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 20
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A HISTORY OF BETHLEHEM, PENNSYLVANIA.
The next morning Captain Gladman reached Bethlehem with his company. "They walked very lame and feeble, but were all cheerful and happy." Shortly after them came two young men, one of them Cook the Italian sailor, who had passed the night at Nazareth. In the afternoon the two Bethlehem wagons came with eleven of the women and several men who had quite given out. Then friends from Saucon, Maguntsche and the Great Swamp began to come in to wel- come them to Pennsylvania. In the evening the whole company assembled and listened with great interest to the reading of Buettner's diary of the Shekomeko mission, lately received at Bethlehem. The next day, December 8, the last of them, sixteen persons, arrived; among them the one mother who had a little child with her to care for.
On Monday, December 9, twenty carpenters went to Nazareth to finish the work on "the stone house" as rapidly as possible. Antes was now in Bethlehem giving the benefit of his judgment and experi- ence in connection with various new questions occasioned by the coming of this colony, and the undertakings that were being delayed until this time. Captain Garrison having accomplished his mission, returned to his home. That same day another man, subsequently of prominence and importance, arrived at Bethlehem. This was James Burnside, of Savannah, Georgia, referred to in chapter III.
The house at Nazareth having been gotten ready for occupancy, thirty-two young married couples,11 on January 2, 1744, started together for Nazareth to locate there and organize. They all went afoot, the men in advance with axes, making a better road through the woods than had existed before-the first public road between the two places was not laid out by order of Court until March, 1745- the women following with provision for a meal on the way. It was evening when they reached their destination. Bishop Nitschmann, Boehler, Seiffert and Nathanael Seidel were there to usher them into their new quarters. With their first evening prayer at the close of that day was combined the consecration of the chapel in that large building, which for many years, was the place of worship, ordinarily, for the entire population of the Barony of Nazareth. It was long the practice to go to Bethlehem on all communion occasions and special festival days. The next day, January 3, the first organiza- tion took place. In accordance with the express wish of Count Zin-
11 This company consisted of all enumerated in note 8 under the first section, excepting Brandmiller, Hoepfner, J. W. Michler, Opitz, Otto, Wagner, Wahnert, and their wives.
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zendorf, Dr. Adolph Meyer was installed as Warden, with also his- professional headquarters at Nazareth; for another physician, a son of a physician and surgeon, and bringing a doctor's degree in medi- cine from Halle, had arrived with the new colony and was now to locate at Bethlehem. This was John Frederick Otto, M.D.12
The heavy luggage of the colonists and sundry other articles. brought over on the Little Strength had been transported by water from the hold of the vessel to a warehouse at New Brunswick. Numerous trips were made by the Bethlehem wagons during Janu- ary and February, until this considerable quantity of freight was con- veyed to Bethlehem. With one of the loads, on January 25, came a spinet presented by an English member of the Church, William Peter Knolton, fanmaker, of London, and later, for a few years, of Phila- delphia. This first musical instrument of the kind in Bethlehem was the forerunner of its ultimate abundant piano-forte equipment, as well as of the small, portable organ (Orgel positiv) of just two years later-made for the place, brought from Philadelphia and set up by the Moravian organ-builder, John Gottlob Klemm, then of Philadel- phia, formerly a teacher of boys at Herrnhut, who had become estranged from Zinzendorf and emigrated alone to Pennsylvania .. The spinet-so the record states-looked very dilapidated, but skilled hands were busy at once to put it together, and the next day they could use it in worship. With this episode may be associated mention of the first hints found, during the months following, of par- ticular attention given to music at Bethlehem. Stringed instruments of music were evidently brought to the settlement by some members of the first Sea Congregation, for Indians who visited the place were entertained with such music before the second colony arrived. Early in 1744, there are traces of organized vocal music and of occurrences in connection therewith which some persons imagine are associated only with modern church choirs, for already, in the month of Feb- ruary, a misunderstanding among the singers called forth a sharp reproof from the Elder. In the following April occurs the first men- tion of the single men singing hymns outside the buildings, at dif- ferent points, on Saturday evening-a custom maintained with con-
12 This second regular physician in the Forks was the elder of two brothers of that name who figure in the history of Bethlehem. The other, whose medical degree was from Stras- burg, was Dr. John Matthew Otto who arrived from Europe in 1750. He was the more eminent and widely known as physician and surgeon. The first died at Nazareth in 1779, the second at Bethlehem in 1786.
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siderable regularity for a number of years. Later on, these twi- light serenades at the close of the week often consisted of instru- mental performances. This occurred, in connection with the vocal music, already in June following the introduction of the practice. In that same month of April, the Easter matins, at four o'clock, were accompanied with instrumental music, in the procession to the new God's acre, with its three or four graves. On December 13, 1744, after Spangenberg had come to Bethlehent and commenced to apply
FRENCH HORN OF THE XVIII. CENTURY.
his brains and heart and hands to the development of every depart- ment and the regulation of every feature of the establishment, the first formal meeting of a Collegium Musicum, then organized, took place. The musical leader at that period-before this George Neis- ser, now in Europe, and Anton Seiffert, the Elder-was Pyrlaeus, who, besides being a good singer, played the spinet and then the chamber organ, and drilled both vocalists and instrumentalists. These duties he combined with the direction of the linguistic studies of can- didates for missionary service among the Indians, already mentioned. His music-room and class-room were now in the new house of the
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1742-1744.
single men, the dedication of the site of which has been referred to. At that spot-the south-west corner of the present Sisters' House- the foundation was again staked off, after long delay on account of other building operations, on July 30, 1744. It was 30 by 50 feet. On August 9 the corner-stone was laid with solemn ceremonies, and on December 6, after the arrival of Spangenberg, it was dedicated amid great rejoicings. The work had proceeded more rapidly than that on previous buildings, for now there were more mechanics, and all the timber did not have to be hewn and split. The much-needed sawmill of the settlement was in operation. On the massive stone foundation, yet to be seen, it was raised on May 26 and on June 26 the first sawing was done. Timber cut in February and March by squads of Bethlehem axe-men far up in the forest of Pochkapochka- the Lehigh Gap and along the so-named creek, now Big Creek-was being floated down the river; and in converting it into beams and posts, rafters, joists and boards, the measured rasp and crunch of the long saw and the rumble of the water wheel driving it, succeeded, to a great extent, the ring of the broad axe on the white oak logs.
The completion of that important building, increasing accommo- dations so materially, led to some new shifting and re-arrangement. More ample quarters were secured in the women's part of the Com- munity House. Such good health had prevailed during the spring that the house, utilized since the end of February as the hospital for men, was standing vacant. This seems to have been the Demuth house built the previous autumn. The hospital had, before that, been transferred from its first quarters to a house across the river-prob- ably the vacated cabin of "the Schweitzer" Ruetschi-and then in Feb- ruary back to the north side. At the end of May the single women had taken temporary possession of the vacant hospital, and now, when the new arrangements afforded them quarters in the Commu- nity House, the school for girls was, on Christmas Day, 1744, trans- ferred to this vacant house; the new house of the single men con- taining a room for the sick.
More general and important movements were held in suspense during 1744, pending the opening of a new administration at the close of the year. Bishop Nitschmann, after making several tours of the missionary circuits among the Indians, sailed with Captain Garrison on the Little Strength for Europe from New York, March 24. With him went Wahnert, the useful "ship diaconus" on so many voyages, Harten, of the first Sea Congregation, returning to Europe, and
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Weber, the West India missionary, with their wives, besides two other men from Pennsylvania. He also took with him an Indian couple, Samuel and Mary, Wampanoags, who had been married by Boehler, February 16-the first Indian wedding at Bethlehem. On May I the Little Strength was captured by a Spanish privateer and, with a prize crew on board, sent to St. Sebastian, where, on May 7, the men were all thrust into a filthy prison, but the women, through Captain Garri- son's efforts, were given quarters in the town. They were released the next day and eventually reached their destination, but the Little Strength was lost. The perils now threatening the prosperous work among the Indians, through excited prejudice and ignorance, under the apprehensive unrest of the time, especially in New York, made it desirable to take measures, through negotiations with the British Government, to secure protection for the missions if possible. The presence of Bishop Nitschmann, as representative of the Indian mis- sions, was therefore needed in Europe. The popular mind was the more aflame after the formal declaration of war between England and France, in March. Although at a conference between the Gov- ernor of Pennsylvania and the deputies of the Iroquois confederacy at Lancaster in June, the latter covenanted to stand against the plans of the French for enlisting Indian allies to harass the settlements, little confidence was put in this by the people; least of all in New York.
Under these circumstances the frequent journeys of men from Bethlehem to the Indian villages in that Province were regarded with keen suspicion; for the representations of those clerical guardians of religion and protectors of the state who had brought about Boeh- ler's expulsion from New York in January, 1743, had thoroughly con- vinced many men in authority and the people generally that the Moravians were Papists. This meant, of course, under the circum- stances of the time, that they were partisans of the French, and their emissaries among the Indians. Governor Thomas had issued his proclamation to the citizens of Pennsylvania in June, announcing England's declaration of war and calling upon them to show loyalty and support measures of defense. Therefore in Pennsylvania also the connection of men from Bethlehem with the Indians began to call forth sinister comment to a greater extent than before, particularly among the co-religionists of the New York agitators.
In that Province the excited feeling at last broke out in actual per- secution, and a series of measures on the part of, first the petty local functionaries, and then the higher provincialauthorities, was provoked
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1742-1744.
by the popular clamor, in which, as the sequel proved, the doom of the Indian missions in those parts was sealed. In the crusade against the Moravians, the assaults of those who stood for doctrine and the efforts of those who feared for the safety of the state were supplemented by those of unscrupulous traders who preferred to see the Indians remain sunken in ignorance and vice, and considered their business endang- ered by the presence of the missionaries. Successive mandates sum- moned them before magistrates in one and the other village to give an account of themselves, but no hold could rightly be found. A like examination before the Governor and Council took place in New York City early in July, but the result was merely an order to return home and peaceably await further decisions. What awakened the most suspicion was the unwillingness of the missionaries to take an oath, for in New York the authorities were not familiar with the presence of a quiet and respectable body of people who took this position, like the Society of Friends in Pennsylvania. So the agitation continued until finally, in December, a sheriff and three justices went to Sheko- meko with an order to the missionaries, in the name of the Governor and Council, to appear before Court a few days later, and officially closed the mission chapel. An act against the Jesuits in 1700, which expired by limitation in 1745, was conveniently found available, and the outcome was that the Moravians were ordered out of the Prov- ince, under the charge of being in league with the French, and were forbidden, under severe penalty, to further visit the Indians. Many right-minded men were filled with indignation at this outrage, but, in the main, it met popular approval.
The General Assembly of New York had, on September 13, 1744, passed a newact to cover the case, which received the endorsement of Governor Clinton on September 21. It was entitled, "An Act for securing his Majesty's Government of New York." When the ques- tion was discussed, what to call it, one member who did not favor it proposed that it be called "the persecuting act." It provided for restrictions and permits that would bar out the Moravian mission- aries, and then, among other things, enacted that "every vagrant preacher, Moravian or disguised Papist, that shall preach without taking such oaths or obtaining such license, as aforesaid, shall forfeit the sum of £40, with six months imprisonment without bail or main- prize, and for the second offense shall be obliged to leave the colony ; and if they do not leave this colony or shall return, they shall suffer such punishment as shall be inflicted by the Justices of the Supreme Court, not extending to life or limb." Furthermore, it was enacted
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A HISTORY OF BETHLEHEM, PENNSYLVANIA.
that "every vagrant preacher, Moravian, disguised Papist or any other person presuming to reside among and teach the Indians under the pretense of bringing them over to the Christian Faith, * without such license as aforesaid, shall be taken up and treated as a person taking upon him to seduce the Indians from his Majesty's interest, and shall suffer such punishment as shall be inflicted by the Justices of the Supreme Court, not extending to life or limb." For- tunate was it that Bethlehem was in Pennsylvania and not in New York, and that the men in Pennsylvania of like views could not get control of the government. It is surprising, too, that in the space of such a few years after that, the government and leading men in New York were offering inducements to the Brethren at Bethlehem to send people to settle in that Province. In the meantime, however, the following year, Moravian missionaries did actually suffer, not only fine, but imprisonment, and their work among the Indians in New York was ruined.
If it be doubted by any that the animosity engendered specifically against the Moravian Brethren and issuing primarily from the men who inveighed against them from the pulpits in sympathy with the Amsterdam manifesto produced this measure, the following final clause of the act makes this clear: "Provided always, and be it enacted by the authority aforesaid, that nothing in this act contained shall be construed to oblige the ministers of the Dutch and French Protestant Reformed Churches, the Presbyterian ministers, minis- ters of the Kirk of Scotland, the Lutherans, the Congregational ministers, the Quakers and the Anabaptists to obtain certifi- cates for their several places of public worship already erected or that shall be hereafter erected within this colony, anything in this act to the contrary notwithstanding."
Spangenberg reached New York, October 25, 1744, on the James, which had taken Zinzendorf and his party to Europe. The announce- ment of his arrival was received at Bethlehem, October 30. George Neisser and Christian Froehlich returned with him and reached Beth- lehem, November 6. With him came also Abraham Reincke and wife and Andrew Horn and wife to reinforce the ministry. They got to Bethlehem, November 9. Captain Nicholas Garrison also returned to New York with him. Spangenberg, upon learning the state of affairs with the Indian mission in the colony of New York, started with Captain Garrison at once for Shekomeko, where he arrived on November 6. He did what he could to comfort and encourage the converts, but all his efforts to stay the tide that had set in were
1742-1744. 177
unavailing. The civil authorities were deaf to all entreaties and expostulations. It was clear that in the face of such bigotry and intolerance, nothing was left but to face all dangers and put the foolish and outrageous menace to the utmost test, in following the higher duty. This was unhesitatingly done early in the following year by men who went to the region again to take all risks in the name of the Lord and for the sake of souls. Thus, on February 23, 1745, the Missionary Post, and the most promising student under Pyrlaeus, young Zeisberger, who went to the Mohawk Valley to perfect him- self in the Mohawk language, were actually committed to prison in the city of New York and were not released until April IO.
Spangenberg reached Bethlehem November 30. There was great rejoicing at his arrival. He had been married, March 5, 1740, to the young widow Eva Mary Immig, m. n. Ziegelbauer, whobecame a most zealous and efficient help-meet in the responsible and onerous labors now before him. On July 26, 1744, shortly before he left Germany, · he was consecrated a bishop. He came to Pennsylvania as General Superintendent of all the work in America, including everything that lay in the broad scheme of the Pennsylvania Synod, with its Mora- vian, Lutheran and Reformed departments-"Tropes." As a kind of ecclesiastical plenipotentiary, with all this in view, he bore the ponderous title of "Vicarius Generalis Episcoporum et per Ameri- cam in Presbyterio Vicarius," with power to personally appoint a successor in an emergency. The first part of this title-Vicar General of the Bishops-had, as its basis, the idea conceived by Zinzendorf, as stated in a previous chapter, of the representation and combination of the three "religions," as tropes, in the episcopacy ; as its purpose, the consecration, by authority, of bishops, when necessary, from among men associated with any or all of the three. The second part of the title-Vicar of the Eldership for America-had reference to that idealizing of the eldership, distinct from the episcopacy, then in vogue ; a kind of purely spiritual headship, from that of single con- gregations, and their several divisions called choirs, up to that of the whole. For a few years prior to 1741 there had been such a Gen- eral Elder of the whole. Then the conception of the supreme invis- ible headship of Christ was laid hold of and applied to that ideal func- tion. The general eldership was abolished as an office, and Christ the Head of the Church was spoken of as Chief or Supreme Elder. Accord- ing to the view propagated by Zinzendorf, this conception, as applied to actual organization and office, was not regarded as, at this time and under existing conditions, established in America. Therefore Spangenberg was entrusted with such a general eldership here.
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CHAPTER VII.
THE ECONOMY DURING SPANGENBERG'S FIRST TERM. 1745-1748.
When Spangenberg returned to Pennsylvania, at the close of 1744, to reside at Bethlehem and assume the superintendency, he proceeded on the broad lines of a comprehensive scheme that had been worked out before he left Europe. It was spoken of at the time briefly as his "general plan." It is outlined in sixteen items. These are in substance the following: I. An itinerant congregation and a local church settlement-Pilgergemeine, Ortsgemeine-are to be established and small congregations are to be formed wherever needful and pos- sible. 2. The itinerants are to have their rendezvous ordinarily at Bethlehem, but are to move about "as a cloud before the wind of the Lord to fructify all places." 3. There shall be a central house- hold-Hausgemeine-at Bethlehem to have charge of the general establishment, support the itineracy and abide at the place when the pilgrims are in the field. 4. A house for the single women and one for the single men, and the organization of the older boys and girls into choir divisions are to be had in view. 5 The centralizing of large numbers of single persons, remaining single, in such establish- ments is not advisable in America where there is less difficulty con- nected with instituting married relations than in the European settle- ments, and married people are more serviceable. 6. Six farms are to be opened on the Nazareth land, on which groups of people are to be located and organized as a "Patriarchal Economy." (The idea was to thus develop the resources of the domain, as the chief supply for the support of everything carried on by the central administra- tion at Bethlehem, under a kind of broad family plan. The building of a central manor house, as the seat of a paternal oversight, some- what in keeping with the associations of the Barony under its nomi- nal privileges, was had in mind.) 7. "The large house"-the White- field house at Nazareth-is then to become an institution for child-
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AUGUSTUS GOTTLIEB SPANGENBERG
1745-1748. 179
ren. 8. The Brethren in America should not call themselves Protes- tant or Lutheran or Moravian, but simply Evangelical Brethren and a Brethren's Church. 9. It shall not be the purpose to make things "Moravian" (in carrying on the general evangelistic work); but if a church settlement-Ortsgemeine, see item I-comes into existence at Nazareth, it could be formed as a Moravian congregation,1 ceteris paribus. 10. The work among the Indians is to be prosecuted on apostolic principles (without regard to denominationalism), but Indians who have been baptized under other religions (denomina- tions) are to be associated with these, unless first spiritually awak- ened through the ministrations of the Brethren. (This latter clause had in view Indians baptized in a mere perfunctory way by Romish priests, with no instruction in matters of faith and no effort at their conversion.) II. Wyoming must not be lost sight of, for the Ordi- narius (Zinzendorf) had the firm conviction that a congregation from among the heathen would arise there. 12. The Synod shall remain a general one, open to all servants of Christ who desire benefit from it for their denominations, or the salvation of their fellowmen. It shall be regarded as a Church of God in the Spirit with a general direction extending among people of all denominations. 13. The fundamental principles adopted in the first seven Conferences of Reli- gions are to be undeviatingly adhered to. 14. The Testament of the Ordinarius (at the house of Benezet) made before his departure from Pennsylvania elucidates those conferences and is not to be left out of sight. 15. In money matters, drafts are to be avoided, and if the issue of a draft becomes necessary (i. e. on Europe) notice must be given long in advance, in order not to embarrass the treasury. 16. The appointment of general overseers and matrons of the child- ren-Kinder Eltern-is to be had in mind and suitable persons are to be sought.
Some of these points were worked out in more detail, in so far as they involved co-operation in Europe. In other respects, Spangen- berg was given complete control, to develop and apply the principles at his discretion. Thus arose under his administration an elaborate and interesting establishment called the General Economy, with its central management at Bethlehem and its personnel and operations embracing the settlements on the Nazareth land, as well as the itiner-
I In order to comprehend these points, the elucidation of Zinzendorf's conception of the status of the Moravian Church, as such, and of his Pennsylvania scheme, as given in Chapter V, must be had in mind.
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acy, school enterprises and Indian missions at many places conducted from this center. There has been much popular misapprehension in reference to the nature of this General Economy, as well as to its dur- ation. It existed, strictly speaking, seventeen years, from the beginning of Spangenberg's first term at Bethlehem until 1762, when it was dis- solved. Prior to 1745 the arrangements were devised for the tem- porary situation. They rested on the simple practical exigencies of the case, as with any new colony similarly situated in those days or now, where a large number of people with insufficient accommoda- tions at a pioneer stage, making common cause, institute special arrangements, as a large household or camp, for common subsist- ence, the preservation of such ideas of order as they may have and the systematic prosecution of their first undertakings. The only two features that were not common were the degree of religious character given to everything in accordance with the spirit of the people and the central purpose of the settlement ; and the nature of some regu- lations applied both to internal discipline and order and to external activity. In these points observers, of course, found a measure of strictness and minuteness, as well as a kind of arrangement, not met with elsewhere.
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