Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: MONDAY, February 22, 1993 TAG: 9302220024
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: A-3 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: GEORGE KEGLEY STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: WYTHEVILLE LENGTH: Long
POSTER WAS THE LINK BETWEEN THE TWO LIVES OF `FATHER FLOHR'
`FATHER FLOHR' has long been familiar to Wythe County Lutherans and students of history. But to a Michigan historian, the name `Flohr' represents a mystery of two identities - a mystery he believes he has solved.
George Daniel Flohr was a German foot soldier who fought the British in the Revolutionary War from Boston to Yorktown and then wrote about it in an unusual 250-page journal.
George Daniel Flohr was a respected Wythe County pastor who rode horseback from St. John's Lutheran, his home church, to preach as far away as Lewisburg, W.Va., from 1799 until his death in 1826.
Last week, a history professor from a Michigan college confirmed a hunch that soldier Flohr and Pastor Flohr were the same man. Robert Selig traced soldier Flohr to his tombstone in old St. John's cemetery in Wytheville.
"They're undoubtedly the same," Selig said after studying church records and numerous papers dating from the late 18th and early 19th centuries.
His chief proof is a comparison of the Flohrs' handwriting and accounts that both studied medicine under an uncle in Paris in the 1790s.
Klaus Wust, author of "The Virginia Germans" and other German-related histories, compared the handwriting of the soldier in a library in Strasbourg, France, with letters written by the Virginia pastor in 1799 and later. "They are indeed identical as to the writer," Wust said.
Before he heard of the Wythe County Flohr, Selig translated the journal of the Revolutionary War soldier. It will be published next year by the Institute of Early American History and Culture at Colonial Williamsburg.
The historian also wrote an eight-page account of "Private Flohr's America" for the December issue of American Heritage magazine. Flohr's striking watercolors of his military travels along the Atlantic Coast accompanied the article.
Flohr's illustration of the Colonial Capitol, the Christopher Wren Building and other early Williamsburg structures was chosen by the College of William and Mary for a poster marking its 300th anniversary this year.
In Wythe County, Lutherans and students of history have been familiar with their "Father Flohr" for years. His grave is covered by an unusual curved stone, designed by Lawrence Krone, a skilled stonemason.
"There are many old Germans in this neighborhood who can scarcely speak of him without weeping," wrote one 1850s Wytheville resident, quoted in a 1962 history of St. John's Church. Flohr's influence was almost unbounded; his word seemed to be law with everybody.
Flohr had eclectic skills and interests. He preached in his native German language but had an extensive library of books in several languages. He also was a cabinetmaker whose crafted furniture once was prized in Wythe County homes.
Neat and well-dressed, he wore long stockings with bright buckles at the knee and on his shoes, according to church history.
Flohr, a man of deep piety, preached on the Sabbath and frequently during the week at Lewisburg, in Prices Fork in Montgomery County, in Smyth County and at two churches in Wythe County. His log home has been moved onto the St. John's church grounds.
Selig, a German-born teacher at Hope College in Holland, Mich., came to the United States as a student 15 years ago. He's developed the instincts of Sherlock Holmes in making the connection between the two Flohrs.
He found the journal manuscript in the library in Strasbourg while researching Flohr's regiment, the Royal Deux-Ponts, in the service of France during the Revolution. It contains detailed descriptions of the Iroquois, of black slaves and of many other people he saw.
"Unlike most diary-keeping soldiers, Flohr did not interest himself in everyday life in camp; rather, he focused on his unique experiences, beginning with the trans-Atlantic crossing in the summer of 1780, a harrowing experience for a landsman," Selig wrote in the magazine.
In 1991, the professor gave a talk about the journal at a Midwestern historical conference at St. Louis. Selig told the conference that Flohr had been discharged from the regiment in 1784, returned to France to settle in Strasbourg and "nothing is known of his later life."
In the audience, Martha Hamilton-Philips was so impressed by Flohr's detailed illustrations of Williamsburg that she "almost jumped out of her chair," Selig recalled.
Hamilton-Philips later used the illustration for the William and Mary poster.
The Wythe County connection emerged after a friend of hers saw the poster: "I think I know what happened to George Flohr," she said. The friend had known about Pastor Flohr because she had worked on a historial article about Wythe County.
"I could have searched for him for the rest of my life" if that link had not been established in Williamsburg, Selig said.
With that important clue, he contacted Mary Kegley, a Wythe County historian, and their search of courthouse and church records began to confirm the connection between the Flohrs.
The Wytheville church history said Flohr was born in Germany, "but little is known of his parents or his early years." He was said to have witnessed the execution of Louis XVI, an event that caused him to discard plans to become a doctor. He came to America and lived in Madison County, Va., where he made a study of theology. He later accepted a call to preach in Wythe County in 1799.
In Germany, Selig found four different birthdates for Flohr. His article says Flohr was born in 1756, the son of a butcher-farmer in a village of Sarnstall, near the French border. When he joined the German regiment at 19, its records said he was 5 feet 8 inches tall and he had black hair and black eyes.
During his visit to Wytheville, Selig saw two 18th century German hymnals that he believes were used by Flohr. The old books are in the library of Holy Trinity Lutheran Church which merged with old St. John's in 1924.
The Flohr link is attracting attention among historians. Selig is working on another article about Flohr for American Heritage. Other publications, such as the College of William and Mary Quarterly and the Virginia Magazine of History and Biography, are interested. He will be speaking about Flohr at Newport, R.I., later this year.
But his job is not finished. Selig is trying to trace the background of Flohr's wife, the former Elizabeth Holszapple.
There are unanswered questions in this historical puzzle:
Why did a man of artistic talent in his early years leave no record of that ability in the last quarter-century of his life in Wythe County?
What did Flohr do after his army service?
How and where did the son of a butcher get the education he obviously received?
Why is there no mention after he became a pastor of his earlier military service?
Whether there was one Flohr or two seems to have been settled. But Selig continues to pull together the scattered threads of two careers.