John Christoph Frederick Cammerhoff (1721-1751)
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Wednesday, 17/28 April, [1751]
This morning at ten o’clock Joh. Christoph Friedrich Cammerhoff was finally called home by the little Lamb, after several weeks during which no other end could be expected, because daily-increasing and ravishing illness. He was born in the year 1721, on the 28th of July, in the town of Hillersleben, near to Magdeburg, where his father was a civil servant. His parents, particularly his mother, desired him to go into the study of theology, and to that end, they kept the most skilled private tutors in the home during his tender years. Afterwards, they sent him to the esteemed school in Kloster Bergen under the guidance of the Holy Abbot Steinmetz. It was there that the Savior first came into his heart. In 1738 he moved to the University of Jena, and there came into a personal relationship with the Brethren, particularly with the lovely little heart, Johan Nitschmann and Johannes von Watteville. He felt a strong pull to go to the Gemeine, but he could not follow it on account of his parents, who were still living. Instead, he set to work at Kloster Bergen, taking up a calling he had received from the Holy Abbot Steinmetz. There he became the Conventual1 and Ellemosynarius2, and came in May 1743 with two other Informatoriby3 to the Seminary in Marienborn. On the 26th of May in the same year he was taken into the Gemeine, and on the 28th of September of the same he was honored by enjoying the body and blood of the Man with it [the Gemeine]. He came on July 1, 1745 he came to our dearest Ordinary4 to act as secretary. Soon after, he was ordained an Ordinary in the Unitas Fratrum. In the May 1746 synod, he received a call to Pennsylvania, and for that purpose, he was married to Miss von Pahlen of Liefland on July 23rd of the same year. In this marriage he begat two children with her: a little son, Ludwig Friedrich, already has already gone to the little Lamb. The other, his widow still carries under her heart. Shortly before he left from London, he was blessed as a Coepiscopo5 in the Brethren’s Chapel. At the end of 1746th year, he arrived in Pennsylvania, where he found plentiful work among both Christians and Indians. To the latter he gave special energy and focus; he took various trips among them to Shecomeco and Pachgatgoch, and in the last year he also went to Onondago among the Six Nations. In January of this 1751st year, he made a visit in Lancaster and Philadelphia. He returned home seemingly well, but soon after his arrival he received such a violent blood spouting that one thought his soul must soon leave its corporeal house. Yet it developed into a raging sickness, from which he finally and blessedly when home—as a light extinguished. His depleted body was set to rest on the Hutberg here [in Bethlehem], next to the Indian Johannes and across from his little son. His age was 29 years and just nine months.
1. convent official
2. Alms official
3. Tutor
4. Zinzendorf
5. A level of ordination in the Moravian church, below bishop but above
Ordinary.
Transcription and translation by Katherine E. Carté
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