Alexander Mack, I

Alexander Mack b. 27 Jul 1679 c. 3 Aug 1679 Schriesheim, d. 19 Feb 1735 Germantown PA, m. 18 Jan 1701 Schrisheim Anna Margarethe Klingen b. 20 Apr 1680, (dau of Johann Valentin Kling), d. 1720 in The Netherlands.

Alexander MACK and Anna Margaretha/Margaret KLINGEN/KLING were married.

Children were: John Valentine MACK, John MACK, Alexander MACK Jr., Christina MACK, Anna Margaret MACK.

Biography

Alexander Mack 1679-1735 Alexander Mack (1679-1735) is considered the founder of the Brethren Movement, oftentimes called the Dunker Movement be- cause of insistence upon true immersion as a proper mode of baptism. Following careful study of Scripture, Mack found himself out of harmony with the three state churches of Ger- many because of their formality, laxity in practice, and failure to observe all the New Testament teachings. In 1708, at Schwarzenau, Germany, with seven other like-minded persons, he organized a new denomination with a Christo-Bible-centered emphasis. Persecution caused flight from Germany by way of the Netherlands. They followed others of like faith to Amer- ica in 1729. Germantown, Pennsylvania, became their American head- quarters. From Mack's initial efforts, three main groups have emerged--the Church of the Brethren, the old German Baptist Brethren, and a progressive Brethren church, recognized as the Brethren Church, Ashland, Ohio, and the National Fellow- ship of Brethren Churches (Grace Brethren), Winona Lake, In- diana, whose motto is: The Bible, the whole Bible, and noth- ing but the Bible.

Alexander, Mack, Sr., chief founder of the Church of the Brethren, eighth child of Johann Philipp and Christina Philbrunn Mack, was born 27 July 1679, in a mill on Bergstrasse in Schriesheim, near Heidelberg, then in the Palatinate (now Baden), Germany. He married Margaretha Kling, a daughter of Velten Kling, a councilor of Schriesheim, on 18 January 1701. The Macks had three sons and two daughters. The daughters died in Germany and one record says the mother also died there. The sons, John Valentine, Johannes, and Alexander, Jr., came to America with their father in 1729. Alexander Mack, Jr. (1712-1803), served the early Brethren church in Pennsylvania as minister for over 50 years.

Mack grew up in the Calvinist faith and was Reformed until about 1705, when he came to know some Baptists and Hochmann of Hohenau. With Hochmann he did some preaching along the Rhine and in Switzerland. In 1708 with seven others he founded at Schwarzenau, Wittgenstein, then in Hesse, the "Brüder Gemeinde," which was the beginning of the Church of the Brethren. He lived in Schriesheim until the fall of 1706, when he was expelled on account of his faith and fled with his family to Schwarzenau in Wittgenstein, where he lived until 1720. Then because of persecution he led most of the group from Schwarzenau to Westerveen, Dutch province of Friesland, a hamlet in the neighborhood of Surhuisterveen. Here they stayed 1720-1729, and from here went to Germantown, Pennsylvania, to join the group of Brethren who had emigrated from Krefeld to Germantown in 1719 under the leadership of Peter Becker. Mack died at Germantown on 31 January 1735, and was buried in Axe's burial ground at that place. In 1894 his remains were moved to the cemetery just behind the Germantown Church of the Brethren, 6611 Germantown Ave., Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

During his stay in the Netherlands a few Dutch Mennonites, including some members of the de Koker family of Rotterdam, were won to ideas of Mack, who baptized them by immersion. This sympathy, however, seems to have been only temporary, for they did not join the Brethren emigration to the States.

Mack's writings consist largely of answers to questions about his faith. A Conversation between Father and Son, and Ground Searching Questions.

     1.1 - Johann Valentine Veltin Mack b. Nov 1701 Schriesheim, d. 1755; m. 1730 Germantown, PA Maria Hildebrand, d. 1755, (dau. of Johannes Hildebrand). both bur. in Ephrata Cloisters, Lancaster Co., PA

1.1.1 - Elizabeth (Sister Constanta) Mack b. 1732; d. 31 Oct 1782, bur. Ephrata Cloisters, PA; single.
1.1.2 - Christina Mack b. 29 Mar 1734 Germantown; d. 20 Oct 1804 Ephrata; m. by Apr 1763 Jacob Gorgas, clockmaker; b. 9 Aug 1728 Germantown, Philadelphia Co., PA; d. 21 Mar 1798 Ephrata, both bur. Ephrata Cloister Graveyard
1.1.2.1 - Solomon Gorgas b. 22 Jan 1764 Ephrata; d. 21 Sep 1838 Allen Twp., Cumberland co., PA; m. ca1791 Ephrata Catherine Fahnestock b. 3 Mar 1774; d. 9 Aug 1853 Cumberland Co., PA
1.1.2.2 -
Jacob Gorgas b. 1765 Ephrata, PA; d. 24 Oct 1795 Ephrata, no record of marriage
1.1.2.3 - Joseph Gorgas b. 7 Apr 1770 Ephrata; d. 1841 Louisville, Stark Co., OH, bur. Louisville Graveyard. M. 2 Mar 1794 Sophia Atkinson b. 1777 Reading, Berks Co., PA, (dau of Thomas & Salome (Widener) Atkinson); d. ca1850 Louisville, OH
1.1.2.4 - Maria Elizabeth Gorgas b. 11 Aug 1775 Ephrata, PA; d. 16 Aug 1853 Lebanon, PA; m. ca1808 Charles Gleim b. 7 Apr 1775 Germantown, PA, (son of George Christian & Anna Maria (Matthais) Gleim); d. 30 Jul 1843 Harrisburg, PA

• Updated from WikiTree Genealogy via son Alexander Mack by SmartCopy: Nov 20 2015, 6:59:47 UTC
• Reference: Find A Grave Memorial - SmartCopy: Dec 24 2018, 0:16:16 UTC

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Alexander Mack (c. 27 July 1679[a] – 19 January 1735) was the leader and first minister of the Schwarzenau Brethren (or German Baptists) in the Schwarzenau, Wittgenstein community of modern-day Bad Berleburg, North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. Mack founded the Brethren along with seven other Radical Pietists in Schwarzenau in 1708. Mack and the rest of the early Brethren emigrated to the United States in the mid-18th century, where he continued to minister to the Brethren community until his death.
Early life and founding of the Brethren Mack's baptism alongside seven other Radical Pietists in the Eder marks the inauguration of the Brethren Mack was born in Schriesheim, Palatinate in contemporary Baden-Württemberg, Germany, where he worked as a miller. He was born the third son to miller Johann Phillip Mack and his wife Christina Fillbrun Mack and baptized into the local Reformed church on 27 July 1679.[1] The Macks remained in Schriesheim throughout the Nine Years' War, intermittently seeking refuge in the hill country due to violence.[1] Upon finishing his studies, Mack took over the family mill and married socialite Anna Margarethe Kling on 18 January 1701.[1] By 1705, the Macks became moved by the Pietist movement locally led by Ernst Christoph Hochmann von Hochnau and started to host an illegal Bible study and prayer group at their home.[1] In the early 1700s, Graf (Count) Henrich Albrecht Sayn-Wittgenstein provided refuge to religious dissenters from other German states and elsewhere. Many were settled around the small village of Schwarzenau, including Mack and his followers. The era of toleration for radical Pietism lasted only until ~1740, but had few precedents at the time and was denounced by the rulers of most other German states.[2] Schwarzenau is now part of the town of Bad Berleburg in the district of Siegen-Wittgenstein in the state of Nord Rhein Westfalen. The school (now closed) in Schwarzenau was named in honor of Alexander Mack.[3] The initial group that became known as the Schwarzenau Brethren were inaugurated by Mack as a Bible study with four other men and three women. In 1708—having become convinced of the necessity of Believer's baptism—the group decided to baptize themselves, using a lottery system to choose who would baptize one another in the Eder.[4] Emigration to the United States Mack and several other Brethren emigrated to East Friesland due to pressure within the interfaith community in Schwarzenau in 1720.[5] They stayed until 1729, when the impoverished community found it impossible to sustain itself. In 1719, a different Brethren group led by Peter Becker had already emigrated to Germantown, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States for religious freedom.[5] Mack and his followers sailed for Germantown to establish a community in the New World.