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 50
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ing to Doct'r Baldwin who waits upon you with this, and who is come for the purpose of procuring suitable accommodations for the sick, to furnish him with such proper accommo- dations as Bethlehem can afford.
By order of the Committee,
ABRAHAM BERLIN, Chairman.
To the REV. NATH. SEIDEL,
Bethlehem.
To the Committee of the Town of Bethlehem, or others whom it may Concern : GENTLEMEN :
According to his Excellency General Washington's Orders, the General Hospital of the Army is removed to Bethlehem, and you will do the greatest act of humanity by immediately providing proper buildings for their reception, the largest and most capacious will be the most convenient. I doubt not, Gentlemen, but you will act upon this occasion as becomes Men and Christians; Doct'r Baldwin, the Gentleman who waits upon you with this, is sent upon the Business of Providing proper Accommodations for the sick; begging therefore that you will afford him all possible Assistance,
I am Gentlemen,
Your most obedient humble servant,
Hanover Gen'l Hospit'l.
JOHN WARREN,
December 1, 1776.
Gen'l Hospit'l Surg'n and P. T. Direct.
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tion of scruples about bearing arms or taking oath, and appealed to the sentiments of humanity in a way regarded as quite in accordance with their professed character and mission. They at once so viewed it, and the readiness with which the preparations were commenced for receiving the hospital in the Brethren's House-in every way the most suitable of the large buildings-manifestly gratified, and pos- sibly surprised the hospital authorities. Whereas, at first the intention had been to bring right to Bethlehem the entire number of patients destined for the Forks of the Delaware-half of the thousand then in the Morristown hospital-it was now concluded not to unduly burden the village and leave the neighboring places, which had also been had in view as possible sites, undisturbed. Therefore, it was decided to assign to Bethlehem, for the time being, a quota of about two hundred and fifty and to quarter the rest of the five hundred, to be conveyed across the Delaware, at Easton and Allentown. It appears that eventually the whole number brought to the three places was less than five hundred. Doubtless some were found to be beyond the possibility of removal from Morristown and others probably succumbed on the way, for two died in the wagons after they reached Bethlehem, before they could be carried into the house. Several dwelling-rooms and other apartments in the Brethren's House had been vacated and gotten into readiness, the next day, and on December 5, the wagons began to arrive with their freight of poor, suffering men. Yet more came the following day. Their pitiable condition, aggravated by the cold weather and the hardships of the journey, awakened the deepest commiseration at Bethlehem, and all possible effort was made to provide them with the first necessary comforts. The stores for the hospital did not arrive until three days after the first patients reached the place.
While the hospital was being established, a number of officers and straggling squads of militia passed through, who had come from Ticonderoga. On this occasion the village had its first slight exper- ience of disorderly conduct, for they were of the rougher element, were in a demoralized and reckless mood and ready, upon the slightest pretext, to create tumult. Ettwein observes that, in connection with this episode, the presence of the army hospital with the body of officers and escorts attached, proved, at the very beginning, to be a safe-guard for Bethlehem, making amends for the burden its presence occasioned.
The single men were not compelled to vacate the entire building. Some apartments in several other houses had to be fitted up for the
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A HISTORY OF BETHLEHEM, PENNSYLVANIA.
reception of special cases ; there being several minor officers and at least one commissioned officer among the suffering caravan. This was Col. Isaac Reed, of the Fourth Virginia Regiment, who had sent a surgeon in advance of his arrival to secure him private quarters, which were furnished him over the store in the Horsfield house. Word was, furthermore, received that many additional sick were to be brought from Trenton. Some of these arrived on the afternoon of December 8, but remained on the south side of the river. They were temporarily quartered at the Crown Inn, or one of the near-by structures. The inn, which, in the financial settlements of 1771, had become the property of the Bethlehem Diacony, had been leased to August Henry Francke, a member of the Pezold colony of 1754, who at this time had charge of it. Two of these unfortunate men died while lying there. There is no reference to their interment, and their names are not known. Perhaps they were added to those whose remains reposed in the little cemetery of the south side, on the hill. The previous day, December 7, the first two men died in the hospital. A spot was selected for their interment on the bluff across the Monocacy, back of the Indian House. There, subsequently, hundreds of graves were filled by the bodies of unnumbered and unregistered patriot dead.
On December 10, Ettwein commenced the duties of a chaplain in the hospital, by official arrangement, in addition to all the other cares and responsibilities he had to bear which were onerous ; Bishop Seidel being in failing health and incapable of vigorous leadership, and the other men associated with him in the pastorate not being adapted to the extraordinary duties of such a situation, or not sufficiently conversant with English. As regularly as possible he made semi- weekly visits to all the wards, praying beside the rude pallets of suffering and dying men, comforting the hearts of those who were professors of Christian faith, pointing those who were not to the Friend of sinners, and statedly preaching sermons, as the circum- stances permitted. Now, in addition to the turmoil already prevailing, the panic in Philadelphia was causing many of the persons who had fled from the city to make their way to Bethlehem, as others from New York and the adjacent parts had been doing; while various officers and the wives and children of others arrived. Among these was the family of Dr. Shippen, whose little son, William Lee, died at Bethlehem and was buried in the cemetery of the place. Among those who arrived on December 15, was General Horatio Gates, then
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the ranking Division Commander under Washington. His presence was of value to Bethlehem during the following days of great confusion and even of peril at one time, from the danger of a stampede upon the place by a great horde of impetuous and crude soldiery. About noon, on December 17, word came that General John Sullivan with several thousand troops was on the march towards Bethlehem and desired to have a supply of bread baked for his men. With the resources of the place already taxed as they were, this was not possible. General Gates sent an Adjutant to meet them and tell them to cross the river and camp in the Saucon Valley. This was not heeded, perhaps by reason of conflict of authority and some official jealousy between Gates and Sullivan at that time. In the evening three or four thousand of these troops camped near Bethlehem, but beyond burning up nearly all the fencing on both sides of the river to keep warm on that cold night, and foraging for hay, they made no inroads upon the property of the place, and the next day they marched on. General Gates took various precautions to obviate dis- turbances that night. Among other things, he posted guards at all the doors of the Sisters' House. There were reasons for such meas- ures. The main body of these men were those who had before been under command of that unprincipled military ruffian, General Charles Lee, of questionable fame, who had lately had himself captured by the British, and whose command had been turned over to a more worthy successor in General Sullivan. Lee had made rough boasts of what he would have his men do to the Tory town of Bethlehem, and had even made a wicked allusion to the Sisters' House as a special attraction, thus fostering among the troops not only entirely erroneous ideas about the place, but even base designs upon it. Instead of all this, the men, under another General, left everything untouched, beyond-as stated-burning the fences around them while in camp, with no kind of shelter, and appropriating some food for the horses, neither of which things were censurable under the circumstances of war. Their commander, accompanied by thirty other officers, instead of rioting at the place, spent part of the even- ing sitting quietly in the church, listening to sacred music.
Among men of high rank in Bethlehem at this time the records mention, besides the names of Gates and Sullivan, those of Arnold, Glover and Sterling. The Sun Inn was crowded with officers that night. December 17. 1776. Twelve were lodged in the old Community House, which had become the Clergy House of the place, for, with
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the exception of several rooms, all of its apartments were now occu- pied by the families of ministers employed in various capacities. Ettwein records that between five and six hundred men of the army and connected with the hospital were under roof in Bethlehem that night, besides the thousands of troops bivouacking in the near-by fields. General Gates left with the troops he had under command on December 19, but the next evening a company of about a hundred and fifty arrived from Albany and spent the night. They left the next day.
Gradually the condition of Bethlehem became more quiet again for a season. Christmas Eve services were held as usual and nearly the entire hospital staff was present. Dr. Shippen and most of the surgeons left for the army on Christmas Day, in response to a sum- mons from headquarters. Dr. John Morgan, another prominent hospital physician, with several others, went away to New England soon after New Year. Dr. James Houston, whom Ettwein praises as the most skillful and attentive of the whole staff, remained, with several assistants, until the middle of March. During those weeks the regular round of services was maintained through all the turmoil with but few interruptions, showing the determination of the people not to give way to demoralizing influences if possible. On New Year Eve they gathered quietly at ten o'clock to hear the memora- bilia of the year, according to custom, and even held the usual vigils at midnight without any unseemly interruption.
During those exciting weeks, carpenters and laborers of the place were busily employed in making coffins and digging graves on the hill across the Monocacy; for disease, with the effects of exposure and hardship, was working sad havoc among the sufferers in the hos- pital. According to the count kept by Ettwein, sixty-two died dur- ing December, and when the last inmates were removed on March 27, 1777, and the hospital was closed, the number had reached a hun- dred and ten. They were all buried at that place. Besides this work that was done gratuitously by the workmen of Bethlehem, certain of the single men who continued to occupy quarters in a part of their house voluntarily lent much assistance to the hospital stewards, in their unpleasant and trying duties, with the desire to help alleviate the misery of the patients as much as possible. On one day, Sunday, December 22, five deaths occurred. Among the men in that long list of the Nation's unnamed martyrs, three are referred to by Ettwein as special objects of his solicitous attention near the close of Decem-
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ber. Their names were Preuss, a Tyrolese; Nathaniel McNee and Thomas Powell.
During the first three months of 1777, Bethlehem was several times in quite serious danger from undisciplined and lawless militia who had been stirred up against the place by the agitation of embit- tered men and the wild stories set afloat, which in such times found ready credence among excited people who were not in a position to know the facts of the case. During those months, the guard of upwards of a hundred men left at the place while it was occupied by the Continental Hospital, having their barracks near the saw-mill, on the Sand Island, were of great value as its protectors against depredation and its defenders against calumny. They were disci- plined and trustworthy men and had learned to know the principles, motives and character of the Bethlehem people. Grateful acknowl- edgement of their services in this respect is made in the records. It is not much to the credit of some of the people who, during the Indian war, had made Bethlehem their place of refuge, when they were panic-stricken, and had experienced treatment as kind as if they had never been anything but friends, that instead of remembering that and having better feelings towards the Moravians than they had been cherishing before that, they were now, with their boys, who had grown up to be men, principally the people who fostered this vindictive spirit wherever their influence extended. From the town- ships to the west of Bethlehem the militia who planned those preda- tory sallies upon Bethlehem mainly hailed.
The latter part of February, 1777, a new experience came, when a large quantity of continental stores were brought to Bethlehem for temporary deposit under guard. This was thought by some, at first, to increase the danger of the place ; but, on the contrary, it enhanced its importance as a point to be protected by both civil and military authorities. At the same time, however, small-pox broke out among the soldiers, and a general inoculation took place among them and among the children of Bethlehem. During April and May, various prominent officers again visited the town, and on May 9, Lady Wash- ington was expected at the place by a mounted guard sent to escort her to Philadelphia, but she had pursued her journey down the coun- try from the Delaware by another road and did not, on this occasion, pass Bethlehem. During the spring, the names of Generals John Armstrong, Philip Schuyler and Joseph Reed appear in the records, as visitors who had not before been at the place, and on June 25,
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General Thomas Mifflin, who in 1790 became the first Governor of Pennsylvania under the constitution, arrived to make better provi- sion for guarding the continental stores, and to establish arrange- ments for the arrest of deserters from the army who ventured into the neighborhood. Quartermaster Robert Lettis Hooper, now on duty in Northampton County, received these orders at Bethlehem. The latter had caused a slight panic on May 12, by the statement that Bethlehem was listed as one of the interior points of rendezvous for the Continental Army, in the event of repulse and retreat. On July 25, consternation was produced by the announcement that the army was really in motion towards the neighborhood, and a demand for all available boats and wagons at Easton was sent through the country. But three days later it was learned that its crossing-place was farther down the Delaware. Before this call for boats and wagons, already the middle of May, there had been a collection of blankets for the army. The quota to be furnished by Northampton County was 167. Bethlehem supplied 27 of these, a number declared satisfactory by the Commissioners; and they were gotten without the necessity of any search or compulsion, such as was required in some other parts of the county.
During the summer of 1777, members of Congress from the New England States, on their way to Philadelphia, visited Bethlehem and looked about the place with much interest, for it had acquired associations in connection with the experiences of the preceding year that made it an object of curiosity to many public men who before had given it no thought. One interesting person who appears upon the scene at this time is the loyalist soldier-preacher, Captain Thomas Webb, often styled "the Father of Methodism in America." He
came to Bethlehem from Philadelphia on May 31, 1777, as a pris- oner of war on parole, with his family of seven persons. His per- mit restricted him to a radius of six miles about Bethlehem. He remained until February 22 and his wife until August 12, 1778. They were given quarters in "Lindemeyer's rooms" and when these were demanded in September for quartering officers among the British prisoners of war, they moved into the "William Boehler house." During the months of his sojourn he occasionally preached to pris- oners and every Sunday at the house of the Widow Cruickshank, on the south side of the river. He also officiated at her funeral on November 26. A sojourner to whom the Bethlehem people had become personally attached was the brave and patient sufferer Col.
1
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Isaac Reed, of Virginia, who, as already stated, had arrived with the hospital caravan in December, and been given a room "over the store." On June 22, he was carried by some Bethlehem men down to the ferry and, accompanied by two of them and his physician, Dr. Alexander Skinner, and Mr. Sutton, paymaster, was conveyed in a sedan chair to Philadelphia. His death there, on August 21, is referred to in the Bethlehem diary. He was of much service at Bethlehem through his counsel and influence with guards and offi- cers of militia companies, in preventing both inadvertent disorder and wilful annoyance.
During the summer of 1777, the hardships of the Test Act began again to press heavily upon the Moravians, as upon so many others in Pennsylvania who declined to take the oath. The Congress, in June, made the demand more stringent than before. This had become a stern necessity, for the obstacles put in the way of the patriot cause by the machinations of its open and secret enemies were felt keenly. Many members of Congress, even some of those who favored the most drastic measures with such persons, would, as they repeatedly declared, have gladly so discriminated as to spare people like those of the Moravian settlements-from whom they were convinced no danger was to be feared-from feeling its rigors. But it was not possible to pass different acts for different classes of people who had not abjured the King and taken the oath of allegi- ance to the United States; and even if this had been possible, it would not have been feasible, as was pointed out, on account of the fierce resentment it would have aroused in some quarters, as among those in Northampton County who really wished to see the Mora- vians at Bethlehem, more than any other class or kind of non-Asso- ciators, feel its weight, and who now took advantage of the new Act to institute a process of petty hounding and harrying, more relent- less than before. It far exceeded anything such persons had engaged in during the crusade against the Indian missions, for more was now possible and more would be publicly condoned. The Act, as it now stood, left them with practically no protection or redress at law, and with nothing to fall back upon but such measure of good will as they might enjoy and the overruling Providence of God. Under these circumstances, when the darkest time of the Revolution drew on, towards the close of 1777, the presence of disciplined and trustworthy soldiers on duty at the place became, instead of a hardship, their best human safeguard.
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A HISTORY OF BETHLEHEM, PENNSYLVANIA.
Whether the Brethren were justified in thus standing so stoutly by their principles and scruples in this matter and endeavoring to hold all who might have yielded, together on this ground, may well be questioned ; for the time was past when further loyalty to the King could fairly have been regarded as a religious duty, and the provision that affirmation might take the place of an oath, in formally trans- ferring allegiance, removed the scruple about taking oath. That under the increasing tension and the exasperating struggle against Tory intrigues, becoming almost desperate, so many who were in the thick of the fight or laboring under the tremendous responsibili- ties of the time continued to have unshaken confidence in them and to view their attitude leniently, is remarkable. That some leading men in the county who respected them and had been personally their friends, began to lose patience and make less effort to restrain the hot-headed zealots and the rabble, is not surprising. Many Mora- vians at other places took the test and remained just as good people as they were before. In view of all this, it is a matter of astonish- ment that they passed through the ordeal unscathed, beyond the frightful bleeding to which they were unmercifully subjected in the matter of militia fines. It stands as a notable instance of how inno- cence of evil intent and sincerity of motive are often taken care of by the unseen hand.
As the autumn of 1777 drew on, Bethlehem again began to feel the effects of a new excitement and apprehension. Early in August, Philadelphia was in a panic in consequence of the movements of the British fleet, off the Capes of the Delaware. On August 4, came an impressment of wagons-two hundred from the county, of which number four were taken from Bethlehem-to convey women and children from the city. A week later it is noted that about three thousand wagons had been collected there. Those from the neigh- borhood of Bethlehem were returned, August 12. As an instance of the price to which some indispensable commodities had risen, with the continental currency steadily depreciating, it is noted that a bushel of salt cost at this time $22. One of the Bethlehem wagons brought along a supply purchased at this price. Frederick Beitel, the wagon-master at Bethlehem, was, at this time, continually on the road in the continental service and participating in the turmoil of travel and transportation. Now it was to transport sick officers, then official baggage or continental stores, and again British pris- oners of rank, that he was called out for.
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On August 23, General Nathaniel Green and General Henry Knox, who with some other officers had ridden into Bethlehem to enjoy a few hours of quiet, were hastily summoned by an express to return to camp, for the British were landing south of Philadel- phia. Two days after this sensation, twenty British officers passed through from Reading as prisoners of war, and on September 2, before daylight, a messenger brought the announcement from there that, by order of the Board of War, 260 British prisoners were to be brought to Bethlehem to be kept here under a strong guard. Late in the afternoon came Quartermaster Hooper, Sheriff Jennings and County Lieutenants Wetzel and Deshler to select quarters for them. These County Lieutenants were supposed to have been instrumental in bringing this upon the place, as a kind of grim irony, giving the Moravians some of the King's troops as guests. Wetzel in particular-himself once a member of the Moravian Church, grad- uated from that early school for naughty boys in the Long Swamp and then on the south side at Bethlehem-was the most relentless in harassing the Moravians. He was a man of surly and dogged dispo- sition and, moreover, like several of the neighboring squires appointed by the new Assembly, such as Morey and Hartman, who were also particularly diligent in over-officiously worrying Bethlehem about the test oath, was greatly exalted by a sense of the authority with which he was dressed. The next day, the oft-mentioned large stone house-former "Anstalt," now "Family House"-was selected. Protests availing nothing, an appeal was sent by express to the Board of War at Philadelphia. The answer received three days later left nothing to do but to make the best of it.8 The water works became barracks for the guard. Three families had to vacate their apartments in the large house ; the Administrator, deSchweinitz, who moved into the old Community House with the other clergy; Cap- tain Webb, who was occupying the Rev. Henry Lindemeyer's rooms,
WAR OFFICE, September 5, 1777.
8 GENTLEMEN :
The Board have received a representation from you in behalf of the inhabitants of Bethlehem. They are extremely sorry that any inconvenience should arise from the execu- tion of an order of theirs relative to the prisoners to be stationed at Bethlehem. But the necessity of the case requires the measure, and the good people of your town must endeavor to reconcile the matter as well as they can. If the guards or persons employed deport them- selves improperly, any grievance the inhabitants complain of on this account will be im- mediately redressed ; and as soon as circumstances will admit, the prisoners will be removed.
RICHARD PETERS,
Secretary.
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into William Boehler's house, as already stated, on the present Mar- ket Street, between the store and the present Main Street, and old Thomas Bartow, who, like many others, had moved to Bethlehem for rest some time before, took the room over the store, lately vacated by Col. Reed. On Sunday, September 7, at noon, 218 of these prisoners, consisting largely of Highlanders, arrived. The scene between the Brethren's House and the Sun Inn was one of turmoil, with a constant din on that Sunday afternoon, as the records state, while much apprehension was caused by the sound of distant cannonading at the same time.
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