Catharine Sehner was one of the party of older girls who walked from Bethlehem PA to North Carolina in 1771. In 1821, she was one of four of this party who were still living in Salem, the others being Anna Johanna Graff Kuschke, Anna Johanna Steup Broesing, and Christine Dixon Biewighaus. They celebrated the 50th anniversary of their arrival with a lovefeast at Catherine Sehner Steiner's home.

Second Generation

Maria Steiner was one of the first pupils when the girls' boarding school opened in 1804, and by 1811 she had become a teacher there herself, in music, botany, and probably other disciplines as well. She also served as leader of the Single Sisters choir. In 1828 she married Christian Friedrich Denke, a widower, who was minister of the Friedberg congregation.. Together they began a day-school for children in the Friedberg community, and also taught the children of the black Moravian congregation in Salem. After her husband's death, she became the governess for two girls from Macon, Georgia, former pupils in the Salem girls' boarding school, and went with them to France for two years. On her return to Salem she became the director of the boarding school.

Third Generation

Children of Charles Abraham Steiner and Caroline Schultz
Julius Theodore Steiner (ca. 1824-1873) m. Matilda Mary Sharpe (abt. 1827-aft. 1880)
Adelaide Maria Steiner (ca. 1825-bef. 1848) m. Andrew Jackson Thomas
Eliza Caroline Steiner (1829-1833)
William Uriah Steiner (1831-1890), settled in Guilford County
Charles Edward Steiner (1834-1894) apparently did not marry
Amelia Theodora Steiner (1839-1913) also did not marry, a teacher at Salem Academy.

Adelaide Maria Steiner is mentioned in the Records of the Moravians only twice, when she was admitted to the choir of older girls in 1839 (an event that usually occurred about age 14), and when she left the congregation in 1841, having married an outsider. We believe that this was Andrew Jackson Thomas, and that Adelaide died before 1848, when Andrew married Patience Albertson in 1848. Andrew and Patience are living in Guilford Co. NC in 1850. A child, Mary Thomas, born about 1845, is living with Charles Abraham Steiner and his family in the 1850 census, and is named as niece in Charles Abraham's will in 1855.

Julius Theodore Steiner and Matilda Mary Sharpe
Alice Steiner (abt. 1856-aft. 1870)
Charles F. Steiner (abt. 1858-aft. 1880)
Dora A. Steiner (abt. 1862-aft. 1880)

Julius Steiner was excommunicated from the Moravian fellowship for several years because of a drinking problem, but applied for readmission in 1855 after a period of sobriety. His request for readmission was approved (Records of the Moravians in NC 11:5942), and in the same entry permission was also given for him to marry Mary Matilda Sharp, described as a single woman and a Methodist. Julius and his family are living in Davidson Couty, TN in 1870. Mary, his widow and their children are still in Davidison County, TN in 1880. People's Press reports that Julius died near Nashville TN in 1873, of cholera.

Sources

Forsyth County will abstracts and cemetery records

Death Notices from the People's Press (Salem, North Carolina) 1851-1892, An Indexed Abstract, compiled and edited by Robert M. Topkins. Forsyth County Genealogical Society 1997

This page was created on June 19, 2001. Minor revisions were made on June 11, 2005.