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 49
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A HISTORY OF BETHLEHEM, PENNSYLVANIA.
hardly perceptible that there were soldiers at Bethlehem. The next day, soon after they left, a company arrived from Maryland under Captain Thomas Price, a cousin-says the diarist-of Mary Tiersch, wife of the Rev. Paul Tiersch, a former Assistant Principal of Naza- reth Hall and, in 1771, the first minister at Salem, North Carolina. They also attended service in a body in the evening and listened to an English sermon. On the 28th, another company of mounted men arrived from Virginia and proceeded on their way, after a rest of several hours. An. August 10, a body of riflemen passed through, followed, on the 13th, by a company from Bedford County, all bound for the center of disturbance, about Boston. Then there was a lull in these first manifestations of incipient war, breaking in upon the peace of Bethlehem, until December 1, when several of the British officers captured by General Montgomery's little army at St. Johns, Canada, arrived on their way to Philadelphia. They were fol- lowed on the 5th by two hundred soldiers of their command. These prisoners of war were quartered partly at the Sun and Crown Inns and partly in the large stone house of many names and uses, on Main Street-site of the Publication Office-which has been fre- quently referred to, spoken of at this time as "the former Institute." The next day another body of prisoners followed, so that about four hundred in all passed through. They only remained several days, and the record states that there was no cause for complaint about their conduct while they sojourned at Bethlehem. They were fol- lowed, January 30, 1776, by many of their wives and children, under guard, in four sleighs. Their distress awakened much compassion, as the cold was severe and their clothing insufficient. Extra cloth- ing, blankets and other necessities were furnished them for the remaining journey. The next day came upwards of twenty wagons, loaded with prisoners and luggage. They proceeded on their way, the day following, after John Okely, as Justice, had, in accordance with official instructions, pressed every available wagon into service for their further transportation. It seemed as if there would be no end to this caravan, for on February 3, upwards of fifty more passed through, followed the next day by several officers. Again on Feb- ruary 14, another company of prisoners, this time mostly French troops, arrived, and the next day went on to their quarters at Bristol. These men attended a service held for the children and purchased a considerable lot of needle-work and other goods in the Sisters House. After that there were no further visits of a military char-
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THE FIRST HOUSE AND ADJOINING STONE BUILDING OF 1776.
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acter until in July, excepting the passing through to New York of one company of riflemen, the first week in April. The conditions that existed at Bethlehem led the authorities of the place to increase the dwelling accommodations in every possible way. Some apart- ments were fitted up temporarily in various buildings, and several structures were converted from their former uses into permanent dwelling-houses. One of these was "the old stone stable on the former farm" of Bethlehem. This was the stone cottage yet stand- ing near the site of the first house, on Rubel's Alley, of various sub- sequent associations. It seemed as if this move to increase dwell- ings had resulted from a premonition that ere long emergencies would come upon Bethlehem when every habitable spot in the place would be called into requisition. Among the incidents of those months were two deaths that have interesting associations in different ways. The first, on March 7, 1776, was that of Christian Froehlich, the last of the Bethlehem pioneers living at the place. He had been engaged in his former occupation, as a sugar refiner, in New York, for twenty-four years, and had, shortly before his decease, come to Bethlehem to spend his declining days. The other, which caused much sorrow, was that, on April 19, of the Rev. Amadeus Paulinus Thrane, the gifted, eloquent and greatly beloved preacher and asso- ciate pastor (Ordinarius) since 1761. This position was now assumed by Ettwein, in connection with his other duties as assistant to Bishop Seidel, President of the Provincial Helpers' Conference. The latter also filled the position of Head Pastor (Gemeinhelfer) at Bethlehem, assisted by the Rev. Paul Muenster as subordinate pastor of the married portion of the Congregation. The Rev. Andrew Busse, an unmarried man, and chaplain of the Brethren's House, had the partic- ular pastoral charge of the single men, assisted by John Frederick Peter and Immanuel Nitschmann. Ettwein, at the same time, was yet filling another important office, as President of the village Board of Supervision in externals, assisted by de Schweinitz the Adminis- trator of the American property of the Unity or Church General. These, with the Rev. Jeremiah Dencke, the Warden of the Congre- gation, and the Rev. John Herman Bonn, the Warden of the Brethren's House, as previously stated, together with the Eldresses and Deaconesses of the Sisters' House and the Widows' House, made up, principally, the official personnel of Bethlehem in that historic year.
The course of local affairs, on to May, 1776, suffered no disturb- ance traceable to the effects of the Revolution that had commenced,
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excepting some unsettling of prices which the doughty store-keeper, Oberlin, was taking advantage of, contrary to regulations, to make more profit than the village fathers thought was proper. A "painful deliberation" on the subject took place in the Elders' Conference in May. It was clear that he was overcharging the people of the place, as well as outside customers who would blame the village authorities. It was decided that Bishop Seidel should speak to Oberlin about this. The store-keeper had trouble enough later, on account of the scarcity of many commodities and the enormous prices that had to be paid, but at this time the advance was only speculative, as yet, and the business principles which then prevailed in Bethlehem did not permit specu- lation on prospective stringency, even in dealing with customers who came from the country to hear Tory talk and perhaps to get a glimpse of the alleged British powder and lead stored in the cellar of the village store, where the imaginary French ammunition was supposed to have been kept formerly. Many people from near and distant places were in Bethlehem during those weeks and the store, as well as the inn, undoubtedly did a thriving business.
On May 6, John Penn again came to Bethlehem from Allentown, where he had probably been in consultation with Andrew Allen, and remained until the next day. He was perhaps contemplating the prospect of soon having to write Ichabod under the Penns' Arms that crowned the back of the Governor's chair. In January of the pre- vious year, the Pennsylvania Convention had approved the pro- ceedings of the first Continental Congress held in September before that. This had proven the entering wedge towards shattering the old Pennsylvania government. At the meeting of the decrepit Assembly in June, following that Convention, when the "Committee of Safety" was appointed, the temper of the subsequent "Associators" made itself felt in a fashion that boded little good for the old pro- vincial machinery; for this Committee, which represented the senti- ment at variance with the conservative party that was now the only strength of the old government, took matters largely into its own hands for the next twelve months, and, in May, 1776, the time now under review, the further existence even of the Assembly of Pennsyl- vania was rendered precarious by the resolution of the Congress, recommending to the colonies to institute a government adapted to the needs of the hour. This action was communicated by Assembly- man Edmonds, in a letter to Bethlehem, and on May 28, a meeting of voting citizens was held to consider what, if anything, they, as
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part of the people of one of the counties, should do in view of the "repudiation of the Assembly" by those in control, and the proposi- tion "to abolish the existing government" of the Province. It was observed at the meeting that everything was then turning on the question of declaring independence of England or not, and that those in Pennsylvania who were in favor of so doing would needs have the old Assembly out of the way. It was finally decided not to take any action in a distinct capacity as Moravians, but unite with other conservative inhabitants of the county in signing a proposed petition to retain the old government, provided such petition contained nothing contrary to their conscientious scruples. Nothing came of the petition. The futile effort was made by those who tried to preserve what they believed to be the proper legal method of pro- cedure, to have the proposed Convention called through the old Assembly, as then yet constituted. This action, though initiated, was not consummated. The Committee of Correspondence which had called the conference of the County Committees in Carpenters' Hall, in July, 1774, summoned them to another such conference which met on June 18, 1776, and took the initial steps to bring about a Con- vention for the formation of a new Provincial Government. The Assembly subsequently had several sessions, and a last meeting, feebly protested and then died.
The current of events was irresistible. Before this Pennsylvania Convention assembled, the supreme hour had come when the new Continental Congress, convened on May 10, took the decisive step that necessarily ended Pennsylvania's Proprietary Government without further formalities, when the delegates of all the colonies signed the immortal document that introduced a new Nation to an astonished world, and made the Fourth of July, 1776, forever historic.
On that very day the diarist of Bethlehem recorded how, when they had seen in the newspapers that the Congress had resolved to declare the Colonies free and independent States, their hearts were melted and they were exhorted by "Brother Nathanael"-Bishop Seidel-to remember the situation of things before the Lord. They then knew of the memorable resolution introduced by Richard Henry Lee on June 7, and, after protracted debate, voted on, July 2-all approving excepting Delaware and four of Pennsylvania's seven delegates-that the "United Colonies are and of right ought to be free and independent States ; and that all political connection between them and the State of Great Britain is and ought to be totally
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dissolved." Then again, on the 8th of July, when the public reading of the Declaration of Independence, signed in final form with the statement of reasons on the 4th, took place in Philadelphia, and the election of delegates to the Pennsylvania Constitutional Convention of the 20th was held in all the counties, the diary of Bethlehem refers to both things; but without comment, beyond the remark that, in the Northampton County election, the Brethren remained away, that the Associators carried everything, and that five German and three Irish farmers were elected. In the excitement of the hour, the Morav- ian leaders, like so many others in Pennsylvania who thought the steps taken premature and precipitate, came under the odium of being enemies of the Country because they favored upholding the Proprietary Government, against which, not many years before, the same class of men in the county who now denounced them for this reason, had persistently tried to prove them the secret conspirators. That they, as well as the few eminent public men who held and advocated this view and the large body of citizens who stood with them in it, were in error, as to the best policy of the hour and as to the Divine Providence in the events that were to work out the grand destinies of the Nation, of course, became clear before many years, and in due time was recognized by them. Meanwhile, however, every hasty and vehement man who happened to have placed himself on the right side of the question, considered it his privilege to decry them all in a body as the foes of the Country ; for it is always difficult, when feeling runs high and controversy is rife, for advocates of radical measures for reaching a desirable end to refrain from regarding every one who differs from their ideas about the methods and policies as, ipso facto, an opponent of the ultimate end sought. The lower down in combined intelligence and character men stand, the more violent and intolerant they naturally are in such issues ; and so those on the popular side who belonged to the rabble were the surest that it was their duty, as patriots, to despoil all who had indis- criminately been made odious as anti-revolutionists, no matter how innocent of any act or intrigue to the detriment of the cause, or even if they were more highly patriotic than themselves, but unfor- tunately thought the rights of their Country ought to have been longer struggled for in other ways.
So it came to pass that while some troops who passed through Bethlehem, as already remarked, behaved respectfully, were willing to believe that the Moravians were not dangerous people, and in
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some cases even embraced the opportunity to attend Divine service in a body-for there were men who associated lofty and sacred ideas with the stern duties of the time that had called them to arms-a few other companies came with howling and cursing against "the Tory nest" that "ought to be burned down" and their officers found it difficult to restrain them, had to take measures to protect property, and had to place guards at the doors of the Sisters' House. So it came also that, throughout all the complications and embarrassments of their situation, the Moravians always met the most friendly, considerate and understanding treatment from the chief men who led the Revolution both in thought and action, and who bore its foremost responsibilities, both in the counsels of the Nation and the State and on the field of battle. Time and again, emergencies of a trying character were safely passed, by appeal from the perse- cution of some petty official of the county or subordinate in the army to the higher authorities.
During the weeks that followed the Declaration of Independence a second season of slight hubbub came for Bethlehem, when some of the activities of war again touched the place. On July 10 and II, about twenty army wagons with numerous prisoners from Canada passed through. On the 15th, the wagon from Bethlehem, which made stated trips to Hope, N. J., was stopped, after it started from Easton on the return to Bethlehem, by several county militia officers and searched, under suspicion of containing ammunition for secret deposit. To their chagrin, they merely found several barrels of flour. On the 23d, Col. Kichline came from Easton to collect all the fire- arms at Bethlehem. Some yet remained stored at the place from the time of the Indian war. He would have taken every gun, but was induced to leave several, upon representation that the village should not be left utterly without a gun, so that "there would not even be. one about to so much as kill a mad dog." He was followed on the 29th, by Col. George Taylor to make a further search for arms. On the 30th, a company of 120 men marched through from Allentown, bound for the Flying Camp in New Jersey. The urgent calls that now came to the militia of Northampton County to march to the field of action, produced the singular combination of results that, among many of them, there was, of a sudden, a marked disinclination to do so, some calling into question the authority that ordered them and some claiming to be only committed to home-guard duty ; while at the same time when such thus shrank from this first test, a new outcry
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was raised against the Moravians for not turning out to drill. The latter had, on July 28, 1776, for the first time, omitted the mention of the King of England in the petitions of the Church litany, and sub- stituted special prayer for the Country.
During the month of August, troops were continually marching through the place en route for the Flying Camp in New Jersey. The diary notes in reference to them reveal the variety of spirit in which these men went out to face the realities of war. Some of them, when halting at Bethlehem, requested that religious services might be held and sermons preached for their benefit. In one case the officers are quoted as saying that it might be the last such opportunity of their lives. Ettwein usually officiated on these occasions and preached. In other cases they did not seem to take their situation, duties and prospects, so seriously. Several times the buoyant temper and gala- day manner of the militia were noted, as they came into the place with cheers and ringing martial music. Then again there was merely a quiet, plodding air-hilarious bravado, patriotic enthusiasm and serious emotion being all absent. The most of these companies were from Berks and Lebanon Counties, representing the various elements of the Pennsylvania rural districts, but mainly recruited from the sturdy German yeomanry of the region; men with little brag and bluster and no blatant threats against the Tories, but with the making of good soldiers in them, all the more, who could be depended upon when it was rather a matter of work than of talk. Mention is occasion- ally made of particular individuals, mainly among the officers; Cap- tain John Old, from Reading; Captain George Will, also of Berks County, who is referred to as a shoemaker and a native of Stettin, whose father, when a young man, had lived at Herrnhut; Captain Daniel de Turk, of the family at Oley, where the first Indian converts of the Moravian Church were baptized in the barn of one of them; Captain George May, from Reading, who, it is stated, was from Lan- gendiebach in the Wetterau and had, as he informed the ministers at Bethlehem, once worked at Herrnhaag, the abandoned Moravian settlement of that region. Two members of the Moravian Church,6
6 It may be noted here that the strict compact to all refrain from participating in active military service did not extend beyond the exclusive church settlements, where it was believed that the maintenance of the theoretical character and purpose of these villages, so organized, required the taking of this position. A number of Moravians of the ordinary town and country congregations joined the militia.
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Sturgis and Guenther, are mentioned as among the five companies from Lebanon who arrived on August 17, and as having been shown special fraternal hospitality at Bethlehem.
On Sunday, September I, Col. Balthaser Geehr, with his com- mand, the Fourth Battalion, from Berks County-about 400 men- suddenly arrived and the morning service was interrupted. At four o'clock they filed into the church-the present old chapel-filling the place, and Ettwein preached a sermon. It is stated that they all listened attentively and that the occasion was a very impressive one. Then, as the month of September advanced, some militia several times passed through in the other direction, having served their time and preferring to return home. An occasional straggling deserter put in an appearance.
From such the first news of the disastrous battle of Long Island was received at Bethlehem, and on September 18, the word came that the British had occupied New York City and that the American forces had been defeated at Ticonderoga. Families connected with the Moravian Church in New York began to arrive and on the same day Col. Gruenewald with the Lebanon battalion again passed through the place on their return from Jersey. At the end of September, the diary refers to the completed work of the Pennsylvania Constitutional Convention, to the last sessions of the old Assembly and to its vain resolutions in protest against the acts of the Convention which had legislated it out of existence. A new General Assembly was provided for, as the legislative body, and a Council of twelve as exec- utive, with a President chosen each year by joint ballot of the Assembly and the Council; while a Council of Censors, consisting of two from each city and county, was also provided for, as part of the proposed future governmental machinery of the State.
The diary of 1776, in briefly noting the end of the Convention and the last acts of the Assembly, refers to the vain resolutions of the latter to ease the situation of non-Associators, and, on October 1, observes that the annual election of Assemblymen went by default. On October 19, there was a consultation of those men in Bethlehem who according to an act of the old Assembly would now have to pay £3, 10 each, and it was decided to address the new authorities in the hope that relief might be secured from the new Legislature. None from Bethlehem attended the election of Inspectors and Committee- men on November 2, because they understood that the Associators would hold the election "according to battalions," and no non-Asso-
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ciators would be permitted to vote without first taking the oath prescribed by the Convention. In November there were again deliberations on the subject of prices. On the 4th, a consulation was held with the masters of trades and the workmen, on the mooted question of raising both the price of wares and the wages. It was decided to do nothing in the matter before New Year, and the workmen agreed to this. On the 19th, the price of fuel was under discussion, people of the neighborhood having greatly increased this. It was resolved to fix the price of hickory wood at twelve shillings and that of oak wood at nine shillings per cord, and an understanding to this effect was had with all concerned.
Now the sky began to grow darker and storms filled the air. On November 20, 1776, the news of the capture of Fort Washington reached Bethlehem through Col. Taylor, who came from Easton to get certain fire-arms yet deposited in the office of John Okely, the Justice. A week later, Lieutenant Cleveland and Col. Preston are mentioned in the records as in Bethlehem, followed by many other officers, and a report came that British prisoners from Reading and Lancaster were to be brought through Bethlehem. "From Phila- delphia we heard nothing but dread and fear," says the diary. New excitement was occasioned in the neighborhood by an emergency call for the militia of the county yet awaiting orders. As a soft note, char- acteristic of normal Bethlehem, in the midst of the discordant sounds of those days, drops in the record, on November 30, that David Tanneberger had set up the new organ in the Brethren's House. Then, like a sudden clap of thunder from a bolt sent down by the gathering storm upon that very house, came in the afternoon of December 3, the announcement that the General Hospital of the Con- tinental Army was to be at once moved to Bethlehem and was on the way. In the evening Director General of the hospitals, Dr. Wil- liam Shippen, and Surgeon General John Warren arrived, after Dr. Cornelius Baldwin, who had preceded them, had announced his instructions to make preparations.7 Ettwein and the Warden Dencke assured them of the readiness of the Brethren to put all the avail-
7 Two official missives were received at Bethlehem that afternoon; one from Dr. John Warren, Surgeon General and Acting Director, and the other, supplementary to it, brought by Dr. Baldwin from the Committee of Northampton County. They were the following :
EASTON, Decem'r 3d 1776.
GENT'N.
You will see by the Letter herewith sent, that the General Hospital of the Army is ordered to be at Bethlehem. We therefore request you that you would be aiding and assist-
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able room at their disposal, but begged for such arrangements as would not, if possible, demoralize the accustomed routine. This was promised. It is observed in the record that this move was evi- dently pre-arranged, for it was known at large in Philadelphia before it was announced at Bethlehem, "whether with good or evil intent God knows." It is furthermore remarked that the prevailing feeling at once was to submissively acquiesce; if there was evil intent on the part of those who first planned the arrangement, to overcome it with good, and to take encouragement in this good from the daily text of the Church, which very significantly was the passage in the Saviour's parable relating to bringing in the poor, the maimed, the halt and the blind.
As to the plan, whatever part any county officials may have had in first drawing attention to Bethlehem, as a desirable point for a hospital, and whatever thought they may have entertained of thus giving the Moravians something to bear in addition to paying fines in lieu of military service, it was not unnatural that the Medical Com- mittee, or whoever, primarily, had the responsible selection of such sites in charge, should have had an eye upon this place, with its large buildings located outside the zone of disturbance. It was not unreasonable, either, to expect the Bethlehem people to bear this kind of a burden in the extremity, for this did not call for any viola-
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