USA > Pennsylvania > Lehigh County > Bethlehem > A history of Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, 1741-1892, with some account of its founders and their early activity in America > Part 14
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With all possible regularity the discipline and round of services required under the organization that had been instituted were main- tained, as if they were settled ashore. Good health; good habits; cheerful, contented hearts ; wholesome and abundant food and good cooking; a Christian captain and orderly respectful sailors ; were conditions which, under the Divine blessing, combined to render the voyage vastly different from the common experience of emigrant ships in those times. During the days on the ocean, Boehler took occa- sion to give the colonists much valuable information on the topogra- phy, history, population and the political and ecclesiastical peculiarities
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of the country for which they were bound; about the experiences and situation of those who had preceded them to Pennsylvania; the beginnings in the Forks of the Delaware; the varying attitude of different classes in the Provinces towards the Brethren and their undertakings ; and other instructions that would serve to prepare them for their new life, surroundings and duties. The German members of the colony endeavored to learn all the English they could from their English brethren, and many leisure hours were occupied in adding to their stock of information from books with which they were supplied.
With a single exception, they were all people who had enjoyed at least some slight school advantages, and besides Boehler and Bryzelius, who were university men, there were a few of considerable general education. Some also made use of their handicrafts during the voyage to enable all to land, well supplied with clothing and shoes in good condition; and others took turns at various duties about the ship, in view of the small crew she carried.
After occasional soundings for several days, in the midst of almost continuous fog, they had their first glimpse of land-the Long Island coast-on May 18. After much precarious effort in waters unfamiliar to the captain, and piloted part of the remaining way by another vessel, the captain of which proved to have been a Sabbatarian of Pennsylvania, quite familiar with the neighborhood of Herrnhaag and Marienborn, they put in at New London, Conn., on May 23. There, at sunrise the next morning, several of the men placed a shrouded infant form into a rude coffin, lowered it into a boat, rowed ashore with it and laid it in a grave in the sand which they marked with a stone; while sisters on board tenderly nursed and comforted the mother. This death of the child of Michael and Johanna Maria Miksch, born May 19, was the only sad incident of the voyage.
At New London some repairs had to be made to the Catherine, and on May 26, eighteen single men and six married men of the colony, in accordance with arrangements made, boarded the sloop of the Sabbatarian captain, to proceed in advance to New York. John Philip Meurer who has left an interesting diary of the journey from Herrnhaag to Philadelphia, was one of these. Therefore the incidents of the remaining journey to New York which are on record, relate to the company on board this sloop. At New Haven their arrival created consternation at first, for the people were in constant dread of Spanish privateers prowling along the coast, and were, just then, excited by the
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report of the capture of fifteen English vessels not far away. Their fears were soon allayed. Students of Yale College escorted these "Moravians" to their buildings, where they produced one of the controversial publications issued by those clerics who were so zealous to save the world from the hand of Zinzendorf. At New Greenwich another panic was caused by the appearance of this foreign vessel with so many men on board; and even when they explained who they were, some people were afraid to sell them bread and milk.
On May 30, seven of the party who were Englishmen went ashore near New Greenwich and traveled the remaining distance to New York afoot, to escape the danger of being impressed by a British war ship, in the high-handed fashion followed under stress of the times. The Germans were not subject to this. Later that day, the sloop anchored at New York, and, to the astonishment of those on board, the Catherine was there ahead of them. The repairs at New London were finished sooner than had been expected and the snow made a quicker run to New York than the sloop, arriving there on the morning of May 30.
Before the close of that day, the entire colony ; those who remained on the Catherine, the seventeen who reached New York on the sloop, and the seven who had gone ashore, were reunited on board their own vessel.
While they lay at New York, some members of Boehler's former association there, with many other friends, went aboard to greet him and welcome the colony; and not a little sensation was created in other quarters by their arrival, as all manner of wild rumors circulated about this new lot of alleged conspirators against the King and the Protestant religion, in regard to whom their vigilant pastors had so solemnly warned the people. Sundry Germans of the city went aboard to scrutinize the members of this ocean church, and expressed their surprise at the difference between them, in the matter of bodily condition and spirits, and their poor countrymen who landed from common crowded emigrant ships, after a voyage of privation, sickness and cruelty at the hands of brutal sea captains, whose main purpose was to make all the money they could by selling off their pauper cargoes as "redemptioners" for their passage money.
Once more the sails were unfurled on May 31, for the final stage of the journey to Philadelphia. This last stage was a trying and critical one. The captain took the inside course close to shore, preferring the peril of reefs and sand banks to that of privateers outside. Fog
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A HISTORY OF BETHLEHEM, PENNSYLVANIA.
and adverse wind prevailed nearly all the way, and they crept along, continually casting the lead, in order not to run upon unex- pected shoals. The coast was unfamiliar to the captain and they had no pilot. Therefore they lay to of nights. On June 4, they rounded Cape May and sailed up into the mouth of the Delaware River. Then the captain took on a pilot. At night a terrific storm burst upon them. An accident broke the cable and they lost their anchor. That night, when so near their journey's end, they were in greater peril than at any time on the voyage. One diarist says that "the prince of the power of the air once more tried what he might yet do to them." The next day, after fishing many hours for the lost cable and anchor, they found them more than a mile from where the vessel lay. Boehler, meanwhile, was set ashore and proceeded afoot to Philadelphia to announce their arrival. The following day they proceeded up the channel of the river, the width of which one journal compares to that of the Rhine. Thursday, June 7, at ten o'clock in the forenoon, they reached the city. Pyrlaeus, Buettner and Rauch rowed out to the Catharine to welcome them. "Many people came aboard, thinking that we were for sale," says Meurer in his journal, and then notes what he had learned about the traffic in "redemptioners"-50 to 7of paid the captains as a release for one and another, then bound three to five years to work it out; "some being treated well and others ill." He adds: "A ship from England lay alongside of us with young Irish people, men and women, for sale." Those who were on the look-out for profitable "servants" were disappointed when they boarded the Catherine and inspected the likely men and women on her deck, for they were not "for sale." It can be assumed as certain that not a man or woman who belonged to the Brethren's Church in Europe ever landed in America as a redemptioner. On the other hand, there were cases in which the Brethren furnished money to release other persons who were under such indenture, to deliver them from bonds that were inflicting spiritual or bodily injury upon them. Some such became faithful members of the Church, as well as worthy citizens, and were the ancestors of highly-respected families who could honor their character and energy rather than regard their poverty and dis- advantage as a stigma. Generally speaking, it merits admiration that so many, even when deceived and imposed upon by avaricious men who by misrepresentation led them into the toils of that bad system, were neither crushed in spirit nor brutalized by it; but had the manhood and womanhood to rise superior to the draw-backs of
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their beginning in Pennsylvania, and prove themselves worthy of a place among its substantial and respectable Christian yeomanry.
It was Ascension Day, according to the old calendar, when the "Sea Congregation" reached Philadelphia, and Zinzendorf was preach- ing in the Lutheran meeting-house. After the service he went aboard to greet them. The next day the German members of the colony went with their captain to the State House to go through the form of qualification under the laws of the Province. The Governor and Council were in session and the matter was soon disposed of. When the preliminary explanations had been made and the oath of allegi- ance read to them, Boehler stated their scruples about taking an oath and their readiness, nevertheless, to be held fully amenable and subject to the same penalty as violators of an oath, if found trans- gressing in any particular. They were then required to repeat a form of affirmation, and sign the customary two documents, one for the crown and the other for the proprietary government. There- upon they were dismissed. A few busily occupied days followed. Their arrival attracted much attention. They came into contact with warm-hearted friends, with inquisitive gossips and with men of preju- diced and sinister mind. Their interest was awakened by the sight of Indians, soon after they landed. Zinzendorf took one particular Indian aboard the Catherine to see them before they had transferred their quarters from the ship. Meurer tells of him in his journal as one who "had been thoroughly converted," whose name was Johannes. This was none other than that most distinguished of all the Indian con- verts of the Moravian Church, whom Rauch had baptized the pre- vious April, and named John-Wasamapah, who had been called Job by the traders ; which name, found in some early reports phonetically spelled as pronounced by the German tongue untrained to English, was mistaken for an Indian name, was so put into print, and gave rise to the absurdity, since perpetuated, of calling him Tschoop.
The married people of the colony left the ship on June 8. The single men continued to have their quarters on board until Whitsunday, June 17, when, having gotten all of their effects into a ware-house, they also took final leave of the Catherine. Meanwhile, on Sunday, June 10, at a meeting of the whole company in Zinzendorf's house, they were given many new instructions and directions, in view of important steps soon to follow. On that day the whole company attended services in the Lutheran meeting-house in Philadelphia, and in the Reformed church in Germantown. At the former place, Zin-
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A HISTORY OF BETHLEHEM, PENNSYLVANIA.
zendorf preached the last sermon to the Lutherans before leaving Philadelphia to engage in other activities; at the latter, they took communion with the congregation. At the interview had with them on that day Zinzendorf asked them each to write a personal state- ment of faith and spiritual experience, to be presented with their application for admission to the Pennsylvania Synod. These were in readiness for consideration and action, together with a complete register of the members of this colony and of all others counted as connected with the Brethren in Pennsylvania prior to their arrival, when they were formally announced by Zinzendorf, as already stated, in the opening session of the Synod on June 13. When the question of their admission in a body, as representatives of a Church now seek- ing recognition as having a formal existence in Pennsylvania, came up, these personal communications were, for the most part, read to the Synod. The conductor of the colony, George Piesch, appeared and vouched for the good character of all of them, and for their com- mendable conduct during the voyage. This terminated his official responsibility in connection with them, and he returned to Europe soon after. Boehler, as spiritual overseer on the voyage, with two men who had been his assistants under their temporary organi- zation as an ocean church, were also present and confirmed the tes- timony of Piesch. The names of all who were regarded at that time as composing the whole body of people in Pennsylvania belonging to the Association of the Brethren and to be connected with its first organized center at Bethlehem-where the Moravian Church within the Association, as explained in the preceding pages, was now to have a recognized footing among the religions of Pennsylvania- were then read in the Synod. The record states that the number was a hundred and twenty.10
1º No copy of the list is extant, but at least 107 of the names can be verified beyond ques- tion. Besides the Sea Congregation of 56 and the 40 in Pennsylvania, December 1741, (Chap. IV, note 10) the missionaries Rauch and Hagen, now with them, Abraham Buenin- ger who came with Hagen from Georgia in February, the West India missionaries Weber and wife and Israel, the printer Henry Miller and Rauch's four baptized Indians were un- doubtedly included. The remaining 13 were from among the following accessions of Penn- sylvania people, some of whom were at this time only candidates and were formally admitted to the communion after organization at Bethlehem : four baptized by Zinzendorf at German- town-Herman and Anna Maria Bonn, March 19 ; Elizabeth and Johanna Leinbach, May 17; Daniel Oesterlein, the first single man admitted at Germantown ; Jacob Detweiler (Dudweiler) who went as a missionary to the West Indies ; Magdalena Miller and Margaret Disman (Desmond) already mentioned; Elizabeth Braun of Tulpehocken; Magdalena
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Their admission to membership in the Synod was decided by a formal vote, and then all who were awaiting the result were escorted into the hall. After prayer by a trustee of the Synod, Henry Antes addressed them in the name of this body. The official record reads : "Henry Antes testified in the name of all, that the undenominational (unpartheyische) Synod of Pennsylvania recognized, in general, the arriving old Moravian Church as a true Church of the Lamb ; in par- ticular, its ministers as brethren and fellow-laborers; but, in accord- ance with the fundamental rules of the Synod, on the other hand, the Church, in itself, as independent, and, within its own limits and regu- lations, with which the Synod never meddled, as inviolate ; and wished that the grace of the Lamb might rule over them."11
Wend of Germantown; Esther Robins, a Quakeress, married at Bethlehem to Froehlich and baptized with the additional name Mary; Judith, Mary and Susan Benezet who, with their father, were formally admitted as communicants at Bethlehem in September. Thomas Hardie, mentioned in a preceding chapter, was also in fellowship with the Brethren at Beth- lehem at this time. A certain Valentine, one Buerger and Adam Hinter, "servants" (Knechte) among the Bethlehem population in June, were, like Detweiler, redemptioners released by the Brethren. Some others, whose formal reception to communicant membership occurred later in the year, may possibly have been enrolled as such prospective members. In the absence of a list, it cannot therefore be ascertained with certainty which 13 out of this group of persons were counted in the 120 on June 13. The mistake of giving 120 as the membership of the Sea Congregation has often appeared in print, and is even made in several historical sketches of Bethlehem prepared for anniversary occasions and preserved in the archives. This was evidently caused, in the first instance, by inexact language in the original printed report of this seventh Synod. It is stated that after the arrival of the Sea Congregation had been announced, "the names of the brethren and sisters who were to begin the Church settlement at Bethlehem were again read, 120 in number." Then the report adds : "When, after ascertaining the opinion of all the members present, the Trustees and Bro. Henry Antes granted them admission, they all entered the room together, and presented themselves before the Trustees." Thus the words "they all" could be taken as referring at the same time to the 120 just mentioned and to the newly arrived colonists who did enter in a body. Some of the others may have joined them in this formality, but it is certain that not all of the 120 were there. It may be added that some former Georgia colonists included became alienated separatists and did not resume connection with the Church. Cranz, Brüder Historie, § IOI, states the matter correctly-"they (the Sea Congregation) together with the brethren and sisters previously there, 120 in all."
II This translation of the exact words is given because of the persistent distortion to which they have been subjected by unfriendly writers. A recent historian, referring to the arrival of "a shipload of 120 Moravian emigrants destined for Bethlehem," and to their joining the Synod as " completing the supremacy of the Moravians in the movement," has this : " Antes too was now quite carried away, and declared in this conference that the Synod acknowledged the Moravians as the true church, thus committing the Congregation of God in the Spirit to the Moravians." Such a perversion of meaning is not surprising
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Zinzendorf, as Moderator of the Synod, made an address to them, in keeping with the occasion, and, in the absence of Bishop Nitsch- mann, Anton Seiffert, the first Moravian ordained in America, responded to the welcome in behalf of the Moravian Church, and then offered prayer. After these formalities the Synod had a less public session in Zinzendorf's dwelling, at which an account of the organization and voyage of the Sea Congregation was given, and various reports of evangelistic activity in Europe were read. In the afternoon the Synod assembled to a lovefeast provided by the Sea Congregation on board the Catherine. There were a hundred and twenty persons present-a singular coincidence with the number announced in the morning as composing the Brethren's Church in Pennsylvania. The closing session of June 14 was held in the Luth- eran meeting-house in the evening. Zinzendorf set forth, in an elab- orate discourse, the distinction between three church-conceptions : the Church of God in the Spirit, consisting of the true children of God among all bodies, in a fellowship independent of their bounds and differences; the religions or general confessional divisions, with the kind of unity in faith and fellowship to be fostered on this basis ; and special organized smaller churches of genuine Christians within the religions, to represent the invisible spiritual body in a visible model. This latter conception is that which he subsequently sought to unfold and exemplify in exclusive church settlements-Ortsge- meinen. At the conclusion of this session, announcement was made that the Synod would resolve itself into a quarterly conference of ministers, to assemble at different places, as has been noted in another connection. A syllabus of communications from represen- tatives of the several religions in the Synod, relating to their general state and attitude towards each other and towards the whole, had been formulated. Their leading thoughts were blended in a general letter to the Christian public of Pennsylvania. This was adopted, and Henry Antes, who had issued the circular calling the first con-
when found in pasquils issuing from the heat and dust of the anti-Zinzendorf campaign, but is hardly to be expected in the pages of sober history now. "The true church" means a very different thing from "a true church." One may recognize a church other than his own as a true church, without admitting it to be the true church, which would exclude his own. The statement meant that in origin, evangelical faith and spirit, and external requi- sites, the Moravian Church was now formally recognized as a true church among churches, not a schismatic faction, or heretical sect, or incoherent conflux. It is not necessary to mis- represent in order to emphasize disapproval.
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ference, was appointed to sign this closing address to the people at large. This he did in the presence of the deputies the next morning, June 15. This act, and the signing of the journal by appointed witnesses concluded the proceedings, and the members dispersed.
This final document was issued as "the letter of the ministers of the Church of Jesus Christ in Pennsylvania to the whole country." Its opening salutation was: "Beloved Pennsylvania." It closed with this sentence: "These are the words of the Church of the Lord to all its members, hidden and known, and all whom the Lord our God will yet call to it. Lord have mercy upon Zion, for the time is come." (Ps. 102:13.) In the body of the letter occur three passages that have been even more misinterpreted and distorted than the words of Antes in welcoming the Moravian Church to representation in the Synod. The first is the following: "Today at last a visible church of the Lord has been seen and recognized in Philadelphia. Every member of the same has accredited it as such before us. Its seat for the time-being is Bethlehem. The little groups in Phila- delphia, Germantown, Oley, Frederick Township, who wait for the redemption of Israel, have entered into the most cordial union with them." This refers to the Sea Congregation. It is called a visible church of the Lord in the sense of the third church-conception presented by Zinzendorf in his discourse referred to above, and the intimation that it was the first such in Philadelphia means that it was the first that embodied those characteristics that were had in mind by the Synod as marking such a congregation. The second passage so much misinterpreted is this: "We, all together, make up the body of Jesus, in Pennsylvania." Some writers have treated of this as if it were a claim made by the Moravian Church. The statement emanated from the Synod, as representing the Church of God in the Spirit, in the sense of the first church-conception set forth in Zin- zendorf's address. Its members belonged to the various religions and the Synod had before spoken of it as "His body, the fullness of Him that filleth all in all." The third of these much perverted passages is that which closes the following paragraph: "We will, according to the wisdom that the Lord will vouchsafe, continue this church conference every quarter year in all quietness. Our members, all outwardly called and inwardly known in the Spirit, will render assistance. Whoso is on the Lord's side, let him come unto us." (Ex. 32:26.) Only by the most willful distortion of these words, can they be taken as an utterance of the Moravian Church, or a
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call to follow the new colony to Bethlehem. It was simply the closing appeal of the Synod to sincere and earnest people throughout Pennsylvania to join the alliance, support the Synod and co-operate in the furtherance of its objects.
Noble ideals were advanced in these attempts, but the time was not ripe for their successful propagation at large, even in generally affecting the tone and manner of denominational relations. What was intended to be an irenicon, intensified bitterness and contention in many quarters. The combination of disadvantages was too strong to be overcome, even if the prevailing spirit of the time had not been so utterly at variance with any such movement. The personal adversaries of Zinzendorf left no means untried to thwart his efforts. Many persons were unable to comprehend what he was aiming at. Others were unwilling to believe in the sincerity of his motives. Certain oddities of disposition, manner and speech on his part, made the whole undertaking seem a mere oddity to many matter- of-fact men who looked on from the outside, so that it did not appeal to them. Some looked upon him as a kind of knight-errant, even calling him a Don Quixote, in religious adventure. There were also defects of far-fetched plan and over-wrought method, with an almost kaleidoscopic presentation of ideas and views precipitated from his teeming store. The finesse of the astute diplomate-for this was among his qualities by nature and training-withdrawn from the service of an earthly king and consecrated to that of his heavenly King, presumed too much in expecting that every subtile line of thought and action, clear to him, would be equally clear to crude, unschooled commoners ; especially with designing persons on the alert to set everything he said or did in a sinister light before the unsophisticated. But the effort stands as a grand testimony against that unholy strife of schools and parties which had become the mania of the doctors, as well as of wild sectarians and perverse separatists, to the disgrace of Protestantism and the injury of religion. It stands also as a prophecy of better conditions slowly developing in these times, when those who fondly cherish the old feuds can no longer make the war of creeds and sects popular.
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