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 18
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While the Brethren, under their system cultivated a certain kind of exclusiveness, especially in reference to their affairs- and people are usually suspicious of social or religious organizations about which they cannot find out much-these neighbors, as well as those in other directions, had evidences enough of the good-will of the Bethlehem people and of their desire to be correctly understood in all matters of which people had a right to expect information. This desire led to the introduction of English preaching directly after the organization of Bethlehem. People who might be served in that way were given the benefit of it, and opportunity was afforded for all to hear what the doctrines of the Brethren really were. This also induced them to set Sunday dinners, at first, before all who gathered from a distance, whether well or ill-disposed, out of resources far from abundant. Not the least of the services rendered by Bethlehem to its surroundings, from the time of its organization on, consisted in the stated tours made by its physician over an extensive region, from the Minisinks, even beyond the Delaware, down to Durham.
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One of the causes some of the men at Bethlehem unwit- tingly gave their Calvinistic neighbors to say harsh things about them, had an aspect almost comical. While the word Sabbath, according to old German usage, meant-and quite correctly -the seventh day, to the minds of the Bethlehem people, these neighbors, like all, then and now, who follow Puritan tradition in this matter, called Sunday the Sabbath. The German and the Scotch idea about the manner of Sunday observance differed. Those neigh- bors, ever vigilant and seeking an occasion for censure, accused certain Brethren of "Sabbath breaking." These, when they heard it, supposed that the degree of honor they were paying, for reasons already explained, to the seventh day, or Sabbath, in addition to the first day, was not giving satisfaction to their exacting neighbors. Therefore, at first, in trying to conciliate them and remove the stumbling-block, they rested yet more carefully on Saturday, while it did not occur to them that they must take more pains to conform to Puritanical views of the Lord's Day. Hence their well-meant efforts only made matters worse. At last it became clear to them that the Sabbath breaking of which they were accused had reference to Sunday, and they were admonished by the Elder to give more heed to their ways on that day. In all particulars, they were com- pelled to be very circumspect, for they were under the close scrutiny of critics, from every standpoint, among the throngs who visited Bethlehem, inspecting everything and holding inquisition. The naive and the less prudent among them had to be cautioned often about being over-communicative, entering into discussions and trying to explain everything about which questions were asked.
Some canards afloat were traced to the gossip of certain unprincipled and ungrateful redemptioners employed at Bethlehem, who wished to entertain the curious with embellished accounts of things, and even circulated malicious falsehoods, out of revenge, when they were discharged for unseemly conduct. It was then insisted upon by Zinzendorf that this class of employes be dispensed with, and that, in future, if the Brethren released any more such persons from a hard bondage, they be simply set free to go their own way. He broached the idea of rather, in order to procure the needed "servants," purchasing slaves among whom missionaries were laboring in St. Thomas, and then freeing and regularly hiring them. He added: "We may thus also show a certain author who has written a work against slavery, our manner of dealing with the negroes."
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Occasional strolling bands of Indians were, during the first weeks after the organization of the place, the most interesting of all the visitors. About the middle of July, some such were escorted into the chapel, where some of the Brethren entertained them with instru- mental music, and then tried to speak to them about the Saviour- probably showing them the picture that had been placed against the wall-and sang hymns for them. On that occasion the thought of sending some one to live among the savages to learn their language was discussed. This was shortly before Count Zinzendorf's first journey into the Indian country, on which he started with a selected company on July 24. Two days before that, he made the proposition to Henry Almers that he devote himself to this under- taking, and he was at once ready to do so, but for some reason this plan was not carried out.
That first tour of the Count was chiefly important in the covenant he made with the representatives of the Six Nations whom he met at Conrad Weiser's in Tulpehocken on August 3. There he received from them the famous belt of Wampum, which he took to England, and in 1743, passed over to Spangenberg, who brought it back to Pennsylvania and made important use of it. On that occasion the Count, in turn, gave those chiefs a token by which they might iden- tify any of his brethren who came among them, for they would have a duplicate to authenticate themselves. It was a seal inscribed with the words Jesus Jehovah, to be stamped in wax.
He returned to Bethlehem, August 7 and, three days later, set out on his second tour, from which he returned, August 30. This journey was through parts of New York and extended to Rauch's mission at Shekomeko. He had his daughter and Anna Nitschmann with him, besides Anton Seiffert and several attendants. On this journey he was arrested by a constable on the charge of "breaking the Sabbath," because some spies found him writing in his tent on Sunday evening. He was taken before a village "squire" and fined six shillings. Constable and justice got their fees and certain preachers had a new text to use against the Moravians, and so all were made happy.
The accounts given of these tours at Bethlehem awakened the greatest enthusiasm for the extensive plans of missionary work among the red men of the forest that were now being discussed. His final Indian tour on which he started, September 21-by far the longest and most perilous-was that to the upper
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Susquehanna and into the Wyoming Valley which was then a terra incognita to white men, excepting perhaps an occasional venturesome trapper or trader. On that journey he encountered heathenism and savagery in their darkest colors, endured not only very great privation and hardship but imminent peril of his life, for the fierce tribes of those regions, among whom he there ventured, were a different kind of men from the Indians of the lowlands. Conrad Weiser joined his party at Tulpehocken and was with them on part of the tour. They visited the large Indian town of Shamokin, met the famous Madame Montour at Ostonwakin, and passed twenty days among the treacherous, blood-thirsty Shawanese of Wajomik, where no white man had before set foot. There occurred the incident recorded by Martin Mack, who was with Zinzendorf-and so often repeated with variations-in which the Shawanese were said to have been impressed by the thought that the Great Spirit was protecting him and that he had a charmed life. Be this as it may, the hand of God was held over him in protection against them-far more dang- erous than the serpents. Mack's unembellished narrative is the following:4 "The tent was pitched on an eminence, one fine sunny day, as the Disciple sat on the ground within, looking over his papers that lay scattered about him, and as the rest of us were outside, I observed two blowing adders basking at the edge of the tent. Fearing that they might crawl in, I moved toward them, intending to dispatch them. They were, however, too quick for me, slipped into the tent,
4 The translation of Mack's statement given by W. C. Reichel, Memorials of the Moravian Church, p. 106, has been followed. The Disciple - der Jünger - was the name given in later years to Zinzendorf. In a collection of verses written by the Count at that period are some treating of American experiences-among them two relating to this famous journey. One verse alludes to this incident-to the serpents and to the fiction of the Indians about the silver ore :
Des Zeltes erster Ruheplatz Das waren Dorn und Disteln, Der dritte ein verborg'ner Schatz, Wo Blaseschlangen nisten.
Two others yet more graphically depict the situation :
Dort in der Fläche Wajomick, Auf einem wüsten Ackerstück, Wo Blaseschlangen nisteten, Und ihre Bälge brüsteten ;
Auf einem silbererznen Grund, Wo's Leibes Leben misslich stund, Da dachten wir : wir sähen gern, Das würde eine Stadt des Herrn.
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and, gliding over the Disciple's thigh, disappeared among his papers. On examination we ascertained that he had been seated near the mouth of their den. Subsequently the Indians informed me that our tent was pitched on the site of an old burying-ground in which hundreds of Indians lay buried. They also told us that there was a deposit of silver ore in the hill and that we were charged by the Shawanese with having come for silver and for nothing else."
Zinzendorf and some of his party got back to Bethlehem on November 8, at eleven o'clock at night, much exhausted but filled with more fervent zeal than before for the conversion of the savages. On November 12, a long awaited missionary conference was held at Bethlehem, at which the Count unfolded the extensive and systematic scheme for carrying on this work that he had matured. His vivid account of the experiences made among the Shawanese, instead of deterring men and women, had the effect of increasing the number of volunteers for this service to fifteen. This interest had been heightened by the baptism of the two Indians from Sheko- meko on September 15, already described. Another kind of relation to representatives of this race, which has been referred to several times, was the cause of perplexity and annoyance rather than of enthusiasm at this time. Captain John and his band were yet lingering at Nazareth. The missionary Rauch and the Indian Elder John Wasamapah, on July 2, and Joseph Powell with David Zeisberger, on July 5, had interviewed them, to effect their voluntary withdrawal, but to no purpose; although the latter were armed with an order from Governor Thomas for their ejectment sent to the authorities at Bethlehem by Justice Irish on July 3. Zinzendorf, in com- municating with the Governor about it, had been disposed to pay their demands in order to bring matters to a peaceable conclusion and hold the good will of the Indians, but the strong objection of the Government prevented him from doing this.
It was insisted upon that the law must be enforced, and that such a precedent would be injurious. The objection was the more firm because, as was plainly intimated, white neighbors, inimical both to the Governor and to the Moravians, were encouraging Captain John in his stand. In July came the peremptory command to the Delawares to leave the Forks, issued, with supercilious contempt, by the chiefs of the Six Nations at Philadelphia-those chiefs whom Zinzendorf met and treated with on August 3. Tatemy and Captain John, on December I, secured permission from the Government, on the
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ground of being avowed Christians, to individually remain in the neighborhood, but it was insisted upon that the others must leave. Zinzendorf also secured tacit consent to pay them something for the rude improvements they had made, having been led, in an interview he had with Captain John when he started on his first journey into the Indian country in July, to believe that this would secure their peaceable departure, after the ultimatum they had from the Iroquois chiefs, and would prevent revengeful feelings on their part towards the Brethren as owners of the land.
December 26, 1742, Zinzendorf once more went to Nazareth, just before he finally left Bethlehem, and succeeded in bringing the negotiations to an amicable conclusion. He agreed to pay the Indians for their huts, a peach orchard and a little field of wheat, the maximum sum demanded by them when they were yet most obdurate. It was to be paid in several installments-one-third down on the closing of the agreement, and they were given permission to return and take away their little crop of Indian corn gathered into a sod- covered crib, when they wanted it. They promised, on these conditions, to depart into the Indian country, which they did before the close of the year. The written agreement, a German version of which is extant, was put into the hands of the respected Chief Tatemy, who became its custodian. Thus the Brethren at Bethlehem, remaining consistent in their respect for the Government on the one hand, and their benevolent intentions towards the Indians on the other, retained the good will of both, and effected what neither the order of the Governor nor the commands of the Iroquois chiefs-the lords of the Delawares-could have brought about amicably; while those neighbors who hoped to see the Moravians discomfited in the situation were disappointed. But the end was not yet, for when the complications of the following years raised up the Nemesis to afflict the region, there was no discrimination exer- cised by the blind fury that swung the scourge.
Plans as elaborate and comprehensive as those for the Indian missions were matured for the general evangelistic work throughout the country during that summer and autumn of 1742, and the connection of Bethlehem with many points was established. Two general conferences in reference to this work were held at Bethlehem ; one, July 11-12, and the other on November 15, which were attended by Antes and some other leading members of the Pennsylvania Synod; besides the regular session of this Synod at the house of
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Antes on October 15, already referred to. At the July conference it was more definitely settled than had been the case before on what basis the personnel of this executive body should be made up. It was followed by the formal starting out of the largest force of itinerants that had yet been organized. A result of the November conference was a clearer classification of its functions than had yet gone on record. These were, in addition to the Indian missions which constituted a distinct department, in general, five for the coming year : I, to superintend itinerant preaching; 2, to foster the work at Fredericktown, Germantown, Oley, Philadelphia and Tulpehocken ; 3, to develop a model Christian congregation at Bethlehem and later at Nazareth; 4, to oversee the Church of God in the Spirit and cultivate the union of its members among all religions ; 5, to get the special work for the children established. The active connection with so many points increased the personal intercourse of people from all quarters with Bethlehem, so that the number of visitors from September to the end of the year was very large. At the end of October a company of Mennonite Brethren made a formal call. On November 3, came Brother Elimalech (Emanuel Eckerlin) of Ephrata and remained until the 5th. It is stated in the diary that the people of Bethlehem were in perplexity about the object of his visit. Other Ephrata men came in December. Conrad Weiser visited the place November 21. The name of John Adam Luckenbach, school-master in Goshenhoppen, appears among the visitors on December 21.
Large companies came from Philadelphia and Germantown, and from many places about the country towards the end of December. On the 22nd, thirteen persons were received as members of the Brethren's Church, and on the 29th, seventeen more were thus received. They were not to become residents of Bethlehem, but to be members where they lived. During the first years it was cus- tomary for all such receptions to take place formally at Bethlehem, after which the persons returned to their homes. Among those who were received on the 29th were five men from Maguntsche and Sau- con who formed the nucleus of what later became the congregation of Emmaus. They have sometimes been styled "the Fathers of Emmaus."
The time of Zinzendorf's last sojourn at Bethlehem had now come. From December 2 to 12, he had made one more tour among the settlements, preaching seventeen times at Maguntsche, Heidel- berg, Oley, Tulpehocken and Lancaster, and had visited Ephrata.
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After his return to Bethlehem his time was closely occupied in official interviews with Bethlehem boards, itinerants, foreign missionaries, of whom several from the West Indies were there, and with persons stationed at various places in Pennsylvania. After the first evening service on December 24, there was a missionary conference, at which many new appointments, not only among the Indians but in the West Indies, were made. Five districts for work among the Indians were arranged, with as many sets of men associated with each. He called each such district set a Heiden Collegium. Christian Henry Rauch, with an Indian helper, was to make a general tour of these districts.
The vigils of Christmas Eve began at eleven o'clock. At this service, held in the chapel of the Community House, reference was made to the service of the previous year in the little log house, "when the settlement received the name Bethlehem." Special attention was drawn to the watchword of the Church for the day: "The name of the city from that day shall be Jehovah Shammah-the Lord is there." (Ezek. 48:35). Application of it was made to Beth- lehem, with the hope that the meaning of the words might there be realized. At this service the Count extemporized a chain of thirty- seven stanzas on the theme of the hour which were sung with a fervor and emotion like that of the memorable Christmas Eve service of the previous year. They were put into print with the title, "In der Christnacht zu Bethlehem, 1742," and were called "the Bethlehem Christmas hymn," also "the Pennsylvania Christmas hymn."5
The remaining days of the year were similarly occupied. On the morning of December 31, Zinzendorf officiated at morning prayer, had all who were then in Bethlehem together at a lovefeast, when general announcements in reference to the order of things at the place for the ensuing months, were made, and then had special interviews with the itinerant and local ministers, the missionaries to the heathen, the company made up to go with him to Europe, numbering thus far twenty-one persons, and with the people who constituted the settled, local congregation at Bethlehem, after which he celebrated the Holy Communion with its elders, wardens and other officials.
5 The first stanza begins with the lines :
" Glückseliger ist uns doch keine Nacht Als die uns das Wunderkind hat gebracht."
A few of these stanzas may be found in somewhat altered form in the modern German hymnals of the Church.
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Thereupon, all being in readiness for the journey, he took final leave of Bethlehem, and started for Philadelphia. He was escorted across the river by nearly all the people of the place. On the south side he paused and addressed a farewell greeting in song to the spot, went into the house of the Ysselstein family to bid adieu to them, as cherished friends, and then proceeded on his way accompanied by a number of persons. His daughter, with some of the persons who were to accompany him to Europe, left Bethlehem on New Year's Day, and the most of them went directly to New York. On January 2, the last contingent started for New York with some who were bound for St. Thomas, W. I., to engage in missionary service. This company, with the luggage, was conveyed to New York on two wagons. One of them was in charge of young David Zeisberger who was listed to accompany the Count to Europe and be employed in church service there. This incident proved to be a crisis in his life.
At New York, when all were on board, and the ship was on the point of leaving the dock, young Zeisberger was observed by Bishop David Nitschmann leaning over the rail and looking wistfully and sadly ashore. Inquiring of the young man whether he did not wish to go to Europe, Zeisberger declared plainly that he did not, but much preferred to remain in America and labor for the Lord here. Without further ado Nitschmann suggested that, if such was his feeling, he should come ashore and remain. Acting upon this suggestion he at once left the ship which sailed without him. Thus his course was led into paths on which he became the most distin- guished of all missionaries among the Indians.
Zinzendorf did not reach New York until January 13. He had a final meeting with the Executive Board of the Pennsylvania Synod, January 8, at the locality near Philadelphia known as "the Ridge." The next day he had important conferences with fellow workers in the city, and on the evening of that day, delivered a parting address to a large gathering of them in the house of John Stephen Benezet. This address which treated at length of principles and methods of work in Pennsylvania, was called by him his "Pennsylvania Testa- ment," and as such was put into print.
During the next two days he effected an organization, on a new basis, under the changed conditions, of those Lutheran families who preferred to retain the ministrations of the Brethren in connection with the Pennsylvania Synod. He closed his labors there by preaching a farewell sermon on the evening of January II, in the
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new church built at his expense on Race Street for these people and dedicated in November.
In the process of further developments this church with the congre- gation there organized, came into full connection with the Moravian Church. On that evening, in the midst of intense emotion, he left the church during the singing of the closing hymn, to avoid the ordeal of personal leave-takings, and went out to Frankford where he spent the night. The next day he proceeded on his way to New York. Reaching there on the 13th, he first visited Captain Nicholas Garrison on Staten Island, with whom he had become acquainted already in 1739 in the West Indies. He was not only an experienced and able seaman, but a noble, Christian man. This interview brought him not only into the Moravian Church, but into its service in capacities highly important and conspicuous. The Count wanted this eminently trustworthy sea captain for a special purpose. A second colony, much larger than the Sea Congregation of 1742, was to be transported to Pennsylvania from Europe on a ship to be purchased for the use of the church. Garrison was asked to accompany Zinzen- dorf to Europe and take command of this enterprise. He looked upon it as a duty that had come to him, and he got ready and went along a week later.
During that week spent by Zinzendorf in New York, another important conference was held with a number of Brethren who were to take charge of affairs at Bethlehem and in Pennsylvania generally, and with missionaries there waiting for a ship to St. Thomas. In connection with this occasion there was sorrow in consequence of the unexpected death, on Staten Island, January 8, of the faithful missionary Valentine Loehans of St. Thomas, who had been occupying the few weeks before his return to the West Indies in doing evangelistic work among the negroes about New York. John Brucker, a member of the Sea Congregation, who was appointed to accompany the West India missionaries as a lay assistant, was ordained at New York by Zinzendorf, because the death of Loehans deprived them of an ordained man in that field. The arrangement then made, in accordance with the plan of the November conference, for Bethlehem and the work in Pennsylvania was an ad interim one, for the intention was that, after the new American colony had been formed and gotten on the way, Spangenberg should return to this country, locate at Bethlehem and assume charge as general superin- tendent of the whole. Boehler, who was with the Count in New
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York, having been given the appointment at that November conference, was now installed to fill this position during the interval, together with Bishop Nitschmann who was to devote himself to developing the Indian missions. Zinzendorf retained the nominal inspectorship of the Lutheran department of the Pennsylvania Synod's work, but Boehler, while entrusted with the local oversight at Bethlehem, was made Vice-Inspector of that Lutheran work, Syndic, or Moderator of the Synod, and one of the four directors of the whole. On Sunday, January 20, Zinzendorf and his company with Captain Garrison and his daughter sailed from New York on the ship James, Captain Ketteltas, for London. They reached England in safety on February 17.6
Boehler, in accordance with arrangements, remained a few weeks in New York to preach. In consequence of the persistent agitation of those ministers who were carrying on the crusade against "the Moravians," he was subjected to gross indignity in being ordered out of the city as "a vagabond" by the authorities; and almost to personal violence like that which Pyrlaeus suffered in Philadelphia as the outcome of the Rev. J. P. Boehm's similar crusade. A few years later these demonstrations of narrow bigotry and fanatical intolerance reacted against those clerics, and made friends for the Brethren among the authorities and the people generally.
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