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 9
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A HISTORY OF BETHLEHEM, PENNSYLVANIA.
one matron of the company-were qualities which influenced their fel- lowship and were discerned by those who approached them. The intense piety cherished among them was not of that austere type which depressed or chilled those who came into contact with them. Their visitors not merely met the common readiness of people in newly-settled or sparsely populated regions to share their bread and shelter with any chance comer, whether acquaintance or stranger, but came into a genial atmosphere which suggested that genuine religion does not render persons stiffly sanctimonious or coldly reserved. Their cordial hospitality was inspired by a desire to cultivate confidence with men of all classes, creeds and persuasions. Even those callers who had to be met with caution were treated kindly to disarm prejudice. Heavy drains were made on their meagerly endowed commissariat by the numerous visitors, but the absence of grain-store, dairy and orchard was compensated for by the abundance of game in the surrounding woods and of fish in the waters of the Lehigh and the Monocacy to which the brief records of that summer refer, and they had enough to set before all who came. Morning, noon and night, when they joined in morning and evening prayer or combined religious devotions with their common meals-particularly when they made these meals special lovefeasts,3 usually on Saturday,
3 Moravian lovefeasts, which will be mentioned occasionally, may be here explained for readers who lack information on the subject. They originated impromptu at Herrnhut in 1727, and were then fostered after the well-known manner of the early Christians, whose lovefeasts or " agapae" - from a Greek word for love or "charity" - referred to in the epistle of Jude, verse 12, and more fully in the writings of some ancient Christian Fathers, expressed intimate fellowship on an ideal level ; all classes, patrician and plebeian. learned and illiterate, rich and poor, even master and slave, taking meals together from a common store, with singing of "psalms and hymns and spiritual songs," besides other manner of devotion and converse, recalling the last supper of Jesus with His disciples, and usually, as it seems, concluding with the Holy Communion. The first trace of the custom appears in Acts 2 : 42-46. Perversion of their purpose and degradation of their character among converts not weaned from heathen practices (1 Cor. II), caused the lovefeasts in a later century to be disassociated from Divine service, excluded from the sanctuaries, and finally abandoned. For some decades after the introduction of this primitive Christian usage among Moravians, the term lovefeast was somewhat freely applied to a wide range of occasions and observances with which a light collation or an elaborate meal or a mere ceremonial bread breaking without intention of actual bodily nourishment, was combined - informal gatherings of a few in a social way, fraternal welcomes or farewells to guests, wedding or funeral repasts, treats for the children, official conferences on spiritual or external matters, consultations with groups of persons engaged in any branch of activity, harvest-home feasts, commemorative occasions, repasts furnished by individuals to friends, official associates, fellow-workmen, etc .- all of these occasions being given more or less of a religious charac_
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which day they generally devoted in part to bodily rest with religious and social cheer, in addition to the observance of the Lord's Day -they delighted to sing together the time-honored hymns of their forefathers and favorite verses from the rich song-treasures of Ger- many. The latter were more familiar to those of them who did not hail from Moravia, and to many a devout guest who joined with them on such occasions.
In July they were visited by the missionary, Christian Henry Rauch, who remained-making several calls meanwhile at other places-until August 9, when Bishop Nitschmann accompanied him to Shekomeko to inspect the mission, returning to the Forks, September 10. During Rauch's sojourn, the Holy Communion was celebrated the first time at the settlement on Saturday, July 8, and the next day he preached the first public sermon, taking as his text I Peter I: 18, 19. After that the sacrament was administered monthly, usually on Saturday. Furthermore on July 22 they engaged the first time in an observance in vogue at Herrnhut since 1728, called in German Gemeintag,4 and
ter, besides the lovefeasts of a strictly religious nature, regular church festivals, anniversary meetings of the organized divisions of a congregation ("choirs") or solemn services of preparatory covenanting and fellowship (communion lovefeasts) preceding the sacrament of the Lord's Supper. Gradually the use of the term was limited to the more purely religious occasions, and the lovefeasts, held in more ceremonious and uniform fashion, became a dis- tinct feature of the established liturgical order. With this the thought of partaking of food to satisfy hunger was eliminated and the symbolical significance of breaking bread together came to be emphasized as the only object of the act. At the present time, where the custom is yet retained and most understandingly observed, this feature is a mere incident of a service which would, even without it, have character as a choral service or an occasion of fellow- ship. The nature or the quantity of the materials used is of no significance, and varies with local usage. Many modern Moravian churches have never introduced lovefeasts, and some old ones have abandoned them where they could not be maintained with decorum and dignity or in an appreciative spirit.
4 This term, applied by Zinzendorf to what was originally called the day of thanksgiving and prayer, has the general meaning of a popular diet, or common assembly or mass-meet- ing. It was instituted, February 10, 1728, and had variously the character of a concert of prayer, an open church-conference, a missionary survey and general intelligence day; the most conspicuous feature of the occasion being generally the communication of the latest accounts from the churches and missions in all parts, even outside of Moravian fields in Christendom at large. Ordinations, marriage of missionaries, and other church-rites were often combined with these occasions. At the height of their popularity such assemblies were usually impressive and inspiring. To this custom of former times is due the accumu- lation of much of the manuscript matter in the shape of diaries, reports and letters from so many churches and missions preserved in the archives of old Moravian centers and now so valuable as sources of history. The time given to duplicating such matter for use at different places was profitably spent, for these occasions did much to keep the widely- scattered Brethren in sympathetic touch and intelligently interested in the common work in all lands.
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in English usually, for want of an adequate equivalent, simply Prayer Day-for many years an important and popular occasion in Moravian congregations in Europe and America, commonly held once a month and as a rule on Saturday. Such days of converse in spirit with fellow- workers in many regions, when, each month, the latest reports and letters from abroad were read, quickened their consciousness of con- nection between the rough and severe manual labor, to which their time had mainly to be given, and the exalted ideals of missionary service set up as standards in the first enthusiasm and then maintained through continual correspondence between the laborers in all fields. Thus, with many pleasant experiences easing the trials and hardships of their situation, the summer passed.
On September 23 they thankfully completed the sowing of their first winter grain and, September 27, the excavation of the cellar was finished, where heaps of stone from the quarry they had opened, and scores of hewn white oak logs lay ready to commence the substantial building which, during the first years of the settlement, was to serve as home and hospice, manse and church, administration office, academy, dispensary and town-hall; the loved resting-place of many weary pilgrims; the busiest center to be found far and wide; sought out by the inquisitive and expatiated on by many a gossip with won- derful stories to tell about the Moravians-"The House on the Lehigh." It received the name Gemeinhaus" in the German nomen-
5 Such a building for a combination of uses, and so named, as headquarters of the Gemeine (community or parish) was formerly the main structure of a Moravian settlement or station, as was the Sbor or Dum (church-house) of earlier times in Bohemia and Moravia. The word " congregation " coming into use as English for Gemeine - correct of a worshiping assembly, but less correctly applied to the settlement, community, parish or corporation- the rather ill-sounding and, for persons unaccustomed to this traditional misuse of the words, meaningless term "Congregation-House " gained currency as rendering of Gemein- haus. Better, although lacking some associations of the German word, is Parish House, or for the Bethlehem Gemeinhaus, when later for a long time exclusively the quarters of the local ministry and of missionaries coming and going-Clergy House, both being terms of understood meaning and authorized by good usage. Considering the real sense of Gemeine. as applied to the organized community, and the more ample and varied uses of the Gemein- haus from the beginning than are commonly associated with Parish House or Clergy House, the term Community House is chosen as a more suitable and adequate rendering of the German. This antique structure standing at the corner of Church and Cedar Streets, with its massive logs hidden under its modern dress of painted weather-boarding-now the oldest house in Bethlehem-was originally 45 by 30 feet in dimensions, the same height as at present, with its roof ridge truncated at the gables. Its east end was at the present eastern doorway. It was enlarged in 1743. Possibly it may some time be restored to uses in keeping with its historic character.
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clature of the time and in these pages will be called the Community House.
On Thursday, September 28, the first foundation-stone was laid, at the south-east corner, and consecrated with fervent prayer by Bishop Nitschmann and Andrew Eschenbach. A document engrossed on parchment by George Neisser, containing the names of fifteen per- sons® present at the ceremony, was deposited in a pewter box and cemented into a cavity in the stone.
Special significance was attached to the Scripture watch-word of the Church for that day in its collection of daily texts7-"This is the place of my throne and the place of the soles of my feet, where I will dwell in the midst of the children of Israel forever."-Ezek. 43:7.
The spirit which animated them when they proceeded to lay up the foundation walls of this house was very different from that in which a few of them had toiled at the trying task on the Nazareth land, the previous autumn. This building was their own, the beginning was auspicious and letters from Europe informing them of accessions to their number to be expected soon, of Count Zinzendorf's preparations to come to Pennsylvania in the winter and of the considerable colony to be sent over a few months later, stimulated their exertions.
On October 26 they had the pleasure of welcoming the first three men whose coming was awaited: Gottlob Buettner, John Christopher
6 The list, in the order given by Neisser, is the following: David Nitschmann, episc., Anton Seiffert, elder, Andrew Eschenbach, preacher, David Nitschmann, Sr., David Zeis- berger, Rosina Zeisberger (Neisser writes "Anna "- perhaps her name was Anna Rosina. She is confused by some writers with Anna, wife of George Zeisberger, who came to Penn- sylvania later), David Zeisberger, Jr., Matthias Seybold, John Boehner, George Neisser, Augustine Neisser, Christian Froehlich, Martin Mack, Gottlieb Demuth, Johanna Hummel. Ten, viz. the Nitschmanns, Zeisbergers, Neissers, Seiffert, Boehner, Demuth, were from Moravia and adjacent parts of Bohemia. Neisser's list gives the region from which each hailed. Augustine Neisser was merely a visitor. Demuth was working at the settlement nearly all summer.
7 May 3, 1728, the custom began at Herrnhut of giving the people a Scripture text as a watch-word for each day (Losung). In 1731 the issue of a collection for the entire year began. Eventually there were two texts for each day, a watch-word drawn from an assort- ment of Old Testament texts, and a doctrinal text ( Lehrtext) selected from the New Testa- ment, each accompanied by a versicle from the hymn-book. The custom has continued uninterruptedly to the present time, when more than 120,000 copies are annually published in seven languages. This little manual, familiarly styled "The Text-Book" and "Das Losungsbuch" is widely used outside the Moravian Church.
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A HISTORY OF BETHLEHEM, PENNSYLVANIA.
Pyrlaeus and John William Zander,8 who sailed from England as the first missionaries sent to America through the help of the Society for the Furtherance of the Gospel, founded in London by Spangen- berg. The arrival of these men assured the pioneers that the plans of which letters from Europe had informed them from time to time, were progressing, and that their loyalty to the cause amid all dis- couragements was not in vain, as some of the Georgia colonists who had forsaken them declared.
There is little on record, in addition to these leading features, to fill out the dim picture of daily life at the settlement during that summer and fall of 1741-a picture which it would be interesting to scrutinize more closely. Besides the people of the place, numerous figures flit casually across the scene which appear also in the sketches of other settlements and organizations of that time; for there was a continual coming and going of persons whose names are more or less prominent in the history of different neighborhoods from the frontier down to the sea-board, or associated with the particulars of social, industrial and religious life in Philadelphia and Germantown in those days. Some of the restless and inconstant religionists who then abounded in Pennsylvania, ever ready to turn from one persuasion to another as fitful impulse or capricious fancy prompted, were also among those who came to see and hear. Occasionally flighty or erratic characters drifted to the spot to air eccentric notions, or challenge debate on
8 These three young men - all under thirty years of age - who had lately joined the Brethren's Church and become candidates for missionary service, were the first additions to the Pennsylvania nucleus since December, 1740, increasing to 34 the number now in the North American colonies who had been connected with the Church in Europe, of whom 32 were in Pennsylvania-Rauch being at Shekomeko, N.Y., and Hagen yet in Georgia. (See Chapter III, note 15.) These new missionaries were ordained and married in Pennsylvania in 1742. Buettner's wife was Margaret, daughter of John Bechtel of Germantown. Her second husband was the missionary John George Jungmann. Pyrlaeus married Susan Benezet, daughter of John Stephen Benezet of Philadelphia. Zander married Johanna
Magdalena Miller, daughter of Peter Miller of Germantown. The brave and gentle Buettner died in 1745 at Shekomeko, after three years of missionary labor, in his twenty- ninth year. His grave near Pine Plains, Duchess County, N.Y., is marked by a monument. erected in 1859. Pyrlaeus, the best known of the three, as missionary, schoolman and musician, was a theological candidate from the University of Leipsic. He is chiefly noted as a student and teacher of Indian language, particularly the Mohawk and Mohican dialects, and left some linguistic work of interest in manuscript, which is preserved in the Moravian archives at Bethlehem. He returned to Europe in 1751, served the Church in England until 1770, then went back to Germany and died at Herrnhut in 1785. Zander went as a missionary to Berbice, Guiana, South America, in 1742, returned to Europe in 1761, and labored in Holland until his decease in 1782 at the Moravian settlement, Zeist.
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some hobby ; others to seek kinship in some particular fanaticism, or congenial rest for a troubled soul.
Thus, among others, a demented, although harmless Englishman, Thomas Hardie, who for more than a year occasioned much difficulty to the pioneers who tried to restrain and guard him during seasons of frenzy, wandered to the Forks from Ephrata. The famous Chronicon Ephratense, describing his career, archly associates his dementia with his turning to the Moravians, and closes the account of his wanderings and his end with the pious wish, expressed in its obituaries of various other individuals, that God might give him a blessed resurrection.
Henry Antes visited the settlement several times in the course of the summer to lend aid and counsel in the work and to consult about plans for an alliance of like-minded people of different religious connections, on a larger scale than that of the Skippack Association, for the improvement of the general religious and moral condition-a scheme in reference to which he had apparently been in correspond- ence with Spangenberg, who was in England, and which he hoped to see successfully inaugurated under Zinzendorf's leadership.
A slight change in the personnel of the place also occurred during autumn. Christian Froehlich undertook temporarily the manage- ment of the sugar-refinery of Captain Wallace in Philadelphia-he had become skilled in this work in England-and was of service there to his Brethren, in circulating correct information about them and their purposes, and acting as a city agent in a variety of matters. George Neisser left the Forks in November and joined his brother Augustine at Germantown, where he passed through a serious illness. He did not return to the settlement until the following June. His absence accounts for the very meager records of the period from November to June.9
9 Neisser's brief notes, the main source of information on numerous details of the year 1741, contain a variety of minor items in addition to those which have been worked into the text, and although comparatively unimportant, they help to fill out the lines of the sketch, besides revealing somewhat of the person and employments of this interesting first Mora- vian chronicler in Pennsylvania. Thus on May 18 he mentions the receipt of a copy of Benzelius's Greek Testament from his brother and later records his pleasure in reading from the Acts and Epistles in the solitude of the woods on Sunday. Early in June he rigs up a wagon for conveyance between the home of Antes and the Forks, and works at carts for Frederick Antes and Valentine Geiger. In the latter part of July, while on one of his journeys, he attends a Tunker meeting at Henry Jacobi's in the Long Swamp. He notes that on August 2 they broke flax, and from him it is learned that turnips were the first crop raised from the new soil of the Allen Tract. They sowed turnip seed on August 4. On
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A HISTORY OF BETHLEHEM, PENNSYLVANIA.
Early in December a flutter of glad expectation was occasioned at the Forks by the announcement that Count Zinzendorf had arrived in America. He reached New York, November 30, on the ship Lon- don, Captain William Bryant, from England, accompanied by his daughter Benigna, a maiden of sixteen years; Rosina Nitschmann, wife of Bishop David Nitschmann; John Jacob Mueller, his secretary and artist; three new missionaries, Abraham and Judith Meinung, from the German membership of the Church, and David Bruce, a Scotchman, who had joined the Brethren in England; and the printer John Henry Miller, who was merely a fellow-passenger.10 There was a stir in and about New York among people of widely different sen-
Saturday, August 19, they finished a foot-bridge across the Monocacy and then had Gemein- tag. Sunday, August 20, was "Dies Amoena." The following week he made a plow for Nathanael Irish and one for the Brethren. August 28 a remarkable catch of rock-fish is recorded. September 3 he notes the autumnal flight southward of migratory pigeons with the line "Reditus columbarum ad partes australes." On September 10 the splitting of rails began. On Sunday, October 29, stands in English the singular entry, "I was in critical circumstances with the Brethren." Did this, together with his brother's persuasions, of which there are indications, have something to do with his leaving for a season? Novem- ber 7 he departed for Germantown where his brother, who was living in the house of the clock-maker Theobald Endt, a separatist, removed to his own dwelling a few days later. There shortly after this he received a fraternal letter from Buettner and "a sharp letter" from Eschenbach, and at the beginning of December was taken sick.
10 This interesting group increased to 42 the number of persons in the North American colonies who had been connected with the Brethren in Europe; 40 of them being in Penn- sylvania at the close of the year.
Zinzendorf's daughter, Henrietta Benigna Justina, was born at Berthelsdorf, Saxony, December 23, 1725, became in 1746 the wife of Baron John de Watteville, theological alumnus of Jena, Moravian minister and, 1747, bishop-his original name was John Michael Languth, the same as his father, a Lutheran clergyman, and he was adopted by the Count's intimate friend, Baron Frederick de Watteville, and by letters patent was endowed with his name, rank and title in 1745-and with her husband came to Pennsylvania again in 1748 and 1784. There will be further mention of her in these pages.
Rosina Nitschmann was a daughter of Thomas Schindler and was born at Zauchtenthal, Moravia. Being among the early emigrants to Herrnhut, she was one of the seventeen young women of that settlement when it was first organized as a colony. She was married to David Nitschmann, November 12, 1726. She had two daughters who died in childhood and a son, Christian David, born July 18, 1731. Like her husband, she was a most devoted worker in a variety of ways both in Europe and America. The particular duties that fell to their lot in those heroic days compelled them to be absent one from another very much, and she made many long and perilous journeys unaccompanied by her husband. One such was a journey to Greenland in 1745 to escort two young women who went as missionaries. Count Zinzendorf called her a Phoebe in the Church. She died of consumption August 10, 1753, and was buried, August 12, in the old Herrnhaag graveyard where all traces of her
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timents towards the Count when his arrival became known, for he had been extensively advertised in advance through both favorable and hostile public discussion of his expected visit. Some enthusiasts an- ticipated the advent of a new apostle to work spiritual wonders. Some, more sober-minded, who desired not only increased evangelistic efforts, but improved relations between adherents of different creeds, hoped at least for better things in both respects than had been. Many others were merely curious to see and hear this remarkable man, so much lauded and so much maligned; for it was a rare spectacle to see a nobleman of high rank, large fortune and honorable position at court, retire from the functions and connections of his station to engage in religious work and even take ecclesiastical orders. Yet more, influenced by those busy pulpiteers and pamphleteers who had been publishing the aspersions cast upon him by the manifesto of certain excited Amsterdam clerics, referred to in the preceding chap- ter, and other pasquinades yet more defamatory, and had been circu-
grave, as of so many others, were eventually obliterated. She died at Marienborn. No biography was ever published.
John Jacob Mueller, a portrait painter of Nuremberg, joined the Church in 1740. Besides serving as Zinzendorf's private secretary, he wrote the journals of important synods held in Pennsylvania in 1742 and took down from delivery a number of the Count's public dis- courses while in America, which were published and are in some respects among the more valuable of his printed sermons, as specimens of his preaching at its best in matter and form, adapted to a general audience and to the conditions of the time. Mueller returned with him to Europe in 1743, continued with his corps of personal associates many years, was ordained in 1760 and died at Niskey, Prussia, in 1781.
The young missionaries, Meinung and Bruce came to America unordained and itinerated some time as lay-evangelists among the settlements, helping meanwhile in manual labor at Bethlehem.
Meinung and wife went as missionaries to the Danish West Indies in 1746. He died on the Island of St. Thomas in 1749. His wife Judith, m.n. Holleschke, from Moravia, widow of Melchior Kuntz, when married to Meinung, returned to Pennsylvania in 1751, to Europe in 1753, and died at Herrnhut in 1790. Their son, Charles Lewis, went to North Carolina, 1771, and died in 1817 at Salem, N. C.
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