AFA Autumn 2021

Autumn 92 www.afamag.com | w ww.incollect.com Fig. 4: Drawing of three women attributed to Samuel Gottschall (1808–1898), Franconia Township, Montgomery County, Pa., 1835. Watercolor and ink on wove paper, 6 x 8½ inches. The Dietrich American Foundation (7.9.HRD.1791). Photo by Gavin Ashworth. fraktur encourages readers to decorate themselves simply in Christ—in contrast with the gaily adorned female figures flanking the text—and alludes to the Parable of the Wise and Foolish Virgins (Matthew 25:1–13), in which only the five wise virgins who took oil with them to refill their lamps were admitted to the kingdom of heaven. The five foolish virgins who brought only their lamps had to go in search of more oil and were left out. Jacob Gottschall’s tenure as a schoolmaster and fraktur artist was short-lived. In 1795, he married Barbara Kindig and they settled near Morwood in Franconia Township, Montgomery County. In 1804, Jacob became a minister for the Franconia Mennonite congregation and in 1813 a bishop. Together he and Barbara raised eleven children—including two sons who followed in their father’s footsteps and became schoolmasters and fraktur artists. Unlike their father, however, the brothers remained steadfast bachelors. Martin Gottschall (1797–1870) was the second child of Jacob and Barbara Gottschall. He likely taught at the Salford Mennonite meetinghouse school from 1815 to 1818, based on a series of Vorschriften , or writing samples, made during those years that are thought to be his work. Only one signed example is known, which was acquired by the Dietrich American Foundation in 2017 (Fig. 2). Typical of the Vorschriften form, the fraktur begins with several lines of ornate German Fraktur