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Schwenkfelders, Faith, and the Peter Wentz Farmstead · Centrally Speaking

• 0:01
  SPEAKER_00: Centrally speaking, it's the Central Schweinfelder Church's podcast.
• 0:05
  SPEAKER_00: It speaks about issues that would be of interest to our society.
• 0:09
  SPEAKER_00: In particular, it addresses how a Christian worldview intersects with Western secular culture.
• 0:15
  SPEAKER_00: In the spirit of the church's founder, we take the perspective of the Middle Way, which is in agreement with the historic Christian Church.
• 0:24
  SPEAKER_02: I'm Dr.
• 0:25
  SPEAKER_02: Drake Williams, Minister of Mission and Theology at the Church.
• 0:28
  SPEAKER_02: Our website is www.cscfamily.org.
• 0:33
  SPEAKER_02: Today we're going to be speaking about faith, Schweinckfelder's, and the Peter Wentz Farmstead.
• 0:38
  SPEAKER_02: And I'm very pleased to be joined today by Leanne Sykes, who is the museum assistant for the Peter Wentz Farmstead.
• 0:45
  SPEAKER_02: She's been working at the Farmstead since November 2022.
• 0:48
  SPEAKER_02: Her background is in history, where she received a master's degree as well as a bachelor's from Westchester University.
• 0:54
  SPEAKER_02: And after that, she worked as an education manager for the National Iron and Steel Heritage Museum in Coatesville.
• 1:01
  SPEAKER_02: She has an interest in German history, specifically German history, and also migrant German history.
• 1:06
  SPEAKER_02: And she's been learning how influential the German immigrants are in southeastern Pennsylvania.
• 1:12
  SPEAKER_02: We're really glad to have you here with us, Leanne, and look forward to interviewing you today.
• 1:16
  SPEAKER_02: Welcome to the show.
• 1:17
  SPEAKER_01: Thank you so much for having me.
• 1:18
  SPEAKER_01: I'm glad to be here.
• 1:19
  SPEAKER_02: For our listeners, it would be helpful just to give some general background to the Peter Wentz Farmstead.
• 1:25
  SPEAKER_02: It was established in 1744 by Peter and Rosanna Wentz and then completed by 1758.
• 1:31
  SPEAKER_02: Can you tell our listeners who are the Wentzes?
• 1:34
  SPEAKER_02: What type of people were at this farmstead in the early 1700s?
• 1:38
  SPEAKER_01: Sure.
• 1:39
  SPEAKER_01: Peter Wentz that we're talking about is actually Peter Wentz II, uh, or Junior as we would call him today.
• 1:44
  SPEAKER_01: And he was born in America in 1719.
• 1:48
  SPEAKER_01: He was the first generation born in America of German immigrant parents.
• 1:53
  SPEAKER_01: His father, Peter Wentz I, immigrated from the Palatine region of Germany to Pennsylvania, uh, and was on the records here by 1711.
• 2:02
  SPEAKER_01: So most likely he probably immigrated maybe the year prior to that.
• 2:06
  SPEAKER_01: Around 1735, Peter Jr.
• 2:09
  SPEAKER_01: married Rosanna, and we do not know her last name, and we don't have any solid evidence of her parents or birthplace, uh, which was often common for women in colonial times and pre-colonial times to not know much about where they came from or who they were.
• 2:24
  SPEAKER_01: We do know that the two of them had seven children together.
• 2:27
  SPEAKER_01: In 1744, Peter inherited 300 acres of his father's land, which was originally a thousand acres.
• 2:34
  SPEAKER_01: So his father immigrates to Pennsylvania and acquires over a thousand acres of land in about 30 years.
• 2:40
  SPEAKER_01: So he had quite quite the ownership there.
• 2:43
  SPEAKER_01: So both Peters, who the junior had 300 acres and the senior who had over a thousand acres, were definitely larger landowners in Pennsylvania in a time when the average farm size was about 150 acres.
• 2:56
  SPEAKER_01: That kind of gives you an idea of the wealth of these Wentz generations.
• 3:01
  SPEAKER_01: Peter and Rosanna were farmers.
• 3:03
  SPEAKER_01: They grew wheat and flax for sale.
• 3:05
  SPEAKER_01: They had their own fruit orchard and garden to grow their own fruits and vegetables and herbs for family consumption.
• 3:11
  SPEAKER_01: And they raised sheep for wool, cows for milk, and chickens for eggs.
• 3:16
  SPEAKER_01: And Peter himself was also likely involved in running a mill.
• 3:19
  SPEAKER_01: While we have no documentation of this or no physical evidence of this, it was extremely common for colonial Pennsylvania farmers to not only be involved in farming, but also have an additional business, possibly a grist mill, which would turn wheat into flour.
• 3:33
  SPEAKER_01: Because of Peter's apparent wealth, his home, which of course still stands today, was completed by 1758.
• 3:40
  SPEAKER_01: It is very large for the time.
• 3:42
  SPEAKER_01: And it also has special amenities such as very high ceilings made of plaster and also some very beautiful woodwork, which you might not have seen in other families in the area who were not quite as wealthy.
• 3:53
  SPEAKER_01: And also due to the 300 acres that he had, he and Rosanna did employ various laborers, of course, to help farm the land and care for it.
• 4:02
  SPEAKER_01: So they employed not only free wage workers, but they employed indentured servants, which many Germans did come over to America as indentured servants.
• 4:12
  SPEAKER_01: And then they also employed at least two enslaved laborers during their farming years as well.
• 4:17
  SPEAKER_02: Farmers were rural, but also relatively wealthy with such a large amount of land being granted to them.
• 4:24
  SPEAKER_02: And I assume granted from William Penn.
• 4:26
  SPEAKER_01: So all land in Pennsylvania was, of course, owned by William Penn.
• 4:30
  SPEAKER_01: At one point, the colony is established, I believe, in 1681, and William Penn Quakers follow the next year later.
• 4:37
  SPEAKER_01: So yeah, the land that the Wentz has owned was originally owned by William Penn, and it had another couple of owners in between William Penn and Peter Wentz.
• 4:46
  SPEAKER_02: Just so that our listeners are aware, we're talking about the Peter Wentz Farmstead that is in uh Worcester, Pennsylvania, on Schultz Road, not far from Valley Forge Road, where the central Schwankfelder Church is.
• 4:58
  SPEAKER_02: Visitors to the farmstead will become very well acquainted with the connection that the farmstead had with George Washington.
• 5:05
  SPEAKER_02: He wasn't the first president of the United States then, but he was the commander of the Continental Army.
• 5:10
  SPEAKER_02: He not only slept there at the Peter Wentz Farmstead, but also made some important decisions at that farmstead.
• 5:16
  SPEAKER_02: Could you share some of these uh decisions and uh when he was there at Peter Wentz Farmstead?
• 5:21
  SPEAKER_01: I do want to make it a point to say that it was well documented that Washington slept at the Peter Wentz Farmstead.
• 5:27
  SPEAKER_01: You know, growing up in southeastern Pennsylvania or living here, whatever listeners might be doing, you hear Washington slept here a lot in this area.
• 5:35
  SPEAKER_01: Whether you go to an inn for dinner or you go to a bed and breakfast, Washington slept here seems to be the theme because he did sleep at a lot of places in southeastern Pennsylvania.
• 5:44
  SPEAKER_01: He was here for quite some time in the fall of 1777 during what was called the Philadelphia campaign.
• 5:51
  SPEAKER_01: So one of the main goals of the British Army at the time was to take over Philadelphia, which was the quote unquote the national capital of the United States at the time.
• 5:59
  SPEAKER_01: And they believed that if they had occupied Philadelphia, that the Americans would give up and not want independence.
• 6:06
  SPEAKER_01: Turns out that that didn't happen.
• 6:08
  SPEAKER_01: So Washington was in this area because of the Philadelphia campaign.
• 6:12
  SPEAKER_01: He stayed at the Peter Wentz farmstead twice during this fall of 1777, both times in October, from the 2nd to the 3rd, and then later from the 16th to the 20th.
• 6:23
  SPEAKER_01: We know that Washington physically stayed at Wentz's because of a few surviving documents that we have in this country.
• 6:28
  SPEAKER_01: Two things that are local are an invoice and a receipt of payment for food that he and his men consumed while staying on the property.
• 6:35
  SPEAKER_01: And then he also dictated the writing of 28 letters and general orders while staying on the property here.
• 6:43
  SPEAKER_01: So you can research those letters and orders if you research Washington papers on the National Archives.
• 6:48
  SPEAKER_01: And if you have a search option, you just type in Wentz.
• 6:51
  SPEAKER_01: Um you can see all the documents that he dictated the writing of while he stayed here at the property.
• 6:56
  SPEAKER_01: So very well documented that he stayed here.
• 6:59
  SPEAKER_01: And it's in those documents that we can understand the actions and the decisions that Washington made while he stayed at Wentz's.
• 7:06
  SPEAKER_01: He was here with his 50-man lifeguard, his officers, of which Alexander Hamilton was one.
• 7:12
  SPEAKER_01: So Hamilton would have stayed on the property at least a night or two.
• 7:15
  SPEAKER_01: And then, of course, Washington had his personal servants, which were both free and enslaved.
• 7:19
  SPEAKER_01: The troops did not physically stay on the Wentz property.
• 7:22
  SPEAKER_01: They stayed about a mile away at Methacton Hill, but they were close enough to Washington and his officers, of course.
• 7:28
  SPEAKER_01: So the decisions that he made while here during his first stay from October 2nd through the 3rd, he actually planned the Battle of Germantown from the house here on site.
• 7:38
  SPEAKER_01: The goal of Germantown was, of course, to get Philadelphia back.
• 7:42
  SPEAKER_01: Philadelphia had been occupied and was occupied by the British.
• 7:45
  SPEAKER_01: And of course, Washington wanted to get Philadelphia back.
• 7:48
  SPEAKER_01: Germantown being only a few miles outside of Philadelphia was his goal.
• 7:52
  SPEAKER_01: So on the third, he was still on the Wentz property.
• 7:55
  SPEAKER_01: He sent out his general orders for attacking Germantown, which included what time to begin marching that night to Germantown, the positions for his generals and their men, what time to begin fighting, and of course the initial positions and actions of the men as well.
• 8:11
  SPEAKER_01: So the Battle of Germantown was very important for the Americans.
• 8:15
  SPEAKER_01: It was a loss.
• 8:16
  SPEAKER_01: So it was not a win, but it was one of two major battles that did help convince France to become official allies of a nation that was fighting for independence.
• 8:26
  SPEAKER_01: So after the Battle of Germantown, the troops retreated to Schwenksville.
• 8:30
  SPEAKER_01: They regrouped and then they made their way back to Worcester, where Wentz and his officers once again revisited the Wentz property from October 16th through the 20th.
• 8:39
  SPEAKER_01: In Washington's October 18th general orders, he ordered what was called a faux de joie to celebrate the American victory that had occurred up in Saratoga, New York.
• 8:51
  SPEAKER_01: And that battle was the second major battle that convinced the French to officially support the Americans.
• 8:57
  SPEAKER_01: Without French support, Americans probably would not have won their independence or it would have been much, much harder than it already was because the French supplied not only cash, but men, uniforms, food supplies, all of that kind of stuff as well.
• 9:11
  SPEAKER_01: So after staying at Wentz's, Washington and his troops did fight a few more battles in the area during the Philadelphia campaign.
• 9:17
  SPEAKER_01: And then they, of course, camped for the winter at Valley Forge, where they would then be trained by Baron von Struben and of course become a more formidable force against the British later on.
• 9:27
  SPEAKER_02: So they made a number of important decisions there at the farmstead, not only choosing to attack in Germantown, but then also to relocate then to Valley Forge at two very important dates within American history.
• 9:39
  SPEAKER_02: Now, for those who are not from the area who are listening in, there's a church that's just down the road on Skipback Pike named Wentz's United Church of Christ.
• 9:49
  SPEAKER_02: That's the same Peter Wentz as Wentz's Farmstead, which ought to say something about the faith of the Wentz's who were staying at the house in the early 1700s.
• 9:58
  SPEAKER_01: The local Wentz United Church of Christ has a very strong connection to not just Peter Wentz, who lived here, but also his family as well.
• 10:06
  SPEAKER_01: So the cornerstone of the first church building on the site of the current Wentz United Church of Christ property was laid in 1762, so before even the Revolutionary War.
• 10:17
  SPEAKER_01: So the church has a very long history here in the area.
• 10:21
  SPEAKER_01: The founders of the Wentz congregation were a group of immigrants, again from the Palatine region of Germany, who came to America in search of religious freedom beginning in 1710.
• 10:32
  SPEAKER_01: These early Reformed families, they did not have a close physical church.
• 10:36
  SPEAKER_01: So they actually traveled to a town called White Marsh, which is about six miles away from here, where they received religious instruction from a Presbyterian minister.
• 10:45
  SPEAKER_01: So without a local community church, they did have to travel pretty far to worship on Sundays.
• 10:50
  SPEAKER_01: By 1760, this far travel of six miles to worship on Sundays was becoming a concern for the local families here in Worcester and also the Skipback area.
• 11:01
  SPEAKER_01: So they formed a committee, and two members of the committee offered one acre of land for the purpose of building a new church, which was stipulated to be either German Reformed or Presbyterian.
• 11:12
  SPEAKER_01: And one of those two members was Jacob Wentz, who was the son of Peter Wentz Sr.
• 11:17
  SPEAKER_01: and the brother of Peter Wentz Jr.
• 11:19
  SPEAKER_01: So the original deed to the church property was dated on January 2nd, 1762, and land was conveyed to Philip, Peter, and Jacob Wentz, who were all brothers to each other, as well as three other male individuals of the community.
• 11:35
  SPEAKER_01: So Wentz's Reformed Church was formed.
• 11:38
  SPEAKER_01: A physical building was not complete on the property until 1771, however.
• 11:43
  SPEAKER_01: So the members of the congregation did hold services in their homes and in their barns.
• 11:49
  SPEAKER_01: And they used their own family Bibles and their own hymn books that their families had brought from Germany in order to worship on Sundays.
• 11:56
  SPEAKER_01: And at the time, the congregation had 25 families.
• 11:59
  SPEAKER_01: We don't know the exact number of members because they considered families members rather than individuals at the time.
• 12:05
  SPEAKER_01: But helping to establish this Dwent church really does reveal how important religion was to the family itself.
• 12:13
  SPEAKER_01: So at first, they did travel six whole miles on a Sunday to go to church.
• 12:17
  SPEAKER_01: Now for us in 2023, six miles is nothing.
• 12:20
  SPEAKER_01: Maybe it takes 10 minutes in a car.
• 12:23
  SPEAKER_01: However, six miles on horseback would probably be a two solid two-hour trip by the time they're done.
• 12:29
  SPEAKER_01: So you can imagine traveling on horseback for two hours, spending a couple hours worshiping and spending time with your congregation, and then another two hours home on a Sunday would have been quite the day for these folks.
• 12:39
  SPEAKER_01: But religion was important enough for them to travel for that time.
• 12:43
  SPEAKER_01: And then they're willing to worship together in their homes and in their barn until a physical church was completed.
• 12:49
  SPEAKER_01: And then by the 1760s, the Wentz family is willing to donate not only land, but also time and money in order to help make a physical church happen for them.
• 12:58
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, so it's very important indeed.
• 13:00
  SPEAKER_02: I very few people, at least in America, are traveling two hours into church on a Sunday morning, but uh to do so in the elements too, showing the devotion that the family had.
• 13:10
  SPEAKER_02: Since this interview is from the central Schwenckfelder Church, our interest uh particularly is when a man named Melchier Schultz acquired the farmstead in 1794.
• 13:20
  SPEAKER_02: Can you tell us anything about that transition?
• 13:22
  SPEAKER_02: How did the Schultzes come to purchase the farmstead from the Wentz family?
• 13:27
  SPEAKER_02: And what changes were made?
• 13:28
  SPEAKER_01: So the Wentzes owned or Peter and Arzanna owned the property until 1784.
• 13:33
  SPEAKER_01: By that point, they're a little bit older.
• 13:35
  SPEAKER_01: Their kids are all grown on their own properties with their own families.
• 13:39
  SPEAKER_01: So they are ready to downsize and they do so.
• 13:41
  SPEAKER_01: They move about a mile and a half away to a smaller house and to a 10-acre farm instead of almost a 300-acre farm at that point.
• 13:49
  SPEAKER_01: A man by the name of Dewald Bieber actually purchased the property in 1784, but he owns it for just 10 years until 1794.
• 13:58
  SPEAKER_01: We don't know much about the Bieber family, other than they were, again, German immigrant family.
• 14:02
  SPEAKER_01: Bieber himself did not live on the property.
• 14:05
  SPEAKER_01: We don't know who did.
• 14:06
  SPEAKER_01: We do know that his daughter got married in Worcester during that time.
• 14:10
  SPEAKER_01: So it is likely that maybe her and her husband lived on the property, but we know very little about what was going on in the property during that time.
• 14:17
  SPEAKER_01: And we also don't know why the Bieber sold the property either.
• 14:20
  SPEAKER_01: What we do know is that Melchior Schultz purchased the property in 1794 from DeWalt Bieber.
• 14:26
  SPEAKER_01: And by that time, the property itself was about 200 acres in size.
• 14:30
  SPEAKER_01: So over generations, the property would diminish in size because this parcel of land would go to this son, this parcel of land would be gifted to this daughter on her wedding day.
• 14:39
  SPEAKER_01: So you would never end up with the same amount of acres you would start with when you have family.
• 14:44
  SPEAKER_01: Like Peter Jr., Melchier was a first-generation American born to German immigrants who were fleeing religious persecution in Europe.
• 14:52
  SPEAKER_01: And of course, Melchier was the minister of the local Schweinfelder Church, as we know.
• 14:57
  SPEAKER_01: In 1781, Melchier married his wife Salome, and they had eight children together.
• 15:02
  SPEAKER_01: So you can sense a theme.
• 15:03
  SPEAKER_01: Wentzus had seven children, Schultz's had eight children.
• 15:06
  SPEAKER_01: Large families were needed not only for the farm, but also in colonial times, you don't have the same health as we do today.
• 15:12
  SPEAKER_01: You don't have easy access to doctors or medications, and you have a lot more illnesses that would actually cause death than we have today.
• 15:19
  SPEAKER_01: So larger families were quite common in that time.
• 15:22
  SPEAKER_01: And not too many changes were made to either the house or the farm during Melchior's lifetime here.
• 15:27
  SPEAKER_01: We know that in the house itself, he did repaint the wall.
• 15:30
  SPEAKER_01: And we also know that he removed the original winder staircase and added a straight set of stairs.
• 15:36
  SPEAKER_01: So if anybody listening has a winder staircase at home, you might understand why a straight set of stairs would be a little bit nicer to have.
• 15:42
  SPEAKER_01: So that's the changes that he made to the house itself.
• 15:45
  SPEAKER_01: In terms of the property, we do have some of his accounts that are still in existence.
• 15:50
  SPEAKER_01: One of his accounts from 1818 was called Expenses of Building a House, which became the home of one of his daughters who married into the Creebell family.
• 15:59
  SPEAKER_01: That house does still stand today.
• 16:01
  SPEAKER_01: It's across the Zacharias Creek from the Wentz House and is currently still county-owned and basically used as just a storage property for the Peterwentz Farmstead.
• 16:10
  SPEAKER_01: In terms of farming, Melkier might have witnessed some changes towards the end of his life that would have occurred in technology or processes in general in America.
• 16:20
  SPEAKER_01: One of those was the invention of the iron plow, which would have been quite the game changer when you're plowing with either wood or by hands prior to that.
• 16:29
  SPEAKER_01: Now you have this nice iron plow, which would help you harvest and farm a little bit better and a little bit quicker during the year.
• 16:36
  SPEAKER_01: And then there was also around the same time the beginning of the US food canning process.
• 16:42
  SPEAKER_01: So both of those changes would have led to great change in the daily work on the farm, especially the canning process.
• 16:49
  SPEAKER_01: You might know from colonial history that there's no refrigeration, there was no canning, there were no jars.
• 16:55
  SPEAKER_01: So when they had to preserve food, they did so in crocodile.
• 16:58
  SPEAKER_01: They covered it with fat, they covered it with some kind of animal skin, and they kept it as cool as they can.
• 17:03
  SPEAKER_01: Once canning comes around, you do have a lot more ability to preserve your foods and keep them longer as well.
• 17:09
  SPEAKER_02: Interesting, these developments in farming that made Melchair Schultz prosperous on this great estate that was owned by Peter Wentz.
• 17:16
  SPEAKER_02: For our listeners, the Schwankfelders migrated to the colony of Pennsylvania in the 1730s, the largest being in 1734.
• 17:26
  SPEAKER_02: And they settled in what's now Montgomery County.
• 17:28
  SPEAKER_02: They did not form churches, they didn't even have meeting houses, but were largely just private devotions in houses among families.
• 17:36
  SPEAKER_02: I want to share just a little bit about the devotion life that Melchior and the family would have had.
• 17:42
  SPEAKER_02: Yes, they were farmers and they were prosperous in other ways, but in the Schweckfelder homes, there was regular Bible reading and prayer and singing, as well as the reading of devotional literature.
• 17:53
  SPEAKER_02: Schweckfelder has brought many heavy books by our accounts across the ocean.
• 17:58
  SPEAKER_02: And uh, some of the occupation for these Schwankfelder families was copying over sermon from Schwenckfelder pastors, copying over devotional material.
• 18:08
  SPEAKER_02: That's some of the things that would happen in Schwenckfelder home life, of which Melchier Schultz and his family would naturally have been involved with doing some of that as well.
• 18:16
  SPEAKER_02: Melchier Schultz also traveled about to various Schwenkfelder households.
• 18:21
  SPEAKER_02: And I was wondering, Leanne, if you could comment a little bit on what types of people he visited and anything about his travels.
• 18:27
  SPEAKER_01: We know just a little bit about this topic here at the Peter Wentz Farmstead.
• 18:31
  SPEAKER_01: One of the things that this site lacks is historical documentation for most of the history here.
• 18:37
  SPEAKER_01: So a lot of the history that we know happened here, we know because it happened on the farm next door or to the farm across town.
• 18:44
  SPEAKER_01: So most of what we know, such as what the Wentz has farmed, what type of animals they had on the property, we don't have a physical list of everything that they did each year, unfortunately, here.
• 18:53
  SPEAKER_01: So some things such as what Melchier Schultz might have done on a daily basis.
• 18:58
  SPEAKER_01: We don't have a diary of his or we don't have letters that he wrote necessarily.
• 19:02
  SPEAKER_01: But what I can share are maybe some of the early beliefs of the Schwenfelder Church that he might have gone and either discussed with local people or might have practiced the Schwenfelder Church early on.
• 19:14
  SPEAKER_01: And you can certainly share a little bit more about whether this is the same today or not.
• 19:18
  SPEAKER_01: But they practice adult baptism, the dedication of children, and the observation of the Lord's Supper with open communion.
• 19:25
  SPEAKER_01: So these types of practices would be something that Milky Year could have done from house to house.
• 19:30
  SPEAKER_01: He also might have discussed with his church members the right, privilege, and obligation of individual conscience in matters of not only faith, but also work and daily life as well.
• 19:41
  SPEAKER_01: Also, more for this area, German immigration didn't just happen until a certain point.
• 19:45
  SPEAKER_01: It continued and continued.
• 19:47
  SPEAKER_01: So the number of Germans living in southeastern Pennsylvania continued to increase.
• 19:51
  SPEAKER_01: So it is very likely that Mulkier also traveled to homes to welcome newcomers to the area and also those specifically that would think about joining the Schweinfelder Church as well.
• 20:00
  SPEAKER_02: I think those things are fair to say the Schweinfelders have largely focused on major aspects of the Christian faith, but generally those who would baptize those who have made confession and then the confession of their faith, and then also very interested in the proper practice of the Lord's Supper and all that's involved with that.
• 20:18
  SPEAKER_02: That's an entirely other history we can get going with.
• 20:21
  SPEAKER_02: Want to go back to Peter Wentz Farmstead and just the way that faith is even represented, even still today, and touring through the farmstead.
• 20:28
  SPEAKER_02: In fact, one thing that I was struck with in my recent visit, Leanne, was this one stove on the ground floor of the farmstead.
• 20:36
  SPEAKER_02: It's made of metal, not sure what type of metal, maybe you can comment, but the thing that was most striking is it had a scene of the temptation of Joseph on it.
• 20:44
  SPEAKER_02: Was this a piece that the Schultz family would have had in the 17 or 1800s?
• 20:49
  SPEAKER_01: So yes, we can certainly talk about the temptation of Joseph's stove as we call it.
• 20:54
  SPEAKER_01: And it is something that the Schultzes would have had in the house because they probably inherited it.
• 21:00
  SPEAKER_01: And I'll go into why that was.
• 21:02
  SPEAKER_01: There are many unique features to the house that not only reveal the importance of religion to the lives of the Wentzes and the Schultz, but also the importance of the German heritage as well.
• 21:12
  SPEAKER_01: So the use of what were called five-plate stoves for heating Pennsylvania German homes were very common in this area.
• 21:19
  SPEAKER_01: So instead of having fireplaces in every room, Pennsylvania Germans might use these cast iron stoves, which were often composed of identical top and bottom plates, decorated side and front plates, and then held together with a long bolt with a nut on the top.
• 21:35
  SPEAKER_01: So in the case of the Wentz House, these stoves were connected through a wall to a fireplace and an adjacent room.
• 21:42
  SPEAKER_01: Hot coals from the fireplace could be fed through the back of the stove.
• 21:46
  SPEAKER_01: And then the stove acted as a radiator and heated the room opposite the fireplace.
• 21:50
  SPEAKER_01: These stoves were very, very heavy and large, being made of cast iron and also being forced to heat such large rooms.
• 21:58
  SPEAKER_01: And therefore, they were a very prominent.
• 22:00
  SPEAKER_01: Fixture in the room.
• 22:01
  SPEAKER_01: So many of them were cast with decorations to make them look a little bit nicer for the folks that might come in and out of the house and see these stoves.
• 22:08
  SPEAKER_01: The Wentz House has two stoves.
• 22:10
  SPEAKER_01: One of them is dated to 1749, which of course was before the Schultz ownership of the property.
• 22:16
  SPEAKER_01: It was also before the Wentz House itself was completed in 1758.
• 22:20
  SPEAKER_01: So we believe the Wentzes had this temptation of Joseph's stove even before their main house was complete.
• 22:27
  SPEAKER_01: So wherever they lived before there, which of course we don't have documentation on, they probably had this stove in that house.
• 22:33
  SPEAKER_01: So many of you are probably familiar with the temptation of Joseph, but I'll just briefly go over his story quickly here.
• 22:40
  SPEAKER_01: He had been sold into slavery, but remained ever faithful and steadfast through his hardships.
• 22:46
  SPEAKER_01: He was tempted by another's wife.
• 22:47
  SPEAKER_01: And when tempted, he rejects her because not only does he recognize the institution of marriage, but he also believes that to act on that woman's command would have been great wickedness against God.
• 22:59
  SPEAKER_01: So Joseph does live his whole life with respect to God.
• 23:02
  SPEAKER_01: So we don't know why the Wences chose the temptation of Joseph's story specifically to decorate their stove, but what we do know are two things.
• 23:10
  SPEAKER_01: Number one, the great importance of religion in their lives, as we have been talking about.
• 23:14
  SPEAKER_01: So we can probably guess that the Wentzes would favor a story about a man who does go through great hardship, but continues to have faith in God.
• 23:22
  SPEAKER_01: It was also fairly common at the time to have religious depictions on stove.
• 23:27
  SPEAKER_01: So it is certainly possible that the temptation of Joseph's story could have actually been commercially produced.
• 23:33
  SPEAKER_01: So it could have been one of the more common depictions on these iron stoves as well.
• 23:37
  SPEAKER_02: I just found that fascinating that that would be the scene that would be depicted.
• 23:41
  SPEAKER_02: I mean, I could think of stoves, maybe if let's say it was the loaves and the fish or some other biblical scene, but to think that it would be that scene and then to be produced enough to make stoves, I assume, for several, or were they individually made?
• 23:55
  SPEAKER_02: So maybe you know something about that again.
• 23:57
  SPEAKER_01: It could have been either.
• 23:58
  SPEAKER_01: They could have been cast based on the order of the person wanting the stove.
• 24:03
  SPEAKER_01: Most likely, you do need a mold in order to cast iron.
• 24:06
  SPEAKER_01: So most likely the local iron site that was making this particular stove probably had a mold with the temptation of Joseph to make it a little bit easier to cast the stove itself.
• 24:17
  SPEAKER_01: Our stove is actually a reproduction.
• 24:19
  SPEAKER_01: There is an original colonial era temptation of Joseph's stove in the Mercer Museum in Doylestown.
• 24:26
  SPEAKER_01: But we know that our site had this specific depiction because we did find original plates on the property over the years, and we were able to take those plates and recast the stove that they would have had here on the property.
• 24:38
  SPEAKER_02: There's one other aspect of faith on the grounds, that being the blessing that is on the house, it's there in German.
• 24:45
  SPEAKER_02: It reads as follows Jesu komm in meinhaus, weike nimmer mehr, heraus kommen mit deiner Gnaden, gut und stele meiner Sael zu fried.
• 24:58
  SPEAKER_01: I can provide the English translation, which is PWRW.
• 25:03
  SPEAKER_01: Jesus come into my house, never to leave again, come with thy blessed favor and bring peace to my soul.
• 25:10
  SPEAKER_01: The house blessing is one more reminder of not only the Wentz's German heritage, but of course, as we've been talking about, the crucial importance of religion to their lives.
• 25:18
  SPEAKER_01: So the stone upon which the blessing is carved is original, but we do not know the original location of the blessing.
• 25:25
  SPEAKER_01: Well, we don't know where the Wentz's would have had it on their house originally.
• 25:29
  SPEAKER_01: Presently, it does sit on the outer wall of the house's out kitchen on the back side of the house.
• 25:34
  SPEAKER_01: So any visitors on the property, whether they do receive a house tour or not, they can actually come and actually see the house blessing for themselves.
• 25:41
  SPEAKER_01: And I always highly suggest it because it is something very, very unique to historic houses in this area.
• 25:46
  SPEAKER_02: And was this similar to other houses in the area, Leanne?
• 25:50
  SPEAKER_02: Or is this unique to have that particular blessing?
• 25:53
  SPEAKER_01: We don't know.
• 25:53
  SPEAKER_01: We do know house blessings are common for Pennsylvania German homes according to the blessing itself.
• 25:58
  SPEAKER_01: It could have been honestly anything that the family felt partial to.
• 26:30
  SPEAKER_01: So when visitors come for the first time, I love to see their reactions to what this house looks like inside because it's unlike anything you've seen before.
• 26:38
  SPEAKER_01: So there are bright yellow and bright blue colors, and there's also polka dot patterns in black, white, and red.
• 26:44
  SPEAKER_01: And this paintwork is present in all rooms and all passageways on both the first and second floors.
• 26:50
  SPEAKER_01: But there is one notable exception in the house, and there's one room that has no bright color and no polka dot pattern in it, and that is the northwest room, which is on the first floor.
• 26:59
  SPEAKER_01: And that's also the room that features the Temptation of Joseph stove.
• 27:03
  SPEAKER_01: So this absence of bright colors and pattern in what we call today the stove room perhaps emphasizes the room's original use as what would have been called a stew bay.
• 27:14
  SPEAKER_01: Some Pennsylvania German homes, the stew bay was employed by Reformed and Lutheran families, and it's where they perform their religious observances like prayer and Bible readings.
• 27:25
  SPEAKER_01: You probably know of the importance of family Bibles to Pennsylvania German families.
• 27:29
  SPEAKER_01: And it's most likely where the family Bible was also kept in this room, in this stube.
• 27:35
  SPEAKER_01: And the stube also would have been not only this uh religious observance room, but also a multi-purpose used for dining or entertaining visitors or spending family time together, playing cards or playing dice and things like that.
• 27:48
  SPEAKER_02: Yet another display of faith within the Peter Wentz Farmstead.
• 27:52
  SPEAKER_02: I'm wondering if you might be able to give us the website for the farmstead and what your opening hours are in case people want to come by for a tour or to see the grounds.
• 28:00
  SPEAKER_01: And I highly encourage any listener to come by and visit.
• 28:03
  SPEAKER_01: We are a very unique site.
• 28:04
  SPEAKER_01: We do have a lot of history here that we can share with you.
• 28:08
  SPEAKER_01: I don't have the long website, but if you just Google Peter Wentz Farmstead, it will take you to the Montgomery County site.
• 28:14
  SPEAKER_01: And our website is mixed in there.
• 28:16
  SPEAKER_01: In terms of visiting us, we are located in Lansdale just past Worcester.
• 28:21
  SPEAKER_01: Our hours are Tuesday through Saturday from 10 a.m.
• 28:24
  SPEAKER_01: to 4 p.m.
• 28:25
  SPEAKER_01: And then Sundays from 1 p.m.
• 28:27
  SPEAKER_01: to 4 p.m.
• 28:28
  SPEAKER_01: So there's really so many days and so many times that you can come and see us.
• 28:32
  SPEAKER_01: We do offer tours of the house on the hour as we're open.
• 28:34
  SPEAKER_01: And that's when you can go inside.
• 28:36
  SPEAKER_01: You can see the Temptation of Joseph stove, you can see the colors and patterns that I'm talking about.
• 28:41
  SPEAKER_01: And then the tours are free, which is a big benefit.
• 28:44
  SPEAKER_01: We only suggest a$2 per person donation, which of course goes to our educational programming for big programs and events that we have throughout the year.
• 28:51
  SPEAKER_01: So if you've already seen our house, if you're not interested in the house tour, we do offer an audio tour.
• 28:56
  SPEAKER_01: So you can come and you can scan a QR code and you can learn about all the buildings we have on our property, as well as all the animals, as well as all the chances for you to enjoy the nature trail that we have on site as well.
• 29:07
  SPEAKER_01: And then we have big events.
• 29:08
  SPEAKER_01: We've got sheep shearing in April, we've got apple cidering in October, we have our candlelight tours in December.
• 29:14
  SPEAKER_01: So plenty of time for everybody to come and not only see the house, but also experience a colonial farm as close as we can get in 2023.
• 29:22
  SPEAKER_02: Well, it's a wonderful site, and so glad that Leanne, you're working there along with others to keep German not only history, but also the faith that was represented in the early 1700s is still alive for us today.
• 29:33
  SPEAKER_02: Thanks for taking the time for this interview too.
• 29:35
  SPEAKER_01: Thank you so much for having me, and hopefully I can see some listeners on site here soon.