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 2
Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28 | Part 29 | Part 30 | Part 31 | Part 32 | Part 33 | Part 34 | Part 35 | Part 36 | Part 37 | Part 38 | Part 39 | Part 40 | Part 41 | Part 42 | Part 43 | Part 44 | Part 45 | Part 46 | Part 47 | Part 48 | Part 49 | Part 50 | Part 51 | Part 52 | Part 53 | Part 54 | Part 55 | Part 56 | Part 57 | Part 58 | Part 59 | Part 60 | Part 61 | Part 62 | Part 63 | Part 64 | Part 65 | Part 66 | Part 67 | Part 68 | Part 69 | Part 70 | Part 71 | Part 72 | Part 73 | Part 74 | Part 75 | Part 76 | Part 77 | Part 78 | Part 79 | Part 80 | Part 81 | Part 82 | Part 83 | Part 84 | Part 85 | Part 86
* ERRATUM. Two chapters of manuscript were consolidated without changing the numbering of the next three. XVI-XVIII, in the volume, should be XV-XVII.
xiv
CONTENTS.
CHAPTER XVI.
TRANSITION FROM CHURCH-VILLAGE TO BOROUGH, 1826-1845.
Reconstruction Planned - Marks of Progress -- Coal Industries - The Canal - Old South Bethlehem - Fourth of July, 1826 - American Colonization Society - Young Men's Missionary Society - Home Mission Society - Financial De- pression - Complications with Leases - Public Schools - Bleck's Academy - Philharmonic Society - Bethlehem Bands- Village Government - The Water- works - The Fire Department - Goepp's Financial Policy - Properties Sold - Associations of Sand Island - Historic Industries - Great Freshet, 1841 - Beth- lehem's Centennial - Financial Crash - Abolition of Lease System - Incor- poration of Borough, Pages 640-682
CHAPTER XVII.
THREE DECADES OF PROGRESS, 1846-1876.
Ground-rents and Sales - Moravian Church Re-organization - Division of Property - Changes in Church Buildings- Nisky Hill Cemetery - Beginnings of Other Churches in Bethlehem - Other Religious Work - Young Men's Christian Association - New Parochial School Building - Van Kirk's Academy - Schwartz's Academy - Public Schools and Teachers - Music and Art - The Press of the Bethlehems- Municipal Improvements-Hotels - Island - Boats - Piano Factory - Brass Works, . Pages 683-717
CHAPTER XVIII.
THREE DECADES OF PROGRESS, CONTINUED, 1846-1876.
South Side Beginnings - Farms Sold - The Water Cure - Fontainebleau - The Zinc Works - Railroads - Iron Industries - Proposed Government Foundry - Bethlehem Iron Company - South Bethlehem Incorporated - Gas and Water Company - South Bethlehem Schools - Lehigh University - Bishop- thorpe- St. Luke's Hospital - South Bethlehem Churches- New Street and Broad Street Bridges -Great Freshet, 1862 - Railroads, North Side - Banks - Post-office - The Civil War - First Troops from Bethlehem - War-time Ad- vertising - Moravian Woolen Mills - Impressive Scenes- Union League - Battle of Gettysburg - Christian Commission - Close of the War - Decoration Day - Grand Army Post - National Centennial, . Pages 718-754
CHAPTER XIX.
A CENTURY AND A HALF COMPLETED, 1877-1892.
Features of New Period - Small-pox Epidemic - Borough of West Bethlehem - West Side Schools and Churches - Industrial Progress - Silk Mills - Electric Light - Street Improvement - New Bridge Projects - Electric Cars - Fire and Water Departments - New School Houses - New Theological Seminary - Musical Achievements - Anniversaries - Comenius Celebration - Columbus Celebration - Sesqui-Centennial of Bethlehem - Municipal and Ecclesiastical Preparations - Festival Described - Zinzendorf Bi-Centenary - Close of Nine- teenth Century, Pages 755-776
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS.
PAGE.
PAGE.
THE THREE CHURCHES, . . Frontispiece ANCIENT SEAL OF THE UNITAS FRATRUM, 5
EPISCOPAL SEAL, 1902,
6
COUNT ZINZENDORF, .
20
DAVID NITSCHMANN, (Episc.).
30
CERTIFICATE OF SAVANNAH LOTS,
33
PETER BOEHLER,
.
38
.
THE WHITEFIELD HOUSE, .
53
THE FIRST HOUSE OF BETHLEHEM,
60
DAVID NITSCHMANN, (Sen.)
64
TITLE PAGE OF TEXT BOOK, 1767,
120
PAGE OF BETHLEHEM DIARY, .
. 134
FRENCH HORN, .
172
AUG. G. SPANGENBERG,
. 178
GROUP OF PORTRAITS,
184
GROUP OF PORTRAITS,
. 190
CROWN INN RELICS, .
229
ITINERARY MAP OF PENNA., .
. 236
APOTHECARY'S UTENSILS, 1752,.
256
INDIANS' HOUSES AND BAPTISM, .
. 258
GROUP OF PORTRAITS,
266
THE FAMILY HOUSE,
. 284
BETHLEHEM, 1750, 1755,
290
TROMBONE,
. 331
PLOT OF 1757, .
344
INDIANS' SIGNATURES,
. 346
BETHLEHEM LANDS, 1761,
352
BETHLEHEM, 1757, .
. 358
THE SUN INN,
360
ZEISBERGER PREACHING TO THE
INDIANS, . 368
COMMUNION SERVICE, .
. 385
PLAN OF BETHLEHEM, 1758,
391
FIRE ENGINE, .
. 400
WIDOWS' HOUSE VIEWS, .
410
BETHLEHEM, 1767, 1784,.
. 430
FIRST HOUSE AND ADJOINING
BUILDING OF 1776, . . 443
ORDER OF SAFE-GUARD,.
466
LETTER FROM GEN. WASHINGTON,
478
JOHN ETTWEIN VS. COL. CROPPER,
480
LETTER OF HORATIO GATES, .
. 491
JOHN ETTWEIN, .
504
GEORGE WASHINGTON,
. 518
GROUP OF PORTRAITS, .
522
YOUNG LADIES' SEMINARY OF 1790,
. 550
LETTER OF GEORGE WASHINGTON, .
518
BETHLEHEM, 1793, 1795,
. 564
THE MORAVIAN CHURCH, 1806,
576
GROUP OF PORTRAITS,
. 580
BETHLEHEM, 1805, 1810, .
. 582
MORAVIAN COLLEGE AND THEOLOG-
ICAL SEMINARY,
. 592
BETHLEHEM, 1810,
594
GROUP OF PORTRAITS,
. 598
BETHLEHEM, 1830, 1848,
628
STAGE LINE,
. 630
CALYPSO ISLAND, 1832,
632
EAGLE HOTEL, .
. 634
BETHLEHEM, .
640
GROUP OF PORTRAITS,
. 662
CHARLES D. BISHOP, .
666
CALYPSO ISLAND, 1850, .
· 668
MOUNTAIN PATH AND THE SPRING,
670
MAIN STREET, 1842,
. 672
GROUP OF PORTRAITS,
674
GROUP OF PORTRAITS,
. 680
BETHLEHEM, 1850, 1851,
682
MONOCACY VIEWS,
. 684
GROUP OF PORTRAITS,
686
BETHLEHEM, 1852, .
. 688
GROUP OF PORTRAITS,
694
GROUP OF PORTRAITS,
. 700
SCHOOL BUILDINGS, .
704
FIRST PUBLIC SCHOOL HOUSE,
. 706
BETHLEHEM VIEWS, .
708
MAIN STREET, .
. 710
GROUP OF PORTRAITS, 714
THE SOUTH SIDE, 1852, 1872,
. 718
GROUP OF PORTRAITS,
720
GROUP OF PORTRAITS,
. 726
GROUP OF PORTRAITS,
728
FRANCIS WOLLE, .
. 732
THE FRESHET OF 1862, 736
GROUP OF PORTRAITS.
. 746
EDM. A. DE SCHWEINITZ, 752
TWO PUBLIC SCHOOL BUILDINGS, .
. 760
TWO PUBLIC SCHOOL BUILDINGS,
762
GROUP OF PORTRAITS,
. 764
CHAPTER I.
INTRODUCTION.
Pennsylvania stood foremost among the primitive commonwealths of the United States in presenting favorable conditions to many kinds of particular associations and undertakings. Therefore it most readily afforded a home to a settlement like Bethlehem, unique in some striking features but in its essential and lasting characteristics fully at one with the best elements of the Province.
It is proposed to treat of the origin, founding and growth of this settlement viewed not in its isolation but in its connections, ante- cedent and contemporary. Accordingly the effort may properly be introduced by a cursory survey of the situation previously developed in the Province.
Cosmopolitan ideas, broad tolerance and philanthropy entered conspicuously into the large plans on which the Province was founded, and the severe tests to which the hosts attracted by the proffered liberty subjected them worked out problems of vital importance. Discordant and rival elements abused the privileges and so tried the ideal scheme that for a time its failure seemed inevitable, but the people thus brought together learned finally that they could affiliate and produced a result that fulfilled the dreams and vindicated the faith of the projectors. This, in brief, was the process of the colonial period of Pennsylvania to which so many races and languages, so many social and religious factors, such a variety of special designs and movements contributed.
In the bold venture to invite together such a heterogeneous mass, with so little discrimination or restriction, and to undertake the fusion of this mass into a composite citizenship on the principle that the greatest good of the greatest number must be sought in all things, Penn with his commonwealth anticipated the future great Republic. The Pennsylvania experiment was in this respect the first lesson in what would be the experiment of the Nation.
Its plan took high rank among the products of advanced thought in that age in which the modern structures of Christian civilization
2
2
A HISTORY OF BETHLEHEM, PENNSYLVANIA.
were slowly arising out of the chaotic ruins left by the Thirty-years' War. Nowhere in the new world did peoples directly involved in those protracted religious and political struggles of the seventeenth century figure so largely as in the region entered through the gate- way of the Delaware River. The pioneers of its earliest settlements bore the flags of two nations which were prominent during those troublous decades as advocates of humane principles and as friends of the helpless and the down-trodden, the fugitive and the exile.
Holland, the first to colonize on the shores of the Delaware, had a keen eye to material gain and less to say, in proclamations, charters and advertisements, than some other nations, about propagating the gospel, but was beyond any other the refuge of persecuted religion- ists chased like hunted beasts from one dominion to another; and, having suffered so grievously herself, turned a sympathizing ear to the cry of the bleeding masses over whose heads the chariots of war had so long rolled to and fro.
There, during the latter part of the seventeenth century, Puritans and Quakers, Mennonites, Labadists and Tunkers found shelter and received help to cross the ocean. Thither fled multitudes from the Rhine Palatinate, from Silesia and the North German country, together with impoverished Waldenses and exiles from Bohemia and Moravia, bereft of everything to live from or worth living for at home, and glad to find a spot where even bare existence was possible.
The salt of the land, sturdy yeomanry from the desolate fields, in- telligent craftsmen and skilled artisans from the ruined cities and the villages sacked and burned, nobles of ancient name reduced to beg- gary, learned schoolmen, philosophers and theologians made up those expatriated hosts who were fed and clothed in the Netherlands, where the conviction that all men were created equal produced the leading effort of the time to educate the masses, accorded to men the right to have a conscience, permitted them to think and express their thoughts, to formulate the many-sided truth as they appre- hended it, and to worship God in the manner that satisfied their minds and hearts.
How numerously these mixed multitudes, who caught new breath and learned to hope again in Holland, entered into the early popula- tion of Pennsylvania, and how largely by the help of Holland they reached this country, history has often told. The settlement to be called New Amstel, which later became New Castle on the Dela- ware, elaborately planned by the Dutch during their second brief
3
INTRODUCTION.
occupation of the region, was to be especially an asylum for such, and the Dutch West India Company expected great advantage to the colony by the acquisition of settlers like these, with character which could neither be bought nor crushed.
Sweden's more substantial settlements on the Delaware originated in the plans of the great Gustavus Adolphus, who, as the ultimate champion of the Protestant forces, had given the decisive turn to the struggles of the time. He not only thought to reap material benefit for his country and to evangelize the heathen, but also to offer a place of refuge beyond the sea to the sufferers of desolated regions and the homeless exiles whose tribulation awakened his sym- pathy and aroused his fiery indignation. His plans were modified by narrower spirits who carried them into execution after his un- timely and lamented death, and rigid confessionalism curtailed some- what the terms he would have offered to men of different creeds, yet his successors colonized with other aims than merely the gratifi- cation of avarice or political ambition. They helped to establish the precedent of toleration which distinguished the future Province. They anticipated the principle of William Penn, that the land must be purchased of its savage possessors or at least acquired with their free consent, whatever grant or patent might otherwise be held. They also made the first attempt to evangelize the natives of the region and to translate Christian literature into their language.
The Dutch and the Swedes did, it is true, quarrel in unseemly man- ner about their claims, so vague and contradictory in language, and both of them quarreled with the English who several times tried to get foothold on this middle coast before the time and the man ap- peared to introduce the best spirit of England, yet from the first, more largely than elsewhere, Christian motives and philanthropic impulses bore a part to be perpetuated in the first constitution of the "state prayer-founded" in which at last "the sectary yielded to the citizen and peaceful dwelt the many-creeded men."
When finally the nation mightier than Holland or Sweden acquired the whole country drained by the Delaware and its tributaries and the power of Great Britain inspired confidence in the new order, the oppressed, the impoverished and the down-trodden, little benefited by the reconstructions thus far effected in their countries and believ- ing that the statements and offers of the noble-minded Proprietary could be trusted, began to come in by thousands; and the long- mooted idea of a new, free state in which sufferers for conscience'
4
A HISTORY OF BETHLEHEM, PENNSYLVANIA.
sake, strugglers in the cause of liberty and enterprising home-seekers might find the desire of their hearts, began to be realized.
Then it came to pass that the scheme of peace with freedom at first produced a spectacle of turmoil. The population increased in number and diversity beyond the provisions for ordering and unify- ing it. Many who had never known what freedom was were not capable of using it peaceably. There came troublesome agitators, reckless adventurers and worthless vagabonds who could not be kept out. These exerted a pernicious influence among the masses who had been accustomed to look upon all authority in state or church as tyranny to be submitted to only under sullen protest if too strong to be violently resisted, and consequently regarded all efforts to establish order as but so many acts of oppression.
The conflicts of the generations before them having been mainly conflicts with ecclesiastical tyranny, these people for the most part held the inherited idea that religious liberty was the greatest boon to be sought. Therefore the confusion and strife which marked the early periods of the Pennsylvania experiment prevailed most con- spicuously in the domain of religion. Bigotry and intolerance were intensified among the adherents of the dominant confessions. A morbid propensity to follow pretending prophets, to indulge in mys- tical vagaries, to embrace startling novelties of doctrine, to become fanatical in specialties and to multiply conventicles was developed among those who turned away from the old church-establishments or were forced out of them by repressive measures. The atmosphere of the age had bred an epidemic of religious extravagancies which continued far into the eighteenth century. The multitude of sects goaded by persecution ran to extremes in the defence and promulga- tion of their distinctive tenets and many became the persecutors of each other where they could. No religious body that strove for something more than mere theoretical orthodoxy or outward con- formity to church-order escaped entirely the infection of fanaticism.
All this, when transplanted out of the repressing conditions of the old world into the new Province of Pennsylvania, where all persua- sions could assert themselves, produced a religious babel. At the same time many who associated established churches with the old tyranny from which they had fled, while they were repelled by the wrangling of sects and separatists, discarded all religion and became practically atheists.
5
INTRODUCTION.
At the most confused and uncertain stage, when those who had no faith in the Pennsylvania plan called the Province bedlam and predicted the triumph of anarchy, the men who founded Bethlehem appeared upon the scene to seek a place in this region of great oppor- tunities and to undertake their part in helping to work out the prob- lem of its future. They came with a definite purpose which was in accord with the highest aspirations of its best people. Persons of several nationalities were among them, but no colonists in the coun- try were more closely bound together. Their organization was com- paratively new, but they had back of them a history recalled by the name1 they bore which had its beginning before America was discov- ered; the history of a religious body which Holland, Sweden and England had known as a disrupted church in exile for more than a hundred years. None had suffered more terribly in the Thirty- years' War than the spiritual fore-fathers of these men. No banner carried through the conflicts of the previous three hundred years was more pierced and rent than was their historic banner with legend and device2 calling them to follow the Lamb whose sacrifice for humanity was destined to result in mighty conquests by love.
SEQUAMUR
VICI
7
EUM
AG NUS
LSON
Ancient Seal of the Unitas Fratrum.
Now these colonists came bearing it into the new world to proclaim true liberty with true brotherhood under the dominion of the con- quering Lamb. All their undertakings were subordinate to this central purpose. Their position was not readily understood. Men
I From the first they were most commonly called "the Moravians" by English speaking people in the American colonies.
2 The episcopal seal of the Church has upon it a shield with the figure of a lamb carrying a cross from which is suspended a banner of victory, and around the shield is the motto : Vicit Agnus noster, Eum sequamur, i.e., Our Lamb hath conquered, Him let us follow.
6
A HISTORY OF BETHLEHEM, PENNSYLVANIA.
differed widely in their attitude towards them, for both good report and evil report had preceded them across the ocean, and they were soon the most highly praised and the most bitterly denounced people in the Province.
The material benefits which their settlement brought to the region were speedily recognized by those in authority. In a short time their name carried with it high credit in business circles. Their educational efforts won for them the respect of the most intelligent persons and their missionary activity excited the interest of the philanthropic, while many sick of sectarian strife were attracted by the preaching of their itinerants who avoided polemics.
On the other hand a variety of misrepresentations and calumnies circulated in print by prejudiced and unscrupulous ecclesiastics in Europe found eager agents for their propagation in Pennsylvania, where the conditions that existed so greatly favored such work. One decried them as wild visionaries and dangerous fanatics. Another hurled denunciations at them as disseminators of grievous heresies. Another agitated the passage of laws against them as Papists in disguise. They paid little heed to these things, for their spiritual ancestors had encountered fiercer onslaughts than these.
In the Indian's wigwam, in the settler's cabin, in the hut of the despised negro, among churchmen, sectarians and separatists of every nationality, creed and name, in the town and the forest, where- ever they found people who would listen, these men of Bethlehem preached the one gospel of the cross, advocated union of heart around this standard, with cessation of controversy on non-essential dif- ferences, and sought to ally the well-meaning of all parties in efforts for the common good. The period of their arrival and first attempts constituted an epoch in the religious life of the Province.
Who were these people and whence came they? What were their antecedents and associations? Correct knowledge in reference to these questions is necessary in order to understand the history of Bethlehem.
The Episcopal Seal, 1902.
CHAPTER II.
THE UNITAS FRATRUM OR MORAVIAN CHURCH. A.D. 1457-1735.
The founders of Bethlehem represented a Church variously known as the Brethren's Church, the Unitas Fratrum, the Bohemian and Moravian Brethren, the Church of the United Brethren and the Moravian Church.1 It arose in the fifteenth century in the twin countries of Bohemia and Moravia, lying mountain-encircled in the heart of Europe, small in area but long the theatre of great events.
For more than seven hundred years their history had been one of successive struggles for freedom and for the preservation of their primitive Christianity in character and form.
What their first evangelists, Cyrill and Methodius of the Greek Church gave them in the ninth century; what Rome deprived them of in the eleventh century, the Bohemian Reformation came so near restoring at the opening of the fifteenth century that the Papal authorities resorted to the desperate measure of burning the intrepid leader John Hus at the stake July 6, 1415, to intimidate the uprising hosts. The subsequent contentions were partly political, partly re-
I The original Bohemian name was Jednota Bratrska. The word Jednota means associ- ation of any kind. It was chosen instead of Cirkev (church) in deference to the National Church, as Unitas was later used as a Latin equivalent of Jednota - both meaning what is meant by Church in the restricted sense, as applied to single church divisions or denomina- tions in America. Unitas passed into German as Unitaet. Hence Jednota Bratrska = Unitas Fratrum= Brueder Unitaet=Brethren's Unity, but all meaning simply Brethren's Church in the sense just stated. In the 18th century the Latin title was revived in negotiations with England, with its meaning construed to denote union ideas, in view from the first, leading to its selection with this especially in mind. This has been shown to be unhistorical and has been officially abandoned; the General Synod, since 1889, having ceased to set forth a sharp difference between the terms Brethren's Church and Brethren's Unity. The German branch of the Church calls its corporate whole a Unitaet instead of a Kirche (church) for reasons deemed important, but where no State Church exists there is no occasion to affect this oddity. Church of the United Brethren is the English title adopted in the 18th century when the superfluous word " united" was thought necessary to adequately render Unitas Fratrum. Its retention in legal titles and some Church formularies is unfortunate in the
7
8
A HISTORY OF BETHLEHEM, PENNSYLVANIA.
ligious. The Four Articles of Prague (1421) which declared for unhindered worship and preaching in the vernacular ; the communion cup to the laiety ; secular power taken from the clergy; discipline impartially maintained among all ranks and classes, became the general platform of the Hussite patriots. Two main parties arose.
United States, because of confusion with a quite different modern denomination, the United Brethren in Christ. There being also other claimants for even the simple and correct name Brethren's Church, and the title Unitas Fratrum being not suited for popular use, the name MORAVIAN CHURCH, gradually adopted in England and America, seems to be a survival of the fittest among English-speaking people. In America particularly, where nearly all religious bodies trace their origin to some foreign country, its use is not open to the same objection which a Saxon or Prussian would raise against calling his church Die Maehrische Kirche. The use of "Moravian" in America to denote ecclesiastical descent is sustained by the following considerations :
I. Such a geographical or ethnical designation-Anglican, Roman, German, Moravian, Gal- lican, etc., like Judean, Syrian, Galatian, Roman, etc., in the primitive Church-is more consis- tent with the idea of one Church Universal than special titles which either recall dissension, strife and schism, or obtrude some peculiarity of doctrine, polity or ritual, or suggest an eccentric con- venticle, or were formed from the name of a man, or were first mere epithets either of cant or reproach.
2. The "hidden seed" of the suppressed Unitas Fratrum in Moravia sprang from the residue of the only body which after the middle of the 17th century could be called the Moravian Church in the sense of local origin and character. The Utraquist Church of the realm was in decay, never to be revived. The Roman hierarchy was an invading foreign power. The Protestant bodies under limited toleration there represented confessions and affiliations of neighboring states in which they originated.
3. That "hidden seed" of Moravia principally furnished the nucleus of the first congre- gation with which the modern resuscitation of the Church began in Saxony. Their patron Count Zinzendorf continually called them "the Moravians," the Church of their fathers " the Moravian Church," and five of their chief men who emigrated together to seek a place where they might reorganize it, "the five Moravian Churchmen."
4. Zinzendorf's scheme of combining elements fostered three historic cults which he called Tropi Pædias - a Lutheran, a Reformed and a "Moravian-Episcopal " Tropus. Under the latter he classed all elements in the make-up of the modern Church derived from the ancient Unitas.
5. The episcopate of the Church preserved from extinction in the 17th century mainly through the efforts of Comenius, the most distinguished native Moravian of his time and the pre-eminent Moravian bishop of the Unitas, over against its Bohemian and Polish bishops, was passed on by his grandson, Jablonsky, to one of those five Moravian Churchmen, David Nitschmann, the first bishop of the Church after its resuscitation, its first bishop in America and the official founder of its first American settlement.
Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.