Moravian Lives

MORAVIAN CHURCH IN AMERICA
Southern Province
4 East Bank Street
Winston-Salem, N. Carolina  

Dr. Adelaide L. Fries
     Archivist  
1124 S. Cherry St.
Winston-Salem 3, N. C.

Memoir of Brother Peter Binckele, who departed this life Aug. 20, 1793
     He was born March 2, 1704 in the village Guckensberg, in the Canton Bern in
Switerland. His parents were Christian Binckele and his wife Elizabeth, maiden
name Burg.
     In his ninth year his father passed out of time. On account of their poverty
our Brother had been obliged to seek his support from others already in his sixth
year.
     In his thirteenth year his mother moved to Alsace, and the following year his
brother came for him , and he lived with his brother for three years, herding his
cattle.
     Then he served another farmer for two years. This man advised him to learn the
trade of a shoe-maker, but he had been in that work only fourteen days when he en-
gaged himself to an innkeeper as a driver. 
     The large size of the farm and the many opportunities for doing evil led him to
concern about the salvation of his soul. In order to get away from that place he
married Anna Maria Werly and remained in the neighborhood, that is in the Steinthal
District, for twelve years, supporting his family by cutting wood in the forest and
burning charcoal.
     In the eighth year after his marriage he and another man, with whom he was cut-
ting grass, were struck by lightning, where they had taken shelter from the rain,
under a beech tree, and he was so badly burned that for several weeks he was confined
to his bed. This occurrence delayed for four years his plan of going to America,
but meanwhile he associated himself with the awakened people of the neighborhood.
     In the year 1736 he and several other awakened families emigrated to America,
reaching Philadelphia toward the end of September; the same fall he went to War-
wick, and remained there two years. From there he moved to the Catores, nine miles
above Yorktown.
     In Yorktown he was associated with the Separatists, and heard for the first time 
of the pious Count Zinzendorf, who, however, had already returned to Europe. Soon
after, for the first time he heard a Brother give free witness to the full atonement
for sin made by Jesus, which was very comforting to our departed Brother who hitherto
had not so listened with open ears and heart to the doctrine of the sufferings and
death of Jesus, which alonge could make men holy. He quietly sought every opportunity
to attend the services of the Brethren, where he frequently heard Brother Spangenberg
preach, whereby he received some blessing.
     In 1748 his wife died, after a married life of about twenty-four years, blessed
with fourteen children, of whom six are still living.
     In 1749 he married the widow Maria Margaretha Schenel, maiden name Geiger,