He settled now at Frankfurt am-Main and practiced his profession. He probably continued in this work until 1680, when, as the companion of Johann Bonaventura von Rodeck, he made a journey, extending over two years, through Holland, England, France, Switzerland, and Germany. Upon his return to Frankfurt, November, 1682, he became interested in the mysticism of Spener and his companions, and the movement to America which they were promoting—filled him with an ardent longing to share in it. So, with the consent of his father who provided him with money, Francis Daniel set sail for America and arrived in Philadelphia Aug. 20, 1683, six weeks before the other immigrants landed.
Pastorious was the only highly educated man in this colony. He was looked up to by the other colonists for this reason, and also because he was the agent of a land company formed in Germany for the purchase and sale of land in Pennsylvania. The new colonists chose as the spot for their new homesteads a tract of land not far from Philadelphia, where they founded Germanopolis or Germantown.
On Nov. 26, 1688, Pastorious married Ennecke Klostermanns and had two sons, whose descendants live at the present day. In 1691, Pastorious was elected to the newly-created office of “Bürgermeister,” an office to which he was chosen three other times. Besides this office, he was for many years elected to the position of “Stadtschreiber,” and was also schoolmaster at different times. He was known as a writer of some talent, and composed poems, hymns, epigrams, etc., in Greek, Latin, German, French, Dutch, English and Italian. I will close this bare outline with Pastorious’ account of himself as quoted by Seidensticker:
“Der Verfasser dieses Manuscripts hat ein melancholis-chcholerisches Temperament und ist daher, nach Culpepper, sanftmüthig, zu einem nüchternen eingezogenen Leben disponirt, wissbegierig, unentschlossen, bescheiden, schüchtern, bedächtig, standhaft, und zuverlässig in seinen Handlungen, langsamen Witzes, vergesslich. Geschieht ihm Unrecht, so trägt er es nicht nach.”
This remarkable man died Sept. 27, 1719.[4]
Pastorious’ hymns are up to the standard of most hymns written at that time.
In point of time the next hymn-writers were the so-called “Hermits of Wissahickon,” a band of men and women steeped in German mysticism, and having a belief that the end of the world was soon to come and that their one love should be the Lord Jesus Christ; so on this account renouncing marriage as sinful. It was in this wilderness, beside the Wissahickon Stream about eight miles from Philadelphia, that this band of Pietists in the year 1694 took up their abode, and from whence issued the strains of hymns, reminding one, in some instances of love songs rather than praises to God.[5] There were in this congregation a number of men of high culture and lofty aims such as Johann Kelpius, Henry Bernhard Köster, Johann Gottfried Seelig, etc.
The most important man was Johann Kelpius, their leader, who composed the greater number of their hymns.[6] Kelpius was the son of a pastor in Denndorf in the Siebenbürgian district of Germany. He studied theology at Altorf, where he was a pupil and favorite of the learned doctor, Johann Fabricius.
“Fabricius vertrat,” says Seidensticker, “die sogenannte irensche oder friedliebende Schule der Theologie, die von der bittern Fehde gegen andere Confessionen absah. Kelpius, anfangs ein strenger Calvinist, griff den Gedanken an ein innerliches Christenthum begierig auf und bildete ihn unter andern Einflüssen weiter.”[7]