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: