LANCASTER COUNTY. 225 



Btances. The precise time when this school was estab- 

 lished, is not known; it was after 1739. 



The society, after an existence of fifty years, began to 

 decUne, from some cause, which we have not been able 

 to learn. Some say that Beissel's successor, Peter Miller, 

 wanted vigor of mind. This, says Doctor Fahnestock, 

 is not, he believes, the cause ; for he assured us, in a 

 conversation with him on this subject, in 1 S3 6, so far as 

 he could learn, Peter Miller was a man of much greater 

 powers of mind than Beissel, and that he had the 

 management of the establishment during Beissel's time f 

 and to whose energy and perseverance is mainly 

 attributable the great prosperity of the institution in its 

 early days. 



That Miller was a man of more than ordinary powers 

 of mind, is evident from the testimony of the Rev. 

 Jedediah Andrews, an alumnus of Havard College, of 

 the class of 1695, Andrews speaking of Miller, in a 

 letter, dated Philadelphia, 8th, 14th, 1730. . 



"There is lately come over a Palatine candidate of the 

 ministry, who having applied to us at the Synod (Scotch 

 Synod) for ordination, 'tis left to three ministers, (these 

 were Tenant, Andrews and Boyd), to do it. He is an 

 extraordinary person for sense and learning. We gave 

 him a question to discuss about Justification^ and he 

 answered it, in a whole sheet of paper, in a very notable 

 manner. His name is John Peter Miller, and speaks 

 Latin as readily as we do our vernacular tongue, and so 

 does the other, Mr. Weiss."t 



•Bcisscl died July 6th, 1768, aged 77 years and 4 months. — 

 He was a native of Oberbach, in the Palatinate. 



tGeorge Michael Weiss, was born at Stebback, in Neckar- 

 thal, Germany. Mr. Miller and he were fellow students at 

 Heildelberg. Weiss came to America, some years before 



