DNA - From the 18th to the 21st Century

 Joni Gates Murphy and I recently discussed how we have been influenced by the high standard of custom building set by our fathers. Offhandedly, I mentioned the discovery of an ancestor that shared our fathers’ same building giftedness. She encouraged me to write about it. Thankfully, the research for it was not extremely labor-intensive so I was able to craft it this week. Joni, thanks for fostering my willingness to tackle the research for it. May Great-great-great-great grandfather, Heinrich Schor inspire each of us.

Three of the four sons of Edmund and Mamie Gates who grew to adulthood became carpenters. All four of Grandma Gates’s boys became farmers - my father, Edmund Gates, Jr. and Jess, his younger brother, farmed most of their lives. The two younger brothers, Herbert and Jim reentered the agriculture profession after having on-the-job training in their youngest years while growing up in the Bend.

The four Gates Boys
Herbert, Jim, Jess, and Edmund, Jr.

A few years ago, as I researched, I stumbled onto some Moravian Records of North Carolina. These records included the Schors who are ancestors through my Grandpa Gates’s paternal grandmother, Passingfair Shore (Americanized spelling) Gates. Moravian documentation records the names of Passingfair’s grandfather, Heinrich Schor, and her great-grandfather, Friedrich Schor, the German-Swiss  immigrant who brought his family across the Atlantic Ocean in 1750.

Johan Heinrich Henry Schor, the son of Friedrich Schor, was born in Muttenz, Switzerland in 1835 (both John Adams and Paul Revere were born the same year). He left Europe with his parents, Friedrich and Margaretha Schneider Schor, and three siblings. Unfortunately, only Heinrich, his father, and three siblings arrived at Philadelphia in the colonies of America in 1850. His mother died shortly after the birth and death of her last son during the voyage. Both were buried at sea. (Here is a link to a blog post about Margaretha Schor - https://bernadeanjgates.blogspot.com/2020/05/remembering-margaretha-schneider-schorr.html ).

Heinrich lived with his father and siblings for about eight months. When his father was unable to keep the family together, Heinrich moved in with a family in Lancaster, Pennsylvania. He went into servitude with a Mennonite man. Finally, a turning point came for Heinrich at around 17 years old when he entered into an eight-month apprenticeship with a carpenter and discovered “this trade his future livelihood” according to the Moravian Records of 1768.

The book, Artisans in the North Carolina Backcountry, listed Johann Heinrich Schor as a carpenter beginning in 1759. He was described as a Moravian artisan in the Wachovia, the name of the tract of land where the Moravians developed their community. The book defines a carpenter as one who does the heavier and stronger work in wood, as the framework of houses, ships, etc. (This type of work with wood was my father’s favorite). 

My father, Edmund Gates, Jr. and his brother, 
Herbert Gates working in 1976 on the
custom-built home  of Ruth Ann and Bob
 Hightower located in the Bend. 
Photo was in Mother's collection. Ruth 
Ann gave it to her.

            Heinrich found a lifelong home in Bethania in the royal colony of North Carolina. A quote from the Moravian records states However needy and poor he may have started in his household here, he never suffered from hunger because he earned so much through his trade.

On Sunday, July 1, 1759, eight families requested permission to operate under the care of the Moravian Church and live in the new village of Bethania in the colony of North Carolina. What irony or perhaps a testimonial to the power of DNA in a family to read next to Heinrich Schor’s signature, the description of the skills he could offer the new community – farmer and carpenter. My father and two of his brothers, Herbert and Jim, found their primary livelihood in carpentry, with Herbert sought out for his cabinet making. All four brothers, including Jess, farmed a large portion of their lives. It’s hard to run from the DNA even when almost 100-120 years separated the births of my father and his brothers from the death of their great-great-great grandfather, Heinrich Schor.

Another photo of Dad and Uncle Herb on the 
Hightower building site in 1976. Photo given
by Ruth Ann Hightower to my parents.

         Joni, who inspired me to publish this family history at this very time, had been impacted by the perfectionism of her own father, a great-great-great-great grandson of Heinrich Schor. Steve Gates, her dad, learned the skill of carpentry from his father, Herbert. He perfected and honed the God-given talent for working in wood, along with his brother, Mark.

This Moravian community was a Christian community that sought to live with their family and their neighbors according to God’s Word. Heinrich was characterized in the records as a brother who loved the Lord with all his heart. May each of us who read of Heinrich Schor’s life story seek to emulate this last declaration about him. Whether we descend from him or not, may we want the same proclamation to be made about us at our passing, They loved the Lord with all their heart. That’s not a bad epitaph if one lived a life that backed it up!

 A Historical Home in Bethania, North Carolina bears the names of  Shore/Lehman House. Its historical significance rests in it being "one of the oldest structures remaining in Bethania." It was constructed in 1805. Below is a link to view a photograph of the 217-year-old home built for Johann Jacob Shore, one of Heinrich's son. It was then sold to his sister, Elisabeth Shore Hauser Lehman and her husband, Johann Christian Lehman. Elisabeth was a daughter of Heinrich Schor. Notice his children had taken the Americanization of Heinrich's last name and had begun using Shore.  

https://www.cityofws.org/DocumentCenter/View/3887/101---Shore-Lehman-House-PDF?bidId=