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| My copy was owned by the Stellhorn-Buenger family. |
CPH published Zion on the Mississippi by Walter Forster in 1953, which has become the standard history of the Stephanite settlement in Perry County, Missouri.
The pastors of the Stephanite movement were known for holding illegal conventicles (cell groups) and for being separatists, condemning everyone else as godless and immoral. Stephan's Pietistic congregation had a charter that allowed for cell groups at the church, but he used conventicles as an excuse for his late night walks and meetings with women in various places.
Walther, still single, had a meeting late at night with a woman, whose husband struck her as she was leaving the parsonage. Walther supported her divorce and got into trouble for his efforts. Zion, p. 77. Others in the Pietistic circle seemed equally lawless in their holier-than-thou approach. Loeber (whose sermon in St. Louis allegedly sparked the famous adultery confession) sheltered a minor girl at his home, because he disagreed with the religious attitudes of the girl's mother. Zion, p. 77.
Keyl and Buerger also emphasized their separatism, which led to controversy and harsh feelings. Zion, p. 80.
Stephan fueled this attitude, at their leader, and contemplated leaving for America. Forster portrays this as a vacillating emotion, stronger when Stephan was in trouble for his dubious activities, harder to promote when the officials were easing up on the future bishop. Stephan's early dreams of leaving Dresden were stated in 1825 and 1827, the later date in conversations with General Synod leader Benjamin Kurtz, who visited him. Zion, p. 84.
Stephan was arrested for his night meetings in 1836 and prohibited from having any more, the police given permission to enforce the order. Zion, p. 90f.
Another evening meeting, at a vineyard lodge, was interrupted by the police on November 8, 1837. The police were making no progress with their interrogations when Stephan and Sophie Hoeschel approached the location at 5:30 AM. Forster calls this "the accustomed evening stroll." Stephan sent Sophie in alone but loitered too near and was spotted by police. Can anyone believe in the shock and surprise of the later adultery confession in St. Louis - if it even happened? Zion, p. 100f.
The vineyard meeting began the deliberate plans to leave Europe for America. The fund was established soon after. Vehse and Marbach, the lawyers who came to America, were involved in the legal difficulties and defending Stephan, so they were aware of all the facts before they left their homes.
The legal matters dragged on. Stephan was under a cloud of suspicion until he was finally released to go to America, shortly before the ships left. Accusations against him included his illegal meetings, his association with female groupies, and his misuse of money. His wife, in court testimony, identified clear instances of his adultery. Stephan, In Pursuit of Religious Freedom, p. 98. Although Stephan cleverly talked around the facts when examined, no one was really fooled.
I conclude that the legal authorities released him to rid themselves of the pastor and the entire troublesome group.
