After receiving inquiries about Ludwig Wollenweber’s 1882 romantic novelette about faith healer Mountain Mary that was reprinted in 1974, I decided to expand. This German novelette printed in Philadelphia had been translated into English, so Dr. John Joseph Stoudt translated this historical manuscript, written by Ludwig Wollenweber in 1882, and provided local details that have been lost about this real American Legend (Mountain Mary) who lived high in the Oley Hills of Pike Township. The American Folklife Society, namely staff photographer Robert Walch, provided historical photographs as seen and was published by Liberty Cap Books in 1974 at York, Pennsylvania.
In these true moralistic stories was Legendary “Berge Maria” (Mountain Mary), a Pennsylvania Dutch frontier widow who lost her newlywed husband in the American Revolution, and a very heartwarming tale of God and Country. This German immigrant was a beloved friend of Lutheran patriot, Dr. Henry Melchior Muhlenberg and became a hermit high up in the Oley Hills, near Hill Church in Pike Township. She healed the sick and afflicted through Christian faith and American herbs. A homegrown Protestant Saint, Mountain Mary became a pioneer model for anyone who lived alone in the Oley Valley, especially hardworking immigrants who were sold into servitude by greedy Colonial sea captains as indentured servants for their passage to the New World.
A practice not abolished by our Congress until 1818, hers is a moralistic story about hardworking immigrants who, through their Christian fellowship, helped each other to survive in the North American wilderness with wild animals, and during a period of time when Indian savages took their sick and afflicted loved ones to the base of the Sacred Oak to be cured by a tree God. Mary’s religious zeal as a hermit, depending on neighbors and Christian Tavern owners like Mrs. Kreuderin who introduced her to Oley farmer Frederick Leinbach, in turn gave her husband, Theodore and her land to start a farm in the Oley Valley.
However, the tragic death of her patriotic husband in the Battle of Long Island forced her into seclusion with nowhere to turn but to God and Reverend Muhlenberg during the Revolutionary years. The Pennsylvania Dutch immigrants of the Oley Valley were some of the most dedicated farmers in the nation, and this romantic early American love story has never died out among older generations who were told the stories and perhaps read the novel, or younger generations who were reacquainted with the English translated reprint. Whatever the case, Mountain Mary continues to spur Oley Valley devotion to God and Country in the valley. Berge Maria (Mountain Mary) died alone on Nov. 17, 1819.
Coincidentally, infamous faith healer, John George Hohman, who practiced “Braucherei,” a German folk healing popularly called, “Powwowing,” published his German Powwow book a year later, titled The Long Lost Friend, in the Pennsylvania Dutch language in 1820. Living high up in the Oley Hills of Pike Township, Maria Young lived at a time that must have been very exciting as the early United States Republic became a powerful agricultural nation. However, with the death of her husband Theodore, she lived alone in a log cabin with a mountain spring to provide for her drinking water. This was a most solitary end after meeting her hero on ship after her parents had died at sea on their voyage to America, as Berge Maria had her whole life to share in farming, but her beloved husband was killed with fellow Patriots fighting the British at Long Island, New York.
Having met humble Christian Reverend Muhlenberg on a ship coming to America, who befriended her and Theodore, she felt that the Lord had made his presence known to her especially with the Christian friends introduced to her by Reverend Muhlenberg, who was also a patriotic American citizen. Astute Mr. Muhlenberg gave her a book in which she would use natural herbs to cure illnesses that cured her in the hinterland wilderness, besides relying on prayer and the Lord to survive in the Oley Hills, many miles from Reading or any other city. But compassionate Maria, losing her love during the American Revolution, was eager to help heal those volunteers who were wounded fighting for the American Independence, because she truly believed God would heal them and perhaps too remorse she experienced when Theodore was killed fighting the British in far off Long Island.
Richard L.T. Orth is assistant director of the American Folklife Institute in Kutztown.
