Conrad Reiff and the Journey to Pennsylvania

Journey to Pennsylvania was Pennsylvania's comeuppance in 1756, a foible of its religions especially regarding Conrad Reiff, a serious malefactor. For more than two centuries the allegations of Gottlieb Mittelberger were unchallenged, except recently with Pendleton and Brunner. Biographers such as Fred Riffe pass over these events in Conrad's life in embarrassed silence. The situation is worsened by Conrad's younger brother Jacob, who got in as much trouble with the Reformed about 1727 as Conrad ever did in his odyssey then with the Newborn. A dozen Reformed historians with selective memory and rhetorical edits broke their pens to exonerate themselves and their principals in the founding of the Reformed church in Pennsylvania. Two brothers scandalizing two different religions at the same time is almost too much to be hoped for. But a gathering of eagles occurred outside middle earth. Pennsylvanians were transcendentalists a hundred years before Emerson, not single or in small groups, en masse, in flights the whole folk transcended. More of Conrad Reiff's odyssey can be found at Outbreaks of Pennsylvania Lawless.