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 7
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
46
A HISTORY OF BETHLEHEM, PENNSYLVANIA.
streams-the picturesque gateway to the upper country, with Indian trails diverging towards several interior points; but the name was more broadly applied to the whole range of country from this Place of the Forks to the Kittatinny or Blue Mountains, between the courses of the two rivers, with the Delaware Gap at the eastern and the Lehigh Gap at the western extremity-identical with the present area of Northampton County, except that its two south-most town- ships protrude beyond and one little township of Lehigh County en- croaches within these natural boundaries of the domain.
This attractive and desirable region remained until 1737 nominally a part of the acknowledged Indian country, for under the terms of the deed of release given by the seven Indian chiefs in 1718 and con- firmed by treaty in 1728, the "Lechay Hills" continued to be the limit of the ceded territory open to settlement. But encroachments had taken place which made the Delawares uneasy. Besides the settle- ments on the upper Delaware opened prior to 1701, two had arisen in the Forks : one in 1728, called at first Craig's Settlement, from the name of its leading pioneer, Thomas Craig, and later popularly known as the Irish Settlement, in what is now East Allen Township; another in 1732 along the slate slopes of the present Lower Mount Bethel Township under Alexander Hunter, and called for a time Hunter's Settlement. The population of both were Presbyterian Ulster Scots. These, with here and there a solitary pioneer who had built his cabin at some spot that struck his fancy when reconnoitering along the Delaware or the Lehigh, or roaming these rich hunting-grounds of the red men, were the first neighbors of the Moravians in the Forks.
posed to have sailed up the stream soon after the Dutch, and the Lenape roaming along its course they then named Delaware Indians.
The name of the West Branch was Lechauweeki, i.e. where there are forks - variations, Lechawiechink, Lechauwekink. It was shortened into Lecha, the name yet used by the Germans of the region, and then corrupted into Lehigh. Reference to Lechay occurs in colonial records as early as 1701. This nanie seems to have come into use not merely for the river, but also for the neighborhood where were the forks of streams and paths. Men spoke of Lechay in this sense as they later spoke of " the Forks." The most important trail to the Minisinks, followed by the Moravian pioneers, led from the terminus of the first King's Road from Philadelphia to these parts at the stone-quarry of Irish the miller, near the present Shimersville on the Saucon Creek, across the Lehigh at the " old Indian ford," a little distance below where the Menagassi or Menakessi (Monakasy, Monocasy or Mono- cacy) i.e. creek with bends, flows into the river. The Delawares called the site of Easton Lechauwitank, i.e. in the Forks, and that of Bethlehem Menagachsink, i.e. at the bending creek. They later applied these names to the two towns.
47
PIONEER MOVEMENTS TO 1740.
But more ambitious schemes than any cherished by these humble settlers who, as a rule, lived on peaceful terms with the Indians, were closing grasping hands about this grand domain. In 1733 William Allen,10 of Philadelphia, in addition to his other large acquisitions, had an unlocated holding of ten thousand acres which had been conveyed to him by William Penn, grandson of the original Proprietor, sur- veyed in the Minisinks and parts of the Forks and began to dispose of it in parcels.
In 1734 the Proprietaries instituted a lottery of a hundred thousand acres of land, offering adventurers chances on tracts covered by pro- prietary patent and yet unconveyed by deed. The scheme collapsed and the drawing did not take place, but in 1735 it was arranged that holders of tickets who lived in the Forks could locate claims there
10 William Allen, already mentioned several times, whose name is associated with so much of the land acquired by the Moravians, was the second in a succession of three, father, son and grandson, who bore the name of William, and the best known of this prominent Pennsylvania family; having, among other distinctions, filled the office of Chief Justice of the Commonwealth from 1751 to 1774. He was the father-in-law of John Penn, the last Proprietary Governor, and his son James was the founder of Northampton, now Allentown, which grew out of his summer residence Trout Hall on the Jordan Creek. A list of all the deeds for land executed by William Allen would be a long one, and if every conveyance netted a profit like that realized on the Barony of Nazareth-a rise from £500 to {2200, as mere incrementum latens, after five years' possession-the statement on record that he be- came the wealthiest man in Pennsylvania would follow very naturally. By force of training, official obligation and connections he was identified with the conservative party which urged the further effort by constitutional process to remedy evils in preference to revolutionary measures in 1776, fell under the odium of being a tory, lost his wealth and influence, went to England during the Revolution and after his return disappeared from public view in the turmoil of the times, ending his days in retirement. The last connection between Judge Allen and the Moravians, after many years of friendly official and personal intercourse, is given in the following extract from a letter written by the Rev. Daniel Sydrich, the Mora- vian pastor in Philadelphia to Bishop Nathanael Seidel of Bethlehem, September 12, 1780: " Wednesday the 6th inst., good old William Allen departed this life quite unexpectedly at his country seat Airy Hill (Mount Airy) and his body was buried here the next day. Two months ago I sounded him through Mr. Peter Miller, after learning that our church-lot is yet under his control after all, as to whether he would not be willing to make us a present of the ground, do a good deed thereby and establish a pleasing monument to his memory among us. He would not listen to this however and said (his own words in English quoted in the German letter) he was a ruined and poor man, met with too many and great losses and had hardly so much that he could send his servants to market." Pastor Sydrich then adds : "So it goes at last with the rich of this world, and from this very many find out in these times that it is not well to trust in uncertain riches. Next December the four years' ground rent will be due him which amounts to twenty guineas. This will also be a hard nut for our people."
48
A HISTORY OF BETHLEHEM, PENNSYLVANIA.
and thus some acquired title to land in these parts prior to settle- ment with the Indians, who were now proceeding from murmurs to threats. That same year the government, after vain attempts to quiet them, appealed to the deputies of the Six Nations composing the Iroquois Confederacy, who were in Philadelphia to complete a treaty opened in 1732, asking them to use their authority with the Indians of the Forks when it should be necessary. The Delawares acknowl- edged a certain vassalage to this powerful union and were called "women" by the Iroquois.11
Measures were then taken to secure the extinction of Indian title to lands in the Forks under some semblance of agreement. A docu- ment was brought to light, the long oblivion of which, if it was genu- ine, none of the efforts to put a fair face on the proceedings which followed have quite satisfactorily explained. It purported to be a deed made, August 30, 1686, by certain chiefs to William Penn for the territory extending from the upper line of the last preceding purchase-the Neshaminy Purchase of 1682-in a northerly direc- tion, continuing the north-northwest line of that purchase as far as a man could walk in a day and a half and thence eastward to the Delaware. The paper was marked "a copy" and was without signa- tures. The original instrument signed has never been seen or heard
II This confederacy first consisted of "the Five Nations," viz., the Mohawks, Oneidas, Onondagas, Cayugas and Senecas. In 1715 the Tuscaroras of kindred stock joined the league, and it was then called "the Six Nations."
Decided differences of opinion have prevailed as to the meaning of the term " women," as applied by them to the Lenni-Lenape or Delawares, who had claimed the highest dignity of origin and standing among the branches and tribes of the race. It has most generally been taken to denote their utter sub- jugation and contemptuous humiliation as warriors, after being so completely worsted in protracted conflict that they submitted to any terms their vanquishers imposed.
Delaware tradition made the term one of honor - the umpires between warring parties, holding the middle of the chain of friendship on their shoulders while the parties otherwise at variance held the ends. Thus the " women " covenanted to prevent decimating warfare while following peaceful pursuits. They tell, and herein compromise their reputation for sagacity, that after long wars the Iroquois, finding them invincible, beguiled them into this plausible scheme and then perverted the meaning of the name and assumed the role of masters. In 1742 when, at another Indian conference in Philadelphia, the head chief of the confederacy, in compliance with the request of the government and with a view to winning favor, peremptorily ordered the Delawares with words of withering scorn, to leave the Forks forthwith, there was no mistaking what the Six Nations understood the term "women " to mean. Not until 1795, after the defeat and downfall of the Iroquois in war with the government, did they, as a stroke of expediency, formally disassociate the figurative woman's dress; garniture and utensils from their " cousins," the Delawares, and acknowledge them again to be warriors.
1
49
PIONEER MOVEMENTS TO 1740.
of. It was designed to cover the whole region embraced in the Forks of the Delaware and, as the sequel proved, a large portion of the best land in the Minisinks beyond the mountains besides; the exact direction of the line from the end of the walk to the Delaware being significantly left blank. In April, 1735, the walk was experi- mentally made to ascertain what this conveyance, so unaccountably forgotten for fifty years and so strangely stultified by the acts of 1718 and 1728, would cover. The form of a treaty was gone through at Durham, August 25, 1737, when this document was produced and the chiefs were asked to ratify it. They were in doubt about it, but the alleged parties to the contract being dead, they were not in a position to disprove the writing. They therefore gave dubious assent and asked that the lines be run at once, if so it must be, and an end made of the matter. September 12, 1737, was set for the walk, but court being in session it was postponed to the 19th. At sunrise on that day three selected pedestrians and three Indians, accompanied by officials and attendants on horseback, started from the point agreed upon, and at noon the next day, when time was called, one walker who held out to the end struck his hatchet into a tree on the slope of the Pocono or Broad Mountain.12 The Indians resented the extension of the walk beyond the Kittatinny Mountains and when the line to the Delaware, instead of striking the shortest course, as they expected, was run north-eastward at right angles to the line of the walk, taking in a large section of the Minisinks, they were enraged, especially so the Minsis of that region who were not parties to the agreement and did not consider themselves bound by any contracts made by the Delawares of the south side; and the scheme was con- summated amid sullen threats of vengeance.
12 One of the famous walkers was Solomon Jennings, a pioneer settler on the Lehigh above the site of Bethlehem, where the " Geissinger farms" lie, a good neighbor and friend of the Moravians and a celebrated Nimrod of the region, whose son was later sheriff of Northampton County, and whose son-in-law was Nicholas Scull, Surveyor General of Penn- sylvania. Another was Edmund Yeates, who became blind and died prematurely from the strain. The third - he who finished the walk - was Edward Marshall, the hero of many wonderful tales, who lived to be nearly ninety years old. Jennings and the Indians, unable to keep up the pace, dropped out on reaching the Lehigh and deserted. The route was from near the present Wrightstown by the old Durham road to Durham Creek, then, veering westward, to the Lehigh which was crossed at the "old Indian ford" (see note 9), over the site of Bethlehem, through the present Hanover Township of Lehigh County and Allen Township of Northampton County to the Lehigh Gap, and thence on to the Pocono Moun- tain, the distance being about sixty-five miles.
5
50
A HISTORY OF BETHLEHEM, PENNSYLVANIA.
This was the famous "Walking Purchase" by which all Indian claim and title to this large domain was held to be extinguished for- ever. Eighteen years later when other grievances had accumulated and the Indians were cunningly beguiled into alliance with the French and furnished their opportunity, they carried those threats into awful execution with tomahawk and torch, dealing out indiscriminate, sav- age retribution to old and young, weak and strong, good and bad alike, in a reign of terror which stands on record as the most dismal episode in the history of the Forks of the Delaware.
Five years after the walk was made the last Indians reluctantly sur- rendered possession and removed from the Forks, and it so happened that the Moravian pioneers who most particularly had come to the region with peaceable and benevolent intentions toward the savages, were especially subjected to annoyance and even danger from some of this obstinate remnant loitering behind. They lived on the Naza- reth tract, quite near to where Whitefield's agents staked off the foundation lines of the proposed house soon after the arrival of the Moravians. Their village was called Welagameka, which meant rich soil. They applied this term also to the surrounding locality. They had a small space in cultivation; had a peach orchard and a burial ground near their village, not far from which stood the historic oak already referred to, hard by the path to the Minisinks. Their chief was known as Captain John, one of the six doughty sons of the noted Delaware chieftain called old Captain Harris-high-spirited, sensitive men, cherishing grudges against the English and smarting under the indignities put upon them by the Six Nations; the most famous of them being that subtle master of Indian finesse, Teedyuscung, half- brother of Captain John, who took the lead in subsequent manœuvres to recover Delaware prestige, and to whom there will be occasion to refer again. The final departure of this last band from Welagameka did not take place until the close of 1742, after peremptory orders from their lords, the deputies of the Six Nations, at the request of the Governor at Philadelphia in July of that year, in return for the promise of the latter to interfere with the invasion of Indian territory by whites in other quarters. Even then it required a concession from the Moravians in the shape of an indemnity for improvements aban- doned to induce them to vacate peaceably; the government having previously objected to their being thus "bought off." Details of this settlement with Captain John's troop will be noticed in proper con- nection. They were therefore on the ground yet, calling it their own
51
PIONEER MOVEMENTS TO 1740.
in defiance of the fate which hung over them since the walk of 1737 and in contempt of all the impressive muniments of parchment with which others defended their title to it, when operations in pursuance of Whitefield's plans were commenced; keeping peace with the Mora- vians, however, partly in response to friendly assurances and partly in the hope of being paid to leave, in which hope they were encour- aged by some white neighbors.
The pioneers who arrived there at the end of May, 1740, experi- enced trying times during the following months. Their first shelter under the great oak tree was a rude framework of poles roofed with bark and wattled with leafy branches of tree-tops, until they built a cabin of unhewn logs which was gotten under roof at the close of July. During those weeks it rained nearly every day. Boehler, who had meanwhile secured a force of lime-burners, quarrymen, masons, board-cutters and teamsters from Goshenhoppen, Whitemarsh, Maxa- tawny, Lower Saucon and elsewhere, rejoined them the last day of June. The work moved slowly on account of the frequent rain, diffi- culty with the lime and sand and the incompetence of some of the workmen. When September opened with another rainy season and the walls were laid up only to the doorsills, at an outlay of about £300, the hope of completing them to the roof before winter was abandoned. The workmen hired at other places were discharged and the Brethren, by permission of Whitefield's agents, set about the erec- tion of a better house of hewn timber in which to pass the winter. It was so far finished as to be habitable at the beginning of Novem- ber.13 Boehler, hearing that Whitefield had again arrived in Pennsyl- vania from Georgia, went to Philadelphia in November to report the condition of things. He found the famous preacher changed in his manner and disposed to be unfriendly. The displeasure he had car- ried away with him from his doctrinal encounter with the missionary Hagen in Georgia in defense of the theory of the predestination of some to perdition as well as of others to salvation was increased by the report that Boehler also opposed this teaching. He moreover found certain ministers in New York, New Jersey and Pennsylvania,
13 This house was subsequently used some years for school purposes and, 1755-68, as a home for Moravian widows. It is yet standing on the premises of the Whitefield House which since 1871 has been set apart as a home for superannuated or disabled missionaries and pastors, with the little log house as one of its adjuncts, furnishing a snug retreat for one and another retired minister content to accupy the humble, quaint and historic "gray cottage."
52
A HISTORY OF BETHLEHEM, PENNSYLVANIA.
who also held this view, inveighing against the Moravians, with no acquaintance as yet with them personally or their doctrines, incited by a misleading "pastoral letter" of warning from the Classis of Am- sterdam issued three years before and at this time being circulated in America. Many people, among others the neighbors of the Moravian pioneers in the Forks, were led by these clerical onslaughts to imagine that the arrival of these persons from Herrnhut was the most serious menace to religion and the common welfare that had yet appeared. Whitefield's previous association with them now jeopardized his popularity among men of his theological persuasion, and he felt con- strained, as a champion on trial before admirers, to vindicate himself in the arena of controversy. Therefore, to Boehler's surprise, he at once opened the scholastic discussion for which many had been wait- ing eagerly. It was carried on in Latin in which language both of these young schoolmen could argue better than either could in the language of the other. The Oxford orator failed to convince the Magister of Jena that his conception of the Divine decrees was correct and quite lost his temper, imperiously declaring that the Moravians must leave his land forthwith and need not expect to get possession of a foot of it. Boehler retorted that they had no intention of locating per- manently on his tract, that he was surprised at his bigotry and pope- like bearing and that doubtless if he had the power of the Pope he would proceed against them with fire and sword. Thereupon White- field closed the interview with the curt ultimatum: "sic volo, sic jubeo, stet pro ratione voluntas." Although this was not a very creditable triumph in argument, it satisfied those who merely wished to see the leader of the Moravians put down, no matter how, and it led to the next important step towards the spot at which their settlement was to be founded. This summary expulsion of the Brethren from the Nazareth land was directly proclaimed with satisfaction in the neigh- borhood by some of the near-by settlers who were prejudiced against them. One of the gathering-places of the region at which the matter was naturally discussed was the mill of Nathanael Irish on the Saucon Creek.14 He was one of those who discarded church-connection and
14 Mr. Irish who appears in various important and interesting connections with the early Moravians in the Forks, had located some time prior to May, 1737, on 306 acres of land where the village of Shimersville is situated, near the mouth of the Saucon Creek. There he opened a farm, built a mill, established a land-office as agent of William Allen, and in 174I was commissioned a Justice of the Peace. His place, the terminus in 1740 of the first highway from Philadelphia to the Lehigh (see note 9) was a general rendezvous. This mill remained standing until 1812 and his dwelling until 1816; the former on the farm of the late John Knecht, the latter at the site of the William Shimer residence. He subse- quently removed from the neighborhood and died in 1748 at Union Furnace in New Jersey.
PIONEER MOVEMENTS TO 1740.
53
THE WHITEFIELD HOUSE.
57
54
A HISTORY OF BETHLEHEM, PENNSYLVANIA.
had little respect for religion, on account of the ceaseless sectarian bickerings and the rabid polemics of theologians in which religious activity mainly consisted in those days, but he acted a Christian part towards the little band of Moravian pioneers in that trying hour for which he was held in grateful remembrance. His comment on the occurrence was that he had his doubts about Whitefield's religion if he drove the Moravians away, for he had learned to know them as good people. Being one of the important and influential men of the vicinity, his representations through Whitefield's agents, persuaded the impetuous clergyman to waive his contention on subtleties of theological speculation in favor of humane sentiment, and to forbear turning these people out of the house they had built into the wilder- ness at the beginning of winter. He also offered to sell them, on easy terms, five hundred acres of William Allen's land lying on the north bank of the Lehigh River, at the mouth of the Monocacy Creek, a desirable tract which he intended to retain for himself. Boehler had during the summer frequently taken grain to his mill to be ground, and they had become well acquainted. His offer was the subject of several interviews between them, but no conclusion could be reached until word was received from Europe in reference to the contemplated settlement in Pennsylvania.
After securing the refusal of this tract and arranging with Irish for a sufficient supply of meal to keep his little band of people from suffering hunger, Boehler settled down with them in their winter- quarters to wait. They occupied the next several weeks in completing their house, making the first rough building more comfortable for the use of part of their number, and gathering a store of firewood. The clouds of uncertainty in reference to further plans were suddenly dispelled to their inexpressible joy by the arrival on December 18 of Bishop David Nitschmann, who had reached Philadelphia three days before. With him came his uncle, David Nitschmann, senior, Christian Froelich, Anna Nitschmann, daughter of the elder Nitsch- mann, and Johanna Sophia Molther.15
15 This new contingent of pioneers increased to 31 the number of persons in the North American colonies at the close of 1740 who had been in connection with the Brethren in Europe, of whom 29 were at this time in Pennsylvania, viz., 21 of the 23 who came to Penn- sylvania from Georgia-one, Rose, having died-Christopher Baus, who had come over in 1734, the three previous accesions of 1740, John Hagen, still in Georgia, Christian Henry Rauch, among the Indians in New York, Andrew Eschenbach, itinerating in Pennsylvania, together with Boehler, Bishop Nitschmann, and the four persons who had come with the
55
PIONEER MOVEMENTS TO 1740.
They had come to finally carry out plans of operation in Pennsyl- vania in pursuance of the original thought of 1727, which had been taking shape since the first General Synod of the resuscitated Church held in the old castle of Marienborn in 1736, after Zinzendorf's banish- ment from Saxony, when measures for the extension of missionary work and the planting of colonies in foreign lands were specially dis- cussed. At the second such gathering held at the seat of the Counts of Reuss-Ebersdorf in June, 1739, when Zinzendorf had returned from the Island of St. Thomas, Spangenberg reported his observations in Pennsylvania and outlined a scheme of activity there, embracing
latter-together 31. There were, including the three wards from Georgia, 15 at Nazareth. The four newly arrived deserve special introduction.
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.