April 4, 2018 at 5:30 p.m.
Hope Moravian Church
We will move on to the south to a set of gates that appear to open to nothing. These gates are a memorial to the Moravian Female Seminary, a fine finishing school for girls that once stood just across State Road 9, facing the church.
The Moravians had set aside the land across the street for school purposes when the town was formed. The plan was to open a day school for children of the town. This was delayed until the late 1850's when a day school was finally opened, but plans were made to change it into a girls' school as soon as possible. John Henry Kluge served as the first principal of this school which only operated until the end of the Civil War.
The church then called Rev. Francis Holland from Pennsylvania to head the school. He immediately began construction of a large three story school with other smaller buildings to house the boarding school and the classes. When the school opened in 1866, girls came from throughout the Midwest. The school offered the usual school courses along with music, voice, needlework, art work, languages, botany, and other sciences. At its peak, the school housed nearly 100 girls and had additional local students who did not live at the school. Even though the education there was extremely well done, the school had continuous financial problems. The school was closed in 1881. Alumni had the gates erected in 1916.
The Seminary Gates were placed in this location because this was the path the girls took for strolls in Spring Woods where Reverend Holland had seen to the planting if many unusual trees and plants not common to Indiana. It is still a popular place for leaf collections and picnics. At one point a lawn tennis court and a carousel were placed in this area.
About the time the Moravian Seminary was in full swing, Martin Hauser, who had moved to Illinois to begin a new church at West Salem, returned to Hope. His first wife, Susannah Chitty Hauser had died and he felt the need to visit old friends and family in Hope. He became reacquainted with an old friend, Eliza Spaugh, whom he later married.
Today, Hope's Moravian Church is the only recognized Moravian Church in the state.
Hauser stayed in the Hope area helping with the church work, but never serving as the minister again. In 1875, the current church building was constructed, probably in part as a result of the girls' school. On June 17 of that year, Hauser's second wife died. The following day he helped with the dedication service for the new building. Hauser had officiated at all three dedications.
Just a few months later Martin Hauser died. He is buried in West Salem Illinois with his first wife. His second wife, Eliza, is buried in God's Acre of the Hope Moravian Cemetery which we will visit soon.
If the front doors of the church are unlocked, you are welcome to tour the inside of this large building. The church archive area is just inside the front door.[[In-content Ad]]
