A history of Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, 1741-1892, with some account of its founders and their early activity in America, Part 26

Author: Levering, Joseph Mortimer, 1849-1908
Publication date: 1903
Publisher: Bethlehem, Pa. : Times Publishing Company
Number of Pages: 1048

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 26

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A number of ordinations, both of presbyters and of deacons, also took place on this occasion, while seven who were, in point of fact, presbyters, while passing under the indefinite general term of Ordinati, as classifications had been followed in the alliance with Lutheran and Reformed elements in Pennsylvania, were now formally declared to be presbyters, as Ordinati strictly speaking, and were enrolled in tliat grade, distinct from the deacons. The principle was laid down that men who had received ordination in the Luth- eran and Reformed Churches should, in virtue of this, be acknowl- edged and enrolled as deacons; the idea being that this degree of recognition was accorded to ordination in non-espiscopal churches, and that in their subsequent ordination as presbyters, all such would, nevertheless, ultimately receive episcopal ordination.20

Another subject of deliberation at that Synod was the important one of schools and the work among the children in general. The more fully developed system in operation in Europe, with a paternal

19 This office became obsolete with the death, in 1834, of the Rev. Lewis David de Schweinitz of Bethlehem, who was the last Moravian clergyman, either in Europe or America, who held it.

20 A singular departure from this principal in the direction of strictness-but in accordance with the wish of the candidate, as it seems - occurred in 1752, in the case of the Rev. Laurentius Thorstansen Nyberg, who had been ordained to the Lutheran ministry in Sweden, where the episcopacy is retained by that Church, by Archbishop Benzelius, but joined the Moravian Church in Pennsylvania in 1748. He went to England in 1752 to labor there and was ordained a deacon by a Moravian bishop in London. It is the only instance of the kind on record. He was ordained a presbyter in 1754. This strange and indefensible procedure created much sensation in Sweden. Eventually the Moravian Church, with unnessary generosity, departed from that fair and sensible principle in the other direction by admitting men ordained in non-episcopal churches at once as presbyters, on the score of their having served as regular pastors, in the word and sacraments, in those churches. The decision of 1748 is consistent with the general position of the Moravian Church and makes all reasonable concession to ecclesiastical systems which recognize and have only one grade of the ministry.

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A HISTORY OF BETHLEHEM, PENNSYLVANIA.

and maternal oversight of this department of activity committed to appointees called Kindereltern, was explained by Bishop de Watteville, preparatory to a re-organization of this work, which will be treated of in the next chapter.

The principle of tropes, already referred to several times, was also more fully elucidated, with a view to carrying out Zinzendorf's favorite idea of elasticity within the Church, fostering the several historic cults, as a concession to the differing ecclesiastical traditions of people received into its pale on the new basis now established. In connection with this, the idea of gathering in only genuinely awakened Christians whose religion was a matter of the heart, was pressed to a degree, in setting it forth, that betrayed symptoms of an unwarranted assumption of superiority which, at that time, found utterance in treating of the headship of Christ in the Church. Carried away by the enthusiastic aspiration to present an example of a body of people in real living union with Christ, and by the exalted experiences made ; giving way somewhat also to the disposition-of which there have been many other examples-to believe themselves, in a peculiar sense, the Lord's people, because they were so much assailed and reviled from many quarters, men indulged in a kind of speech which gave the impression that they considered themselves the Church.

On November 5, 1748, Bishop Spangenberg, acquiescing in the plans that had been communicated to him and desiring to clear the way for the proposed reconstruction in all particulars, placed his resignation in the hands of the Conference of Elders, as then constituted. His position was peculiar and embarrassing. If this step asked of him had been the result simply of the drawing of the lot, on the whole question, in December, 1747, it would have had a different aspect. But the shaping of the matter in the preceding plans so that this became necessarily involved in the final issue, was a matter of deliberate arrangement, and revealed a desire to have him disconnected from the new departure, notwithstanding that no man in the Moravian Church was as competent as he would have been to inaugurate the new regime. That his coadjutor, or assistant, Cammerhoff was not likewise asked to retire from his position, to open the way for the change of system, was significant of what appears from other indications. Spangenberg had, with fearless honesty, raised his voice and used his pen against the trend of things prior to this. The men who in their soaring enthusiasm had cast prudence and common sense to the winds for the time being, found

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1745-1748.

him in their way; for their type of religious intensity and exalted spirituality, as little as other types of it, rendered men proof against being piqued by objections to their notions ; and they put a severe trial upon Spangenberg's faith in the ingenious sincerity of their purposes, by thus constraining him to vacate a position in which he had labored so arduously and accomplished what none of them would have been able to do. On November 13-the day on which, seven years before, the conception of the immediate headship of Christ in the Church which displaced the ideal human General Eldership was formally promulgated-the solemn declaration of the extension of this central principle of organization, administration and fellowship to the Church in America, was made at Bethlehem, in connection with high festivities, in which Spangenberg was a quiet, unofficial participant. In its substantial quality, the act of that day consum- mated the establishment of a distinct American branch of the Mora- vian Church. After several busy days, the ceremonious dedication of the new Brethren's House, already referred to, took place on the 16th, de Watteville officiating. While he was absent, December 4-31, visiting the Indian converts remaining in New York and Con- necticut, Spangenberg went to Philadelphia to pay his respects to the new Governor, James Hamilton, while his wife, relieved of official duties, opened a writing school for young working women at Beth- lehem.

RELICS OF THE CROWN INN.

CHAPTER VIII.

THE COURSE OF THINGS TO THE INDIAN RAID. 1749-1755.

The period of three years after Bishop Spangenberg's temporary retirement brought developments that more severely tested the institutions at Bethlehem than any experiences previously made. Abnormal tendencies, referred to in the preceding chapter, found entrance, for a brief season, to a sufficient extent, that the time of their invasion may be regarded as an internal crisis-passed how- ever without disaster, and before the time of outward tribulation which followed. The nature of this crisis will appear more clearly when the administration of the man sent over to be Spangenberg's successor opens. Until the autumn of 1749, Bishop John de Watte- ville remained in control. In February of that year Spangenberg and his wife left Bethlehem and located temporarily in Philadelphia, where they devoted themselves to such evangelistic and pastoral duties as they found to do in that city. The understanding was that they would accompany de Watteville to Europe before the close of the year. The latter was very busily engaged during the inter- vening months. The broad scope of his commission required him to not only effect the changes in view at Bethlehem, but also to visit all the other Moravian fields of labor in America, to organize the work at all of these places, and to thoroughly inspect the condition and prospects of the missionary work among the Indians, which involved extensive and arduous journeys in the Indian country. He also visited the stations in the West Indies, sailing from New York, April 8, and returning to Bethlehem, July 4. On some of these tours he was accompanied by Spangenberg. His wife, the Countess Benigna, remained in Bethlehem during most of this time.

Conspicuous among the changes made in the process of re-organ- ization, are those which went into effect early in 1749, in connection with the work among the children. On January 6, the sixteen girls of the boarding-school which was yet conducted at Nazareth, where, in 1746, Whitefield had found satisfaction in associating it with his

230

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1749-1755.

original plans, were transferred to Bethlehem and "welcomed, with agreeable music," to their new quarters in "the house before that occupied by married people as dwelling apartments," and later called the "children's house." This was the stone building now spoken of officially as "the Old Seminary," and commonly called "the bell house," already referred to. There, on the above date, the unbroken local existence of the school now known for many years as the Seminary for Young Ladies began. Those girls were in charge of four teachers who accompanied them from Nazareth. The next day the children of the nursery, twenty-nine little boys and twenty-six little girls, were taken to Nazareth with their nurses and attendants, and domiciled in the Whitefield house. This nursery, referred to already in the preceding chapter, was an institution of pathetic interest. Under the peculiar arrangements of the time, with no proper provision yet for separate family homes, while women, as well as men, were employed, in departments and companies, at the various kinds of labor or were traveling as missionaries, it was necessary, so long as this system was continued, to make special provision for the care of the quite young children in a special home. In this nursery they were placed as soon as they were old enough to be taken from the mother's arms and there certain of the widows and single women, or certain of the married women who were physically unable to engage in other duties, took care of them until, at three years of age, they were placed in the separate institutions for little boys and girls. The nursery was under the general superin- tendence of an intelligent and reliable married couple, with the assistance of such others in the external work of the establishment, as the number of children, from time to time, required; and either the Superintendent himself, or some one associated with him, or located near at hand, was possessed of sufficient medical knowledge to serve all ordinary needs.

Furthermore, on January 10, Dr. Meyer brought a few boys to Bethlehem who had been temporarily placed in the school on the farm of Antes in Frederick Township. They, with four boys who had remained of the little school in the Ysselstein house on the south side of the Lehigh, treated of in the last chapter, and several others brought down from Gnadenthal and Nazareth, were quartered in a room of the Brethren's House, the next day, and organized in proper charge ; they having reached an age at which it was thought desirable to have them under further instruction and training "nearer to the heart of the congregation," so that they should not grow out of

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A HISTORY OF BETHLEHEM, PENNSYLVANIA.

touch with the central influences. This was the idea which also controlled the transfer of girls, at a certain age, to the boarding- school now established at Bethlehem. In the following month of May, the school opened in 1746, in the house of John Bechtel at Germantown, was closed-mainly because of financial burdens. On May 24, the girls of that boarding-school were brought to Bethlehem, and eleven of them were placed in the, now vacant, Ysselstein house on the south side. Thus, that building became a boarding-school for girls, but without the slight stigma that attached to the boys' school which had occupied it before. This first school for girls on the south side was organized, May 27, 1749, but was only main- tained until February 25, 1750, when the older of the girls were installed with the older girls of Bethlehem who were engaged in learning various kinds of female industries, and the younger ones were taken over to the Maguntsche school. The subsequent school history of that house on the south side is the following: September 10, 1751, eleven girls from the abandoned Oley school, which it will be necessary to mention again, were brought to Bethlehem and quartered in that house with some from the Maguntsche school, which from that time became a school exclusively for boys. A few others were added later, and there, a school for girls was again organized. It was continued until December 4, 1753, when the use of the house for school purposes ceased and a school for girls-fourteen girls in charge of two sisters-was again opened at Nazareth, in the older of the two log houses-long ago demolished-which stood near the Whitefield house. There this school remained until June 18, 1759.

Therefore, for a while after these shiftings of January to May, 1749, the children of the Economy, with others under Moravian care, were distributed in the following institutions: Girls, in the boarding- school at Bethlehem, with an adjunct on the south side; boys, in the school in the Brethren's House at Bethlehem, with an adjunct later opened in the log house next to the Community House, where the church now stands; boys, in the school at Fredericktown; boys and girls, in the schools at Oley and Maguntsche; the nursery children, boys and girls, in the Whitefield house at Nazareth.1

It is an interesting circumstance, in connection with the re-organ- ization of school work in 1749, and particularly with the permanent

I These changes and translocations are thus traced with some minuteness as a matter of reference, for the benefit of those who sometimes search for details of the early school work, locally or generally, and find the inaccuracies and contradictions in extant historical papers confusing. Subsequent shiftings will in like manner be noted as they occur.

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1749-1755.

establishment of the boarding-school for girls at Bethlehem, that Count Zinzendorf's daughter Benigna, who, in 1742, had made the beginning in this important branch of Moravian Church work in Pennsylvania, at Germantown, was now again here and manifesting her warm interest in it by helping to re-establish it on the new basis. She had more women of education and refinement associated with her, in these efforts, than at the start, seven years before; and from this time on, the number of women, as well as of men, thoroughly qualified for such work, steadily increased with the demands.

On April 25, 1749, letters arrived from Europe in reference to the sailing of the Irene from London with the large colony mentioned in the preceding chapter, in connection with the parliamentary pro- ceedings in regard to the Moravian Church. These letters led to active preparations for their reception. They left London, February 20, put out to sea, March I, and anchored at New York, May 12; the very day on which the act of Parliament, to which their presence at London had helped to give impulse, was passed. Their arrival attracted considerable attention at New York and was commented on in the newspapers. Bishop David Nitschmann, accompanied by his wife, returned to Pennsylvania with this colony to resume his travels and negotiations, as a missionary superintendent. They were the first to reach Bethlehem, having started from New York in advance of the others. They came by way of Nazareth and arrived at Bethlehem, May 15, late in the evening. The leader of the colony was Bishop John Nitschmann who had been chosen to succeed Bishop Spangenberg at Bethlehem. Christian David, the indefatigable evangelist who had brought about the settlement of the Moravians at Berthelsdorf and the founding of Herrnhut in 1722, was also with them-"good old Christian David" writes the Bethlehem diarist who records the surprise and pleasure his arrival caused. The pioneer Greenland missionary, Matthew Stach, with whom Christian David was associated in founding that second mission of the Moravian Church among the heathen, was also one of the company, with his wife, his nephew Thomas Stach, who was to go with him to Green- land, and three Greenlanders, John, Matthew and Judith, whom Stach had taken to Europe and who were now returning to their home. Joseph Mueller of the Long Swamp, mentioned before this several times, who had been in Europe since 1743, studying medicine among other things, and now returning to serve the Church in Pennsylvania, was another passenger, together with his wife, Verona Frey, who, as

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a single woman, had also accompanied Zinzendorf's party to Europe in 1743. David Wahnert, that man of many voyages and so serviceable to numerous colonies on ship-board, and his faithful wife, Mary, were with them. One ordained man, besides the two Nitsch- manns, who came with this third Sea Congregation was Samuel Krause, with his wife Rosina. They returned to Europe in 1753. One negro woman, Magdalena Mingo came with the colony.2

2 Besides the above there were four married couples : Michael and Anna Helena Haber- land, Christian Jacob and Anna Margaret Sangerhausen, John and Anna Stoll, Christian Frederick and Anna Regina Steinmann; also John Schneider, a widower and Magdalena Elizabeth Reuss, a widow. While recorded statements differ as to the entire number on board, there were evidently nearly 150, including 16 officers and sailors, of whom 9 were members of the Church, and some other persons not bound for Bethlehem, whose names do not appear. 106 of the 115 Moravian passengers named were permanent accessions to the settlements in the Forks and to the missionary force connected therewith. The main part of the colony consisted of 39 single men, besides Thomas Stach who was bound for Green- land, and 48 single women. Thirty-one couples of these young people were betrothed, and, on July 15, 1749, were married at Bethlehem. This occasion, like the similar one at Herrn- haag in 1743, was commemorated by these families for some years, and also spoken of as " the great wedding." Some of them rendered valuable missionary service later and a few of the men were eventually ordained. The majority, however, served the Economy in various industries. There were among them bakers, blacksmiths, a book-binder, carpenters and joiners, cloth-dressers, cutlers, farmers, a fringe and lace-maker, a furrier, masons, shoemakers, stocking-weavers, tailors and weavers. The names here follow in alphabetical order :

SINGLE MEN.

Berndt, Gottlieb, Bernhardt, Wenzel,

Opitz, Carl,

Pitschmann, George,

Birnbaum, Joachim, Drews, Peter, Doerrbaum, John Philip,

Renner, John George,

Richter, John Christian,

Rillmann, Andrew,

Enersen, Enert,

Schlegel, Frederick,

Engel, John Godfrey,

Schmidt, John,

Fritche, Henry, Gattermeyer, John Leonhard,

Schmidt, John Christopher,

Schmidt, Melchior, (1)

Gold, George, Hohmann, John Peter,

Schmidt, Melchior, (2) Schneider, Martin,

Kliest, Daniel, Kuehnest, Christopher. Krause, Andrew, Kunz, David, Mordick, Peter,

Schultze, Godfrey,

Schweisshaupt, John,

Seiffert, Andrew,

Straehle, Rudolph,

Tanneberger, David,

Weinland, John Nicholas.

Mueller, John Bernhard, Muenster, Michael, Nitschmann, Martin,

Schultze, Carl,

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1749-1755.

In connection with this large accession to the population and working force, some other names began to figure in the records of occurrences during the year 1749, with which interesting and important events were afterwards associated. The first week in June, John Jones of Skippack who had sold his farm in order to settle near Bethlehem, came, with his family, and took temporary possession of one of the houses on the south side of the river. In April, 1750, he bought the 500 acres "east of Bethlehem adjoining the land of Secretary Peters and including the old field of Dr. Graeme," and in the autumn of that year, he finished his house and took up his residence there. He eventually entered into regular connection with the Moravian Church. Thus began the history of "the Jones place" near Bethlehem which stands in such close and interesting relation with the subsequent history of the neighborhood.

Several Jerseymen, also connected with later important movements, appear upon the scene. Josiah Pricket-written also Bricket, Bracket and Brickets-who kept a public house in the neighborhood known as Greenwich, a warm friend of the Moravians, who had visited

SINGLE WOMEN.

Arndt, Rosina,

Koffler, Anna Maria,

Arnold, Rosina Barbara,

Krause, Anna Maria,

Ballenhorst, Margaret,

Krause, Barbara,

Beyer, Anna Rosina,

Maans, Martha,

Beyer, Maria,

Meyerhoff, Magdalena,

Bieg, Elizabeth,

Mingo, Magdelena,

Binder, Catherine,

Nitsche, Anna Maria,

Dietz, Rosina,

Nuernberg, Dorothea,

Dominick, Maria,

Nuss, Helena,

Dressler, Sophia Margaret,

Oertel, Elizabeth,

Drews, Margaret,

Opitz, Maria Elizabeth,

Eis, Charlotte,

Paulsen, Catherine,

Engfer, Maria Elizabeth,

Ramsburger, Anna,

Fichte, Catherine,

Rebstock, Anna Catherine,

Fischer, Catherine,

Roth, Anna Maria,

Galle, Rosina,

Seidel, Juliana,

Groesser, Margaret,

Schmatter, Anna Maria,

Gruendberg, Helena,

Schuling, Rosina,

Haberland, Juliana,

Schwartz, Magdalena,

Hammer, Anna Maria,

Uhlmann, Dorothea,

Hans, Rosina,

Vogt, Divert,

Heindel, Margaret

Weicht, Susanna,

Hendel, Maria Barbara,

Wenzel, Catherine.

Kerner, Anna Rosina,

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A HISTORY OF BETHLEHEM, PENNSYLVANIA.

Bethlehem several times, made formal application to be received into their communion, on June 7, 1749. His house had been one of the stopping-places of itinerants between Bethlehem and the Indian missions in New York, and finally one of their preaching-places. So also came, occasionally, Samuel Green, Jr., and his wife Abigail, whose house in "the Great Meadows," in the same neighborhood, was likewise such a stopping-place and center of stated religious meetings. They had previously attended Quaker meeting and services of "the long beards" in Amwell Township where Green's father, Samuel Green, Sr., was a large land-owner, a surveyor and, for some years, assessor and collector of taxes, clerk and finally Justice of the Peace. Samuel Green, Jr., and his wife were baptized at Bethlehem on Whit-Monday, May 26, 1749, he as John Samuel and she as Anna Abigail, and were enrolled as communicant members of the Moravian Church. This connection with these Jersey people was the inception of the work which resulted in the establishment of a regular Moravian settlement, in 1770, on the large tract of land on which Green had his home, and which he offered, in 1768, to present for the purpose, but which was regularly purchased in 1770. The place was, at first, called Greenland, but in 1775, was given the name Hope.3

During the summer of 1749, visits by persons of prominence in business circles or in public office were of frequent occurrence. One such visit, noted in September, was that of Thomas Penn's Secretary with "Justice Anthony Morris of Furnace Mill, on the road to Phila- delphia." This visit had some connection, as it seems, with planning and prospecting then in progress, with a view to the founding of a new town at the confluence of the Delaware and Lehigh Rivers and the eventual erection of the new county which was being agitated.

An epoch in the industrial development of Bethlehem came with the arrival, on June 25, 1749, of four young men from England ; William Dixon, Joseph Healy, John Hirst and Richard Poppelwell, to make the first attempt at manufacturing woolen cloth. They were weavers from the Yorkshire mills which were, at that time,

3 This church settlement, to which there will be further reference in these pages, had a very promising beginning, with its important mill, store and group of other industries, its community house, tavern and even a boarding-school, for a few years. It also has an inter- esting history during the Revolutionary War. A combination of causes led to its decline, and it was given up, as a church-settlement, in 1803. Several of the old buildings and the cemetery remain as objects of interest in the modern village which yet bears the name Hope.

Pachgatgoed icot bon Detk

tso. chilen.

ill

Jey

ast

allur e

Maurice River

Manaka

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A HISTORY OF BETHLEHEM, PENNSYLVANIA.

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A history of Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, 1741-1892, with some account of its founders and their early activity in America, Part 26

Author: Levering, Joseph Mortimer, 1849-1908 Publication date: 1903 Publisher: Bethlehem, Pa. : Times Publishing Company Number of Pages: 1048

Author: Levering, Joseph Mortimer, 1849-1908
Publication date: 1903
Publisher: Bethlehem, Pa. : Times Publishing Company
Number of Pages: 1048