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 41
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In the spring of 1758, one who was greatly beloved at Bethlehem and held in reverence by all who knew him passed away. This was the patriarch of the place, David Nitschmann, Sr., conspicuously identified with it from the beginning, and at the time of his decease, the nominal owner in law of all its real estate. For a few years he had been living in quiet retirement, incapacitated by the infirmities of old age, for participation in the activities of field, workshop and garden in which he continued, however, to manifest great interest. A large part of his time had been given to prayer, bearing upon his heart all the people, old and young, all the concerns of the Church, and particularly the poor Indians rescued from savagery by the efforts of the Brethren; these being an especial object of his solicitude: To the Indians at Bethlehem and to the children Father Nitschmann gave more of the kindly sympathy with which his heart overflowed, than to any other persons. His peaceful end came on April 14, 1758, and on the 16th his remains were laid to rest at the spot in the Bethlehem cemetery where the little slab now bears his honored name. His nephew, Bishop David Nitschmann, who at this time was sojourning at Lititz, helping in the opening of the settlement, started on a visit to Bethlehem to see the patriarch once more, having heard that he was very feeble. At Oley he was met with the tidings of his departure. Not being able, therefore, to see him or attend the funeral, he pro- ceeded leisurely on his way, calling elsewhere meanwhile, and reached Bethlehem the following week.
During the year 1759 various preparatory steps were taken towards the reconstruction of the system of administration and the methods of associate life and activity that would bring the General Economy to an end with ease and smoothness. The initiative was wisely taken some time in advance, in a quiet way, and the change was carefully prepared for by those who were in control when there was no special discontent nor striking evidence of decadence, instead of waiting until the pressure of dissatisfaction among the people might compel hasty action, or a state of internal weakness and inefficiency might be produced by the retention of methods that had outlived their useful- ness and no longer served their purpose. Stampeded measures, ill- digested plans and disintegration through neglect of vigilant control
then in course of erection. The organ at present in the Nazareth Moravian church was built by him in 1793. It was rebuilt in 1898. That in the Moravian church in South Beth- lehem, the former Lititz church organ was built by him in 1787. It was transferred to South Bethlehem in 1880.
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were all to be guarded against in a situation which involved the welfare of so many souls, the interests of such an extensive work, and the safety of so much valuable property. Many of the preliminary steps were quietly planned by Bishop Spangenberg during the months when he had his headquarters in a partial retreat at Nazareth Hall, and his efficient coadjutor, Bishop Boehler, was devoting his attention to the affairs of the hour. Meanwhile a clear understanding was gradually being reached in reference to the eventual plans to be carried out when the time came, through correspondence with Europe, and such preparations as called for the attention of the general authorities there, were also being made while Nathanael Seidel was yet tarrying abroad.
One of the features of those timely preparations was the modification, to such extent as was feasible, of the common housekeeping arrangements; relaxing the almost military regime which the more adequate appointments that now existed made less necessary, and introducing changes, little by little, in the direction of a larger prevalence of distinct households among married people. This required the provision of increased dwelling accommodations for families. In November, 1758, the water-tower house which had been serving alternately as a home for the boys and for a number of the married men who had quarters there together, was turned into a tenement for as many families as could be accommodated; while the former pottery building was converted into a dwelling for the widowers who had a home together.
In the spring of 1759, it was concluded to use some of the apartments of Nazareth Hall for school purposes and to trans- fer the large boys' school from Bethlehem to that place. This school was left, at the last mention of it in these pages, quartered in the large stone house fronting on the present Main Street, as described in a previous chapter, where the Moravian Publication Office now stands. With this move, a series of other changes was planned and carried into effect in June. On the 5th of that month the little girls of the nursery at Nazareth were brought to Bethlehem and quartered temporarily in the Community House. The next morning the boys who were to move to Nazareth-there were a hundred and eleven of them, with nineteen tutors and attendants- took ceremonious leave of their house at Bethlehem. Drawn up in order in front of the building, they started in procession, headed by the orchestra of boys with their instructor Albrecht, for the pro- cession out of Bethlehem. After they had sung several hymns, they
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formed in line and marched, double file, towards the Nazareth road, while a farewell chorale was rendered by the trombonists stationed on the terrace of the Brethren's House. They proceeded, with their own music, "to the end of the lane"-the then eastern end of what is now Broad Street-where the smallest boys were taken into the wagons waiting to convey them farther. The rest of the company marched several miles beyond that point, and the oldest boys all the way to Nazareth. There they were formally received and distributed into room-companies. Thus began the school-history of Nazareth Hall, with Adolph Eckesparre, who had come to Pennsylvania with Bishop Boehler in December, 1756, as head-master, under the general direction of John Michael Graff who was yet stationed at Nazareth. At the close of the year 1759, John Christopher Francke, who had formerly been at the head of the school on the farm of Henry Antes and latterly had been serving as chaplain at Gnadenthal, took charge of the institution.
When the boys were transferred to Nazareth, the house they had vacated at Bethlehem, which had been known for a few years as the "Boys' Institute," became the "Girls' Institute." On June 8, the boarding-school for girls-a hundred and three girls in charge of sixteen sisters-was transferred from the bell-turret house on Church Street to this building. In the parlance of the time it came to be spoken of as the new Kinderhaus, their former house being the old Kinderhaus-"Old Seminary." On June 14, the twenty- three little nursery girls brought from Nazareth on the 5th were domiciled in the second story of the bell-turret house, in which a room was also assigned to the company of "older girls" of Beth- lehem who were no longer school-girls. Finally on June 18, the thirteen girls of the little boarding-school on the Whitefield house premises at Nazareth were brought to Bethlehem and given another room of the old Kinderhaus. With this transfer of two hundred and forty-five boys and girls, the distinct school character of Bethlehem and Nazareth as seats of boarding-schools for girls and for boys respectively began to appear more definitely ; for all the grades and divisions of girls were now at Bethlehem, while all the boys were at Nazareth, the little nursery boys being retained there in this plan.
Considerable more space thus also became available for placing private families in parts of both of the buildings at Bethlehem as well as of those at Nazareth. One of the log houses next to the Whitefield house was now vacant for other use, while the widows continued to occupy the other one. Their cramped quarters and the distance from
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the place of worship for Nazareth, at this time no longer in the White- field house but in Nazareth Hall, led to the removal of some of the aged and infirm of these women to an apartment in the latter building, when the organ-builders removed their work-shop to the Burnside house, in the summer of 1760, as stated. On June 9 of that year, the project of building a large house, to be a home for widows, adjoining the Sisters' House at Bethlehem, as an important addition to the permanent central institutions of the place, with the increase and contemplated re-arrangement of the population in view, was discussed in a general Church Council; but the way did not seem open to undertake it at that time, much as the crowded condition called for it.11
Early in 1760, provision for Indian converts again claimed attention at Bethlehem, for it was becoming evident that another place besides Nain would have to be selected to colonize, at least some of them. On February II, the missionaries Martin Mack and Joachim Sensemann went up beyond the Blue Mountains to inspect the proposed site of another Indian village, a few miles north of where the former village of Meniolagomeka had been situated, at a locality which had formerly been given the name Friedensthal-vale of peace-by some Moravian settlers from Philadelphia, but which in rude violation of this name, became the theatre of one of the appalling tragedies enacted by hostile savages in that awful December of 1755. In that devasted neighborhood the Church authorities purchased a body of very nearly 1400 acres of land that had been owned by the leader of those unfortunate people, Frederick Hoeth,12 and by his son-in-law, Christian Boemper, lying along the little stream that became known as Hoeth's Creek, which was then changed into Head's
II A total of 1013 persons comprised the population of Bethlehem and the Nazareth places at the end of 1759. Bethlehem had 618, Nazareth 268, Gnadenthal 34, Christians- brunn 75 (single men and older boys), Friedensthal 15, the Rose 3.
12 Frederick Hoeth, Jacob Weiss - grand-father of him who founded Weissport, where the second Gnadenhuetten and then Fort Allen had been - and some other Philadelphia Moravians and their friends bought adjacent tracts of land in that neighborhood in 1750. Hoeth, the leader, and several others settled there. Weiss, it seems, did not. Hoeth's was the chief plantation. The massacre that occurred there, December 10, 1755, was spoken of as the massacre at Hoeth's. He and his wife were killed and three of their daughters were carried off by the Indians. Christian Boemper was also murdered during a subsequent raid. One of their daughters, Mariana, was forced by the imminent prospect of torture and death in the flames, to become the wife of an Indian. After many thrilling adventures and extensive wanderings with the savages, even as far as Pittsburg, she finally escaped and reached Bethlehem with her child, October 17, 1759, at the very time when steps were being taken to found this mission station at her desolate home.
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ZEISBERGER PREACHING TO THE INDIANS FROM SCHUESSELE' S PAINTING
1756-1762. 369
Creek. The Indians had called the neighborhood and the stream Wechquetank, from the name they gave to a certain willow that grew along its banks. There, in the midst of neglected fields, with the dismal ruins of farm houses, barns, blacksmith-shop, grist and saw- mill not far away, telling of Friedensthal laid waste, the Brethren hoped to again propagate the gospel of peace.
April 23, 1760, Sensemann and Shebosh, with more than thirty of the Nain Indians and several who had been permitted to sojourn at Gnadenthal, went "up to Hoeth's place" to put in a crop and build cabins. On May 6, the first rude dwelling was erected for the accom- modation of the missionaries-Sensemann, minister, and Shebosh, warden. Other buildings soon arose and on June 26, the meeting- house was dedicated. They preserved the old Indian name associated with the neighborhood and called the village Wechquetank.13 Bishop Spangenberg who returned to Bethlehem May 22, after an absence of a year in North Carolina, went up with the missionary Schmick on June 12, to see the new Indian village. A week later Schmick took charge of Nain and Mack, relieved of that duty, went up, on June 24, to inspect Wechquetank. On October 17, the missionary Grube settled there to carry on the work while engaged with important linguistic labors. Thus there were again frequent journeys between Bethlehem and the mountains, and the countenances of men in the settlement between, who saw it, again grew dark, and again there were mutterings and threats.
Little attention was paid to these, but as the year 1760 drew to a close, a new shadow of another kind fell upon Bethlehem. On December 1, general dismay was occasioned by the discovery that small-pox had broken out in the Sisters' House and that twelve of the older girls, who occupied apartments there, were down with the disease. The records state that it was the first visitation of this dread malady in fourteen years. It is not hard to imagine what a serious matter such an epidemic was, with so many people living
13 Spelled also, and perhaps more in accordance with the sound, Wekquitank. The spot, on the eastern part of the 1400 acre tract, at which the village was built, on the north side of the creek, was about eight miles from the site of Meniolagomeka, northward, near the present village of Gilbert, a little way off from the road. The grave-yard was located about twenty rods from the meeting-house, farther up the hill. The exact site was not known for many years until, in 1899, discoveries by Mr. Frank Kunkel, of Nazareth, led. him and other officers of the Moravian Historical Society to investigate further and ascer- tain the location quite definitely.
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in close quarters in large companies. There was an absence of the customary Christmas festivities, it having been decided to merely have a quiet observance of the festival, separately, in the several insti- tutions where none were sick, and to omit that of the little nursery girls entirely. On December 30, the doctor reported a hundred and three cases, and the year was closed in anxiety and with much prayer.
On January 12, seven rooms were filled with patients, a number having died. It is stated that at a certain stage of convalescence they were transferred to one of the "family rooms." At the end of January the whole number of cases had reached a hundred and eighty. Six children, but none of the adults, had died during the month. After the epidemic had run its course and the last patient had recovered, thanksgiving services were held on March 9 and the children were gathered together to have a special lovefeast instead of that missed at Christmas. But a week later it was learned that the disease had broken out among the older boys who lived at Christiansbrunn. From there it spread to the large school in Nazareth Hall where it did its worst during the month of May. When it came to an end, the latter part of June, special thanksgiving services were held there also.
During the year 1761, Bethlehem was spared all danger, as well as all annoyance, from Indian disturbances, and throughout the regions that had been so greatly afflicted it could be said that "the land had rest." It was believed that the settlements at last made with the tribes west of the Alleghenies, and the unmistakable evidence that the French cause was waning in America, would prevent further trouble. Therefore the evacuation of the frontier forts along the Kittatinny Mountains was ventured. On January 20, the last troops at Fort Allen were paid off and discharged. Justice Horsfield and William Edmonds went up from Bethlehem, under Government instructions, to take an inventory of the ammunition. On April 27, Horsfield, by appointment, regularly declared its evacution on the spot and officially turned the property back into possession of the Brethren through the hand of Gottlieb Pezold who was commissioned to accompany him and formally receive it. Early in September, some excitement was caused by reports of outrages perpetrated beyond the Blue Mountains by Indians returning from the last general Council held at Easton in August, to settle terms regarding prisoners and to confirm the previous treaties. Justice Horsfield, by order of the Governor, investigated the matter and found that it was merely a
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drunken revel which the white men, who had sold the Indians the drink and gotten them intoxicated, then exaggerated into riot, arson and murder; spreading alarming sensations through the country, much after the same manner in which, even yet, occasional stories of Indian uprisings in the far West are set afloat and telegraphed over the country by the men who had themselves been the aggressors and offenders.
In connection with reference to the above-named treaty, it may be noted that on August 9, the Governor of Pennsylvania-the Hon. James Hamilton, serving his second term-visited Bethlehem and passed the night at the new Sun Inn. He was therefore the first of the Chief Magistrates of Pennsylvania entertained at that Moravian hostelry, which had been open only a short time, and was destined to be rendered particularly historic some years later. Many other visitors were at the place and numerous Indians passed through, but without tarrying to be fed and watched for days, burdening the resources and worrying the officials, as formerly.
Among the visitors was one who has left a pleasing little sketch of Bethlehem and its people, in the shape of notes and observations of the kind which are only to be found in diaries and letters of visitors ; giving details that would be sought for in vain in official records or even in the personal correspondence of Moravians themselves, but which touch up the far off vision with some warm color and cause persons who, in the dry records, are little more than names to the reader, to suddenly step out as living men and women, imparting an idea of themselves. The notes are not those of one come quizzing to convince himself of the "false doctrines" there cherished, as some of the militant religionists of earlier years, nor of one who wishes to get a sight of the "Romish practices" or of the concealed French powder and lead for the use of the savages, which neighbors in the Irish Settlement had told about. Nor are they the observations of the cynic, or the dyspeptic, or the individual who is smart. They are the impressions of an evidently healthy, sensible, well-bred young woman who could be interested and find enjoyment, and who was not one of those who describe everything as very 'queer that chances to be different from what they have always been accustomed to. Such a glimpse of Bethlehem in 1761 relieves the sombre impres- sions gotten from the narratives of the trials and hardships of the previous several years. It is different, too, from the purely and intensely religious character given the softer and finer features of the
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picture by the Brethren themselves, in the current records, in which they tell their own history and experiences. This visitor to Bethlehem whose notes, were a few years ago, put into print,14 as those of many other visitors receiving varying impressions have been, was accom- panied from Philadelphia by two other young women and two young men, one of them apparently her future husband.
On August 26, they "set out for Bethlehem and the country adjacent." On the way they met Anthony Benezet, who had been busying himself in the interests of peace at the Easton treaty and was returning from Bethlehem. He told them of the alarm created by the reports about the Indians who had come down from the moun- tains, but expressed the opinion that they might safely proceed. In the evening, on the 27th, they reached Bethlehem. At the Crown Inn they "began to see the manners of the people, complacent, mild and affable." Such persons, apparently, therefore were Andrew Horn and his good wife at the inn, and Daniel Kunckler, who had charge of the new rope ferry. The "pretty illumination" made by the imposing Brethren's House-"Colonial Hall" of the Young Ladies' Seminary-when viewed from the river, was observed. On their walk up to the Sun Inn they "passed by the stables which were struck by lightning last year."15 At the inn kept by Peter Worbas they "had an elegant supper and diligent waiters." They were awakened the next morning "by one hundred cows, a number of them with bells, a venerable goat and two she-goats, driven in town by two sisters" -- like the morning experience of many a traveler in an Alpine village. It is said to have looked very pretty. Nazareth was visited the next day-"a fine farm where the widows and boys reside." There Valen- tine Haidt's paintings were noticed in the chapel of Nazareth Hall, many details of the institution are described, and it is stated that "the great order, decency, decorum and convenience, is hardly to be
14 Extracts from the diary of Hannah Callender, by George Vaux-Pennsylvania Maga- zine of History and Biography, Vol. XII, pp. 432-456.
15 Not "last year" but July 20, 1761, the fine large barn, built in 1757, as men- tioned in the preceding pages, was struck by lightning and set on fire. Very great difficulty was experienced in extinguishing the flames. No horses nor harness were burned and the dwelling apartments remained unimpaired, but men worked all night with the burn- ing hay which had to be forked out and scattered. The near-by thatch roof of the cow stable and sundry stacks of grain added to the peril. This fright led to the organization of better fire-fighting arrangements and to the steps which brought the first fire-engine in America to Bethlehem, several years after this, just too late for use when the first disastrous conflagra- tion occurred in the place.
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expressed ;" although the wooden trenchers in the dining room of the boys were found to be "not so clean as all the rest." At the Rose, where dinner was eaten, they found several Indians, and "things carried a solemn aspect." Perhaps Ephraim Culver and his wife were less genial than many another old-time Moravian host and hostess, and if their terrible experiences of a few years before are remembered, it is not surprising that, with Indians about and the reports of new outbreaks that had just come down from the region of their desolate home worrying them, things wore that kind of an aspect. At Gnaden- thal again there were paintings "of the birth and death of our Saviour." There they were kindly treated to peaches by some women. At Christiansbrunn, "the residence of the younger single brethren," they admired the water-works, milk-house and fine oxen, walked down steps to the spring which "being walled in a sort of room was very nice and had a romantic air." There they "drank of the Castalian fount." They also "drank a dish of tea in the Guardian's room opposite the single brethren's chambers, who pleased and diverted themselves by looking at them." The next morning, at Bethlehem, the cows again and "the bell calling the sisters to prayers" attracted attention. Nicholas Garrison, Jr., and his wife Gracie-daughter of William Parsons-were encountered. She received them "with free- dom," and they met as former school-mates. Then the men of the company went their way while the writer and her companion were escorted by the polite Mrs. Garrison to the Sisters' House. There another school-mate, Polly Penry, whose unfortunate life was known to the writer, was found and the meeting was an affecting one. Rebecca Langly "whose ease, grace and affability" proved her genteel bringing up is mentioned. The accomplished but somewhat eccentric wife of the yet more eccentric Henry Miller, printer, was another of the women met with. A stroll was taken "up the single sisters' walk, a quarter of a mile long, adorned with two rows of black cherry trees to the Monocacy Creek." Along the creek the wash-house, dye- house, bleaching-yard, saw-mill, etc., were observed. The visitor says : "Sister Garrison with good humor gave us girls leave to step across a field to a little island belonging to the single brethren." They were now within the precincts of the present pleasure grounds of the Young Ladies' Seminary, and this was the "Wunden Eiland" referred to in a previous chapter. The neat summer-house on it with seats of turf and button-wood trees around it, is mentioned. A children's meeting was attended, in company with "Nicholas and Gracy Gar-
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rison;" also a lovefeast in the evening at which "small loaves of bread" and "a small cup of chocolate" were served. The next day at ten o'clock they "went to meeting" with "Sister Miller, Becky and Polly." The minister discoursed in English. His name, "Heyde" (Haidt) is mentioned, and it is stated that he was "their limner who executed all the paintings."
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