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 80
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A HISTORY OF BETHLEHEM, PENNSYLVANIA.
church to organize a "Chaplain's Aid Society," the object of which was explained by Chaplain Rice, who was present. September 8, 1862, , a mass-meeting was held in Citizens' Hall to adopt measures for raising bounty money, and that evening the order of Governor Curtin for all able-bodied men to be ready to turn out within twenty-four hours as State Guards, to repel a threatened invasion by General Lee's army, was received. One company of the Fifth Regiment of militia called out at this time-Company D-was composed entirely of Bethlehem men, under Captain Joseph Peters, with Lieutenants Franklin J. Haus and Abraham S. Schropp-David O. Luckenbach being First Sergeant. On September 13, the marching orders came and at eleven o'clock, sixty men started, including even professors and students of the Theological Seminary, who had been aroused from their scholastic pursuits by the great excitement. After the battle of Antietam, four days later, they were not needed and returned. September 22-the day of President Lincoln's immortal war meas- ure, destined to mark an epoch in the history of the world, the proclamation emancipating all slaves in the United States, to go into effect January 1, 1863-the sixth notable departure of troops from Bethlehem took place. This was a part of the regiment raised for the nine months' service, entirely in Northampton County, by Col. Charles Glanz-volunteers and hired substitutes-at the time when the draft was pending. They first took the name of "The First Pennsylvania Regiment in Lieu of Draft," but were afterwards enrolled as the One Hundred and Fifty-third Regiment of Pennsyl- vania Volunteers. Captain Joseph Frey's company started that day from Bethlehem. From Nazareth came a company under Captain Owen Rice. They were joined by another, largely recruited in the Saucon Valley, under Captain Henry Oerter. Again there was a meeting in front of Ambrose Rauch's and a farewell service took place, participated in by sundry clergy, with addresses by the Rev. F. F. Hagen and Dr. Frederick Fickardt.15 Dr. Abram Stout, of
15 Dr. Fickardt, who figured often on such and a variety of other kinds of occasions as a favorite speaker. had been a resident and practitioner at Bethlehem since 1843, when he re- moved to the place from Easton and occupied part of the house of Dr. Abraham Stout, the elder, who had been established at Bethlehem since 1821. Dr. Stout was the next in the succession of regular Bethlehem physicians, after Dr. Freitag. He died in 1857. Cotem- porary with Dr. Fickardt was Dr. Wm. Wilson who. in 1844, came to Bethlehem from Bath and first opened his office in a part of Dr. Fickardt's house which had previously been occupied, for a while, by Stout and Dixon as a drug-store. Dr. John J. Wilson, deceased, and . Dr. J. H. Wilson were the second and third of the name in Bethlehem. Another prom-
FREDERICK AUGUSTUS MARTIN
ABRAHAM LEWIS HUEBENER
JOHN EBERHARD FREYTAG
FREDERICK AUGUSTUS FICKARDT
AUGUSTINE NATHANIEL LEINBACH
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1846-1876.
Bethlehem entered the service as surgeon of this regiment. On September 25, the "emergency men," who went out as State Guards returned and were given a demonstrative reception with an eloquent speech by Dr. Fickardt.
On November 21, the need of better facilities for private convey- ance between Bethlehem friends and troops from the town, occa- sioned a meeting at the Sun Hotel to institute an "Army Express" for regular trips to camp. On Thanksgiving Day, November 27, a mass-meeting was held in Citizens' Hall in the interest of measures for the assistance of families from which the bread-winners had been taken. A cotemporary record states that $2,200 had been raised in Bethlehem during the year for that purpose and $2,000 of that sum had been disbursed. Great battles like that of Antietam, September 17-18, 1862, in which the late Captain Robert Abbott was severely wounded, had left many a wife in the Lehigh Valley a widow. December 13, of that year, occurred another of the notable engagements in which many Bethlehem men participated, that of Fredericksburg, where some were wounded and others were taken prisoners. Captain Jonathan Taylor was so severely wounded that he died in the hospital at Georgetown on March 28, 1863. His body was brought to Bethlehem on the 30th. A great mass of people accompanied the hearse from the railroad station, in silent sorrow, to the home of his parents on Market Street, the Moravian church bell tolling while the procession moved. On April I, the funeral and the interment in the old cemetery took place.
At that period the National Union League of Bethlehem was formed. Copies of its constitution and rules printed by Herman Ruede still exist. Ira Cortright was President; William W. Selfridge, John P. Cox, Robert H. Sayre, C. A. Luckenbach and John C. Weber were Vice-Presidents; David Rau was Treas- urer ; C. Edward Kummer was Recording Secretary, and Dr. Robert J. McClatchey was Corresponding Secretary. It was the most critical time of the war, with the most unsatisfactory situa- tion, the most serious dissension and the most damaging
inent physician during those years was Dr. Benjamin Wilhelm, who came to Bethlehem in 1845 and died in 1870, father of Dr. E. T. Wilhelm, of South Bethlehem. Yet another, for a number of years was Dr. F. A. Martin, well-remembered by older residents of Bethlehem. Dr. P. Breinig, Dr. A. N. Leinbach and Dr. E. H. Jacobson who began practice somewhat later, survived among the older physicians until recent years. Dr. Abram Stout, who with Dr. J. H. Wilson, remain of those who are known by the present generation as the older doctors, is a nephew of Dr. Stout the elder.
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A HISTORY OF BETHLEHEM, PENNSYLVANIA.
activity, with tongue and pen, on the part of those in the north who favored ending the war on almost any terms. A day of fasting and prayer was observed, in accordance with the proclamation of the President, on April 30, 1863. A few days later, came new anxiety with the tidings of the bloody battle of Chancellorsville, in which, again, many Bethlehem men were engaged. On May 20, an enor- mous crowd gathered to greet the returning Company C of the 129th Regiment, in command of Captain A. A. Luckenbach, at the close of their nine months' service. There were addresses and a prayer of thanksgiving for their safe return; the fact that no Bethlehem men were killed or even wounded in the battle of Chan- cellorsville being particularly remarked. Then, in June, came the call of the President for a hundred thousand more volunteers and the proclamation of Governor Curtin ordering out the full militia force of Pennsylvania, in view of the threatening nature of General Lee's movements. Captain F. C. Stout and former Chaplain W. H. Rice were particularly energetic in recruiting a new company of "emergency men." Some complications ensued because of the objection of the Government at this time to accepting enlistments for less than six months, but this was modified to admit enrollment for ninety-day service. Suddenly, while this recruiting was in pro- gress, the climax of excitement and anxiety for eastern Pennsyl- vania came.
On Sunday morning, June 28, when the anniversary festival of the Moravian Congregation was being observed and Bishop Peter Wolle was preaching in the church, the announcement reached Beth- lehem that Lee's army had invaded Pennsylvania. Excited men hurried unceremoniously into the church, one going up to the pulpit with the message, while another commenced to ring the bell. The service was immediately concluded and the people dispersed in a state of much agitation. Directly, a mass-meeting was held in front of the Eagle Hotel; speeches were made by Dr. Fickardt, the Rev. F. F. Hagen, the Rev. W. H. Rice, Jedediah Weiss and Dr. Wilson ; and in a short time forty men had enlisted. The next day was one of intense excitement. All business was suspended and, for the first time since the days of the Revolutionary War, Bethlehem was one of the objective points for panic-stricken, fleeing people-not, as then, and in the earlier Indian wars, hungry, ragged, unkempt, for this time they could afford to come well-dressed and fed, but refugees, nevertheless-for the great Confederate army that had crossed the Potomac, was now in Pennsylvania. At four o'clock in
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1846-1876.
the afternoon about a hundred men, a number of whom had seen . service before, left Bethlehem under Captain Stout-business men, mechanics and laborers, professors and students-to enter the emer- gency service in the 34th Militia Regiment under Colonel Charles Albright, of which Robert E. Taylor was Major and Abraham S. Schropp, Adjutant. Then came the awful battle of Gettysburg, July 2 and 3, the repulse of the Confederate forces after frightful slaughter on both sides, and the turning-point in the fortunes of the war; being directly followed by the fall of Vicksburg before General Grant's persistent siege. On July 6, many Bethlehem men went to Reading, where the most recent volunteers were in camp, and some went on to the ghastly battlefield.
Hardly had the feeling of relief, in the midst of sorrow over the slain and anxiety about the wounded, set in, when new consterna- tion was occasioned at Bethlehem, as elsewhere, by the "draft riots" in New York City, under the common impression that it was planned to take place simultaneously with Lee's invasion. But this excite- ment, in turn, subsided and, after the battle of Gettysburg-although some of the most tremendous scenes of the war were later enacted- there was, on to its close, far less of turmoil at Bethlehem than previously. The "emergency men" returned in August.
During 1864, when the coming and going between home and camp was an every-day occurrence and people had become accustomed to much that had earlier created sensation, one of the local incidents was the organization, in March, of an auxiliary branch of the United States Christian Commission. A first large gathering took place on the 8th, in the Moravian Church, when the matter was presented and the initial steps were taken. The final mass-meeting was held at the same place on the 26th, when a constitution was adopted and a large committee was appointed in charge, with a central executive committee, composed of the Rev. Sylvester Wolle, Chairman®; Jonas Snyder, Secretary, and Mahlon Taylor, Treasurer.
Just at that time occurred one of the most pathetic funerals at Bethlehem during the war, that, on March 16, 1864, of Frederick and Augustus Fickardt, sons of Doctor Fickardt, aged respectively twenty and eighteen years, who died in the army after brief service ; the first on March 4, and the second on March 9. The first had joined Company G, recruited mainly in and about Bethlehem by Lieutenant Moulton Goundie for the Second Pennsylvania Heavy Artillery. They were interred in the old cemetery, as were also Lieutenant Lawson Merrill, of the United States Navy, who died
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A HISTORY OF BETHLEHEM, PENNSYLVANIA.
at the Sun Hotel on August 9; John Bloom Vail, who served in the navy, and Charles Edmund Doster, a Bethlehem volunteer, who died at home that year. Another interesting aspect of the situation, in the matter of demands which the war put upon people, is presented by the recorded statement that, up to February 25, 1864, the sum of $10,200 had been raised in Bethlehem to pay bounties and to hire substitutes, when the quota of thirty-four men had been made up to fill the draft of that month. Yet another draft came a year later, and it was then stated that the entire amount thus raised at Beth- lehem was $81,365.00, and in Northampton County $1,193,674.00.
At last, on April 3, 1865, came a day of rejoicing, when the news of the fall of Richmond was confirmed, for this was taken as indi- cating the end of the war. The announcement of General Lee's surrender to General Grant was made at the close of the service in the Moravian church, on Monday evening of the Passion Week, April 10, and a special hymn was sung. Then, at half-past nine o'clock on the morning of Great Sabbath, April 15, came the appalling message that President Lincoln had been assassinated the previous night, and on the funeral day, the Wednesday after Easter, April 19-in compliance with the proclamation of President John- son calling for the observance of the time from noon until two o'clock as a time of special mourning-the memorial services already referred to were held. In accordance with arrangements made by a committee, there was a gathering at the Market Street front of the cemetery, where an address was made by Dr. Fickardt. Then followed a procession to New Street, to Broad Street, to Main Street and down Main Street to the Moravian church, where the service was conducted by Bishop H. A. Shultz. Addresses were made by the Rev. E. deSchweinitz and the Rev. D. F. Brendle, while the Rev. E. N. Potter and other clergymen took part, otherwise, in the service.
The war was ended, but a strange mingling of great joy and great sorrow. marked its close. On June 10, 1865, Governor Curtin issued his proclamation making formal announcement of the end and recom- mending a special observance of Independence Day suitable to the occasion. At a meeting of the citizens of Bethlehem on June 22, held at the Eagle Hotel, the arrangement of a programme was put in charge of a committee, with C. A. Luckenbach as Chairman and O. B. Desh as Secretary. The leading features of the celebration were a general illumination on the evening of July 3, beginning at half-past eight o'clock, firing of a salute and ringing of bells at four
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1846-1876.
o'clock on the morning of the 4th, the reading of the Declaration of Independence by Major Samuel Wetherill and an oration by Dr. Fickardt on the lawn below the Eagle Hotel-the exercises begin- ning at ten o'clock-and fireworks at the river in the evening. On the evening of July 22, the remnant of Company C, of the Forty- sixth Regiment, after serving throughout the war, arrived home under Captain Stolzenbach. A stirring reception was tendered them at the railroad station. They were escorted up Main Street to the point in front of Ambrose Rauch's, where the several memorable farewell gatherings had taken place. There they were welcomed by Dr. Fickardt in an eloquent address, to which General James L. Selfridge responded. A banquet at the Eagle Hotel followed. Then came again other closing scenes, solemn and sad. On August 10, occurred the funeral of the young student, John C. Hagen, who had died in the service of the country. The funeral service and the interment in the old Moravian Cemetery were attended by General Selfridge, Major Wetherill, Captain Stolzenbach, Captain Alexander Selfridge, and nearly all of the returned soldiers, all in full uniform. Another such occasion came on October 27, when the remains of Clarence Kampmann, who died, June 4, on board the United States vessel, the Red Rover, in service as Admiral's clerk, and had been temporarily buried at Mound City, Illinois, were laid to rest in the old cemetery.
Eight men who had served in the war had been given graves there before the close of its last year. Others were interred there later and, up to the time when the soldiers' plot in Nisky Hill Ceme- tery began to fill up, more graves in the old cemetery than in any other were marked by the little flag and the floral tribute each year on "Memorial Day"-or as it was first more commonly called, "Decoration Day"-May 30. It was observed at Bethlehem the first time in 1868. A procession was formed on Main Street in the following order: the brass band, the clergy, the committee of arrangements, former soldiers, representatives of civic organiza- tions, school children, citizens. The first halt was made in the old burial-ground, where a brief service was held. The Rev. Edmund deSchweinitz, after a few suitable remarks, read the names of all the soldiers buried there with a succinct statement of the military career of each one, and the flowers were placed upon the graves. Then the procession moved on to the other cemeteries, at each of which a similar order was observed. Meanwhile, that National organization of war veterans, The Grand Army of the Republic,
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A HISTORY OF BETHLEHEM, PENNSYLVANIA.
.
having come into existence, the Bethlehem Post was formally estab- lished, May 25, 1869. It was registered as No. 182, and, in honor of the one commissioned officer of Bethlehem who died of wounds received in battle, was named The J. K. Taylor Post. After that, they took charge of the Decoration Day ceremonies which, in the following years, were not commenced, but concluded, in the old Moravian Cemetery, where, excepting several times at the G. A. R. plot in Nisky Hill Cemetery, the principal exercises, with an oration, took place-after 1887 around the monument at the Market Street front of the cemetery, erected in memory of deceased soldiers and sailors of the Civil War and unveiled, October II, 1887-until, in 1895, the concluding exercises of the day began to be regularly held in the Moravian church. The South Bethlehem organization, Robert Oldham Post, No. 527, dates from August 2, 1886.
The transition is easy, from the beginning of those observances in sacred memory of the great struggle that left the Nation re-estab- lished and re-united, to the triumphant celebration of the centennial anniversary of Independence Day, with which the chapter may close. Nothing that has not already been alluded to in the course of things at Bethlehem, during the intervening years, needs to be particularly mentioned. The effects of the great financial crash, precipitated on the memorable "black Friday," September 19, 1873, which spread over the country, were felt with peculiar severity at Bethlehem, in the collapse of business concerns, the wreck of fortunes, the sweep- ing away of many a one's little savings and the stand-still of great industries, leaving hundreds without employment and bringing a protracted season of "hard times." These things are recent and well- remembered history. Their weight was yet keenly felt when the year 1876 dawned, but they did not seem to suppress the enthusiasm with which that notable year in the history of the United States was greeted.
The opening of the centennial year was distinguished by special features that marked the customary vigils of New Year in the Mora- vian church. When the great congregation poured out of the church after the first hour of January I, 1876, had been entered, a "centennial parade" took place, in spite of inclement weather and muddy streets, led by a chief marshal, the Bethlehem Cornet Band discoursing patriotic and martial music. The bells of the town were rung while the parade was forming. Many residences and business places were illuminated along the line of march. There was an abundance of red light, with continual discharge of fire-arms
EDMUND ALEXANDER DE SCHWEINITZ
1846-1876. 753
and much cheering, until nearly three o'clock. Before four o'clock the streets were deserted and quiet reigned. Many will remember how the early part of that famous year was marked by an almost unprecedented manifestation of religious interest which spread through the country from the great meetings commenced by Moody and Sankey in the centennial city of Philadelphia. It touched Beth- lehem also and brought an epoch in the religious annals of the town.
May 10, the opening day of the great Centennial Exposition, was a general holiday, and the spirit in which the people of the old town hung out the country's flag from windows and doorways contrasted · strongly with the misgivings and fears with which on that day, a century before, the village fathers deliberated on the signs of the times, spoke of the consternation occasioned by the reported approach of hostile ships at Philadelphia and "doubted whereunto this would grow." The next day of note was June 27, when the famous centennial reunion took place at the Seminary for Young Ladies, in which at least two hundred and fifty former pupils par- ticipated; the oldest alumnae who registered being ladies who were in the school between the years 1800 and 1810. Inspiring exercises took place in the Moravian church, attended by more than six hun- dred invited guests from near and distant places. On Sunday, July 2, memorial services were held in all of the churches. Those in the Moravian church were notably elaborate. The centennial sermon was preached by Bishop Edmund deSchweinitz. The chief feature of the handsome decorations was a floral bell in imitation of the his- toric "liberty bell." Its ground was rhododendron blossoms bor- dered with arbor vitae, having the figures of the inscription set in red geranium. At midnight, from the 3d to the 4th of July, services were held, not only in the Moravian church, but also in other churches of the town. At nine o'clock on the morning of the great anniversary, another vast concourse attended a service in the Mora- vian church, arranged by the Young Men's Christian Association. It was conducted by Bishop deSchweinitz. The Declaration of Independence was read by the Rev. J. T. Swindells, of the Metho- dist Church, a historical sketch of Bethlehem, compiled by the Rev. William C. Reichel, was read by U. J. Wenner, and an oration was delivered by the Rev. J. M. Leavitt, D.D., President of Lehigh Uni- versity. The prayer was offered by the Rev. A. D. Moore, of the Presbyterian Church. There was elaborate music, directed by Prof. Theodore F. Wolle. Miss Kate Selfridge sang "The Star Spangled
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A HISTORY OF BETHLEHEM, PENNSYLVANIA.
Banner" as a special feature of the occasion. There were very elaborate exterior decorations in many places, one of the most notable being that at the union passenger station in South Beth- lehem. Among the parades that took place a conspicuous one was that of the "Centennial Cadets," organized and drilled by Col. W. L. Bear, Superintendent of the Moravian Parochial School. In the evening, the finest exhibition of fireworks ever witnessed at Beth- lehem was given by Mr. E. P. Wilbur and Mr. Harry E. Packer. The local newspapers recorded the fact that no arrests for drunken- ness or disorderly conduct had become necessary and that the "lock- up" of the Borough was empty on the morning after the celebration. .
Bethlehem was a very different town from what it was when the Declaration of Independence was read the first time, a hundred years before; different even from what it was before the great Civil War; for when it settled down, after that momentous period, to pursue the even tenor of its way, it did not slide back into the grooves of ante- bellum days. Much in the details of its town life had passed away in the turmoil of those years. Much that was new had come in. It had entered what may be called its most modern period, that in which its present younger citizens have grown up from infancy. But with all the change, some essentials of character and tone had been carried with it, in which the spirit of the fathers yet lived in the general standard of sobriety and order.
CHAPTER XIX.
A CENTURY AND A HALF COMPLETED. 1877-1892.
The final period of a decade and a half that remains to be reviewed being so recent, this long story of Bethlehem may be brought rapidly to a close; especially in view of the fact that, in the preced- ing two chapters, many of the subjects treated of have been followed into this last period, so that they need not be further adverted to. The years which succeeded the centennial anniversary of the United States were not eventful years at Bethlehem, or years that marked important beginning's like many of those before. They constituted rather a period of slow recuperation after the great financial and industrial prostration that had existed from 1873. When aggressive activity, engaged with new undertakings, again appeared, many of the men who had before been in the lead were no longer so. Some succumbed in the financial ordeal and lost their grasp. Others had been removed by death, and yet others who had survived, with property and influence, represented rather a mere conservative con- trol of remaining interests and lines of business, with little specula- tive disposition or inclination to pioneer work in new things. Those who were associated with the undertakings that originated after this time were rather, for the most part, the younger citizens of the place who had not before been leading, or new men from elsewhere who had come into connection with local affairs.
The great industries on the south side had gradually resumed normal activity and all classes were beginning to experience better times when an unprecedented ordeal of dread disease visited the community, especially South Bethlehem. This was the memorable small-pox scourge of 1882. Already before the close of the previous year, cases occurred here and there. In January it increased to an extent that caused uneasiness. Suddenly it became epidemic on the south side in March, spreading at an appalling rate, while many cases appeared in West Bethlehem and some in the old town. Many
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