Map of Wachovia
HISTORY: The Moravian records document that Andreas Hoger, Peter Boehler, and Hermanus Loesch traveled from Moravian settlements in Pennsylvania to North Carolina to begin the first Moravian survey of Wachovia September 10, 1754. Hoger was a surveyor, architect, and builder sent from Europe by the Moravian leadership to survey Wachovia and to complete other North American projects. The tract had already been initially surveyed by NC surveyor William Churton from the Granville land office in 1752-53, but Hoger and Boehler wwere to determine how the tract would be divided up.
Michael and Martha Hartley researched features on the map and determined that it was likely drawn in 1754 because of an inscription indicating “Hier is the mill to be built.” The mill was started in January of 1755. On November 18, 1754, the Moravian diary records, “A map was made by Hoger, who also made a copy to be retained in Wachovia.” Another map in the Old Salem collection added through partial gift in 2017 (4878) is considered to be the work map used by Hoger before he completed this, his finished map.
According to the article written by Michael (Mo) Hartley, “An ornate cartouche on the map, showing a rifle and a surveyor’s rod lying across a shot deer, provided further evidence. The Moravian Diaries were searched for entries mentioning any deer being killed during the time of the survey, and astonishingly the Diary noted, ‘During this period we have killed no game except a bear and a deer shot by Br. Herman Loesch on Oct. 29th.’ This is the same Hermanus Loesch who accompanied Hoger and Boehler to Wachovia and who assisted with the survey because of his knowledge of the land.
Loesch was no stranger to the wilderness of North Carolina. He was in the search party for land in 1752 when the tract was chosen and then came in the original group of Single Brothers to settle the tract in 1753. During his first months in Wachovia, he proved to be a competent hunter and had killed a number of deer for their food. He was called back to Pennsylvania and then returned to North Carolina with Boehler and Hoger on their 1754 surveying trip to Wachovia.
The evidence of the map tells us that Hoger was a witness to Loesch’s successful hunt of Oct. 29, sketching the deer with Loesch’s firearm and with the surveyor’s rod, which cleverly provides the scale for the map. The presence of these two tools indicates that surveying work was being done, with the help of Loesch, who also carried his flintlock.
Old Salem gunsmiths are particularly interested in the flintlock shown in the cartouche, believing it to be the earliest representation of a Moravian firearm in North Carolina. Their interpretation of the pictured firearm is that of a European made “fowler” or smoothbore flintlock, with heavy decoration on the stock just behind the lock.”
**A copy of this article is in the file