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Dead House alongside, a small pointed gothic steep-roofed building, which is used whenever a member dies. The public announcement of the death is made at sunrise from the church cupola by the
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who go up there and vigorously blow their horns, one standing facing each of the four points of the compass. The funeral services are held in the church, but the corpse is not taken there, it being deposited in the
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Dead House, and guarded by the pall-bearers during the ceremony. This ended, a procession solemnly marches farther up the hill, led by the trombones, playing a dirge, escorting the corpse and mourners to the ancient graveyard. Here are the graves of the faithful, resting beneath grand old trees, all the men on one side of the central path and the women on the other. There are no monuments or family lots, but the graves stretch across the cemetery in long rows, each row being completed before another is begun, the latest corpse, without reference to relationship, being laid alongside the last interred, so that the row of graves shows the chronological succession of the deaths. All are treated alike, the dead bishop resting alongside the humblest of the flock, a small square stone being laid upon each flattened grave, marked with name and date of birth and death, and usually a number. Only one person--a woman--has any sign of distinction above the others in this unique cemetery. She was Deaconess Juliana Nitschman, wife of Bishop John Nitschman, who died in 1751, greatly beloved by the Congregation, and was honored by being given a special grave in the path in the centre of the yard, between the men and the women. There are some fifty graves of Indian converts in the early days, among them
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Tschoop of the Mohicans, whom Cooper, the novelist, has immortalized, the brave and eloquent father of his hero Uncas. The record of the conversion of the famous King Teedyuscung is kept in the Moravian Congregation, and his exploits are frequently described in their annals. He lived on the meadow land down by the river, having gone there in 1730 from near Trenton, where he was born about 1700, and in 1742 he released the lands at Bethlehem to the Moravians. He was impressed by the persuasions of the preachers, and after a long probation, in 1750 was baptized under the name of Gideon. Bishop Cammerhoff, on March 12th, made an entry which, translated, reads,
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To-day I baptized Tatius Kundt, the chief among sinners.