My name is Alexander Mack, Sr. My family lived in Schriesheim, Germany, where my father owned a very successful mill and extensive vineyards. Therefore, we were fairly well to do. I was raised in the German Reformed Church. But as I grew older, I separated from the Church because I noticed that worship had become worldly and formalistic. The Lutherans, the Catholics and the Reformed Church were all the same. I came to believe that worship should be based on scripture and patterned after the methods of the Apostles.

So my friend Ernst Hochmann, who shared my convictions, traveled with me through the Rhinelands preaching and searching for others who believed as we did. We found those who agreed with us, but nowhere did we find established a church sharing these beliefs.

Times were hard then for nonconformists such as myself, but Prince Henry of

Wittgenstein offered protection from persecution in his domain. So I settled in Schwartzenau. There I found others interested in apostolic practice. Finally, eight of us decided to organize. But how to do this? One among us had evangelistic training and could preach, but he refused to baptize us because he, himself, had not been baptized. As we had done many times before, we turned to prayer, and it came to us to cast lots. One of our number was chosen to baptize me. Then we made our way down to the Eder River, and I was baptized according to the scripture in Matthew in the name of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit. I was then sanctioned to baptize the others in our group in the same way.

Our congregation grew enough to establish mission churches. But persecution grew as well, and we left Schwartzenau in 1719 for Friesland in Holland. Peter Becker led part of the Creyfelt congregation to the New World that same year. They settled around Beggerstown, or what you may know as Germantown. But they did not form a new church because they needed to find land and make themselves a living. They worshipped in homes or alone. Herr Becker wrote to us and told us life was good.

Now I must tell you a beautiful story. On Christmas day in 1723, six of Becker’s people made application to be baptized. They went down to the Wissahickon Creek and broke away the ice, and were baptized in the freezing water. They returned to the home of John Gomorry and held an organizational meeting during which Herr Becker was elected Elder. In the evening, they shared a meal, washed each other’s feet and held a service of prayer and song. So, on Christmas day, was their New Baptist Church established in the New World.

In 1729, I joined Herr Becker with my sons and my congregation of 126 persons from Germany. I was immediately accepted as head of the church and could, at last, renew my work free of persecution.

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