Bible scriveners
Early on, Pennsylvania Dutch families documented loved ones with fraktur, especially birth- and baptismal certificates, that were often tucked away in drawers and chests, or perhaps folded and safeguarded in the family bible. In the 19th and early 20th centuries, Pennsylvania Dutch families relied on the pages in the family Bible itself to keep track of its members. Sometimes someone in the household would pen names and dates on the Bible’s pages, and sometimes a scrivener would be hired to pen names and dates in fancier, calligraphic writing. Folklorist Don Yoder called this the last development in Pennsylvania Dutch manuscript art.
Georg August S. Hainbach was a prolific scrivener of family Bibles from around the 1870s until the 1920s. He worked primarily in Berks, Lancaster, and Lehigh Counties.
Title page penned by scrivener G. Aug. S. Hainbach
This family Bible in the Tuliptree Collection once belonged to William H. and Mary (Bond) Long. Its beautiful family registry with the birth and baptisms of William and Mary was penned by Hainbach — he signed as much in the first few pages of the Bible.
Family registry
Evidence shows that families kept notes on births, baptisms, marriages, and deaths until a scrivener was hired, or until an itinerant scrivener arrived at the door looking for work. We can see that plainly in this family bible.
Births in the Long family
On a page devoted to the births of their children, the first two for Phelephe and Edger are penned by Hainbach in his characteristic artful calligraphy and curved lines containing additional information. The next two (Salome and Amy) are done by the same hand, but not by Hainbach. The initial S in Steinsville differs and the 8s end on the bottom loop instead of the top loop. Lucy’s entry is by yet a third hand that replicates Hainbach’s S, but it’s much less confident and again the 8 is different. By the time their sixth child, Milton, was born, it looks like the second scrivener may have returned. And Claude’s entry under that one is similar, too, but in different inks. The last entry is likely a fourth scrivener. The writing is fairly shaky, the E differing from Hainbach and the A differing from the second scrivener.
Most of these folks are buried in the New Bethel Union Cemetery in Albany Township in the shadow of the Zinnekopp — a place I’ve visited many times, but never inside the church. I should remedy that soon.
Nathaniel (5 September 2025), The Bullfrog Inn
