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 76
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The District School situation, for want of exact records at hand in detail, appears somewhat nebulous and obscure between 1845 and 1850. Several schools existed in which the contract to keep a given number of months free school was combined with the privi- lege of also taking "subscription scholars" when the free school was not open. James Edward Knauss figures first, for several years, as the master of such a school, with Elizabeth Carrick in charge of an adjunct, besides a primary school in another house under his supervision. In 1850, Valentine Hilburn was on the scene. He was in charge, with Anna M. Reich, Maria Loesch and Susan Spinner assisting, when the disjecta membra of the free schools were collected and organized in the first public school house built in Bethlehem in 1853, on Wall Street, where the George Neisser School House now stands. In 1855 appears the name of M. W. Carroll as head teacher, to 1858, followed by David Merrick, to March, 1859, and then, temporarily, by Benjamin Van Kirk, to Octo- ber, 1859, when he entered the Young Ladies' Seminary, Abraham Kindt, chosen to succeed Merrick, having withdrawn. An incident of 1858, that year of notable activity and advance in the educational work of Bethlehem, was the first general meeting of teachers, on December 31, in Citizens' Hall-brought about principally through the efforts of Herman Ruede, then editing the newspaper of the town-to form a "Union Teachers' Association." One old school- master of the time who took special interest in the movement, Emil F. Nimsch, entered the service in 1858 and continued until 1865. In 1860, I. L. C. Miller began to teach in Bethlehem, as did also George Charles Rieser. From 1862 to 1869 appears the name of William N. Walker, who, after then serving a term as County Superintendent of Schools, was the first man elected (1872) as dis- tinctly Principal of Bethlehem Schools, with larger prerogatives than belonged to the position of any of the previous head teachers, although some of them were also called principals. In 1865, Daniel
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E. Schoedler was elected to this position, as it then existed. Two more of the prominent and well-remembered pedagogues of those years were A. A. Campbell, who began to teach in 1866, and Gottlieb C. Souders, who entered in 1867. The latter being a man of some musical ability and fond of singing, generously offered to drill the boys and girls of the schools in vocal music gratuitously and with- out interference with other school work. This was an offer which the School Directors found it easy to accept.8 In 1865 the rooms in the Wall Street school house had become inadequate, and in Sep- tember, the use of the basement of St. John's Evangelical Associa- tion Church was secured for one school year, to accommodate the overflow, while the need of a new and much larger school-house began to be discussed. A site was purchased in 1866 at the north- east corner of North and Center Streets, but steps towards actual building operations were not immediately taken. Meanwhile, the Trustees of the aforesaid church declining to further rent the base- . ment for school purposes, the Board of Directors, in the summer of that year, purchased and fitted up a building at the corner of Garri- son Street and Long Alley to serve the immediate need. January 6, 1869, the Directors decided to proceed in the matter of erecting a new school house "commensurate to the needs of the district;" this meaning, to the minds of some, a building not only large enough but of a quality and appearance that would do honor to the town. Their aspirations in this respect were eventually attained by very slow steps, in the face of considerable opposition and with an expen- diture of over $66,000 in the completion of Franklin School House, which was formally opened and dedicated on September 30, 1871. This was the beginning of a new era for the public schools of Beth- lehem. Lifted then to a higher plane they have steadily progressed.9
8 Besides those mentioned above, the names of the following women and additional men who for longer or shorter terms served as teachers in the public schools between 1855 and 1871, given in the general order of succession in which they first appear, may be noted, without claiming perfect accuracy and completeness for the list : Louisa C. Cole, Helen Cole, Amanda A. Bast, Rebecca S. Ritter, Sarah E. Spinner, Anna B. Schmich, Alice Kidd, Frederick A. Welden. Sabina Wolle, Ellen Ritter, Lizzie J. Weaver, Jacob Nickum, Emma J. George, Clara V. Reich, Gertrude Wertz, Lizzie Teussig, Olivia Mease.
9 The School Board, in January, 1869, were Rev. D. F. Brendle, President; Charles N. Beckel, Secretary; William Leibert, Treasurer ; Augustus Wolle, Dr. J. H. Wilson, C. E. Kummer and Anton Hesse.
The Building Committee of 1869 were Augustus Wolle, D. F. Brendle, J. H. Wilson and
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In connection with these references to the schools of Bethlehem during the thirty years embraced in this chapter, it is proper to allude to the efforts of those who endeavored to foster the various refinements of general culture in the community, even amid untoward conditions at some periods. Although, at times, the influence of men who attach no value to any interests or activities beyond those covered by the word business, bore down hard on the town, there were always more people than in most Pennsylvania communities of like size who welcomed what the men of literature and science, the musicians and the artists had to dispense. Older residents of Bethlehem will recall the laudable exertions of the Young Men's Missionary Society at different periods, the proprie- tors of Citizens' Hall when it was in its best days, and the Young Men's Christian Association, for a while, to provide instruction and entertainment of an elevating character for the people of the place, by means of courses of lectures and concerts. In these efforts, home talent sometimes met the demand to a surprising extent, especially during the fifties and sixties of the century, while the financial possi- bility, then and later, of engaging high-priced lecturers and high- class musicians from elsewhere, bringing men of distinction in various lines to Bethlehem, was creditable to the community.
Although the Philharmonic Society retrograded somewhat after its achievements referred to in the preceding chapter, and for some years did not add any specially notable performances to its record, it again came to the front in ministering to the musical tastes of the people during the second of the three decades covered by this chapter. Two conspicuous names connected with its history then, in addition to those already mentioned, deserve a place here. Prof. Theodore F. Wolle, who figured among the young musicians of Bethlehem from 1847 to 1852, returned after an absence of thirteen years, and then, until his death in 1885, held a front place in music
Charles N. Beckel, the place of the last-named being taken in June by his successor in the Board, Charles B. Daniel.
The successor of Mr. Beckel as Secretary was Mr. Kummer. Mr. Brendle resigned and Charles Augustus Luckenbach was elected to fill the vacancy and succeeded Mr. Leibert as Treasurer, while Mr. Wolle became President of the Board, which was composed, when the new building was finished, of A. Wolle, President; M. H. Snyder, Secretary ; C. A. Lucken- bach, Treasurer ; C. E. Kummer. C. B. Daniel and A. Hesse.
The following was the staff of teachers elected in July, 1871; A. A. Campbell, G. C. Souders, J. Nickum, Chas. H. Cline, Edward Cressman, Robert Lyttle, and the Misses Olivia Mease, Sarah Spinner, Ellen Ritter, Elma Chandlee, Emma Ritter and Virginia Huebener. The first janitor of the Franklin School House was Herman Schippang.
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as a teacher in the Seminary for Young Ladies, as organist and choir-master of the Moravian Church-succeeding Prof. Ernst F. Bleck-and in connection with the Philharmonic Society. There are many of his remaining musical associates and people of Bethle- hem generally, who will concur in the tribute due him in these pages. Closely associated with him for twenty years was one who entered the Seminary as professor of music in 1864 and is still con- nected with that institution, Prof. William K. Graber, organist and choir-master of the Church of the Holy Infancy in South Bethlehem. When the Philharmonic Society was re-organized in 1869, he became its conductor, and by his assiduous efforts brought its work to a standard which stood in widely acknowledged credit. His lead- ership is inseparably connected, in the minds of those who remem- ber them, with the numerous enjoyable performances of the organi- zation during the years of revival that followed.10
Another tradition of Bethlehem in the cultivation of accomplish- ments was perpetuated in that it did not cease, after it became a borough, to have those among its educators who delighted in work with the pencil and brush. There had been such at all periods. No relic remains of the work of Zinzendorf's artist, John Jacob Mueller, who furnished the first temporary adornment for Bethlehem's original chapel in the Community House, but many are the portraits and representations of Bible scenes painted in oil that were left by good Valentine Haidt. One of the treasured views of Bethlehem is the work of Nicholas Garrison, Jr. Others were produced by George Fetter, of later times, who also preserved the lineaments of many a revered face in water-color portraits; which latter filial task was, likewise early in the nineteenth century, performed for the pos- terity of many a one by Bishop Samuel Reinke, when he was yet a young man. Gustavus Grunewald, who came to Bethlehem in 1831, taught drawing and painting in the Young Ladies' Seminary, from 1836 to 1866, and returned to Europe in 1868, painted many pictures in oil, of scenes in and about Bethlehem, which remain to his credit and that of the school and town. More than one person in the place also possesses treasured specimens of the handiwork of two of his prominent Bethlehem pupils One was Reuben O.
10 In denying himself the pleasure of extending the mention of individuals among the singers and players on instruments to others of those years who ministered conspicuously to the enjoyment of music-loving people, the writer yields to the conviction that the space which can properly be given to this subject, as well as the limits of discretion, in view of their being so numerous and so recent, would be exceeded by its indulgence.
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A HISTORY OF BETHLEHEM, PENNSYLVANIA.
Luckenbach, who succeeded him at the Seminary as the drawing and painting-master of troops of girls and even kindly and patiently tried to teach some clumsy theological students to draw. The other was the Rev. William C. Reichel, who was an artist as well as a student of nature and, in his day, the chief writer of local and neighborhood history. Rufus A. Grider, in sundry pencil and water- color sketches now in the Moravian archives, preserved from oblivion the form and appearance of various historic buildings and picturesque places about the old town that have disappeared or have been altered beyond recognition. Another more prominent Beth- lehem artist, D. C. Boutelle, executed some work in oil which attained a distinct reputation, even among the critics, and is prized by those who possess pieces; and sundry paintings by his son, Edward Boutelle, are preserved by Bethlehem people as creditable products of local talent.11 Many interesting pictures of buildings and places about Bethlehem made during the years here in review, existing in the form of lithograph, steel-plate or wood-cut, to be found in collections or as illustrations in the pages of publications, were the work of artists from other places.
An easy transition from education and culture to more material business activity may be made in some reference to the press of Bethlehem, historically within the compass of this chapter, for viewed in different aspects it lies in both of those domains. It is a remarkable fact that Bethlehem had no established printing-press prior to 1830, when Henry Held, son-in-law of Joseph Till, the shoe- maker, who sold vinegar and was dubbed "Vinegar Till," began to do printing, in which occupation his better-known sons, the brothers Julius W. Held and William Held, were also later engaged. After the early achievements of John Brandmiller, the first printer in the Forks of the Delaware, referred to in a former chapter, and a little
HI This by no means completes the list of those who might be mentioned among teachers and amateurs. One of the valuable sketches of Bethlehem localities now greatly changed, South Main Street, east side from the church up towards Market Street, half a century ago, was made by the late Bishop A. A. Reinke and has been recently reproduced in tints by the Rev. Eugene Leibert, of Nazareth, whose choice rural views in water colors are in much repute. It is among the collections of such matter in the archives, which possess several specimens of local interest from other sources, one of these being a portrait of the old organist, John Christian Till, by H. E. Brown. The largest number of pictures there gathered, in the line of local topography and notable scenes, are, of course, products of the photographer's art, in more recent times, from the days of Osborne, Kleckner and Stuber to the present skillful professionals and amateurs diligently adding to the town's store.
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MAIN STREET, 1862 WEST SIDE EAST SIDE
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work done at Bethlehem for a brief season by the famous Henry Miller on one of the small presses which he transferred from placc to place before he settled in Philadelphia, all the Bethlehem printing was done by contract elsewhere, until the advent of the Helds. Prior to that time, miscellaneous job printing was not a branch of business which the authorities of Bethlehem would have deemed it desirable to have carried on in the town. In order to make it profit- able the degree of discrimination in the kind of work permissible, which they would have insisted on, could not have been observed, and the Moravian printing was not sufficient to incur the expense of maintaining a printing office. The first Moravian publication officially issued at Bethlehem was a quarterly, "The United Brethren's Missionary Intelligencer and Religious Miscellany-Published quarterly for the Protestant Episcopal Church of the United Brethren." It was founded in 1822, continued until 1849, and was printed in city offices. It was edited by Moravian clergy and its first printer was John Binns, of Philadelphia. Its successor was a monthly called "The Moravian Church Miscellany," from January, 1850, to Decem- ber, 1855. This was both edited and published at Bethlehem, the printer being Julius Held, with Herman Ruede, teacher at Bethle- hem, but printer by trade, performing the functions of office-editor and proof-reader during part of its latter period. Its several editors were Moravian clergymen. The first local newspaper was a Ger- man bi-weekly called Die Biene (the Bee), undertaken by Julius Held and then continued in partnership with his brother, William Held, in 1846, with Dr. Abraham L. Huebener as editor. The first num- ber appeared, January 3, 1846. It was not a political paper nor to any considerable extent a mere chronicle of town and neighborhood happenings. Its purpose, as it announced under its heading, was "the propagation of the Kingdom of God, the advancement of pure morals, the improvement of educational work and the dissemination of useful general knowledge." It dealt, to a large extent, with Moravian Church affairs and missions, published many articles in the domain of natural history, advocated temperance reform, contained much interesting historical matter, treated of the most important events of the period-it being at the time of the Mexican War-and contained the advertisements of sundry Bethlehem business men. Dr. Huebener bought out the Held brothers in 1848, and became sole owner as well as editor, but it did not prosper financially, and at the end of 1848, he was compelled to suspend publication. The next in order was The Lehigh Valley Times, a weekly with more of the
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the Times, became the proprietor, publishing it for some years. Meanwhile, in 1894, a new daily which had no kind of historical con- nection with any of the preceding, The South Bethlehem Globe, made its appearance. As for the oldest of the existing three newspapers of the Bethlehems, the advance of the enterprise from its unpreten- tious beginning in the old Eggert house, where the building of the Lehigh Valley National Bank now stands, and then in its well- remembered Broad Street quarters, on to the extensive business of the Times Publishing Company in the present commodious and well- equipped building, is, like the development of the paper itself from the first issue in 1867 to The Bethlehem Times of now, in line with the general progress of the town.14
According to records preserved, the population of Bethlehem increased in ten years, after it was incorporated as a Borough, to twice the number of inhabitants it then had, and in December, 1858, the figures were set at 2,500. Among the public improvements of those years, an important one was the introduction of gas, which was lighted on the principal streets the first time on July 13, 1854. The Bethlehem Gas Company was incorporated, February 7, 1853, by Philip H. Goepp, C. A. Luckenbach, Sylvester Wolle, A. W. Rad- ley, James T. Borhek, William Wilson, Rufus A. Grider, James Rice, John M. Miksch, W. T. Roepper, Charles W. Rauch, A. E. McCarty and James Leibert. Its first directors, elected in May, were C. A. Luckenbach, P. H. Goepp, A. W. Radley, W. Wilson, Jacob Rice, Matthew Krause, Ambrose H. Rauch, Sylvester Wolle and J. T. Borhek. They organized by electing C. A. Luckenbach, President, J. T. Borhek, Secretary, and Matthew Krause, Treasurer. Ambrose H. Rauch became Superintendent of the works and con- tinued to fill the position, supervising all of the successive enlarge- ments and improvements, until the corporation, after existing nearly half a century, was merged in the Wyandotte Gas Company. The water and fire departments, as they existed during those years, have been referred to in connection with earlier mention. No addition was made to the old organizations for fighting fire until October 26, 1866, when the Nisky Hook and Ladder Company was formed, with Henry J. Seaman as President, Theodore F. Levers, Secretary, and Isaac Walp, Treasurer. The streets of the town that had been
14 The above items gathered from many original sources, among others the files and parts of files of the several publications referred to which are preserved in the Moravian Archives, would, where desirable, have been more exact as to dates and other points in the case of some former newspapers mentioned if data had been obtainable.
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JACOB LEWIS DOSTER BENJAMIN EGGERT CHARLES AUGUSTUS LUCKENBACH
JAMES GOTTHOLD LEIBERT
HENRY BENJAMIN LUCKENBACH
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officially laid out and named up to 1858, have all been mentioned. On December 20 of that year, the Borough Council, for the first time, made the names of ten of the existing alleys official. The report of the committee which was adopted describes them as they yet exist with the names they now bear. They are, in the order given, Goundie's, Rubel's, Cunow's, School, Gas, Long, Guetter's, Raspberry, Steinman's Alleys and Spruce Alley, declared a street. Cedar Alley was first erected into a street, April 15, 1867.
During the decade following the incorporation of the Borough, notwithstanding the disappearance of so much that was unique and the substitution of so many ordinary town ways, there was yet enough about Bethlehem of the former attractions for city people, that it continued to be a favorite summer resort, with its hotels usually filled during "the season." Of these there were, prior to 1860, six in Bethlehem and at the canal, varying in their character from those most pretentious, catering to gentility, to those which were quite like the better sort of village and cross-road taverns so numerous about the country. The old Sun, after an unsuccessful attempt by the Moravian Congregation authorities to get the consent of the voting members to its sale in 1849, was finally sold in 1851 to C. A. Luck- enbach, who disposed of a part interest to John Anderson, of New York, after which it was enlarged and refitted. In 1856, opened the administration of one of its most famous proprietors, James Leibert, who deceased in October, 1863. The following spring, the property was sold to Rufus A. Grider, who, in 1868, disposed of it to Charles Brodhead, its present owner. The Eagle, so long conducted by Caleb Yohe, did not pass into other hands until 1874, when it was purchased by George H. Myers, closed for extensive improvements, from April to July of that year, and then reopened by its lessee, George Hoppes, a well-known landlord previously of the Gettysburg Springs Hotel and formerly of the Mansion House of Mauch Chunk. The Anchor Hotel at the canal, for which, in July, 1845, a second lease for five years had been made to Andrew McCarty, and which, about 1850, received its next name, the South Bethlehem House, finally came into the hands of Herman Fetter, whose name, as that of a far-famed host, became permanently connected with it. The Pennsylvania House, built early in the fifties by George Steinman, on the south side of the canal-the present Keystone House-had as its first landlord George Meitzler, and, in 1858, Mr. Barnes. The next year its proprietors, Leidy and Gernet, succumbed to financial stress. In April, 1861, Jesse Miller, of Mauch Chunk, began to dispense hos-
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pitality there, and in 1862, its proprietor, George Steinman, was one of those whose property suffered from the raging flood to which refer- ence will further be made. The American House, one of the numerous buildings erected in the early fifties by John J. Levers-for two terms during its first decade in charge of Job Pharo, and then given the name Bethlehem House for a few years until its first name was restored-was purchased, early in 1861, by Israel O. Dissosway, of Staten Island, a former New York Custom House official. It was conducted for a while by his two sisters as a select boarding-house, and then, in 1862, was enlarged and fitted up by him as a regular hotel. The next year it passed out of the hands of Mr. Dissosway into those of George Schweitzer, of the Union House, at Broad and Centre Streets, where, already prior to that time, entertainment for man and beast had been furnished. The many "summer guests," who in those years strolled about the environs of Bethlehem, seeking such picturesque spots as industries and freshets had spared in their old beauty-the era of modern man-made attractions had not yet dawned-always found the Island-then, with reason, called Catalpa Island, previously and again since, without reason, called Calypso Island-one of the most charming resorts. Already before 1860, the fleet of pleasure-boats controlled by Henry Fahs and his sons yielded a modest revenue and this more classic mode of conveyance had a monopoly until, in 1873, Wier's rope ferry began wholesale business between the north bank and the Island. Then, in 1874, steam navigation opened when, in June of that year, the Calypso, plying between that resort and the south side-predecessor of the Lotta, remembered by more persons-was "christened" in the regu- lation Christ-profaning manner of naming merchant-vessels, battle- ships, steam-boats, yachts, tugs and dredges. The new business enterprises which appear upon the scene during the decade following the incorporation of the Borough, are so numerous that a detailed reference to them would hardly be expected and would not be prac- ticable. Two that were slightly out of the ordinary lines, founded before the borough history began and not yet alluded to, may be mentioned. One was the piano-factory, which ceased to exist soon after the time to which this chapter runs, and, by many present resi- dents of Bethlehem, not known to have been for many years one of the industries of the town. John Christian Till, the organist, who was both a musician and an expert in fine cabinet-work, made sundry pianos ; one of his latest contracts being to place one in the parlor of each of the hotels, the Sun and the Eagle. In 1830, the establish-
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ment of a piano-factory was had in mind in connection with negotia- tions for the lease of ground by George Haus, at the south-east corner of Broad and New Streets. In 1837, John Christian Mal- thaner, a piano-maker from New York, encouraged by C. A. Luck- enbach to settle at Bethlehem, came to the place with his family and had his first home and shop in the stone house at the west side of the grist-mill, which was then Mr. Luckenbach's property. He was among those who were driven from their houses by the flood of 1841. For a while he then occupied quarters in the Old Economy house on Main Street. He had brought with him from New York an unfinished piano, which was the first instrument he turned out at Bethlehem. It is still in existence and is not yet beyond being used. In 1842, he applied for lot No. 23 on the east side of New Street, near Broad. There, after all the agreements and stipulations about the building and other matters then yet required, had been arranged, he erected a suitable structure and opened the widely-known factory which he carried on until his death in 1873, after which his sons con- tinued it some years longer. The other establishment referred to was the copper and brass-working shop and subsequent brass- foundry, opened in 1832 by Ernst L. Lehman, well known in his day among the musicians and leading citizens of Bethlehem, like his son and successor, the late Bernhard E. Lehman, who became the owner and occupant of the premises at the north-west corner of Market and New Streets. From there he transferred the foundry and shop, in 1864, to the south side, and developed them into the substantial industry so long known under his name, and yet existing among the establishments that, in the course of fifty years, have taken the place of the more quiet agricultural activities which had been supplying so large a part of Bethlehem's subsistence for a hundred years.
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