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 75
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1846-1876.
centered, the several organizations of the Evangelical Association, in its present two divisions which now exist in the community, emanated during the last two decades of the century.
The next Church, in point of time, to begin work in Bethlehem was the Roman Catholic, the first public service of which was held in the Odd Fellows' Hall on March II, 1855; although a priest from a neighboring town seems to have ministered at a private house already in 1854. The Church of the Nativity of our Lord was built on Union Street in 1856, and so far completed that the first service was held in it at Christmas of that year. There, both the German and English-speaking Roman Catholic population of the vicinity worshiped until 1863, when their first church on the south side of the river, which will be mentioned in another connection, was built. The next in order was the Protestant Episcopal Church. On Nov- ember 24, 1854, Bishop Alonzo Potter preached in the Moravian Church. The Rev. Mr. Osgood, of Easton, read the service on that occasion. During the summer of 1855, the Rev. Mr. Christman, of Philadelphia, and Mr. Latimer, a member of St. Stephen's Church, of that city, for many years a visitor at Bethlehem, read service in the hotel parlors several times, and other visiting clergy officiated occasionally in Temperance Hall. Such ministrations continued at intervals and, on August 28, 1859, Bishop Samuel Bowman preached in Citizens' Hall, which had been opened in 1856. The leading resi- dent members of this Church lived on the south side, where the first regular services by lay-readers were instituted and the first organi- zation was effected. The beginnings on that side of the river which have not yet been treated of must be anticipated here in bringing all the church activities of that period into connection. On Christmas Day, 1862, Bishop Potter again visited Bethlehem and officiated at a service in the parlor of the "Bethlehem House"-previously, and again subsequently, the "American House"-and on May 8, 1862, Bishop Stevens conducted service and preached in the Old Chapel of the Moravian Congregation which was later tendered for the stated use of the Episcopalians of the vicinity. They had services there and in the chapel of the Parochial School with considerable regularity for more than a year after July, 1863. On Maundy Thursday, March 24, 1864, Bishop Potter administered confirmation in the Old Chapel. A few years after the parish on the south side was founded and the Church of the Nativity was built, to which more definite reference will be made in sketching South Bethlehem beginnings, some of its members commenced a branch work in Bethlehem. A Sunday-school
698
A HISTORY OF BETHLEHEM, PENNSYLVANIA.
was opened in April, 1869, by the late H. Stanley Goodwin in the Wall Street school-house, and from that beginning arose Trinity Church on Market Street. The corner-stone of that church was laid on August 29, 1871. The basement story was opened for Divine service on January 16, 1872, and was consecrated, January 29, by Bishop Howe. A separate parish was organized in April and legal incorporation was secured, January 25, 1873. The first distinct rector of Trinity Church was the Rev. Charles Morrison. The finished church was consecrated April 1, 1880.
The beginning of Presbyterian activity at Bethlehem took place on the south side and will be mentioned more particularly later on. The first congregation there took the name "The Presbyterian Church of Bethlehem." Some of its leading families lived on the north side, where an affiliated Sunday-school was opened. The First Presbyterian Church of Bethlehem was organized in the Young Men's Christian Association building, November 14, 1875. Services were held at a private residence on Broad Street until, on February 14, 1876, a little meeting-house, built on Union Street a number of years before, for the establishment of a congregation of the United Brethren in Christ, which came to nought, was first occupied as the place of worship. It continued to be used until the dedication, April 7, 1878, of the church on Centre Street, erected largely through the generous aid of the Rev. G. W. Musgrave, D. D., of Philadelphia, and for some years commonly called Musgrave Chapel. The first located pastor, the Rev. Alexander D. Moore entered upon his labors at the beginning of April, 1876, and remained until August, 1891. The first Baptist organization in Bethlehem took place, as records show, on April 6, 1869. Services were held at a private house and then for some time in a hall above the former smith-shop of the Rices on the west side of New Street, between Market and Broad. The Rev. E. Packwood, of Allentown, fostered the work during those years, until the first stationed pastor, the Rev. I. P. Meeks, took charge. The lot on which the church stands at the corner of New and Lehigh Streets was secured in 1872, and on Sep- tember 17 of that year, a temporary structure spoken of as the "wigwam" was opened for services at the place. In October, 1873, work was commenced at the foundation of the church, but the financial panic of that time caused a long delay. The corner-stone was laid, October 15, 1874. The building progressed slowly until the basement story could at last be occupied and it was used in an unfinished state some years until finally the entire church was com-
699
1846-1876.
pleted and dedicated, February 3, 1884. The regular organization of the Mennonite Brethren in Bethlehem, whose place of worship, Ebenezer Church on Laurel Street, was dedicated, November 10, 1888, dates from 1884. They erected a "tabernacle" on Garrison Street, in that year, worshiped later in Citizens' Hall, and then built another temporary structure at the corner of Centre and Goepp Streets in the autumn of 1885. In February, 1887, the Rev. W. B. Musselman became their temporary minister. He officiated in a temporary chapel on Main Street, south of Fairview Street, until the erection of the present church. This may suffice in the way of refer- ence to new church beginnings in Bethlehem after the incorporation of the Borough.
A few items of general religious activity, not strictly denomina- tional, during the three decades covered by this chapter deserve mention. On June 23, 1847, the first appeal of the Philadelphia Sabbath Association, through its canal-boat missionary, the Rev. William Hance, in behalf of evangelistic work among the boatmen on the Lehigh Canal, was favorably acted upon by the Moravian clergy. Not only did the stated collections for that Association, which have continued to this time, commence then, but personal work among the boatmen who tied up at Bethlehem and Freemans- burg over Sunday was undertaken. October 20, 1850, the Rev. William Eberman, who took an active interest in this cause, officiated at the first Sunday afternoon service held for those men in a room over Knauss and Borhek's store in Old South Bethlehem. Other people living in the vicinity and up the canal attended, and the considerable number of neglected children belonging to such families led him to open a Sunday-school there in February, 1851. This work was for a while so promising that the idea was officially entertained of building a chapel for its accommodation, somewhere about the foot of Vineyard Street. The interest was afterwards allowed to flag and no chapel was built, although, in June, 1856, after the erec- tion of a little school-house across the Monocacy, it was revived. There students of the Theological Seminary also began, in 1859, to keep prayer-meetings and, on May 6, 1860, opened another Sunday- school with thirty scholars. That was the beginning of the present West Bethlehem Moravian Sunday-school.
The interest in the canal-boat mission led to the revival of the Tract Society at Bethlehem which had become defunct. When the agent of the American Tract Society, the Rev. Reuben Weiser, a great- grand-son of the famous Conrad Weiser, visited Bethlehem in
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A HISTORY OF BETHLEHEM, PENNSYLVANIA.
October, 1850, the organization was resuscitated on the 7th of that month, and on the IIth a new constitution was adopted. It was participated in by ministers of all denominations at Bethlehem dur- ing the subsequent years. The first tract depository was opened, March 22, 1851, in a room in the Sisters' House known as the sales- room, where in former years, even back to Revolutionary days, the handiwork produced by occupants of the house was disposed of to visitors. Then came a revival of organized activity in the interest of Bible distribution. The Bible Society formed thirty years before had sunk into decadence. The new movement occurred in Novem- ber, 1852, and was also participated in harmoniously by ministers and laymen of the several denominations. This time it was directly auxiliary to the American Bible Society. A regular organization was formed, March 24, 1853. For a number of years annual meet- ings and collections for the cause took place on Thanksgiving Day. Pastor Welden, of the Lutheran Church, was for some time one of the zealous and energetic leaders in this branch of activity. More conspicuous among such general movements, was, however, that of the Young Men's Christian Association epoch in the following decade. Marked enthusiasm was awakened by the celebration of the twenty-fifth anniversary of the Young Men's Missionary Society on September 7, 1865. At a reunion of its members on that occa- sion, under the inspiration of the new Y. M. C. A. impulse of those times, the idea of a more developed institutional center for young men, in a building constructed and equipped for the purpose, was broached. Out of that arose the first such Association at Bethle- hem and its building-the structure on Main Street adjoining the present Moravian Publication Office on the north. A committee of twenty-one was constituted to develop the project, which finally took tangible shape in March, 1867, when the Rev. Edmund de Schweinitz-who had succeeded Bishop Bigler in the Moravian pas- torate in October, 1864, and was at this time in the midst of his well-remembered influential and fruitful labors in Bethlehem, where he was consecrated a bishop with the Rev. Amadeus A. Reinke in 1870-reported as chairman of the committee that the Rev. Francis Wolle, Principal of the Seminary for Young Ladies, had, in behalf of the Trustees of that institution-the Provincial Elders' Confer- ence-offered a site on Main Street for the proposed building. Plans of procedure took shape and their further working out and execu- tion was undertaken by a smaller committee of five. On April 2, they reported enough money secured to begin operations. On
AUGUSTUS WOLLE CHARLES WILLIAM RAUCH
MAURICE CHARLES JONES
DAVID HENRY BISHOP
JACOB BOEHM RATH
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1846-1876.
May 17, work was commenced at the spot, the excavation for the foundations being performed by volunteers among the young men. On August 25, 1867, the corner-stone was laid with appropriate services and two days later the constitution and by-laws were adopted. Liberal assistance was given by many people of Bethle- hem and in due course of time the building arose and was finished. Its formal opening and dedication took place, Saturday and Sunday, March 21-22, 1868. Although the separate organic existence of the Young Men's Missionary Society continued, their interests were to some extent merged for a time. The museum of the latter, enriched on July 2, 1868, by a gift of two hundred mineral specimens by Mr. Samuel Wetherill and later by the loan of Schuessele's celebrated oil painting, "Zeisberger preaching to the Indians," besides other new acquisitions, was transferred to the new building, and its library was consolidated with a nucleus from other sources6 under the control of the new Association-in all two thousand volumes. The reading- room and library were on the second floor and the hall for meetings,
6 A committee appointed by the previously long-existing Bethlehem Library Association formulated, January 14, 1868, to report for adoption on the disposition of its books, a reso- lution to the effect that they be put "into the keeping of the Y. M. C. A. of Bethlehem," with the condition that the unsuitable books be retained and the members of the Library Association have the use of the Y. M. C. A. library " free from any charge or demand annual or otherwise therefor." This paper written and signed by Francis Wolle, Secretary, has on the opposite side, in the handwriting of W. T. Roepper, the following : " At a Gen- eral meeting of the Bethlehem Library Association held, January 20, 1868, the written report of the Committee was unanimously accepted and adopted, in witness whereof the members present have hereunto set their signatures with the additional, passed at said meeting, that in addition to the stipulations of the within report this Association reserves the right to withdraw the library from the keeping of the Y. M. C. A. of Bethlehem whenever a majority of the Library Association shall deem expedient so to do." The following auto- graph signatures are attached :
W. T. Roepper,
J. S. Krause,
A. H. Rauch,
R. W. Leibert,
E. F. Bleck,
R. W. Leibert, Adm. Est. C. L. Knauss,
Joseph A. Rice, for Josephine C. Rice,
Jedediah Weiss,
John C. Weber,
Maria E. Kern,
B. F. Caffrey,
Francis Wolle, for Young Ladies' Seminary, Adolph Degelow,
John Krause, Augustus Belling,
Paulina L. Doster,
M. C. Jones,
Charles F. Beckel,
Henry B. Luckenbach,
Augusta E. Crist,
James T. Borhek,
J. F. Erwin,
J. T. Borhek, one of the Executors
F. L. Traeger,
of H. Guetter, B. E. Lehman.
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A HISTORY OF BETHLEHEM, PENNSYLVANIA.
with a seating capacity of about three hundred, was on the third floor. The librarian was Dr. Valentine Hent, until January, 1875, when he was succeeded by J. T. Davenport until 1878. The build- ing and furniture cost about $15,000.
The new organization did enthusiastic and valuable work during the first years of its existence. Its strength was afterwards impaired by influences inimical to denominational co-operation, by the loss of some of its most devoted supporters and by some elements of internal weakness which could not withstand the reaction of first impulses which inevitably comes to try every organization. Even- tually, like many another Y. M. C. A. which loses its hold on the interest or confidence of those in the community who could sustain it amid financial embarrassments, it sank under a remnant of debt. In 1878 its institutional work was closed and on December 12, 1881, it formally disbanded. Then the Young Men's Missionary Society again went on its way alone. It came into sole possession of the library which continues to have quarters in the building, along with its museum. It may be added, to complete these notes on Christian Association work at Bethlehem, that in 1890, a new attempt to establish a Y. M. C. A. was made and the next year a Young Women's Christian Association was formed out of the previous Girls' Reading Room Association. The efforts did not, however, under changed conditions, appeal sufficiently to people of the town, with interest centered upon other forms of activity, and before 1898 both organizations were defunct.
A cursory survey of the school work may follow. When the Rev. H. A. Schultz retired from the principalship of the Seminary for Young Ladies in 1847, he was succeeded by the Rev. Herman J. Titze. The latter was followed in August, 1849, by the Rev. Sylves- ter Wolle, who remained in charge until 1861, when his place was taken by the Rev. Francis Wolle, who was Principal until 1881. In 1850, by action of the Congregation Council on July 25, the long- standing connection between the girls' day-school and the Young Ladies' Seminary was brought to an end. The "first class" of day- school girls who had been attending the Seminary were, together with a few girls from families not connected with the Moravian Congregation, formed into a senior or "select" class in charge of Miss Caroline Bleck, on October 23, 1850. It was quartered in a room of the Seminary building of 1790, which stood on the present Parochial School premises. It was formerly spoken of as the new Kinderhaus (children's house) in distinction from the original Sem-
1846-1876. 703
inary, the "bell house," which was called the old Kinderhaus. The school for smaller girls under Miss Frederica Traeger, kept first in Matthew Christ's house and then in the Sisters' House, was trans- ferred, in April, 1851, to another room in the stone building occu- pied by Miss Bleck's school. The boys' school remained in its former quarters in the school house on Cedar Street. Francis Wolle, who had been teaching the first class of boys for several years, was succeeded, in the summer of 1851, by William C. Reichel, until February, 1852, when the latter became teacher of natural science in the Young Ladies' Seminary and was followed temporarily by David Z. Smith and then, in April, by Herman Ruede until 1858. Matthew Christ and his wife were yet connected with the Parochial Schools and he continued until after the new epoch of 1858. Mrs. Theodora Beear also remained one of the teachers of younger girls and boys until 1855. Others were Mrs. Lydia Rice, at intervals, 1849° to 1855; Josephine Fenner, 1853 to 1855, when she was succeeded by Harriet Fuehrer ; Lucia Benade, who followed Caroline Bleck in 1854, and Augusta Stoltzenbach, who had charge of the new department, from 1855 to 1857, and a few years later taught again for a while.
Wise provision had been made for the Parochial Schools in the charter of the Congregation, the benefit of which began to be real- ized after the Liquidation Committee finished its work in 1852. Financial obstacles to the betterment of school facilities had disap- peared and on December 13, 1855, the Congregation Council resolved to "recommend to the School Board an inquiry into the condition of the Parochial Schools with a view to the development of a plan or plans for the material improvement, both internal and external, of said schools." A committee was appointed by the board, the following March, to prepare a report in pursuance of that resolution. The scheme reported and approved led to two important results. One was the erection of a new school house of sufficient capacity and the other was the consolidation of the boys' and girls' schools of all grades in one organization under a Superin- tendent. The Congregation Council having, on December II, 1856, declared in favor of these steps, it was resolved by the Board of Trustees at a joint meeting with the School Board, January 12, 1857, to "appropriate the lot of ground on which the stone school house now stands and as much more as may be needed for the pur- pose of erecting thereon a suitable school house and out-buildings, not to exceed in cost the sum of fifteen thousand dollars, this amount to cover the fixtures and arrangements," etc. A building
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A HISTORY OF BETHLEHEM, PENNSYLVANIA.
committee was appointed, composed of two Trustees, Henry B. Luckenbach and Ambrose H. Rauch, the latter succeeded by C. A. Luckenbach; two School Directors, James T. Borhek and Francis Wolle, the place on the committee of the latter being taken later by his successor as Elder and ex-officio School Director, John C. Weber; and the Treasurer of the Board of Trustees, Matthew Krause. A plan of the proposed building was adopted by the School Board after certain alterations, February 24, 1857. In March the services of the Rev. Ambrose Rondthaler, of York, Pa., were secured as Superintendent. He arrived in July, when the new build- ing was in course of erection. The school departments that occu- pied rooms in the old stone building had been temporarily removed to the west-end rooms of the church in April, the persons who lived in other rooms of the house had been furnished quarters elsewhere and the vacated structure had been demolished in May. The old corner-stone, lifted from its place on May 22, was relaid in the new building. When it was removed and the box of deposits was taken out of it, a venerable woman, the sole survivor of the girls who had belonged to the old boarding-school at the time of the re-organiza- · tion in 1785, was present. This was Johanna Maria Heckewelder, familiarly called "Aunt Polly Heckewelder," daughter of the mis- sionary John Heckewelder. It was ascertained that seven of the pupils of 1790 whose names appeared on the document in the stone, were yet living.7 To the regret of all, Miss Heckewelder was pre- vented by illness from being present when the old stone was placed in the south-west corner of the new building with prayer and praise on May 27. The old document, well preserved, was replaced in the stone and with it was deposited a new one of the usual character on which the names of the church authorities, general and local, the building committee and the teachers and scholars of the Paro- chial Schools in 1857 were engrossed. The finished building was formally opened and its chapel on the third floor dedicated, Febru- ary 15, 1858. The teachers, besides the new Superintendent, were at that time Herman Ruede, Matthew Christ, Lucia Benade, Frederica Traeger, succeeded that year by William Brown, Harriet Fuehrer, Mrs. Cornelia Blank and Augusta Belling. In August
7 Salome Fetter, widow of Dr. Eberhard Freitag, Anna Rosina Kornman, wife of William Rauch, Anna Dorothea Warner, wife of Jacob Blum, Elizabeth Kampmann, widow of Bishop William Henry Van Vleck, Agnes Bininger, wife of Abraham B. Clark, Dorothea Sophia Reichel, wife of the Rev. Charles F. Seidel, and Margaret Catherine Vriehuis, of St. Jan, W. I.
100000 8
0
FS 93
SCHWARTZ'S ACADEMY ULRICH'S PREPARATORY SCHOOL
NISKEY HILL SEMINARY
MORAVIAN PAROCHIAL SCHOOL BISHOPTHORPE SEMINARY
1846-1876. 705
of that year, Charles Edward Kummer, an able and suc- cessful instructor, long connected with the school, first as senior teacher and then as Superintendent, entered as the successor of Herman Ruede. The only surviving members of the faculty of 1858 at this writing are Mr. Kummer, residing at Medford, Mass., and Miss Fuehrer, now Mrs. B. F. Caffrey, of Bethlehem. Of their predecessors one remains, Miss Fenner, now Mrs. Samuel S. Warner, of Bethlehem. The first janitor of the new building was William Lelansky, who continued to serve until 1889. The former boys' school house was at once remodeled as a dwelling for the Superin- tendent. It was so used until 1890. After that stride forward the school entered upon a notable period of prosperity and efficiency. The Rev. Ambrose Rondthaler was a man of high attainments, a born teacher and an enthusiastic worker. During the period of thirteen years in which he had charge of the Parochial School he held conspicuous rank among the educators of the Lehigh Valley.
Benjamin Van Kirk, who, as stated in the preceding chapter, pur- chased Bleck's Academy in 1851, had laudable aspirations with that popular institution. In 1855, he purchased a site in the eastern part of the Borough at the edge of what was indefinitely called Nisky Hill, and there erected a large building in which he re-organized the school as Nisky Hill Seminary. But reverses came through his protracted illness at a time of general financial depression and the enterprise languished. An attempt was made to continue it by other persons who rented the property, but it did not prosper and in 1858 it passed out of existence. The following year Mr. Van Kirk entered the Young Ladies' Seminary as an instructor in mathematics and Latin, and remained in connection with that institution in various capaci- ties, from 1866 as Vice-Principal, until beyond the period embraced in this chapter. With Van Kirk's Academy was connected, first as student and then as teacher, one who subsequently opened another of Bethlehem's educational institutions which for many years enjoyed well-merited favor. This was Charles H. Schwartz, who in 1857 erected a commodious building on High Street and in it, August 3 of that year, opened his Academy, which may be regarded as the legitimate successor of Bleck's and then Van Kirk's Academy. In 1871, the Rev. Ambrose Rondthaler rented the property and con- ducted the institution a few years until his retirement from active life. Mr. Schwartz then resumed control, conducting it partly as a school preparatory to Lehigh University until 1889, when physical
46
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A HISTORY OF BETHLEHEM, PENNSYLVANIA.
infirmity compelled him to retire from the profession of teaching and the institution was closed. In 1858, as stated in a note in a previous chapter, the Executive Board of the Moravian Church purchased the Nisky Hill Seminary property, and, after the build- ing had been remodeled, the Theological Seminary was re-opened in it, August 30, 1858. The Rev. Lewis F. Kampmann became President. It was re-organized on an elaborate plan, as the Mora- vian College and Theological Seminary. Under this title it was incorporated by act of Legislature, approved, April 3, 1863.
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