The other Beck: Johann Valentin Beck (1731-1791)

[spgordon]

New info (I think).

We've known that Johann Valentin Beck (1731-91) arrived in Bethlehem in October 1761 and was assigned to work with the children at Nazareth Hall. (There wasn't work for him as a gunstocker in Bethlehem & its surrounding communities.) Authorities tried to figure out where Beck could sustain himself as a gunstocker and proposed, in February 1764, sending him to Lititz. We have known that he never did get established in Lititz, though, and that instead he was sent to Bethabara, North Carolina, where he arrived in October 1764.

A few weeks ago I came across this entry (27 September 1764) in the minutes of Bethlehem's Elders' Conference, which explains the rationale for sending him to North Carolina:

Br. Klein in Lititz promised to take Br. Valent. Beck. And to this end, he had a shop built for him. The work which Br. Beck does would also be made readily available to people in Lancaster and at a cheap/very reasonable price. We believe he wouldn't be doing his work at a profit. Therefore, he would be of little benefit to the Brothers' House in Lititz. Brother Beck himself is more inclined to move to Wachovia. He'd have much to do there. He could quite easily go with Br. Bagge and the younger boys. Brother Frommelt could discuss this matter as it stands with Br. Klein in Lititz. We imagine Br. Klein would be satisfied with it. Thus, we want to send Br. Beck along to Wachovia.

This entry is interesting, to me, because it indicates that in 1764 Moravian authorities don't believe that Beck could make much of a profit in Lititz (perhaps because of competition from other gunmakers: authorities imagine that there will be "more to do" in North Carolina). I've long thought that this was the case when Albrecht did move to Lititz in 1771: it was a tough landscape in which to compete, and Albrecht hadn't participated in a market economy for over twenty years.

Here's the original passage in German script:

[backsplash75]

VERY cool info! Thanks for sharing!!!

[spgordon]

It occurs to me that, now that we know that in they built a gunshop for Beck in Lititz, this well-known "plan" for a gunstockers' shop could be for that shop (which Beck never used) rather than (as most have assumed) for the shop at Christian's Spring ...

[Eric Kettenburg]

The plot thickens!  Well it just felt like a thing so say out of excitement.  Thanks for this!

[DaveM]

Scott, glad to see you are again dusting off more old archives! Do you have any idea if Valentine Beck was related to Philip Beck the gunsmith?

 On A couple of Berks County deeds I found, there was a John Valentine Beck that lived in North Carolina and apparently had a connection to Bethlehem. His wfe inherited property in Oley Township Berks County. Her father was named Leinbach. Could this be the same Valentine Beck? He was noted in a deed as a “clerk”.

[spgordon]

Yes--Johann Valentine Beck married Anna Leinbach (1740-1782), who was from Oley, Pennsylvania.

Very interesting that in these deeds (what year?) he is referred to as a "clerk." In his memoir, he spends most of his time talking about how--after 1776--he served in a number of spiritual roles for the Moravian Church (church worker, deacon) and describes the different North Carolina communities that he served. As Eric has written, "It would not appear that Beck ever resumed gunsmithing - there is a good body of evidence pertaining to his work as a minister at Freidberg [and subsequently Bethania] however absolutely no documentary or physical evidence to indicate that he worked as a gunsmith following his departure from Salem in 1776." http://www.erickettenburg.com/nc-moravians-ii.html

I don't think Valentine Beck was related to Philip Beck, but others can weigh in on that with more certainty.

[DaveM]

I believe the deeds were 1777 and 1783. I can check ffor a specific date where he was said to ge a clerk.

[spgordon]

Those dates make sense. He worked as a pastor, in effect, after 1776 and died only in 1791.

[DaveM]

Loks like he was referredto as a clerk in June 1783, in Rowan County. He appointed Reverend John Ettwein, also notes as a clerk, of Bethlehem, as his attorney in the dealings of his late wife’s property inheritance in Oley Township. She must have died around that time.

[spgordon]

Makes sense: Ettwein was Bethlehem's leading minister at that time--so Beck was giving him authority to deal with the part of the estate that was nearby Bethlehem.

This is Ettwein:

[DaveM]

Neat painting!

I wonder if Valentine ever lived near Oley, or perhaps had dealings at the Oley Moravian school? He could have met his wife while there.

[spgordon]

Never lived in Oley.

He came over as a young man with a Moravian cohort, lived for a few years in Bethlehem and Christian’s Spring, then was sentby Moravian authorities to North Carolina. He married his wife there. Moravians arranged his marriage as they did for most church members.