| Description | /1: 6 September 1833: arrived from London 11 July; his father had died 24 March under tragic circumstances which had grieved his two sisters; is anxious to hear from CMS as he has only heard verbally that his connexion with the Society has been closed; comments on affairs in Germany.
/2: 21 January 1834: re-offers for CMS work in Sierra Leone.
/3: Letter from Metzger and J. Gerber, New York, 2 August 1834: arrived with their families 27 July and propose moving to Albany, Buffalo in Ohio; have been forced to draw part of their allowances in advance.
/4: Letter written from Ann-Arbor, Washtenow County, Michigan, 26 August 1834: has sent newspaper report of the present 'very great animosity against the coloured people' [historic term]; had trouble on the boat and at the tavern 'I was soon told they could wish Mrs Metzger's taking her meals in her room'; an Englishman told him that [Black] people enjoy no civil rights in the state of Ohio and he proposed to me Canada'; travelled to Buffalo on a canal boat and had difficulty in finding lodgings; describes remainder of an exceedingly unpleasant journey [strong racial prejudice]; arrived at Ann Arbor 18 August where there are four scattered German congregations; has been given friendly welcome and is applying for various posts 'if I were not married to a native of Africa my services were already engaged'.
/5: 5 February 1835: describes how he was led to settle in Liverpool [USA] which was without a minister; people are new settlers mostly from Wurttemberg, also Prussia and Bavaria; 86 Protestant and 50 Roman Catholic families; 'coloured people [historic term] are greatly hated in this state';
/6: 1 August 1835: reports on work amongst his congregation; is friendly with the minister of the Methodist Episcopal church and attended a 'camp meeting which lasted 5 days. Tents are erected in the woods and all the time is spent in preaching, in praying and in singing'; son born 11 March.
/7: 28 January 1836: sends copy of the constitution of his Evangelical Lutheran church which was adopted 21 August 1835; have begun to collect towards building church; has still not heard from Mr W. Young in Sierra Leone; Mrs Metzger is anxious to hear from her sister.
/8: 9 August 1836: gives very detailed description of a Methodist Episcopal camp meeting (up to 3000 people present).
/9: 1 February 1837: reports on work; Mrs Metzger has had a son born 13 January.
/10: 14 August 1837: there is much pecuniary distress and scarcity of provisions; C. L. F. Haensel has come to Ohio and he hopes to meet him; reports on work; hopes the church will be consecrated this year.
/11: 19 January 1838: reports on work; Haensel is settled at Marieta, Ohio, but is considering moving to Canada; a German Foreign Missionary Society has been organised in USA which plans to take up work in Palamcottah [Palayamkottai] and employ Rhenius and his associates; wife is not yet 'Americanized and I fear she never will be'.
/12: 15 July 1838: reports on work; if congregation continue to be unable to support him he intends to try to move to Canada 'for there are the coloured people [historic term], if respectable, protected and treated as human Beings which is not the case in this pretended Land of Liberty'; wants schooling for his children which is impossible in America; their church has been consecrated 13 May as Zions church of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Liverpool; wife had daughter 23 June.
/13: 18 January 1839: reports on work.
/14: 22 July 1839: reports on work; there has been a split in the congregation and 21 have left to set up their own congregation; sends resolution from 56 supporting members; Haensel has gone to Canada with Metzger's eldest son Frederick so that he can be educated; they are at Frost village, Shefford, Lower Canada; hopes that he and his family will eventually be able to go to Canada; asks for help from CMS, bearing in mind that two of his children were born in Sierra Leone while he was working for CMS.
/15: 21 January 1840: reports on work; the separation party now has a minister called Sachse.
/16: 30 July 1840: reports on work; the opposition party attempted to take over the church on Easter Monday.
/17: 24 November 1840: reports on visit to Canada (Waterloo and Wilmot townships in Wellington district and Clinton township in Niagara district); asks CMS to employ him to work in Canada.
/18: 26 February 1841: reports on work; son Frederick, aged 12, is doing well at school in Quebec; Theophilus, aged 8, needs more regular schooling; hopes to send him to Quebec or Waterloo Upper Canada.
/19: 27 July 1841: reports on work; continues to correspond with friends at Waterloo, Upper Canada; their minister is 'an infidel - a scholar of Tom Payne and Voltaire'.
/20: 30 April 1842: reports on work; the church building has been completed.
/21: 27 January 1843: reports on work; eldest son, John Frederick, is doing well in Quebec.
/22: 8 August 1843: son was born 18 February, wife has dropsy.
/23: 5 February 1844: wife has been very ill; has therefore been unable to visit Canada; son Frederick is progressing well.
/24: 31 July 1844: youngest child, Paulus, died 28 April; expects return of Frederick now 16 years old.
/25: 4 February 1845: Mrs Metzger is better; son, John Frederick has returned from Quebec; has written to Mr Young at Islington asking if CMS would employ him; if not he will send him to Jamaica by next May or June; church congregation is an auxiliary missionary congregation to a missionary society formed in Ann Arbor, Michigan with the aim of carrying on mission amongst the Indians [?Native Americans]; a young man called Auch was ordained late summer and is in Canada on way to Manatu to work amongst Chippewayans; he is staying with United Brethren missionaries for the winter where there are some converted Chippewayans, so that he can learn the language.
/26: 29 July 1845: reports on work; there has been a bad harvest; plans to build new house 30' x 20'; has been living till now in a one-roomed log cabin; sent son Frederick to Toronto to get a job but halfway down Lake Eyrie was engaged by an American who cheated him out of his wages and he returned home penniless and with his clothes ruined.
/27: 24 January 1846: Frederick went to Canada in September and is employed as a schoolmaster at North East Hope, Stratford, West Canada; his congregation still supports missionary work amongst 'Indians' [?Native Americans] in Saginau county, Michigan; Rev Simon Dumser has been sent to the mission from Basel.
/28: 28 July 1846: reports on work.
/29: 29 July 1847: wife Mary died 17 February 1847 (dropsy). |