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 54
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again on their way to New York, expecting to be exchanged. Pro- ceeding on their journey, they were stopped at Elizabethtown by orders stating that Congress had not confirmed the proposed terms of exchange. On October 10 they once more came to Bethlehem and remained until November 22, 1779, when they again left and finally got to New York. In connection with the sojourn of this party at Bethlehem, the Moravians again had to pay the penalty of being written about and having their institutions and arrangements described as the several writers understood and viewed them, or were disposed to represent them.6
6 The memoirs and letters of General and Madam Riedesel are well known and the passages relating to Bethlehem have been often quoted. Their statements about things are, in the main, more correct than those of many other writers, and the spirit of their reminis- cences is prevailingly a kindly and appreciative one. Madam Riedesel, however, must have received some singular information, not from Moravian sources, which led her to state, in referring to the " well cultivated section inhabited by the Moravian Brethren," that "one place is called the Holy Sepulchre and another district goes by the name of Holy Land in which is a town called Bethlehem." Not fully realizing the enormous prices to which all commodities had risen, she thought they were exorbitantly charged at the Sun Inn. Treat- ing of their last sojourn when they had to turn back from Elizabethtown in October, 1779, she says : "We now returned to Bethlehem where my husband and General Phillips were allowed by the Americans to remain until the particulars of the exchange, which was yet unfinished should be settled ; and as our former landlord at this place had treated us with kind hospitality, we, all of us, remained to board with him-sixteen persons and four house servants, the latter receiving money to pay their board, also about twenty horses. Our host would make with us no definite agreement (probably on account of fluctuating finances) about the price, and as none of us had any money, this was very convenient, as he would cheerfully wait for his pay until we received some. We supposed him to be an honest and reasonable man, and the more so as he belonged to the Community of Moravian Brethren, and the Inn was one patronized by that Society. But how great was our surprise when after a residence of six weeks, and just as we had received permission to go to New York, we were served with a bill of $32,000, that is to say American paper money, which is about 400 guineas in actual money. Had it not been for a royalist who just at this time happened to pass through the village seeking the purchase of hard money at any price, we should have been placed in the greatest embarrassment and would not have been able by any possibility to leave the town." (16 persons and 20 horses 6 weeks, furnished the best to be had, for 400 guineas, was a little over $3.25 per day for man and beast, which was reasonable as prices then ran.) Madam Riedesel says that in the Sisters' House at Bethlehem " they made magnificent embroidery and other beautiful handiwork," and that they purchased various articles. She refers to the numerous manufactures, a leather dresser who produced work "as good as that of England and half as cheap," states that the gentlemen of the party bought a quantity, and speaks of the good cabinet-makers and workers in metal. She says, " while at Bethlehem we often went to church and enjoyed the splendid singing. The wife of the minister died while we were there (wife of the Rev. Paul Muenster). We saw
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A HISTORY OF BETHLEHEM, PENNSYLVANIA.
It is surprising that Jost Jansen, the Bethlehem host, was able to keep the hotel up to the standard commonly described by guests, and to so frequently entertain persons of quality in a fitting manner, in view of the scarcity and high price of so many articles that were constantly required. References are made in the records occasionally to the deplorable condition of public finances and to the market prices. In July, 1778, wagon-master Beitel, who had conveyed a load of sugar from Boston to Philadelphia, brought to Bethlehem from the latter city twenty-six gallons of Communion wine for which he paid £125. January II, 1779, flour was quoted at $20 per cwt. January 18, two paroled British officers, a quartermaster and a paymaster, who had spent ten days in Bethlehem, are reported to have sold from four to five hundred guineas at $35 Continental currency per guinea. Before the close of 1779, one dollar in specie was worth thirty-seven dollars in paper. On October 8, it is recorded that several men returning from Philadelphia reported the following prices in the city : Flour, £60 Pa. per cwt .; Teneriffe wine, £20 per gallon; tea, f17 per pound ; salt, £80-90 per bushel; "a silk neck-cloth that formerly cost six shillings," $100. It took £120 to purchase One Half Joe, i. e., 40 to I. (In 1784 this coin could again be had for £3 Pa.) It might have been expected that the rates at the inn for guests who wanted whatever was to be had at any price, would have been higher than those that astonished Madam Riedesel.
On June 15, 1779, a flutter of excitement was occasioned by the arrival at this famous hostelry, of a body of more than twenty Amer- ican officers from Easton, not worn and weary, nor with uniforms
her laid out in a separate enclosure with bars, waiting for burial ; for here they never keep a dead body in the house."
Another account of Bethlehem at that time which found its way into print and has occa- sionally been reproduced, is that of Lieutenant Aubury who was at the place when Gen. Phillips and his company tarried the first time in 1778. He praises the tavern highly, like all who laid chief stress on good living, and refers to General Phillips as being so delighted with it that the good accommodations caused him to turn back to Bethlehem when not per- mitted to go on to New York. He speaks of the fancy and ornamental work and the numerous musical instruments in the Sisters' House. He says, "the women dine in a large hall in which is a handsome organ and the walls are adorned with Scripture pieces painted by some of the women who formerly belonged to the Society. This hall answers the pur- pose of a refectory and chapel, but on Sundays they attend worship in the great church (Old Chapel), which is a neat and simple building." Some of his remarks about the life of the place are singular, and those about the manner of arranging marriages belong to the canards with which so many have been imposed upon who have innocently taken the state- ments as true.
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dust-covered and torn, from the field of battle or from a long journey through the country, but, no doubt, attired in their newest and finest, and assuming all the pomp and circumstance they could muster. They were gallantly escorting to Bethlehem a plainly dressed and unpretentious but more illustrious lady than any who had yet been a guest at the place. It was the wife of General Washington on her way to Virginia. She had passed the previous months at the Middle- brook Camp, where the Commander-in-Chief had sojourned during the winter, with his headquarters in the "Wallace House"7 in Som- erset County, New Jersey, where now the town of Summerville is. That famous winter camp was breaking up. Washington set out for West Point on June 14, and his wife started with an escort for her home. Where she passed the night of the 14th does not appear. General William Maxwell, with his staff, was honored by being her special escort. They were joined at Easton by General John Sullivan and General Enoch Poor. She was escorted about Bethlehem to see everything that interested her, and was present with her attendants at the evening service when Ettwein discoursed in English and the choir and orchestra furnished their best music. The diarist records that the next morning Lady Washington, well-pleased with her visit. left for Virginia. The previous evening all of the officers, excepting those who were to accompany her on the remainder of her journey, returned to Easton.
General Sullivan had his temporary headquarters there, preparing for his famous autumn campaign against the Indians in Wyoming and beyond into New York, who, at the instigation of British emis- saries and with the assistance of base and ruthless Tories, had, the previous year, commenced their barbarities in those regions. During July, 1778, Bethlehem had been reminded of the former Indian wars by the down-rush of terror-stricken refugees from beyond the Blue Mountains, when a general raid was expected. On July 9, the Rev. Edward Thorpe, the Moravian minister at Gnadenhuetten on the Mahoning, wrote that about three hundred refugees, mostly widows and orphans, had come to his place well nigh famished and almost naked, and on July II, the Bethlehem diarist records "about four hundred New England men" reported massacred. From the 15th to the 17th, many refugees from Shamokin and along the west branch of the Susquehanna passed through, empty and destitute, on their way to their former homes in New Jersey and New York; having
7 Andrew G. Mellick Jr .- The Story of an Old Farm, p. 455.
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A HISTORY OF BETHLEHEM, PENNSYLVANIA.
abandoned their crops and lost all that they had. One woman from the Long Island in the Susquehannah reported that the Indian Renatus, whose sensational arrest and trial as an alleged accomplice in the murder at Stenton's tavern in 1764, has been treated of in a previous chapter, had spent the preceding winter with his wife and two children at her place of residence and had behaved very decorously ; and that suddenly in the spring he and his whole family had been killed by persons unknown. The attitude of the Indians who had now been inveigled into these outrages to harass the colonies was such that no word deprecating the most drastic measures against them appears in the Moravian records. It was felt that the condign punishment meted out to them by General Sullivan in the autumn of 1779, was deserved and was an awful necessity. It is rather remarkable that at this time the usual story that the Indians were supplied with ammunition by the Moravians to commit murder with, does not seem to have been started. Perhaps the kind of men who had on former occasions circulated this favorite tale, were at this time finding other ways of worrying them more interesting. Some of these presented themselves in connection with the application of sundry stringent, but crude and, in some cases, impracticable acts of Assembly in the line of coercion brought to bear upon Tories, and of financial experiment in the desperation of the time. Every rigorous law thus enacted, with a view to meeting pressing necessities, could be and was used by such minor officials as were so disposed, to harass and persecute people who were in their disfavor in petty ways that were not intended and that accomplished no good whatever for the public. Some instances of such proceedings against men in Bethlehem are referred to in the diary. Thus, in connection with the regulations about the price of leather, Charles Weinicke, the Bethlehem tanner, was made the victim of a little conspiracy, in June, 1778, to get a Moravian indicted as a law- breaker. He was summoned before one of the most ill-disposed squires of the time, Jacob Morey, of Allentown, on the charge of defying an Act of Assembly in refusing to sell a shoemaker leather on terms demanded. This shoemaker, as was afterwards ascertained, had been sent to the tanner for this purpose, with the knowledge of the aforesaid squire. The tanner knew that the regulation appealed to had been changed, for the tradesmen of Bethlehem kept them- selves very carefully informed about such matters. Under the slow, official process that prevailed in the disorder of the time, his honor,
1778-1785. 497
this doughty Justice, could declare that he had not received formal official notice of the new law, although he knew it quite well, and imposed the penalty, thus getting a Moravian on his docket as punished for violation of law. Another exploit was in connection with the very natural objection not only of Moravians, but of all other people including all members of the Assembly as well as all county lieutenants and squires, to accepting depreciated currency that might go down twenty per cent. more before they got rid of it, if they could get specie or its equivalent in other shape, in trade. The last issues of Continental currency not having been made legal tender in Pennsylvania, and people not being, therefore, compelled to take the new "Congress money," the Assembly, on March 24, 1779, resolved, "that any person who shall refuse such Bills of Credit emitted by the Hon'ble Continental Congress, as have not been made a legal tender in Payment of any Debt or Compact, in which the Continental Bills of Credit, which have been declared legal tender, might be legally tendered, such person is and ought to be considered as an Enemy of his Country and a betrayer of the Liberties thereof." Then the common course pursued in making a bargain was to adjust terms by understanding beforehand what kind of money was to be used. On June 29, a certain Gallagher, clerk of John Wetzel, County Lieutenant, of Macungie, came to Abraham Boemper, of Bethlehem, and bought two watches at a price set on the basis of coin. After the fellow had put the watches into his pocket he took out Continental currency to pay the stipulated sum in that medium saying "this is the money I trade with." When Boemper refused to accept it he left with the watches and the money. When Boemper and another man went to Allentown to recover the watches or get redress, they found that the squires were privy to the matter and refused to do any- thing, and the story went out that Boemper was a transgressor under the above act. But a strange retribution came to the instigator when, soon after that game, this same Gallagher absconded with £11,000 of paper money for which Wetzel was accountable. In November of that year, a different kind of a sensation was created at the cost of two men in Bethlehem, the store-keeper Oberlin and a young man, Siegmund Leschinsky, who had just arrived from Europe. They were arrested for having in their possession and passing counterfeit paper currency, which some miscreant had brought to Bethlehem and imposed upon Oberlin and others. While these men were, of course, both victims and not evil-doers, the circumstance caused
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A HISTORY OF BETHLEHEM, PENNSYLVANIA.
much stir and no end of gossip. It gave new occasion to those who were disposed to find satisfaction in seeing the names of two more Bethlehem men figure on a criminal docket as alleged conspirators against the Government.
In the midst of all the turmoil caused in Pennsylvania, during the years 1778 and 1779, by the various acts of Assembly in reference to militia service and the oath of allegiance, the efforts of those func- tionaries who were particularly inimical to the Moravians ran in two general directions. One was this attempt, by whatever kind of means that might offer, to shake public confidence in their character and to persuade men at the head of the Government who regretted that laws made for active enemies of the cause should have to oppress people from whom nothing was to be feared, and who refused to believe the Moravians guilty of any designs or acts against the Commonwealth, that this was misplaced confidence, and that there were treacherous and dangerous men among them, and men who spurned the laws. The other was to break, if possible, the compact made at Bethlehem and Nazareth, and stampede the men who were feeling the weight of the double tax and the high price of substitutes so grievously, into taking the test in order to have peace. As to the first of these designs, notwithstanding the constant espionage to which the Moravians were subjected, and the snares of all kinds laid to entrap the unwary among them, they do not figure in any of the long lists proclaimed under the Act of Attainder, passed by the Assembly in June, 1777, and, under the strong pressure of the dire times, made actively operative during 1778. None had the satisfaction of seeing a row of Moravian names on those lists of persons attainted as traitors, enemies of the country and operating against it. With a view to bringing this about and to creating a panic among the men at Bethlehem, County Lieutenant Wetzel put forth his boldest stroke early in April, 1778, when he finally brought to pass the arrest of twelve Moravians, with some others, and their lodgement in prison at Easton, on trumped-up charges which the diarist of Bethlehem unhesitatingly pronounces "a tissue of false- hoods." The arrests were not made at Bethlehem nor even at Nazareth, but in Wetzel's own neighborhood at Emmaus, where it could be done more easily and with less likelihood of immediate interference from higher quarters. They were marched like criminals with much show of guard and restraint, through Bethlehem, as an object-lesson. Sick soldiers in the hospital looked out of the windows
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and jeered as they passed, until they learned that they were Morav- ians, and then this ceased. The procession was made long, in order that it might be more imposing. The guards, acting under instruc- tions, tried at first to prevent all communication with them at Beth- lehem, but had to give way in this particular and permit them to be served with dinner, which the guards, of course, shared, and doubtless esteemed more highly than Wetzel's orders. One of the charges was that one of them had shot at the constable sent to arrest him, and had wounded him. It was soon ascertained that the shooting was done by another man in the neighborhood who had no con- nection with the Moravian Church. Accusations, as absurd as the old stories about sending powder and lead to savage Indians, were brought against others. Wetzel and their other accuser failed to appear against them when the trial was set. When the second attempt was made to try the case, he and Jacob Miller appeared and swore to the platitude that they were dangerous enemies of the State, and they were bound over. At the end of April, they were permitted to go home, but were threatened with another arrest if they did not take the test. Less than a week later, they were sum- moned before Squire Morey, at Allentown, to take the oath. Event- ually the most of them were worried into doing so. One of their number, against whom Wetzel had a grudge on account of a private quarrel, was left sitting in jail at Easton. Finally, after an appeal to the Supreme Court proved fruitless-for, as the law was framed, nothing could be done-he took the oath, paid the costs and was released. A revised and very stringent test act had gone into effect on June I. Before that, in May, many of the Moravians had united with the Schwenkfelders in an urgent petition for relief, addressed to the Assembly. It resulted in nothing further than is indicated in the following, written, May 22, 1778-the day on which Thomas Wharton, President of the Executive Council, died-by George Bryan, Vice-President, to County Lieutenant Wetzel: "The Morav- ians and Schwenkfelders have been very urgent with the Assembly to relax the Test and free them from the abjuration part. The claim of the King of Great Britain forbids anything like this being done at present. When that prince shall renounce his claim, it will be time enough to reconsider the Test. However, as these people are not to be feared, either as to numbers or malice, it is the wish of Government not to distress them by any unequal fines, or by calling them, without any special occasion happens, to take the oath at all."
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On May 25, Wetzel, not knowing yet of President Wharton's death, wrote to him, evidently somewhat stirred by the hint given him to desist from measures unnecessarily harassing. He had reason to feel on the defensive in this respect and a little uneasy, over against his superiors, for there had been numerous complaints about his harsh and overbearing ways, even by militiamen who had taken the oath and were doing service, and from other county officers. In his letter of May 25, he says: "I perceive that the Moravians and Sinkfelders have been busy with their petitions for redress of Griev- ances, which I am sure, Sir, were never inflicted on them in this County, more than on other people of different denominations, or more than the laws of this Common Wealth justly directs." He then disclaims all intention of distressing any one, sets forth the great trouble with "disaffected men" in the County, stating that one-tenth of them had not taken the oath yet and adds "nor do they ever mean to do it." He goes on to refer to the bad behavior of "those in particular who had some time ago been committed to Easton Goal," that merited "no lenity." Then follows this: "Notwithstanding, I have treated them and will ever endeavor to treat mankind in such a manner as no part of my Conduct shall or may be looked upon as rigorous, or my actions ever deserve the name of persecution; on this foundation, Sir, I shall ever Act whilst I live, and whilst I have the honour to be in Office under so respectable a Body as the Hon- ourable Supreme Executive Council of the Common Wealth of Penn- sylvania." Notwithstanding this specious and grandiloquent defence, he had to be summoned before the Executive Council in February, to answer complaints of oppressive acts and irregularities, brought, not by Moravians, but by the enlisted and organized militia of the county. Shortly before that, the Council, in their address to the Assembly, intimated that "the abuses of the process of attachments and replevins which are taken out upon the estates of attainted Traitors and upon seizures for fines and other public demands call for some wholesome restraints." In the preceding August, when fourteen men from Bethlehem, under one call for militia of the first four registered classes, had to each pay. £8. 16. for substitutes-such payment always sufficed only for the particular call in question, so that it might come an indefinite number of times-it was clear that the proportion had been manipulated so as to mulct as many Morav- ians as possible.
Then a new enterprise was inaugurated. Suddenly, on Sunday, September 7-this was yet in 1778-Constable Jost Walp, who
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had, before that, been sent about by the Squires Jacob Morey and Frederick Limbach at Allentown, to worry quiet, inoffensive Mennonite farmers in the Saucon Valley, appeared at the Crown Inn armed with notices from these squires to be served upon all of the men at Bethlehem, Nazareth, Gnadenthal and Christiansbrunn, to appear before their Honors on the 14th, to take the oath or take the consequences. No new act of Assembly, no new exciting cause in the neighborhood and no pressure from the Government to aggressively proceed with such measures occasioned this move. It was a business enterprise, for it meant many fees for the squires. Ettwein, hearing of the constable's presence, went across the river to see him, invited him to dinner, talked the matter over with him and persuaded him to refrain from trying to execute his rather compre- hensive commission, and, instead of undertaking to serve the notices on the individuals, to go away with the following certificate, signed by Ettwein, to be returned to the squires: "This is to certify that Yost Walp, Constable of Upper Saucon, has summoned Bethlehem, Nazareth, Gnadenthal and Christiansbrunn to appear before Jacob Morey and Frederick Limbach at Nicholas Fox's at Allentown, on September 14th inst. Witness my hand," &c. Constable Walp seemed glad to get through his wholesale service with this farcical formality, and left to make his returns accordingly. The next day Ettwein went to Easton to consult with sensible men among the county officers and with Col. Arndt, as to the best course to be further pursued. At the suggestion of Arndt-who also wrote to the squires that their action was unwarrantable-he proceeded at once to Philadelphia to take counsel with the executive heads of the State Government. Accompanied by William Henry, he returned on the 13th with the assurance that the enterprise instituted by the Allentown squires was unauthorized, illegal in method and an imper- tinent assumption; and with the advice to pay no attention to the summons. William Henry and John Okely went to Allentown on the 14th and informed the waiting squires, who had been meanwhile advised to retract their summons but were now stubborn, that they need not expect any of the summoned men. They were furious, because the result was so different from that which had attended their measures among the poor Saucon farmers, and if this ambitious stroke, to which they were emboldened by success among men less able to help themselves and more easily intimidated, had likewise succeeded, it would have proved a profitable day's work for them.
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