144                    THE   OLD  MERCHAA'TS
 

CHAPTER XVIII.

The history of the names of some of the old mer¬
chants Is very curious. The large grocery houses of
BIninger is an example of our statement.

The eldest, or founder of the name that came to this
country, was a native of Zurich, Switzerland. The
father. Christian, his wife and son Abraham, came in a
brig from a port in Europe to Savannah, Georgia. On
board the vessel came the celebrated John Wesley.

The vessel was within two days' sail of her port
when Mr. C. BIninger and his wife died, and their bo-
dies were committed to the great deep. Abraham BIn¬
inger, then a lad, was educated in the great Methodist
Whitfield Orphan School In Savannah. A large crowd
of Moravians had settled in this Southern city. They
afterwards emigrated north to Philadelphia, and carried
young BIninger with them. P^he Rev. Mr. Whitfield
came North also. He had bought a large tract of land
(about five thousand acres) at Nazareth, near Bethlehem,
Pennsylvania. This land he sold to the Moravians,
and they, after a short stay in Philadelphia, removed
to it. The young Abraham BIninger was educated in
the Moravian tenets, and with the intention of becoming
a preacher In that faith.

When of age, he settled at Christian Spring, a mile from