The Amish Widow Crossing the Atlantic in 1827

The wagon rumbled onward. Mother Jacobina Nafzinger turned her head one more time, looking back at their old homestead. She was relieved that her husband , Peter , a minister, was released from prison. “Don’t ever preach in Germany again,” the official warned.
After the family of nine was aboard the ship for ten days, Peter took sick and died. He was put overboard, buried in the deep Atlantic.
One daughter also died. What a great stress and sorrow the mother endured as the raging waters rocked the small sailing ship up and down!
Nine weeks later, in October 1827, the ship docked at Baltimore. The widow and children were stranded but, helped by her brothers, managed to find shelter in a cold spring house at Malvern, Pennsylvania.
Thirty years later, the oldest daughter, Elizabeth , became the stepmother to eleven children when she married Groffdale John Stoltzfus, an Amish minister in New Holland, Pennsylvania.
After four generations, she is the great-grandmother of the author’s wife, Mary.

Pub Date: 2022