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 43
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foremost obligations. The very generous terms on which, before this, children of members in the country congregations had been admitted to the institutions, both for girls and for boys, could no longer be continued ; and due notice was given at all such places, of the terms and conditions under which children would further be admitted. It was plainly stated that, in the absence of any special source of revenue for the schools-School-Diacony-to provide for which some time would be required, those in control could no longer be as generous as before. The withdrawal of most of the children from such country places, whose parents were glad to have them educated and trained at Bethlehem so long as it cost them little or nothing, explains the gradual diminution of the numbers, both in the boarding-school at Bethlehem and in Nazareth Hall, in the course of the following years. While the attendance of pupils sent from other places, not only by Moravians, but also by others under special arrangement, never ceased entirely, yet, for some years prior to the re-organization of those institutions in 1785, their boarding- pupils were chiefly children of ministers and missionaries. It must be borne in mind that in 1762, when with the dissolution of the Economy the practically gratuitous education of numerous boys and girls from outside places, as a branch of home missionary activity and with a view to training useful recruits for the ranks of mission- aries and teachers, was modified for financial reasons, the Moravian Church was carrying the enormous load of debt referred to in a previous chapter. Therefore, even if it was not hoped to make the
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schools a source of revenue, it was of importance that they should not be a serious drain on the heavily taxed resources.18
Finally, the sixth element of the case to be considered was the revision of rules and regulations, covering declaration of principle and aim as a whole; general statutes in reference to the conduct of trades and industries ; privileges and obligations of house-holders ; relation of all classes to the various authorities and officials; the life and walk and conversation of individuals. In all of these respects definite articles suitable to the changed situation had to be framed, agreed to by all and signed, as a covenant or brotherly agreement, superseding that of 1754. In this task the statutes in force at Herrn- hut and those which had been drawn up and approved by Zinzendorf for the new church settlement, Lititz, which was founded at once after the Herrnhut model, into conformity to which the' hitherto unique organization of Bethlehem was now to be brought, were utilized as a guide. It is of interest, therefore, to note that the earliest statutes of Lititz, as a regular church settlement on the European plan-Ortsgemcine-are older than those of Bethlehem.
All the preliminary arrangements had been made with such care that the transition from the old to the new system was effected expe- ditiously and smoothly. The achievement is surprising and can be rightly appreciated only by one who has made a thorough study of the situation and of the varied details involved. Public announce- ment of the intended changes was made on January 17, 1762, by Bishop Spangenberg. January 31, at a Gemeintag19 service, when many from other places were present, the new school-regulations were published. At a general meeting of communicant members on February 23, the details of the change, as then settled, were explained, so far as they concerned all of the people.
Meanwhile, the last Synod before Spangenberg left for Europe intervened. It was held at Lancaster, May 12-16. There the announcements relating to the general organization and direction of
18 The public announcement made was that, from the beginning of 1762, the charge would be £10 Pa., annually for each child, "to be paid quarterly in advance to Christian F. Oerter, book-keeper." For this sum board and lodging, light and fuel and constant attend- ance were included with tuition. The parents or guardians had to furnish clothing, and the expense of nurse and medicine in sickness was extra. Music, to a certain extent, and in- struction in some manual employment were also included without extra charge because in these lines the pupils could, after they became somewhat proficient, render some service in return for their instruction.
19 On Gemeintag see note 4 of Chapter IV.
1756 -- 1762. 385
affairs were made, and all those points settled in which the relations between Bethlehem and the other settlements and congregations had to be re-adjusted.
On June I, the books of the General Diaconate were opened, and the new basis of business relations, with a new system of accounts between the whole and all of the parts, was established. Inside of three weeks every man who had belonged to the Economy, had signed the release which was equivalent to a final settlement and receipt in full of all claims and accounts. On June 20, the new statutes, which had been approved by all voters of the place, were read at a public meeting, in their final shape, and the taking of signatures to these commenced. The General Economy was at an end and a new epoch in the history of Bethlehem opened. Bishop Spangenberg's work in America was now done. On June 22, he and his wife took final leave of Bethlehem and went to Philadelphia, whence on July I, they sailed for Europe.
DOU-
000
COMMUNION SERVICE USED BY THE CHOIR OF SINGLE SISTERS, 1762.
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CHAPTER XI.
THE DECADE TO THE SECOND REORGANIZATION. 1762-1771.
At the beginning of the new period which opened when the General Economy was abolished in 1762, some others besides Spangenberg, who had long been prominently connected with affairs at Bethlehem, and with various activities elsewhere under the direction of its author- ities, disappeared from the scene, to be mentioned no more. On April I, the Rev. Gottlieb Pezold, one of the most devoted and efficient men, long the superintendent of the organization of the single men, the chief promoter of the work in the Maguntsche neighborhood-Salisbury Township-which resulted in the settlement and church of Emmaus, and one of the most valuable members of the central board at Bethlehem, died unexpectedly at Lititz. He had gone there on official business, was taken sick in consequence of exposure on the way, and there ended his days greatly mourned by all. On April 20, the Rev. John Michael Graff left with his wife and some other persons for Wachovia, North Carolina, where the rest of his life was spent; he being the first bishop (1773) of the Moravian Church, or any other church, in that part of the country.
On May 18, the veteran missionary Martin Mack left Bethlehem- he sailed from New York, June 27-for St. Thomas, to become the superintendent of the oldest mission field of the Moravian Church in the Danish West Indies. With Bishop Spangenberg sailed for Europe on July I, the Rev. Andrew Anthony Lawatsch, who had been one of the most important men connected with the direction of affairs at Bethlehem. He was a widower. His wife Anna Maria Demuth, who had suffered tribulation for the gospel in Bohemia and, with others of her family, fled to Herrnhut-a peculiarly gifted and noble woman, and one of the most notable engaged in official work at Bethlehem-had died January 20, 1760. They were accom- panied also by the Rev. Jacob Rodgers, son-in-law of William Parsons "the father of Easton," at whose funeral, on December 19, 1757, he had, at the dying request of the deceased, conducted the last
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rites. Rodgers was also now a widower and was returning to England after twenty years of varied activity in America. David Wahnert and his wife also returned with them to Europe, to cross the ocean with Moravian colonies no more. On the other hand, some new names, besides those of the recently arrived colony, come into prominence.
One, particularly, may be mentioned here, because of the distin- guished missionary career that had its beginning, early in 1762, with the first conspicuous reference to a man later so well known. In the summer of 1761, the restless, roving and adventurous mission- ary Post, by agreement with some western Delawares, had built a cabin on the Tuscarawas River in Ohio, not far from the site of the present town of Bolivar, where he proposed to found a new mission. He returned to Bethlehem in February, 1762, to seek a companion and fellow-laborer from among the young men. John Heckewelder, although not yet of age, was the person he selected. Heckewelder desired to enter the missionary service but hesitated about this proposition. Bishop Spangenberg was yet in Bethlehem. An interview was had on the matter, encouragement was given him to try it. This encouragement by Spangenberg was supported by that of Zeisberger, who just then was sojourning at Bethlehem. The hesitating young man came to a decision and said "here am I, send me." Spangenberg announced this to the people at a public meeting on February 23. Preparations for the journey were soon made, for in those days it did not take such men long to get ready. Hecke- welder started with a traveling companion afoot through the deep snow on March 9, for Lititz, where he was to meet Post, who mean- while had gone to Philadelphia. He reached Lititz on March 12, the day on which he became twenty years old. There he was again warmly encouraged by his beloved friend and spiritual advisor Pezold, who gave him his dying blessing at the beginning of his new under- taking, and from Lititz he and his veteran companion set out together for the West. Thus began the missionary life of John Heckewelder, and, although nothing came of that first attempt, on account of the unsettled state of things in the Indian country-Heckewelder was back in Bethlehem, the end of November-that was the beginning of work by the Moravian Church in the historic Tuscarawas Valley of Ohio, in which later so much of Heckewelder's valuable service to the Church, the State and the General Government was rendered.
In the summer of 1762, the institutions of Bethlehem, its adjunct
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A HISTORY OF BETHLEHEM, PENNSYLVANIA.
Indian village of Nain, its missionary and other enterprises generally were again the objects of inspection and inquiry on the part of a number of prominent men. Another of the numerous almost farcical treaties with the Indians, held at Easton in June, 1762, brought many persons to the neighborhood. Among those who visited Beth- lehem were Governor Hamilton, Sir John Sinclair, and the famous Sir William Johnston. The Governor dined at the Sun Inn on June 29. The peculiar connection of Bethlehem with the Indians made the place particularly interesting to such men at that time. The customary tour of the various official buildings and industrial establishments was made by some of them. The state of things probably did not reveal the important reconstructions and changing of hands that were then in progress, for no disturbance of the regular routine took place.
An imaginary tour with visitors might be taken among the industries of Bethlehem at that interesting beginning of a new period, and something noted of the concerns then being operated. In the Brethren's House, for the enlargement of which preparations were being made-the corner-stone of the eastern extension was laid on August 31-they found, besides the large bakery yet being oper- ated there, a number of handicrafts carried on that could be accom- modated in one and another of its rooms. Besides tailors, shoe- makers, saddlers and other such craftsmen, they came upon a corps of men in one room busily writing. From three to six men were continually occupied at this work. Looking out of the windows at the north-west corner, clusters and rows of buildings, log and stone, of various sizes appeared, with the grist-mill and the Indian House just across the creek from it, in the background to the left ; the group of structures in the grain and stock-yards, about the original log cabin of Bethlehem, in which the overseer of that depart- ment lived, in the central background, while to the right and due north, along the line of the present Main Street, they saw, beyond the log house with the water-tower at the end of it where the church now stands, the dwelling and laboratory of Dr. Otto; above that the large stone house of various uses, then occupied mostly as a dwelling, with the weavers busy in the basement; farther up, and in a line with it, the large barn and horse stable containing the dwelling of the men in charge, and beyond that on the same line, the Sun Inn.
The nearest of these buildings, almost under the shadow of the Brethren's House at the north-west corner, on the slope of the hill,
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1762-1771.
where the present Main Street makes the turn, was the log house built in 1742 for the carpenters and joiners, connected with the first little log cooper's shop. In the new one farther north at this time John Heckewelder was learning to make cedar tubs. The first was now used by the turners under the direction of "Father" Bechtel, for the joiners had moved to other quarters. There spinning-wheels were made in considerable numbers, there being a constant demand for them throughout the surrounding country, and many being needed for the Sisters' House and for the use of the girls in the school in those days of much spinning. Possibly, if a brand or trade- mark had been put upon these wares, more than one ancient spinning- wheel preserved as a relic would be found to have been made in that little log shop on the premises now known as the Abbott property. There also, on the slope of the hill, just north of that, stood the log house which was fitted up in the first years of the settle- ment as the primitive hostelry, mentioned in an earlier chapter, before the Crown Inn was built. Near it, on the hill side, Ludwig Huebener built his first oven and in a corner of that house, for a while, set up his first rude wheel to turn out pottery for the use of the settlement. A more pretentious building of stone near-by, thirty-two by thirty-five feet, built in 1749, and constituting the first structure of the more permanent row from the Brethren's House corner towards the first house of Bethlehem-the line from the bend in Main Street to what is now called Rubel's Alley-was at this time the pottery, where a thriving business was carried on, and when the Economy was abolished, was taken over by Huebener. Large demands for the useful earthen-ware there produced, came from the Durham furnace where the Brethren bought much iron, and from farmers about the country, and some orders, even from Philadelphia, were filled, while, as can be readily understood, much had to be made for the use of the spring-houses and larders of Bethlehem and the Nazareth places. Some dwellings were fitted up in the second story of the pottery building, to which an addition was built in 1756, and at the time of the dissolution of the Economy, the thirteen widowers living in Bethlehem had their common room and dormitory there. This was the property where now a modern structure is to replace the old landmark at the corner, on the south side of the road leading from Main Street down to the mill.
Next to it, on the opposite corner, stood the second stone house of the row-it is yet there-built in 1750. An extension had been
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A HISTORY OF BETHLEHEM, PENNSYLVANIA.
built to the east in 1761 and a second story was added to the whole in 1763. There work in iron was done. The blacksmiths were occupying it, their first shop, built in 1743, having stood just back of it on the hill-side towards the spring. There the locksmith also had his stand, and there, for a while, the first wrought-iron nails were made at Bethlehem. In 1754, however, the nail-smith took possession of the log house first used by the potter, already mentioned. Another log building standing on the slope in the rear of the stone smithy, adjoining the east end of its rude predecessor-both of these log houses stood in a line with the first house of Bethlehem-was that used by the wheel-wrights and wagon-makers. There the stock of freight-wagons, carts, plows, harrows and lighter farming utensils was supplied and kept in repair. In the above mentioned first smith- shop the primitive hattery was in operation. What shape the blocks had which turned off the "wool hats" of that time is a question not to be settled now, but it may be assumed that it did not vary often in punctilious conformity to changing styles of the season. The straw hats worn in summer were plaited by women and girls in the Sisters' House. This branch of female industry, which in subsequent years continued to be of some importance, had been introduced in 1755, under instruction given by Jacob Boerstler's wife, of Oley. From those log houses behind the stone smithy it was but a short descent to the grist-mill, with its double run of stones, at some seasons rumbling day and night under the red tile roof and on the red tile floor that rested upon the solid masonry, rebuilt in 1751, of stone quarried from the brow of the hill, later named Nisky by Captain Garrison, across the Monocacy from the saw-mill. The whirling of these stones did not jar the massive walls erected in the manner in which Henry Antes had his workmen build mills, nor crack the smooth plastering of the interior spread upon laths from the little saw-mill at Christiansbrunn. No doubt those distinguished visitors stepped into the mill and had a friendly word with Abraham Andreas, the miller, who had taken charge of it under the new arrangement. Connected with the grist-mill, to the west, was the full- ing-mill, rebuilt of stone in 1759, and started up on October 19, of that year, with its four beaters working excellently, as the record states, and "capable of running through three hundred yards of stuff at once." This, with the adjoining room for the clothiers and at the west end the dye-house, presented a front of a hundred and eight feet from the eastern end of the grist-mill towards the Monocacy. It is not unlikely that there they crossed the creek and looked into the
1762-1771.
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PLAN OF BETHLEHEM, 1758.
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A HISTORY OF BETHLEHEM, PENNSYLVANIA.
Indian House, an establishment that would probably interest Sir William Johnston. Moving southward from the mill, on the road by which the laden wagons came and went between that point and the ferry, they were in the heart of the cluster of structures which they had surveyed from the windows of the Brethren's House. Just south of the grist-mill, on the east side of the tail race, in the small frame building of 1743, to which several others were added, tanning, tawing and currying had been undertaken on a small scale, and soon became an important industry. A large stone building commenced on the other side of the race in May, 1761, had been completed and the new tannery was being rapidly gotten into order for work on a more extended scale. It became, and for many years continued to be, the most lucrative business at Bethlehem. In the rear of the tannery stood the slaughter-house, near the bank of the creek, pre- empting a locality to be the place for the shedding of much innocent blood and the dressing of much meat, even down to the present day, when man is no less carnivorous than a century and a half ago. A little farther down was at that time the oil-mill, where the seed from the many acres of flax that furnished the linen of the place was converted into a profitable article of export to the cities, with the little mill for grinding tan-bark adjacent. But at this point, a piece of important mechanism which interested all visitors more than anything else, attracted attention. The enlarged and improved water-works of Bethlehem were just being gotten into final working order, for on July 6, 1762, the first flow began. The surprise and admiration elicited by this enterprising and ingenious achievement- for the like of it was not then to be found anywhere in the colonies- perhaps led to an inspection of the remarkable spring from which the water was pumped, and around which all of these establishments had arisen. There, about two hundred and forty feet from the old water-works, was the milk house, cool and shady, with the over- flow stream from the spring-house running through it, after passing through another apartment, in which meat and butter were kept, and at the end the heavy log structure, that enclosed and covered the place of gushing water, was entered-the whole primitive, but neat and scrupulously clean. In those days there was no reason yet for the dread thought of contamination to be associated with that remarkable water supply in the mind of resident or visitor.1
I After this cursory survey of the principal establishments of the place-there were sundry other minor ones-as they existed at the dissolution of the Economy, there will be less ref- erence in these pages than hitherto to such matters in detail. In general, the plan of merely
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1762-1771.
For a year after the new era opened, the course of life at Bethlehem ran smoothly and quietly, but in midsummer of 1763, signs of approaching trouble again began to appear. Apprehending new Indian raids upon the frontiers, nursing the old dislike for Beth- lehem and particularly for Moravian missionaries and a sullen resent- ment that became fanatical in its unreasoning intensity towards the Christian Indians living under Government protection at Nain, some people in the Irish Settlement again began to threaten both Nain and Wechquetank with summary destruction, and even to intimate that Bethlehem would suffer, so soon as the first occasion occurred for again taking up arms on account of the Indians. Pontiac's savage dream of effectually checking the further advance of the white man, taking shape in the deep-laid plan of attacks upon frontier settlements from the easternmost Indian borders to far-off Fort Detroit, had begun, already in May, to bear its fruit. Startling evidences of this bloody conspiracy began to send a new thrill of terror through one region after another, widely separated. Reason enough was there for alarm as far down as the Forks of the Delaware. But even under circumstances that created a panic of fear and stirred up the utmost exasperation, the mournful lesson of Gnadenhuetten and the shelter, food and protection these people had shared at Bethlehem when they fled like frightened sheep before the dogs to seek refuge with the Moravians, should not have been forgotten so soon. It might also have been expected, at least of those who professed to be enlight- ened and even Christian men, that they would have learned to under- stand the difference between this little residue of really Christian Indians whom the Moravians had rescued from the ruins of the missions, and merely "friendly" Indians, so-called, who were never- theless yet heathen and savages in ideas and practices, and whom men could not in such times be blamed for not trusting. It might also have been expected that by this time, all the people of the
sketching leading features and incidents will be followed after this point, more than in the preceding chapters. The period to the end of the General Economy was the more heroic period of Bethlehem, in which the most, both externally and internally, that is of permanent historic interest in connection with the town, originated. With two exceptions, to be treated of yet at the proper place, all the important historic buildings of Bethlehem dating from the eighteenth century, were erected prior to 1762. That being, furthermore, the period to which most of the things pertain which are regarded as " peculiarities" of Moravian princi- ples, operations, customs and experiences, so much written about from differing standpoints, and with varying degrees of understanding and correctness, there is more to be explained, from the beginning of Moravian work in Pennsylvania up to 1762 than after that.
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A HISTORY OF BETHLEHEM, PENNSYLVANIA.
neighborhood would have learned to understand that the traveling of Indians from Wyoming and beyond to Wechquetank and Nain and back again, was not necessarily to be taken as evidence, that any of the Christian Indians at these places were in league with the savages. It had become clear enough in the former Indian war that emissaries from the hostiles tried, of course, in every way to entice the converts to join them ; that they also shrewdly lurked about and went to and fro to produce the impression upon observers that these were their allies; and that, when they failed to move them they plotted to wreak vengeance upon them by murdering them, the same as white settlers. It was the common practice for men who, either in the vicinity of the Christian Indian villages or farther off in the Indian country, observed the movements of such Indians coming and going, to apply the term "Moravian Indians" quite indis- criminately, not only to those who dwelt at these stations and the few faithful ones who lived in the Indian country, but also to the apostates who had once been connected with the missions but were now with the hostiles in their plots, and even to many who had merely been known to have stood in some association with the converts formerly or were visitors at their villages, but who never had any connection with the missions. These two unfortunate mistakes of misinterpreting the going to and fro, and of accepting reports about the movements of "Moravian Indians" with the term thus applied to many who had no connection with the missions and over whom the missionaries had no influence whatever, gave rise to all the statements that were reproduced in current reports, official corre- spondence and public documents of the time, casting serious reflections upon that little band of loyal and inoffensive converts, and even upon the devoted missionaries, so groundless and unjust.2
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