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 15
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Before further movements at Bethlehem are followed, a list of the members of the Sea Congregation, now conspicuous in the foreground, given in alphabetical order, with a few brief personal notes, may bring this chapter to a close.
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MARRIED PEOPLE.
ALMERS, HENRY AND ANNA ROSINA, M.N. SCHUEPGE. They served at Beth- lehem until January, 1743, then located as evangelists and teachers on Staten Island and Long Island, laboring there mainly until April, 1745, when they returned to Europe with Boehler.
BISCHOFF (BISHOP), JOHN DAVID AND CATHERINE, M.N. PECH. They were among the important early evangelists, serving in the Indian mission and in country charges, besides performing various duties at Bethlehem. Bischoff was ordained in 1749, was transferred to North Carolina in 1756 and died there, at Bethania, in 1763. His wife died at Bethlehem in 1778.
BOEHLER, PETER AND ELIZABETH, M.N. HOPSON. From 1737 to 1764, when he returned finally to Europe to become a member of the general executive board of the Church, Boehler gave four terms of service to the work in America, and, next to Spangenberg, was the most eminent leader. He became a bishop in 1748. He died at London, April 27, 1775. His grave is in the old Moravian cemetery in Chelsea. His son, Lewis Frederick, was also a minister of the Church in America, and died at Bethlehem in 1815. His grand-daughter, Fredericka Boehler, who died at Beth- lehem in 1859, was his last descendant. Rev. Francis Boehler, in Pennsylvania, 1752 to his death at Lititz, Pa., in 1806, was his brother. An extended sketch of the career of Bishop Peter Boehler is given in Volume II, Transactions, Moravian Historical Society, and a Life of Peter Boehler, by Rev. J. P. Lockwood, (Wes- leyan,) was published in London in 1868.
BRANDMILLER, JOHN. From Basle, commonly designated "bookkeeper" in early records, was also a printer, like others of the name at Basle. He made the first attempts at printing in the Forks of the Delaware in 1763-67 at Friedensthal, near Nazareth. Several of his imprints yet extant are great rarities. (See Pa. Mag. of Hist. and Biogr., VI, 249.) He was ordained, 1745, and did faithful service at various stations. His wife, Anna Maria, came to Pennsylvania in 1743 and died at Bethlehem in 1776. He met an accidental death at Bethlehem in 1777.
BRUCKER, JOHN AND MARY BARBARA. He was ordained at New York, 1743, by Zinzendorf just before his return to Europe. He entered missionary service, May 1743, in the Danish West Indies, where this, his first wife died, November follow- ing, and where, with intervals of furlough, he figured as one of the chief mission- aries until his death there in 1765.
BRYZELIUS, PAUL DANIEL AND REGINA DOROTHEA, M.N. SCHILLING. Gen- eral facts concerning him have appeared in the text. He was considered in deacon's orders as a Lutheran candidate and was ordained a presbyter in 1743. To 1745 he was an assistant minister at Bethlehem at intervals and itinerated. His chief field was among the Swedes in New Jersey. He left the Church in 1760. Their daughter, Anna Regina, was the first child born at Bethlehem-July 16, 1742-and was baptized the same day by Zinzendorf.
HARTEN, GEORGE AND ELIZABETH, M.N. EICHMANN. They were employed in various capacities at Bethlehem and, for a season, in charge of externals in con- nection with school work at Tulpehocken and elsewhere. Records of their later career are not at hand.
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A HISTORY OF BETHLEHEM, PENNSYLVANIA.
DIE Tæglichen LOOSUNGEN DER Bruder -Gemeine FÜR DAS JAHR 1767.
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Gedrukt bey Bethlehem in der Fork Dellawar. Bey Johann Brandmüller. MDCCLXVII.
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1742.
HUSSEY, ROBERT AND MARTHA, M.N. WILKES. An English farmer who did faithful service in the common interests. He accompanied the evangelist Schnell on a tour afoot to Georgia in 1743, and in 1749 was appointed to the charge of the agricultural affairs of the school at Oley. He also served as a lay-evangelist. He died, 1775, at Bethlehem. His wife died there, 1790.
MEYER, JOHN ADOLPH. He was physician of the colony and the first regular, accredited physician in the Lehigh Valley. His father, under whom he studied, had been a physician, a university graduate. He served Bethlehem and surrounding region the first years in his profession, as well as in spiritual labor, being in deacon's orders. He was ordained a presbyter in 1748. He was the first warden at Naza- reth, 1744-46. Then he was stationed at the school and home mission on the farm of Antes at Fredericktown till 1749. Leaving church service for a while, he lived in Philadelphia. He located eventually at Lititz, where he practiced his profession during the Revolution, and where he died. His wife, Mary Dorothea, sailed from London with Neubert and others who followed the Sea Congregation and reached Philadelphia in September. She died on the voyage and was buried at sea.
MIKSCH, MICHAEL AND JOHANNA MARIA, M.N. KUEHN. He was a Moravian from Kunwald, was with Grassman and Schneider in the missionary attempt among the Samoyedes on the shore of the Arctic Ocean, 1737. He rendered efficient service in the external work at Bethlehem, Gnadenhuetten on the Mahoni, Nazareth and Gnadenthal, and accompanied itinerants on many journeys. His wife and he died at Gnadenthal, she in 1786 and he in 1792. They were the parents of the child born on the voyage, died and buried at New London, May 24.
POWELL, SAMUEL AND MARTHA. He was a brazier and bell-founder from Whitechurch, Shropshire, England. He rendered varied and valuable service to the Church in Philadelphia, at Bethlehem and at the Indian Mission, Gnadenhuetten on the Mahoni, in external matters. He cast the bell for the mission chapel at Gnaden- huetten in 1747. He was landlord of the Crown Inn south of the Lehigh at Beth- lehem, October 1745-May 1746, and there had charge of a general book depository opened by the Society for the Furtherance of the Gospel. After this term of ser- vice he returned to Philadelphia, where he died 1762.
POWELL, JOSEPH AND MARTHA, M.N. PRITCHETT. He was a brother of Samuel and hailed from the same place. He itinerated some years as a lay-evange- list in Pennsylvania, New Jersey, New York and Maryland and was ordained, 1756. In 1759 he and his wife with John Levering and wife, went to Jamaica, W. I., as missionaries. Returning after six years they served in Maryland until 1772. His wife died at Bethlehem, 1774. Finally, after a few months of home missionary work in New York and Connecticut, he died, 1774, at the station Sichem, in Duchess Co., N. Y. The monument to his memory and that of Bruce, the missionary, has been mentioned in Chap. III.
RICE, OWEN AND ELIZABETH. He was from Haverfordwest, Wales. He did conspicuous service as an itinerant in English parts of Pennsylvania, in New Jersey, New York, the New England colonies, and as English preacher in Philadelphia and at Bethlehem. During intervals of residence there, as well as elsewhere, he com- bined the practice of medicine and minor surgery, as assistant to the regular physi-
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A HISTORY OF BETHLEHEM, PENNSYLVANIA.
cian, with his labor in the gospel, having acquired considerable experience and skill in this respect. He was ordained in 1748 and was the first settled Moravian pastor in New York City, 1750-54. In 1754 he returned to Europe and served numerous congregations in England and Ireland, until his death. at Gomersal in Yorkshire, in 1785.
SENSEMANN, HENRY JOACHIM AND ANNA CATHERINE, M.N. LUDWIG. A baker by trade, he first served the settlement in this and various other capacities, and was the first time-keeper and bell ringer. 1743, he and his wife entered missionary service among the Indians, and in 1755 were serving as stewards at Gnadenhuetten on the Mahoni, when savages destroyed the mission and she was one of those who perished. In 1766 he and his second wife, Christina, m.n. Rubel, entered the mis- sion service on the Island of Jamaica, W. I. He was ordained in 1749. He died in consequence of a fall from the piazza of the mission-house at Carmel, Jamaica in 1774. Gottlob Senseman the missionary to the Indians who died at Fairfield, Canada, in 1800, was his son.
TANNEBERGER, MICHAEL AND ANNA ROSINA. They were among the Mora- vians of the colony. He was a shoemaker and served the Bethlehem community at his trade, and in other secular employments, until his death, in 1744. His widow was married to John George Endter and went with him as missionary to the Arawacks of Guiana, South America. Her third husband was Jonas Nilsen.
TURNER, JOHN AND ELIZABETH. He hailed from London. She was a native of Wales. They were employed in connection with the second school opened by the Brethren in Germantown in 1746 in the house of John Bechtel. There they both died in 1749, he in April and she in May.
WAHNERT, DAVID AND MARY ELIZABETH. He was cook for the Sea Con- gregation, and was famous as the faithful attendant of a number of subsequent colonists on the voyage across the ocean. His wife died in 1751 and he was mar- ried in 1753 to the widow Rosina Pfahl, m.n. Hückel. He died at Herrnhut in 1765.
YARRELL, THOMAS AND ANN, M.N. HOPSON. They were English members of the colony and returned to England in 1766. He was ordained in 1755 after serving some years as a lay-evangelist. He was stationed as minister in Newport, R. I., and New York City. Later he served various congregations in England and Scot- land.
SINGLE MEN.
ANDREW. One of the first converts in St. Thomas, commonly spoken of as "Andrew the Negro," (Andreas der Mohr). He accompanied Zinzendorf from St. Thomas to Europe in 1739, and was brought to Pennsylvania to labor among negroes as a witness of the power of the gospel. At Bethlehem he was married to Mary Magdalene, vice-eldress of the negro congregation in St. Thomas, brought to Pennsylvania by the missionary Loehans in November, 1742. He and his wife went to Europe with Zinzendorf in 1743. In 1744 he died at Marienborn. He figures among the 18 "first fruits" of Moravian missions from various nations who had entered into rest in 1747, depicted in a painting executed that year by order of Zinzendorf and known as "the picture of the first fruits" (das Erstlingsbild ). It
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I742.
is preserved at Herrnhut, and reduced copies in oil are at Zeist, Holland, and in the archives at Bethlehem. Another negro, Andrew, also spoken of as "Andreas der Mohr" is sometimes confused with him. This Andrew, No. 2, was presented by Thomas Noble, of New York, to Spangenberg, was baptized at Bethlehem in 1746, was married to Magdalena, alias Beula, formerly belonging to Charles Brock- den of Philadelphia. They died at Bethlehem ; he, 1779, she, 1820.
ENDTER, JOHN GEORGE. In 1745, married the widow of Michael Tanneberger and went as missionary to the Arawacks of Berbice, Guiana, South America.
GAMBOLD, HECTOR. Later called Ernest, from Wales, was married, 1743, to Eleanor Gregg, of New York, was ordained in 1755, labored in the ministry in Pennsylvania, New Jersey, and New York, was the first settled Moravian pastor on Staten Island in 1763, and died at Bethlehem in 1788. His son John Gambold was one of the pioneers in the Cherokee mission.
HEYDECKER, JOHN GEORGE. Entered the itinerant service in Pennsylvania and died in Falkner's Swamp in September, 1742. He was the first one of the colony who died. His remains were interred at Bethlehem.
HEYNE, JOHN CHRISTOPHER. Was employed in school work at several places in Pennsylvania. He married Margaret Schaeffer, of Tulpehocken. He also served as an assistant minister under license at intervals. He and his wife severed con- nection with Bethlehem in November, 1750, and removed to Tulpehocken.
HUBER, JOHN MICHAEL. Was appointed an assistant elder at Bethlehem under the primitive organization, married the widow Catherine Rose (Chapter III, note 5), started alone to St. Thomas as assistant missionary in 1747, and perished at sea.
KASKE, GEORGE. Married Elizabeth Funck of Pennsylvania, went as missionary to Berbice, South America, in 1745, was ordained while back in Bethlehem in 1747, left the mission under political oppression in 1752 and returned to Pennsyl- vania. He died at Nazareth in 1795.
LISCHY, JOHN JACOB. Of Swiss Reformed connection, married Mary Benezet of Philadelphia, itinerated over a large area among the German Reformed population, having been ordained in 1743 by Bishop Nitschmann. He broke with the Brethren in 1747, became their bitter enemy, issued two publications against them abound- ing in slanderous misrepresentations, was admitted to the ministry of the Reformed Church from which he was eventually deposed for irregularities, and died on his farm.in York County, Pa., in 1781.
MEURER, JOHN PHILIP. The diarist of the Sea Congregation, entered evange- listic service, was ordained in December, 1742, served at different country stations, married (1744) Christina Krafft who died in 1757 and was buried in the church-yard used by the Brethren in Donegal Township, Lancaster County, where the inscription on her gravestone was one of the last of that period legible. Meurer died at Bethlehem in 1760.
MOELLER, JOSEPH. A gardener, at which occupation he served many years at Bethlehem and at Nazareth and Gnadenthal. He married Catherine Koch in 1745. They both died at Bethlehem, he in 1778 and she in 1798.
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A HISTORY OF BETHLEHEM, PENNSYLVANIA.
OKELY, JOHN. From Bedford, England. He married Johanna Robins of Phila- delphia in 1743, and, as his second wife, Elizabeth Home of New York in 1745. He engaged in itinerant ministry in parts of Pennsylvania and was ordained in 1751. He is best known as scrivener and conveyancer at Bethlehem, figuring for a num- ber of years in much public business. He was commissioned a Justice of the Peace in 1774, and, for a while, was an Assistant Commissary in the service of the Continental Army in the Revolution. Estrangement with the authorities at Beth- lehem, on account of official procedures on his part detrimental to the interests of the Church, led to his withdrawal with his third wife, Margaret, widow of Matthew Graeff, of Lancaster, to whom he was married in 1780. He died in Lancaster County in 1792.
OKELY, WILLIAM. Ship carpenter and sailor, a brother of John, remained in Pennsylvania until 1748, when, under Capt. Garrison, he was one of the crew of the church ship, Irene, on her first voyage to Europe. After six years in this service- doing duty in the line of his trade at Bethlehem, during sojourns here at intervals- he returned to Europe in 1754.
POST, CHRISTIAN FREDERICK. A Prussian and originally a joiner by trade, was the well known, indefatigable, somewhat eccentric missionary to the Indians, whose peculiarly important services to the government of Pennsylvania in treating with the western Indians, at a most critical juncture in 1758, made his name celebrated in the history of the Province. He was also with the company that made the luckless first attempt to start a mission in Labrador in 1752, when those not mur- dered had to leave to help man the vessel. In 1761 he undertook the first mission in the Tuscarawas Valley, Ohio, and the following year initiated John Heckewelder into that work. In 1764 he went to the Moskito Coast to start an independent mission, and, after two protracted sojourns there-visiting Bethlehem in 1767-he located in Germantown, Pa., in 1784. His final labors were under the auspices of the Protestant Episcopal clergy. He died at Germantown in 1785, and was there buried in the "Lower Graveyard," where, about 1840, a marble slab with an in- scription reciting his career was placed upon his grave. He was thrice married. His first two wives were Indian women; his idea being that this would facilitate his efforts. He was never ordained in the Moravian Church.
PEZOLD, JOHN GOTTLIEB. Was one of the most devoted and valuable men of his time, both in evangelistic activity and in official counsel. From 1742-1753 he was general superintendent of the work of the single men in America. He was ordained in 1748. Returning to Europe in 1753, he brought over a colony of single men in 1754. After that he was chaplain and spiritual overseer of the Single Brethren's House at Bethlehem. His principal evangelistic efforts in the Ma- guntsche neighborhood laid the foundation of the Moravian Church at Emmaus. While on an official visit to Lititz, he died there in 1762.
RONNER, JOHN REINHOLD. Was ordained in 1743, married Elizabeth Fissler, of Philadelphia, labored in many places in Pennsylvania up to 1750, when he went with his wife to St. Thomas, W. I., as missionary. In 1755 they returned to Beth- lehem where he died in 1756. His wife, after further years of service as a deacon- ess, mainly in New York, died at Bethlehem in 1771.
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1742.
SCHNEIDER, GEORGE. One of the native Moravians of the colony, was employed for a while in itinerant service and particularly in the external affairs of several schools. He married Gertrude Peterson, of Long Island, in 1746. In subsequent years he was connected with the agricultural interests at Nazareth and Bethlehem. He died in 1774 and his wife in 1803, both at Bethlehem.
SCHNELL, LEONARD. Labored as an itinerant lay-evangelist in various neighbor- hoods, besides engaging in various duties at Bethlehem from time to time, until 1748, when he was ordained to the regular ministry. In 1751 he severed his connection with the Brethren and then ministered some time to the Lutherans in the Maguntsche and Saucon neighborhoods. One of his notable exploits was an evangelistic tour afoot to Georgia in 1743.
SEIDEL, NATHANAEL. The most important man among these Single Brethren. He was the son of a Bohemian emigrant in Silesia and therefore in close affinity with the native Moravians. During the early years of his career in Pennsylvania he was one of the most zealous and untiring itinerants among whites and Indians, and the many long journeys he made afoot were remarkable. He later made perilous and exhausting journeys to the West Indies and Surinam. He was ordained a deacon before he came to Pennsylvania, a presbyter in 1748 and a bishop in 1758. He was the successor of Bishop Spangenberg in general superintendence of Moravian work in America in which position he stood until his death. He was also one of the succession of nominal proprietors of all the estates of the Church under the authorities at Bethlehem. His wife, whom he married in 1760, was a daughter of George Piesch, conductor of the Sea Congregation-Anna Johanna Piesch, a grand- daughter of Father Nitschmann. Bishop Seidel died at Bethlehem in 1782. A full sketch of his career is given in Vol. II, Transactions of the Moravian Histor- ical Society. His widow died at Nazareth.
SHAW, JOSEPH. One of the English members, who was to have studied for the Church but was obliged by ill-health to abandon it. He served as teacher first among the Indians, and then at Walpack and Dansbury in the Minisinks among white settlers, doing evangelistic work there also, 1745-47. There his first wife, Mary Jones, of Philadelphia, died. Having been ordained in August, 1747, Shaw, with his second wife, Mary Heap, of Philadelphia, started with Huber for St. Thomas to enter missionary service, and with him they were lost at sea in October.
WERNER, CHRISTIAN. Was employed as sick-nurse in schools, at farm-work, and as a care-taker and watchman about the church premises at Bethlehem. He married Anna Maria Brandner who with Neubert and others followed the Sea Con- gregation to Pennsylvania in September, 1742. He died at Bethlehem in 1783. His wife preceded him in 1760.
WIESNER, GEORGE. Returned with Zinzendorf to Europe in 1743 as an atten- dant on the voyage.
WITTKE, MATTHEW. Was employed mainly in agricultural work at the stations on the Barony of Nazareth and at Friedensthal. He and Wiesner seem to have been the only two members of the colony who figured as "illiterate" to the extent of having to "make their mark" in lieu of writing their names, in the State House at Philadelphia, when they arrived.
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A HISTORY OF BETHLEHEM, PENNSYLVANIA.
It may be added that, under the system of the time, all of those who served as itinerants, or were stationed for brief periods at different places, were employed at Bethlehem during intervals, at various duties, some in laboring at their trades others at whatever work was most pressing, from time to time, and that they were able to do.
Adolph Meyer, Joachim Sensemann and Daniel Neubert, who was to come with them, but first arrived in September, were among the people connected with the Holstein attempts and with Heerendyk in Holland.
Of the following members of this colony, descendants of the name are known, living at Bethlehem or elsewhere: David Bishop, Michael Miksch, Owen Rice, Joachim Sensemann, Joseph Moeller.
CHAPTER VI.
FROM THE ORGANIZATION TO THE RETURN OF SPANGENBERG.
1742-1744.
On June 15, after the adjournment of the Pennsylvania Synod, Anton Seiffert, with several of the new-comers who were carpenters, hurried off to Bethlehem to help Father Nitschmann and his few assistants complete the necessary work at the Community House. On Whit-Sunday, June 17, the colony assembled in Germantown at a lovefeast in the house of the clock-maker Endt, where the first "Conference of Religions" had been held. It was occupied at this time by Gotthard Demuth and Augustine Neisser who had worked at his trade with Endt.
On Whit-Monday, thirty-five of them started together for the Forks. Boehler and his wife, with all of the English members of the colony, and Bryzelius and his wife, remained temporarily in Phil- adelphia, where Boehler took the place of Pyrlaeus who went along to Bethlehem. That company reached Skippack in the evening and remained there over night. At four o'clock the next morning they were again on the way to Falkner's Swamp. When they reached the home of Henry Antes they were greatly fatigued, especially the women, being unused to such exertion after so many weeks on ship- board, and the weather being very warm. Antes provided wagons to convey the women and several of the less able-bodied men over the next stage of the journey to Joseph Mueller's in the Great Swamp, where they arrived in the course of the day on the 20th, and were overtaken by the wagon from Philadelphia with their heavy luggage. They made an early start from Mueller's on the 21st and at half-past ten o'clock the first detachment, the single men with one of the wagons, reached Bethlehem. The wife of Bishop Nitschmann was given a place on the wagon with the luggage. Hymns of thanksgiving were sung while they crossed the Lehigh, and Count Zinzendorf, who
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A HISTORY OF BETHLEHEM, PENNSYLVANIA.
with several other persons had preceded them on horseback, welcomed them on the other side of the stream. The rest of the colony arrived at noon. A bountiful meal was in readiness, and with grateful hearts, almost forgetting their weariness under the exhilaration of the hour, they enjoyed the first hospitality of the House of Bread.
The next day was devoted simply to bodily rest. The proceedings connected with their establishment at the place, the opening of the new epoch and the first organization of the people for communal life and for religious and secular activity, began on the 23d. It was Saturday, and was observed as a Gemeintag.1
The day must have been fully occupied with the various meetings, of which there were seven. Count Zinzendorf presided at all of them. The first was the consecration of their place of worship in the Com- munity House. In his dedicatory prayer the Count prayed "that the congregation there gathered might be a blessing to the country and that their place of prayer might be the Saviour's dwelling-place where His devoted people would go in and out." For nine years that unpretentious chapel on the second floor of the Community House was the place of worship and general assembly-room of the settle- ment. There, not only numerous hours of earnest prayer, by people whose lives were devoted to great efforts in the cause of Christ, and precious occasions of spiritual fellowship, refreshment and edification were passed, but many important deliberations on enterprises that extended to many regions of the country and even across the seas were held ; councils with deputations of Indians from various quarters took place, and one after another red man and woman of the forest rescued from heathenism and won by the love of Jesus, was baptized into His death. Its hallowed associations deserve to be perpetuated by some fit use of the place.
At the second service a sermon was preached by Zinzendorf. At the third, Gottlieb Haberecht, who had repented of his defection to the Ephrata brotherhood, and Matthias Seybold, who had likewise repented of his temporary indifference to covenant obligations, were formally restored to full fellowship. At the fourth gathering of the day, Zinzendorf addressed the people in reference to the object of founding Bethlehem as a missionary center; explaining that it was not to be a place for persons to locate in at ease, as some inhabitants of Herrnhut erroneously thought of that place. He also gave them
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