USA > Pennsylvania > Northampton County > History of Northampton County [Pennsylvania] and the grand valley of the Lehigh, Volume I > Part 43
Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28 | Part 29 | Part 30 | Part 31 | Part 32 | Part 33 | Part 34 | Part 35 | Part 36 | Part 37 | Part 38 | Part 39 | Part 40 | Part 41 | Part 42 | Part 43 | Part 44 | Part 45 | Part 46 | Part 47 | Part 48 | Part 49 | Part 50 | Part 51 | Part 52 | Part 53 | Part 54
Superintendent John W. Gruver attended the public schools in North- ampton county, and was graduated from Lafayette College. Superintendent Gruver taught in the ungraded school, later at Pen Argyl, Easton and Bangor. Under Superintendent Gruver the Bangor schools have advanced to a high degree of efficiency. The high school is recognized as a first-class institution.
Superintendent W. D. Landis was born in Lower Saucon township. He attended the home school, and later was graduated from the Keystone State Normal School. Superintendent Landis taught in the public schools of his native township. He was principal of the Emaus schools. In 1905 he was elected principal of the Northampton schools. He has organized the schools into a good system. During his administration several very fine buildings have been erected.
Superintendent W. C. Sampson is a graduate of Dickinson College; for several years he was principal of the Womelsdorf schools. In 1909 he was elected principal of the Bethlehem High School, and in 1911 he succeeded Superintendent F. W. Robbins as superintendent of the borough schools. Superintendent Sampson has won the esteem of all.
George Wolf, Father of the Public School System of Pennsylvania-Governor Wolf was born in Allen (now East Allen) township, August 12, 1777. His father, George Wolf, was a native of Germany, a man of plain manners and habits, very upright and respectable. The elder Wolf was a hard-headed and hard-fisted German, did not believe in education, and told his Scotch- Irish neighbors he thought it a waste of time to send a boy to school and that he "better stick to the plow or learn a trade." "Why," said one of his neighbors, "if you educate your boy, he might become. governor of Penn- sylvania," "Ha, ha," laughed the father, "dot vould be sumdings funny if my Chorchey ever amound to sumdings." This flattery of his neighbors caused him to decide to invest in the schoolhouse and his son's brains, and the coaxing of the "Pennsylvania Dutchman" by these Scotch-Irish resulted in free schools coming about in Pennsylvania.
The establishment of a classical school in the immediate neighborhood of his father's residence enabled young George to obtain an education with- out removing from the parental roof. After the usual routine of studies he fitted himself for college. During his collegiate course he commenced and completed the study of law under Judge Ross of Easton, subsequently one
3,36
NORTHAMPTON COUNTY
of the judges of the Supreme Court. He was admitted to the bar in 1798. He was first employed in the office of the prothonotary of Northampton county ; in 1801 he became postmaster of Easton, and subsequently in 1804 clerk of the Orphans' Court of Northampton county, which position he held until 1809. He acquired a respectable practice at the bar, which was greatly increased from his correct habits of business and his familiarity with the German language. He brought and appeared in more suits from 1817 to 1825 than any member of the bar in the county. He was elected in 1814 a member of the Pennsylvania House of Representatives, but declined being a candidate for re-election.
Governor Wolf, without any effort on his part, was nominated and elected in 1824 to Congress, and was re-elected in 1826 and 1828. The Democratic Party on March 4, 1829, nominated him as their candidate for governor. He was elected in October of that year without any opposition, re-elected in 1832, and was defeated in 1835, owing to a split in his party. He was appointed by President Van Buren, First Comptroller of the Treasury, and afterwards Collector of the Port of Philadelphia, which posi- tion he held at the time of his decease, March II, 1840.
The governor and his wife are buried in Mount Kalmia cemetery, Har- risburg, Pennsylvania. A memorial gateway, built of granite taken from the Miller quarry, which is located on a farm once owned by the governor, was erected on Second street, Easton. The cost of the memorial was fifteen hundred dollars, which was raised by voluntary penny contributions of the pupils of the public schools of Easton. It was dedicated June 29, 1888, with appropriate ceremonies, in the presence of Governor Beaver and a large assemblage of distinguished guests, officers, teachers and pupils of the public schools of Easton.
Governor Wolf, as an attorney, was careful and correct in the prepara- tion of all his papers and pleadings. He was a plain and argumentative speaker, used good language, conveying his ideas with precision, and never aimed at any fancy flights of oratory. One of many of his accomplishments was his large fund of common sense. He was distinguished in Congress for his habitual industry and attention to business, and as chairman of an important committee made numerous reports evincing these powers of inves- tigation, for which it was conceded he was remarkable. As a governor he was a Pennsylvanian out-and-out, firm in sustaining the credit of the State, of prosecuting the works of internal improvements begun under his prede- cessors, and, what was his crowning glory, the friend of education and the author of the common school system, which he pressed upon the Legislature until, in conforming to his wishes, they established it.
As a citizen the governor was a kind neighbor, a mild and honorable gentleman. As a public officer, he was gentle and courageous, but withal firm as a rock. As a man, he was upright and honest, and discharged all his duties so ably and correctly as to leave a good memory behind him.
BIRDSEYE VIEW OF LAFAYETTE COLLEGE
CHAPTER XXXII
HIGHER INSTITUTIONS OF LEARNING
Wolf Academy-It was in 1785 that a stone building located a mile south of Bath in Allen (now East Allen) township was erected for educational purposes. The money for the erection of this building was donated by the citizens in what was known as the Irish Settlement. They were desirous that their sons should acquire a better education than schools at that time afforded. The school was opened immediately after the completion of the building, with Robert Andrews, a graduate of Trinity College, Dublin, Ire- land, as principal. It became known as the Wolf Academy on account of the connection of Governor Wolf with it as a student and teacher. It was abandoned for school purposes in 1826; it had, however, exerted a potent influence upon the people in the entire community and impressed upon them the influence of a higher education. It was under Presbyterian control and had not a little to do with the establishment of Lafayette College.
Nazareth Hall-It was through the efforts of George Whitefield, the first of the evangelists who held revivals in the New World, that the attention of a band of Moravian Brethren, who had landed in Savannah, in the province of Georgia, in 1735, to engage in missionary labors among the negro slaves of the South, was drawn to a tract of five thousand acres of land in the Forks of the Delaware, which Whitefield had purchased of William A. Allen of Philadelphia in 1740. It was on May 30th of that year that a small band of hardy mechanics, under the leadership of Peter Boehler, arrived at the Forks, and before the expiration of six months two loghouses were com- pleted. Difficulties arose between Whitefield and the Moravians, and the former disposed of his interests in the property to the latter. The Moravians finished the main building and it became known as "Ephrata," or the "Whitefield House."
Nazareth Hall was commenced on May 3, 1755, and not completed until the summer of 1758. It was built of the limestone of the neighborhood, and was eighty feet long by forty feet wide, three stories, with a gambrel roof, and was an imposing structure that challenged admiration for the chasteness of its design and the justness of its proportions. It was con- verted into a boarding school for Moravian lads exclusively, and in five years there were one hundred and six pupils in attendance, under the charge of sixteen tutors and twelve assistants.
The cornerstone of Nazareth Hall was laid in 1755. It was originally intended for a manor house, but the ground floor was used for a church, and its other roomy apartments were devoted to school purposes. In 1785 the hall was supplied with a belfry, ball and vane, and in 1796 a clock was installed. The old bell bore the devout inscription, "Deo soli gloria" (To God alone be the glory).
The first school in the barony of Nazareth was organized July 18, 1743, NORTH .- 1-22.
338
NORTHAMPTON COUNTY
when John Christian Francke brought ten boys from Bethlehem to the log- house which was erected by the pioneers for a temporary residence in the winter of 1740. This was the forerunner of Nazareth Hall. The school thus founded had various removals and vicissitudes, and in 1759 returned to Nazareth with one hundred and eleven boys and their nineteen tutors. The Rev. John Michael Graff, a graduate of the University of Jena, was the first principal.
Toward the close of the year the same Francke, who sixteen years previously had begun the first boys' school on the Nazareth Tract, took charge of the institution. The children of all those in the service of the Moravian church were educated free of charge. This entailed a serious drain upon the resources of the Brethren's Economy, and in 1763 the parents of the children were informed that pupils hereafter would be charged fio Pennsylvania currency. In the same year Rev. Francis C. Lembke was appointed principal. He was an able schoolman and a profound scholar, having studied in the universities of Erfurt, Leipzig, Jena and Strassburg. The number of pupils having been considerably lessened, it was planned to make the Hall a more select school to afford the opportunity for the training of assistants in the work of the ministry, who, up to this time, had been supplied by the European church. The school continued to prosper until the Revolutionary War, when the poverty and privations of the time bore heavily upon the school. The number of pupils gradually diminished until 1779, when, there being but eleven left, the school was closed and removed to Bethlehem.
The first principal after the reorganization of Nazareth Hall was Rev. Charles G. Reichel, a graduate of the Moravian Theological Seminary at Barby, Saxony. He assumed the duties of principal October 3, 1785; it was at this time that the first pupil, Joseph Shaw, of Philadelphia, not of Mora- vian parentage, was admitted. The Massachusetts government in 1787 placed a Housatonic Indian, John Konkaput, from Stockbridge, Massachu- setts, as a pupil, and accessions were received from the West Indies, so during Mr. Reichel's administration there were one hundred and sixty-three pupils connected with the institution. The study of the English and Ger- man languages were specialized.
Mr. Reichel resigned in 1802, and was succeeded by Rev. Jacob Van Vleck, a native of New York State, who prepared for the ministry at the Theological Seminary at Barby, Saxony. During his administration of seven years, one hundred and nineteen pupils were admitted, of whom only eighteen were of Moravian parentage. The English language supplanted the German in the education of the students, and the curriculum was brought more in conformity with other schools in the country. In 1807 a collegiate and divinity school was established, in which young men of the church were trained as preceptors while studying for the ministry. This was the original of the present Theological Seminary at Bethlehem, and since 1810 this institution has supplied most of the teachers employed in Nazareth Hall. The Rev. Charles F. Seidel, a graduate of the Moravian Theological Seminary at Nisky, Lower Silesia, Austria-Hungary, took charge of the Hall in 1809, and October 3, 1810, the twenty-fifth anniversary of the found-
ยท
D.C.M.
NAZARETH HALL, BATTALLION PARADE Founded 1743
339
HIGHER INSTITUTIONS OF LEARNING
ing of the school was celebrated. The Rev. Mr. Seidel was succeeded in 1817 by Rev. John C. Beckler, and it was during his administration that a residence for the principal was completed; hitherto he had been domiciled in the Hall.
The Rev. William H. Van Vleck, a son of the second principal and a graduate of the Theological Seminary at Nazareth, became principal in 1822, and during the seven years of his occupancy of the office the institution flourished as it never had before. He retired to assume the charge of a Mora- vian church in New York, and was succeeded by Rev. John G. Herman, a graduate of the Theological Seminary at Nisky, and his administration, which terminated in 1837, was eminently prosperous. The semi-centennial of the institution was celebrated October 3, 1835, and during the existence of the school, 817 pupils had been admitted to it. From 1837-1839 Rev. Charles A. Van Vleck, a graduate of the Theological Seminary at Naza- reth, was principal. He was a brother of the second principal. His successor, Rev. Charles F. Kluge, a graduate of the Theological Seminary of Nazareth, was principal from 1839 to 1844. During his administration the trustees of the institution purchased the building from the congrega- tion, which had been holding services in the lower part of the Hall and which had been conveyed to them in 1771, when a division of a portion of the Unity Estates in the country was effected. It was furnished as a chapel, additions made for refectory and kitchen, and the pupils were boarded by the institution.
From 1844 to 1849, Rev. John C. Jacobson was principal; he was edu- cated in the Theological Seminary at Nisky. His successor, Rev. Levin F. Reichel, was a son of a former principal. During his six years as principal the school underwent a change, the course of study was modified, the use of the German language in the daily intercourse of the pupils was intro- duced, and day scholars were no longer admitted. The Rev. Edward Rond- thaler, a native of Nazareth and educated at the Theological Seminary at that place, was principal for one year. His successor, Rev. Edward H. Reichel, a grandson of a former principal, graduated from the Theological Seminary at Bethlehem, and was principal from 1854 to 1866. During his administration the pupils were organized in 1862 into a uniformed cadet company and a military drill was introduced as a part of the routine of physical culture.
The institution at this time was relieved from the financial embarrass- ment under which it had labored for a number of years. In the autumn of 1865 a three-story wing was added to the Hall, thus largely increasing the capacity of the school. Upwards of six hundred pupils were admitted to the school during Principal Reichel's administration.
A graduate of the Theological Seminary at Bethlehem, Rev. Robert de Schweinitz became principal in 1866 for one year, and was succeeded by Rev. Eugene M. Ziebert, a graduate of the Theological Seminary of the Moravian church. A memorial cenotaph was erected by the alumni, June II, 1868, for those who had fallen in the defence of their country during the Civil War. There were two hundred and sixteen of the pupils who entered the army or navy of the United States during the Civil War, of
340
NORTHAMPTON COUNTY
whom twenty-eight fell in battle or died of disease. The memorial was unveiled in the center of the green lawn in front of the Hall; it is a block of granite, six and a half feet square, resting on a pedestal supporting a solid block, on whose southern face is cut the national coat-of-arms. The pedestal is surmounted by a square die of Italian white marble, on which are inscribed appropriate legends and the names of the fallen alumni. Of the alumni who served in the United States Army, five attained the rank of major-general, two were colonels, four lieutenant-colonels, six majors, five adjutants, three brigade and regimental quartermasters, six surgeons. twenty-two captains, thirteen first lieutenants, eight second lieutenants, and one judge advocate. Of those who were in the United States Navy, there were one fleet engineer, two assistant engineers, two captains, one surgeon, and four midshipmen. Among those who served with the Confederate Army there were three generals, one colonel, one lieutenant-general, one major, one brigade surgeon, three captains, and three lieutenants.
The Rev. Charles C. Lanius became principal in 1892. He was a native of York, Pennsylvania, educated at the Moravian College and Theological Seminary. He served congregations as pastor in Ohio, Illinois, Maryland, and resigned the charge of a church in Philadelphia to accept the principal- ship of Nazareth Hall. During his occupancy of the office, needed improve- ments were made, electric light and steam heat installed, and a beginning made in modernizing the school throughout. The property, which had been held in fee by the board of elders or governing board of the American church prior to 1863, was in that year incorporated by them. They con- tinued to have charge until 1893, when it was transferred to a board of nine trustees who have the management and charge of the school and are respon- sible to the synod of the church, by which body they are elected. Under the charter of the institution, all revenues derived from the school must be used for it and not diverted for any other purpose.
Principal Lanius did not see the full effects of these improvements. He died suddenly January 22, 1897, the first principal to die in office. His successor was Rev. Samuel J. Blum, and under his administration Nazareth Hall prospered. Improvements were made in buildings, in equipment, in the course of study, and in methods of discipline. A physical and chemical laboratory was erected in 1899. The old church building at the foot of the square was purchased in 1905 and transformed into a gymnasium, and in the spring of 1910 athletics were put on a firm basis by the organization of an athletic department. The sesqui-centennial of the laying of the corner- stone of Nazareth Hall was celebrated May 3, 1905. More than four hun- dred alumni and invited guests were entertained. The orator of the day, . George B. Cortelyou, was at that time postmaster-general of the United States. Many members of the alumni have occupied positions of trust and responsibility. Mention is made of the following: Peter S. Michler, first president of the Farmers' and Mechanics' Bank of Easton; William Draper, a distinguished mathematician and scientist; Lewis David von Schweinitz, a noted botanist and author; Theodore R. Sitgreaves, a prominent citizen of Easton; John Beck, one of the foremost educators of Pennsylvania; Gen. Andrew A. Humphreys, commander of the Second Army Corps, Army of
NAZARETH HALL MILITARY ACADEMY NAZARETH, PENNSYLVANIA
34I
HIGHER INSTITUTIONS OF LEARNING
the Potomac; Stephen R. Mallory, Secretary of the Navy of the Confederate States, United States Senator from Florida; Edmund de Schweinitz, eminent Moravian divine and bishop; Gen. George P. Ihrie, of Easton, brevet brigadier-general, United States Army; Gen. Nathaniel Michler, brigadier- general, United States Army ; James McQueen McIntosh, of Georgia, briga- dier-general in the Confederate Army, killed at the battle of Pea Ridge; John Baill McIntosh, brother of the above, colonel of the Third Pennsyl- vania Cavalry, brevet major-general; John W. Jordan, librarian of the His- torical Society of Pennsylvania; Bowman H. McCalla, rear-admiral, United States Navy; George W. Wickersham, Attorney-General of the United States; and George B. Cortelyou, Postmaster-General and Secretary of the Treasury of the United States.
From time to time new buildings have been added, while the original ones have been equipped with modern sanitary heating and lighting im- provements. The latest purchase, the Gruenwart dwelling, is being remod- eled for a junior school for pupils between nine and twelve years of age. Principal Blum resigned in 1916, and was succeeded by Francis E. Grunert, who retired in 1918, and gave place to the Rev. Arthur D. Thaeler, the present principal. The board of trustees are: G. A. Schneebeli, president ; William H. Milchsack, secretary ; Walter Crawford, Mark T. Swartz, Albert G. Connolly, Rev. M. E. Kemper, Rev. W. N. Schwarze and L. Maclean Wilson.
The Moravian Seminary and College for Women-This institution, as far as known, is the oldest boarding-school for girls and young ladies in the country. It is conspicuously located in the heart of the city of Bethlehem, Northampton county, Pennsylvania. Among all the historic sights of that community none are more rich in legendary and historic associations than the imposing build- ings in their spacious and picturesque campus of eight acres, which constitute the home of this institution.
In unbroken continuity, this institution traces its history back to 1742. At a conference of leaders of various religious persuasions, held in Philadelphia in that year, school work for the hosts of neglected children of the colony was projected. As one result of the deliberations a school was opened on May 4th by the Countess Benigna Zinzendorf, daughter of Count Zinzendorf, of Saxony, with suitable assistants, in the Ashmead House, Germantown. Twenty-five girls were in attendance. On June 28th, the school was transferred to Bethle- hem and assigned quarters in the Community House, the school being a boarding- school from the beginning. In October of the following year room was 'provided for it in the new eastern wing of the Community House, then com- pleted. Removing to the huge stone building in Nazareth, known as the White- field House, May 28, 1745, it was conducted there for a period of three and one-half years. On January 6, 1749, the school was again transferred to Bethlehem, where pupils and teachers "were welcomed with agreeable music" to the stone building on the north side of the Church street quadrangle, thence- forth known as "the Old Seminary" or "the Bell House." Here the school remained for forty-one years, doing its laudable work. It was not stopped by the threatening events of the French and Indian War, when the town had to be surrounded by a stockade fort. It continued its usefulness during the Revo-
342
NORTHAMPTON COUNTY
lutionary War, when generals and soldiers came and went, and while the old Colonial Hall-as the building, destined in the event to be home of the school, came to be known-was a crowded military hospital. During most of this period, the chief function of the school was the education and training of daughters of Moravians, laymen and clergymen, who, because of the responsi- bilities they had assumed in the work of the church, were incapacitated for care of their offspring. Accordingly, outstanding characteristics in the school's activities were parental discipline, thorough instruction in useful knowledge, and scrupulous attention to religious culture. In course of the Revolutionary War the public and men of influence had the opportunity of studying Moravian life and character, and of acquainting themselves from personal observation with Moravian institutions, theretofore both misunderstood and misrepresented. Moravians were recognized to be conscientious and capable educators of the youth, and they were soon sought to do service in that capacity in a new and wider sphere. Hence, on October 2, 1785, this school, reorganized, was opened in the interest of the American public as a Boarding School for Girls, under the auspices of the Moravian Church. From this time onward regularly ap- pointed principals administered the affairs of the institution, the first to be established in this office being the Rev. John Andrew Huebner, then settled in the ministry at Bethlehem, who assumed the duties of principal along with those of his pastorate.
The steadily increasing number of pupils called for more ample accommo- dations than "the Old Seminary" afforded. A commodious structure was erected to the rear of the Community House, on the site of the present imposing main building of the Moravian Preparatory School, and was festively entered on April 12, 1791. For twenty-four years this was the home of the school. By the end of that time the enrollment had increased to one hundred and thirty-two. Once more the institution moved to more commodious quarters, taking posses- sion November 10, 1815, of Colonial Hall. In this structure, marked by a bronze tablet reciting the part it played as a military hospital during the Revolutionary War, and the added buildings, the school has remained more than a hundred years. Thirty-two years after the institution had taken posses- sion of Colonial Hall, an addition to the southeast end of the hall was erected, and in 1854 Main Hall was built. By 1859 the growing institution made neces- sary the erection of West Hall. A decade later the building now containing chapel and refectory was added. South Hall was built in 1875. The latest additions to the growing pile of buildings have been the gymnasium, built in 1908, and East Hall, acquired in 1914.
Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.