The following are Doctor Jordan’s notes:
Moravians. They were located in Pennsylvania, at first in Bethlehem and later in Nazareth. The land in Nazareth was purchased of Whitfield, the predestinarian Methodist.
The Moravian immigration was carefully supervised. The church either owned or chartered the vessels which brought over the immigrants. Frequently it was definitely arranged as to how many artisans of each trade should come over so that they would prosper on arrival.
The Moravian immigration was small—about 500 up to 1750. Until about 1840 the Moravian settlements were closed towns—no non-Moravians could buy property.
Not one quarter of the present Moravians are descendants of the early settlers. The rest are converts or descendants of converts. A connection exists between the Moravians, Huss and his Protestant followers, and the Waldenses. A short résumé of this will be found in the Encyclopædia Britannica—under Huss and Moravians—from the world standpoint.
Moravians migrated from Bohemia to Saxony and were protected by Count Zinzendorf—a liberal Lutheran—and lived on his estates. He assisted in their migration to Pennsylvania. Some went to Georgia and later to Pennsylvania.
Schwenkfelders. These were the followers of Kaspar Schwenkenfeld (1490–1561). See the Encyclopædia Britannica for a short account. They formed a sect in Silesia which has persisted. In 1720 a commission of Jesuits was sent to convert them by force. Most of them fled into Saxony and were protected by Count Zinzendorf. From thence they migrated to Holland, England and Pennsylvania. Frederick the Great, when he seized Silesia, protected those remaining there.
Ursinus College, Collegeville, is Schwenkfelder. The sect is not large and was located in or around Montgomery County. Their migration to Saxony and also to Pennsylvania antedated that of the Moravians. Generally speaking, they have been much more aggressive and vigorous than the Moravians.
The Dunkards, Mennonites, Amish, and Seventh Day Baptists (Wissahickon and Ephrata, Pennsylvania), came from south Germany and the Palatinate.
The Harmony Society, small in numbers, the Lutherans and German Reformed, came largely from south Germany and the Palatinate, but also from other parts of Germany. The Lutherans and the Reformed were the large sects in Pennsylvania.