Schober Family
Schober Family
Johann Gottlieb Schober came to Wachovia in 1769, and began learning linen-weaving in Salem in 1770. In 1776 he entered a formal two-year apprenticeship in the leather goods shop. There are many entries in the Records of the Moravians in NC about his activities. He played the organ, took part in an apprentices' strike for higher wages (unsuccessful, they were disciplined), was a teacher of the little boys, learned the work of a tinsmith in addition to leather-making and opened a tinware shop, started a paper mill, became the Salem postmaster in 1791 when a federal postal route was established between Halifax VA and Salisbury NC, and was ordained a minister. In 1782 he married Maria Magdalena Transou (1758-1835). The Moravian records describe their 50th anniversary celebration in 1832.
The lives of the sisters Anna Paulina and Johanna Sophia Schober give us an interesting picture of the Moravian marriage system. In the 18th and early 19th centuries, marriages were often proposed by the church leadership, although many couples approached the leaders themselves with requests to marry. In either case, the proposed union was then submitted to "the lot", a drawing of a positive or negative response that was considered to reflect the will of God. A negative lot blocked the marriage at least temporarily, although there are quite a few examples of second, successful, attempts by couples who wouldn't give up on the first try. Conversely, even if a positive lot was drawn, a prospective partner could refuse a proposal.
In January 1811 it was suggested that Anna Paulina Schober marry John Vogler but a negative lot was drawn. In April 1812, a letter was received from Bethlehem PA conveying a proposal by John Rice, a confectioner in Philadelphia. He was granted permission to write directly to Anna Paulina's father, and did so, but she refused the proposal. She had made a trip to Pennsylvania not long before this, so probably she had met him then.
In May 1816, Johann Heinrich Senseman proposed to marry Anna Paulina, but the negative lot was drawn. His second choice, Elisabeth Transou, was approved, and she accepted him. Anna Paulina made another trip to Pennsylvania, and then went to Europe in 1817. She returned to America in November 1818, and then came back to Salem at the end of January 1819.
In 1820 Anna Paulina received yet another proposal of marriage, from the widowed Johann Peter Kluge of Graceham, Maryland, but she turned this down also. Finally on December 27, 1820, she accepted a proposal from Gottlieb Herman, who was to move from Bethlehem to Newport, Rhode Island, as minister. Br. Herman arrived in Salem on January 22, 1821, they were formally betrothed on January 23, and married on January 30. Eventually they settled in Nazareth PA.
In contrast, Johanna Sophia Schober seems to have made a love match with Vaniman Zevely that was not approved by the church. When they married anyway, in October 1809, they were dropped from the congregation membership rolls but were reinstated the following year.
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Children of Emanuel Schober and Anna Hanes
Nathaniel Augustus Schober (1827-1828)
Charles Eugene Schober (ca. 1829-aft. 1846)
Francis Edwin Schober (ca. 1831-aft. 1846)
Susanna Regina Schober (b. & d. 1833)
Mary Ann Schober (1834-1836)
Louisa Schober (1837-1912) m. Benjamin Franklin Crosland (1826-1899)
unnamed infant son (b. & d. 1839)
Adelaide Matilda Schober (1843-1911) m. William H. Wheeler (1839-1909)
Forsyth County Cemetery Records
This page was revised on June 21, 2005.
©, 2001-2007 Faye Jarvis Moran and Elizabeth H. Harris
faye@fmoran.com, ncgen@mindspring.com
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