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 68
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The better spirit of those times manifested itself also in a more unconstrained cultivation of cordial relations with pastors and people
7 How long the nominal county organization lasted the writer has not ascertained. Its denominational complexion was principally Episcopalian and Moravian, the active members at Easton being mainly connected with the parish of Trinity Church. Some years later the associations there and at Bethlehem seem to have corresponded, each for itself, with the treasurer and secretary of the Parent Society. In May, 1828, the Rev. John A. Hicks, rector of Trinity Church, Easton, in behalf of the County Society, called upon pastors there and at Bethlehem to preach special sermons in behalf of the Bible cause. A special effort was then being made by the Philadelphia society to have each county canvassed and all who were destitute of the Scriptures provided in three years. Three-year subscribers were solicited. A subscription-list in response to this special appeal with an introduction by Seidel, dated January 5, 1828, has the names of 94 Bethlehem subscribers for 1828-1830. A letter of Robert Ralston, treasurer, May 7, 1828, acknowledges $141.50 as the first in- stallment.
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A HISTORY OF BETHLEHEM, PENNSYLVANIA.
of other religious bodies in the surrounding region. The Bethlehem clergy frequently participated, with the musicians of the place, in church dedications, harvest-home festivals and the like, preached in churches and school-houses, where it was desired or seemed to be needed and occasionally exchanged pulpits with ministers of other denominations at Easton, Allentown and different points about the country. In this kind of activity the Rev. Wm. Henry Van Vleck, until he left in August, 1817, and then the Rev. C. F. Seidel were more conspicuously engaged than any others. Such church dedica- tions referred to were one, on September 22, 1816, in Springfield Township, Bucks County, ten miles from Bethlehem, and "a union church in Saucon Township, four miles from Bethlehem," on May 26, 1817, in both of which Van Vleck participated. One more par- ticularly noted was that of the Schoenersville Church, December 25- 26, 1819. Seidel had preached at the laying of the corner-stone on Ascension Day, May 20, when Pastor Conrad Jaeger, Pastor Becker and the Presbyterian Pastor Russell all took part. About three thousand people, says the record, were present. A panic was caused by the collapse of the platform, but no one was seriously injured. When the church was consecrated, Seidel again preached, together with Pastor Pomp of Easton, besides those before mentioned, and the Bethlehem musicians rendered service. When the "Jerusalem Church, nine miles from Bethlehem," was consecrated on May 22, 1820, Seidel preached one of the sermons, Pastor Pomp performed the dedicatory act and the musicians of Bethlehem participated. On Whitsunday, June 10, 1821, Seidel preached at an organ dedication in "Christ Church, four miles from Bethlehem," and the next day he and the musicians participated in another church consecration, "four- teen miles from Bethlehem"-the record does not state in what neighborhood. It was to have taken place the previous November, but for reasons not stated had to be postponed. On that occasion Lutheran, Reformed, Moravian, Mennonite and Schwenkfeldian ministers participated. Possibly some reader may identify one and another of these indefinitely mentioned churches and find some dates or other particulars in these pages that will supplement other incom- plete records. The ministers of the neighborhood who preached in Bethlehem during those years were principally pastors Brobst, Conrad Jaeger, Becker, Hecht, Pomp and Strasburger. Other clergymen mentioned were, in September, 1818, the Rev. Mr. Feltus, rector of St. Stephen's Protestant Episcopal Church in New York, who preached in Bethlehem, and Bishop White, of Philadelphia, who,
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on November 27, 1820, came from Easton, where he had consecrated the new church and ordained and installed the Rev. Mr. Rodney. He was the guest of Bishop Hueffel, who escorted him through the Young Ladies' Seminary and entertained him with music on the organ.
Among other visitors to Bethlehem during those years, three of some celebrity may be mentioned. One was the Portugese minister, Joseph Correa de Serra, on June 20, 1818, with Peter Stephen Duponceau, Corresponding Secretary of the Historical and Literary Committee of the American Philosophical Society. They came particularly to visit John Heckewelder, whose "Account of the History, Manners and Customs of the Indian Nations who once inhabited Pennsylvania and the neighboring States," published under the auspices of that Society, mainly at the instance of Duponceau, was then going through the press. Heckewelder-next to Zeisberger the most prominently associated with that domain of Moravian activity-departed this life at Bethlehem on January 31, 1823. The text of Seidel's discourse at his funeral on the 2nd of February-2 Tim. 4:7-8-was by request, again used by him at the funeral of Gen- eral Robert Brown, on the 28th of the same month, when he and the Rev. Lewis David de Schweinitz participated in the obsequies, and a procession of a hundred and seven sleighs followed the remains to the cemetery. The second notable visitor to be mentioned was Joseph Bonaparte, August 22, 1821. The record states that soon after his arrival he received word of the death of his brother, the great Napol- eon, seemed greatly affected and left immediately for his home at Bordentown, New Jersey, saying that he would visit Bethlehem some other time. The third was Bernhard, Duke of Saxe Weimar, on September 18, 1825. A special concert was given in his honor. He came again on the 7th of the following June, shortly before he left the country.
During the years surveyed in this chapter, various changes and improvements of an external character took place at Bethlehem, in the midst of the general struggle for freedom from the trammels with which some sought to hold everything stationary and keep energies in suppression. Some of the changes were dictated by official policy, under stress of financial necessity; others were the result of restless agitation that had to be yielded to. In 1812, the old farm associations disappeared from Main Street, for then the frequently-mentioned farm house, on what is now the site of Rauch's confectionery, was converted to the purposes of residence and trade,
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and new farm buildings were erected east of the village, just south of the present Market Street and east of High Street. Michael Hinkle, the tenant-at whose funeral Seidel officiated, September 10, 1825-was followed, as farmer, for some years by his son-in-law John Roth. The last occupant of the premises and last of the succession of Bethlehem farmers seems to have been Lewis Benner, when, nearly forty years after the erection of those new farm buildings, that quarter was laid out in town lots. The old Sun Inn changed hands several times, was enlarged and greatly altered in appearance by the removal of the mansard roof, the addition of a third story and the covering of the outside walls with plaster, after the German manner of treating stone buildings, which in those days must needs be fol-
Great Northern Line of Stages.
lowed in Bethlehem. Some, in modern times, much regret this, as in the case of the church, while they rejoice that the diaconies of the Sisters' House and the Widows' House were too poor to thus "improve" their buildings, and that therefore they now stand unplas- tered. Those alterations at the inn were made during the incum- bency of Jacob Wolle, who took charge of it in 1816, following Joseph Rice, 1811-1816, the successor of Christian Gottlob Paulus. Inn-keeper Wolle was followed, after eleven years of service as host, by Matthew Crist, the last who conducted it at a salary for the Con- gregation Diacony, it being leased to tenants after 1830.
During the years from the retirement of Paulus to the close of Wolle's administration, certain characters are associated with the old inn as habitues who in their several spheres and functions have been given perhaps more notoriety by some writers than they deserved- certainly more than they would receive in modern times when
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THE MAIL STAGE, From Philadelphia for Bethlehem, Northampton, Na- zăreth, Wilkesbarre, Montrose, Owego, Geneva, Itha- ca, Canadaigua, Buffaloe, and Niagara,
Three times a week.
Will start, from Mr. George Yohe's Hotel, Sign of General Washington No. 6, north 4th street, and Mr. Daniel Lebo's White Swan Inn, No. 106, Race street, Philadelphia, every Sunday, Tuesday and Thursday, at 4, A. M, and proceed.by the following routes, through Germantown, Flouertown, Whitemarsh; Montgomery sqare, Quakertown & Ferysburg, and arrive at Bethlehem at 5 .p. M. leave Bethlehem the next morning, & arrive at Wilkes- barre in the evening, leave Wilkesbarre the succeeding day at. 4, A. M. and arrive by 7, P. M. at Owego, and in the same manner continue through the whole route. Persons desiring to go to Buffaloe, the Falls of Niagara or Canada, can by this line perform the journey in five days, and lodge ev- ery night at the first-rate houses. Returning
THE GREAT NORTHERN STAGES,
Via Buffaloe, &c, will arrive at their offices in Philadelphia every Monday, Wednesday and Friday, by 5, P. M.
BERWICK.
The Stage for Berwick, will leave Bethlehem every Friday morning, and arrive at Berwick the next day, at 2 P. M. leave Berwick on Tuesday, and' arrive at Bethlehem, on Wednesday, at 1 P. M. There is likewise a line of Stages from Bethlehem to New York, Reading, Lancaster and Easton.
Persons whose wish it is to visit the Mineral Springs at Schooley's Mountain, are informed that this is the best route, and that they can be ac- commodated at Bethlehem on reasonable terms.
The Proprietors respectfully inform the public, that they have good horses and Stag s, throughout this extensive line-the drivers.sober, experienced and obligi 'g- different Stage-houses are noted Inns, and moderate in their char,. S
In order to conform to the times, the proprietors have
Reduced the Fare To Bethlehem, only Three Dollars, From Bethlehem to Wilkesbarre, Four Dollars,
And so proportioned throughout the whole route-Baggage at the risque of the owner. Way Passengers 6 cents per mile.
The proprietors cannot but flatter themselves from the superior accommo- dations, that the above inducements will insure the continuance of the public favor.
The Bethlehem & Philadelphia Stage Proprietors,
April 21 1820
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peculiar individuals do not impress themselves so strongly nor acquire such a prominent place in local traditions as in the old-time village days. One such was a certain Daniel Green, commonly called "Doctor Green," who for the space of three decades figured as a cicerone, but not by dignified official appointment like Francis Thomas-good old "Daddy Thomas"-formerly connected with the stewardship of the Young Ladies' Seminary, who departed this life in 1822, stricken in years, and was laid to rest on Easter Day. Thomas was the last who filled this position as a regular appointee of the Elders' Conference. There were divers cicerones who served either by common consent, or by reason of much leisure, or by arrangement with the inn-keeper; the latter kind serving for a gratuity in cash, or more commonly, in the good cheer of the board and bar, bestowed by the host or the guest or both. The unofficial cicerones of those days-although many visitors found them very much to their purpose as dispensers of various kinds of information- were not always the most desirable narrators and expositors, especially when they were tempted to be more entertaining than exact. Some later men who long escorted visitors about the town were more discreet and reliable. Another of those characters was Doctor John Frederick August Steckel, the man who mixed lan- guages, and whose "Farewell to Bethlehem," in rhyme, November 24, 1826, which has been preserved in print, is not without interest in its local allusions-amongst the rest in revealing that the name "Calypso" was then already applied to the large island in the Lehigh, long called also "Catalpa Island" from its former abundant growth of this tree. Nor should it be forgotten to refer to that dashing rural adventurer in real-estate speculation, Nicholas Kraemer, who for a period statedly had his exchange and entertained at the Sun Inn; whose reckless exploits have been duly chronicled by suc- cessive writers; whose fascination drew numerous confiding rustics into the whirlpool of temptation to seek quick fortunes in buying and selling land, but who himself suddenly sank in its eddies, more execrated than mourned. Tradition proceeding from the impressions of the time has exaggerated him into a very Colossus of speculators, but probably, according to present day standards of bigness, his operations would not now bewilder the people.
After years of discussion centering around various plans. the second hotel was finally established before the time to which this chapter runs. It came to pass eventually in this manner. In 1822 the old village store quartered on the west side of Main Street since
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CALYPSO ISLAND IN 1832 FROM BODMER'S PAINTING
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the days of Christian Heckewelder, was in various respects unsatis- factory to the Congregation Diacony. It had also begun to feel private competition. Jacob Rice had, in 1819, been permitted to open business as a merchant farther up the street, and had founded a store which, under successive owners, has had a continuous existence to the present time. A smaller store above Goundie's Alley carried on by Samuel Steup was, in 1822, passed over to Christian Jungman, but did not became a permanent business. Owen Rice, Jr., the suc- cessor of his father in charge of the old diacony store, purchased the house of C. G. Paulus, the site of the present Bee Hive store, in 1822, and there established the stand which afterwards belonged to James Rice and has had a continuance existence until now. The old store, in which William Rice succeeded Owen for a year, was moved across the street into a building that had been occupied for a while by John Jacob Luch, baker, followed by his son, Christian Luch, who moved the bakery to the log house at the corner of Main and Market Streets, where the post-office now is. In the building vacated by Luch, John Frederick Wolle, in July, 1824, took charge of the business which, in 1845, was sold by the Congregation to Augustus Wolle, who, in 1847, also purchased the premises, and there, with different partners under various firm names, long carried on the general store remembered yet by many.
December 6, 1822, the Congregation Council resolved that the second hotel should now be established in the building before occu- pied by the store, and should be conducted for the Congregation Diacony. Internal and external changes were required. Outside appurtenances, such as stabling, had to be provided and these demanded room. Whether the impatient struggle of the time to get rid of old things rendered men insensible to the influence of venerable associations and deaf to the appeals of historic and antiquarian instincts, or whether the ghost of Kraemer lurking about the rear of the store so inflated the supposed value per foot of that ground that it was thought too precious in dollars for any of it to remain occupied by a little old house for mere sentimental reasons, no deponent hath said; but the historic log cabin built by Father Nitschmann and his pioneer corps, in which Zinzendorf sang of Bethlehem, at Christmas, 174I, suggesting the name that was given to the settlement, and around which hallowed memories clung, had to go, in the summer of 1823, in order to make a place for the new livery stable of the new tavern.
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In December, 1823, the remodeled store building was finished and furnished and before Christmas the new inn with the sign of the Golden Eagle, painted, as it seems, by Peter Grosh, of Lititz, was opened by Charles David Bishop, its first landlord. Thus began the history of the Eagle Hotel. Bishop was succeeded two years later by Christian Knauss, and he in 1828 by Zebulon Wells, of Philadel- phia, who was sold out by the sheriff in 1832. From the autumn of that year to April, 1833, Jacob Luckenbach was landlord. Then Philip Brong, of Allentown, took charge, followed, in 1834, by Samuel Ziegler, who became landlord of the Sun in 1836. His suc- cessor at the Eagle was Thomas Morgan, previously of Wilkesbarre, who died in 1837, and then Jacob Freeman conducted it until August, 1843, when it was rented to Caleb Yohe.
About the time when the new hotel was opened, a number of lots were leased and building permits issued, while sundry houses, especially along Main Street, changed hands. Some were planning speculations, in anticipation of developments they foresaw in the signs of the times, and others were feeling their way about after some new trade or line of business at which they might better themselves. Among the experimental novelties were a millinery stand, paper-box making, comb making, the opening of trade in musical instruments, which became a more substantial business than the others-the first two by.C. G. Paulus, the third by John Warner, the fourth by Henry Gottlob Guetter, for whom a shop was built by Paulus, adjoining his house on Main Street, and who subsequently located on Broad Street, west of the alley which yet bears his name.
A little iron foundry was also attempted in 1824, by Joseph Miksch, on the west side of Main Street, north of Broad, where later Jacob Siegmund plied his trade with forge and anvil, vise and chisel, and at last Henry S. Krause, of the same craft, had an iron store. Watch- making and general silversmiths' work seem to have been among the more desirable trades at that time. In 1820, Jedediah Weiss who, although a master of this trade, is better remembered in connection with the music of Bethlehem, and who had bought the stone "oats- house," on the east side of Main Street, a little distance below the Sun Inn, built there a house in which he carried on this industry for more than four decades. In 1815 he had succeeded his deceased master, John Samuel Krause, and further instructed his junior fellow- apprentice and musical associate, Charles Frederick Beckel. John Matthew Miksch-that veteran in the craft, last on Wall Street and
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EAGLE HOTEL 1862 1892
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well remembered by many-had his shop, in 1823, in the old stone "Economy House," farther down.
This was one of the occupations in connection with which the village fathers had difficulty over against the abundance of applicants, like with the competing store-keepers and mercantile aspirants, in enforcing the old system of protection and regulating supply and demand, so that all might make a living and none should drive others out of business in applying the principle of "survival of the fittest." Charles Tombler and the others who worked at the solid old trade of shoe-making had more competition at country villages and cross roads than silversmiths had. That trade, like some others, does not seem to have been so much coveted. The tinsmith, the cabinet-mak- ers, the wagon-makers, the blacksmiths, the butchers and the bakers seem to have prospered fairly well, but there was not room for more than one or two of any of these in the village. Among those who had more desire to engage in selling something than in producing some- thing, there were a few, from time to time, who, floundering as to occupation, wanted to begin some little easy business more in the line of "town ways," such as selling oysters and other things to eat-and drink-and to gather in the spare dimes of those who were not too frugal to spend a little money when they got hungry or thirsty for something beyond the resources of the home kitchen, while enjoying a place at which to lounge and chat. For reasons which they could doubtless defend, the official fathers were always much averse to encouraging this kind of enterprise.
Among the original establishments of more importance which men desired to get possession of was the old grist-mill, for this was a solid business. Although it did not pass out of the ownership of the Congregation Diacony until 1830, the salarizing of a miller to run it for the authorities ceased in 1825. It was leased to that former soldier under Napoleon, George Henry Woehler, who had come to Bethlehem in 1817, and became the successor of John Schneider at the mill.
The old fulling-mill annexed to it was yet intermittently run by Matthew Eggert, but its removal to the saw-mill was under consider- ation already in 1820. The grist-mill and the tannery being the most conspicuous of the early industries yet surviving in that old part of Bethlehem, the desirability of good facilities of approach from neigh- borhoods to the west had inspired persistent efforts to secure a new stone bridge across the Monocacy "at Weinlands (now the slaughter house) from the mill to the Allentown road." Petitions presented in
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1815 had been promptly granted in Northampton County and were renewed and granted again in 1818; but in the new County of Lehigh, with its competitive interests at Allentown, they were obstructively dealt with until, at last, after the third favorable report by the Grand Jury of Northampton County, August 23, 1822, that of Lehigh County finally took similar action on the 6th of the following Sep- tember. The "mill road" had, in 1815, been viewed by a jury, "from the Main Street down past the mill to the Monocacy," and for the first time declared a public road. It was afterwards found on record that the section from the mill to the creek had been so viewed and declared already in 1804. It may be added in this connection that at this period the definite establishment and naming of streets was engaging attention. On June 18, 1819, after a new locating of lines and corners, the names, as now borne, of Main Street, New Street, Cedar Street and Church Alley were first formally adopted by the Congregation Council, and in September, that of Market Street, which it had been proposed to call Lombard Street.
There were in 1823, upwards of seventy dwellings in the town, in addition to the church and school buildings and those that were exclusively shops and places of business.
While the prospects were brightening and Bethlehem, under the relaxed system and some important reforms, might have begun to move forward smoothly, a cloud yet hung over affairs because the controversy with the autocratic Administrator about selling some land to get out of debt still continued. He felt fortified in his position by the findings and reports of the financial committee of the General Synod, in 1818. The Bethlehem people were not prepared, however, to surrender the conviction that they owned their land. The report of a committee appointed at a meeting of voting members, early in 1819, to consider the whole subject, was rendered in February, 1821, and adopted. The Administrator formally objected to certain points and a second committee was appointed to review the first report in the light of his objections, with the hope that they might be satisfac- torily met. When, upon hearing the report of the second committee, he refused to recede in any particular from his original position, and it became evident that he would obstruct to the uttermost, it was resolved on April Io, to break off all negotiations with him, and a committee of nine was appointed to "lay the whole status causae before the Unity's Elders' Conference, with a faithful presentation of the general condition of things at Bethlehem, after giving the Provincial Board official notice of this step." Cunow's final effort was
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to induce his colleagues in that board to interpose technical objec- tions, and when they decided to let matters take their course, he put in the plea that they ought to stand by him, as a colleague, and by the Sustentation Diacony against Bethlehem, claiming that its inter- ests were endangered by the action of the Congregation. Failing in this, he found himself standing entirely alone. They resolved that it was inexpedient to discuss the points of his pro memoria to them, and thus a breach resulted between him and his colleagues, in addi- tion to that now hopelessly existing between him and the Bethlehem boards, while much bitterness was stirred up among the people by his course.
In July, 1821, before the appeal sent by the Bethlehem Land Com- mittee had been considered and passed upon by the Unity's Elders' Conference, a letter was received from this body announcing the call of the Rev. Lewis David de Schweinitz, of Salem, North Carolina, as Head Pastor at Bethlehem, and the proposed transfer of Cunow to his place at Salem. De Schweinitz accepted the call to Bethlehem, but that of Cunow had to be revoked in consequence of strenuous objections at Salem. De Schweinitz arrived at Bethlehem, December 15, 1821. He was a son of the first Administrator, John C. A. de Schweinitz, and had been in Europe from the departure of the family from Bethlehem in 1798 until he returned to America at the begin- ning of the war, in September, 1812, after a voyage of much adven- ture and peril. Since that time he had been at Salem. While the U. E. C. had misgivings about his willingness to step into such a position as that which had developed at Bethlehem, they felt that in general ability, requisite acquaintance with all the questions involved and personal popularity, he would be more likely to master matters than any man available. February 5, 1822, Bishop Hueffel commu- nicated a letter from the U.E. C. to the Provincial Board, announcing that Cunow was relieved of all his offices and functions and tempo- rarily retired. He left Bethlehem with his family on May 7, to return to Europe. During his long term of service he had displayed great ability, zeal and faithfulness in a variety of duties, and in many respects had been an eminently useful man. His ultra conservatism in the matter of church government, his extreme and uncompromis- ing views on the enforcement of regulations-failing to see that much in the internal condition of the Congregation which he criticised was simply the product of such a regime-and finally his determination to defeat the will of the people by means of the power which the system gave him, were probably the agencies needed to call forth
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