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 79
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10 The records of the Bethlehem Bridge Company report the gauge at the old bridge as 20 feet in 1841 and 20 feet 6 inches in 1862. Careful comparisons made after 1862 reveal that farther up towards the region of the dams, the excess of 1862 above 1841 gradually in- creased, in the nature of things, while below Bethlehem it was less than at this point, be- cause in 1841 more water poured into the Lehigh from tributaries farther down and the Delaware was higher than in 1862. It was stated at the time that, in consequence of a great dam of wreckage extending from the river bridge to Water Street, the back-water on the Monocacy flats rose from 8 to 10 inches higher than in 1841.
THE FRESHET OF 1862
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Besides the damage done to the old bridge, one span of which was carried away, and the great loss suffered by the Lehigh Coal and Navigation Company, the Lehigh Valley Railroad Company and the Lehigh Zinc Company, the heaviest losers at Bethlehem were naturally those who owned industries in the old part of Bethlehem, along the Monocacy, in Old South Bethlehem and on the Sand Island. The old flour-mill was then already the property of David and Andrew Luckenbach, the present owners of the rebuilt mill who, the previous year, had purchased the property of their father, the late Jacob Luck- enbach, to whom, in 1847, it had been sold by Charles Augustus Luckenbach. The severe ordeal of water suffered by the new firm was followed, in 1869, by one of fire, when, in the night of January 27, the historic old mill was burned to the ground. While the new one was being gotten into operation the freshet of 1869 occurred, subjecting it to the first of a number of inundations. The tannery was owned, in 1862, by the late William Leibert who, in 1846, after it had lain idle for some time, purchased it in company with Adam Giering and, in 1848, became its sole owner. The loss and damage suffered were serious. David Taylor, the lessee of the saw-mill, Lewis Doster, Jr., Levi Ott, and the firm of Borhek, Knauss and Miksch, all of whom were engaged in business along the canal as lumber and coal-dealers, were among those most severely affected.
As for the canal, it was in ruins over a great part of its course. Constrained to abandon the thought of rebuilding the fatal dams, the Lehigh Coal and Navigation Company which owned the canal secured, that year, railway privileges above Mauch Chunk, as a sub- stitute for the previous water transportation on that section, while proceeding to repair the canal from there down. Out of all this grew, finally, the construction of the next railroad past Bethlehem. A bill authorizing the company to build a railroad also below Mauch Chunk, all the way to Easton, was passed in March, 1864. This was the Lehigh and Susquehanna Railroad, now a division of the Central Railroad of New Jersey. At first, it was very commonly referred to along its course as "The Lehigh Navigation Company's Railroad." Before the close of that year the construction of the new road was progressing vigorously at some points. The building of the section past Bethlehem-commenced in 1866 changed the topography far more than the opening of the canal had done many years before. There are none who remember "Bartow's path" ruined by the canal, but many remember the meandering walk above it of which traces
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yet remain, and the various other attractive features along the brow and base of Nisky Hill into which the railroad cut so ruthlessly. The slow and laborious work, performed there by the forces employed by Contractor Ira Cortright, was finished early in 1867. The rails were laid past Bethlehem in October of that year and, at the end of the month, the track was finished from Easton to Mauch Chunk. On November 25, the first train, consisting of sixty cars of coal, four loaded with lumber and four passenger cars, passed down the new road. On March 31, 1871, it was leased by the Central Railroad of New Jersey and in 1873, the present passenger station at Bethlehem was built.
At the time when the Lehigh and Susquehanna Railroad was com- pleted, another, of more purely local associations-with Bethlehem as not merely a station but a terminus-was opened. This was the Lehigh and Lackawanna Railroad-its eventual corporate title. On May I, 1862, an act was approved, incorporating a company "for the purpose of constructing a railroad from the North Pennsylvania and Lehigh Valley Railroad Junction at Bethlehem to the Borough of Bath in Northampton County." The incorporators were James Vleit, Samuel Straub, James Kennedy, Conrad Shimer, Charles Augustus Luckenbach, James Leibert, John Fritz, James Jenkins and Charles Brodhead. They had organized, in April, 1862, as "The Bethlehem Railroad Company," with Charles Brodhead, President; Conrad Shimer, Treasurer; James Vleit, Secretary; Conrad Shimer, James Vleit, Samuel Straub, Samuel C. Shimer, James Jenkins, Charles Brodhead and John Fritz, Directors. Early in 1867, after operations were well on the way, "The Monocacy Iron and Steel Company," associated with the enterprise, was chartered, with Charles Brodhead, Augustus Wolle, and others, as incorporators, for the purpose of establishing a furnace up the Monocacy. In the spring of 1867, the completion of the section at the Bethlehem end was in progress. The site of a station in West Bethlehem was purchased in April, and in May the trestle across the Monocacy was built. The purpose at that time was stated to be the opening of the road as far as the Chapman slate quarries as soon as possible. The middle of Septem- ber, the first locomotive was run as far as Shimer's, to which point slate was carted from Chapman's and thence conveyed by rail to Bethlehem. October 10, the road was finished to "the Half Way House," which then received the name Brodhead's Station. On Nov- ember 28, 1867, the completion of the road to Chapman's was cele- brated by running an excursion train to that place from Bethlehem.
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May 5, 1868, mail stage connection was opened between Brodhead's and Nazareth.
The great increase of business which resulted from these many enterprises and public improvements naturally led to the establish- ment of banks at Bethlehem. The First National Bank was char- tered in 1863, and commenced business with Charles Augustus Luck- enbach the first President, and Rudolph Rauch the first Cashier. The same year The Dimes Savings Institution was founded, with Dr. William Wilson, and after his death, Charles B. Daniel, as Presi- dent, and James T. Borhek as Cashier. In 1870, E. P. Wilbur & Co. opened banking business on the south side, with Mr. Wilbur as President and William L. Dunglison as Cashier. They re-organized in 1887 as The E. P. Wilbur Trust Company. The Lehigh Valley National Bank of Bethlehem was incorporated in 1872. The late Dr. G. B. Linderman was its first President and A. N. Cleaver its first Cashier. All of these institutions, excepting the Dimes Savings Bank, still exist, and, in 1889, a new one, the South Bethlehem National Bank, was added on the south side.
At this point the Bethlehem post-office may once more be referred to. Just before the incorporation of the Borough, it was in charge of Jacob Kummer, May 3, 1841, to March 24, 1845. Then Charles C. Tombler became post-master the second time, to March 1, 1848, when he was followed by William D. Tombler to May 7, 1849. His successors were James A. Rice and, from his death in October, 1850, his widow, Mrs. Josephine Rice, to May 26, 1853; William F. Miller to August II, 1856; C. A. Luckenbach to October 15, 1860; William H. Bush to April 2, 1861; Robert Peysert, the post-master during the Civil War, to April 10, 1877, beyond the period of this chapter-the longest and most eventful term.11
The foregoing subjects having all been disposed of, so far as the design of this chapter extends, and the most of them finally, it
II He was followed by John Lerch to June 27, 1881 ; Owen A. Luckenbach to November 16, 1885 ; George F. Herman to July 19, 1889 ; Owen A. Luckenbach again to his death, October 16, 1890, and his widow, Mrs. Jane Luckenbach, to January 26, 1891 ; Henry A. Groman to the time when this history closes. The oldest residents may now remember eight places where the post-office has been quartered : prior to 1845 and again, 1849 to 1853, at the site of the present Bee Hive Building; 1845 to 1849, the site of the Myers Building ; 1853 to 1856, the Sun Hotel; to 1861, near it south where the drug store is; to 1872, yet farther south at the site of the Globe Store; to 1877, in the present Peysert Building; then across the street adjoining J. S. Krause's hardware store, to 1885, when it was moved to its present place, corner of Main and Market Streets.
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remains to bring together the leading features and incidents of Bethlehem's connection with the great Civil War, out of which the Nation, that celebrated its centennial anniversary in the year with which the chapter closes, arose new-born, and all of its sections, all of its cities and towns, every particular community and institution entered a new era. Many of the most prominent things that have been treated of in this chapter occurred in the years of the war. To this, mere allusion has been made, for the plan has been to group subjects and treat the several classes of matter somewhat distinctly as the easier way to cover, in two chapters, the range and variety of thirty important years, so full of beginnings and changed situations.
Long before the great conflict drew near, the people of Bethle- hem had ceased to stand aloof in principle from those claims of citi- zenship that called for militia service. Although the militia system of Pennsylvania was in a state of general decay, and to a great extent an object of ridicule by the people, yet even Bethlehem had several military companies, after a fashion, and that they were not quite without iron in their blood soon appeared when the test of sterner duty than holiday parades suddenly came. Captain Woehler's Bethlehem Guard was obsolete, but on May 28, 1859, the old German soldier made a speech at the anniversary of a new company, "The Washington Grays," then being drilled in the manual of arms by Captain James L. Selfridge. Another, "The Bethlehem Artillerists," also existed, with Dr. William Wilson in command, and for a while "The Bethlehem Cavalry" had cut a figure under George Wenner. The Armory, of which the volunteer company formed in 1848 cher- ished visions when it applied for two lots on Broad Street on which to erect such a building, was sometimes more than a name, even when the Mexican War was being forgotten and no other war was expected; and only an occasional exciting Presidential campaign in which men waxed warm over controversies that, at last, did bring a long and awful war, awakened new interest in drill and parade.
When the shots fired at Fort Sumter on April 12 and 13, 1861, following those that had challenged the Star of the West in Charles- ton harbor, startled the country, and revealed that the worst fore- bodings were realized, there was, of course, sensation at Bethlehem as elsewhere. Captain Selfridge, with his lieutenants, Frueauff and Goundie, and the Washington Grays, were at once ready to offer their services, and the same day on which President Lincoln issued his first call for seventy-five thousand volunteers for thirty days, they could telegraph to the Governor of Pennsylvania that they would be
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prepared to march when wanted. Four days later, April 19, they started. An affecting service was held before they left, in which several clergymen participated and about two thousand people gath- ered at the railway station to bid them God-speed. They were mus- tered in on April 23, as Company A of the First Regiment of Penn- sylvania Volunteers. The four companies recruited at once in and about Easton largely composed the remainder of the regiment, under Col. Samuel Yohe of Easton. From camp at Fort Scott, at York, they sent their complete muster-roll the following week. It was published in the next issue of the Bethlehem newspaper. On April 22, at a large gathering of men in Citizens' Hall, the recruit- ing of a proposed Company B of the Washington Grays was com- menced, while the Artillery Company, beginning with the existing nucleus, was nearly up to the requisite number and was drilling assiduously. The same day, a meeting of men above the age for military service at that time-forty-five years-was held at the Sun Hotel to organize a Home Guard. A committee was appointed to draft a constitution and another to ascertain whether government arms could be procured. Forty-five men were present and all but two signified their readiness to join at once. These two were under the age-limit and declared their willingness to go into the field if needed. Jedediah Weiss was chairman and Reuben Rauch secre- tary. Ira Cortright, Henry B. Luckenbach and Christian F. Luch were the committee on arms. Charles F. Beckel, Matthew Krause, Nathan Bartlett, Thomas W. Jones and the Rev. Ambrose Rond- thaler were the committee on constitution.
With all this, there were, of course, those at Bethlehem, as else- where, who doubted the right of the Federal Government to proceed against the secession movement with armed force, even if they did not sympathize with the movement, just as political opinion had always been divided on the question of national sovereignty and state rights. There were those who failed to see the inevitable out- come of temporizing with slavery, that national incubus which pro- duced it all. The situation having become acute, intensifying feel- ing and putting those whose loyal blood was stirred, out of patience with those who halted between two opinions, some citizens of Beth- lehem, as well as of other places, came under sharp censure. There were even some who denounced the Government and spoke in terms of disparagement of the men who were ready to rally at their country's call; and soon the significant term "copperhead" came into vogue at Bethlehem also-deserved undoubtedly in some cases,
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but probably not in others. Furthermore, in the midst of all anxiety and deeply serious patriotism, the situation was not too grave to be subjected to flippant jest12 or to be turned to business account in the form of sensational advertising,13 even in staid old Bethlehem. It is of interest to scan the war-time newspaper-files and observe how everywhere even solid and decorous business men fell into the habit of turning their advertisements into the prevailing language of "war-talk," and taking on the style of the startling headlines.
The prevailing spirit of Bethlehem, however, which, with a parting hymn and prayer, sent the first company of the first Pennsylvania regiment to answer the call, was sustained. The boys also caught the patriotic and martial fervor, and organized the "Union Guards" -afterwards the "Union Cadets"-and "The Indestructible Lancers" -boys from twelve to fifteen years old. The former, twenty strong, went into camp in July, 1861, in a field of Herman Fetter, on the Monocacy Flats and, in his honor, named their rendezvous "Camp Fetter."
Bethlehem also became a source of military supplies. Doster's "Moravian Woolen Mills" turned out a high grade of government
12 Before the actual beginning of hostilities, at the March election in 1861, a burlesque borough ticket was circulated " by parties unknown to the jury "-so one account-headed "Palmetto Rattlesnake Ticket," on which the fictitious candidates - reputable citizens asso- ciated with worthless characters and " half-witted fellows,"-stood pledged " irrevocably for the Union, Tonnage Tax, Market House and Fort Charles Augustus."
13 One specimen is this : "The Difficulties Settled ! Hostile Parties Reconciled ! No War !! Chairs ! Chairs! Chairs !- C. W. Rauch's old stand, No. 38 South Main Street- Michael Stuber."
Another, when the first draft came : " Bethlehem Quota Filled ! Readers, you are all safe from the present Draft ! Now is the time to provide yourself and family with Fall and Winter Goods."
One announces "Another Raid on the Mammoth Store! Excitements being the order of the day we would inform the Public that the excitement in Dry Goods, Hardware, Groceries, Carpets, Wall Paper, Zephyrs, etc., etc., is as great as ever." .
Another proclaims "The latest Intelligence ! The Undersigned invites the Attention of the Public to his elegant new place of business, No. 66 S. Main St."
After the "slump" of inflated prices, when the value of gold reacted from its skyward maximum, following decisive battles, one firm gave out the bulletin : "Great Fall in Dry Goods and Groceries ! The Crash has come ! Speculators alarmed ! Good Times Coming ! Owing to our recent brilliant Victories and the consequent general feeling and anticipation of an early closing of the War, and the heavy fall in Gold, a great panic has been caused in the market in all kinds of Merchandise."
One, with more enterprise than delicacy, hastens, after a great battle which filled the land with weeping, to shout into stricken homes-"Mourning Goods of every Description ! Prices to suit the Times !"
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goods. In August, 1861, a large contract for "heavy blue kersey" to be made up into army overcoats set the mills going, full force, day and night; a contract which the local newspaper stated it would take ninety days to fill. The establishment, containing a large quantity of such goods, was destroyed by fire, March 22, 1862. Partially rebuilt, it was again ruined by water in the great freshet of June, 1862. Later, operations were transferred back to the old mill on the Sand Island for a few years and then closed.
The first grief and mourning of the war came to the community when, on July 25, 1861, Lieutenant Goundie arrived with the body of William Harrison Haus, of the Washington Grays, who, the pre- vious evening, had died of fever on board the cars between Baltimore and York, en route for Harrisburg with the company returning from the thirty days' service. The whole company reached home on the 27th, were met at the station by an immense concourse and were escorted to Citizens' Hall, where an address of welcome followed by prayer was made by the Rev. H. A. Shultz and a luncheon was served by Bethlehem ladies. The next day the remains of their comrade Haus were laid to rest in the Old Moravian Cemetery. Several thousand people attended the funeral of this first Bethlehem man who died in military service. The next one was Urias Bodder, who died in August and was interred in the Union Cemetery.
The next body of troops raised in the Lehigh Valley that gathered at Bethlehem and started from this point, was the famous cavalry company recruited by William Emil Doster who, at the very outset, had turned from his studies in the law-office and come to Bethlehem to raise a troop of cavalry, but because there was no call at first for mounted volunteers, was prevented from executing his purpose until mid-summer. Edward Tombler assisted him in the effort. On August 10, 1861, they went into camp on Sand Island and named it Camp Doster. They were joined by about forty men brought down the valley by Mr. Tombler. August 15, they elected Mr. Doster, Captain ; Herman Horn, of Weissport, First Lieutenant, and Mr. Tombler, Second Lieutenant; and after parading the streets started that day-a hundred and sixteen men-for Philadelphia. They were mustered in as Company A, of Col. Josiah Harlan's Light Cavalry, but later became Company A, of the Fourth Pennsylvania Cavalry. They were in twenty-seven engagements. After the pro- motion of Captain Doster, who later became Colonel and eventually a Brevet Brigadier General, Lieutenant Tombler succeeded him in command of the company. During that same month of August, 1861,
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Mr. Samuel Wetherill recruited another troop of cavalry with head- quarters at Bethlehem and, on August 28, left for camp with about thirty men. Captain Wetherill subsequently rose to the rank of Major and the company was at first attached, as Company H, to Col. Harlan's Light Horse, which was later registered as the Eleventh Cavalry and the One Hundred and Eighth Regiment of Pennsyl- vania Volunteers, while that of Captain Tombler had, before that, been embodied in the Fourth Cavalry and Sixty Fourth Regiment. At the same time Captain James L. Selfridge, who had become Lieutenant Colonel of the Ninth Pennsylvania Regiment, with Col .- afterwards General Joseph Knipe, was busy recruiting at Bethle- hem and in the vicinity for that regiment, and one after another of the Washington Grays re-enlisted for the three years' service. Owen A. Luckenbach, who had enlisted with a Philadelphia company for the thirty days' term, now became Captain of that original com- pany, as newly recruited and afterwards incorporated as Company C, in the Forty-sixth Pennsylvania Regiment, which later saw very hard service, did signally valiant duty and, like many others, was finally much depleted.14
On October 21, 1861, nearly two hundred ladies met in the Old Moravian Chapel and organized a Relief Association, to co-operate for the care and comfort of wounded soldiers, and on Thanksgiving Day a collection was taken to provide them with funds. This kind of work became extensive in Bethlehem as the need grew and appealed to women throughout the country; and increasing exper- ience in camp and field and hospital, in selecting things that were most required, enabled people at home to apply their efforts more systematically and effectively. It enlisted the activity even of the scholars in the Parochial School and the public schools, and many a woman of Bethlehem doubtless remembers how she, when a school- girl, helped to scrape and pick lint, to make bandages and to prepare bags and cases of useful little things for the soldiers, and how their mothers taxed their time, strength and supply of high-priced sugar and other concomitants, with fruit from the orchard and garden, to prepare delicacies in great quantities for convalescents in the hos-
14 Some of the men who formed the original company of Washington Grays, later re-en- tered the service several times under later calls. To follow the transfers, shiftings and mergings, in the course of the war, in the case of different sets of men or even of single officers cannot be attempted here. This difficulty and lack of space prevents the insertion of muster-rolls which would be of no value for reference unless complete and accurate.
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pitals. The interest of the Parochial School children was greatly increased by a visit, on January 3, 1862, by Major Robert Anderson, the gallant defender of old Fort Sumter. They sang for him and he made a fervent address to them.
August 8, 1862, was another notable day, when, in response to renewed calls for troops in July-which took forty-three new regi- ments, embracing over forty thousand men, followed under spur of a draft by fifteen more of about fifteen thousand men, from Penn- sylvania-Captain Jonathan K. Taylor and his Lieutenants, Andrew A. Luckenbach, afterwards Captain, and Orville A. Grider, and Ser- geant Franklin C. Stout, who later became a Lieutenant and ulti- mately Captain, left Bethlehem with their fine company of men. They mustered in the morning in front of Ambrose H. Rauch's Confec- tionery-frequently the point of such gatherings-surrounded by a vast throng of people. There a solemn service was held by the Moravian clergy and Pastor Welden of the Lutheran Church, whose son was among the volunteers, and who, as President of the Beth- lehem Bible Society, gave each man a copy of the Holy Scriptures. The Chaplain-elect of the company, William Henry Rice, who had left his studies to enter the service of the country ; who on August 17, was ordained at Bethlehem by the venerable Bishop Samuel Reinke and then served as Chaplain until May, 1863, responded, in behalf of the company, to the warm farewell words that had been spoken and the whole assembly, soldiers and civilians, stood with uncovered heads in the street and joined at the close in the Lord's Prayer. Then a procession was formed and the large throng, mar- shalled by David O. Luckenbach, escorted the company to the rail- way station, where the volunteers took the train for Camp Curtin at Harrisburg-the greatest rendezvous of recruits, military storage- point and hospital-center in the country. They were mustered in as Company C of the One Hundred and Twenty-ninth Pennsylvania Regiment, organized, August 15. Four companies of this regiment were raised in Northampton County. No regiment's movements and experiences became a more familiar story to the people of Beth- lehem than those of this strong body of men. The very next day after their departure, the sharp battle of Cedar Mountain was fought, in which the 46th suffered and Captain O. A. Luckenbach received the wound which compelled his retirement and left him a cripple. His place was filled by the promotion of Lieutenant William Stolzenbach. August 21, 1862, a union meeting of the religious denominations of Bethlehem was held in the Moravian '
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