintained a consistent set of beliefs through worship and conversion.

Ephrata Cloister became a state-owned historic site in 1941. By then, it had been a spot for tourists for hundreds of years. Michael Showalter, museum educator at the Ephrata site spoke about tourists at the site in the first session of the cloister’s winter history class. Here are a few reviews from the earliest visitors. 1735 Augustus Gottlieb Spangenberg and David Nitschmann, leaders in Pennsylvania’s Moravian Church, were the first known visitors to the cloister. Conrad Beissel ha...