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 22
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is greatly at variance with the truth, and some even use the exaggerated accounts of maligners of that time as sources, and reproduce fictions. In the nature of things, historians who are fair-minded and possessed of a proper critical sense, will take the stories of the kind of " eye- witnesses " referred to in the text with much suspicion because of their manifest intention to do the Brethren harm, out of revenge.
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of 1745, operations under the new plan were commenced on the Nazareth land. January 13, the first log house was erected where the new farm that received the name Gnadenthal-Gracedale- was commenced; the first spot to be cleared there having been measured out on January 8. It may be added that on December 2 of that year, the first farming household of six married couples, in pursuance of the plan of Antes, was there organized; a second, larger house, commenced the middle of September, having been so far completed as to be habitable. The erection of buildings and the extension of the cleared tract was also proceeded with on the Nazareth farm, near the Whitefield house, where, on June 25, 1747, a more distinct central organization was effected, with John George Ohneberg as Elder and Matthew Schropp as Warden. The addition of other buildings on the Gnadenthal farm was being planned, besides a scheme for a central village of the manor to be named Gnadenhoch-Gracehill-on the slope near where the large structure later called Nazareth Hall arose, while the founding of another to the north-east of it to be named Gnadenstadt-Graceburg- was had in mind, as well as the establishment of a center of agricul- tural and dairy industry, with a mill and other minor adjuncts near Gnadenthal, at what was then known as Albrecht's Brunn, but on August 4, 1749, was officially named Christian's Brunn-Christian's Spring-in honor of Zinzendorf's son-where a colony of single men located and organized, December 17, 1749. All of these projects were engaging the attention of Antes and those in counsel with him, while various active operations, under his general supervision, were in progress at Bethlehem, where Father Nitschmann, yet hale and energetic, was industriously laboring with a number of mechanics. The first important building of this period at Bethlehem to be here mentioned, was the tavern on the south side of the Lehigh which later received the name das Gasthaus zur Krone or simply die Krone- the Crown Inn,4 commenced in December, 1744, worked at again
4 This name is first applied to it in the records, October 18, 1756, in mentioning the en- trance of Ephraim Culver as inn-keeper, and was probably adopted in connection with the last preceding license from court. It stood almost on the site of the present railway passen- ger station in South Bethlehem. When closed as a public house in 1794, it became merely the farm house of that one of the famous " Moravian farms" on the south side on which it stood. It was demolished in 1857. Some of its timbers, purchased by the late D. I. Yerkes, were worked into one of the houses built by him and yet standing near New Street, on Second Street, South Bethlehem. The History of the Crown Inn with its environment and associ- ations, including the Lehigh ferry, written by the late Prof. W. C Reichel, was published in 1872. Barring a few minor inaccuracies in the succession of landlords and other points, that entertaining chronicle is a very reliable authority on the local and neighborhood history of which it treats.
ANNA MACK
ANNA ROSINA ANDERS MARY ELIZABETH SPANGENBERG
ANNA NITSCHMANN
ANNA MARIA LAWATSCH
ELIZABETH BOEHLER
ANNA JOHANNA SEIDEL
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in March, 1745, but delayed on account of other pressing under- takings, and completed in October of that year-the first building erected in the Lehigh Valley as a public house of entertainment.
On October 30, Samuel Powell, mentioned in the catalogue of the Sea Congregation given in Chapter V, arrived from Philadelphia to take charge as the first inn-keeper. There, in the following month, the first public book-store in the Lehigh Valley was opened by the Bethlehem authorities under the care of landlord Powell. His successor, May 31, 1746, was Frederick Hartmann, whose wife died at the Inn, January 13, 1747, and on the 15th was interred on the near-by hill on the south side. A special burial ground5 was then opened for the accommodation of the vicinage and for emergency use in connection with the public house, and, with that first interment, was consecrated by Bishop Cammerhoff.
The next prominent building erected in Bethlehem was the middle section of the stone house now officially known among Moravian properties as "the old Seminary" because the boarding school for girls occupied it from 1749 to 1790, and called, in common local parlance, the "bell house." It was built originally to contain the refectory of the single men with a general dining-room connected with the Community House, and dwellings for married men and women, to relieve the congested quarters in the larger building and make several of the small log houses available for other uses. The foundation lines for this second stone structure in Bethlehem were staked off, August 24, 1745, but it was not completed and occupied until October of the following year. The bell turret was erected in June, 1746, and there the first town clock was placed. It was con- structed by the clock-maker Augustine Neisser, of Germantown, who had commenced the task the previous April, but did not complete it until February 15, 1747. The bells, a larger and two smaller ones, were cast by Samuel Powell-the same who was the first inn-keeper
5 The site of that little cemetery can no longer be ascertained with accuracy. The oldest draft of lands on the south side marking it, places it on the crown of the bluff, just up from the well-remembered large spring at the south bank of the river, long ago buried under the cinders of the railway filling. From measurements on the draft it has been judged to have lain about thirty rods back, hence about the intersection of Second and Ottawa Streets. It was in use until 1763. Of the seventeen recorded interments, ten were the bodies of Indians. The last, October, 1763, was Captain Jacob Wetherold, who died at the Crown Inn of wounds received in a surprise by Indians at the house of John Stenson. It is believed, however, that during the Revolutionary War the remains of some soldiers were also buried there.
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on the south side. The weather vane, yet surmounting the little turret, with the historic emblem of the Church, a lamb with a banner, was made from a drawing by Cammerhoff. In front of the second story a balcony was constructed, which remained until 1766. There, it was long the custom for the musicians to discourse melodies, morning and evening on holy-days, and in connection with harvest- home festivals and other gatherings in the square in front of the house.
During that time other structures had gradually been added to the equipment of the place. A mill for pressing linseed oil-for much flax was raised to supply the important linen-weaving industry- commenced in January, was finished early in February, 1745. There, on February 12, the first oil was pressed. Immediately upon its completion the carpenters proceeded to build a larger wagon-making shop, for of such work-wagons and carts, plows, harrows and the like, the Economy required much. The arrival of the first emigrat- ing Indians from the Shekomeko mission in New York, and the prospect that many of the converts would follow, in consequence of the continued hostility manifested towards the missions in that Prov- ince, led also, late in the summer of 1745, to the commencement of the group of Indian houses at Bethlehem. One such was laid up the latter part of August and finished the first week in September, 1745, as a kind of hotel for such Indians sojourning temporarily. More were added later at the foot of the hill to the south-east of the present Seminary for Young Ladies, when the exodus from the missions in New York and Connecticut increased; and the cluster of log cabins which there housed the refugees for a season received the name Friedenshuetten-Habitations of Peace.
In April, 1746, a building in connection with the linen-bleachery was added to those already standing on the Sand Island-the saw- mill and the laundry of the settlement. At that time, steps were also taken to build several more small log houses on the south side of the river for transient occupants, and particularly for occasional use by itinerant evangelists, when quarters could not be provided in the village. Not far from where the cabins of Friedenshuetten were built, another small structure arose in May, 1746, which, although of no great importance, is, in the retrospect, of some topographic interest. This was the summer-house on the "Wunden Eiland." This island was in the Monocacy Creek, at the foot of the present grounds in the rear of the Young Ladies' Seminary. It is marked
1745-1748. 193
on the oldest map of the locality, and a depression in the grounds reveals where the inside channel of the stream then was. A rustic foot-bridge was constructed across it to the island, and there many interesting social meetings, official conferences and important inter- views with Indians took place. Its name, "the Island of the Wounds," meant that it was dedicated to the remembrance of the wounds of Jesus, as then dwelt upon in certain special liturgies and hymns. Closely connected with the building of Friedenshuetten, the Indian adjunct to Bethlehem, is to be mentioned the founding of the important settlement for these fugitive converts, up the Lehigh, at the mouth of the Mahoning Creek, which received the name Gnaden- huetten-Habitations of Grace. Their residence at Bethlehem was only regarded as a temporary arrangement. The first plan was to settle them in the Wyoming Valley, but they objected for fear of trouble with the savages of that region. They agreed to the pro- posed location just beyond the Blue Mountains. A beginning was made with the new settlement in May, 1746, and on June 13, after a love-feast on the "Wunden Eiland," the first detachment of fifteen set out for the place ; some in canoes and some afoot. Martin Mack settled there as the first man in charge of the station, with various assistants from time to time. Other bands followed at intervals, until, at the close of the year, nearly all who had tarried at Bethle- hem had transferred their abode to the new place.
They left a number of their companions behind, to be laid to rest in the cemetery of Bethlehem. An epidemic of small-pox broke out during the summer and carried off many, among the rest, that most noble triumph of the power of the Gospel and most valuable Indian assistant to the missionaries, John Wasamapah ("Tschoop"). It was a trying time, for the contagion spread from the cabins of these poor Indians to the dwellings of their friends and protectors, not only at Bethlehem, but even at Nazareth; and many, both of adults and children, were attacked, several being taken off by it. This dis- arranged plans and delayed undertakings at Gnadenhuetten some- what, but when this circumstance is considered, the rapidity with which buildings were there erected and affairs were gotten into shape is astonishing. The locality was well-chosen and the settlement soon developed into a most flourishing and interesting one, much to the annoyance of certain white neighbors to the west and north of Beth- lehem, who could not be reconciled to anything the Moravians did and, in their prejudice and excited fear, insisted on believing it all
14
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A HISTORY OF BETHLEHEM, PENNSYLVANIA.
to be only another move in the interests of the French, to the jeopardy of the Province. This unjust and absurd suspicion was intensified when, in the following year (1747), a beginning was made farther up at the important Indian town of Shamokin. That point was selected as, not only a populous place and a stronghold of heathenish superstition and wickedness, but, on account of its loca- tion and connections, a strategic point for a missionary center. A smithery and trading-station were there established because these enterprises, so important to the Indians, secured their consent to have missionaries locate there. Those vigilant detectives who, the previous winter, when lumbermen from Bethlehem built a cabin in the forest for shelter while felling timber, circulated the story that the Moravians were constructing forts up in the Mountains for the French and Indians, preparatory to an attack on the English settle- ments, now asserted that at Shamokin they had established an arsenal to equip the savages for the pending conflict; and that quantities of French powder and lead, stored at Bethlehem, were being quietly conveyed to that stronghold.
This enlargement of operations in the Indian country would have been quite beyond the ability of the co-operative union at Bethlehem and Nazareth, with its other burdens, if substantial aid had not been given by numerous friends at other places, through an organization that Bishop Spangenberg had founded for this purpose, and that was now in its most flourishing state. This was "the Society for the Furtherance of the Gospel," which had its beginning, August 19, 1745, at a session of the Pennsylvania Synod held at Bethlehem. Its organization, modeled after that of a society with the same name, alluded to in a previous chapter, which Spangenberg had founded in England in 1741, was completed, November 28, 1745, in the last session of another Synod held at Lancaster. That was a gath- ering notable, not only for its size and representative char- acter, but also by reason of the fact that there the wild agitation against the Moravians culminated in a riotous attack upon Spangen- berg when he undertook, at the suggestion of Justice Edward Smouth, to preach to the crowd from the court-house steps. This was the climax of what had been started in Philadelphia in 1742, and although the parsons who had brought on that first outbreak of mob violence continued their denunciations, those elements of the populace were not moved to any further open demonstrations, and a reaction began to set in after this climax. The Society, which
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originally consisted of thirty members, increased, in four years, to more than four times that number, representing about thirty locali- ties. About one-third of the members in 1748 were people not regu- larly connected with the Moravian Church. Inside of ten years it collected and disbursed more than £1900 in Pennsylvania currency, besides numerous gifts of wares of various kinds and books sent from Europe.6
Building operations at Bethlehem and on the Nazareth land had now become so extensive that increased facilities for the preparation of material were necessary, and two saw-mills were added to that at Bethlehem. The first was that at Gnadenhuetten, at which work was commenced, May 17, 1747. Under the wise planning of Henry Antes, a grist-mill was combined with it, so that only one structure and one water-wheel were required for both. In spite of a delay with the iron furnished by the Union Furnace at Durham, the mill was sawing lumber to float down the Lehigh, and, with stones quarried by Schaus at North Wales, was grinding grain to make bread for the Indian congregation and the missionary household at the place, before the close of July. Then Antes, having arranged for Schaus to run the mill for a season and instruct a new miller, returned to Bethlehem and immediately began preparations for the erection of another such little saw and grist-mill combined. This was up the Monocacy at Albrechtsbrunn, later called Christiansbrunn, as already stated, near the new Gnadenthal plantation. The stones for this mill were also gotten from North Wales by Schaus. While the carpenters were at work on this mill, the second week in August, 1747, an incident occurred which required them to turn from their task, to make a coffin, and which brought the history of the Indian village Welagomeka on the Barony of Nazareth to a pathetic end. When Captain John received permission from the Government, in 1742, to remain, like Tatemy, in the Forks of the Delaware as a land-owner
6 That Society for the Furtherance of the Gospel, organized in 1745, is the earliest mission- ary society in America of which any record has been produced. After 1764, when the introduction of new methods of collecting money for missionary work followed other causes of decline, such as the death of its first leaders at various places, the gradual withdrawal of outside support, with the more definite organization of strictly denominational work and the gradual disappearance of Indians from Eastern Pennsylvania, it sank into decadence. It had a nominal existence, however, until 1771, when the organization of its successor on a different basis was under consideration. After recovery from the disturbance of work, inci- dent to the Revolution, this new organization arose in 1787 -the present "Society of the United Brethren for Propagating the Gospel among the Heathen."
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and professed Christian, he built a cabin at the "deep hole" up the Bushkill-then called Leheitan and Lefevre's Creek-where he passed his remaining days, occasionally bringing game and furs to Bethlehem for sale. August 9 of the year 1747, he sent to Bethlehem for medicine, being very ill. He died a few days later, requesting that his body be buried, with Christian rites, on the little Indian grave-yard of Welagameka, which the residents of the place had enclosed with a fence and kept in repair as a lesson to the Indians. Reposing in the coffin made at Gnadenthal, Captain John was there laid to rest. This was doubtless the last interment in that burial- ground near the Whitefield house, all traces of which-as in the case of the grave-yard south of the Lehigh at Bethlehem-were obliterated by the plow-shares of matter-of-fact Moravian farmers of the middle period, when the sentiment of former times had been lost and the historical interest of modern times was not yet cultivated. Some Indians, moreover, helped at the work about Gnadenthal at that time, among them, Gottlieb, the first of the Delawares baptized by the Brethren, who, with some others, was permitted to tempor- arily sojourn there. The little Christiansbrunn mill was started-both saw and stones-on November 24, 1747. Its useful existence came to an untimely end on December 6, 1749, when it burned to the ground while the miller was away to his dinner at Gnadenthal. It was rebuilt and started again, April 17, 1750, as a saw-mill, and many more thousand feet of building material were turned out of it; but the grinding of grist was not there resumed, for soon after- wards a much larger mill was built on the Bushkill to which reference will again be made.
The mill at Gnadenhuetten did uninterrupted, excellent service until the melancholy autumn of 1755 which brought ghastly ruin to the place and martyrdom to the men and women stationed there. During the year after it was started, it produced many rafts of timber and boards that were floated down the Lehigh to Bethlehem for the next important building to be erected, more pretentious, and in the sequel, more historic than those just before it. This was the struc- ture which, with its extension of 1762, constitutes the antique central portion of the present Seminary for Young Ladies, now known in the institution as Colonial Hall, and marked with a bronze tablet that records a national distinction, in its use twice during the Revo- lutionary War, as a general hospital by the Continental Army. It was built as the second "choir-house" of the single men, who needed
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1745-1748.
more room, in view of large accessions expected from Europe in the course of the following few years, not only for dwelling, dormitory and chapel, but also for plying the various handicrafts associated with their establishment. In pursuance of the fourth item of Spang- enberg's "general plan" of 1744, as given at the opening of this chapter, it was concluded in 1746, to take this step, and then put their former house at the disposal of the single women, to get both choirs properly domiciled and organized.7
The discussion of drafted plans for the new building began in the autumn of 1747, first in the central executive board and then with the single men themselves, for it was important to arouse that kind of interest among them which they would take if permitted to participate in these consultations. One such conference between
7 At this point a note on this system, already alluded to several times, may be inserted for the information of readers who are not acquainted with it. A division of the membership, on the basis of differing age, sex and station in life, for the purpose of specializing religious culture, had been gradually developed. The word chor was applied in German to each such division, and this was then rendered into English by the word choir. The origin is to be traced to the covenant of special devotion and service by eighteen young women and girls, May 4, 1730, (Chapter III, note 15). A code of choir-principles was eventually established ; a system of organization and leadership for each choir was elaborated; regular choir-meet- ings, choir-liturgies and anniversary choir-festivals were introduced. Partly from practical necessity and partly in pursuance of the institutional conception applied at the time to all social and religious life, the establishment of choir-houses for the several divisions became a leading feature of every regular settlement. It is not surprising that something of a monastic character should become erroneously associated in the popular mind, with these houses. But such was never the case. No bonds or vows of any kind ever obligated any occupant, although a very careful discipline and punctilious order prevailed. Such a term as " Moravian nuns " is simply nonsense, and even the word " sisterhood" never had any meaning in the Moravian Church, except in so far as it could be applied to all women, married, single or widowed who were members, for all were called "sisters," as all the men were called " brethren." It is true that Zinzendorf's disposition to follow out every idea to the uttermost, when he started with it, and to experimentally apply it to the extreme of particularity, led to much that was over-wrought in this system, and produced an artificial and, in some features, unnatural ecclesiastico-social structure, in place of normal family relations and home-life; yet, for many years, the choir-houses served an excellent purpose. Then decadence, especially in the case of those of the men, began in the American settle- ments of the Church before the close of the eighteenth century, and gradually, in the course of the next half-century, they all became obsolete, although, in most cases, the old names remained connected with the buildings. In Europe a few are yet maintained in a modified character. The choir-divisions of the membership, with the observance of the annual choir-festivals, are yet retained in some of the old congregations in America. The choir- houses of the single men and the single women will, for the sake of brevity, be usually mentioned in these pages, after this, by the common name, "Brethren's House," and " Sisters' House."
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them and Bishop Spangenberg, early in November, lasted until two o'clock in the morning. On November 7, the building-site was selected, "where a new road was to be opened to the river"-the present Main Street, from Church Street south-and the proposed building was to be "the corner house next to the Monocacy." Now offers of contri- butions for the purpose came, to encourage the young men in the undertaking. Sister Spangenberg headed the list with froo. Other early contributors were Sister Cammerhoff, Antes, Dr. Meyer, Martin Mack, John Bonn, formerly of Skippack, John Hopson, later promin- ent at Lancaster, giving sums ranging from £100 to £25. Bonn also offered to give the shingles. Thus they were inspired to begin their efforts, while, at the same time, they were impressed with the necessity of doing as much of the work themselves as possible, because of the high wages that had to be paid mechanics at that time, and the general expensiveness of building operations in Pennsylvania. On December 19, the fourth of successive plans for the building was discussed with them and adopted. January 10, 1748, the site was staked off, fifty by eighty-three feet. The single men gathered and marched in procession to the spot after working-hours in the evening, accompanied by music, and, after a prayer and the singing of a hymn, they commenced to excavate the cellar. This task was continued on successive evenings by moonlight. During the following weeks the timber was cut in the neighborhood of Gnadenhuetten, and in the spring was sawed at that place. The first raft came down the river at the end of March. Others followed at intervals, until, on July 17, twenty small rafts reached Bethlehem, containing the last of it. "Now there is enough," writes the diarist. In Frederick Township other men had been busy with frow and mallet, shaving- horse and drawing-knife, converting the straight-grained blocks into the kind of shingles that endured, to make up John Bonn's donation, and on July 10, the last lot of sixteen hundred came to Bethlehem. At the same time, others were busy at the Bethlehem stone-quarry ; for more stone were needed for this than any previous build- ing. The corner-stone was laid at the north-west corner of the foundation on April 7, with elaborate services. A document was deposited in it containing a lengthy inscription, the names of all the officials of the Economy and a complete list of the Single Brethren. April 23, four masons hired elsewhere, joined a few days later by four Bethlehem masons, began to lay up the walls. The last week in May, two fine stones from the bed of Potsdam
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