The Leinbach family thrived in the Oley Valley. To replace the log cabin, they built a new stone house in 1735. It still stands. In the same year, Johannes Jr. married Anna Catharina Riehm. Johanna Maria married Catharina's brother, Abraham Riehm, a tavern keeper, on Christmas Day the same year. Friedrich married Amelia Elizabeth Frey in 1737. Heinrich married Salome Johanna Herrmann the following year.

The stone house built in 1735 by the Leinbachs was originally one-and-a-half stories. It was enlarged by later owners. A second story and the area to the right of the chimney were added. It is now known as the Leinbach-Knabb House. (Photo by Donald Lineback. From his Web site: www.ibiblio.org/lineback/leinbach/archives/knabb.htm) [ ZOOM] Another view of the house. (Photo by Harry F. Stauffer. Archived in the Historical Society of the Cocalico Valley. Printed in Oley Valley Heritage: The Colonial Years, 1700-1775, by Philip E. Pendleton, p. 95.)

Within the Oley "kettle" brewed a mix of faiths, including Reformed, Lutheran, Quaker, Baptist, Evangelical, Mennonite, Adventist, and lesser-known sects such as the New-Born and the Dunkards. While some appreciated this diversity, others saw it as spiritual chaos. It was said that to belong to the "Pennsylvania church" was to have no religion at all.

Visiting ministers of various sects preached the Gospel in the homes and barns of the Oley faithful. Among them was Augustus Gottlieb Spangenberg, a bishop of the Moravian Church (or Unitas Fratrum -- Unity of the Brethren). From 1736 to 1738, he "made the blessed acquaintanceship of upright souls" in Oley, Skippack, Falkner's Swamp, Germantown and Philadelphia.[18] Anna Elisabeth Leinbach's memoirs say that Spangenberg was the first of the Brethren to visit their home.

Other Moravian missionaries followed, including Bishop David Nitschmann and Andreas Eschenbach. Their work laid the foundation for the Moravians to move their settlements from Georgia to Pennsylvania, where they founded Bethlehem. That decision would have a profound effect on the Leinbachs. Eschenbach arrived in Oley in 1740 and made his home with Jean Bertolet, and later with Johannes Leinbach, described as a "co-native of his."[19]. His sermons drew huge crowds. According to the Oley Church record:

"Eschenbach preached during the year with power and conviction. The entire township was in a state of excitement. One saw the people in crowds on their way to hear the Gospel. Besides a large number of married people and young maidens one counted 70 single young men, in whose hearts the grace of the Holy Spirit was working with power."[20]

Chapter 6