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 61
Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28 | Part 29 | Part 30 | Part 31 | Part 32 | Part 33 | Part 34 | Part 35 | Part 36 | Part 37 | Part 38 | Part 39 | Part 40 | Part 41 | Part 42 | Part 43 | Part 44 | Part 45 | Part 46 | Part 47 | Part 48 | Part 49 | Part 50 | Part 51 | Part 52 | Part 53 | Part 54 | Part 55 | Part 56 | Part 57 | Part 58 | Part 59 | Part 60 | Part 61 | Part 62 | Part 63 | Part 64 | Part 65 | Part 66 | Part 67 | Part 68 | Part 69 | Part 70 | Part 71 | Part 72 | Part 73 | Part 74 | Part 75 | Part 76 | Part 77 | Part 78 | Part 79 | Part 80 | Part 81 | Part 82 | Part 83 | Part 84 | Part 85 | Part 86
Filled with gratitude towards God and our Saviour, unto whose goodness and kind inter- position we ascribe this great and joyous event, we rely on His mercy and on the influence of His good Spirit when we expect that your administration will prove salutary and a bless- ing to that Nation whose unanimous voice has called you to preside over it.
We embrace this opportunity to present you a small treatise which contains 'An Account of the Manner in which the Protestant Church of the Unitas Fratrum or United Brethren preach the Gospel and carry on their missions among the Heathen.' -
Permit us at the same time to recommend in a particular manner the Brethren's Mission among the Indians in the territory of the United States which is at present at Petquotting on Lake Erie and in a very dangerous situation, to your kind notice and protection, and to lay before you the ardent wish and anxious desire we have of seeing the light of the glorious Gospel spread more and more over this country and great multitudes of poor benighted heathen brought by it to the saving knowledge of Christ our Saviour Who gave Himself a ransom for all and who will have all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth.
We fervently pray the Lord to strengthen your health, to support you daily by his Divine assistance, and to be Himself your Shield and great Reward.
Signed in behalf of the Society of the United Brethren for Propagating the Gospel among the Heathen and in behalf of all the Brethren's Congregations in the United States.
John Andrew Huebner, Charles Gotthold Reichel,
Hans Christian v. Schweinitz, Paul Muenster, Frederick Peter, David Zeisberger."
Bethlehem, July 10, 1789.
(Bishop Ettwein was in Europe.)
The answer of Washington, long thought to have disappeared and known, as to its con- tents, only through copies, was unexpectedly found by the writer of these pages in 1892, in
Rec? Bethlehem aug. 20th 1789.
forwarded Philad ang 18 - 1789
Gumentbara
Washington to the address
Any 6 8/1 of Pres I. f.
The Directory of the Society of the United Brethren for propagating the Gospel among the Heathen.
Bethlehem.
To the Directors of the Society of the United Brethren for propagating the Gospel amore The Heather.
rable thing for the protection of the Union to cooperate, as far as the circumstances may conveniently admit with the disinterested endeavours of your society to avilize and Christianize The Javapes of the Wilderness . Under these impressions, I pray almighty 900 to have you always in his hely keeping
Wratherton
Bethlehem. for propagating the Gospel among the Heathen The Directors of the Society of the United Brethren
6 8/1
Thelad aug 18 - 1789 (Necesito under forces and forwarded
Rec? Bethlehem aug. 20th1789.
Blement Birey
To the Directors of the Society of the United Brethren for propagating the Gospel amore the Heathen.
Gentlemen,
I receive with satisfaction the.
congratulations of your fonety and of the Bre. Thron's Congregation, in the united States of America.Foryou may be persuaded thatthe approvation und good wishes of such a peaceable and virtuand Community cannot beindifferent tone You will also be pleased to accept my
thanks for the beatis which you presented and to be assured ofmy patronage in your laudable undertakenps
hi proportion as The general Govern ment of the United states That acquire Thengh by duration, it is probabis they may haveit in their power to extend a valutare influence to the aborigines in the extremeties oftheer Territory. - In the meantime, it willenden rable thing for the protection of the Union to cooperate, as Far as the circumstances may conveniently admet, with the disinterested endeavours ofyour Society to civilize and Christianize The Tavares of the Wilderness. Under these impressions, Spray almighty God to have you always in his holy Reaping
Grapherpton
5
561
1786-1806.
Washington in these two letters were those which influenced his recommendations and policy in dealing with the Indian problem of that time, as clearly appears upon an examination of extant records relating to this subject during the administration of the first Presi- dent of the United States.
Early in 1791 and again in 1792, Bethlehem was once more brought into interesting connection with representative Indians engaged in negotiations with the Government. The first week in January, 1791, Bishop Ettwein was in Philadelphia-the seat of the Federal Gov- ernment being then in that city-to see President Washington and members of Congress in regard to the land grant. Three Seneca chiefs, Cornplanter, Half-town and Big-tree, were in the city as agents of their people, and by special request he met them on January 6-Epiphany, the Moravian missionary day9-at the house of Gover- nor Mifflin and addressed them "as a representative of the Moravian Brethren, in whom they had confidence." His account of this inter- view awakened much interest at Bethlehem and recalled the scenes of earlier days to the minds of many. Yet more' vivid was the reminder of those times that came in March, 1792. On the 9th of that month fifty-one chiefs and other representative men of the
a bundle of receipts in the archives, enclosed in the original envelope, with the endorse- ment of Clement Biddle on the cover, and under that a further endorsement in the hand- writing of Treasurer de Schweinitz : " Rec'd at Bethlehem, August 20, 1789." The letter, autograph throughout, very neatly written and beautifully preserved, reads as follows :
"To the Directors of the Society of the United Brethren for Propagating the Gospel among the Heathen.
GENTLEMEN :
I receive with satisfaction the congratulations of your Society, and of the Breth- ren's congregations in the United States of America For you may be persuaded that the approbation and good wishes of such a peaceable and virtuous community cannot be in- different to me. You will also be pleased to receive my thanks for the Treatise which you present, and to be assured of my patronage in your laudable undertakings.
In proportion as the General Government of the United States shall acquire strength through duration, it is probable they may have it in their power to extend a salutary influ- ence to the Aborigines in the extremities of their Territorry. In the meantime it will be a desirable thing for the protection of the Union to co-operate as far as the circumstances may conveniently admit, with the disinterested endeavours of your Society to civilize and Christianize the savages of the wilderness.
Under these impressions, I pray Almighty God to have you always in His holy keeping.
G. WASHINGTON."
9 See on Christmas, 1741, and note 14, Chapter IV. The last Indian baptism at Bethlehem, before the Revolution, took place January 6, 1763.
37
562
A HISTORY OF BETHLEHEM, PENNSYLVANIA.
Six Nations arrived at Bethlehem en route for Philadelphia, on invita- tion of Washington, as an embassy from their people. They were accompanied by the well-known missionary, the Rev. Samuel Kirk- land, then engaged in his noble experiment at Oneida. The names of eight of the chiefs are given. The principal one was the famous Red Jacket. Cornplanter and Big-tree were again of the number. Others were Farmer's Brother, Little Billy, Captain Shanks and La Fayette's young Oneida, Pierre Jaquette, who died at Philadelphia. They tarried at Bethlehem until the 12th, when they proceeded by canoe down the Lehigh and the Delaware to the capital city. With solemn formality they were gathered in the village church-the pres- ent Old Chapel-while at Bethlehem, and were addressed by Bishop Ettwein, who reminded them of the former relations of Moravian missionaries to the Six Nations, and especially the several covenants of friendship made, beginning with that by Count Zinzendorf in 1742. The pupils of the boarding-school were present and one of them read an address to the Indian visitors. Red Jacket responded in dignified language to the Bishop and the old man, Good Peter, to the young ladies. This was the last visit to Bethlehem by Indians in any considerable number.
Times and circumstances had changed, and their presence did not awaken fear and wrath among people of the neighborhood, as on so many former occasions. The Indian question and others which had once occasioned so much friction between some elements of the surrounding population and the Bethlehem people were now dead issues, and relations were becoming normal. Since the close of the Revolutionary War, several of the Bethlehem clergy, particularly Jacob Friis until his death in 1793, Jacob Van Vleck and John Frederick Frueauff, had been doing much preaching in different neighborhoods where people desired gospel ministrations, and where, for some years, service in this respect in their several denominations was very inadequate through scarcity of preachers. Several such regular preaching-places were established in the Saucon Valley particularly. These ministrations cultivated increasingly friendly relations and, as a general thing, were not objected to, but rather welcomed by the ministers of other denominations, who were labor- ing to serve extensive fields as well as they could; for it was under- stood that it was not the intention of the Bethlehem ministers to attempt to establish denominational work, but merely to be of assist- ance in serving the needs of the people in the absence of a sufficient
1786-1806. - 563
number of pastors. The. era of church building in the surrounding country opened in the last decade of the century, and there are occa- sional references in the records, interesting, but in their meager and indefinite brevity irritating, to the participation of Bethlehem minis- ters and musicians in the consecration of churches at various points. These were usually union churches erected by the Lutheran and Reformed people jointly. Thus on August 15, 1790, there is men- tion of such a church dedication in the Drylands. Again on March 24, 1793, the dedication of the Frieden's Kirche in Saucon is men- tioned. The Rev. Augustus Klingsohr and a number of Bethlehem musicians participated; Klingsohr delivering an address and offering the dedicatory prayer. The sermons were preached by the Lutheran pastor Jaeger and the Reformed pastor Hofmeyer. In the afternoon Pastor Pomp preached, and the diarist remarks that his wife was "a daughter of the sainted Brother Henry Antes."10 In this instance some details of the occasion are mentioned, even the texts of the several discourses being recorded.
On September 4, 1796, it is stated that the musicians of Bethlehem and many others, also from Nazareth and Emmaus, were present at the dedication of the Lutheran church in Allentown, and again, October 15, 1797, Klingsohr and the musicians went, on invitation of the church officers, to help dedicate a new house of worship in Whitehall Township. Occasional funeral services by Bethlehem ministers at different places about the country are mentioned. Thus in March, 1796, two by Frueauff are referred to; on the 7th "in Zion's Church, four miles away in the Dry Lands," and on the 26th in the "Stone Church" in Saucon, "the first in that neighborhood."
Nothing specially marred the peace of Bethlehem and its sur- roundings but politics, and it often became necessary for the fathers of the village to admonish those who became affected by the excite- ment of election times, or yielded to the temptation to discuss issues with people of the country and neighboring towns, that they were bound by their signature to the Brotherly Agreement. The fact that anything whatever, no matter how preposterous or malicious, will be used as campaign material by some kinds of men, if it serves a purpose in politics, had its demonstration in those days as well as
10 The Rev. Nicholas Pomp was the second husband of Elizabeth Antes whose first hus- band was George Philip Dotterer. Her son, the Rev. Thomas Pomp, Reformed pastor at Easton for fifty years, was the father-in-law of the Rev. Joseph Berg, D.D .- McMinn, Life and Times of Henry Antes.
564
A HISTORY OF BETHLEHEM, PENNSYLVANIA.
in modern times. Thus during a very hotly contested and rancorous campaign in the autumn of 1789, when Jacob Eyerle, of Nazareth, was candidate for the Assembly, the case of a certain unsophisticated Moravian, of Schoeneck, who was imposed upon by a fellow who palmed himself off as an English prince financially stranded, was made use of by some enterprising campaign workers of the opposi- tion, to show the rustic voters of Northampton County that the sympathies of the Moravians were yet with England, and that they were dangerous people. This nonsense really created sufficient hubbub that the church authorities considered the expediency of doing something to counteract the impression and to set forth that it was nothing more than an evidence of "Dummheit" on the part of the victim of the adventurer. Subsequently, quiet Bethlehem was made attentive more forcibly to the contention and uproar created in some parts by the experiments in the exercise of federal authority, especially in the matter of taxation. Thus in the latter part of Sep- tember, 1794, the people were reminded of Revolutionary times by the marching of considerable bodies of militia through the place, on their way to the western part of the State, in obedience to the summons of the President, to forcibly put down the revolt against the excise law of the United States, commonly known as the "Whiskey Rebellion," and again early in December, when a number passed through on their return after the disturbance had been quelled. Far more exciting was the experience made a few years later, at the time of the insurrection started in 1798, against the "house tax," and led, in Northampton and Bucks Counties, by the redoubtable John Fries, and sometimes given the name the "Fries Rebellion." The actual violence committed during that insurrection was far less than has attended many a strike in modern times, but the nature of the issue at that early stage of the Fed- eral Government, gave it more significance and made it memorable. The experience of Bethlehem in connection with that affair came on March 7, 1799, when an armed mob, headed by their hero and doughty chieftain, invaded the place at high noon, for the purpose of rescuing seventeen of their fellow insurgents, who had been actively engaged in preventing assessors from counting window-panes in people's houses in the interest of the obnoxious "direct tax," and whom a marshal had the hardihood to arrest. The marshal had his prisoners under guard in the basement of the Sun Inn, intending to proceed with them in triumph and to turn
BETHLEHEM 1793 1795
565
1786-1806.
them over to the authorities. Perhaps out of this incident grew the modern tales, sometimes heard and innocently believed by some lovers of grim romance, about old-time dungeons under the Sun Inn, with iron doors creaking on their rusty hinges; with gyves and manacles ; with subterranean passages leading mysteriously to other parts of the town, yea even down to the river, and other adjuncts of the absurd fiction. After much flourish and bravado, accompanied by some threatening remarks about the Moravian settlements, because one of the county officers of the time, helping to execute state and federal laws, was a Moravian, Fries and his gang accom- plished their object and left victorious with the rescued prisoners. The subsequent trial of the conspirators for high treason, their conviction, sentence and eventual pardon by the President of the United States need not be further mentioned here. It was again one of the singular vicissitudes of those days that so soon after the Revol- ution, during which the Moravians were so much decried by many in the neighborhood as enemies of the country and traitors, they were now denounced by the same turbulent populace for their loyalty, when the Government called upon these malcontents to also take their turn in paying taxes which they objected to. On March 17, 1799, a meeting of all the men of Bethlehem was called, at which a pastoral letter of the General Conference of Helpers was read, admonishing them as to their walk and conversation in such disturbed circum- stances and warning them against entanglement in political controversy and against aspiring to public office. The letter, it is recorded, made a good impression and had a salutary effect, together with the posting at the tavern of the proclamation by the President of the United States warning all who resisted the execution of the federal laws and committed violence. April 25, the day of fasting and prayer appointed by President Adams, was solemnly observed at Bethlehem by several services and sermons both in English and German. The President's proclamation was read and its various points were enlarged on in one of the sermons. The review of the year, on December 31, notes in connection with reference to the condition of public affairs and to local and neighborhood experiences, that there was more disposition to utter a humble Jesu Miserere than to join in high praises.
An occasion for sadness, aside from these public disorders but associated with them in the minds of the people at Bethlehem, as well as elsewhere, was the national bereavement that had spread sorrow
566
A HISTORY OF BETHLEHEM, PENNSYLVANIA.
through the country just before the close of the year 1799. On December 22, the diarist of Bethlehem notes: "We received through the newspapers the affecting announcement of the death of General Washington on the 14th inst." The review at the close of the year has this: "We, with all the people of the United States, were very deeply moved by the recent news of the death of George Wash- ington, that man who has done so much for the good of the country and was so universally loved and honored." On January 7, 1800, the proclamation of President Adams, referring to demonstrations of mourning, was considered by the General Conference of Helpers, as the question had been raised whether Moravians should, like others, show this outward token of respect for the memory of the honored dead ; for it was not customary among them in those days to wear mourning attire or emblems among themselves because it was not held to be consistent with the idea inculcated that the departure of believers was going home to Christ and therefore the supreme bliss. It was observed that the words of the proclamation in this matter were merely a recommendation, leaving it optional, but that no objection should be offered if any desired to wear a badge of mourning on the left arm for thirty days, as proposed; that it might indeed be proper for those who filled public positions to do so, and for the clergy to set the example, as a mark of respect for high authorities and for those whom the Nation honored. On February 22, 1800, solemn memorial services were held, agreeably to the proclamation of the President. There was elaborate music suitable to the occasion and a discourse was delivered by Jacob Van Vleck, in which the character and public services of Washington were set forth as an example of how God raises up great men for great tasks, and as a pattern for patriots, statesmen and citizens. Thus the people of the place joined in this solemn commencement made by the Nation, at the instance of Presidential proclamation, in the obser- vance of Washington's birthday.
At the beginning of 1800, Bethlehem entered upon three years of uneventful quiet. Some of its industries flourished, others languished and a few disappeared entirely. The new order of things at large and the course which the general development of business was taking were not auspicious for the prosperity of the various trades of the place, carried on in the old manner. Especially was this the case with those which the authorities were trying to render profitable for the diacony of the Brethren's House. That establishment was
567
1786-1806.
retrograding. Loyalty and zeal for its maintenance were so much on the decrease among the remaining inmates that their finances were becoming a steady drain upon the resources of the General Board of Wardens in Europe, who, under the existing system of mutual support among the diaconies of the Unity-a system which the authorities did not yet wish to abandon-were contributing considerable sums from year to year out of the surplus of the more profitable of them in Europe to cover the deficits of those which were running behind. There was a steady decrease in the number of single men in Bethlehem, from considerably more than a hundred at the close of the Revolution to only thirty-eight above twenty-one years of age, together with twenty-two boys and young men between the ages of fourteen and twenty-one, on December 31, 1806, when the entire population of Bethlehem, including seventy-nine boarders among the pupils of the girls' school, amounted to only 593. At the end of 1798, the total had been 601, including fifty-one boarders in the school; therefore a decrease in the actual population of the village, of thirty-six from 1798 to 1806. Fortunately for the peace of mind of those who were in control, this, in itself, caused no uneasiness or dissatisfaction, for such were the system and aims of that time, that numerical growth was not sought and indeed was not necessarily an evidence of prosperity in those respects in which this was desired. As to the financial situation, it would have to become much worse before bankruptcy stared the Brethren's House in the face, so long as that arrangement of pooling accounts was main- tained.
The special services of December 31, 1800, with which a completed century was closed, when a more extended and comprehensive retrospect than at the close of ordinary years was compiled, were marked by a more cheerful tone than prevailed at the close of the preceding year. In other respects, things had been gotten into smoother and more satisfactory working order in the village, and no special disturbance is recorded during the first six years of the new century embraced in this chapter. As to politics and connection with public business, the place again even dispensed with the pres- ence of a Justice of the Peace for a few years; a conference of ministers in 1802, having gone so far as to declare that none should reside in any of the church-villages. This was receded from several years later; even the Unity's Elders' Conference in Europe expressing the view that this exceeded what the General Synod had
568
A HISTORY OF BETHLEHEM, PENNSYLVANIA.
enacted on the subject and was hardly an expedient measure. This was one of the moves in which the hand of the Rev. John Gebhard Cunow appeared, and which met the decided dissatisfaction of many at Bethlehem. Apart from these features of the situation there was little stir on the surface of village life more conspicuous than that occasioned by the various official changes, as reviewed early in this chapter, up to 1806-in order to present them all in connection-the death of one after another leading man or notable woman,11 the most conspicuous being that of Bishop Ettwein on January 2, 1802, as already mentioned, and the occasional arrival of accessions to various branches of official service or lines of industry from Europe.12
II Besides the deaths referred to in this chapter, a few of the many others from the close of the last chapter to 1806, may be noted because of the special prominence of the individ- uals or particular interest attaching to them : 1785, Henry Van Vleck ; 1786, Judith Bene- zet Otto, widow of Dr. John Frederick Otto who died at Nazareth; 1789, Timothy Hors- field, Jr., the apothecary, son-in-law of William Parsons; also the wife of Bishop Ettwein, while he was in Europe; 1790, Immanuel Nitschmann, secretary and musical director, Barbara Fenstermacher, who as the widow of Michael Leibert had been a zealous patroness of the second Moravian school in Germantown, and Jost Jansen, inn-keeper during the Revolution ; 1791, Herman Loesch the miller, Gottlieb Lange the saddler who did work for the American army, Marcus Kiefer the master smith associated with the tribulations of the first Indian war; 1792, Daniel Kliest the expert lock-smith, and, in Lancaster County, John Okely, long so prominent and useful, who in 1788 severed connection and left after a strange course of procedure to the detriment of the community in pursuit of his own plans, with controversy, litigation and at last complete estrangement ; 1793, Christian Frederick Oerter the famous book-keeper, Abraham Boemper the silver-smith. Anna Margaret Jungmann, m.n. Bechtel, of Indian mission fame ; 1795, Matthew Weiss, celebrated far and wide as a dyer, aged 87 years; 1797, John Christian Hasse, book-keeper in the Administrator's office and conspicuous during the Revolution, whose later years were saddened by his own faults and frailties; 1798, the venerable widow and Deaconess Catherine Huber, the last of the Georgia colonists excepting the missionary Zeisberger, and referred to as the oldest woman (95 years) in Moravian official circles in America or Europe ; 1801, John George Stoll, saw- miller and inn-keeper at the Crown; 1803, Ferdinand Philip Jacob Detmers, formerly warden, Bethlehem, Nazareth, Lititz; 1805, John Schropp, the warden, James Cruickshank, steward, boarding-school and assistant apothecary, and Charles Cist, printer of Philadelphia and pioneer in anthracite coal trade, who died on a journey up the country. Many other interesting names might be mentioned on a broader basis of selection. More complete in- formation in reference to these and others whose decease has been referred to, may be found in the official register of deaths preserved in the Moravian "church books."
Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.