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 81
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A HISTORY OF BETHLEHEM, PENNSYLVANIA.
weeks of tribulation passed before it disappeared. A hundred and twenty deaths occurred in the Borough of South Bethlehem, thir- . teen in the adjacent part of Lower Saucon Township, four in Salis- bury Township, eighteen in West Bethlehem and twelve in Bethle- hem-a total of a hundred and sixty-seven. Among them was the faithful sexton of Nisky Hill Cemetery, Charles Groman, who, after helping to inter, many of the unfortunates, was stricken down by the contagion. The pathetic sight of many helpless orphans, after the scourge subsided, moved the late W. W. Thurston, then Vice- President of the Bethlehem Iron Company, to found the Children's · Home, which yet exists among the local charities, incorporated in 1886 and occupying its present quarters since 1888. It was opened on June 1, 1882, and for some time was entirely supported by Mr. Thurston, in a building on Cherokee Street, South Bethlehem, which he purchased and fitted up. Several organizations that were formed, on both sides of the river, for relief, continued to exist for some years and to engage in charitable work in emergencies. The lesson of stricter regulations and better precautionary measures, on the part of the local authorities, in the matter of guarding the health of the community, was also learned. It began to be realized that the towns had grown to a size which, in many particulars, required methods different from those of the village, and that there had been a large increase in that class of the population which, in its own interests as well as for the good of the whole, has to be dealt with by law in nearly all things.
A conspicuous feature of the general development, not long after that time, was the organization of West Bethlehem as a distinct municipality. On March 15, 1886, a meeting of citizens discussed the question of securing incorporation as a Borough, and appointed a committee to ascertain the opinions of the tax-payers of the dis- trict. At another meeting, on May 4, this committee reported a hundred and fifty-three in favor of the proposition and forty-two opposed to it, and it was resolved to proceed at once. The charter of incorporation included the district formerly called South Bethlehem in the Borough, and went into effect, Sep- tember 16, 1886. The first Borough election was held on Novem- ber 2. The first Burgess was Marcus C. Fetter. The first Council- men were William H. Foltz, George W. Grube, Charles Hess, Asher Hower, William Mann and William Walp. In 1887, a fire depart- ment was instituted. The organization, which it was proposed first to call "Fetter Hose, No. 1," eventually received the name
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"Monocacy Hose Company." The municipal building, commenced in the autumn of 1887, on "The Old Allentown Road"-later named Prospect Avenue, because more euphonious-was completed and formally occupied in April, 1888. In that year the new Borough was also divided into two wards. Various improvements were introduced. Among these was a better organization of the public schools under a Principal, in 1887. The first who held this office was C. T. Bender. In 1884, the Fairview School-house had been built on a lot purchased of William Leibert, at the corner of Market Street and Fourth Avenue. The school-house on Spring Street which, fifteen years before, had taken the place of the original one, called "The Vineyard Street School-house"-although it did not stand on Vineyard Street-had long been inadequate. So rapidly did the population increase, that very soon yet more ample school accommodations became necessary and, in 1891, the handsome large Higbee School-house on Spring Street stood ready for use.
The mention of the old Vineyard Street School-house calls up its association with religious work on the west side, referred to in a previous chapter. The West Bethlehem Moravian Sunday-school was transferred from that to the two-story school-house on Spring Street, and at intervals stated preaching took place there also. In 1877, the late Levin J. Krause offered to present a lot on the Allen- town Road, at the corner of the third intersecting new street-now Third Avenue-for a Sunday-school chapel, if one should be erected within five years. It was not until after the expiration of that time that the enterprise was undertaken. The corner-stone of the chapel was laid on August 26, 1883. Through a special gift by the late George W. Dixon, a better building was erected than had been planned. It was dedicated on January 27, 1884, and on the 27th of May, 1885, the old bell that had long lain unused in the cellar of the Moravian Church was hung in the belfry of the new chapel. The building was enlarged and improved, the latter part of 1890, and was formally re-opened on January 25, 1891.
The Lutheran membership living in West Bethlehem organized a separate congregation, July 29, 1887, in charge of the Rev. W. D. C. Keiter. The building-site on Third Avenue was secured in Sep- tember and the erection of a church was at once proceeded with. It was finished and consecrated, April 8, 1888, receiving the name Holy Trinity Church. In like manner some of the members of the Reformed Church living on the west side opened a Sunday- school, on May 20, 1888, and out of this grew the organization of
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a congregation, December II, 1891, the first pastor of which was the Rev. J. F. DeLong. The chapel on Fourth Avenue was com- menced in 1890, and occupied by the Sunday-school in February, 1891. It was consecrated, June 28, 1891, and called Bethany Chapel. These two places of worship, together with the Moravian chapel, then met the religious requirements of by far the larger part of the population that' had denominational preferences.
The period at which these West Bethlehem developments took place was one of renewed activity and progress generally. On the south side, the new era of the Bethlehem Iron Company, as a manu- facturer of government ordnance, had opened. It was on March 22, 1887, that the Company, relying on the progress it had made in its equipment for such work and the ability of its Superintendent and Engineer to provide what was further needed, submitted its first proposals to supply gun-forgings and armor-plate, in response to the circular issued by the Secretary of the Navy in August, 1886, inviting such bids. This was one of the most notable industrial epochs at Bethlehem. Other prominent new enterprises ·had made their appearance on both sides of the river as a result, to a consid- erable extent, of the efforts made by the Boards of Trade that had been organized by business men. Foremost among these was the silk manufacturing industry, on a scale that would have amazed good Philip Bader nursing his brood of silk-worms in the Brethren's House at Bethlehem and at Christiansbrunn, a century and a quarter before, or Ettwein who, nearly a hundred years before, had, under the stimulus of premiums offered by scientific and industrial organi- zations, produced silk in profitable quantities at Bethlehem; or even James Whittemore, of fifty years before, when "the Morus Multicaulis craze" was making men's heads whirl with visions of silk and wealth. He had his cocoonery, in 1837, in the little frame house on Church Street, known to many as the Neisser house, and his orchard of mulberry trees, to furnish food for the worms, on one of the lots near the canal and within call of where one of the great silk mills has arisen. Subscriptions for the Bethlehem Silk Mill on Goepp Street were opened in 1885. Ground was broken for the foundations of the building on February 24, 1886, and, already on November 3, the machinery was started in the finished structure. The first section of the extensive Lipps and Sutton mill on Seneca Street, South Bethlehem, was built in the Spring of 1886, and started in July. In May, 1886, negotiations were concluded for the establishment of the third, now called the Sauquoit Mill, between the canal and the river,
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above the railroad bridge. The building was commenced in July. In February, 1887, the mill was under roof and, the following Sep- tember, it was completed and put into operation.
The era of electricity had also dawned at Bethlehem. The enter- prising promoters of the Bethlehem Electric Light Company first had the Armaux Light on exhibition in June, 1883. They were legally incorporated in September, and at the close of the year their first private service was introduced in the town. Certain street lights were paid for by individual subscription for about a year. In February, 1885, a large majority of voters declared in favor of having the streets lighted by electricity at the public expense, and in April the first contract was made with the Company by the Borough authorities. "The Saucon Electric Light Company of South Beth- lehem" was incorporated in April, 1886.
That decade was a period also of other municipal enterprises and public improvements, in response to demands that had become imper- ious ; of plans and projects numerous, sweeping and occasionally clashing. The clamor of years, from some quarters, brought Beth- lehem's "curb-stone market" to an end and gave the town a market house which was formally opened, November 10, and first occupied by venders, November 13, 1884. The south side, however, surpassed the old town in the imposing dimensions and appearance of its market. The chronic complaints about the streets also began, at last, to bear fruit in satisfactory street improvements in the three Boroughs. In Bethlehem, the agitation began to be serious in 1884. The proposition to macadamize the streets was opposed by many tax-payers, before whose eyes the vision of results was shut out by the nearer, bulky figure of first cost that stood before them, but it finally became clear that a move must be made. An extensive plan found endorsement in a count of votes and the necessary steps to secure the required resources could be legally taken. The steam stone-crusher, purchased by Town Council in the summer of 1887, was given its first experimental test on December 8, of that year. The records tell of a visit to Reading by a committee of Councilmen in October, 1887, to inspect street work being done by a steam roller. The result was the purchase of one for the Borough. It arrived from England in July, 1888, and was put to work tearing up a street surface experimentally and trying the nerves of the horses, on August 16. However varying opinions may stand on the subject of the cost, the details of management and other features in which people always claim the privilege of differing, as they look at things
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from their respective points of view, the outcome in the present streets of Bethlehem probably leaves none who would take their money back and have them as they were before. Then came the intricate process of street car and bridge projects, the incorporation of sundry companies to do various things-or to prevent others from doing things-the maneuvers, compromisings, mergings and successive actions at law which eventually resulted in the street car and bridge service as they stood as the close of the century.
The first charter for a street railway in the towns was taken out in 1887. The same year, a company was incorporated for the purpose of constructing a bridge across the canal and river east of Nisky Hill Cemetery. It was called "The Nisky Hill Bridge Company." In 1887, the Broad Street bridge was made free. The last toll was taken on May 14. Complications delayed the effort to secure a free bridge across the river. Some thought a more satisfactory solution of the problem of closer relations between the north and south sides, of street car service and other desiderata lay in a new bridge to be constructed from a proposed extension of Main Street, Bethlehem, from its intersection with Church Street, southward to the Monocacy, straight across the river. This large plan, starting with measures by the Bethlehem Town Council to open the street extension referred to, took precedence, for a season, of efforts to free one or the other existing bridge. After its abandonment, these efforts resulted in the entire freeing of the old Main Street bridge on which toll was yet taken for vehicles. It was traveled free by teams, the first time, on November 8, 1892. In April, 1891, the electric railway on the streets of Bethlehem was legally authorized. Work at its construction in the town was commenced in June. On August 1, 1891, the first electric car entered Bethlehem across the Broad Street bridge from Allentown and was run up Broad Street to New Street. On October 8, the first car passed over the Church Street and Main Street tracks. The grounds of the Bethlehem Fair and Driving Park Association where, in 1891, work was commenced in April and the first exhibition took place in September, were a terminus of the first local line. From that beginning the existing situation has developed.
Several other municipal improvements may be referred to. In 1884, a new fire company was formed in the north part of the Borough and named the Fairview Hose Company, No. 4. Its hose house on Fairview Street was built in 1885. The Central Fire Sta- tion, on Broad Street, was built in 1892, and the various new arrange- ments and equipments to make the department more efficient were
JEFFERSON SCHOOL HOUSE FRANKLIN SCHOOL HOUSE
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then introduced. In 1889, the third of the successive pumps for Bethlehem's water supply that have followed the old machinery of Christiansen, a Dean pump of far greater capacity than the preced- ing ones, was placed in the works and was tested on October 24, of that year. At the same time a considerably larger iron storage tank was built near that erected in 1872 above North Street, east of High, to which, in 1885, an additional height had been given. The Bethlehem South Gas and Water Company, which has to serve a much larger population,1 including West Bethlehem, since its incorporation, has constructed, since 1885, the two large reservoirs above St. Luke's Hospital to the west, completed in 1886, and a yet larger one com- pleted in 1893. The pumping station on the south bank of the river, across from the western end of Calypso Island-on which, in 1898 and 1899, experimental excavations were made to ascertain the prac- ticability of drawing water filtered through the gravel from the river-bed-was built in 1886, and contains two pumps with a com- bined capacity of seven million gallons daily, feeding a reservoir capacity of fifteen million gallons. Yet another noteworthy step forward has been taken in the greatly improved postal facilities since the occupation of its present quarters, at the north-east corner of Main and Market Streets, by the Bethlehem post-office, in 1885, and the erection of the new post-office building on the south side in 1891. The free postal delivery was introduced on the north side in Septem- ber, 1887, and on the south side in November, 1890.
Meanwhile, an extension and improvement of Bethlehem's public school accommodations-those of South Bethlehem were treated of finally in the preceding chapter-has taken place since their last men- tion, corresponding to other forward movements. In 1883, the office of Superintendent of Schools was instituted, the Principal of that time, George H. Desh, being the first to fill the position. After his death in 1888, he was succeeded by Thomas Farquhar. An intelli- gent and energetic Board of Directors gave careful attention to all matters that had to do with the internal and external advancement of the schools, and surprising elaborations in both respects took place in a few years. The Franklin School-house supplemented by
I In 1876 Bethlehem had a population of 5000, South Bethlehem less and West Bethle- hem only a few hundred. The census of 1890 gave Bethlehem 6750, South Bethlehem 10386, and West Bethlehem 2757, a total of 19893 in the three Boroughs. With the adja- cent outskirts there was in 1892 a population of probably 21000 in " the Bethlehems" and their suburbs. The new Boroughs of West Fountain Hill and Northampton Heights did not yet exist at that time.
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the old one on Wall Street no longer sufficed, and inside of four years three fine, large school-houses were added. The Penn build- ing, at the north-east corner of Main and Fairview Streets, was finished and opened in the summer of 1888. The Jefferson building, at the corner of Maple and North Streets, was finished and ready for use in 1890. Then it was concluded that the old Wall Street build- ing was no longer either sightly, sanitary or safe. It was demolished and, on its site, arose, in 1892, the handsome structure which, with sesqui-centennial associations in mind, was named the George Neisser School-house, in honor of Bethlehem's first school-master of 1742. A notable occurrence in connection with Moravian school work in Bethlehem, during the years now under review, was the elaborate celebration, by the Seminary for Young Ladies, in 1885, of the centennial anniversary of its re-establishment as a general boarding-school for girls.
A prominent educational institution had been added to those of the town. "The Preparatory School for Lehigh University," founded on the south side on September 16, 1878, by Prof. William Ulrich, was transferred across the river, in May, 1883, into the "Captain Dutch house" on New Street-once had in mind for the Moravian Theo- logical Seminary-which he had purchased. After Prof. Ulrich's death he was succeeded in the charge of this school by his principal instructor, H. A. Foering, who has quite recently transferred it to a new building on the west side. On September 1, 1885, a class preparatory to Lehigh University was formed in the Moravian Parochial School. Provisions were later introduced in the Bethlehem High School course for boys to prepare for the entrance examin- ations at Lehigh. Large-minded men connected with the manage- ment of these several schools, and with the faculty of the University, have been disposed to foster such natural and proper relations.
No marks of progress, so far as externals are concerned, on the part of Bethlehem's educational institutions are more conspicuous than those which appear in connection with the Moravian College and Theological Seminary during the last years with which this chapter deals. The old Nisky Hill Seminary on Church Street, which had served the institution since 1858, had become inadequate and discreditable, and in 1890, steps were taken to secure the erec- tion of new quarters equal to its needs and an honor to the Church and the town. The fine block of lots on North Main Street was presented to the authorities by the Trustees of the Moravian Con- gregation of Bethlehem. An energetic and capable committee took
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GEORGE NEISSER SCHOOL HOUSE
PENN SCHOOL HOUSE
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charge of the enterprise, with the Rev. Robert deSchweinitz, so long connected with executive and financial management, serving as Treasurer. Building operations were commenced in the summer of 1891. On Sunday afternoon, August 2, the corner-stone of the large building, which afterwards received the name Comenius Hall, was laid. Meanwhile the other building, to contain the refectory and infirmary, was erected and the near-by dwelling-house, which was purchased, was remodeled as a home for the resident professor, the Rev. J. Taylor Hamilton. Then came the generous proposition of the late Ashton C. Borhek and his wife to build a chapel, as a gift to the institution, in memory of a deceased daughter. On Septem- ber 18, 1892, the corner-stone of the Helen Stadiger Borhek Memo- rial Chapel was laid. On the 27th of the same month, Comenius Hall, built to a large extent by the voluntary contributions of Mora- vians of Bethlehem and other places, was dedicated with solemn ceremonies. The beautiful chapel was consecrated on October 22, 1893. In this connection mention may be made of the newest chapel of the Moravian Congregation, with which many of the students of The Theological Seminary have been associated, the Laurel Street Chapel. Its corner-stone was laid on October 9, 1887, and in Decem- ber of that year it was completed. Its consecration took place on the IIth of December. The late Bishop Edmund deSchweinitz, President of the Executive Board, who from 1864 to 1880 had been pastor at Bethlehem, officiated on that occasion, and on the evening of the following Sunday, December 18, died suddenly at his home on Church Street. His last literary work had been the preparation of a historical sketch of the Society for Propagating the Gospel Among the Heathen, which was read at the celebration of the centennial anniversary of the organization of that society, which took place on November I of that year. This occasion, following the centennial at the Young Ladies' Seminary in 1885, was the third in a succession of notable anniversaries observed, in the course of a few years, by Moravians in Bethlehem. The first was the hundred and fiftieth anniversary of the beginning of Moravian missions to the heathen, which was observed on August 21, 1882.
So conspicuously were the musical elements of these and subse- quent notable festivities brought out, that a reference yet to some of the more recent musical efforts at Bethlehem may not be out of place here. The old Philharmonic Society was partially restored after a season of decline and, as late as 1884 and 1885, gave several concerts. Then its orchestra co-operated with the new organiza-
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tion2 called the Bethlehem Choral Union, formed on September 28, 1882, by J. Fred Wolle who, after the death of Prof. Theodore F. Wolle in 1885, became organist and choir-master of the Moravian Church, a position which he continues to hold while serving the Packer Memorial Church of Lehigh University in the same capacity ; Prof. H. A. Jacobson, one of the most proficient organists of Beth- lehem, sharing his duties in the church during all the years since then. The Choral Union gave its first concert on March 27, 1883. It consisted of parts of Haydn's "Creation," and some lighter selec- tions. Among the many public efforts that followed, some have a prominent place among the musical events of Bethlehem. One was the rendition of the "Messiah," on December 14, 1886, followed by the "Elijah," November 29, 1887, both in the Moravian church. Another was the first attempt to produce the music of John Sebas- tian Bach, in parts of the Passion according to St. John, on June 5, 1888, in the chapel of the Moravian Parochial School. Mendels- sohn's "Christus" and Rheinberger's "Christophorus" were also given, to the pleasure of music-loving people. Its most ambitious undertaking was the St. Matthew Passion of Bach, on April 8, 1892, given so successfully that it was a revelation of possibilities at Beth- lehem in compositions considered beyond the abilities of any chorus that could be gotten together in a place of such size, even with the cultivation of a high order of music as a tradition of the town for more than a century. Then came a merging of the Choral Union in a new organization of November 15, 1892, called The Oratorio Society, which, however, did not last long in the character then taken, and was eventually succeeded by the formation of The Bach Choir out of its elements as a nucleus. Further work in Bach was the production, in part, of The Christmas Oratorio, December 18, 1894; and then, after long and assiduous labor, the most elaborate and difficult composition of all, the Mass in B. Minor-again in the Moravian church-on March 27, 1900. This was its first complete production in America, and in the closing year of the century, grandly crowned the musical work of Bethlehem.3
2 The Bethlehem Liederkranz formed by C. W. Roepper in October, 1870-followed, after an existence of many years, by the Bethlehem Maennerchor-and the Concordia Glee Club which existed for a few years after 1882, were other modern musical organizations. The Beth - lehem Cornet Band of 1875 had a longer career than the majority of bands and the Fairview Band which developed out of a serenading organization early in 1884, was long a credit to Bethlehem.
3 That superb achievement, the three days' Bach Festival of May 23-25, 1901, which attr cted the attention of musicians throughout the country and even in Europe, and elicited
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WESTON DODSON
ROBERT WILLIAM DE SCHWEINITZ
WILLIAM LEIBERT
BERNHARD EUGENE LEHMAN
OWEN AUGUSTUS LUCKEN BACH
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Several notable anniversary occasions have been referred to. The sesqui-centennial year of Bethlehem abounded in occasions of histor- ical significance. Two conspicuous ones may-discarding chrono- logical order-be referred to before the chief one engages attention. Both of them were remarkable for the largest gatherings of children from the schools and students of the several institutions of learning that have ever occurred in Bethlehem. The first took place on March 28, 1892. It was the three hundredth anniversary of the birth of "that incomparable Moravian,"# Bishop John Amos Comenius- ecclesiastic, patriot, philosopher and most eminent pioneer of modern pedagogics-an occasion observed by universities and colleges and by organizations that foster learning, throughout Europe and Am- erica. In the forenoon, at half past ten o'clock, representatives of all the schools of Bethlehem, to the number of about fifteen hundred, assembled in the Moravian Church, with the several principals, pro- fessors and teachers, boards of directors and the clergy of the town. Addresses were delivered by several clergymen and by a representa- tive of the Public Schools. The Choral Union furnished the musical part of the program. In the afternoon, special exercises were held by the Moravian Parochial School and by the Moravian College and Theological Seminary. The latter consisted of a contest in oratory for a prize offered by an alumnus, the Hon. James M. Beck, at present Assistant Attorney General of the United States. The prize was called The John Beck Prize, in honor of his grandfather, the founder of the once celebrated Academy for Boys at Lititz, Pa. Such an oratorical contest then became a regular feature of the annual obser- vance of Comenius Day. Memorial services in the Moravian church in the evening concluded the celebration of the day in Bethlehem.
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