MORAVIAN TRADITIONS
In a small Iowa town, Moravian traditions continue after 170 Years
E
ven in communities that were once settled by Moravians, but where today no Moravian church any longer exists, Moravian traditions and customs remain a powerful connection to the past. One such community is the small town of Moravia, Iowa, located in southeastern Appanoose County, Moravia, Iowa’s website shows their city logo: a Moravian star
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which features a Moravian star on its newly designed website. With a population of about 655 residents, Moravia was settled by four Moravian families who left Salem, North Carolina, in 1849 and made it as far as Fairfield, Iowa, before winter set in. On June 27, 1850, four Moravian brethren, Joseph Stauber, Edward Reich, Ephraim Conrad, and Theophilus Vierling, who had brought their families to Iowa by covered wagon, laid out the town of Moravia with a pocket compass and tapeline on forty acres of land, purchased with funds provided by two single Moravian women from Salem. The two benefactors, Lucinda Frederica Bagge, the daughter and last member of a wealthy Salem family, and Anna Catherine Stauber, the sister of Joseph Stauber, directed that the money from the sale of lots be used to build a church. The pioneers named their town Moravia after their religious faith and officially incorporated the city on July 15, 1851. That same year the settlers built and dedicated a church. However, for three years they were without a pastor until Hiram Meyers from GnadenhĂźtten, Ohio, came in 1854 to minister to them and to The Moravian
