Dr. Samuel Benjamin Vierling

Sitting on a hill overlooking the Moravian town of Salem, North Carolina, the Vierling House was the largest private residence in Salem at the time it was built. Dr. Vierling and his wife Martha lived here with their children.

Dr. Samuel Benjamin Vierling had received his medical training in Berlin, Germany. He accepted Salem's invitation to settle there as their doctor in 1790. He also ran an apothecary from his home and maintained his own herb garden.

He had been born into a family of devout Lutherans, but he became friends with members of the Moravian Church while he was in college and decided to join them. He wrote to the Unity Elders Conference asking that he be allowed to serve one of the German congregations, but he was sent to be the physician in Salem in the American frontier.

Dr. Vierling had first married Anna Bagge, and they had one daughter, Maria Rosina. To Dr. Vierling's deep sorry, Anna died of scarlet fever just five days before their second wedding anniversary. Left with a six-month old daugher, four months later, Dr. Vierling asked permission to marry Martha Miksch, whose father owned the tobacco shop in town. The couple married a month later, and they had three sons and five daughters.

In my historical novel, Cleared for Planting, Clifton considers staying in Salem as their doctor when he visits his sister there not long after he and Sarah are married. Dr. Vierling is an old man at this time. However, since the Moravians tended to be a rather closed group, and because he didn't want to appear to be waiting for Dr. Vierling to pass away, he decides to move on.

To tour the Vierling House, visit Old Salem in Winston Salem, NC.

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