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 37
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Nazareth. The record observes that this was a special Providence, for many of the children who were almost naked would have perished on the road. Even before that, evidences of the presence of savages had appeared at different places south of the mountain. Before the close of November, some of them had been seen spying about the outskirts of Bethlehem.
The first such discovery was made in the evening of November 29, when, in the course of the evening service, notice was brought to Spangenberg that the Gnadenhuetten refugees quartered in the Indian House across the Monocacy, at the mill, had seen strange Indians prowling about back of their house. Threats had been made by the savages and renegades that they would begin their work at Bethlehem by butchering this company of loyal and faithful Indians. The service was immediately brought to a close and a consultation was held as to the course it would be best to pursue towards such strange Indians, if any made their appearance openly and with peace- able pretensions. The night-watch, as then organized, was doubled and posted at five corners. It was agreed that if any one detected the approach of Indians, he should give a signal by discharging his gun. The next guard would do the same and so on, around the circuit, in the order arranged. The intention was to merely hold the savages at a distance by this evidence that a number of men were on the watch, thus frustrating their attempt for the night and avoiding actual collision and bloodshed. It was confidently believed that, at that time, the savages had not collected in the vicinity in sufficient numbers that they would venture to storm the place, and by such vigilance and demonstrations, prowling bands of three or four could be baffled. Soon after the guard was mounted, the awkwardness or nervousness of one of the sentries occasioned the accidental discharge of his gun. It was taken for granted that it was a signal as agreed upon, and directly the successive shots were fired according to arrangement. A general alarm was given and all of the men who were appointed to remain up for an emergency ran in the direction of the first shot, with clubs, flails and such other rude weapons as were at hand. Although it was soon found to have been a false alarm, this episode, which caused nearly all of the men in Bethlehem to remain up the entire night, was afterwards regarded as Providential, for the next day Augustus the Indian reported having, at that time, seen several strange Indians again coming down the hill west of the Monocacy towards the mill-dam, who were evidently frightened away
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by the noise. This may serve as an instance of many an uneasy night experienced during the subsequent several months.
While the presence of the Gnadenhuetten refugees added to the peril, on account of the vindicative determination of the blood-thirsty prowlers to make an end of them, they were, on the other hand, of value as watchers, for they were always on the look-out and, with the instinct and training of Indians, were able to discover evidences of strange Indians lurking about and give timely warning, when white men at the place did not suspect that any were near. This the Bethlehem people quickly understood, while the civil authorities likewise learned to appreciate their value as scouts, guides and messengers ; they being the most faithful and trustworthy residue of the Indians who had professed Christianity. The responsibility of those in control at Bethlehem and of those who kept guard increased continually during the last month of 1755, as the population gathered there grew almost daily until at the close of the year it comprised 400 souls, including the Indians of whom there were 70.
One large influx, on December I, both stirred the hearts and braced the nerves of the men, and added intensity to the prayers of the women of Bethlehem during those anxious days and nights. After that first unmistakable evidence that savages were skulking about, it was determined to concentrate all the children at Bethlehem for greater security. On the above date, five wagons from Nazareth, conveying a most precious charge, drew up at the water-tower building in front of the Brethren's House. There were sixty-one quite young children, many of them barely beginning to speak and walk, and seventeen little girls a few years older-the nursery from the Whitefield House and the girls' school from the original log house next to it, with fifteen tutoresses, nurses and attendants, and the curator John Levering and his wife, all under the charge of the Rev. John Michael Graff and his wife who were the general superin- tendents of the establishment. "Bag and baggage they came," says one record. "Like a flight of pigeons," says another. "The bees were swarming," says Graff in his autobiography; for he had a strange dream in the night of November 30. He saw, in his dream, his hives of bees swarming, although it was winter. The next morning when the sudden order came for this exodus to Bethlehem, he found in it the interpretation of his dream.
While women looked on with tearful eyes and throbbing hearts and thought of the awful possibilities of the coming days, as these little ones were taken into their temporary home,
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vacated for them by the men who had been occupying it, the children who were old enough to observe what had been done with them, were manifesting innocent delight at this sudden visit to Bethlehem, and eagerly enjoying the meal ready for them upon their arrival. Every effort had been made and was further made to keep all knowledge of the danger that threatened Bethlehem from the children. Not until the middle of January was any infor- mation given them. It was made necessary then by the remarks of refugees in the hearing of some children. Before that they had no thought about the militia who rode through Bethlehem but that they were "going hunting." Among them were several children of men and women who had perished at Gnadenhuetten. Of that mournful occurrence Spangenberg informed the children, with as much tact and caution as possible, on Sunday, the 7th of December, when they were all gathered at a children's service. The next day after the arrival of the children from Nazareth, two of the wagons were sent over to Salisbury with an escort to convey the boys of that school, with John Schmidt and his wife, who had charge of them, to Beth- lehem. These boys were quartered in a room in the Brethren's House. "Thus the population of Bethlehem was increased by 208 souls in eight days."
The anxiety was intense until Christmas was passed, for definite information had been received that the savages proposed to make an end of Bethlehem and Nazareth and clear the region of white people by the time of "their great day" -- Christmas. Therefore much attention was turned to preparation for such an attack, while, at the same time, the greatest care was taken to prevent a panic. Work was pushed on the stockade run along the more exposed sides of the central buildings-west and north-and on the construction of watch towers and bastions at the corners, on which later two swivel guns were mounted for a while. Many of the windows of the houses were temporarily walled up; those in the upper stories to the middle of the sash, so that light could enter and persons could look out, while the range of bullets fired up into the windows would thus be above the heads of all who were in the rooms. A regular system of armed guards and watchmen was gradually perfected. In the following months these guards, together with those appointed at the stations on the Nazareth land, were placed under the supervision of one general corporal; the whole system and the single appointments being made subject to the approval of the Provincial authorities, and recognized as pertaining to their general plan of defence.
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That dreaded Christmas was passed without disaster. The murder- ous plotters found themselves baffled in their intended attack. Their methods were adapted only to sudden surprises upon unprotected points, to guerilla raids where they were not expected, and to skulking assassination in the woods; and their numbers were not sufficient at any one point to besiege a town with adequate watch and guard. Such was the excellent morale maintained, that on Christ- mas Eve, after an early evening service, the people, with the exception of the guards and the numerous reserve of watchmen, retired quietly, trusting in the strong arm and the never-sleeping eye of Him without whose keeping "the watchman waketh but in vain." At four o'clock on Christmas morning the music of trombones from the roof-terrace of the Brethren's House ushered in the "great day" so dreaded, the people arose and the night-watch went off duty. There is a tradition that the notes of that Christmas morning chorale, breaking the dead silence, was wafted into the startled ears of some lurking savages on the hill-side, back of the Indian House, who were lingering near in the hope of yet applying a fire brand to some unguarded corner of the outer buildings before day broke; and that the strange, sweet sound struck fear into their hearts, so that they slipped away into the woods in dread of some unearthly power
guarding Bethlehem. Other Indians to whom the prowlers had spoken about this, afterwards told of it. Later in the day when the large company of children who slept in Bethlehem the previous night without thought of fear, assembled in the church-the present "Old Chapel"-to enjoy a Christmas service and admire a Christmas picture painted for the occasion by Valentine Haidt, just as if no unusual conditions existed, some said the guardian angels of these children were our best Christmas watchers.
TROMBONES WERE BROUGHT TO BETHLEHEM IN 1754.
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A HISTORY OF BETHLEHEM, PENNSYLVANIA.
New excitement and alarm marked the opening of the year 1756. A company of militia had shortly before been posted at Gnaden- huetten to guard the place. The houses on the east side and the mill on the Mahoning were yet standing. Several trips with wagons had been successfully made, bringing away grain and other things. On New Year's Day, twelve men with three wagons, each drawn by four horses, started from Bethlehem on the last such trip. When within two miles of their destination they were compelled to turn back, and the next day they reached Bethlehem again, bringing, not the remaining grain, but a number of wounded militia men. The savages had attacked the place, burned all that remained of it and overcome the guard there stationed, killing a number and wounding more.
This completed the ruin of everything on both sides of the river that belonged to the Moravians. The property at Gnadenhuetten, East, now destroyed, consisted of the central mission-house con- taining the chapel, eighteen good log houses and twelve smaller Indian cabins. West of the river, the saw and grist-mill was now also burned.7 The same day a foray was made, a little way to the west
7 The appraisement affirmed to before Justice Horsfield, February 4, 1756, by George Klein, Joseph Powell and Henry Frey, figured the total loss at £1914. 19. 3. Pa. Of this sum, the valuation of the houses on the east side was £276, that of grain and other farm products on the Mahoning, £129. 4. 3, and that of the cattle, £141. 15.
What would now be by far the most valuable single item of property undoubtedly de- stroyed there, November 24, but not listed in the appraisement, was a book, now so rare that, a few years ago, a copy sold for $1250. September 13, 1754, Jacob Vetter brought to Bethlehem, to be deposited in the library, a book, purchased by John Hopson and Marcus Jung for 15 shillings at a " vendue " at Lancaster, a few weeks before. It was the complete Eliot Indian Bible, Old and New Testaments with Psalter in metre, printed in small quarto at Cambridge, Mass., 1663, " at the charge, and with the consent of the Corporation in England for the Propagation of the Gospel amongst the Indians in New England." That it was the very scarce complete edition is clear from the full reproduction of the title page given by the Bethlehem diarist. It was the property, formerly, of Christian Ludwig Sprögel, uncle of the wife of Wm. Parsons, presented to him by a friend in Holland. On the fly leaf was the following entry, also reproduced in the Bethlehem diary : "Tot een Vriendllyk Andencken en tot een nütlig Gebruyk onder de Indianisse Völkeren vereert dit Boek aen synen Vriend Heer Lodwick Christian Sprögel von Pensilvania,
AMSTERDAM, DEN 9 APRIL, 1717, JAN HENDRICK DE HOEST."
It was taken to the Mahoning, October 7, 1754, for examination by the missionary stu- dents Fabricius, Roessler and Wedsted in connection with their linguistic work. The record states that Roessler was greatly pleased with it and found the language akin to the Mohican. There is no mention of its return to Bethlehem and it is not listed in the earliest extant cat-
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1755-1756.
of Christiansbrunn, where seven farm houses were burned and some of the people were killed. The Commissioners had left Beth- lehem, the last day of the year, and gone to Reading. A messenger followed them to that place with a report of this new disaster. It occasioned another panic among the people and a new inrush of refugees at Bethlehem. There were over a hundred in the town and at the Crown Inn on January 2. It also caused more speed in the erection of the rude fort at Gnadenhuetten. It was completed, January 25, when, with the first discharge from the muskets of the garrison and the two swivel guns mounted on the bastions of the stockade, the Governor's flag was hoisted and the structure named Fort Allen in honor of Justice William Allen. Thus the first thing tangible towards the protection of the Lehigh Valley from incursions of savages through the Gap was achieved. The entire series of frontier forts along the Kittatinny Hills was completed and equipped by the middle of February. It would have been well for the neigh- borhood that was now pouring its half frantic population into Beth- lehem, Nazareth, Friedensthal, and the other Moravian stations, if more haste had been made in taking possession of that first point in accordance with Spangenberg's urgent request, before the savages had that opportunity on New Year's Day.
It was fortunate for the sufferers that the sorely-taxed Moravians had more sympathy and patience with the panic-stricken people, crowding in upon them, than the honorable Commissioners and his Excellency the Governor had. While the latter were in consultation at Reading, the first week in January, when the report of the disaster at Gnadenhuetten reached them, the Governor wrote to the Council at Philadelphia: "The Commissioners have done everything that was proper in the County of Northampton, but the people are not satisfied, nor, by what I can learn from the Commissioners, would they be unless every man's house was protected by a fort and a company of soldiers, and themselves paid for staying at home and doing nothing." Franklin wrote to Governor Morris on January 14, from Bethlehem: "As we drew near this place we met a number of wagons, and many people moving off with their effects, and
alogue of the Bethlehem library, made within 15 years after that, nor in any subsequent catalogue. It is therefore highly probable that it was destroyed November 24, 1755, and that the long-current supposition that it was stolen from the archives during the decades prior to 1861, when they were carelessly left at the mercy of unscrupulous relic hunters, is erroneous.
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families from the Irish Settlement and Lehi Township, being terrified by the defeat of Hays's company (at Gnadenhuetten) and the burning and murders committed in the Township on New Year's Day. We found this place filled with refugees, the workmen's shops and even cellars being crowded with women and children, and we learnt that Lehi Township is almost abandoned by the inhabitants."s Franklin himself shared the unsympathetic sentiments expressed by the Gov- ernor about the demoralized people of the neighborhood a little while later, when the measures of defence had been gotten better in hand and the operations of the savages south of the Blue Mountains were thought to have been checked.
During the first panic, the authorities at Bethlehem were requested to care, the best they could, not only for the Christian Indians, whom the Government, as a matter of policy, sought to hold together under safe influence, but also for the white people who fled to them from stricken neighborhoods; and they were given to under- stand that the accounts, properly presented, for the expense incurred, would be paid. When the condition of things seemed to the Com- missioners to have become more settled, and the funds at their com- mand began to run low, they manifested some reluctance to be at further charges on account of the refugee settlers. Ultimately they demurred even against paying further bills on account of the Indians, and this, in violation of their own explicit instructions and promises to the Brethren who had all the burden and inconvenience even of sheltering and feeding "friendly" Indians, at the request of the Government, who were not members of their Christian flock, but whom the Government wished to favor from motives of policy.
As regards the white refugees, Spangenberg wrote to Franklin, Feb- ruary 25, 1756, wishing to know what the further desire and intention of the Commissioners was. A new panic had been occasioned by fresh outrages in the greatly harassed neighborhood of Allemaengel. Span- genberg writes in reference to the refugees yet on the hands of the
8 The records give the whole number of refugees received as 639 and the maximum num- ber at one time, in January, 1756, as 556, distributed as follows : Bethlehem, 205 ; Naza- reth, 134; Friedensthal, 104; Christiansbrunn, 49; Gnadenthal, 44; the Rose, 20. An- other statement is that at the end of the month, there were 449 at the Nazareth places, 226 of them children, distributed as follows : Nazareth, 253; Friedensthal, 75; Gnadenthal, 52; Christiansbrunn, 48; the Rose, 21. The Whitefield House at Nazareth and the two log houses near by were entirely occupied by the refugees. The widows who were living in one of the latter when the nursery and girls' school were moved down to Bethlehem, were transferred temporarily to Gnadenthal.
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Brethren: "Some of them were removed again to their plantations, and others were upon going thither, but when the account came of the new mischief done lately by the enemy at Allemaengel, the latter did not care to stir, and the others came back again, some few excepted. Many of them are afraid of going to their plantations, not knowing what to do, if they find their houses either burned or robbed of all they left therein. We have supplied them who were in real necessity, hitherto, with meal and meat; and the Brethren keep an account thereof, as you was pleased to direct them in a letter to me, a copy whereof I here enclose, because Mr. Edmonds tells me that you had mislaid yours. But as the many labours which took away your time when lately at Bethlehem, have no doubt pre- vented your giving further orders about this matter, this is humbly to desire you in behalf of my Brethren, who present their humble respect and duty to you, to let us know in a line or two, if you please, your mind." In a post-script he adds : "As I hear Mr. Horsfield had orders to pay the Brethren fioo currency, which also he hath done, and taken receipt for it, they will be glad to know whether this sum of money is intended to pay their new accounts since the last balance, or whether it is to be laid out for to buy meat and meal for the above-mentioned poor refugees." Franklin's reply, dated Phila- delphia, March 1, 1756, is a follows: "As the Forts are built and the Ranging Companies in Motion beyond the Mountains to cover the Inner Parts of the County, I think the People may now very . safely stay at their Places. The Government is at a great Expense to afford them this Defence; If they have no regard to it, but run away in so shameful and cowardly a Manner, every time an Indian or two appears in any Part of the Province, and abandon their Plan- tations, I believe the Government will not think it worth while to keep up these Guards merely to secure empty Houses and unculti- vated Fields, but will demolish the Forts, withdraw the Companies from your Frontier, and send them to other Parts to defend a better and more manly People. Of this be pleased to acquaint them; and farther that the Commissioners desire no Allowance may be made of Provisions on Acc't of the Government to any Refugees at your Place after this time; for some of them, as long as they can live in Indolence with you, and be fed, will think little of returning to their places, or of the duty of caring and laboring for their own Livelihood. The £100 advanced your Brethren was only to prevent your being in Advance for us: It is to be accounted for when we settle, and what
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Provisions you have furnish'd to the Poor, according to my Letter will be allowed. I am with the greatest respect," &c.
Undoubtedly these animadversions, like those of the Governor, were merited in the case of many who, as Spangenberg himself had remarked, had become "frightened out of their wits," and of certain others who were disposed to accept charity as long as it was dispensed. At the same time, as many shocking instances until well on into the spring proved, some neighborhoods were far from being rendered as safe by those forts and rangers as the authorities, with their own persons and property at a secure distance, would have these afflicted people think. The jeopardy in which the execution of this threat on the part of the Lieutenant General would place Beth- lehem and everything that was recognized as dependent upon its security, does not seem to have been in his mind when he penned the letter. Perhaps he had been too greatly impressed by the ability of the Bethlehem people to take care of themselves and of others. In a well-known and oft-quoted passage about Bethlehem, in his famous autobiography, Franklin says : "I was surprised to find it in so good a posture of defence. The principal buildings were defended by a stockade; they had purchased a quantity of arms and ammunition from New York, and had even placed large quantities of small paving stones between the windows of their high stone houses, for their women to throw upon the heads of any Indians that should attempt to force into them. The armed Brethren, too, kept watch and relieved as methodically as in any garrison town." Referring to his surprise at their making use of arms, in view of their exemption from military duty by act of Parliament, and Spangenberg's explanation, which he undoubtedly failed to understand accurately, he makes this obser- vation : "It seems they were either deceived in themselves or deceived the Parliament; but common sense, aided by present danger, will sometimes be too strong for whimsical opinions."?
9 Sufficient has been said in Chapter VII and in this Chapter on the position of the Mora- vians in this matter, to enable the reader to understand it and to discover, in referring to the passage from which the above quotations are made, wherein Dr. Franklin misapprehended it. They were neither deceived nor deceiving, but were acting in perfect consistency ; for they were sane men and not the whimsical enthusiasts he at that time yet supposed them to be. Later, when he gave more attention to their principles, he learned to know them better. The alleged purchase of arms and ammunition from New York referred to was a misunder- standing. On December 20, some Brethren arrived from New York with these stores sent by friends there for the use of Bethlehem in the extremity that had come. It caused Span- genberg much perplexity, for he was doing his utmost to hold the more excited ones at
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The general confidence inspired by the "posture of defence" in which Bethlehem was found was not caused by the sight of many guns, nor of military parade; for of the first the people saw very few-they were not displayed-and of the second they saw none whatever on the part of the residents. The kind of measures adopted were not only those of men who were determined to exhaust every other means before armed collision became the last resort, but also of men who understood the Indians and knew their thoughts, habits and methods much better than did the honorable Commissioners or the majority of the men from the lower country and from New Jersey, who marched to and fro, and made random sallies through the woods. Nothing perplexed and baffled skulking Indians so much as the constant vigilance maintained and the plans adopted to let them know that there was no unguarded spot which they could approach, and no moment at which they could slip upon the people unawares and catch them napping. This simple principle of meeting their approach defeated every attempt to carry out the only kind of plans they had. Bishop Spangenberg, in his auto- biography, thus briefly and graphically presents the general method and principle of these systematic precautions : "At night the watch- men shouted one to another at intervals of an hour, so that the sound rang out loudly into the forest. We also built block houses and mounted them with guns, and when a gun was discharged it was a signal to the vicinity that hostile Indians were near. Thus when the savages came spying at night, they always found us in readiness. Then I called all the Brethren together and begged them for Jesus' sake by all means to spare the life of every hostile Indian (shooting low if they were forced to shoot), and if one was, perchance, shot in the legs, we proposed to take him in for treatment and care for him with all faithfulness until he recovered. I fell upon my face and
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